TheReturnHomestead

In today's video, we are all over the place finishing small projects. I need to get under the house to connect the shower drain. First, the weeds in that part of the chicken yard are 4 feet tall, and they are in the way, so time for the weedeater. Marti, finishes up the texture and paint in the shower. I failed to make the drain connection and will have to try again after buying some new parts. That left still enough time to get the electrical in the bedroom repaired.

Today on Make it Homestead, Marti is replacing commercial shampoo with a homesteadmade herbal wash. Many of the herbs and flowers that we grow contain compounds that are soothing to the skin. Some of those compounds complement the scalp's natural healing and restoration. The herbs and flowers are made into a concentrated tea before adding a small amount of homemade castile soap to improve its cleansing properties.

We have had 11 silkie chicks in the brooder in the barn for about a month, and they need to get out in a coup. We decided to utilize one of our two coups to isolate the silkies from the larger flock. We are concerned about their small stature and the large size of Rocky, our rooster. Eventually the silkies will get their own coup and run down at the other house. For now this will have to do, while we get back to the remodel.

Today we are taking down young trees that are growing on top of the leach lines. Getting these cut down is not only good for our leach lines, it opens up pasture for sheep. The sheep will eat the grass and mostly anyting else green we leave for them. Once cleared we can let the sheep keep the pasture in good shape, but the initial work is all mine to do.

Our ditch got tested the next day with a major storm that dumped about 4 inches of rain in less than an hour. We had at least 2 inches of water across the entire property. Ditches do not help when that much water falls from the sky. Everything got covered, and then the ditch moved it off how we wanted it to. We lost an apple tree, though.

Trying to make ditch digging seem exciting is a waste of time, but water management is infinitely fascinating. Trying to determine what water will do in the environment seems like a simple enough task until you do not want it to collect somewhere. Somehow, all of the low spots where water can get trapped always happen in the worst places, like the foot of a staircase, in front of a door, or in the middle of the walkway. Today, I am doing the simple task of digging a ditch to move the water where I want it to go.

Marti leverages our eggs to provide protein-rich, low-carbohydrate meals that excite and nourish. French toast is a classic breakfast that works well as a fancy dinner. Adding your favorite jam or syrup does add a few carbs, but there are almost none in the French toast, so we can have our jam and eat it, too. While this is more sugar than we typically like in a single meal, it is a treat that helps keep a Keto diet interesting.

Today, we put tile on the wall in the shower. Setting tile requires time and patience, like few other construction trades. Getting the perfect layer of mud on the wall or floor is the most critical part of the job, and getting that wrong under one tile can create chaos in your buildout. Plan your job thoroughly to improve your experience setting tiles.

Today, we are working on making our own energy drinks. That's right, tea. The most common stimulant in use is caffeine, a white water-soluble crystalline substance produced by some plants. Coffee is the most commonly used plant in the United States, but in most of the rest of the world, tea is the most common plant used. All tea comes from the leaves of the Camellia Sensisis plant. We can grow camellias, pick the leaves, oxidize the leaves, brew the tea, and make our own energy drink.

Today, we are making our own hair care products. The Lilac is in bloom, along with many other favorite springtime flowers. Those flowers smell amazing. Preserving that smell in a hair rinse is easy. Make a vinegar.

Today, I need to fix my sloppy work. The tile setting in the shower was not my best work. Some of the tiles need to be ripped out and reset. Excess thin set and uneven pressure when setting the tiles caused oozing. The thin-set should be below the tile, not between the tiles. Think set is porous and will allow water to penetrate. The space between the tiles should be filled with grout, which is a solid, mechanical, waterproof flooring material. Grout makes up the majority of the floor. I need to fix these tiles and then fill the gaps with grout.

Marti is in the kitchen and looking to make a desert that has no added sugar. This simple chocolate mousse can be made in about 10 minutes. The same mousse can be made with any flavoring we care to add. Simple quick desert.

Today, we set penny tiles on the shower floor. The tile is filler for the grout, which forms the watertight seal for the floor. Using a polymerized thin set, we applied the sheets of mosaic to the floor. To add some excitement we mix in a contrasting penny tile.

We need our shower to hold water and AquaDefense is one of the products that help ensure it does. This elastomeric compound applies similar to a paint product. As it dries it forms a solid layer of rubberized plastic across the surface. Water may make it through cracks in the tiles or grout and the AquaDefense prevents that water from soaking into the subfloor.

In this video, we give you a peek behind the scenes as we do some of the more mundane chores around the homestead. These seasonal chores will improve systems all over the property. This year, we are focused on managing water, perinial plants (add more), and property. Water pours out of the rocks on The Return Homestead. Allowing these small springs to flow freely while not flooding other areas of the property is a constant effort. Perennial plants come back every year and are our preferred type of gardening, especially for food crops. Sunshine needs a sun yard, the blackberries need more rows, and the chickens need a safe place to roam. This spring all these concerns spawned several must-do-now chores, so let's go get them done.

Today we spent some more time at the lake with a chainsaw. Last time, we were getting firewood, but today, we are sculpting the land around the lake. The dam still needs trees removed, and the view is completely blocked by a wall of honeysuckle. A small tractor with a bush hog would be the best solution, but a chainsaw will get it done too.

Today the plumbing is simple. We have to get the water from the poorly installed supply lines up to the mixing valve and on up to the shower head. This is my first time installing CPVC lines. While I had planned to transition the shower over to PEX, but could not acquire the tools and pipe. There is plenty of PEX-B offerings but the big box stores are acting like PEX-A no longer exists. So for supply logistics and price the CPVC became a better choice.

Today we are plumbing two sinks for one drain. You may want to install two sinks instead of one when retrofitting a bathroom. The vanity manufacturer you purchased assumes you have all the expected drains, so they built the unit to accommodate proper plumbing. But one drain is more than enough to remove all of the water from both sinks. Modifying the vanity and the plumbing is on you. And yes you can do it!

Today, we installed the shower drain by using thin set to attach a bonding flange to the hole in the floor. Though it may seem difficult to align the drain with a hole in the floor, everything is perfectly centered by the pre-sloped pan. So the hole in the floor is just that, a hole. Attaching the flange makes it a drain, and any body can do this.

Today, Marti is back in the kitchen to work on stretching the shelf life of our eggs while preparing a perfect snack/lunch food. Eggs are not only delicious hard-boiled, but they can also be pickled. A simple brine will protect the eggs from oxidation and decay and impart an exciting flavor. Every spring, our chickens kick into gear with their egg laying, and pickled eggs are an excellent option for increasing shelf life and the number of eggs we eat in a day.

We only have about an hour to work on the shower today, so we will do the final prep before installing the pan. We always miss critical drywall backing concerns during framing; the shower is no exception. Cutting the drain hole in the center of the floor is easy after you find the center. Then, a final dry fit of the components moves us into the "ready to spread mud" phase of the project.

Today, we are moving forward on the shower build-out by framing a pony wall and a seat inside the shower. We chose the location for the shower based on the location of the previous shower drain. Once we chose the location we framed out a space that was as large as possible. That left us with an unusually sized shower. Then, we chose a pre-sloped foam pan with a maximum size of 48x48 inches. Using a pony wall on the home's exterior wall and a seat along the back of the shower, we limit the actual shower floor to a perfectly square 48x48.

In this video, we do the setup work to install a 48x48 Hydroban Laticrete presloped shower pan. This pre-sloped foam shower pan is the fastest way to build a proper shower floor with perfect drainage. All showers need a floor sloped correctly from the walls down to the drain. Getting that slope right is the hardest part of installing a new shower; get it wrong, and the shower will fall apart quickly. But with this pan, you can't get it wrong. We estimate this product choice saved us about 7 days' work.

Today we finally get to finish our repairs to the frost free hydrant behind the barn. The original hydrant had a faulty valve that allowed water to slowly fill the standpipe instead of having it drain out when the valve was closed. That lead to the pipe being full of water when the temperature dropped into the single digits. The thin-walled metal that these standpipes splits if the water inside freezes, and there is nowhere for the pressure to be relieved. We could not remove and repair the valve, and the standpipe was split, so we decided to replace the entire hydrant instead of attempting repairs.

Today, Marti is in the kitchen making some delicious healthy treats that are on our diet. In August, we changed our diet to remove all carbohydrates on a Carnivore diet. We have lost weight, doubled our energy, and learned to get through a day without any sugar. We are reprogramming our food expectations to improve our self-sufficiency. That means shifting our diet away from processed food toward what we can reliably produce off of our land through our labor. While we work on adding more fruit, honey, tree syrups, and other natural sweeteners, we are experimenting with other nonsugar sweeteners. These treats have no sugar in the recipe and contribute positively to our current dietary fulfillment by adding extra fat. ______________________________ Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Fat Bombs - ketofocus.com 12 Servings - 4.6 grams of carbohydrates 3/4 cup almond flour 2 oz cream cheese (softened) 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 cup NO SUGAR ADDED chocolate chips 1/4 cup butter (softened) 1/4 cup Monk Fruit 1/8 teaspoon salt In a medium bowl, cream the flour, butter, cream cheese, sweetener, vanilla, and salt. Stir in the chips. Scoop, drop, chill.