Mike CHS
Herd Master
Thank you for posting that.
HomesteaderWife - Tales from Wolf Branch [05/10/2023 - The New Fella!]
- Thread starter HomesteaderWife
- Start date
Baymule
Herd Master
Great article. What an accomplishment.
Wehner Homestead
Herd Master
Wow! Your journal has shows that you have had quite the journey. I look forward to following along and seeing the positive progress!!
- Thread starter
- #174
HomesteaderWife
Herd Master
@Wehner Homestead - Thank you so much for stopping by to give it a read. We've had so much happen over the years and we're recovering from a lot of bad luck, so sometimes this journal re-motivates me!
- Thread starter
- #175
HomesteaderWife
Herd Master
In other recent news, which I think I may have touched on before, we are coming up on year 3 of visiting local deer processors and picking up unwanted hides that normally get trashed. Not only green hides, but heads and legs as well. These are valuable raw materials to me! We've made a lot of things for personal use, and also sold a good handful of tanned hides. To give you an idea of how it helps support us, one finished hide covers the cost of the gas to pick the hides up and the materials to tan 5 or so of them.
For my personal reference, but also to share, here are some recent projects. I'm no expert at crafting, but I think up a lot of nifty things. The two things I am showing were made from scrap pieces of deer hide after I made my husband a hide quiver for his arrows.
The first is a hand muff for winter time. Hunters use them alot to keep their hands warm in the tree stand and keep them dry from snow or rain. It's a larger sized one as it will be my husband's hand warmer (with a twine rope around it to hang from his neck)
The second set of photos was what started as me searching my scraps for pieces to make my own hand muff, but realizing the piece was NOT going to work as it was too small in equal width. I folded it back up to put away, then realized it looked like a mini quiver. It's also nifty and sized well enough to hold a little BB gun or child's .22 rifle
As we do not have children, and don't know of anyone with youngsters who would enjoy this, I am hoping to sell it?
For my personal reference, but also to share, here are some recent projects. I'm no expert at crafting, but I think up a lot of nifty things. The two things I am showing were made from scrap pieces of deer hide after I made my husband a hide quiver for his arrows.
The first is a hand muff for winter time. Hunters use them alot to keep their hands warm in the tree stand and keep them dry from snow or rain. It's a larger sized one as it will be my husband's hand warmer (with a twine rope around it to hang from his neck)
The second set of photos was what started as me searching my scraps for pieces to make my own hand muff, but realizing the piece was NOT going to work as it was too small in equal width. I folded it back up to put away, then realized it looked like a mini quiver. It's also nifty and sized well enough to hold a little BB gun or child's .22 rifle
As we do not have children, and don't know of anyone with youngsters who would enjoy this, I am hoping to sell it?
- Thread starter
- #176
HomesteaderWife
Herd Master
Sheesh, it has been a real while since I have updated anything. Over a year actually, and I am a bit ashamed to admit that. Alot has happened in the past few years, from losing the cabin and having to rebuild, and the numbers and types of our animals changing. A dog attack signaled the loss of almost all our animals. So this year we started over, adding a few rescued hens and two new Khaki Campbells. We lost two of the four hens, which brings us down to rescues Piper and Prue joining the already marvelous Chicken Hawk ("Hawk"). Tater and Tot are our ducks.
The cabin has been slow- but putting up massive logs with no other heavy equipment than an antique Ford tractor is rough. Required alot of brainstorming to do it. Future plans still remain- family, raising and training working oxen, maybe establishing a little Khaki breeding operation one day, expanding the garden. Working with heirloom seeds. All in good time.
Getting into decorative cookie making here lately- played around with a few recipes and finally got the right sugar cookie and royal icing recipes. Only have made them three times now, but feeling good about how it is coming along. Also in the line of recipes, I worked on a simple "sun tea" recipe so we can make sweet tear in the heat of the summer without needing a fire/stove.
Hoping to tan more deer hides this year- got to tan a piebald Whitetail deer last year and felt extremely lucky to do so.
In other news, the Bone Needle article we did for Mother Earth News is on the front home page of the Mother Earth News website today. I was shocked but very honored to see it in such a prestigious place. It came at such great timing, as I just added new ones to bring it to 9 for sale on Etsy.
Oh yea, the Etsy store has been officially running as of this year. Got some newer crafts there, but alot of the stuff I make and paint is larger and therefore requires tricky shipping. I might get into adding the pallet crosses soon once I make more. One sale thus far and still tickled about it. Hoping it goes better with holidays fast approaching. Still writing here and there, and working on side ways to potentially support the homestead.
Thanks to anyone who reads- I appreciate you stopping by. I am trying to get active here again!
- Rescue "Big Red" (rest in peace girly)
- Rescue "Prue"making a goofy face
- Attempt #2 at sugar cookies, penguins!
- Attempt #3 at the cookies, meant to look like mini pies!
- So proud to have tanned this piebald whitetail for someone last year
- A fresh big glass of Southern Sweet Sun Tea
- Bone needles lined up for listing photo
- Tater (back) and Tot (front) as youngsters
The cabin has been slow- but putting up massive logs with no other heavy equipment than an antique Ford tractor is rough. Required alot of brainstorming to do it. Future plans still remain- family, raising and training working oxen, maybe establishing a little Khaki breeding operation one day, expanding the garden. Working with heirloom seeds. All in good time.
Getting into decorative cookie making here lately- played around with a few recipes and finally got the right sugar cookie and royal icing recipes. Only have made them three times now, but feeling good about how it is coming along. Also in the line of recipes, I worked on a simple "sun tea" recipe so we can make sweet tear in the heat of the summer without needing a fire/stove.
Hoping to tan more deer hides this year- got to tan a piebald Whitetail deer last year and felt extremely lucky to do so.
In other news, the Bone Needle article we did for Mother Earth News is on the front home page of the Mother Earth News website today. I was shocked but very honored to see it in such a prestigious place. It came at such great timing, as I just added new ones to bring it to 9 for sale on Etsy.
Oh yea, the Etsy store has been officially running as of this year. Got some newer crafts there, but alot of the stuff I make and paint is larger and therefore requires tricky shipping. I might get into adding the pallet crosses soon once I make more. One sale thus far and still tickled about it. Hoping it goes better with holidays fast approaching. Still writing here and there, and working on side ways to potentially support the homestead.
Thanks to anyone who reads- I appreciate you stopping by. I am trying to get active here again!
- Rescue "Big Red" (rest in peace girly) - Rescue "Prue"making a goofy face - Attempt #2 at sugar cookies, penguins! - Attempt #3 at the cookies, meant to look like mini pies! - So proud to have tanned this piebald whitetail for someone last year - A fresh big glass of Southern Sweet Sun Tea - Bone needles lined up for listing photo - Tater (back) and Tot (front) as youngsters
Mike CHS
Herd Master
That is some major changes but congratulations on keeping your good attitude.
Baymule
Herd Master
Glad you checked in, I always enjoy reading your posts.
- Thread starter
- #179
HomesteaderWife
Herd Master
Thank you @Baymule
I try to keep this going for personal record keeping and reflection, but it is nice to have folks read.
I try to keep this going for personal record keeping and reflection, but it is nice to have folks read.
Senile_Texas_Aggie
Herd Master
Miss @HomesteaderWife,
Just caught up on your journal. You and your husband have certainly had quite a few adventures in your 4 years of journalling. I am looking forward to reading more posts.
Senile Texas Aggie
Just caught up on your journal. You and your husband have certainly had quite a few adventures in your 4 years of journalling. I am looking forward to reading more posts.
Senile Texas Aggie
