This week will be a full year of living on our property. The experiences we have all learned have made what we used to have seem so simple. Life and everything is practically handed to you in the city. Here we have learned that if you want something you need to work for it, nothing is easy. But we wouldn't have it any other way. So what major lessons and accomplishments have we experienced in the last 52 weeks...
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Laundry when you have no electricity or access to running water can be a bit challenging and a learning process. Well at least washing the clothes can be. Line drying is basically just throwing them up and over something, preferably a clothes line and waiting for the atmosphere to do its job. We tried washing and scrubbing by hand in a bucket and hanging them. It was extremely hard to get most of the water out of the clothes. Even then, with six people wearing clothes and playing in the dirt, we go through a lot of clothes and washing a lot of clothes by hand is tough work. It is hard on the back, on the shoulders and just over all very time consuming. I kept putting it off and then driving into town to the laundry mat to do eight or more loads of laundry, which gets expensive fast.
After five full months on the homestead I finally have built a laundry station! One of the biggest questions that I have had recently, probably because of the holiday season, is "How do you cook without electricity?" I guess folks are so used to depending on the electrical grid that they never consider that there are numerous options out there for cooking, using an electric stove, gas stove, propane stove, there are small counter top camp stoves, wood stoves, solar ovens, BBQ's, and even camp fires. So how do we cook...
Wow, geez it's October already. We are living on the homestead and while not anywhere near where we had hoped to be in getting the house built we are enjoying life. It is harvest season and during my daily drives to take the kids to school and into town I am seeing field after field being dug up and semi's loaded with fresh potatoes, corn and onions. The crisp cool morning air hints that winter is soon coming. And with the significant overnight drop in temperature I am reminded that
My kids are experiencing true freedom for the first time in their lives and they love it! Despite the cold nights they keep crawling in their sleeping bags and snuggle together talking about how much they enjoyed the day. I never would have dreamed of how easy it has been for them to adapt to a life with no electricity and no video games or TV.
Wow, I can't believe how quickly time has flown by and we are not prepared in the least for spring or the move. This week we had planned on spending the entire week at the homestead and start building the outdoor kitchen and earthen oven. Unfortunately the Suburban broke down a few weeks ago and is still not up and running.
Here we are, I can't believe it. After waiting 7 weeks the Scablands Homestead is officially ours. Today we went to the title office and signed all the paperwork. It's been a long time coming, we couldn't be more excited... well actually we could if we could drive out there, but alas the road is closed because of the weather. Maybe in a few weeks it'll clear and be passable.
As we say good bye to 2016 and welcome in the new year, we are realizing that the future for us will be very different than everything we have ever known. Despite this change we are looking forward to the new year more than we ever have in the past.
Just a quick note to wish every one a Merry Christmas, and for those of you who do not celebrate happy holidays!
This was a hard year for my family and those that give us gifts. With us going off grid in 6 months my family had trouble thinking of what they could give us that we can enjoy now and after we move. I can understand, afterall we had to find gifts for our children and eachother as well. We all enjoyed our gifts and while we appreciate the effort, it was just perfect because we were with our family. Today we had an exciting and unexpected announcment, well I guess not to unexpected. While I was on my break at work I decided to check my email and saw one from our realator. The owner of the property we bid on accepted it, as offered! I was so excited I had trouble focusing during the next few hours of the work day.
By now you must be wondering how we could plan to move and plan if we did not have the property yet... |
The biggest Adventure you can take is to Live the Life of your Dreams. Archives
November 2017
AmberIn my mid 30's, I am the mother of five children. I recently earned my B.S. in Business Administration with two concentrations; Management and Marketing. I love to learn and enjoy trying new things. I love spending time outdoors and exploring nature. My past-times include pottery and gardening. JeremyCategories |