Today I will go to my folks’ house for a Memorial Day celebration. Jim has to work but may get off early. Tomorrow he will be off and I hope we can do something together. I tell Jim, “Papa, you are my family, now that the kids are all grown up.”

Today, for the dinner at the folks, we will have a cook out and I will bring baked beans. I just drain some cans of beans in a bowl and then add ketchup and brown sugar and mustard. I think Papa hid all the onions so I won’t put them in. I am going out later to see if any of my wild onions came up and I will use those. Papa never met an onion he ever liked, so I keep them out of his way. I do have some green pepper that I will put in, and then just salt and black pepper. I just bake them in the oven until they bubble up good. I will bring Papa home a plate of whatever we have for dinner today.

I took Baby for a long walk last evening in the stroller. I feel like my whole body is coming back from the dead. I am using muscles I haven’t used in a while. It’s good for me, but the old bones are yellin’ “STOP” and did all night. I know I kept wild man awake. He is probably glad I got up so he can sleep a bit more this morning without me doin’ the boogie dance with my tossin’ and turnin’.

I am always like, “Lord can’t ya get someone young for what I do?” I am thinkin’ “No, I guess not.” Ya know, our spirits never grow old. We think they do and when God calls us for something, we judge the calling by our age. But Abraham considered not his own body or the deadness of Sarah’s womb. And ya know, God could have called a younger woman to replace Sarah. But He called Sarah because of her faith and Abe’s faith. He saw something in these two. And even though, early on, they were two accidents going some place, God knew that they would pull through when the act of faith was needed. And they did and became examples of faith.

And we are Sarah’s daughters, as long as we aren’t afraid with any amazement. And, heck, we all get scared in our walk of faith. But we can’t be afraid enough to quit. We are called to be champions for Christ. Lights in the darkness. Can we trust in Christ? But more … so much more … is the question, “Can Christ trust in us?”

So many times, I am in the dark spiritually. I cry out, “Oh Lord, I don’t know where to go or what to do.”

And the Lord speaks to me, “Connie, I know you don’t know what to do or where to go, but I trust you to go on in God.”

And so often, I feel I hold a chunk of His plans in my hands and I feel the angels watchin’ me and wondering what I will do with what God has given me. Oh, can God trust us when we pray and we aren’t healed? Or when the cards are stacked against us and nothing but darkness prevails around us? Can He safely trust in us? The Savior waits upon us so often and I will say to Him, “Lord, what is your plan? What am I to do?”

And I feel Him saying, “I don’t know until you make a decision to go the right way … the future is in your hands. The future is held with your obedience.” As Christians, we run the show. God doesn’t run over the top of us and make our decisions for us. He opens up His miracles when we choose to follow Him without fear.

If we are strong in our faith, then we won’t be afraid of the giants in the land. Yet there are plenty of giants in the land. But the believers who stay home and won’t go out to take over territory for Christ are not the safe ones. The believers who walk in faith and go with the call of God are the protected and blessed ones. We must go on in Christ and live out His life and let the dead bury the dead.

We as Christian wives and mothers will never die. We will live forever in heaven. We have an eternal life and it is going on now. We are here for a short time to be tested and tried and to change this world of sin for the Lord. We live in a pagan society. Yet we are called to be lights in the darkness … the salt of the earth.

And ya know, I have been prophetic at times. Or the Lord has spoken to me about my future. But ya know, most of the time I just go along and take life as it comes. And there is an art to that. But ya gotta learn it, as you learn anything. It’s kinda like playing the piano by ear. It’s a gift, but it’s a gift that can be developed. You can add experience to a gift, or courage. You can get stronger in your faith and your gift will work better. As you read the word, then you train your inner man to listen to God.

My oldest son, Jimmy, tells me, “Mom, you never do anything that everyone thinks you are gonna do.” Well, that’s because I try not to listen to the god of this world. We, as Christian wives who are obedient to Him, don’t listen to the god of this world. And if we fit in with this godless society, then we had better be wondering why. We are not to fit in, but we are to be the map out of it. Our lives should shine as examples of wisdom and direction. We are to stand strong as the unbelievers bounce off of us and curse us. And we must come back again and again to our enemies to forgive them and give them the truth.

Now, I don’t mean some of you Mothers with a flock of little birds to care for. No, you all should be like Mary and hide away to raise your children. This is your example … you are lights in the darkness … maps to wisdom.

Ya know, I didn’t even give my testimony for about 18 years. Jim was healed when I was 32 and I didn’t write anything to be sent out until I was 50 years old. Jim gave his testimony and I would chime in. Or if someone was dyin’ without it, I gave it to them secretly. But years passed without me giving my testimony. Now the Lord has shot me out into the internet and I am not comfortable out here, believe me.

See, I hid away to raise my children for the Lord. I homeschooled for 15 years. I started homeschooling under much oppression. In the old days, you didn’t homeschool in Iowa. Folks went to jail for this. And I did my very best with my children, and then they all went away from God. Talk about a shock! I thought God hated me.

Then He asked me to write and I said, “What for?” I am tellin’ the Lord that I have to be the worst mother alive on the planet. Folks ask me how my kids turned out, as I had homeschooled the last three. I couldn’t say, “They all went away from God.” The whole thing has made me so danged mad that I can’t believe it. So I figured I had no place to go but up. I felt like the laughingstock of the homeschool movement. So I figured, “Well, hell, I don’t have a reputation to keep up. I may as well tell the truth about my life, such as it is. So I send my testimony about a healed marriage to Above Rubies and it goes to 90 countries, and a hundred and some thousand households. And I have heard from many readers that my testimony changed their lives for the good. Talk about never doing anything folks think I will.

I mean, I wanted to roll over and die when my kids went against the Lord after I had spent hours with them and prayed for them for 15 years. I was a godly mother and wife and I don’t back up when I say that. As God is my witness, I stood for God all of my life, after I was saved at 19 years old. I have never compromised the word of God that I know of. And yet, as my children have shamed me, I have to say with Job, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.”

And I have to say that as I have been obedient to God, my children are coming back to Christ. Johnny and his wife are believers, and Mary (my baby) is walking with the Lord, and the youngest boys are coming in, too. I see a softness in Christian Joy and I see the Lord wearing her down.

But I had to obey God in such a darkness. And I had to trust in Him when I felt He hated me.

I had a friend who raised her children with our family. And then her children went on to Bible school and she was rewarded for being a good mother. And yet, I was not … my heart broke. And ya know, to obey God when darkness is as thick as mud around you … and the devil is screamin’ bloody murder at ya and giving you dreams and visions of family destruction? And yet ya still hang on? That’s powerful stuff!!! To not give up when Satan lays the plan before you as no other way out.

Just hold on, Darlin’, the miracles are at hand. Some prayers take a little longer to get answered but don’t give up and you will see His glory.

I have seen many miracles concerning my children. But if hadn’t, I would still be standin’ here writing. Because I have made a decision to follow Him. As I go up my mountain to fellowship with Him, I don’t come to Him as my children’s mother or Jim’s wife. I come to Him as Daughter. His own daughter. I was bought with the price of His blood. As He asks me, “Will you leave me, too?” I have to say, “Savior, I have no where to go but up. If I never see You bless my children, I still have no place to go but to You. You are my Son-shine. My only Son-shine. You make me happy when skies are gray.”

And, no, I have no place else to go except to Him. I want Him to bless me and my children with me. But if He doesn’t, I will still trust in Him.

Well I am not up early. It’s 6:00 am. But thought I could write about pickles while I visit with Papa. You would be proud of me. I have a pickle recipe in front of me. But I have made enough bread and butter pickles in my day to not need a recipe anymore.

Ok, you need about 5 pounds of cucumbers and a few onions and green peppers. Just take a big pan and put cold water in it and slice the cukes up in it with the onions and peppers. You don’t have to peel the cukes. Just wash them good and slice the cukes with the peeling on them.

Put the cukes and onions and peppers in the pan and add salt to the water, a half cup of regular salt, or table salt. Stir the salt about so it is mixed up good. And make sure your pan is big enough so the water covers the cukes, etc. You can lay a dinner plate over the cukes to keep the veggies under water. They need to sit overnight.

Then the next day, just drain the cukes and put back in the drainer. While they are resting in your drainer, make up the syrup for the pickles. In a big pan on the stove, pour in 5 cups of sugar and 5 cups of vinegar. I use white or apple cider … it don’t matter. Ok, then add the spices. The spices are a tablespoon of celery seed, 2 tablespoons of mustard seed, half teaspoon of turmeric … 1 teaspoon of ginger. Stir all of this up good … then add your cukes. Bring all of this to a simmer and let it simmer a few minutes. Don’t boil.

Fill your washed and cleaned jars with the hot mixture. Then just seal them with a canning lid and ring … and you are done. Now, if the jar don’t seal, you need to use those pickles first. Just put them in the fridge and use them for the family.

Ok so I lied. I have a recipe here that is for 2 pounds of cukes and so I am trying to figure all this out to go like my recipe. Well, dang, I don’t use a recipe and have lost the original years ago. But you all won’t try this unless I say I am quoting from a recipe. But this is how I do it. I always use the 5 cups of vinegar for the 5 cups of sugar. Then my spices go like this. A teaspoon of turmeric about? … and I always use turmeric … ya need that for sure. And I always put in mustard seed, about 2 tablespoons. But the rest is inspiration. If I have some fresh garlic, I would hide some in there. I may add some black pepper. In one jar, I may add a hot pepper … or a head of dill. I put in whatever flips my trigger.

And I pickle whatever looks lonely on my table. I have used this recipe to pickle little green tomatoes, carrots, cauliflower, celery. I have pickled a lot of zucchini if my cucumbers didn’t do well. I just cut the zucchini up to look like pickles and the family didn’t know the difference. I have pickled watermelon rind just once and that was another recipe. It was pretty good, really.

I have made apple pie with zucchini when I ran out of apples. You can cut it up to look like apple slices and, if ya put enough brown sugar on it and apple pie spices, no one will catch ya. I have even made apple butter with zucchini. I have made jam with zucchini.

Jillr used to make pineapple slices with zucchini. She would take a big oversized zucchini, clean out the seeds, then slice it, and it looked like slices of pineapple. She had a sugar syrup she would make using a can of pineapple juice. Then she would put this in quart jars. Jill would get a bone from the store and cook it for a few days with onions, etc. and can up the broth.

The old time mothers during the Depression would send their child to the store and ask the butcher for a bone for the dog, but they had no dog. Then Mother would make a broth and feed her family soup for supper. Hey, ya do what ya gotta do to make it, huh? The butcher knew all those folks comin’ in askin’ for dog bones didn’t plan to give it to the dog. But he knew the family was hungry and had nothing to eat, and he respected their family pride. Mother did whatever it took to keep the family warm and fed and happy.

And ya know, if ya make jam or jelly and it don’t turn out, or set up, then pack it in your cupboard and use it for pancake syrup. Or you can use it in bread for a cup of the liquid. Or in muffins or whatever.

The old time mothers didn’t use recipes. They used what they had in the cupboard and nothing was wasted.

I use a pressure canner to can beans. Yet the old time mothers didn’t use anything but the water bath method to can their beans. For my tomatoes, I use what we have always called the “open kettle method.” I just have 2 pots on the stove. One is the tomatoes boiling and the other is the jars and canning lids and rings boiling. And then you work quickly to fill the jars while everything is boiling. Then you cap the jars and you are done. You have to work real fast and make sure the children aren’t around at the time … or they could get burned from splashing hot water. I am thankful to say I have never burned any of my children during canning time. But my kitchen is so small that there is no room in there for more than one person, anyway.

I have the Little Rose today, later this morning.

Jim used to help his mother can when he was a boy. She canned outside and it was Jim’s job to dig two fire pits and put bricks around them for the big washtubs to rest on. One washtub held the jars and the other one held the food to be canned. Mom Hultquist made all sorts of things in her washtubs. She made ketchup, pickles, and canned many vegetables for the winter. She made root beer for the neighbor children in her big washtubs. She canned her corn on the cob in big jars. She made many different kinds of pickles.

All the old timers made a barrel of sauerkraut for the winter to keep in the root cellar. But you can make sauerkraut in a few canning quart jars. Its easy — it just has to ferment. I am good at fermenting. (No snickering from the balcony, thank you so very much.)

In the fall, I make blender ketchup. Jim loves it and even puts it on his fried potatoes … it is so delicious!! I make it in the fall after all the other good tomatoes have been canned. My sister-in-law Kris used to let me come and glean the rest of her tomatoes she didn’t want in her garden after she had canned. And in the fall, I would take the less than perfect tomatoes and clean them up and make tomato sauce and ketchup. Kris had the big farm garden and often planted extra for me, plus I had my own town garden.

The old time Mothers would make piccalilli in the fall. Just before a frost, they would pick the last of the vegetables in their gardens. They may have a handful of beans, and some small green tomatoes, and some onions and dill. A few small peppers and a few cucumbers. Some little heads of cauliflowers, cabbage, or broccoli that grew back after the big heads were cut. But whatever it was, they picked it, as they wouldn’t waste anything. They would take these odds and ends into their kitchens and put it all through their steel grinders mixed with vinegar, sugar, fresh herbs and spices. And they made a pickle relish and canned it for their winter family tables.

Most old time families had pickles on the table for most every meal and snack. Also homemade breads and berry jams and home churned butter. And this was not so long ago. And we can do all of this now, if we need to, or if we just put our minds to it.

Mom Hultquist had to have all her canning done by Saturday, as she needed the washtubs for the Saturday night baths. Then Monday, she had to have them for wash day. She had 13 children and never lost one through any kind of neglect. That says a lot for her. Never had a miscarriage and raised her children right through the Depression era. What a woman.

I am up in the night writing. The Lord spoke to my heart as I prayed in my bed. “Connie, some things you can only understand as the anointing falls.” So, as I write, I know the Lord will speak to me. Ya know, if you all learn anything at all from me, I think it may be how to chase the Holy Spirit. See, God answers us when we pray. The answer is close by, but we miss it. We get scared, and fear is an enemy of faith. We must sit back and rest in His word. But tonight as I prayed, I couldn’t get through at all. The Lord speaks, “Connie, dig for wisdom, dig for gold.” Of course, the wisdom of God is the answer. Most of the time, it is the wisdom of God I need.

I see Ruby in her cabin … she reaches out to me as we sit by the fire and talk. I can smell her kitchen and the scents of horseradish. I can sense her milk buckets by the back kitchen door, cleaned and ready for a morning milking. She sits with me and reaches out to me.

“You worry, Connie, over so many things. Trust in God, trust in God. You are the queen of your home and you have authority in Christ. God gave Eve authority to be the keeper at home. This was a curse and a blessing. You are given authority, too, over the earth. Take authority in your homemaking and don’t let it go … if you exalt Wisdom she will promote you. Don’t let anyone take over your place as keeper at home. This is your calling and your life. Your leading of the Holy Spirit. Don’t let confusion come in. Don’t let fear rule you. Look away from circumstances and look unto the Wisdom of God. Get deep into the wisdom of God … it is all very simple. There is a secret place in the depth of wisdom. The devil can’t find you there … it is your secret hiding place. Follow the Holy Spirit to a place where your spirit is happy to make bread and soup. Right now, you are fitful and confused. Come to a place where you are happy to be a keeper at home. Follow wisdom to the place of peace in your ministry as keeper at home. The wisdom of God will break the strongholds that bind you. Don’t blame anyone … don’t accuse anyone … just yield your members to righteousness. Yield your hands to your bread bowl and to your mixing spoons. Create an energy, a power that will run on its own. Prime your pump until it runs again on its own. The devil has knocked you down … he meant to destroy you but you got back up. (I was sick lately but I am better now.) Keep on fighting the good fight of faith … don’t give up. No, you don’t win every battle every day … but you don’t give up. Your power is in your homemaking. And you are going to a deeper level because of Baby Rose. You have absolutely no idea of the path before you.”

The Lord speaks, “I cannot tell you what is before you. Call upon Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things that you KNOW not. You can not know the plans of God. You don’t know them. You can only find the path of the Lord as you follow God in obedience. I set a path before you. But Satan will steal if from you if you don’t hide in Him, as Mary did. Look not to the left and to the right as if you have no God. Look unto Him. He is the great Shepard. Why bat back and forth with all if this? Quit letting the devil steal the truth out of your heart because you fear. Fear is a sin and man’s opinions are just that … man’s opinion. But God’s opinion is what matters. Seek your sewing and your baking. Seek your broom to sweep your floor. Seek your garden and your garden hoe. There is power in your homemaking. Seek your apron and your potatoes to peel and your flour to make your bread. Don’t eat the food of the world. Make the food that you give to your family. Build your temple in the wilderness and don’t be discouraged anymore.”

Weep, oh Daughters of Zion, and pray for your nation. Hide unto God to let God adorn you as champions for Him. Live from your visions … from the inside out.

Wisdom continues to speak. “Hide in your homemaking .. hide unto the Lord. Hold on and bow low in humility before Jesus. Labor to bring forth the wisdom of God in your spirit. Grab ahold of the word that will push you on in Him. (I picture a canoe on the water.) Yield your arms and your whole body to His righteousness. Push and grab again His word and keep on grabbing and pushing His word out to where the Son Shines. Labor to bring forth mete for the Master’s use. They that plant precious seeds will ‘come again rejoicing bringing in the sheaves’ or the fruit of their prayers. God is not mocked … whatsoever a man or woman soweth she will also reap. Plant precious seeds of righteousness as you yield your body to the righteous tools and weapons of warfare. Don’t fight the good fight in the world. Hide in the obedient place and fight in there to enter His rest … and His anointing. Don’t move by what you see but what you believe. Stand against the wiles of the devil … fight for the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Take on the whole armor of God and bring down strongholds with your prayers. Stand firm against the enemy and bring forth the fruits of the spirit. Make a place … a home for the sweet fruits of the Holy Spirit to flow and to live and to develop unto a precious fruit for God. Hide and protect your home and your children. Make a home where the peace of God lives and is able to grow on its own.”

Our homes are to be houses of prayer. A place of blessings to feed the poor spiritual food.

Our homes are to be lights set on a hill. We are to have homes that are examples to the world of Holiness and Godliness. We must not partake of the bread of this world. We must be like Jesus when He was tempted with bread in the wilderness. He said, “I don’t live by that.” And we must say this, too, in our hearts, oh Daughters of Zion. We don’t live by this world or the things that are in this world. We live out of our wombs. We produce, we create … we are fruitful. We produce spiritually and physically as Sarah did. Even in her old age, she produced fruit.

We are to be as trees planted by the water. The water is Jesus Christ. And as we are planted beside Him, we can do great things.

We are not to be out in the world to satisfy the flesh. We are to stand beside the water and our roots are to drink deep of His supernatural power. We are not of this world. We don’t live by the dictates of the flesh … we live by the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave His life for us.

Inside us is a map that tells us how to make a home. We are keepers at home. And our opinions and our intuitions are usually right concerning the home. Yes, we submit to our husbands. But the home is our place of ministry … and, truly, if it ain’t alright with Mama, then it ain’t alright … concerning the home and family. Because this is her place of ministry and we are queens in our homes. We know certain things … our intuition tells us things. Our maps are like radar within us.

And we are to submit to our husbands always. And as Sarah obeyed Abraham and went with the king to be in his harem … we are her daughters as long as we are not afraid with amazement. But her husband was wrong and he moved out of fear. And many husbands make wrong decisions because they are afraid.

I do things that just blows Jim away sometimes and scares the pants off of him. And then he will overly protect me and forget what he is to do as a man. And he will try to take over my role. And of course, that’s a “no go” for me. I won’t sit and let him take care of me. And it’s very hard for me to rise up when someone is feeling sorry for me. I walk by a different set of drums, I know. But I am used to going ahead by faith. It was not always so, as you well know, but now Jim would do anything for me … and overdoes it sometimes.

We, as Daughters of the King, have a place to take authority. This authority may get interrupted when we get sick or the devil interrupts it. Or our husbands move out of fear as Abraham did. But we must get back up and regain our authority in the home.

As we labor to enter His rest and our place as Keepers at home, it pushes our husbands to take their role as heads of household. The Bible says that we are to win our husbands to the Lord with our good works. Our good works means our ministry as keeper at home. The Lord doesn’t call the woman out of the home to have a ministry. Her ministry is at home … this is where she follows God and learns to be a faith warrior for Christ. As a mother and wife is obedient to God, this pushes the husband under the Lord. She doesn’t do this by worrying over her husband … or naggin’ at him. She pulls husband under God’s authority by her own actions of obedience as keeper at home. As she puts her spiritual oars in the water and she bows low to Christ in humility … she pulls and pushes and moves in her spiritual water and goes on in God. Her husband is then pushed into the obedience to God. But her actions of righteousness win her husband to the Lord.

1 Peter 2 and 3 compares us to Christ as wives who are obedient to God’s calling. Jesus Christ pushed and pulled spiritually at the Cross. He labored to fight the good fight of obedience unto a cruel death. 1 Peter 3 says Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they will without the word be won by the conversation (actions) of the wives. What actions? Her actions as keeper at home. As she stays in her homemaking and keeps the home fires burning, then she breaks the power of darkness in her home.

As Christ, through His obedience, set the captive free, then we by our obedience break the powers of darkness in our homes. One obedient wife can turn the family’s world around through her homemaking. As we sweep the floor and as we fix a meal, we are pushing and pulling our oars in the water and causing our spiritual boat to move on across the water to victory. We fight the good fight through our homemaking, through our obedience to God. We move in a silent obedience. Not looking from side to side but with our eyes upon Him.

Wisdom doesn’t look at evil. Wisdom looks at God. She looks at the victory in Christ. She looks at a healed family, if only through the visions in her heart. She looks well to the ways of her household and doesn’t eat the bread of idleness. Mother is a Queen and she opens her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is the LAW of kindness. Strength and honor are her clothing and she rejoices in the time to come. Mother is a strong and gentle woman of faith and the Lord crowns her with joy and peace. Her own works … not her own mouth … praise her in the gates.

Oh, Daughters of Zion, yield yourselves to His righteousness and trust in Him.

About canning potatoes …

I just wouldn’t waste my canning jars on potatoes. You dig your potatoes up in the fall and they will last about 3 months. Then, around here, potatoes are cheap in the winter. I can buy them for like 3 bucks for 20 pounds. Since they are so cheap, I don’t even waste garden space on them.

Now, as far as storing your garden potatoes. Just put them in cardboard boxes or in baskets. You want to keep them dry and cool while in storage. I mean, don’t put them in deep boxes, but just like 5 deep or so. Then just check them when you grab some for a meal. If any are soft, then take them out and throw them on the compost pile. The old timers used to keep potatoes all fall and winter. But you have to check ‘em and keep them dry and cool.

Then, Kelly, you said that you planted a lot of peppers. I love peppers, too, and plant a lot of them. Now, to store them, I just clean them and slice them and put them in freezer bags for the freezer. I have always been happy with the results. Peppers seem to freeze well. Of course, you can’t use them in salads or anything like that after frozen. But I use my peppers all fall and winter in chill and all kinds of soups and stews. A gallon freezer bag of peppers lasts me a long time. But I just eat raw peppers in season, during the summer.

One way I have dried the hot little red peppers? In the fall I just take the bush up by the roots and hang the whole bush up some place on a nail with the little red peppers still on it. And the little peppers will just dry on the bush. The big green peppers are too big to dry whole. But you can clean and slice these and thread them with a needle and thread and hang them up to dry.

And don’t be discouraged if one of the peppers you hung up rots. Just pull it off and throw it away. I have a lot of stuff that rots and I have to dump it. But you are learning to be a housewife. Be patient with yourself and see what works best for you. And, heck, if ya wanna can potatoes, then Go for it … more power to ya. But, to me, I would just save my jars for canning tomatoes.

I use more tomatoes than any other vegetable in our house. We love them and dump them in a lot of stuff, even macaroni and cheese. And if your family really loves peppers with tomatoes, then put a lot of the peppers in your tomatoes and they will all can up just fine. I put basil in my tomatoes, too, and sometimes onions.

Right now, I have a bucket of horseradish outside my back door to make relish with today. Papa dug it up to get it out of my garden space. But it will all grow back. I just take the roots and clean them like you would a carrot. Then I put it all in my blender in chunks and put white vinegar over it, and salt, and chop it all up, and put it in a jar and seal it. I will just make 2 quart jars. Just take the jars and put them in a pan of water with the canning lids and let them come to a boil. Then, after your relish is done, just put it quickly in the jar while it is very hot. Then the lid will seal on the jar, or it should. But the vinegar will keep it preserved.

I have tasted horseradish in a lot of mustards lately from the store. Or if we have gone out to eat, I have tasted it in coleslaw and potato salad and other salads. I think it must be a popular flavor lately. I like mine on sandwiches. But if can get away with it this summer, I will sneak it in some potato salad. Papa don’t like me messin’ with his potato salad. So I will have to carry a gun in my apron pocket on the day I put horseradish in Papa’s potato salad … Just kidding!! But Papa may actually like it and then he will shower me with kisses.

Also, my Jim loves my bread and butter pickles. So I will save my canning jars for them, too. Then we will buy some fresh corn and I will freeze some of that.

Yesterday, as we were visiting with Jim’s older sister, she talked about her Mother and Daddy and their old family home. The whole family loved to sing together after supper in the evening. This was in the old days, as Jim is next to the youngest and the twelfth child, and he is almost 65. Mona said, “Mama and Daddy sang a song to us children that made us cry.” Mona thought a minute, as we sat around her dining room table, and then she sang the song to Jim and me and her husband John. It was a song maybe written in the 1930s. It was about a man who was given a paper that said his wife wanted a divorce. And how sad he felt that his wife didn’t love him anymore. And Mona, who is in her 70s, said that, as her mom and dad sang this song together in the evening, the children cried.

Back then, ya know, folks didn’t divorce. And in Jim’s neighborhood, there were many big families. One family who lived by them had fifteen children … another had fourteen … and one had eleven. So a divorce was almost unheard of back then.

Mona also told about Jim as a child. He had some sort of a spinal problem and couldn’t sit up, even at a year old, and would have convulsions. But Jim’s dad was a Christian and he prayed. And the Lord led him to a chiropractor. Well, back then these doctors weren’t taken seriously at all. So Jim’s dad was very leery, but they had no other answer. So Jim’s dad took Jim to the chiropractor and the doctor worked on Jim’s spine, at a year old, and Jim was healed.

Jim’s dad had ulcers, too, and the doctor helped him get rid of them, too. And I don’t think the doctor even charged him. But back then, chiropractors were considered quacks. And they would have to work on folks for free, until they got the confidence of some of the town’s folks.

Jim’s dad was such a good man and was kind to everyone. When he died in his late 50s, the school was closed so that all the children could go to his funeral. Mama Hultquist never got over losing her husband, as she had just given birth to her last child and he was only a year old, and Jim was 8. Mom Hultquist was only 39 when she lost her husband. She never married again and went on to raise the rest of her children. She had gotten married at about 14 and had her first child at 15. She never knew another man and, when her husband died, then in a way she did, too.

And I am so glad to say that Jim is the only man I have ever known. And if anything should happen to my husband, I would probably die then, too. Marriage is to be to one man for life … until death. And, no, I am not condemning anyone who has been married and divorced and remarried. My mentor Mary L, now 74, has been divorced and remarried as a Christian. And if it were not for her, I wouldn’t be here writing right now. She has prayed for me and brought me up spiritually. But the Bible says we are to stay married for life.

For some of you who struggle with your marriage, I just want to encourage you to hang on. Ya know, Annie has often said that the parents who divorce and find a new spouse will say that the Lord led them to be happy with a new spouse. But, like Annie says, what about the children? How do they feel? The children, in most cases still love their daddy, no matter what he has done.

I dunno. But I know I will never forget that song as Mona sang it to us yesterday. And she told how the children all cried as they heard their Mama and Daddy sing about those divorce papers. Their little hearts broke as they thought of families being broken up like that.

What a story and example this story is to us! We, too, must teach our children to be tender in heart and that we must forgive each other and be longsuffering towards one another. We as family members all make mistakes, but at home we should be forgiven, if no where else.

Let us today come to Christ as tenderhearted children touched by forgiveness, longsuffering and a deep love of family.

Boy, yesterday was busy. I had the Baby and she didn’t nap all day. And Jim and I took her to my mother’s house, as I help with the vacuuming and the wash for my mom. (She is elderly.) Baby Rose loves Great-Grandma Brady. I know Baby is such fun for Mom. But, boy, am I tired this morning!

As I prayed this morning before I came to the email machine, the Lord showed me why I was so undone. I have had such a spirit of worry and the homemaking spirit has eluded me. Ya know, if you don’t have the homemaking spirit and you are neck deep in family, you will feel like a slave? You will feel overwhelmed and undone.

We Moms used to say that the homemaking spirit was like a greased pig. You could barely get ahold of it and it sneaks away from ya. But the wise woman, the virtuous woman, knows how to retain it and allow it to produce much fruit. The Bible says that we are saved in childbearing. Meaning saved on this earth. Child bearing has to do with everything that concerns the child and the home. Such as being a keeper at home and submitting to husband. Godly submission is submission to husband, homemaking, and child bearing and child care.

May the Lord forgive me, as I haven’t been very submissive lately. Papa, in the middle of yesterday, buys strawberries that needed to be cleaned and fresh corn to fix for supper. I ask him how I was to do all of that — with my third arm? Baby was just into everything yesterday and no nap. Papa was so sweet and did clean the corn and do the strawberries. He has worked like a dog, too, lately. He has had a lot of outside work to do in the yard. And I am, this morning, ashamed of myself for speaking in such a haughty way to him.

And ya know, we have this family friend … a young man about 39. If he sees Jim and me outside sitting with the Baby, he will come by. I keep him wondering all the time, as his wife works and yet she was brought up to be a stay at home mother. As he talks to Jim and me, he continually weighs his life against ours. He is a house husband part of the time, but his wife brings in most of the income. And his children are young and seem to be no worse for the wear. And he continues to wonder, “So what’s the big deal about a stay at home mother?”

He says his wife’s mother wasn’t that great of a housekeeper. And I told him, no, that’s because the old time mothers did more than pick up the house. They sewed and gardened and canned their food. They had many children and did a lot of the washing by hand. They did a lot more than today’s working woman. Well, he agreed with that. And yet I thought, “So what is the difference and why do I work so danged hard to be a keeper at home?”

And I think it all comes back to the heart … to the soul. If you believe in abortion and birth control, usually this will set the tone for your life. It all has to do with how important are the children? Are they replaceable? Is one kid the same as another one, anyway, and killing a few don’t matter?

A Mother’s lift off in her soul comes out of her womb. Is it dead or is it alive? Even at my age of almost 60, is my womb dead or alive? Sarah’s was alive and so was Elisabeth’s. And I think this is where our homemaking spirit lives … it’s in the inner court where we submit to our priest, our husbands, and to our callings as keepers at home.

If you are today having trouble with feeling like the household slave, then look to your inner court. What’s goin’ on in there? In your inner court, what do you think about your children or your husband? The homemaking spirit can’t flow out of a hard bitter heart, or a heart that rejects husband and children. Our inner court and our wombs are very sensitive to our spirits. If our spirits are haughty, then we feel a grief in our spirits.

We must flow with God’s Spirit of fruitfulness and homemaking. And as we do, then the children will flow also in obedience to mother and father.

And I have asked the Lord why I got so off the wall lately as I was writing about Homesteading. Why did I somehow stop midstream and couldn’t go on? And the Lord showed me this morning as I prayed.

Homesteading is a deeper calling into our roles as virtuous women, as powerful women of God. The homesteading is the wisdom of God. And it will break every fetter that binds your family. It’s a deeper calling of God and to His anointing. And God knows, we ain’t gonna make it without God’s Holy anointing.

How many women live on the street right now or have lost their children to the State Welfare system because they didn’t know how to make a home?

Well, I need to stop for now. But I will get back to this.

Yesterday was so busy at our house. We had Baby Rose and Papa was off work. He mowed the lawn and did a bunch of errands while I cared for Rose inside. It rained on and off all day, so Baby couldn’t play outside. Then later on, we went to the Dollar Store with the baby after her nap. Papa bought her a cute sundress and Mary Jane black canvas shoes for summer. Later at almost 6:00, her Mama came to pick her up.

I was so tired and couldn’t wait to get supper over with and rest. I laid on the couch and read some books. I was overly tired. And Papa … oh, Papa sat in his chair and flipped through the channels of the TV … he finally landed at “Leave it to Beaver.” Then he went to bed very tired, too.

Earlier in the evening, as I was resting, I said to Jim, “Oh, Papa, you give me such peace and rest.”

He is such a good man now and is always looking after me and my children and grandchildren. So often, he says to me, “Do you have enough money in your purse? Do you need some money?”

I always say, “Papa, I have enough. Don’t give me anymore.” He always gives me some of his tips when he gets home from work.

As I laid on the couch last evening, enjoying the peace of my home, I thought, “Connie, how much would you pay for this peace you have here?” And I thought, “Man, ya can’t put a price on the peace of God in your home.” The world can’t give ya this peace that passeth understanding. It comes from being obedient to God when the rest of the world laughs at ya and thinks you are nuts.

And ya never arrive or get there to that place on earth where you have made your bed and can now lay in it. I build my spiritual wilderness home every day, just like you all do. The devil is always standing in back of me, breathin’ fire down my neck. But, as I am older, I now know that he ain’t nobody. When I was a young mother, I would get scared of the devil. But after many victories and tests of my faith, I know that Satan is a loser and I am always victorious in Christ.

Each day is a new day … a new battle and a new victory. And the victories come quicker as I have experienced many wins in my life of spiritual battles. I know His voice better and I act on it quicker. If I have some ailment, I pray about it, and then I hear His voice say, “Connie, you are healed in the mighty name of Jesus.” And I am quicker to receive my healing.

And ya know, Papa does everything for me. I am like a spoiled brat sometimes. Papa’s legs were hurting yesterday as he mowed the lawn. He stopped several times to rest. I went out to him and told him that I could mow the lawn and to let me do it. He said, “Get back in the house. I can do it.” I argued with him that he was tired and I didn’t mind. But Papa wouldn’t hear of it. He babies me a lot, but the Lord calls me so to write and I couldn’t, if it were not that I had a peace concerning Papa. If he hurts my feelings over something, he is truly torn until he makes it right with me. And I am the same way. I can’t bear to hurt him.

And to think that at one time my life was a living nightmare, and that was 25 years ago. Papa proved what I write to be true … if you don’t give up you will see His glory. I have seen the miracles and I know that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him. And now the Lord protects me with arms like iron bars so that I can write to you all what the Lord did for me. I almost sit in an ivory tower to write the wonders of God. I am less and less in the world and more and more at my writing. It seems the Spirit of God is urgent within me to write His heart.

Continue, dear hearts, to be obedient in Him and to seek His peace that passeth understanding.

PEACE OF MIND

And ya know, I used to have to run this popsicle stand all by myself. I paid all the bills and cared for all the worries of the home. But now, 25 years later, I don’t know the difference between a light bill and a gas bill. I haven’t opened a bill in probably 20 years.

Jim takes care of all of the business of our home. After he was healed, I gave him the checkbook and told him to go for it. It nearly killed me but I did it by faith. When I would get new checks, folks would say, “Don’t put his name on the checks.” But I would, by faith. I wouldn’t back up on my faith. And we had a lot of financial setbacks as Papa learned to be a man and take care of us. I learned some hard lessons in submission. But I had the children to care for and I couldn’t worry over the money all the time.

Now, some of you wives are like a secretary to your husband and he needs you to pay the bills and I understand that. But, ya know, our lives were different than that and Papa really didn’t know how to pay bills. But he learned pretty quick as I gave him the responsibility and showed him that I trusted the Lord and I trusted him. And I mean, some men really don’t want to be bothered with paying bills, even though they are good providers. But some men want to spend money they don’t have, and then the wife is left holding the bag and answering phone calls from bill collectors. And this is the kind of situation that, if the husband will take the responsibility to pay the bills, then you as his wife should give him the job.

It’s hard, at first, as everyone has to learn to be organized in their bill payin’. But I am glad I went by faith concerning Papa bein’ the head of the house. I have had many years of peace because of this act of faith. If I get mail that has Jim’s name on it, as all the bills are in his name, I never even look at it. I just stack it beside his chair and he pays the bills. He growls about it sometimes, as the bills keep going up, but I just act polite and sympathetic. But that is Papa’s job and I never interfere. And I have written maybe five checks, at the most, in the past 25 years … more like probably two?

In the early years, I almost had probably five strokes, I would get so upset over money. My face would drag on one side and I would be almost numb. And God knows I didn’t have the money to go to a doctor. I would tell Jim, “Honey, I am numb on my side.”

He would say, “Huh? Oh, you will get over it.”

One day, I said, “That’s it. I am not going to die from worry.” I laid that burden down and never picked it up again. And I don’t live by money … I live by faith. God’s system of trade is faith.

Like Kelly said once, “Don’t ever make decisions concerning the Lord by how much money you have in your pocket.” Just listen to the Lord and make decisions as you are led of His voice.

And this is how you find peace is, by listening and obeying His voice. Oh, I know the road of nerve pills and being depressed. But the Lord will lead you to peace as you trust in Him.

Happy is the woman who trusts in the Lord.

I know some of my homestead writings to some of you lately are over the top. And yet I feel a real calling to write this stuff. I feel such a calling to leave something behind … my footprints in the sand, I guess.

I know that I am a cook who moves by inspiration and not usually by a recipe. But the pioneer mothers didn’t have all the right ingredients all the time, either. In the summer I used to go out to my garden at supper time, and whatever I had a lot of, that was supper for the night. Once Jim grew these carrots that were fat as sweet potatoes. I had to take an ax to ‘em to get them cut in half, but once boiled, they were good. I mean, a girl has to do what a girl has to do.

Well, I raised six children, and they were all well and healthy and still are. All of them are on the thin side and Jim is, too. So when I write about the Pioneer Mothers some of the writings are a lot “me.”

I don’t write recipes I have never tried. Well, I don’t write recipes, anyway. When I first learned to cook as a young bride of 19, I used the recipes. But over the years, you learn how to cook and then you know what you can do with a recipe. When I had all of my children at home and little groceries, I just decided I would make it, one way or the other, and I did.

And my children will tell you the funniest stories you ever heard about some of the meals I put together. Christian Joy loves to tell about bringing her boyfriend home for supper. I had just one can of green beans for a vegetable. So I just put three beans on David’s plate … he was about 7 or 8. So he ate his beans. I mean, I had a lot of other food out, too. But, anyway, he asks if he can have more beans and I said yes. And he went in the kitchen and got three more beans. But, like I said, we had a lot of other cheap food out, too. But Christian’s boyfriend didn’t know this and will never forget it. Christian Joy and I love to laugh. And I think she just brought friends home to supper so she could laugh later at their expressions.

Also, I had a friend I went to school with, Janice. She came from a family of seven children. They were having company, and so the mother told the children not to ask for seconds, as she didn’t want to be embarrassed about not having enough. So after the dinner was over, the children licked their plates. The mother, of course, was embarrassed to pieces. She was a dear old Catholic mother and was mortified that her children licked their plates.

But, ya know, we as mothers have to learn to laugh at ourselves and our problems and go on. Yet a lot of what I write is serious and may help some dear mother in the by and by, long after I am happily dead and on to my reward.

The family joke, too, was that Mom started out every meal with a pound of hamburger and went on from there. I remember once Christian Joy inviting someone to dinner and she ran out in the kitchen as I am frying the hamburger. As she looked into the fryin’ pan, she says, “I hope this is goin’ somewhere, Mom. I really do.” And I said, “It is, Christian Joy, don’t worry.”

Sometimes the kids would be embarrassed at what I put on the table, especially if we had company. But then, often, we would all break out laughing and it was a meal we never forgot.

Jim would get sick of all of us and he would bang his fist on the table and yell “Eat!” Dan loves to tell the story now that when Papa yelled “Eat,” their milk glasses would rise into the air about a foot and the children learned to catch them in midair.

Sometimes I had to pretend I had dropped something under the table so I could hide my laughing face.

One time, Mary had a friend over for “Tuna Casserole.” Patty said she loved Tuna Casserole. Well, I forgot the tuna or I didn’t have any to put in … I cant remember. And later Patty said, “That was good Tuna Casserole but it didn’t have any tuna in it.”

And so go the tales … in the life here at the Hultquist Homestead.

It’s early Sunday morning. I thought I would just write some more about my Homestead Pantry. When I first wrote about my pantry yesterday, I had written in the subject line “Homestead Panty.” Oh, I am so glad I caught that! I would never live that down. Annie would tease me for the rest of my life.

Anyway, I wanted to write about Granola. When I was raising my houseful of children, I used to make this a lot. It’s so much cheaper than the breakfast cereal at the store. I made my Granola with whatever I had in the cupboard. If I only had the oatmeal, then that’s all I used. You have to have the “Old-Fashioned Oatmeal” and not the instant or the quick cooking kind. I would take a cup of honey and a cup of oil, put it in a saucepan, and let it come to a boil. Soon as it is good and mixed up and has just come to a boil, then pour it over about 6 cups of oatmeal. Now, if ya have walnuts or any kind of nuts, or sunflower seeds … put them in, and some coconut if the kids will eat it. Put in wheat germ or whatever in it. Don’t put in any dried fruit until after you bake it.

Then I would just bake my granola in a big roasting pan. I like something big that I could stir my granola as it baked. If ya have a lot of Granola, just put the oven on about 300 degrees until the oatmeal is golden brown. If you want cinnamon in it, put the cinnamon in the honey and oil when you boil it. After it was done and cooled, I stored my Granola in a big gallon glass jar.

Sometimes I made my granola with brown sugar and margarine if I ran out of honey and oil. I would put in a pan, a cup of brown sugar and a cup of margarine (butter would be better). Just stir this up and bring this just to a boil. And toss this over your Granola and mix it up good. Anyway, I would make Granola with about anything. When it is done and out of the oven, then just add raisins or dried chopped fruit of any kind. I have dried my own apples, also, and put this in my Granola.

But the recipe, if I knew how to give one, would be about 6 cups of dried stuff like oatmeal and nuts, etc. to 1 cup of oil and honey boiled first. I have put peanut butter in the honey, also … about a half a cup … then reduce the oil to a half cup.

My children would eat this with milk on it for breakfast. I used this granola for other things, too. Like I would add it to bread or cookies. Once it is made, you can think of a lot of stuff to do with it. You could top ice cream with it, or muffins. Or put it in yogurt. I like the idea of Granola because you can make a lot and it lasts a long time.

Granola is like fleas on a dog … fleas for a dog keeps the dog itchin’ and forgetting he is a dog. And granola keeps your kids chewin’ and forgetting about getting into trouble. If you can get your kids hooked on Granola, they will be quiet for at least a half hour … just a-chewin’ and a-chewin’. Granola don’t slip down your throat like the puffy sugary stuff from the store. And if you put plenty of walnuts and big chewy nuts like pecans in your Granola, the longer it will take for the children to chew it up. I mean, I wouldn’t give this stuff to children under 3 … not how I make it … with all the nuts. But just plain with oatmeal and raisins, they could eat it, under 3.

And ya know, we Hippies in the 70s made Oatmeal Cookies the same way, with just about anything. We put in so much healthy stuff that to feed your child oatmeal cookies for breakfast was a good idea. We used a lot of honey and not sugar in our baking. Also a lot of fruit. I would make my oatmeal cookies with cut up apples in them … raisins, peanut butter, and sunflower seeds. And you could buy honey pretty cheap back then.

I used to use a lot of sorghum in my baking. (That’s like molasses.) Honey around here is so expensive now. But I used to buy a half gallon jar for about 4 bucks. I used to make Honey Tea for my children. Just a cup of warm water and a tablespoon of honey.

HIPPIES AND COOKING SHOWS

I was born in the late 1940s, went to high school in the 60s. But I hated the 60s and somehow had my day in the sun in the radical 1970s. My kids can’t figure that out … none of us can. Then Papa was born in 1940 and he had his day in the 1950s and the Elvis era. So he kinda lives out of the 50s, at times, and I live out of the 1970s. So, many times there is a generation gap between us. He has no understanding of hippies and flower children. He wouldn’t drink a cup of herb tea if you gave him a million dollars. Sometimes he looks at me in my long flowered cotton skirt and bare feet and shakes his head. He knows he loves me … but I think at times he wonders why?

My girls sort of run back to the 1970s styles, too. Dan likes to wear the old Harley Davidson shirts from the 70s. Papa can’t figure any of it out.

Also, I wanted to write about the cooking shows I have been watching lately on the Food Channel. Ya know, I think there is a lot of good in them. And if any of you don’t have the first idea on how to cook, I think these instructors are really good. As I have watched them for a few months, I have learned a lot. I don’t watch the men. I just can’t hack that one worldly guy … ick. But many of the ladies, especially Paula, have a lot of good ideas. I love watching Paula, especially.

But one problem I have with it all is that those cooks don’t cook frugally or from scratch. One lady was making cinnamon rolls from a dough she got at the store. She put the dough in the fridge for 2 hours to get cold enough to handle it and make it into cinnamon rolls. Heck fire, I could have made a pan of rolls by then, and been eating them by the time she got hers out of the fridge. And once she got her dough rolled up, she had to throw each end off because it wasn’t as pretty as the other slices. But ya know, if I couldn’t cook at all, I would be watching these shows to learn the basics. But after you learn the basics, it’s good to learn to bake and cook from scratch.

It’s nice if you have a food processor and a big kitchen mixer but you don’t have to have them. All I use to make my bread is a big bowl and a spoon. And sometimes, if I am in a hurry, I will just knead my bread right in the bowl and I don’t even make a mess on my table with the floured surface to knead it. The Pioneer Mothers didn’t even have electricity. And all they had for power was “woman power” and elbow grease. And those women made at least seven loaves of bread a week and sometimes more.

And I laugh at these jokers on TV that say your cooking stove has to be perfect before you can bake anything. Mercy! Think of the Pioneer Mothers who had to figure out their old wood burning stoves. Sometimes, right in the middle of baking a cake, the fire would die down and she would have to know when to add more wood. That was the most unpredictable, uneven heat you could think of. But Mother used her skills and knew how to run her stove. She would output her cheese on the back of the stove, as it was cooler there and just right for the cheese to brew. She knew which part of her stove was the hottest for her fried potatoes. Or she used the top where the warming ovens were to keep the biscuits warm. Mother was keeper at home and she used the stove her husband gave her to make what she needed.

Remember my old stove, Annie? That I had to bake everything on 500? Well, I used that thing for over a year. It did finally blow up and the oven caught on fire. “Nice goin’, Connie, you nearly blew the house up.” Well, I shudda been watchin’ it more closely. My dog who was 15 had just died, and I forgot about the stove. I was heart sick for Daisey. I miss her, even now. But that’s no excuse. I shudda been watchin’ my stove. And if your stove don’t work right, you can still bake in it, but be sure to watch it? My stove would heat up to the highest temp it could go and not stop. So if I was makin’ a cake, I had to know when to shut the oven OFF.

Good Morning.

Yesterday I was writing about homesteading and going back to the land. One thing I was trying to caution my readers about is not biting off more than they can chew.

I know one time, I read an article in Crowned with Silver about a dear Mother who nearly died from overwork. She had these dreams of moving to a farm with her large homeschooling family. Cooking from scratch and having goats and chickens. Well, she wasn’t prepared for any of this and way overdid it. She and her children got the flu and, because of being so stressed, it took a long time for them to all get well again. Her garden was way too large and she couldn’t care for it. So, of course, the city women mocked her and told her that she could never make a go of it on the land.

Well, ya know, slow and steady wins the race. If you have a small garden in town and can’t keep up with it, then don’t try to go to the country and plow up a big garden and add animals to care for to the work. Judge yourselves by what you have done with your small garden in the city. If you have outgrown your city garden, then you are ready to get a bigger garden.

I say all of this to say again, “Make hay while the sun shines.” Prepare yourselves now for the coming harder times ahead. Do what you can to learn survival skills. At different times in my marriage over the past 40 years, I have had to do many things to survive and to keep my family from going under. I was prepared with knowledge and I was glad I was.

Ok, now let’s say I have my Homestead and I am preparing to move in about a month. Again, it is the spring, like now. I would want to stock my pantry so that I would only have to go to town once a month. I will be busy with gardening and children and won’t have time to leave the Homestead more than once a month. So this is basically what I would buy.

I would buy a lot of canned vegetables, fruits, and meats. I am shooting for total self sufficiency but I am not there yet. I will be canning tomatoes out of my garden in the fall. Until then, I will need some canned items. So I will buy as many canned items as I can until I learn, gradually, to replace them all with homemade. So I will buy the canned items that I think I could grow in my garden. Such as canned green beans, peas, and corn, etc.

Ok, Papa’s coffee … a big can! I am imagining that I have big shelves in my Homestead Pantry. I would use large glass jars to store macaroni, rice, dried beans, oatmeal, cornmeal, and bread flour. This way, you always know at a glance if you need more beans or whatever. You just can’t beat the big tight lidded glass jars for storage.

Then, of course, you need other baking supplies like shortening, yeast, baking powder and soda for biscuits. And if ya can’t make biscuits, learn now as they come in mighty handy for a big family supper of gravy and biscuits. Now, for me, I use the gravy mixes from Aldies. We don’t eat a lot of meat and so I need these mixes to put in soups, etc. for flavor. I can make my own soup stock and can it, too. And eventually, if I needed to, I could again.

I will bring a bottle of ketchup to my homestead but will make many jars of it the coming fall with my homegrown tomatoes. Then, of course, you will need big bins in your pantry to store potatoes. I would also buy a lot of canned milk and instant milk. I would buy maybe 6 gallons of fresh milk for the month and can some of this to last the month. I have canned milk before and I know how.

So this is basically it. Jim is up and I need to go fix breakfast.

I would have a freezer and extra fridge my first year of homesteading if I could swing it. As ya need eggs and meat before you get your flock of chickens established. But eventually, I would want to can the meat and have a dugout for cold things.