This World is Not Our Homestead

This World is Not Our Homestead This is where I share about homesteading on .22 of an acre in central Arkansas with my family of ten.
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I found treasure at Goodwill! I was hunting for a wool shirt and found some goodies!I found a 100% Cashmere open front j...
01/07/2025

I found treasure at Goodwill! I was hunting for a wool shirt and found some goodies!

I found a 100% Cashmere open front jacket type thing (unfortunately it was impossible for my arms to fit in the sleeves though so that went to Corabell, she's very happy with it).

I also found a sweater that's 85% silk and 15% Cashmere. It's too short on me, so Corabell gets that one too.

I found an 80% lambswool 20% nylon sweater that does actually fit me and... I found the button up sweater jacket thing you see me wearing in the picture and (drum roll) it is 70% lambswool, 20% angora (rabbit hair), and 10% nylon!

I'm so happy to have found such valuable items at Goodwill! I have some holes to patch in my pieces, but it's more than worth it! I can hardly believe I'm wearing something with angora rabbit hair and lambswool and one of my daughters is wearing Cashmere and silk!

(Pictured with me is Dean.)

When you're soaking in the sunshine and it feels so good...
01/06/2025

When you're soaking in the sunshine and it feels so good...

I finished it. I have created my best rabbit cage yet. This cage includes floating shelves, a convenient door catch to h...
01/06/2025

I finished it. I have created my best rabbit cage yet. This cage includes floating shelves, a convenient door catch to hold the door open and out of your way when needed, homemade cage latches, and the epitome of cage flooring, 1/2 inch by 1 inch - 14 Guage wire.

Want to hear something crazy?

Now that's it's finished I realize at least one way that I could have made it better... I guess I'll just have to keep that in mind on the next one.

I have work to do, but I'm not going to do it. I'm resting. I am ceasing from my work to honor the Sabbath and resting u...
01/04/2025

I have work to do, but I'm not going to do it. I'm resting. I am ceasing from my work to honor the Sabbath and resting until sundown. Yes, frostpocalypse is still getting closer with every passing second, yes, I still have work to do before it gets here, but I am going to trust Yahweh over my own efforts to control things. Jesus said, "The sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath." The sabbath was made for my good. I absolutely would drive myself into the ground (and potentially those around me as well) if I didn't observe the sabbath. Rest does not come naturally for me.

So, I'm wearing my pajamas all day. I'm taking it easy. At sundown tonight, I plan to get back to work, but for now I'm resting and it is good.

At this point I'm on day 5 of building "the perfect rabbit cage." It's going very well, albeit slower than I would like....
01/03/2025

At this point I'm on day 5 of building "the perfect rabbit cage." It's going very well, albeit slower than I would like. I have three things left to do to finish the cage.

1. Cut and attach 2 inches of 1/2 x 1 inch wire as baby saver wire around the bottom perimeter of the cage.

2. Cut and "fasten" the support pole for the floating shelves so it is firmly fixed in place.

3. Figure out my preferred diy cage latch, make, and attach them.

But, I need some new grinder blades before cutting more wire. I really want this cage built before frostpocalypse gets here, but I honestly don't even know what day it's supposed to arrive. I'm not confident that I can finish this today, but if God is willing, I'd sure be happy about it!

Please do pray for my children, we're still dealing with sickness in many of them.

I've been working in this cooooold weather almost all day, trying to figure out how to make shelves "work" in my rabbit ...
01/01/2025

I've been working in this cooooold weather almost all day, trying to figure out how to make shelves "work" in my rabbit cage. I think I might have it figured out and Handsome brought me homemade potato chips!

Sketches of a mad-woman? No, just me trying to make sense of things so I can teach it to others in a coherent way. I hop...
01/01/2025

Sketches of a mad-woman? No, just me trying to make sense of things so I can teach it to others in a coherent way. I hope to finish building and recording my "How To Build a Rabbit Cage" tutorial today. Editing is going to be brutal, but hopefully it'll be my best video yet.

If you interested in building your own quality rabbit cage, stay tuned! It'll be a three hole cage as one structure, measuring 9ft x 2 ft x 30 inches.

I'm thinking of adding shelves as well to increase floor space, like some of the fancy cages I've seen online.

It's genuine medicine!I have sick children, one is a bit more concerning than the others so I made a strong batch of tea...
01/01/2025

It's genuine medicine!

I have sick children, one is a bit more concerning than the others so I made a strong batch of tea and this potent medicinal mixture you see pictured. This is half an onion, lots of garlic, an aji mango pepper, kombucha, vanilla, a splash of gin, a splash of goldenrod tincture, a scoop of the blended greens from the tea I made (mullein, thyme, ginger), honey, and kombucha and this stuff is strong! It made my eyes water and burned my throat a bit when I sampled it, but it'll sure do what it's meant to do, which is: Help open the airways, decongest, and boost the immune system.

I'm so thankful to have the plants growing that should be able to help their bodies fight off this sickness.

Hannah didn't have a fever today, but she was exhausted and resisting napping for most of today. So, I moved her crib ou...
12/30/2024

Hannah didn't have a fever today, but she was exhausted and resisting napping for most of today. So, I moved her crib outside in the hope of making "some" progress on my rabbit cage. As of this moment, I have the 9ft floor section cut to length and the edges ground smooth. It's not much, but I'm happy to have made progress.

I absolutely love the baby phase of parenting, but it is typically not conducive to productivity. She's so precious, in spite of the difficulties, I really cherish so much of the short time that my children are babies. These are sweet days.

Here's a visual example of the difference in 16 Guage and 14 Guage wire. The 14 Guage is thicker and more sturdy.These a...
12/30/2024

Here's a visual example of the difference in 16 Guage and 14 Guage wire. The 14 Guage is thicker and more sturdy.

These are both 1/2 by 1 inch wire.

In the first picture the 14 Guage is on the bottom. In the second picture it is on the left. I'm very excited to be building my first three-hole rabbit cage with 14 gauge wire for the floor. If you're interested in doing the same, I ordered the wire from KW Cages online website.

I was a bit worried about if they'd make sure to send me the correct amount of wire or a little under, but I'm happy to say that they actually send a few inches extra. The quality of this wire is excellent and they are literally the only place I could find that had this wire available where you could order custom lengths of wire.

I was trying to record a rabbit cage building tutorial earlier and it literally feels like all I got accomplished was th...
12/30/2024

I was trying to record a rabbit cage building tutorial earlier and it literally feels like all I got accomplished was this picture and an awful lot of over-thinking. For example:

1. Should I talk about the different wire options and their pros and cons.

2. Should I show how to draw out cage plans so they can make their own? That's "too much" to include in this video, I'll have to make that a video of its own... Should I record that now or later?

3. How should I record this? Maybe I should publish two videos One being minimalistic and to the point, one being more of a detailed walk along for the first time cage builder.

4. Why do I make everything so complicated? This is stressful!

But, at least I made some tiny bit of progress before my 3 year old woke up my baby.

Does anyone have a cure for overthinking?

You don't often get to see Handsome, but here he is. The man who brings home the bacon (both literally and metaphoricall...
12/29/2024

You don't often get to see Handsome, but here he is.

The man who brings home the bacon (both literally and metaphorically, I hate grocery shopping).

The man who loved me first, when I viewed myself as altogether undesirable and to this day it still baffles me that he was drawn to me.

The man who is the father of my children and with every child he has become a better man, husband, and father.

This is the man I desire to grow old with. This is Handsome, my husband, and I love him so very much.

The goldenrod tincture is filtered, good timing too because I have some sick children.
12/29/2024

The goldenrod tincture is filtered, good timing too because I have some sick children.

Remember the chuck roll we cut up the other day? I rendered the trimmings into three little jars of beautiful tallow! I ...
12/28/2024

Remember the chuck roll we cut up the other day? I rendered the trimmings into three little jars of beautiful tallow! I needed it too, my jar of lard that I had been using as diaper cream ran out recently.

I may have to make myself a little bit of whipped tallow to try!

One of our stovetop burners "bit the dust" and now only runs on nuclear, so I haven't been making broth much because I u...
12/27/2024

One of our stovetop burners "bit the dust" and now only runs on nuclear, so I haven't been making broth much because I use the other large burner for our everyday cooking. I actually prefer making bone broth on the stove because it feels cozy and I enjoy scooping little bowls of broth for myself or the kids and adding things to the pot as it cooks (for three days) but, with me needing to prioritize our one big burner, the instant pot is perfectly capable of handling the broth for our family. One thing I do that I don't think most others do when making broth is "second broth" (think of the Hobbits and second breakfast, but with broth). Instead of cooking my bones once and considering it done. I cook them one more time to get the most bang for my broth and you can to!

If you've never made bone broth in the instant pot, there's a video tutorial in the comments! I think my video editing skills are steadily improving, this video even has an entertaining blooper real at the end of it.

Handsome bought a chuck roll today. He cut it up, I vacuum sealed, and the pieces for grinding into ground beef are chil...
12/26/2024

Handsome bought a chuck roll today. He cut it up, I vacuum sealed, and the pieces for grinding into ground beef are chilling in the freezer before being turned into ground beef. Elsie was needing help with her math while we worked.

I am so thankful.

I did conformation checks on Bluebelle's kits since they turned 8 weeks old today. Look at this doe! She's the only doe ...
12/25/2024

I did conformation checks on Bluebelle's kits since they turned 8 weeks old today. Look at this doe! She's the only doe in the whole litter and I'm loving what I'm seeing! I'll be keeping her for a while to see how she shapes up, she looks like she will be able to replace her mother!

I'm quite pleased with many of the buck kits too. I think Bluebelle and Solomon tend to produce decent quality, but I'm planning on trying to breed her to the big young buck I kept back from Penny's last litter for Bluebelle's next litter.

We've been eating a bit too many carbs and sugar lately, so I'm making some healthy soup for lunch. Years ago, I thought...
12/24/2024

We've been eating a bit too many carbs and sugar lately, so I'm making some healthy soup for lunch. Years ago, I thought that canning was inaccessible to me because I didn't have (and couldn't afford) a pressure canner. After joining some Facebook groups, I learned about something called "rebel canning," in short, rebel canning is how people all over the world canned food before "benevolent" organizations came along to tell us what they declare to be safe or unsafe. Personally, I don't view these organizations as trustworthy and I desired to have the ability to preserve food for my family, so I tried it. I figured it was worth a try, bad food stinks and I have the boil time to destroy botulism written on a note in the cabinet.

If the seal is bad, obviously we don't eat it, but at this point we've enjoyed many pots of soup made from broth that I water bath canned years ago. I'm so thankful to have been given a pressure canner (I wad told that if I could fix it, I could keep it and after three attempts, I was successful)! Why use a pressure canner if I can water bath can? Pressure canning is faster and uses less water, I think it tends to give a stronger seal as well.

I'm a rule follower at heart, but if possible, I like to know the "why" behind rules and I need to trust the one making the rules. Rebel canning can be a really controversial topic, I personally am thankful for it making food preservation accessible to me and my family when alternatives were out of reach. Rebel canning does have recommended safe cook times for different types of foods and I do follow those guidelines. I think the primary motivation behind canning is preserving quality, safe food for our families and we all have that in common.

It's your kitchen, you make the rules, and I'm sure you do that with what you believe is best for your family in mind. Let's do what we believe is best for our families and treat others with respect knowing that they are doing the same.

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Videos

Rex Rabbit Kit #Rabbit #rabbits #bunny #baby #babyrabbit #Rex #rexrabbit #blue #rabbitry #cute #Arkansas #homesteading #homestead

Hannah Trying Cucumber
Hannah Trying Cucumber

Hannah tasting the suyo long cucumber.

Inside the Indian Giant Snake Bean #indiangiantsnakebean #snakebeans #snakebean #unique #odd #gourd #fruit #gardening #homesteading

Part 2 of smoking out the rat. Success!

Smoking Out the Rat
Smoking Out the Rat

Part 1 of smoking the rat out of my garden bed. It was very surreal to see the smoke coming up through the bed in various places. Insects and worms also crawled up out of the soil. I'll have to post part two separately, it won't let me post two videos in one post.

Chickens + Strawberries #chickens #backyardchickens #ducks #strawberries #strawberry #sweet #homesteading #happy

Ovi passed away today. We took Ovi in because he was too friendly and unafraid of people. The plan was to raise him and process him if he became aggressive or dangerous. But this friendly goof ball won my heart. I loved his friendly in your pocket (or on my head as the case may be) personality. I loved his constant friendly chirps. I'm seriously crying over this turkey. I buried him in the garden bed. Before having Ovi, I didn't want full sized turkeys, I'd been attacked by one before and it was a very unpleasant experience, but after having this guy around, I love the thought of getting more turkeys once we are able to move to the country and if we do, I hope they're just like Ovi. "Grief is an expression of love." - Jessica Sowards

Silly Turkey #turkey #friendly #silly #homesteading #heritage #heritagebronzeturkey

I've had chickens do this before, but this was my first time having a turkey fly and climb up onto my head.

I'm currently rendering lard from Chimi and Changa our Meishan pigs. This morning I had an epiphany on how to potentially speed up the process a little bit. I'm excited to use this. It will help reduce the amount of butter we use (I love butter, but we don't currently have the land to raise a dairy animal). #makeminemeishan #lard

Meet Ovi! A literal and proverbial turkey. #turkey #heritage #bronze

Today I posted one picture and three videos about cooking a pig head in the instant pot for my chickens for page subscribers. "If" what I've heard is correct, I can post content for subscribers that I cannot typically post without experiencing the usual ramifications. I am testing this theory, but only time will tell. Here's a rundown on the subscriber videos: 1. Pig head cooked in IP for 80 minutes. 2. IP opened and I test how tender it is... (spoiler alert) it was very tender. 3. Pig head given to chickens and their reaction to it. This is video 4 and the finale. Enjoy!

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