The in-laws left today.  We were sorry to see them go, but they had other places to go.  It was so nice to have them here and help at the farm.  Hopefully, they were able to experience some of the things that drives us to make this farm better than we found it.

Madison started 5th grade today.  She's riding the country bus while we are still at the farm.  Her day starts pretty early, having to be at the bus stop by 7:10 am.  She returns home about 4:50 pm. 

Marilyn, from Heritage Hill, asked me why we are heading back to town.  We have several reasons we cannot spend the winter here.  I'll do my best to explain. 

First, we only have a trailer house at the farm which is too small for our family.  Austin is already living in the camper bus.  The trailer we're in, is a three bedroom, but the small bedroom is smaller than my pantry of the house we left behind.

Next, neither the bus or trailer is winter ready and, as you know, it gets mighty cold in MN.  Right now, there is heat only in the kitchen and living room of the trailer.

And we have to deal with Chastiti and her disabilities.  That has been a challenge here in the trailer.  We have made it work, but I'm not sure it's fair to her.

We will be making 2 trips a day to the farm all winter if we are not staying out here.  Rich isn't happy about that, with the price of gas... so we are going to do a trial run this winter by attempting to stay here over the weekends, IF Rich can get the trailer winterized enough to avoid frozen water pipes.

We will have to use electric heat in the bedrooms and bathroom.  We used a fireplace and electric heat in the living room and kitchen last winter.  That worked ok,  although the electric bill wasn't so nice. 

We have been blessed with a large amount of straw.  Rich thinks by adding a plastic barrior, along with straw bales around the skirting of trailer, we might be able to keep the pipes insulated enough to avoid freezing.  We will see.

Lastly, I do miss my house in town, esp my kitchen.  I'm used to much more space and I feel really cramped here especially with all the canning I need to do.  We are working hard on getting a house out here but it will take time to find what we want and can afford.

We would really love to stay here for the winter (forever, really) but it doesn't seem to be the best choice for us right now.  We knew when we took on the farm that it would be slow going... baby steps.  Being able to spend the summer here has given us the encouragement we need to keep going and live our dream of self sufficient living.

I hope that explains a bit of where we are it in this transition stage of our lives.  I better get ready for bed.
Carol