Little House Day

(Click on the pictures to enlarge)

So, way back in November, we finally had the Little House Day I've been planning for oh, 2 years now.

I had so much fun planning it out, and even had a playlist of the fiddle music that Pa played, which I put together by writing down all the titles of the songs named in the Big Woods, the finding them on You-tube. The trick was to put "Fiddle" after the title so you wouldn't have to weed through 100 songs to find the version you want.  I wanted to share the soundtrack, but when I went to pull it up for this post, I found the site had been shut down. Phooey.

My friend Becca and her 4 littles made the trek out here to join us.

We combined Little House In the Big Woods and Farmer Boy. I had big plans for what to teach, but eventually whittled it down to using what you have, not being able to just run to the store, improvising, using things up, not being wasteful. Most of that pertained to food. What can I say, we all like to eat.

I dragged this hutch into the dining room and improvised a little kitchen.

It was my favorite thing.

Becca read a bit about harvest time etc. from the Big Woods before we started.

After reading about how Laura and Mary and Almanzo helped to make butter, and how different their methods were, we made our own. 

Everyone had a turn shaking.

Making do: No cheesecloth, so I used a leftover scrap of my wedding veil material to drain the butter.

We used the buttermilk in the cornbread.

Lots of stirring.

And baked it in my cast iron skillet greased with bacon fat.

While lunch was baking/warming up, we made scrapbook paper quilt blocks. I figured it was the easiest way to include everybody.

The big kids did Laura's Bear Paw

and the Littles did Mary's Nine-Patch.

And then we ate. All recipes (except the sausage) from the Little House Cookbook.

Baked beans...

Mashed Pumpkin, which we then drizzled with maple syrup...

Bean Porridge...

Haha! Just realized I forgot to get out the cloth napkins and these are paper! SO authentic.

We also had venison sausage that I made, the cornbread and butter we made together, and blueberry "pudding" which was really a cake like bread cooked in tin cans in boiling water. It was good.

Originally, I had planned various chores for the kids, here are the boys "fetching water from the well" (A pot for the well, and an ice-cream bucket for the bucket). Unfortunately, with 5 of the 9 children under the age of 4, that got pushed to the side and they all went out back to play instead.

I put together a gift basket for Becca's family with a slate and chalk, maple popcorn, leftover soaps from the baby shower last summer, and some peppermint sticks. Made the basket from brown paper lunch bags.

This was Muff after telling Daddy about it all.

All in all, LOTS of fun, not as detailed as I wanted, but that's alright. Also appropriate that it came right before Muffins Birthday since this was her gift.

Looking forward to doing another Little House Day : )

The Kidlets

Christmas gifts are barely begun, cards? ha, yeah right, and so I am B.E.H.I.N.D. But I did get the kidlets picture, so here you are goofy smiles and all. (Smart move Amy, doing individual shots!)

Long Time Comin'

I really wasn't planning on this long of a break. But I'm not going to apologize. Life happens first and blogging is as it always will be. Whenever. I did miss it though.

To bring you somewhat up to speed, in no particular order, and with random thoughts on all things, and a link or two, just for kicks, I give you the following:

My ornery Beans. This kid is a barrel of laughs, and he knows it

He's 2 now.

 And really good at throwing out diapers. And being a big brother. He would gladly hold Sprout all the live long day.

My tomatoes were Fan-ta-stic this year. I had some puree from last year that I had frozen so I added that  to my last picking, since it was small, but as opposed to other years I didn't have to buy *any* tomatoes for canning. Muffin took the "scrape-out-the-tomato-guts" job very seriously.

My goal for next years sauce is for it to contain only items I have grown, my own garlic, onions, herbs and tomatoes.

Picked all this the week after Sprout was born. 

I learned that you DO NOT plant cucumbers by your melons. The melons will have no taste.

They will smell positively intoxicating, but they will have no taste.

Where shall I plant them next year I wonder?

This is very often my view. Sweet little soft head. Just a minute, I have to kiss him. Okay, I'm back.

He's nursing right now. Again. He's 2 months old and weighs over 17 and a half pounds. My friend Erin is convinced I only produce butter, not milk. Ain't no skim milk, that's fo' sho'.

A savory herb bouquet, and a sweet herb bouquet for a friend. (which reminds me, I have garlic to plant, but not right now, as it's 11:08 pm, black as pitch, and raining. oh, and cold.)

It's kind of tradition now that Biscuit plants the sunflowers.

I wish I had thought to measure this one. It's sitting in a tree right now, where Biscuit keeps a sharp eye on it, and a bird book handy so he can show me what is visiting.

Biscuit is also short 5 teeth, the first 3 lost in less than 24 hours. He freaked out about losing the first one. Come to think about it, he also freaked out about losing the 5th one. He was mad at B. for pulling them, and wouldn't talk to him. The fact that we couldn't stop laughing at his panic didn't help matters any.

We had a killing frost. Pretty though, and kind of a relief.

We pulled out the garden. And busted out the winter coats. I'm still trying to figure out how to avoid the home-schooler look for girls. Sigh.

We've been pouring over the seed catalog I forgot I saved, eagerly planning next years garden.

Bring on some raised beds for early crops.

B. and I, two of my brothers and their wives

Sprout was dedicated a few weeks ago, and out of the 6 babies being dedicated, 2 were/are being adopted (one of them will be my nephew) and 4 of them are cousins. We're planning a church take over. Not really. But we've started on a second pew.

And now I must leave you as tomorrow is Sunday, it is rather late and my alarm clock will rudely shrill before I'm ready for it to. It's the price I must pay if I want the chance of a shower .

And a kicker link, for a kitchen I am in love with, and it doesn't even have drywall up.
Actually, read the rest of their peasant kitchen posts. It's a goal I am working my way towards.
G'night.

During Math This Morning

So glad my camera was close by...

Tootsie

Beans was SURE that his end of the tootsie-pop would be just as good as Daddy's....

When the Boy Dresses Himself....

..... You never really know what he'll come up with. He spilled some milk on his pj's, and decided I wasn't moving fast enough, so he did it himself. He must not have found the "underwearpants" he wanted, because I see his night time diaper is still on. Little Goober.
clothes, and skip school 'til later to do battle with Asian beetles in Honey's room. Any thoughts on how to get rid of them? PLEASE?