The Lazy Homesteader

A Weekend of Birth

Posted on November 15, 2009 by Anisa

So last weekend was the training for my CAPPA childbirth educator’s certification. I learned so much and met some great women. The training was held Friday and Saturday at the Alliance Breastfeeding Center in Colorado Springs. Our instructor, Desirre Andrews, was amazing and a wealth of information. She was so supportive, honest and helpful. And she has an amazing amount of experience, both professionally (she’s the president of ICAN) and personally as a teacher, doula and a 2VBA2C (two vaginal births after two cesareans).

Friday was full of so much information. The students in our class (me and five others) bonded quickly, and it helped the leaning process immensely to be comfortable with the other women. One woman was a L&D nurse from Sidney, NB; another woman from Fort Collins who worked in an OB office; two women from the Springs area (one already a doula), and myself and another mother (and doula) from the Denver area. We had a great pool of information and experience, and had some great moments during the workshop. More than one person cried over the two days (and about 21 hours of training), including myself. So cool.

I went to the workshop Friday feeling confident in my knowledge about birth, and left the ten-hour training feeling a bit overwhelmed and like I still had a lot to learn. My brain felt completely full and I got home feeling exhausted. I did my homework for the night, hit the sack, and hit the road again first thing in the morning, excited for day two.

The second day was just as jam-packed full of information, but I realized that I do know my stuff, and while I still have learning to do, I’m part of an organization that really supports its educators, and that we educators would leave supporting each other as well. The training was so helpful, and I feel fully prepared to write my curriculum, take my test and start teaching.

Then, as I sat in my pjs in my living room processing first thing Sunday morning, I got a call to come to a birth. This was a second time VBAC, at home. The mom did amazing, and it was so cool to witness her strength as she had a beautiful HBAC (that’s home birth after cesarean) with her midwives supporting her all the way. I was able to help the midwives a little bit, and mainly took pictures for the family. Beautiful.

I feel so blessed to be able to have women who have let me be a part of their births and who have helped me earn my certification my observing classes, births, and giving me referrals. 🙂

So I am very close now. I still need to observe a new parent class, and do two hours of teaching under observation. Then I submit my test (it’s a big test) and forms and curriculum, and I will be certified and able to teach. Yay!

I’ve been trying not to jump the gun too much. I am working on a business name so I can buy a URL and business cards (they really help with networking and marketing), and then, after I’m certified, I will launch my website, birth blog, and start scheduling classes. I can’t wait!

I’ll keep you up to date. Be on the lookout for a new business website announcement by the first of the year. 🙂

Categories: Childbirth | 4 Comments

Happy 40th

Posted on November 10, 2009 by Anisa

The Google tribute to Sesame Street turning 40 has been fun to watch. In honor of our favorite muppets’ birthday I wanted to post this clip of Oscar the Grouch (when he was orange!!!) singing with Gordon (who had a ‘fro!) back in 1969.

Additionally, Aerosmith turns 40 this year. Over the last couple of days there have been rumors of Steven Tyler leaving the band. I truly hope not, but whether or not he still wants to rock with Joe Perry and the LI3, we do know this, the Demon of Screamin’ loves trash too:

So happy birthday to both Aerosmith and the gang a Sesame Street…. Rock on.

Categories: Urban Homesteading | 1 Comment

Independence Days – Weeks 23, 24 & 25

Posted on November 2, 2009 by Anisa

Three weeks on one post… sheesh! Things have been crazy for me the last three weeks. Rick has, of course, been hunting which has left me with my hands full with the boys and not a lot of time for sane blog writing. I’ve also been working on my childbirth educator’s certification, and am very close… this weekend is my workshop, and then I should hopefully be able to take my test and be certified. Trying not to stress about this, but I am getting down to the wire a bit.

Then, this morning I woke up to one dead chicken and one chicken missing. I thought Lavender, our grey chicken, had flown the coop… I saw what I thought was her jump over the back fence. When I went out to investigate, she was nowhere to be seen and still (as of 7:00pm) has not come home. Unfortunately, we don’t expect her back, as one of her Rhode Island Red comrades was lying dead (and partially dismembered) in the yard.

Josie was trying to help herself to chicken for breakfast, but we don’t think it was her that did the killing. There are fox tracks all over the place and I had only just let Josie (who has never tried to attack the chickens before) outside. I didn’t hear a ruckus of any kind, and she didn’t have any blood on her. But you’ll not catch her saying no to a free chicken either. 😦

We’re a bit bummed on that front, as it means we’re back down to only five. And oddly (or maybe not so oddly) I’m not too sad about the dead red-head, but I have a bit of heartache about Lavender… this is why you don’t name food. She was one of the originals, and though she was meanest and leanest, she laid a white egg everyday and was fun to watch.

So anyway, here’s the dirt on Independence Days. All in all, not the most successful three weeks since we’ve started this.

Plant Something – um, none.

Harvest Something– Rick successfully harvested a doe! Eggs from just the young chickens, as the older hens are molting and looking quite pitiful. A very large bunch of kale (and gave the Spicy Kale and Potato Soup a second – and much more successful- go ’round).

Preserve Something – venison and elk in the fridge, potatoes to the basement, carrots to the freezer.

Waste Not – I really think we had a big FAIL in this category. The upright freezer door got left open a crack and we lost a bunch of food in the door. The stuff in the body of the freezer stayed frozen, since it was full, but we had a mad rush to eat some pork chops and beef remnants. The rest had to be tossed. 😦

Want Not/Prep & Storage – nothing new

Build Community Food Systems – we were able to share a few veggies this past week, but I didn’t get to the last of the farmers markets to get those apples I wanted.

Eat the Food – mmm I.O.U. some recipes. Not in the mood to type recipes right now, but I will say that we’ve been eating venison, practically finished the pork completely, enjoyed some tomatoes and chiles for a pot of home made green chile, eating potatoes, and peaches. We did share a few of our preserves as well… mostly as gifts to my awesome bro-in-law, Dan. 🙂

Categories: Chickens, Food, Hunting, Independence Days | 3 Comments

Thrifty Thursday: Warranties and Repairs

Posted on October 29, 2009 by Anisa

This tip came to me from Genny, former TTT girl and blogger, and oddly at a time when my other friend, Jenny, was sharing similar events with me.

Taking advantage of warranties. Genny recently had an immersion blender stop working. But instead of throwing it out and buying a new one, she called the company. For a small fee they shipped her a new part, and the blender was able to be repaired.

Jenny’s story: someone had bought her daughter a toy for her birthday. Jenny didn’t get around to putting batteries in it to properly try it out for a couple of months, when she did, she discovered that it didn’t work. 😦 She tried to take it back to the store with the gift receipt she had, but too much time had passed and the store would not take it, and it was no longer stocked there. They told her to contact the manufacturer. When she did, the manufacturer (Hasbro) agreed to send her a new toy. She expressed her that it was a defect in the toy (since the store no longer carried it), and Hasbro agreed to send a similarly valued toy for the appropriate age of her daughter. At no charge. She did not have to send anything to them, or pay any shipping.

And as I write this I realize that I’ve had similar experiences myself. Once with a part for my pressure cooker, and once I broke one of the crystals on my chandelier in my bedroom. Both times the makers sent me the pieces I needed for little or no charge.

So a great way to save money – contact your manufacturers, save those warranties, and make those repairs. Much less expensive than buying new!

Categories: Thrift | 4 Comments

Handmade Christmas

Posted on October 24, 2009 by Anisa

Can I just say that I am so over Christmas. Not the holiday itself, but I’m over the tons of money spent and agonizing over gifts and superfluous presents that are really simply filler because of the ridiculous pressure of I- have-to-because-they-got-me-something.

Last year was by far the worst Christmas for me in this department. I am quite happy with what Rick and I and Santa got for H, but aside from that…. it kinda stunk. H got so many presents that I could not remember who gave him what, mainly from Rick’s family.

We actually went into debt to buy gifts, and Rick and I did not give each other anything. Thankfully, my family runs much more low-key. They are older and tend to value the time together -and the food- more than the presents. But it just isn’t enough. We will never go into debt for Christmas again. And we’ll never skip giving our spouse a gift again either.

This year we are proposing drawing names to Rick’s side of the family, for the extended relatives (as it stands, we buy gifts for all the aunts and great aunts, uncles and cousins, grandparents and great grandparents, and it’s really too much). But whether or not the idea gets vetoed, we will be giving hand-made gifts this year.

This summer we made a few things here and there, but now that we’re deep into October, it’s time to get serious. I went to the fabric store twice this week to get pieces I needed for gifts. We’re not being strict about hand-made Christmas… we can give store-bought items too, but it’s a goal. We are going to try to make, sew, cook, bake or otherwise hand make the majority of the presents we give this year.

I’m quite excited about it. It’s inspiring some of that long-lost creativity I used to have, and I’m actually excited about the gifts we’re giving this year (as opposed to last year when I felt like Ebenezer Scrooge). I’ll try to keep you updated on the gift making progress as much as I can (some of my readers are receiving the gifts though, so I might have to be vague). But expect a full report at the end of the year after the gifts have been received. 🙂

Here’s a blog I ran across (actually my friend Annie linked up), and it was quite inspiring too. What about you? Do you make anything for Christmas gifts?

Categories: Simple Living, Thrift | 7 Comments

Independence Days – Weeks 21 & 22

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Anisa

Wow twenty-two weeks at Sharon’s Independence Days already. It’s been fun and eye opening to track all these little baby steps each week and see how they are adding up.

We had the first frost of the year last week and therefore had a mass exodus of produce from the garden. 5 gallon size bags filled with tomatoes went into the freezer and lots of winter squash went down to the basement for storage. There is a lot of damaged squash that we’ll be cooking up this coming week, turning it into puree for soups and bread recipes.

Look at the last of the garden goodies:

That of course doesn’t count the spinach, radishes, chard and kale that is still growing despite the weather. I don’t think that the beets or lettuces pulled through though. Next year we will have to put in those for winter a bit earlier so they can get better established. Also, the potted herbs I brought home a few weeks ago bit the dust, besides the rosemary, which seems hardier and possibly strong enough to survive my kitchen gardening “techniques.”

Also, after the awesome compost class that Rick and I took in September, we’ve been working on the big compost remodel… first moving the chicken coop, then deciding on a plan for the space then collecting materials. Rick was able to dig up some pallets from his work, so the biggest part of the bins will have cost us nothing. Yay!

So down to the nitty gritty:

Plant Something – none

Harvest Something – all the acorn squash & butternut squash, the pumpkins, all the tomatoes & zucchini. Eggs. Also Rick & H got a dusky (blue) grouse, and Rick brought home a mallard drake as well.

Preserve Something – Potatoes and winter squash to basement, froze tomatoes, froze the duck and a second grouse that Rick’s uncle gave us, made a double batch of curried carrot-leek soup for the freezer.

Waste Not – Lots of “new” clothes for me from my sistah. Rick brought home some pallets from work to use to build our new compost bins. Also traded a large propane tank for a smaller one that will fit our gas grill.

Want Not/Prep & Storage – besides items added to freezer, nothing to add to this category.

Build Community Food Systems – posted on craigslist for the Englewood Farmer’s Market. Ordered the hog that we’re splitting with friends. Checked out another market in Littleton, will be going back to get apples this coming week… refrained from buying honeycrisp apples brought in from Washington at Costco for only $0.50/lb, even though the Colorado ones are $2.20/lb at the farmer’s market.

Eat the Food – ate the grouse, used some frozen peaches for a tart (yum!), butternut squash, spaghetti squash, zucchini bread, pickles (they turned out! Yay!), potato soup, potato-leek quiche… lots of yummy things these last two weeks. Here’s an old Field & Stream recipe for awesome duck breasts:

Doug’s Grilled Duck Breasts
Marinade for 4-6 duck breast halves:
1 T olive oil
2-4 garlic cloves, minced
1 T fresh sage, chopped
2 T fresh parsley, chopped
6 oz teriyaki sauce
1 oz +/- Jack Daniel’s
salt & pepper to taste

Place duck and marinade into a ziplock bag in refrigerator and marinade for 2-4 hours. Heat charcoal grill. Place duck breasts on grill when flame has died and coals are hot. Cook for 2-1/2 to 3 minutes on each side until rare or medium rare. Let rest 1 minute. Serve.

*note that duck is a red meat (not like chicken), and can safely (and deliciously) be eaten rare.

Categories: Canning and Food Preservation, Food, Hunting, Independence Days, Recipes | 2 Comments

Thrifty Thursday: Eating-Out for Less

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Anisa

Ever heard of Restaurant.com? This is a great little site that has reviews, menus, websites and makes reservations for all kinds of different local restaurants in every city. But the best part of the site is this: you can buy a $25 or $50 gift certificate for only $10-25 bucks! That’s right… Pay ten bucks, get a $25 gift certificate to eat out. This is a great way to try new local places, and save some dough doing it.

Why not buy a gift certificate or two on pay day to save for later on in the month for a date night with the hubby or as a gift for a friend. 🙂 Yum! I love ways to get treats (like eating out) for less!