2) Transplant the seedlings into a bigger pot allowing more room for growth.

We are anxious for our seeds to germinate. For now, we are making plans and dreaming of canning lots of tomatoes. We are also praying for fruitfulness in our endeavors (This is the key to successful farming. Successful farming doesn‘t always mean success. It means surviving calamity with grace, poise and contentment. Only a heavy reliance on God will assure peace in the face of drought and disease).

The rain also kept us from installing a laundry line. I am anxious to get back to hanging clothes out. My plain friends hang clothes out all winter. They inspire me to be more courageous when it comes to cutting the electric bill. The good news is after installing our geothermal heat pump our electric bill decreased substantially. However, we long for the day when our off-the-grid home to be completed. In the meantime, we plan to take advantage of the spring and return to manually washing clothes and hanging the laundry out to dry. Since our temporary home is a new site, we have run into road blocks with some of our simple living. There is no good place to wash clothes manually outside without lots of mud. Further, there is no laundry line. We aim to solve this problem once there is a bit of dry weather.

We were unable to work on building our chicken tractor this weekend due to the wet weather. The children were ready to build it rain or no rain. They are anxious to return to farming.

Despite the foiled plans, I did accomplish important tasks on the homestead. Though it may not seem monumental, I cut the guy’s hair. A trip to the barber shop would cost our family 50.00 minimum for the men. Scheduling five people for haircuts would also be difficult. It is a joy to spend one on one time with the boys while cutting their hair. Overall, I am getting more courageous as I cut. Each time, I get a slightly different result. Some haircuts are better than others. But, I am delighted to cut their hair. My husband put up his “winter coat”. He shaved his beard. We are all anxious for spring. You can learn to cut hair by checking out a DVD at the local library. It requires grace and mercy as the skills are learned. A family grounded in Christian love is bound to be sanctified with home hair cutting.

My husband and I converted some tallow into Castile soap. It was fun to teach him how to make soap. It is a joy to work with someone who is so content and happy. I look forward to working side by side with him on other farmstead projects as well. I usually make soap out of cocoa nut oil, olive oil, and palm oil. I super fat it with castor for a nice lather. Honestly, I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of making soap out of tallow. I love my luxury bars. Luxury costs. It costs in terms of raw materials. It costs in terms of shipping. Learning to work with tallow will cut costs and simplify. While I am not ready to use tallow based soaps for a body bar, I am willing to use tallow to make laundry soap and dish soap.

We used the following recipe to make our Castile soap:

Tallow-37.7 ounces

Olive-16 ounces

Lye-7.5 ounces

Water-17.25 ounces

The soap smelled like tallow until it completed the gel phase. I rendered the tallow twice, yet it still smelled like cooking grease. It wasn’t rancid but clearly it wasn’t the smell I was accustomed to. I may need to perfect my rendering process to see if I can eliminate the smell. After I cut the bars and there was no smell. Apparently, after once the soap saponifies the smell dissipates. We were pleased. The soap is now curing.

Time did not permit me to write an outline of the transformation of our home school. I will attempt to write an article on the Principle Approach next weekend Lord willing. I recently found a website dedicated to this approach. You can find more information here.

Until next time…

I remain….

Udderly His,

The Kansas Milkmaid