Queen's Edge Farm: Family

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Family

Family, what does it mean to you? Well, I'd like to think I was raised to actually be a family. I admit it is hard when you are an adult to still tolerate people in your life who are so different from you, but they are family.

When you are young and living with siblings and parents in one house, you learn how to get a long with each other pretty well, but once you are grown, you learn to value your independence, and the fact you can now just be "you".

I remember reading about families that live together (kids, parents, grandparents and such). This was the norm, no one moved away. Even the Amish do this on a regular basis. When a child gets married (normally the son), the parents may moved to a "Graus Daddy" house in the back. Normally, a smaller home behind the main house to allow the son and his new wife a home of their own, or they would just share if the other house was occupied by grandparents.

The English had a dower house, if wealthy enough, or they all just packed in together, all working together to care for the home, kids and provide food. I think that is great!

While I applaud technology, and the advances that we have made, it is also disheartening to see the affect this has had on the family in general. While I would consider my family once to be close, relationship wise, in the past 20 years that has changed. We are also scattered around the country. My maternal grandmother lives in VA, she always has....we lived in MD, so it was easy to go visit. My paternal grandmother lived in MD, we were really close in distance to her, now she lives in WV, her birthplace. My mom lives in FL, after moving from TX to VA, and then to FL. My parents moved me and my sisters to TX in the early 80s, and we have been here since, with the exception of my military brother. He was born here in TX, and has been to NY, Afghanistan, Iraq, and now AL, while being in the Army. My youngest sister still lives in VA, where my mom moved to several years ago. We are trying to talk her into moving back to TX, and then we will just have my mom and her husband to get here. ;-) All in the master plan! Shhh! And it's not that I don't love my grandparents, it's just I don't see them moving away from their children at this stage in their lives. And while I miss my grandparents, aunts and uncles, and sometimes the east coast, I would NEVER live their again..way too many people. I am not a big people person.

Now, with my sisters, we are in the same general area, but not in the same town. I am 30 minutes from April, who is about 30 minutes from Ann. I am about an hour away from Ann, depending on traffic. We are close enough to help out in an emergency, but not close enough to part of everyone's everyday life. I go to church with April, so usually see her once a week. Ann used to go to church with us, but she chose to stay closer to home, rather than drive into town. It'd be nice if we all went to church together, but I don't see that happening with Ann.

My point in talking about all this is because of the article I read this morning on older children (in their 50s) moving back in with their parents during this worsening economy. Evidently, a financial planner didn't think it was a good idea, as we, as a culture, have never learned to tell our children NO, and that the potential for diminishing your wealth exists when this happens. I am not advocating in anyway that parents fork over money to their kids, quite the contrary. But allowing someone to live with you because they can't afford a place of their own due to the economy, is what family should be all about. In lieu of accepting money, help with household duties (cleaning, mowing) should be accepted. Family needs to take care of family period. Set clear guidelines and rules for everyone to learn to co-exist peacefully, again, but don't enable people to just be couch potatoes.

Our neighbor just had one of his daughters, her husband and three children move in with him. I don't know the details, we just saw them show up, with furniture, and began to unload. They are there every evening now, and their car is parked over there all night (no we aren't that nosy, they just right across the street, and it's fairly obvious.)

I am trying to scale down myself and get prepared for a tightening economy, and would like to be able to offer assistance to my family when and if they need it, in the form of a place to stay, and food to eat, and on their part, if no job to contribute, then I will accept their help on the farm growing the food we eat. To me that's a fair exchange of labor. Now DH doesn't like this plan, but he wouldn't turn away his family during a time of need, and I won't do the same, no matter how hard I tried to get them to wake up and prepare for the eventuality.

So, here is the link that upset me a tad this morning.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080321/ap_on_bi_ge/living_with_parents

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Grandma's Yummy Cinnamon Rolls

2 pkgs active dry yeast or 5 tsps if using bulk yeast
1/2 cup warm water (not too hot)
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup shortening, butter, margarine
2 tsps salt
2 cups milk, scalded
1 1/2 cups cold water
10 to 12 cups flour (white or whole wheat)

Yield: 4 loaves

Soften yeast in warm water, springkle in a tsp of the sugar
In LARGE mixing bowl blend sugar, shortening, salt and milk until shortening is melted. Add cold water, cool to luke-warm. Stir in yeast. Gradually add flour to form a stiff dough. Knead on floured surface until smooth and satiny, 5 to 10 minutes. Place in greased bowl, turning dough to grease all sides. Cover with foil or damp towel. Let rise in warm place (85 to 90 deg) until light and doubled in volume about two hours. Punch dough down by plunging fist in center. Knead dough for about 5 minutes.

Roll out one fourth of dough to a 16 X 12 inch rectangle. Brush with 2 TBSP of melted butter. Combine 1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar, 1/3 cup sugar and 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon (or more to taste). Sprinkle mixture over dough. Starting with 16 inch side, roll jellyroll fashion. Either cut into 16 1 inch slices or leave as a whole loaf. Place on a greased pan, cover and let rise in warm place until light, about 30 to 45 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees about 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Mix one box 10X sugar with 2 tbsps water. If too stiff, add more water until icing consistency, add a drop of vanilla too. Spread on baked bread while bread is still warm.

2010 Homestead Stats

Laundry Soap

Homemade Laundry Soap:
1/3 bar Fels Naptha or other type of soap, as listed above
½ cup washing soda
½ cup borax powder
~You will also need a small washpan or bowl that holds about 2 gallons.

Grate the soap and put it in a sauce pan. Add 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts. Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups hot water into the washpan. Now add your soap mixture and stir. Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir. Transfer soap (using a funnel if necessary) into empty plastic laundry holders, milk containers (I use my empty glass milk bottles and old Fab containers) Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel. You use ½ cup per load.

Wild Mustang Grape Jelly

Wild Mustang Grape Jelly

5 cups grape juice (about 3 1/2 pounds of ripe grapes)1 (1 3/4 ounce) box of sure-jel pectin7 cups sugarBefore getting started it is best to clean the entire kitchen, making sure the sink is empty. Bleach the sink and all utensils used in making jelly (I do this as I sell my grape jelly as part of my homesteading business.)

Wash the canning jars in warm soapy water, and rinse well. Set off to side.

Place a large pan of water on the stove to heat. Once it starts steaming, place lids and rings in the bottom, and 2-3 jars (depending on if you use actual jelly jars or pints) to sterilize.

Next make the grape juice using clean washed grapes (make sure you use rubber gloves when picking or washing wild grapes)To 3 1/2 pounds of clean grapes (6 cups of grapes) add 1 1/2 cups water.Bring to a boil and simmer covered for 10 minutes.Strain and squeeze out all of the juice with cheese cloth (see paragraph below)
I didn't have cheese cloth, so I poured the grape mixture into a large spaghetti strainer with a large pan underneath. I had to stir it around some as the skins and seeds would sink to the bottom, and clog the colander up. Stirring allowed the liquid to drain out. I then used a large metal spoon and squished it some to get more of the juice out.

In a very big pan, put 5 cups of the juice (it’s okay to add no more than ½ cup water to even out amount)Add the fruit pectin to the juice.Mix well.On high heat, bring to a full rolling boil, and boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.Stir in sugar all at once, and bring back to a full rolling boil, again boil hard for 1 minute stirring constantly.
Remove jelly from heat, skim off foam
Use a large spoon inserted inside the jar to lift CAREFULLY out of the water. DO NOT TOUCH THE INSIDE OF THE JAR OR THE RIM WITH YOUR HANDS.
Ladle jelly into hot jars, place a lid and ring onto jar (do not tighten yet).
Set jars to the side. After a while you should start hearing “pings” as the jar seals.
When jars are completely cool, tighten rings and store on pantry shelf.**SIDE NOTE: Wild Mustang Grapes are normally ready the end of June, so be prepared. Keep an eye open for vines on the side of the road, or any that friends and family may have growing in their yard. Many people just let them grow and don’t do anything with them, so it shouldn’t be hard to find a good supply. Also, the more you pick off the vine, the more the vine produces new grapes, so you probably won’t EVER run out of grapes to use until the vine dies or you get sick of making jelly. Good luck and feel free to contact me at queensedgefarm@yahoo.com for questions.