New Year Fashion Trends

This years Homestead Fashions are almost all we can think about, aside from shoveling sh!& and keeping the pipes from freezing. Unfortunately neither the New York Times nor the Gentleman's Quarterly have bothered to cover this niche of farmer fashion. We resent this because we have a very sophisticated sense of current trends here at the Homestead.

First and foremost, the outfit must address function as well as form.

Let's not pretend that Buck won't look dapper in every outfit he sports this year. He has an uncanny sense of style and when it comes accessories, like this fetching Weed Wrench slung casually over one shoulder, he balances form with function with great taste.

He is, after all, a Major Model of a Homesteader Professional.

 

Please note that at the core of his wardrobe is that one essential plaid shirt which goes with anything and pulls any outfit together with real Homesteader panache.

 

As in other years, the rugged distressed duct tape look is making a strong statement on the Homestead.

Even the four-leggeds are sporting Duct tape accessories on the runaway.

 

And for those who now feel inspired to build a Homesteader fashion trend for themselves...
Don't forget that you can never have too many hats, gloves

 

and mud-caked shoes.

Cast Iron Convert

Back when I was first learning to cook, I had no patience for fry pans that would let my food stick. I was all over that Non-stick coating. I thought it was the best thing ever! I gave away all the Revere Ware fry pans I'd received as wedding gifts and bought myself a fine set of Teflon pans.
One year later I replaced them because the coating had bubbled off. And the next, and the next...
Then it occurred to me - where was that flaking non-stick coating disappearing to? That was when I started paying attention to what was going into my families stomachs besides food. Plastics were providing lots of BPA, our apples contained 28 kinds of chemicals and the USDA had proclaimed that Ketchup could be counted as a vegetable in school lunches!

Fast forward and you will find me cooking like my grandma.

Most of our food is grown by us or Organic farmers near us and I am now happily cooking our food in Cast Iron, not Teflon.

Le Creuset is nice if you can afford it. I find a nice pan once in a while at the thrift store. Lodge cast iron is much more affordable but does not hold up over the years like Le Creuset.

Ultimately I prefer non-porcelain-enamel coated, antique cast iron. The only drawback of non-porcelain-enamel cast iron is that if you cook something acid, like tomato sauce, you have to re-season the pan. The tomato sauce will pull off the patina of oil and take up a little of the iron.

Elder women in my life have used this fact to their advantage and used it to add iron to their blood. A natural and convenient cure for mild anemia!

This winter I decided to cook up a batch of my Wood-stove Naan.

While I was doing this I realized it had been some time since I had re-seasoned a few of our cast iron pans. Putting them in a bed of coals for an hour or so burns all that greasy buildup off so that you can start over with a nice smooth pan.

Notice I say "good cast iron" because there is a big difference in cast iron quality.
This is why I prefer antique pans. It is very hard to find a well made modern cast iron pan. Most modern pans are made in China, very cheaply and with low standards.

 

I find that Griswold pans have a certain cache in the antique world for a reason, they are very high quality pans. The one on the right is a Griswold. These two have been in storage for the same amount of time and yet the Taiwan dutch oven is much rustier. It is also much rougher and poorly designed in the lid and handle. I didn't bother re-seasoning it this year. It's headed back to the thrift store I think.

A cast iron pan must be very smooth inside to be even close to non-stick.

 

You can't have great big pits and dimply surfaces.

 

You also don't want sharp mold seams anywhere near your sink or stove. They can, and will, chip the heck out of them. And if they are very raised they can cut your fingers too.

The quality of the actual iron is also substandard on the newer cast iron and, to be honest, I just don't trust that there isn't something like Lead or worse in the cast iron from China or another importing country.

Once my pans had the old grease burned off I scrubbed them with a some steel wool and dried them by heating them on the burner.

Then I rubbed them down with bacon grease (olive oil is good too) and popped them in the oven at 325 degrees for an hour or so.
Tada! Good as new.

As Julia Child and my Grandma suggested, a bit of back fat or the rind from a bacon, rubbed on the surface of a good cast iron fry pan will make it very nearly non-stick. You don't have to pour in the oil to keep things from sticking in good cast iron. It is a joy to cook with, easy to clean (just rinse in warm water, no soap, heat on the stove top to dry, wipe with oil and it is ready for tomorrow) and presents no toxic outcome to my health.

I've learned my lesson about what I do and don't want to eat from my cooking pans!

The Outdoor Kitchen

Remember that old rusty sink I pulled out of the woods?

 And that apartment sized, propane stove I bought and repaired?

 Well, I painted and reinforced the inside of the sink.

 Then I plumbed some water to it.

 And put up a mirror for shaving and stuff.

Then I filled the back gap in the porch with an old panel from a sliding glass door to reduce the windchill.

 I put up some shelves and art. Remember it's called the "Art Shack"!

Then I screwed an old rusty commercial cookie sheet to the wall to protect the wood from any grease and flames.

It's a pretty tiny space to cook in, but it works just fine because of the layout.

 And I don't need a vent fan. Even when I fry bacon.

My new outdoor kitchen, just outside my door!

Endless Hot Water Anywhere? How About My Bath Tub in the Middle of Nowhere?

I got this tub off the sidewalk when a friend's neighbor tossed it out during a remodel. It had no feet. But I didn't care, I had a plan that it was perfect for.

There are a few luxuries in a dreary Oregon winter that make life really sing for me: A well stocked pantry, a place to sleep well and warmly and a good hot bath in a big tub.

Up 'till now I've had to settle for the first two, but when my little outdoor water heater stopped working after years of hard use, I decided to upgrade to the next size up. 

 

We are not talking about breaking the bank though. The old one cost $115, the new one was $215.

The old heater was half as big and was just fine for doing dishes or taking an outdoor shower, but it put out a rather minimal amount of truly hot water, so it could never fill a big claw-foot tub with very hot water. The water would get cold faster than the tub got full.

With this new heater I can start filling the tub on a 38 degree day and have a hot, almost too hot, tub to soak in. In less than 20 minutes!

 

If you have ever had the pleasure of soaking in a hot tub under the stars, breathing perfect, fresh air,  you know what a great experience it is. If you have not had this experience, please do! 

Perhaps the uninitiated might think it sounds too cold, but I assure you it is only too cold for the minute it takes to drop your towel and jump in. 

Getting out is zero trouble since your core temperature is so hot you could run naked in the snow without feeling the slightest chill. You can casually get out, dry off and dress. Maybe those Polar Bear Club swimmers aren't as nutty as they seem.

 

I have done a bit of crazy looking plumbing to get the water going where I want it. It looks like this in house walls too,  but you can't see it like this.

I have done a lot of plumbing over the years and I have never looked forward to it. Just like anything I do around the Homestead it's always been several trips to the store and remembering how to do complex jobs like wiring and plumbing just about the time I finish the job.

This time I used PEX tubing for the first time and I used SharkBite hardware to connect it. I highly recommend the SharkBite joints, especially for beginner plumbers, since they require no special tools- you just shove the tubing in and it locks on. No leaks, no fuss. AND if you made a mistake you can fix it in a flash without losing any materials. With a little, inexpensive ($2.50) gadget, you can simply undo the connection and start over using the same materials! 

In order to hook up the heater to three things and still have cold water to the sink, I had to do a little thinking outside the box.

I also bypassed the old nonworking faucet on the tub and used a hose-end shut off valve to regulate the water to the tub.

The tub was pretty dirty from sitting outside. But it cleaned up well. I had a little visitor before I got it running.

To cover the overflow hole, I screwed a canning jar lid and a gasket to a board on the backside.

This bath's outside, who cares if it overflows? And that Mod enables me to fill it to the brim. Luxury.

 

Hello everyone at Pets Lifeline,

I have been meaning to send photos for so long, but now I have finally managed to gather some at the same time that I have a second to sit and type. And in fact, I am typing rather poorly because Bonnie is sitting on my laptop.

We love her very much and she is getting used to the cold weather but is still not super fond of the Oregon rain.

She is getting very good at coming and "leave it" and can almost be trusted around the chickens.

 

 

She loves to run on the farm and is so fast even my daughter's puppy, Max, can't catch her. They have become best friends.

We go on long walks looking for mushrooms or just to get some air

 

 

and she is always game for a little ball play.

She Loves wrestling with Jasper and Max for hours.

 

and when that stops being fun, they all lay 
together on the bed and chew deer antlers together.

Thank you to all of the staff and volunteers at Pet's Lifeline for making it possible for Bonnie to become part of our family. She brings joy and sunshine everywhere she goes. Your hard work makes a real difference in the world!