Stir up the gifts

I won the above plaque in a GiveAway, from Hope Ink a few months back. I was blessed with what it said & really pictured it applying to my dreams & music career.

Well, my family is facing some major decisions once again and this verse & plaque keep popping in to my mind. There is no way we should even consider making these decisions with out considering what our gifts are. Doing so will help us narrow our path and focus on things God has not only given us but wants us to share with others.

Our gifts can help us in our business ventures, our off-grid lifestyle choices, in being good neighbors ... really in every aspect of our lives. I am excited about the changes that will undoubtedly take place. I have no doubt that in applying this scripture to our decisions, that God will bless us for our obedience and willingness to seek Him in every aspect. I should say here that we're always wanting to follow God's lead ... but it seems to have a deeper meaning this time. Again I will say I am excited to see where these decisions lead us!!!

Bartering "tool"

What would you consider a homesteading skill?? Quilting? Canning? Animal husbandry? Yes, I'd agree that those are definitely homesteading skills ... but in my mind, a homestead skill can be anything that either helps bring an income to the family and/or something that helps further the homestead & family itself ... like learning something that would take the place of monies paid to some one else for those things. A skill doesn't necessarily have to provide a thing though ... I think it can also be providing a service. You can barter with these skills, charge a fee, bless some one else with it for nothing or use it to benefit your own family.
I don't drink wine but I'd like to learn how to make it. I don't think there's anything wrong with a Christian drinking it either ... but I certainly wouldn't force one to. If some one is convicted to not drink it than who am I to try & force them to commit what is a sin in their eyes.
That being said, I think wine would make a good item to barter with. I could see it being used to not only make money but to save money in not having to pay cash for certain things and services. I'm in the process of looking for information, recipes, equipment etc. We'll start though by seeing how good a chance we have of growing our own grapes. If not, we'll need to find a good source to purchase from. I'll leave you with this ...

Getting back to our dreams

As a lot of you know, my husband & I bought land with a cabin on it. We moved to the land & lived there for a little over 4 months before having to move to a rental due to the extreme weather conditions. Our cabin is off grid, besides having a telephone connection. We will keep it that way! Since moving in to the rental, I've not done anything "homestead" like. I feel like I'm not working toward my dreams in one way but in another I feel like I don't have anything to do that *is* homestead-ish. I'm going to change that tomorrow. I have some things that we can do in preparation to move back to the cabin (which will happen in Spring). 

Our goals this coming year are to: 

• grow a lot of our food (be it animal, fruit or vegetable)
• recycle & reuse as much as possible
• start a new family business (that blends with our homestead lifestyle)
• dad quitting his outside job & coming home again to work the family businesses
• we all want to learn new skills (maybe 2 each)
• purchase new canning items
• build main addition to the cabin
• build work room on to cabin
• build pole barn
• live our dreams

I'm sure there's things I'm forgetting to add to the list right now ... but it is after midnight here. I'll post again soon! I plan on posting regularly ... and most importantly, I plan on getting back to our dreams!

Welcome to the new blog. As you can see, there are already some posts. I imported a few posts from an old blog that I felt would show what I plan on doing here. OMA means "Our Maker's Acres" ... as in the name of our property. I plan to fill this blog with homestead type stuff, home schooling things, bits of my personal journey in life ... and plenty of other things. Be patient as I set the background image, blog style eyc.

A money tree

So here we are ... in our rental house. We'll stay here until Winter is over. By that time we will have had enough time for weatherizing, repairing the roof completely, & getting our permanent power source up & running. I miss sleeping in our home! I miss the sounds of nature lulling me to sleep. I miss the wonder & amazement on my children's eyes when they hear new sounds or find some new creature.

I feel like we've taken three steps backwards  ... we have an electric bill. Ok, during the excessive heat, electricity to run an A/C was important to my health. We have a water bill ... we were hauling water for probably much less. We have cable now too ... I am bummed. Oh sure, there are shows that I love watching ... but really, it's just a giant distraction as far as I'm concerned.

Most people we know have said Winter here is horrible & how we may have trouble getting to & from our cabin because of the snow & ice storms. I don't think the snow will be a problem ... we lived in Minnesota & had 50 below zero Winters. Once we get a food storage area built I won't worry so much about the chance of being stuck at home.

I wish we had a money tree ... or seeds to plant one!

Slam the door on September

If I never see another September, it'll be too soon!!! This is a hard month for my family.  We have the anniversary of 3 deaths to deal with ... then another death being very recent. Now we have to deal with a horrible situation with "neighbors" on our mountain. I won't go in to detail about what's going on ... but will say that I can't imagine why I hate people more & more the older I get (note the sarcasm in my tone). I am thoroughly disgusted with these idiots who are so in life for themselves that they don't care who they trample to get what they want.
It's hard to "love thy neighbor" when they are satan disguised as friendly folk. It's also hard being a Christian in the midst of such an ugly attack!!

The missing link

I have noticed that I have written more in the past 2 months than I have in quite a while. You see my family moved completely off grid. We don't want to pay an electric bill nor gas bill nor water bill etc. So, we finally moved toward our dream. We bought a cabin & some land and are taking steps toward self sufficiency (but being God reliant). Any way ... this is the lifestyle we have dreamed about for years. We love it. We've been busy with "farm" work ... setting up our homestead, caring for animals, getting settled etc. But I always took time to write. Well ... still ... I didn't write nearly as much as I have since moving out of our cabin in to a temporary rental (we decided that because of weather, we needed to move, weatherize the cabin & then move back in) ... any way. I had been wondering why I've been able to write so much. I realized it today ... we didn't have a radio, stereo, CD player, mp3 player ... nothing. I turned my Windows media player on for the first time and waves of emotion hit me. I know it sounds silly but I realized then that for the past 2 months, we've been where we had music or sound other than our the ones we make and when I realized it tears started to sneak from my eyes. I love music ... it runs through my veins & beats in my heart. I'm going to talk to my husband about getting a solar panel & a couple batteries specifically for running our music "station." Eventually I will have a recording studio run off of solar power & a wind turbine.
Life is lyrics waiting to happen. Words will inspire & move you ... but the music can too.