Blog

I started this website/blog to share my families journey building our hundred year old farmhouse and land into a fully functioning farmstead. Maybe my words won’t matter, but I have to speak up. This is my platform and with it my voice. I am not blind to the world around me, I see the riots and the looting, I see the peaceful protesting, I see the scared, I see the enraged. With watching and observing, I see it all. My entire career revolves around observing and trying to notice micro changes before they become something more critical. To solve and correct problems before they become life or death situations. So watching, observing, and waiting is what I know best.

I have so many mixed emotions, and I’m sure that I am not alone in that statement. In a way I have been watching this unfold my whole life. Things I have seen when younger is starting to make more sense. I have seen definitions of things I feel finally put into words. Now that I have watched and waited enough I think I can articulate what I am going through.

All Lives Matter

I both love and hate this statement. Do all lives matter? Of course they do, you would have to be a barbarian to disagree. Not all lives are being discriminated against, the lives of the oppressed need more recognition than the lives of the privileged. #BLACKLIVESMATTER I stand with you. The fact that it is 2020 and there is still discrimination and racism is infuriating.

This isn’t really a subject or topic I know how to talk about. With the way I was raised it feels uncomfortable to even have a voice regarding this. I don’t want to raise my children the same way I was raised. Sweeping these feelings under the rug and just quietly keeping to myself is what feels natural. However I am an advocate and an ally and being such means I need to speak up.

What about Blue Lives?

I see the phrase blue lives matter and I both agree and disagree. Blue lives matter because all lives matter, but blue lives are not lives. Blue is a career, blue is a choice. Being a person of color is not a choice. I grew up hearing that respect is earned. If the police want respect it takes more than going through the police academy to earn it. I have never been arrested but I have had many interactions with police, a very small percentage have left me with a feeling of respect towards police. What I mostly feel is frustration, irritation, and fear. I feel neither protected nor served by the police. Between my own experiences and those I see in the news, I feel that mostly the police protect and serve themselves.

Police are perpetrators too. Why wasn’t that officer publicly arrested on the spot. George Floyd was murdered, in broad day light, in front of the police and nothing was done. Police only protect and serve themselves. I read that the arrest occurred over suspicion of forgery. That crime did not deserve that level of force. Why can a white mass murderer or school shooter be walked out by the police and an unarmed non violent black man can die in the streets? Why is that acceptable? It’s not!

Ethics Matter

In the news I’ve seen physicians killing themselves over the decisions they have had with choosing who lives and dies due to corona virus treatment. The ethical dilemmas that have been grappled with by these doctors to make those tough decisions. When a police officer can take a life so casually and carelessly is inexcusable and unforgivable. That other police, who are people of authority, can stand by with not even a single flinch of intervention in there body while they see this occurring before there eyes.

#BLACKLIVESMATTER

Thanksgiving and Christmas have long since passed and now the new year is a quarter over but it definitely doesn’t feel like that much time has passed. It’s easy to feel that way when I start every day the same, by asking myself “what can I get done in the time I have today” so downtime is almost non existent. I finally took down the Christmas tree during the last week of February, I didn’t think it would take me that long but it just kept moving lower and lower on the priority list.

The top of my priority list has been reserved for updating the electrical. Once we started the electrical the top of the priority list became “remodel the whole house”. Remodeling the house has been keeping me VERY busy. I really want to clean and organize and sort and give everything a home but I can’t until the remodeled rooms are more finished. That is a very powerful motivation for me to keep going even when I don’t want to.

What are we doing!?

I feel like we’re on the 12th revision of our farmstead plan since moving in last July. The phrase anything worth having is worth working for is something I really believe in. With all the work the farmstead needs it’s a phrase I say often. If we stick with it now it will pay off for years to come. The other phrase that’s keeping things going is “do it once, do it right” because ripping out things you spent a lot of time on is miserable.

Kevon and I are pushing hard to continue with the mantra that “2020 will be our year”. We had so much transition and change that we couldn’t really set goals in years past. This year we have certainly been making up for that though!! So far since January first we have completely relocated 4 rooms in the house. Totally unexpected but it has worked out well so far. Opening walls made updating the electrical much easier and with everything open we were also able to get some of the out dated plumbing up to current standards too.

January

The first week of January my amazing father in law came to stay with us to help with some of the projects on the to-do list to help get our farmstead going. The initial to-do list item we were trying to get done was: update the electrical. I was shaking in my boots at the idea of updating the electrical but my father in law was cool as a cucumber about it. I’d say 4 or so days after starting the electric I had a BRILLIANT idea (well, brilliant to me). “What if we moved all the rooms for better flow”. He still stayed cool as a cucumber. However I think he developed a permanent eye twitch, which got worse the more ideas I had.

One of the first things that changed was moving the location of the kitchen from the back of the house, to the heart of the home in the middle. The old kitchen I spent so much time trying to make pretty was such a waste of time looking back now. On the flip side I now have the makings of the kitchen of my dreams rather than the kitchen I could settle for. I enjoy cooking so much more now that I’m not sequestered to the back of the house in the closed off kitchen. It’s nice to feel like a part of the family again. The new kitchen is so close to being a finished space I can almost taste it. I’ve put some teaser pictures on Instagram highlighting some of the changes that I’m swooning over.

The house is much more open now and has a better farmhouse vibe and flow than before. Seeing how corroded the old water lines were made me feel a lot better about my decisions. Not to mention the new kitchen added a water line for the freezer and for the dishwasher because the old kitchen had neither.

February

After the kitchen reach the livable/functional stage we moved on to the living room dining room conversion. The old kitchen wall that closed the space off to the rest of the house was taken down and opened up to give the open concept house that we now have. We also worked on the upstairs master bedroom during this time and learned that we had zero insulation in the house. Well, we did find one abandoned bee nest but other than THAT we had no insulation. Adding insulation everywhere we can put it became the new priority. I can now say with honesty that my bedroom has become cozy. We also added a door (didn’t have one before), removed the Jack and Jill bathroom door for more privacy now, and closed off the giant 10 foot opening that was the entrance to our master suite.

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We also cut down one of the dead trees on the property. This tree was chosen to be cut first because it was leaning towards the house. That made me really nervous when it got super windy. As an added bonus we have a ton of fire wood thanks to that tree for next winter.

March

The goal for March was to get as much wrapped up as we could because it would be a while before my father in law would be back. We wanted the house to feel a little less like a construction zone and more like a home. We also took down another dead tree (yay more firewood) and got the lawn mower put back together after a failed attempt at doing some mechanic stuff ourselves.

Inside, the laundry got moved upstairs where I wanted it. Now it’s on the same floor where most of the living takes place. The upstairs bathroom had a weird side room for something and now it has purpose. Having it there makes so much more sense and feels like it belongs better than it did where it was located downstairs. Plus I don’t have to lug laundry up and down the stairs anymore which is the real reason I am so excited about the move.

With the laundry out of the way downstairs, the space was divided into two rooms. Before the dividing wall was built we had to move the pellet stove, which was HEAVY! Or at least that’s what I am told because I 100% let the boys handle that job without me. Now one side of the space is a powder room and the other is the master bath for the downstairs master bedroom. The powder room is functional, the master bath is not. Once we got the powder room working (reused the previous toilet and vanity) we could demo the downstairs bathroom. Removing the bathroom made the living room bigger and gave the pellet stove its new home. Before the pellet stove didn’t really heat the house because of the layout. Now it heats the house great and even sends some heat upstairs which didn’t used to get heat before.

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April

Everything still has a long ways to go. I’ve taken some video tours of the house during various stages of change and it has definitely changed a lot. I’m excited to have time to edit the video to show the updates. However that’s a project for another very distant day. I am still trying to get to a good place with the house, but that requires a lot more cleaning and organizing.

With my father in law gone I have spent so much time trying to clean up the construction debris. Mostly it is piled outside until we can get a dumpster but at least the house is coming together. Even with all of the chaos going on we have managed to make some time for outdoor projects too. Outside we managed to install about 25% of the T-posts we need for fencing in the future pasture. Our estimated post count for the pasture is about 200 so we still have plenty more posts to set.

We also added to our chicken flock to increase our egg laying chickens. Now we have 30 ladies giving us two dozen eggs per day or more! Our first batch of meat chickens consists of 8 Black Australorp chickens and 8 Brown Leghorn chickens. They wont be ready for the freezer until the end of summer because they take so long to grow but it is what was available at the time. We won’t do meat chickens again that take this long to raise, we will stick with a different breed in the future.

Our local agriculture store was advertising the spring livestock options for purchase. We bit the bullet and ordered some new egg layer chicks that will be getting here the last week of April. The store was also advertising bees so we ordered a package and they are already here and getting adjusted in their new hive. We think the queen arrived dead so we will be watching closely to see how the hive fairs while we wait for a replacement queen to ship.

What’s Next

I’m anxious to see where the progress is at for the 1 year milestone (2 months to go) but I feel proud of what we’ve accomplished so far. We know we’re being ambitious but it’s nice to have goals to keep working towards. My hope and prediction for the 1 year milestone:

• Pasture enclosed (finish t post installation, string fencing)
• Getting a pig for the pasture that we can raise for meat (my mothers day gift request)
• Planting a vegetable/fruit/herb/flower garden
• Fill the root cellar with as much home grown crops as possible
• Get the main floor of the house painted (walls still need some prepping)
• Demo the last 2 horsehair plaster walls on the main floor

That’s all in no particular order just based on whatever we’re able to do with the time and money available. Plus there is always side projects that pop up requiring immediate attention. We will keep documenting the progress and changes we make to get our farmstead functioning. Hope to see you along for this journey with us.

Did anyone else hear “when it rains, it pours” growing up? It is a phrase I’ve heard as long as I can remember and it always feels so fitting when something happens. I had such high expectations for myself to complete our kitchen project and cat room/office project with such ease, ease is not the word I would use looking back on everything.

Project delays happen in the biggest and smallest projects, and my projects were not spared. I’m not sure where everyone lives, and I feel like we’ve lived everywhere but it has been a LONG time since I’ve lived where there is snow. Like real snow. We have seen snow plenty of times in our various homes but it never sticks. Well…it sure does stick here in Wisconsin!!

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The locals say this weather is unseasonable and that snow this early isn’t the normal for the area. We of course have no idea what normal is, we just have to roll with it and learn as we go.

That is something we have to do every time we move. Japan had a learning curve, California had a learning curve, and Washington had a learning curve too. It’s a bummer that Wisconsin’s learning curve is frozen. *Brrr*

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What Could Go Wrong

Do you know when the worst time for the heat to go out is? I am not sure all of them, but I can tell you with complete certainty that having it go out when the temps outside are in the teens is DEFINITELY one of them.

Luckily our cats have always been our personal space heaters so that helped get us through until the oil boiler could be repaired the next day. If that sounds like a project delay, you would be right!

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That wasn’t actually the first time we have lost heat since we’ve started getting snow. The first time we lost heat was because we ran our oil tanks dry. Whoops.

We are having the oil gauges replaced so we can measure how full the tanks are but that doesn’t do me any good when they are already empty. If you didn’t know that oil tanks sound the same full or empty, I am telling you now!

It worked out though because we had a LARGE oak tree branch break over labor day weekend (we posted about that on instagram if you don’t follow us there, you should) and we chopped that and had it for fire wood.

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We have an outdoor wood burning boiler as a backup heat source. That is an amazing backup heat option to have!!! At least it is if you know how to work it. Which we didn’t. We figured it out eventually but it would have been nice to have that knowledge beforehand.

That wood burner helped get us through until the gas company could refill our tanks. Something I have learned since losing heat twice is that working outside is much easier when you know you have a place to warm up after. It takes a long time to heat a frozen house.

We were naive to think that when we were ready to switch back to the oil it would be as simple as turning it on. It wasn’t that simple which is why we lost heat a second time during below freezing temps.

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Adulting Failures

Now we have our heat sorted, or as sorted as we can I guess. We are out of wood so we know we need to get that replaced for backup just in case. We have a pellet stove but no pellets. Honestly we aren’t even sure if it works, we only know we have it. The upstairs heater doesn’t work but the electrician gets here in a week and that should be repaired at that time. We have plenty of oil but only if the boiler keeps working. We have already talked to our boiler guy (it’s weird to say we have a boiler guy) about our options with that behemoth but most of it will wait until we are back in the warm season so we can be without the boiler to work on the boiler. Clearly that isn’t an option at the moment.

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It’s also been a reality check about tasks that should have been prioritized before it got so cold that now have to wait months and months to be completed or become way more difficult to do now. We were considering turning our “corn crib” into a winter chicken coop but winter is already here and it didn’t get done. In some ways it could be a blessing because now we could really plan it out but the bigger blessing would be using it.

I predicted in the previous post about having to wait to re-fence our pasture area after the snow melts and I can see my landscaping flags again and that couldn’t have been more true. Although I can still see them well enough at the moment, I am sure the ground is frozen enough to make manually pounding the t-posts a quickly regrettable chore.

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Farmstead Victories

The cat’s and the chickens have been eating good since the weather has gotten colder because the mice we catch goes back to the animals. The cat’s catch their own and any that we catch we feed to the chickens.

The chickens are little poultry velociraptors because they go crazy when we throw a mouse in for them. We have a particularly fat hen that must be the alpha because she claims dibs on the first treat every time. Doesn’t matter what the treat is either. She is always the first to grab what she wants and run with it. Although the other chickens will chase her down for some of that mouse.

Another victory is the amount of eggs we are getting per day! We are all getting a little egged out but I keep trying to find new recipes to make that uses plenty of eggs. As of today we are getting between 12 and 14 eggs per day. When I cook I typically use a dozen eggs in a day or 0 eggs. There is not much of an in-between with egg use.

Our favorite egg recipes currently are chocolate pots de creme, that uses 6 egg yolks per recipe. Every 2 batches leaves me with a dozen egg whites. Do you know what uses 12 egg whites? Angel food cake! I was pretty intimidated to make it the first time but I shouldn’t have been because I over cooked the first one and it was still delicious.

Pasta carbonara is a family favorite as well, its the most adult version I can find for “breakfast for dinner” because its basically bacon, eggs, and cheese pasta. Speaking of pasta, homemade egg noodles. I made lasagna the other day and took the time to make the pasta from scratch, the hubs proposed again. The saying a way to a mans heart is through his stomach is so true. At least in my house it is.

House Updates

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Calling anything an update is almost laughable because the farmstead is so old anything we do is an update. Just cleaning is an update! Anyways, with the help of my brother I was able to do a mini kitchen update.

Mostly it’s just a little more pleasant to be in there with the paint update. Although I feel like it’s a little boring now. I just need more art, I just haven’t quite found what I’m looking for yet. After the electric is finished the next update will begin.

I know I should have waited to do anything to the house until the electric was done but it makes me happy to spend time in the rooms I changed. Happiness isn’t always practical in practice.

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The other room I changed was our cat room/office. It makes being in there more relaxing and keeps the focus on the task at hand when trying to do anything. Even the hubs said it just feels better in here when he’s trying to get school work done.

I’m pretty sure the cats gave me a meow of approval as well. Although a disgruntled meow sounds about the same. I’ve never painted paneling before and I hope to never paint it again. I had a heck of a time getting good coverage. Maybe there is a trick like a certain type of paint or brush or something to make the job easier but I don’t know it if there is.

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Christmas decorating has begun in the house already as well. Just a few things are up currently, it’s a very slow process because I don’t know where I want to put everything so it’s going up a little at a time. The few things that are hung sure are making me feel festive. It’s making me want to start my Christmas baking early but I know that wouldn’t be very smart this early so I’m waiting, impatiently waiting, but still waiting.

I’m so happy about everything that got done even with all the setbacks during the process. I am also excited for the future projects to come over this winter on the inside of the house because when spring gets here it will be outdoor time again. I can’t wait to share the next phase of this journey. See you then!

The best of intentions never go perfectly as planned. I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve written anything. Although thinking about how busy I have been it makes sense. I’m trying to get settled into the house and make it feel more like a home. We’re also trying to tackle the yard that managed to become a jungle thanks to neglect.

We still have boxes to unpack and put away. I haven’t hung all the pictures yet either, but that project should be completed soon. I have recently started painting and it is slow going and tedious. It’s worth it though because but it sure does look make it look nice and help freshen up the space. We’re scheduled to have our electrical brought to current standards next month. This months big goal is the mini kitchen makeover.

We’re both working full time and the kiddo is in preschool/daycare so plates are full, yet we can’t wait for more. Our big outdoor project that we’re working on is upgrading the current fences to ones designed for the livestock we actually want. I believe things are set up for beef cattle however that isn’t something we’re really interested in.

Outdoor Dreaming

Our goals outdoors are mainly to get a self sustaining productive farm going. The livestock that we are interested in and wanting to incorporate in the farmstead ecosystem are:

Chickens (we currently have 18)

Goats (hoping for at least 2)

Cow (Jersey or Dexter dairy cow)

Bees (hello honey)

Ducks (decadent baking plans)

Turkey (planning on raising one per year)

Pigs (we want to raise 2 per year)

Rabbits (rabbit math has yet to be determined)

Right now the focus is infrastructure. A spur of the moment decision to get chickens made it very difficult because it should have been more planned out. However we made it work and things are great. So as for the larger livestock, planning and prepping will be the best investment we can make.

5 or 10 year plan

Currently we’re planning the new fence lines with landscapers flags to represent posts while everything gets laid out. If we can get the posts installed before the snow it will be a blessing. I have a feeling that we will be waiting to see the flags poke out of the melting snow in the spring instead. The first fence we want is the new pasture that will take up the majority of the back of the property. As of current the ordinances say livestock shouldn’t be within 10 feet of property lines and we are being diligent to abide by that.

Once the spring comes and the fence is built we will look into whats next. If I had to guess though, we will probably do goats and pigs next. At least I still have 6 months or so to figure it out. We are also talking about how to make bees a possibility this spring. Can’t forget that we have next years garden to squeeze in with all this animal action too. That will entail starting our seeds and prepping the ground outside for the first available transplant day.

I have such a hard time sitting still and doing nothing. To me that could mean we will get through our wish list faster than expected. The inside will be tackled a little at a time most likely during the cold months. I haven’t come up with specific plans yet so it makes moving forward slower. However there is enough painting to do in this house to probably keep me busy for a 20 year plan.

Mistake?

We bought this house and this property sight unseen. Yes we have been called crazy, more times than I can count and yes we probably are crazy but I am still happy with our choice. I love our house, our location, our property, our neighbors. I also know that we got really lucky because things could have been a disaster. Knock on wood because they still could be a disaster because there is still plenty on our “needs fixing” list besides the electrical, but life is an adventure and there could be problems wherever you go.

What I’m trying to say is that we have no regrets. I have so little regrets that I see “forever home” here. That isn’t something I’ve felt in over a decade at least. That feeling is also keeping the momentum going.

Next Plans

I have been trying to get outdoor video but it never seems to fail that on my days off the weather is terrible and by the time I get home at the end of the day the sun is setting. I could take pictures, that’s easy enough, but pictures do not do justice to the size of the farmstead. Huffing and puffing my way around for the 3875234 mile perimeter is much more real. I should get one of those wheel measure tapes to find out how long the perimeter actually is but my estimation is probably close. A friend jokingly said we needed a quad to get around and the more times I walk around to see how things are coming the more I realize they were right. Every once in a while wouldn’t be so bad but it’s a lot more often than I even expected.

I would also like to get into a better habit of writing consistently. Establishing new routines will be a good thing, although change can suck sometimes too. Things are falling into place it feels and this is just another piece to the big plan/picture. There’s a phrase I sing every time something gets done around the farm. “Every day it gets a little bit better at The Fansler Farmstead” and so far, every day, it has.

Actually We’re doing both

Over the last month we have been crossing things off of the Japan bucket list and spending time with visiting family. We took family pictures in kimono in Kamakura, and went to Tokyo to the Skytree mall. We also went to Harajuku and spent the day (spoiler alert, very over rated). It’s hard to spend time doing things and still have time to write about doing things. It may come as a shock but writing a post is really time consuming sometimes.

Since our chapter here in Japan is coming to a close and we are starting our next chapter with a bang. How so? We are breaking all the rules. All the ways people tell you NOT to do things…well that’s exactly how we’re doing them.

We have heard so many times not to buy a house sight unseen and don’t buy an old house they’re riddled with problems. So. Many. Times. We’re rebels because that’s exactly what we did. Granted our circumstances made that an easier decision than it should have been I’m sure but it was the decision we made none the less.

If you’ve been following for any amount of time you should be aware that we are moving back from Japan. In fact we are in the SINGLE DIGITS of days left in the country. We made the decision to secure housing before we got back to the states so we weren’t scrambling in a homeless situation.

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Technically we didn’t achieve that because our official closing date is a week after we get back but that gives me a few days to see friends and family before the cross country trek. Plus being with friends and family means we have a place to stay. *thanks guys* Then it will be oh so lovely hotel/motels and then HELLO NEW HOUSE. Well…new is not very accurate at all but more on that in a minute.

Exciting

The best part about this whole thing is that The Fansler Farmstead is about to GET REAL. Really real. Because we bought a farmhouse on land and we are going to do all the things. All of them. What ever thing your thinking of we are going to do that too. I am so excited for chickens. I geek out when I talk about them. Eggs are life and with chickens being a great starter animal hello quiche!

Over time we will be able to get the livestock that we have been talking about for years. This is happening so much sooner than I ever thought possible for us. This was the retirement dream which for the hubs is still a few years away but we’re getting a head start. Seriously we thought we wouldn’t even be close to this possibility for like 6 more years and now we have plans for the next 6 months. *mind blown*

We will be narrowing down the 6 month plan after moving in of what is going to be prioritized to now versus later. Once we have a plan I will post about it. Not just because inquiring minds will want to know, but also for accountability. I work better and harder when I’m held accountable so this will be a good thing.

Scary

So some things about this place that are bringing out the nerves… its 107 years old. Like I said, calling it new is not very accurate. New to us I guess would be the most appropriate. There are a lot of unknowns and a lot of potentials for disaster but we are rolling the dice on this. We’re hoping to roll a 20, not a 1 (comment if you get that reference). We’ve done a ton of inspections to try to minimize the surprises but those can only go so far.

Actual problems and potential problems are very different. We will be checking out all the stuff that could be something before it is. Anything we find that is a problem we can take care of the right way too which helps give peace of mind.

Plan

The only plan at the moment is paint. It needs it, I need it. Blank slate here we come. We will bring you along on this adventure that I am so excited about. I want to have before and after pictures to document the changes. It has been a big bummer for me that some of the other places we’ve lived hasn’t had them. And I am a sucker for a good before and after story.

Once we have settled we will be coming up with a well thought out plan for what we what to get done by the end of the year and what will be a next year goal. Hoping to have a real plan by August. Rome wasn’t built in a day and this farmstead won’t be built in one either. Can’t wait to bring you all along!

Am I the only one that over commits herself to things? I put a lot on my to-do list these past couple weeks and it got the better of me. I got quite a bit done but definitely not everything. The things that didn’t get done are really nagging at me. It feels like I am disappointed with myself for what I gave priority to my time.

My Own Worst Enemy

I promised myself that I would make a blanket for some family friends and their new baby. I just finished the blanket and matching bonnet today but I wasn’t able to get it done before baby arrived. In hindsight shouldn’t have been so indecisive with yarn and I also had some days where I couldn’t bring myself to pick up the crochet hook. It doesn’t change the sentimental value of the item but it feels less somehow. I have one more thing I want to whip up to send with it and luckily it’s a quick make item unlike the blanket but it means I won’t be sending for a few more days still. However, it’s the weekend so that excuse helps to ease the “not on my timeline” blow.

I also wanted to get my first video posted on YouTube. I wanted to show my Homesteaders Swiss Army Apron in a way that I just can’t do with pictures. Valuable lessons were learned about both filming and editing before I could even get it published. I learned that the way you hold your phone makes a big difference to video image. When I began editing (not easy by the way) I was TINY! Basically it was a video in thumbnail form. You couldn’t see anything. It really defeated the purpose of the video which really disheartened me and my hopes of adding vlogging to this venture. It isn’t a huge deal it just needs to be reshot with the camera in the right orientation but that means adding something else to the to do list.

Fear of Homelessness

We are also house hunting. Trying to hunt for a house that you can’t see in person is difficult. Add the BIG timezone difference and it’s worse. I have to say our realtor has been exceptional so far but 4am video house showings aren’t easy. It also doesn’t help that we are looking into living out in the country so cell service is spotty. Spotty cell service means poor video quality but we’ve managed. We have looked at several homes it feels like. Fallen in like with a few. Put in some offers. Gotten some rejection. However we haven’t lost faith. The Fansler Farmstead is out there and if it’s meant to be we will get it. Even if we are getting down to the wire which is adding to some anxiety.

Our stuff is getting packed up and shipped back at the end of the month. We return at some unknown date next month (have I mentioned that I don’t like unknowns? I’m a planner, you can’t REALLY plan the unknown).

I want to know that I have a roof over my head already lined up. Hubs is set. He knows that he’s got more schooling to go through so he will have lodging. I don’t have that same luxury so this is what we need to do. Just another point in the “if the Navy wanted him to have a spouse they would have issued one in bootcamp” list I guess.

Travel and Sightseeing

A victory is that my brother is about to visit so that is super exciting. I miss him very much and we have a lot planned while he’s here. I am an adventurous homebody. That basically means I would LOVE to explore but I don’t want to explore alone. I know that we will get out and see some stuff because we will go together. I’ve had a ton of stuff on my Japan bucket list that I have been itching to cross off but going on adventures alone with the kiddo makes me nervous. I don’t want to be stranded alone with a toddler. At least with another adult it won’t be so bad. Plus we both have a serious love of food so basically we will be eating our way across the country. Yum!

I also have a birthday coming up. Not sure how I feel about that since it’s one of those “milestone” birthdays. I am turning 30! When did that happen? It feels like yesterday was my high school graduation. Then again the hubs and I also just celebrated 8 years of marriage when it also feels like our wedding was yesterday too. Time goes faster the older you get I guess.

Adjusting Priorites

Life is a marathon not a sprint. But marathons and sprints are both races and life is racing by!!! I have been watching a lot of YouTube trying to learn everything I can before we officially start this farmstead adventure and I have learned that it doesn’t seem to matter if you are doing a typical life of working 9-5 or have given up your job completely to live off the land, you never get ahead.

Both lifestyles require constant upgrades and updates. Improved housing, improved transportation. Then there is new tech and gadgets which may be a priority for some. In our case we will be wanting some livestock. So much sacrifice goes to obtain that.

Typical life means looking for high paying work which means more stress usually and long hours. Or a homestead life means more labor and time intensive work to do it yourself. I am hoping to live a hybrid life riding the line somewhere between the two. I want to have animals and better quality food knowing where it all comes from but I also don’t want to give up the career that I have been building and love.

With age comes wisdom and I hope this path isn’t a mistake but it is something only time will tell. It is either going to work or something will have to give. I sing to the baby “you can’t always get what you want” and now she sings back “I can always get what I want” so maybe I need to follow her lead and just be blissfully optimistic that everything will work out like I want. I am not afraid of hard work, it’s how we’ve gotten to where we are so far. Working our butts off and trying to narrow down what we want from life and I think what we want isn’t unreasonable.

Since planting a spring garden is out of the question I decided to just plan for next year. It’s about as productive as I can be right now, just planning. I thought about planting a small herb garden just to give me something green but I don’t have a yard here. Literally my yard is all concrete and it seemed silly to invest in a bunch of pots and soil when we move in 2 months. Not to mention the local stores still don’t have much of a selection still (I keep checking because the itch is real). So since a garden is out for now, lets do something in. Hopefully that play on words makes sense.

The weather here has been so hit or miss lately that I have been cooped up inside. It is hard to want to go anywhere and explore when the wind is trying to pick you up and carry you away and the rain can’t make up its mind. So I decided to do something indoors and wait out mother nature. I decided to make a multipurpose apron for myself while I am stuck inside.

Apron Requirements

I have never had a kitchen apron. I don’t like things around my neck and finding a half apron I liked never worked out. So I have always just done without. So my first apron requirement was that it would be a half apron that could work in the kitchen? Check.

My next requirement was that the half apron would also work as a garden apron. It would be long enough that if I wore it, it could protect my clothes when planting, watering, ect. I have had many times in the garden with the intention of watering only to have muddy splash back. Or bending down to pull a few weeds you saw to tip forward and fall on my knees. I don’t like having to change my outfit all the time but going out and doing things caked in mud isn’t ideal. Half apron that can work in the garden? Check.

Harvest Apron Requirements

I knew I wanted a harvest apron too. Something that could hold all the vegetables as I pick them and still leave me hands free. I wanted plenty of room in there because I grow more than cherry tomatoes. My squash last year were very prolific and I could harvest a bucket full every other day at least. So it needed to be able to hold plenty of larger crops. Big harvest pouch? Check.

I wanted the harvest apron to be able to pour out the produce easily too so the way it fastened together was important and I wanted the option where I could dump everything out (this idea is more ideal for something like a root vegetable harvest) to save time rather than having to pull everything out one at a time. I also wanted it to be able to completely unfold for easy access to more fragile produce for separation and sorting. Easy access harvest? Check.

Lastly, it was important to me to include an egg pouch. I know that getting egg hens is very important to me and only a matter of time (not that I’m counting >.>) Not to mention I have read many complaints about people putting eggs in their harvest aprons and making accidental pocket omelettes. That definitely sounds like something I would do so if I can tweak a pattern to prevent that from happening I might as well. Egg harvest pockets? Check.

One More Requirement

One other thing that this apron had to have and this may very well be the MOST IMPORTANT requirement… This all needed to be one apron. I love multi use things that do more than one job. Also, I didn’t want to need all of these different aprons to keep track of. I just want one apron that does it all.

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Let me tell you, that is exactly what I got!!! I am so happy with how this apron turned out and I can’t wait to break it in. For now only the kitchen side is seeing much use but soon, soon it will be covered in soil and I couldn’t be happier.

I was also able to make a matching garden hat to my garden apron which makes me very happy in a cheesy way. It will keep the sun out and I will look cute doing it. It’s wide brimmed to make sure the sun really keeps out of my face which was important to me and is shaped in a way to accommodate my hair without sitting on my neck too much. I usually wear a visor but my hair gets so hot sitting in the sun but a traditional sun hat has a brim that goes all the way around. This hat gives me the best of both worlds in my opinion. Basically it’s a visor hat and I’m in love with it.

Added Bonus

I had enough scrap material left over after cutting out all the pieces for my apron and hat that I was able to make my daughter a reversible garden/kitchen apron too. She is tickled pink about it and loves helping out so I am just as excited for her apron to get broken in too.

Her apron is an around the neck apron but she is happy with it. Not to mention she’s notorious for wiping her hands on her chest/thighs so this design covers both.

Materials

I don’t have patterns for everything. Mostly I went to Pinterest for inspiration since finding exactly what I was looking for wasn’t panning out. I searched for sun hats and narrowed it down to 2. I chose the free pattern because what did I have to lose?! The other pattern was $12 and I didn’t even know how it would fit my head and it seemed like to much to invest in a maybe.

I looked at sooooooo many aprons and read several blogs about others aprons. I tried following their patterns but I was very confused and the posts were so old that I knew posting a comment and expecting a response for trouble shooting was out of the question. So I decided to wing it just from looking at several pictures and trying to merge them into one apron.

For materials I used 4 different patterned fabrics all of the same material. It is a thin canvas cotton type fabric. I used an herb/cheese fabric for the kitchen apron. A garden fabric for the garden hat and garden apron. A heart fabric for the egg pouch and hat ribbon. And a brown fabric for trim/lining/misc.

I purchased 1 meter each of the kitchen and brown fabric. I got a meter and a half of the garden fabric since I knew I wanted to make a matching hat. And I got a half meter of the heart fabric since it was only going to be used for a small accent.

Hopefully you are just as inspired as I was to make your own apron. What requirements must your apron have?

I feel like I should preface this by saying I am very new to blogging and I haven’t started vlogging…yet. Although things are in the works to get that started soon. However I am a long time blog reader. I have bloggers that I have been reading for almost a decade. Saying that makes me feel old but it’s honest. Vlogging I am getting into more. I now watch YouTube more than Netflix. Especially since I can watch what is important to me.

Back before we cut the cord on TV I used to tell Kevon “If I could only pay for the channels I watched I would be more willing to keep cable” that is not an option. We cut the cable and use Netflix as our only monthly entertainment bill. Intermittently use Hulu but with out current internet situation it isn’t on the list right now.

Choosing Your Channels

The thing I like about watching YouTube is that I find it educational. I love watching things that I learn from. I have learned new ways to crochet and garden and cook. I lived on 4 channels when we were still on cable. The 2 cooking channels and the 2 remodeling channels. I LOVED THEM. I still do but I am sorry channels I am not willing to pay those insane cable prices.

How often I got stuck watching reruns. It reached a point where nothing I saw was new but this was my love. I wanted new information not seeing the same thing over and over, especially when I really didn’t have an interest in the episode to begin with. I mean a butterfly watching expert with a million dollar house budget…I…Don’t…Care… Sorry not sorry. I also liked that I could turn the TV for ambient background noise that I didn’t HAVE to watch. I could do dishes and pay attention when something of interest happened.

Read Read Read

I don’t always have time to read. I love blogs and books and news articles but reading requires your full attention. I can’t open a book and have it read itself to me. (yes I am aware of things like Audible and visually impaired items but that’s not my point) I do not have the skills to wash dishes and read a book. That is not in my wheel house.

I love curling up with a book on a dreary day. Believe me, when the situation allows it I am binge reading. I have a kindle and on long train rides I read as many pages as I can. At home when I have more reliable phone charging capability and someone is watching something that I have no interest in (*cough* baby bear tv *cough*) I can binge blogs harder than a competitive eater at a pie eating contest. However life happens and then you have to set what you’re reading down and go back to the real world. In my house “mom I’m hungry” is a good reading buzzkill.

What about podcasts

I have tried podcasts. I have one that I do listen to upon occasion but it talks about a lot of stuff that I then have to log in to something else to be able to see or understand what they are talking about. I do not like that I lose out on the visual aspect. In blogs there are pictures *yay* and links making it convenient *also yay*. In vlogs there is the visual learning aspect plus the links usually located in the description *yay and yay*. Those things keep me drawn to vlogs and blogs and steer me away from podcasts.

The time when I could listen to podcasts I would rather just listen to music to be honest. Working out, cooking, cleaning I would rather be jamming. Not to mention I love a random dance party and those aren’t easy to have with podcasts.

Love to learn

I have learned so much from peoples blogs. They explain things in a way that I was never able to understand in school because they break it down in a more simplified way. Sometimes however I have left more confused than I went in. For example: crochet. I have read blogs and patterns and just can’t figure it out. It wasn’t until I started watching tutorials on YouTube that I was able to really get the hang of the many things I make.

I learned how to quilt on YouTube. I read so many things for beginner quilters and it just didn’t make sense. I couldn’t cut the squares right or sew the squares right and I was left with a misshapen mess. Queue a YouTube search and suddenly I was like OMG I can do this! From there I was able to cut my fabric correctly. Some people can look at a before and after picture and be like “I can do that” just from an image. Typically that’s not me.

I LOVE HOMESTEADING

That is what I like to learn about. It is the niche that holds me in. I believe in knowing where your food comes from and being a true farm to table family. I love watching about people already living the farm to table life. I love food and I love animals and you can’t have one with out the other in farm to table cooking. I want to take amazing care of my animals so I can get better quality food and I also want to know that their quality of life was good for the time they were in my life.

With homesteading also comes DIY remodeling. There is a time and a place for professional help but putting sweat equity into something holds a place near and dear to my heart. I like knowing my own 2 hands helped build our home even if that may only be paint. Also, I hate to paint.

I love to cook and with homesteading comes REAL cooking. The more I learn about food the more I learn about cultures and cuisine I realize that I don’t have the roots that other places have. Italy, Japan, India all have specific cuisine. I love pho and that is a Vietnamese dish. Most people think of McDonalds when they think of American cooking. Why?!

American Cuisine

I feel like Homestead farm to table cooking is real American food. I know that there are niches in America like southern cooking and barbecue but what makes America so unique is all the different cultures who live here and inspire food. I love that I can try more foods from other countries in the United states than I can anywhere else. I don’t have to travel to try new things. A quick google search will lead me to something I have never tried before. If what I try is amazing I can recreate it at home.

Knowing how to cook from scratch and all the homesteading skills like preservation and seasonal cooking will help to make those dishes come to life in my home. I tried this amazing taco thing in Tokyo. I *think* it was chicken shwarma but I am not sure. I am going to try to recreate what I had because it was so good and I can add it to our menu rotation. There are no limits to what you can make on the homestead. I can make curry, I can make spaghetti, I can make sushi and I can do this all from scratch. I will know what is in it because I am making this with the most basic of ingredients whether it’s 2 or 20 ingredients. I know what each and everyone is without things I can’t pronounce and I love that.

My Content

What you can expect from me is a mix of trying new things. How can I find new foods I love if I don’t try them. Once I have mastered cooking the foods I love you can expect me to share them with you. I will describe to the best of my ability what things taste like. One of my biggest *grr* moments is when I am yelling at my screen “yeah, but what does it taste like?!” Especially when it isn’t something I have easy access to, I want to know what to expect if I decide to try it on a whim.

I will walk you through whatever I am doing so you can learn with me. I don’t know everything. I can’t. No one can. But I am willing to share whatever knowledge I have because knowledge is power and power promotes independence. I want you all to feel just as independent as I do, I very rarely feel like I can’t handle something. Some days are of course worse than others, everyone gets over whelmed at some point but for the most part I feel like I can take on anything.

Sometimes I will blog what I am doing, sometimes I am going to vlog what I’m doing. And sometimes I may do both but overall I want you to take on anything that you feel so inclined. Life skills shouldn’t be so difficult to learn, let’s make it easier with all these different ways to get information out there.

Let’s take on life together one life skill at a time.

It doesn’t matter what you had planned or what you want to do, when your a mom that is priority number one. The water heater could be broken and spewing water in your basement but if your child is screaming you are going to find out why first. It’s just how mom life works.

I had many things planned today but only accomplished about 1 of them. Oops. Luckily the day isn’t over yet so there is still a chance I could cross a few more things off of my to do list but mom’ing is a good excuse in my book for things not going as planned. You’re also never alone when you have kids. Don’t believe me? Go to the bathroom and wait.

Another year goes by

Today is my 8 year wedding anniversary. *Happy anniversary Kevon* I unfortunately do not get to spend it with my husband because holidays and important dates are completely meaningless to the military. We have spent more anniversaries apart than together. Most of our birthdays are spent long distance. My husband couldn’t even make it to my nursing school graduation (but here’s to hoping he makes it to the next one).

I planned to spend today with friends but as an expert on things not going to plan I spent the day with my kiddo instead. We had fun, took a ton of pictures which she loves and we read a lot. Today was a good day for me and her but it was definitely not the day I wanted or hoped for.

You knew what you were getting into

I hear those words so often I could scream. How could I possibly know what I was getting into. With so much military life in constant flux it is impossible. I only recently found out where we are moving next but I still don’t know when we are moving. So how can I possibly know everything the future holds?

Our first station was in Washington. *Hi Oak Harbor* and we had to PCS while I was in the hospital in labor with our first born. Literally he had to leave and meet the movers because it didn’t matter, we were on military time. That should have been a clue of the future but hindsight is 20/20 for a reason. I ended up with an emergency c-section which derailed our moving plans because I could no longer drive and we had 2 vehicles to move.

You should have planned better

I can honestly say that at 21 years old my planning ability is not the fine tuned machine that it is now. Luckily we had family willing to take a train a VERY long way to meet us and help with the drive because it’s not like you get stationed near family for support. You just have to make due with what you have.

Essentially my daughter and I were homeless for the next few months because my hubs was at school at it was not accompanied orders so I stayed with whatever family and friends I could while he finished his time. In a way it was nice because I was healing and recovering and most of the time I got a lot of help. I moved 4 times in the course of 2 months to Oregon, California, Missouri and then Florida to keep a roof over our heads until we could move to our final destination.

Settling in

Finally we could move to our new duty station and no longer be living out of suitcases. (not so easy with a newborn) However we didn’t know the area and trying to ‘reach out to our sponsor’ was met with mostly unanswered emails. Our first home was in the ghetto because we didn’t know any better. We had the catalytic converter removed from our car within 1 week of moving in.

So we moved. We lost our deposit and had to pay a bunch of fees because our reason for moving wasn’t ‘good enough’ so not only did we double what our rent was, we lost a ton. It took a while to recoup but it’s just what your supposed to do. Dust yourself off and try again. Eventually we decided to buy a house.

Mistakes were made

We looked forever for a house and we really didn’t know what to look for. Our realtor didn’t care about our needs only making the sale. We ended up with a pretty rough house and paid a lot of money to have things fixed that just broke again a few months later. Worst of all we also lost our first born in that time but that is a story for another day because it is just too painful still and it’s been almost 5 years since then.

Eventually we sold that house with bittersweet feelings since we had so many memories but hanging on to a money pit would have been a mistake for our family. We decided a condo would be a better fit and I will never buy a condo again. I learned valuable lessons about what a HOA is and what a pain they are too. But no place lasts forever and we moved on.

The next adventure

I went back to school and moved just after graduating nursing school. As well as getting pregnant and giving birth in that time. As a matter of fact I drove a uhaul with all of our belongings up to Oregon during a weekend and was back at school Monday morning with a newborn in tow. We lived on an air mattress for a few weeks while I finished out my classes.

I got licensed as soon as possible and got to work to start establishing work history before we moved again. We had heard a lot about nurses being needed in Japan and that I wouldn’t have any trouble and other lies like that. Don’t get me wrong Japan is great but a 2 income family becoming a 1 income family in a significantly higher cost of living area has been hard.

Actually getting to Japan we found out that there are MANY nurses that are unemployed and jobs were few and far between with most taking jobs at the NEX (department store) or other similar minimum wage positions. I considered this but minimum wage + child care expenses = whats the point. I lived that SAHM life as long as I could.

Tough Decisions

I lived in Japan just shy of 1 year before our family had to make some tough decisions. Do we A: keep going as we are going and go in to debt as our savings had dried up paying the bills we still had back in the states plus all of our new bills here on 1 income or B: do I go back to the states and work to help get our savings back up to ensure that we were in a good place when we moved again.

We chose option B. I went back to the US to work for about 18 months. We paid off debt, refilled savings. We bought another house and I fixed it up in my free time. I was near family so they got to see the baby get older and bigger and I made amazing friends. But I missed my husband terribly. I was able to visit Japan 2 times in that year and a half and my husband visited once. It was to big of a blow to savings for all that travel. As the new year rolled in the distance became to much.

Back in Japan

In January 2019 I returned to Japan. Once again unemployed but trying to make the most of my situation. I decided to start blogging. I had heard so many times talking to friends/family/coworkers how I had an interesting life. Eventually you hear something enough and you start to believe it yourself. We have big plans for our family even though we are in a sort of limbo right now with another move looming in the distance.

I have started cooking more and trying to making foods I love healthier for my family. So I hope to increase the amount of ‘scratch’ cooking I do slowly over time but any step is a step in the right direction. Also I hope to live a more farm type lifestyle next and get more in touch with nature. Lastly I hope to go back to school and finish my degree or rather get a degree since it got put on hold with the time overseas.

Life is an Adventure

I am happy to say that I am happy to be on this adventure and I couldn’t imagine being on it with anyone else. I love that we are on the same page. Especially since I have met plenty of people in my time and we were not on the same page at all. Plus a few times where I was on the same page as someone but clearly we were in different books.

I love that I get to live this mom life even though some days are more hectic than others. Today as a matter of fact was a “shit happens” day. Twice actually. But without you Kevon, I wouldn’t be where I am today. This is our story or at least the cliff notes version. Where we have been is already set but where we are going is full of opportunity and possibility. Happy anniversary again, I hope for many more years to come and all the adventures that come with it.

During my husbands last deployment he had a decent meal one day. That in and of itself is amazing because as most sailors will tell you, ship food sucks. As he was describing the deliciousness that he ate, my interest was piqued.

“Okay, I’ll bite…what did you eat”

“Chicken and rice soup but some of the rice was black but didn’t taste burned”

“That sounds like chicken and wild rice soup”

“Yeah! That’s it!”

So I perused a million recipes on Pinterest trying to find a recipe that I had all the ingredients for or could at least obtain. Of course I couldn’t find a perfect recipe. Luckily for me, taking several recipes and making them a hybrid of availability has made this a family favorite.

When it comes to cooking I love to wing it and adjust to taste. That is really what inspires my food passion. Creating something from nothing. Rice and chicken are pretty blah on their own, but add a little of this and a little of that and voila an amazing experiment.

Frankenstein Recipe

The first thing I did to all the recipes I found was eliminate the canned broth suggestion. I wanted to make my own broth, a bone broth. I wanted flavor and all the extra vitamins and nutrition I could get. Simple solution was to get a whole chicken and throw it in the crock-pot. I cooked the chicken for 6-8 hours until completely cooked. I also eliminated the water suggestions since I would be exclusively using the bone broth as the sole liquid minus the small amount of milk needed.

FUN FACT: Why 6-8 you may ask, power in Japan… the hertz is different than in the states so timed things and heat temp are effected. This is most prevalent in my crock-pot, my coffee pot (can’t set the timer to have coffee auto start because who knows what time it will actually trigger) and plug in alarm clocks (we use our phones exclusively now so that was an easy remedy). So I don’t know exactly how long it cooked for but that is my best guess.

After the chicken is cooked through and has released its juices into the crock I pull the whole bird out and let it rest/cool. Years ago I got a nifty cutting board from a friend who sells pampered chef that will hold up to 2 cups of liquid. I love this cutting board for meals like this because I don’t waste a drop of drippings while the bird cools or while removing all the meat. This makes putting the juices back in the crock-pot with the bones super easy.

De-boning the bird

When given the option, I prefer to use my hands when taking the bird apart as much as possible because I find it easier and less wasteful. I am not a master butcher so when I use a knife I feel like my cuts are not as accurate as they could be and I shred more of the meat unintentionally. Or that I leave more of the meat on the bones than I am wanting.

First I strip back the wings, the bird is so tender you could just high five the chicken and send the whole wing flying. I popped both at the joint and set aside. Next I divided the leg quarters (the thigh with the leg). After I removed the breasts. I checked the rib/ surrounding bones for missed meat and put them back in the crock-pot with the drippings.

Next I started removing the bones from the wings and quarters. The wings don’t have much meat so I eye ball them hard to see if they are worth my time to fiddle with. About half I left as is and just put it right back in the juices. Legs and thighs are much easier since the bones are bigger and there is more meat. After all the bones had been pulled I diced away and set aside.

Bone Broth

I add 8 cups of water to the bones which completely submerges them. I also put in any fat and skin. There is flavor and collagen and other goodness that we don’t want to miss out on. Plus since the bird is in the crock the skin doesn’t have that crispy texture that makes it tasty for snacking. I try to cook the bone broth as long as possible for maximum flavor and to try to get every bit of nutrition out of the bones and into the broth as possible.

Time Management

While the chicken is cooking (not the broth) take advantage and dice your onions and celery and carrots. Save the ends that you would throw away because those can be put in the bone broth for extra flavor and they will get strained out before it goes into the soup. If you are smart you will toss a bay leaf in the bone broth too. I am not always smart.

If I can coordinate well I will start the bird before bed and then start the bone broth first thing in the morning to cook through the day. Then I will assemble the soup because after the chicken is cooked and the broth is made the rest just whips up fast. Everything can be prepped ahead of time to make it almost a dump and go soup the next day.

I like cooking the veggies before I assemble the soup. There is extra flavor to be had if you can get some browned edges on the carrots and such. I also toss in some minced garlic but I don’t pre-cut it like the other veggies. I mince it fresh. Cooking the veggies first also eliminates some extra liquid in them so their own juices wont dilute the bone broth flavors.

Starting to look like soup

Next I add the stock. To do this I put a mesh colander over my stock pot and pour the crock-pot contents right in. I let it drip dry over the stock pot to not waste a drop. I ladle out some of the stock trying not to get too many chunks into a protein shake blender bottle. It is my kitchen secret weapon. I pull out a cup or so to let it cool but I will explain that more in depth in a bit.

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Throw in the chicken and the rice and let the rice cook and soften. The black (wild) rice takes the longest so if you are taste testing for ‘done-ness’ then make sure you nibble one of those.

Learn from my hard lessons!!!

Add the rice seasoning packet to the reserved stock and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and 1 cup of whole milk. Then blend it up. I like the blender bottle because it makes quick work of the corn starch and seasonings and leaves it lump free. Trying to sprinkle it in to the stock pot and work the lumps out…forget it.

“Ain’t nobody got time for that”

Big side note here for SAFETY do not shake hot liquid. If the liquid is hot it will build pressure from shaking and splatter the liquid. Possibly before you intentionally open it… I may have learned a hard lesson making some VERY creamy hot chocolate. It was the best cup of hot chocolate I have ever had and I have never made it like that again. If you let it cool and add the milk it should definitely be cool enough to shake safely. I love this method for making gravy too.

Pour the slurry into the stock pot. I usually add a few tablespoons of water back into the shaker bottle and give another shake to make sure all the bits and flavor get into the soup. Give it a good stir and then I turn off the heat and put the lid on. Give the cornstarch a little time to thicken the soup. We are inhaling the soup usually within 10 minutes or so. Of course season to your own tastes but I put tons of stuff in my soup because I LOVE a rich flavor especially because I worked so hard to build it.

Enjoy your labor of love

This is a dish that quickly became a staple in our house. If you’re looking for a feel good meal then this is exactly what you are looking for. It is quite easy to make but tastes super complicated. The hardest part of making the dish is time if you want to get the full effect of the flavors. I am sure I could whip this up in less time on the stove but the flavors wouldn’t have a chance to get as concentrated as they do with the slow cook.

We have actually made this twice in the last week because it is so good and so satisfying. I learned my lesson quickly that this should be made in bulk because it gets scarfed down. But it also keeps well in both the refrigerator and the freezer. I love to cook but I am not immune to lazy days. If I can have a home cooked meal at TV dinner convenience, count me in. So thawing some soup to warm my weary soul is perfect.

I hope you love this soup as much as my family. What foods warm you on a dreary day? Are you going to try this? If you try it comment below!

Wholesome Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

In a crock-pot cook:
1 Whole Chicken (lightly seasoned)

Dice and set aside:
1 Pound of Carrots
1 Whole Bunch of Celery
2 Medium Onions

When cooked remove chicken and separate meat from bone then dice. Return bones to crock pot. Add the following and cook all day:
8 Cups Water
1 Large Bay Leaf
1 Helping of Kitchen Scraps

In a large stock pot add in the diced vegetables and cook until tender and beginning to brown. When onions are translucent add:
4 Cloves Garlic (minced)

Put a strainer over the stock pot and pour in the bone broth. Reserve 1 cup of liquid. Add the following:
1 Chicken (diced)
2 Boxes of Wild Rice flavor “Rice-a-Roni”

Cook until rice is tender. In shaker bottle add:
1 Cup Bone Broth (reserved)
1 Cup Whole Milk
2 Tablespoons Cornstarch
1 Tablespoon White Pepper
1 Tablespoon Pink Himalayan Salt
2 Seasoning Packets from rice
1 Tablespoon Dried Oregano
1 Tablespoon Dried Basil


Pour into stock pot and allow to thicken. Serve hot.

Such a simple title for something so complex. There are more types of BBQ sauce than I can count. But for you guys, I’ll try…

Kansas BBQ- tomato based, sweet and tangy
Texas BBQ- tomato based, sweet and spicy
Memphis BBQ- tomato based, sweet (molasses not honey)
Alabama BBQ- mayonnaise based, tangy
North Carolina BBQ- tomato based, spicy and tangy
South Carolina BBQ- mustard based, spicy

Sauces can be customized even further, some people like a really spicy sauce *raises hand* other people like a really sweet sauce *eyeballs husband with judgement*. Other people like a very tangy sauce.

Of course all of the above listed sauces have MANY variations which change their flavor profile but that is just a rough estimate of what the flavor is. Did you know that other cultures have BBQ too? Korean and Japanese BBQ are very tasty. They are also very different from what people in the United States considers BBQ sauce.

Korean BBQ- Tamari based, sweet sauce
Japanese BBQ- Mirin based, savory sauce

However this is not a post about those sauces. This is a post about my homemade BBQ sauce. I am hoping to give some as gifts so I need to get a few jars made up. With trial and error on my recipe I have made what I call, ‘the perfect sauce’ because it has just enough sweet/spicy/sour/savory/smokey to make everyone happy. If you are truly sensitive to heat and spice this may not be the right sauce for you. Although the other flavors help to mellow the sauce…it IS still spicy.

Why not just buy at the store?

My family has very different tastes when it comes to BBQ sauce. As I mentioned earlier, I like spicy but Kevon likes sweet. By making my own I am able to get a sauce that everyone likes without having to buy several bottles to please everyone. For the record, that is exactly what we used to do.

I used to buy several bottles at a time. I have done it where ONLY one sauce per meat aka I have my pieces and hubs has his. However trying to keep track of which was which sometimes was a pain because they all look the same in the end. I have also bought and mixed different flavors to achieve what I was going for but it was never quite right.

Another good thing that comes from making your own sauce, I can gift my sauce to others. I am sure someone would be appreciative to receive a bottle of sauce from the store but where is the sentiment. Knowing that the jar I am giving was made with love and not machines. Perfection. I can’t be the only one who loves a homemade/handmade gift. Plus everything looks pretty in a glass jar and you can wrap or decorate it to suit the season.

Getting Cooking

My sauce it tomato based. When I think of BBQ it has to be tomato based. I have nothing against those other sauces, but I think of them as just a sauce, not a BBQ sauce. They have a time and a place in cooking. Today is neither the time OR the place.

First thing I do is get the ketchup into the sauce pan to begin warming. As of writing this post, I buy my ketchup at the store. I base the choice on the best bang for the buck. Usually whichever bottle is the biggest. I have a goal to learn to make all my own condiments by summer so hopefully I wont be using store bought ketchup for long. We also aren’t trying to cook the sauce per se, only warm it to bring out the potential in all the seasonings and to allow it to meld together. Just bring it to a boil once, then reduce it and keep it at a low simmer the whole time remaining.

After the ketchup is set up and warming begin to add the remaining ingredients. Next will be the vinegar. I use apple cider vinegar because I find that it has the best taste for this particular recipe. I have however made this with other vinegar like white, and once with a garlic vinegar that I had around for salad dressing. This is a big ingredient in this recipe and it would be a missed opportunity to not add the best flavor possible. So experiment like I did and make this your own. This of course also brings me back to making my own ketchup to get better flavor. *someday*.

Measure, Measure, Measure

After the vinegar, add the brown sugar. Dark brown sugar offers more to the flavor of the sauce than light brown sugar, but feel free to substitute if needed. I am fairly certain that in this particular batch it was a mix of both because I didn’t check the supply before starting.

I have already learned from renovations to “measure twice, cut once” but when it comes to cooking there is still room to learn “measure twice, cook once” too. It never seems to fail, I am ALWAYS missing SOMETHING. Frustrating, but I do it to myself.

Whatever dry rub you put on your meat is what I would recommend for this dish. I LOVE the way the rub and the sauce compliment each other when cooked properly on the meat. I make my own dry rub that I will be sharing with you as soon as my spice cabinet is back in full working order. Until then, just use a personal favorite.

After that add in the mustard, the honey, and the Worcestershire. At this point you have already made an amazing BBQ. However…lets kick it up a notch shall we. Add some liquid smoke for flavor I happen to be partial to hickory at this current moment but I have used others with equally delicious results.

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Then add adobo sauce. (I use the Embasa Chipolte in Adobo, 1 7oz can gives about 8 Tablespoons of adobo, and then you can use the chipoltes in something else!!).

Now you have created a sweet, sour, savory, smokey, spicy, rich full depth flavor barbecue sauce. You can slather it over some food or jar it up for another purpose. In the fridge it will stay good up to a month as long as you didn’t change the vinegar proportions in the recipe. Or you can keep it long term by canning it.

To can it, start by sanitizing your jars. It will process for 20 minutes but to me this isn’t a step worth skipping regardless of processing time. I take my family safety seriously.

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Fill the jars with sauce leaving 1/4 inch of head space. After apply the lid being careful to keep the sauce side sanitary. Wipe the edge of the jar to ensure a clean edge for a proper seal. Apply the right tightening just enough to secure but not wrenching it tight. There will be some air movement during processing, if the air cannot escape the jar you will not get the appropriate seal/preservation.

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After 20 minutes in the water bath remove to cool and wait for the telltale pop of the lid. Once cool, store or gift or whatever your plans for this sauce is because it is ready! In my case, slap a label on it and gift it.

BBQ Sauce

In a pan over low heat combine:
4 cups Ketchup
1 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
4 Tablespoons Dark Brown Sugar
4 Tablespoons BBQ Dry Rub (use the same blend you will use on the meat!)
2 Tablespoons Dijon Mustard
4 Tablespoons Honey
4 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tablespoon Liquid Smoke
8 Tablespoons Adobo Sauce

At first sign of boil, reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.

Preservation

Fill jars with sauce leaving 1/4″ head space. Process 8-16 ounce jars for 20 minutes.

I am a self proclaimed perfectionist. I color code things and I alphabetize things. Excel spreadsheets fill me with warm fuzzy happiness. I like things in order. I love tidy things in a row. When everything has a home and is in its home…WOAH. However I am an imperfect perfectionist.

There is a term in the Japanese culture called wabi-sabi. Wabi-sabi roughly translates to finding beauty in imperfection. I have found that term and translation to be amazing to my life. It has allowed me to lift the burden of perfectionism off my shoulders.

Wabi-Sabi

The most wabi-sabi thing I can think of is nature. Nature is beautiful, it does what it wants, how it is meant to, under the conditions it’s given. A forest is no less beautiful because a tree was destroyed by bad weather. It is perfectly imperfect. The forest will move on and eventually the dead tree will see new life. It just needs to mulch down to prepare for what awaits. The forest is no less beautiful at any time because of the tree. The forest is.

It isn’t just nature. Even the simple task of shopping for glasses is wabi-sabi. Trying to find a beautiful pair to complement yourself while also restoring imperfect vision. As your vision continues to fail, you are presented with new opportunities for beautification. Embrace it.

Maybe I am just speaking from personal experience from my ever declining vision but it is something that I think of often. Not just because I am rocking my new and improved frames.

Try New Things!!

I know what you’re thinking… “so you’re not a perfectionist anymore?!”

Well, yes I am. But hear me out. There is nothing wrong with trying to do things perfectly as long as you understand that whatever the closest you can get to perfect is enough. To me, doing a perfect job means that it was done right and done well.

A fear of imperfection can isolate you. You don’t want to try new things because you don’t want to be bad at it or do it wrong. But you must! Failure breeds growth. Of all the things I have ever done, I always learn something to make another attempt even better.

I don’t always stick things out. Somethings just aren’t for me. But I like that I give it a good attempt before finally coming to terms with the task not being in my niche. For example knitting, I can crochet and I LOVE to crochet, but knitting fills me with rage. I have a hard time not dropping stitches and it drives me crazy. That being said, I know how to fix dropped stitches and I could whip up a scarf in a pinch but I don’t enjoy it.

Crochet on the other hand I love, making a new anything brings a smile to my face. Learning new patterns makes me to excited. I am just starting a baby blanket using the virus stitch and so far it’s turning out lovely. However I had tried a different new pattern before this one and did not like it at all so I took the whole thing apart to start over. That’s okay too.

What if you’re trying something REALLY new?

Maybe crochet isn’t the best example. I already knew how to hold the yarn and the hook and I already know the basic stitches. So what if you are learning something new with no baseline knowledge? Today is that day for me.

Today I will be canning for the first time with a recipe to follow in the next few days depending on if it is successful. But if it isn’t that is still okay because I will likely be able to figure out what to change to improve for the next attempt.

To be perfectly imperfect you need to be able to think on the fly, roll with the punches, not take things to personally while never losing sight of the goal. I remember as a kid in class seeing one of the motivational wall posters that said “Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you’ll land among the stars” and that stuck with me. Even if you don’t reach your idea of perfect, whatever you did do IS AMAZING.

Learning the homesteading skill of canning is the next step for me to reach my life goal dream. With my hopes of a thriving garden this summer/fall I will need to be able to preserve our harvest. I lost a lot of good produce last year because I didn’t know how to preserve it and I just couldn’t eat it as fast as it was growing. So I have given myself the goal to learn how to can before I have a repeat of last year.

Albert Einstein said “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result”

Luckily for me Albert, I am imperfect not insane. Which is perfect.