Homestead Life
Whether you are brand new to homesteading, a seasoned pro, or just dreaming of owning your own homestead one day we are here to help you where you are. We will meet you at the homestead with tips for gardening and preserving your harvest, caring for animals, being a better steward to our world and navigating parenting conundrums on the farm. All the advice your momma could give and more.
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Pawpaw Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies
Pawpaw Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies are so delicious you will be dreaming of pawpaw season every year. Pawpaw lends its uniquely citrusy banana notes to a classic oatmeal chocolate chip cookie that is to die for. Pawpaw Season I look forward to pawpaw season every year. I carefully monitor the four small wild groves that we have found on the farm for spring blooms and the tell tell signs of fruit formation. As summer starts to wind down, I visit the groves weekly to check on their progress and start planning how to use these delicious treats. This year my goal was to preserve the pawpaws that I found so…
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Preserving the Pawpaw Fruit
The Pawpaw fruit is a highly perishable fruit native to North America. It can be found up and down the East coast and as far west as Nebraska! Once on the ground, the fruit only lasts a day or two. However there is a simple method for preserving the Pawpaw fruit to have access to it throughout the winter months. Today we will talk about preserving the Pawpaw Fruit, but before we get started, a little history. What is the Pawpaw Last fall we discovered a small Pawpaw grove just inside the wood line at our home. Once we figured out what it was and how delicious the fruit is,…
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Treats Your Chickens Will Love
Chickens are one of my favorite homestead animals. Not only are they super easy to take care of, but they are also big contributors to the homestead with eggs and great fertilizer. All their hard work definitely earns some delicious treats your chickens will love. If you are like us and you have a flock that out produces what your family can consume, check out our post on how to use an abundance of eggs for ideas! Chickens are the garbage disposals of the homestead, right up there with pigs. Chickens eat nearly any table scrap, garden veggie, or bug. They love to eat and will spend a majority of…
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How to Use an Abundance of Eggs!
One of the great things about owning chickens is the supply of farm fresh egg. Farm fresh eggs have a richer deeper yolk than store bought which lends to a better tasting egg! And even better, chickens are fairly low maintenance animals, so you get a high yield for very little work. They are also so relaxing to watch as they scratch around. Chicken watching is one of my favorite pastimes on the homestead. To me that is a win win! But even with just five chickens, my family of five was having a hard time keeping up with the ladies production. As we speak I have five eighteen counts…
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Five Tips to Feel Like You Have It All Together
Do you ever feel like you were ran over by the Hot Mess Express while everyone around you seems to have it all together? As a mom with a full time career, homestead, and side hustle, I spend a lot of time on and being run over by that train. I am here to tell you, that the ones you see that seem to have it all together are just as big of a mess as we are! However, with these five tips to feel like you have it all together, you will be the envy of all us Hot Mess Express patrons. Some days I feel like I just…
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Five Canning Tips To Make Your Harvest Life Easier
Canning can be a fun and rewarding process, but if you are not careful it can quickly turn stressful. These five canning tips will help make your harvest life easier and keep your canning kitchen stress free. I was introduced to canning as a child as I watched my mom and grandma bustle around a hot kitchen with canners going, hair all disheveled. The kids always took part in the prepping of the vegetables or fruit, but were quickly shooed away when the canners came on. Later on in my early adult life I took to waterbacth canning jams and jellies, but in no way shape or form would I…
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Easy How to Can Green Beans
It is that time of year!!! Canning season! Canning season is such a fun time of year, even if it is a lot of work. It brings back so many fond memories of my childhood. One of my favorite things to can, are green beans. Is it hard to can green beans you ask? No way!! It is so so simple and I am here to tell you how! I get it, canning can be intimidating, especially when a pressure cooker gets involved. However, canning is truly so easy that within a few easy steps, you can be canning like a pro in no time! In this post I…
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Interview on the Wines to Chill Your Summer
There are few things more refreshing than a deliciously crisp chilled wine on a hot summer day. Wine is one of those things that pairs well with all seasons and today I am going to introduce you to one of my favorite mail order wine services, Scout and Cellar. How I Came Across Scout and Cellar I was introduced to Scout and Cellar about a year ago by a friend (Nicole, who you will meet a little further down) through her post on Facebook and Instagram. I would see these beautiful pictures of her relaxing with wine glass in hand, touting the delicious clean crafted wine of Scout and Cellar.…
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Why Kids Need Chores
Our home is a busy place with both my husband and I working full time, renovating the farm house, running the farm, and the million other little things that we have to do to keep the house running and the kids taken care of. Some days it is easier than others, and usually those days are the ones where the kids are in the midst helping out. I am a firm believer that kids need to have chores and a sense of responsibility from a young age. Some would argue, “kids should be allowed to be kids!” I agree! Kids should be allowed to be kids, and part of that…
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Spring 2021 Book Review
Dang what a busy few months this has been. I had full intentions of reading tons of books each month and updating y’all on all the great reads I was consuming, but life has gotten in the way of that. You know how it goes when life happens and throws you off course. We have been in a whirlwind this past few months with the farmhouse renovations, new animals, and the start of tee ball for the boys that I barely had time to breathe much less read. The few books that I did “read” were all through audible on my way to work. While there were not many, they…
