Homemade soap IS cheaper

FYI-Here is what I did to make sure

My recipe:
1c Borax
1cWashing Soda (just recently available in my Wall-Mart)
1 bar soap grated
Use 1 Tbsp per load

Sometimes I use more-hey, we farm.  But I would use more of the store bought stuff in those cases too.  Now, a little background.  When I go to the store, I use the calculator on my phone and actually divide price by uses, and NEVER pay attention to the little store labels that tell how much per ounce, etc.  I do this for coke, TP, food, EVERYTHING.  You'd be surprised what the better deal is.  So, I'm using the cheapest laundry detergent at the store that I'm willing to use (some brands will fade or eat your clothes.  I don't use those)

I have a digital scale, a chemistry background, and a soap making background.  I make my own soap, and tally up how much that cost me per bar.  I weigh how much a cup of this or that weighs and divide it into the total package weight, and that into the price.  Add it all up and divide by the total number of uses I get (using weight) and here is what I found:

Store bought: 19 cents a load
Homemade:  7 cents a load.

Three loads a week will save $18.72 per year.  Not a huge amount, but at least this way, you know it's cheaper without having to guess.

My complaints for the day-there's just no comparison

I had an interesting day today.  A relative gave us just enough Dollywood tickets, so we took Marcus today.  Arlis and I complain about Dollywood, for several reasons.  One is that it costs just as much as Disney World and is far less in quality.  But I decided not to blog about that.

Then I thought I would blog about my short journey to get food at DW only to see there are no healthy weighted people anymore, children acting like rabid monkeys are no longer an embarrassment to their parents, and parents with $2000 cameras will force their child to pose most uncomfortably in the hopes of capturing that "perfect" shot.  Not to mention that my food wound up being molded and I had a hard time returning it.  But I won't blog about that.

Nor will I blog about our adventure on the Blazing Fury where I acted the fool screaming, "It's Thomas!  He's gone maaaaad!!" and then Marcus jumped on the tracks to cross them when we got off and made me more mortified as everyone, including us, was terrified he got electrocuted.  Not a scratch.

I also won't blog about our last visit to my in-laws where I learned my sister-in-law is attending a "coupon class".  Not only did it startle me that it exists, but I was showered with coupons and information I don't think I will ever understand about spending and saving and combining and sales.  I looked like the husband sitting there with a bewildered look upon my face while the wife tried to explain something simple to her, impossible to me.

I think I was actually going to blog about us being food snobs.  We would never be rude or complain to the cook/servers...but...I still feel awful knowing for a fact I am a snob about something.  We want a nice night out, to go out to eat or something.  Well...we just don't want to.  We grow our own beef, chicken, and lamb and trust me, the thought of eating grocery store meat is nauseating.  Dine out isn't much better.  I always try to get the fish or salad or something new or hard to make or something like that.  My husband actually says (he's a steak man btw), "No, not there.  All they have is steak."  Dine out steak just doesn't make the cut any more.  Produce is pretty good though.  We wound up eating at BK and then getting shakes at Arby's.  We spent $20.  It's been so long since we've eaten fast food, we now know to just go to a restaurant or buy a pizza.  It's probably less toxic and costs the same.  Fyi, I would much rather mix Nestle into Booger's milk than drink another shake any day.  There is just no comparison.

Turkeys ahoy!

I never wanted turkeys.  And I'll be honest, they're about the ugliest things I've ever seen.  But Arlis's brother wanted our old tractor tires, and Eldon traded us his turkeys and guineas.  He had to get rid of them, they were getting too close to the street, and going into neighbors' yards.  So off we go, 60 miles west, to get a truck load of poultry.

We decide to take a load to the dump since we're having to drive the behemoth anyway.  It's closed.  Soooo....we add another hour to rid our truck of horribly smelly garbage.  It's time to go shopping, and we thought maybe prices/selection would be better in Algood, so we decide to do some grocery shopping while we're at it (when going to town, do it ALL).  Nope, high prices....sigh.  Bought them anyway.

Get to Eldon's and drop off the tires.  At this point I realize we only brought one pair, and we try to make a plan to bring the other set later.  Now, he free ranged his birds, but was getting worried as they were going towards the street and bothering his neighbor.  He, less than gracefully, put five Royal Palm turkeys, and one dark breed of turkey in a good size cage for us.  We set it aside and go for the guineas.  They don't like being caught....at all....it was so difficult it wasn't even funny.  That being said, we got them, loaded them up, and mannerly got out of there as half the day is now gone (we left the house before 9) and it's a LOT hotter than you would have thought.  Poor things were not happy.

Since we were in town anyway, we had to visit as many relatives as possible.  We also had 10 panting birds in the truck bed.  So we quickly visited and got home late afternoon.  (At this point we're all running on reserves as breakfast has long left us).

When introducing new livestock of any kind, there are certain rules to follow.  We keep our poultry cooped up for a few days, then in the run, then free range.  That way a pecking order can be established, and they know where home is.  We let everyone out into the coop while the chickens were out ranging.  We then took some pics

A few days of being cooped up (and a good wing feather trimming) led to a few days of being allowed in the run.  Below is a vid of our new birds being allowed in the run for the first time.

A few days of that led to free ranging.  We were fearful, but other than one small mishap (one of them tried to roost on our front porch railing), they took themselves back home without help.  The extension office told me to use guineas for my potato beetle problem.  I'll let you know how that pans out.

Btw, all that old moldy hay has been wonderful.  Not only does it supply our birds with bugs, and cats with mice, but the shrooms that grow on the stacks are eaten within SECONDS of the chickens being back there.  They LOVE the wild mushrooms.

Change of Season

It's another change of season, and time to recap from the past.  It always helps when you see the fruits of your labors. 



We harvested:

a bunch of salads.

over 44 pounds of tomatoes

11 zucchini
some raspberries
over 7 pounds of carrots

a few pounds of beets

about 120 pounds of potatoes

25 pounds of cabbage

15 pounds of onions

36 pints of green beans
5 pounds leeks
25 ears of corn

8 pounds of sweet potatoes (has anyone ever noticed how absolutely nasty sweet potatoes look?)

And, I honestly didn't count the melons, cantaloupes, etc.




The garden gets taken down

Mown and fertilized (the coop and barn get a good clean out)  Fertilizing with fresh manure now will allow weather to work it into the soil.  The chickens will route in it, spreading it out, and the rain will wash it in.  We do not plow now as we need the grass for erosion prevention.  Weeds are also vital to a healthy garden, as they bring up minerals and nutrients that are only found deep in the soil.  Regular gardening plants can't do this.  Leaving a garden to run amuck when it is through can be helpful to the health of your soil.

The first frost comes, and the first fire is lit.

Thank you my God for all You have bestowed upon us this year.  Thank you that we are able to work for it ourselves.  Thank you for this time of rest and joy.

How to butcher/slaugher a chicken the "easy way"

I've read tons of books and articles on slaughtering your own chickens.  None of them say to do it the way I do.  Here's how I do it.  If you have a hard time the common way, or find it just gross, try this and see what happens. (the below rooster was one of four bantam roosters we had, and Marcus was begging for chicken again.)

1-Chickens go to sleep when their blood rushes to their head.  Hang them upside down.  We normally use what is called a "killing cone", and most people make them themselves, but you can buy them if you wish.  The cone cradles the bird, and prevents one horrible mess (see #2).

#2-Put the bird head down in the killing cone and grab a GOOD hold on it's feet.  The reason is, "like a chicken with it's head cut off" means something.  Chickens have this nerve thing where they jerk...hard...as they die.  They're usually dead before it's over, and trust me, if it's not in the killing cone, it ain't pretty. Using someone else or your other hand, grab the head (gently) to stretch the neck and slice with a SHARP knife the main artery.  We use Victorinox from Knife Works at Gatlinburg.  (Let it drain into something to dispose of the blood) Below you can see we have done so already and have pulled him out of the cone.

#3-Place said bird on the cutting board (we use an outside table with a clean board), and cut off it's feet.  Below you can see the ligament area to place the knife.  You need to bend the leg for this.

 Here you see a clean cut of just ligament BETWEEN the bone.  Our knife will cut the bone, but it dulls the knife and potentially gives you chips in the meat.

#4- Make a cut around the neck, completely cutting the skin on the head away from the rest of the body.  You do not need to remove the head.  (we do better with a small paring knife on this part)

 #5-Start going down the breast with the knife tip under the skin, and the blade aimed upwards.  Cut the skin down to the bottom of the bird.

 

#6-Pull the skin off the breast.  If the skin needs it, use a knife to gently cut the connecting membrane. (the yellow is fat and varies by bird)

#7-You can cut the breast meat off now (see step 9) or leave it on until later like we did.  Now, pull the skin off the bird's legs.  Pull until the knee pops out of the skin, and then (this is the gross part) wrap your thumb and forefinger around the knee to meet under the knee.  Pull the skin off the bird's leg (this is the hardest part to me)

Step #8-Remove the leg and thigh.  This part's pretty gross for some people.  Break the joint, not the bone, of the thigh to the bird by pulling the leg sideways.  Cut the leg and thigh completely off.  You can separate the leg from the thigh now by cutting between the bones, but we didn't b/c this was a little bantam.

 Step #9-You can easily cut the breast away from the bird now.  Run your knife along the bone and cut both sides off.  I'm not good at this part and always leave some meat on.

 Now we are done.  Yes, there are some feathers.  Take it inside and wash it off with water.  Trust me, there is no blood, and if you ever saw commercial chicken get butchered, you would NEVER eat it again.

My way has no poop, has no need to starve the bird, has no need to grate your fingernails along the ribs to get all the lungs, and no need to spend all day plucking!  Enjoy!

When June Bugs get lost

We were on a field trip to Ripley's Aquarium for homeschoolers day.  My dad took these pictures.  Apparently, this June bug was going real fast and had a broken radar.

Marcus now has started an insect collection consisting of this one, a beautiful butterfly they found in the garage floor, and a bug that drowned in my dishwater and then came back to life 12 hours later.  Yep, I'm just thurilled about it all...

My first visit to the stockyard

The Stockyard is where they auction livestock.  Sometimes called a salebarn.  The one in Crossville is on Sat, the one in Cookeville on Tue, and there's one on Mon somewhere I think.  All during the day, obviously for people who do this for a living, and not your 8-5 worker (save maybe the one in Crossville).

Now, I was never one to go to a sale barn, or cattle auction.  I thought it was awful as the animals are usually from bad backgrounds: grain fed, you never know what you get, sometimes the fresh cows aren't milked that morning so they look good and swollen so you'll think they're good milkers.  BUT, Arlis mentioned the going rate and selling Marcus's calf.  So, we went to look at one, even though the calf sold beforehand, just to educate ourselves just in case. 

We get there about a half hour early so we can see what they have available.  They had a catwalk that went over all the pens.  It was pretty nice structurally speaking, although I will admit they could probably make more in selling spiders, spider webs, and dust than in commission.

We go in and sit high up in the back so as not to be noticed by the auctioneer.  Then they started auctioning off the animals.  I've heard auctioneers before and knew I would have to learn to understand them, but this guy was just plain stupid in the way he delivered the prices.  I don't see how anyone understood most of what he said, although I did eventually figure out the going bid and what it sold for, and I think the buyer's number.  They had a TV screen with numbers all over it, and between my dad, husband, and myself, I think we understood about half of them.

number of the sale (increased incrementally, starting at 1),  ST (steer) HF (heifer-at least we think that's what they were), number of the animal (they had little orange stickers attached to them), weight of the animal or average weight if sold as a group, selling price per 100 pounds, another number that was usually 42, 46 or so that we think may be the buyer's number, and the total selling price.

This is shown as:

12   465   HF
8806

and then after the final bid:

12  465  HF
8806  115.50  537.08

I'm sure you can see why it took us a while to figure it out.

After learning the above, providing it's accurate, I started to look around to see what exactly was being used to show the auctioneer they were indeed placing a bid.  I saw nothing.  I had not once made eye contact with the auctioneer for fear he might think it were me placing a bid.  Neither had the one guy that just placed a bid.  I had kept my hands still and near my face...just like the guy that just placed a bid...uh oh...

"Dear....dear!" (violent whispering)  "Let's go.  Now!"  He looks at me quizzically.  "I think I just bought $10,000 in cattle.  Let's go NOW!" 

I don't know how many cattle I bought that day.  I truly hope none at all.  I did see a woman give someone who worked there a paper she had written on, possibly her name and such.  We never gave anyone any info, so I'm not sure how they know who bought it or not.  But we non-nonchalantly traversed to the little freshly painted Tercel, and went home...praying the whole time we did not inadvertently short change a seller.

We never found out what a Holstein there would bring, but I did learn that people did not judge on much more than color.  If it was black, they wanted it.  Allow me to inform you, that just b/c it's black, does not mean it's Angus, and just b/c it's Angus, does not mean it's good.  Angus is not the best meat around.  I can tell you that too.  But, that's what the buyers wanted.  If it was black, it went for 115-125 per 100 pounds, but other colors went for less than 100 per 100 pounds.  The steers also sold for more than the heifers.  I had always thought heifers were worth more, but I guess these buyers were in it for meat only.

I can tell you I'm never going to another one unless they have little bidding paddles or explain to me the rules....