I often reflect upon the odd blend of hi-tech/lo-tech living that our family passes through each and every day of our lives.  While composing the post for Hands of Hope I heard the cry go up from the bathroom, “Mom, Rosie just dumped the shavings on the floor.”

Hmm, could I ignore it?  Apparently not.  Broom in hand I confronted the mess.   There on the floor was the contents of a 5 gallon pail of wood shavings.  Enough to put a blip in my blogging for the night.  Now what were these shavings for pray tell?  Our sawdust potty :).  Some of you know that we don’t have running water.  Part of that deal is the BEST toilet ever, a 5 gallon pail that we use in place of the traditional commode.  Just sprinkle with sawdust or wood shavings after each deposit and it’s 99% odor free!

And after it was cleaned up - back to the blogging.  Just another example of the strange juxtapositions we find each day in our home.

In addition to being the 68th edition of the homesteading carnival, today is queening day here at the homestead.  Just before lunch our Mamma cat, Patches went into labour.  So far we have two tiny, sweet baby kittens, who look just like their Pappa.  Who is this mysterious Pappa cat?  Not one of our Tom’s (DH and I fixed them), but a dark, handsome stranger we saw visiting the farm one day.  He was a handsome fellow, black with white tuxedo markings and white socks.  Both of the new kittens look just like him!  Well, with a bit more white, and more tabby/striped.

Here is Mamma in her queening box.  I didn’t want to disturb them, so this isn’t the best photo.  Patches was SO big, she must have had more than two in there!  She’s busy nursing at the moment.

So, I’ve dubbed this edition of the carnival - Kittens on the Farm, now on to the posts - enjoy!

Jennifer in OR presents October Exploring posted at Diary of 1.

Miss Amanda presents It’s A Learning Experience - Great Hot Dip For Fall posted at It’s A Learning Experience -.

Larry Bogart presents Homemade solar panel rack posted at Measure Twice, Cut Once.

Sisterlisa presents Laundry Schedule posted at The HomeSpun Life.

Dawn presents The Weather Channel: When Weather Changed History posted at My Home Sweet Home.

Miss Monica June (MJ) presents Italian Basil Tomato Melt posted at Cooking with MJ.

Miss Virginia presents Wheat Tortillas posted at The Jelly Bean Palace.

GrrlScientist presents Hebridean Black-faced Sheep posted at Living the Scientific Life.

Mark presents Vet Again posted at My Quiet Cabin.

Stephanie presents Homemade Cranberry Sauce posted at Make It From Scratch.

Stephanie presents Weekend Demolition posted at Adventures in the 100 Acre Wood.

Abi presents lighter side - Green-Tomato Chutney posted at lighter side.

Lauren Rose presents THE CULTIVATION OF VEGETABLES | Own Home Style .com posted at Own Home Style .com.

Ken Schulte presents How To Generate Your Own Alternative Energy At Home | Alternative Energy Secrets posted at Alternative Energy Secrets.

Miss Jocelyn presents Good Posture? posted at Feelin’ Feminine.

Miss Jocelyn & Miss Emily Rose presents Blessed Girlhood: Autograph Album posted at Growing In Grace Magazine.

Miss Jocelyn presents Modest Make-Up? posted at A Pondering Heart.

Whooo! That Miss Jocelyn is a busy young lady!

Erica Burgan presents Homemade Sloppy Joes posted at The Sojourner.

AdmirableIndia.com presents Hogenakkal Falls: Part 1 posted at AdmirableIndia.com.

Christy Jordan presents Canning: THE MUSICAL! (Canning Tutorial) posted at Southern Plate.

axel presents 2 Healthy Snacks posted at axel g.

Thanks to everyone for submitting, and I hope you’ll join us next Monday at Walking Therein.

Don’t forget to submit your blog article to the next edition of the homesteading carnival thc using our carnival submission form.

If you haven’t submitted a post to the Homesteading Carnival for this upcoming Monday, please join us!

I need your post by midnight tonight, Sunday October 05th, because Monday, October 06th I’ll be posting links to a variety of homesteading links from around the blogosphere!  Submitting is easy, just click this link!

See you then!

Frost.  It was 38 degrees C a few weeks ago, and this week around Monday we had total frost kill in the garden.  Of course, there wasn’t much out there - but we did get some zucchini, winter squash and potatoes! Here’s a picture of our oldest, Kaelynn at the start of the potato harvest.  If you head over to Larry’s blog you can see a picture of them at the end.  We got more potatoes than their little Gator could hold, so the harvest wasn’t THAT tiny ;).  We did get a LOT of squash, but that’s no surprise, right?  They took over the garden!  And when Larry put the cows in there to eat down the weeds, they wouldn’t touch it…scary squash!

Over at Christian Children’s Book Review I posted my review of my favourite Christian picture book that is no longer in print - The Creation Story illustrated by Norman Messenger.  In short it is absolutely my favourite creation story that I’ve read so far, hands down.  Read the review to learn why!

It’s been awhile since I submitted to The Homesteading Carnival, but I was included this week, and the 63rd Carnival is up.  The Carnival is in need of some growth - more submissions!  So if you have a homestead, check out the carnival and submit your related posts :).

Miss Jocelyn presents Cultural Modesty? posted at A Pondering Heart.

Grandma Rosie presents Grocery Stockpile List posted at Grandma Rosie’s Texas Home.

Miss Amanda presents My Learning Experience - Blossoming Anew posted at My Learning Experience.

Larry Bogart presents Making hay while the sun shines posted at Measure Twice, Cut Once. This is my husband! He has many more pictures of our Dexter cattle if you’d like to take a peek at his blog.

HowToMe presents How To Fold a Fitted Sheet (guest submission) posted at HowToMe. Somebody actually knows how to do this?

Stephanie presents New Pigs posted at Adventures in the 100 Acre Wood.

Sheri presents Cookware continuation posted at The Shades of Pink.

Kathy Hester presents Gazpacho: A Taste of Summer posted at Chow Spice.

Sisterlisa presents Routines Vs. Schedules posted at The HomeSpun Life.

Hope that everyone is having a wonderful, busy and productive summer on their homesteads!  Please join The Homsteading Carnival over at A Happy Home on Monday, August 18th for the 62nd edition of the Homesteading Carnival!

Welcome to the July 28, 2008 edition of the Carnival of Home Preserving 3rd Edition! I’m honoured to be hosting this new and highly useful carnival this week! We just have a small garden this year, and since our season is so much later than most, we don’t have any produce that needs preserving yet! Thankfully though - there are ladies and gents are busy canning, freezing and drying already, and sharing their insights with us for our reading pleasure! Enjoy :).

Don’t forget to join Laura (the carnivals instigator) at Laura William’s Musings next week for another edition of the Carnival of Home Preserving! You can submit your articles to the carnival for inclusion next week here.

Dehydrating

Tomato Lady presents Oven-Dried Tomatoes posted at Little House in the Suburbs.

Mike Smythers presents Lump Charcoal posted at Meat Smoking.

Canning

Joseph presents ginger-melon preserves posted at choke, artichoke.

Angela Billings presents Squash Pickles posted at Homemaking Blog.

:: Suzanne :: presents Tomato Salsa posted at :: Adventures in Daily Living ::.

Kendra presents Up to our eyeballs in nectarines posted at A Sonoma Garden.

Marlene Dotterer presents Canning Day posted at Meals by Marlene.

Michelle presents Canning Rhubarb in Syrup posted at Life in Tee Harbor, Alaska.

Dana Wright presents Tomato Relish posted at Garden Green.

Gwen Mangelson presents My week so far posted at Paper Expressions.

Laura Williams presents Frugal Hints and Tips for Home Preserving posted at Laura Williams’ Musings.

Jane presents God Gave Plums….. posted at Seeds to Sew.

Marsha presents Love My Peaches posted at Hot Water Bath.

Kate presents Our Red House: Rocket (Arugula) and Pecan Pesto posted at Our Red House.

Freezing

Barb presents Bags of Mixed Vegetables, Frozen posted at My Daily Round.

Patsy presents It’s Cantaloupe and Watermelon Season posted at Likewise, Ye Older Women.

There’s a whole lot of Titus 2 goodness here for those of us who are just learning to preserve the harvest, so dig in and enjoy!

When we moved to our little homestead full time we acquired what every farm needs, cats.  5 of them.  4 males and 1 female.  One male left us suddenly (he was the shyest of the batch), but we still have all of the others.  Our female has had four batches of kittens but no survivors.  Her mothering skills have proven lacking.  The girls have so wanted kittens, but she just wouldn’t stay with them or nurse them.  My husband neutered all of the Toms with a bit of help holding the bag from me.

The day we came home with our own new baby, Patches - our female cat surprised us by bringing a new kitten into the house.  She headed straight for the box we had set up for her last time she had kittens and deposited her there.  She later insisted we move the box into the living room, and that is where it has stayed.  Mysteriously, she has transformed into an excellent mother!  She just loves her baby to pieces.  I nurse my baby in the rocking chair, and she nurses her baby in the box.  It’s just too sweet.  The baby kitten has been in the house for six days now, the longest any of her litters have lasted, so I think this one is a keeper!  Here she is ‘hugging’ her baby.

Has started blogging at Measure Twice, Cut Once! He’s been excited to see what I’ve been doing here on my blog, and he’s anxious to fill his up with great content! Because he is the handy-man, the operations manager of our homestead - doing the building, the livestock, the nitty gritty details of the off-grid power system, that’s the type of posts you can expect him to share! He also loves to garden, and has many years of experience as an organic gardener. He is actually a born and bred farm boy, so he has so much knowledge about living off the land :).

His blog is still in it’s baby stage of development, but why don’t you drop in and say hi? He’d be so excited to get some comments I’m sure!

That reminds me - I need to head over there and leave a comment!

(Shhh…sometimes we actually cut two or three times, because we have mailed to measure twice - but it’s good advice!)

This morning I am busy printing off a free download that my husband found on the internet, it is called The Noah Project, a .pdf file produced by the Christian Homesteaders Association.  Way to go DH!  This pdf file is 139 pages long, and is a great resource for homesteaders who are just getting started.  Covering everything from designing a house, financial responsibility, sawdust toilets (we have been using one for 2 years, love ‘em!), solar collectors, alternative energy etc.  There is no table of contests, but this little book is a gem!

The website is fabulous too, including articles such as How To Rescue the Earth without Worshiping Nature, and Good Reasons to Homeschool.  I just had to share this resource with my homesteading friends!  Enjoy :).