Frontier House: PBS Series

I recently watched Frontier House that aired on PBS back in 2002.  Frontier House is a series of 6 episodes where 3 modern-day families went back to live the life of a family in 1883 for 5 months. Back in 1883, people came from all over to claim their 160 acres of land, but only after living on their frontier for 5 years:  1 out of 3 families survived the life on the frontier.

The families that PBS chose were pretty interesting. 

• The Brooks Family: This family is an African American family, which they said were more common on the frontier back in 1883 than books portray.  At the beginning of the series, Nate and his father, Rudy were at the homestead for the first five weeks to help build the homestead.  Then Nate’s (real) fiancé, Kristen came and they got married on the homestead. Rudy left the frontier and let his new daughter-in-law resume life with her new husband on the frontier.
• The Clune Family:  This family is from Malibu, California where the father was an executive for a company and they appear to be pretty affluent.  The mother, a native of Ireland, was a stay-at-home mom and they had 3 children.  For some reason, the Clune family also brought their niece to the Frontier House.
• The Glenn Family: The Glenn family is a blended family from Tennessee.  This is the second marriage for the mother and her children are from her previous marriage.  Throughout the series, you can pretty much watch the relationship of the mother and her husband unravel – it is really sad, because the children were thriving on the frontier. 

For 5 months, these families had to help build their own cabins (except the Glenn Family who got a pre-built cabin in their scenario.)  From the very beginning, the families got a real taste of what it was like to travel to their destination and what obstacles the pioneers faced (I wont spoil it for you – you have to watch it!) As the viewer, you get to watch what day-to-day life was like for the women, children and the husbands.  It was great!

I often romanticize about living life back in the 1800’s, but after watching this series, the “simple life” was not so simple!  I would love living off the land, but I do have my limits.  Anyone interested in homesteading or learning about what life was like back in 1883, I highly recommend this educational DVD!

 

DISCLAIMER:  I was in no way compensated to provide a positive or negative review on this video.  I watched the DVD out of my own curiosity and all opinions expressed are my own.   

Exciting News!!!

I have done pretty well with my own personal unplug challenge these past 4 days.  However, since being unplugged, I have had alot of time to think about what is going on around me instead of being preoccupied with the internet and TV.  I started to second-guess my dreams of building our homestead.

After noticing the strawberry patch was completely overtaken with weeds, I decided to start pulling.  The garden is an absolute mess of weeds that are taking over everything, and I cannot keep up.  Upon picking, I found several chutes with new growth!  This lifted my spirits instantly and made me realize that this is what I want from my life! I need to learn to be patient and be more attentive to the blessings right in front of me before getting so discouraged.
With my moods lifted, I was doing some things in the yard.  I noticed that the chickens were awfully quiet, which makes me nervous.  I go over to where they were huddling, and this is what I found...

One of the chickens laid its first egg on the deck!  For some reason, they pecked at it, and it broke.  I then decided I should clean out their nesting box in their chicken coop in case they wanted a clean place to lay their eggs and look what else I found!



 How could I have missed the egg this morning? Or did they lay it during the day?  When I went out to shut them in their roost for the evening so no predators could get them, I found a third egg!  This one had been pecked at as well.

I wrote a blog about the cost of raising chickens without really having any experience.  Now the fun begins and I can determine how much they truly cost.  I started a file showing how many eggs we get each day versus the price of their feed.  I will start researching more natural ways to feed the chickens once this 50 lbs of layer feed is gone, and then determine how much we are paying per dozen eggs. 

Chicken Stats:

• Breed:  Golden Sex-Link (just found this out thanks to this vlog!)
• We lost one more chicken to a predator- leaving us with 3
• The chics ate 40 lbs of "grower feed" the first 15 1/2 weeks of their life
• They started laying eggs after 10  days of switching to "layer feed"

For anyone who is still on the fence about raising chickens, I will tell you - they are so much fun! They make me laugh every time they follow me around the yard (always) and when they go running full-speed ahead! 

I cant wait to see how many more eggs we get throughout the Summer and Fall.  If anyone knows why they peck their eggs and how to prevent the pecking of eggs, please let me know.

Natural Mosquito Repellants

Since moving into our home in 2007, we have had problems with mosquitoes.  We live in an area that has bedrock a couple of feet under us.  When it rains, the water has nowhere to go so it puddles in the yard.  It doesn’t help that our low spots to help accumulate and maintain standing water for days after a shower.

The mosquitoes are so bad that we leave a can of OFF! Spray close to the door.  We even bought Skin-So-Soft in bulk for our pprecious pot bellied pig because he was eaten alive every time he went outside (recommended by the vet).  I don’t like to have to rely on chemicals to keep the mosquitoes at bay.

Within a year of moving into our home, I did some research and found that bats keep mosquitoes at bay.  “How do you get bats?” you ask?  You buy a bat house, of course! It may take a couple of seasons to attract the bats, but they should come if it is installed correctly and to the correct height.  Bats can eat up to a third of their body weight every night! They don’t just eat mosquitoes though.  They eat moths, beetles and flies too!

The bat house we purchased 4 years ago was approximately $50 with shipping.  The house is pretty darn small, and no one even realizes it’s there until we point it out to them.  We purchased this little house because it stated it could hold up to 200 bats!

Even with the bat house, we still have a mosquito problem.  I plan on using SwagBucks to purchase another one or two bat houses from Amazon.com like the one listed above.  With those, I hope to secure on a couple of trees we have around our home.

Other ways to repel mosquitoes are to grow some of the following plants:

• Catnip (our cats will love this!)
• Basil
• Rosemary
• Lemongrass
• Merigolds
• Lavender
• Garlic

I purchased a packet of each of these plants (except the garlic – I am planting garlic chives instead) and have decided to grow them around the yard.  All of these items can be planted in pots or spread around the yard to repel mosquitoes naturally. I plan on planting some in hanging baskets, in the ground, and in pots situated around the garden and all around our home! 

I love – love – love perennials! They save time and money.  Out of the list, the lavender, catnip, lemongrass and garlic are all perennials, so they will come up every year without fail!  We are taking every step possible to control the mosquito population where we live.  I will post an update in the future to let you know what we have found has worked and what has not.

Do you have any natural ways not listed to repel mosquitoes?  I want to hear about them!

This post is linked to the Barn Hop #17! Please come and join us!