Striving Acres proudly announces…

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9.24.2015 birth announcement

Striving Acres proudly announces Bindi

born September 22, 2015 at 4:56 p.m., @ 45 lbs

After much back and forth discussion, Ted and I finally settled on the name Bindi as a tribute to the late and great Steve Irwin (1962 – 2006).  He was an animal lover, a wildlife expert, a conservationist, and he was fully passionate about all forms of life.  He named his own daughter Bindi, a word from the southern Australian Aboriginal Pitjandtjara language meaning “awakening”.

We cannot think of a better name for our little Bindi because that is indeed what she is for us: an awakening.  Seeing her birth and seeing how Bessie, and now Beef, react to her, care for her, and love her goes beyond anything we ever imagined.  Our little Bindi’s birth has renewed our commitment to run an ethical and humane farm for all of the animals here.

We will never be wealthy by society’s standards because of the affirmation to live by this commitment, but in the ways that matter, we are rich beyond belief to simply be part of the circle of life and to perhaps inspire others to realize that you, too, can live this wonderful life-altering dream.

Quick cake

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Jake wanted cake yesterday for a little snack, but since I’m trying to eat healthier, I didn’t want to make an entire cake. I knew if I did that I wouldn’t be able to stop myself, and my diet would be blown for the entire week. I found this recipe for chocolate cake in a mug, and we made one for Jake and one for his dad. They both gave this chocolate cake a huge thumbs up. It literally took about 45 seconds to throw the ingredients in a cereal bowl, whisk it together, and pop it in the microwave. While the recipe calls for 70 seconds, we cooked it for 90 seconds in our microwave, and it was perfect!

http://www.tablefortwoblog.com/the-moistest-chocolate-mug-cake/

Great Facebook find!

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A couple of weekends ago, I found the cutest little chicken coop on the Facebook Marketplace, and I just had to have it. We drove about an hour away, and we picked it up. Today, Ted decided to work on it. The little run that was coming off of it was falling apart and not put together well. 

He got some wire from the garage and some screws and his drill, and after deconstructing most of the run, he was able to piece it together correctly and put a wire roof on the run, too. 

We still aren’t sure exactly what we will use it for because it is smaller than I thought it was (it looked bigger in the Facebook post). It is good size though for a few chicks to get out on the grass, and it is also a good size to use for a broody hen on a nest of eggs, or if all else fails, I will use it as a cat house this winter with heating pads inside and heat lamp for the cats that live outside.

Busy two weeks!

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I was able to move into the role of intervention specialist (working with special education students) on August 1st. I’m still at my same virtual school, but there’s so much that’s different about this job that I’ve been studying, organizing, and trying to figure it all out – and I haven’t written a blog post in almost two weeks!

I applied for my supplemental teaching license for intervention, and that’s pending review at the Ohio Department of Education.  It should arrive soon.  I’ve applied to college and will begin working on my master’s degree (in mild to moderate needs special education) soon.  

Canning fell to the wayside. I’ve had two bushels of tomatoes in my living room for over a week. I realized today that one bucket spoiled so I tossed it to the chickens. What a waste!

I attended a staff meeting that was about a 200 mile drive one way, and it was a two day meeting.  I am in the midst of creating a Word doc and spreadsheet to merge all the info I’ll need to track all year on my students. 

I’m enjoying my job change, but I. AM. MENTALLY. EXHAUSTED.  

Mrs. Dash – DIY

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I love to make my own spice mixes from all of the different herbs that I have in the cabinet. I’m always looking for good recipes, and when I find one, I keep it and make my own of that from then on. Doing this saves a lot of money at the grocery store! Also, you can avoid ingredients like MSG, and you can also lower the salt content.

I recently found a recipe for Mrs. Dash seasoning. This stuff is delicious on baked fish!  I got the recipe off of food.com. Here’s the link!

 

Someone stole gas again!!. (Smartcar mileage)

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I am so annoyed.  I left my car outside the garage overnight for three nights, and someone stole a little over a quarter of a tank of gas from my Smartcar!  I had half a tank when I parked it (I know because I always look at it to see if I should get gas soon or not after I drive it).

The thief also drained the gas from Gramma’s lawnmower, too!  Now that is just LOW to steal from a 90 year old woman!!! 

This is ridiculous!  

So here’s the gas mileage, but it’s not accurate because this mileage should only be divided by 4 – 4.5 gallons!

223.1 ÷ 6.979 = 31.967mpg

223.1 ÷ 4.5 = 49.577mpg is what it truly was this time around!

No worries because this taught me another hard lesson, and my car will be locked in the garage from now on!

I wish I could put a chain link fence all the way around this entire farm. I’d hook the electric cattle charger up to it, and that thief would have his arm about knocked off and would be sitting in the dirt the first time he tried to cross over it again!  I’m so tired of working hard for what we have just for lazy thieves to steal it!

IT. IS. FIXED!!!!!!

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Glory, glory, hallelujah!!!!  MY OLD KITCHENAID DISHWASHER IS FIXED AND RUNNING!!!  

When I remodeled the kitchen a few years ago, I knew that one of the things I wanted was a second dishwasher. I saved money and saved gift cards from Lowe’s, and I spent less than $500 cash on labor and one kitchen cabinet and three countertops. I used my gift cards to buy the extra dishwasher, and it was installed. I was thrilled! 

Unfortunately, my old dishwasher decided to give up the ghost not long after that and I was back to one dishwasher. Everyone always asks me why I need two dishwashers. I need two dishwashers because I like to cook a lot from scratch, and I love to can! Having two dishwashers means no dishes in the sink waiting to go into the dishwasher when it finishes. Other people have said to me that I should just wash the dishes by hand that are extra in the sink. That would be great except for one thing, and that thing is that I hate washing dishes by hand. LOL 

While Ted was on vacation two weeks ago, he called Sears repair and had them send someone out to fix the dishwasher. The repairman figured out the problem, ordered the parts, and came back today and fixed it. I am thrilled beyond belief! I have an entire sink full of dishes, and they are going in that dishwasher just as soon as it goes through one wash cycle so that we make sure that it works properly. It’s going to work though. I have a good feeling about this!

The eclipse is coming!

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This has been a topic of great discussion in our household over the past couple of weeks.  I honestly feel like it’s like Game of Thrones, and he’s yelling, “Winter is coming!!!” every time he says, “The eclipse is coming!!!” LOL.

Jake is all about anything that is related to space, so he is all over this. He’s so serious about it that I am literally just waiting to find out if anything will be done at his school for the eclipse, and if not, I’m going to pull him out at lunch time so he’ll be able to watch the whole thing from here. You can take a look at this link and type in your ZIP code to find out how much of the sun will be covered in your area of the United States.
Even though we will only get the partial eclipse here, a good portion of the sun will be covered! Do you have any fun things planned for your kids and yourself for this eclipse? Jake is really excited about it!