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[PamsPride]

I know you all are waiting up just to see what time I got the girls outfits done...and I am proud to say that they are both DONE!! I finished up at 12:01AM! WOOT!! This outfit is gingerbread house themed. They turned out super cute! This is the first time I made pants for baby girl and I am hoping they fit! I did not use a pattern for baby girl's outfit at all.

 

[Dace]

Are we gonna see some pix??

I wish that I was a sewer. One of my last years goals, I think, was to start working on my sewing and I never did. I have a machine, but I think I needs to be worked on, something is not working right and I just do know enough to figure it out.

Congrats on getting your outfits done, I am sure they are adorable!

 

[PamsPride]

Hopefully I will have pictures soon! 4 yo DD is staying the night at my MIL's (with 7 yo) so I can not take any pictures of her in her dress.

The neighbor's youth group came over this evening to bless of with Christmas gifts. There was 4 kids that came. She said there is 6 kids in the youth group all together. They got each of the three older boys a fishing pole...which they really needed! They gave 14 yo a box of fishing lures. 12 yo a small cooler and 10 yo is a winter camp so we don't know what he got. They gave 7 to a semi-truck that holds match box cars. 4 yo got a pink V-Tech laptop. They gave the baby the cutest little Fisher Price mailbox toy! Then they gave the family the I SPY game. 12 yo and I played it with two of the youth when they were here and it is actually a fun and very simple game. They also gave us a $75 Walmart gift card!! What a Blessing! Praise the Lord!

 

[Dace]

What a wonderful blessing! People can be so giving and kind. Awesome that kids are learning the power of giving!

 

[PamsPride]

FC's thread on SS on 1/4 of an acre has me thinking....
What can I do on my almost 2 acres to support my family??
What I have done or got going on now:
Chickens, two turkeys, and one worthless male duck! We are getting two eggs a day from our turkey's. I am estimating that around Valentine's Day we will be getting more than a dozen chicken eggs a day.
Potatoes...have about three laundry baskets full from last year and plan on planting more for this coming year.
Pears and apples...a ton of applesauce and cider made and 80 quarts of pears...will do more pears next year even though they are a ton of work.
Tomatoes...about 25 quarts of speghetti sauce...plan to do a LOT more next year. My kids could eat some form of speghetti at least twice a week, which for us would easily mean 4 quarts of speghetti sauce a week.
Deer...we now have a meat grinder and have asked several friends to get us deer...so far only two deer this year.
Corn...a friend gives us corn to freeze every year so we get enough to last for a year...a generous amount for our family but gone by the next year.
Blueberry syrup...canned several jars of this super yummy treat!

Planning for next year:
Garlic...we LOVE garlic, not sure why we have never planted this before.
Onions...plan to do more green onions and regular onions...we use a LOT of dehydrated onions.
Bees: we have a friend that is going to build me a topbar hive for $80.
Speghetti noodles...I plan to try and learn how to make my own next year.
Bread: learning now how to make my own right now!
Carrots: my mom did really good growing these last year and I am hoping she will plant more or we are going to plant some.
Beets: DH loves beets and I plan on planting more next year.
Meat chickens: probably 100 of them next year.
Zucchini: helps supplement the chicken diet.
I have never had much luck with green beans.

What else can I do on my almost 2 acres to support my family? We want to get a milk cow but so far that is a very slow process! A milk cow would supply a TON of our food...butter, yogurt, cheese, cheese, and more cheese...we LOVE cheese, and milk. I WANT A COW!!
We really eat just plain fruits and veggies.

My family could eat two chickens a week...or more. So 100 chickens would be one meal a week, along with some form of potatoes from the garden and the corn or applesauce or pears. That is at least one meal a week completely SS.
Once our chickens are in full laying mode breakfasts will be near completely SS also.

What else can we do?? Think a 'meal' and what we could plant or raise to make 52 meals or once a week??

 

[TanksHill]

Pam what is your two acres like? Flat, hilly, wooded??? I have almost two acres. One is a moderately steep slope to the north. I don't use it for much at all. On the other .75 acre I have my house, garden, yard, chickens, small orchard, patio, driveway and kids toys. It is amazing how much you can really do with a piece of land. Heck look at Path to Freedom. I think they are on less than a 1/4 acre.

I wish I could utilize that other hill. Hummmm....

 

[PamsPride]

All flat. Very few trees. It is a little wet on the one piece next to the chicken coop.
We just put in a second garden this year for more potatoes that could be made bigger.
I just at a loss for 'what' more to do.

I want to plant more fruit bearing trees.

 

[keljonma]

Just trying to catch up with everything going on with you! My goodness!

How far is Jefferson from you? We have a number of large families in our congregation (about 400 people attend each week. We have services at 8:30 and 11 am every Sunday. In the summer we also have a family friendly service at Roaming Shores Lake.

I am not a denominationalist, but this church has been a very good fit for us.

Here is the address if you want to google it...and a phone number if you want to talk to the office to get some questions answered...

Jefferson United Methodist Church
125 East Jefferson Street
Jefferson, OH 44047
440-576-4561



For the What Can I Do thought -

successive planting. Start 1/3 of your veg then 2 weeks later start another 1/3 and then 2 weeks start the last 1/3 of the seeds/plantings.

blueberry -raspberry -blackberry -gooseberry bushes

underplanting. We planted the Bright Lights Swiss Chard very close to the tomato plants. After the tomatoes started growing the chard was protected from the hot sun and kept producing all summer.

 

[PamsPride]

A hawk has been getting my chickens!! We have seen it a several times sitting around the coop in various trees. The first time we noticed it it was sitting on the main gate to the coop! Then we found a dead chicken in the coop yesterday! Well sure enough today I saw it swoop into the coop and pin a chicken down!! We were able to scare it off before it killed the chicken. But, we are not home everyday all day and we do not even watch our coop constantly. I have just been keeping an eye out because of the chicken we found yesterday.
UGH! What am I to do??

 

[Dace]

Sorry about the hawk....I have no ideas what to do! We see them fly by every once in a while, but so far they have not noticed my girls...I only have three though.

In an earlier post you were asking for advice on what else you could do for next year on the SS front. What about a pig? That would provide a meal a week. Do you have room for that?