TheReturnHomestead

Making Pecan Pie, arguably the world's sweetest pie, without sugar is not so hard. As the new year begins, add this recipe to your resolution. The resulting pie is delightful. Americans have gotten lazy with our use of sugar to sweeten EVERYTHING. There are other ways to make a quality desert. If you struggle with finding diabetic-friendly deserts, give this a try.Making Pecan Pie, arguably the world's sweetest pie, without sugar is not so hard. As the new year begins, add this recipe to your resolution. The resulting pie is delightful. Americans have gotten lazy with our use of sugar to sweeten EVERYTHING. There are other ways to make a quality desert. If you struggle with finding diabetic-friendly deserts, give this a try.

Building your own headboard is the fastest and best option in 2023. Visiting any furniture store to purchase a headboard will leave you confused and impatient when you find out how long you must wait. Our solution integrates the bed into the room. Rather than a bed that is set apart in the room, ours becomes an integral part of the room.

When you must have something sweet for dessert, try this recipe. As we approach the new year, many people renew their vows from last year to eat "better" but with little understanding of the "better" diet. As homesteaders, we are intensely focused on producing food that hopefully makes us healthier. They taste like ice cream! These little flavor explosions are intense enough that only two treats are all you need for dessert. Even if you prefer a high carbohydrate eating plan, these are a great treat.

Trees do not always fall the way you intend them to. A tiny piece of loose wood in the notch or an overcut face often creates a Dutchman. This creates a block in the notch that temporarily stops the notch from closing and prevents the bottom of the tree from moving. The top of the tree continues its fall, and the fulcrum of the trunk magnifies the force at the base of the tree until the trunk rips in two, starting at the bottom and shearing up the length of the tree. This catastrophe is called a barber chair, and it can lever the base of the tree straight up in the air 20 feet or more before it comes crashing down. Another dangerous situation to watch for is a tree getting hung up on other trees when it falls. Getting a cut tree to pull loose from the canopy requires careful attention and steady nerves.

Today, we are extracting flavors for use in the kitchen. Enhancing the pantry with a collection of flavor extracts for baking is easy at the grocery store, but what is in those little bottles? Who knows how the flavor in that grocery store bottle was produced. Some flavorings in the store are cheaply produced, meaning artificially flavored. We prefer natural flavorings produced by the foods they represent. Making these natural extracts is easier than running to the grocery store whenever the pantry is short on a flavor. We plan ahead so our pantry always has our favorite flavors in their most natural shelf-stable forms. __________________ Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Today, we provide high-level tips and tricks to make drywall muding fun. Spreading drywall mud is one of my favorite projects. No tape measure, level, or straight lines are required. Like an artist with a blank canvas, I get to tap into my creative side and bring smoothness and perfection to life. If it is not perfectly smooth, at least it is completely finished. Mudding is one of the most random parts of a remodel. This randomness presents many challenges, and today, we offer some tips and tricks for DIY'ing your drywall mud project.

In this video, Marti shows you creative gifting ideas that come from the pantry. The harvest is over, preserving continues, and Christmas arrives in 10 days! We have more spicey, citrusy, salty goodness in the pantry than we need. Extra food is not a problem; it is a gifting opportunity. Today, we turn spices and dried flavor bombs into a ready-to-use collection of salts and rubs for the year. _____________________ Redwood Highway by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Artist: http://audionautix.com/

Leaning trees are dangerous! This can happen with trees that are perfectly vertical as well. Sometimes, the trunk, especially if the tree's center is compromised, will be spilt up the middle. When a tree is leaning, the tension on the top side of the log and compression on the bottom rip the wood down the tree's center. As the trunk splits, the tension side of the log swings loose, snapping upward and shredding the wood. Cutting slowly and listening for any sounds of cracking is advised. Notch the compression side to prevent it from pushing up before releasing the tension with a back cut. Leaving a substantial hinge helps slow the release and control the fall, but too much hinge and energy can be released along the trunk instead. I should have gotten the larger saw for this cut. The larger saw would have opened the kerf faster and left a smaller hinge, possibly preventing the log from splitting.

Sometimes, we make it up as we go. When we removed the door to the bedroom, we knew we wanted a standard door replacement and not a mobile home door. The interior walls in this 2001 Fleetwood mobile home were built with 1x3. That means the wall is only two and a half inches wide, and the door we want to install is three and a half inches wide. While I suspected I could adjust the door framing to accommodate the thicker frame, I had no idea how that could be accomplished. In this video, we make building that frame look easy, correct the previously unsquared opening, and provide a secure frameset that will not shake, rattle, or wiggle whenever the door is closed. Banjo Short by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Artist: http://audionautix.com/

Our apples were not produced this year, so there was no apple pie jam. Substituting for the apples is easy on the homestead. Some simple store ingredients help us produce a delicious Carrot Cake Jam from our fall garden harvest. This seasonally appropriate-jam is fun and has no added sugar. For this recipe, we use Pomona's Pectin for quality jelling without added sugar. Our sugar substitute is a Monk Fruit / Allulose blend. Allulose is a sugar but a monosaccharide that does not impact blood glucose levels.

Other homestead projects have kept us from spending a lot of time on the lake. Getting tools down to the lake takes a lot of time. We drive more than half a mile on rough four-wheeler trails with two creek crossings to get to the lake from the house. Our summer was spent working the topside of the property with little attention given to the lake. Now the weeds are overgrown, and the sun has been cut off. The lake sits in the shadow of the cliffs and trees all winter long. We want access to the water, which means cutting the grass, and we want more sun on the water which means cutting trees. ___________________________ Back To The Wood by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Artist: http://audionautix.com/ Landras Dream by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Artist: http://audionautix.com/

At The Return Homestead, we have been on a carbohydrate fast for the last 3 months. We were looking for some specific health benefits from this experiment and were not disappointed. Eating nothing but meat and fat has been easier and less expensive than we expected. Having achieved some of our health goals, we want to introduce carbs slowly and only one at a time to see how well we tolerate them. This will inform our garden bed layout for next season and help spur our efforts to increase our protein and fat production on the homestead. Today is Thanksgiving, and a feast requires a quality dessert. Marti chose a low-carb cheesecake topped with cranberry jam. No added sugar. The result is as sweet and flavorful as any cheesecake, utilizing Monkfruit and Allulose as sweeteners. _________________ Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100270 Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Remodeling a house that has been moved during its life is always challenging. Walls that may have been square, plumb, and level are now crooked, leaning, and slanted. We like to adjust framing where possible, but eventually, we have to hang the drywall. When the left side of the wall is 1 inch shorter than the right, hanging a square piece of drywall is complicated. Careful measurements and cutting the drywall to match trues the wall to the framing. Taping and mudding are easier when no significant gaps need to be filled. Some of the finish work on the trim will get complicated, but we can get a solid wall that is easy to mud.

This is our third winter on The Return Homestead, and we are still building the systems and processes we need to be self-sufficient. This winter, our goal is to provide a warm house without purchasing firewood. While we have taken down a couple of large trees in the early spring, we will need more wood than that, and it will not be seasoned. The beech trees we have been taking down seem to burn well and provide good heat even though they are green and wet. We have some complications with maintaining a good draft on the chimney, but this is manageable once the fire is hot. We have many of these smaller young trees near the top of the property, and we need to start thinning them out. This labor-intensive collection requires a chainsaw, four-wheeler, trailer, splitting axe, and sweat.

We did not have the best fruit harvest this year. Most of our preserves have come from fruit we purchased from local farmers during the harvest, but Marti wants a few more pints of fruity goodness on the shelf. With the holidays approaching, she decided to make something unusual: Christmas Jam. I was initially skeptical, but once I tasted the result, I started my countdown to Christmas to have a whole jar. I plan to eat some at Thanksgiving, so I'm only a couple of days away.

We are rearranging the electrical on the end wall of our 2001 Fleetwood mobile home. I found the conductor that brings power from the breaker box. Now, I want to split that into 3 powered conductors and extend its reach about 2 feet. These 3 new circuits will power an outlet, fan, and repositioned vanity lighting fixture. Once you know where the wires get connected, the rest is easy.

Ok, yes, beats taste like dirt. Some less than others, like these Italian heirloom Chioggia Beats. Not only do they look like peppermint candy on the inside, but they are sweeter and less dirty than other beats. In fact, once these are pickled, the flavor is impressive. A few of these on a salad adds brightness in both color and flavor. We love them. Some research suggests that beats can lower blood pressure.

Remodels always seem to need the electrical system to be altered, adding lights, moving switches, and outlets. Once the wires are exposed inside the wall, and you know which ones are hot, these changes are not hard to make. Today we removed one light, added a new shower light, and built the circuit to bring it power.

The sweet potato harvest fell short of expectation, but we have plenty. They have cured and are stored in the pantry right now. Unfortunately, the pantry is a little dryer than they can tolerate and the potatoes are shriveling up. We don't want to loose this high quality food so we prepare them for long term storage in different ways. Today Marti is preparing potatoes 3 ways: Baked to freeze, boiled to freeze, and canned in syrup. Canning sweet potatoes without a pressure canner is not USDA approved, but it is a traditional way of preserving them. To be on the safe side, Marti processed the potatoes for two hours instead of one. —————- Landras Dream by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Not all trees are alike. Some of the smaller trees on our property will never grow for the 70+ years that the Hemlock we cut in a previous video did. Most will remain small and stunted for lack of sunlight. These smaller trees have spread out up top and create a curtain of leaves that limits our view. We want to be able to see more of our property from the front porch so these trees need to go. Chainsaw time! These trees are not wasted though. Some are a perfect size and straightness to make fence posts, and others are great for the fire place. Before they make heat though, I will have to hang off the edge of the cliff to cut them down. ___________________ All Good In The Wood by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Artist: http://audionautix.com/

This summer was amazing for tomato production on The Return Homestead. We collected tomatoes as fast as possible, and Marti quickly scored, cored, and froze them. Heading toward winter, we are still watching the growth of the fall garden. While we wait, it is a great time to get some tomatoes processed for long-term storage. Marti makes our sauce and processes it into jars with a water bath canner.

Our fireplace was used for the first time two years ago. Though we have no indication of problems for the coming year, a good cleaning will help ensure safe heat for the winter. We cleaned the chimney cleaned up the mess, and did a little maintenance on the fire place. We should be good to go for winter.

We had a very enjoyable day working the chainsaw to break down a pear tree on the neighbors property. The tree fell in the early Spring and is now well seasoned and ready to burn. This is a Bradford Pear which makes a lot of blooms, makes no fruit, and is considered an invasive species. It will burn though. This is a hardwood and should give us lots of heat this winter. __________________ Back To The Wood by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Artist: http://audionautix.com/

Remodels always seem to need the electrical system to be altered, adding lights, moving switches, and outlets. Once the wires are exposed inside the wall, and you know which ones are hot, these changes are not hard to make. Today we removed one light, added a new shower light, and built the circuit to bring it power.