Greenhouse Planting

The greenhouse is officially cleaned out,  repaired from winter weather,  and holding heat.
 

Today I moved all the flats that were already planted with cold weather crops, hot peppers, and sweet peppers into the greenhouse from the kitchen.
 

 

 

 

 

And I planted 360 tomato plants.  We are heirloom tomato snobs, and we really only garden so we can have tomatoes. :-)

 

Not really....but we are tomato snobs. 

 

I plan to review what we grow this year for any other budding heirloom tomato snobs.  Our favorite to date is Chocolate Pear. It is to die for.  We dried a bunch and ate them into the fall.  Perfection!

 

Last year I tried to garden in crocs. Didn't work so well,  and I was stressing about saving up $140 for new work boots.  We went to the store prepared to splurge on boots for me for the season,  but when we took one last minute look at Walmart we found these sweet babies for less than $40. Amazing!  My feet were happy all weekend.

 

 

A great Sunday sermon from a passionate pastor,  laundry on the line outside instead of in the kitchen,  hands in the dirt,  hardly any snow in the yard,  a big fat jiggly pig in the sty, a happy goat, and two chickens that decided it was time to start laying again. ....life is good.

Planting time!

Did you know it is only 13 days until Spring officially starts? We celebrated that this week by starting our planting and cleaning out the greenhouse!

Hopefully the greenhouse will be holding heat soon, and we can get the flats out there to grow in the wonderful sunshine.

Identity Swinging

Today I am working on the notes for a session I am teaching at the end of the month in Iowa on Identity Crises.  It's all about how God wants us to live life righteously and keep ourselves safely under his authority and in his discipline instead of using our lives to draw attention to ourselves by creating new identities based on our talents or experiences.

How ironic that God is using ME to teach others about keeping our identity in our union with Christ, not using bulimic bursts of energy to accomplish things, and allowing our satisfaction in him to be what draws the attention of others.

Good one, God.  You obviously have a sense of humor.  :-)

2 Corinthians 3:18  But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Psalm 72:18-19 Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who alone works wonders. And blessed be His glorious name forever; And may the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen, and Amen.

Me and Social Media

About a month ago I realized that maybe I should try living without Facebook.  I also quietly went about life sparingly referring to other online tools like Pinterest.  I hadn't really used that a lot anyways.  I can't really live without Netflix, because I use it to keep me from going insane every morning on my exercise bike.

Well....a month without Facebook, and I survived.   Actually, I thrived.  And the month away proved exactly what I thought it would. 

Facebook is a great forum, and it's so cool to be able to stay engaged with friends and family, but I think it's feeding thinking problems for me, especially my already huge capacity to be judgmental.  Reading all the one sentence updates people randomly put on FB is like voyeurism into someone's life for me, and I found myself, more and more, thinking rude and hateful thoughts after reading those one or two random sentences.  While I work on being a kinder and more intentionally sacrificially, loving person I probably don't need to feed my inborn tendencies to be hateful and judgmental.  For the time being, I'm going to focus on building face-to-face relationships. 

A couple people have commented that they miss hearing about the little, old farm, so I've resurrected our old blog.  For those that really care about what we're up to, are dreaming of, or are trying to accomplish the blog is probably a better forum anyway.  I like to let my family know what life is like out here on the prairie, but I figured that most of my Facebook friends probably got annoyed by all of the farm stuff I posted online anyways.  No one really cares what we're planting in our garden except for the people that are going to eat it, most likely.  :-)

Because I had more time from not checking Facebook, pondering Facebook drama, or creating internal drama from what I'd read on Facebook I got a LOT done around the house.  I sewed Brian two pairs of fleece pajamas, I finished one baby blanket,  I started another crochet throw project, and I made Shelby a pair of crocheted slippers with leather soles.  Those slippers ROCK!  No more blown out crocheted soles for us.

Anyways,  I'll probably still pop onto Facebook from time to time.  It's the only way I get to see my sister and brothers and parents in real time.  But I'm happy about my Facebook free decision, and Brian is headed that way as well....even though he was only really a FB stalker anyways. :-)

We're doing it!

Since we started dating in 1996, we have wanted to live off the land and homestead.  We investigated moving to Alaska early in our marriage. We even honeymooned in Fairbanks, Alaska.

We hated it!  It was November, and in the one week we were there we lost an hour of sunlight.  By the end of the week the sun rose at 11:30 am and set at 2:30 pm. When we disembarked from the plane it was 25 degrees below zero (without windchill).  While we were there it snowed 12 inches, and no one even noticed or mentioned it.  The final straw was when we found out that Alaska doesn't really homestead anymore,  and it's more of a land lottery.

When we returned to Indiana we moved on with our lives thinking that homesteading wouldn't work,  since Alaska was the only place we thought you could do it.  And we clearly couldn't hack Alaska.

We bought a trailer, finished college, bought a house,  had babies,  and found ourselves absorbed into the standard American life.   We were very busy, very comfortable,  and very financially secure.  We had a big mortgage,  two jobs,  two or more cars,  went on nice vacations,  and lived a fine, fat life.

However,  we began to realize that we were never home, our kids were raising themselves (rather unsuccessfully), and while our marriage wasn't bad,  it wasn't particularly good either.  And we were living such a good life we were getting kind of chubby... and sick.   We began investing in improving our marriage,  which made us remember that we really liked each other.  But we found that even though we were honored to be working on the jobs that we were,  we were miserably failing at raising our kids.  Sacrifices and changing our schedule and priorities still didn't solve those problems.

One day in 2012 on the way home from family vacation in the summer,  Brian and I asked each other when and why had we bought into the "American Dream" at the expense of being faithful to raise our children for the Lord. 

Although the job that I held was so important to the girls I was serving,  their parents,  and our church we realized my first and most important ministry should have been to my husband and my children,  and I just wasn't able to accomplish that and work full time outside our home.

By that Fall, with a plan to be able to survive on just one income (which we were almost sure was going to be completely impossible due to our standard American lifestyle choices) I resigned from my job with my final day as May 31, 2013.

Beginning in June 2013, we began killing our consumerist,  materialist,  physically un-disciplined, self-centered, standard American lifestyle. We taught our kids to work hard,  finish what they start, be nice,  love God, and be good students.

And we have found great liberation in working hard together,  being united in our goals,  learning skills of self-sufficiency, experimenting, and experiencing.  Family relationships started to be healed.  Chaos started to be cleared.

While we are incredibly grateful for the amazing freedoms we have as Americans, we are not sure the Founding Fathers and pioneers sacrificed all of their freedoms and even their lives,  so that we could become  consumeristic and materialistic self-focused individualist who put ourselves first and our spouses and families last.  The Founding  Fathers and pioneers sacrificed so that we would be free to raise our kids to love and serve Christ, not so that we would be free to work so many hours to feel personally fulfilled that we didn't have energy left to invest in our children's development.

The almost 2 years since I retired from my Ministry to stay home and fulfill my MINISTRY have proven that we love each other more than we thought we could,  are capable of more than we ever thought we were,  and deep down haven't given up on our dream of living off the land.

The last 2 summers have proven that we can raise and care for animals,  but we can also kill, butcher,  and can them when we need to. We can also plant seeds, weed, harvest, and put food up for the winter....and be disciplined enough to eat it every week instead of buying pre-processed food in a box.

As we've become even more focused on killing materialism we've also realized we can (and actually do enjoy) living with a minimal amount of electricity,   without clothes dryers, without lots of heat,  without eating out,  without a clothes washer,  without a dish washer,  without tv, without buying stuff every time we leave the house,  and without a lot of other stuff. ....but we don't want to live without each other.   In fact,  we really do want to see a whole lot more of each other.

As our abilities on our little homestead have improved many of our endeavors have expanded.  And we realize that we're running out of space.  And our house is a little more fancy than we need (or want).

We've reached the point in our life together as a family that we think it's time to move. While it seems easiest to buy the vacant lot beside us, land is a bit high in Indiana.  Besides, we'd love to live somewhere a little warmer with a bit of a longer growing season....with woods,  and a creek,  and a pond,  and a HUGE organic garden,  and horses,  and more goats,  and no mortgage. ...in a cabin that we built ourselves,  with a fireplace,  a wood burning stove,  and lots and lots of love.

So we tentatively started looking around. ...near and far. ... Arizona (no churches, jobs, or water), Nevada (desert,  no thanks), Wyoming (no churches, jobs, or water), Montana (expensive and 7 months of winter ...gag), Pennsylvania (sooooo expensive), Maine/Wisconsin/Minnesota (too much like Alaska), Alabama/Georgia/Mississippi/Louisiana (good churches,  too hot).

But we do think we may have found the homesteader's dream. ..KENTUCKY.  Perfect weather,  lots of jobs (in the right portion of the state), great churches,  longer growing season, not 40 hrs travel from our family.

So the search for land is on. ....

And we'll see what happens. ...

But it looks like we're headed south....

And we can hardly wait!

In this order. ..
1. Land in Kentucky
2. Build cabin as a family
3. Sell house in Indiana
4. Job in Kentucky
5. Move to Kentucky permanently

http://www.offgridworld.com/how-to-build-an-off-grid-cabin-on-a-budget/

Today's Project

Brian is in love with pajamas...and fleece....and skeleton heads. ..and Mohawks.  So these are pretty much the most awesome pajama pants ever!!!

And every time I see this print by I automatically think of my awesome nephews...who always rock the summertime mohawks.

Papaya and Pomegranate

I found a great deal on papaya at Meijer in the clearance produce section.  So this week's breakfasts have included Papaya and Pomegranate. Sometimes they also included grapes. 

Not only frugal (about $1.25/ breakfast), this is also very healthful. Papaya is an important fruit for providing antioxidants, and it also contains an important digestive enzyme.  This fruit is excellent for colon and digestive health.   

An amazing fruit used from ancient days until the present, Pomegranate is practically the world's most perfect fruit, with more antioxidants and cancer fighting qualities than any other fruit.

As we strive for health and vitality here on our homestead, we're thankful these fruits, which you can't grow in Indiana, can be found moderately inexpensively, especially when they are on sale or in season.

Super Winter Lunch - Butternut Squash Soup

We've added a new soup recipe on the www.sparkrecipes.com website.  We all love Butternut Squash Soup, even if we don't really like any other kind of squash.


This great little soup is packed with sweet flavor and lots of vitamins!


One serving is only 137 calories and 2.5 grams of protein. 


Growing Butternut Squash is not hard at all, and it is the only squash we plan to grow next summer.  If you grow your own organic squash the only costs that will be associated with this great dish are from the canned coconut milk and the small amount of spices that will be used.


Enjoy!

Resurrection

It would have been cool to keep this blog going during the past two years of transition.  But alas, blogging and transitioning to a completely new life have not gone hand in hand.


The past two years have been a whirlwind of new things.  In June 2013, I began my new life as a stay at home mom after a hectic, rewarding life helping to lead Vision of Hope Residential Treatment Center in Lafayette, IN.  The 6 1/2 years I spent there were wonderful, and I loved so many aspects of my job.  However, over the years my husband and I realized our kids were getting left in the dust.  While we made many changes over the years to simplify our lives, we eventually came to the conclusion that for me working full time outside of our home and being a full time wife and mother wasn't going to continue to work. 


The summer of 2013 was about gardening and farming and helping our kids learn the value of hard work.


The fall of 2013 was about helping the girls apply that new knowledge of hard work to school.  Homeschooling for the first time was a lot harder than I thought, but it was also much more rewarding than I expected.  The first year of homeschooling was about helping the kids academics be brought up to grade level, which meant many days of crying and agonizing over schoolwork.  By the end of that school year we all agreed that homeschooling was one of the best decisions we have ever made.  The girls flourished under the direct supervision, and it was good for our family.


The first year with me home we spent a lot of time snowed in, isolated, and focused on just each other.  A lot of relationship issues were mended, and we really grew as a family.  Communication, problem solving, team work, valuing each other.....  It was a really good year.  We were also able to more deeply connect with our extended families.


The summer of 2014 we again focused on gardening and farming, that summer with less of a focus on farming, because we came to realize that all of the work and expense of farming is not worth it if the people in the family don't want to eat the products of that labor and expense.  The garden was awesome and lots of canning and freezing happened.  We also had lots of opportunities to visit our out of state family.


The fall of 2014 involved more canning, freezing, and prepping for the winter.  I also got caught up on some health problems, which ended up involving several surgeries and doctor appointments. 


Beginning in the fall of 2013, I had decided to quit making excuses about my health and weight and began to work hard to lose weight and be healthy.  Thankfully, that resulted in the loss of about 60 pounds by the summer of 2014, and the need to work through lots of mental and emotional issues that were associated with the way I had eaten and exercised all of my life.  I'm incredibly thankful for that time to think through why I was living the way I was, and why I was willing to live blameshifting about my health.  I'm really thankful for the SparkPeople web site.  The calorie and exercise tracker there really made it easier than it could have been. 


The summer of 2014 was so busy that I quit focusing on losing weight and just tried to live sensibly, but by the fall of 2014 the weight was creeping back up.  It has been a journey to figure out how to eat correctly, work out enough, but still have energy and time for life's responsibilities. 


Also in the fall of 2014, a visit to my doctor revealed some problems and some concerns about the possibility of a genetic disorder which would almost guarantee further cancer problems.  At that point, I decided to make the transition from vegetarian to vegan.  Having been a vegetarian since 2010, the transition wasn't too hard.  The decision involved lots of education and study.  As a result of the positive results of these changes, our entire family is now mostly vegan.


One of the reasons I am making the decision to resurrect this blog is to start making more widely available the things we've learned over the past year about health and nutrition.  We've learned a lot about farming and gardening and living a more sustainable lifestyle (spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, and relationally).  As more and more people observe the results of our transitions over the past two years, they are asking questions and wanting to know why/what/how we are living the way we are.  After saying the same things over and over, I've come to realize the time to maintain a blog will be less time than the time to keep repeating myself about such important things.  So....in the end it makes sense to resurrect this old beast, and see what happens.


Hopefully, I'll be able to carve time out of my day to keep the world (if anyone cares) up to date about what we are up to, what we're learning, and the "how's" and "why's" of the changes that have come to our life.  I hope to post recipes, tips, observations, etc here as I have time.  If they're helpful to anyone, we'll be happy about that.