Bringing Things Into Focus

When I began writing my blog I intended it to be a combination scrapbook and journal. Sort of like a cyber photo album documenting our life. As I got deeper into the realm of blogging and learned how things worked, I discovered that I fit best in the category of "homestead bloggers." I unconsciously shifted my focus to posts of that sort. I began to further narrow my posts due to my teaching inclination. I felt I should be doing tutorials. Teaching others about this life is my passion. I began posting less and less because I lacked the time to plan ahead to take photographs and do tutorials.  I am not here to impress others, nor to earn an income. It is my intention to get back to where I started. This blog is supposed to be about our life. We are more than simply homesteaders. Not that that isn't enough to occupy a person full time, but there is more. I teach full time. Wayne is a machinist. We live 30-45 minutes from work. As I was contemplating how I was going to make my new lifestyle work, I came to realize that I only have about three waking hours at home a day. No wonder I feel overwhelmed so much of the time!

We are preparing to start the Specific Carbohydrate Diet very soon. We had planned to begin on December 26th. However, we were given so much candy and special treats that we agreed to wait a few days until we could finish all those lovely delicacies before we attempted to start. We have finished all the sweets, but there are still quite a few items in the house that aren't allowed on the diet, so we are working our way through them. I think it will help ease the transition by going off sweets but not off other, more complex carbs, before jumping into the diet with both feet.

The diet coincides very well with the cyclical nature of food here. Miracle, my only goat left in milk, is drying off. I'm hoping this means that she settled when I took her to be bred in the fall. Milk is not allowed on the diet, and so the timing of this works out perfectly.

Things are pretty quiet here. Chores that took a couple hours a day in the summer can be completed in about 45 minutes a day now.

We still have seventeen chickens and five ducks. My golden laced Wyandottes and Cochins are laying superbly, despite the short day length and cold temperatures. I'm starting to think the most important factor in winter egg production is simply having ample water. We've been using steaming hot water in the mornings to help keep it from refreezing as quickly. I think it has helped a lot. The ducks are laying machines. I think they are each laying an egg a day without fail. Sadly, I discovered in mid-November that I am allergic to duck eggs. This has prompted us to look for a new home for the ducks. Hopefully they will be blessing someone else's egg basket very soon.

Miracle and Baby have adjusted quite nicely to being a two-goat herd. They are content little puffballs bouncing around in the goat pen, happy to stay out of the cold wind and munch hay most days.

I am not one for resolutions. I think they are just setting oneself up for self-loathing. However, I miss having personal devotions on a daily basis. When I was in my teens and early twenties I used to buy a new devotional book every year. It would be a book with a devotion for every day of the year. I have two such books that I bought several years ago, and I plan to get back into that habit. The books I am using are The One Year Chronological Bible and the One Year Book of Hymns. I timed myself this morning and I did both in under 15 minutes, so I think this is a very reasonable goal.

Thank you for following along on our journey in this life. May you and yours have a very blessed new year!