Laundry Update

I thought you might be interested in how our outside drying is going.  So far so good.......except I am a "dry by the seat of your pants" kinda girl.  Meaning I like to put in a load to wash at 10 o'clock pm and put it in the dryer at almost 11, then get the clothes out in the morning!  When you don't have the option to dry in the dryer that puts a kink in the system.  So I have to do a bit of planning and am getting closer to having "laundry days" where all I do is laundry and then folks have clothes for the week.  We still have too many clothes, but we are getting there.  I threw out all the boys things that were torn and stained, that seemed a good place to start, then I moved on to what was too small for one, but still way too big for the next in line, so those went to goodwill.  It's a slow process, I have so much other stuff to do that it's hard to make sorting clothes a top priority. 

When we put up pur line we bought clothespins at Target.  They were very chintzy, not the type Dane and I remembered from our childhood.  If you snapped those old ones on your finger you certainly felt it!!  These weak and pitiful things kept falling apart when you would pin them on the line.  When we ordered our Aladdin Lamp from Lehmans we also picked out some clothespins.  WOW, is all I can say, they were so much sturdier than the Target ones. 
Here you can see how much bigger they are and how much thicker the wire in the spring is.  These hold up everything, including Danes blue jeans!  I'm so glad we went with these.  They are made in China which is unfortunate, I would love to have some made in the USA, but for now I will be grateful for these. 

So if you do some serious clothes pinning, make sure you have some serious clothespins!!
Have a beautiful day,
Misty

Yard Sale Fun!

I don't usually do too many yard sales, I enjoy them, but just don't ever seem to get the chance to go to them.  This Friday the older children and I were out and about so we followed a sign and found a great sale.  It was a yard like I wish all sales were, like they used to be.  Full of old decrepit stuff, not just new plastic stuff people sell to so they'll have money to buy more plastic stuff.  This one had some really unique bottles and old tools.  Kegan bought 2 big bottles and 2 old rusty tools.  Ileigh got an old bottle, and 2 vintage books, if there's books to be found you can count on Ileighto see them!  Quinlan bought a safety razor and an animal call for hunting.  They were quite pleased with their purchases, but I was thrilled with mine!! In addition to a few tiny old bottles I got those 3 big beautiful crocks you see in the back!!!  I got them for $10 a piece.  I suppose I could have bargained for them, but I was so tickled to get them at that price that I forgot all about wheelin'and dealin'!  These type crocks can sell for $30 or more a piece!  These aren't antique, which is even better, I can use them on the farm and not have to worry about them as much. So all in all it was a great little yard sale, hope I find more like it soon!
Have a beautiful day,
Misty

......You Light Up My Life.......

Our non-electric lives are even brighter......Thanks to Aladdin.....Lamp that is, not the boy!  Aladdin Lamps are known the world over for their impressive bright, white light.  As bright as a 60 watt bulb, they are a mantle lamp that burns kerosene or lamp oil.  We have wanted an Aladdin Lamp for some time, one of the drawbacks to an Aladdin is the price,they are not cheap.  We looked around, antique shops, second hand stores, ect. and couldn't locate any.  Then we turned to the Internet, but had similar luck there.  Everyone seemed to know what they had, and priced them accordingly.  So we saved our money for a bit and our lovely lamp came last week! 

Isn't she beautiful?  It doesn't take much to excite us, the whole family was thrilled when it came in the mail!  We purchased from Lehmans, they sell all sorts of non-electric items.  Lehmans sell to the Amish as well as off the grid-ers (is that a word?), missionary's and regular folks.  We love their catalog, you can order one here.

Aladdin Lamps are mantle lamps, they have mantle much like the Colman lanterns.  The mantles are made of a nylon net that is knitted, then coated with rare earth minerals, then it is varnished to help it hold together during shipment.  The mantles are extremely fragile.  One bump or touch and they will dissolve. 

The first thing you do when you recieve your  lamp is burn off the varnish. 

You must do this outside as it burns fast and smokey.....

Once the varnish is gone you can assemble the lamp and fill with kerosene or oil, we use a refined lamp oil we bought from Lehmans, because it's refined there's not much smell at all!  The wick must soak in the fuel for at least an hour then you may light the lamp!!

The burner and gallery must warm up, then you may turn the flame up and your lamp will BEAM!!

Here is a shot of the round wick burning under the mantle. 

Our family has been having practice Non-Electric Evenings and Weekends, we have been using good old-fashioned non mantle oil lamps, here you can see the difference in the amount of light they put out.

We can't wait for our next Non-Electric event, we won't be sitting in the dark anymore!!

We have been doing a lot of research, the best book we could find on the subject of non-electric lighting is

The Book of Non-Electric Lighting by Matson.

This book covers all the lighting types, lamps, lanterns and wood stoves.  It's an easy read with just enough technical information to make it very interesting.  Hope your day is peaceful and your night is bright, ours will be!

A Few Family Photos!

Last week we were part of our 4-H groups entry in the County Fair Parade. The theme for the fair is The Wild West. We had no problem finding outfits for the parade! We had a great time and enjoyed dressing up. Ileigh made her own dress, I was so proud!

The Men of the Family

Dane, Kegan 17, Rohan 8, Quinlan 13, Ferran 4, Donagan 10.

The Ladies of the Family

Misty, Ileigh 15, Elsah 2.

As you can see we are terribly outnumbered!!

Let's not forget the baby of the Family!

Octavian 11months!

Now you know what we look like! Sorry it took so long to put up photos of us all!

We're still working on farm skills and have several posts in the making! Thanks for joining us!

Have beautiful day,

Misty

A Farm Tour with Elsah Doe

4 Moms and 35 Kids are having a month of Open House tours!! I thought this would be the perfect oppourtunity to show you our little farm in the dessert. I also thought it would be nice if Elsah gave the tour as she loves to be outside with all the animals!

Don't forget to check out all the other open houses over at Life in a shoeHello Everyone,

I'm Elsah MayDell, my family calls me Doey. I am 2 and half! Want to come and see my little farm? We live in the High Dessert so we have lots of Juniper Trees and Sage Brush!

First, here we have the bees, this is our first year with bees, they are doing ok, there's not very many of them, but they are busy!

We have a top bar hive, it's little different than the boxy hives you see, but the top bar is much more economical and easier to work with! Now let's go see Daddys garden!

Kegan, my biggest brother and Daddy work really hard on our garden, we call it our "Kinder"garden, because it is so small and will be nothing compared to the garden we will need in Missouri. It's a good practice garden though!
We have carrots, corn, broccoli, radishes, green beans, cabbage, peppers, pumpkins, and lots of tomatoes!! I love tomatoes!!!! Let's go see the goat, John Boy!

John Boy is a wether..........wether or not?? Ummmm.......Mom says it means he can't make baby goats. Anyway let's see if he'll eat my carrot!
Wow he Loves carrots! Mom says " time to gather eggs", my favorite thing!!

We have 12 hens and two roosters, we get white eggs and brown eggs! I LOVE eggs!!!

I do not care to hold the chickens, thank you very much, but I will pet one! Now let's get on with the egg gettin'.




Ahhh...aren't they wonderful? Every good farm girl knows you can carry eggs in your skirt!! Our chickens are nice and don't bite or scratch!

Thank you joining me on our farm tour, I hope you liked it! Have a wonderful day.

Love,

Elsah Doe

New - Old Things

So we have talked big about going without electricity and living the old-fashioned life, well this week we got a real taste of it!! Within two days our clothes dryer broke and the the AC went out! So, we had to make some decisions.... do we repair the non functioning items or do we put our money where our mouths are and live the life we've been dreaming of?

The AC works a little bit so we set the thermostat at 88, we never thought it would actually hit 88, in the house, but it did a few times, and our pitiful AC would turn on, and blow soft little puffs of sort of cool air at us. Of all the weeks for us to not have air......it had been so hot here! But it has also been hot in Missouri, so we have been imagining ourselves on our little farm, where we would be just as hot, but working ten times more!!

The dryer is a whole 'nother story!!! I will be the first to admit that I am very bad with laundry, it don't enjoy it, I take no pleasure in it, it is an ongoing, never-ending job!! Dane and I went back and forth about whether or not to get it fixed. Actually we talked a lot about laundry and clothes and possessions this weekend. Mostly about how we have WAY too much stuff. It is so easy to attain "stuff" these days, everywhere we turn there is some deal, some great buy that is hard to pass up. You truly feel compelled to purchase. With eight children you can imagine how many clothes we have in our house, hundreds of individual items, shirts, socks, pants, dresses, undies, coats, ect....... I was telling Dane how I couldn't wait til we got on the farm and every boy had 5 work shirts and one town shirt and one Sunday shirt, and 3 pairs of work jeans and one pair of nice pants and just enough socks, not basketfuls!! I said I might not Hate doing laundry if it was a controllable beast. Dane sat quietly for a moment and asked why I wouldn't do that now, tame the laundry beast and cut everybodys clothes to a minimum. Hmmmm, like a lot of things it was something I "dreamed" of doing when we got on the farm. But sure, why not here, why not now? Really, we do need to start working on our old-fashioned skills now. We don't want to get on the farm and not have a clue!! So that said we decided to let the dryer have a rest and Dane put me up a beautiful new clothes line!! Ileigh and I dried 5 loads today and except for an evening rain shower, it went really well. We even had a bit of fun with it!

I will let you know how the clothes pruning goes and how other farm preparations are going.

If you have read our blog, PLEASE leave a comment, it would be so appreciated, we wouldn't feel so all alone!

Thank you!

What Next?

Well, the idea is out there and while we're waiting for flocks of followers, we'll keep up with the blog. We have lots of ideas for posts and how-to's.

If you think about the 1880's and what was available, then look around your home and see what wouldn't be there, it's quite shocking! Just sitting here in my living room I see a dvd player, a flat screen tv, an electric sewing machine, ceiling fan, reading lights, a battery run clock, a wii. Not to mention plastic, plastic is EVERYWHERE! But that's a post on it's own. Now there nothing wrong with modern things or plastic even, but on our 1880's farm those things will not exist. We are working towards eliminating those items, making our way back in time. We hope to address each room, for example, Kitchen and Laundry, and then Living Room and Dinning Room, on to Bedrooms and Children's Toys ect. There's alot to get rid of and alot to acquire.

It feels like we need an 1880's wedding shower!!!

Next Monday we'll be taking in Dane's cutthroat razor, it belonged to his Grandfather, in hopes of getting it really sharp so he can use it to shave, maybe! We will also take in my Grandmas Mothers scissors for sharpening.

So much needs to be done and so many skills to learn, it's easy to get overwhelmed! Not to mention getting our house ready to put our house on the market next spring! Alas one day at a time.