Archive for the ‘Homemaking’ Category

[By Wolf]

Have you ever had that feeling of flavor filled nostalgia?

We recently took a trip to Disney World and had a wonderful time. During all of our planning we each thought about what things we really wanted to do that would make us feel satisfied after the vacation was over. One thing on the list was to go have pineapple Dole Whip at the Tiki Room.

Well, we did have some Dole Whip at the Magic Kingdom and to our extreme satisfaction, we were able to have it 3 times. We found that the Polynesian Resort had self serve Dole Whip at one of its eateries. There we created MOUNT DOLE WHIP.

Now it’s in our brain … and taste buds. We are looking for Mr. Dole Whip.

I tried a recipe tonight that left us wanting. It tasted more like pineapple ice cream. It wasn’t tangy enough and was too creamy and too sweet.

The recipe used:

1 quart of pineapple juice
3 cups of whipping cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla
3 cups of sugar
and top it off with milk

The family all agreed that it was really good pineapple ice cream, but not the elusive Dole Whip.

So, the search continues. Perhaps we need to start with a sherbet or sorbet recipe?

Okay, ladies… And gents, I suppose. Do we have any gents?

Anyhow, I need your help!

I’d like to test out a few different recipes for homemade cleaning and hygiene products, and review them here.

Please share the recipe and/or link to your favorites to get the ball rolling:

• Laundry Soap
• Dishwasher Soap
• Toothpaste
• Deodorant

Thank you!

Have you heard of water kefir?

Here’s some great info to get you started from the Healthy Home Economist, Cultures for Health, and Keeper of the Home (her photo).

I have been reading about this fr a while, and was interested… But not willing to shell out to purchase the starter grains online, since I had no idea how it would work out.

Then I saw an ad on our local Freecycle list – someone offering starter batches of water kefir grains, since hers had multiplied. Yay!

We exchanged emails, and I learned that she was a kindred spirit. She said,

BTW, I saw your blog. We are also a gluten free, Christian, homeschooling family of wannabe homesteaders! Very cool.

Hopefully we will get to know her and her family better!

So I now have a batch of water kefir happily fermenting on the kitchen counter.

We’ll find out how well it works out in a couple of days…

Okay, I admit it, the title is a contrived way to try and be cute while telling you about this fabulous offer.

I recently received a letter from the Bulk Herb Store folks, in reference to my Holy Week reviews of the Making Babies Book and the Making Babies DVD Series.

They had this to say:

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As a token of our appreciation for your review of the Making Babies Series, Bulk Herb Store would like to offer your readers a SPECIAL 40% OFF of the Making Babies Book & DVD Series. That is a huge savings of $44 dollars for you and your readers! Have a fantastic day and happy blogging!

WOW!

So you, my lucky friends, can head on over to the Bulk Herb Store and decide if you want the book, the DVDs, or the complete set.

Just enter the code MBBFMH at checkout for your 40% discount! And hurry – this is good for one week only, until July 16th.

I had big plans for Easter activities with the kids.

But the Easter activities didn’t seem to be on board with my plans.

We got a bit of a late start trying to grow grass on our Easter Garden after seeing the idea posted on Facebook (I apologize – I have no idea who to credit with the idea and the lovely garden pictured here).

First we discovered that Lowe’s didn’t really have a terra cotta pot small enough. Since we were already behind, we got the smallest one they had. [We have since learned that Michael's has adorable small sized pots for craft use].

We had trouble with the steep slope this created for our hill, but we soldiered on. Jewel and R.T. dutifully took turns watering the seeds with a spray bottle.

The grass was JUST beginning to sprout by Easter. Not ideal, but, it worked…

On “Easter Eve,” we made Easter Story Cookies.

The kids had fun making them, and we enjoyed reading the Easter story to them along the way.

The first batch, I realized I was in trouble when I got to the final step that said “add the nuts” … since I had put the nuts into the bowl after breaking them up in the first step!

Yes, I know I should have read through more thoroughly first, but it was the best I could do with a migraine.

So we put them in the oven and sent the kids to bed.

Then Wolf and I set about re-making them. (Yeah, we were going to “cheat” and stick them in the oven and not tell the kids!)

We beat and beat and beat, but they never fluffed. We read some other meringue recipes to try and figure out what the problem might have been.

Throwing them out, we made another whole batch with a couple of tweaks. We burned out the cheap hand mixer I’d just picked up (I should have known better). Then we burned out my stick blender! Ack! And still, no fluff.

We did put them in the oven, but with no hope of success.

The kids were surprised to see that they had “baked” overnight, but there was no miraculous “cracked open” or “empty (hollow) tomb”.

And I don’t even know what to do differently next year!

The only up side?

We couldn’t find a rock big enough to cover the overly-large tomb opening in our Easter Garden… But one of our Easter Story cookie-patties worked as an excellent stand-in!

Some good lessons learned for next year, and one mystery unsolved.

Good thing Easter isn’t about my homemaking endeavors!

Wolf will be going to his Reserves duty in Georgia for almost two weeks this summer, and we were considering whether it might be fun for the kids and I to go along and make a bit of a vacation out of it. (More for us than for him, poor thing!)

We’ve done this type of thing before, when he did some duty time at the Columbus, Mississippi base, and had a great time. We thought of that one more because he has family in that area, but really it’s fun to get away anywhere!

The complication is that this will be the first time we’ve gone anywhere since I started eating a gluten free diet back at the end of February.

No casual stops to eat out along the way… Even “obviously gluten free” things (such as meat) can have gluten containing seasonings on them – and restaurant staff doesn’t always know.

It’s not simple to “just swing by the store and pick up anything we didn’t pack”, since many stores have a very limited (or even none at all).

Certainly I will plan and pack – and I AM a planner! – but being the first time, I know there will be lots of things I never even think of.

Do any of you who are further along this path have any tips for gluten free travelling?

Sorry, no photo credit to be had. I picked it out of a composed meme picture floating around on Facebook…

It’s Day TWO of the As For My House Holy Week Giveaway Bonanza!

What? A bunch of blog giveaways aren’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of “holy” or “Easter”?

I know… But I wanted to share my joy with you at this time of year, and share gifts in honor of the Greatest Gift of All that Christ gave us.

There will be five giveaways, each lasting for a week, leading up to Easter Sunday.

I appreciate all the wonderful sponsors who have made this possible. Enjoy!!

Let me introduce you to Maple Hill Dryer Balls.

The owner, Rebecca, is a stay-at-home mom, making the dryer balls with wool from the sheep on her father’s farm. (Isn’t that sweet?)

She was a delight to do business with, and her products are very professional in appearance and even packaging.

Dryer balls are sold in many forms these days, all claiming to reduce drying time by allowing the air to circulate better among the items in the dryer.

Wool is a 100% natural way to do this, with no dyes or chemicals.

According to Maple Hill Dryer Balls, and confirmed by my experience, these dryer balls:

• Decrease static cling
• Fluff up clothing
• Are 100% reusable and very durable
• The XL size is much larger than others you’ll find (or the typical tennis ball substitute), and that much more effective!

The more you use the better your results. Maple Hill Dryer Balls recommends that people use 4 balls for small loads and 6+ for large loads to optimize drying time and benefits — or up to 12 for super large loads, heavy towels or cloth diapers, etc.

I purchased a set of 6 Extra Large Essential Oil Scented dryer balls – lavender mint. I do use a clothesline when possible, but I also rely on my gas dryer when it’s raining, humid, or the laundry is just too much at one time for the line.

The smell was delightful, and I certainly enjoyed handling them. It didn’t seem to last very long, though, and since it doesn’t impart any scent to the clothes I don’t think I’ll spend the money to re-scent them.

The dryer balls have done a wonderful job!

I have absolutely noticed a decrease in drying time (think of the money saved on the gas bill!), as well as a softer, fluffier result. Why did I wait so long to try these little beauties?

As an As For My House Reader, you can take 10% off your purchase at Maple Hill Dryer Balls from now until April 10th. Use code AsForMyHouse10 at checkout.

Enter below to win a Coupon Code good for 50% Off your purchase at Maple Hill Dryer Balls

a Rafflecopter giveaway

At only $4.99, this looks like a terrific little eBook for all of us – the frustrated wanna-be homesteaders!

What if… you could fulfill your homesteading dreams without having to relocate?

What if… you could start a journey towards a simpler way of life where you are right now?

Wherever you live right now– THAT is your homestead.

Contrary to popular belief, a homesteader doesn’t have to be someone who lives on hundreds of acres with the perfect red barn and white picket fence.

They live in apartments in the middle of the asphalt jungle. And in suburbia with mini-vans. And on a few acres on the outskirts of town.

Your Custom Homestead takes you through a 21-day process of moving closer to your homesteading dreams, no matter where you may live.

In this 79 page eBook, we’ll examine different motivations for homesteading, define exactly what modern-day homesteading means, and then work through the prepwork and actual processes of accomplishing a homesteading lifestyle that will perfectly fit your unique situation.

I’m definitely going to check it out – it has information on making the most of an unlikely location, planning for (future) farm animals, and many other topics that are right on my “To Do” list.

And a great bonus? You can have it however you want!

Buy the .pdf version

- or –

Buy the Kindle version

If you hurry, you can also enter to win one of three copies (.pdf) from GNOWFGLINS.

(Links in any posts may contain affiliate links, in which case your purchase helps support the maintenance of As For My House – and we thank you!)

Although the lab work from the end of last year came back negative, my doctor was just as convinced as I was that the pattern of symptoms was very clear: I likely suffer from some degree of intolerance to gluten.

The only way to find out, really, is to go gluten free and see how you feel – after 4-6 weeks’ worth of vigilance. You have to allow time for all the gluten to be fully purged from your system, then additional time for your gut to heal from the stress and damage.

I began my gluten free diet semi-coincidentally at the beginning of Lent. We don’t observe Lent, but since that was when I was ready to begin anyhow, it seemed a nice symbolic and easy-to-remember date.

Since I was planning to share my reviews of gluten free products and recipes anyway, I decided to put them “out there” in the world a little more. I am now the Biloxi Gluten Free Examiner at Examiner.com. If you click through you can see a page listing everything I’ve published there, as well as subscribing to my feed if that interests you.

In two weeks I’ve learned a lot… In some ways it’s even harder than I thought, but in some ways it has been easier. I’ll keep updating you on my journey – but don’t worry, the focus of the blog isn’t changing. (That’s part of the reason I started posting that content over at Examiner.com).

The hand laundry continues, with much slow progress along the learning curve.

Here’s a few things I’ve learned so far about the process, and the products.

Breathing Washer, Rapid Washer, or laundry plunger.

When I started my journey, you may recall, I went with an inexpensive rubber toilet plunger (new!). A plunger is a plunger, right?

Wrong. Of course.

The rubber plunger lasted through just a few weeks of hard use before it gave out – the rubber isn’t designed for that much bending, all the time.

The breathing washer has been a lifesaver, and valuable investment. It is a sturdy plastic cone that doesn’t flex, so no stress on it that way. It uses pressure and suction to push/pull the water through the clothes, offering very effective cleaning.

Must have tool for hand laundry.

Clothesline Drying

Wolf got my lovely new clothesline set up in the back yard. We chose this one as a good balance between the right item and the right price:

On the advice of a friend, we installed it with a T-post in the ground rather than trying to dig in its sleeve, and added reinforcing dowels on each arm with cable “zip” ties.

I use good ol’ wooden clothespins to keep things from falling off every time a breeze blows by.

That part works like a charm.

Mississippi weather? Not so much. Brief but frequent rains, and high humidity, make drying outside sometimes quite challenging. Although I try to use it as much as possible, I am very thankful that we still have our gas dryer hooked up and available!

But let’s go back to the washing for a moment…

Wringing

We had purchased this wringer:

…and Wolf set me up a lovely little laundry stand with a utility sink, the mounted wringer, room for a bucket to gather clothes in from the wringer, and room underneath for storage (or, in my case, the cat boxes!).

He bought the utility sink at Lowes, then had to build a table to raise it since we’re so tall. The side also needed to be reinforced to support the wringer, and it needed a more functional drain/plug. It now lives in the “mud room / laundry room” by the back door, using the same plumbing connections the washer used.

Other than some challenges with finding a drain setup that works in that sink (which was designed for just a rubber stopper), the laundry station setup has been working out very well.

The wringer? Not so much.

First, a picky complaint: the description states, and the photo shows, wing nuts to adjust the tension. It did not, however, show up with wing nuts. Luckily, Wolf replaced the “plain nuts” that were included before I ever even saw it, and I went about doing laundry.

But the design is seriously flawed.

When mounted on the side of the laundry tub, the rollers are, obviously, dangling over the tub (allowing the water wrung out to go down the drain). Over time, due to friction rubbing the finish off, and constant exposure to water, the ends of the rods quickly start getting tiny rust specks… Which are then ground off at each use, and the greasy, rusty water drips off — right onto the clean laundry waiting to be wrung (or the next load just placed in the tub).

Over time, now, the black paint on the arms has worn all the way through, and those surfaces are rusting as well, resulting in more “gunk” in the works – which is now also creeping in along the rollers (soiling clothes as they are wrung), rather than “just” dripping down onto the clean clothes below.

The work-around we have come to is that Wolf completely disassembles and cleans all the interior bits of the wringer about once a month. Meanwhile, I wait between each load of wash (and rinse) for the drips to dry up and stop before cleaning out my tub and beginning the next load. It’s an awkward situation, but it is what we have to work with for the time being.

The company from which I bought the wringer didn’t seem concerned with my feedback, declaring that they have sold “thousands” of these over the years. They say that, while not perfect, it is made in the USA and they are proud to offer it. I feel they are likely missing the point: I imagine that most people use the wringer for weekends at the cabin, or other intermittent or light use. It still bears noting that under heavy, full-time use, it has the above (serious) issues — my suggestion was not that they stop selling it, only that they add some clarification to the description.

The manufacturer of the wringer, who previously chatted with me by both email and phone about his design ideas for related products, did not respond to my two emails on the subject, nor to an inquiry by a mutual friend.

Wolf is working on a way to rebuild the wringer that will solve this problem. He had actually hoped that the wringer company would be interested in such an improvement, and it could be manufactured this way for the benefit of a larger population. Since that’s not the case, he will do a “one-off” rebuild of my existing wringer, and I, at least, will be happy.

So, on we go.

Learning, and in many cases, building, everything from scratch…