Here are a few pictures from things happening around the farm this autumn season. Hope y'all enjoy...

Gathering  the last zinnias before a big freeze

The very last tiny tomatoes

Maybelline loves to lick Bella's belly. Bella loves it too!

Cooking breakfast on the summer kitchen porch

Homesteader girl, farm girl, or cow girl boots!

Fleck the most handsome of dogs

Seeding winter rye

Ironing on the sunny porch

The hoop house all ready for winter

Bringing in the zinnias

Gathering grasses for Thanksgiving decoration

Dinnertime.

Sisters.

Homemade chocolate mint whoopie pies

More beautiful flowers

Going hunting

Joining up with Tonto

A girl and her faithful dog.

Dear Friends,
 Hope this blog finds you all doing well and that your Thanksgiving was wonderful! We were very grateful to have a family of good friends over and much of our Thanksgiving feast was from what we grew and put up. With good friends, and our homegrown food and so much more, there's a lot to be thankful for! Here are a few pictures to share with you. 
We are also very grateful for our hot water heater being set up through our wood cook stove this past week! As long as we have a good hot fire in the stove, we have hot water in the kitchen sink and to the gravity flow shower as well! Yeah! No more hauling hot water and no more hot water bill! Although we have not paid a water bill of any kind in 20 years- but that's another story and I'll try to tell you about that in an upcoming blog, Off Grid Living Part 2. For now our farmhouse kitchen is full of wonderful smells of chocolate, no, not from pies that are baking this time of year, Jasmine is making her beautiful Chocolate Swirl Soap {her own  formula} and not only does it make your skin soft and feel great, this chocolate soap looks like you could eat it!! It's true, we have had to stop a few folks from biting into it! She is also making Silk and Lavender Soap which is made with real silk and lavender pure essential oils. The silk and other natural ingredients are moistening to your skin and the smell is lovely. Gentle Baby Soap is on the drying racks in our upstairs room and this soap is of course made with all natural ingredients so that it's safe and gentle for even babies. These all natural soaps are made right here on our homestead the slow old fashioned way and in small batches. In her soaps, Jasmine uses only the purest plant based oils {olive, coconut, palm and avocado}and then a blend of pure essential oils to give our soaps a clean, light, scent.
  Handmade soaps, especially ones with olive oil, can be an amazing treat for your skin. Olive oil is a natural humectant, meaning it attracts moisture without clogging up the pores. If you all have never tried olive oil soap, your in for a treat!
 I forgot to mention the Goat Milk Soap! We use to use goats milk from our very own goats, but now we have a heifer calf and no milk right now! But hopefully future milk blessings! Our good friends that are milking their goats needed soap making lessons, so we traded plenty of milk for soap learning! Yeah! So now Jasmine has plenty of creamy white goat milk for soap, and it is great! It is an absolute joy to make soap in your own home!
 Hannah has these cute little cardboard boxes all over the kitchen table {we have a big dinner table, plenty of room for soap and boxes}and is putting them together to package and ship soap orders in. As we all get the soaps ready for our "shippers" {our friends}, who faithfully and carefully take orders and ship out for us, I can't help but think {with a smile}about many of the friends and families who will receive these packages of homemade soaps. They are made with lots of love and care and I just know y'all will love and enjoy the good smelling packages of soap from our homestead. What a Homestead Blessing to do the work you love at home!
 Thank you for all the encouraging comments about our YouTube films, can't wait to do the next one. What an adventure! It makes me think of this quote from G K Chesterton:
"Today there are fewer places to discover and the real adventure is to stay at home."
Be sure to visit our website for the different sales going on and new homespun products, www.homestead-blessings.com   please tell your friends about us! There is also a free down loadable color page on our blog for the children, it's a sample of the up Homestead Blessings Coloring Book we've been working on. We hope it will encourage good art and music and a joyful family life and adventures on the homestead.
Well, that's all for this homestead blog.
                 Many blessings to you all,
                             Vicki for the West Ladies

Hopefully more pictures soon!

We hope your children will enjoy coloring this holiday coloring page from our upcoming coloring book!

To print the full sized picture, click on the picture, then click file, then print.

Tie on your apron and come join us in the kitchen as we mix up family holiday favorites with new and affordable ingredients from the homestead!

Pumpkin (Butternut) Pie

2 Cups butternut squash (prepared)

2 Eggs

1 1/2 Cup brown sugar

2 Tbs. vanilla

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice


Preparing Butternut Squash

Cut butternuts in half lengthwise, scoop out seeds.  Place in baking dish, skin side down, and add 1/2" water.  Bake at 350 degrees until very soft, approximately 45-60 minutes (depending on size).

Mix all together and pour into a pre baked 9" pie shell.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until knife inserted in middle comes out clean.

Hello, Everyone. Thank you all for the wonderful comments. 
We are very excited about this video and hope you are too!  The garlic seed, the clove, can be planted now in most areas-but try to get it in before Thanksgiving so you can have nice garlic to harvest by June or July.  Garlic is a blessing and can be used as a food and a seasoning-but it's also the world's best natural infection fighter.  Garlic can also deter insects so it makes a great border for your garden.

Many Homestead Blessings,
Vicky

P.S.  Tips:
-When grown together, garlic and tomatoes benefit each other!
-Plant garlic where no member of the cabbage family grew the year before.
For recipes using garlic check out our Herbs DVD and homestead blessings cook book.