Homemade Christmas

When you move to an RV on 4.5 acres of undeveloped land and you are working so hard to get out of debt so you can build the home (and homestead!) of your dreams, the thought of spending money on over-priced toys and do-dads tends to make you shiver with dread. Never mind all the commercialism and greedy present grubbing that you see so often at this time of year. Or at least that is how we felt! 

So this year was a Homemade Christmas! And it was the best Christmas that I have had in a long time.

Here's our Christmas Tree. We made the ornaments and the stars out of paint sample cards from home Depot. The tree was one that we had from Christmas last year. We wanted to start a tradition of buying a live tree in a pot and planting it somewhere on the land. It was awesome to have it this year. The little doily was made by a lady at church. She made one for every adult woman in the ward!

I made Stockings...

For the kids, I've made these cute little magnet puzzles!

I made Chris this felted hat... See my How Not To Felt A Hat post for more details!

We also wrote letters to each other this year. That was my favorite Christmas gift!


I learned a lot about myself and about making things this Christmas.
*I love to make complicated things... or at least my plans are always more complicated than I can pull off on the first try...
*Making things was so much fun!
*My kids loved their gifts and they didn't have to cost me an arm or a leg!
*We made Christmas about being together and not about the presents and it was the best Christmas I have ever had.
*Follow the instructions.
*If at first you don't succeed, try again!

I am definitely going to have a Homemade Christmas again next year!

How to: Make Felted Wool Dryer Balls - A dryer sheet alternative

I am a free-lance writer for my local newspaper and I just completed an assignment on Homemade Laundry Detergent. While I was researching laundry detergent recipes I found these Felted Wool Dryer Balls.

Why use Wool Dryer Balls?

~They absorb the water from your clothes so they dry more quickly. This saves energy and keeps you from over-drying your clothes. Over-drying causes static cling, so you avoid clingy clothes too!

~They soften your laundry by "roughing" up your clothes in a gentle manner. Beating your clothes also discharges the static electricity. Another way to avoid clingy clothes!

~You can put a few drops of essential oils on them to lightly scent your laundry, too.

They sounded so great that I just had to try them! Here's a quick tutorial on how to make them. I'll be sure to update you when I find out how well I like to use them!

What you need:

1 - 8 oz skein of 100% wool (Makes about 3 baseball sized balls.) 

1 - crochet hook

1 - leg of a pair of panty hose

And a washer and dryer.

**Tips**

Don't use superwash or machine washable. They wont felt which is important because if they don't felt, they will come apart in your wash!

I used a pair of trouser socks instead of panty hose, because I don't wear hose. EVER! I also don't like to buy things if I have something else that will work. Hence the trouser sock!

As for the number of balls that you need, I have seen recommendations from 3 to 6, so it's really a matter of preference!

What to do: 

Step 1: Wrap the yarn into balls between the size of a tennis ball and a soft ball.  Keep in mind they will 

shrink a little when you felt them so don't make them too small.

Step: 2: Once you have the ball the right size you will need to tuck the tail in using the crochet hook.

Step 3: Now stick the balls into the stocking leg. Be sure to separate them somehow, either by tying knots in the hose or by wrapping a cotton string around the hose in between the balls. If they are touching they will stick together or fall apart during the felting process. You will have a cute little caterpillar when you are done!

Step 4: The last step is to felt your wool dryer balls. The easiest way to do this is to stick the caterpillar in the washing machine and run a few hot water, heavy soil cycles. Finish with a cold water rinse and a trip to the dryer.

BUT I don't have a washer or dryer. In order to felt, wool needs the hot water and agitation. Knowing that, I am going to try just felting it in my bathtub. I've got pretty hot water out of my tap and I can agitate the caterpillar with a wooden spoon... so old school! I'm going to do this later, so I'll post a picture of this step and updates when I'm done. If all else fails I'll just take the balls over to a friends house when I do my laundry!

 Here's the pot that I felted in. I was felting an alpaca yarn hat at the same time... that was a disaster. See more on my post about that here.



I took the yarn balls out of the stockings once they had started to felt so I  could agitate them a little bit better. It worked out alright, but remember to be careful. The balls have a tendency to fall apart if you agitate too aggressively!

And here is a finished ball. Well semi-finished. I think that I am going to try to felt them a littler further when I do laundry next. All in all, hand felting was a fun adventure and I will be doing more of it for sure!

A Phrase to Live By

I made this this morning. I've been meaning to do it for a long time. I heard this at a General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Love it. Live it. Be happy ;-)

Just in case you were wondering, I wood burned the letters onto a scrap piece of wood. Freehanded.

Wanting More

I thought that I would take a moment and talk about what our goals are here on Haven Homestead.
In three words, WE WANT MORE! and not in the selfish kind of way either.

Emma and Chris reading about mushrooms. August 2013

We want to live more abundantly.

When I say that we want to live more abundantly, notice that I do not say anywhere that we want more money. That is not what this life is about. Abundance, by definition is to have a very large quantity of something. We want abundance in food, clothing, education, friends, family, and love. We can have all of these things and not be abundance in money. (It would be nice, but it's not necessary.)

We want to live more sustainably.

This Homesteading adventure is about doing things in a way that will last. We want to build a legacy that will last for generations. We plan on accomplishing this by incorporating permaculture principles in the way we manage our land, by building an earth and budget friendly home, and by living within our financial means. 

Liam and Emma feed the chickens and duck. November 2013

We want to facilitate more learning.

Chris and I love to learn. We have learned that knowledge is power and we want to get as much of it as we can. One of the best ways to learn more, is to teach. We plan on offering classes and workshops on all of the things that we do here at Haven Homestead, from canning and food preservation, to beekeeping to gardening to crafting and building. If we do it, we will host a class on it!

We want to have more security.

The hazards of our world are increasing day by day. Crime rates rise, the economy plunges, people have secret agendas to take away our freedoms... All of that hullabaloo. We want our homestead to be a haven. Here at Haven Homestead, it is important to us to have food security, financial security, and family security. Sure we have guns, (my husband is a regular ol' Idaho boy) but having ammunition stock piled is not going to save us if Chris looses his job. It's not going to save us if a natural disaster decides to encroach on our little haven. Guns can't save us if we have a rocky moment in our relationship. We have guns. We have ammunition. We know how to use them. We are also getting together a year's supply of food, 72-hour kits, and learning about and implementing sustainable gardening practices. We are getting out of debt and saving money. We are having Family Home Evenings, we go on walks, and we talk to each other. The peace of mind that we are creating through our preparedness is priceless.

Chris, Lindsay, Emma, and Liam pose for a family photo after picking out a Christmas tree. December 2013

All in All

We want to have something nice to pass on to our children. We want them to grow up knowing they are loved, knowing how to be responsible and knowing that they can do this too.

Our First Snow!

(This post has been edited to clean up some grammar, simplify the story, and make sure I wasn't too hard on Chris. He really does work hard to keep me happy.) original post 11/2013

Yesterday we had our first snow on the homestead!

The kids played in it, and it was awesome. I had to feed the animals in it, and it was awesome.  I wonder if it will help to freeze our muddy drive ways enough that we can hold off on buying more gravel until spring? Now that would be awesome. Hey, I can hope!

Winterizing the homestead has been quite the chore and most of the way, my intrepid homesteading husband has done a great job. I just have to mention one of the toughest things for me, which also happen to be a bad moment for him, so please pardon me!

This took place about a week ago. Precisely on payday, the hoses froze and we didn't have water. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but our water situation has been rigged with much genius!

 We have a well, a generator, more than 150 feet of garden hose, a 55 gallon potable water drum that my husband and his brother have suspended about 25 feet in the air,  and the fresh water tank on the camper. All of it is cleverly  rigged in such a way, that hardly ever that anything is lacking. Good job my love.

The trouble was that I have been telling Chris since July that we need to have something figured out to keep us in water so we don't have to worry about being with out water when the hoses freeze. All my loving husband could say was, "Hush up woman you don't know what you are talking about." No, that's not true. What he really said was, "It doesn't freeze here like it does in Idaho." Every time he said that, I thought, "I know it doesn't freeze like Idaho, but it still freezes, doesn't it?"

Well the hoses froze, we went to Home Depot and spent a abunch of money on things to keep things warm, and I think Chris might start listeing to me more! Hey, I can hope!