Tub of Lard

"If you've never cooked in lard, you're missing something." Joel Salatin wrote. In his book, he also mentioned that lard was healthier than vegetable oil. His reasoning was that if you can't make it in your kitchen it can't be good for you. Lard is made from pork fat, but vegetable oil has some other ingredients that you can't replicate in your kitchen. This was interesting enough for me to try it out.

I thought my husband was crazy when he ordered the lard from our last pig. Especially when 15 pounds of it showed up. (What a fat pig.) Little did I know, my husband was just foreseeing my need for lard in my cooking and baking.

My 3-year old asked if it was lard butter after I told him it was lard. I thought lard butter was pretty accurate. I was cutting some off with a butter knife and into the fry pan for my morning eggs. The lard butter reminded me of cooking in bacon grease. It didn't have a bacon or pork flavor, which I expected. My eggs were good, but I wouldn't say that I have been missing something.

I don't do a lot of frying other than my eggs, so I thought about making a pie. It's well known that pie crusts with lard are the best. However, it seemed like more time needed than what I had to work with.

When I was looking at a cookie recipe and it called for shortening, I realized that my thinking of lard uses had been very limited. Once I realized that I could substitute lard for oil, butter, or shortening, I started baking. My boys and I made monster cookies with lard, and they were very good. However, I still wouldn't say that I was missing something.

I woke up Sunday morning to the smell of breakfast cooking. I found my husband in the kitchen slaving away making pancakes. We don't use the premade pancake mixes because I usually forget to buy them, and all the ingredients are stocked in our kitchen. As I was trying a plain pancake, I asked my husband what was in them. He said it was the usual recipe but with orange food coloring for fun and lard. They were the best pancakes. They had a hint of pie crust flavor. The pancakes proved that I was missing something.

Now I'm sold that lard is the best for cooking and baking. I'm really excited to try fry bread in lard. I just hope our waistlines enjoy the lard as well.

Sap Suckers

Tonight my husband licked a tree, which gives a whole new meaning to the term tree hugger. In his

Last years supplies

defense, he was tasting the sap that was dripping out of the tree. The boys got a taste too. It's sugar water, and we are in the middle of maple sap harvest.

Last year my husband decided we were going to give maple sap collecting a try. We just used what we had, which were random brass fittings and hose. We used a propane burner to cook the sap down. It took us a couple of days of outside cooking to get the sap to syrup. I realized you need a lot of sap to get syrup. It's approximately 40+ gallons of sap to 1 gallon of syrup. We did some serious collecting and cooking, but we ended up with a years supply. Now that we've tried it,

we are all sappy for syrup.

This year the weather surprised us and we weren't ready. Our fittings, hoses, and containers weren't even found in the garage. However, we upgraded to some spiles and some buckets this year. We drilled the holes in our maple trees, hammered the spile in, and attached the bucket underneath the spile. We dump the buckets every night.

The sap runs nicely in this weather, when the low temperature is in the 30s overnight and the high temperature is in the 60s and sunny

. Once the maple tree has buds on it, the sap collecting is over. We are a week late because some varieties of maples are already budded out. Luckily, the one in our yard isn't. Since we are a week late we started asking our friends if we could tap their maple trees. Everyone is glad to have their sap harvested.

Another thing we changed this year is how we process it. I didn't want to cook the sap down over a fire that you have to watch and monitor for a few days. Last year we used a lot of propane, and we still had to monitor it closely. So this year I have my 18 quart roaster on the porch that I pour all of the sap into and cook it down. It takes no time at all and I just run an extension cord.

If you've never tried real maple syrup, you are missing out. And just because we are going through a cold spell again doesn't mean the season is over. This is hunting and gathering at it's best while still urban farming, so go find those Maples.

Note: any variety of maple will give sap for syrup. It just might take more sap to produce syrup depending on the variety.

 

 

OI

I was recently substitute teaching when a high school student asked me why I had sent a former student to office intervention (OI) on the first day of school. I didn't remember, but obviously this former student remembered. He is an adult now, working in the community. 

Little did I know that OI would prepare me for disciplining my own children. Looking back, I realize the similarities between OI and time out are staggering.

In both OI and time out the student or child stops what they are doing and leaves the area.

For OI that meant going to the office, and for time out that is a chair in the corner.

After the allotted cooling down period or thinking time, the student or child explains what they did wrong. For both high school students and toddlers the answers seem to match, "I don't know." Or "I didn't do anything."

After the discussion of what they really did wrong, which is mostly adult led, the student or toddler

explains what they will do differently next time. This could be: I will follow directions, I will not throw things, or I will not be inappropriate.

Lastly, the student or toddler apologizes to the offended parties. As a teacher, I was the offended party, but for my toddlers it's usually a sibling. At this point the offended parties offer a welcome back into the classroom or play area.

I have to say that this whole process has kept me sane. It kept me alive teaching and it still does as a stay at home mom, domestic engineer, and couch potato. In those first few years of teaching, I used OI as an age check. If students were going to act like a child they were going to be treated like one in OI. I didn't necessarily agree with it, but it got students out of my classroom. Now with my own children it defuses situations, and the talking afterward makes them think about fixing the problem. It's a consequence that is tried and true from the classroom, which is something I never thought I would use.

OI is a distant memory and left with the last administrator, but I still have fond memories of it. I can look back and laugh at what high schoolers did to end up in OI, just like I can laugh at what my own children do to end up in time out. At the time I'm furious. But when I retell the tales to my husband and I see the humor on his face, I know it's a devilishly funny story to be remembered.

To all those students I sent to OI: I really just needed you out of my classroom, so I wouldn't freak out on you. It was for your own good.

Happy Anniversary

Thirty-seven years ago today my parents got married. Their three month whirlwind romance is something to be remembered. So I will retell their story for my own children and eventually their great grandchildren.

Picture 1979 on a frosty November night at a disco bar named Galactica. It was love at first sight when my Uncle John pointed my dad out to my mom. Dad was at the bar getting drinks. He was wearing avocado green pants and an orangish-yellowish V-neck sweater. My dad took the drinks over to my mom's table where he knew my Uncle John. From there they started their dizzying courtship.

On New Years Eve at the Galactica my dad made his resolution with champagne in hand to marry my mom. A month later they picked out the engagement ring, and were married two weeks later.

They said their vows in the Methodist church in front of my aunt  and uncle as their witnesses. My dad in his denim brown suit and my mom in her cream skirt and blouse hosted their families for a ham dinner afterward.

Thirty-seven years, seven children, thirteen grandchildren, 2 houses, 80 acres, 7 dogs, hundreds of pigs, and zillions of cats later they still have the marriage that I look to as an example. Happy Anniversary!

Squirty: Not Squished

Who needs a dog or a cat when you can have a bug as a pet? Rufus is Ernie's pet lightning bug in the Sesame Street Pet Show book, which the boys love. So it came as no surprise when the boys showed me their pet bug, Squirty. The adorable Squirty is a Box Elder bug.

My 5-year old explained that Squirty was flying from the kitchen window to the living room window where he picked him up. Elmo (my mom) poked some holes in a jar for Squirty's new home.

"I will keep him until summer comes then I'll let him go so he can find his friends." My 5-year old explained after I asked him what we should do with Squirty. After all, Squirty is a wild bug that would like to be set free. Apparently, my 5-year old is wise to the effect of February weather in Iowa on bugs. So we will keep Squirty safe and sound for another 3 months.

The pet chores for Squirty are minimal. My husband picked up some dry pieces of wood for him to munch on. We put a couple droplets of water through the air holes every few days. The boys check on him daily, and when we went to visit our parents over the weekend Squirty came with us. However, we forgot him in the car. It's a good thing it didn't get too cold. Just enough cold to slow him down, but not enough to do lasting damage.

Bugs are not my favorite, but I'm glad my boys are interested in them. I'm thankful Squirty wasn't a spider, and hopeful that they find a Monarch caterpillar next time. I'm also a little worried about what to do with other bugs around the house in the future. I would normally squish them, but instead they might be more Squirtys.

 

 

Happy Valentine's Day

"Since it's really special for Valentine's Day, that's why I'm doing it." my 5-year old said as his reason for opening a piece of chocolate. I couldn't argue with reasoning like that, so we both had a piece of chocolate with our breakfast. I even put chocolate milk over his Cheerios. Nothing like a sugar high to start Valentine's Day.

Aside from candy, we are celebrating Valentine's Day sans technology. We decided to stay off of our phones when we are together as a family. The TV will stay off, and the laptop will stay closed. Hopefully, this will help us focus on what's important.

And of course, we are celebrating by giving cards. This year we are not only giving them to family and classmates we are also giving them to our neighbors. Hopefully, this will brighten their day.

It's Taco Tuesday along with Valentine's Day, so for lunch my husband is taking my son to a special lunch. A one on one lunch date is something my 3-year old will love. And who doesn't love Taco Tuesday?

When I was in college I remember girls saying Valentine's Day was singles awareness day. I never believed that because Valentine's Day isn't just for romantically involved couples. It's a day that you can show everyone that you care. So don't just treat it like any other day, do something nice for someone else.

 

 

Dancing Pigs

What do you do with the food left on your plate? Scrape it into the garbage, right? It's food, it will easily decompose in a landfill. Well, that's not entirely accurate. What if I told you that it takes 50-100 years for food scraps to decompose in a landfill? For food to decompose, it needs good air flow and micro organisms; however, in a land fill there really isn't either of those things.

I really don't ever have a problem with food scraps because I am a member of the clean plate club. I like food, it likes me, which is an all around good relationship. However, my toddlers don't have that kind of relationship yet, so we are throwing a lot of food away. I have to stop myself from eating the food off of their plates just to keep it from the garbage. So what do we do with our food scraps, we started feeding them to the pigs on my parent's farm. 

If I can recycle our food at home, why can't I do it on a bigger scale? This led me to the local grocery store. I asked if I could pick up their produce scraps for the pigs. The first day I was there to pick it up, they had two 55 gallon containers full. I was shocked by the amount. Afterall, this was not a big grocery store with a huge produce department. As I was loading it up, my 5-year old could see watermelon rinds in the sacks. His response was, "The pigs are gonna love that watermelon." He was right the pigs did love that watermelon. 

The fun came when the boys fed the pigs. They loved to just watch them sort through the fruit and do a little happy dance around the pen. The pigs did actually run around, which qualified as their happy dance.

Note: these pigs are only being fed vegetables, fruits, and some stale bread scraps. They also have a full feed ration to choose from. This is in full compliance with the swine health protection regulations, so USDA stay off my back.

Anyone can have worms to eat food scraps.
Kids love them, even high schoolers. 

Decorative Valentines Box

Pinterest has really set the bar for DIYers. So when my preschoolers came home with notes that requested a decorated box be brought to school for their Valentine's Day party, that is the first place I looked. The number of unicorn boxes complete with tissue paper and glitter was astounding. I settled on a Minnon box instead, and asked my husband to construct it. (He constructs, I decorate.) He made a face similar to someone getting flicked in the ear, and followed that up with, "Can't we make something original. I don't want to copy someone else's Minnion." He went on to mention Wall-e, and then I tried to find a Wall-e box on the internet that I could copy. There weren't any. So today I decided the boys and I would muddle through our decorative box making.

My 3-year old and I went to the basement to rummage through our box collection. We found a box that was square enough, and found some cardboard pieces we could shape into the eyes. I unrolled the paper towels, grabbed the tube, then rerolled them without a tube. I put the tube in the center of the box, shaped cardboard eyes, and used a ridiculous amount of hot glue and tape to withstand my 3-year old. Red was the color of choice for this Wall-e robot, which didn't include arms or rolling tracts.

My 3-year old was so pleased with his decorative Valentine's Day box, that it was the first thing he showed his brother when he got home from preschool. I quickly defused the jealousy by asking my 5-year old what he wanted to make for his box. He said a Stegosaurus. "That's the one with sails on it's back, right?" I asked knowing full well it was. I was in the process of telling him that I didn't think I could make that, when I stopped and grabbed the tissue box. I opened up the sides and took the tissues out. (They are now in a neat pile.) I grabbed two more pieces of cardboard and rolled them, one for the tail and one for the neck and head. I attached them to the tissue box while my 5-year old cut out the sails. I traced them onto the light weight cardboard, so he could have lines to follow. I hot glued them on to complete the Stegosaurus. He painted it all different colors, and a Stegosaurus was born.

I'm really happy I didn't use the Pinterest pictures. When I do use them, I'm usually disappointed that it didn't turn out like the pictures. I didn't have any expectations when I started this project with the boys, and that made all the difference. We just had fun cutting, gluing, and taping. They probably had the most fun painting.

After everything was dry, my 3-year old took his Wall-e and rammed it into my 5-year old's Stegosaurs. He then hugged it and said he loved it. I'm glad we made it heavy duty sans glitter and tissue paper.

 

 

 

Mad Scientist

Over breakfast I asked my 5-year old son what he wanted to do today. He replied with, "Maybe we should do another experiment." He said this as he was blowing bubbles into his glass of milk with a straw, which gave me the idea for this experiment.

We put the rest of his milk in a clear plastic container. He added drops of food coloring to the milk. Next a toothpick was dipped in dish soap then touched to the food coloring in the milk. The dish soap repelled the food coloring making all the colors look like a tie dye shirt.

After all the colors were pretty well mixed we added baking soda and vinegar for the second part of the experiment. The result was foaming and fizzing out of the bowl. The best part was watching the boys test out what would happen if they added more baking powder or vinegar or food coloring or tooth picks with dish soap on them. That's what experimenting is all about.

"Mom, this was a good experiment." My 5-year old said as he was mixing everything together including the toothpicks.

During this experiment I had one on one time with each boy. I experimented with my 5-year old first while my 3-year old was at preschool. And then the following day I did the same thing with my 3-year old while my oldest was at preschool. I knew both boys acted differently with one on one time; however, I didn't think they each would be so inquisitive with this experiment. I've created boys that love experiments, my mad scientists.

 

 

 

Groundhog Day

I was an adult before I knew that a woodchuck, whistle pig, and groundhog were all the same thing. I had grown up referring to the short eared, short tailed, grey-brown coated animal as a woodchuck. This was usually when the dogs were keeping the farm free of them. To keep my children from the same confusion we are celebrating Groundhog Day.

Last week at the library the boys checked out puppets along with their books. I didn't pay much attention until we got home and my son was calling his puppet a beaver. However, that puppet didn't have a big, flat tail like a beaver. I instructed the boys to call it a woodchuck. So after all day of calling it a woodchuck we started reading the books that went along with the puppet, and they were all about groundhogs. This is where the confusion started. My 3-year old started calling the puppet a woodpig. At least he knows that pig and hog are the same thing.

To clear up the confusion, we celebrated Groundhog Day by making brown paper bag puppets to make shadows on the wall. The stuffed puppet from the library is what the boys used as their inspiration for their own paper bag puppets. When their groundhog puppets were completed we went to their room, which has the best blackout potential. They made their own groundhog shadows standing in front of my phone flashlight. This is where I explained about Groundhog Day, and it's traditional of predicting the beginning of spring. They started screeching at the shadows pretending to be scared like Punxtasutawney Phil.

I liked watching them role play with their paper bag groundhogs. It was a really quick craft that promises hours of fun even after Groundhog Day.

As for Punxtasutawney Phil, he needs to start kicking his shadow's butt.

 

Australia

Ten years ago today my husband, Jeff, and I were traveling to Australia. We had just gotten married in November, and this was our honeymoon. Well, our honeymoon and my student teaching experience. We spent 2 months in the outback, so I could teach science and agriculture to complete my college degree. And for Jeff to be a "house husband," which is what they called him in Australia. Looking back to that experience, I realize that I owe a lot to my husband.

He sacrificed so much for us. He was settled with a full time job, a house, even a retirement plan when we got married. When we made plans for Australia he quit his job, put a renter in his house, and asked his mom to pay our bills from his bank account while we were away.

It didn't end there. He took it all in stride when the town of Broken Hill, Australia, affectionately referred to him as "the American house husband." He would do the laundry, get groceries, make the meals, and plan adventures when I wasn't teaching. Students would tell me that they had seen him at the grocery store when they were out for lunch. Everyone knew him because he was the only 6'8 red headed and bearded man in a 300 mile radius. Most people were shocked that a man would do that. After all, men were supposed to support their wives (financially that is), which was the general attitude everywhere we went. Little did these people know that he was supporting me in so many ways.

After we returned to the US, I graduated from college and was hired right away as a full time teacher in a town 2 hours away from my husband's former job and house. He gave that all up so I could pursue my career. Later, I found out from the school that they hired me because of my Australia experience. I'm definitely sure that I never would have had the guts to travel around the world and teach in Australia if it hadn't been for Jeff backing me.

Ten years later I'm the housewife, stay at home mom, homemaker, couch potato, or whatever the preferred nomenclature. Now I'm using my teaching experience to show my own kids cool stuff. Most of the cool stuff I show my kids is straight from the Australia teaching days. I learned it all there.

It's so very interesting to look back at how those events unfolded, and how one decision changed our futures. One decision started us down a different path, which led to another path and another. If we had not gone to Australia I really don't think we'd be where we are now.

After eight years of teaching and after ten years since Australia, I can't thank my husband enough. While I was teaching I never formerly thanked him, but I can do that here in front of all of you. Thank you, Jeff!