Homesteading? There's An App For That

Technology has certainly revolutionized life and in the area of homesteading it's no exception. So why not take advantage of that technology and use it to help in the areas of quick referencing for information, calculations, calendar memos, and tracking (journaling)?

Yes, there are apps for all that. In fact, there are quite a few! But I like simple, easy to use apps... things I would use for example when I'm actually OUT IN THE GARDEN and I don't have anything but my phone with me. I can do all the planning I want in the house, but when I get outside, it's like I can't remember a thing!

Here are a few new favorites... All for FREE.

1. Organic Gardening's "Plant Planner". 
Features include... 

• Database of plants with complete planting information - herbs, vegetables, and even flowers, which makes it great for those who have potager gardens. And photos are included! If only it included companion planting  information and rotation notes! Hopefully in a future update.
• GPS supported location finder identifies frost dates for your garden - this app has been the most accurate by far! 
• Weather data for your area - Again, because of the GPS, it's highly accurate. It even tells me what weather station the app is using to gather the info. Mine happens to be about 1.5 miles from my house.
• Option to save plants in your virtual garden for future reference. This is strictly a listing and not a diagram of your garden. However, it does keep notes of planting dates and harvest dates.
• Calendar - this is a blank page for you to add dates and notes. For example, I added what I want to plant in the future so I have a reminder (no alarm on this app). Also, I included harvest dates and I plan to add dates for sowing succession plantings. Would be even better if the calendar updated automatically if you add a plant to your garden, but all in all it's a great app that's easy to use.

2.  Vegetable Garden Calculator. 

I tend to over plant or under plant. And sometimes I just have no clue! This app's features are pretty simple... just a listing of veggies and yield information. Select "add", the number of people you are planting for, and it calculates the number of plants you need. That's it. Simple and straightforward. 

If you like this app, the same people offer a few others for a small fee that might be worth the purchase price such as "Store It Smart" - a quick reference guide to keeping all that produce fresh, including long term storage information.

3. Egg Vestment. 
Another amazingly simple app that does only one thing really well... track your egg count and any purchases so you have a bottom line cost-per-egg. L.O.V.E. it!! Would be awesome if they made one for milking goats!

If you're a new chicken owner, those eggs may be very pricy and you don't want to go showing the bottom line to just anyone! But over time, you'll see your investment pay off. And that's encouraging.

Also, this will help you set prices if you want to sell your eggs. I opted not to include my housing, but I do include the feed, new chicks, and the occasional "necessary"purchases.

4. Rain Harvest Calculator. 
I'm interested in rain water catchment and this little app will help me determine how much water I can anticipate from each rooftop collection site. The app includes the formula should you want to do your own, but it will make those calcs for you in US or Metric volumes.

For example, if you wanted to install a system on your chicken coop to water your own flock from rainwater, you could calculate that before hand to know what size storage containers to have on hand for all that water!

I know there a lot more out there, so please share one you really like. This is an on-line community and we can all benefit from great information shared among friends. Hope these make your work just a wee bit easier and more efficient!

Plan To Eat... On Sale SOON!

It's good to get updates every now and then on products I've reviewed in the past. One that I'm still raving about... PLAN TO EAT.

Yes, I'll be renewing my subscription at the end of this month in order to save B.I.G. when it goes on sale because I use it just about every. single. day. Now I can't say I always actually PLAN, but I do use it for storing my recipes if nothing else. I love how they easily input from websites and can be printed for my 3 ring binders. With photos!

I don't want to give the impression I NEVER plan... no, no, no. I just don't plan as often as I'd like. Life is just kind of messy like that. Did I ever mention that the older kids get, the less predictable life is?

For some of my past reviews of PLAN TO EAT, just do a search over on the right sidebar... all my past posts on the subject will appear before your very eyes.

Be sure to check out some of the NEW FEATURES, such as the cooking view... I LOVE it!! (Thank you PLAN TO EAT for continually making fantastic improvements!)

• Mark your calendar for Nov 29 - Dec 2.
• Access PLAN TO EAT though Homestead Revival if you would be so kind (it's about the only thing I'm still an affiliate for and I will earn a small commission).
• Renew or Purchase a subscription at 50% off - woo hoo!!
• Enjoy the benefits of organized recipes just in time for all that holiday cooking and baking.
• Pat yourself on the back for being so thrifty and smart.

You go girl!

How To Leave Your Homestead

Homesteaders are notorious for not leaving the farm for more than a few hours at a time. Things are a bit complicated when it comes to which animal gets what feed and when. Then there's the milking and the manure. Who wants to ask someone else to do these jobs?

We all need to know how to leave our homestead for more than 24 hours at a time. Whether it's a long awaited vacation, a sudden trip to care for aging parents, an opportunity to be with a son or daughter who is having a child, or even an emergency operation for ourselves... we need to be ready and know how to have things in order for someone else to care for the homestead in our absence.

Photo Credit

Preparing To Leave the Homestead

• Find a Homestead-sitter. There are so many people wanting to learn to homestead, but they're afraid to take the plunge. These same people would actually be thrilled for an opportunity to mentor underneath someone in trade for help on the homestead when you're gone (within reason, of course). Your investment in another person benefits both parties! If you can't find an apprentice to work with, neighborhood teenagers, college students on break, or unemployed adults may be interested as well as FFA or 4H students needing to earn a bit of money. Finally, there is the option of setting up a trade situation with another homesteader who lives nearby, but be sure you both are clear on the agreement and responsibilities since this kind of arrangement could be a bit lopsided. 

• Leave contact numbers.  Some way for your homestead-sitter to know how to reach you as well as anyone else they may need: fire department, vets, utilities, etc.  Be sure to post it in more than one place... just in case!

• Have a back up for your back up. This is where your local homesteading group is a God-send! Ask a couple of friends to be on-call in case your homestead-sitter needs some help or has a question. If someone has an area of expertise, such as beekeeping or goats, note that beside their name. Talk to your back ups and make sure they know how to contact you and what your preferences are in terms of calling vets, medications, etc.

• Label everything. Feed looks all the same to someone unacquainted with your particular selections. And since chicks often get different feed than layers (and other animals as well), be sure items are clearly marked. I used badge holders with inserts printed up and in some cases, I included a reminder on the tag as well.

 

• Post detailed lists. And I do mean details! Most of this stuff seems like common sense but it's only common if you're familiar with it. Even with as much experience as I have gained to date, when I go to care for someone else's animals, I often have questions because there are lots of ways to practice animal husbandry or gardening and I want to do my best for my friend - the way he or she would want it. If they haven't specified, I find I must rely on my own experience, but I'm always wondering if I did the right thing. Homestead-sitters will feel more confident if everything is crystal clear.

• Walk them through your routine. More than once if possible! Morning routines are often different than evening routines on a homestead, so be sure to walk them through both. If they're not sure, ask if they'd like to give something a try with you watching.

• Have extra supplies on hand. This is especially important if you mix feeds or if you order them through a co-op that delivers. And don't forget to tell them where to find the extra!

• Consider what is truly necessary in your absence. Do you really want to pay for someone to hand water all your plants? Can the stalls wait til you get home to be cleaned? Is the weeding really going to get out of hand while you're gone? You decide, but if possible, make sure these things are done right before you leave and plan on doing them when you return (block off the day after your return on your calendar so you have time to do these things).

• Pay Reasonably.  In the past I've always been unsure what to pay a homestead-sitter (and I'm sure I've been guilty of underpaying at times). This will vary from community to community as the going rate may be different, but minimum wage is certainly appropriate. You can always add a bonus on at the end for a job well done or if they've had to handle some emergencies. Another option is to ask around and find out what local farm laborers are receiving as a general rule.  Either way, you're most likely going to pay by the hour so be sure to walk through your daily routine and make note of about how long it should take to do what's required of your homestead-sitter. Finally, there is the option of contracting with an individual for a set amount. I do this periodically but I try to keep it within the same ball park as the minimum wage. 


• Give them the fruit of their labors! One of the reasons we all homestead is for the perks of milk, eggs, and produce. A nice bonus is to allow your homestead-sitter to take home what he or she gleans in your absence. This is always a welcome addition and will help off-set gasoline costs if they must drive a ways to your homestead. (I typically request that they just leave me a jar of milk and a few eggs the day before my arrival so we have food when we get home). 

May all your travels be stress free and refresh your spirit!

Plan To Eat

Okay. So it's a new year and I have fallen off the "healthy eating wagon" a bit. I do every December! {sigh....} Such is life. If I eat well 11 months of the year, I'm pretty happy with that. But it's January and time to get back to REAL food and eliminate so many sweets.

For inspiration, I decided to get try a new menu planning program: Plan To Eat. Actually, I tried it a few months ago, but wasn't really motivated at the time and I didn't find out all that it could do. I was overwhelmed thinking I had to load every single one of my recipes by actually typing them in so that I could utilize the program well. Not so. After spending quite a bit of time on their site, I realized I had missed a lot this program has to offer. 

Here's the basic includes...

• a menu planner for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks with an easy drop and drag function from recipes you input into your recipe box (but you can also just type in your own items/notes - this is one of the things I failed to figure out the first time around!)

• a recipe book where you can store your recipes from home and from the internet and invite friends to join you and share recipes (more about this in a minute)

• a shopping list that will also store your pantry inventory and allow you to cook based on what's in your pantry at the moment (just click the "Cook from My Pantry" button and recipes matching your ingredients will pop up)

• the ability to create an iPhone mobile ready "app" so you can quickly access information at the grocery store or on the run (I'm forever needing to have my actual menu with me when I'm away from home)

Now that you know the basics, let me expand on one of my favorite things about this site. If I find a recipe on a blog or website that I like and want to try, I can easily upload it into the Plan To Eat recipe planner. There's a little link you add to your tool bar which you click when you find the page with the recipe you want - much like the "pin it" link for Pinterest. When you click the button on the toolbar, it opens a window up on the right side (see photo below) and will either automatically upload the recipe or if it can't do that, it will make it easy for you to copy the information and paste it in each section. Trust me... it works quickly and easily! (Again, this was something I didn't realize earlier and it makes it soooo much easier!)

After the recipe is uploaded into your Recipe Book,  you can then add a photo.

I looked at several other menu apps for iPhone, but I didn't find one that also had a computer version. And really, I wanted the iPhone app just as a back up for when I'm at the store and shopping. Most of my menu planning happens at home on the big screen. Plan To Eat had both.

Interested yet? What if I told you they give you a 30 day free trial? Sweet.

Go ahead... try it out and kick the tires a bit. See if it works for you. Give yourself 15 minutes each day for the first week or so to add some recipes and in no time, you're going to be loving this site. And you'll be oh-so organized and motivated to eat healthy! Just think... we could be friends on there and share recipes!

Bon appetit!

I have not been compensated in any way for my review of Plan To Eat. My opinions are my own based on my own use of the program.

A Home For Everything

Once upon a time there was a cozy little house that was home to a nice little family. All was well there except a few stacks of things that kept getting in their way, making the whole house feel cluttered. While nobody really liked the piles very much, it made the mom particularly unhappy (and sometimes grumpy)! Often, family members couldn't find what they were looking for because they really didn't know where to look for a certain item.

Photo Credit

Okay, obviously this is my house, but could it be your house, too? Stop right now and look around. Any piles of stuff laying around? Papers, kitchen items, school stuff, clothing, toys? Maybe books or electronic gadgets? I'm not spying, I promise, but if you're like most of us, there's often something stacking up around the house. Take a minute and ask yourself why it's all there and not someplace else.

Here's my guess as to the top 5 reasons for piles around the home...

#5  lack of time to deal with it or bad routines

#4  you plan to use it in the immediate near future 

#3  you're afraid that out-of-sight means out-of-mind, so you've left it where you can see it

#2  one of the kids left it laying around when your back was turned and now it has sat there for a week!

#1  you're not sure what to do with it because it doesn't have a "home"(and other family members are suffering from the same dilemma)

If lack of time or poor maintenance routines are an issue, give yourself 10-15 minutes each day to tackle the piles and you'll find they're shrinking fairly fast. Do it for 30 days and you'll have that habit in place. If you plan to use it in the future, there are ways to manage it that will keep the item at hand while still keeping them "in mind".  If it's the kids, you have a parenting issue, not so much an organizing one, UNLESS... they're like you and they don't really know where to put it.

I've tried to make a home for each item in the house for a few years, but seems like I avoided a few items because they were tougher to find a good location to park them. This summer, my goal was to find a home for EVERY LAST THING!!! That's right... every item down to the last paper.

To do this, I found I had to go back and do a little purging... again. But, purging needs to happen on a regular basis anyway. I got my donation box all set up and items are headed to the thrift store. Next I had to do some creative problem solving for these tough to place items.

I found that if I narrowed down WHERE it should go, based on where I use the item, then I at least had a starting place. Next I usually took everything out of the space where I wanted to house it and just stared. Yep, you read that right... stare. And think. And imagine. Sometimes I'd google some ideas on the Internet, but usually I thought about how I WANTED the space to look with the item in it. Then I worked backwards thinking how I could get it that way. Sometimes other items had to be relocated to make way for the new item.

One area in particular that was an issue for me was my jewelry. It has been in some trays in a drawer for years, yet I really did NOT like this solution. I wanted it in my closet where I actually dress, however, my shelves were full of books that had no real home. So I imagined how I wanted my closet to work and started to work. The books came out and went to the room where they should have been in the first place. Then after a deep clean, I moved the jewelry in place and started organizing. I had a bunch of old boxes with some sentimental pieces handed down to me, but they didn't look too good.

A large basket with a lid hid them all nicely and stayed in keeping with my "vision"...

Notice it gave me a little more space on the shelf as well. Always a nice bonus. But I'm going to be careful not to fill it too quickly! The remaining trays were stacked neatly on the shelf to the right (sorry, I don't have a photo!) and are easier to accessorize with my outfit. 

What about those books I had to relocate? Well, for 8 years I had been holding out for some built in bookcases. I finally decided that a few dollars spent on a movable bookshelf of lesser quality was worth my piece of mind and I ordered two to solve our book dilemma. All the books are finally in the school room or upstairs in the girl's space with a few cookbooks in my kitchen office. Oh, the joy of having a home for my books!! Now when there's a book lying around, I actually have a space to put it in!

Be sure the new home...

• fits your item and doesn't have to be stuffed in there!

• is actually where you use it or need it

• is labeled or is easy for everyone to remember what belongs in that space

• announced to the entire family!

• looks attractive or pleases you in terms of feeling neat and organized

• gives you room to grow if it's something that will accumulate over time

As the summer wore on, I found homes for all kinds of things... electronic chords, computer disks, toys, ... I feel like I'm on a hunt now to find a home for any remaining item that is "lost". It's kind of addicting!

So the moral of this little story... if you have a stray item that's been lying around, find a home for it... right now!

Camping Organization: Notebook Essentials

We're off on another camping adventure. Roughing it without any amenities, hookups, or niceties. Just us and nature. Thankfully, it's only for two nights. I think I can manage that!

Actually 3 families are going and we're each cooking a main meal and then doing our own lunches and one of the breakfasts. I drew the other breakfast and because I'm feeding so many, it probably will be calorie laden and not super healthy. And the sourdough starter is staying at home in the fridge. I didn't want to pack it in 100+ degree weather when I wasn't going to be using it. I might do things differently if it was just our family, but once in a while, it's okay just to have fun and eat... JUNK. Hash browns, s'mores, and all kinds of traditional camping food. (Just wait until tomorrow's post!)

I wanted to share a little about my camping notebook that I mentioned in an earlier post. I love notebooks for organizing and so naturally, putting all my paperwork in an easy to carry three ring binder made a lot of sense.

My favorite item in it is a packing list that I can reuse to check off items as I get them in the camper (which we usually borrow, so it's not packed all the time, which is what I'd do if it were my own.) I downloaded a free check list from REI and then slipped it into a plastic protective sleeve that fits into a three ring binder. Then I use a wipe off type pen to make items off. When I'm all done, I just have to wipe it off with a cloth.

Other items your camping notebook might include would be things like...

• campsite reservations
• camper registration and other related paperwork (such as user guide!)
• tent set up instructions (especially if it's new or you haven't used it in a while)
• maps to your destination or maps of the area itself, such as hiking trails
• information on local attractions, shopping (such as a grocery store), land marks you want to see, etc.
• fishing / hunting license
• recipes for meals
• emergency medical information
• emergency phone numbers or locations of nearest emergency services, including park ranger stations
• first aid instructions
• contact information for your ICE persons (In Case of Emergency - extended family members, etc.)
• a running list of things you want to remember to pack NEXT time, that you forgot while camping THIS time!
• a wish list of camping gear to purchase in the future

What items would you include in a camping notebook that I didn't mention? Let's make sure we've covered everything!

Homeschool Planner

For those of you who homeschool, it's that time of year again. Time to start getting ready by purchasing curriculum if you haven't already, organizing the classroom, and planning your daily schedule. Homeschooling is as unique as the individuals who are participating, but I'd like to pass along a resource that I'm enjoying and think you will, too.

Home Educating Family Publishers, Rebecca and Scott Keliher, have created a wonderfully organized planner, The Well Planned Day, that covers just about everything a homeschool mom could want in order to keep up with as many as 4 children and their academics, not to mention, dinner, bills, and a few other items.



I'll give you a little tour, in no particular order...

First were some introductory pages that were for recording family goals, etc. Since this was not a high priority for me, I opted to tape in some pages in which I created a list of all my dinner entrees to make meal planning easier this fall. Basically, I grouped the recipes by type of meat (such as ground beef, grilled meats, crock pot dishes, chicken, etc....) and I listed every recipe my family enjoys. I now have a quick reference guide to meals.

Next is a "Household Duties" page; great for planning what you want to accomplish on a daily basis as well as boxes for recording annual projects such as clean the woodstove. Just write the task in the appropriate monthly box and it will be a quick reference guide for you all year long.

Included is a form you can either copy or pull out and laminate for use with a wipe off pen. One side is for "My Responsibilities" (chores) and the other side is "My Education"(daily school assignments). Both include boxes for checking off when the task is completed. I actually made copies and will try putting these on a clipboard for the girls this year. 

One of my favorite sections is the Teacher Schedule and the Student Schedule. You actually get 4 pages of the student schedule so you can write out a different schedule for each child. If you've ever read Teri Maxwell's Managers of Their Homes, you'll recognize the boxes with time slots as being nearly identical. This gives you the opportunity to put Teri's ideas into practice, but without the color coding for each family member. However, you do get an additional column for each day of the week.

Just opposite the student schedule is a page for student information. You can keep track of curriculum purchases, student information, etc.

Of course, what would be the point of a planner without a calendar? On the opposite page you'll find a place to record books each child is reading (I included our read-a-loud as well), field trips and enrichment activities, and monthly bills. Filling in all this information is like having a record book that can be saved from year to year - just in case!

The perforated "Shopping List" page is two sided; one is included for each month with a total of 6 lists per month. 

The main reason I purchased this planner was because of the "Lesson Planner" pages. There's enough space to write out assignments by subject for up to 4 students. Included on this spread is a box for "Weekly Priorities", a "Dinner Menu", a "Weekly Catechism", and "Weekend Activities".  One tip that's worked for me is to write each student's assignment in a different color pen. That way, it's easier to note which assignment is for which child at a glance.

Finally, there are plenty of other record keeping items such as attendance and grades, but they've ALSO included a HOLIDAY Organizer!!! I totally forgot to take pictures of that section, but it's 6 pages of forms for tracking gifts, shopping, cards, events, and notes.

Want to see more? Just visit The Well Planned Day site and you can flip through digital pages, read other blog posts, and see other products such as a High School Planner and planner accessories.

I also subscribe to their monthly magazine, Home Educating Family. Of all the homeschool publications I've read, this one has been my favorite!

You'll find monthly articles from some of their writes in The Well Planned Day planner as well. Kind of like a pep talk or something to keep you going each month. 

So, who else is using this great planner that can recommend it? I just LOVE being organized!