An American Homestead

I LOVE my stove! Me and the stove bonded this weekend and I fell in love!

Friday I went on a wild goose chase for some sugar cure. Monroe, McMinn and Polk Counties had no place that had any in stock. It could be ordered but would take a week. I sent Edward a text and he found some at a hardware store in Bradley County. I barely made it in time to pick up the last 3 bags they had. Good thing is….I got it all for 50% off because the are no longer carrying it in stock and will only be ordering it for people. So three 7 pound bags for 10 bucks was a great deal.

We kept the deer on ice until Saturday. Devin spent the weekend with us and we got up bright and early Saturday for chores and such. I got the deer hung in a tree by the Spring that morning. That was no easy task in itself. I must be doing something wrong hanging these deer, because I always struggle with it. I get it tied up and over the limb but the big ones like this, it takes everything me and Chris have to get that thing pulled up high enough for me to work on. We got it done and I started skinning while Chris kept me in water and got a nice campfire going to warm my hands with every time I needed it. The deer was so cold being on ice a few days and my hands were numb at times.  Don and Johnny came over and then Amanda and Perrin. Everyone grabbed a chair and watched me cut up the deer. I got it done and was so tired. I sat down and enjoyed the campfire before we headed out for Shannon’s birthday party.

Bad news is: As I was eating S’mores by the fire, my crown (which was loose), came off and yes…my nightmare came true….I swallowed it. My automatic reaction was to make myself, well… throw it up. I threw up for a long time, hard. Until I could not do it anymore. There was no tooth. What I did manage to do tho, is bust all of the blood vessels in my face from my nose up. I looked like a leper.  Of course, I did not notice this until yesterday, so I walked around looking like a freak with my hand over my mouth for two days, now my hand covers almost my entire face. I called and a new crown is $964. So yeah, that is not going to happen for us right now. A temporary is $200 and that will not happen for awhile. So I shall suffer with my hand over my mouth when I encounter people until a miracle happens.

Saturday night we did have Shannon’s party and that was great. Amanda brought a friend and it was good to have everyone together for awhile. We had a great time.

Sunday I started making the jerky. I got the stove going and it worked just so perfectly. I made pancakes for Devin and coffee and cocoa. I heated water for chores and got a pot of stew going. I actually started it on Saturday. Chris got home from going to church with Don and him and Devin hauled some wood and got kindling together. Lunch was done in no time and we sat down to a nice hot bowl of deer stew and some quesadillas. I love to lay bread right on the stove to toast, so I will not be putting stove black on the stove at all. I am going to season it with lard or Crisco and just hope for the best. I like toast made right on top of the stove and toasted flatbread as well. I could not do that if I used stove black on it. We finished lunch and I got the jerky on the racks. It dried perfectly. I put some more wood on the stove last night to finish up some of the jerky. It was perfect this morning when I got up and already cooled. Chris still had coffee on the stove that was warm so he had a few cups yesterday evening. I am going to have to really watch myself though, because I realized that hot chocolate is so good and keeping a pot of water on the stove all day makes it very easy to make myself a cup! I BAKED BISCUITS last night! I took Shannon to get groceries and when we got home all I had to do was add some pine to the stove and the fire got going again. I opened the oven draft and it started getting hot. I baked a pan of biscuits so I could just heat one on the wood heater this morning for breakfast. Of course I could not resist one last night, well OK..you dragged it out of me….two..I ate two large biscuits before bed with butter and molasses. I was in heaven….certainly in heaven….life was as near to perfect at that moment as I could have ever gotten it to be. Cutie laid beside me and waited patiently for me to be done and hoped I had not got every drop of the butter and molasses from the bowl. I saved her some and she licked it dry. I am pretty good about being able to describe things…but there are no words in any language that can describe the pleasure of a hot biscuit straight from the oven of a wood cook stove, covered in real butter and sorghum molasses! I think my last supper, if I were to have one, would be that with a slice of country ham, some home made gravy and fried potatoes. No matter the time of day or what day it is, everyone’s life would be perfect with less stress if they could eat that meal at least once a day with a glass of fresh, cold, raw, skim milk! Think about your life with no stress, every bill has been paid off, you own everything you need and do not owe a penny on it, your car is running perfectly, the kids are all behaving, nothing needs fixed, nothing needs to be done. That old dusty book you have wanted to read for 17 years and 4 months is in your hand and you have not a care in the world and are sitting beside a cool stream, peace, quiet, no interruptions, comfortable and can just remain there as long as your heart desire and your life, your mind, your body feels perfect. THAT my friends is the feeling you will get eating a fresh, hot biscuit baked in a wood cook stove with fresh butter and sorghum molasses! Try it at least once…. Your heart will smile.

So yeah…I fell in love with the stove. I feel like I want to name her something. We bonded together. We have an understanding now and a certain respect for each other. I will take care of her as she will take care of me. I would give up my man before I would give up my stove…(I think). LOL

This morning I got up and the jerky was done to perfection on the racks, cooled and I placed it in bags. I will put it in jars and label it this evening when I get home. I love my kitchen so much, it is small, the floor slants down towards the chimney area, the sink matches the floor, but the cabinet is level so it is like some weird optical illusion. I have a stick stuck under one of the windows to prop it open just an inch to let some of the heat out (and smoke in case the stove decides to betray me again). The cats sit on a table outside and stare in the window, waiting for me to open up the 100 year old screen door that I refuse to replace, and throw them a scrap of something good to eat. A brown blanket hangs form nails between the kitchen and living room to keep most of the heat in one or the other of the rooms, or may be opened up (unhooked from one of the nails) in case we want both rooms warm. The door going to the east and to the root cellar, has no knob on it and we have a rope stuck through the hole with a knot on each end and pull the rope to open that one door. If you stand in front of the stove it is two steps to the table, three to the cabinet and 3 to the sink, 4 to the pantry. (not that I count them or anything). Yesterday it smelled like oranges, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, allspice because I put it all in a pot I don’t use much and filled it with water to steam on the back of the stove all day. It will be a permanent fixture there and only changed or added to as needed. I love it. The kitchen is my favorite place in the house and now that I have become friends with the stove….I hope to spend a lot of time in there. While I am off for the holiday, I will attempt my first cake! If I am successful, I will make a seven layer applesauce stack cake and put it in my the cake dish on my Mam-maw’s table and sit and stare at it all day, remembering her cakes on that same table and getting all warm, from the memories…and the stove!

In other news, I totally have very little knowledge in curing meat, so this process is going to be interesting. I have read a ton of books and articles, gotten info from the internet on forums and other informative sites, I have talked to old people who have done it themselves and I think I am prepared as much as I ever will be to start this process. Hopefully it I get stuck I can swallow my pride and go hunt someone down and get advice! LOL Like I said, this thing, this lifestyle is a learning process for me and Chris and we have and will continue to make a million mistakes. The trick is learning from them. If this was my only meat source for the entire winter, I would not risk messing it up. But we have plenty of meat to last the winter and with luck, my uncle will be delivering another deer as well. So with this I can afford to play around a little and see what happens.

The wood situation is going great. We have not used even half as much wood as we had last year at this time. We are not sure what to make of us being able to fill the heater full before bed and wake up to a warm room the next morning without having to get up every two hours to add wood and still be freezing. We have our own thermostat control in the room. If it gets to hot in the living room, we open the brown blanket and warm the kitchen. If its still too hot, we crack open the library door a bit. If it is too hot in the kitchen, the blanket goes down to warm the living room OR I open the back door and sit by the screen while I watch my stove prepare a perfect meal. LOL

The chickens are not laying eggs. I know they slow down this time of year, but I have always gotten eggs through the winter before. I have not gotten any in awhile. I am unsure if something is getting them, they are not laying or what is going on. I got some layer and gave it to them and still no eggs. I am not used to not getting eggs all year so this is something new for me. Maybe I have not been spending enough time with the hens and they are teaching me a lesson? Lol

Everything else is great really. I am still working on Chris’ Yule gift and hope to get it done before then. I am pretty sure I will, but it is taking me longer because of everything else I have to do, I just get to work on the gift in my spare time. Perrin had tonsillitis for a week and was out of school. He is doing much better and is back to school today. I know Amanda is thrilled about that. It was funny watching the boys when I was processing the deer. Perrin has been around it a lot and it is just second nature to him. It does not effect him and he just looks at it as a part of life. Lakota does too. Devin has not been around it as much and it freaked him out a bit. I tried to play it off and not make any big deal out of it. When he saw it was nothing to me and that I just grabbed it and started cutting, explaining that butchers do that every day and every piece of meat you ever eat use to look like that, he was no so skittish. But boy was he jittery to begin with. When I asked him to hold it so I could do something he held it with his fingertips and would not even look at it. However, when Perrin arrived and grabbed the head to get his picture made, Devin saw that his younger cousin was not freaked out and had to play the tough guy. LOL

That’s it for the homestead today. I will get some pics online later today and get them posted as soon as I can. I hope everyone had a great weekend and the next few days passes quickly so we can all eat turkey and pumpkin pie!

“I plowed up the ground n got a deer on ice n all my rowdy friend….”

Wait that’s not how that song goes. LOL

So it took me all day, but thanks to my dear uncle I found some sugar cure in a nearby county. My dear sweet perfect uncle Edward brought me a 6 point buck Wednesday night. I got it on ice. I decided to try to fix it up a different way, than just can it. So I figured I would try my hand at making some hams with it. Then I went on a search for some sugar cure salt and in 3 counties found only one store with 3 bags. I picked up Chris in Tellico and then had to drive to Charleston for the Cure. We did not get home until very late. We got ice on the deer and got things done for the evening. Today will be busy, pick Chris up late in Tellico and get home. Tomorrow morning I hang the deer and start processing it. It will take most of the day, as I will be preparing the meat in several different ways. Actually, it may take all weekend.

We have a lot of other things that need to be done this weekend as well. I will try to prepare the hide so I can tan it and Chris has a ton of things to do around the house. We will be busy. I will take plenty of pictures and post next week. Have a great weekend everyone!

Wow what a week. Chris’ mother arrived late Wednesday evening. We had dinner with her and the next 4 days were just non stop running! Chris worked on Friday and she went to the bakery in Tellico. I am not sure what else she did on that day. I got off work, picked up Lakota and we then got Chris in Tellico. I honestly cannot remember what we did that night but I think we may have went out for Mexican Food. Saturday we did some shopping in Cleveland. I got Lakota a bunch of new clothes (it feels so odd buying your granddaughter a bra when she should still be a tiny thing in diapers). We had a great time shopping. That morning I had visited the Amish/Mennonite Community and got some sorghum molasses and potatoes.  We got the boys Saturday evening for the night. Wow….Vickey and three grandkids with us in the livingroom at The Broken House. We got a fire going and had a fantastic time roasting marshmallows and making S’mores. The kids had a blast. Amanda came over with a friend and his son. We all gathered around the fire and had a nice time. I think Vickey started getting cold, she went into the house and Chris got the heater going. It is not an easy thing to do to find 3 kids a place to sleep when there is no room to find said place. We managed to locate enough blankets and pillows and the boys ended up in the floor beside me. It took Perrin awhile to get calmed down enough to fall asleep, he was laying beside Devin and putting 4 and 6 year olds together at night is interesting. It was plenty warm and we had a very good time. I popped popcorn on the wood heater and we had a blast. Sunday the boys dressed in their Megatron Costumes Vickey got them and played with Chris for a long time. I got the stove going and cooked country ham, fried potatoes and made toast and hot chocolate (and of course coffee for Chris, Vickey and Lakota). I LOVE country ham! While it was cooking, the boys went out to play and Chris gave Lakota a lesson on chopping wood and kindling. She got the hatchet and started chopping and when done….arrived in the kitchen with all of her fingers intact so I think it went well! I added some canned muscadines on the plates and everyone ate breakfast. We took the kids home in the late evening. I took vacation time on Monday and Tuesday. Monday we hung out at the house. Monday night we went to Amanda’s so Vickey could spend time with them before she left on Tuesday. We thought maybe she would stay another day, but due to predicted rain, she headed out Tuesday morning and arrived home Tuesday night. We had a good visit and hope it is not another year before she comes to visit again. Chris’ Mam-maw will be going to spend the winter in Florida with Vickey so maybe we will make a trip down there for a weekend to visit.

Tuesday I was off work and Perrin was not feeling well. We had him with us, but I had to go to Chattanooga to see the new gynecologist. I was NOT thrilled about this appointment and was a nervous wreck. My gynecologist, who knows every single thing about me, my mother and all family history of cancer. Now I have to get use to someone totally new. I ended up with the most experienced doctor in the group. I just hope he knows what to watch for. He did send me for an ultrasound and did order all of the same “extra” tests that Dr. Elg always ordered. So maybe I will be OK. Amanda works in Chattanooga, so we met her and she got to have lunch with us and Perrin. We ate at Genghis Grill and I do love that place. They have all of the food out buffet style, everything raw, lots of different kind s of meat,  veggies, etc. You get a metal bowl and get all the meat you want, then the spices you desire, then the veggies you want and then the sauces you want. You pile it all in the one bowl and hand it to a guy and tell him if you want rice, noodles, etc. They cook it up for you and bring it to your table steaming hot and delicious! It is only my second time being there, but I really enjoy it. It was VERY NICE being home Tuesday night alone with Chris. We loved having company for a change, but that moment you go home after everyone leaves and it is so peaceful and quiet, it is just wonderful. I had to go back to Chattanooga for an ultrasound yesterday. I always hate this time of year with all of these tests and exams. My favorite uncle ever called me and asked if I wanted a 6 point buck. We met him at the farm at 530 and got the deer where it needed to be. This evening I will get at least the meat cut off the bones and put it in a cooler with some ice until Saturday. Then I will begin the lengthy process of figuring out what to do with all of the meat. I will can some, dry some, cook some and give some to Tim and Shannon.  I had plans to get some things done around the house the next few days, but I never know when a deer gift will arrive and I just have to be prepared to stop everything and get it processed.  It will provide some good stew or chops this winter. MMMmmm, deer chops, sweet potatoes, green beans, corn bread. One of my favorite meals for sure!

Chris is working today in Tellico. I will have to pick him up after I get off work and hurry home to get the deer taken care of before dark. Cutie is feeling better and is eating again. She even ate some treats from me last night and when I picked the bag up this morning, she walked over and sat anxiously awaiting them. She lost so much weight while she was sick, it may take me awhile to get her weight back on her. I am just very glad she is doing better. I got the stove going Tuesday night and cut up a bunch of bell peppers I had. I figured the best thing to do with them was dry them for soups and such. I got some racks and spread them out over the stove, made me some hot chocolate and filled the racks with the peppers. Last night we had a fire going in the heater and I finished them off in a pan on top of the heater. It worked perfectly and now I have plenty of dried peppers for my soups and stews. Here are a few pics taken the past few days. Life on the farm continues and we are loving it.

Dirty faces roasting marshmallows, Perrin and Devin are having a great time!

Megatron prepares to attack the Autobot Papawprime

Megatron was defeated by Papawprime

Drying peppers on the wood stove

Peppers are dry, ready to cool and put into a jar for a nice deer stew

Wood Cook Stove!

Disaster, but I won’t give up…maybe.

I was so excited yesterday. I got some encouragement and was anxious to try it out for real. I have always said I will tell the good the bad and the ugly in our homesteading story and this one certainly falls into the bad and ugly category. I got off work half a day and could not wait to get home. I have been boiling water one pot at a time on the propane stove and could not wait to get several going for dishes, laundry, a bath, mopping and even cook supper. I got everything set up, carried in some extra wood for the day. Lit the fire and sat in my favorite chair and stared at the stove…..as smoke started coming from the eyes over the firebox. I thought, OK, it will start going up the chimney in a second. Then it started coming out of the next two eyes, then the final two and then the water reservoir and oven and I was turning this knob and that knob and trying to figure out what draft was what and nothing worked. No smoke was coming out of the chimney, it was all coming into the kitchen.

I panicked and called Chris in Tellico. We were trying to remember which draft was for what purpose. I had to make this phone call from outside, as out cell phones do not work in the house. I ran back in to turn more knobs and the kitchen was filled with smoke. I had done something terribly wrong. I opened the kitchen door and smoke began bellowing out of the stove and out the door. It was so bad actually, that the cats ran into the house and immediately turned and ran back out of the house. I made another phone call and when I went back in the living room and library were filled with smoke. It was horrible and my entertainment of watching the stove like a TV turned into a horror movie. I grabbed a gallon of water and pulled the lids off the firebox and poured the water on the fire. Of course, that led to more smoke, but not only more smoke, something else even more entertaining. It poured out of the ash box into the floor and I had nice ash filled water running all over my kitchen floor, rugs, etc. The smoke stopped coming out of the stove, I opened every door and window in the house and I went outside, sat down on the porch and cried for oh….an hour I suppose. I felt like I was a hopeless homemaker with not even enough skills to heat water for dishes. After my pity party with the dogs on the porch, I had to go pick up the grandkids form school and take them home, pick up Chris in Tellico, make a trip to my daughter’s house as it was her birthday and then got home last night about 7pm. I did not even want to face the reality of what I had done. And yes…I was discouraged….very much so!

Things came out of my mouth like we need to get rid of this thing before I kill us with it, we cannot live like this and I can cook on an open fire, a fire pit, with sterno a candle, you name it and I don’t have enough sense to cook on a modern wood cook stove! (Well yeah it is not like totally modern, but I spent weeks cooking our meals in the fireplace just recently so the stove was modern for me). I was discouraged, no other way around it.

Chris felt like it was an easy problem to solve. I was just about ready to sell the stove and go back to cooking over the fireplace.

This morning I left for work and shortly afterwards I got a phone call from Chris. He studied the knobs and drafts and read a book. He also did something I did not do, something Don told us we needed to do and I thought it was an extra step that was not so much worth the thought. Chris had every draft turned exactly like I did yesterday. He got no smoke in the kitchen other than a time bit from the eye over the firebox. He has managed to heat water and the stove is warm. Amazingly the house is smoke free as well. So yeah, that does not do much for my homesteading self esteem! LOL The one thing he did that I did not do was wad up a newspaper and place it on top of the fire and light it when you light the fire. Now this made no sense to me and I figured it was just one of those things old people did for some superstitious purpose or something. But Chris’ fire worked and mine did not. Don explained it like this…

The chimneys in old houses draw heat through them. IF it is hotter outside than inside, they have a tendency to draw that heat from outside, into the house. That explains why on hot days when the house was cool inside, you could smell the fireplace really heavy. If the house is warmer than the outside, the chimney pulls the heat up and out of the house. The newspaper burns fast and instantly heats the stove pipe and the smoke goes out, therefore it becomes hotter than the outside and it draws all of the smoke out the chimney. Don is going on 80 years old now. I would figure he probably knows what he is talking about in most situations. What I blew off as superstition or something like that, apparently was sound advice. Therefore Chris’ fire worked perfectly and mine did not.

Do I feel like an idiot? Of course I do! LOL Actually, more like a failure I suppose. Now whether or not the newspaper thing is true, I have no clue. I guess time will tell. But for now, the stove is working perfectly, probably ticking along this morning, nice and warm, making coffee for Chris, heating water for dished (and to clean up the horrible mess I made yesterday!), keeping the kitchen nice and warm and Chris is there to enjoy it while I am at work! I am sure this will be one of those laughable experiences in a few weeks, like the gutter that did not work right so I used it as a shower, Like the house that was not squared exact so things did not fit as they should, the mushy dill pickles and the deer hide that was supposed to turn into a warm throw and ended up being insulation for the outhouse. It is not so very laughable today. But tomorrow is another day….or at least Scarlett said so!

Chris called me at work to brag. LOL He has the right so I cannot complain. It is raining today so he was not able to work. So he is home enjoying the stove. He said he had already heated water and did the dishes. He also enjoyed making a good hot pot of coffee and was sitting on the porch with a hot cup of it as we talked. He tested out the oven and figured out which draft goes to that and got the oven nice and hot….further teasing me by asking how you make biscuits because he wanted to try it out lol.

Ah…experience….don’t you wish we were born with it sometimes? But then if we were, we would not have much to talk about when we are sitting in our chairs in the evening enjoying the heater, sewing and finding things to laugh about.

I am going to clean the stove up, scrub it down good this evening and try seasoning it with some Crisco or something like that….AFTER I try baking some cornbread. I am hoping to be able to use the stove effectively when his mother comes this week. I certainly don’t want to make her worry even more about me turning her son into a “hillbilly”.

11-11-09

I have had a good laugh reading some of the adventures folks have shared in this thread. I too was able to laugh about my experience several times last night.

I got home and felt instant intimidation from the monster sitting in my kitchen. This coming form someone who lived on a creek bank for 8 months in the late 70’s and lived on crawdads and frog legs! Someone who spent 5 weeks alone in a wilderness area! I found my feelings of fear to be ridiculous and headed to the kitchen with a plan.

I added some wood to the firebox and decided I would cook some cornbread and if it appeared to be working, I would finish the meal. I placed the iron skillet on the top of the stove to heat up while I mixed the cornbread up and then put it in the oven. A few minutes later I opened the door to see what was happening inside. The cornbread was rising perfectly in the pan. So I trot out to the root cellar in the rain and gather up some October Beans, Apples, Potatoes. In no time I had the beans boiling on top of the stove, potatoes were frying perfectly and the apples were stewing slowly on the other side. I even had a big pot of water heating for the dishes afterwards. Checked the cornbread again and it was doing great.

My grandson was there and I was explaining to him where the stove came from and how it works as he helped open up pickled beets. Chris noticed the firebox door was not shut all the way and proceeded with tools to slam it and pound on it and then it hit me….I have cornbread in the oven. I dreaded opening the door but managed to make myself do it. Sure enough, it had fallen with the beating and banging. Chris apologized and said he wold eat it anyway. I was thinking, you are darn straight you will eat it anyway! LOL

A little while later, my daughter showed up to get Perrin and had no intentions of eating, although I wanted her to real bad. After all it was our first meal with the new stove. She came into the kitchen and saw the bowls I was placing on our little table, hot beans, taters….she decided to eat.

So the four of us crawded around the tiny table and ate our first meal prepared on the new stove! Perrin, who refuses to eat anything but peanut butter spoons, ate a bowl of cornbread. It was delicious, even the fallen cornbread was not bad! I snapped one pic on my cell phone when everything was cooking and forgot to take a picture before we ate, but I did manage to get one of the aftermath! Every bowl was emptied and with hot water ready for the dishes, I was done with the chores in no time and had more time than I expected to relax in my chair and think about how great it was to cook supper! This weekend, I will tackle biscuits, gravy, country ham and fresh eggs!

Chris’ mother is here now visiting until about Tuesday. This weekend I will be cooking a nice breakfast on the stove. All the grandkids are spending the night on Saturday. We will have a blast.

Things are going well. We are staying warm, the heater is working great. Cutie had to go to the Vet yesterday and was very ill. Hopefully the antibiotics will get her better. The garden is plowed and ready for next Spring. We start the pig pen soon and some repairs on the porch. Life is good!