Sickness on the Offgrid Homestead

Well the stomach flu hit 5 of the 6  kids plus their mommy, making for an eventful 2 days !
When you live offgrid you don't always have laundry facilities at your disposal so the stomachaches were made worse by running out of towels and blankets that a night filled with vomiting will quickly use up.
So , sick as a dog , this mama made her way to the laundromat  to wash everything. Oh how I hated this trip!
Anyway I managed to get that done ,as well as grabbing extra water and ice and headed home to an afternoon in bed.
Later daddy brought milkshakes to help soothe everyone's tummies and that lifted our spirits a bit too.
We are all feeling some better but not on top of the world yet.  But it's coming I can tell!

Anonymous Commenter

to my Anonymous commenter- we DO buy something at mcdonalds when we charge the computer!
 a) I am not like that- I don't steal. We buy  sodas or milkshakes.
b) no manager would ever let someone walk in and use their internet connection without buying something. 

REALLY! After reading my blog you really think I am the kind  of person who steals? You need to read more then!

$50 ,Meals for 8 People, for 4 days

Ok I had $50 for meals for 4 days. Here's what I did. Lunches are listed first, then suppers.

Mon- pb&j with canned peaches and chili
Tues-salad and hot dogs (don't criticize, we have to eat!), leftover chili
Wed- ramen noodles (poor choice but in the budget) with sliced cucumbers and carrots, hamburger over rice
Thur- oatmeal , chicken salad using canned chicken.

Breakfasts are cereal. I had 2 boxes and bought 2 more.

THere. Not a meal list I am proud of but a meal list I had to plan on a limited budget til payday.

Laundry Day

For me laundry day is whenever the clothes that need washed equal the amount of quarters I have!
I tried to schedule this chore but money doesn't always work out, thus I fly by the seat of my pants!

Anyway, while we sit at the laundromat we do school. This keeps the children busy and quiet.
I use a detergent that I make myself. I grate a bar of Ivory soap and add one cup of borax and one cup of baking soda and washing soda. I use two spoonfuls of this mixture in each load.

Comment with how laundry day goes for you.

Homeschooling my way

We got our school done easily today. Don't you love days like that?!
I have homeschooled for 22 years and I have dabbled in every type of schooling there is. While we have days that we just let life takes us in whatever direction there are also days that I need books to help me stay on track. Today was one of those days.
Everyone did math using a saxon or Rod and Staff book.
Then everyone did English lessons using Rod and Staff.
Science and history were done with Abeka. These books are more colorful so they hold my children's interest longer.
We are going thru the Alpha Omega Lifepacs for history together also. I simply read them and we discuss them.
We also are reading thru thru the Greenleaf Press Old Testament Guide together. We are currently studying the book of Exodus.
What do you do for school? Do you switch methods every now and then like I do? What books do you use? How long have you been at it? Let me know by commenting!

Read here how I homeschool 5 children on $50 a year!

A Boring Update

Life has been uneventful lately. Nothing big to report. Still cooking on propane, still sponge bathing  (except for the occasional shower at friends' places), still heating - yes STILL lol -- (where is spring?)  with a wood burning stove. Praying we save enough money fast to get a generator to run a room ac. I hate to do it but the heat gets to over 100 daily -soon- so.....
The turkens are laying eggs daily and soon they will start sitting on them!
We still run up to mcdonalds to charge the computer  when we want to watch a dvd. No we hardly ever eat anything there. Tho my children are willing to!
My stevia is growing well but I lost most of my peppers, all my dill, and all my tomatoes. :(
We are collecting enough free pallets to build a fence. We get them from my husband's work.
We have a gorgeous  huge honeysuckle "bush" growing along the side of my house.
We have tiny red fluted flowers everywhere and the hummingbirds flock to them!
We have decide to add a small inside kitchen to our home. So now our house will be 500 sq feet. Plus we are adding a porch.
Yes I do miss having a bedroom to send my children to !!!!!!
We recently lost our favorite dog and this loss really really hit me hard. I miss Buttercup daily.
WE still have 3 dogs- Black Jack,a corgi, Rosey, an austrian shepherd, and Snickers, a rat terrier. We also still have 11 cats. And no mouse problem!!!
Homeschooling is going well. We use Saxon for math, Rod and Staff for english, Abeka for both history and science. These are just for jumping off points. I create my own "curriculum" always. :)

Well that's the boring update. Hope all is well with you! Leave a comment so I know how it is going with you!

Chickens

We have 17 chickens so far. Three New Hampshire red sex links, nine Rhode Island reds pullets and four turkens, or naked necks they are called sometimes.

 Plus one onery golden laced Wyandotte rooster.

We feed them grain and scraps, with the intention of getting them to scraps only along with homegrown feed.
What do you have? What do you feed yours?  How's it going for you, chicken wise?