Mother's Day Market

I just can't contain myself any longer.  I just have to share the fun we had at our first craft fair this year.  It was called the Mother's Day Market and it was held in Fortuna at the Rohner Grange.

But first I feel I need to back up because I'm not sure I've shared this new hobby/business with all of our readers.  Moving back closer to family seven years ago has enabled our children to be raised in the country with fresh air, animals and has provided them a slower paced lifestyle.  “One Blessed Acre” comes from our abundant family blessings by God throughout the years.   As well as, we are currently living on exactly one acre of land.  We took the plunge a couple of years ago and added goats to our farm with the intent of drinking the milk, wanting to be more self-sufficient with our homesteading lifestyle.  Out of that milking came lots of excess milk for soaps and lotions.  Once I began looking at the labels on beauty products I quickly realized the need to have more natural products for my family to use.   Through trial and error, gleaning information from those who had experience in soap making and reading countless websites, I found a passion for making soap and natural beauty products from ingredients that I could actually pronounce.   The goal of our business is to serve and give back to our community as a family, providing wholesome goat milk products that will bless local families and businesses that partner with us to promote and sell our products. 

One of the best questions I always receive is "Why Goat Milk."  So here's the answer to Goat Milk;  why you should drink it, make kefir, yogurt, and cheese and add it to handmade soap. .   Why?  Because goat milk is very good and never ba-ha-ha-ha-had.   Goat's milk has a pH level that's well balanced for healthy human hair and skin, while commercial soap can dry out the skin to the point at which it feels taut and itchy.   The alpha hydroxy acid of goat’s milk attack the “glue” that binds dead skin cells together.  With these bonds broken those dry, lifeless cells slough off to reveal that young, healthy skin that is hidden beneath. Goat milk is loaded with vitamins and minerals which rejuvenate and nourish your skin. 

Now that you've been taught why you should use goat milk, let me convince you why you should support One Blessed Acre Farm and buy our handcrafted soap.  You will absolutely love your skin and will thank us for replacing your dry, itchy, irritable skin with soft, smooth and supple skin that doesn't feel dry or cracking.

Our most popular line is our goat milk lotion.  We have such a variety of scents that I couldn't name them all.  I use fragrance oils and also have created an essential oil scent in geranium.  We also carry a unscented soap and lotion for those who are severely bothered by fragrance.

This year the kids and I have been busy creating new products which include a form of goat milk, whether it be fresh or dried.  First, is my new liquid soap line.  It is so soft and gentle on your skin and it cleans excellently while leaving your skin feeling supple.  I've even tested it on greasy pans in the kitchen and it works there too!  I'm also hearing great reviews about our luxury exfoliating line of soap.  Four different scents with four different exfoliates:  Coconut Island with loofah, Coffee House with ground coffee, Oatmeal Cookie with colloidal oatmeal and Herb Garden with ground walnut shells, pumice and poppy seeds.

Hannah has created the richest, most decadent goat milk fudge.  People were raving about her samples.  For the time being this will be a local craft fair item.

The day began beautifully, with the sun peaking through the clouds and the wind was just beginning to blow, while we were in line at Starbucks getting everyone a Frappuccino.   Set up went smoothly for us.  Our table was sandwiched right in the middle of the room.  This worked out perfectly for us to be able to sample our lotions on passers-by.   The kids are always a little shy when we first get started, but by the end of the show they are pros at squirting lotion and talking about the products.  Even George made sure to let everyone know about his Tub Teas.  Lindsay spent many months perfecting her bath bombs.  They smell heavenly.  She made Lavender Lush, Electric Lemonade and Cinnamon Stick.  So delicious!

One of my favorite places to shop is Amazon and we, One Blessed Acre is now available through Amazon.  Isn't that great?? All you have to do is click the link and order.   You can also find us on Etsy at One Blessed Acre.

I love that we are local too.  All of our soaps and lotions can be found in the Golden Gait Mercantile in  downtown Ferndale, California. 

The day went by too quickly and soon it was time for us to pack up and head home.  We are really looking forward to our next fair in June called Humboldt Junkies Vintage Market and Trailer Rally.

Raising Chickens with Lisa Steele for Inspiration

Chickens have been our life since 2010 when we moved to One Blessed Acre.  On my quest for self-sufficiency, I got a crazy notion in my brain that we could raise chickens .  Neither the General Manager nor I had ever had experience raising chickens.  We took on our backyard flock, with a box arriving at the post office at 1 AM one morning, in stride.  The kids were overly excited to participate and help raise these 25 little fluff balls that began our introduction into chickens.

Flash forward seven years and we are still raising chickens.  Some may call us crazy, but I believe we still have one of our precious firsts, her name is Daisy.  She is perfectly healthy, but doesn't lay one egg for us, but she brings us such joy.  Our chickens not only became our livelihood, but a part of our family.  It's been tough learning that farm animals do have their place in the order of life, but, while they are in our care, we make sure they have the best life possible.

One of my favorite authors is Lisa Steele, of Fresh Eggs Daily.  I have been re-reading her book, Fresh Eggs Daily: Raising Happy, Healthy Chickens Naturally.  Lisa has this ability to break down raising chickens into the simplest form ever.  I mean really, she basically tells us that if you can grow herbs and use essential oils, your flock will be happy, healthy and growing.  And if you haven't seen her new coop on her homestead in Maine, it's beautiful!


So, this last week, I've incorporated her Breakfast of Champion Layers Feed recipe into our normal rations.  I've added mint leaves to the coop to help repel rodents and insects.  Our overly abundant lemon balm this year is next to go into the coop.  This will look pretty, but also benefit the chickens with overcoming the chicken poo smell and as a laying stimulant.

Have you seen Lisa's new book; Gardening with Chickens?  It keeps staring at me when I pass by it at Tractor Supply.  Am I the only one who has books call out to her?  Please tell me NO!





My other favorite blog to follow is the Chicken Chick.  Have you checked out Kathy's site?   She has the most incredible story of how she overcame her neighborhood's discrimination in keeping a backyard flock of chickens.  This week I decided to make a batch of her Flock Block.  Our chickens are free-ranged for most of the day, but for several hours they are enclosed in our chicken run which is strictly dirt.  They needed and deserved an extra treat.  I had to substitute a few ingredients from Kathy's recipe, but for the most part I followed what she recommended. 

First the wet ingredients:

Then the dry ingredients, along with a jar of last year's canned apples.

Mix it altogether.  Spread out into several baking pans - mine made 3 large and 2 small cake pans.  Bake for two hours at 300, which was slightly too long.  Next time I will only bake for 1 1/2 hours.  They did come out a teeny bit burnt, but the birds didn't mind.  My daughter, Abby and I even put holes in the middle of each pan, but the chickens ate them too fast to even make that worth while. 

Will I notice greater egg production from this, probably not.  But, will I gain the satisfaction that I'm giving my birds healthy foods and supplements - ABSOLUTELY!  Those who stop by our farm stand and buy our eggs will be able to see by the health and vitality of our girls.  We cherish the fact that we have hand raised each bird, giving each one extra special attention and the best food possible.  And I always say if you stand in our yard long enough, one of the girls will probably come by and say "hello."

Raising chickens will be such a rewarding experience for you and your family.  I guarantee you'll fall in love with them as our family has.

Garden Beginnings

The winter doldrums' are about to be over.  I look forward to this season every year, but it really is the kick start to our busiest time of the year.  Gardening season is knocking at my back door here in the Pacific Northwest.  Our family is just waiting patiently for the sun to come out for more than one day a month.  I say that tongue and cheek, but really I think we have had rain solid for the last 4 months.  Once the sun returns, Mr. Sunshine will warm up the soil enough to begin planting.   I have learned over the years that being patient while gardening is just one of the many character traits every gardener learns.

This year was a treat for us, because my friend Heather at Mountain Home Quilts invited the girls and I up to Crescent City to a little farm called the Dutch Gardener.  We piled into the car and drove the two hours over several patches of roads that quite literally scare the living daylights out of me to drive upon.  I happened to catch one selfie while stopped at a traffic light of course, and the girls were both engrossed in their reading.

That just meant that I got to listen to my 80's jam a little bit longer!

Our haul home included two rhubarb plants, because for some unknown reason, I killed off my gigantic rhubarb plant that I've had for 4 years, 5 marigolds, 7 tomato plants, 2 jalapeno pepper plants, basil, lettuce, celery, parsley, and a couple of assorted flowers and herbs.  There were thirty - 4 inch pots in the back of my van.  Somehow I managed to forget buying zucchini starts, to which my kids will be ecstatic!  They absolutely hate zucchini and all of the many ways that I try to hide it in their foods.

I had already ordered my seeds from Territorial Seed Company back in March.  We have had the best germination rate with seeds from Territorial.  It is most likely due to the fact that they are an Oregon based company with their seeds already acclimated to our wet, rainy and cold weather.

Back in March, the General Manager had 50 tons of manure dumped onto our front lawn.  This is what said manure pile looks like after it is hauled in the garden.  You'll probably notice the deep, deep ruts left in the lawn by the tractor.  These ruts caused said General Manager to kick himself for days.  Have no fear dear, it's growing back in nicely.  Soon we won't even remember how wet, rainy, dreary and overly saturated our front lawn really was!

HAPPY GARDENING!

How to Weigh Your Goat

Weighing a goat needs to be done for several reasons.  Body condition and weight are important measurements for assessing the health of your goats. Knowing your goat’s approximate weight is necessary for proper dosing of medications and supplements.

Last year was a difficult year for me in raising my goat, Luna.  We tried to breed her three separate times and each time it was unsuccessful.  Our breeder even went above and beyond and assisted in providing additional hormones to increase her heat.  Even this didn't work.  This led me to begin researching problems that might be causing this.  COPPER deficiency kept coming back as the number one cause.  I have been feeding a livestock loose mineral ever since getting the goats for our farm.  But after reading the label (we need to read labels on our animal feed as well as human feed!) I saw that the copper amount was not high enough.  Many of the websites I looked at were mentioning adding an additional copper supplement in the form of a copper bolus.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when we introduced a new goat, Mocha, 
onto our farm and within a couple of weeks I noticed her coat color changed from a chocolate brown to a rust brown.  Another symptom is "fish tail" where the fur isn't growing on the tail so that it resembles a fish tail.  These are both symptoms of copper deficiency.  In order to administer the copper bolus I was going to need to figure out how much each goat weighed.

Using a soft, pliable tape measurer, measure the heart girth and the length of the goat. Heart girth is measured by wrapping the tape around the goat starting just behind the withers on top and just behind the elbow on the bottom.


Length is measured from the point of the shoulder to the pin bone on one side of the goat.   The pin bone is the bone right under the tail. Using Doug as my model in the picture below, you can see where to place the tape measurer.

Using these measurements in inches, put them into this calculation:

(Heart girth X Hearth girth X Length) / 300 = Weight (lbs)

Using Doug as the example, his HG or heart girth was 25, his Length was 22, so my calculation was:

(25 x 25 x 22 /300) = 45 lbs.

Once you have calculated their weight be sure to record that amount in your homestead journal. 

My "I ams"

Being 48 this year doesn't seem so young anymore.  In the eyes of many, I'm still not old, but my days of being able to remember who I am seem to be a bit more foggy.  So, I write this for my children and my grandchildren to know my "I ams."   This is more than a journal, a simple written recount of my days.    It's who I am and who I've become and possibly who I want to be in the days to come.

I'll go first and then I want you to go.  Find a piece of paper, a notebook or a journal and a pencil and begin to write it down.  You don't need to be a writer to tell who you are, because only you really know.  Only you can say what God has placed in your heart.

So here goes.  Me - I am from Hawaii, Honolulu to be exact.  Everyone is always amazed to meet someone who was actually born in Hawaii.  I am from a family of 4 - just me and my sister and our parents.  I am from a sister who loves animals more than herself.  I am from a mother who is a creative spirit whom I know I get my creative persuasion from.  I am from a father who told me that to be successful in life I had to work at it and always strive to be the best I could be. Most days I feel confident saying that I've done that.

We moved to Northern California when I was 7, a second grader.  I am a girl from a small town, countryside cow-raising community.  But, we never owned any farm animals when I was growing up.  I was an outsider looking in on families who had lived in my community for generation after generation.  I am from a rural town, small house off of main street, girl who left for college just shortly after high school graduation; and never looked back.

Until. . . .

Fast forward to today.  I am married to my best friend, a man whom I could not live without.  I am mother to five, step mother to two, absolutely in love with all of my children.  I am a woman who stepped away from a 9 to 5, college educated, accounting degree career to be just a mom.    I am a woman who if you had told me in high school I would have seven children, I would have laughed!  I am in love with the privilege to raise these blessings from God.  I am the holder of tiny hands and sweet smiles that greet me every morning.  I am the listener to many late night teen discussions.  I am a grandmother to 5 beautiful little ones.

I am a homeschooling, unit studying, somewhat structured schooling mom.  I have been homeschooling for 14 years.  I am an avid collector (hoarder) of books and homeschool curriculum.  I love the freedom that homeschooling has allowed our family.  I am enjoying watching the fruits of my instruction.

I am one of God's children.  I am in awe of my relationship with Jesus.  I am in constant surrender of my life to the one who chose me out of the depths of sin that I was wallowing in.  I am in Scripture daily to rule my life and give me hope and guidance.

I am an avid seamstress, but I don't love to sew clothing.  I am into sewing quilts and things of burlap and occasionally mending something that has been ripped, torn or holey.  I am living on a one acre homestead which is back in my home town.  I am living the dream life that I had prayed for many years.  Home to a big wild garden with an abundance of green beans and pumpkins every year, especially zucchini.  But don't ask my children if that is a good thing!   I am a lover of digging in dirt and squishing it between my fingers.  I am a lover of animals, especially chickens and goats and maybe just maybe ducks.  I am a crazy chicken lady to some, others just love our eggs.   I am from a kitchen full of cast iron and a fear of cooking.     I am from a precise recipe following, by the book kind of cooking.   I am better at doing dishes than cooking.

I am from a family run, tractor loving, tractor selling, John Deere business, but I'll be the first to admit that I don't know how to exactly drive a tractor.  I am not a fan of green, as most would think, but rather red has always been my favorite color.

I am from a giant pile of journals that are stashed in my nightstand table.  I am from a blog called "My Precious Peas" which is all about our family.  I am from several book shelves of informational educational books  - and yes, even the collection of Love Comes Softly series.  I am a youtube watching, Hallmark movies, Justin Rhodes and Weed 'Em and Reap farming vlogs.

I am embarking on a new adventure - hobby business.  I love "repurposing" my extra goat milk into soaps and lotions to bless those who suffer from really dry skin or just want really, really good soap.  I am into selling our eggs by our roadside stand and am okay having that stand be a landmark that people use to figure out where we live.  I am looking forward to the next leg of my journey, older homeschooled children, extra hands to help with the daily tasks of farm living, never anymore quiet time, but more connecting time with teens and tweens and lastly more date nights with my hubby.

Your turn!  Take some time today to record your "I ams" for your family.

04.17.2017

Sometimes life on a farm isn't all glamor and glitz.  Goat drama can occur just as easily as human drama and it can be as emotionally stressful.  I am no expert on goats and am still learning on a daily basis.  You just never know when you turn that corner of learning and something new is thrown into your hat.

Last week our little Nigerian buck, Doug, broke off his horn. Night fell, the normal routine followed.  All animals are taken care of and then the kids brought in our dog, Kevin, who was out in the field with our buck, Doug. Hannah exclaimed that Kevin was covered in blood but it wasn't coming from him.

So, George and I rushed back out to the goat shed to check out the goats. Down the row George and I walked. Luna check, Mocha check, and then George said, "Mom look at Doug's head." There was blood everywhere, all over his head and dripping down his cheek.  If I hadn't known better, it was an image straight out of a horror movie, one which I didn't want to watch.

Our shed does not typically have power running to it, unless I run an extension cord out there.  It just so happened that the power cord was still hooked up so I did have a little light to assess the bleeding.  I did the best I could to clean him up and put pressure on the bleeding to stop it. I sprayed his head with antiseptic spray and left the rest in God's hand to stop the bleeding by morning. Once inside the house, I consulted Webveterinarian and it was not comforting.  While he probably just broke off his spur that had grown in since he was a kid, the article said he actually could have fractured his skull.  To which he needed immediate vet care.  I said another prayer, and again left my animal's health in the hands of the Lord. 

The next morning Doug was still a little bloody, so we kept him inside in his stall for a couple of days.  He got a round of antibiotics and a tetanus shot and by day three he was back to normal head butting his BFF, Kevin our Great Pyrenees dog.

Crisis averted.  A win for this ever learning goat enthusiast.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Our year was full of faith, family, friends and fun.  Thank you for following One Blessed Acre and all of our preciouspeas over the last year.  May God bless each of your lives in 2017.

Colossians 3:17And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

#995 - spending Christmas Day with friends and having a great dinner
#996 - meeting new neighbors and enjoying afternoons talking
#997 - Christmas cookie decorating with best friends
#998 - spending a morning getting pedicures with the girls and my friend Fran
#999 - 22 years with my best friend
#1000 - ringing in the new year with family and friends

Handmade Seller Magazine - the best option for those wanting to start an Etsy Shop

Over a year ago, One Blessed Acre was born out of my blog Preciouspeas and it became a creative outlet for me to design table runners in burlap and denim and now to showcase my love for raising goats and using their milk to make lotion and soap that women or men can indulge themselves with and improve the quality of their skin.

Setting up my Etsy shop during this time has been a real learning experience.  One to which I wish I would have been introduced to The Handmade Seller's Magazine awhile ago. The Handmade Seller magazine was made to help creative entrepreneurs build a business around their talents. 

For years I heard that I was an extremely talented seamstress and should use my talents to sell my creations. So, I began to sew my creations and took some pictures to post.  I figured that once I set up my Etsy shop, sales would come in by the dozens and it would be that easy.  Wow!  Was I wrong.  The "how to start an etsy shop" was not that easy.  I had absolutely no clue what to do next, how to generate leads and sales and how to get organized to take my sales to the next level.  And to top it off, I didn't sell anything those first few months.

The magazine really helps you to learn and grow.  My favorite spot on their website is the Diagnosis Center where you can trouble shoot your shop's problem areas.  It helped me to understand conversion rates (basically how you turn views and likes into sales and at what rate this should happen at).  It also suggested what to do if your shop isn't getting any views or has low views.  There is so much more to online shopping than one brain can even fathom.

Take advantage of their handmade seller courses, where you can learn everything from branding, blogging, customer service, photography and marketing.  Often times we are great at crafting but lack the skills necessary to become an entrepreneur.  The Handmade Seller's Magazine is a great tool to make your shop profitable, operate smoothly, and best of all, enjoy every moment of it. Be sure to check out their facebook page.

And how am I doing with my shop, you ask?  Well, I've been officially on Etsy since 2010, but just recently began selling my creations with a goal to turn it into a business.  I have a total of 974 sales.  Last year I ended the year with 259 orders and $8000 in sales.  I'm really looking forward to expanding my business this next year and I plan on using the Handmade Seller's Magazine to help me do just that!

November happenings on the farm

I did it again. . .  I blinked and the year is almost over.  Has anyone else ever done that before?  It seems like just yesterday it was January and we winding down from the holiday festivities.

We are 10 weeks into our school year this year and have been enjoying our morning school time.  Some of the resources we are using this year are really starting to shine in the way of results for each of the kids.  I always have my doubts when I begin something new, but I believe the key to trying something new is to keep at it for awhile.  Unless of course you hate it yourself and find yourself dreading teaching it - that's the time to let it go.

Xtramath is a fabulous online drill practice for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  The lessons are short each day - maybe 10 minutes and the teacher, Mr. C, is not my children's favorite, but now it has just become a joke about how he hates the kids when he doesn't move them up a level.

Hodgepodge has become our favorite art curriculum.  The kids love coloring with chalk pastels.  We have used their Spring Chalk, Fall Chalk, American Landscapes and Sharks curriculum.  Tricia Hodges shares her love of art, that she received from her mother, in an easy to use PDF step-by-step tutorial.  One of my favorite things about the curriculum is that she walks us through each step of the drawing so that even George, our 7 year old,  can master the drawing.

People always ask me how do you homeschool?  Most of the time I believe they are asking, "How do you have all the skills necessary to teach each of the required subjects, because one person just can't possibly be equipped to teach everything - right?"  I truly believe that God has equipped each parent with the necessary skills to teach their children, regardless of their own educational background.  BUT, if even that scares the strongest of parents, you can relax in the comfort of knowing that so many other talented educators are available to help each of us in our weak areas with excellent curriculum.  There are online curriculums, workbooks, E-books and numerous websites and blogs ready to assist even the feable hearted homeschool mom or dad.  This is our 14th year of homeschooling and we have already graduated two students.  Both of which are doing very well. 

Homeschooling isn't about producing the smartest, brightest or most intelligent student.  It's about equipping our children with the skills and knowledge to be productive adult citizens in our ever unproductive society.  Any child, homeschooled or public schooled should be equipped with the ability to further their own education by having the tools to seek out knowledge and learn new things.  Okay, enough of my soapbox.

Happy Fall Everyone!  And a BIG THANK YOU to all of our followers.  You are so special to us.

Fall Happenings on the Homestead

Fall is my favorite time of the year.  This year it seems that it has arrived a little sooner than usual, or maybe it was that we were extremely busy this summer and the days have just flown by.  The weather still may be warmer here, but the leaves are changing and the days are getting shorter.

The kids and I started in on our 14th year of homeschooling (for me that is!).  I currently have my preciouspeas's in 8th, 6th, 4th and 2nd grade.  The General Manager and I graduated our third child in June.  We couldn't be prouder of Anne!  She is going to glorify God with her life, I just know it.

We planted another big garden this year, so now is the time to harvest.  This morning we were studying about "diligence" and we read Proverbs 6:6 "Go to the ant, you sluggard (lazy person), Learn from their ways and be wise."  Harvesting is hard work, but whoever said that homesteading was easy?  Zucchini was dehydrating in my dehydrator until it overheated.  I have resorted to canning it to save for chicken feed during the winter months as my freezer is too full to store it there.

Some of our pumpkins are ready for harvest and they will be adorning our farm stand for sale soon.  They make for the best pumpkin pies.

Soaps are curing for upcoming holiday sales.  Who needs candles, just have an assortment of soap curing in your house and your home will smell heavenly.  Be sure to check out my etsy shop www.oneblessedacre.etsy.com.  If you happen to be local you can also find my soaps and lotions at the Golden Gait Mercantile in Ferndale.    I have some really great scents for the holidays coming out next month: Vermont Maple Syrup, Spiced Cranberry, Peppermint Stick, Cinnamon Sugar (now a soap to go with the lotion) and Victorian Christmas.  The biggest news is that I changed the name of my shop from Preciouspeas to One Blessed Acre.  I had a friend redesign my labels and she felt that it was a more "grown up" name and much more professional.  But, no worries, my blog will still remain "Preciouspeas."

I brought back goats to our farm.  After injuring my foot last year, I was disheartened when I had to sell our two Nubian does.  They were part of the family and the beginnings of our farm.  This summer I purchased a 2 year old Nubian already in milk and a 2 month old Nigerian Dwarf buckling.  They have been officially named Luna and Doug.  The kids are totally enamored with Doug and love coming out to snuggle with him while Luna is being milked.  I am looking forward to seeing the babies that are produced from these two.  Both are papered with the American Dairy Goat Association which will help in finding homes for the babies that we can't keep.

Happy Fall!