Homestead in the Suburbs

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Homestead in the Suburbs

We are a family living in suburban Pacific Northwest, interested in gardening, food preservation, self reliance and everything in between.

11/01/2025

We are babysitting this weekend 🥰 sweetest little lamb🥰

09/01/2025

Leaving the house with partially made English muffins because I overslept…

09/01/2025

Missing my garden and all the buzzing bee…lots growing indoors but it’s not the same…

Barley grass for the animals and my Christmas cactus are thriving ❤️

09/01/2025

My kids love sandwiches and I hate sandwich meats available at stores…my solution…make it!! Usually we smoke the meat (pork, beef or chicken) but today with time constraints, Paul cooked this in a cast iron with spices…slice it thin and voila…

We are eating from the pantry as much as we can…so our vegetables are limited to preserved or ones that store well (cabbage and carrots)…we had meatloaf today…pickled cucumbers and asparagus added a nice touch!!

07/01/2025

Well, we did it…sort of…almost! Little House on the Prairie and no electronics challenge was an awesome experience and a disaster on its own 😂

We had a blast are so changing our ways around here!! Less tech for this family from now on 🙂

The kids were 95%technology free…we spent an evening watching a movie as a family and then watch a cute Christmas movie (as a group) at our friends house during dinner 🙂 Phones were put down for the most part…tablets put away and computers were turned off. Initially they seemed a little bored but soon found ways to entertain themselves…we had a lot of family time…lots of giggles and games. It was nice and is making my having to go back to work tomorrow very difficult. Here is what we learned…

The days are so much longer if you are not consumed by electronics—I didn’t think it was so bad at our house—but apparently, it was…I always complain about the time rushing by…well if I am not consumed by my phone—the time is there…

We turned off the lights on 12/23 and did everything without electricity (not officially but didn’t use the lights, lizards still had their lights and heat source)and it was very easy to do and we had fun…until it got dark…it was Christmas Eve Eve so the kids were bummed about not turning on the Christmas lights…I felt awful (hense the disaster)! So we decided to do our no light/emergency mock challenge after the holidays. We still did no electronics and cooked a lot using the wood stove but Christmas without the lights seemed cruel. On 12/24, the lights came back on ☺️

We didn’t get a chance to check our generator which was a bummer but got a lot of work done with our newly found time. Generator experiment will take place in a few weeks 🙂 we will still do it to learn if our home is emergency preparedness ready!

For me personally…I could not unplug completely…I have people asking me questions on FB (my page, personal and from market place)…I had parents texting me about their kiddos and tracking numbers to observe due to delayed shipping of items I had ordered. I hated that I could not go cold turkey without my phone but I used it 90%less and that’s pretty awesome for baby steps…I spent so much time reading and doing little tasks around the house I never had time for—I am telling you…everyone should try this at least for a day.

Christmas 2024 was a huge blast! Lots of handmade gifts…Isobel crocheted all her gifts…Paul got an awesome hat and I got a bonnet (I mentioned a while back that I liked Laura’s bonnet from Little house). Everyone was happy!!

New Years Eve…the kids got a huge surprise…I am (we all are) a brand new horse owner! Yes, we got a horse! We made our daughters’ dreams come true!! She has a unique story…she needed love and my girls needed to love a horse…all in God’s time!! New Year we celebrated with our good friends, delicious food, fireworks and a bonfire!!

We are excited to see what 2025 has in store for us…sorry for the photo dump😂

06/01/2025

Our friends butchered a cow and had a bunch of trimmings and remnants left over and generously shared them with us.

We made 25lbs of raw cat-dog food. 8 lbs of chicken scraps (which I add to beans I cook for the chickens for a nice warm meal once a day)

10 gallons of bone broth are on the stove and I am in the process of making tallow for lotion and cooking with ❤️

Feeling accomplished today :)Plus more animal scrap from the bones in the broth 🙂

06/01/2025

Doing this today!’

03/01/2025

Well, breaking my own rule again…per Isobel’s request (it’s impossible…and I hate that there is no other outlet) posting “our” latest creation 🙂

I have been having a blast spinning yarn and Isobel crocheting these super cute (and warm) fingerless gloves ☺️ These would make fantastic Valentines Day gifts. Her business is official!! If you would like to support a really neat kiddo, let me know. Spirited Cowgirl Fiber Works is official as of today!!

More on the gloves: the wool (sheep) are raised (and processed) in Sandpoint Idaho, spun and crochet in Spirit Lake Idaho…super local, organically raised and incredibly warm!! The faux fur adds a nice little touch ❤️ $28

31/12/2024

Taking a moment break from our no technology challenge (which has been awesome so far…more on that on the 6th of January) to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!! 2024 was a good year—lots to be grateful for❤️ Wishing everyone an amazing 2025!!

We have been doing some planning, dreaming and reflecting—my favorite part of the year.

Early 2024, we butchered our hogs…all on our own. It was a bitter sweet experience of course but we felt accomplished and very much proud of our abilities to grow and provide protein to our family!

Our garden was a huge blessing this year…not without hiccups but God is good and we are still enjoying the bounty (in frozen, canned or dehydrated form)

Meat chickens 2024 was a success as well…not a new skill for us but it was nice to have a chicken plucker from our friends to make the task WAY easier.
We are forever grateful for our besties here in Spirit Lake, the Wakefield family 🥰

My dreams came true this year with a pair of dairy sheep! Daisy and Violet (Di & Vi as I like to call them) have been a wonderful addition to the homestead. They will be bred this year so more excitement (and nervousness) is in our near future…and milk…I hope!!

We added to our reptile zoo…frogs!! Leopard tree frogs and white Australian tree frogs! Luca is so happy—we are reorganizing the boys room to put all the reptiles together : ) Luca’s Reptile Zoo of Spirit Lake is slowly making progress!!

Papa Frost (Russian Santa equivalent) brought our homestead a wonderful surprise for the New Year…but more on that on Jan 6…

We have big plans for spring 2025…we made a huge to do list and are excited to start the new growing season. The beauty of homesteading is that learning never stops…there are victories and losses…experience and knowledge we gain…priceless! We always thrive to improve our homestead…but more often, our job is to maintain good stewardship over what God has given us. I am reading a great book on the subject by Joel Salatin, The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs. I highly recommend this book for everyone but especially farmers and Christians!!

I think I covered our year well…Isobel’s business is growing…she’s such a great kid—all of our kids are awesome! I learned to spin wool (last 10 years in the making)…a good year indeed!

I best get off my phone/FB…the kids are giving me the stink eye for using technology (they have been more graceful regarding the challenge than us, adults.)

Happy New Year y’all

25/12/2024

Merry Christmas ❤️

23/12/2024

Starting my Christmas break with cheese and yogurt making…today for breakfast we enjoyed clotted cream with our biscuits!

Just now I jared up yogurt…cheese is still in culture 🙂

Yogurt turned out amazing!! Strawberry, blackberry, apricot, vanilla, maple syrup and plain yogurt from caramelized milk (slow and low in the oven for 24hrs! The fruit came from freezer jam we preserved this summer ❤️

Along with a jar of start for the next batch and the liquids for baking 🙂 this all happened from 3/4 gallon of whole raw milk.

22/12/2024

What do you get when you take away technology from kids…creative play and lots of laughter!

Our family is going technology free for two weeks (other than phone for emergencies and to wish everyone Merry Christmas)! We decided that it would be better time spent as a family if we were 100%present.

We are also going to do a Little House in the Prairie Challenge…we want to see 1) how long we can last without electricity (we will be turning it off for24 hours to test our generator) 2) how prepared are we—supplies wise—to get through a major power outage. The kids are looking forward to our next two weeks with a little nervousness 😂…me too kids, me too!

I am curious to see how long we last…we will have power (with exception of one day) but will do our best not to use it. We have to make a plan to what will happen to our reptile zoo in case of an emergency. Plus two freezers with our protein supply. It’s one thing reading all the books about preparedness and thinking you have it all ready to go versus actually experiencing it 🙂.

I will be keeping a written journal of our experience…which will be weird as I often use this page to do just that 😬perhaps a few pics here and there as well 😂

Our challenge starts tomorrow—wish us luck!!

19/12/2024

Mr. Frogo is available for adoption just in time for Christmas 🎄PM me for details. He is super cute!!

17/12/2024

When one of your little homesteader has a birthday…and the tradition is donuts…mama is up before sun-up to make her day ❤️

16/12/2024

The kitties are enjoying the dancing snowflakes as well ❤️

16/12/2024

So far this has been a snowless winter…I don’t like it! Let it ❄️

15/12/2024

Little pre Christmas gifts from me to me 😂I inventoried my seeds and started garden 2025 planning ❤️

14/12/2024

Today’s homestead-homeschool lesson…how to get your rods set up for Kokanee…and how to use them! All the lures and hooks and thingies I don’t even know…so glad my boys (and Eloise) have such wonderful daddy to support their passion of fishing (it’s actually genetic for our kids…from both sides…skipping me😂)

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Snow 2024

So far this has been a snowless winter…I don’t like it! Let it ❄️

Isobel discovered a new yarn store in Sandpoint ID…thanks The Yarn Table❤️ It’s not too late to order handmade Christmas gifts and support a very cool 14.5 year old :)

First snow ❤️❄️❄️❄️❄️❤️

My kiddo is AWESOME!!

Potential first frost 😬

Last nights harvest of tomatoes

Kootenai County Farmers’ Market come support your local young entrepreneurs! So many amazing and talented kiddos!! So many excellent goodies ❤️

Sea of tomatoes

It’s getting saucy! We had a rain storm and it’s getting cold at night…so I picked ripening tomatoes and will use apples (ethylene gas) to ripen them all the way…hate doing this as it’s not the same as the sun…but!!!

Hard pruning in August

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11/01/2025

09/01/2025

09/01/2025

09/01/2025

07/01/2025

06/01/2025

06/01/2025

03/01/2025

31/12/2024

25/12/2024

23/12/2024

22/12/2024

19/12/2024

17/12/2024

16/12/2024

16/12/2024

15/12/2024

14/12/2024

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Videos

Snow 2024

First snow ❤️❄️❄️❄️❄️❤️

My kiddo is AWESOME!!

Potential first frost 😬

Last nights harvest of tomatoes

Sea of tomatoes

Hard pruning in August

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