I was gifted with many, many blessings for our homestead this Christmas! Here's a list:
Tons of canning jars from my husband's grandmother...she is no longer canning and wanted to pass them along. I can't tell you how much fun it will be to fill them with the garden's bounty this summer knowing that they were used countless times by NeeNee Davis. Priceless.
A pizza stone and pizza peel for my bread baking!!
A bamboo cutting board that is absolutely beautiful.
My dad wants to build the chicken coop for me! He's quite handy and also very thrifty. Dad plans to use mostly materials that are available on the farm, so that'll be an added bonus knowing that all the stuff was from our family place that once belonged to my grandparents. Those of you with family farms know that the tin on a family farm has been recycled several times...it is never thrown away. Aside from the value of recycling...I'm also a hopeless sentimentalist.
A clothes rack for air drying clothes indoors. This increases the humidity in your home in the winter (when heating tends to dry out the air) and cuts down on energy usage/costs.
Aside from all the goodies, I was blessed with time to spend with family and friends. We are really building some powerful friendships in our little hometown and it is such a gift from God to have good friends surrounding you. I am so thankful that our jobs allow us three weeks off at Christmas. That is a gift unto itself.
I'd love to hear about your best homestead blessings this Christmas! Please share!
As for our plans for coming days...I'm baking bread tonight and hope to cook up another batch of apple peel jelly in the next few days. I've got two gallons of apple cores/peels in the freezer that were left over from recent apple butter and applesauce canning. Oh, and I'll be cleaning house and cooking for a Bible Study party we're having at our house on New Year's Eve.
3 comments:
WOW, those are great gifts! LUCKY LADY! I wish someone would hand over their canning jars to me! LOL!
AND chickens, I am super jelouse! Luckily we have a family up the road (a few miles) that has fresh eggs for sale!
Lets see, my favorite gift came from my BIL, it was a new cutting mat! (I wonder how he knew mine was getting worn out???!!!)
I am glad you had such a great christmas!
Sounds like a wonderful Christmas!!!
We got lots of homestead gifts too--Josh got lots of woodworking tools (things I've only seen on The Woodwright's Shop and don't know the name of!) and is already using them to build a shoe rack/bench to go by the front door!
LOVE that you got the old jars--since I'm the only one in the family that cans, my grandmother gave me all her old ones as well (over 100 of them) and her pressure canner, which was actually my great-grandmother's. We don't trust it enough to bring it up to pressure, but it still gets used as a boiling water bath!
We need to trade recipes at harvest time. Loved the apple peel idea--my jelly did finally set up, just took a while!
Kimberly, I'd love to trade recipes as the harvest comes in. I still use your fantastic biscuit recipe! Please post soem of Josh's handiwork soon. I'd love to see his completed projects.
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