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You are here: Home / Archives for Activities at Home

Activities at Home

Noodlemaking

November 7, 2011 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Today’s special project was making noodles with my new toy–a noodlemaker that I bought using money I was given for my birthday with instructions to use only for myself.  (That’s a hard order for a mom to obey, by the way.)  The boys think it’s a toy for them.  They had fun and were a great help!

For supper tonight, I opened two jars of the beef broth I made a couple of weeks ago, and cooked about a fourth of the noodles in it, then chunked up half of a beef roast I cooked a couple of days ago.  Everyone loved it so much that I had to make a point to save out enough for Gayle’s lunch tomorrow or it would have been gone!

I’ve noticed that a lot of my posts on here seem to be about food.  Wonder if that’s a result of lots of hungry boys in the house?  They all love to help me in the kitchen!  It is one of the most important things we do, too, and takes more time than anything besides school.

One boy feeding in the dough, one cranking, and two carrying to the rack to dry.

This one thought he was helping, too!
Look at all that good eating!

 

 

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Homemaking

Cleaning Day!

November 5, 2011 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I decided today that it was time to wash the kitchen floor.  (Don’t ask how long it’s been–I won’t tell you.  Suffice it to say, it doesn’t happen often.)  It’s very interesting how much interest is generated in a job like scrubbing the floor when Mom starts doing it!  I got started, and soon boy # 4 came to help.  Then, when Esther finished sweeping, I had her start washing the ceiling; we never got the second half finished a few months ago.  Pretty soon boy #1 showed up, begging to help; I ordered him to wash–and dry (to finish removing dirt)–his feet first.  By then, #4 was working on cupboard doors and walls.  #3 decided it looked like fun, too, so he joined in, too–and then #2 got in on the act!  By the time we were finished, the floor was clean, and half the ceiling, and the walls and cupboard were much cleaner!  I told Gayle, “This is our family fun for the day!”  He asked if he could wash his feet and join in, too!  I said, “Sure–you can even have your own bucket!”  He went outside to do something else, though–can’t imagine why!

I apologize for the blurry pictures–amateur photographer, here.  (One of the younger boys–he forgot the flash.)

Standing on the table to scrub the ceiling!
This is the way we wash the ceiling! (Not really!)
A diligent boy!

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Homemaking

More Spring Gardening

November 2, 2011 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

It always amazes–and challenges me–to see how the children ALL want to do whatever I’m doing.  This afternoon I went out to transplant tiny tomatoes into individual pots.  Within minutes, all six children had joined me, and were helping.  A couple of boys got started planting pumpkin seeds that they had saved from the pumpkins they grew themselves last year in newspaper pots, and Esther worked on the tomatoes.  They can’t wait to plant in the big garden, which was plowed this afternoon.  Next week it should be tilled and we can plant!

Planting a pumpkin seed.
Bean seedlings
Setting the tomato seedlings on top the woodbox, where they will have plenty of light and warmth.
Spreading the bird netting over the strawberry patch--the first strawberry is nearly ripe!

 

 

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Garden

Beef Broth

October 28, 2011 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

This is the project I just finished up this morning, after working on it for nearly a week.  My husband works in a small factory where they do everything from slaughter the animals to making sausage, ham, bacon, etc.  By “small” I mean that they do 100-150 sheep and 8-10 cattle per day, and 125 or so pigs once a week.  Last week on Friday he was working in the boning room, where they break down the carcasses, and brought me home a big bag of “dog tucker”–meaty brisket bones!  We don’t mind eating that sort of dog food.  I have  a stock pot that holds about 25 quarts/liters, but it still took two rounds to get all those bones cooked.  I filled the pot as full as possible with bones, then added water nearly to the brim.  When the meat was cooked, I pulled the bones out and picked off the meat, then put the bones back in, with a bit of vinegar to draw out the minerals, and cooked it again for several hours.  Then, I strained out the bones and bits of other things, and set the pot of broth outside overnight to chill.  In the morning, the tallow had solidified and was easy to get off, so I did that, and scraped off the broth that was stuck to it.  The tallow went into a pan to boil off the water that was left so it will keep, and I’ll use it for greasing griddles.  I heated the broth till it was totally liquid again–it gelled nicely–and put it in jars and processed it at 10 pounds pressure for 25 minutes.  The results:  A big pot of soup for Sunday potluck dinner, with broth and meat, which also lasted us for two more meals; four meals’ worth of cooked meat in the freezer; another meal with meat from the second pot; about 10 quarts of broth in jars for adding to soup or making gravy when I need it later (my version of “convenience food!); and lots of tallow for greasing pans.  One of the boys also wants to make tallow candles, and Esther has her eye on it for making doughnuts!  We’ll see.

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Homemaking, Recipes

Mashed Potato Pancakes

October 22, 2011 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

This is Saturday morning, so I spent a little more time than usual on breakfast.  I made mashed potatoes yesterday, and had nearly two quarts left over, so I beat about six eggs into them this morning and fried them up into cakes for breakfast.  Yummy!  They take a long time to cook, so I don’t do it very often.  That gave me time to mix a batch of bread while I made breakfast, though!

The "batter"--I love how yellow our pastured eggs make it!

Breakfast time!

 

 

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Recipes

Pumpkin Crisp

October 17, 2011 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Esther and I invented a new dessert this evening: Pumpkin Crisp!  Gayle sorted through the pumpkins (in New Zealand, winter squash are called pumpkins) the other day and found several that were going bad.  Some were beyond salvage, but a couple were still usable.  We decided to try something new with a Butternut.  We peeled it, and sliced it into pieces about an inch by two inches and 1/4 inch thick (they varied a lot, though), then tossed about two or three quarts of pieces with half a cup of sugar and a sprinkling each of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger.  We put it in the casserole dish with about half a cup of water and baked it for 45 minutes or so, then made a topping like we use for apple crisp (1 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup butter) and baked for another half an hour.  We served it with whipped cream.  Yummy!

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Homemaking, Recipes

Sunday Evening

October 9, 2011 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We’ve had a lovely Sunday evening.  Gayle had time to play games with the children.  I helped Simon bread and fry dandelions for a snack (no pictures–they got eaten too fast!).  We went to the neighbor’s to thank them for boarding our heifer and bring her home, then after chatting with the neighbor for awhile decided to wait two weeks.  Esther and I made a batch of 24 whole wheat tortillas for supper–they all disappeared!  And Joe decided it was his job to sweep the floor.

Filed Under: Activities at Home

Moving the Cow

October 8, 2011 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

"Hurry up, I'm hungry!"

The cow needed fresh grass yesterday, so I had my trusty helpers move her.  Boys thrive on jobs like that!  The cow was very happy when the job was finished.

By the way, all these pictures are zoomed in a long way; the neighbor's house is not actually very close! My photographer didn't want to distract her brothers.

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Farming

Spring Gardening

September 29, 2011 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

One of my young entrepreneurs wanted to earn some money this week, so I told him I’d pay him $2 if he prepared a certain bed for planting.  He spent several hours on it last night and today, and now he wants me to inspect it to decide if it’s ready.  I think it is; he may just get a little more than I originally told him!  I’ll check it out in the morning.

In the meanwhile, some of his brothers decided they wanted to earn money, too, so they set to work on some other beds.

I actually got to spend a few minutes working in the garden this evening, too.  I was weeding a bed, and as I was digging up dandelions I realized they weren’t blooming yet, so wouldn’t be bitter!  I brought them in and chopped them into the coleslaw I was making.  We also had our fresh radishes and several carrots the boys found when they were digging up a bed to go with the cabbage and onion I bought.  Yummy!

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Garden

Equinox and Eggs

September 23, 2011 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Did you know that eggs can stand on end–without being cracked?  It can only be done twice a year–on equinox, the days that the sun crosses the equator.  That is the first day of spring and the first day of autumn, so around March 20-23 and September 20-23.  Today happens to be equinox, and for once we remembered to try this trick.  It works!  Take a look at these pictures.

About sixteen years ago, someone told my family about this, so we tried it.  I have a couple of pictures of four or five eggs standing on end in our living room.  I remembered that Tuesday morning, so found those pictures and took them along to Dead Boring (writing group), and told the group about this.  Then, believe it or not, I would have forgotten again until too late, except that one of the moms texted me this morning about it! 

 

 

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Children

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