A Prayer

This is my prayer that is posted on my refrigerator. It is placed upon my heart. I pray it for my daughter and for my son. I pray it for my homestead. I pray it so I remember who is in charge. I pray it so I never forget that blessing comes from obedience to a loving a merciful God who's name is Yehovah {or any derivative thereof :-)} I need this prayer and thought that maybe someone else would need it, too.

Let our sons in their youth be as grown-up plants,

And our daughters as corner pillars fashioned as for a palace;

Let our garners be full, furnishing every kind of produce,

And our flocks bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields; 

Let our cattle bear without mishap and without  loss,

Let there be no outcry in our streets!

How blessed are the people who are so situated;

How blessed are the people whose God is  YHVH!

~Psalm 144:12-15 

 

A Walk Around the Land

This has become one of my favorite daily chores...hanging clothes on the line. I'm not so sure what we are going to do come winter, or how much I will love it then :-)

My flowers look a little wilted now, but a week ago they were bright purple and looked fabulous in the mailbox holder my husband made for me. I just have to paint my little barn red and we'll be all set. 

Again...a wilted looking plant. My ma gave me this lilac tree and so far it hasn't died, but it's not very happy either...

Our ever growing pile of felled trees ready to be stripped of their bark and used for building something...perhaps fence posts...

Our little man roasting the only kosher, corn-syrup free marshmallows we could find...MINI marshmallows and OH they tasted fantastic.We made smores over the fire and enjoyed every gooey moment.


 Charlie the dog is tuckered...frankly we all are at the end of each day, but it is worth every tired moment, every sore muscle, every dirt covered appendage, it is ALL worth it.

Hand-Cultivating

Planting season is upon us and we have been busy digging up the sod in our plotted garden area. My husband is unemployed outside of the home right now, so money is tight. The option of purchasing or even renting a motorized cultivator or sod remover is impossible. I researched a few methods of cultivating the soil by hand and decided to go with double-digging. If you don't know what that is, well, it's basically cutting your sod into rows and sections, digging out the first row, filling it with organic material and the top soil from the second row...do that until you reach the last row, fill that row with organic material and the top soil from the first row you dug out. Sounds simple enough...well, after cutting the sod out of ONE row, I decided we needed to leave the soil right where it was. There is just not enough time to double-dig. I need to get things in the ground NOW.

So, here is what we did...

  

Dad went around with the shovel and cut out grids so we could better manage what seemed to be a HUGE piece of land. In all actuality the garden plot is only 25'x35'...I say ONLY but when I think about it, that is almost as big as our entire house...

We chopped the top soil out of the sod with our hand trowels. 

See, there is Isaac working away on his little plot of land.

Sophie is working diligently and the garden is actually LOOKING like a garden!

We have 6 more 5x5 foot sections to do and we are DONE!!!!!

 

So, today I went to work on making these little signs for my veggies. We have been cutting trees down all over our land, so we have TONS of branches to work with. I have many more projects planned. 

I cultivated the soil and planted my lettuce, spinach, kale, Swiss chard, and onions, both yesterday and today. 

We found so many rocks in the soil and have been collecting them in buckets. They came in handy today as markers for my onion bed and to mark my kale. 

We have all worked so hard to get this done and we are so pleased with the results. It's hard work, but it is possible to have a garden even when you don't have a plow, a tiller, or a team of draft horses. Our hands and our backs are sore, but we have felt each square inch of this soil in our hands and with each square foot of sod removed, we have gotten closer to providing our family with home grown food.

Update from the Homestead

 

{These are treasures we have found while digging up our garden plot. Those are hand-forged square nails we found in the soil, along with old barbed-wire. I am imagining that the plot we chose for our garden used to be the pasture land for the farm house next to us or an even older homestead that previously sat on our land. Wherever they have come from, they are now treasured items for our family.}

 It’s been nearly impossible to sit down and actually write a blog post. The last one was done in a hurry while standing at my mother-in laws kitchen counter. We do not have internet access out where we live. It’s available and might be something we consider in the future, but it is $400 for the dish we have to purchase, and then installation fees, taxes, surcharges, etc. I can think of about a dozen things that that $400 would be better suited for right now. I grab my computer when we go to town and there, while sitting in the parking lot of The Home Depot, I quickly scan emails that have built up over a week or more, and I quickly scan one blog that is dear to my heart and all I have time for. Frankly, I have questioned whether or not this blogging thing is really possible while being out here in the boonies. But, even if no one ever reads it, I am glad to have a diary of sorts to document this amazing journey we are on. What I would really love is to give people a glimpse of our Heavenly Father’s Providence and to show others what can be done with next to nothing and hard work.

Over the last two months we have moved 1400 miles back to our home state of Michigan. We spent 4 weeks living with my in laws, waiting for the previous owner of this home to remove all her belongings. We spent 2 very long weeks cleaning, remodeling, and beautifying this old broke down single-wide trailer we call home. We have officially been living here for 26 days. (Which, by the way, is how long a 20 gallon propane tank lasts when you are using it for a fuel source for cooking…they run out at about dinner time)

This place is beautiful. It’s untamed and reminds us of our second home, Wyoming. We are in the highest part of the lower peninsula of Michigan. Nothing close to the elevation of Wyoming, but still, the growing season is similar, the wind is VERY similar, and we have the largest Black Bear and Cougar (Mountain Lions to all my Wyoming people) populations in the mitten. (The mitten refers to the lower part of Michigan…we have the upper peninsula and there be wild creatures that ABOUND up there.) We are in the heart of the Manistee National Forest area, and while the trees encroach like protective giants all around this area, we happen to be able to walk out in our front yard and look over a great open area of farm land. The sky is still big, and this brings me much comfort when I pine for the openness of Wyoming. Much like how the Wyoming mountain trees brought me comfort when I was homesick for forests. I feel, somehow, that this place is the resting place between my two earthly homes, the lake shores and forests of Michigan and the wild places of Wyoming. My heart is peaceful. Shalom is here.

So much work has been done and so much more awaits. Over the next few weeks I hope to show you what we are up to on our little homestead.

The bees have taken to their hive, by the way. And they are busy building comb and establishing themselves!

Providential Bee Keeper

My daughter found a wild swarm of bees, about 50 feet from our house. 

They were surrounding the queen and hunkering down for the night. 

So, we got on the phone, realizing that this might just be Father's Providence at work in our lives, once again, and called the phone number I had gotten off a gas station bulletin board a few days prior..."want bees?", it said...YES, yes I did. We arrived at the bee keepers house around 10 pm, he told us everything we needed to know about our new hive. He also gave us a slat that had established comb already in it just to make it easier for the colony to reestablish itself. We poured simple syrup into it so they colony had something to feast on in the morning.

 So, after hours of researching in actual books, because we have no internet, we found out how to capture a wild swarm. We went outside at 1:30 am, cut the branch off and set it down in the cardboard box on top of the hive. The box acts as a funnel and the idea was that the bees would find their way down into the hive in the morning. Most of them did, and we set out to remove the box, and put the lid on the hive.

The only thing I had to use as a veil was an old lace curtain that I cut up and tied around my head over my straw hat. I put rubber bands around my sleeves and put on my gloves and went to work. 

First I lifted the lid, tapped the bees off, and then lifted the box and did the same. 

Then the branch was exposed and there was still a cluster of bees on it. I tapped the branch into the hive to make sure all the bees were removed. 

They took a bit of manipulating to get all of them off. 

I gently sat the inner lid on, accidentally squishing a few. Whoops

Then the telescoping lid.

There it is! Now tonight we have to move it to it's permanent location. We should have done it last night, but they were quite angry.

We are SO excited! This is an amazing adventure and we feel very blessed. 

House Pics: Before and After

Look at all that black soot...it was everywhere. The past occupant heated with a portable propane heater and everything was covered with a black film. 

This was the very first time we walked into the house. The smell was overwhelming. The previous occupant let her dogs "go" everywhere.

Those black marks in the floor are dog feces and urine...at this point, and I am not even through the door yet, I wanted to walk away and never come back. 

More dog damage down the hallway.

Sophie's room. The cleanest room in the house. 

Looking back down the hall toward the door. 

Past the door and into the living room, kitchen and dining area. The cupboards were sagging and the doors were falling off. 

Peel and stick tile in the kitchen. 

Laundry area, bathroom to the left and the master bedroom straight ahead. Look at that floor...

This is the wall to the living room (straight ahead) that I washed for about a half an hour. You can sort of see the "clean areas". Nothing was coming clean. If it were not for that red wall to the right, I would have left. But every time I started feeling overwhelmed I would look at that wall, which happened to be the only nice thing in the entire place, and I would see a house, not just a box that someone lived in. 

We scraped the tile up and removed cupboard doors. 

Tim demolished the top cupboards. 

We painted the ceiling bright white...

See the difference? :-)

 After everything was coated in Kilz...a few coats.

 We painted the walls a light butter cream...

 We put new light fixtures up.

 No top cupboards...walls all painted.

 Another view.

 We started laying the flooring. Experimental plywood flooring...it's looking good actually.

 Another view

 Staining floors...

 New front put on the cupboard and stained.

 The boys room after paint (their choice), trim and floors stained. (My lens was a little dirty apparently)

 Sophie's room.

 Down the hallway...Love my little tulip light fixture.

And the kitchen...

We still have a lot of work to do. We didn't have time to put a second coat of stain on or do the 4 coats of poly. That will have to wait until it gets warmer and we can camp for a week. We are also completely out of money so I have to wait to put up my open shelves and ceiling trim in the kitchen. The bathroom needs to be redone, and so does the master bedroom. We did get the floors down, but we haven't painted it yet because we ran out of paint. We worked about 4-5 days a week for 2 weeks, driving 2 hours a day, working with very little experience and knowledge. We are so pleased with the results and are SO happy to finally have a home to call our own. It's 980 sq ft. of pure joy. We were blessed with a gifted refrigerator, a brand new stove that was dirt cheap and a free dishwasher! It's amazing to see how Father provides for us. We are so blessed! 

We couldn't have done any of this without the love and support of Tim's family, who let us and our 2 dogs live with them for nearly 6 weeks. They were so gracious, patient, and forgiving. Having family close by was something we missed while living in Wyoming, and we will never take any of them for granted again.

We are missing our family in Wyoming and I have sat in my kitchen wanting to call my dear friend to join me for a cup of tea and a turn about the yard...with misty eyes I thank Father for the time we had. 

My prayer now is for community. We will be seeking out a church in the next few weeks and hope to become involved in the community. Having a home means nothing without people to share it with. Our doors are open, and we welcome any visitors, dinner guests, or those looking for a peaceful day in the country! 

If you'd like to keep us in your prayers, we need financial provision to replace a part of our water pump that isn't working properly. This will be at most a $400 fix and at least a $100 fix. We are praying for the $100 fix and the knowledge to do it ourselves. Tim is looking for a part time job to keep us afloat until his business gets off the ground, so prayers in that area would be greatly appreciated as well. 

Have a blessed day!