Homemade Dog Food

Our dog is an important member of our family.  She's our pet.  She's a protector of our family and our home.  She's a playmate for our children.  She's a companion for my husband and myself.  When we have to go out and work in freezing cold temperatures or during the wee hours of the morning or in the blistering heat of the sun, she's right there with us.  She doesn't complain about the cold or the rain or grumble that she's just too tired.  She just wants to be with us.

It's true that the life of a farm dog can be a hard one.  There are hazards and harsh conditions not experienced by those dogs living the high life in Manhattan apartments or neatly manicured suburban homes.  We counter the harshness of farm life by making sure we keep her up-to-date on her shots, get her regular check-ups at the vet even though she hates that, and feeding her  nutritious food. 

Years ago, when I was still relying heavily on convenience foods for myself and my family, I saw no problem feeding my dog cheap, store brand dog food.  I figured it was sound nutrition and really didn't worry about it.  It wasn't until I started to research nutrition for my family and started to change our diets that I began to reconsider what my dog was eating.  I started to realize that dog food suffered from many of the same, if not worse, problems that overly-processed, pre-packaged foods meant for human consumption suffered from. It was low on nutritive value, it was full of weird fillers and chemicals and it could lead to problems like obesity, heart disease, allergies, cancer and diabetes.  So we decided to go a more natural route for our dog.  We wanted to feed food that contained natural, healthy ingredients but good quality pre-made dog food is downright expensive.

After talking to her vet we came up with an even better alternative.  We would make her food ourselves.  Let me stop here a minute.  If you are thinking about making your own dog food for your furry friend it's important to talk to their vet first.  They can give you a handle on what your individual pet will need in terms of balance, supplements, amount, etc.  That's what we did for our dog.  We sat down with her vet and came up with a recipe for her that includes chicken or beef, sweet potato or oatmeal, brown rice or oatmeal, and spinach or kale.  I try to prepare two weeks worth of food at one time and I'll switch out the recipe the next time I prepare it to keep her from getting bored with it.  So, for one two week period it will be chicken, sweet potato, brown rice and kale and the next it will be ground beef or liver, oatmeal and spinach. 

The preparation is super simple.  I really just put everything except the kale or spinach into a large pot of water, bring it all to a boil together and then let it simmer for an hour or two or however long needed to cook the meat through, then I throw in the greens and simmer a few minutes longer, drain everything and dump it all into a really large bowl.

If I've made chicken I will separate the meat from the bones and shred it before adding it into the bowl.  Then I simply mix it all up, mashing the sweet potatoes as I go, until it's all combined.  The end result isn't much to look at, but, as you can clearly see, she thinks it tastes great.

The result of feeding her homemade food has been remarkable.  Her coat is much healthier.  She has more energy.  Her eyes are brighter.  She has less gas (that's something we ALL benefit from) and even her poo is smaller and more solid.  And she no longer has anymore problems with dry itchy skin.

All told making her food ourselves has been no more expensive than buying a bag of the cheap store brand dog food and not much more effort either.   Win/win.

Because the Laundry Won't Do Itself...

Today was laundry detergent making day at our house.  I make a powdered detergent.  The process is quick and painless, taking me only a couple of minutes to make up the batch.  This simple, homemade detergent gets our heavily soiled, farm-family laundry clean with only about 2 Tblsp. per load.

What you'll need:
1 c. of Borax
1 c. of Super Washing Soda (you can usually find this at the larger grocery stores like Meijer or Walmart near the Borax.  If you don't find it there you can sometimes get it at swimming pool supply stores or you can get it online at Amazon)
1 bar of soap like Fels Naptha, Zote or Ivory
1 grater (I recommend keeping one separate just for this purpose)
1 airtight container (we use an old coffee can with a tight fitting lid)

That's Arm and Hammer's Super Washing Soda in the picture, don't confuse it with baking soda. They are not the same thing.

Once you've gathered your supplies there are all of four steps left to homemade laundry detergent.  Step 1: Grate your soap.  Step 2: Add your washing soda.  Step 3: Add your Borax.  Step 4: Replace lid and shake it up, baby!   There is an optional step 5: You can add a few drops of essential fragrance oil if you like.  I use a "fresh linen" scented fragrance oil on occasion but you can add any scent you'd like. 

The cost of making my own detergent breaks down like this:
The Borax costs me $3.29 for a 76oz. box= $0.34 per batch
The Super Washing Soda costs the same, $3.29, for a 55oz. box=$0.48 per batch
A three pack of Ivory soap costs $1.69.=$0.56 per batch

The grand total there ends up being about $1.38 for a batch.  I use the full 2 Tbsp. per load and get about 32 loads of laundry out of one batch detergent.  That puts me in at a crazy $0.04 per load of laundry! 
Compare that to the Dynamo I used to buy before I started to make my own.  For a 32 load bottle of Dynamo, I would normally pay about $9.87 at the grocery store.  That's already $8.49 more than for the same number of loads with my homemade detergent.  With the Dynamo the cost per load of laundry was about $0.31, more than six times the cost per load with the homemade detergent!
If I add the extra cost of essential fragrance oil to the mix I end up with a cost of about $1.47 per batch and still around $0.04 to $0.05 per load of laundry.  No matter how you slice it, I'm saving a considerable amount of money for a small amount of effort.  Definitely worth it.

Happy 4th of July!

For independence day this year we spent the morning cheering for Oldest and Middle as they walked in the Fourth of July parade, then we picked raspberries.  I've got burgers and chicken breasts on the grill and a yard full of friends and family.  And tonight we'll be heading to the fireworks display in town.  Doesn't get any better than that. 

Hope everyone is having a wonderful 4th of July!

Thanksgiving

Now that we're getting closer to Thanksgiving I thought it would be prudent to really make an extra effort to be consciously aware of all that I have to be thankful for this holiday season.

1. I'm thankful for my family and my friends.  Even though my husband and I don't always see eye to eye on every little thing we're still a perfect fit for each other.   I love him for who he his and he loves me for who I am.   Everyday I learn more and more from my kids about joy, appreciating the little things, unconditional love, and imagination.   And my friends help me to realize that you don't have to be blood related to be family.  

2.I'm thankful that I live in a country where, despite some instances of discrimination, we are allowed to practice our faith in freedom without having to worry about being jailed or killed.  

3.I'm thankful for good books and warm fires.

4. I'm thankful for friendly smiles from people just passing by.

5. I'm thankful for the Word of God that helps me put everything into perspective.

6. I'm thankful for my church that helps me to help my community.  

7. I'm thankful that growing up poor has helped me to be more appreciative of what I do have, more empathetic towards those who have very little, and more aware of poverty in the US and overseas.  

8. I'm thankful, and very much in awe of the fact, that God feels humanity is worth the effort and the sacrifice.

9. I'm thankful for full baskets of yarn and plenty of fabric.

10. I'm thankful for my good health and the good health of the one's that I love.  \

Oh Sock, Why Do You Mock Me...

I started a second pair of baby socks for Youngest yesterday and was already finished with the first sock by this afternoon.   I was pretty proud of it since I had finished it so fast (usually it takes me at least two days to finish one sock..I knit slow).   I couldn't believe my luck!   I figured I must be getting better at this since I was so obviously moving much faster than usual.  

So here I was feeling rather proud of myself when I decided to try the sock on Youngest's foot.   I found that while the cuff fit perfectly, the heel was right smack in the middle of his foot.   It didn't fit, at all.   Then I realized why this project had gone so quickly for me.  You see, when it comes to knitting the instep and the toe the pattern says something like this K6, K2tog, around.   Next row, Knit.  Next row, K5, K2tog, around.  And then you continue on like that, knitting every other row.   And that's the part that I forgot.  So instead of decreasing in one row and knitting the next row, I decreased every flipping row.   So I ended up with a sock that was half the size that it was supposed to be. 

This cute little sock that was going to keep Youngest's feet toasty warm is now a Christmas tree ornament and I did a full face-palm.  Knitting fail. :p

Crib Sheets

Winter is creeping in on us and that means there is ALOT of preparing that has to be done.  I'm nearly finished with Middle's sweater.   I've knitted several pairs of socks.   I've canned TONS of food including tomato sauce, pickles, sandwhich spreads, apple sauce, apple butter, pear butter, peaches, apple pie filling, cherries, cherry pie filling, beans, corn, well you get the picture.  

On last nights to do list: warmer crib sheets for Youngest.   Crib sheets really are a simple thing to make.   It's pretty much cutting out a large rectangle from the fabric of your choice, cutting 9 in. squares from the corners, a little sewing, a little heming, a little elastic and presto! Crib sheets!   Ok, so that wasn't a great tutorial.   Here's a better one at make-baby-stuff.com

Here's an example of what your corners should look like after they've been sewn (but before finishing the edges and adding the elastic).

And this is the finished product! 

All told it only takes about an hour and half.   So get over to the tutorial, then head for that sewing machine and have at it! 

American Girl Doll Nightgown

My days have not been completely void of crocheting.   I finally finished one of the several projects I've been working on last night.  Oldest wanted a nightgown for her doll so I found a cute pattern at Bizzy Crochet.  

This Christmas the majority of our gifts are going to be handmade gifts so I will be making several more doll clothes, several amigurumi animals, several play food items and hopefully a couple of hats and sweaters over the coming months.   Trying to get all of these things finished should be pretty interesting. 

Wow, I'm Really Behind

It seems like forever since I've updated, mostly because I haven't had much to say.   We've been cleaning the house in mad preparation for Gran's sister to come visit us all the way from Texas.   She has alzheimers and wanted to visit with Gran while she could still remember who she was.   Her son and his wife are coming up as well to make sure that her trip is a safe one.   So we've needed to clean and get ready for the three house guests as well as get some homeschooling work done and try to get ready for pumpkin selling season.   While we've been busy, it doesn't seem like anything we've been doing has been interesting enough to talk about.  

The weather here has been so unusually dry that most of our apples have fallen off the trees well before they were ripe so we don't have much going on in the way of apple picking, canning and baking.   We have had a bumber crop of zucchini this year though.  So far I've made zucchini bread, zucchini muffins, zucchini cake, fried zucchini, zucchini stir fry, stuffed zucchini and baked zucchini sticks.   I still have 5 zucchinis sitting in my fridge.  :)

Anyways, I haven't given up on crafting, I just haven't gotten much of it done lately.  I'm still working on knitting sweaters for each of the kids for fall, which is coming up on me way to fast.   And I'm still working on the afghan from hell, which is moving way to slow.   And I've been working on crocheting a comfortghan for a care package that will be heading for a good friend hopefully pretty soon.   The projects are in the works.  I know I've said this before but hopefully I'll get some pictures up before long.