Best Laundry Soap Ever

It has been sometime since I last posted.  Sarah got to where she was having a lot of seizures and it just didn't seem like I had time to keep up my blog.  A lot has happened and I have a lot to share about what I have been learning.  I will have to tell you about that later but early on in this blog I posted a recipe for making laundry soap.  I thought that I has posted what it cost me to make a 5 gallon bucket of soap for but I can't fine it so here it is:  If I have all my figures right it cost me around 1.30 plus or minus to make a 5 gallon bucket of soap.  Then I take a old dish soap bottle and fill it half full with laundry soap mixture and fill it the rest of the way with water.  It takes about 1/8 - 1/4 of a cup of that mixture for each load of laundry. 
Here is the recipe again: 

Laundry Soap 
1 Zotie bar            
1 c Baking soda    

1/2 c Borax

Grate one bar of Zotie soap.  Heat 8 cups of water to boil and added Zotie soap turn down heat and stir until all of Zotie soap is dissolved.  In 5 gallon bucket add 1 cup Baking soda ½ borax and 8 cups of hot water and stir until dissolved.  Then combine the Zotie soap mixture to the borax/baking soda mixture together in the 5 gallon bucket stir well and put a lid on and let set over night.

Ready for Laundry:

Fill recycled laundry container with half Zotie Soap mixture and half water shake and mix well.  At 1/3 cup to laundry load.

I have been using it for sometime now and I have to say it is one of the best laundry soaps I have ever used.  It takes out grease and leaves the wash clean.  I notice that even my husbands white socks that have turned gray and ugly from his work boots are coming out much whiter looking.  If I have spots on the anything I just put a little on the spot before I toss it in the wash.  I have been asked if this works in a front load washer and I have to say yes.  I have a front load and it works great in it.
Hope you will try this and save $$$$ for your family.

 

The Garden

I hope you will watch this cool video clip!  It has inspired my husband to try a new way to keep weeds and bugs out of the garden.
Ivan has been working hard to design a chicken house that would work for our garden using this mans method of using chickens to keep his garden weed and pest free.
I am excited to show you his version of the chicken tunnels.  He still has plans for expanding it but already we can see a big difference from last year.  The ear wigs just about destroyed our garden and finally Ivan had to resort to spray.

   For nesting boxes Ivan used 5 gallon buckets and I can gather the eggs with out even going into the pen.  My husband is so talented!  The best part is we have been using this for a little over two weeks now and it works so well. The only place I need to weed now is right in the row where the crop is coming up.  The chickens love it too.  We got adult chickens from the hatchery who had spent there lives in buildings just laying eggs.  I think they thought they had died and gone to chicken heaven.  They have been working so hard clearing the rows of weeds I am so proud of them!  Guess what else I have not seen any bugs in the garden!!
   One of the nice things about having the chicken pen right at the garden is all the weeds that I pull in the rows I toss in the pin with the chickens.  By the next day they have pretty well cleaned them up as well as working to keep the rows picked clean.  

   I am also pleased to say we have started harvesting our first crop from the garden.  The lettuces is going to be in abundance with enough to share with everyone.  I have been working on thinning the beets the greens taste so good.  I decided to try freezing some  I harvested enough I hoped for several bags but once blanched they didn't look like so many.  I ended up with two bags.  The process was very simple so I will continue to freeze beet greens until they are done for the season.  Although they are so good I don't know how much will actually make it that far.


   

"A Handcrafted Experience"

In my last post I told you about a wonderful homestead video collection that I have been watching.  I hope that you will take the time to visit this site take a look at their new E-magazine.
I want to post a picture of their drying rack.  Since we are trying to cut our experiences where ever we can, like using the dryer less.  I have been wanting a cloths line and have not got one and don't really have a good place to put one.  But this nice drying rack would fit nicely out on our back patio or in the laundry room in the winter.  What I like about it is that it seems so much more sturdy then some of the the other racks that I have seen.

 

"A Handcrafted Experience"

The Difference:
These drying racks are handcrafted to last a life time.
The Homestead Drying Rack is more expensive than most drying racks -
but when you understand the difference in the way it's built you'll understand why.
 Our drying racks provide optimal air-flow. 
The "V" design allows for this as does the sheer room for clothes.
Unlike the accordion style drying racks, our drying racks allow a person to dry extra large loads, sheets, blankets, rugs, and any other drying needs you have.
 See laundry drying racks

I ordered one and will let you know how I like it.
 My son has been really sick with the flu and I am really worried about Sarah getting sick with it but after talking to my NP they told me that she won't get it if she is on elderberry.  We will see!  I have had her on it all winter and she has not even gotten a cold I hope that it will work as well for the flu... Needless to say I rushed right up to the herb cabinet and took a good dose of elderberry myself!  I hate being sick after all what mom has time for that!  I really want to make sure I harvest a lot of elderberry this fall so I can make my own syrup. 

Canning Rhubarb

I am so proud of myself, I canned rhubarb yesterday!  I have canned in the past but it has always scared me you hear stories about families dying from eating food that had not been cooked properly.  So I would always try the food first before letting my family try it.  But my mom canned for years and her mom canned and we always ate good and enjoyed the wonderful bounty that mom worked so hard to lay aside.  If you have not watched the videos called "Homesteading for Beginners" This lady has inspired me to be brave and start canning... She cans everything and it is so much fun to watch her make a quick meal for her family with everything she has canned. I would encourage get these videos.  I bought mine off amazon.com but you can also get them from Homestead Drying Racks - Homestead Store There is also a lot of other helpful hints and ideas on this site.
I picked my rhubarb yesterday morning and got back to the house and cleaned it but did not have any idea on how to can it.  So after sometime spent on Google I was able to find instructions on how to can my rhubarb and some very yummy recipes to follow.  Sense this was my first batch I decided to use the recipe that I found at Sense of Home Kitchen  The recipe looked simple and that is what I needed for my first time.  Rhubarb calls for lots of sugar and we are trying to get away from that so again I went back to Google and found this wonderful site that converted the use of sugar to other products such as honey, Agave, Stevia and Splenda.Canning with Sweetners Other then Sugar Canning with Sweetenrs Other then Sugar and Canning Homemade.  I decided to use the Agave Nectar.  After cooking the rhubarb down and adding the cinnamon I had to test it out before I put it in the jars to can.  Mmmmm I have never had cinnamon in my rhubarb before and it was good the Agave worked great.  I went to bed last night listening to the pop, pop of the lids on my first of the season garden produce.  I smiled to myself thinking about how much my family will enjoy the fruits of my labor this winter.

Toilet Paper Rolls for Seed Starting... How they worked

Sorry I have not posted in awhile but with the end of school coming up things have gotten way to busy.  I am still trying to work on simplifying but.... Here we go again I just have a terrible time saying no to things and just stay way to busy outside my simplifying project.
I started some of my seeds in the recycled cardboard toilet paper rolls.  (See: Do It Yourself) It was a little time consuming getting them ready but this is something that I should plan on doing as I get a few rolls and then just store them already finished with the bottoms folded in. I really liked how they worked, I filled each roll with a mixture of peat moss and worm castings and placed the rolls in a plastic garden seed starting tray.  The card board did a nice job wicking up the water keeping the soil nice and moist. When I was ready to plant them I just unfolded the bottom so that the little roots could go out the bottom.  I have since found another way of doing it that would be less work and might try it next time see the video (Starting seeds using toilet paper rolls).  The only thing that I am not sure would work with doing them they way she shows is that I use worm castings with peat moss and I don't know how well it would stay in the roll with out the bottom.
I have bought a couple very helpful videos on homesteading that I want to share with you later when I have some time to give you a review.
Until next time,
K.I.S.S.
 Keep it simple sisters

Back to Simplifing

As I told you I was going to spend Spring Break up at Wild Horse all the storms we were getting got me a late start on the weekend.  I had planned on going up Friday but didn't make it up there until Monday.
Monday the drive to Wild Horse was beautiful except when the dog got sick and I had to stop twice to clean up his mess.  When we arrived to the turn off around 3 pm the ice had melted off the road so it was easy driving.
LQ and Levi pulled up to the turn out just as Sarah and I arrived it was perfect timing!
We unloaded everything but the kitchen sink and bounced down the road to the ranch. You would have thought I was planning on spending the rest of the spring at the ranch.  The road was much better then the last time I had gone down Levi had cleared most to the rocks from the road on their way up to the turn out.  One rock was gigantic he couldn't move it, so we had to squeeze around it.
 We arrived at the cabin and had time to unpack before it was time to start evening chores.  LQ has been having a lot of problems with her sheep this year they have a bad parasite problem and treatment has not corrected the problem as of yet.  I will be doing some more research when I get home and see if their is something we are missing.  We went to count calves to make sure everyone was ok and check for sickness (we do that four times)  That took a lot of time even if there are only eight calves right now the newest baby decided to hide we hiked and drove all over that pasture.  The pasture is not that big maybe 30 acres but that little guy was no where to be found.  Finally Levi started walking up to walk through some tall intermediate and LQ started to bark like a dog.  Mamma cows head went up and she took off in Levi's direction and straight to her calf.
I loved feeding the sheep it was so fun to watch the lambs run and play.  Have you ever smelled a sheep?  I am sure you might think me strange but I love the smell of sheep and their wool.  But lambs have even an extra nice smell.  when you smell their little heads they smell like like wool and warm milk.  Ok, ok, its not Chanel #5 but I still like it!

Levi had asked me to bring pizza when I came so we could have that for our first supper.  We invited LQ to join us.  Started to cook the pizza and could not find any cookie sheets so we just cooked them on the rack and then slid them out on the box they came in, worked pretty well too.  Had a nice visit and LQ then she headed back to her cabin.  I love a little saying she says any time she is ending a conversation "to be continued".
I was to take over LQ night checks so she could catch up on some of her rest I would take the 12 am check.

It is DARK when there is no moon showing over the canyon walls!  I made Levi go with me the first check so that I would know what to check.  Levi walked us all the way down to the barn with know light!  Crazy I was just hoping I would not trip over a skunk, or run into anything big!  It was really dark and the wind was starting to blow by the time the 3 am check rolled around it was starting to snow and by afternoonwe had a good four inches of snow on the ground.

 LQ does not work when the weather is bad and only does what is necessary to take care of the well being and comfort of her animals.  That morning as we did chores in the snow she said to day looks like a good day to read a book!  So after chores were done that is what we did except when it was time to check the livestock again.

The next day the snow was all gone and for the rest of the week the weather wasn't to bad, we still had some rain but most days we has sunshine.  We split and stacked wood cleaned barn stalls explored and just had a wonderful time together.  Levi is going to be 20 in May and will soon be more and more out on his own.  I will miss him so I am glad that we can have such special times like we did at Wild Horse.
Several days we got to watch four big bull elk feeding one of them was a great big 7 point.  I have video I just have to figure out how to down load it so you can see them.

Levi, filming the elk

One evening we had a hotdog roast hoping we could have it done before the storm rolled in.  We started with sunny skies but by the time we had the fire going and nice coals starting to show it was spitting rain.  We ask LQ to join us and she told us stories about her and her husband and about life in the canyon in general.  The cabin we are staying in dates back to the early 1800s and when LQ and her husband moved to Wild Horse they decided to move the cabin from the original homestead site down to their place.  They jacked it up and put skids under it then waited until winter and had a friend pull it down to the home place with his little cat.  Then her husbands mom and dad came and remodeled the inside with pine boards and put in windows.  They would stay in the cabin when they came to see their son and daughter-in-law.  I wish walls could talk I wonder what kind of history this little cabin could tell.

Sarah and I would be heading home Saturday afternoon so  Levi drove us farther down the canyon it was a really nice Sabbath afternoon, we had such a good time.

 We really had a nice week in the canyon and Sarah really didn't want to go home. Coming home life always seems a little more rushed, I look forward to my next trip to the Wild Horse.

Back home I had to get busy and finish up my book work for taxes.  Procrastinating does not simplify your life.  (note to self, keeping up with your book work would really make life less stressful)  Finally got all my book work finished so we could get our taxes done.  I am back to work decluttering my house.  I hauled a load of stuff to the Youth Ranch thrift store.  Stuff that might be worth trying to sell I have boxed up along the wall to take to a yard sale this spring.
It really feels good to let stuff go and clear out the clutter!

Rain, rain go away

Rain, rain go away your making the road into Wild Horse to muddy to travel! 
The rain is really starting to turn things green around here the trees are starting to bud.  The wind blew my cover off on my tray that I planted my lettuce in to some unknown part of the state!  I went out on the porch to find the solar cover on my tomatoes gone and our cat sleeping in the tray.  I scolded him and he looked at me as if to say I am just keeping the wind from blowing your seeds away!

We did not get to leave for Wild Horse on Friday like I had hoped I got a call from Levi telling me that the road was to bad.  All the rain had caused rock and mud slides and it just was not safe to use the road.  So we will have to wait for the weather to break before we go.

I got a call Saturday and Levi said that the road was looking better and that we should come Sunday or Monday.  So I told him we would be headed up Monday and we would make the stops along the way to get all the supplies that they are needing.  During lambing and calving time they don't leave the ranch it just keeps them away from the livestock to long.

Sunday morning dawned and we woke to SNOW!  The ground is lightly dusted white but it is still coming down hard.  The temperature is 35 degrees so by this afternoon we very well could have rain so now we will have to see what Monday brings.  Still planning on leaving for Wild Horse unless I get the call saying the road is to bad.