Saturday BlogRoll call

We still have power. The sleet has been coming and going along with the snow, it looks like it will be worse today. So to combat all the weather woes we have been having, everything from sleet to those of you dealing with possible floods, go check in with some of these blogs.

An Irish Crafterworker's Good Life. The title says it all. She is up for best new Comer Irish Blog. So Go take a look and if you like what you see, go vote!

Homesteading Mom, is a personal blog from another Kansas gal. She's a quilter, and I should really try to make a date with her, to show me how to sew.

Kootenay Bliss, Carla shares lots of pictures and some traveling stories.

Are you a Crunchy mom? If so, Naturally WAHMs is the place for you. This is my most recent blog addition, so I am still going through everything, and looks like there is a carnival for me to join.

Also I would like to bring to your attention to something that Monica over at Small meadow Farms posted. Please take the time to read it and follow the links to voice your protest.

Keep safe this weekend!

Sorry, We're Closed

Currently it feels 3f (-16c) degrees right now. We reached our high over night, and as the sun rises the temperature will drop along with frizzle. {freezing drizzle}

Our dog, Diogee, slide across the deck as soon as she was let out this morning.

The Homestead is shutting down. I need to go and feed the animals, my husband is staying home from work. We gave the option of staying home from school to our oldest, but he knows that if he stays, he works, so it's off to school {though there is a good chance that they well send them home early}. Hot water faucets will be opened so a small amount of water can emerge, keeping the pipes from freezing. The oven has been turned on, so that I can bake bread and have heat when the power goes out.

I am preparing a hot oatmeal, milk and chicken feed mush to keep my birds nice and warm.

If you don't here from me over the next few days, no worries, we just lost electricity.

Great! Now it's snowing! on top of the ice!

Update: I am just now able to feel my fingers. Everything out there is covered in ice, and you stick to it. All chores have been done, now we will be curling up and watching tv today.

I think we're still in Kansas Toto

This month one of the magazines I write for is having a contest. If you have a story about horseradish, wasabi or hyssop, All Foods Natural wants to hear about it. It is a contest and the winner will receive a book called Grill! For more info on it click here, you'll need to scroll down to it.

No, I have no type of gain by telling you all of that. I just know that there are a few cooks here, and I thought it might be of a general interest. So have at it.

It is incredibly windy here today. I haven't checked in with the local news as of yet, so I am not sure how hard it is actually blowing. My home is secured with Hurricane tie downs, so it's not going anywhere. Still the house shudders under the impact of those winds. You get use to it when you live here, and some days you don't even notice. Those that live here long enough only get nervous when the wind stops.

The gate to the goat pen was ripped open yesterday by it. Everyone stayed inside, thankfully.

Some of you that have been reading my blog for awhile now, know that I have very few trees. When we moved here we had something like 5 on 5 acres. We have spent a lot of time walking our fields and replanting renegade trees, buying trees, and scrounging families gutters for seeds. They are far from mature, so we have no wind blocks. The people that owned this land before us, had less of an idea about what they were doing than we do. How scary is that?

Maybe I'll go fly a kite.

But, we already have one!

Growing up in a Suburb, besides playing in the big ditch, there was a sand pit {a.k.a. open pit sand mine} just on the outskirts, that a few of us pre-teens liked to go skinny dipping in. Of course it was a matter of securing a ride from a teenager, usually a boy, and sneaking out in the middle of the night. A small group of us would go during the winter hours. This insured that there wouldn't be too many people there to disturb us, or catch anyone's attention that might have thought what we were doing was wrong and dangerous. The water was always warm, no matter when you went, it never froze over. So many dark hours spent swimming, and giggling in the buff, it was rebellion to the fullest for us young, will be doing worse later in life, suburban pre-teens. Then we could get into the body image problems that came from this, like the fact that I was the only girl that seemed to be, um. . . developing. Though my friends never gave me a hard time about it as I have seen with other groups of girls, instead I was the one that procured the rides from the teen boys. Good thing I still thought boys were yucky at that time, too much of a tomboy.

Moving out here, we took away the local temptation to go skinny dipping in a sandpit from my own boys. There was one, but it is so distant that one of the rivers that we sit between would be a bigger lure. Of course I have concern about that, but I also know that it will happen, and it isn't an experience I really don't want to deny them. {it's hard to rebellion against parents like us}. Teen parties at the bluff was a big part of my growing up.

By this time I am sure you are wondering why I am going on and on about childhood, sandpits, and rivers. Two years ago they put in a sandpit three miles away from us, less than a mile from a river. The proposal was announced, the community voiced our concerns, informed them we didn't want them here because of the trucks, noise and pollution. They put one in anyway. Sunday, while at the neighborhood meeting, I discovered that they were going to put in a sandpit less than a mile from my land. WHAT!?! It was announced, but not as publically as the first one was, and time had already expired to voice opposition. Now there seems to be nothing I can do about it.

I did some research about water pollution and sandpits, levels of arsenic and barium where found in well water, yet levels were too low to be considered dangerous to anyone but children under 22 lbs, makes me feel safe. I don't want all the noise from the trucks, the dust they will kick up, and their speeding. {They all seem to speed} Gravel/sand trucks scare me. I watched a motorcyclist get ran off the road by one. We were on the highway, my husband pulled over, while a very pregnant me ran across 4 lanes to help the biker. My husband raced after the truck driver and brought him back to the scene. I watched as a gravel truck swerved along a highway and side swipe a diesel, the diesel went onto the shoulder while the side mirror went to the other. The driver of that truck never stopped, nor slowed down. I have been close to getting hit by one, he ran a red light.

This area has children, horse back riders, and us {bikers}. We never thought we would face this kind of concern. My neighbors worry about what happens when the sandpit is no longer useful. Expensive homes get put in, and those new homeowners will throw a fit about all the old homes and trailers in the line of sight, forcing us out. We have seen it over and over, and my sister-in-law is going through it currently.

There goes my quiet country life.

It's bubble bursting time

I have stated my position about comprise in a twelve year old girl tantrum way. That, I regret to inform you, does not work. No matter how much you wish to pretend that it did work when you were twelve, it doesn't have the same effect when you are 29. The reaction one gets from the attended fiter, is one of mirth, and if you don't watch it, it will turn into anger.

Because of a few factors, we will not be able to do the decahome, and because of finance and the risk debt ratio, the house can not be a complete berm. My compromise is a slightly more traditional home {think dead wood log home} with a small footprint. This home shall be easily resalable so that some day in the future we can sell, move out of this county, and find a place without building codes. Then we will have our dream home.

I was informed that I should never allow people to tell me that I can not build my dream home. And believe me when I say, I have tried everything. The biggest problem is that we have to go through a lender, and construction loans are not an easy thing to obtain. So far the lender that told me it is cheaper to go out than up has the best deal {low interest and such} Another problem is that building green is expensive. Don't let the sales men fool you with this talk of "initial cost are more, but you will save in the long run" However true this may be, it doesn't help when you only have so much to spend on the initial. So our home will not be as green as it could be, but we are going to try our hardest to be as green as we can afford at this moment. Too bad I don't have a popular blog, then maybe I could convince some of these green dealers to give me a price break.

So, now think Little House when you think of our home, at least for now. Who knows what other road blocks will be set down in front of us. A dead standing timber home can be bermed, we are still looking at the Rastra system {just got their DVD in the mail} solar, greywater, wood burning stove {no furnace} and deconstruction companies.

The Green Home Guide

The Community

Saturday afternoon a woman showed up at my house. I have met her before when my son was selling popcorn around the area. She was having a community meeting at her home on Sunday, handing us a flyer, she asked us to attend.

On the flyer it informed us that they would be discussing the neighborhood covenants and voting on them. What covenants ? We were never informed of these. So we attended the meeting.

I was handed a copy of the covenants , and I read through the 5 page lawyer speak to discover the last line. We did not buy our land from this company, and therefore can not be held to it.

We were also there to discuss what should be done with an abandoned lot of 5 acres. I knew we were there so she could convince her neighbors to allow her to run her horses on the land. She had to have their approval to set up anything the was non-residential. She sugar coated it by suggesting a community center/saddle club.

A community center in our area is actually a good idea. 4-H, animal husbandry, cooking, day care, playground, lending library, vet clinics, first aid classes were things that were suggested.

Unfortunately our hostess was a chatter. On the covenants issue, only the couple that had lived out here the longest had a say, keep it residential. On the community building idea, not much was said. But I did learn all about our hostess past, her husband's past, and what kind of injuries she has sustained, all in a two-hour period. The up side of this, was we got to meet some of our neighbors. We chatted and learned who had the community storm shelter, who had moved in after we had, who had recently passed away and how. I learned of my neighbors plans for their land, and left with many business cards. Funny, everyone there knew who we were, though I didn't know them. You're the ones with the motorcycles. When we first moved out here, our closest neighbor was afraid to meet us, she was scared of bikers and assumed we fit that profile. But after her dog discovered ours, she had to come and meet us. We became good friends until her husband died, he was only 45, and she moved away.

Now that we have met many of the land owners in our area, my husband and I have decided to throw a community b-b-que once our house is finished. I know that community is important and that we should know everyone, we just haven't had the opportunity.

A community that is banded brings in a fuller life. I learned this growing up in the suburbs. Children could play anywhere, and there was always someone keeping an eye out so every parent didn't have to worry. There was this one yard we loved to play in, besides the big ditch. A tight community offers chances at bartering, and shared help. It gives you a unique opportunity to learn new skills. I am disappointed that I didn't take the time to meet the people here before now.

If you haven't yet, no matter what type of dweller you are, it might be a good time to meet a neighbor or two. I am certainly glad I finally did, and plan on keeping up with the introductions.

It has been very windy here the past several days, and I am having problems staying online. It has taken awhile for me to get this posted.