The bridge to my house.
Cold days of winter have really set in now. Our house is kept warm by the bustling of the wood stoves. One in the living room and one in the kitchen. The one in the kitchen is a wood cook stove. The heating stove in the living room is huge. It was here when we moved here. A monster really, but I love it. It will hold four of the big granite ware canners on it's top and still have room for two more pans. I cook on it quite often. We heat water on it every day.
I have a friend who thinks to be a homesteader, you have to heat with wood. No, you really don't. I do. But that is my choice. This house had no other heating system in it when we moved here. We wanted to use wood anyway, so it was perfect for us. But you don't have to. No rules in homesteading. Do what you want to do. That is what is so great about it. If you want to raise animals...........go ahead. I don't. My animals are all pets. No food animals for us. Unless we add some chickens, which we talk about it on and off. I can always buy plenty of home raised eggs around us. I really love chickens though. A hen house of a few Rhode Island Reds would be perfect for me.
Many times, I see that others will try to sway you to do things their way. That is human nature I guess. I don't drink, yet I had friends who would always try to get me to drink because they did. Same with smoking. And I have even had people try to get me to eat what they are eating when they know I don't eat sugar or bread. Human nature I guess. I wonder if animals do the same thing? Of course, I know horses don't do that. They are selfish. The more they can eat before the others get to that hay pile the better!
This post seems like a rambling of sorts. The reason is that I am working on a way to build a frugal shopping list that will cover those menus I made a few posts back. And still be frugal. The grocery stores are killing me. The prices even in the cheap ones are out of sight. So I am trying to come up with a good plan and be able to do a good useful post for my readers.
I hope everyone is enjoying the first week of the new year. Time to take stock and make those changes I talked about last year. Now is the time!
Copyright © 2010 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2010 Kathleen G. Lupole
for all those summer time activities. I know I should be outside doing some of those things. But I usually end up working on my computer for a good share of the day. My friend has invited us up to her new house for a 
and
. But I do need to get some work done. And with the price of gas, being what it is, I have to try to conserve those trips.
seem to sleep all day when the weather is nice. I have a cat or two that goes out hunting in the woods, but I think they might spend some of that time sleeping in a cozy spot in the woods. Our horses don't leave the barn. Maybe they go out and grab a mouthful of hay and come back. But in the cool weather or even in the winter, they are outside. Our
run and play in the snow. Our dog loves to race around in the snow. She is so content when there is snow on the ground. She lays down to chew a bone, while my husband shovels us out. The cats though, don't go out much in the winter.