The Top Posts of 2014

Thanks for reading our little blog! The Ramsey Farms Simple Life blog has had more than 2,300 visitors since it was created. I love sharing some of the things that we do with you and perhaps helping others to find a simpler, less stressful way of life. We have guests from all over the world and our top pageviews by country include the US, Malaysia, Germany, France, and Argentina. 

You can read the top 5 posts of 2013 here.

Without further adieu, here are the most read articles from 2014:

#5 - The #5 spot is actually a perfect tie between two of my This Week at Ramsey Farms articles: March 23 and April 6, 2014. Both of these reflect on the weekly activities but remind us that life is short and only we have the power to make changes in our lives where we feel change is needed. 

#4 - 40 Minute Hamburger Buns - This is a great, easy, quick recipe to give you tasty rolls or buns in under an hour! (LOL Katie!) We don't make these much anymore because I feel they are a little too "bready" and have since started making a more "traditional" recipe for our hamburger and hotdog buns, but this is a great one to have on hand for when time is short! Try it if you haven't already!

#3 - This Week at Ramsey Farms March 16, 2014 - Full of an exciting gardening prep week and packed with recipes for edibles and body products! Including my quick and easy salsa recipe and a reminder about cleaning up our own messes and celebrating the ordinary.

#2 - This Week at Ramsey Farms May 20, 2014 - This one was one of my personal faves about busy lives and letting the hectic control us rather than enjoying our lives and about taking care of ourselves first so that we are able to take care of others. There's an Ann Lamott quote in this article that I just love.

And your favorite, most read, most visited post of 2014...

#1 - The Cold Frame - This post is a pictorial view of the building, installing, and growing of our little cold frame we built in January 2014 in the NC garden. I miss it but we have no plans to have a cold frame here in Georgia as of now. 


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This post ranked #2 in our most-read posts of 2015!

This Month at Ramsey Farms: January 26, 2015

Garden Planning

It’s nearly the end of January and we have lots of garden planning and prepping going on here at Ramsey Farms. The most exciting point for Chief Farmhand Chris was the delivery of his new tiller last weekend! He has already tilled most the 14 rows in what we call our “front garden” which will be home to beets, carrots, celery, peppers, Kandy Korn sweet corn, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, potatoes, heirloom pumpkins, radishes, yellow squash and zucchini, and tomatoes. We will be planting sweet onions come Valentine’s Day!

Chief Farmhand Chris has also tilled about 1,000-square feet into our new planting area, a 100x100 section of one of our fields. We’re calling this one the “field garden”. It will growing feed corn and a plethora of yummy greens and fodder for our chickens along with bush snap beans, cantaloupe, and okra to feed us. You can see photos of the new 2015 garden here.

Our soil analysis came back from the University of Georgia and all in all is in good shape. Chris took samples from the two major planned planting areas, the front garden and the field garden. Both areas have a potassium deficiency but phosphorus and the minerals were good and pH was fine in both. This year we will fertilize with a 15-0-15 to pump up the soil and we will continue to use organic methods including compost, wood ash, cover crops, and manure to replenish this old cow pasture and transform it into a productive foundation for growing our crops.

We had some seed potatoes from the NC garden starting to sprout in a brown paper bag. So Chief Farmhand Chris tilled up a 16x4 bed and fertilized this small area to plant those potatoes on January 20. We can’t be sure they’ll do anything since it’s a little early, but they may have gone bad before the traditional March 1 planting date. Keep your fingers crossed!

I had to get my hands into some dirt and made some planters from washed two liter bottles and other recyclables. I got some lettuce seeds planted along with parsley, lemon balm, celery, and chives. These are all warm and toasty in my kitchen along the windows next to the wintering aloe and cacti. Speaking of which, both are doing well. The aloe looks better than I’ve ever seen it especially during winter. The aloe arms are thick and strong and every plant has light green fresh growth in the center. I’ve been cutting them sparingly for use on my face and as boo-boo ointment (aloe is a natural antiseptic and analgesic that numbs the skin and promotes healing), but I do plan to harvest a good amount for my next batch of homemade shampoos.

In The Kitchen

We are still baking our own homemade breads and other food items like sour cream (1 cup milk with ¼ cup white vinegar, shake very well, chill well in fridge. The cream will rise to the top – it’s amazing!). I have been using my new mini food processor from my mom to grind up stale home baked bread slices into breadcrumbs and day-old slices I use to make croutons. I’ve been mixing up my blue cheese dressing along with a delicious vinaigrette dressingfor salads. (See also my ranch dressing recipe.) We’ve perfected the art of roux and gravy and no longer have a need to purchase the sodium laden cans of cream of chicken (or other cream of flavors) and I’ve been making beef broth from leftover beef neck bones and scraps of onion, garlic, potato, and carrot. I’ve even frozen my broth into ice cube trays for easy to use portions that will last a year in the freezer!

As far as bath and body products, we are making our own body washes and bar soaps, hand wash, dish soap, lotion, face wash, face scrub, body scrub, deodorant, anti-itch cream, and sunscreen. I’ve made some teeth whitening gel with baking soda and peroxide and may one day attempt toothpaste. I’d like to try my hand at making mineral makeup but I wear it so seldom that I may never run out of my store-bought version. I did find a great recipe for mixing up my own mineral veil powder that I’ll be trying soon.

Why do we make so many of our food and body products rather than just purchase these at the store? (Oh yeah I totally forgot to mention we've also been making our own household cleaners too!) There are so many toxins and preservatives in everything from soup to shampoos and I’d just rather avoid as many of them as I can. The convenience of processed foods is thanks to loads of sodium and unnatural preservatives. For example, compare the ingredients one major food label uses in its cream of chicken soup (http://www.campbellfoodservice.com/details.aspx?code=322 ) to what I use in mine: water, chicken stock (homemade), milk, flour, pepper, salt.

Which would you rather eat?

For bath and body products, check out http://www.ewg.org/skindeep and search out your own products. You’ll be amazed at the harmful components used in many popular products and you can also search out safer, less toxic products to use on your skin. I use all natural ingredients including coconut oil, shea butter, vitamin E oil, and essential oils for any fragrances. I’ll save all these details for another more focused post on this topic for another time. 

I hope the weather is nice wherever you are and that you enjoy your week! 

Remember to laugh and smile as much as you breathe. ~Ramsey

Simplifying Christmas & Staying Debt-Free

Simplifying Christmas and maintaining that debt-free progress? Yes, it can be done!

#1. Remember what Christmas is all about. Is about making sure you get everyone the perfect gift? Is it rushing around to every Christmas party, event, or program? Is it about spending money or eating too much or exhausting yourself? No! Christmas is the time of year to celebrate the birth of Jesus by sharing His love with those you love. That’s really it. Jesus didn’t say we had to lose our minds and our control, retailers told us that.

#2. Identify your family’s Christmas mission & set priorities. We discussed and got buy-in from our kids that we wanted Christmas to revolve around Jesus’ birth and life and our family. We emphasized that it is not about how many presents we get. Set your priorities as a family. Determine how many parties, events, and programs you will attend. Which ones are most important to you as a family? Life is busy enough as it is so set your boundaries. 

#3 Set your Christmas budget. This year was the first time we actually saved all year in preparation for Christmas gifts. You already have your own personal family financial budget, right? (I hope so otherwise you may find yourself in big trouble down the road! Please google “budgeting”, visit a reputable website like Dave Ramsey or Crown Financial, or ask me to get the tools you need to get your budget on track.) So in reviewing your budget, how much do you have left over to spend on Christmas? It is not worth going into debt for folks. Let me repeat, IT IS NOT WORTH GOING INTO DEBT FOR. Jesus would not want you to do that. Last year, we set an amount and divided that by 12 months and began putting that amount away each month so that we would have a specific, ear-marked fund to spend on Christmas gifts, decorations, and foods. We stuck to that budget. We know Christmas is going to come every year whether we are ready or not, don’t be surprised by holiday gift giving – be on top of it all year.

For Christmas decorations, ornaments, and wrapping paper stock up on that in the week following Christmas for 50 to 90% deals! We bought plain brown craft paper in a huge roll that was 10x more paper for the same price as one or two wimpy rolls of Christmas-themed wrapping paper. You can use this all year round and decorate it for Christmas, Valentine’s, birthdays, or other occasions.

#4 Make your list and check it twice. As part of our budget, we had to determine what amount would go to our kids, ourselves, family members, friends, neighbors, and others. Our list is rather small because our focus is not on gift giving but it is on our family. Our kids reap the majority of our Christmas budget and a couple of other close family members. It’d be great to buy shiny expensive gifts for everybody we know, but I’m sorry, I love you, but I’m not willing to go into debt or sacrifice my future for it.

We do plan time to bake cookies or other tasty treats to share with friends, neighbors, as hostess gifts, and for others in our lives. I think a gift you made with your own hands is one that comes straight from the heart, people generally love it, and it’s an expensive way to share the love (and stay in budget).

#5 Jesus was born in a barn and slept in a feeding trough. Period. That was the perfect Christmas. I’m not sure how, during the past 2014 years or so Santa, trees, decorations, excessive gifts, and losing our minds with a flurry of activity is what it seems to have evolved into the quest for the “perfect Christmas”. I am not opposed to Santa, Christmas trees and decorations, gifts, or parties and events, but I just say no to the over excessiveness of it all and the energy-zapping, endless running for the sake of what should be a sacred holiday.

This year we did have to buy a small, inexpensive artificial tree after many years of having a beautiful real North Carolina Frazier fir from Uncle Jimmy. The rest of our décor came from the woods – fresh pine boughs, cedar, evergreens, holly, and even some mistletoe decorated our mantle, living room, and dining room. We have been blessed with the inheritance and gift of so many wonderful Christmas ornaments which we use to decorate our tree along with ornaments the kids have made throughout the years. Two days after Christmas I ran into Walmart and bought several 100-bulb light strands for barely $1 each, so we’ll have more / improved tree lights in 2015! I refused to buy them beforehand!

For my part, except for the absence of my dearest family members, we had a perfect Christmas. We ate, we drank, we sang, we decorated, we baked, we danced, we gave gifts, we made cards, we gathered with friends and neighbors, and we celebrated the birthday of Jesus. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

December 5, 2014 - January 12, 2015

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

I hope all my readers had a fantastic Christmas holiday and New Year's! It's been awhile since my last post so let me summarize what I plan to discuss in very-soon future posts, so stay tuned!

• Simplifying Christmas and Staying Debt-Free!
• Leftover Turkey Pot Pie with Homemade Crust (Photo: Here)
• Enjoying New Year's Safely, Inexpensively, and as a Family
• Natural & Herbal Ways to Relieve Cold & Flu Symptoms
• Recipe for "Good For You" Non-Chemical Shampoo
• Once-a-Month Grocery Shopping
• All Natural, Low Sodium Beef Broth...Cubes!
• Homemade Tortillas
• Garden Update, Garden Planning, & Soil Analysis (Photo Album)

My daughter is preparing for her first district 4H project. She has rewritten a dairy foods recipe and will be demonstrating that recipe along with her knowledge in dairy foods, food safety and sanitation, nutrition, proper cooking techniques, making a roux, menu planning, and the proper way to set a table. She's done a fantastic job on her cover letter and portfolio that includes photos of food-related activities she participated in over the course of 2014. In other daughter news, she is taking driver's education and planning to be a part of the shotgun team. Scary stuff! :)

My adorable son has been busy playing with the dogs, helping his dad measure and mark the new field garden, hiking through the woods, and general little boy stuff. He also recently made a decision to ask Jesus into his heart, told our pastor and our entire little church about his decision, and asked to be baptized! 

This Week at Ramsey Farms

This Month at Ramsey Farms - November 3 through December 4, 2014

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve updated this blog! We’ve been so busy with work, school, the fall festival, visitors from north Carolina, Thanksgiving, and other activities that have left little time for interneting. (I just created a new word!)

The garden is doing fine. We’re eating a lot of radishes and scallions, the lettuces are growing bigger by the day, the carrots and beets are growing albeit slowly, the green onions are growing bigger and we do enjoy the green scallion stems, and there are a handful of garlic stems showing up through the mulch now! I really miss my old herb garden in North Carolina so that is a project we’ll be preparing for this winter so that we can begin planting as soon as possible in the spring. We’re building our compost pole and sourcing manure to enrich the main garden so that it will be more productive next spring.

We spent a wonderful fun-filled day at our little church’s fall festival where the kids and community enjoyed two large inflatable slides, games, music, food, candy, and a hay ride! The following weekend the church hosted a housewarming party for a family in our little community who lost their home to a fire back in September. They have rebuilt and needed all the basics a home needs such as towels, pantry staples, and kitchen implements.

My mom and my sister visited us the weekend prior to Thanksgiving and we spent the week beforehand preparing for them. I made homemade pasta sauce so my daughter could make her renowned lasagna dish. We made homemade hamburger and hotdog buns and slaw for a cookout the first night they were here. I was so happy to see them and to introduce them to our special piece of land – our home. We ate, drank wine, played board games, danced to music, hiked the trails Chris has cut through our woods, sat in the sun, listened to crickets and coyotes, and talked and talked and talked and simply enjoyed one another’s company. I was delighted to introduce them to all my closest neighbors! I loved having them here but it was just too short of a visit and I look forward to having them come back in the spring and stay a little longer and see this place in full bloom! 

We had an awesome Thanksgiving that began with an evening church service and pot luck dinner at our church. There were more than 70 people there and the food was incredible! You know that anytime you get a bunch of southern women bringing food it’s gonna be downright delicious. That was on Sunday before Thanksgiving (the same day my mom and sister left us) and the same day I started my Thanksgiving cooking extravaganza!

That Sunday early morning, I started the feast cooking with making my homemade totally-from-scratch chicken broth with a nice little 4.5 pound whole chicken, fresh scallions from the garden, dried herbs from my garden, garlic, carrots, onions, and celery. This simmers for several hours and had the house smelling delicious and well, like home! I deboned the chicken to use later on, simmered some more, then cooled the broth in another pot that was surrounded by ice and cold water. While the broth was cooking, I made my homemade cornbread (no mixes or boxes used here!) then started my mom’s “world famous” (well probably just to our family) cornbread dressing. I even made my own homemade cream of chicken and cream of celery soups rather than using the teeming canned stuff.  I did use a bag of Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix (the only prepared food used in this recipe) so next year I’d like to figure out how to replace that with a homemade version – any ideas? I jarred the remaining chicken broth to use in other recipes and refrigerated the unbaked pans of dressing. Then…I took a nap! J

My sweet and talented daughter helped me in the kitchen all throughout the week’s preparation for

Thanksgiving. We had a delicious Thanksgiving Day menu that we spent Wednesday and Thursday preparing. Cranberry salsa, crock pot macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, homemade turkey gravy, candied yams, my mom’s dressing recipe, and of course a big beautiful 17-pound turkey!

We didn’t use any ingredients from a can or a jar! The only shortcuts we used were frozen yams, store bought marshmallows for the candied yams, and the Pepperidge farm stuffing mix I used in the dressing recipe!  Farmhand Chris always gets the dirty work – he readied the big bird for the oven by removing the neck and giblets, tying back the wings, stuffing the bird with apple, onion, carrot, celery, and herbs and spreading herbs under the skin. Our dog, Carolina got Thanksgiving the evening before by dining on the turkey neck and giblets poured over her crunchy dog food. Our little boy washed the potatoes for the mashed potatoes and helped clean up and do the little things that he could do (mostly he stayed out of the way, which was a big help)!

We served our hors devours about 4pm on T-Day with a pinot noir and had a selection of chardonnay, pinot noir, and Riesling for the main courses. My dear daughter baked the pumpkin pies – we did use canned pumpkin and frozen pie crusts for that (last year my pie crust was terrible and I was not pleased with the local availability of pumpkins…next year I’m growing my own!). I whipped up fresh real whipped cream and we served champagne with the dessert! Of course the kids don’t drink wine so they enjoyed a nice vintage sweet tea with their meal! It was a beautiful and wonderful meal and we’re so thankful for each other, our farm, our home, and all the wonderful people and blessings in our lives.

Recipe of the Week: Hot Apple Cider

Ramsey Farms Hot Apple Cider

Prep Time: 10 minutes   Cook Time: 30 minutes   Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 4 whole cinnamon sticks
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 1/8 tsp ground allspice
• orange peel from 1 orange
• lemon peel from 1 lemon
• lime peel from half a lime
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• dash vanilla
• 6 cups unfiltered, sugar-free (fresh squeezed is best) apple juice
• 1/2 cup Caribbean rum (Optional)

Instructions

1. Place cinnamon sticks, cloves, allspice, and citrus peels into large pot. 
2. Add brown sugar, water, vanilla, and apple juice, stir well then bring almost to a boil. 
3. Reduce heat to lowest setting and simmer for 30 minutes. 
4. Add rum if desired. Remove from heat and serve in mugs. 

This Week at Ramsey Farms

Monday, October 27 - Sunday, November 2, 2014

Gina, Myself, Katie, & Stephanie

It sure was nice to have “The Girls” from North Carolina down last weekend to celebrate my birthday. I think I miss them even more now that I got to see their faces, laugh and talk in person, share some time together…just not enough time! I can’t wait to have them back down here for another, maybe longer visit really soon. I got a bunch of great phone calls from my mom, sister, family, friends, and neighbors. My wonderful neighbors here made me a delicious cake with caramel and pecans that has been immensely enjoyed by everybody (when I let them have some)! The whole church even sung happy birthday to me in church two Sundays in a row! 

Our week hit a tough patch when on Wednesday morning we experienced our first tragedy here on the farm. Our dog George (full name Georgia) was hit by a car and killed instantly after the kids had left for school. Luckily he did not suffer. Chris carried the dog back up to the house and buried him in a backyard grave, complete with a cross by the time the sun rose over the eastern skyline. His pal, companion, and (we think) mother, Carolina has been sad and lethargic all week. She looked for him to come up the driveway for two days, she sniffs for him, cries for him, it’s obviously grief. The whole household here is shaken and missing dear George. He was an instant part of the farm family and like Carolina, seemed to belong here. “We didn’t know you long, but we loved you much dear George. Rest in peace, buddy.”

We’ve really seen autumn this week as leaves are finally beginning to change – the wild muscadines vines have bright yellow leaves against the still green oaks, the magnolia trees have bright red berries and some orange mottled leaves, some of the maples are turning yellow, and way in the tips of the tallest oaks I may see some reds. The weather is still bright, sunny, and dry but our daytime high temperatures have taken a little nose dive from an average of 82°F to an average of 76°F, Saturday’s high barely even hit 60° and our low Sunday morning was a frosty 36°. 

Two mornings of 30 degrees took out our cucumber and squash plants as we did not take precautions since it was so late in their growing season anyway. The remainder of our garden is doing well and will do fine in these chilly temperatures. If the forecast seems likely for a 28° plunge I will need to protect our beets, carrots, and lettuces by covering the rows with light airy fabric (groovy 1970s large bedsheets actually!) And if it dares to drop below 25/26°F then we have to take extra precaution for the onions and radishes. For the garlic, 21° is my magic number at which to add extra insulation to those root crops.  Chief farmhand Chris is setting up poles to hold the row covers near the plants without touching them and we will mulch in the garden to keep our fall investment growing. Hopefully. (Remember you can see the latest garden pics here.)

If all this cool weather has you in the mood for some good autumn food, here is a few links you will like!

• Rustic Farm Bread
• Brown Sugar Chili
• Ramsey Farms Hot Apple Cider! (this one will be "live" later this week) 

This week was Homecoming week and our county school system’s 100^th anniversary. The kids had fun dressing up for each day’s theme. Hat day, decade day (1960s), character day, red shirt day, camo day, I can’t remember them all as both schools had something different every day. The week culminated to a homecoming parade and the big football game Friday!

We did hit the parade then headed home for dinner and trick-or-treating! We were with a group of 15-20 kids in three pick-ups. Our fearless leader, my neighbor Ms. Patty had a pre-arranged list of house to visit and with homes sometimes a few miles from one another and country driveways that meander like a wild river for a half-mile. It was an awesome fun night – most of the houses were decorated in a fun Halloween theme and several of the houses gave out gift bags that may be like what you’d get at The Oscar’s! It was a fun way to do Halloween in a place with no neighborhoods and the kids had more candy and treats than I bet they’ve ever gotten.

“If there is to be any peace or reason, we have to create it in our own hearts and homes.” 

~From A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeline L’Engle