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Simple Farmhouse Life
289. Expecting Baby #9! Farmhouse Build Delays, Family Rhythms, Sourdough Tips, More Q&A
00:57:40
Pregnancy updates, slow farmhouse progress, large family life, and real talk on sourdough, sleep, and routines
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- [00:00]
Lisa
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- [01:25]
Luke
Recent announcement, we are expecting baby number nine which is is so exciting. We had a little bit of a bigger gap this time than the last two or three times and it's not that I didn't think that we'd have another one, but I started to think, well, I guess things are slowing down, but I think it was really just the amount that Victor was nursing at that time. So once that decreased a little bit, we are now expecting again and so that is super exciting. Later this summer we'll be welcoming our next baby. My name is Lisa, mother of eight and creator of the blog and YouTube channel Farmhouse on Boone. On this podcast I like to talk about simplifying your life so you can live out your priorities. I help you learn how to cook from scratch and decorate on a budget through this podcast and my courses Simple Sourdough and the Simple Sewing Series. I also help people reach their goals from home through my business course, YouTube Success Academy. I will leave links to these resources in the show notes in Description box below. Now let's get into the show. Welcome back to this episode of the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast. I'm going to be doing another solo episode today, taking some of your frequently asked questions. I hope that you all have been enjoying the interviews we've been doing this year, a lot of repeat guests, so guests that you've already loved before bringing back on throughout this year to see how they're doing, maybe what's changed with the topic that they're talking about, what they've learned, how they've grown. And it has been really enjoyable for me because it's, you know, comfortable and easy to interview people that I've already interacted with a lot. So that's been very enjoyable. If you all missed my recent announcement, I shared over on my main YouTube channel that we are expecting baby number nine, which is so exciting. We had not really a bigger. Like, we had a little bit of a bigger gap this time than the last two or three times. And it's not that I didn't think that we'd have another one, but I started to think, well, I guess things are slowing down. But I think it was really just the amount that Victor was nursing at that time. So once that decreased a little bit, we are now expecting again. And so that is super exciting. Later this summer, we'll be welcoming our next baby. Unfortunately, we won't be in our new farmhouse yet, so we'll be living right here in town when we have the baby. I really wished that we were going to be out there, but I'm also really glad that we're having the baby when we are. I think I just hoped that we'd be in our house by September, not looking like that at all. Things are just. And everybody warned me this, that everything with building is slower and more expensive than you expect. And so far, that has been very much our experience. You can either chalk it up to poor planning or just the way things go. I know there are plenty of people who say, no, no, no. If you plan properly, you can stay perfectly on budget, but perfectly on timeline. I agree with that. However, I think you've had to build a couple times to really know what that even entails. I feel like we're learning everything just on the fly as we go as things are thrown at us. And I even tried to prepare. I would read through all of these timelines and like, okay. Cause I. You don't understand how little I know about this or did know. I feel like I. I know a lot now.
- [04:48]
Lisa
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- [06:21]
Unknown
The youth mental health crisis is all over the news and we know social media is driving it. This shocked me. Teens spend on average and nine hours a day on screens outside of school. That's basically a full time job just scrolling mindlessly. I know how easy it is to get sucked into social media. I can't even imagine as a teen because when I was a teenager I had a lot more free time, a lot more flexibility in my schedule. Today there's very few moments where I can get sucked in, but even those few moments can totally pull me in. So I just can't even imagine being young and vulnerable and having that temptation. Here's the good news. A company called Gab has solved the problem by doing something no one else is doing. Their approach is tech in steps. Tech and Steps works by providing a kid safe phone and watch for every agent stage. Basically the right device at the right time. So what does this look like? First off, Gab devices have no social media or Internet apps. For younger kids they have a watch with GPS tracking and safe zones for tweens, a starter phone with more features like monitored messaging and video calling. And finally for teenagers, an Advanced phone with features like parent managed apps and a premium camera. Bottom line, you don't have to give your kid a device that was made for an adult. Get them Gab, which keeps them socially connected safely. We love having a gab ph. Luke and I go on date nights. The older kids have a few things they do independently where it's really nice when they can reach us. But I don't have to worry about them filling their minds with just the endless amount of information and commentary and all of the things of the Internet. I can't recommend Gab enough. Use our code to get the best deal on something that will make parenting easier and give you peace of mind. Protecting your kids has never been easier. For the best deal, sign up to Gab today. No contract required@gab.com SFL that's gab gabb.gab.com SFL terms and conditions apply.
- [08:10]
Luke
I was reading through, like, what happens before? Which thing? Like, I. I knew nothing about this. And we were taking very raw land that had no driveway, no infrastructure, no, well, no electricity, no nothing on it, and making it into our home sites. We even had to go as far as deciding which field our house would be in. I mean, it wasn't like there was one obvious spot. There was sort of one best spot that stood out. But we walked the whole property twice and we, you know, we had to decide, okay, this would be the spot to put the house. And then deciding where to put the driveway. There was about 12 options for that. We could have gone through one field. We could have gone around this way. We could have gone up this way. And so even all of that was sort of a big deal. And then just everything. And if you've built, I'm sure you're like, yes, this is just par for the course. Like, oh, it was a colder winter than average. It was a wetter spring than average. When is it not? There's always something. And so I am just trying to be real patient about this whole process, knowing that we're likely, unless something big happens, never moving again. So, you know, in the grand scheme of things, this won't be a huge, huge deal. I think if you would have told me last April when we bought this property that we would be sitting where we are right now with just the amount of progress that we've had, I would have probably been disappointed. But as we're, you know, one foot in front of the other walking this journey, I, in some ways, and I'm not just saying this, I do in some ways appreciate how it's unfolded just because there are so many decisions to be made and so many things to find. And I thought it would be this very quick thing where all of a sudden it's like. And this might still be all sudden. It's like, get this, get this, get this. Like, we have to have all these things right now. But so far, it has just been like, okay, we need to talk about this, and then we'll move through that, and then we need to talk about this. There hasn't been this whirlwind of decisions where I kind of thought maybe once things got going, that would happen. And like I said, we could still be on the cusp of that, and if I were to build again, I would know all about all of this. But right now, I'm green. I know nothing, and I'm learning every single day. And I'm just amazed at the amount of decisions that have to be made. I think before we embarked on this building process, I thought when people said, you have to make so many decisions, I was picturing, like, cabinet color and what light fixtures and which flooring. Those are the least of my concerns. It's like the big, big things, like, well, first, like, where's the house going and how are you getting to it? Then where's the wall going and where's the little drain field going for your. Your septic? And then we're doing a barn as well. Where's the barn going? And we're doing a detached garage. So figuring out, like, the spacing, and you set it back against the woods, do you put it up, lined up to the house? You know, the placement of every single little thing, like the light fixtures? And, I mean, I. There's. I could go on and on. There have been so many decisions, and thankfully, this hasn't been a rushed process, at least so far. And so it has given me some time and some space for us to really ponder just every little thing. Like, we went out there first, and we just decided, okay, this is where the house will be. Ish. And then we kind of staked it out, and then we came out with the builders and the foundation guy, and we really staked it out like this. You know, it'll be turned ever so slightly this direction. And then we staked out the other buildings. So it was just. So it wasn't like one time we just came out there, threw some stakes in the ground. It was, like, very slow. And every part of this has kind of been like that. But we're moving along. We won't Be in by September. I really hope that we're in for winter. That would just really make my day because I love spring and summer and fall. I do not love winter and I really don't love winter in town. That was extra hard because I'm used to just. There's certain ways that we live that make it a lot more comfortable with a bunch of children that it just didn't. We just weren't able to do that living in town. And I think it's so much better when we have one, a wood stove. Wood stoves to me, just make or break winter 2 more space to send kids outside so that it's not all inside all the time for months on end. That's hard. But worst case scenario, if we are still here by the time winter starts, at least, I mean, I know we'll have made a lot of progress by then. I've been following along with different people who've done house builds. One is Turner Farm over on Instagram. She just built the most beautiful home. Just it's so artistically done. Like you can tell that she thought about every single detail. But what I noticed about hers was I went back through her little house building story highlight reel on Instagram or highlight and I think I saw they were staking the house out in 2022 and they just moved in recently. And I think that's why they have such a beautiful house because there was years to plan and to source. They have these huge logs for their front porch beams. I mean, just massive. You've never seen anything like it. But if you're on a time like let's say that you decide you're going to build and in six months that house is built, you don't have time to go source these massive logs and do all the work you got to do to make them fit into the plan. So I think that that's all part of it and I'm trying to remember that through this whole process. So I did answer a few questions about the pregnancy over on my recent YouTube video. I believe it's like maybe the maybe. Well, you'll see, it'll say a special announcement on the thumbnail or it'll be me pregnant on the thumbnail, something like that. I answered a few questions like what supplements I'm taking, what our birth plans are and things like that. And I'll plan to answer more questions about the pregnancy on here that you all may have. So you can submit those questions over at Bit Ly. That's all lowercase sfl. That Stands for simple farmhouse life. That's capital. And then questions is lowercase. It is case sensitive for some reason. So bit ly SFLQuestions. Capitalize the SFL. And you can submit any pregnancy related questions that you have. Any build related questions. For me to continue making these sit down chat solo episodes throughout the rest of this year, which I'm enjoying doing because there's a lot of big things going on in our life right now. We are temporarily living in town. We are building a custom home from scratch. And I say custom because I'm realizing with all the things that we're choosing, I was talking to someone else and they're like, well, we just chose the, you know, the colors of things and the floors. We're choosing like every little thing. And so we're doing all of that, which is a huge process. And each little thing is a step along the way that we're making decisions about. So I'm, you know, happy to answer a lot of those questions and I'm sure we'll make plenty of mistakes, but it's a journey unfolding and if you're ever going to build, maybe you'll be more prepared than I am. And then of course, we're welcoming another baby this summer, which is super exciting. I'm turning 40 this year, so that's a life milestone that I just. It's hard to believe I'm there. I remember when Luke and I got married and thinking through just the years of our marriage and 40 just sounded so far away and I assumed we'd have a bunch of children by now. And it's just, we're here, we did all that and now, you know, that part of our life is getting closer and closer to being done. Obviously, we're still very much in the thick of raising kids and our house will be full of kids for hopefully forever. In some capacity. Kids will be in and out. But that chapter of actually bearing the children. Yes, I'm currently pregnant. Is definitely on the tail end. And I look back and I'm just glad that I, you know, those years were productive. We did it. And I've enjoyed just the whole process. Okay, so let's dive into some of these questions. Someone says we are looking to build our forever house in our early 50s where our kids and grandkids can spend lots of time with us. It sounds like your parents host you and your sisters and families regularly. Could you give some suggestions on how to easily prepare meals for all the families? And does your mom always do all of the cooking or do you all share the responsibility. Also, are there specific things you always do together on those days? We want to get in the habit of creating lasting memories with our family. So this is actually very, very much inspired Luke and I and our decisions as well. There's the vision for the property that we're creating right now is pretty much exactly like what my parents did for us. So when my parents were around 40, they and I grew up on a farm, but then development followed. It went north in a way where we live, or north and west. So if you lived in this certain area, development came there and turned it into a city, essentially. And so people either sold and moved north or they sold and moved west, or they just lived there, which was fine too. But my dad is definitely a not town person. It's where I get this. It's a struggle for me to live in town. I just love wide open spaces. I love seeing a creek in fields. And I think that's probably because it's almost just a genetic thing. Like I just. It's what I thrive in. So my parents sold our farm when I was about 18, and this was when I was already moving out or moved out. I only ever lived there. And then they bought this property and they built their home. It's on a creek, and that's where They've lived for 20 something years. Is that right? Yeah, I guess that's just about right. 20, 20 ish. 20 ish years. They didn't live there at first. They. But anyways, they built their place and they had a temporary, kind of like what we're doing right now. And so I do have the vision for what you question Oscar had, where you're around 50, early 50s, and you're kind of catching the vision for the kids and the grandkids wanting to come to your place and hang out. And that is what my parents have created for all of us. We all go out there on Sundays. We've always done that. And we all really enjoy it. And I want to provide that for my kids and grandkids as well. So you asked about food. My mom does do all of the cooking for us on Sunday, so we go out for dinner. And I have three sisters, they're all married. One of my sisters has seven kids. So, you know, between the two of us, we have 15. Then my other two sisters combined have three kids. So there's 18 grandkids, eight adults, if you count us and our spouses. And then my dad and my mom. We're very much meat and potato type people. So in the summer and the warmer months, usually mom will grill a whole bunch of burgers. My other sister and my dad, they are farmers, so they have another farm that they raise cattle on. So we have beef, lots and lots of it. So it's usually beef. There's also pork, but we mostly have beef, so we'll do burgers. And it's been sort of a moving target for mom. Like, there's always more kids, and they're growing, so she'll still ask questions like, okay, now, how many burgers would you make for your family? Okay, how many would you make for your family? And then she'll add that all up, and she'll set out, like five pounds of meat or whatever it is, and then patty up a bunch of burgers. And then for the side, usually baked potatoes, maybe even chips. Sometimes, if we're really feeling ambitious, somebody will stand at the fryer and make fries. But usually it is baked potatoes and some kind of meat. Sometimes, especially over last winter when we weren't doing the grill as much, she would make up a couple of huge lasagnas. Again, ground beef. She'll do pork steaks. Or last week she did brisket with carrots and potatoes and a huge roaster. So usually it's like a meat and potatoes. She usually gets out some salad stuff. So there'll be lettuce and cheese and tomatoes and various dressings. And all the kids just kind of go through and, you know, take what they want. But it's casual. We're not, like, all sitting down at the table all at one time. It's definitely like, okay, well, the food's ready. Just go grab it. We recently helped my mom do a makeover of their whole. They have what we call here, a show. Some people call it a barndominium, but basically it's where you take a large metal building. I think my parents. I don't know what the dimensions are, but you take a large metal building, you make a living quarters in the building. And anyways, it's a very large open room. And we helped her to redesign it because there was a very small dining table, no island. But then it felt like there was a lot of wasted space and the rest of it. I did share that makeover here on this podcast. So if you search, I'm sure if you go on YouTube and search simple Farmhouse Life podcast, Parents Barn Makeover, or something like that, I'm sure that YouTube will understand what you're asking for. If you want to see how their house is actually set up so they Have a probably an 8 1/2 foot or 9 foot dining table with 10 chairs. They have an island, they have a peninsula, they have an island that all have seating. And then during these warmer months most of us will sit outside. So there's a picnic table, there's lots of chairs out there. There's also a bar type of thing in another part of the shed. Next the pool table. A lot of the kids will go out there and eat there while they watch something on the tv. Some of us will be, we're just all over. There's high chairs, there's kids everywhere. But I would say that what makes it a bit easier at their place is one, there's doors to get to those places. So it feels, it has like an indoor outdoor feel to it in a way. We're outside people so we're all pretty used to being outside all throughout the year. It's an easy to clean place. So it's not super fussy. The tile, the floor is tile. There's not a lot of decor that you could mess up. So kids are in and out and you know, of course we're telling them if they, if their shoes are muddy to stay outside. And for the most part if it's warm, we make them stay outside pretty much the whole time unless they have to go to the bathroom. So we're not trying to get to have that many people in my parents house except for when they are grabbing their food and then dispersing to wherever they're going to go eat it. Very informal. Now you asked what we do again we are outside people. So throughout the winter months dad makes a fire in a fire pit and we all stand around that. Right now the kids are kayaking in the creek because there's a creek right by their shell. So again if you watch that video where we did the makeover, I even show the creek and the fields there are side by sides. Luke and I have a side by side. My dad and mom have a side by side. They're always there on Sundays. So usually one of the guys throughout the day like all sudden my dad's on the side by side and a bunch of our sons are jumping in with them. Or all of a sudden Luke's on his side by side and a bunch of the cousins and the kids are jumping in with him or my brother in law will take one. So people are kind of here and there and everywhere. Mostly outside my sons have dirt bikes and we keep those there as well. So they'll go out with their cousins and Go on a dirt bike ride or they'll go hiking, or the older kids will go to the swimming hole, or some adults and older kids and some younger kids will go to the swimming hole. There's a low water bridge the kids like to kayak down to. So really it's not fancy, it's not formal, it's not planned, but it's just a bunch of people hanging out outside, doing things in nature, enjoying the weather. And it's casual. It didn't take anything fancy or special or special design and plan to make it happen. Now I enjoy design and so I'm kind of infusing a bit more of that into our property. At least that that's the plan and will take shape over lots of years. But it doesn't take that to have a bunch of country fun. And it doesn't even take side by sides or lots of property. Just having the intention of being outside. We had at our last homestead, seven acres and we didn't have a creek there, we didn't have a side by side there, but we still spent a ton of time outside. We'd make bonfires, the kids had a pony to ride. You know, they could go down. There's a spot in the woods that they called kid town where they build little structures out of wood and there was a playground and a trampoline. So I think that just the idea of spending a lot of time outside, a lot of people together, meat and potatoes, casual food is the vibe that they've created and I, I just love it. Okay, on a completely different note, how did you switch your sourdough starter to freshly milled grains? Any advice for this transition? So I do have a course coming up on freshly milled grains. I'm in the process of recording all of that. We actually go into this topic. But I'll just give you the spoiler. On this tiny bit of whole grain topic alone, you don't really have to do a transition. The yeast that is in sourdough starter is active and hungry and ready to eat. And you can switch between flowers without really doing any kind of transition. I still will feed my flour just whatever I've milled. So if I milled soft white wheat and there's a sourdough starter sitting there almost empty, I'll feed it with that. If I just smelled hard red or hard white or einkorn or rye, I'll throw any of that in there. I will also throw in all purpose because there's times where we're using all purpose for something. The Sourdough starter is sitting there empty, and so I'll just feed it with whatever flour is around and it thrives in that environment. Could you give an overview of your experience with dairy goats? So I actually enjoyed milking goats. It's just that I enjoyed milking a cow a lot more dairy goats. And this could depend on the breed. See, I'm not an expert. I have milked precisely two dairy goats for about a year. We kid shared the whole time, so I never actually separated their kids, except for at night. And then I'd milk them in the morning. We had about five. Was there five kids at one time? Because one had triplets, one had twins, we would take all of them and put them in this little spot in our barn overnight. And then in the morning we'd milk both their moms. The thing about the breeds we had, which I don't even recall anymore what we had, you could go back on an old YouTube video of mine and you could find what they were because I'm sure I said it it, but I don't even remember anymore. They're very jumpy. They jump up. And so you have to like have one person holding them down while the other one milks. And then they're not huge producers. There are breeds that produce a lot more. But again, with kids sharing and with these smaller breed goats, I'd end up with like a quart of milk a day. So it felt like for me, the same job. Because with a cow, I had to go out there, separate her calf at night so that we could get milk in the morning, go out in the morning, bring the pail, the jar, clean everything up and milk. And for that exact same process, I'd either get like 2 gallons of milk or a quart of milk. So that is ultimately why we decided to stay with a cow. A cow also. I mean, now when they first. When you're first starting to milk them, they'll kick you. They'll be annoying. But after a while, they are very routine animals. And so they just would come right into the stanchion. We had this one time where we switched the pasture that our cow was on, so we let her out of this side versus this side. So we shifted the milk stanchion so that she could walk straight in. Well, no, she was very confused. She walked around it thinking it was the other way because for so many months we had milked her on that side. And cows are just such routine animals that once you get them into routine, they're just like, okay, guess it's time to go. And I'll just walk right where I always walk every single day. And then they just stand there. Once they're nice and trained, they're not jumping up. And yes, there are ones that will kick. And we had that our fair share of that. But after several weeks, once they knew the routine, they weren't doing that anymore, whereas the goats still did. And then I ended up with less milk. It was delicious milk. It tasted great, it was sweet, it wasn't goaty, as people will sometimes say. The kind of milk that we had, I did not like that the cream doesn't separate, but that makes for an overall creamier milk. It's naturally homogenized. But I couldn't make butter and honestly I wouldn't have done it anyways because we didn't have enough milk for that. There was definitely more abundance with the cow, but if you are wanting to get into just a little bit of dairy, just producing dairy from your own farm, your own homestead, but you're nervous because you'd been around cows before. I grew up around cows so I wasn't super intimidated by the large animal. But I could see how it is intimidating because they are huge. A goat would be good for that. Someone says please do a Sisters podcast episode with our sweet sunny days and our oily house. That'd be so fun. Well, we actually did do that. So again, search simple Farmhouse Life podcast Sisters episode and I'm sure it'll come up. My sister, that's the farmer, she couldn't make it that day so she's not on it. So there is just three sisters on that one. Any advice on baby carriers or do you strictly use the wrap? My baby loves to face out when awake but but loves the compression of the wrap to sleep. Baby Jorn, Baby Bjorn or Jordan, however you say that hurts my neck but the wrap is feeling like a hassle. So if you like to backwear my sisters and I really like the kinder pack for that that but when the baby wants to face in the kinder pack's great for that. But I much, much prefer a woven wrap. If I was to choose only one thing and I could only have one and that would be for back carrying front carrying newborn a one year old. I would choose a woven wrap. Now they're more expensive, a high quality woven wrap but you can do all of those carries. Once you get really used to it, it way more comfortable, way snuglier when the baby's a newborn. They're just the most versatile wrap now because it's so fast and easy to get a baby on your back with a back carrier like the kinder pack or what's the one everybody uses. I keep forgetting there's one that everybody uses. I haven't tried it so I'm sure it's great. But it's a structured carrier. Those are so fast and they don't take near the learning curve that getting a baby on your back with a woven wrap does. So if I were to choose two, I would choose a woven wrap for the front for all ages and a structured wrap for quick back carries when they're five months. Plus I was still packing the woven wrap in my diaper bag up until probably four or five months ago. Victor will be two in July and he would sleep in that thing when we are out and about all day up until pretty recently. And then the last couple times I tried it it was a complete no go. The kid was over 18 months, probably 20 months and I would just try and try and do all the things that I used to do to get him to sleep in it. When we'd be at something like homeschool co op where we couldn't be home all day for a nap and he was just beyond tired and he no longer would do it. But up until then I could still get him to sleep in a woven wrap which was supportive enough for the larger child just regularly. Now it wasn't something that we did at home, it was just something that I packed in my diaper bag bag for those occasions when we were out and about. He had no nap. Now when they're little I use the woven wrap non stop even around the house for them to sleep. It works for small, small babies all the way up until they're two which is why I think it's a very good all purpose wrap. Unlike a stretchy wrap, you can't put those on your back. A woven wrap you can and so it's just versatile but it does take a learning curve for the back. I will say that. How do you structure your evening routines with a baby while co sleeping? I currently have a three month old and have to go to sleep when she does around seven and she'll wake up if I leave after she's asleep. Any advice? Do your babies usually sleep 12 hours? If so, how do you lay them down if you're co sleeping? So I find this to be more of a struggle around like six to eight months because or anytime when they stop sleeping so well in the wrap it's a bit of a struggle but what I would do when they're three months is just when they're tired, tired and I'm not ready for bed, I would just put them in my wrap and go about my evening, just whatever I would normally do. But with them in the wrap, once they're around, I would say I don't see. Every time I'm in between babies, it's like this never happened for me. I mean, I can remember ish for sure, but I feel like it's just something you can feel when you're in it and then when you're reflecting back, it's like, hey, what month was that? But I would say sometime around six to eight months. They don't sleep as well in the wrap, especially during that nighttime sleep, sleep. They just want to lay down. And that for me is a struggle. I've talked about on here many times how co sleeping works for me really beautifully till about six months and then it's something I kind of struggle through till about one when we start actually like sleep training. But yeah, I had a baby for sure where I would like nurse and try to roll away and it felt like I couldn't actually do anything once it was the baby's bedtime. So that was a bit of a struggle. But if they can still go in your wrap and sleep for a few hours in there while you're still doing your evening things, I would just do that. Use the wrap like you would any other nap. Just consider this a very late evening nap. I got another question about details on how your mom hosts and feeds your whole family, plus all the sisters and their families every Sunday. Cooking for a large crowd is very intimidating to me. Honestly guys, I think I take the this so for granted. My mom listens to this podcast, so sorry mom, but I. I feel like maybe it's just always been this way. So I'm like, oh, I don't know. She just cooks a lot of food. But I'm also willing to cook for large crowds too. There's just certain things that you just don't make when you have a large crowd. And as someone who cooks three times a day for 10 people, I know this. There are just certain things that are so much easier to cook on a large, larger scale. Focusing on simplicity, like meat and potatoes and pulling out a salad. Yes, it's a lot of food, but it's not like you are standing in the kitchen all day long. She does a lot of pre prep too, so if she's making something like a lasagna, she would already have it all made up and sitting in the fridge ready to just bake it. And I imagine when you don't have a lot of small kids at home, still you have a lot of time to do that. I don't know, I, I, I want to do this for my family too when they're older. I have a ton of kids and grandkids visiting me and coming over every Sunday. And again, I will just focus on simplicity. If you have to make just a huge pot of chili or a soup or a stew, mom does a lot of stews, especially in the winter. Just simple, simple stuff like don't make this the time where you're going to make everybody something you have to plate up like a whole special little plate. Make a big batch of something Creating.
- [37:31]
Lisa
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- [38:38]
Luke
Shopify.com farmhouse how do you convert yeast recipes into sourdough? For example, if a recipe calls for 2 teaspoons yeast, how much sourdough would you use instead of yeast? So I've talked about this a ton but I would just put in like just half a cup ish of sourdough starter. I used to do this whole formula where I would like take out some flour, take out some water to replace the Now I just add some starter as my yeast and it works great. Hi Lisa, I'd love to know what your favorite late night snacks are. The ones you have after some of the kids are in bed. My go to has Always been popcorn with M&M's, but I'm trying to avoid seed oils and artificial colors now. So we do popcorn pretty often. Luke usually makes that and brings it up and he will do the nutritional yeast. It's really good. And salt on it. We just do that in coconut oil, pop it in coconut oil. And then we do a lot of yogurt. So yogurt with honey and blueberries. Usually some granola. It's either homemade or it's purely Elizabeth. I stock a ton of that, so I'll put that in there. Sometimes just cereal. So just granola and milk. Those are my go to's. That's almost always what I have now. My sister, I know she does a ton of ice cream. I've been in the habit of ice cream. I'm not currently in that habit, but, you know, homemade ice cream is a great option as well. Do you sift your freshly milled flour at all? If so, do you sift all of it or a certain ratio? I just got a mock mill and I'm new to milling my own flour. So far I haven't been sifting any of it. I noticed my sourdough artisan loaf this go round was a bit dense and some say that sifting some of the bran out will help. Does this negate the health benefits of the freshly milled flour? So it doesn't negate the benefits because you're not taking out all of it, you're not bleaching it, but it is that whole grain that is making whole grain bread so much more nutritious. And you cannot completely compare to how it was with all purpose. It will not be the same thing. This is so fresh on my brain because I am currently filming the whole grains course that I'm launching soon. And so I'm talking about the history of flour and how people got so used to the results that they got that when all of the bran and germ was sifted out of flour. And we see results less than that, as, you know, less superior. I did a little bit of a conversation like this with Anya from our gabled home, so you can go back a few episodes on this podcast. Actually, it's more than a few, but not too far back we talked about this, how it's delicious and it's nourishing, but it is very different. And so, yes, you could sift it it, but you are taking out some of that whole grain by getting rid of the brand. It'll help, but it's also making it a different thing. I don't sift mine. I will say for an artisan boule, if you want that crusty loaf, I find that half allpurpose, which this is not like perfectly great health advice, but half all purpose, half whole grain allows you to still have that. Now, you could do 100% whole grain sandwich loaves all day. To me, those are just as good as all purpose loaves. Probably better. But for a crusty boule, oof. You have to have some all purpose in there. I've done it with whole grain, but I just. You don't get that effect at all. And I do find that is so delicious. So I. If you're trying to recreate. What I'm trying to say here is, if you're trying to recreate the results you have with all purpose, you will have to remove some bran and germ. And that's essentially what I'm doing when I'm doing half all purpose. But otherwise just accepting that it won't be the same is some advice that I have. Hi, Lisa. My oven recently broke, but we are moving houses in three weeks and so we are not going to have it fixed and we'll have three weeks without an oven. If you were in a similar situation, what bread slash sourdough products would you make? First thing that comes to mind is definitely English muffins. Wait, your oven broke? So I'm assuming you could still use your stove. That's the assumption I'm making. So if that's not true, then this will, you know, not work as an answer. But it must be true because you're cooking something if you're asking this question. And at the very least, you could go get a little hot plate thing in this transition time or to have in backup situations. This is something we're thinking about because we're trying to brainstorm how we can move into our barn. Long story, we shouldn't do it. We should stay right here. But we never want to leave our farm. So we're like, well, we could just put a little hot plate in the barn and call it a day. We probably won't do it. But back to if you do have a stove but no oven, English muffins will make a product that you can still make into sandwiches. You can make it into toast with your eggs in the morning. It's very versatile like that. You could also take a waffle iron and you can make cheddar waffles. Those make a great sandwich bread if you use them quick because when they're fresh, they're crispy. It's basically a waffle battery without the sweeteners, but adding in a ton of cheddar cheese. And when it first comes out, it's crispy. You put bacon and lettuce and mayo on it. It makes the best sandwich. So that's kind of replacing bread. And then of course there's pancakes, there's regular waffles, there's crepes. All of those are great options. But if you're looking specifically to have a bread like product, a flatbread, English muffin, those waffles would be my go to's for sure. Also tortillas, sourdough tortillas. Those are super easy and just made stovetop so you could shoot. You can go out that an oven all summer. I wouldn't prefer that, to be honest with you. But you could. Did you have house pets when you had littles? How do you manage them? I have a toddler and six month old and feel like I have lost my joy for pets. Oh, I, I read that as plants and I'm like, guys, I still have little kids. I have a baby right now and a one on the way. But you said pets. I've lost my joy for pets. Two cats, one dog, four chickens. I want to enjoy them, but all the fur and cleanup is getting me so. We've never had house pets until right now because we live in town and our big old hairy farm dog used to live mostly outside. He'd come in the mudroom in the kitchen, but never like in the house, like where the rugs are and all of that. And here, because there's nowhere to run and roam, he is very much a house pet. And yeah, it is crazy. So I have a robot vacuum and then we have a cordless shark vacuum. Every time we clean out the little thing that, you know, all the stuff collects in, it's just all pet hair. So it's, you know, we're vacuuming constantly. The robot thing really helps because I just let that thing just go all day and then I empty it and let it go all day. So I think it's all coming up, up, but it. And I don't even notice it necessarily. But it's obviously there because when I go to clean it out, I'm like, how is there this much pet hair in our house? So I would say, you know, we're keeping our dog because, well, he's our beloved dog. I was never a huge animal dog person, but like now that we've had one since he was a puppy, you don't, you know, he's just our dog, but. And of course we're moving to a farm. We're going to need a farm dog, dog. So I'm dealing with it. But like, if there's any option for you to not have indoor pets, I'd say like, hey, you know, this isn't something you have to do. So if it's something that's really stressing you out and it's something you can't keep up with, you know, I have a large family, I have teenagers. We're kind of all hands on deck. We're a lot, we're a mess, what we clean. And I'm also not a perfectionist anymore at all. Like these things don't even. Can't linger on my brain because there's just so many other things. So it doesn't really bother me. But if it did and there would have been seasons where it would have really bothered me. If there's any option to not have that stress in your life, I'd say go for it. Do you worry about taking a prenatal while also consuming freshly milled flour, raw milk, eggs, meat and produce daily during pregnancy? I've heard it's impossible to intake enough nutrients from food, but these people also do not freshly mill flourish flower. Also, high quality prenatals are so expensive. Curious on your thoughts. I have definitely been back and forth on this throughout my childbearing years. I will tell you that I read a lot of evidence, especially as we age, on just taking in a lot of folate, on helping with egg quality and all of that. So I did take a prenatal leading up to this pregnancy, even though I was doing all of those things. And I will say I don't do all of those things perfectly. Like I do all those things, but then do I eat them? You know, are there days when we don't go places and just eat whatever. There are also those days. So I think in a perfect world, when you're eating like that all the time, you know, don't stress it. Also, if it's a financial, you know, if they've, if the financial concern is that you can't afford the high quality prenatals, I would say yeah, focus on that whole food and just let that be a secondary thing if you can. That would be my recommendation. I wouldn't stress about it and I would definitely think the food is a priority. So if you are choosing between like prenatal and junk diet or this diet you're talking about versus also throwing in a prenatal, I would say definitely focus on food. And I know people are all over with this. This I am not the final say on it because this is not something that I specialize in necessarily. It's not something I've done a ton of research on. I know conventional wisdom is take a prenatal. Not sure I, you know, but I did and have been throughout this pregnancy and usually it is something I do take through a pregnancy just as an insurance policy against, you know, whatever else that I'm lacking. I do find that I also need added iron from natural sources and magnesium, personally. So even though I'm eating all these things, I still have that need for those things. So, you know, I'd say there definitely can be some benefits from supplements. And I, and I, people could correct me here, but I also can't see necessarily the harm in taking like a high quality or a food based prenatal. You know, I would almost say like why not? But that's just been my take on it. Okay, fresh milled question. I recently followed your advice and bought a mock mill. We love it. However, I can't figure out sandwich bread. What types of berries do you use for that? Issues I'm having are very sour flavor not rising very high dense texture seems a little gooey after baking. I've been trying to use your wheat sandwich recipe, but with fresh milled plus an egg, any tips would be appreciated. So we are actually that I have done that exact recipe, but we are coming out with a specifically whole grain sandwich recipe on the blog. Instead of having to do all these adaptations, I will say with sandwich bread it can go especially whole grain sandwich bread, it can go sour pretty fast. And so I actually like to really accelerate the process. When it was cold in here and I didn't have it sitting in a warm place, it got very sour because it took so long to rise. So if you have somewhere really warm to put it and you can accelerate the process and make it just rise faster, getting the whole thing done in like 8 to 12 hours. First rise and second rise, the shorter the better for the sourness. That is ideal. That's what I do now. I will put it on top of my oven if we're baking and just let it happen quick. Something about the whole grains and sourdough really does make it ferment it pretty quickly. That's why when I'm making that all purpose boule or you know, the just the artisan boule, doing half whole grain, half all purpose really helps it to have more of a flavor of the all Purpose you're used to. Whereas the sandwich bread, some special considerations do have to happen. I find that it takes it longer to rise, especially if it's cold. Therefore it becomes more sour. So accelerating it in a warm place solves a lot of your problems here. I think that's what a lot of the problems are coming from. Because if it's not rising very hot, it makes sense that it would be dense and gooey because it's not baking evenly throughout this nice fluffy bread. So, yeah, that'll be the key. And if you're in a really warm climate and your house is old or you don't put your AC on super high like us, we'll keep our AC on something like 77, 78. It'll already be kind of warm in your kitchen. And so you could actually, like you're stepping into a season where this might actually work really well for you. You. Okay, I'll take one more question and then I'm saving these amazing questions for another solo episode. Again, don't forget to submit your questions now that I'm expecting. And you know, I have some fresh insight into that. Not that I, you know, don't have a lot of experience, but I do find that when I am currently going through a season, it's easier to talk on it. That's why when you ask these sleep questions and I have an 8 month old, I'm like, okay, let me, let me talk about this. Or I'm like, I don't. No, I'm right there with you. But then I have like a different perspective when it's in the past and it's, you know, just motherhood can kind of be a whirlwind. It's. You're just going through each season as you're in it and sometimes it's hard. Like, though you remember the practical things that you did, it's hard to remember what each season really feels like. Like right now. Well, I'd say. But actually my 3 year old's been waking up in the middle of the night. But for the most part I'm not dealing with any little ones overnight because Victor has been sleeping through the night for like eight, nine months now. And I won't be really dealing with it again until this September. And then I'll be in the thick of it and it'll feel different. One of you asked here, like about the season when my kids were between two and seven and you're talking about how it seems like you're always needed and what was that time like and how Long did it last? And it's, it's honest. Like, I read the, through the question and I thought to myself, I honestly don't know how to answer this because I know that that time happened, but it doesn't feel like a big deal and dramatic and like all consuming to me right now. Like, it's not, it's just, I know I was in it and I know it was hard, hard, but it doesn't. Like, it's hard to answer how we got through it because the truth is I'm on the other side of that. And there's so many things with, you know, answering these questions that I, I read the question and I think, well, that's a question for so and so. Because though I do have kids between 2 and 7, you know, the life's just so different now. I'm at a different age. I have other children a different age. I have a supportive husband. So with all that being said that I'm currently just outside of, you know, first trimester nausea. I am well into my second trimester and I, you know, I kind of can feel what that all is. Yes, I can recall it and answer sort of how I did things. It does feel different when you're actually currently going through it and it's more fresh on your brain, if that all makes sense. Have you designed lots of closet space or do you intend to use armoires in the new farmhouse? So we actually did design closets. All four bedrooms upstairs have closets. They're not huge. I forget what they are. I think they're like two feet by. I forget, but they're not huge at all. But it's just a place to hang clothes. We'll probably put a dresser in each one because the rooms are so small. What we chose to do instead of having really massive rooms in our new farmhouse was to have more rooms, but smaller. We don't spend a ton of time in our rooms. We mostly just sleep there. And so I wanted them to be very neat, not tons of furniture. So I'm picturing a closet with hanging, with a hanging bar, maybe a shelf above that for like out of season shoes or something. A dresser at the bottom for things that you don't hang up. Two beds in the room and then like a rug. That's, that's my plan, is to make them very simple to clean. I am still in the season of small little kids that I'm in charge of organizing a lot of people. There are some kids in my family who take care of this themselves, but there are plenty that still rely on me. And so because of my very current season that I am in, I'm picturing a room with, with less furniture, less things to anchor to the wall, less things to sweep around. And so yes, there are closets and I think, you know, it would be a more authentic old looking farmhouse if we did all armoires, but I think I'm going to really like the convenience of that. Luke and I also have a closet, but we also have space for some furniture in our room as well. Our room isn't huge, but we have, you know, our closet's not huge either, but again, it can have a dresser, a hanging bar. We'll have space for an armoire or something in our room. So there's those room closets and then we also have a broom closet just off the kitchen under where the stairs go up. So it's in kind of the back hall where we'll store things like our vacuums. I, I cannot wait to have this. We have never had this. We've had one that went under the stairs, but it had no plugins in our last house. And then we have nothing like that here. So there's always like, if you're going to have things like a robot vacuum and a cordless vacuum, there's. They're just out, like they're. You have to charge them somewhere. And old houses lack outlets, they lack closets, and so having a place to stash that stuff that's chock full of outlets, you can put it all in there and just shut it. I'm really excited for that. And yes, old houses don't have that, but they also didn't have electricity or plumbing. And I really glad that we're doing all of that. So we're kind of trying to blend the function of a new house with some of the charm. But there are some areas where I'm good with sacrificing some charm for convenience. Because as someone who has lived in old houses for basically my entire life, except for six years, other than that, the other 39 have been in a very old house. I know the things that old houses lack. I appreciate the character and the beauty, but I know the things they lack. And of course, you can add those to an old house, but I'm super excited to build those in and closets is definitely one of them. All right, as always, thank you so much for listening and I will see you in the next episode of the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast. Thanks, as always for listening to the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast. My husband Luke and I and our 8 kids kids work together side by side on our little homestead and use our blog, podcast and YouTube channel to reach other homemakers, home cooks and homesteaders with practical recipes and daily family life. For everyday sourdough recipes, make sure to check out our blog, farmhouse.com and to dig deeper, we do also offer a course called Simple Sourdough over at BitVit ly FarmhouseSourdo course. That's all one word. Bit link farmhouses if you're looking to learn how we earn an income online, check out my YouTube course at bit ly farmhouseyoutubecourse.
- [58:27]
Lisa
All one word. Sam.