baby steps

i am always looking for ways to reduce the amount of stuff i use and throw away. that said, i am a product of the american marketing machine so i have a lot of garbage. to help me make those small steps to better ecology my friend larissa came over yesterday to make baby wipes. she took t-shirt scraps from a quilt i am making and cut 4x6 pieces. with two pieces together i serged the edges. then i placed them in a plastic baby wipes container half full of water with a little baby soap. this morning was my first trial with the new wipes so of course the baby filled her pants for me. they did better than expected. i was going to be happy with as good as the throw away kind but the cloth is thicker and easier to handle. i am sold. thanks larissa.

new use for old product

i had an amazing discovery today that i just had to share. a few years ago i purchased a 50lb sack of tvp, that's textured vegetable protein for those who have not heard of it, and have been slowly using it. it comes in many forms and i selected the 'chicken' because it sounded fun. unfortunately it has a funny texture and so we do not use it much. today i was making vichyssoise and decided to add a little tvp to the potatoes while they cooked. vichyssoise is a blended soup and so into the blender went the tvp, right along with the potatoes. the result was wonderful. i now know what to do with the other 30lbs in the garage. i can make 'ground meat' now and use it in recipes. maybe i can even disguise it in such a way that joshua does not notice. all you do is heat it with what ever flavor broth you want it to taste like: chicken, veggie, beef and then put it in a food processor or blender. i will not make the same mistake on this size next time but at least i can use up what i have.

kansas yogurt

finally the yogurt works for me. if anyone reading this is contemplating making yogurt make sure you get the jars nice and clean. that is the only thing we could come up with that might have gone wrong. after i took them out of the dishwasher i let them hang out on the counter without their lids. some uninvited bugs could have crawled in then. yogurt is very picky.
so here is the recipe:
1 quart of milk
a 6 oz container of plain yogurt with live, active cultures

heat the milk between 100 and 200, hotter for thicker yogurt lower for thinner. let the milk cool to between 80 and 100. mix a small amount of milk with the yogurt and then add to the rest of the milk. place in jars with lids. put in a warm place, between 100 and 140, for 4-6 hours. refrigerate.

hope this is everything, if not i will have diana update. now audrey has fresh yogurt made from kansas cows.

hi, my name is kris and i am learning to cook

i believe introductions are in order, so let me start. my name is kris and i am a 35 year old new mother. i was born and raised in lovely tulsa, oklahoma, making me the lone city girl in the group. for that reason the topics i will normally tackle might be old hat to individuals raised in areas with fresh food readily available. recently my daughter started on solid foods and so i have begun on the journey to homemade baby food and finger foods. i also cloth diaper her and clothe her in hand-me-downs. this is more for economy than for any principles. the food making, however, is a principled belief and can cost more on occasion to make than to purchase. if it is so easy to make why would a parent want the food that goes into their children's mouths to be processed and full of chemicals ? that is what i am discovering currently. with just a blender, stove and a little prep i can make almost anything i can buy in the little jars. so far she loves it. to see pictures visit my personal blog. and we did start off with purchased food so i am not trying to judge those with not enough time to make homemade. i am certain i was raised on processed foods most of my life. i just want better for my children than i had myself. please feel free to email me with questions or ideas. i am very receptive: kathlyn.adair at gmail dot com.

urban homesteaders

i love that explanation. if you check out wikipedia it will tell you that the current movement is more about back to the earth. that is an area that the current group lacks so i will do what i can to help guide readers in that area. here is a great blog i found recently on larryville.com about a local farm. i guess technically we are urban homesteaders. that is until joshua gets busy and buys me some land. then i can have goats. please feel free to comment or email me any ideas, questions or thoughts. my email is kathlyn.adair at gmail dot com. i am working on the yogurt article but since my last batch failed i am going to try again to see if i need help before posting.

What is this "homesteading" thing all about?

I can't tell you how many times I've heard this question. So, let me see if I can begin to define our concept somewhat (Kris, please jump in anytime).

First, as women, friends, sisters, daughters, mothers, coworkers, neighbors and the myriad of other roles we fill, we spend a great deal of energy and time caring about the people in our lives. Second, we don't have the time, money, or energy to "do it all" and be super-women. Let's all collectively admit it, there are no actual "superwomen" or "supermen" out there. If you think someone has the perfect life, you just don't know them well enough yet. Finally, collective thought is almost always more creative and resourceful than the individual.

Taking all of these into consideration, we decided to share the wonderful and positive energies that we have come to enjoy among ourselves with any passerby who may fancy a stop on our page. Further, if you are so inclined as to leave your thoughts (once or regularly) we would love to embrace your ideas as well!

Ok, now you know the "why", but how about the "what" of it all? What do we mean by "homesteading"? Well, our interests are as varied as our roles and the people we love: some crafting, some cooking, some sewing, some shopping, some growing, some making, some doing, some seeing, and the occasional mad scientist takes over! So how do we define that? Well, women have been resourceful and making do for generations. In this area, the non-native women (and their families) who came where often referred to by the mainstream Eastern press as "homesteaders". They had to "do it all" to create a lifestyle that resembled that which they left behind.

So, "Homesteading in Lawrence" is just that. Very mortal, fallible women coming together to help each other and others in their community (local and beyond) by making available a myriad of ideas and opportunities from which the participants and passersby alike may pick-and-choose in order to create a life they envision.

Welcome, come in and rest your weary bones for a bit, sit for a spell, take what you may, leave what you will, and when you continue your journey, may you be the better for it.

thrifty sites

this thread showed up on larryville today just as i was getting this idea going. there are some wonderful sites listed here. take a look. you do not have to have an account to view, just to post.

kill the television

so i was watching television last night and kept thinking about the statistic i heard recently about americans watching over 1000 hours of tv in a year. who has that kind of time? what are they not doing now that they watch so much tv? i would have continued to ponder this but the suv with the television in it pulled away and i drove on. i just added 5 minutes to my tv time. how does your family measure up?

a new beginning

We are starting out with an idea for a blog to see if there is interest. Hope to have weekly updates for following homesteading ideas in Lawrence.