Pictures of our Promised Land :)

Short blog ... Ya right LOL ... not after being gone for this long. Grab a cup of something, sit down & enjoy the pictures (and small comments in between LOL) (Pictures are in no specific order)

The boys pulled this stump out from among the weeds when we were cleaning up part of the land

Our 4 year old trying his hand at building a log cabin out of sticks 

14 year old daughter helping with the caulking

12 year old helping with the caulking

Pulling protective plastic off the loft/bedroom window

Smile for the camera LOL

Peak-a-boo

One of our water tanks

See the heart in the trees? That is at the entry of our property ... How kool is God?

Pulling weeds

More weed pulling

Gathering rocks to line our driveway with

"Hillbilly" insulation ... clothing in walls, held up with sheets that are tacked to the wall

Some of our stuff in the cabin

The loft in it's "almost a bedroom" state 

Who is this space man?

Ahhh, insulation day. (Hillbilly insulation came down)

Tada!!!

A water heater we are borrowing

Our water tank stand

Some of our neighbors:

A little fun:

Target shooting with the B.B. gun

Bein' silly

Justice and Liberty for us (this is what they do after a hard day at play)

Something we found growing on the land:

Today's the day!!!

I find myself overwhelmed to tears today. It's moving day. I don't think there are words to describe my happiness ... really. We have been blessed by an "angel" ... he knows who he is. Because of him we have a wood stove, a water heater, a water tank & a generator.

My husband has a lot of the furniture moved out already. The whole move will be over by tomorrow, I'm sure. Then we'll come in & clean. It's happening. YAY!!!

A Whole New World

We got the keys to our cabin ... to our new life ... and to a whole new world. These keys do more than just unlock the front door. They give us freedom. Freedom from debt ... freedom from slum ... err landlords ... freedom from city drama ... ahhh the country life!

You want to have a look inside? We'll take you for a quick walk through while we're waiting for the guys to jack the cabin up & level it. It won't take long.

First we have to unlock the door (that was just hung). It's a bit sticky, but I'd imagine once it's level that will work itself out. 

The view from the front door. You are looking at the future living room, kitchen and part of the upstairs (ok, it will be a ladder and not stairs) storage/office. At the very back we will have a bedroom and bathroom. 

This side door will open up to the addition once it's built. The addition will house other bedrooms, a second bathroom and 2 extra lofts. 

From inside the cabin ... you are looking at the other angle of the kitchen. The corner may be used to house part of our water barrels. Our counter top will go over those & we will hand pump water to the kitchen sink. (Off course these are all still just thoughts ... things may change LOL)

Looking toward the front door from the back of the house. You see part of the kitchen, living room and the entry. The loft you see is actually someone's bedroom. My husband was yelling to the delivery guy that the door was sticking & needed a good amount of force to open it. The cabin was jacked up in a few different areas, testing to see which location would fix the problem. Eventually it was resolved. 

While we were on the property, we met one of our neighbors. He was an odd fella ... small & a bit jumpy. He didn't stay around too long but long enough for me to get a picture of him. Can you see him?

 

Will he make it?

Oh well ... this week has been interesting, challenging, stressful, fun and ... blessed!!! We have friends who will be homesteading with us on our property. Their cabin shell was delivered a couple days ago. The delivery guy tried coming up our front driveway ... no matter what he did, it wouldn't work. He was ready to give up. We asked him to try the back, private road (that we own) but he argued and stated he'd seen our road and couldn't make it. We had him go for a walk down the back road to see. My husband & friend went with him ... and after much consideration, he decided he could make it. So ... he drove up to a neighbors place & instead of backing up right after he entered their driveway, he drove all the way up on to their property. He came flying down their driveway back to the main road & took out a tree branch of theirs ... (totally unnecessary since he didn't have to go that far in to be able to turn his rig around). In doing this, he tore the shingles & trim up on the roof ... both sides. Once he drove up our back road, he almost made it the whole way. He got stuck between a stump and 2 trees. One of the trees bent (with the help of human hands) in order to save the siding on the cabin. We needed a chainsaw ... thank God for neighbors!!! The delivery guy decided to cut the trees down himself. By the grace of God my husband was able to redirect the falling tree ... because it was going to fall right back on to the delivery guy. It fell right next to his truck ... with a few branches going in to the cab. The tree that got stuck under the truck & cabin was easier to remove. The cabin was dropped in it's new location (I say new because it had to change as of that day, due to the driver having to come up the back road & us needing access right through where he was originally going to drop it).

Now .... want to know how things went when he brought our cabin? Well ... due to the same guy being in a hurry, he tore the trim off the back of the cabin. He cut a turn to close & jammed the back end in to a stump ... the same stump he cleared a couple days earlier. We also have some gouges in the porch wood. Other than that, all is well LOL Watching it all happen is bizarre & stressful but we had fun waiting for the cabin to arrive.

We plan, God laughs!

We are needing to go clear the land. Not all of it ... just the area the cabin will be set on. There are some weeds and maybe even a tree stump or three to be ground down. It's been raining for the past few days so we've not been able to do anything. Today is beautiful ... the perfect day to clear the land ... right?! Nope. There is work being done on the main road to the cabin & traffic is blocked ... yes completely blocked from 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. everyday until Friday. Great ... NOT! I guess it's a good thing our cabin shell won't be delivered until next week.
We took some friends to the land over the weekend ... so we could show them how to get there as well as how kool the acreage is. We got to the far edge of the land and it started pouring rain. Yes, it was a minor sprinkle before we left. Then it stopped. Then it poured buckets down!
There's a few things we have to do yet ,,, but it's coming along! Our rental house is all packed & things are ready to go in to storage. We're putting everything in besides dishes, pots, pans, clothing & school books ...ok, we're keeping tools with us too.
I'll post our list of "To-Do's" tomorrow ... see you then :)

Sky's the limit!

We've been going over things in our minds and on paper ... and decided to make some changes.

1) Due to a hazard issue, we're changing the kitchen design around. The stove will NOT be very close to the sink. As a matter of fact it will be as far away as we can get it!!! (I'll add the new floor plan as soon as it's done)

2) We had discussed and even jumped in to making an income by using "homestead" skills, knowledge & by selling home made items. We're actually rethinking that. Yes, we can use these things to save our family money and may use them at times, for bartering ... but the more we do, the further away I get from my dreams and calling. We've decided to remove all distractions. We may be offering some items for sale soon .. such as bottles (for vanilla), fabric spray paints ... but then again, we may not. 

3) Someone suggested we consider using an above ground swimming pool for our (non-potable) water collection. We could collect rain water or haul our supply in. Honestly, the cost alone makes it very enticing!!! A 3000 gallon tank would cost around $1200.00 but we could get a 5000 gallon pool for $350.00 Makes one think, yes? We'd put it on pallets (to keep it off the ground) and cover the pallets with carpet (so the bare wood wouldn't damage the liner). We'd certainly have to build an enclosure for weather proofing ... but we're thinking free pallets would do it. Then we could "insulate" it by stacking bales of straw/hay around the walls. The roof would have to have a pipe coming out of it, to enable water to get in to the pool & we'd have a pump connected from the pool to the pipes for the house. We're pretty sure it could all be done for $500.00 or less.

4) The shy's the limit here!!! We should build our dreams ... even if it's one piece at a time. 

Just outside our reach

We're having a hard time deciding between the 3rd and 4th design I posted in the last entry. They both seem to fit with what we'd like our dream house to be. I can't tell if I like the last design because I included all the bells & whistles in the design or if I just really like the set up. Maybe I'll have to draw the same design without the SUV, the yard stuff & the enclosed porch.

I am getting impatient. The building hasn't started just yet .... I know it takes about 2 weeks to get done. At the rate we're going, we'll get in the house by mid-September ... HUGE sigh!!! Please Lord ... help us get there quicker!!! The dream, for now ... is just outside our reach.

I have so many ideas going through my head as far as decor. I see a picture of the empty shell from the builders and the ideas just start flooding my brain.

I've been thinking about the projects we'll start once we move ... making a dehydrator will be top priority!!!

Being at a standstill drives me crazy!!!

Plenty of room for us

We've spent the last few days discussing what we want our cabin to look like. What types of space we need .. notice I said "need" ... not "want." We spend most of our time at home, as a family ... all in one room. There's no reason to build large bedrooms if the only thing we do in there is sleep. Nor do we need to sit in a 600 sq. foot "Great Room." We don't want to have to yell across the rooms or house in order to have a conversation. We can get plenty of private time while playin in tree houses, sittin' on fences watchin the animals ... or by gettin lost in books.

Here's what we'll be starting with ... a 12x32 shell. We will move in and then start insulating. It will have electric before we move in.

We will be building an addition but not until we have the original structure completely the way we want it. We have been playing with floor plans and trying to decide what we'll do. Here are a few of our ideas ... 

Sketch #2 is my least favorite. It has too much open, unused space. 

The next plan is my favorite, I think. It uses space, it's less to have to deal with and it's well planned. 

I"m liking the next one as well ... not sure it's my favorite but it's definitely growing on me. I don't think it's because there is way more detail on this one than any other though. We have always planned on having an enclosed porch ... just hadn't put that in the other floor plans. Maybe I like it because we'd only need to buy enough fencing to do 3 sides of the yard? My husband likes all of them  ... only time will tell as to which home we will wind up building.

Wouldn't it be great if a new SUV would come with the buildings? LOL

Home, home on the range ... soon!

You know that we're moving already. The next stage is to get the above cabin (picture is of the model) onto our land. The porch is 8 feet long by 4 feet wide. That will change. It will be 4 feet long and 3 feet deep. The following picture is of the inside, right at the front door. You'll see what changes we are going to make to the entrance. The room will be our living room area. The picture is being taken from our kitchen/dining room area. We don't have any other pictures of the inside yet but will definitely be posting once our cabin is built.

As you can see, we are changing the way we enter our home. By cutting the porch down & changing the placement of the door we will enlarge the room from an 8 foot width to 9 or 10 feet. That doesn't sound like much but when it comes to floor space & furniture, it certainly can be. 

Once the cabin is on the property we'll have the guy in, to get it wired. Then ... we're either connecting to the grid (temporarily) or will put a generator right in. That will depend on a couple things. Either way, we will have to have power before move in, due to the extreme heat & humidity. 

We are so excited!!!

Surprise ... we're ...

M-O-V-I-N-G!!! And we are really excited about it!!! I'm sure a lot of you are thinking we're crazy or wondering what's going on. We're not moving out of state ... just to another town. Off a highway ... onto 10 acres. We're having a cabin built on the new property. Greatest blessings from this move ...

• more land
• lower payment
• safer highway if Winter travel is necessary (MOST important as far as I'm concerned)
• has a seasonal spring on the land

There's adjoining property available too, so we may just take the plunge for the surrounding acreage too.

We will still use the name "Our Maker's Acres" for our new property too ... because that's who has provided it for us. 

I know we've only been out here for a year, and we already had a cabin with land ... but the road has been a great concern as far as Winter travel goes. We left our cabin due to heat index but the road was always a question. In ice it would have been impossible to get in or out. 

The company my husband works for has 2 locations & our new place is almost between the two. He will be able to pick up more hours ... which is the plan only until he quits, to come home & work our family businesses with the rest of us. 

I'm off the design the floor plan of our new home. Talk to you soon!