Thursday, December 29

Butchering the Hog

Our son, Xander, loves the farm life! I'm sure you'll see him many times over the course of our journey here at Homeschool On the Range. If you love his work, click on the Xander tag at the bottom of this post to find more!

Wintertime is when you want to butcher your hog. This is because it gets hot and stinky. First you have to kill the hog quickly. My dad did that. Then we used the tractor to hang it so we could start the process. We skinned it because that makes it easier. He was really happy when we were able to start working in the garage where it wasn't as windy.

We had to use a hacksaw and it was a lot of hard work. It took a lot longer than we thought it was going to, but then we put the pieces in the fridge to rest for a little while. Then we put some in the freezer and kept out a little bit for the weekend. It was really tasty! If you can get a hog, you should definitely because it is better than the stuff at the store.

Tuesday, December 27

Word of the Year 2023 - Self-Sufficient

Each year, we choose a Word of the Year...something to focus on energies on for the upcoming year. It's akin to the New Year Resolution, but less of an actual task than a change in mindset. For 2023, we selected Self-Sufficiency. While this is something we've been working on for a while, we've decided it's time to put just a little more energy into this goal...

Previous words of the year include:

You can visit each of these to pick up resources and ideas for incorporating those principles and goals into your home.

Homestead Skills

Good planning is essential to a successful vegetable garden. Vegetables have specific requirements, and you must choose your site carefully to ensure a bountiful harvest. Get to Planning Your Productive Home Garden, and follow the basics.

Want to take it a step further, or spruce up your front yard? In Raised Beds & Pallet Planters, you'll get step-by-step instructions for unique planters!

Canning, freezing, and drying -- do you know which is best for each food? Learn to put up your harvest (or bulk buys) in Home Preservation Basics.

At one time, most children learned Basic Outdoor Skills, but now we have to seek opportunities for teaching them. Don't let another year go by without incorporating these simple tasks into your homeschool.

Whether you have a hobby-homestead, are a frugal momma, or just spent a lot of time with the 'Greatest Generation,' re-purposing is a simple fact of life. Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without! These Repurposing Ideas for the Homestead will help you to save money, do a little recycling, and even bring a personal flair to your home!

Immunity is affected by daily habits, lifestyle choices, and exposure to toxins. Your immune system doesn't just help prevent you from catching colds, but also prevents against things like cancer. Maintaining a healthy immune system should be top priority all year long, not just during cold and flu season...learn more in Immune Boosting Herbs.

Animals, outbuildings, pipes...all of these things need tending to and don't just wait for better weather. But be smart about it and follow these tips from Winter Safety on the Homestead. All I can say is, on cold winter days, I'm so glad we don't homestead closer to the Arctic!

Unit Studies (not just for kids!)

In the Farming & Ranching for Teens curriculum, we've pulled together books, videos, and hands-on projects covering both animal husbandry and agriculture. We start out by covering the difference between farming and ranching and how the work of these folks affects you everyday, such as in the grocery store.

The My Side of the Mountain novel study features Sam, runs away to the wilderness to escape his family. He is tested and discovers strength and self-confidence. Today, the Boy Scouts teach survival skills in their Wilderness Survival badge.

Herb studies combine both science and life skills. In The Secret Garden novel study, students learn to start and maintain an herb garden, as well as the uses for each plant.

In the Willa and the Wood novel study, you and your students will learn about foraging for plants and basic herb uses.

Download and print the Farming Book List to incorporate agricultural wisdom into your homeschool. This list includes both fiction and non-fiction books.

Recently, there has been a rise in the popularity of survival-based books for children. Our boys were definitely drawn to these more rough and tumble types of books, but they're not just for boys. Here are some of the Best Kids' Books About Survival.

Eat In Tonight

It may take some adjustments in your shopping and cooking habits, but eating real food (and not nuking it in the microwave) is so much healthier for you! Your body will appreciate the difference, and after a little bit your mood will improve as you begin to feel more energized.

We use the crockpot to throw together dinners quickly at night. A bit of prep work, toss it in the pot in the morning, and it's ready to go in the evening! We also do freezer cooking, so that healthy homemade meals are possible when time is short. It takes a day of prep (or sometimes, a few hours here and there spread over several days), but is so very worth it. Does that mean we never eat out or grab something fast? Nope. Everything in moderation....

A Slow-Cooked Year
This book includes : the whats and whys behind crockpot cooking, how-to tips and tricks, safe crockpot guidelines, printable planning sheets, and more than thirty seasonally-appropriate, kid-friendly recipes!

Another Year of Freezer Cooking
For anyone who wants to get a leg up on getting healthy meals on the family table, without much fuss...this book includes : the whats and whys behind freezer cooking how-to tips and tricks pantry freezing guidelines, printable planning sheets more than thirty seasonally-appropriate, kid-friendly recipes!

Courses & Resources

I cannot say enough about the Homestead Education curriculum! Introduction to Homestead Science covers the art and science of homesteading in a full year science curriculum. There is daily reading and vocabulary, additional research projects, hands on projects both short and long term, and applied mathematics. Being an introductory course, there are some topics that are covered more in depth than others.

Peek through the photos here and you'll see that it is multi-modal and incorporates all the subjects!! My son is using it this year, but mom is learning alongside him as well. There's always something new to learn in the homestead life. There's a curriculum for Little Learners as well (preschool / elementary). Use code RANGE10 to save an extra 10%!

One of our favorite courses at SchoolhouseTeachers is the Homesteading course! If you’ve ever wanted to ditch the chemicals in your household cleaners, can what you grow or purchase at a farmer’s market, make your own gifts and candles, or learn how to do things the natural way, you need to see the Homesteading class.

This ongoing course shares tips and detailed instructions that can enable you and your family to live more simply and naturally. Printables and some how-to videos are included with these weekly lessons...and it's all included with the 350+ other courses offered at SchoolhouseTeachers.com.

Pick up the Homemaking & Homesteading Bundle in our Cottage Shoppe!

The bundle includes twenty-four tutorials with background information for anyone who is interested in homemaking and homesteading. Topics are broken down into:

In the Kitchen – Fall & Winter
In the Kitchen – Spring & Summer
Around the Homestead – Inside
Around the Homestead – Outside

The Permaculture Student includes:

Private Community Facebook Group for Students
Unlimited Access to the Video Library
Includes eBook versions of The Permaculture Student 1 textbook & workbook
Hands-On Projects with Step-by-Step Directions & Video
Open & self-paced course. Start anytime, take your time & enjoy the design!
What you will learn:

Permaculture Design - homes, landscapes, society, businesses & more
Pattern Literacy
Reading the Landscape
Seed-to-Table Cooking
Earthworks
Seed Saving
Composting, Compost Tea, & Extract!
Food Preservation & Storage

DIY - Do It Yourself

Instead of getting desperate and spraying on commercial bug sprays, consider a better alternative... a Homemade Bug Repellant that smells wonderful, is effective, and takes only minutes to whip up!

For the price of one bottle of elderberry syrup at the store, you could make ten to fifteen times that amount at home! Homemade Elderberry Syrup is super easy, and anyone can make it.

Organic pecan butter is one of my favorite treats. It's also $18 per teeny-tiny jar. I love to eat well, but I'm also cheap, so here is our recipe for Homemade Pecan Butter.

Making Homemade Mustard is simple and easy. When making your own mustard, you can tailor it to your family's tastes, making it milder or spicier, and add herbs and spices to mix it up.

Another cost-cutting DIY is Homemade Fire Cider & Kombucha! Get all the benefits for a fraction of the price.

Working out in the heat of summer can take its toll on your body! Learn how to make Homemade Electrolyte Drinks, and skip the chemicals. (As an aside, I've also had friends and family use the replenishment drink as part of colonoscopy prep, with good results.)

What's your family's word of the year? We want to know!

Make this year YOUR year! This reusable calendar features monthly at-a-glance pages and weekly pages with space for notes and planning. Each week also has a habit tracker grid to help keep the momentum going with your new habits! Just print and reuse each year for your planner.

Monday, December 5

Sweet Taste of the {Moravian} Holiday Season

Old Salem celebrates Christmas the same way the Moravians did over two hundred years ago, with creches, candles, carols, and the lovefeast...

The Moravians were a religious group that left Moravia (present-day Czechoslovakia) and settled in Germany, then started sending missionaries to the New World in the mid-1700s. They came first to Georgia, but ended up in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Old Salem, founded in 1766, became a trade center where Moravian craftspeople sold their wares.

Christmastime today is still marked by the traditional lovefeast, with coffee and buns, singing and prayer. At the end of the love feast, everyone has met and broken bread together to symbolize the brotherhood and unity of man. The wrapped candles symbolize the light of God shining in the darkness. While these cookies aren't technically a part of the lovefeast ritual, they are most certainly a taste of Christmas that you will quickly grow to cherish!

Spiced Moravian Cookies

Ingredients

1 qt molasses
3/4 lb shortening
3/4 lb light brown sugar
3 Tbsp cinnamon
3 Tbsp cloves
2 Tbsp ginger
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp allspice
3 Tbsp baking soda
5 lb flour

Directions

Heat molasses, sugar, and shortening on medium until dissolves together. Stir continuously. Do not boil!
Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm.
Sift spices and baking soda to remove lumps, then stir into molasses mixture. (Foam may occur; this is ok) Let mixture cool.
Add flour into mixture a bit at a time, thoroughly mixing. Cover and store dough overnight in refrigerator.
Flour a hard surface. Turn out dough and knead until it is shiny and smooth.
Heat oven to 225 F.
Pull off a small piece of dough and roll with a rolling pin until it is so thin you can see through it. Cut with cookie cutter, if desired.
Place onto greased cookie sheet. Repeat with all the dough. Bake 8-10 min.

Love Feast Resources

Take a virtual tour of Old Salem and pick up another fantastic recipe - for Sugar Cake!
Outline to host your own Love Feast
Make Lovefeast Buns
Craft your own Lovefeast Candles
An Old Salem Christmas, 1840
The Old Magic of Christmas
Learn about the Moravian faith
Hang the Christmas Star
Buy the cookies (rather than bake)

Tuesday, November 15

Spread Cheer with these Frugal Homemade Christmas Gifts

I don't know about you, but with the way the economy is headed south right now, we've been tightening our belts every place possible. This year, that will include gift-giving as well. But at the same time, we have so many people that we love, and we want to spread cheer! We want to continue with our RACK program (Random Acts of Christmas Kindness)...and so we set off looking for some ways to create handmade gifts for the majority of our presents this year...

If you are truly trying to cut down, pick only one or two things from this list, and get the supplies in bulk. If you just like making crafts and / or have lots of different supplies on hand, the more ideas, the merrier!

Not sure what to make? One idea is to make a couple of several items and offer a "choice box," where people can look through and pick one item. This way they will get something they will actually use, and you'll get a better idea of what your circle of family and friends would really like in the future (then you can go back to bulk supply purchases). Try to keep items useful, or you'll spend time on things that get trashed or donated.

Kitchen Crafts

Fabric items are a hit, whether seasonal or not.

You can make tie-dye dish towels in the color scheme of your recipient's kitchen, or go with traditional red and green.
Paint some hand towels with fabric paint - use seasonal or classic kitchen designs.
Bowl cozies are nice for warming soups in a bowl in the microwave and not burning yourself.

A few notes:

You can pick up plain towels in bulk to start this project.
If you're planning to make anything that will go in the microwave, be sure to use 100% cotton.

Using cotton and beeswax, it only takes a little bit to put together homemade beeswax food wraps for a fraction of the cost.
Know how to embroider? Why not create some personalized grilling aprons?
Heading to a party? Bring a bottle in these cute, seasonal homemade wine bags using old blue jeans.
If you're handy with a woodburner, create some personalized wooden spoons and spatulas, then add in a potholder and / or cookie mix.
You could also design a recipe box and put in your favorite recipes!

Foodie Gifts

When it comes to homemade treats, the list is endless! Pick up baskets from your local thrift store if you want to gift multiple items to someone, or just dress up small jars with a bit of ribbon or twine!. The book series Gifts in a Jar has fantastic ideas for getting you started!

Some ideas include:

Self-Care Gifts

Essential oils plus some basic kitchen supplies can go a long way! There are MANY different kinds and brands of essential oils to choose from, but outside of the MLM brands, this is one that our family has had good experiences using.

All of the below suggestions can be dressed up using small jars and a bit of ribbon or twine!

Mix them with coarse sugar crystals and hand soap for a sugar scrub.
Combine them with a coarse sea salt for bath salts.
Put a few drops into some homemade lotion - made by mixing vaseline, baby lotion, and vitamin E.

Reusable necessities are earth-friendly and chemical-free...for the young women in your life.
Grab some kitchsy socks and create rice heating pads. This is also good for using up cute (clean) mismatched socks from the laundry room.
Using bulk elderberries, whip up several bottles of elderberry syrup for a seasonal immune booster.

House & Home Crafts

Using a simple recipe, you can make cute Christmas shaped bird seed ornaments. They hang outdoors like an ornament, and the birds can enjoy them.
Here's a simple tutorial video set for using air-dry clay to make a nativity scene!
Using colored sharpies and / or paints, kids can make personalized doodle magnets.
Grab some super-cheap paintbrushes to make a Santa Claus decoration they'll love!
One unique gift idea - that keeps on giving - is the "Open When" envelope series. This includes things such as, "Open when you're going on a road trip"- with a prayer for safe travel, added some gum, and a gas gift card, or "Open when it's snowing!" with a packet of hot chocolate and paper snowflakes. Here are 150 ideas for what to put inside your envelopes.

Holiday Schooling & Home Economics

The holidays are a great time to get a lesson in on Budgeting and Shopping with a Budget!
When the holidays arrive, it's so tempting to completely put school aside...but one does not preclude the other! Here are some fun ways to include science in your Christmas school.
Part of Celebrating Holidays through Literature, here is the entire Christmas Book List for all ages, from board books to adult reads.
Do you sew? Do you have a child who would like to learn? Check out the free patterns from 5 out of 4, perfect for beginners or intermediate sewers, plus tons of free tutorials.
Homeschool through the holidays with this holiday bundle that includes three full-length history-based holiday unit studies plus several extra crafts and activities!

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Monday, November 14

Studying Old English with J.R.R. Tolkien

“Remember what punishments befell us in this world when we ourselves did not cherish learning nor transmit it to other men.”
~ King Alfred the Great

“No language is justly studied merely as an aid to other purposes. It will in fact better serve other purposes, philological or historical, when it is studied for love, for itself.”
~ J.R.R. Tolkien

Old English, or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th century, and spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. The Norman conquest of 1066 is regarded as marking the end of the Old English era, since during this period the English language was heavily influenced by Anglo-Norman, developing into a phase known now as Middle English.

Why Learn Old English?

Historic reference -- When you're reading an old manuscript or looking at historic documents, it helps to be able to understand what is written. Being able to understand these historic texts can also provide better historic context of this age.
Language acquisition -- Whether you're wanting to better understand modern English, or learn a completely different language, the study of Old English helps you to see and comprehend the linguistic roots. You can then apply this methodology to learning other languages for better mastery.
Love of Tolkien -- This is why our son chose this elective in the first place, and there's some truth to it. He loves all things Tolkien, and was inspired to study the author and his methods BECAUSE he also wants to be a writer, create new worlds, and inspire others in the future. We study the ones we admire.
Individuality -- The language is kind of quirky. The Old English alphabet includes three characters no longer used in Modern English: ð (eth/edh), þ (thorn), and æ (ash/aesc). The poetry is full of kennings (conventional figurative phrases), like whale road = sea, world’s candle = sun, and ring-giver = king.

Evolution of Old English

Is Old English a dead language? Not as much as you'd think. Many of its words still exist, albeit in a different form:

Old English: Blōd Modern English: Blood
Old English: Consul Modern English: Consul
Old English: Flyht Modern English: Flight
Old English: Hunta Modern English: Hunter
Old English: Panne Modern English: Pan
Old English: Wæter Modern English: Water

Similar to classical Latin - which evolved into the romance languages (Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian) - Old English went through many evolutions before becoming what we think of as English today. Much of our core vocabulary derives from Old English, though many have altered spellings from their original form. But did you know that most of our 'silent letters' (like the k in knight or the b in numb) also come from this earlier form of the language?

During the Anglo-Saxon period of England, Viking invasions helped to usher in the Old Norse language. This new system relied heavily on word order to determine a sentence's meaning, whereas the Anglo-Saxon language used case structure to determine meaning (so the words could go in a variety of order, similar to classical Latin). This was an early change to Old English.

With the Norman conquest, in 1066, the language changed even further. Many French words were incorporated into the language, and other words dropped out of use. With further conquests by Germanic tribes, the language shifted even further over the next millennium, eventually evolving into the modern English we use today. What do you think it will sound like five hundred years from now??

It is important to recognize that the loss of the case system, right around the turn of the second millennia, makes it necessary to approach Old English today as a foreign language. However, similar to studying classical Latin, there are no native speakers to consult for pronunciation and grammatical difficulties. Our knowledge of Old English will always be incomplete, but this is one of the things that make it such a fascinating field of study!

The unit study below focuses specifically on Beowulf. Download the ENTIRE, year-long curriculum plan for the Old English course here!

Read

Beowulf

J.R.R. Tolkien completed his translation of Beowulf in 1926: he returned to it later to make hasty corrections, but seems never to have considered its publication. This edition includes an illuminating written commentary on the poem by the translator himself, drawn from a series of lectures he gave at Oxford in the 1930s.

Download the ENTIRE CURRICULUM PLAN for the Old English course here. (The full-year plan covers Old English grammar, vocabulary, Tolkien's etymology, archetypes, movie connections, comprehension, and more!)

Watch

Make / Do

Having trouble understanding the text? Check out this site for layman's descriptions of each scene.
Complete the comprehension questions as you read.
What makes someone a monster? Write a poem titled "The Beowulf in Me" or "The Grendel in Me." (Or perhaps write about your duality.) Be specific.
Write a resumé for Beowulf. Include name, origin, height, weight, experience, skills, position applied for, etc. Avoid anachronisms.
Write an original episode for Beowulf. Create some new foe for him to fight. Try to follow the Anglo-Saxon style.

Vocabulary

resolute
vehemently
infallible
furled
lavish
assail
extolled
apid
mead
reparation
solace
prow
shroud
vex
reprisal
scabbard
scop
kenning
alliteration
caesura
Celts
Anglo-Saxon
Pagan

Think

How do works like the Bible and Beowulf determine our definitions of the nature of good and evil?
What kind of a society did the characters of Beowulf live in? What did they value, and what was the role of women, represented here by Hildeburh, during the Anglo-Saxon period?

Tuesday, November 8

Killers of the Flower Moon + History of Oil & Gas

At the end of the nineteenth century, the Osage Indians were driven onto a presumed worthless expanse of land in northeastern Oklahoma, but their territory turned out to be on top of one of the largest oil deposits in the United States. To obtain that oil, prospectors were required to pay the tribe for leases and royalties. By the 1920s, the members of Osage Nation had become the wealthiest people per capita in the world! And then the Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances...

Did you know that the first oil was discovered by the Chinese in 600 B.C. and transported in pipelines made from bamboo? It wasn't until 1859, however, and the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania that oil set the stage for a new world economy. With the advent of the automobile in the early 20th century, the demand for oil increased exponentially! By the end of the 1910s, gasoline had proven itself (through World War I) as both a critical energy source and an important military asset.

Most people think of Texas and Oklahoma when they think of oil in the US, but the first oil companies and derricks were in and around Titusville, PA back in the mid to late 1800s. Here's a little bit about how the history of oil unfolded...

August 27, 1859 – First oil well drilled in Titusville, PA by Edwin Drake of the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company
1866 – Oil production begins in Oil Springs, Texas
1867 – Rockefeller forms the Standard Oil Company, and becomes the industry’s first “baron." By 1879, Standard Oil controlled not only 90% of America’s refining capacity, but also its pipelines and gathering systems. (While Rockefeller was building his U.S. empire, the Nobel and Rothschild families were competing for control of production and refining of Russia’s oil riches.)
1870 – Kerosene has replaced whale oil as the dominant fuel for illumination, bringing an end to the era of whale oil.
1894 – First significant Texas oil field developed near Corsicana and would eventually build the first modern refinery in Texas.
January 10, 1901 – Spindletop Geyser - This discovery near Beaumont, Texas would set off the oil industry boom in Texas. More than 1500 oil companies would be formed within a year of the Spindletop geyser.
1911 – US Supreme Court ordered the Standard Oil Trust to break apart. That monopoly becomes thirty-four separate companies. Today, three companies—ExxonMobil, Shell, and BP—are considered the original “supermajors.”
1930s – Gulf Oil, BP, Texaco, and Chevron were involved in concessions that made major discoveries in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Libya.
1960 – OPEC formed in Baghdad, Iraq for the purpose of negotiating with IOCs on matters of oil production, oil prices, and future concession rights. (Today, members of OPEC are Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. Saudi Arabia has the majority of OPEC reserves, followed closely by Iran and Venezuela.)
1973-74 - Arab oil embargo; US gas crisis
1980s – Oil glut sends the price of oil from $35 a barrel to below $10
1989 – Exxon Valdez oil spill
1990 – Gulf War
1997 – Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) proliferates.
The 2000s – Oil prices spike. The price of oil continues to climb above $65 in 2005 and eventually hits a high of $147.30 in 2008.
2010 – BP Horizon oil spill
2022 - Oil prices spike amid global pandemic and Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Osage Indian Murders

So what does the history of oil and gas have to do with the Osage Indians? This Native American tribe happened to be in the wrong place at the right time...so to speak. During the 1910s-1930s, there was a "reign of terror" in Osage County, Oklahoma. More than sixty natives were killed, but investigators suspect there there were many more suspicious deaths that were misreported or covered up during this time, too. We may never know how many wealthy Osage, and their heirs, were killed.

The reason so many murders were occurring was because the natives owned land that was producing oil. Since they owned the land, they owned the rights, and received the royalties, for that oil. Greed is the root cause of many evils, and this series of murders was the result of greed, largely from William Hale, who even ordered the murders of his nephew's wife and other members of his wife's family, to gain control of their oil rights!

When the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) came to Oklahoma to see what was going on, they discovered that many local law officials were corrupt, and some had even been involved with the murders. The government changed laws and took over managing the money that came from oil produced in this land, but nearly eighty years later, the Osage tribe filed a lawsuit saying that money had not been paid to their people the right way. (The lawsuit was settled for nearly $380 million.) The Osage murders were a tragic chapter in the history of this nation, and contributed to the birth and growth of the FBI.