Thursday, February 25, 2010

Deer Jerky

Laura and Mary used to help Pa dry jerky in the big tree stump with hickory chips so they could have the meat all winter. My husband hunts and so we used deer meat to make our own jerky!! The girls had fun making it and its a yummy healthy snack.

Supplies needed
  • Deer, elk or beef
  • seasonings (found at sporting good stores)
  • a dryer, or over
  • a jerky gun or you could use your hands
Each of the girls got to take a turn squirting out the meet.
I love this picture were A is plugging her nose!


It takes about 4 hours to dry so I had some already for them to taste.
They all LOVED it and ate it up.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Molassas-on-Snow-Candy

Laura and Mary used to help their mother make molasses candy for Christmas and since we just got a new layer of fresh snow this week we thought it would be fun to make ourselves some to.

Supplies needed
  • 1 cup molasses
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • several pans of snow
  • pot and thermometer
First we had to go and and scoop up our snow.

Then measure out the molasses and sugar.

Stir it all up and put on the stove. Cook until it comes to the hard crack stage.
Then carefully drizzle the hot syrup mixer onto the snow and it hardens immediately.

Once it is cool take it out and set on wax paper.

Then enjoy!
The left over snow was yummy to!
We sure had fun!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Rag Doll

We talked about when Laura received a rag doll for Christmas. She was so happy to have a real doll like Mary had (instead of the corn cob doll she wrapped in a hankerchif).

Supplies Needed:
Muslin material (1 yard for 6 dolls)
Cotton fiberfil stuffing
Unsharpened pencil
Brown yarn
Ribbon
Sissors
Ruler
Sewing machine

The first 3 steps are for the host mom to do the night before.
1.Make doll patern (about 12 inches tall). Cut 2 out of material.

2.Sew 2 together, leaving an opening for the stuffing (I left the top of the head open, since we would cover that with hair later).

3.Make small slits around curves, corners, or points. (be sure not to cut stitching.)

4.The girls start by turning the material inside out (so the seams are on the inside). As you can see, it is a challenging step. (The moms had to help a bit).

5. Fill doll with stuffing. Use the pencil to push the cotton all the way into the legs and arms.
6. Hand stitch the head close. The older girls did this! (The moms started and stopped the double thick thread.)
7.Cut yarn (11 inches long). Group them together in 3-4 pieces.
8.Moms, hand stitch the yarn on for the hair. Put 3-4 pieces of yarn on the needle at a time to stitch to the head. I put about 6 pieces of yarn in front of the middle seam.
9. Moms, continue stiching the yarn all the way down the middle of the back of the head. While the moms are working on this, we gave paper to the girls to draw pictures or write about what they received for Christmas (since this rag doll was Laura's favorite Christmas gift).
10.You can leave the hair loose.
11.Or tie ribbons in the yarn to give the doll pig tails.
The girls had a good time! This project took 90 minutes instead of our normal 60 minute craft.
Next time, we will add faces and make dresses for our rag dolls.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Woven Baskets

This week for our craft we made woven baskets. Of course back in the day they didn't use sour cream containers but for our young group it made it easier.

Supplies

  • scissors
  • tape
  • sour cream container
  • yarn or wool
I wanted to use a rope to make it look more authentic but after trying it, it was to stiff and didn't work. We ended up just using yarn which worked great but I would suggest using a thicker yarn so that the container doesn't show through.

For the older girls we cut the stripes thinner and for the younger ones we did thicker strips so they didn't have to go around as many times. It was a little tricky for the girls but with our help they were able to do it and after going around a few times they caught on.
So all you do is get a piece of string and start at the bottom and go in and out all the way around. When your sting runs out cut another piece and keep going. We did put a little piece of tape on the end of each new string so it would stay in place.


Here is the finished basket. If we did it again I would use darker yarn and like I mentioned before use a thicker one. We also hole punched the top and added a handle.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Little House in the Big Woods

Today we made the entire Big Woods scene for our little log cabin.
Supplies Needed:
  • Elmer's Glue
  • Rocks (we used 2 different sizes)
  • Pine Cones
  • Green Paint
  • Hot Glue Gun
  • Sticks (broken to small pieces)
  • Cotton balls
  • Big square piece of cardboard
Glue Log Cabin onto board.
Glue rocks around cabin.
Make a stone path coming from the front door of the cabin.
Glue wood into a pile.

Paint the tips of the pine cones with green paint.

Or you can dip the pinecones into the paint.
And because of time and for variety, we left some of the pinecones plain (without paint).

Hot glue the pinecones to the board.

We glued cotton balls to the top of their chimneys to look like smoke.

We also ate homemade rolls for a snack.