Blood, sweat & tears

I always knew what that meant ... "blood, sweat & tears" ... but I believe I have a deeper understanding now.

 

Blood has been shed on our homestead ... only a few drops (so far). It sure hurts when the hammer misses the nail!!! My 18 year old son & 10 year old son made the first of three compost bins. The oldest was concerned because it didn't look nice. I'm not looking to be on the front cover of "Better Homes & Gardens" though. I don't care if it looks nice ... I just want it to function as it should ... and it doe! Great job, boys!!! It was made out of pallets. Pallets are free but some of them are hard to work with. None-the-less, they are a blessing. Our chickens are housed with the, compost bins are made with them, & some of our other projects will be made with them too.  Hopefully they'll be no more blood shed!

 

Farm chores get done first thing in the morning ... before the temperature rises! I know that old time farmers got up mighty early ... most say it was to use all the day light hours, but I wonder if the temperatures have anything to do with that too. It gets hot in these parts ... working through the day sure makes one sweaty!!! Sweat isn't a bad thing though .... it's a reward, really ... for hard work. We haven't done a lot here yet but our day is coming. Due to not having a way to contact help in case of emergencies, our kids feel safer going in to town on the days that my husband works ... so ... we go. It's a hassle & I'm over it. I think that the most frustrating part is that when staying in town ALL DAY, we have no structure, no routine ... it's sure showing on my children too.  I've noticed they argue more often & are crabby during the day. I tend to feel lost with no routine ... I look forward to getting our land line & a second vehicle. Hopefully those two things happen quickly. I have our schedule planned for when it does LOL

 

We lost a family pet this week. We were given a purebred MinPin 5 years ago. He'd become one of the family immediately. BearBear was supposed to be mine but he took a liking to my 16 year old daughter. His original name was Pharaoh but some how he became "BearBear." When our youngest was a baby, he became good friends with BearBear ... that lovable dog would let the baby use him as a pillow. The past week, we'd noticed he'd started acting like a playful pup again. He had some "pep in his step" again. He was 10 years old & though I don't know what his first 5 years of life were like, I know he had a great second half of his life. We came home from an already rough day to find BearBear had died. My 16 year old is broken hearted & many tears have been shed. We will miss our beloved BearBear!!!

 

Until next time ~

Plans

So, here we are .... on our homestead ... living our dreams. We are loving EVERY minute of it!!! Is it easy? LOL ... um ... not even close. Is it worth it? By far ... YES!!! Our first project was the chicken "coop" LOL ... more like a hut. Now our goal is to clear the property by selling off some of our timber. By doing that, we get the land cleared for free ... and make money to go toward paying for tools & such. We're not going to sell it all though ... just in the areas we want cleared. We've got pallets for the compost bins but until the land is cleared, there's really no where to put them.

 

Immediate Needs:

 

Insulation

Wall Panels

Generator

Window A/C

Rain gutters for roof

Barrels for water catchment

2 liter soda bottles

 

Every day is a lesson, that we're really enjoying learning! Our goal is to be as self sufficient as possible while being TOTALLY God reliant!!! We've never been more dependant on God ... and how KOOL that He is showing Himself to us in very real ways!!! God is good! We've met wonderful people, who have welcomed us whole heartily ... we have been blessed by many ... both friends & strangers, though I don't think there's such a thing as strangers in this part of the world.

1st cooked meal on homestead ... "Cowboy" breakfast ... farm fresh scrambled eggs with beans

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Chicken need shelter too

Temporary housing

We were blessed with 6 chickens & 2 roosters. We were expecting them on Saturday but due to weather reports, we got them on Friday. A friend drove an hour & a half to our house to bring them to us. Kathy also brought us a couch with a hide-a-bed & 4 or so eggs. YUM!!!

My children woke up this morning & were so excited that they would get to do "farm chores" today ... they happily went out to feed & water the chickens. They were thrilled to find 4 eggs ... part of tomorrow's breakfast!

We are on our property ... way up a mountain & way out in the sticks. We couldn't be happier!!! We are really "roughin" it. We have no electric but will do our solar power system soon. We have a solar shower & a compost toilet. Pretty soon we'll have the water tanks, to truck in our own water. I can't wait for that!!!

One thing I am finding hard to do since our move ... is getting back to our routine. I mean ... I know our routine is changing but I just can't find our schedule in our day & it can tend to drive me crazy with out it LOL

Most days we're in bed by dark & up by the crack of dawn. Those are my favorite days!!!

I'm posting pictures little by little ... I'll post more as soon as we find the battery charger LOL