Living Free in Tennessee
Living Free in Tennessee is a podcast done by Nicole Sauce about homesteading, self-reliance, building... View more
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What are some of your firsts?
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What are some of your firsts?
We should celebrate firsts as homesteaders: First baby chicks, first canned pickles, first garden bed installed, etc.
So often, new homesteaders are trying to measure themselves against people who have been doing this for decades and it can feel overwhelming.
Forget that – let’s be PROUD of our firsts – drop a comment or photo showing me one of your firsts!!
Let me start: This is a photo of my first fire this year. It ended up getting WAY TOO HOT and I had to cool down the house on a below freezing night, wasting wood in the process. But hey, I got the fire started. I had heat. And I relearned my annual “How to Heat With Wood” lesson. 😀
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39 Replies
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Beautiful!
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Mechanical first is about to commence – replacing the front suspension on my e450 diesel bus. Whudathunk I would become a grease monkey when I decided I needed to know how to change the oil on my motorcycle 20 years ago? Now I do almost all my own mechanic work & it is so frigging empowering to know I can do it.
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MAN – we need to talk about this next time we are in person!
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There is not enough hours in the day for all the conversations we want to have. I am sorry I didn’t see this earlier. NEXT TIME! right?
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I’m always learning something new, raising my first chickens, I’ve had them for about a month and a half now. This week’s first, pickled califlower and canned pork which is the first time I’ve canned meat
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Were you surprised how easy it is to can meat?
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no, not really, Alaska prepper has a great video on canning meat with the instant pot max, and it turned out really well just like he said. In the past we didn’t have a reason to can a freezer full of meat, now we do. I’m working on it. I like making my own convienience food, it tastes amazing, it’s healthy and your food dollar goes much further. I have known how to make my own bread for quite some time, still bought bread at the store, till the dollar tree raised their prices. I knew that day would come and planned on making all my own bread when it did. That’s how my mind works,cause I prep like a gypsy lol
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I prefer to use pressure canners that are designed for canning like the Presto or Nesco. The Presto is the GOLD standard and it has a gold standard price :D. I use the Nesco right now. One day….
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I can mini batches, 4 pints at a time, which is perfect for me but I have heard the presto is very good
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First year growing tomatillos:
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What did you make with them?
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I froze them. Will probably use them in salsa, but I they all got ripe when I was busy with other projects. I have a big salsa canning session coming up some time in the next few weeks.
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I am Jelly – this was not a good salsa year here
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My friend who gave me the plants has been experimenting with using tomatillos in pie. She’s made raspberry/tomatillo and Italian plum/tomatillo and both were fabulous.
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We had a bad tomatillo year as well in IL. I usually make roasted tomatillo salsa since it is quick and easy. Almost everything goes under the broiler( tomatillos, onions, garlic, peppers). Once skins are charring it goes into the blender with the cilantro and lime juice. You are good to go from there.
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This year my big “firsts” are chickens, worms and raised beds. So many little firsts come along with these like first pickles, first homesteading festival and first time saving an egg-bound chicken. Every single one a blessing.
Thank you, Nicole, for this thread.
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Very cool – I have NEVER saved an egg bound hen. Did you give her a nice soak?
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Yep. I’ve had to do it a couple of times now. My protocol:
-bring to isolation crate (in my garage)
-feed/water and oyster shells to assess where they are and give them some energy & calcium that helps with contractions (if they are accepting)
-soak in warm tub w/ epson salts for a few minutes (goal is 15 but I haven’t made it past 7). Make sure their vent is under the water.
– pull out, dry off, etc
-leave them in the half covered crate for abt an hour
– if they haven’t laid, the next steps involve KY jelly…
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I have a pic I can’t get to with an Isa brown soaking unenthusiastically in an enamel spatterware giant pot that just fit in my sink. This year was the first year for a garden journal. It really helped organize my brain
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This is my first year that I will be attending Rogue Food Conference in December!!!
I have also planted a large plot of strawberries for next spring. I will have my first asparagus next spring too:)
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Sounds fun -I hope you enjoy Rogue! I will miss it this year because they scheduled it exactly when i will be singing The Messiah 😀
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My first this year was to do all my own starts. 6 varieties of tomato, 7 pepper and 6 egg plant. As well as many different herbs. It was very rewarding and allowed me to grow much better varieties that actually taste good. I am already organizing to increase my output to do a bit of yard sales this spring.
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Congrats – that is no small feat or first
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We had 2 firsts this year.
1. First guard goose (Waffles) for the chickens.
2. My daughter shot her first real rifle.
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Which one is the better defender? 😀
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We all know women are better shots Nicole. 🤣
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I am drying my first picking of golden rod to make tinature or tea. There are so many health benefits to this amazing plant.
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It is an amazing plant!
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FIRST time canning our harvest instead of relying on electricity/freezer
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This reply was modified 2 years ago by TheFarmYard.
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Sweet – Chicken is very easy to can once you do it – you going with bone in?
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This reply was modified 2 years ago by
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I did some of both👩🏻🌾waiting for it to cool down right now! Thanks for asking
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A few firsts for this year … but for context I’d like to say this is our 17th year of having a garden. 🙂
I experimented with growing black beans so I’ll have a better idea of how much to plant next year. That’s a quart from 39 plants … keeping in mind that it was a very rough year for beans here in general. My youngest son used to grow them, but I never have … next year I plan on planting a full row [50ft].
My son-in-law grows our potatoes, however I wanted to grow a few here, too. I planted 5 of his purple potatoes from last year and harvested 9 lbs from that. I planted 20 of his Peruvian Pinto Gold and got 78 lbs from that. I turned back around and replanted 20 of the Pinto Golds for a second harvest of 10 lbs. I will not do a second harvest next year … will save that spot for another green bean planting instead. I pressure can my potatoes in cubes … skin on but scrubbed well.
And another new-to-me thing is I got a large freeze dryer last March. I’ve been so thankful for it!! Lots of my raspberries went in there, and all of my zucchini [45lbs, mostly shredded]. Also most of my tomatoes and that became tomato powder. My herbs, too … freeze dried herbs are really close to fresh!!!! Very excited about that. Other fresh produce went in there, too … but now I’m focusing on cooked individual items and also complete meals for homemade “MRE”.
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That is a blessed harvest, hard work pays off.
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We all enjoy gardening, so that helps 😉
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And working together, my husband does not help me just saying that is to mutch work. Just made the first 20 m from the first bed, planted 1 kg garlic. Husband sad that is grazy doing all that work by hand, you need machinery. I sad well thank you, just over a year still can not use the weelhoe remember. He sad I am to busy and have a lot on my mind.
Anyway just do not wait anymore and do it myself by hand, just get it done and let them all talk.
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Amen sister friend! We are doin’ it! Husband is first in line for being a critic and last in line for help.
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You are so right, but that will not stop us.
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Wow there are a lot of very cool firsts that folks should be proud of themselves! This is the first time trying luffa, Illinois Squash and Gete Okosomin squash. Produced some big squash. Still peeling & processing luffa. When the weather got dry I let them go nuts through the caged up tomatoes rather than training them. It worked. Produced a bit of a microclimate that protected them and kept the soil moisture. Looking forward to trying different squash recipes
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