Why 4-H...

Team Clover 4-H Club, the beginning of fun!

It has been a first half of our new 4-H club the Hubby and I formed.  If you are wondering why with out already busy lives we took on a 4-H club with over 10 members all under the age of 10, well all I can say is there are 3 very great reasons.  The Oldest Daughter, the Youngest Daughter and the Big Guy.  We wanted them to have the joy of being with friends, doing good for others and learning life skills too.
For a few years I was the Youngest Daghter's Girl Scout leader and I can say I'm quite happy to have moved from that on to something more fitting to the life and values I want my kids to know.  Don't get me wrong GScouts is a great program and what it stand for it great but as a GScout leader it seemed as I was always competing with all the other leaders to do things rather then working together with them.  In my own opinion it really seemed as though our school's Council itself didn't want other leaders to do or say anything they didn't' approve of.  Obviously that is just not the kind of club I wanted to be a leader of or have my kids in and my kids actually didn't want it either as one of them dropped out of her club of "no fun" as she put it and the daughter whose club I was the leader of actually asked me not to do it again.....

.....Problem solved with the formation of Team Clover 4-H Club.  I knew I wanted my kids to be involved in things around the community and be able to do things with their friends so we move on to a club that works best for our family.  That came in the form of a 4-H club as even the Big Guy could be a member of this club rather then having to be excluded from the stuff I did with the GScouts.   I had some limited knowledge of 4-H as I had volunteered at a club my niece was a member of 10yrs ago and knew that it wasn't all just "farming" as many people think.  I also knew that my kids would fit better into a club where they could have fun, do what works for them and be themselves rather then trained into cookies selling snobs and yes I said it, sorry seems that's all GS stands for now days.  
We did not have enough kids to form our own club so we opened up the club to not only friend of our kids but to our local community and ended up with 16 original members, WOW!  We weren't expecting such a response but we took them all on.  We also added another leader to help us out with such a large club.  She is the mother of one of the kids friends and I have basically known her my whole life.  Also she was a member of a 4-H club when she was younger so it just seemed to work for all of us.  Unfortunately it ended up being a bit more then a few members bargained for and we are down to 13 members but still that is a large club for such a small town and considering I only had 5 GScouts when I was the leader of that club.  We have had a blast this year and honestly I have not heard one member complaining so I guess we must be doing a good job finding fun ways for them to learn important life skills

So far this year we have learned a lot about Wild Birds, Hunting, Trapping, Fishing, Sewing, we have had fund raisers, had members go out on their own to other local 4-H functions and have almost completed our Community Service project.  Its been a blast and there is still tons of time for more fun including the local County Fair, Summer projects, Pheasant raising and the list goes on....

Do I think we made the right decision, Absolutely!  I had to drag the girls to Girls Scouts functions and now they are nagging for when the next 4-H meeting is going to be.

His 1st Fish

A fishing inspired 4-H meeting has led to all the kids all having poles that can be used when ever they want and that is exactly what the Big Guy wanted to do the day after our fishing meeting.  He is a very lucky boy as we have access to fishing daily with a brook on our property and some nice fishing holes just on the edge of our lawn so fishing he went.

The Hubby gave him a minnow trap to use to try to catch bait fish while he set his new pole with a hook and worm and waited and waited and waited some more.  Lets just say like most 7yr old boys he wasn't quite patient but unlike most boys he had the luxury of going to play in the yard and still see his pole so he played and played and played.  He had checked his pole a few times here and there but it didn't seem like the fish were going to bit today....

....Then this happened.  He check his pole and reeled in a fish.  We were building our green house at the time so he stood there by the brook screaming for us to come.  I almost panicked thinking he was hurt, well he is my baby even if he is 7 but seeing the smile on his face proved to be worth the run to him.  He was the happiest thing the rest of the day, all smiles and he also fished all day though he didn't catch anything else.

Wow, it doesn't seem like he is big enough to be fishing on his own already.  He did it though and caught this beauty all by himself.  While the rest of us had regular spaghetti with sauce for dinner the Big Guy enjoyed a nice trout with his dinner and ate every bit possible.

Fishing for some 4-H Fun

We have an amazing group of 4-H kids and as our first year in the club we have already had a ton of fun.  Trying to do everything that was listed by members when we first started back in October has been a challenge but we are trying for sure.  One of the things they listed as wanting to do this year was go "FISHING" all in capitals so I'm sure the member who wrote it really wanted to go fishing.  Of course if you know me at all by now we wouldn't just get some cheap, store bought poles and go fishing, no way we had to earn fishing....

Team Clover 4-H Club
Fishing with our poles under the Downsville Covered bridge.

First thing we have to do is make poles to fish with so at our regular monthly meeting we made poles and again if you know me at all they couldn't just be any sill string and stick poles even though that is what the Hubby wanted to do.  Nope if we were taking them fishing they were going to learn something along the way and make poles.  So we were having awesome bamboo pole and working reels on our poles too and before any of that we went over some fishing safety and such too.  Yeah, I know it took longer but such is life, all the good things require waiting and patients don't they.

Bamboo Pole with screw eyes and working reel.

DIY Reel made using thread spool, bolt, nuts, washers and a wooden spindle.

Next up was get fishing tackle and if time had allowed we were planning on making some lures at the meeting with the kids but that didn't look like it was going happen so it was the basic hook and worm fishing, probably the best way to go anyway.  Now obviously we had hooks but not enough for that many kids so we visited Al's Sports Store in town to pick up some hooks and worms.  Yes, that is a plug for a local business and there is good reason for it.  I love living in such a small town with amazing local businessmen (women too) as he graciously donated 2 dozen worms for us to take the kid fishing with.  Thank you so much to him as it saved me time in trying to dig them ourselves which meant more fishing time and also saved the club any money it would have cost to purchase them.  Now if you look at the expression on her face below, lets just say not all the members were quite as excited to be fishing with worms.

Youngest Daughter watching as she gets her worm for fishing, her expression says it all. haha

While it took a bit of time to make the poles fishing with them also proved to be a waiting game as well.  Unfortunately we didn't have a patient bunch and as no one actually caught in the time we had left to fish at our meeting we did have one member (the Youngest Daughter) who found a dead minnow left by previous fishermen and thought....Close Enough and used her new pole to scoop it out of the river. lol  Have to love my kids but she was the only one to catch or scoop up a fish that night.

Now they can all take themselves fishing when ever the opportunity arrives as they all have working fish poles to use.  They also have something even better in the knowledge to make new ones should they ever need them.
HAPPY FISHING 4-H!

My Green House

Finally got it done......About 5 years later then planned, tons of hoarding, 16 old windows, 1 sliding glass door, Plexi glass, lumber and tons of work.....Worth every ache, pain and minute!  Now to grow something in it.....

A few years ago, about 5 but who's counting I saw a post for a green house made of old windows and knew I wanted one.  Actually since I was a little girl I have wanted a green house and that just rekindled the spark I had way back then.  Anyway, the opportunity came to get my hands on some old windows and I took it knowing completely what they would be used for.  Well, lets just say they never made it to the green house as some were given away, some were used in the chicken coop, some were used in building our Sap Houses and some just broke over time leaving me a pile of frames with about one pane of glass each in them but I was still determined to keep them for my now someday green house.

So how did that pile of broken windows make this awesome green house?  They didn't.....
 About a week ago, which also happened to be about a week after having my gallbladder removed I was starting to feel much better, as I was having my morning coffee with the Hubby we were chatting about the garden and all that still needed doing now that I was getting better.  He had taken extra time off from work to help around here while I recovered and it was his last day home, I jokingly said we should just build a green house today and much to my surprise he said okay we will build your green house......almost fainted right then. lol

We set to work almost instantly, I knew I had a pile of windows stashed and I was certain we could make something work.  I knew they were mostly damaged but if we put all the broke ones together we would have a few walls and the rest well we could come up with something we usually do our best work when we don't have anything read anyway.   The hubby went to get the windows so we could figure out some sort of layout and size.  When he returned he brings out a pile of nice white windows that are not broken?  Where did they come from?  Well apparently he had been hoarding some windows himself for my some day green house too.....I'm such a lucky lady <3

Of course I already knew where I wanted it which required digging out the bank a little bit.  Apparently it wasn't quite as level as I though as it took most of the day to dig, lay up a a leveling wall and then build the frame.  I had to put my green house on hold yet again.

It was one of the longest work days I think the Hubby every had, not really just seemed that way and although he was tired after work he jumped right back into the green house as we actually had a very busy week ahead of us so we needed to work on it when we could....till dark even but we were able to get the roof and first wall on.  The roof is made from a set of sliding glass doors that were to be tossed but knowing we might have a use for them some day we hoarded them.  They were the perfect size, it was meant to be.

Days went by, only like 2 but it felt like months before we were able to work on it again and again we worked through dinner but were only able to get one wall on before we had to stop again.

Already it was Friday and a little over a week had gone by but it was the Hubby's day off again and we could work on my green house again.  First thing we did was install the final walls and build the door which ended up being the last 2 white windows we had put inside a custom frame to fit the smaller opening....It was so exciting to see it all coming together after all these years.

Saturday and the final day of work on the green house before the Hubby's work week started back up again.  I was up at 5am getting every thing done in the house so we would not have anything keeping us from completing my green house.   We spent almost the whole day working on the green house but by dinner time we had it done.  I even had time to work on making a potting bench and a custom rack for growing seedlings before cooking dinner.

We still have some detail work to do like trim around the windows, some sort of flooring and I have to make it look all cute but I cant begin to tell you how happy I am to have my very own green house.

......Now that I have it done, think the first thing to do is to get the seedlings in my dining room out there.....Did I say how lucky I am to have such a great life, not to mention the greatest Hubby ever!

Milk and Honey Soap

Homemade Milk and Honey Soap

At my last job before maternity leave (10yrs ago) they sold local homemade soaps which we also used in the restrooms as samples for customers.  I loved washing my hands at work, my skin was always so soft and clean, not to mention the "LYE" would clean and shine my rings like they were brand new.  A lot has changed since then and I am trying to do the best possible for my kids and family so I am always looking for the better, healthier alternative to modern day products.  I will admit I love the smell pretty products from Bath and Body Works I know they are pretty much just a big chemical bath so to speak and it is time to move on for us.

For a healthier us I knew this is one area where I was really going to have to push myself to find a better solution.  Not just to get away from all the "chemicals" but it was going to take some pushing to get past the "pretty" smells and colors of it too.  After much self convincing I decided that I'm a crafty girl so making soap couldn't be too hard and it was time to give it a try.But....yes the dreaded "But" the first though I think of when making soaps is LYE!!!! EEK!!! and so for that reason I kept putting it off.  You know reasons like: the kids are too little to have lye around, lye is dangerous, it could burn me, it gets too hot.....bla, bla, bla.  Well this year I was determined to do it and after talking to a local who makes soap her first suggestion to me was try it with a soap base and see if it something I wanted to or like to do and guess what the "LYE" in the soap base is not the "OMG going to destroy my face lye" but rather lye that has been already worked and makes for easy, peasy soap making lye instead.  So apparently I hadn't done as much research as I thought or I would have known this already but now I know and soap making I went.
The first step in making soap was to get a recipe that I could do easily and a simple 2 ingredient soap is pretty easy as far as I'm concerned.  I used a recipe from http://happinessishomemade.net/ but there are many recipes for Milk and Honey soap on the internet to choose from.  If you are looking for a simple 2 ingredient recipe you should know that most recipes call for adding oats to the Milk and Honey soaps so having rolled oats on hand may be a plus in soap making, I was actually out of them or this blog may have had a different recipe.

If you think you might be interested in giving it a try here are my step by step instructions.

1.  Determine your preference in soap base, I chose an all natural Goats Milk base from Amazon but there are different type of soap base one could choose.  It came in a 2lb. brick but I chose to use only 1/2 of the base for my first attempt.

2.  I cut the soap base into smaller cubes for ease in melting and melted it in 30 second intervals in the microwave, stirring between each interval.  All together maybe 5 minutes of cooking was required.

3.  While the soap base was melting I got my honey out and measured it to 1/4 of a cup so I could add it when ready.  My honey is kept in the fridge so it is quite hard so I gave it a few seconds in the microwave to soften it up to make for easy mixing.

4.  When the soap base has fully melted to a creamy/milky substance I added my organic honey and mixed it in.   

5.  You will notice lots of bubbles in mine, I would recommend slowly mixing to create less bubbles if you are going for "looks" in your soap as they stay in the mold and can affect the appearance of the finished soap.  Luckily for me this soap is just personal use so it didn't matter that I messed it up a bit.

6.  To give the soap a honey comb look I lined the bottom of the mold with regular bubble wrap (bubbles up).  I did this step while the soap base was cooking in the microwave also that way it would be all set to go when the mixture was ready. This step is not necessary but I like the finished look when it was done so if you are going with a "honey" soap it adds to the appearance of it.  There is no real how to to this I simple cut the bubble wrap to the size of the mold and placed it in.

7.  When the soap base and honey were evenly mixed I poured the mixture into the mold and wait for it to harden and cool.
I am not sure why, perhaps I needed to add more to each mold but they seemed full to me,  who knows?  The recipe I used said I would get only 4 bars of soap but I ended up with 6 and a little extra (that I molded with a separate dish) so be prepared to have more then expected if you are only using a 6 bar mold.

8.  After a few hours and I made sure the molds were fully cooled (I waited 3 hours) I removed the soap bars from the mold and peeled the bubble wrap off the tops of the bars.  Removing the bubble wrap was very easy and definitely gave the soap a honey comb effect so I will definitely use this technique again.

9.  Now we wait for the soap to fully cure (dry out and harden).  Many soap base recipes make it seem as though the soap is fully ready to use but to me it seemed rather soft and I will be curing mine for a few weeks before I use it.  As for curing time, I have read many different lengths of time for curing soaps and since this is my first try I'm really not sure what time to fully recommend but the research I did (online) showed that 4 weeks is the preferred length of time with turning daily the first few weeks.  If you have a method you recommend let me know and I'll be sure to pass it along to others.

*Note: if you are looking at my pictures and seeing a metal baking sheet  please know that was just for photo purposes to allow the soap to stand out and soap should NOT be cured on a metal or sealed wooden surface as it does not dry fully though.

2 Years Later, OOPS! My Bad

Wow 2years since I updated here.....Sheesh!  Funny how 2 whole years can fly by on someone.
I did do a quick glance at things I had posted here before and realized how much our lives have changed since I last posted.  I will do a quick update for all of you but I guess the best way to catch up would be to visit our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TheBullsPen

First big change is that our kids are no longer the tiny munchkins I saw from the garden post of 3 and a half years ago.  The oldest will be turning 10 this year, it just seems unreal!  They have since all grown and are now in school all day (no Pre-K, 1/2 days any longer) making Mommy miss them very much during the day.  They have moved on from each other a little bit too.  They have very different opinions of things, friends and even needs.  Thankfully they all still have the love we taught them for each other and memories to last a lifetime with more made daily.

Life has been a roller coaster the last few years and we have been very busy enjoying the ride, most of it that is.  A big factor in the lack of post here and even my facebook was that I became sick about 2yrs ago, I was having horrible acid reflux.  I was doing my best to treat it with medicine and diet but was just having no luck.  I was having horrible pains all the time (not my gallbladder that was checked a few times) and burning in my throat, for someone who was rarely sick it was horrible.  It felt like I was swallowing hot matches all the time and also had the taste of a freshly lit match in my mouth all the time, if that can put it into prospective for you.  Eating was almost something I didn't want to do as it only made all the symptoms worse.  After countless trips to many doctors, loads of Rxs and finally a surgery on my stomach Sphincter I am finally starting to feel better.  I'm sure quitting smoking before I became sick helped me feel better as well and may also have been the cause of the problem but what is done is done I guess.  Unfortunately I now have Barrettes Esophagus as a result of it all and am doing my best to prevent any further damage and moving on with our life that we love so here.
Another Big change for us is that this year I decided with finally feeling better and all our kids are in school all day I should also find a job.  In April it will be 10yrs since I took my maternity leave for the Oldest Daughter and never looked back at work again.  I loved every minute being a stay at home mom allowed me with my babies and would do every bit of struggling (money wise) again.  As for what to do for employment we decided that I should be part time only right now because with the cost of daycare we could not afford to pay someone to take care of the kids all summer, on vacations and weekends and still make a profit from me getting a job.  Not only that but since the Hubby has a great job with great benefits I need to be available to take care of our critters most of the time.  So what type of part time job fits the description, substituting at the school works pretty well.  I have social/adult interactions, time off when I need it (gardening season), I can say when I can and cant work and summers off, works perfect for us right now and then I still get to see my kids when I do work.  Win, Win!

As for everything else around here well let me start with the basics again.

Itty Bitty

The Animals, we still have and love most of the animals from 2yrs ago.  Some we no longer have and some new were added for example the chickens tend to change the most.  2yrs ago our main rooster was Pecksy one of our original chickens and the start of it all, we loved him and he was greatest rooster but unfortunately he did not make it though the winter a few years ago.  We now have Itty Bitty, he was an egg we hatched out and instantly became a favorite of ours and is now our only rooster unless something changes again this year as I seem to be a chicken addict.

Oreo and Heidi

Duck Duck

We still have the goats Heidi and Oreo, we still have Sparkles the bunny and some ducks (only one, Duck Duck is from the babies hatched a few years ago).  We have since raised 2differnt sets of pigs for eating and are looking into this years pork already.  Lastly is the indoor critters, we still have all of them (cat, dog, turtle) and last year added a few more in the form of 3gold fish and a hermit crab thanks to our big winnings at the county fair (the kids loved winning critters).

This year we are going to be assisting our 4-H club in pheasant raising and are in the process of getting things ready for them so add those to the list of temporary critters.  We plan to fulfill the Oldest Daughter's wish of getting a few turkey and we are also looking into getting a couple of beef cows.  So I guess animals will always be a part of the Bull family.

Oldest Daughter's creation from yesterday to add to the Valentines
Centerpiece on the table, it is hand sewn (proud Mommy moment) and
stuffed with batting then she glued a skewer stick to it.  Not too bad for
no help and something she did all on her own to surprise me <3

The Crafting fun is almost a weekly (daily sometimes) occurrence here.  This is also combined with some 4-H crafting as well so we are always crafting up something.  This week we are working on teaching kids to sew/no sew things in 4-H and the kids have been making all kinds of Valentines stuff at home on their own for decorations and they are doing quite well.
The link here is to just some of the items they/we made last weekend:
https://www.facebook.com/TheBullsPen/posts/1110535195625611

We have 14 members (1missing from photo) in the Team Clover 4-H Club

Notice 4-H was inserted in place of Girls Scouts above, yes after a few years of being the troop leader for our Y.Daughters troop I have moved on from Girl Scouts.  Now the Hubby and I are the leaders of a local 4-H club.  I have to say that for our first year and its been a blast so far, very unlike my first year of GS.  Also our kids are way more excited for our 4-H meetings then they ever were for GS meeting.
Leaving GS was fine with me as I can teach them more of the way of life we live and why in 4-H and the benefits of it over how to sell some unhealthy cookies.  I liked the morals behind GS, don't get me wrong but as for our local GS it just seemed things were more about troop secrets then troop sharing/helping than actually teaching the morals of GS.  GS was becoming a lot of BS quickly for me so I was thrilled when the girls no longer wanted to do it.  This also gave us the option to do something with all of our kids and not just me and the girls and the Hubby and our son.

The Garden in 2012

The Garden 2015

The Garden and may I say Wow after seeing my last garden post I almost laughed at the size of the garden.  We have increased it twice since the last post and even plant in places other then our garden to be sure we can produce enough goodies to get us through till the next growing season.  Still find it amazing at all the food we grew in such a small garden all those years.  To think had it not been for the moodiness that came during the pregnancy of our 2nd daughter I may have never ripped out the brush and started digging here for our first garden to begin with.  Funny how life changes when you are never expecting it.

Also in the last 2yrs I have also taken a lot to preserving more of what we grow and raise.   We can freeze most of the garden but it takes lots of freezer space.  I decided to try a new idea and now Pressure canning is not a frightening thing as it once was and with the freezer full of meat we raised it just makes sense to can the vegetable for preserving.  I have to say my favorite pressure canned veggie is carrots, plain carrots no salts or anything.....Delish!







Well that should get everyone up to date for the most part and I really hope to try to post more frequently here.  Even have a post planned for tomorrow should things work out the way I hope.

Cutting The Cleaning Supply Costs

We have been trying to cut costs here and there in an effort to not break the bank every time I need to head out grocery shopping.  We were able to cut our food costs drastically thanks to planting more quantity and variety in our gardens and raising some of our own meat but we were still spending way too much.  I go grocery shopping every two weeks for a family of five so my grocery bill will be more then someone how shops every week but it was getting to be outrageous.   It was time to figure out what was taking so much of my grocery money yet we seemed to run out of groceries all the time.  You guessed it, the largest expense of grocery shopping wasn't the groceries but the cleaning supplies.  I needed to keep things (laundry, dishes, house) clean so how could I cut those costs?  It was time to do something, but what could I do.  I loved my household/laundry supplies and bought only the brand that I had the best success with.  Yes they worked great but were they really worth the investment.  I liked the effectiveness of each of my cleaners and didn't want to have to start buying less effective cleaners because they were cheaper.  I would not be saving if I was buying double just to get the same effect.  I will admit it was a tough decision for me.

I had been Pintrest or as I like to call it my "Idea Site" and notice a lot of people pinning cleaning and laundry supplies saying it was costing them less then the store brands and how much safer it was.  I decided to "Pin" them and wondered if that would that be the answer I was looking for to cut the grocery bill?  Should I make my own cleaning supplies?   Did they really work as well as that person said or were they just too happy with the savings that they didn't really care about the effectiveness?  I pondered over the idea for a while before I decided to give making my own a try.  Okay, honestly the real reason I decided to try was I ran out of Jetdry one day and remembered someone saying use vinegar instead of Jetdry so I gave it a try.  Yup it worked just like they said it would and there was definitely a major saving between the vinegar and Jetdry.  That was all it took and I am now making my own cleaning supplies.  I have made my own orange cleaner, Clorox Wipes, laundry detergent.  I used vinegar as both Jetdry and fabric softener now and it works great.  It has been a slow go for me because I'm always thinking of the what how tos and what ifs involved with all the different cleaners. 

I just got back from my first grocery shopping trip where I did not purchase any cleaning supplies.  Yahoo!!  First let me say that it is strange not going into the cleaning supplies isles at all.  It just seemed like I was forgetting something while I was shopping but I wasn't.... This might take some getting used to but its well worth it.  This shopping trip alone I saved around $50.00 on my grocery bill for 2weeks which means I was spending approximately $100.00 a month on just cleaning supplies! I should mention that this savings is also considering I shopped at the discounted stores (family dollar/dollar general).  I couldn't imagine what the savings would be if I was buying them at our regular grocery stores I would probably double that savings. 

With all that savings plus the realization of how easy and effective making my own cleaning supplies work I should be one happy person right now.  I am actually a little uncomfortable knowing that I was basically "washing" money down the drain all that time.... I say this often but I will just consider it another lesson learned.   I will however move on knowing I will be saving all that money from here on out!