30 days all things Maple Valley Farm - Day 9

Our big old barn is patiently awaiting spring!

30 days all things Maple Valley Farm - Day 8

sleeping babes in various corners of the farmhouse...

The makings of winter soup with homemade noodles on the wood cook stove...

Nothing can seem more comforting on a cold winter day than a hot bowl of soup with homemade noodles!  I started making these easy noodles a few years ago and now after the family loves the taste as well as myself, we cannot go back to store bought noodles.  These noodles are easy to make, inexpensive, healthy and preservative free!

I adapted this recipe from The Encyclopedia of Country Living and an online recipe to make our own recipe.  You can always add an extra egg and then more flour to get your consistency just right...

 Maple Valley Farm Whole Wheat Noodles: 
1 1/2 Cups organic whole wheat flour
1 1/2 Cups unbleached white flour
1/2 tsp. unrefined pink salt or any unrefined salt
2 tsp. olive oil
4 farm fresh eggs


Mix the above dry ingredients together well.  Now add 2 tsp. olive oil.  Mix well to make the dough wet.  Slowly add the eggs, 1 at a time to form a stiff dough.  Knead the dough until very stiff on a floured board.  Be sure to wear an apron.  (I created this one from scraps of vintage materials) When dough has reached the desired consistency cover air tight for about a half hour and let the dough "relax" a bit

Now, section the dough into smaller pieces and then roll out with a rolling pin and put through a noodle press to flatten to desired consistency.  We purchased our noodle press at a tag sale in Leelanau while at our cottage -$6-.  If you do not have a pasta maker/noodle press, simply roll out your dough and cut into the sizes you would like.

Now put your flattened noodle dough through the noodle press

separate and then hang your fresh noodles (try not to steal a taste of the great dough) on hangers and place up high to dry...

Noodles can be dropped into boiling water or broth after 15 minutes of drying time.  Cook them for about 4 minutes or when noodles rise to the top of the pot, they are ready. 

Now, this week we butchered our own hog and made it into sausage and more.  Here is where I am making a hot stock pot of winter soup.  Cook your homemade sausage thoroughly first.

 Saute some fresh vegetables, like carrots, celery, garlic, onions and herbs in butter.  Add some fresh creme to your stock (we added all of this to our pork stock).  Simmer well...  Now add your fresh noodles to the broth for about 4 minutes...

 And here is the finished hearth winter soup from Maple Valley Farms...  I heard no complaints as everyone was scarfing it down. Enjoy!   

What are you having for supper tonight?  Do tell...

Run to your local high-end magazine store in your neck of the woods!

And pick up a copy of the magazine

"Where Women Cook", featuring Anne Marie of Nada Farm - listed on the cover.

10 delightful color pages all about her beautiful family, life and farm!

I cannot wait to try her pizza recipe in our wood fired cook stove, looks delicious!  I can almost smell it from here...

30 days all things Maple Valley Farm - Day 7

Morning routine before school...  A very special thank you to my friend Renata from Australia for the pretty cup!  I have been enjoying my tea in it every morning.

30 days all things Maple Valley Farm -Day 6

A day of fellowship at church...

30 days all things Maple Valley Farms - Day 5

Sunny Saturday afternoons...

30 days all things Maple Valley Farm - day 4

Waking up to beautiful falling snow on our barn in rural Michigan...

30 Days all things Maple Valley Farm - Day 3

Early morning tea-time with a precious 2 year old while all of the others were sleeping.  We prayed, we laughed and we sang a little bit...

30 days of all things Maple Valley Farm - Day 2

Getting down and playing with the toddlers... Here our 2 year-old is giving mommy a hair style and makeup

30 days of all things Maple Valley Farm - Day 1

Little entomologists in the making...

Will the real conservatives please stand up?

"Always vote for truth, though you may vote alone, you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost because you honored your Heavenly Father..."

- John Quincy Adams and Angela Kuncatis-

Voddie Baucham said it best:

“I stand with Jesus! I’ll dump a political party in a heartbeat. I am sick and tired of watching leading Evangelicals compromise in order to prevent the earth from turning to dust if the wrong guy is elected. Where’s our faith? We ought to speak God’s truth and let the chips fall where they may. We must bow to no man. If the Republicans or Mr. Obama do not want Evangelicals to say things that may hurt them in the polls, they ought to speak and act like the Christians they both claim to be. Instead, they know that their constituencies within the Christian community (black liberals for Obama and white Evangelicals for McCain***written at the last election but it still holds completely true) will not speak too loudly when they get out of line because both groups are more concerned with winning than with truth".

"I refuse to believe that following a party like sheep is the answer to our problems. We must maintain our prophetic voice, and that voice must be consistently Scriptural. I don’t have all of the answers. I’m just trying to wrestle with the questions as honestly as I can..." Voddie Baucham

 Maple Valley Farm is standing...

Home and life learning here at Maple Valley Farm...

I wrote this as well in 2007 - all rights reserved-  This is the "milk" of our homeschooling.  Read the meat of our homeschooling here first, as this is most important.  You do need meat and milk to grow.

one of our son's creations, a coat rack carved from sassafras trees in his spare time...

age 10

And, this article is still true.  We have 1 home school graduate now that is employed as a full-time C.N.A. at a large hospital here in Michigan.  She took some of the courses at 17 and passed the state boards at just 18. Homeschooling works! However, we do not measure her success because she is on top of her game in the work world.  We are also Happy to report that she is serving the Lord as well which what pleases us most.

I receive emails about "what books do you use" for school. I am an eclectic type of literature based teaching. I believe we have over 400+ living books here... I just purchased about 75 living books from an awesome home school garage sale, as well as a great microscope and some other neat things... I purchase a lot of our books at used book sales (library or charity), garage sales and home school book sales.  We have a large library.  A home library saves $ actually if you realize that you save trips to the library and library fines.   A home library also helps to keep some questionable books out of the hands of young children.  The books can be used for years to come.  I highly encourage developing a home library.  After any one in the family has read the book, we sign our name in the front cover and the date so we can remember.  Through the years this is precious to look back on and see our children's names at different ages and how they sweetly learned to write.

I have really found what "works" for the younger one's now because the older ones helped me figure out what they liked best when it came to school.  Another way to put this is that the older ones are the Guinea pigs :). Thanks guys! We have thrown out or sold lots of types of curriculum that never worked for us. It is very important with homeschooling to approach it with an open mind. Even though you spent all that money on the "latest and greatest curriculum", (buyer beware) guess what, IT MIGHT NOT WORK for your child, you need to be willing to move on. That is OK! Don't beat yourself about it...

Math-U-See is a great fit for our family and we love it! We tried Saxon and bombed big time... I think we will continue MUS until graduation, "we'll see"... Thanks Steve!

We use the cards only for phonics from School of Tomorrow... The rest of their stuff was not a good fit for our family but I did keep the phonics cards and we incorporate Alpha-Phonics as well as Explode the Code all the way up to 6th grade or earlier if they finish... Then we jump to Wordly Wise. We start with phonics around 5 1/2... One child was ready at 4, some were not ready until age 6. We then start with BOB Books and jump to the Educator's Publishing Service Primary Phonics Readers. (all sets) Then we go to Rod and Staff Publisher's (an Amish publisher, GREAT BOOKS) "God is Good Series" and end with their Pathway Readers before jumping to intermediate chapter books. By now the children should be well on their way with reading. They read aloud to me daily until about 5th grade and then I hear them weekly.

We use Spelling Power from 2nd grade and up. We just love this program and our 8th grader this year will be finished with this book by Christmas. This program is 1st - 12th grade a really great value for this many years of spelling.

We do not even attempt grammar until 7th grade here. Why you may ask? I have found that the children just "get it" when they reach 7th grade. It comes so easy to them at this age, why try to re-invent the wheel in their younger brains. It works well for our family this way. Here is our one grammar book (a high school text I believe) it will serve all of our family's needs, Easy Grammar Plus for grammar entirely throughout their school career. UPDATE 2012:  I will be incorporating a research-term paper this year for our 8th and 10th grader to do at the local library

We use various book lists from Sonlight, Elizabeth Wilson's "Books Children Love" and "Honey for a Child's Heart" for our read-aloud time. Lamplighter books (we have 90% of the entire series, just finished HEDGE OF THORNS-great read) are some of our favorites for read-aloud time too...  We also have the complete G.A. Henty Series with guide book from Vision Forum, a very generous gift from The Gentle Giant's parents. 

For Science all year we find nature, bring it in to draw in our Nature Notebooks. This book, The Handbook of Nature Study is well used in our home. We may bring in anywhere from 1-5 specimens a week, although winter is a harder time for nature walks. That is why we LOVED visiting Alabama this past winter. We had new "digs" to discover! We incorporated The Seaside Naturalist when we were there and joined the Sea Lab while visiting. This year we are using Apologia General Science as well as finishing up their Astronomy book.

For our Bible time we read the WORD, only The King James Version and also incorporate different devotions with this. We really have enjoyed the Pearables Books and I highly recommend them.  A great series to listen to as a family or husband and wife to build the family is The Whole Kit and Kaboodle by Vision Forum on CD.  We have this series in our library as well. 

We have used Beautiful Feet Books in the past and really enjoyed their Early American History Series. This year we will continue with Susan Wise Bauer's Story of the World and Supplement with read alouds pertaining to what era of history we are studying. Her books come with a great reading list that coincides with her text. She writes from a christian worldview.

We start typing in 6th grade. This year our 6th grader will start a new book for us. I plan to incorporate this book with all of our children if it seems like a good fit for us. It is called "Write Your Roots". You interview your ancestors and learn all about your family tree and keep records of priceless stories that will be gone when our ancestor's pass away.

HOME DESIGNED HIGH SCHOOL is becoming a big hit as I plan our high school curriculum. We are incorporating some of this in our 8th grade this year to get a jump start.

We add a lot to our formal school throughout the day. Learning is caught best hands on. The 2 older daughters each have a baking day throughout the week. They each make dinner once a week and also our Son is involved as he gets older in the kitchen too. The children all do outside chores with animals and stacking wood, help with house cleaning from a daily list of their jobs all the way down to our youngest 1st grader helping fold clothes, set the table, bring down dirty clothes to the laundry room etc. We all live here, we all pitch in. Each child has a list of jobs on the refrigerator that is printed out every Sunday PM to start the new week. The chart stays the same all year long and they now have it pretty much down what they do on certain days. They do all different sorts of jobs so they are well versed in all areas. Some jobs they love, some they don't... sounds like mom :) 

We have at different times of the year where we engage in volley ball and basket ball at an open gym night. Piano will start up again soon for 2 of the children. We are always hiking in various places up near our cottage in Leelanau, Michigan.  We look for mushrooms, cougars (ha ha) climb the dunes, head to the local concerts and more... All these things go into our "school time"... There is more I won't bore you with :) 

This is some of the things that work for us... What do you do in your home school? Leave a comment on what works for you, I would love to hear about it!

God Bless you!

-HomemakerAng-

All rights reserved 2007-2099

in where The Sophisticated Agrarian shares creatively talented shop keepers!

The Sophisticated Agrarian features all things Angiepologie, all things romantic farmer, all things HomemakerAng...

Our latest blog post shows the wonderfully creative talent of
re imagined Michelle...

Be sure to check us out...  Better yet, be sure to sign up to become a follower..  Click on your new "favourite photograph" below... (jesting, of course)   xoxo

Our 1 room home school at Maple Valley Farm...

Photo credit is a google image old postcard 

written in 2007 by HomemakerAng but it still holds true today - please do not use without permission

**LENGTHY but worth the read**

We use an eclectic learning method for our schooling here. I believe “school” starts the day a baby is born and it begins from the time children awake until their eyes close on the pillow at night. I believe children learn best in a free setting with some boundaries to peak their interest. Children today lack many life skills to live and lead a self-suffcient, productive, responsible and rewarding life. We start early, teaching life skills in our home. Children of all ages pitch in to help around the house with a variety of chores. From changing bedding to milking the goat, a child, whether boy or girl, should know a good amount of the basics of running a home by age 10. Learning is “caught” best when experienced firsthand in the trenches. It’s one thing to sit and watch someone teach you how to fold laundry or bake cookies, it’s an entire different experience when we are involved in the task and learn hands on, touching, feeling and experiencing the project.

We are doing our children a disservice when we do not allow them to fail at projects or chores around the house. We are dishonoring them when we do everything for them and not teach them how to do things. Children feel such a sense of accomplishment when they grasp and perfect a chore and they realize what a worthwhile contribution to the home they really are. Children feel important and therefore, respect the place they have put so much “spit-shine” into. They realize they are an important part of a bigger picture and that their home cannot function properly without them. Children will respect their surroundings that they have contributed to. If you see or find a child that is malicious or destructive of property they have not been taught the responsibility to properly care for their own property first; therefore they cannot and do not respect other’s property for they were not taught to be responsible for their own.

Daily, before we start our “table school time” we make sure the house is in some sort of order, not perfect, but orderly... Order in quiet, some sort of neatness to function at our full potential, a good protein breakfast for concentration, a short devotion to start us off on the right foot with some prayer and a mother who sits with the children to show that this time is a disciplined part of our day to stay focused and complete our table studies. Children do not function well in chaos. Phones should be turned off for the answering machine to pick up while we are focusing on our work. Children need mom to be focused on the learning time too. Without a sense of structure children can be easily distracted and many small uproars can happen if discipline is not accomplished, then real learning does not take place.

When learning about a certain subject or time period, we do our best to discover it hands on. Whether making tapioca pudding from the cassava root to learn better about the ancient civilization of the Olmec Indian tribe, or visting a local museum to enhance our local history project or a specific time period, children remember things more accurately when they experience it first-hand. It’s a lot more fun this way too!

We use a variety of “real” books for teaching. A lot of time is spent reading aloud to the children so that we may stop and discuss the subjects. We read a book specifically for that time period to learn history. We do not subscribe to the textbook theory of teaching. Text books water down real history and leave out a majority of important details of what really happened during a specific time period and to whom it happened to. We try to experience some real culture of the time period we are studying. For example, while studying Rome it is much more exciting when you add some 1,500 year old Roman coins to clean and chip away the dirt and see what Roman time period they were from.

A very important part of our day is having outdoor “play” time. Children these days do not seem to embrace outside play and fresh air much. I don't believe children are encouraged to play outside either. Many children sit in front of video games, computers or TV for quite some time and while doing this they never learn how to be creative and explore who they really are. While outside in the sun and fresh air, left without technologic vices, a stick can become a great friend to walk with and find nature. New games (homemade)can be discovered as no limits are placed by a “level”. We all need a place to find our creativity. I find we usually can discover more of our own creativity while taking a walk in nature and experiencing God’s creativity first hand. Making a camp outside is the most important “school” a child could ever experience. I find when children are not overindulged with technology they actually become more creative as they go back to the basics of learning what real play is and that is when their real creative juices start flowing. What good can a video game bring out in a child? What good things will come out of a child that built a fort in the woods and set up a trading post of objects they have created out of nature’s free gifts…?

During different times of the year or various travels throughout the U.S. we use nature notebooks to record our findings from the outdoors. These notebooks are treasures to us as we look back year after year to see what we have recorded. This time usually sparks conversations of “remember when we were on that one nature walk eating under the big oak tree and we saw a _________?” When I hear that dialogue beginning I cannot help but grin and know, “they really got it that time”…

We use some workbooks to enhance our skills in phonics and math. We start grammar in 7th grade. When a child is ready to grasp a subject you would be surprised at how quickly they pick it up. Rather than making a certain subject a frustrating experience, just for the sake of filling in a subject criteria at a certain age, it seems best to wait until a child can understand and retain a good portion of what they are trying to learn about.

Everything that I have written above could never be accomplished without committing my day to the Lord and remembering the real reason I am home teaching. That reason being: To equip my children with a love for Jesus that is more than a Christian-world view of life, but a personal relationship with Him. I think this would be hard, if not impossible for me if my children where in the main stream. If I did all of the above and at the end of the day did not teach my children about loving one another, respecting others, giving their hearts to Jesus, my home teaching would all be in vain… I am not raising, training or teaching my children to be great in the world’s eyes but raising them up to understand what true amplitude in God’s eyes really is. We are playing by a different set of rules than the world; we have the most important rule book as our guide, God’s word. We will make mistakes along the way, we have already. Teaching our children the beauty of forgiveness is one way for them to see how much God has forgiven us. By the grace of God, He will forgive us, He already has… I could do nothing without Him!

Angela Kuncaitis copyrights 2007-2099 

In where she misses her cold toilet seat..

Yes, I just typed that. 

It has been just a bit over a month that we have an indoor toilet and a washer and dryer.  While I have enjoyed the luxury of doing laundry at my fingertips, it has been an adjustment having to put laundry away each and every day rather than once a week.  However, I am getting accustomed to the practice quite quickly.

We still are not really used to having electricity.  I reach many times for the hot kettles for dishes on the stove pour the water in the basins to do the dishes and then I remember I could have gotten it from the sink.  The children, Gentle Giant and I stumble around in the pitch dark of the laundry room, while the washer and dryer are humming along and suddenly after about 3 minutes we realize we could turn on a light.  We all have gotten our coats on and been ready to trek out to the outhouse and realize it is no longer needed.

I don’t know about you, but a room temperature toilet seat is not my cup of tea.  I miss the crisp cold winter air running into my lungs. It awakened my senses constantly. I was outside a minimum of 12 times a day in all sorts of weather.  I was in tune with what nature had to offer when it was “calling”.  The cold toilet seat would constantly awaken me to my life.

In memory of the outhouse these last few evenings I have trekked out in to the cold winter air in the pitch dark.  I do not want to forget where I came from.   I love this time to embrace the outdoors.  I then come back to the house and just sit on the front porch and listen to the sounds of the night. Coyotes, owls, a dog barking in the distance and sometimes the annoying hum of the dryer vent.   It is strange to us yet. Very strange.

It has been challenging trying to get used to this new way of life.  We got used to the hot bath at just the turn of a knob immediately though.  I have enjoyed the blow dryer again.  My hair looks as a lion’s mane.  We wonder what to introduce next?  Suddenly we have a choice overload?  It’s actually a touch stressful to us.  We have to decide whether or not to cut ice from the pond for next year’s ice house.  At this time the weather would not allow us to anyway. 

Many wonder what is next. I feel as if we should hold a press conference sometimes... Ha!

 “Are you getting a microwave”? “No”.  “Are you getting a refrigerator”? “Not now”. “Are you getting an oven”? “No, we already have one of those”.  “What about a TV”?  “We just got a TV with a VCR in it, but it has no channels, something about a new adapter or something so we will not be doing that at this time”.  VHS tapes are cheap! Pretty neat actually.  “Are you getting the internet”? “Not yet, we have a smart phone and we go to hot spots”.  “I bet you like that you can now take a bath more than once a week”.  “We always took daily baths, but thanks for assuming that”.  “I heard you are quitting farming”.  “No, we just got electricity”.  “The article in the GR Press says you heat off-grid, but you have electricity and a furnace so why did you let them say you live off grid”? “No we do not have a furnace, but we use a wood stove just like before and we cook on a wood cook stove.  We suggest you read the article again”.  “We heat off-grid too, but we have an electric blower”.  “Good for you but do you have electricity then”? 

I have noticed that we have lost followers on the blog.  I have seen things in a different perspective now when I see people saying, “Check out this blog, they are the real deal living off-grid and more”… All while they sit in a natural gas furnace home, full electric, TV blaring in the back ground and they never go outside.  One thing for sure, we never did this 3 ½ year lifestyle to get people to like us, to get followers from the blogosphere or for the “wow” factor.  Our family simply followed where the Lord led us…

We still are using white fuel and Leacock pressure lamps.  We still are using oil lamps as well.  But guess what?  WHO CARES what kind of lights we are using and if we are ½ on grid, 75% on grid or not.  

What we are doing now is really exactly what we were doing before.  We still are a close knit family and God is still driving this thing…

God bless you!

Looking forward to sharing more on home teaching next...

Ps.  We are keeping the outhouse because we can!  How many people do you know that have an indoor toilet AND an outhouse... Ha

It's rabbit stew for Valentines Day!

And someone couldn't be more thrilled.  He had a rabbits foot to show off all day today :)

More precious memories from the farm...

Thank you God

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Xo

The Sophisticated Agrarian -HomemakerAng and family

Check out Fifi's link from her visit to Maple Valley Farm!

This picture simply does not do justice to Fifi and Mark's visit...

photo by Mark Lohman

Check out some other wonderful photos at Maple Valley Farms and all about Romantic Prairie Magazine right
HERE...

xoxo

The weather on these 40 rolling acres at Maple Valley farm has been unseasonably warm...

 What better than to take a strolling nature walk, kitty cats and all

by the willows, 

by the stream and by the pond!  Makes for a wonderful nights rest...

How about you?  What have you been up to?  Please, do tell

xo 

Fifi is in the house - at Maple Valley Farm

photo by Jana Lynema 

Fabulous Fifi of Romantic Prairie Magazine and The Sophisticated Agrarian at The Maple Cottage.


Design by R. Lucas Scott www.rlucasscott.com and The Painted Farmgirl!


More information coming on where to see these fabulous photos but we do know they will grace the pages of Romantic Prairie Magazine


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