Homesteading: A Woman's Journey

Dealing With Separations

05:32, Monday, August 21, 2006 .. Posted in Personal Thoughts .. 0 comments .. Link

Having my beloved husband gone so much, I have had to deal with a way to handle our times of separations. I quickly found that things seemed much easier when I was truck driving and Joe was the one left home. He worked in the company's office, while I was driving over the road. Being home full-time can be over-whelming at first. How do you fill your time? How do you handle the lack of companionship that you have grown so accustomed to having? After Joe and I got together, he left his job in the office to return to truck driving, team driving with me as we traveled across the United States. Now, his job as a regional truck driver has him leaving home before dawn on Mondays and not returning home until late Friday night or early Saturday. Better than driving the long haul routes we drove together, which would have him away from home for 4 weeks at a time. The time he is away though has been an adjustment though.

Joe and I have found ways to stay in contact. He carries with him a Pocketmail Email Composer (www.pocketmail.com) that allows us to have email contact without his having to have a computer in the truck. Joe is able to write, send and receive emails through a telephone using the device and it's toll-free phone number. He also has just reactivated his AirLink phone, a prepay cell phone service that he is able to get through truck stops. Having contact throughout his work week has been a great blessing to us both.

I have had to adjust to being a stay-at-home Mom living in a very rural area. One of the things that I have found helpful is to keep myself busy. I have been sewing alot, making clothing and baby items such as fitted cloth diapers & flannel baby wipes for our daughter. I have also started sewing things such as table linens. With autumn and winter approaching, I am beginning the preparations for the cooler seasons. Joe and I both prefer using a cloth hankercheif to paper tissues. They don't cause your nose to become sore like the paper ones do. I have been sewing some black ones for Joe. Driving a flatbed truck, he is exposed to alot of dust and such, so the darker colored fabrics work best for him. I am making mine and Abbie's in white fabric. I have a little booklet that teaches how to crochet the pretty edgings on baby blankets. I am going to use the stitching patterns to crochet pretty edges onto my and Abbie's hankercheifs.

The weekdays are also the days when all housework and cleaning gets done. I love having the weekends free from household tasks so that we are able to spend as much time as possible as a family. The only laundry that is done is my beloved's clothing and Abbie's cloth diapers. All other laundry is finished before Joe gets home.

I am using my free time to learn new skills, such as crocheting edgings with thread. What a wonderful opportunity! Now, while Abbie is still sleeping alot, I have the time to devote to learning creative and homemaking skills that I am not able to do as yet. Once Abbie is abit older, and is no longer napping so much, I won't have the time to study and practice new skills.

Another area of study that I am pursuing is studying all I am able to about building chicken/turkey coops and small livestock enclosures, organic methods of raising small livestock, building & maintaining raised bed gardens, and also researching which breeds of the livestock manage the best in our climate and area. I am setting the goal to build a chicken coop, turkey coop, and a pig enclosure before spring. I also will need a dozen raised bed garden boxes built 4' wide by 6'-8' long. These raised beds will help prevent problems such as the armadillos tearing up the garden. One easy tip that I am going to use is to save newspapers to use in the garden boxes. You want enough to do relatively thick layers of newspaper. After laying the newspaper layers over the garden soil, you will cut holes, a simple "X" cut will work, and plant your vegetable plants in the holes. Next, cover the paper with a thick layer of mulch to both prevent weeds and also to hold in as much moisture as possible. If like us, you don't have a newspaper subscription, enlist the help of others by asking them to save their newspapers for you!

There are many other activities that you can do, areas of interest that can be explored while going through the times of separation. I love the fact that when my beloved comes home, he sees the changes that I am making in turning our house into a home. His enjoyment gives me the encouragement to do more. He has never asked me to make changes, but enjoys the changes that I have made & am still making.

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