Crockpot Yogurt

 My cousin told me about making yogurt in the crockpot, and I thought Yes!!!!! I buy organic yogurt, at $4-5 a quart, I can definitely make it cheaper!

The Recipe:
1 gallon of milk (whole milk is preferred, but if you use another grade, just add in a packet of gelatin when you add the yogurt)
1/2 cup of yogurt with live and active cultures (I used Stoneyfield, it doesn't matter if it's flavored, it makes plain no matter what)
1 packet of plain gelatin (only if you are not using whole milk)

my crockpot :)

Cook the 1/2 gallon of milk for 2 hours and 45 minutes on low.

Turn off the crockpot, and let the warm milk sit for 3 hours.
Then add in the yogurt, and gelatin (ONLY if not using whole milk.

This is after the 5 hours and 45 minutes, just before putting in the yogurt.

I apologize, it won't let me flip this picture around,
but this is what unflavored gelatin looks like.

After mixing in the yogurt and gelatin, wrap your crockpot in a towel, and leave it
to sit for 10-12 hours (I did mine overnight).

After leaving it to sit overnight.

It's ok for it to be a bit watery, this is normal.

My yogurt!

Laundry Soap Update!

So, I opened it up last night, and diluted my first batch!

It looks rather watery at first, keep in mind, this is not
the concentrated soap we have become accustomed to.

I took these to try to show the consistency. It almost looks like egg drop soup in consistency.

I bought a 2 1/2 gallon water container to put my soap in.
Fill it up 1/2 way with the soap (mine has tic marks along the side
which makes this easier), and the rest of the way with water.

There you have it! Here's a link for the original post with the recipe (http://homesteaderswife.blogspot.com/2012/06/laundry-soap.html). Let me know if you make it and how it works out. I'm going to wash a load tonight using it. The recipe says to use 5/8 cup in a top loader, but I think I'm going to try maybe 1/2 cup, since it says 1/4 for front loaders.


*****UPDATE***** (July 14, 2012)

We did a load with it last night, using 1/2 cup for the top loader, and it did beautifully! It didn't suds up, like a liquid does, but neither does most powders that we have tried. Hubby put in one of his dingy, stinky socks to really test it. It came out white, soft and smelling wonderfully. I did forget to say I put in quite a few drops of lavender/tea tree essential oil in it before diluting.

More Yummy Drinks...

This morning, I decided to try some more vitamin waters! For me, I made a strawberry kiwi. For hubby, I made a lemon ginger (he's been begging me for about a week to try this). We haven't tried either one yet, but will when we get home. Again, these need to be refrigerated for 4 hours to let the juices and color transfer.

 

I also made some homemade lemonade! Yum! We've been making a gallon every week, and it usually lasts us about a week. My recipe is 10 lemons, the rest of a gallon of water, and 1 cup of sugar.

Homemade Vitamin Water!!!

I found this on facebook a while back... https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150978082177436&set=a.114480717435.99528.104062822435&type=1&theater. I finally got around to trying it. I decided to try Raspberry Mint first. I didn't get a picture, but it was wonderful!

Last night I wanted to make one up for tomorrow, I make mine in a quart jar. The one I did for today was a mixed berry (raspberry, strawberry, blackberry & blueberry) & mint. It was wonderful as well! I did decide today to drain the berries out of it before drinking it (they loose all their color & flavor to the water, and get mushy). I also added about 1 1/2 Tablespoons of sugar to the quart jar, for just a bit of sweetness. May try adding honey, not sure yet. Give it a try and come back and tell me what flavors you tried and what you like best!

Laundry Soap... Finally!

 I finally got around to making laundry soap! I had been putting it off, wanting to get a few other things done first, but I only have a few loads of liquid store bought soap left (I have a box of powdered, but I may save it for in case I can't afford to make liquid sometime). The whole process took maybe 30 minutes. That's shredding the soap (I used a salad shooter), boiling the soap, and mixing it all up. So easy!

I used a stockpot to melt my soap,
I was afraid it might boil over, and I was glad I did!

Before turning on the heat. This is 1 bar of Fels Naptha,
and 4 cups of hot tap water.

Boil on medium high heat. You don't want to go higher than that.
I did, it boiled pretty high!

For some reason I can't get this photo to rotate... Sorry!
This is how high it boiled, after turning it down, while stirring it!
I was very glad I used a stockpot!

All melted. I let it sit long enough to 1/2 fill the bucket with water (hot tap water).

I bought a new 5 gallon bucket for this,
as I wanted it to not have had anything else in it.
I'm sure this isn't a requirement.
I got mine at Home Depot. I spent around $5 (I think) for the lid and bucket.

This is the bucket 1/2 full of hot tap water, the melted soap,
1 cup of washing soda (NOT BAKING SODA!!!)
and 1/2 cup of Borax. Stir very well, until all the powder has dissolved.

All done! After stirring the mixture, fill the rest of the way
(I had to move mine, so I didn't fill it completely to the top...)
and then stir again. Let it sit overnight.

I won't be able to post tomorrow, since the library will be closed for the 4th, so I will try to post on Thursday after I've opened it up! I may do a load with it on Wednesday or Thursday to see how it does!

Facebook!

I don't have any updates today... Sorry! I didn't get any cleaners made yesterday. However I did try my hand at spaghetti sauce, and it didn't come out like I wanted it to... It was yummy with chips and crackers though! I also put a roast in the crockpot that I started for today. That was yummy for lunch as well!

I did want to post and let all ya'll here know that I'm on facebook! I created a facebook page for the blog! It's nothing fancy just yet (I'm learning all this blogging stuff as I go), but I do update it between blogposts...

https://www.facebook.com/AJourneyToHomesteading

So, come find me! Thanks!

Laundry Soap

So, I have decided to start making my own cleaners, I talked about that in my last post. I started last night on my laundry soap, but had to go get a 5 gallon bucket, so I didn't get very far.

Here are my laundry soap ingredients. All you need is 1 bar of Fels Naptha soap, Super Washing Soda, Borax, & boiling hot water. I am going to experiment with essential oils in it as well.

I did start by grating the Fels Naptha Soap. I used a Salad Shooter with the grating attachment in it. It's going to be melted, so it doesn't really matter what kind of grating you use, it just helps to melt faster.

That's as far as I got last night. Tonight I will go ahead with the rest of it, and I'll try to post either tomorrow or Monday.

We went out to buy the rest of the ingredients that we need for the other cleaners as well. I will be trying lots of different recipes, to try to find ones that we like and that work well. We went to 3 different stores, 2 of them health food stores, and one being Walmart. I think I have enough ingredients now, so I'll post pictures and recipes after I make some and try them!

Different bulk powders, dried flowers, and teas.

This was my shopping list, along with notes that I took as we were shopping as to how much they were going to cost.
FF refers to Fox Farm Foods, a local health food store, and S refers to Suzanne's another local health food store. The glycerin was only at Fox Farms.

The laundry soap I'm making is the one from the Duggar's family website. It can be found at: http://www.duggarfamily.com/content/duggar_recipes/30455/homemade_liquid_laundry_soap_front_or_top_load_machine_best_value. The rest of my cleaners that I'm trying for now are coming from the Reader's Digest Homemade book. http://www.amazon.com/Homemade-How--Hundreds-Everyday-Naturally/dp/0762109041/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1340479033&sr=8-4&keywords=Homemade

Homemade cleaners!

We had decided a while ago to start making our own cleaners, so that we know exactly what is in them, and what is in our home, on our counters, in the air, and around our family.

I already had alot of the things needed at the house. I had done some research, reading books, blogs, websites, and from other people. It's fairly simple to make them, it just takes a little extra work every once in a while.

I am in the process of making them, I will post pictures as I make them and recipes as I try them. I am maybe going to make laundry soap tonight.

A Year in the Life...

Well, It's been almost a year since I posted. I'm going to try to get back into posting a bit more often on all my blogs. We have had a whirlwind year.

My parents moved to Indiana in the fall of last year. So this is our first full year with having holidays on our own. Grant has had to work most of them, so it's been kinda hit or miss.

In January we found out we were going to have to move. This was a mixed blessing. We were sad to be loosing our big garden plot, but it was nice to be getting a nicer house. God blessed us with a new house to rent in 3 days after we had got our 30 day notice. We moved at the beginning of February. Our new house is 2 bedrooms, with a big kitchen (not much counter space though), a huge living room that we have split into a living room/craft room, a basement, laundry room, and storage areas! It is a really pretty house. We don't have room for an actual garden, but we have a container garden. It's been so dry and hot, our cucumbers, lettuce, and turnips have already died, and the herbs and peppers look like they may die soon too. We have gotten several tomatoes so far though!

May 11, our kitty, Max died. It was a very sad time, we ended up having to put him down after finding him not able to move. They said he had neurological problems.

That same day, we found out we were pregnant! We were so excited! May 26th I went to a carnival with some friends and I fell tripping over a tent peg. We were a little worried, so I went to the hospital to get checked out. We were diagnosed with a Blighted Ovum (when the baby stops forming very early on and is absorbed back into the uterus, but there is still an yolk sac). We were devastated. We spent that week praying and learning all we could. We went in for another ultrasound a week and a day later, and the doctor was able to find the baby! We even got to hear the heartbeat! That was the 1st of June. On June 7th, I had alot of cramping and bleeding. I went to the ER to get checked out, and by the time I got back and had an ultrasound, I had lost the baby. This has been a very sad time, but we find joy and peace in the time we had that week, having pictures and the memory of hearing our sweet baby's heartbeat. What a blessing, to have been able to see her (we thought it was a girl all along), and heard her heartbeat. We named her Tzeitel Dawn. Tzeitel being Yiddish for Sarah, meaning Beloved Princess, and Dawn meaning a new day (and being named after her mama).

Wow... it's been a while...

Well... I didn't realize it had been a year since I had last posted! Not a whole lot has happened in that time, but I will catch up nonetheless.

We live in Joplin, MO, as most of my readers know... Our house was spared by the tornado that ripped through our town, however, as we all were, we were still affected. Many of our friends and neighbors lost their homes and their lives, and our daily lives were changed. You can't drive through town without seeing or trying to go somewhere that isn't there anymore. Our garden was also affected by the tornado (however not as much...). Our first tomatoes had blossom rot on them that we can only assume was from debris from the tornado. Much of our corn was ruined from the hail and wind from that storm.

I have been assisting a couple elderly ladies for around a year now. One of them I help in her home 4 days a week doing personal care and cleaning tasks that she can't do on her own. She and I have become great friends and I look forward to our time together. The other lady I meet with every 2 weeks and run errands for her that she can't do on her own as well as some minor cleaning tasks around her house. Both of them help me out with donations as they can to compensate for the time I spend with them. I have been blessed so much over the past year by doing this! We are however praying for our financial situation to change a bit so that I might be able to stay at home more again.

Our garden this year is doing very poorly between lack of time to devote to it and the terrible heat combined with no rain. It rained last night about 1/4 inch and that was the first rain in 2 weeks. That rain was almost an inch and the first rain in almost 2 months. The crab grass is higher than our corn, and stuck in the clay soil so much if we pull it out we risk pulling out all of the plants. We have gotten some tomatoes and cucumbers as well as a bountiful crop of early potatoes but I am afraid our summer garden is pretty much done.

We planted potatoes in car tires this year. It was more of an experiment than anything. We took 2 tires, tore up the soil under them, and planted our potatoes. Amazingly enough, without any care besides some occasional weeding and watering, we doubled what we planted! We have definitely decided we will do this again next year.

I haven't made laundry soap in a while, I got some great deals with coupons on liquid soap, so we have been using it up. We are handwashing all of our laundry again, in the bath tub. In the summer heat, we can hang up laundry at night and have dry laundry by morning!

Pantry List

A question was just posted to one of my yahoo groups asking what all was kept in your pantry to help stretch your budget. So, I typed mine up and thought I'd post it here for you all... Feel free to ask questions or suggestions :)

Here's my basic pantry list (as I can think of it from my head), all dry ingredients... there's more that's frozen.

*Flour
*Sugar
*Cornstarch
*Cornmeal
*Brown Sugar
*Powdered Sugar
*Cereal (whatever I've gotten free after coupons)
*French fried onions
*Dried Fruit for snacking (I buy fruit when it's under $.99 a lb and dehydrate it myself to save money)
*A few Hamburger Helpers
*Ramen
*Cooking Soups (Tomato, Cream of Mushroom, Cream of Chicken, Cream of Celery, Cheddar Cheese)
*Rice
*Ketchup
*Mayonnaise
*Tea Bags
*A few Kool-Aids
*Crystal Light (when I get it close to free after coupons)
*Crackers (usually bought only with coupons)
*Popcorn (kernels, and we either airpop or stovepop)
*Tomato Sauce
*Tomato Juice
*Tomato Paste
*Mushrooms
*Pasta (many different kinds, usually whatever I can get cheapest with coupons)
*Dried Beans & Peas
*Spices & Herbs (I usually grow my own herbs and dehydrate them)
*Dehydrated Veggies (I buy carrots, celery, etc. when I can get it really cheap, or grow my own, then dehydrate them myself)
*Other Various Soups (Chicken Noodle mostly, and whatever I can get really cheap with coupons)
*Canned Veggies (Green Beans, Corn, Peas, Mixed Veggies, whatever I can get cheapest with coupons)
*Bread Crumbs (Most of the time make my own and freeze)
*Canned Fruit (whatever I can get cheap with coupons)
*Pudding/Jello (only when I can get it free/close to free with coupons)
*Cake Mix/Icing (only when I can get it free/close to free with coupons)
*Molasses
*Honey
*Jam/Jelly/Preserves (usually can my own, or buy it when it's free after coupons)
*Peanut Butter (Buy only with coupons when close to free)
*Gravy Mixes/Jars (Only when very cheap with sales/coupons)
*Bouillon
*Sure-Jell
*Cooking Oils

Pictures to follow... Weather permitting

Well, we've been gone on vacation for a week, and got back on Monday to find our garden growing by leaps and bounds! The potato plants (nearly all of them) are about 6-7 inches tall, some of them flowering already! The tomatoes have finally seemed to get over transplant shock and are growing (and some of them flowering!!!). The cucumbers have started growing and vining up the support. We have corn and beans finally popping up. Everything is growing so well! Every time some one comes over to the house we have to take them over and give them a tour of the garden lol. Well, the camera is still MIA, so weather permitting I'll get hubby to help me take the webcam out and take pictures this afternoon.

My herbs & flowers are doing very well too. When we got home my sage was flowering (the one I thought wasn't going to come back from last year!!!) so I pinched off the flowers. My spearmint that I just planted last week, has already begun to try to fill out the pot we put it in. Most of the other herbs are just trying to get used to their new pots, and all the rain we've had.

My begonias are starting to fill out in the pot I put them in with some other plants, as well as the hypoestes that are all 3 in one pot together.

The irises & daffodils have finally all died off for this year (except for 1 iris bloom that waited until we got back to wither). Hopefully by next year I will have a flower press so I can keep some of these beautiful blooms!

Pictures from the garden :)

Wow! Hard to believe that this is the plant that I left in the back seat of the car 2 years ago and have kept trying to kill ever since :) It looks great! Every year I put it in a bigger pot and it fills it up! Hoping someday I can get one of those huge $100 pots to let it fill!

The Irises are opening!

More onions pop up every day! I think there are 5-6 in this one now!

Lots of onions!

Cucumbers!

Tomato plants

The potatoes are getting big :)

And, I couldn't post without more of my beautiful irises!!!

This is my favorite, I was hesitant to post it, so please don't steal it :) Creative copyright and such :)

Gardening, at last!

Well, we have finally got enough done in the garden to post about it! :) We got the potatoes in before the last snow in March, but they're about 3-4 inches tall now. We got the tomatoes, peppers & cucumbers in last week. Today we planted corn & lima beans, and we're planning on planting green beans tonight. We also got some onions planted in some window boxes last time a couple of our little friends came to visit to help. Here's pictures! :)

Impatiens, and our unnamed plant that we think might be yucca.

In this one you can see the rows of peppers on the far left, tomatoes & then the potatoes on the far right.

We planted the cucumbers in a circle and then put the wire around so the cucumbers can climb.

These are the onions that the kids planted March 19th. In the top pot, there are 5 sprouts coming up, and in the bottom there are 2-3!

Our irises should be blooming any day!

Here's all the flowers & herbs ready to be potted. I ran out of potting soil, so they are sitting here in the wagon for easy moving in and out of the sun, and easy watering until I get some more in a couple of days.

These last 2 are of the garden and what is done so far :)

Spring is here!

Today was a beautiful day! It was 80* with mild winds, gusts up to 25 mph. Perfect weather for line drying clothes. We could have had a revolving door with all the laundry we were taking in and out! :)

It's supposed to rain tomorrow and tomorrow night. We are planning on going over the weekend to get the tomato & herb starts to put in. We're also hoping to get the garden tilled again before putting the tomatoes in. We should be getting our seeds for beans and such any time too.

We have daffodils coming up everywhere! They are so pretty! I am going to try to take the webcam out tomorrow to get some pictures (I still can't find my camera...)