Vaughnshire Farm

Having fresh milk has been one of the most rewarding farm experiences over this last year.  We started last year with milking our cow, Bonnie.   We also have several dairy goats.  One of the business ideas my daughter is pursuing is raising milk goats and selling them to other families who would like to have their own supply of fresh milk.  So far, she is just starting her hand at it, but is loving working with these milk goats. 

With baby goats, comes milking mommas.   Our 9 year old daughter has plunged into milking duties and is loving it.  She and Mally (one of our alpine mommas) are great friends.  In fact, Mally can’t stand to be away from the children when she sees them outside.  She makes all kinds of noise and tries to open the gate so she can come be near them. 

Except for a few bumps in the road – kicked over milk pails, stepping and putting her hind feet in the milk bucket, escaping and sitting down when trying to lead her back to the pasture –She has been a wonderful goat for a 9 year old to learn how to handle and milk.  We have been very pleased as she is providing some very rich and delicious milk that we have been enjoying very much.  We never would have imagined goat milk could be so good!

The only problem is that when Mally does get out of the pasture and makes her way to the house, returning her to the pasture can be quite a chore! 

This week we have posted a lot of farm related material…that would be because it’s early spring (as of today) and there are a ton of things to do around a farm during “planting season”.  As one of my younger children recently lamented, “If only we had more children…we could have more help…” 

Today was a beyond gorgeous day.  I sat in a lawn chair out by the garden and gave directions on what I wanted done. We had cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, potatoes and onions to get in the ground.  By the days end, they had the garden planted with plants and had posted the poultry netting around the garden.   The garden would have been gone by morning if we didn’t do something quick because the chickens spotted the fresh young plants and started eating them. 

The boys also repaired the disconnected spring pipe.  Water was gushing out of the pipe into the creek (it is supposed to be connected to another pipe running into our spring tank).  The pipe was disconnected because of the amount of water and debris that rushed through the creek yesterday with all of our rain.  The boys cleared the debris and reconnected the pipe.  All is well. 

The cows and goats were also moved over into a different section of the pasture.  They enjoyed having fresh green grass as they had been grazing in another section for several weeks. 

So far the mother hen hatched out 3 chicks:  one died, two are doing great.  We aren’t sure why the other eggs have not hatched. 

This week, my husband and the boys also started taking out one of the driveways so we can run a fence across the front of the house.  They worked on clearing brush, filling in other parts of the land with fill dirt, leveling out other parts.  This is a huge project in the works. 

That’s all the farm updates.

I attended an exciting health conference in St. Louis this past weekend.  As health and natural medicine are great interests of mine, especially now as a mother, I found this weekend to be highly profitable.

The doctors teaching at the conference focused on the topic, “Natural Medicine for Common Childhood Illnesses” and with a room full of doctors and mothers, it was a great time to learn some valuable information to help in treating my own family.   

Some of the topics covered were first related to disease and that line between wellness and illness, how illness occurs, organ functions and body systems and their importance in maintaining good health.  Other topics were covered like food and nutrition, natural medicine, chiropractic care for infants and children and more.

A very interesting session, indeed, was called, “The 100 Year Lie” in which a very powerful time-line was presented on how food and medicine have been destroying and eroding health here in America over the last 100 years.  Talk about scary!  This was an amazing chronology.  I was shocked at the information and statistics presented on cancer, diabetes and heart disease and the correlation with the types of food we now eat, industrialism, the chemicals and toxins in our environment, and the rise of the pharmaceutical (a drug for everything) industry. 

I was also interested in the section on Autism, ADD and ADHD.  I was very intrigued with the statistics presented.  The US is the highest consumer of Ritalin in the world–the highest percentage being boys being diagnosed and receiving the drug.  The wife of one of the doctor’s presented a session on obesity which was very interesting as well with even more shocking statistics. It not only is this a problem in the adult population, but has rapidly spread to children — Is it any wonder in our convenience based, fast fake food, media centered, sedentary culture?

A chiropractic doctor presented a very interesting session on “Infants, Children and Chiropractic Care”.  He covered some very fascinating information on the intricacies of the spine and nervous system.  He also covered common problems in infancy, like colic and other digestive upsets, and how we can treat these illnesses naturally without the use of medications. 

Probably the most practical was the session on Children’s Health in which a wide variety of health issues were covered:  allergies, asthma, sinus problems, bedwetting, digestion, eczema, dizziness, hyperactivity, infections (bacterial and viral), fever and colds.  It was excellent information enabling mother’s to have resources and information to make informed decisions on their child’s health.  I learned many things not to do and many more things to do. 

I think of Katie Luther, the wife of the great reformer, Martin Luther, who was very skilled in herbal medicine and was in fact known around town for her excellence in this area.  She used her skills to help others as well as primarily serve her children and husband in the area of health.  She has inspired me to continue to gain more knowledge in these areas as I seek to improve my knowledge and skills so that I can better serve my family’s medical needs as they arise (and hopefully avoid a large majority of problems through proactive prevention). 

Along the same line (though not brought up at the conference) a couple of books that I can highly recommend are:  Mommy Diagnostics and The Naturally Healthy Pregnancy by Shonda Parker. I have found them to be excellent resources for treating common illnesses naturally at home. 

We headed out to town on a strict frugal shopping mission and came back very pleased with our ultra-frugal results! 

Our trip to CVS trip cost us a grand total of .44 cents!  I ended up with 2 packages of diapers and two packages of pullups and a toothbrush and a bunch of Hershey’s chocolate (great for baking!).  I earned $17 back in extra bucks. 

Our trip to Kroger was also a huge success ending up with some freebies like baby wipes and our final stop to replace our blender was a huge surprise when we found a $55 blender for $13 and it has a food processor attachment.  Evidently blenders are a seasonal item, or so I was told?  Since I tend to go through a blender a year, until I can find a good commercial grade, stainless steal, non-breakable blender…the $13 blender does the job. 

Here is just a sample of some of the good finds: free soap, free huggies wipes, free Tabasco sauce and cayenne pepper sauce, .40 cent toothbrushes, .80 cent big roll viva paper towels.  We also found a beautiful .50 cent potted plant marked down from $15.  All in all, our grocery / household supplies bill this week was considerably less. 

I am beginning to see great successes in our pantry store and can contribute that to several factors:  1.)  It is amazing how much you can do by just raising your own meat, eggs and milk!   2.)   I also quit buying small bags (3 to 5 lbs) of items from the Amish and started buying the 25lb and 50lb bags from them– grain, flour, oats, sugar etc.  That really makes a difference in the long run if you can plan the extra expense of a $19 or $22 purchase for a large bag into the month.  3.)  Taking advantage of the regular stores as much as possible when I find excellent stock-up deals (using coupons and rebates) on items for our pantry store. 

Frugal Tips when shopping at a regular stores: 

• Always look for a clearance section in the store.  We found a basket full of Recharge juice, the kind I was looking to stock up on for labor and postpartum, marked down to $1 a jug.  We found the clearanced blender on a back shelf away from the other smaller regular priced appliances.
• Scan the store shelves for clearance tags and stickers hidden along side regular priced items.  We found 8 bottles of dish soap, which ended up being free after the coupons, sitting on the shelf next to the regular priced dish soap.  We also found 10 packages of baby wipes clearanced out just because they had Christmas packaging, which ended up being free after coupons. 
• Don’t forget about those little stores.  We have a small town store that ran a sale last week on toilet paper and with coupons we stocked up on some free toilet paper.  Sometimes these smaller IGA type stores run some very good sales.  Everything else may cost triple, but they will occasionally have some great loss leader sales you can take advantage of. 
• Keep a mental tally, or a calculator handy to keep up with what your total cost should be.  I got back over $10 just on yesterday’s trip as well as 3 bags of free dog food after pointing out that several items rang up higher than what the sale tag said. 

While the girls were out doing some much needed pantry stocking, the men were doing some much needed farm work of which another blog post will have to tell…

There are several questions every homeschooling family is asked at one time or another?  A common one is, “But what about socialization?” 

Several weeks ago,  we visited a local restaurant and received the stares and looks we always get when we walk into a public place.  However, seated not to far from us, was another family that we at first assumed was another large family.  We quickly found out they were just a family eating out on Friday night with their children and several sleep over public school friends.  The conversations were loud, rowdy and x-rated, coming not from teens, but young boys that looked to be the size of our 7 year old.  Loud, boisterous, out-of-control boys whose minds were already in the ditch at such a young age.  Young boys that watched way too much TV and were exposed to movies they should not have been.  Children who had parents that did nothing to correct their ill behavior.  Young boys that will one day be turned loose in society and from the sound of them, that is a very scary thought!  It shocked me back into reality and only furthered and encouraged my resolve and beliefs on why we home educate with Christ being at the center of our education and why we discipline ill behavior. 

It is exactly that type of pagan socialization and rottenness that most view as normal, needed socialization for children.  It is exactly that type of socialization that the Bible warns us of becoming entangled with and it is exactly that type of dumbing socialization that we guard against.  Proverbs 13:20 says, “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise:  but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” 

The whole idea of socialization is one big psycho-babble piece of social junk that our culture would like us to believe is vitally important to the health and well-being of a child’s inner self.  The fools, who professed themselves to be wise, who came up with the darwinian ideas that putting 25, 35 or even 5 foolish children, all the same age, together in one room and giving them free reign to “socialize” was vitally important to their growth and development are the same people that scoff at the Biblical way of multi-generational family life.  Sadly, even the church has swallowed this huge lie of age segregated social approach to life.  From age segregated Sunday School classes, college classes, youth groups, young married groups, the seniors group — even Christians follow the psychology concepts purported by the world.  When a family makes a stand to go back to the Bible and see what it has to say about this type of social construct, oft times they are ridiculed at being old-fashion, out-of-the-loop, legalistic or just plain weird.  

The fact is, the Bible is the only standard by which one should live by.  In it we find all the attributes, instructions and examples of how one is to conduct his life.  In it alone, we find absolute truth and wisdom.  It is the perfect, infallible truth on parenting.  It is the one and only completely true word on who our children are, why they act the way they do, what they should conform to and how to correct their ill behavior!

Our goal should not be to have a “culturally acceptable socialized child”.  Our children should be taught the commands, precepts and patterns found in Scripture.  We are commanded to discipline disobedience and not accept it as normal childhood social development or harmless expression.  We are commanded to train our children in the Lord, not rear them in the state’s acceptable and promoted social agendas.  When we follow the patterns laid out in Scripture, it should not shock us to find our children growing, by the grace of God,  into mature young men and women who can not only “socialize” with children of their own age, but learn to live in the real world relating to all sorts of people….properly, according to Biblical standards, with manners and respect. 

I put together a sort of list a little while ago breaking down possible kitchen tasks for young daughters according to age.  Training our daughters in the arts of homemaking from a young age will yield great blessings in her life as well as, at the same time, adding much blessing to the home.

In the younger years (ages 3 to 5) -  When you are cooking and baking, allow your younger children to sit and watch you.  Let them pour and stir.  Verbally talking through the process of what is happening is very important as the child looks on in amazement at the mixing of the wet and dry ingredients swirling in the bowl.  Talking over their heads about cups, teaspoons, half and whole, liquid and dry, sweet and sour is not too advanced for their little minds.  At the ages of 3 to 5 years old, young girls can begin to contribute to the cooking and baking processes through completing tasks such as:

• Mashing bananas for banana bread, mixing ingredients while you prepare the next step, greasing pans for baking and cooking, shelling peas and shucking corn, picking food out of the garden
• Putting child bowls and sippy cups away, learning how to wash dishes by hand, drying dishes and know where things go, retrieving things from the pantry, refrigerator and freezer
• Opens packages for you — tea bags, pasta bags as well as learns how to use clips, twisty ties and zip lock bags. 
• Learns how to put soap in the dishwasher and how to shut it and turn it on when loaded.
• Learns how to put away groceries with your help or with a sibling.

The 6 and 7 year old years are really a transition and rapid growth year for us.  All of the sudden this young girl is doing more and more.  Some ideas might be: 

• Learns how to make tea.
• Learns how to make a fruit salad for breakfast.
• Makes juice from frozen concentrate. 
• Learns how to make a batch of cookies and in general learns how to read a simple recipe and follow its directions.
• Can  wash a sink full of dishes and knows where everything goes even if she still needs help putting some things away.  Operates the dishwasher properly. 
• Can wipe down cabinets and appliances when needed.  As well as can sweep and mop.  Teaching thoroughness and perseverance and what a complete job looks like is very important at this stage when they are learning how to do a lot of things.  Completion of tasks should be an important focus.
• Peel potatoes and carrots as well as cut and slice other fruits and vegetables.
• Makes sandwiches. 
• Makes peanut butter crackers, celery/cream cheese snacks.
• If you use mixes, she can put together mixes and bake them. 
• She knows how to set the timer on the stove and/or microwave. 
• She learns how to set a table. 
• Starts to use the stove more and more:  Can flip pancakes, make grilled cheese sandwiches, make waffles. 
• Responsible for growing a pot of herbs for use in the kitchen and learning how to use them as well as gardening skills and responsibilities.
• Continues to stand by her mother’s side and learn cooking tips, do’s and don’ts. 

A young girl of 8 to 10 years old is able to really cook some food and be a viable asset to the kitchen workplace.  Not only have the early responsibilities matured her, but she is building on those early skills and transferring her knowledge of past kitchen failures into productive learning experiences that have launched her abilities farther than most grown women today.  Here is a taste of what you may be able to expect: 

• Has the knowledge and skills to cook a breakfast consisting of scrambled eggs, pancakes and sliced fruit.  She may add tea cups and a teapot of herbal tea to the breakfast table often and finds much enjoyment as she expresses her creativity in how she decorates the table, folds napkins, arranges flower vases and centerpieces.
• She also can make a variety of other breakfast type foods:  cooks sausage patties, makes waffles, toasts bagels, cooks oatmeal (not instant either), cooks grits, cheese omelets, french toast, fruit salads, smoothies, coffee.
• Can cook lunch and some supper dishes:  pasta, a variety of grilled sandwiches, make salads and dressings, bake potatoes,  mashed potatoes, prepares frozen and canned veggies by heating them properly. 
• Other cooking skills like boiling a whole chicken and frying hamburger. 
• She follows more complicated recipes and is learning all sorts of tips and tricks to becoming a good cook. 
• Can thoroughly clean the kitchen.
• Knows how to operate the appliances in the kitchen safely.
• Knows how to write a meal plan and plan a grocery shopping trip around items needed.  Is learning and mastering price comparisons, learning couponing and how to buy certain foods. 
• Learning the art of bread-making mastering several skills in making dough, pie crusts, quick breads like muffins and loafs using items such as bananas, berries, dates, nuts etc in quick breads.  Sour dough bread instruction is a great way to start a girl this age into learning bread skills and regularly making bread for her family.   
• Well versed in creating appetizers for church functions, parties, hospitality:  makes deviled eggs, chip dips and salsas, dressings and veggies, crackers and sliced cheese trays.
• Well versed in making desserts:  follows recipes to make brownies, cookies, bars.
• She is in the kitchen more often by herself as well as still standing by your side being taught how to take her cooking basic skills and advancing those into actually creatively cooking casseroles, soups, meat dishes, gravies and more complicated meals as she grows in the coming years. 
• For those who live on a farm, a girl’s responsibilities are even more.  If she has access to raw milk:  she can take over the milk responsibilities in the kitchen.  She can filter the milk, ready the milk for cold storage and thoroughly clean the milking pans and filters for the next milking.  She can be put to the task of making butter for her family and learns how to use the other byproducts of raw milk — buttermilk, cream and even the sour milk.  She can be responsible for collecting and cleaning eggs from her chickens and growing items in the garden.  She may not be able to milk a cow, but she is old enough to care for and milk dairy goats. 

One of the many things I love about home schooling my children is that I am able to spend the majority of my time pouring my life into them.   Like all mothers, of course, there are times when I feel spent and in need of refueling.  My husband is so great to remind me of the important aspects of life and not to get bogged down in the mire of frivolous trifles such as toy trails left all over the house by the 2 year old.  Stepping back a few steps and evaluating reality is helpful in regrouping. 

Pouring your life into your children is something the Lord commands of Christian parents.  Deuteronomy 6 is pretty clear on how and why we pour our lives into our children and what we are to pour into them. 

For our daughters, I love the freedom that home education provides me to completely train and educate them in all the aspects of Godly womanhood and femininity.  Like I mentioned before, my daughter and I have household notebooks in which we regulary use to do lots of planning for our home.  Since I am a believer in the live and learn approach to schooling, this household notebook has provided not only an outlet for creative writing, artistic expression, planning and other viable real-life skills, but has more importantly been very useful in handing over little pieces of responsibility that in turn produce a young lady that gains maturity through the process of being handed such responsibilities.  

Shelley Noonan hit the nail right on the head when she states in her article Queen in a Home of Her Own: 

For most of us, the years of 12-18 are the years we begin to purposefully train our daughters in the domestic arts.  But, if we would look at women of the past, a case could easily be made for our daughters to learn much before this time and be capable of running our home by the age 12…..This very idea runs counter to the popular thinking of today that tends to prolong childhood and delay adulthood responsibilities. 

I agree.  Teaching our daughters the how to’s of homemaking starting around the age of 12 is way too late.  We should use the formative years of a young girl’s life, under the age of 12, to take advantage of all the opportunities of home making training.  So practically, what are some of those age appropriate tasks we can expect from our young girls?  And what exactly do you mean when you say young? 

First of all, by young, I mean very young.  I, too, once thought of my children as too little and incapable of most things that now I regularly require of them.  The problem is that many mothers do not readily accept that learning curve phase as one they are willing to deal with;  the mess, the time involved, the imperfection, the repetition and well…”it is just easier to do it myself!” 

Instead of introducing daughters into the arts of cooking at the age of 12, I advocate introducing them into these arts at 3, 4  and 5 years old and by the ages of 6, 7, 8 and 9 they should be actually cooking and producing in the kitchen.  Not perfectly, but well on their way to expanding their knowledge and skills well beyond packaged cookie mix.  By the ages of 8 and 9, it is not unreasonable to regularly taste and smell the wonderful creations coming out of the kitchen and realizing that you didn’t lift a finger to help the cook at her work this time.  And by the age of 12…well, she should be well versed in the kitchen not only in ability but a growing knowledge that only improves with age.  That comes with years of pouring into her starting when she is 3 years old and continuing a consistent training during those most formative years!

I am continually reminding myself that it isn’t just about training in skill, but capturing her heart and attitude during these formative years are the most important! 

To answer the above question on practical tasks we can expect to teach our young girls and at what age?  Stay tuned for some ideas…

On New Year’s day, we created this years 2008 cover page for each of our notebooks using old country home type magazines we found at the paper recycling place.  We cut out pictures and words and had a grand time crafting, arranging, and gluing our book covers with meaningful home inspiring pictures and words.  

I have had a household notebook for a while.  Several months back, we created an assistant’s notebook for my 8 1/2 year old daughter.  She helps me with meal planning and, in fact, has completely taken over doing all the meal planning for our breakfast meal.  We created a worksheet in Word and printed out several copies, hole punched them and put them in her “Kitchen” section of her notebook so she can plan breakfast meals. 

Inside her notebook, she is putting things like:

• Most used recipes for quick reference
• Meal plan calendar with grocery lists for breakfast needs
• Schedule of the week
• “To Do”  and “How To” lists
• Her home schooling to do check off list
• Her home business ideas that she writes down as she gets new ideas
• A list of educational homemaking milestones that I would like to have her master by the year end. (For example:  Teach her how to cook a roast using the pressure cooker)

Encouraging and helping our daughters create a household notebook is just one of many ways to start actively training them in the practical “how to’s” of home management.  She is actively engaged in furthering the vision of the home even in small tasks like planning breakfast.  As she grows, her tasks will become greater as she handles more responsibility around the home.

I recently read an article entitled Queen in a Home of Her Own by Shelley Noonan (which I found off a link from Noblewomanhood) which I thought was a great overview of how we mother’s can lead and inspire our daughters in fruitful aspirations of home life.  I especially enjoyed her simple formula for encouraging maturity in our daughters in which she states:

I have discovered a simple formula that will give your daughters godly maturity.  It is very simple.  Responsibility = Maturity.  Early responsibility = increased maturity.  Minimizing responsibility = irresponsibility. 

How true!  Especially in a me-centered culture such as the one in which we live where children are indulged, left to their own vices and regularly ill attended by weak parental authority or oversight, it is vitally important for me as a mother to constantly lift up that standard before my daughters of what exactly a Godly woman looks like.  Early training and early responsibility with purposeful instruction is necessary to raising a daughter that understands the importance of the role God gave her.  I often fall short and am so thankful that God keeps giving me additional opportunities on a daily basis, throughout the day, to be that Godly womanly representative to my little girls. 

 Hey, it’s snowing.  A brief blizzard of sorts lasted a few minutes and then vanished away.  An exciting happening of the day.

Bonnie, the fat and furry milk cow.

The rest of us were a bit under the weather so to speak and spent the day resting– sipping down hot tea and soup.    The girls worked on our household notebooks (more on that later) while the boys spent afternoon playing games. 

Freezing bone broths or other types of broth in freezer bags or containers, make an easy way to make homemade soup rather quickly.  The above soup is a mixture of deer and chicken broth with diced potatoes, cut carrots, diced red and green pepper and chopped onion.  Add a couple of crushed cloves of garlic and a dash of cayenne.   Add salt and pepper to taste and throw in chopped cabbage a few minutes before removing from the heat.  Cabbage makes an excellent addition to any soup.   

On the last day of the year, we set aside time to reflect on the year and give thanks to God for His Sovereign hand upon our lives.   We remember the joys and trials of the year. We talk about the Providential hand of God moving in our life and marvel at His mercy and grace even amidst trials.  We remember activities and projects we worked on, accomplishments, things most memorable, things that were hard, things most blessed, things that were sad and things that brought much laughter….It is a time of remembrance and thanksgiving for everyone in our entire family. 

We have found that this little exercise is a great way to peak inside the hearts and minds of our children.  When our children are able to write…even if that means in scratch…..we require them to pen some of their own thoughts on paper.  First is a paper about reflections:  ”Write what you learned, experiences you had, things you did, things you are thankful for and other memories of this year.”  Second is a paper about intentions:  ”Write a list of goals you would like to accomplish for the upcoming year.” 

For those that can not write, we usually have them dictate to us (or an older sibling) their goals and we write them down for them.   For those who do not yet talk coherently, we usually make up a goal they will be pursuing whether they like it or not (i.e. potty training, learning how to sit on a blanket during family worship time and church, etc…).   How wonderful it is to look back over the years and see goals set by our oldest children, like “I want to learn how to read”, and compare that to where they are now or to see their memory goals and hear them recite chapters in the Bible they have learned! 

We each work on our reflections and goals in preparation for our time of celebration on New Year’s Eve. 

Our 10 year old completed his list of 2007 reflections today.  I will for brevity sake only highlight a few of his page long most memorable reflections.  He states: 

• In 2007, we bought our cow named Bonnie Blue and we also moved to the farm. 
• In 2007, I caught my first coon!
• I grew my first crop of corn and my brothers and dad and I got to castrate a pig. 
• My brother and I raised a 40 lb turkey and we learned how to breed rabbits.
• I also learned how to milk a cow and I did more school work this year too.  Everybody turned 1 year older. 
• In 2007, I did more work for less pay. 

He wrote in all seriousness and after he was finished, he handed it to me to see if he had written enough.  I agreed it was sufficient all the while chuckling to myself about the “more work for less pay” reflection.  I did notice on his goal’s paper he had a plan to make $500 this year.  Such are the lessons learned by a 10 year old from serious reflections on his past year of life. 

Our 7 year old’s list of reflections was highly entertaining and enlightening.  As with all the children, the impacting influence of farm life was highly evident….more than I realized.  A few of the (newly turned) 7 year old’s reflections were:  

• I helped work on the milk barn.
• I started learning how to read.
• I learned that a chicken will die without water. 
• I learned NEVER to put a chicken in with a dog cus’ the chicken gets killed.
• I learned that a castrated cow won’t breed with a milk cow. 

And I learned that moving to a farm teaches children way more than you will ever think they will learn and it is only through teaching them to reflect and remember things in their life, even from a young age,  that you find out some of those little known facts that were bouncing around in their little heads.