Spring on the homestead.

In which I share my favorite posts from this blog's Facebook page.

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"In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety."

Psalm 4:8


* I'm getting a hysterectomy for Mother's Day. Thankfully, I can chuckle about this! I'm not looking forward to the surgery, or to the recovery time, but I am looking forward to (Lord, willing) feeling better once I'm recovered. By the way, an awful lot of people think a hysterectomy is "no big deal." Mmmm...not really. It's a major surgery, with the removal of major organs, and recovery time varies considerably depending upon how the surgery was done (there are three basic methods, depending upon the health issues being addressed). So I'm prepping as best I can for the six week-ish recovery my doctor says I'll need, knowing t will likely take even longer to feel myself again.

The first line-dried laundry of the year!

But what an awful time of year to do such prepping! I was hoping to empty our freezer, now that my canning kitchen is complete. After all, it won't be too long and we'll have fruit in our orchard  needing preserving. I've made a good go at this task, canning up salsa (from last year's frozen tomatoes; click here for my salsa recipe, and here for info on freezing whole tomatoes) and some stock (click here for directions). I've also freeze-dried ham (bought on sale this Easter), split pea soup, and a variety of frozen veggies. But finish the job of emptying the freezer? It's just not gonna happen before my surgery.

First time using my canning kitchen.

And then there's the garden. Not only has acute anemia (which negatively affects every organ in the body) slowed me down this spring, but so has our weather. Like a lot of areas of the U.S., we've had a cooler than usual spring. This means my seedlings are smaller than I might otherwise expect at this time of year. Which means they are by no means ready to go into the garden. Which, incidentally, I still don't have. (I was thinking of doing a straw bale garden this year, as a quick and cheap alternative to trucking soil into my rocky garden spot, but it hasn't happened yet.) I did get some nursery-purchased tomato plants into the soil of the greenhouse, but everything else isn't ready to repot or move. So...who knows what will happen to this year's garden!

One area where I've been a bit more successful is making freezer meals for my family, so I don't feel the need to cook for a couple of weeks after my surgery. I don't normally do a lot of freezer meals, so it's been interesting to try to think of simple meals my family likes and that are so easy to reheat my kids can do it.

You might be a redneck if...your new raised bed is an old bathtub you found in the bushes.

I will be blogging during my recovery, although I'm not sure how often. (I wanted to write up a bunch of posts and schedule them to post periodically, but it just hasn't happened.)

* Amazon is barring a Christian organization from using its Smile program, yet allows other questionable groups to use it. My livelihood comes primarily from Amazon, so I am particularly disturbed about this. PLEASE take a moment to write to Amazon, complaining, and please consider ending your Prime subscription if Amazon doesn't amend this situation.

Using frozen tomatoes for salsa.

* Recall on ground beef.

* Recall on fresh oysters. 

* Recall on detox tea.

* An interesting article on how changing your diet can be a spiritual move. I think there's a lot of truth to this.

* Growing figs. By me, for Self-Reliance magazine.

* A clever way to freeze eggs.

* Tips for purchasing the best parental control router. 

* "Is curing patients a sustainable business model?" I have learned the hard way that pharmaceuticals and even health organizations you might trust believe the answer is NO.


Oldies But Goodies:

* How to Kill E.coli on Vegetables and Fruits 

* Eating Dandelion Flowers

* Use up your garlic scapes with these great recipes!

* Got rhubarb? Here's what to do with it.