Baltic Amber Teething Necklaces

I never noticed when Monkey was teething. He wasn't cranky at all. The only way I'd know he was teething was when a new tooth or two would show up in his mouth. I didn't understand the horror stories of teething infants. How could it be that bad? Before you start sending me nasty comments, know that I've been caught. Yes, Sweetpea has turned into a drooling cranky teething monster. The only thing that was helping was consistent doses of tylenol or ibuprophen (or both!), but I started to feel like pharmaceutical drugs weren't the healthiest alternatives.

Then a couple weeks ago I received a call from a friend who had an equally cranky teething toddler. She suggested trying a baltic amber teething necklace and offered to pick one up for Sweetpea since she was going to pick one up for her toddler. I put in on Sweetpea as soon as I got it.

Baltic amber is fossilized tree resin that releases succinic acid when warmed by skin. Succinic acid has anti-inflammatory and analgesic (pain relieving) properties, perfect for a teething baby.

Sweetpea has been wearing her necklace for two weeks now and I haven't had to give her any medicine since she started wearing it. Trust me, she is still teething! Today I saw four new teeth poking through her gums. So, the baltic amber necklace must be helping because my teething monster is no longer around.

I purchased my teething necklace locally. There are some sellers on Etsy, PureComfort is out of Calgary, Canada. I'm sure there are lots of online stores like bynature.ca that sells them too.

What has been your experience with baltic amber teething necklaces? Or are you new to this teething alternative? Do you think they work?

Living Simply: Linen and Coat Closets

This week I'm working on the coat and linen closets. The coat closet is quite empty but I need to do something about my growing collection of cloth bags.

I do need to simplify the linen closet. There are old towels that need to be donated or put downstairs for rags. A few items in the closet I never use and are still brand new from our wedding. I need to get rid of these but I'm not sure how just yet. 

Elisa is taking a break from organizing this week, but hopefully she'll be back next week.

Weekly Sustenance

When I sit down and plan our menu for the week, the first thing I do is stick my head in the fridge and take a look around. I jot down a few notes of what needs to be used and then head to my comfy chair.

Some weeks I feel inspired and other weeks I don't. Today I stared at the list of things sitting in my fridge and then stared some more. Somehow I needed to make a menu that included swiss chard, arugula, green beans, olives, chicken necks, mint, basil, cilantro, peppers, feta, ricotta, salami, old bananas and broccoli.

About the chicken necks, they come from the thirty-five chickens we butchered on Saturday. I plan on making a delicious chicken stock with them and pressure canning it. And with the other ingredients, here is what I came up with:

Monday: Swiss chard and sweet pea manicotti and green beans.

Tuesday: Arugula salami pizza.

Wednesday: Pork slouvaki and Greek salad.

Thursday: Cream of broccoli soup.

Friday: Beef enchiladas, Mexican-style rice and lime-sour cream.

Living Simply: Living Room Reveal

I had so many goals and plans for this room. I did declutter and organize the shelves. As you can see there are a few new baskets on the shelf for toys. They're pretty much empty, but they look pretty. I did go through the books, multiple times, and put aside a box of children's books for our upcoming kid's sale. Two of the plants got the boot and are patiently waiting outside my door to get composted.

However, I looked for an end table all week. I dragged the little ones through department stores, thrift stores and garage sales. I didn't find what I was looking for. We'll try the antique store sometime this week but this will be my last stop. If there's no end table there the prayer table will be on hold for now.

The fireplace and wall dents aren't fixed like. I did puddy the holes but that's as far as it got. The living room continues to be a work in progress.

Don't forget to check out Elisa's decluttered linens closets.

Butchering Chickens

We did it! It's been a long day, but all thirty-five chickens have been killed, plucked and butchered. After the trauma of killing and butchering the first chicken (I won't go into details) we didn't think we'd get them all done today. But, we figured it out and fell into a rhythm.

Before we started my sister insisted that we read How to Butcher a Chicken. It's a good thing we did. I didn't know that chickens had crops or oil glands on their tails.

At first we tried killing a few chickens with the axe and stump chop-off-the-head technique but this proved to be too messy and too traumatic for everyone (the chicken included). Instead we borrowed a slaughter cone from the neighbour. You use a slaughter cone by putting the chicken into the cone head first, slicing it's jugular vein and letting the chicken bleed out. It's much less traumatic and there are no headless chickens running around.

I took charge of the plucking and my sister and dad did the butchering. Of course we'd switch around depending on what was happening so we each got the chance to butcher and pluck.

A few of us who didn't want to kill, pluck or butcher were on water duty. Water duty included keeping the scalding pot full of boiling water and refreshing the tubs of water we used for rinsing and cooling the chickens. My mom did the final cleaning of the chickens and prepped them for storage.

There is one thing I came to realize today. Killing, plucking and butchering chickens is much more work than killing, skinning and butchering rabbits. Another win for raising meat rabbits! Now, it's true that a plucking machine would have helped and that we'd probably get quicker with more experience. But still! It took us about six hours from set up to clean up to complete thirty-five chickens. We could have done thirty-five rabbits in half that time, easily.

Pickled Asparagus

When our Korean student left a couple months ago, I stopped making kimchi. Being the only person that would eat it, I figured it wasn't worth it. But, a few days ago I had a hankering for some kimchi and rice. I bought some napa cabbage yet forgot the daikon radish. A quick trip to the store to buy some daikon is practically an oxymoron but the fact that the bakery gives little ones a free cookie made it seem worth it.

I drove to the store and got a noisy cart. This cart was exceptionally noisy and I kept giving apologetic glances to the other customers around me. First stop, the bakery, second stop daikon.

I searched for the daikon.. and couldn't find it. I asked the produce man "where is the daikon?". The conversation continued like this. "None, are you sure? Can't you look in the back? My children are eating their cookie fast, my time is almost up. What!? You currently don't have a daikon supplier!". Oh dear, daikon mission = failed, but I did spot some nice thin asparagus further down the aisle. How about some pickled asparagus then?

I used the recipe from Well Preserved but switched the dried dill with celery seed. I won't post the recipe, you can get it here.

Yarn Along (no. 26)

For the last few weeks I've watched Yarn Along come and go. I wanted to join in on the fun but never took the time to take a picture of my project.  Yes, I am still knitting. I'm actually a little surprised by this. Usually I stop once spring arrives. The thing is, I have quite a few friends expecting babies in the next six months so I need to work on projects through the summer if I'm going to knit them anything. What do you knit for a baby gift?

Right now I'm working on a Tiny Tea Leaves Cardi. It's so cute I want to knit one for myself but the long rows of continuous KFAB or K2Tog are brutal! The book I'm reading is a Christian Romance novel Second Chance Brides (Texas Boardinghouse Brides, Book 2). It's fluff but I'm awaiting a bunch of serious books by Scott Hahn that I ordered off bookcloseouts.com. Do you have any favorite fluff books?

To see what other are knitting go over to Ginny's blog.

Living Simply: The Living Room

Our family spends a lot of time in the living room. In this space most of our reading, playing, visiting and relaxing happen.

As you can see I have a some books here and there. Actually, most of them are downstairs. Books are a difficult thing for me to simplify. I enjoy accumulating books and the fact that books are so inexpensive to get at garage sales and thrift stores doesn't help. I keep an active record of all the books I own on LibraryThing, but there are books that I'm not completely happy with and those should be sold or donated.

My children don't have a separate play room; the living room is their playroom. I try and keep toy clutter under control by making only a few toys available at any given time. When my little ones loose interest of a toy I switch it with a toy I've stored downstairs. This system has been working well. I would like to invest in a few more good quality toys for my little ones (any toy suggestions?) as well as a few more nice baskets for storing toys on the shelf.

There are few areas that need fixing in the living room. One, is the fire place. The existing tiles broke off and we've been meaning to install new tiles. I'd like this to be done. Two, the lighting in this room is terrible. In the summer it's no problem because the sun doesn't set until 10pm anyways. In the winter, however, it's gloomy. I'm going to try and find another lamp of two. Three, there are a couple holes in the walls. These holes need to be filled and repainted.

I also have a variety of plants in the living room, and some are looking shabby. I think these old plants will be meeting the compost bin.

Finally, my Husband and I want to create a prayer space for the little ones in the living room. We've been talking about the importance of putting time aside to create a special and consistent prayer time. I'm going to find a small table for the corner of the room for this purpose. What kind of things should I put in the prayer space?

I'd love to hear your suggestions! Also, Elisa is decluttering her linens this week, be sure to go over and check our her post.

Living Simply: Furnace Room Reveal

It's not pretty but it's much more functional. Before decluttering the furnace room I could barely access the freezers. Now everything has a place, I can walk around safely and there's even some extra space for canned food and other items.

I emptied the grey cabinet of tools. Most of the tools went into the garage outside. I did keep a few tools in the cabinet, but only those that get used around the house regularly (hammer, level, measuring tape). The rest of the cabinet was filled with off-season outdoor gear which was previously stuffed under the stairs.

We cleared out the freezers of old items, and any food items on the shelves that won't be consumed were donated to the food bank.

We installed a shelf above the freezers for some added storage space. There are still a few improvements that can be made, but I'm happy with the setup for now. What do you think?

Elisa finished decluttering her living room and it looks great. Go over and have a peak.

Butchering Rabbits

Disclaimer: If you think butchering and eating rabbit is an awful thing, I recommend reading another post. We've chosen to raise meat rabbits so that we can provide our family with healthy, environmentally sustainable and locally grown meat, and butchering the rabbits is part of the process.

When people find out we raise meat rabbits, the first question they ask is "do you butcher them yourself?". Yes, we do; however, neither of us had butchering experience before raising meat rabbits, other than portioning out a store bought chicken. The very first time we butchered rabbits we had some help from my father and brother (19/06/11 - correction: it was actually my BIL and SIL) and the internet. Taking the life of an animal, especially one that you've cared for, isn't easy. But, we raise meat rabbits and that's part of the job description.

Because of the cold Northern winters and the fact that our rabbits are outside, we don't breed our rabbits from November to March. The weather at this time is too unpredictable and whole litters, no matter how well built the nest box, can die of cold. This year, the rabbits had their first litters in April. Once the kits (baby rabbits) reach 10 to 12 weeks of age they are ready for butchering. After 10 to 12 weeks of age, the feed to meat conversion ratio increases, and it becomes less economical to continue growing them. Also the older the rabbit gets the tougher the meat becomes. At 10 to 12 weeks the rabbits dress out between 2.5 to 3.5 lbs, fryer size. It might seem that 10 to 12 weeks is young, but meat chickens are butchered at 6 to 8 weeks. So, it really isn't that young.

We kill each rabbit by dislocating its neck. It might sound awful but it's fast, clean and the rabbits suffer very little. Cervical dislocation is an approved method of rabbit euthanasia by the Canadian Council on Animal Care. Our tool of choice for dislocating their neck is a spade on a long handle.

Goodness! I hope you don't think that we use the spade itself. No, we use the stick portion, but the spade end prevents the stick from rolling around too much. To dislocate the neck, place the rabbit on the ground and rest the stick gently on the neck behind the ears. Fold back the front feet; it helps to have someone help with this. Once the feet are folded back, rest a foot on one side of the stick and take hold of the back legs. When the rabbit is in position, swiftly place both feet on the stick, one on each side of the rabbit's head and pull the legs up towards your head. You should hear the neck pop and dislocate. The rabbit's muscles will twitch and back legs kick for 15 to 30 seconds. Gently hold the rabbit down on the ground until this ends.

The rabbit is then hung by its feet and skinned and eviscerated. If you wait too long to do this task the muscles will harden, because of rigor mortis. Delayed bleeding can also affect colour and juiciness of the meat, especially when the meat is aged (Omojola, 2007). After the rabbit is cleaned, we wrap it in a plastic bag and then in butcher's paper to be frozen. This combination extend the freezer life of the rabbit. I don't age the rabbit meat in the fridge, but after reading this article I'm starting to consider it. Apparently, ageing the meat for two to three days in the fridge improves flavour and tenderness.

A Chicken Update

The chicken have a week and a half before B-Day (butchering day). They are stinky and stupid. They don't forage and don't leave the coop even when the run is open. Silly things.

Next year, we're going to purchase a heritage breed instead. Something that forages, that can live beyond 8 weeks without dying of a heart attack and that, as a result, has more flavourful meat.

It's a learning process.

On another chicken note, if you have little ones that like to colour, Made By Joel just posted a Chicken Coloring Sheet.

Making and Canning Rhubarb Juice

The idea of making a rhubarb cordial comes from The Joy of Jams, Jellies, and Other Sweet Preserves and Tigress in a Jam. Cordials are sweet and delicious. They are meant to be diluted in pop, alcohol or whatever you like. I wanted to make something a little less sweet to use in Popsicles for the little ones, so I made a rhubarb juice and here is my recipe:

Canned Rhubarb Juice 
Adapted from The Joy of Jams, Jellies, and Other Sweet Preserves.

Steam juicer or jelly bag
Rhubarb, chopped
Sugar [add 1/2 cup per 1 L of juice]

Chop the rhubarb. Juice the rhubarb according to your steam juicer's directions. You could also extract the juice using a jelly bag and following the directions at Tigress in a Jam. For each 1L of rhubarb juice add 1/2 cup of sugar, you can add more or less sugar depending on your preference and the tartness of the rhubarb. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil and boil for 1 minute.

Pour the juice into sterilized quart mason jars, leaving a 1/4 inch headspace. Top with lids and place into a boiling water bath canner. Process for 10 minutes, or adjust the amount of time according to your altitude.

Living Simply: The Furnace Room

The basement of our house is like one big storage area. We rarely go down there except to store things and do laundry. There's a guest room, laundry area, three storage spaces, a bathroom and a rec-room. It's dark and gloomy. There are no windows, half the lights don't work and much of it is unfinished. Since the basement is the area of my house where stuff accumulates the most I'm going to be focusing on this area in the next few weeks.

The first room to get my attention is the furnace room.

This room is an extension to my kitchen. There are two deep freezers and a couple shelves that store canned food, bulk food items, wine making equipment and larger kitchen tools like the dehydrator and water bath canner. It's not a pretty place.

That grey storage cabinet at the end of the room is always a complete mess. It's suppose to be for tools and is my Hubby's responsibility. I'm considering sending all his stuff outside to the shed and using the space to store other things.

There is even some art sitting in this room that we took down when renovating our bedroom. It has to go back upstairs. 

My goals for this room are to donate or sell anything we don't use, install some shelving above the freezers, empty the grey storage cabinet of tools, hang the art upstairs, discard old food from the freezers and donate any good unopened food items that won't get eaten. I don't think I'm going to worry about making it look pretty. As long as it's functional that should be good enough.

If you have any ideas for improving this room, please leave a comment below. Also, be sure to check Elisa's blog post on simplifying the living room.

Weekly Sustenance

Last week, when I wanted to check my weekly menu I couldn't find it. Right, hebdomenal sustenance, that's what it was. I've decided to make a slow transition back. Weekly Sustenance sounds less strange, don't you think?

Monday: Potato Soup with Kale and Chorizo. This is simmering away right now and filling my house with the wonderful smells of potato and chorizo.

Tuesday: Pizza Margherita.

Wednesday: Orzo with Grilled Shrimp and Summer Vegetables.

Thursday: Swedish Meatballs, egg noodles and broccoli.

Friday: Vegetarian Steamed Dumplings. My Hubby dislikes tofu which are in these dumplings. I'm hoping to sneak some in. I wonder if he'll notice.

Saturday: A farmer's market inspired meal.

Living Simply: Kitchen Reveal

Now, from outer appearances the kitchen doesn't look much different than it did before. But, it's inside the drawers and cupboards that I accomplished the most decluttering. I was ruthless when getting rid of stuff and it felt great. I enjoy getting rid of unnecessary things. It's even easier when it's not your own stuff. Once my SIL and I helped my MIL go through her garage while she was away... and got rid of lots of stuff. She knew about it but she still mentions missing items to this day. I wouldn't recommend trying this at your own MIL's home.

Back to the kitchen. The container drawer, utensil drawer and the phone book drawer, which only a few days ago were driving-me-nuts, are now so organized and simplified that I have been caught opening and closing them just to peek inside.

The container drawer.

The phone book drawer.

The utensil drawer.

The process was overwhelming at times, and it got worse before it got better. But, it's much easier to stay organized when you have less stuff to keep organized. I held onto that thought as I went through each drawer and cupboard. Gone are the days (at least hopefully for a while) that I have to push the contents done and slam the drawer quickly to close it shut. 

I got rid of most plastic items including the ice cube trays, plastic serving utensils and the plastic measuring cups. Gone also are numerous knives, pens, a phone book and other things I never use or have too much of. There are still a few areas that I need to improve on more, namely the spice cupboard, but overall it's been a success.

Be sure to visit Elisa's blog and check out her wonderful success too.

Naturally Leavened (Sourdough) Bread

Baking your own bread is a very sensual experience. By sensual I mean involving the senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. I started making my own bread using a bread machine. Then I attempted the occasional rustic loaf from The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. Sometimes the loaves would turn out perfect and other times they came out hard and flat, a good weapon if you ever needed one. I tried to figure out where I was going wrong and read books from the library. I still felt unsure but loved the smell of freshly baked bread too much to give up baking bread.

I recently received as a gift, a baking class at a local artisan bakery. I attended it with my mother, sister and two other lovely ladies. The class was fabulous.

We learned about the beauty and benefits of natural leaven (sourdough). Naturally leavened bread (sourdough) is healthier because the sourdough culture neutralized phytic acid making more minerals available for absorption compared to yeasted breads. Naturally leavened bread also tastes delicious and keeps and freezes better than yeasted bread.

I've read about starting a sourdough culture in several DIY books; the directions were conflicting at best. One recipe asked for grapes, another for a combination of flours, and another recommended buying a starter. In fact, you don't need anything other than water and flour to start a sourdough culture. The yeast in the environment and in the flour are enough to create a chef (mother culture). However, getting a good sourdough culture can take time. At this course, we were each given a piece of sourdough starter to take home. Tomorrow, I will begin taking care of this new creature and hopefully together we'll make some delicious naturally leavened bread.

Homemade Beauty Products

Last fall, I came across Do It Gorgeously: How to Make Less Toxic, Less Expensive, and More Beautiful Products and purchased some beauty making supplies from soapcraft.ca and Serf to Surf. The plan was to mix up some homemade bath and body care products so that our family could avoid all those nasty chemicals found in conventional products. In the last eight months, I've tried a few things from Sophie's book.

The first was the Baby Shampoo (p. 124). It worked well but no matter how careful we were the liquid castile soap would run into little eyes and induce screaming. A bar of Dr. Bronner's Baby Mild Soap works just as well without the tendency to run everywhere. Next was the Baby Balm (p. 122) which worked wonderfully but came out a little hard. This was probably my fault. I don't think you're supposed to estimate the 2 Tbsp. of beeswax that goes into the mixture. Other that it being too hard it worked really well and I would make it again, but with the right amount of beeswax.

I made the Vanilla Body Cream (p. 47) when I ran out of the Baby Balm. This was super easy to prepare and is very spreadable. At first it feels greasy but the oils do get absorbed. It's more of a body cream than a hand cream. Every time I use it one my hands I can't open doors for a good five minutes. I'd like to try the Winter Hand Salve over at A Sonoma Garden for a hand cream. My hand get really dry in the summer with all the gardening and canning.

Then I spoke with a friend of mine, and she raved about the effectiveness of coconut oil and baking soda as a natural deodorant. I made a mixture by melting 1/4 cup coconut oil and stirring in 1 Tbsp. of baking soda (aluminium free) and have been testing it out over the last couple weeks. It's not an antiperspirant but works as a good deodorant. I might try adding a few other things when I make the next batch. Angry Chicken has a Homemade Deodorant recipe that looks good.

And today, after months of not having a face cleanser. I got my butt in gear and made the Citrus Cleansing Cream (p. 23). I was concerned when the oils and water didn't emulsify properly but I gave it a good shake when it had cooled and it seems fine.

Next on my list is some Homemade Toothpaste by Crunchy Catholic Mama and some homemade Insect Repellent.