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I am feeling horribly behind this year. Behind on tilling the garden, behind on starting seeds.. behind on everything! am not sure if this is how I feel every year ( probably,,lol) or if Im really behind!  a majority of my time has been spent driving...yeah we do a lot of that sometimes....its part of where we live.


My daughter has been constantly sick this year . Pneumonia 2 times, stomach flu, and today and emergency trip to the doctor to find out she has strep! The poor kid has been in an out of the doctors office and hospital for the past 4 months.

Now, when you live where we do, you dont just run up to the doctors office. Its an all day event. You best take a snack, a lunch, hell maybe even dinner.....lol,,

Its 50 miles one way to the docs, ( the first 12 being gravel, windy mountain gravel roads). It takes about 35-45 to hit a paved country road ( depending on your windy gravel mountain driving skillz) and another 15-20 to hit a grocery store of any sort.
My drive to the doctors is 1 hour and 20 minutes. One way. yep you read that right,,....its a haul, but you actually get used to it.. You just accept that when you have to leave, you are using up an entire day... Its not gonna take you an hour for a visit to the doc,, its gonna take you 4.

 To give you an idea...We live 40-45 minutes from the closest  Gas station  and
a solid Hour from a small/midsize town with a grocery store..


Edgemont is a hard town to explain..... its a town that kind of appears out of nowhere.. Your drive and drive, and see pretty much nothing but National Forest, small cabins here and there, trees, creek,.....
and all of a sudden you come upon this quaint little town ( almost like a ghost town, atleast in the winter).. There is no store here. just a gravel road that passes through a small stretch of houses..
It might sound silly , but Edgemont kind of reminds me of that town from the Movie "Big Fish"..  ( Tim Burton film totally worth seeing)... Its almost magic.. and despite the distance from everything its what made us stay here.....
We are one of only a couple of full timers here... Its quiet in the winter,, like silence you have to experience to truly understand( and appreciate and ultimately desire)
The summers are still quiet, but we do get traffice from people passing through for a Sunday drive, or weekend folk up to spend time at their cabins.
Its the place that no one know about( seriously, i cant tell you how many "local" folks have never heard of Edgemont),, and when you do meet that person that finally smiles and doesnt say "where is that?", you actually get pretty excited that someone has an idea of where you live! hehe


Edgemont is in a National Forest , it was once a fairly booming town... but was completely wiped out by a couple of floods in the early to mid 1900's, and never made a come back.... it remained a ghost town.. ...In 1995 ( I believe???) the Nature Conservancy bought most all the land surrounding Edgemont .
It is Now the Pisgah National forest, and Edgemont lives beside Wilson Creek, a wild and scenic river that boasts some of the cleanest drinking water in the United States....

So there you have it...I will leave you with some photos.. This is what i see everysingle day driving out of here.. whether it be the 45 minute drive to Take my daughter to school, and hour to go get groceries or that dreaded 1.5 hour trip to the doctor....

It took us years to come to terms with the drive ( we actually almost moved a couple time,, this place is not for everyone) and I am pretty sure now you would have to drag us outta here kickin and screaming... it is home.

Brought to you by the Letter B

Ive decided to stop trying to be so focused on one topic for my Blogs.. I am not super focused as an individual , so why try and fool anyone,,haha..
Ill just type what I type, and that will be that. I think partly its because we have so much going on.. I lack in my posts, and then want to tell you all at once what we have been up to!
So I decided to pick a letter and go with it.. Todays blog is brought to you by the letter B


In short, its been a pretty busy winter. and while I am ready for it to hurry on up and move over for spring, I know all of the work that comes along with the next 3 seasons ahead!...




BREW:
we have been brewing our own beer for a little over a year now. we just finished making a delicous Oatmeal Stout, and have started selling it in small batches.   Being beekeepers,  we have often been asked if we make Mead. Mead is the oldest brew known to mankind.. dating way back. Its is basically a Honey Wine. A basic mead consists of Honey, water, and yeast.. You can also add fruit to make blueberry mead, raspberrry mead, etc... or Dandelions to make Dandelion mead.. etc...
This round we made a Mellow Mel Mead and a basic Mead. It ferments in the carboy for 2 weeks. then is transferred to another container for about 3-4 months or longer, before it is ready to drink.. It Is higher in alcohol (12-21% similar to wine) and can taste like rocket fuel if drink before its ready.
We have made 4 gallons, and it should be ready sometime around June..

 

BROCCOLI: Ive started some seeds.. this always helps with those winter blues. and brings hope for warmer weather! Ive started broccoli, cabbage, leeks, and snapdragons...

peppers, tomatoes, herbs, eggplant, and all those other goodies will be started in the next month.. We will be selling at 2 farmers markets this year, and I hope to have lots of plants available along with honey and eggs. ( if you are local and want plants, let me know)

 

 

BARRED ROCKS:  Out with the old and in with the new ( sorry veggie folk :/)  Monday we will be butchering some of our Barred Rocks. and have started to add eggs to the incubator for a new batch. We have found these birds to be the Best Heritage Meat bird.. actually they are a great dual purpose as they are great layers too, and have a great temperment.....

BEE: We are gearing up for another Bee season,, Looks like all 15 hives are doing well, another month or so and we should know for sure if they made it through the winter, but they all look strong, and we hope to get our hive count back up after losing quite a few last year.  Here is one of our girls out on a stroll during a warm winter day...

 

BIGGIE:  This is our Rooster" Biggie Smalls" he has been part of our homestead for 4 years and I LOVE this darn rooster... Last week I walked outside to see him hanging UPSIDE DOWN from the netting that covers the outside area of the coop! He looked dead, and frankly i thought he was for a minute.. I managed to cut the netting and get him out, but his foot was pretty hurt. Initially I thought he broke his leg, because it looked super twisted( but I guess anyones leg would be twisted if they were hanging upside down from a net). I brought him inside, and he put him in a container for a couple days , so he wouldnt use his foot too much ( giving him time to see if he could recover) He is back in the pen with his ladies, and although he limps a bit, he looks like he is going to be ok!

and last but not least

BOUNTY:  I picked this beautiful bounty last week.. Thanks to my greenhouse and some very unusual winter weather!

 

s

  so, what are you doing this winter? ( Preferably using the letter B ;)

Until next time

The Cools

 

December Do Over

Whoa, December has been a whirlwind! We pretty much missed out on the first 2 weeks off the month. My Daughter became pretty sick with Pneumonia. We made an emergency trip to the ER on December 5th, and then both spent a week on the couch, as I came down with the Flu as well! If it werent for my husband I don't know what we would have done....

He ALSO managed to get the Hot water hooked up to the Cookstove. A couple more days of hard work, and a couple more dollars in supplies, and he had it up and running around the 10th of December!

It went off without a hitch, and worked PERFECT for the first 2 days, UNTIL a pipe burst in the Bathroom.... still sick and lethargic, I woke around 9 am on the 12th,, to a pipe in the front bathroom, gushing water.. Imagine a hose on high (without no spray nozzle),, yeah, it was insane.. I am so happy I heard it, as our bedroom is a ways away ... It must have only been going on for a couple minutes, enought to empty about 20 gallons of water in our bathroom, hallway, and onto a bit of our carpet in the bedroom.  Could December really get any worse??
Robb came home fixed the pipe, and insisted it had nothing to do with the hot water system we just hooked up. Now, he is a Maintenance Man, and a damn good one, so I took his word, let him fix the pipe, and forgot about it.. Until...................
I woke up at about Midnight the following night.. To the sound of what sounded like a waterfall in our laundry room.. ANOTHER BURST PIPE!?!?!?!?!?!  Robb jumped out of bed, and proceeded to throw around the F*** word  a couple times,, turned the water off,, and proceeded to vaccum up the water in the hallway, put towels and fans on the carpet.. I lay in bed, completely annoyed (haha) and frustrated.. and figured midnight was not the best time to have a conversation about why another pipe coincidentally burst in the Laundry room....

The next morning, while googling whatever I could think of, to see if I could help figure out why our pipes keep bursting,,,Robb called me from work, to tell me we needed and Expansion Tank..
When we hooked up the cooktove to the hotwater tanke, we also added some check valves, these prevent the hot water from backingup into the cold water line, which is great and a good safety measure, But because of the size of the tank ( we have a 40 gallon tank,, pretty small) the hot water was building up pressure and that pressure needed somewhere to go,, so it chose any which way it could when the pressure built up! The expansion tank has resolved the problem.. But not before creating YET another mess.. RObb had to tear off the wall in the laundry room,,, clean up the water mess,,, replumb the pipes in copper ( we had some pretty cheap pipe in there) and then hook up the expansion tank.

I must say, I didnt think any of this Off the Grid stuff would be perfect... and when the Hot water system worked perfect at first,, I had my doubts..hahaahaha..
We arent quitters though and know there will be more challenges along the way.,,and since the expansion tank, the hot water system works AMAZING!! Start a fire, watch the temp, and you have PLENTY of hot water do live just as we did before.
I will admit if I am gone all day,, I do turn the hot water off,,, as I am still suffering from some broken pipe PTSD..... not quite over that yet,,lol


Since then, My Little Miss Norah has gone to her last check up and is Pneumonia Free! I am better! We have a totally awesome HOt water system, and I am finally working on Holiday deocorating,  baking and crafts....

I guess a December Do over wont be necessary after all....:)
Happy Holiday from The Cool Homestead!

Timber!

Its been a busy couple of weeks here ... My dad came down for a visit last week :) We ate more than we should have, he got to spend time with his grand-daughter, and ( its never fails when son in law and dad get together) we accomplished a project we have been wanting to get done for a while now.

 

This is how it usually happens ;)
Dad and Husband have a  beer.... Dad and Husband get Bored... Dad and husband start an unannounced project,,hehehee..

I was in the kitchen Baking a pie and canning potatoes when giant branches started hitting the back porch... I ran outside to see what was up. Yep, thats my husband up in the tree, cutting down limbs with a chainsaw ...

They were getting Ready to drop our maple.. This is a beautiful tree, but there were 2 problems: It was blocking the sun for our Solar Batch Collector that will be used to heat our water in the summer, and it was dying at the top.
I will miss the Buzzzzzz sound we heard  every February from the Honeybees collecting pollen. But it had to come down :/

Robb cut and dad pulled with the rope. He told me I might have to help pull, but I ran inside and made myself scarce ..........

I did come outside quietly,  and watch once Robb started sawing, it was scary and kind of exciting... Robb has never really cut down a tree before, let alone one this tall, but my dad talked him through it,, and they dropped it like pro's

 so there ya have it :)  The hot water batch collector will be hooked up very soon. we are currently working on hooking up the cookstove for our hot water in the winter so need to finish that up first.

 quite a bit of wood to heat the homestead too..

 

Until next time :)

 

The cools

Chicken Sausage Homestead style

Yesterday we spent the day Making Home Made Chicken Sausage and it turned out fantastic. Homemade chicken sausage is tricky, since you are dealing with chicken ( and not super duper ultra fatty greasy pork,, yum! heheee) its very easy to make chicken sausage that has an end result similar to sawdust, trust me I know, we made that variety 2 years ago ....
with a little trial and error we have come a long way in our sausage making....

what you need:
**a chicken or 2 or 3 or 4.. :)preferrably from your backyard. . The following recipe is based on 3 lbs of chicken meat./ about 1-2 chickens depending on breed etc...
** a Meat Grinder
** a sausage Stuffer
** sausage casing
**spices n extra fixins depending on what kind you want to make..

Step 1.. least favorite part.. butcher your chickens :/  this is my husbands Job
Step 2: Remove meat from the bone,, this is my Job. Be sure to add some of the Fat and skin into the meat as well, if you dont, you will end up with a dry sausage,,, I would say add 50% of the skin and fat from the bird.

steps 1 and 2 will take a better part of your day if you are butchering your own birds. Its time consuming, and labor intensive, but knowing it came directly from you homestead makes it all worth while.

SAVE the Bones if you want to make chicken stock later.

Step 3: Put the meat through the grinder. we use the biggest setting for the first time through

Step 4: add spices ( see recipe below)

Step 5: add Chicken broth or water.. I added chicken broth, we had broth simmering from a previous meal, and Ive read that broth is 100 times better than adding plain ol water.  I added about 2 cups worth to this recipe. This is also going to aid in keeping the moisture content in the sausage.

 

Step6: Attach sausage stuffer. now some grinders have sausage stuffer attachments, or you can buy a seperate sausage stuffer, we have both :). this is just a little plastic hicka ma doo, that goes on the end of the grinder... This is where we put the other attachment on to grind the meat up even smaller and then it goes directly into the casing.

 

 

You can make the links any length you want, you can twist and tie the ends when you have the desired length.
and Voila************ Homemade Chicken Sausage****** You can freeze or Pressure can your sausage.

Recipe for Bratwurst Style Chicken Sausage ( this is what we made)

3 lbs Chicken
1/2 Tsp All spice
3/4 Tsp Caraway seeds Crushed
3/4 Tsp Marjoram
1 Tsp Pepper
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Liquid Smoke ( be easy on this stuff, I hear its easy to over do it)
1-2 cups water /broth/beer , some kind of liquid. I hear beer is great to add!

 Recipe for Italian Style

5 lbs Meat
2tsp Whole Fennel seed
2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 Tbsp Salt
2 Tsp Oregano
2 Tsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper
1 Tsp Garlic Powder
( again I would probably add some kind of liquid if using chicken and not pork)

Recommendation: I personally recommend cooking these on the stove top. You could grill them, but again chicken sausage has a low fat content/moisture content so grilling them may dry them out,, but hey! give it a shot and let me know how it comes out :)



Happy Homesteading :)

The Cool Family
 
Oh,, dont forget to save the bones for Chicken Stock! Ill be canning some up this evening :)

The story of Beeswax

The past few days, Robb and I have started preparing for our annual Holiday Market up in the mountains. We sell raw and infused honey & everyonessss favorite Beeswax Candles!
Beeswax candles are different than other candles. how so you ask??  Beeswax candles burn brighter, longer, and cleaner than any other candle. And after you see how its all done, you will have an even greater appreciation for beeswax.

Worker Bees develop special wax producing glands in their abdomen. These glads turn the sugar from the honey into wax. The wax is then able to move through tiny spores in the bees body, leaving flakes on the bees abdomen. The wax is then chewed up by the bees and added to the construction of their hive.
Honey bees also Cap the frames of honey with wax( like a little lid on top of the honey filled cell :). This is usually a good indication for us as beekeepers to know when to pull the honey from the frame... If you pull the frames to early, the honey can still have to much moisture in it ( the bees fan the honey with their wings to draw out the moisture,, and they know Exactly what they are doing and when its ready to be capped)
Pulling honey that is runny can result honey that will spoil or ferment.

Here is a photo of a frame of honey with the wax capping still in place:

When the frame is about 80% capped thats where we come in. We give the frame a quick shake, if no honey runs out, we know we are good to go...

Before we put the frames in our Honey extractor, we have a tool that scraps off the wax cappings , (its similar to a wire comb) to open up the cell and allow the honey to flow from the frame.

Next the frames go in our honey extractor ( a large machine that spins the honey out),, and the honey comes out a spout at the bottom and then through a large strainer to remove any large bee parts etc.. the WAX cappings are also sitting on top of this strainer , allowing as much honey to strain through before bagging up the wax.

 

After all the honey has made its way through the strainer ( NOTE: we use the largest strainer possible, allowing the pollen,small bee parts and some wax into our honey, because thats all the good stuff ;) we take the wax, throw it in a gallon bag until we are ready to make candles...

When we are ready to make candles, we pull all that beautiful sticky wax out from the freezer. There is still honey in the wax. The only way to seperate all the honey from the wax is with a solar wax melter or using a double boiler on the stove.

We place the wax in a coffee can, then place that coffee can, in a pot with water and melt the wax down completely.

Once the wax is melted, we cover containers with cheese cloth to strain it yet once again,, to remove any other little bee parts, dirt etc..from the wax.

Then you let it cool, The wax will solidify at the top and the honey will be at the bottom of the container . When you pop the wax out of the container you are left with this:,, almost ready, but there as you can see, there is still a bunch of honey n gunk on top of the wax..

This obviously must be removed before making candles...

 

so what to do???

 

FEED THE BEES :) give em back what is rightfully theres to begin with:)

 

 

 

Then just take a butter knife and scrape off any excess gunk, and you are left with a Beautiful chunk of beeswax to make Candles, lipbalm, soap ***********

 

The whole process is very involved, labor intensive, and when it comes to the bees part in the whole process, nothing short of amazing...

 

 

Be sure to support your LOCAL Beekeeper at this Years Holiday Markets..

 

Blessings

The Cools

Its SNOWING.. winter projects ;0

It hasn't snowed here yet... while they called for a lot last week, we didnt get a single flake, but the Mountains got a couple feet! This morning the sky spit out some rainy sleety stuff that vaguely resembled snowflakes, but all in all, it eventually turned to rain.

But even with the lack of snow piling up,, the winter projects are! I always look forward to this time of year, a time to slow down a bit, but I really feel like we have a lot on our plate this season. I am not going to rush my husband though, or myself for that matter... I am learning that taking our home off the power grid is a process, and instant gratification does not apply...
especially when funds are short and you have more projects that you can handle anway..


Santa Came early,, and look what he brought us ;) 6 240 watt solar panels ...........

and whats even cooler is they are USA MADE!!!

Plans have been drawn up , so Robb will be building the stand for the panels this winter.
This week we are Finalllllllllly hooking up our hot water to our cookstove which will most likely be my next Blog post.. so STAY TUNED!


In the meantime Im enjoying quiet crafty mornings next to the cookstove .
working on gifts for the Holidays...