The renovation on the "homestead" is just about complete. The only things left to do are spot painting and a few electrical covers that need to be put in place. We have been living in the house almost continuously during the winter. The cold and unpredictable weather that we anticipated seem to be the norm here. Although we didn't get a lot of measurable snow, it seemed that every time we turned around there was sleet and/or freezing rain coming down. During these times we just stay inside and work on small inside projects. We have Internet and television, so there are times when we just sit back, watch a movie, and enjoy the heat of the wood stove. The electricity does go out frequently here, but that's to be expected when you live "out in the country" so we just hook up the generator to keep the refrigerator, freezer, and computers running. During these times, the wood stove does double duty in that it keeps us warm and cozy as well as cooking a pot of stew or beans. To sum it all up, we are really happy here on our little plot of land. If all goes well with our health as we age, we should be able to be fairly self-sufficient on what we can raise on the property.
We went to a local festival a few weeks ago just to see the community in action. The festival was one of the best I had ever attended. It was spread out all over the county, which allows most of the community to get involved. The crowd numbers were expected to be around 10,000, but because it was spread out over the whole county, the numbers we're oppressive (I don't do well in situations where there are wall-to-wall people...which is probably why we love living way out here). We had a wonderful time and got a chance to carry on conversations with members of the local community and were very impressed with the friendliness of the people. We spoke with one of the local radio personalities and another lady even invited me to her house to see her business operation. We also visited another neighbor and got a tour of their farm operation, which was very impressive.
One of the main things we do on clear and relatively warm (meaning above 40 degrees) is to cut wood, then we cut more wood, then we cut even more wood. We only work an hour or so at a time, but it's amazing how much you can do in an hour's time. To most people this would get old after a while, but we find that it's good exercise and keeps our home warm and cozy throughout the winter. We try to keep our stockpile of wood big enough that we're at least one year ahead so that if one of us has a medical issue (like my ankle surgery last year) then we have enough wood to last through that time period. The wind blows a lot here and nature tends to take down the trees that are old or weak, so it's almost a necessity that we heat with wood just to use up all the downed trees. The fact that it saves a ton of money when we don't use the electric heat to keep warm is a huge bonus.
We've also been working on other projects, which I'll continue to share in upcoming posts. All in all, we're having a great time, keeping busy, and living the good life!
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| Jax inspects the big tree that fell in our yard. |
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| And he does his part to help with the fire wood. |
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| He also performs quality control inspections on the wood that we split. |
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Charming built this nice wood bin to corral the wood and help to keep
the area cleaner, which makes my life easier. (I just love that guy!)
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A cheery fire burning in the wood stove allows us to ignore the
cold wind, sleet, and snow outside.
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I made this cover for our generator out of dog food bags sewn together.
I crocheted a length of plastic baling twine into a "chain" to cinch the
bottom snugly to prevent the wind from blowing it off. It's worked
well so far. (Nice of Purina to put dog food into bags that resemble
light-weight tarps.)\
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Walker & Powder take turns watching out the window from their perch
on this footstool given to me by my sister Joyce. (Perfect height to give
the "inside kitties" a view of the outside world.) Sometimes they both
sit on the stool at the same time.
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| A favorite perch for my kitty cat, Powder. |
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I crocheted a bunting set for the newest baby in the family.
My nephew, Billy & his wife had a girl. (Set
includes the bunting, a headband, & a diaper "soaker".)
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The curtains I made for my craft/guest room needed a little something
more, so I crocheted this valance to fill in the blank space between
the curtains.
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I took this picture in the dark to highlight the pattern. I think
it lends a bit of country charm to the window.
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