Christmas Traditions

I just couldn't end the year without posting about our Christmas traditions here on the homestead! Ever since we moved out here, each Christmas we choose a tree from the woods to cut down and bring inside. They are never full, gorgeous trees, but there is something charming about the skinny, non-traditional trees that I love.

We took Duchess with us this year to search for a tree and I think she may have enjoyed the hike just as much as us.

We found a cedar deep in the woods that we decided on, and David went to work on cutting it down and dragging back to the house.

We had to do quite a bit of trimming to the tree, but finally managed to get it just right. I'm really into the simple, natural look for Christmas decorating, so I added some white lights and called it a day. I love to pull out my vintage enamelware this time of year, and found that leftover cedar clippings and half-melted candles made a pretty display for the trunk/coffee table. I'm still adding some festive touches around the house as I get sudden bursts of inspiration!

Another fun tradition is sending out Christmas cards with photos I've taken from around the homestead.  This year, I was looking through some photos and when I happened upon a snowy photo of Duchess from last winter, I knew it was the one.

Thankfully we haven't had snow like that this year (yet!), but we'll see how the next few months go.

On a non-related note, I just wanted to say thank you if you are reading this! I know I haven't posted in a long time, so if you are still following me that's awesome :) After starting a new job this spring, I just got engulfed in my new responsibilities and trying to learn everything about my new career path as I could. I'm feeling more comfortable now and have more of a schedule figured out with balancing work and homestead demands, and have found that I really do miss the blogging part of my life. I haven't had a creative outlet in a while and haven't taken many photos at all, and that makes me quite sad to be honest. Taking photos and blogging was such a big part of my life for a couple years (as you can see if you read back through the archives) and it feels so odd that I just basically stopped cold turkey. All of that to say that I am going to try to update the blog on a more regular basis (although not as often as before) and take more photos. And of course I miss the community that I had here as well, because that is what made blogging so rich for me. So I hope you're still out there, and I wish you the happiest of holidays!

~Tammy

Feathered Friend Friday: Christmas For Chickens

Welcome to our "Feathered Friend Friday" series. Each Friday I write a post with interesting facts, photos, or funny stories about our chickens and guineas. If you need to catch up, you'll find all the Feathered Friend Friday posts here.    

Well, another Christmas has come and gone! I hope that you had a great holiday season this year. We spent lots of time with family this week and had plenty of down time, so we are enjoying our season.

Of course there are gifts for the humans this time of year, but I knew I couldn't leave out my feathered friends. I mixed up a special present just for them and judging by their reaction, I think it was a big hit.

Somewhere in that pile of feathers you may see they are feasting on some goodies. I gathered leftover corn, black beans, and scallions as a Christmas treat and they clearly enjoyed it. They really love beans, so I knew this would be a nice treat for them.

As usual, the food was gone in a flash. It always amazes me how fast several chickens can clean a plate! I love giving them special treats every once in a while and it's so fun to watch them go crazy over the food. Chicken TV is always entertaining.

Did you give your animals anything special for Christmas this year?

~Tammy

Feathered Friend Friday: Chicken Coop Cheer

Welcome to our "Feathered Friend Friday" series. Each Friday I write a post with interesting facts, photos, or funny stories about our chickens and guineas. If you need to catch up, you'll find all the Feathered Friend Friday posts here.       

After spending some time making the house look nice and festive for the Christmas season, I had an idea. I've never decorated the coops before, but I wanted to add a little cheer to the chickens' homes as well.

The roosters' coop

Why should the humans have all the fun? :) I thought adding inexpensive wreaths with red bows would be a good way to perk up the coops a bit. I love how they make me smile every time I let the chickens out each morning or lock them up at night.

The main coop

Perhaps the chickens don't notice, but it makes everything feel more festive to me. Why not spread some Christmas cheer to your feathered friends as well this year?

~Tammy

Homemade Living: Personalized Christmas Wreath

Several years ago I bought a big wreath at a church yard sale for only $1. I wasn't sure about it at first because it was just a basic green wreath, but I'm so glad I picked it up because I have used it each year since. It works great as a base to add embellishments to make it my own and add interest. And I can change it up each year, so it's like having a brand new wreath.

I have the ever growing feather collection (especially this time of year when the chickens and guineas are molting) so this year I decided to use feathers to decorate the wreath. My favorites are the spotted guinea feathers, so I used lots of those. I simply tucked each feather into the branches of the wreath in a random arrangement. They stayed pretty well put, so I didn't worry about securing them tighter.

In addition to the guinea feathers, I also filled the wreath in with some chicken feathers for variety and used some of Buttercup's golden and black feathers. It has been over a year since we lost her and I like to use her feathers wherever I can. It's a sweet way to remember my girl.

I'm so glad I shelled out the big bucks to get this wreath! I know I will use it for years to come. Do you hang a wreath on your front door at Christmas?

~Tammy

PS - This will be my last post in the Homemade Living series. I have decided to take a break for the new year, but I have really enjoyed working with the other ladies in the series and will continue to follow their posts. If you have some time, visit Mary and Jackie today to see what they are posting in the series. Thank you for supporting me and the other bloggers in the Homemade Living series!

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Earlier this month I posted my first recipe in the Christmas cookie tag series, and today I'm happy to share another recipe that is a favorite of mine. I first had white chocolate macadamia nut cookies when I was in high school. There was a cookie store in the mall that I would frequent whenever I went shopping, and I first tried these cookies there. It was actually David who got me to try them because they were his favorite cookies. One bite and I was hooked!

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
Recipe from Mauna Loa
Makes 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:
6 T butter, softened
1/3 cup shortening
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 t vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 cups (12 oz pkg) white chocolate chips
1/2 cup macadamia nut pieces

Directions:
1) Heat oven to 350 degrees F. 
2) Beat butter and shortening in large bowl until well blended. Add brown sugar and granulated sugar; beat thoroughly. Add egg and vanilla, beating until well blended. Gradually beat in flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir in chocolate chips and macadamia nuts. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto parchment lined baking sheet.
3) Bake 10-12 minutes or until slightly browned. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

These cookies are so soft and chewy with the perfect amount of sweetness from the chocolate chips and a great crunch from the macadamia nuts. If you've never tried these before, you should bake up a batch right now! I think you'll be hooked from the first bite.

If you'll remember, the fun of this series is that each blogger gets to tag the next person to post her recipe. So my job is to tag Sue from The Little Acre That Could for her cookie recipe tomorrow. Sue, you're it!

~Tammy

Shared with Down Home Blog Hop 

Our 2013 Christmas Card

I really lucked out several months ago when my mother in law forwarded me an email with an incredible deal on Christmas photo cards. I was able to create my card quickly and easily online, but the best part was the price - it was just over $3 for 20 photo cards and envelopes with free shipping! It was awesome to mark one thing off my Christmas to do list so early, and at such a low price.

For the front of the card, I used a favorite photo taken last year during a snowstorm (it's also the new blog header photo). The back of the card was left blank for writing a personal message to the recipient.

Prints of this photo are for sale in my Etsy shop as well.

Use the code "BLOG5" to get $5 off any order over $25!

I was very pleased with how the cards turned out and can't wait to get them all mailed off. Do you create personalized Christmas cards each year?

~Tammy

PS - Here's our 2012 Christmas card.

PPS - Don't forget to visit Daisy, Staci and Sue today for their posts in the Homemade Living series. Next week I will share my post along with Mary and Jackie.

Homemade Living: Hand-Me-Down Christmas Decorating

As soon as Thanksgiving was over, I got to work on my Christmas decorating. I like a really festive, cozy look for the holidays, but don't want to go too over the top. And with our kitten, Gizmo, around this year we can't do too much anyway because he is into everything! My solution for crazy Gizmo was to put as much as possible out of his reach, and place ornaments in bowls instead of hanging them from a tree.

Most of the decorations I like to put out this time of year were passed down to me from my grandma so it's very much a hand-me-down Christmas, which is just the way I like it.

This is on top of the vintage cabinet in the bathroom where Gizmo can't reach! I got the cute elf ornament and vintage ornament beside it from my grandma, and I created a small display with my bottle brush trees and some epsom salt. I also put our little silver tree with red ornaments up here. It's our first tree we ever bought as a married couple and I love putting it out every year.

I placed some red ornaments in an old colander handed down from my grandma, and changed out our glass mannequin head's summer hat for a winter sock cap (we call her Sheila haha). Sheila is kind of an eccentric part of our decor, but I love her! I also placed garland and ornaments on top of the mantle with some ornaments below in my egg bucket. Pinecones inside a picnic basket look so festive, and my cute reindeer from David's grandma completes the scene. This mantle is where our electric fireplace goes, but we took it out when we were installing the new floors and haven't replaced it yet. But I kind of like it empty!

When I was visiting my grandma yesterday we took a trip up to her attic. She has so much stuff she's collected over the years and is trying to give it away, so I always leave her house with a few things to bring home. She gave me this gorgeous quilt that she made herself many years ago when my grandpa had to work late nights. She worked on quilts to give her something to do and keep herself busy. I just love pieces with history behind them - so special! I also brought home some cute vintage ornaments that I strung up on the headboard as a garland. Our "headboard" is actually just two old shutters that David's grandpa was throwing out that we attached horizontally to the wall behind the bed!

My grandma also gave me this ceramic tree a few years back and I love putting it out each Christmas. And last year, she gave us a silver tree with a color wheel! We put that up this year and so far Gizmo hasn't messed with it too much, so I think we'll be able to keep it up. I've caught him just sitting and watching the colors change as the wheel turns. I think he's mesmerized by it!

Have you begun your holiday decorating yet?

~Tammy

This week in the Homemade Living series, I am joined by Mary and Jackie in posting about how we incorporate homemade items into our lives. Next week Daisy, Staci, and Sue will be up. If you have some free time, please check out the other posts in this weekly series!

Christmas Cookie Tag: Hershey Kiss Peanut Butter Blossoms

I'm so excited to share with you my first post in the Christmas Cookie Tag series! These peanut butter blossoms are definitely my all-time favorite cookies to bake during the holidays for several reasons, the main one being nostalgia. Growing up, I would bake these cookies with my mom each year and I always looked forward to it. The whole process was fun, from unwrapping each kiss to rolling the dough and covering it with sugar and finally topping each cookie fresh from the oven with a single kiss.

Hershey Kiss Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies
Recipe from Hershey's
Makes up to 48 cookies

Ingredients:
24-48 Hershey kiss chocolates (I made my cookies big so I only used about 24 kisses)
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 T milk
1 t vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
Additional granulated sugar in a bowl

Directions:
1) Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Beat shortening and peanut butter in a large bowl until blended. Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar, beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk, and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.
2) Roll dough between your hands to shape into 1-inch balls. Roll each ball in granulated sugar, then place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (do not flatten the cookies).
3) Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate kiss candy into the center of each cookie (the cookies will crack around the edges). Remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cookies cool, the kisses are still a bit melted so when you get to the center of each cookie it is heaven. The combination of slightly melted chocolate with the warm crinkly peanut butter cookie is just out of this world. If you've never tried these and you like peanut butter and chocolate, do yourself a favor and bake up a batch tonight. You won't be disappointed!

If you'll remember, the fun of this series is that each blogger gets to tag the next person to post her recipe. So my job is to tag Daisy from Maple Hill 101 for her cookie recipe on Thursday. Daisy, you're it!

~Tammy

Shared with Holiday Cookie Hop, Fill the Cookie Jar, Down Home Blog Hop 

Homemade Living: How To Make Pomanders

Have you ever made pomanders or clove oranges? I've seen them before but never made any myself, so this year I decided to get some oranges and cloves and create some of my own.

It's really easy and straightforward to make your own pomanders. All you do is gather your choice of fruit (you can use oranges, grapefruits, lemons, limes, tangerines, etc) and stud them with whole cloves. You can get creative and make designs on your fruit, or just completely cover them with cloves.

I found that it was helpful to use something to pierce the fruit and create a hole for the cloves before trying to insert them into the oranges (much easier on the fingertips!). I simply used an ink pen, but you can use anything you have on hand to make your pilot holes. This can also help if you are trying to make a design on your fruit so you can line up your cloves in a certain pattern.

You can also tie ribbon around your pomanders and hang them on your Christmas tree, but I chose to just display mine on a platter. The scent of the pomanders is amazing and apparently if you shake your clove studded fruit in a bag of powdered orrisroot (found at health food stores) the fruit will dry evenly and retain its scent for up to a year!

I got my whole cloves at our local health food store in the bulk spices section, so they were really inexpensive. And of course you can find a bag of oranges anywhere, so this is a great frugal way to decorate for the holidays. They also serve as a fabulous all-natural air freshener with no chemicals whatsoever! Every time I walk past the pomanders I get a hint of the scent and it just screams holidays to me. I think I will make these clove oranges for years to come!

~Tammy

This week in the Homemade Living series, I am joined by Mary and Jackie in posting about how we incorporate homemade items into our lives. Next week Daisy, Staci, and Sue will be up. If you have some free time, please check out the other posts in this weekly series!

Merry Christmas

From Baby and everyone else on the homestead, Merry Christmas from our neck of the woods to yours. We are so thankful that you take the time to read this blog of ours and we appreciate each and every one of you.

Happy holidays!

~Tammy and David

Our 2012 Christmas Card

The past few years I didn't send out Christmas cards. I wanted to, but didn't put it on my list so it kept getting pushed aside until it was too late. This year back in November, I heard an ad on the radio for 40% off photo cards. I said to myself, "This is the year." As soon as I got home I started our cards and ordered them right away so I could mark one thing off my list.

I really like how they turned out. I wanted them to be personal, so what better way to do that than to show my favorite photos from the homestead this year. I made sure to include a representative for each animal family (dog, cats, guineas, chickens) and of course had to include a photo of us.

As soon as my grandma received her card, she called me and couldn't stop talking about how much she loved it. When I went to visit her earlier this week, she had the card proudly showcased on her coffee table. I love seeing my card displayed in other people's homes!

Did you send out personalized Christmas cards this year? Or is it still on your list? :)

~Tammy

Trimming The Tree Frugally

This year we continued our tradition of cutting down a Christmas tree from our woods (go here to see last year's tree). We had one evergreen tree in the middle of the back yard that was really out of place so David gave it the ax this year and brought it inside.

Of course it's not a perfect frasier fir, but I think that makes it all the more charming. This year's tree was quite a bit smaller than last year's so that made it easier to handle and decorate.

Last year at a local antique store we found three boxes of old ornaments for only $0.25 per box, so we snatched them up. We like to go with lots of the same ball ornaments on our tree and wanted to switch it up from the red that we normally do, so these were perfect. They were gold originally, but due to their age (maybe 15 years old?) some of the gold had rubbed off and left a nice patina effect.

I wanted to use a different tree skirt this year, too, as our white glittered skirt didn't really fit the theme I was going for. I remembered a couple of burlap bags I bought at the feed store a few months back just because I love burlap sacks and they were only $1.50 each. I tried them out on the base of the tree and decided it was a go. We normally use colorful retro bulb lights on our tree, but I wanted to go with plain white this year. I got a couple boxes of lights for only $2.50 each and strung them up to complete this year's tree.

The cats like to be around the tree (luckily they don't try to pull off the ornaments or lights) and have been smart enough to figure out how to move the burlap bags to get some drinks of the tree's water.

A couple more shots just for fun...

When added all up, the total cost of this year's tree came out to a whopping $8.75! I love a good deal, especially during the holidays.

Do you decorate your tree the same way every year, or do you like to switch it up?

~Tammy

Shared with Handmade Christmas 2013, Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop, Rural Thursday, Repurposed Ideas Weekly, Old Time Party, Lavender Garden Cottage, Barn Hop Holiday Edition, Wildcrafting Wednesday,  Farm Girl Blog Fest

Year In Review

Today marks the one year anniversary of Our Neck of the Woods! I'm really excited and thought it would be fun to look back over the past year and see what all we've accomplished. I was hesitant to start this blog, but my sweet friend Heather gave me the push I needed to put myself out there and I'm so glad she did. I've never been one for attention, so it was hard for me to express myself for the whole world to see. But now I can't imagine NOT doing it. Sharing bits and pieces of rural living through photos and words has become a passion for me and I am so glad I took the plunge one year ago. Here's what we've been up to this past year.

1) Discovered how much we enjoy exploring our woods and feeling like kids again when we discover amazing bugs and critters we've never seen before.

2) Learned more about foraging and went mushroom hunting in our woods for the first time. Figured out how to identify and cook puffballs!

3) Realized that it's important to take time every once in a while to treat yo self.

4) Made the discovery of a lifetime - banana ice cream!

5) Started a new tradition of Christmas tree shopping in our own back yard.

6) Waged a war on ticks with the help of a new flock of guineas.

7) Dealt with the worst heartbreak we'd ever experienced as homesteaders and learned to let our bad experiences strengthen us.

8) Eight new little pullets were added to our flock; one of which turned out to be a rooster!

9) Started a new series on the blog called Feathered Friend Friday.

10) Lots of progress was made with Duchess. She's so playful and happy now!

11) Started a facebook page for the blog and also registered a custom domain name for the blog.

12) For the first time ever, we witnessed eggs hatching and became proud grandparents!

13) Successfully completed the logging process on our 20 acres of woods. Still working on clean up, though!

14) Perhaps my favorite change over the past year - finally upgraded to a new camera!

15) Learned so much about gardening this past year and plan to use what we've learned to help us out with next year's garden.

This past year has been a wild ride. Can't wait to see what the next year brings!

~Tammy

Holidays 2011

We had a great Christmas holiday this year with lots of family and friends. On Christmas Eve, we had lunch at David's grandma's house and we went to my parents' house for dinner. Lots of great gifts at both locations. Thanks again, everyone!

Christmas Eve at my parents' house - 

SyFy loves his grandpa!

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On Christmas day, we started a new tradition - boys and guns at Barani Farm!

The inside spread.

The outside spread.

 

I think they all had a good time!

 

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David's mom was in town from New Mexico for Christmas, so she and David's brother came out to stay with us for a couple days. We watched Crazy Stupid Love, Planet of the Apes, tried to watch The Tree of Life and gave up after 15 minutes, and played a lot of Monopoly Deal!

Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season. Happy New Year!

 

~Tammy