Me, materialstic? You Betcha!
Not so much that I gotta have kind, but the I spent years gathering these things, kind. I started in my closets. My husband has more clothes than I do, so that wasn't an issue, but as I went into my bedroom and started pulling books off the shelf, nope, That's Mark Twain have to keep it, I found I had some issues.
I know that many of you are uncluttering your lives, giving away things you really don't use and have no sentimental value. But. . . oh here comes the whining. . . I have to give up just about everything. There is no storage at the farm. I can only take minimal amount of things with me. But what stays and what goes?
I decided it would be easiest to start with the things that we need to actually live. Not the pretties. I have an issue living without books. That won't happen. I, in theory, could leave everything behind and start anew. I don't want to, wait, I need to stomp my feet. I have things that I had since I was a child. The very first teddy Bear I was given the day I was born, I have a hope chest that was my crib when we went to see my grandmother. I think I will fill that hope chest with my memories, my husband's and my children's, and that will be all the pretties I will take. It will be difficult to leave the rest behind, but I have little choice. Emotional this is rather difficult.
We found renters that will make you guys proud. There is this family, the father is on disability because of 2 full tours for the Army. He is on meds to make him sleep, one to stop the dreams, and one to manage pain. His wife is a manager at a chian restaurant, and they have 6 kids. These 8 are living in a 2 bedroom apartment. What they pay for that 2 bedroom apartment will get them a 3 bedroom trailer and 3 acres from us. My husband and I have talked already. Before we found this family. We wanted to be able to give another family a chance, and decided not to charge more than mortgage. I would like to charge less than mortgage but that wouldn't be feasible. We are leasing out the back 2 acres to the horse neighbor, but that will knock only a little bit off the rent. The future renter grew up on a small farm, he knows the ins and outs and this will give the family a wonderful opportunity to live independently. I hope.
I have to go now. I have to sort through a life time of acquired goodies, tug at some heart strings and hope it doesn't break. . . to badly.
Me, materialistic? Unfortunately yes.
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Friday, February 06, 2009
Thursday, February 05, 2009
The List
The Captain's Wife -Jennifer, suggested that I make out a list of things that we will need. This will benefit myself greatly, because I can glance at it. This list will be growing and subtracting continuously. Those of you that read on feeds might get the updated info automatically, at least that's how it use to work. I will place a link to this on my sidebar for easy access.
And it begins;
Rain gear sizeschildren 7 childrens 12 childrens 16 adults large
work gloves (preferably leather) toddler to adult sizes
Books on making farm devices (I have one need more)
Peavy
Froe
Slip hooks
drawknife
peeling spud
Muck boots size 9 1/2 woman's 7 1/2 wide men's
Bareback pads
Saddle
Horse tack in general
stock trailer
rail road ties
canning jars/lids
harness for driving horses
yoke for cattle driving
Hand churner
upright churn/dasher
cheese cloth
wooden bushel baskets
Face masks children sizes as pictured here
Cast Iron Kettle/tri pod
Sausage stuffer (horn)
pig scraper
live traps
kill traps (for nasty critters)
metal wash basins
wringer washer
Mortar/pestle
Books on leather working (not wallet or craft leathers)
reclaimed lumber
t-posts
fencing
nails
small hand auger (hand drill aka man-drill)
water barrels
garden hoses
shingles
storm windows
storm doors
windmill jack
grinding stone
bottles/canisters with toppers
horses
wood burning stove
food grade barrels
A-Frame Plans by Ken Dixon #6202 offered by Lindsay Books
And it begins;
Rain gear sizes
work gloves (preferably leather) toddler to adult sizes
Books on making farm devices (I have one need more)
Peavy
Froe
Slip hooks
drawknife
peeling spud
Muck boots size 9 1/2 woman's 7 1/2 wide men's
Bareback pads
Saddle
Horse tack in general
stock trailer
rail road ties
canning jars/lids
harness for driving horses
yoke for cattle driving
Hand churner
upright churn/dasher
cheese cloth
wooden bushel baskets
Face masks children sizes as pictured here
Cast Iron Kettle/tri pod
Sausage stuffer (horn)
pig scraper
live traps
kill traps (for nasty critters)
metal wash basins
wringer washer
Mortar/pestle
Books on leather working (not wallet or craft leathers)
reclaimed lumber
t-posts
fencing
nails
small hand auger (hand drill aka man-drill)
water barrels
garden hoses
shingles
storm windows
storm doors
windmill jack
grinding stone
horses
wood burning stove
food grade barrels
A-Frame Plans by Ken Dixon #6202 offered by Lindsay Books
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Preparing for War?
No, but it sure does feel that way.
Before I continue with this post, an update. Monday evening we took a motorcycle that has been in our garage for some time back to the owner. The bill for the work was more than we thought it would be in the beginning, plus the owner gave my husband a generous tip. I have all the back money I owe the propane company in my pocket, and have called them to come fill me up. As soon as they show, my back pay will be current and I will have propane. We are current on all other bills.
Getting ready to live and work in the middle of now where, feels more like survival prep than anything else. The thing is, the farmstead is literally in the middle of nowhere, the center of the US, towns too far away to walk to. Even the Mennonites in the area say our farm is in the sticks. Today my mother and I will be hitting the thrift stores in the city. I need rain gear, work gloves and various odd and ends. There are so many things that even I in my rural existence take for granted. There is no last minute runs to the store where we are going.
Guns are also on the list. Something that I will have to keep on my persons at all times when at the farmstead. Why you ask? Does Kansas have bears or something? I haven't seen bears, but we do have wild dog packs, coyotes, other various rabid animals as well as us seeing proof that there are cougars in them there hills. To protect myself and my livestock I will need something more than a bolt action .22 rifle. I have found a private dealer that is willing to work within my meager budget. I will be purchasing a Russian SKS. The Chinese version is worthless, Russian it is. These guns have been buried and dug up by a bulldozer and have been known to still work. You can submerge them in water and they still work. And the bullets are standard size. My mother asked me what I would do with such a thing, it is an assault rifle (technically, no). But it is a good gun, and it works well for both hunting and defense.
Defense got me to thinking. What happens if I have to pee, and I leave my rifle strapped to my horse? Here is were I decided to also purchase a .38 Special. I prefer revolvers over more modern guns because they are simple. I will not need to to shoot distance, this hand gun will be for close up, if something sneaks up on my while my butt is hanging out. I am not certain yet, if I will get it. I do have my knives as many of you know.
And then there are all the animals, medical supplies, food rations, and things I haven't thought of yet. I need to look at horses, stock trailers (probably just borrow for now). Keeping deer out of the garden, getting that armadillo out from under the house, keeping raccoons out of the cabinets, and make arrangements to barter with the local hog farmer. The list continues to get longer. And on top of all that, my husband will only be out during the weekends. As long as he has a job, he will stay in town. In the winter and in the spring there might be no way for him to get there because of the flooding and the snow. We could go weeks without seeing each other.
The Neophyte Homestead also has to be worked. We will be going room to room, fixing, and insulating, getting it ready for another family to rent it. I do not want to lose this place, nor sell it if we don't have to. Any potential renters out there?
Before I continue with this post, an update. Monday evening we took a motorcycle that has been in our garage for some time back to the owner. The bill for the work was more than we thought it would be in the beginning, plus the owner gave my husband a generous tip. I have all the back money I owe the propane company in my pocket, and have called them to come fill me up. As soon as they show, my back pay will be current and I will have propane. We are current on all other bills.
Getting ready to live and work in the middle of now where, feels more like survival prep than anything else. The thing is, the farmstead is literally in the middle of nowhere, the center of the US, towns too far away to walk to. Even the Mennonites in the area say our farm is in the sticks. Today my mother and I will be hitting the thrift stores in the city. I need rain gear, work gloves and various odd and ends. There are so many things that even I in my rural existence take for granted. There is no last minute runs to the store where we are going.
Guns are also on the list. Something that I will have to keep on my persons at all times when at the farmstead. Why you ask? Does Kansas have bears or something? I haven't seen bears, but we do have wild dog packs, coyotes, other various rabid animals as well as us seeing proof that there are cougars in them there hills. To protect myself and my livestock I will need something more than a bolt action .22 rifle. I have found a private dealer that is willing to work within my meager budget. I will be purchasing a Russian SKS. The Chinese version is worthless, Russian it is. These guns have been buried and dug up by a bulldozer and have been known to still work. You can submerge them in water and they still work. And the bullets are standard size. My mother asked me what I would do with such a thing, it is an assault rifle (technically, no). But it is a good gun, and it works well for both hunting and defense.
Defense got me to thinking. What happens if I have to pee, and I leave my rifle strapped to my horse? Here is were I decided to also purchase a .38 Special. I prefer revolvers over more modern guns because they are simple. I will not need to to shoot distance, this hand gun will be for close up, if something sneaks up on my while my butt is hanging out. I am not certain yet, if I will get it. I do have my knives as many of you know.
And then there are all the animals, medical supplies, food rations, and things I haven't thought of yet. I need to look at horses, stock trailers (probably just borrow for now). Keeping deer out of the garden, getting that armadillo out from under the house, keeping raccoons out of the cabinets, and make arrangements to barter with the local hog farmer. The list continues to get longer. And on top of all that, my husband will only be out during the weekends. As long as he has a job, he will stay in town. In the winter and in the spring there might be no way for him to get there because of the flooding and the snow. We could go weeks without seeing each other.
The Neophyte Homestead also has to be worked. We will be going room to room, fixing, and insulating, getting it ready for another family to rent it. I do not want to lose this place, nor sell it if we don't have to. Any potential renters out there?
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Italian Sausage
3 pounds well-marbled pork butt, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons toasted fennel seeds
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon freshly cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon ground anise
2 tablespoons freshly chopped Italian parsley leaves
3 tablespoons dry red wine
Pork casings, optional
Combine all and chill for 24 hours. Pass through your grinder, then a food processor. Stuff if stuffing, or leave as ground or shape into patties. Up to you. You can use a beef roast as substitute.
Insert finished photo here as soon as I find where my computer is holding it hostage.
Total pork weight as of this recipe 164.3 lbs.
Monday, February 02, 2009
Changes are a comin'
Everybody have a great Super Bowl Sunday? We had a good one.
Sunday my husband and I and our boys headed to the city to have a conversation with my mother and step father. My Step-father will find out soon if he will be one of the many people that are people laid off in the 2nd wave at one of the local aircraft plants. Things are getting bad here, every one, Beech/Hawker (aka Raytheon), Boeing, and Cessna have all laid off and will be cutting more jobs this month. This is bad for the economy here is Wichita. Spirit said they won't have to lay off until Boeing does. All the major factory jobs are being cut, From Big Dog Motorcycle to Koch Industries. 9/11 hit our community hard when it came to building airplanes. Our local news broke it down, the job loss is staggering even compared with all the lay offs that happened in 2001. Many of the people being laid off, are not new workers, these people have held these jobs for 12 years to almost 30 years. Many of these workers have held no other jobs straight out of high school. This trickles down, and will affect my husband's work. Luckily motorcycles are cheaper transportation, and the work shouldn't completely dry up. And we just got word about a couple of other friends that have been laid off of their non-factory jobs. Shoot, this isn't what I was going to talk about. See what you people do, ya get me going on the wrong subject. I had a history teacher in 6th grade that if we didn't feel like learning about a certain subject, we would ask a question about something else, and spend the next hour talking about it instead of the text book. . . I digress (thought you could trick me, did you?)
Some of my readers should remember me talking about a farmstead that we have an opportunity to homestead. Well, the time has come. We will begin work on it very soon. Sunday, my mother, stepfather, husband and I got down to a few details. What needed to be done first. My priority is corals for my animals. I will not be able to spend large amounts of time out there without the cows. Patch, the milking goat should be having her babies soon, and Donkey would just be plan lost without someone there to tell him he is a good boy. My mother wants the house going first. I guess the roof leaks, but the house is still standing, which is good enough for me. My husband has declared himself the keeper of the windmill and plans on having the running asasp. My stepfather has been working on a homemade generator so that we can power the farm off the grid. But after all the talk I think we have an objective of a quick coral, than house, while the men work on water and power. So anyone that is interested in that apprenticeship position better hurry.
One other change that will be taking place is how I blog. My mother had a camcorder and I thought it would be nice to record what is happening on the farm, and embedded the results here. In the beginning the video's won't be frequent, and I will still be writing. But as the days get longer, it might turn into a daily episode.
I was wondering how all of you felt about this. I have a very slow dial-up and really can't watch video's on my pc. I know I am not alone. Please, if you would, leave your opinion in the comments. Would you like to see me in action? Or prefer that I continue to write it all down. Or would you like the video's and a recap of what went down in my own words at the end or later in the week?
Sunday my husband and I and our boys headed to the city to have a conversation with my mother and step father. My Step-father will find out soon if he will be one of the many people that are people laid off in the 2nd wave at one of the local aircraft plants. Things are getting bad here, every one, Beech/Hawker (aka Raytheon), Boeing, and Cessna have all laid off and will be cutting more jobs this month. This is bad for the economy here is Wichita. Spirit said they won't have to lay off until Boeing does. All the major factory jobs are being cut, From Big Dog Motorcycle to Koch Industries. 9/11 hit our community hard when it came to building airplanes. Our local news broke it down, the job loss is staggering even compared with all the lay offs that happened in 2001. Many of the people being laid off, are not new workers, these people have held these jobs for 12 years to almost 30 years. Many of these workers have held no other jobs straight out of high school. This trickles down, and will affect my husband's work. Luckily motorcycles are cheaper transportation, and the work shouldn't completely dry up. And we just got word about a couple of other friends that have been laid off of their non-factory jobs. Shoot, this isn't what I was going to talk about. See what you people do, ya get me going on the wrong subject. I had a history teacher in 6th grade that if we didn't feel like learning about a certain subject, we would ask a question about something else, and spend the next hour talking about it instead of the text book. . . I digress (thought you could trick me, did you?)
Some of my readers should remember me talking about a farmstead that we have an opportunity to homestead. Well, the time has come. We will begin work on it very soon. Sunday, my mother, stepfather, husband and I got down to a few details. What needed to be done first. My priority is corals for my animals. I will not be able to spend large amounts of time out there without the cows. Patch, the milking goat should be having her babies soon, and Donkey would just be plan lost without someone there to tell him he is a good boy. My mother wants the house going first. I guess the roof leaks, but the house is still standing, which is good enough for me. My husband has declared himself the keeper of the windmill and plans on having the running asasp. My stepfather has been working on a homemade generator so that we can power the farm off the grid. But after all the talk I think we have an objective of a quick coral, than house, while the men work on water and power. So anyone that is interested in that apprenticeship position better hurry.
One other change that will be taking place is how I blog. My mother had a camcorder and I thought it would be nice to record what is happening on the farm, and embedded the results here. In the beginning the video's won't be frequent, and I will still be writing. But as the days get longer, it might turn into a daily episode.
I was wondering how all of you felt about this. I have a very slow dial-up and really can't watch video's on my pc. I know I am not alone. Please, if you would, leave your opinion in the comments. Would you like to see me in action? Or prefer that I continue to write it all down. Or would you like the video's and a recap of what went down in my own words at the end or later in the week?
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