Seeds, Freebies and Nerds ...

Our seed order arrived from Baker Creek!  We received it in just six days, including the weekend.  They even included a free packet of Red Romaine!  I'm blessed by that because we were bemoaning the fact that we hadn't ordered as many greens as we ought to have.

In other news, Homestead Revival is hosting a give-away from the folks at Homestead Drying Racks.  I've been eyeing their drying racks for a while now.  They have an excellent design and look to be well-constructed.

Such a drying rack would be ideal in front of our woodstove for drying clothing in the winter.  It dwarfs our wobbly little drying rack purchased at a big box store.  I finally gave up using that one because it was so precarious and held so little.

Last night I watched a video on NaturalNews.tv about misrepresentations in the organic poultry/egg industry.  (Click the image to view the video.)

I wanted to revisit one of the statistics in the short bit, so I replayed it today and all the children gathered around.  I joked that my children are nerds.  While other children are talking about video games and cartoons, they are watching organic poultry videos.


I don't mind at all.

Finally ... real snow!

I have lived in Wisconsin for 28 years.  Many people automatically assume we have frigid temperatures and deep blankets of snow every winter.

Not so!  In fact, I can only recall one memorable winter since moving here in 1982.  I don't remember just which year it was, but I do remember that the streets of our small town were mere tunnels with snow well above the roofs of our cars.  I remember that the boys at one house on Church Street had taken to skiing off their roof into the drifts.  I imagine now that their mother couldn't have appreciated their bravery very much.  At the time, I thought it sounded like an adventuresome thing to do.

We have just experienced our first blizzard in years.  We already had 4 inches of snow on the ground and another 16 inches have joined it, with more in the forecast for tomorrow.  The high winds that came at the end of the snow made for white-out conditions.  It's all been followed by temperatures dipping as low as -29 degrees.  We are so thankful that our pipes have not frozen!

Our road out to Dad and Mom's house was well drifted in.  We have been partially plowed out now, so we can get out in case of an emergency.  After the next storm passes, we'll get it properly cleared.

With no ability to work outside other than to split wood, our thoughts are turning to plans for our little homestead.

We've been looking at heirloom seeds for our garden beds.  We also need to seriously consider which breeds of chickens we want, how many and from which place we should order them.

Dairy goats, too, are on our minds.  A friend in Texas may have some available to us, but the drive will make the purchase financially difficult.

What plans are you making as winter has set in?

How to make fire starters ...

We finally found the time yesterday to make fire starters.

Normally we use dryer lint, which works very well.  When we lack old candle stubs, Gulf Wax works well and is very cheap.

This time, however, I had a number of old scented candles in various sizes.  We also decided to try pine wood shavings in place of the dryer lint.

Dad keeps his fire starters in an old aluminum pot, which doubles as our wax melting pot.  The process of melting the wax would have gone more quickly if we had chunked up the old candles first.

I had two candles still in the jars, so we softened them by putting them in a pan of hot water.  We put a rack underneath to prevent breaking the jars.

A nearby nursing home saves all of their cardboard egg cartons for us to recycle as fire starters.  We plan to raise chickens next year, and will set aside the cleanest cartons at that time for our eggs.

We filled each carton with pine shavings.  We found that they worked best when the shavings were contained in each cup and not mounded over.

We stirred the wax gently to prevent splatters.  An old spoon found among the camping utensils served for stirring and for ladling out portions.


We found that hotter wax provided better saturation and a more cohesive fire starter.  Just be careful as it tends to have a boiling action when it is poured into the cups.

I had trouble getting a fire going today after a busy morning kept me from tending it.  Placing a fire starter under a log that is supported by a couple of small kindling rounds will provide a flame lasting 10 to 15 minutes with plenty of air flow.  That is usually enough time for the fire to catch.

The fire starters reside in my old cast iron dutch oven on the hearth.

Out with the old ...

... and in with the new!

When we purchased our home, one of the features that I liked the most was the old cast iron Earth Stove in the living room.  It has a large fire box and heats well.

The problem is that it heats too well.  It didn't fit in the hearth area, nor did it meet proper clearances.  The mantle would become dangerously hot whenever we got a decent fire going.

One of our first priorities was to replace the stove with one that was safer and more efficient.  A nice bonus would be the ability to see the fire in the stove for that perfect, cozy feeling.

We finally settled on a US Stove Country Hearth 2000.  It met our budget and is rated to heat a larger space than we have.  We got the bonus of a viewing window, too!

We bought a few items to round out the purchase.  I wanted a hearth rug to keep the carpet clean and safe from sparks.  We knew we wanted a fireplace screen to keep the little ones from getting too near the stove and were happy to find one with a star to match the patriotic decor in our living room.  Dad gifted us with a new cast iron hearth tool set.  An old cast iron dutch oven holds our homemade fire starters.

We are warm and toasty this evening.  We only lack mugs of hot cocoa, which I believe we will remedy tomorrow night.