Our Top 10 Posts Of The Year

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     On June 9th, 2014, I began my blogging career because of encouragement by my Facebook bestie, Treats By Tanya. Never in a million years would I think someone would want to read about my daughter and I's homeschooling/homesteading journey. The more I posted our funny adventures, the more she would urge me to write for the world to see. I finally gave in. I love this journey we have taken, and I love sharing it with you. Thank you all for the support you have given us! Here is a list of our Top 10 posts of 2014. 

10. Attitude Is Everything: See what happens when little miss catches attitude about a research/writing assignment SHE CHOSE! 

9. A Foraging We Will Go: I spent my whole mommy career telling my kids, "You can't eat that!" Just to find out.. YES YOU CAN! 

8. What do you do when you have super juicy yummy tomatoes you wish you could grow again for the next year? Save The Seeds of course! 

7. Water Filtration: How do you make puddle water drinkable? We are still not sure if you can drink it... but we managed to filter it out (and get rid of the unexpected pee smell.)

6. A deep contemplation about where I just 'naturally' acquired all of my homemaking/homesteading skills. Things I Learned From My Grandparents, (And I Didn't Even Know I Was Learning!)

5.Washing Clothes The Old Fashioned Way: How much can you save from washing your clothes by hand? And did my kid enjoy it? You be the judge. 

4. You Ate What? Yes, I did! And I will do it again. Only, now that the boy is gone.. Who is going to kill and skin it for me? 

3. Why We Prep As A Family: For the kids of course. I want our family to be prepared for any situation that comes our way. You might think you know what you are going to do, but have you done the stuff?

2. Guess What This Is For?: We got several answers, but did you guess correctly? I bet you did, you smart cookie you! 

And Our #1 post of the year? Came as quite a shock to me. Who knew a simple test to check if your eggs are fresh would be so popular? Don't Be A Rotten Egg! 

Thanks for joining us on our Homeschool/ homesteading journey towards self sufficiency.  We will see you with new adventures in 2015. Until then, go check out some of my favorite blogs and their Top 10 of 2014. 

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online. 

It's Washing Day!

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     Finally, it is clothes washing day! We had such a great response to our wash tub post but it has taken a while to actually get to the point where we could wash our clothes. Life has a way of getting in the way, especially if you have one foot into the rat race and another on a homestead.

     First, my mother got very sick right after I posted my daughter was excited about washing her clothes in a washtub with a wash board. Mom was in hospital with double pneumonia that turned into ARDS and was transferred to a specialist hospital over an hour away from where we live. It was very scary for a while, but she is out now and doing great! My daughter and I were commuting back and forth to be with her, and spending more time away from home then we were actually here. (At least that is the way it felt.) My mom is one of the most important people in the world to me, I have no regrets being there for her. It just put our clothes washing day on hold.
     Second, my boss let us borrow her washboard that she says is around 150 years old. Mrs. C is in her 70s (you would not know this if you met her) and it was her grandmothers when she was a child. It was passed down to her, but she remembers it being used regularly when she was a child. But as it goes for busy women, when I was able to go to work in between doctor and hospital visits, I would forget to remind her to bring in her washboard, and she was working and taking up the slack for me not being at work, so she would forget to bring it. Yesterday, we were surprised to find it sitting on her desk.
     And then, there is the soap issue! Mrs. Joyce is our adopted grandmother and we were treated with a story about when she was my daughters age. On Saturdays, she was allowed to wash her own clothes in her own little washtub. It made her feel grown up and special. She remembers using the homemade lye soap, washing, rinsing, and hanging her clothes to dry. Homemade lye soap? Well of course we had to Google it! After reading an article on Mother Earth News, I decided this was not a project I wanted to embark on that project on my own just yet. We have a family friend that owns a soap and herbalist shop that is not too far from us. Unfortunately, she does not make lye soap. We will be able to come watch and help her make soap at a later date, but for now, we were still on the search for lye soap. 
     At one of our little hometown country feed/ building materials stores, we finally found what we were looking for. Sort of. The lye soap they had was from a little small business, but it was a bath and body bar, and not for clothing. Maybe if it smelled good, we would have still used it, but my daughter did not like the unscented version and did not want to use it. Then, I spied the Fels-Naptha bar. We smelled it and it was lovely. So Fels-Naptha it is! AND, the best part for me is that we are going to learn to make our own regular laundry detergent, so we will get double use out of the same little $1.49 bar! Can't beat that! (Amazon is a lot higher, look for it locally to save money.)
     Before we get started, we will be reviewing the videos on YouTube we found for washing your own clothes the old fashioned way. Mom With A Prep had a lot of different ways, links and sources for washing your own clothes including a video of a lady that washes her own on a regular basis. Another one we are watching is of a little girl that shows you how to wash using a wash board. You can see the video HERE.

So now here we are, all set and ready for her to wash her own clothes. 
Wish us luck!

This is a 3 part series! See also, 

Guess What This Is For

Washing Clothes The Old Fashioned Way

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online. 

Guess what this is for!

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      My daughter is so excited to start her next 'homesteading' project! Can you guess what this big bad boy is for? Yup! She is going to do her own laundry the old fashioned way!

     I really can't imagine a kid being excited about doing their own laundry. Especially, doing her own laundry by hand. She is 10. She should be crossing her arms and looking at me like, 'Seriously Mom?' But no, my kid is excited!
     I have been running out of cool, original ideas to do to go along with homesteading the old fashioned way. We have been reading 'Little House In The Big Woods' and are enjoying hearing about them preserving all of the meats and food for the winter. (But we are not at that level yet.) We were going to make corn cob dolls, and saved all of the corn husks to make a doll. However, when they dried, they curled up. (Going to have to do some more research on how to do it properly.)  We don't have the means to make bullets, or the skills to play the fiddle. She has made butter numerous times with me,  AND in public school, with heavy whipping cream. If we make fresh butter again, it's going to be from fresh cream from a cow or goat. I don't have access to either of those at this time, as well.... 
    So I was sitting at work, racking my brains for the next project, when I thought, "Ask Mrs. C!" Mrs. C is my boss and quite the educator herself with nearly 40 years experience! She thought for a minute and first came up with the same tried and true homesteading skills lessons most use. When I told her about the corn cob doll, she understood I was looking for something different. Her face lite up as she said, "I have my mother's wash board." WAHOOO!!!! 
    Later that night, I asked my daughter if she knew how people used to wash their clothes before washing machines. "I don't know what they are called, but you do this with them," she said moving her hands up and down in a scrubbing motion. "And you use one of those silver tub things!" 
"Yes, you scrub them on a wash board that is inside of a wash tub. Guess who has a wash board?"
      My daughter's eyes grew big. "Who?" 
     "Mrs. Carolyn, and she is going to let us borrow it."
      My daughter clapped her hands and squealed. "Do I get to make my own soap, too?"
     "If you want to!"
     "I do!' 
     Joyously, she danced around singing a happy tune of 'I get to wash my own clothes!' Until suddenly, she was right beside me, wide eyed and asking, "How much are we going to SAVE?"  This kid cracks me up! :)

UPDATE: This ended up being a 3 part series, with this being the first part. It's Washing Day is the second post and explains why we did not make our own laundry detergent. The third post is Washing Clothes The Old Fashioned Way where she finally gets to wash her own clothes. Make sure to read them all to get the whole story! 

Do you have a favorite DIY Laundry Detergent Recipe? We would love to hear about it!

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online.