5-7-2020

I know who knew I was capable of it. 2 posts in the same week. LOL!

See the thing is that once Grim and I came to a complete standstill because of the injury, I didn't feel I had anything useful to say or write about. So with that being the case I just stopped. I didn't want to see just how much of our lives we were missing out on. The past several years have been very tough on our family. We have been forced to give up things, simply because we physically couldn't do them any longer. Dreams we had weren't just put on hold... They were put in a box and tucked up on a shelf in the back of the closet. Don't get me wrong. Life went on. We had a college graduation, we will have another one in the next year. We have our last monster heading into her Senior year of High School. We have hit the big 50 milestone, as well as the Silver Anniversary milestone. 

I know a lot of you have faced job loss, illness, death and made it through the other side. I'm not complaining. It has helped build a resilience in me and my girls. It just sucks, its not fair & I want to hold my breath and cry sometimes.

One of those times was when I went to get my middle monster from university! I stopped at the property as its on the way. 

It is all so overgrown! There are so many trees down. All the work we put into the place to get it ready just seems like a waste of time. Can you see the Pity Party happening? Yep, I had one. But luckily I have a great Brother. We got to talking and we are going to combine our efforts with the property. We are going to set it up for both of our families to use. Now that means his sons will be able to come and help with the heavy lifting and he will be there to help me get things up and running.

Never fear Grim, will be part of all of it. He just won't be able to do any of the heavy lifting. He will be our General Foreman... You know, telling us all what to do! 💙🙅💜

Smile Loudly

&

Live Blessed

Yart

A Week of Limbo

This week that falls in between Christmas and the New Year always seems to be in Limbo! The hustle and bustle of the holiday is over. Gifts have been unwrapped and food eaten. The hype has died down. The New Year holds promises yet to be fullfilled! But this week....

This week is an odd one. I want to be idle because of the excitement of the last week, but I seem to have a ton of energy to get things tidied up and put away. Last night I straighten up my bedroom and was looking for other things to do. I don't know if its because the days are slowly getting longer. Or if its because I want so badly to get back to the property to get started with everything there.

My house will be put right between these trees. 16 x 20

My orchard will be placed here. 22 trees in all.

Break between the house and the orchard. We have to thin this area out, due to the giant ant mound pushing the trees over.

Sweet dreams of things to come!

Wild daisy's

Red Dogwood

Its hard not to yearn for this, as right now I'm cuddled up under an afghan and the furnace is on. So many plans, so many dreams, just waiting!

Smile Loudly,

Yart

A new Chapter

Both of the older girls are gone away to school now! Its only me, Grim and Little Miss. You would be amazed at how easy it is to clean the house now that there is only 3 of us. Laundry gets done so quickly, even with hanging it out to dry. And dishes they don't seem to be quite so never ending. Little Miss goes back to school after Labor day. So I will have a few minutes to myself. And that time I will be using to clean and go through things. I have been very neglectful of the basement the last year or so. I've got my work cut out for me. I need to get the basement in order by the Holidays.

In the mean time, we are still plugging along trying to get things done around the house so that we can put more effort into the property. When we were up there a couple weeks ago, we started building a wood shed. We ran out of wood. I'm using a pallet and old privacy fencing that my mom needed to get rid of. I need to rip apart more sections of fence and get it up there. Its going to be a really nice wood shed. Once its done though Grim is going to have to get his butt in gear and get to cutting down some of the trees. So I think he was happy to not get the wood shed done, just yet!

We also were able to get the water from the well tested!!!! It came back fine! So we have drinkable water! I am so happy its good and I'm so happy that the guy across the road was wrong. The next thing we need to do with that is get the Well guys to come out and help us understand the Well Head. Its rusted really bad and not sure if it needs to be replaced or if its fine the way it is. Once that's done we will build a Pump House. Hopefully, we can find more scrap wood to build that.

The tractor..... So far we have replaced the battery, the solenoid, start switch and went and got a new starter today. My brother came over yesterday with his electrical device to see where we didn't have power. We were all good to the starter. Hopefully, Grim will have time before work tomorrow to get it on there so we can get this thing up and running!!!! Then we only have a few little things to fix on it. That's if the starters the problem.... LOL! I know ye of little faith!

The weather around here has been horrible. It goes from hot to cold, like shut the windows, pull out the winter blankets cold and then back to OMG I can't breathe because its so hot!! Because of that I have been very limited on my time with my precious yarn. I was able to get week 6 finished on Sophie's Universe. 

I was able to make it to about half way with week 7. As soon as it cools down again I will get back to it. I have so many projects waiting for me to finish something before I begin again! LOL!

Hugs,

Yart

Living for the Weekends

That phrase has taken on a whole new meaning for us. We took Picky monster to her College orientation a couple weeks ago. We stopped by the property and cut the grass and dropped off a couple things. Then again this weekend Grim and I went up to again cut the grass and drop off a bit more stuff. You know the stuff that isn't needed here but might be needed there. Like my mom's privacy fence fell over on one side of her yard. So me and the monsters went over and ripped a few of the fallen sections apart. Grim and I took that up. It will be used to build the woodshed. There are more sections of fence that needs to be taken apart. I'm hoping those will be ready when we head back up in a couple more weeks.

 This was Saturday evening after the grass was cut.

In the morning looking towards the well

These next two are of the future orchard. As you can see we still have some work to do. More brush hogging and trees to come down. The clump of trees I would have liked to have kept. But can't do to the colony of ants that have uplifted the entire clump.

Here is the makeshift clothes line... One of the monsters set it up. Hoping to get a more permanent one up next time

We floored our shed. We know that it won't last 100 years but its doing what we need it to do right now. And that's keep the critters out and our stuff safe.

Since life can't be all about the homestead for us just yet....

Here are some of the berries I picked off the bushes at my mom's!

This is the progress of my Sophie's Universe. I'm in week 6 of 20. Lots more to do, so little time! Especially, since I have like 10 more projects picked out to do... LOL!

Here is the front end of what I thought was a riding lawn mower. I was wrong.... its a riding tractor and it was given to us last year. We were told that there was work needed and we were never able to make the repairs happen. This year that is about to change. It needs a tie rod, there is something wrong with the deck, a new battery and maybe a belt. I will keep you updated as "Old Red" comes back to life! :o)

Wish me luck... I have something going on with my shoulder / arm.... pinky and ring finger are tingly. Hoping I didn't damage anything important.

Hugs,

Yart

Summer Already?!?

When I left you last it was the beginning of May. A lot has happened since then. We have traveled to the property twice. Finished out the school year for 1 and got 1 to graduate! No small feat there. The girls and I have been working for a friend. Unfortunately, I won't be able to continue, due to something going on with my hand. Hopefully, it will get back to normal once I'm not doing that anymore. We have my mother in law settled into the nursing home, her apartment has been cleaned out, we are still waiting for medicaid. Somehow we weren't switched over to a different section. So now its a continued wait and see.

First trip to the property was during the Memorial Day Weekend. Loved it! We took the camper and stayed on site! It was fabulous, being able to stay there and get stuff started. Littlest monster took to cutting the grass. She had lots of fun doing it. The 2 older, helped to cut down some saplings. Move a tree that Grim needed to cut up due to it fell right where we didn't want it. The girls dug a fire pit. We put in a ring. Only problem with that was it filled up with water?@? Just one more thing added to the list to try and figure out.

Second trip, we were there for 9 days. We cleared most of my soon to be orchard. There is still some more to be cut back. But we got tired after 2 days of steady cutting. Plus, whats left really needs something stronger then the small brush hog we rented. There is a nice sized brush pile. The fire pit has dried out. We weren't able to use it though because all the bugs that live in the bush came out to visit. Poor Grim and the littlest monster look like pox victims. The ground was so wet, and the bugs had been undisturbed for so long, they saw us as lunch. Then we couldn't seem to keep them out of the camper either. It made for rough times. Finally, I got to go to town and get Windex. It works great at dispatching flying critters. So the family was happy once more. Plus, we went though 6 rolls of duct tape. We were also able to get the floor into the barn. The open area on the sides has been closed. We couldn't seal up the bottom of the doors just yet though. We have a nest with 3 baby robins just hatched while we were there. So we will keep an eye for them to leave the nest. Once they do we will finish up. I made it into the extension office, got a lot of contact information. They gave me the number and address to where to take the well water to take it to see if its safe to drink. Fingers crossed.

Things are starting to look up. We have some great leads on what to do next. My phone is in the shop so I don't have any pictures until the family uploads to drop box. 

Until next time,

Yart

Changes

As you know I have been the long term care taker for my mother in law. Just a quick recap.... in early January she fell and landed on the hospital and then to short term rehab. She then went home against doctors wishes.... can you say stubborn. Then near the end of March, she fell again. Again to the hospital. This time though she ended up in long term nursing care. With that came a great deal of relief.... now we no longer have to be worried about her safety. But it also brought a ton of stress. Trying to get her medicaid, her apartment cleaned out, and on and on.

While all of this was going on, I got let go from my day job. All because both parties couldn't come to an agreement and I got caught in the middle. Grim, applied for a promotion. We still haven't heard anything. We are still hopeful.

I finished the mystery afghan. I will post pictures later. As I'm writing this post from my phone.

We are in the process of bringing home our oldest from University. 2 years down. In the fall both of the oldest will be away at school. Big changes are coming.

I was able to be outside for awhile yesterday to usher in Beltane. I was very pleased. I picked up fallen sticks, saw the wonders of Spring, & spun in circles. Unfortunately, I didn't have any ribbons to place in the trees.

Till next time!
Yart

New Season

Fall has been a fickle thing this year. Cold, rain, hot, bitter! Almost like she can't make up her mind on what she wants. I tried to hold out until the 11th to turn the furnace on. I only missed by two days. So the official start to the winter heat bills was Nov. 9th. 

We were able to get out and get all the Christmas lights up before the weather turned cold on us. I will post pictures when we turn them on. That won't be until Thanksgiving night. Even though we get them up early, we make sure we celebrate each Holiday in succession.

Life is going good. Grim and I are almost the new parents to a 10 year old brand new wood burner. This where it sits right now... We have to go and pick it up. Really excited about this purchase.

We have found a great building at Lowes. Unfortunately, Lowes is just the dealer and the suppliers dosen't travel to where our property is located. :( 16x24

No fear! We went to Menard's. They worked with us on figuring out what we wanted and they came up with a bigger structure with a medal roof for only about $1000 more. 24x24 Granted this one we have to build ourselves. Sweat Equity!!! At least that's what I'm telling myself! LOL! It will be what we want in the end. So no complaints now or in the future... As long as it all goes as planned! :P

Even though I have the part time job away from the homestead. I'm still working on my Thirty-one business. I have a fantastic deal going on right now. So here goes my 30 second pitch!

Email Me and Let's get you some stuff for FREE, while taking care of the Holidays all in one shot!!

Contact Me Here!

Hugs

Yart

Feeling Elated

We have just come home from taking our oldest monster to school for her Sophomore year at university!!! But that's not why I'm happy.... LOL!

Grim and I were able to speak to the township executive. She was super nice and was able to help us out with all of our questions. She told us that the well head protection area was set up back in 1994 when the county came in and capped all the wells in town. So that has nothing to do with us. The next question was should we get our well tested... She said that she has been drinking from these artisan wells for her whole life. But if we wanted we could have it tested... Nope, not gonna happen.... Just saved us a ton right there. Then she told us a bunch of other stuff that is going to make our lives so much easier when it comes time to build.

Grim and I were able to rent a brush hog while we were there this time. We would have gotten more done but our stamina just didn't hold out. In 5 hours we got a ton done. If only we would have been able to do this while our oldest was with us or even my brother... He was already there when we got into town on Sunday and he stayed with us Sunday night!

While we were there we decided to layout where the house will be. Remember its suppose to be 16 x 20. Good thing we tried to stake it our first.... Cause we have now come to the conclusion that we need to double the size of the house. So it will now be 16 x 40. The loft space will be attached in the middle. So we will have one big room or two decent sized ones... Not sure yet on that.

Grim and I plan on taking another trip in November to cut the trees with the orange paint. They are either diseased, dying or in the way ( only 2 are in the way ).

We are going to try and get the Barn floor done. Once that's done we can make some head way with the electricity next spring. Sorry I didn't think to take pictures of the inside of the barn but it is 24 x 24. The monsters and I did measure it.

Come Spring we have a ton more work to do. The orchard needs to be cleared. It is 50 x 150. Now that's been measured I can get down to the placement of the trees that I want to order. On the list right now is Walnut, Mulberry, Paw Paw, Pear, Apple, Apricot, Peach, Plum and Almond. I already have the Almond. As long as it survives the winter down here that is! :o) 16 trees total!

Well, that's about it for now... Need to go and make some money to pay for these dreams!

Hugs,

Yart

Possible New Home

Grim and I have been looking around like crazy, talking to builders and scratching our heads.

Money is tight, but when isn't it.

I came across plans for 16 x 20. They have multiple sizes to choose from.

I purchased it for $9.95 through paypal. 

Its the Pioneer Cabin.

Then I became an affiliate. If you want an affordable, small home this is worth looking into.

When we are in our county in a couple weeks, we will be asking if this is something that fits in with the building codes for the area. Keeping fingers crossed that this will work. Its in our budget and the perfect size as the monsters are getting bigger and moving out!

Yart

2 days!

We have had 2 glorious day of warmth!

Most of the piles are gone.

Now we are bracing for freezing rain and 11 inches of snow!

If we manage to get that much we will be in first place for most snow fall ever!

It amazes me...

I really didn't think we got that much.

I mean 90 some inches of snow is a lot.

It wasn't all at one time.

The monsters did get 7 snow days so far...

I think tomorrow will be #8.

Good News!

On Saturday we received a letter from the county that contained our address!!! Now we need to get out butts in gear and get up there and put it up on a sign. So we don't end up getting a ticket... LOL!

I've managed to get a few more rows done on the moss stitch autumn afghan. There is still a lot of yarn to use up.

I finished reading Anansi's Boys. It was a very good read. If you like funny/dramatic fiction then this might be one for you.

Yart

Beginnings and Ends

Yesterday, I mailed out the application for the address on the property and check! They say that once they receive it the time it will take is only 5 days. So before St. Pat's I'm expecting to be the proud owners of a Street Address! It sounds funny to say that. Even though people have owned the property before us... We will be the first to own the address. Since we can't get there to do anything or even see how much snow is on the ground! I can only imagine...

So I have to turn my attention to what's going on here.

This is the garden area... This is the first time I looked out this window all winter... In my defense it's because I put bubble wrap on the windows.... So I couldn't see out. LOL! I am going to try and put in a carefree garden this year. You know the type that will take care of itself other then for a little water. Since we will be doing weekend trips north to the property, I don't want to put to much time or energy in down here. At least for this summer. 

I will have a couple of garden areas that will need to be filled in as I will be taking the blueberries and the golden and black raspberries and planting them on the property. So that is going to free up the 5 sets of tires and the 1 bed.

But since Spring is still away's off... I have to keep busy in the house.

Firstly, I have resumed following the Flylady! She has helped me in the past to get the CHAOS under control. She will help again this time. For as lackadaisical as I seem... I am a very organized person, I even have lists & follow the calendar. So far so good! Living Room... check! Now on to the kitchen. I just wish they could put the calendar from cozi to yahoo. It would make my life easier! Just Sayin'!

The autumn afghan is all done but for tying off the ends.

The finished measurements are 45" wide and 59" long. I used Red Heart Love and Bernat. That was the only way I could get the colors I wanted. I think it turned out very nice. Now just to tie in the ends.

Yart

No more suspense!

Well, maybe just a little… Don’t you just love daisy’s. I do, I guess when I was little my dad asked me what my favorite flower was…. I told him daisy’s because of some song I heard in school and now can’t remember to save my life. Any who… My dad would get my mom roses and he would always get me daisy’s…. That way I didn’t feel left out. So I took it as a good sign when Grim and I went to look at the property and I found this lovely bunch at the second driveway.

Speaking of the second driveway. Here it is. As you can see you really can’t drive in there very far. Not even sure why there is a second driveway…. HMMMM?!?

This is a spot off the first driveway. The picture doesn’t do it justice. With a bit of work this area can become a very nice orchard. I mean using a brush hog and lots of bug spray… LOL! Don’t laugh… WAIT!

This is why I’m going to need all the bug spray. Any idea what that hill is? Take a closer look if you need to. I’ll wait……

Either you didn’t guess and I’ll give you the answer or you recognize an ant hill when you see it. Yep, its an ant hill, Ladies and Gentlemen! It is well over a foot high and right off the first driveway.

You want to know the worst part about it…..

I will have to get out my muck boots and climb around it to post the No Trespassing Signs. That’s right all that’s left to do is sign the final paperwork and Grim and I are the proud owners of a 20+acre lot with an artesian well. There is lots of hunting in the area as well as a trout stream right across the road.

WOO HOO!!!

We won’t be able to think about building until at least next spring. That’s quite alright though, as we have enough work clearing the orchard space and exploring the property. This is going to be our retirement property. So I have a few years to get it to where I would like it to be….. After the orchard we will have to clear for the house and a small garden.

Yart