Fun Fridays: Clothing refashion for American Girl dolls...........

So, last week I got a sewing bug and just had this great need to start and finish something quickly.  I don't usually need instant gratification, so when it comes, I tend to give in.

I hope to do a tutorial soon, but for now I have an after picture of what I made. 

Addy is modeling a sweater refashioned from an outgrown sweater of Ava's.  I used the bottom of one sleeve and part of the waistband for the doll's neckline.  Ava added some brown twill tape through some of the holes in the sweater as an accent.  Super easy!

The skirt is just the bottom ruffled tier of a skirt of Ava's.  Just one seam to make a circle, and an elastic casing for a waistband. 

The leggings are cut from one pant leg of an old pair of leggings Ava outgrew.  Again, super fast and easy!  I got the idea from this tutorial on making tights for your dolls.

The headband is just twill tape we already had in the perfect shade of purple to match the outfit!

The shoes are AG from some outfit and matched perfectly.  The ice skates are just because Ava said Addy was planning to go skating later.  :)

An entire new outfit for FREE that would cost a disgusting $32 from AG.  *Like*

Fun Fridays: Paper dolls for American Girl dolls...............

Happy Black Friday!  I love Thanksgiving and enjoyed yesterday with our family!  All the food, mmmmmmmmm..............., and just hanging out and watching the kids play.  Love it.

One time, about 8 years ago, I ventured out in the wee hours of the morning on Black Friday.  I was after a My First Leapad for our oldest, who was almost 2.  I think Walmart had it for $20?  I really can't remember that well.  I was tired.  It was COLD.  And the store was CROW.DED!  Never again.  I think I saved $10.  Totally not worth it.  Ever since, I sleep in and spend the day doing fun stuff at home.  Sometimes sewing, sometimes crafting, maybe a movie, putting up Christmas decorations.

Today I showered early (Yay!) and thought of something fun to do for my now 10 year old girly girl.  A few weeks ago I found these Thanksgiving printables at Daydream Doll Boutique and thought those were really fun.  Then, I remembered I had these adorable paper dolls I bought from Sarah Jane Studios last year!  How fun to make paper dolls for the dolls!

I already had these on my computer, but Sarah Jane has some freebies on her site you can use RIGHT NOW!  Also, take a look at her store because she has a lot of really great stuff on there!  Including more paper dolls you can purchase and a Nutcracker Theater, a Peter and the Wolf Theater, and a Nativity Theater.  SO CUTE!

Anyway, after you download some paper dolls, stick some card stock in your printer.  When you get ready to print, set your page scaling to either 50% or "Multiple pages per sheet".  I did the latter.  If it only prints on one half of the page (which is what you are aiming for), you can turn it around and print another page on the other half.  This is what I did because my paper doll files were one page per file.

Hand them to your daughter and tell her to have fun!

Since they are small, I recommended to her not to cut out between the legs and to leave white space around things with tiny detail.  I also used an exacto knife to cut out face holes in hoods and jackets for her.  You can also use tiny pieces of double sided tape or folded tape to stick the paper dolls to your dollie's hands.

The dolls are having a great time!

Ava really wants to make a small Nativity Theater for her dolls, so I'll try to post when we get to that.  We are actually going on a small road trip tomorrow to a Homestead Fair, so this might make a good activity for her to work on in the van.

Whatever you are doing this Black Friday, I hope you are having fun!

For the love of buttons!

EEK! I was reading Anna's blog and came across this ADORABLE photo!

I will now be on the lookout for an orphan gumball machine who is longing to dispense something again!  What a fun display!

That is all.  :D

On buying chicks from a feed store............

Uh...........did anyone out there think this would be HARD???

No?

Good.  Because I didn't either.  Get ready for a bit of a rant.  :P

So, we have been planning to order chicks through a hatchery.  Some for meat, some for eggs.  I poured over my favorite catalog and carefully underlined important information about each breed I was interested in.  Then, I circled the breeds I wanted to order with a red marker.  You know, so I wouldn't forget.

Low and behold, now we are ready to submit our order, and the hatchery is out of meat chickens.  As in, totally out.  Not backordered.  Argh!  Then, I notice several of the laying breeds we had chosen were backordered by at least three weeks, some for two months!

Bummer.

After looking at some other hatcheries online, I realized this is a common problem right now.  In February.  Who knew hatcheries started selling out of chicks so early?  I didn't.  This was our first time to order from one.

I thought I was ordering early!!!

So, we thought we might just get some from Tractor Supply.  We called every day for several days hoping to hear they had received their shipment of eggs.  Finally, they did.  I dropped everything (I left rising bread in the oven for this!) and loaded up the kids and headed to the store.

No meat chickens like they were expecting.  Bummer.

Lots of Rhode Island Reds.  We already have several of those and wanted some different breeds.

Lots of Gold Sex Links.  Hmmm.  I wasn't particularly fond of getting "mutt" breeds.  We have some mutts and they're not real pretty.  I want old breeds.  Heritage breeds.  Breeds that can reproduce for us, if we want. 

Then, there was a bin full of fluffy little yellow chicks with two reddish stripes down their backs.  What were they?  Nobody knew.  The sign just said, "Pullets".  I even took my hatchery catalog into the store with me, and Ava and I couldn't find these chicks anywhere in it.  I asked several employees.  They didn't know.  They told me their "chicken guy" was out to lunch and would be back in a bit.

Then, a customer reminded me of another feed store just down the road that she thought had chicks.

They did!  However, bless his heart, this nice old man couldn't tell me much about them either.  I thought they looked like a bunch of Buff Orpingtons (because we have two) and a couple Barred Rocks (of which we also have two).  He told me, "No, no.  There's a bunch of 'em mixed up in there.  There's Dominickers, Buffs, Rhode Islands, and Brown Leghorns." 

Um.........okay............

When he got back there to look, he changed his mind.  "Well, we must have sold all the Leghorns.  But the rest of 'em are there."

Hmm..........I wasn't sure he knew what he was talking about.  We have RIR chicks and they don't look anything like what he had in that bin.  So, then I asked him if he knew if his Dominiques were male or female.  He said there was no way to tell.

*Sigh*

Ava and decided we thought they were both males, based on what we remembered about the head spots on our Barred Rock chicks we' ve been raising.

We passed on those and tried our best to choose four Buff pullets.

Then, we went back to Tractor Supply and found said "chicken guy".  Turns out this guy doesn't know what breed ANY of the chicks were.  Huh?  They have signs on two of the tubs that say what breeds they are!  It was the third tub that didn't tell me what breed was inside.  He was clueless.  So was I.  And frustrated.  These people didn't know what they were selling.  How helpful is that?  I even asked him if he happened to have the packing slip that came with them that afternoon.  Perhaps that would have an itemization of what breeds were sent.  I could tell he was losing patience with me.

Mixed in with the RIR were supposed to be some New Hamshire Reds.  He couldn't tell which were which, so Ava and I decided to try two of the lightest chicks.  We also got three of the "mystery" breed and one little rogue fella roaming around with the Gold Sex Links.  This chick appears to either be an Ameracauna or Brown Leghorn.  We're not sure.  We're not even sure if it's pullet.  This "chicken guy" held it upside down by the feet and declared it was a rooster because it struggled.  Um.....okay.  We kept talking for a minute and he did it again.  This time, the poor little chick just hung there.  "Yep." he said, "I think that one's a male."

Uh, huh.

Anyway....................we brought home 4 Buffs, 1 Ameracauna/Brown Leghorn, 2 New Hampshires (I hope), and 3 "mystery" pullets.  10 new chicks, in all.  Hopefully 10 pullets.

By the time I got back home, I was mentally exhausted by the frustration I felt.  Then I remembered my bread.  It fell.  I baked it anyway.  It's meh.

All of that was just to remind myself next winter to order my chicks from a hatchery before February.  I don't want to go through that again!  I'd like to just order what I want and get it.  On the other hand, if you really don't care what kind of chickens you get, go to a feed store and they will likely save you money on shipping.  And you will not have to buy 25 of them for shipping safety.

Oh, by the way, the "mystery" chicks have been found out.  You may already know.  Do you?  If you do, you're smarter than me!  We believe they are Golden Comets.

I really didn't want mixed breed chickens because I want heritage breeds.  However, they do appear to be excellent layers, which is also important to us.  I'll let you know how I feel about them in 5-7 months.

Ok, rant over.  I feel better.  :)

Save $180 on a Berkey water filter!

I have recently been enlightened to what is in our water supply.  It concerns me, to say the least.  We've been using a PUR faucet mounted water filter until we can afford a better solution.  Our biggest concern is flouride.  These common filters do not remove flouride. 

Side note:  From what I understand, Berkey filters do not remove flouride, either.  However, their filters are superior at removing contaminants and they have additional filters you can purchase which DO remove flouride and also arsenic.  See the video below.


I have already switched our family to flouride-free toothpaste and am looking into switching to a dentist who will not use flouride on my kids (among other things), but more importantly, one who will NOT give me a hard time for choosing this.  My current dental office is already giving me a hard time for not wanting unnecessary x-rays.  I can only imagine how they'll react when I tell them, "No more flouride."  It's time to move on.

Another side note:  This is the last thing I will say about flouride right now.  It is a personal concern of ours and for many others.  Many people are learning that flouride has not been proven to be beneficial, but instead may be a trigger for diseases such as cancer, alzheimers, and bone diseases.  You'll need to do your own research on that as this post is intended to be more focused on water filters, but here are just some interesting articles on the topic of flouride.


I'd love to say this is a post on how we BUILT our own Berkey water filter.  But it's not.  We're still not there, yet.  But, in the meantime, I have found several websites and youtube videos on the subject and just wanted to share them with those of you who are interested in such things.  I did not think of this money-saving idea on my own.  I just happened to stumble across a video and thought, "Duh.  Why didn't I think of that?"  It never ceases to amaze me what other people invent.
The idea is to purchase the filters from Berkey (or another source) and build your own containers from old "Ozarka" type bottles or 5 gallon buckets, etc. to save a lot of money.
This fellow saved nearly $180 building his own Berkey!  His site has a pretty good tutorial on how to do it.

Here's another at Green-Trust.org.

And here's a short, helpful video showing a simple and inexpensive set up.  This video does not walk you through the building process, he just tells you how he did it and shows you the finished product.

This is something we WILL be doing in the future.  We just have more pressing projects on our plates at the moment.


I would love to hear what you have done for your family concerning filtering water!  Do you own a Berkey?  Have you built your own?  Care to share any advice on the matter?

I will definitely update this post when we build our own system.

February Reading accomplishments......

I won't be giving much detail on each book I list.  I simply don't have the time right now.  This is more of a simple record for me to remember what I have read.  If you have specific questions, feel free to ask!  I'll try to make time to answer!

Knockout by Suzanne Somers
~good, interview style layout between Suzanne and innovative doctors, lots of information, a little over-the-top at times, though, IMO

Breakthrough by Suzanne Somers
~very similar to above book, so similar I thought I was reading the same book again, good though, if you are into alternative healing and nutrition

~~~~I feel like I need to add a little side note here about Suzanne Somers.  I think she is a lot smarter than many interviewers would have you believe.  I like how much research she has done for the good of the population on cancer healing and prevention.  The two books above have a lot of valuable information in them--I can't speak for anything else she has written, as I haven't read them.  Having said all that, as a Christian, I have personally felt convicted that I do not want to make health my god, or idol.  I believe it would be very easy to become consumed with it all and make it the most important thing in life.  To the point of offending and/or ostracizing other people.  I don't want to do that.  Suzanne tells you she is not religious, and it is evident (to me, anyway) that health/nutrition and especially anti-aging have become like idols in her life.  This is why I am cautious to just give these books an overwhelming "thumbs up".  Now, take that for what you will.

The Maker's Diet by Jordan Rubin
~great book! Interesting personal story of near-death healing with nutrition, biblical perspective of food and how it is raised, very do-able, this was actually my third time to read this since Nov. or Dec.-it's that good!

Blood on the River by Elisa Carbone
~read this book aloud to Ava (10), a little gritty for her age, but a very good read.  She was riveted and always wanted to hear more.  Perhaps too mature for this age-but probably a good choice anyway if you have a reluctant reader you are trying to help become interested in reading.  Pre-reading this book may be in order if you are concerned.

Hobby Farm Magazine - March/April issue, one of few subscriptions I have and always interesting!

There are a few I didn't finish in time for this month but I already have a nice stack from the library I'm anxious to get started on.  We'll see how much I get to read in March!

Our First Butchered Chicken....

**********WARNING**********

What you are about to view is not for the faint of heart!

There are graphic images of a perfectly healthy chicken being butchered for our dinner table.

Be aware there is blood and a headless body.

So, we've been on this chicken adventure since around March 2011 and it has been fun!  We began to desire to raise our own food and read everything we could get our hands on concerning chickens and gardening.  You see, we like chicken!  :)

We started out with a few mixed Bantams (one rooster) and a few Rhode Islands Reds.  We mostly wanted to start out by raising chickens for eggs.  It was going great!  So great, in fact, we decided to hatch some of our own!  We are homeschoolers, after all!  What better science experiment can you get than watching your very own eggs hatch!
It was awesome!

The kids (ok, me too) were just glued to the incubator windows!

We only had one hatchling!  But we are so thankful to have that one!  What an experience!

So we decided to do it again, this time with more eggs.

Well, that was a success, however, we ended up with a lot of little roosters.  Too many roosters, to make myself clear.

No worries!  We'll just eat 'em!  After all, we want to be more self-sufficient, right?  RIGHT??  Yes, yes we do.

We read blogs and watched videos on how to butcher a chicken in the most humane, efficient way.  The Deliberate Agrarian has a great blog post on butchering, and lots of great general info. for newbie homesteaders like us. 

We also found a couple youtube videos that were especially helpful to us:

The first video covers killing, scalding, and plucking.

The second video covers cleaning/gutting.

 

Then, the opportune time presented itself.


Meet Cheep-cheep.

Cheep-cheep was............well.............a little cocky.  He became the most agressive rooster we had.  You couldn't go near him without him wanting to fight with your feet.  Not a problem if you have pants and shoes on.  A pesky problem if you are in shorts and/or sandals.

He got to go first.  :)

 Being strung up by the feet.

Making the cut.  Do you see that he closed his eyes?

The chicken, not Matt.

 It took a few minutes for him to bleed out.  I think we need a sharper knife.  I was worried about this part, but there was no squawking.  Only a little flapping about (which is what you want to pump the blood out).  He made one little half-hearted cluck right before he went limp.  We knew it was over.

Then, Matt cut off his widdle head. 

See, his eyes are still closed.  He didn't see a thing.

The chicken, not Matt.

I warned you about the headless body.



Scalding for easy feather removal.

We used a portable camp stove and just made sure the kids stayed clear of it.



Pretty easy.  Says the one who stood by taking pictures.  ;)



Wearing rubber gloves helped alot.  The seem to grip the feathers and help pull them out easier and faster.

Ok, enough watching.  Time for me to get my hands dirty.  Gutting was a little difficult since the bird is so small and it was my first time.



All clean!  This little rooster weighed in at a whopping 1.25lbs!!!

Some people might not think a bird that small was worth the effort to butcher, but believe it or not, he actually made a nice pot of chicken and dumplings, which we ate two meals from.

That was such a learning experience and gave us such a satisfying feeling, we felt confident enough to proceed with the other four "extras" a few weeks later. 

This time, Grandpa (my dad) came to help.  That was nice for me, as he cleaned two chickens and I cleaned two chickens.  This aspect is done in the kitchen sink, and it definitely has a "distinct smell" when you get to a certain point.  It was nice to have help.  :D

This experience also gave us the confidence we needed to raise meat chickens.  We have 20 on the way, along with some laying hens of various breeds for lots of eggs.  We are starting with a relatively small number, so as not to overwhelm ourselves.  If all goes well, we will order again in late July/August for another round of harvesting in September/October.

Some people were concerned with how our kids would take this.  We certainly told them ahead of time what was going to happen, and these mean little roosters weren't exactly beloved pets, so it's not like we just went out into the backyard and killed our puppies. 

I'm happy to report they were thoroughly excited, fascinated, and wished they could take part in it!  As soon as Matt was done with the first chicken, they immediately began asking if we could do the rest!  To date, not one of them has had nightmares or felt bad in the least that we killed and ate our chickens.  I love that they are learning where food comes from.

Do you raise meat chickens?  Ever butchered one?  I'd love to hear your stories!

I'm linking up to the Barn Hop at Homestead Revival!  Her site and her Barn Hops are a wealth of information for sustainable living.  Go check it out!