We survived the severe cold snap. Thirty degrees feels like a heat wave now. For a time I was tempted to give up the whole darn homesteading dream but after an electric blanket fix, a few glasses of wine, and a near nervous breakdown, I rethought it and we have determined that we truly love living in the country with all of our animals and this was just one tribulation to figure out. My cousin reminded me that I could manifest another wood stove and Doug mentioned that I would be a lot happier if we just had heat. The bitter cold made everything seem so desperate.
So new manifestations in the process:
Somehow be able to afford and put in a wood stove in the main part of the house.
Move the animals closer to the house. I miss my chickens and goats.
I would like to add sheep, donkeys, and horses to the farm.
We’d like to be able to afford to buy this place at some point.
We will not get discouraged with making less money. I have a gift of healing and it is my calling. This is what we are meant to do and we will always get by.
Have a little more faith and purchase more wool sweaters at the earliest convenience!
A homesteading necessity, especially when it is cold, is a good old fashioned thermos. The old thermoses were well insulated and hold heat amazingly well. In fact, I emptied a half full thermos of coffee the next day into canning jar to store in the fridge for iced coffee and it was steaming still! I couldn’t believe it!
The newer thermoses made of aluminum don’t do as well. If you see a thermos at the antique or thrift store, grab it!
We use a French press to make good, strong coffee, but it will go cold if we don’t drink it quick and we like to savor our brew. We transfer it to a thermos and have good, hot java all morning long.
A good thermos is great for road trips or just a trip to the library. Hot tea, apple cider, or coffee at the ready helps us stop the constant drink stops and helps us save money.
So next time you see a vintage thermos, don’t let it pass you by! It’s a homesteading necessity!
Farmgirl School 
What about a thermos for wine:)?
Brilliant! 🙂 Mulled wine during this season.
Randomly stumbled onto your blog, love it! I need to find an old thermos at a thrift store. You’re right that the newer ones don’t work as well.
I am always on the look out for them!
Love your blog! My husband and i are just starting to build our farm/house from the ground up. It is all a bit daunting but we couldn’t do anything different as this is how we believe in living! Any words of wisdom for beginning? thanks so much! keep blogging!
Thank you so much! My advice would be to build a small house that is easy to heat in the winter. Make sure you have everything you would need in a power outage, a wood stove, a root cellar, etc. And learn as many skills as you can. Find someone to teach you how to can, how to make candles, how to grow your own food. The more skills you have the less you have to spend on someone else making it/doing it for you! And this lifestyle is all about cutting costs so that we have the freedom to live how we wish and have some semblance of security! Good luck!
It’s good to see I am not the only one riding the roller coaster of emotions. I haven’t even moved yet! LOL! I know this post is old, but thank you for sharing.
I reread that post! Goodness we did manifest a stove! (Then our landlords kicked us off the farm but that is another story…) I can’t wait to get back on a homestead!
We use our soup thermos to make oatmeal over night for the next morning. Best oatmeal I have ever tasted and before I tried this, I hated oatmeal. You can also use your soup thermos to cook rice. We learned how to do this from a book, Sailing the Farm by Ken Neumeyer.