Mountain Lane Homesteaders

She came with the name of "Snowflake", we changed it to Tangle (see previous post), but I'm wondering if Houdini might not be just as appropriate!

 The Escapee!

Just incase you're wondering.......goats DO have personality :). Molly has yet to get free from her picket line while Tangle has broken off at least 6 or 7 times. Each time she gets off differently. So far it's been easy to get her back on because she just breaks loose and then stays right near where Molly is. I'm so glad they were friends before they got here so they like to stick together. One evening we were sitting here inside and there was a nice loud goat greeting very close. We opened the door and there stood Tangle just looking at us. Two nights ago it was already dark outside and we began to hear a bang bang bang on the back side of the cabin. Sure enough, Tangle was free again and saying hello. Tangle is what I would call a more "social" goat than Molly for sure! She's always the first to call to us when we open up the door or arrive back home after being away. She will look you right in the face too with those great big goat eyes. As for her relationship with Molly? Tangle seems to be the one trying to get Molly to play while Molly acts all diginified. As if butting horns with Tangle is something she will agree to begrudgingly! Tangle can be seen standing back on her hind legs to put her whole body into a head butt while Molly just gives a small tap and goes the other way. I have a feeling Molly is something of an aristocrat while Tangle is more of a commoner!

I mentioned in my last post that Tangle is an Alpine and Molly is a Toggenburg. I was looking at some pictures of the different breeds on the internet and now I'm wondering if they aren't some kind of mix. The goats were given to us and the guy didn't really give us a lot of information. He said they were given to him. I think Molly looks like a Toggenburg except for her ears. They are not straight up like the ones I see in pictures. They stick out all goofy on the sides.

I am wondering if she might not be a mix of Toggenburg and Nubian. Anyone have any thoughts? As for Tangle, I just can't tell whether she looks all Alpine or not. For our purposes it doesn't really matter I guess since all we really plan to do is learn about milking them but I am just curious.

We are now back down to only the two outdoor cats. Two kittens were given to the same home several days ago and the three newest baby kittens are no where to be found. At first we thought Baby had just moved them but now we are wondering if something might have gotten them. Baby is back to spending her days underneath the windows with Mama outside so we think she has no more kittens to look after. We are all a little sad about losing the kittens. The kids already had each one named of course.

My garden is looking better each day. It's still been quite cool here so the tomatos and peppers haven't grown much yet but they have recovered from their transplant shock. The broccoli, cauliflower, and especially the brussel sprouts look wonderful. I guess they are liking this cool weather. I read that one plant can make up to 100 brussel sprouts. I have 4 plants. My kids are groaning :). I also made a smaller raised bed inside the fence that is made out of stones. I made it quickly to move some flowers inside that the deer were gobbling but I decided to plant the jalepeno peppers and some salad greens right in with the flowers. Hopefully the jalepenos won't kill off the flowers! In the main garden I've added in some lettuce seed as well as a few melon seeds. We'll see what those do.

We are busy getting ready for our vacations coming up. We have two trips back to back starting at the end of next week. We'll be flying to Maryland for a whirlwind family reunion and then coming home for 5 days and leaving again to make a drive to Iowa for another reunion over the 4th of July. We're certainly getting excited!

Well, seems like the day has begun around here so I'm off. Many thanks for all the welcome back comments!

Oh this is TERRIBLE! How in the world does one just jump back in after a THREE MONTH silence? I feel as though so much must have happened with everyone that I'll never get caught up! Even this page where I type my entry looks different.  YIKES.  Thanks so much to those of you who've been writing to me and wondering where I was. I think that's what finally got me back on the keyboard again. Nothing like wondering if no one will know who you are any more to create a big ole writers block! Sure hope to be getting back to regular visits with all of you.

So how about an update on things around here? I'm sure you've all just been waiting on pins and needles to finally hear the words....... WE'RE FLUSHING!!!! Yes indeed we are creeping ever so slowly back into the realm of civilization. We have a beautiful shiny functioning potty and the portas have been put out of commission! The excitement of it all was just too funny. The night we had it all hooked up we called my parents up at about 11:00pm to have them listen over the phone to our flush. The phone call was quite brief since it was late and they were heading off to bed. It was only AFTER hanging up did I realize that it was their ANNIVERSARY and I hadn't even said a word. I'm sure they were thrilled to share their anniversary with our toilet anniversary!

How about a picture?

As you can see, no walls yet but we've got blankets tacked onto all that framing and at least finally have a little privacy. Gone are the days of the "NOBODY LOOK!" commands. I cannot tell you all just how wonderful it is to stand behind those blankets and get ready for the day without an audience :). Something else we've accomplished is to get the engine rebuilt for the sawmill that was given to us and have moved it onto our property. Just as soon as we're able to get it all leveled we'll be able to mill the wood for the bathroom walls. And a door.......I can't even hardly imagine.......a door!

You know, I was just thinking. I think one of the reasons I must have slowed down on writing and even reading blogs lately is because everyone was so excited and looking forward to their gardens. It was so hard to read all that great garden information because of my last years experience of having everything here demolished by the deer and free range cattle. My poor little tomato plants that I so carefully grew from seed were just carelessly destroyed!

But.......Happy Birthday to Me! This year Sam was determined to see to it that I had a fence so that I could garden again without fear. So at the beginning of May he peeled several poles and we set about creating a fence. We were able to buy a 100 foot roll of welded wire, 6 feet tall, for $99. Sam dug post holes into our clay/rocky ground and we mixed bags of cement in the wheelbarrow. We stood each pole up, made sure it was level, and began to shovel in the cement. Once all the poles were in place we were ready to put the wire on. Our ground slopes a bit where the garden area is so we had to take a stair step type approach to the wire rather than just wrapping it around and being done. Since the deer are not daunted by a 6 foot jump we stretched several lines of single strand wire around the tops of the poles so that each area is actually now protected up to 8 feet high. Hammering in the fencing staples and pulling the fence tight was actually a pretty enjoyable task and we are so proud of our accomplishment.

We think it turned out beautiful! We have set in 14 raspberry plants along the back side (that's on the left side of the picture as you see it.  The gate is on the right) and I've put in tomatos, bell peppers, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts. I've left a place to put in some lettuce as well and I still have to figure out how to do the jalapeno peppers I want to grow for my salsa. A neighbor told me she had once planted jalapenos in with other things and everything else took on the heat of the peppers. Anyone else have that happen? I'm thinking of putting them in pots rather than the ground to prevent this. We have a short growing season here with the weather still being pretty cool right now and will get cold again at night starting probably in mid September. Don't know how all these things will do but at least I finally get to TRY!

Along with the additons of the toilet and a new garden fence we also have several new animal additions. We are being overrun by kittens! We moved here with 2 pets. A dog and an indoor cat. Last fall we found a cute little kitten snuggled down in our wood stacked up next to the house. We think she was trying to stay warm. We thought she was an orphan abandoned by her mother so we made her a cozy box outside and yes, started to feed her. We just call her Baby. It wasn't too long before the kids found another cat that looks just about identical to Baby snuggling with her underneath a stack of windows we have outside. Seems baby's mama was now going to live with us too. So, since last fall we've been caring for these two outdoor GIRL cats. Fast forward to a few weeks ago and we found mama's newest litter of kittens....underneath those windows. Two boys and a girl. Soooooo cute. Although so tempted to keep "just one" we have found homes for all three. One little boy left yesterday and the other two will go to a home together just as soon as we can get it arranged. Which will be perfect timing because just over a week ago, on my birthday, Baby had babies too. Two girls and a boy. And they are soooooo cute! We have a few weeks to go before finding homes for these. You don't suppose I'll get talked into keeping "just one" of these do you? 

Along with the cats/kittens, as of this holiday weekend, we find ourselves as of Saturday to now be GOAT OWNERS! Sam e-mailed me from work on Friday that he'd heard of someone who wanted to give away two female baby goats. Although, we've talked about getting goats some day it surely wasn't in the plans to do it yet. However, when presented with the opportunity, we at least had to go and look at them don't you think? They are bigger than I had imagined. They are each about a year old. They've not yet been bred so they can't be milked but they're just at the right age I guess. Here are our new friends.

This is Molly Hazel. She is a Toggenburg and came with the name Molly but we added the Hazel because of the color of her eyes. She seems to have an affection for Sam since he's the one who sat by her in the back of the truck for the ride here.

Here is Mara with Tangle.  Mara was wearing this dress the day the goats came.  Doesn't she just make you think of Heidi?  Tangle is an Alpine and came with the name Snowflake. We changed her name because Snowflake just didn't roll off the tounge. Her new name fits her though because this one sure seems to get tangeled in her line a lot. Since the goats were unexpected we have no pen yet but have them tied to lines between trees. When we got home from church on Sunday we found Tangle laying on the ground with her legs all tangled up. We got her untangled but she scared us because she just layed there. At first her eyes were shut, then they were opened but huge and vacant looking. We were just about to call one of our neighbors over who has goats when Tangle finally stood up, peed, pooped, and started eating again. Whoa. What a way to start things out. It was like she just had given up. I hate to think how long she must have laid like that. She was fine when we'd left but we were gone probably about 3 hours or so. All seems to be fine now though. Both Molly and Tangle are getting use to us and now are willing to eat some oats from our hands. Every so often I'll just look at Sam and say "We have goats" and then a little later he'll say, "Darc. We've got goats." I think we're somewhat bewildered but we're sure having fun :).

So lets see, a potty, a fence, sawmill moved over, baby kittens, and goats. I guess that's what's been going on around here while I've been A.W.O.L. these past several weeks. Sure am glad to be here this morning. I hope to hear from some of you and I'll be checking in. I have a lot of reading to do to get caught up with you all.

Talk to you again soon!

Good Morning from the woods!  As promised I'm back with a little more info on our past milling days.  It's been fun to think back on how things worked and to get it recorded before time and other experiences dulled my memory.  I use to remember everything so easily......not so any more! 

How about starting out with a few pictures?

Unloading the trailer full of logs to stack by the sawmill. 

The kids liked helping push them off and showing how strong they were!  Mara wasn't about to be shown up by her brother.

Here's Charis giving it her best!

The biggest challenge we faced in milling was to make rafters out of the 24' long lodgepole trees which you might remember were only 7" at the butt! We wanted to leave them as thick as possible for strength but we faced quite a large taper in each tree. They all started out 7" in diameter at the base of the tree and by the time we measured out 24 feet of length, the tips were often only 4" thick. We decided that we needed to only use the ones we could make at least 4 1/2" thick on each end. This is when the trial and error method really took over full force. We would try starting at the thicker end of the log like we did with everything else we had milled and cutting down just an inch. We soon discovered that because of the way a tapered tree lays on the sawmill, doing this would leave us with a tip that was literally cut in half. We tried turning the whole thing around and starting at the thin end. That didn't work either.

The tension set in as we were having to discard tree after tree to try and get it right. Again, our resources and our time were dwindling. As an aside, a sawmill is not a quiet tool. At different times Sam and I would find ourselves reaching up and shutting everything off just so that we could think. In fact, in some cases the mill was off more than it was on. When a work day was done and all we had accomplished were the ways NOT to make the rafters, we would pack up and head out so discouraged.

In most cases, if we had what we perceived to be an unsuccessful day, it was usually followed the next time by success. We are beginning to figure out that while we were frustrated at the time by our apparant lack of progress, it was simply a slow step in the right direction. This was the case with the rafters. Somehow through all of our bumbling attempts we finally figured out a "skim and flip" routine that worked! We put the tree on with the larger end at the start of the cut and I would lower the blade so that it would just barely skim the bark at first. Just enough to go about 3 or 4 feet down the log before it tapered and wasn't being touched. This would give about a 1" wide strip of flat that the log would rest on when we flipped it over to skim a similar strip off the other side. Back and forth we went. Using this method of slow and steady, bits could be taken off the thick end of the tree without severely diminishing the narrow end. Eventually we were able to make all the rafters we needed for our cabin using this method. Some of them ended up having no more than the tiniest sliver of flat edge by the time we got to the tip but as long as we could measure it to come out to 4 1/2" we were satisfied.

During the process of attempting to make the rafters in this way, Frank would shake his head, full of concern that we would end up making a cabin that looked "ho-bunk". He was more than certain that these poles would just not look right. I believe it may have actually been stressing him out that we were not heading off to the store to purchase ready made rafters. Can you imagine the feeling of satisfaction we feel every time we look up at our ceiling now? The thrill in having "conquered" the poles?

So that's a brief look into what it meant for me to be "It". I learned a new skill. I hefted logs. I learned to trust myself. I learned that what might appear as a wasted day is really just a part of the whole. I learned more about Sam as he did about me. We've made memories that will last a lifetime. What's more? I had fun.

Here are a few more pictures:

Sam getting the logs all ready to go on the mill.

Here's the sawmill with me getting ready to make the first cut on a log.  Charis is showing that she's ready with tape measure and crayon to do her job.  Laying behind us in the background you can see some of the long poles I was talking about.

This picture shows some of the pieces starting to stack up.   The pile of stones behind the kids are the beginning of a collection we're making for building the house.  We are going to need soooooo many more! 

We have so much work ahead of us and much more milling that we will need to do to make the lumber for our big house. We had planned to do things much like we did for this cabin......many many trips to Frank's place for hours of milling. However, in my last post I mentioned another amazing thing that has happened to us. As we spent all those hours at the sawmill learning how to make it work and building our home, we never in our wildest imaginations would have guessed that one day Frank would buy himself a NEWER FANCIER sawmill and then decide that he wanted to GIVE US his first one! He tried to sell it (purchasing it was not planned for in our building funds) and then he and his wife decided that really, we were the ones that they wanted to have it. So, sometime soon we will be picking out a location on our property and bringing the sawmill here to live. 

We are so excited!

Finding out what it meant for me to be head sawyer was a little like finding out what it means to be a parent. You read books and listen to lessons learned already by others who have gone before. Those are priceless resources. But no matter what, there are going to be those times that you face things that are unique to your own situation which cause you to blindly forge ahead into unknown territory using only trial and error methods with an ear tuned to listening to the still small voice inside, reminding you that you have been brought to this place and you will make it through to the other side.

Over the course of time I realized running the sawmill was about more than just learning the technical aspects of operating the machine. We needed to make 2 sided logs, 10" wide boards that were an inch thick, 4" wide boards (these are the "bats" or battons on the side of the cabin) and a bunch of 2x6's. My job was to not only operate the mill, but to decide how to get the most lumber out of each log. Notice the frugality here? No waste on my watch!

Our system was pretty basic at first. Two siding the logs was a great beginner lesson. A log was first placed onto the mill and made stable for cutting. The mill we were using was then lowered using a hand crank to position the blade close enough to the top of the log so as not to waste any, yet down far enough to take into account the taper so that it would slice a nice clean cut and take off all the bark on one side. Once the scrap was removed (and set aside to become kindling for our woodstove), I would raise the mill up to slide it back across the log to the starting position. The log would then be turned over and another cut taken off the other side. Once we had two clean sides we would measure the log and decide how much more to take off to keep our logs at a consistent size.

Since we had logs of various diameters we made two different cut sizes. Remember, we are taking these from our firewood permit and we were new to logging trees at all so the sizes we ended up with may seem small but trust me, they were heavy to lug out of the woods! Some logs when finished were a 6" thickness and some were 7". The kids got in on this part of the process by using the red loggers crayon to mark the size onto the end of the log as soon as it came off the mill. Once this was done the logs were stacked and set aside to continue drying out. Eventually a few of these were peeled and added to our "we can DO THIS" evidence for the bank but as our project evolved, most of them ended up later being made into floorboards for our cabin loft rather than waiting to be logs for the big house. Hopefully, having a little more experience now, we will be able to get some that are a little bigger around to mill for the house.

Having learned the basics of milling wood we were able to move on to a more challenging project which was to begin the process of making our wall boards and 2x6's (when first learning the "lingo" I was so confused when someone would refer to a "tubasix"). For these we did have some bigger logs to mill thanks to the generosity of our friend so the plans were made to mill all our boards 12 feet long, 10" wide, and 1" thick.

These logs were much bigger and of a different type of wood which is a harder, heavier wood, so our first new challenge was in how to get them onto the sawmill. The previous 6 foot logs we had used were able to be lifted right on......not so with these. There were a couple of big pieces of machinery that we were able to use, both a Kubota tractor and a big skidder. I had already learned to drive the tractor and Sam learned how to operate the skidder. HOWEVER, in the final analysis, we decided that trying to get those logs chained up to the skidder or tractor to be lifted onto the mill was just far too time consuming. We would get the chain around the log, get the skidder going, and inevitably the chain would slip and the log would fall to the ground. Time was precious and repeated failures to get those logs on the mill were intensely aggravating. Being who we are, we decided our muscle power was just going to be much faster so we devised a ramp system by laying a couple of boards with one end on the ground and the other end up on the sawmill. With Sam on one end and me on the other we would push and shove as best we could and often made use of a couple of poles with hooks on the end called peavey's for leverage. It didn't often take too long to muscle a log onto the mill this way. The fancier models have hydrolic lifts to take care of this problem but that's not what we had available!

Once the log was in place I would two side it like before and we would roll the log 1/4 turn so it was sitting on one of the other uncut sides. Next we placed a level on the edge to be cut and then shifted or placed shims to make sure we would get a straight cut. Once that third cut was made it was easy to finish the 4th. Now we had what is called a cant. We have several supporting beams in our cabin which were made this way. What we didn't need for a support beam of some kind was then milled into boards.

I began the milling of boards like you would anything you were new at that had great consequences.....very slowly and methodically. We had just so many logs and I wasn't wanting to mess up and ruin a single board. This involved having someone measure down an inch and mark a cut line for me to follow. One day Frank stopped by while we were milling. Seeing our method he mentioned that I didn't trust myself. Of course I didn't! He encouraged me to start "guessing" where an inch was. Was he kidding? Risk wasting a log?!!! Well, it was his mill afterall, I supposed he might know what he was talking about.....so I turned that handle a couple of times, gave the log a test cut and low and behold it was right on. It took me a while to get over my need to have someone "check it" every time but eventually I gained confidence and went on to furthur adventures in sawmill fame.

Often times, in order to get as many boards out of one log as we could, there would still be a remainder of inner bark on the corners of the cant. This is called wane. We were very particular about having as little wane left on a board as possible for two reasons. First, a board with wane has a tendency to bow. We were told that if it wasn't bowed too bad it could still be used but the bowed side would have to be placed facing the inside of the cabin. It wasn't possible to face them outwards and then eventually cover them with stain. Secondly, we knew we were not planning on insulating and would be looking at the boards ALOT. We wanted them to be as nice and clean as possible. It was always a toss up whether to begin sawing boards with a little wane on them so we could get more out of a log or to shave all the edges again until we had a nice clean cant to work with but decrease the number of boards. In the end we had mostly clean boards but do have a few in our cabin with wane on the edges. Over time I have come to see them as part of the charm of the place similar to the rain stains on our ceiling from all the times the rain leaked in...not something I would have desired to begin with but a reminder of all that we were going through at the time.

This seems like a good place to pause. Next time I'll tell you about the ole "skim and flip" trick we learned, post some pictures of our milling days, and fill you in on yet another amazing happening along the way in this homesteading dream.

Never in our wildest imaginations...............

Never underestimate the hazards of fallen trees and icy roads!

Picture the scene:

One logger shimmies the side of a steep slope, chainsaw in hand, in an attempt to reach the ENORMOUS dead douglas fir tree that will fill two trucks with excellent long burning firewood. Maybe it wouldn't all even fit in two! The second logger is the get-away-guy. Their job is to wait for the tree to fall, back their truck up, hook on the heavy chain, and quickly pull the prize out of the middle of the icy road and onto the side where it can be cut into sections for loading. Logger number three has the distint duty of watching for cars coming from either direction to stop them dead in their tracks lest they be on the section of road directly beneath the oncoming tree at precisely the wrong moment!

All goes beautifully. The tree has landed and been removed. All three loggers have done their jobs. Now logger three sees that there is a car headed in their direction and shouts. All three scurry to clear away any large shattered bits from when the tree hit the road and the car passes without even having to pause. Ah, all is well on this logging day.......almost. There are still some pieces of brush and twigs that have to be picked up and thrown aside. Not much was left now so logger three began the "shuffle clear". Take a step with one foot, swipe brush aside with the other. It was that third shuffle/swipe step that was the doozy.

Anybody yet figured out that I am the unfortunate logger number three? You wouldn't have any questions about it if you could feel the headache I'm left with! Apparantly I went down and hit the back of my head.  Hard.  Sam said he ran to me and started to talk to me. My eyes were open but he knew I wasn't seeing him. He said I was also making some kind of strange noise in my throat. I don't remember any of it. One minute I knew I was slipping, and the next minute I was "coming to" and Sam was pulling me up off the road and walking me to the truck. I sat there for about an hour fighting nausea and making sure not to doze. Sam (he was logger two by the way) kept checking in on me while the truck was being loaded. At one point our friend Frank (logger one....the mountain goat) looked in and asked me how my head was. I said, "It hurts." (I'm not thinking there was anything else TO say!). His response? "Yeah. I heard it hit." Great. I'll be holding my head up high as this news gets around town.

Now let me just say that of all the more fascinating injuries I could have endured while out in the woods for the day........animal attack, a wayward tree landing on me and trapping me underneath, or even being hit with flying chainsaw shrapnel, I get to report the unfortunate injury of FALLING OVER MY OWN TWO FEET!

How undignified.

*Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, "WOW, WHAT A RIDE!"

I am feeling the nudge once again to get back on track with the story of how we got from where we were to where we are (and where we still need to go!). If you've not read my blog before, the beginning of the story can be found in the category on the right called "Journey to the Dream". It tells about the countless hours our family would spend thinking and dreaming and figuring on how we were going to be able to pursue the dream of living in the mountains. That's it. No big plans for what we would do when or IF we ever got here. Just getting here seemed to be a big enough hurdle! If you are currently in a situation where you don't see how it will EVER be possible to follow the longings in your heart, homesteady or otherwise, take a peek at how things began to fall into place for us.  Let me encourage you not to lose hope.

Picking up where I left off in the "getting here" process, we were madly stock piling as much evidence as we could to convince our bank that they wanted to be a part of this project we had drummed up! We had spent several days getting our poles out of the woods and had just completed getting all 100 we were allowed. During that process and a bit before, we also were able to harvest some other logs with our firewood permit that could come out of the woods in lengths no longer than 6 feet.

We were storing all of our wood at Frank's place (Our friend Frank the Logger) and he was going to let us use his sawmill. The original plan for our house is to use both stone and logs. We had decided that we would 2 side our logs (meaning that we would make 2 sides of the log flat and then peel the other two sides) so that they would stack easily one on top of another but still have the rounded look on both the inside and outside walls. So our next plan of action was to begin to create these pieces and have several stacked as part of that evidence I mentioned. We also had to make lots of boards that would become the walls and loft floor of our cabin.

I've been looking forward to telling this part of the story.

I remember standing there in the woodyard the day we went over for our first introduction on how to use the sawmill. It is a big, noisy, more power, machine. The three of us stood there and Frank began to talk about how to operate the controls as well as how to change the blade and other technical advice. I don't know what I had thought my role would be in this part of the project but the moment Frank looked at me and appointed me "Head Sawyer" I felt as if I had just made great advances in my career as homebuilder.

Sam and I had purposed to build this home TOGETHER. From the planning, to the collecting of our supplies, to the actual building. Although it's not always the fastest or most efficient, it's just how we work best. Together we are building a family, together we will build our home, and together we learn and grow. Unfortunately I have come to find out over time that although it's life giving to our marriage, it is not too common in our society.

Anyway, I had a glorious moment! I don't know whether Frank had been around us enough to understand how we worked or whether he had another reason, or whether it was God's divine appointment. All I know is that the stunned surprise in my face must have shown my delight. I was to be HEAD SAWYER!

I had no idea what it meant........but I got to be it!

Another challenge recently listed was for technical blogging tips and I just discovered a new one I thought someone might find useful.

The other day I read something on a blog that interested me and then over the course of the next day the subject was on my mind and I wanted to read it again. The only problem was that I didn't know the name of the blog to search for it and it had passed out of the 100 newest posts. What I did know was that it had been within the past 2 days and I thought I could remember what the person's avatar looked like. So I went to the main page of homesteadblogger and clicked on "member list" (top righthand corner). When that comes up it lists all the members in alphabetical order but if you go to the column that says "Last Activity" you can click on it and it will bring up members that have had the most recent activity (I think it also shows when someone's just been reading even if they haven't posted). Doing this I was able to scroll down the past couple of days and look for the picture I remembered. It didn't take me long and I had found what I was looking for (it should go without saying that this method is more time consuming if the person is using the picture of the sheep!). One caution though, be sure to start from page one and scroll down rather than looking for a specific date because if the person has added a newer post than the one you are looking for, their avatar won't show up again on the date of the past entry.

If your mind, like mine, happens to remember the avatar picture better than the name of a blog this might be helpful for you sometime. I have to really be on my toes when someone changes their picture though don't I?!!!

Boy there have sure been a lot of challenges posted on here lately and I'm getting in on todays!

It may go without saying but in order to get the most out of batteries there is an excellent option........RECHARGEABLE. I am here to testify that they are so worth the upfront cost. I have 3 children and a husband who ALL listen to portable cd players ALOT plus we have a digital camera. Those items alone are constantly using up battery power. We own 12 rechargeable AA batteries and one unit that will charge up to 4 at one time. We keep 4 batteries earmarked specifically for the camera and then each child has 2 for their players which leaves 2 extras that we keep charged for when someone's run down. Before we had this system someone was ALWAYS needing batteries. I don't know which I hated more, spending the money on them or just hearing the words "my CD player is out of batteries again" but whatever the case, we've sure saved tons of money by using rechargeables. I know they eventually will need to be replaced but they have already been charged many many times and paid for themselves long ago.

So, let's look at it this way......everyone loves to see pictures on the blogs.  How many batteries have you already gone through or will go through in the coming year?  Think about investing in some rechargeables and then we can all see so many more without it costing you a fortune!!! 

So speaking of pictures.....here are a few examples of what it means to be a pet here in our home:

And since I was MIA for a while, how about one of Christmas in the cabin?

Thanks for visiting!  Now, when the weather warms up so that you don't freeze solid when you step out the door........ go out and get yourself some rechargeable batteries.  Take it from a veteran, you'll be glad you did. 

Today I have been enjoying the pleasure of your company. I have read blogs I've never been to before (there are some neat new people here!) and I have visited some dear friends. Let me just say.......I have missed you! Although I've been popping in now and then over the past couple of weeks, I haven't read as much as I'd like, nor have I been able to write. Although I'm sure I have missed some wonderful posts I have been enjoying some extended family time.

It's always hard to know how to balance the physical needs of our project (nope, no potty yet!) with the less visible but equally important needs of rest and fun as a family (believe it or not, the kids DO NOT necessarily always agree that fetching firewood, working with the sawmill, peeling poles, sifting tiny rocks out of the garden, or doing yard work is as fun as we make it out to be.) One thing we've done to get ourselves (the grown ups!) to change the pace a bit for our family is to set the days from Christmas through New Years as a time for lots and lots of games, puzzles, drawing (well, the others enjoy drawing....I'm more of a colorer of pictures already there myself!), family movies, reading out loud together, and other various "together" activities that are not also "chores". Even though it's our desire to do these things all year round it seems as though it's the slower, colder days of winter, when we can finally make it happen. There are still a million and one things we "should" be doing but "should" is finally made to wait.

We have REALLY enjoyed our holiday this year and due to illness, the time has been extended longer than the expected date of January 3rd when school started up again. Sam took a couple of sick days right around that time and then I think everyone was at their perspective places for ONE DAY before our youngest came down with a bad sore throat/fever. She finally returned to school today and I have had time to myself to spend here catching up with all of you just a bit. As much as our special holiday family times are looked forward to and enjoyed I am ready to get back into some routines!

I need to get going for now, but my intention is to begin blogging regularly again. I don't want to miss any more good information or stories that you all might be writing about and I still have a story or two (or ten?) to share as well.

See you soon!

Last night I decided to make up a batch of chex mix. It's not the traditional salty/savory kind, it's more of a breakfasty sort with a sweet orange juice topping stirred over the mix before it's baked. Anyway, I was zipping right along dumping in all the cereals, pretzles, bugels, nuts, and craisins feeling so successful at how quickly things were moving along and wondering why in the world I don't make this more often, when I glanced down at the recipe that I've made only a handful of times to see the sentence "add craisins after baking". Now I am not one to stray too far from my recipes but I had already dumped the craisins in and mixed them all up with everything else. I thought about just continuing on and ignoring that remark. I couldn't do it. I also have a granola recipe I make which says the same thing so I figured someone must have found a good reason WHY it should be done this way. So, I had a good 30 minutes to ponder over the "why" question as I sat picking each and every craisin out of the mix so I would make sure not to ruin it.

To all you ladies out there who are far more knowledgeable about the makeup of a craisin than I, do tell........WHY does one add them AFTER baking? Do they dry out, get soggy, burn?

Enquiring minds want to know!!!

With so many things half done and pieces of things having to find places to hide until they're ready to be used, it's easy for the area surrounding our house to begin to look well, awful. Saturday morning's bungie bag just sealed the deal.

Due to some strong winds in the area we lost electric power around 3 a.m. on Friday morning and were still without it at 9 a.m. Saturday morning as we were getting ready to leave for the day to make a shopping trip into Missoula (1 1/2 hours away). Since the temperatures were low we asked a neighbor to pop in mid afternoon and toss some wood into the fire to keep it going while we were gone. When the power is out, our well doesn't pump so first off (to my horror) there were a days worth of dishes sitting on the counter. I could have done them the way we did when we first moved in here by using the water in our jugs and boiling it on the stove and such but I had not imagined the power would be out for so long so I let them sit. Then, I checked the meat in the freezer which was just beginning to feel a little soft. We decided at that point that it would be better for the meat to be outside rather than in the freezer. Only thing is, it had to be up high enough so no animal could get it while we were away. Where better than on one of the nails we pounded into roof rafters to hold the lanterns we used out front before the outside light was installed? So out came a black bungie and a plastic bag full of meat. Up on the first nail it went.... on the side of the cabin with a ladder leaning against it and the old wood stove sitting there. The uncovered septic tank was there too, right between the house and our make-shift shed. Now here is where the ulimate homemaking experience took place......I asked Sam to move the plastic bag of meat suspended by the black bungie cord over to the nail on the OTHER side of the house because it just didn't look QUITE SO TACKY there! Move over Martha Stewart!!! I wonder if the neighbor was able to appreciate this as he approached the partially stained front of our cabin while stumbling over the thick pieces of bark that had been scattered about as firewood was being tossed out of the back of the truck. I'm certain it more than made up for the vision of my undone dishes once he made it inside! Ah, living in the woods........

We did go on our shopping trip and the neighbor filled the stove for us, however we were gone longer than we had thought so the fire was completely out when we got back in the wee hours of the morning. Thankfully the electricity was back on but the temperature inside the cabin said 37 degrees. Sam went to work fast on the fire (bringing the wood INSIDE to split!) and I turned on the cold water faucet. The moment of horror when nothing came out passed when we turned on the hot water tap and got sputtering water. After it had heated up and ran for a while the cold began to flow as well. We then kept it running until the fire was well under way and the temperature began to rise. No frozen pipes this time but boy it was as close as we'd ever want to get. It was another layered jammie night for me!! Thankfully the kids were all so exhausted from the day that they were asleep within moments under their warm blankets and not standing about shivering with cold. Ah, living in the woods.......

Lately the terms redneck and hillbilly have been coming to mind around here. I think I like the sound of hillbilly much better, although according to this definition I found, perhaps I am really more of a redneck since I often feel resistance to assimilation into many things in the dominant culture! Oh well, I don't suppose it matters. Which ever one is fine with me as long as my meat can hang from the leftside nail in the front of the house where it's colder than the freezer and the only one I have to worry about seeing it is the kind neighbor who's stopping over to fire up my woodstove on a cold winters day. I don't think he always assimilates into the dominant culture either!

What an encouraging bunch you all are! Not only did I get to hole up in my den and hibernate for a day, I also got to be reminded again of what great friends I have found here. Heartfelt thanks to all of you for your thoughtful comments!

Since hibernating really only works if you are indeed a bear, I did venture out yesterday and made it to that eye appointment. Which is better...1 or 2? How about now.....3 or 4? Tell me when you start to see double.....WHEW! After an hour of this it was proclaimed that I have very healthy eyes (seemingly apart from the fact that without correction even the big E is fuzzy) and am still a few years away from the bifocal experience. Eye pressure is excellent and no capillaries are threatening my cornea. It's been a while since I've received a report card but I think I got an A! Anyway, my trial contacts are on order and will be in next week. HURRAY!!!!

As for an update on our homestead......I'm not entirely sure just what to tell you about our future flushing capabilities. We were "3 feet from oil" so to speak when the snow came. Our septic system has been officially approved by the sanitarian but we still have to cover everything over and install an electric pump in the tank by the cabin. We have asked a friend to help us with the electrical side of things so hopefully that will be taking place soon. Right now, keeping warm and getting ready for Christmas are the top priorities!

Last night we installed a new wood stove. It is exactly like the one you saw in my pictures when I showed the inside of the cabin except that it has no cracks or warping and so we can actually close the front and get it to hold heat now for longer than 2 1/2 hours. We purchased the new to us stove from some friends a couple of weeks ago and spent some time getting it sanded down and repainted. Last night was the first opportunity we had time to switch the stoves so after dinner we stopped feeding the fire and let it begin to die down. As the kids headed up to the loft for the night we began the process of scooping out the coals, disconnecting old pipes, pulling out the old stove, assembling 3 new stovepipes and getting them connected, and getting the new stove in place. I think it was about a 4 hour process during which time it became somewhat CHILLY inside. I actually ended up crawling into bed under the down comforter with my fuzzy jammie pants on, warm socks, my sweater, and my coat while Sam built the first fire. I was beginning to drift off a bit when the smoke detector above my head started to loudly announce it's displeasure at the peculiar smell wafting from the stove. Luckily we had read the part on the paint can about the odor that would be produced the first time it was heated up. So, while we were unconcerned and set about opening up the windows (brrrrrr), the smoke alarm continued to complain until Sam finally had enough and disconnected it entirely! Now we'll have to add "reconnect smoke alarm" to our list of activities. Wouldn't do to become bored now would it?!! Anyway, the stove is all in and has been running like a champ. It's much quieter now that it's all sealed up and air isn't rushing through from different directions. It was also still FULL of heat this morning so there will be longer sleep cycles taking place around here and I will also be able to go Christmas shopping without having to be back in 3 hours to load the fire. These are very good things!

Let me leave you today with this picture I took from the front of the cabin on hibernation day. I posted a similar view earlier taken in May.  Looks a little different today!

Good morning. I just thought I'd better pop in and let everyone know that we have NOT been eaten by the bear! In fact, we haven't seen him again since that one night several weeks ago. What I think is that while we have continued to walk, no make that run, the hamster wheel of life, Monster bear has found himself a nice cozy den somewhere to wait out the snow, slick roads, head lice, bronchitis, truck in the shop, missed appointments, undone septic, and general winter exhaustion.

I think I want to be a bear.

I will spare you all the nagging details of the above annoyances of life but let's just say that while there's been nothing earth shattering (death, job troubles, relationship issues, etc.) life's day to day has been less than idyllic for the past few weeks. At first I was still reading and commenting on blogs even though my soul was not able to produce anything worth reading. Then it digressed to simply reading without making many comments. I knew it had gotten bad when I stopped even checking in on my friends. Time wasn't really the issue (well, except for during that whole ugly lice incident). It was more a matter of spirit. I haven't been in a depression as much as in an astonishment at the increasing number of things seeming to prove the theory "If it can go wrong, it WILL go wrong." Now I know that is simply negative thinking but never-the-less it sure has seemed that way!

This morning I had an eye appointment to get new contacts. I've been in my glasses for quite a while now and have really been looking forward to going today to get a new set of contacts ordered. I wasn't sure whether to try and take my van because we've been having trouble getting it out of our "driveway" and up the small incline onto the county road. In order to be on the safe side I reluctantly decided to take the truck and let Sam tackle getting the van out this morning (which he did with no problem). So at the appointed leave time, off I went to trudge up the snowy slope to the truck, hopped in and turned the key. Nothing. Not a click, not a bit of life. Did you see it coming? I didn't. But when it did, it just didn't surprise me much. So, here I sit, talking to you with my glasses perched on my nose for yet another day. I've rescheduled for tomorrow. You see, these things are not the end of the world kind of happenings. But things like this, one after another, can really work on getting a girl down.

So this morning, I'm thinking about that bear out there somewhere all rolled up into a ball snoozing away. Although rummaging through people's trash for food and being hit in the backside with buck shot don't appeal to me much, the quietness of a cave and shutting out the cares of the world for a few weeks sounds heavenly. I think it's time to take advice from a bear. I can't go anywhere anyway, so for a little while today I am going to huddle up here in my cozy warm cave and not worry about whether it will be cozy and warm tomorrow.

Thank you to all my friends out there who have been encouraging me to keep telling our story. Today's chapter isn't terribly inspirational but it's real.

We'd been hearing the rumors going about. Although we had good reason to believe them we had no first hand experience. So we were cautious, but we really needed a good dose of reality before we accepted rumors as facts.

So anyway, Sam was not planning to be unprepared if this bear decided it wanted to visit us INSIDE.  He loaded up the handgun and sent me upstairs to get Caleb's shotgun for added backup. We both felt safer up in the loft! We woke Caleb up and told him to load his shot gun. Sam went back downstairs to put in a call to the police. We didn't want them to come out but were calling just as a precautionary thing in case he had to shoot the bear. We do not have a bear tag for hunting purposes and there are severe penalties for anyone shooting a bear without a tag. So all the while Sam is getting ready to protect our family from this huge animal if it should decide to come in for a snack, I am imagining my husband behind bars because bears around here have just about as many rights as humans! I felt a little better when the police told Sam that if he felt threatened he should shoot the bear but they never DID say he wouldn't be put away for life. (Well, they would probably just take away our firearms and ban us from hunting for a period of time but you know, it was midnight, the adrenaline was high and so were my imaginations).

How we decided to just go back to bed and hope the bear would just leave I do not know, but that's exactly what we did. It had it's snack and went away. But we spent a good long time laying awake with our 2 guns loaded and ready just in case. Monday morning Sam talked to the people at the fish and wildlife to make them aware of the bear that's roaming the area. Basically he wanted to know what actions we could take if necessary without getting into trouble and is now feeling much more relaxed because they told him the same thing as the police did, if we feel threatened we should shoot it! YEAH. They also said that others in this area had called about the bear as well and that they would back us up if we had to shoot it. That is very good news!!!

Monster bear has not been back since Sunday night. We spoke with one of our neighbor ladies yesterday about it and she has had it on her property as well. While Sam and I have only been wilderness dwellers now for just a little over a year, she lives "higher up and further in" and has for years. She told us that when she saw it outside and the dogs weren't chasing it off, she went outside and waved her arms around growling at it and it took off. People who've been around black bears will tell us that they don't like people and are more scared of us than we are of them and they will run away rather than attack. Fine. Tell me that all you want. My kids go up to the county road at 7:30 in the mornings to catch the bus. It's still dark out then. I'm pretty sure they aren't interested in testing out this theory!

So the plan is simple. If the bear is smart enough not to return, it is safe. If he decides he likes roaming about our 7 acres.....well, he's not welcome here. We're all for enjoying the wildlife as long as we're not afraid it might eat us!

Before I started blogging I had not been very good at keeping a written record of our homesteading adventure. I have a few things that were written down hastily on a piece of spiral notebook paper and then torn out and placed in a folder. The trick would be to actually find these if I were to go looking! I knew I needed to keep track of all we had been doing but finding both the time and the energy to do that during the midst of the most chaotic part was difficult at best. In an effort to clean up scattered school "keep" papers recently I pulled out a folder I had on my desk and started filing away when I actually did come across something I wrote just last October. I thought that since we are now a year beyond where we were that day it would be a good time to share it.

Although our rain in the house trials would get worse before they got better, this is a record of a moment in time during our hardest time last year trying to get everything all ready for winter.  We had been working day and night for weeks gathering our supplies, milling our wood, and getting the cabin up. We had no roof yet other than the floorboards of the loft.  The rafters were in place and a few rows of decking but that was it.  Rain kept leaking in regardless of the plastic we had set up.  We were sleeping in sleeping bags on foam mats on our concrete floor.  We had a porta potti, no running water, and no electricity.  Our lighting was coleman lanterns and I cooked on a 2 burner coleman propane stove.  We were living in one half of our cabin and the other half was still a "workshop" full of ladders and tools.  

Stress was indeed high but so was the joy.  We were DOING it!