Just another Day on the Farm

Coconut Salt Bar Soap with recipe

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

I made a batch of pure coconut salt soap with friends at a soap making day in Nov, Its finally ready and I love it! Ps, this is not one of my 12 soaps of 2014 🙂 Its a 2013 soap!

Its just awesome.. now they say you need to let your salt soap cure longer then the regular cold process, but I didn’t find it so.. six weeks and I was pleased as punch on how it worked out. Rich thick lather, a lovely soft feeling after washing, It seems to give your skin a polished feeling, no colors or scent in this soap, just as pure as can be..

This bar is super simple but please don’t make it until after you have made a few basic cold process soaps, as it will trace very quickly and its odd in its heating and cutting time.. start with something a bit more forgiving then this soap 🙂

Coconut Salt Bar Recipe

32 oz of coconut Oil
10 oz of water
5.5 oz of lye
32 oz of salt added after the soap is made an at trace.

This soap was ready to be cut within an hour after being made..

Posted in soap | Tagged Coconut Salt Soap Bars | 1 Comment

2014 Give-A-Way -January- A homemade Apron

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Ok, its bitter cold, its one of those days you dream of the garden, and fresh dirt and canning.. so I am giving away a bit of that summer dream.. A bright light weight full size, over the top and tied at the back homemade apron. Its will be very roomy on a shorter or average size’d lady but it will be big enough for pretty much anyone!

This is a give-a-way for everyone! I don’t care where you are in the world, you are allowed to enter! So comment if you think you might like to get this pretty apron in the mail 🙂

I will get Farmer T or her kids to pull the name from the hat when the time comes!

To read all the rules, please refer to this post here..

https://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/2014/01/03/a-year-of-giving-12-little-give-a-ways/

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Give a ways | 10 Comments

Frugal Friday.. Got it at a second hand shop..

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Thought I would like to bring back Frugal Friday, it covers any and all topics on being Frugal.. Gotta say, was not being frugal at all in the month of nov or dec of last year but was happy to have the funds to be able to make that choice.

This year, we are going to have to be somewhat frugal on a few regular things in order to afford some of the bigger projects that have to be done around the farm, and house. Its just that simple!

Today’s frugal find was done at a second hand shop, it cost me a dollar to buy, and its made out of steel, now that is a bit of a issue on where it would be safe to sit on but it can be used to heat water, heat soup, etc It can hold a 2 liter when totally full but not sure I would want to fill it that full, and it would be good to put a lid on it if you were going to use it for that.

Certainly not my first choice of a back up, but hey, one can never have to many backup, for backups when it comes to “non-power sources” when it comes to our cold and freezing rain laden weather related issues in our neck of the woods..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 11 Comments

A year of giving! 12 little Give-a-ways!

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Now, some of the Give-a-ways will be for any reader, regardless of where in the world you live, some will be for N.A. and some will be Canada only and one or two might even be pickup only.

“this was a basket of goodies I did up for a dear friend last year, it just gives a idea of what some of my homemade soaps, and salves would look like.. “

Having said that, I will do my best to keep the playing field as level as possible and I will “try” to get the little gifts out within a reasonable time frame 🙂

The rules are going to be dead simple, if you want in on the draw, comment! If you comment on the Give-A-Way post, you are entered, but! if you comment on other posts though out the month, you will get one extra ticket in the draw.

This is a way to say give a little extra thank you to my regular readers that interact with me, you make my day, sometimes a little comment or question is just the most perfect thing for me to get, so I want to give a little bit back on that.

PS, all things given will be made or grown or harvested or bought by me, all things given will be shipped at the most reasonable costs possible.

However, you only get one extra for the month, not one extra for each comment 🙂

No one can win more then three times during the year, and you can’t win more often then once every three months, so as an example, if queen wins month one, even if she comments on month two or three, she won’t be able to win until the next quarter.

Now if you enter and win, be aware you have to be willing to give me your name and mailing address to get it to you 🙂

So stay tune for the first announcement coming in for the Jan 2014 give-a- way!

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Give a ways | 22 Comments

Dry Rubbed Slow Roasted Pork Leg..

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

Well, hold on to your hats, I just spiced up and am starting cooking off a massive, fills my biggest roaster, fills the whole oven pork leg.. this is of course one of own true O mile meats, born on the farm, raised on the farm and butchered by me on the farm..

O ya baby! The first dinner with be with creamed beets, smashed sweet potato’s but then will come a number of different pork recipes planned for the blog and our tummies! Lets see how many meals I can get out of this one leg. I have some new recipes out of Pig, king of the southern table that I want to try.. lets see if they turn out as good as they read 🙂

Posted in 100 mile diet | Tagged Home raised large black pork, home raised meat, Large Black Pork, o mile pork, Roasting off a whole leg of pork | 3 Comments

12 Months, 12 Letters.. a promise to keep..

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

I know myself, this will not be a easy one to keep, I have done my best to set myself up to have success, I have bought the cards, I have bought a stamp pack, (which will only work for a bit before I will need to update it, because they raised the stamp cost) and I am putting it out here, with the challenge to take photos of the letters, maybe the stuff that goes in them, or even a bit of the letter itself depending on the month.

I love getting mail, its a thrill to walk down to the end of the road and get something in the mail box (well other then bills and even they can make me happy on some days, there is a quiet hum, when you get your bills and you check their balances and they are all paid and good) but winter is rarely the time to do it as there are three months worth of power bills that always flex and make me snarl! at them a bit, even when we keep the power use down, we still pay though the nose..

Now I know that email is faster and phone is even more personal.. but you see some of these letters are going to the little girls, and when you are six or eight, its just cool to get your own mail, I am hoping that they will start writing me back 🙂

I got poor Dh in this to.. I wrote one letter to the girls, and he wrote the other, the plan is to flip back and forth on who writes who, so that they get a bit more interaction with their uncle.

So this month, they got a lovely Christmas/Happy New Years card, with three photos in it, one of each of us with the Christmas horse photos, and one of uncle with his mighty Frog LOL

First month done and mailed out! Yes, I blanked out the mailing address for safety’s sake 🙂

Posted in Family | Tagged A letter a month, Bring back the old fashioned letter, Letter writing, Sending letters to small children | 4 Comments

Twelve months- Twelve Soaps!

Posted on January 1, 2014 by Just another day on the farm

There are so many things to come in the wonderful new year, but this post is about soap! I had planned on last year’s big thing being cheese/dairy but the truth was soap and lots of it, not just making it but teaching friends to make soap, giving soap, curing soap, planning soap and even dreaming about soap..

Then a one friend asked if I could show her how, by the end of the year, I had helped make this a hobby for around a dozen other folks 🙂 I had entered in two soap swaps, and I have added in new colors, new scents and I am excited to see and do new things for this coming year.

Now the truth is, I don’t sell my soap, so I am going to try (haha) to limit myself a bit this year on how many batches I make and I am going to expand, I want to make body butters, homemade lip balms, A really good Hair Shampoo Bar and a lotion bar this year!

So my average loaf is 2.5 pounds of soap, at 12 batches that’s 30 pounds worth of soap, and that does not count custom soap requests from friends or family, or swap soaps 🙂

My plan is each month make and share a soap with you, with the extra’s thrown in as they go, at the moment all plans are to make cold pressed soaps, but each month will be something extra or fun, be it liquid, colors, patterns, or styles.

I want to learn to make a cupcake soap, I want to learn to make a soap cake, I want to learn to do embeds better, I just want to PLAY!

The only two soaps that I know that I will be repeating with tweeks in the coming year are

Hair of the Dog (Beer and Egg Soap)

Gardener’s Scrubby Soap (Coffee Grounds/Coffee Soap)

Posted in soap | Tagged homemade cold proccess soap | 3 Comments

Letting go of the old and welcoming the new..

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Rest in Peace my old ram Dram!

In part because there is a glut of good ram, in part because folks want the new bloodlines, and in part because most rams become just plain old nasty after a year or two of being the top breeding ram, and they older they get the meaner they get..

I bought dram as a proven two coming three year old, he was bought in part because he was what I wanted gen wise, (being from a quebec breeder) and part because he had been a bottle baby, was as sweet as they get and was halter and lead broke.

I have never regretted it for a moment, he has been with us for eight years, for eight years he has been a total sweetheart for around 50 weeks of the year and a total butthead for two weeks a year.. he has always been better with Dh then me during the rut, but thankfully, even during the rut, he is respectful to the hounds that come out to do chores with us, bring the hound, and he will keep his distance.

He is 11 coming 12 this winter and I do believe it will be his last with us..(could I know that the very day I wrote this post, I would find him passed in the barn on the evening chores) in truth we need new blood, but not in a huge way, I started my lines carefully, I had five different female bloodlines and a unrelated male bloodline, the truth is, I can now line-breed for a good long while in the herd without it being much of a issue.

what will no doubt be his last babies are filling their mommies tummies, the ewe’s are the bringers of new life, they are the first of the critters on the farm that will bring new babies in 2014,and I am looking forward to it, forward to the lambs, forward to the fresh sheep milk, forward to fresh feta cheese, forward to that amazing rich sheep cream in my tea’s.

I can’t wait to see baby lamb bops and jumps and running to and for.. to rub velvet soft lambs ears and while I never want it to happen, if I end up with a wee bottle babe, it won’t break me, I will have a lamb puppy that while driving me crazy on the house cleaning, I will in fact adore its cuddle time, being its momma, and feeding it the bottle.

So while it is sad to see my old boy dram losing just a bit of ground each day, I know that it will be only a matter of time before his son’s and daughters fill my life and world with smiles.. the cycle of life as they say..

This in so many ways applies to 2013 coming into 2014, there have been many good things in my life in 2013, but they are waning and new are coming!

Posted in Life moves on daily | 3 Comments

Winter is coming and so is the new year!

Posted on December 30, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Well, its that time of the year, first we had nice temps for a meer two days and we are right back into the deep freeze, welcome to Canada baby.. I have not seen cold like this since we lived in the artic or alberta, I have been spoiled with the nice winters we have been getting here in Ontario since I got here but clearly not this winter..

Christmas has come and gone, the days are now getting just a touch longer each day, and the promise of renewal is coming!

2014 is looming.. another year.. days will flow by and the season’s will change and before you know it.. it will be gone..

The seed catalogs are coming in, making promises for the coming garden season..

So how do I slow it down, how do I get the most out of the coming year, how do I make things happen, how do I relax and let! things happen..

So many things I want to do, and yet, trying to make them happen at times seems to hard, to much work or just out of my grasp.. but they are really not!

Its about will power, its about being stubborn, its about taking a risk to push just a tiny bit harder! Do just a tiny bit more, be willing to take the hurt, be willing to ??????

Its also about forgiving, forgiving myself on my failings, letting go, and understanding that I have to let go of some things in order to make room for the new, I can’t breath in, when this happens, I or we can do this, when we get here, we can do this or that..

Do you know the strength it took to trust that we could leave the farm in the care of a friend and just have one evening/night/morning to ourselves.. we do travel, but we have not had a night off the farm together in almost nine years.. nine years!

That was because the last time we left the farm in friends care, we had a issue, and so I said, NO and we just didn’t do it again..

It was wonderful, it was scary and I am glad we did it, but I am just as glad that the friend, kept in touch, that we got updates, baby steps here people! 🙂

I have a whole bunch of things that I want to do in the new year and I will get to it, but that’s not what this post is about.. its about dreams and wishes and hopes..

Dream on! Dream ON!

Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments

Happy 14th Anniversary to my wonderful hubby!

Posted on December 27, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Happy 14th Anniversary, to my wonderful husband, you make my world a better place with you in it! Thank you for all the amazing memories and times over the years.. Love you!