Tag Archives: moving

“Old News”

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I was reading back through a different blog of mine which I used to use (closed for various reasons) and realized that there were several posts on there which might be interesting to readers of this blog since the posts are all about our transition to the homestead and our trailer transformation. So over the coming weeks (or months, knowing me) I will be copying those posts to this blog. I will try to make it very apparent from beginning of each post that it is an oldie.

For today’s offering, we have our very first announcement that we we making serious plans to move to Castle Rock.

OCTOBER 21, 2013

I’ve been waiting to write this post until our plans were more than a dream. Well, last week we plunked down a large chunk of change to get this ball (or would that be “tire”?) rolling. Here’s a picture of our new home (sitting outside our current home)!

Ok, so it’s not our new home quite yet. But it WILL be, hopefully within the next year.

She’s not much to look at right now. She’s got some issues. But really, considering the thing is 33 years old, she’s been very well taken care of.

The only picture I have of the “living room”.

Learning to live in the trailer already

So, WHY are we eventually moving into a trailer you might ask. Well, that’s the only way we’ll be able to afford to build our house. Yep, we’re building a house. If you are friends with us on Facebook, you’ll have seen where we’ve gone camping at Castle Rock (our property) a couple of times this summer. Here’s some pictures.

Look closely (click on picture and it should enlarge) and you can see the Suburban and a blue EZ-up – they are sitting on the house pad.

Beauty at Castle Rock

On top of “Castle Rock”

The valley (and town) is in top left of pic, house pad just to right of center

Eventual house site

See, with a bit more water, cottonwoods can grow here – this is down in the bottom of the canyon.

Neat crevice down in the bottom of the canyon below Castle Rock

So, no, it’s not lush and green land (which is nearly unheard of here in Nevada) but it’s 40 acres and quiet and secluded AND close to town (see panorama above). And here’s the biggest deal, it’s my family’s land, so it’s already paid for (though there will be some sort of rent/mortgage to Mom). The only thing that’s been improved on the land is a driveway and house pad cut. Which means we will need to have a well dug, bring in power of some sort, improve the driveway, AND build a house. All on a cash basis, so it’s gonna take a while. But that’s why we bought the trailer. By living in the trailer on the land while we are building, we cut out a lot of our current living expenses (minimal rent, no electricity to pay for since we’ll be on solar, etc.)

We’re pretty excited about this next stage of our lives. We’re looking forward to downsizing (some things will go into storage), to living in close quarters with each other, to working hard and accomplishing much in the next several years. We’re also looking forward to getting out of our neighborhood where things are stolen from our front porch and our neighbors are just right there, to having more land and bigger gardens and more animals.

It’s gonna be fun!

The things we do for Family

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We’ve had a major change in our family. It happened suddenly and without warning. On July 5th, everything was copacetic. We had no idea what we would be deciding on July 6th. It was one of the hardest, yet easiest decisions we’ve ever had to make as a family. But we are at peace with our decision knowing it was the right one.

We no longer live on the homestead. BUT, before you give up hope, we want you to know that our plans for the homestead are still in place, just postponed. You see, we went to the Portland, OR area to visit family over the 4th of July weekend. The Hubby’s mom has some health issues which caused a decline in her health to a point which she now needs 24 hour care. In fact, she is currently in the hospital.

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Princess Girl with her Bachan in the hospital

We were unaware of the extent to which Hubby’s dad was having to care for her and how worn out he was getting. Before we left to travel back to Nevada, it was decided that we would move up to the Northwest to help out in any way possible. We truly feel that God has directed our lives to be able to do this for our family. If we were still in our house downtown, it would have been a much harder decision, a lot longer process, and way more upset to the status quo. As it is, it was fairly easy to pack up our belongings and, with the help of our family and friends, batten down the hatches on the homestead, and head out in just under a week.

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This plus the back half of our van is most of all of our personal belongings.

There is a saying in the Bible that says, “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” (Proverbs 19:21) We thought we knew where our life was headed. We had it all planned out. But God had a different plan in store for us. And that’s ok.

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So, here we are. Desert transplants in the steamy Pacific Northwest. What does this mean for Castle Rock Homestead? As I said before, our plans are just postponed. It’s looking like we will be here for at least a year, but we do plan to go back to Nevada and pick up where we left off. And actually, since our expenses here should be less than they were there, we should still be able to save money. So by the time we move back, we will be further along in that respect.

As for the blog, I still plan to write. I have a backlog of articles I have been meaning to get to about our goings on, but have been too busy to write. I also have a whole list of things to write about that don’t have to do with our homestead in particular, but rather homesteading in general. Also, my father-in-law has a garden in the backyard (albeit a tiny one), and we now live in the Pacific Northwest! Blackberry bushes are considered weeds around here. Weeds! Which produce fruit! The growing season here is not necessarily much longer, but decidedly milder, and having to water the garden is a once in a while occurrence. There are definitely some things I am going to enjoy about our sojourn here.

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Everything is so GREEN!

I plan to do some canning, and I want to try my hand at soap making. You know, a few of the things that would have been harder to do on the homestead while focused on building a house. So I will keep up on the blog, hopefully more faithfully than I have been heretofore.

But I know you all understand. And I thank you for your continued support. We are going to miss the homestead while we are gone.

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Our last sunset on the homestead for a while.

But are also looking forward to the adventure of living in the Pacific Northwest for the next little while.

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My new breakfast spot. I will definitely enjoy the beauty around me.

What a mess..

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Not a very pretty sight at the moment. We’ve kinda thrown things by the trailer, no organization outside whatsoever. The bad weather last week didn’t help. Or the fact that it took us a couple days to get the inside organized (much more important and yet still not completely done).

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But as I sit here and rest my aching knee (old injury), all I have to do is turn my chair to the side and get a beautiful peaceful view of our canyon.

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But,  the hubby is done checking the fluid levels in the truck, so here we go for another load. This run is to get the chickens and take them to my parents’ house. The hens are going to live at the parents’ house until we get more settled in and a better water system figured out.

And speaking of water, our family of 4 used a total of 7 gallons of water for all our needs over two and a half days. Talk about conserving water! I’ll have to write another post about it soon.

Till then, be blessed.

Maridy

“I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth.” Ps 121:1-2

Rain

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What a day to do the bulk of our moving! It rains/snows less than 100 days out of the entire year* and this is the day it chooses to rain all day?

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But I’m loving the mists rolling through our mountains. And hearing the rain on the trailer roof. 🙂

It’s a long process of moving in because with such a small space, we have to unpack each box as it comes through the door.

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This is all our school supplies. With a child in third grade and one who will be hitting preschool sooner rather than later, we pared down as much as feasible. But, with some creativity and organization, all the supplies in all those boxes went in the cabinets pictured.

Ok, time to get to more unpacking!

EDITED: *This morning I looked up our average days of precipitation and I was slightly off. The average is not near 100 as I stated above. It’s more like 50! 14% of the year, and it chooses this week to do it??? And btw, it’s still raining today!

“I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth.” Ps 121:1-2

Empty House

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I never expected that I would experience the emotions I’m having about packing up to leave this place. There are actually quite a few things I’m going to miss. And this sight makes me downright depressed.

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For those that don’t know, this is where I stored our jams and jellies, etc which we sold to fund our adoption of our yougest child. I LOVED walking down these basement stairs and seeing all those jars gleeming brightly (granted, usually under a layer of dust). It brought to mind all the hours of hard work we put into making them. It was a labor of love  (believe me, I may not have carried her inside my body or birthed her, but I labored for that child!).

It also brought to mind one of the reasons I started canning in the first place: to reconnect with generations past and skills lost. To see those jars lined up on my basement stairs meant that I had re-captured a piece of the past. I had something in common with our foremothers.

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Yes, I still have all those beautiful jars of deliciousness, but now they are in boxes, waiting to be moved. But our eventual new house is not going to have a 100 year old unfinished basement where I can line the walls with my canned goods. It was like a dream come true to have that. And in just a few days, I’ll have it no longer.

But, at least I have the memories and a bright future to look forward to. And who knows, maybe now that we’ll be on the homestead,  I’ll finally get that root cellar I’ve always wanted. That would be almost as good as a 100 year old unfinished basement.

Oh, and PS, I’m really on a roll with writing every day, but don’t get used to it. I’m new to this blogging for strangers thing (my last blog was mainly just for family.) Probably once the newness and fun wear off, I’ll slow down. But then again, I’m so excited to share, maybe I’ll keep write on going! (Pun intended 🙂 )

Time

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We’ve been living in this nearly empty house,  waiting for it to sell, for almost three months now. The first things we packed were things off the walls. Including all but one of our clocks. It’s been 3 months, do you think I look at the watch I now wear 24/7 on my wrist when I want to know what time it is?

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Of course not. I look here instead:

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Doh!

But speaking of time, we’re not going to have a lot of it in the next several days to be posting. In fact, I don’t really have the time to be blogging right now. Tomorrow starts our big moving adtenture! We’re so excited I can’t help but share. By Monday, we should be living at the homestead. It’s really happening!

What we’ve been up to

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So, I figured I’d reward our three subscribers by putting up some new content 🙂 We’ve been super busy the last several days.  Have we been out in the garden on these beautiful summer-like days? Nope. Making some delicious  yummies from the produce we still have in the freezer? Nope. So what have we been doing? Well, here’s a picture of our living room.

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Understand now? Yep, we’re packing. Because we’re moving in two days! Nearly a full month ahead of schedule! After this weekend we will be living on the homestead! (That was a lot of exclamation marks! 🙂 ) About the only ones in the family who are not excited are the baby and the dog because they don’t understand it all. But both will be totally stoked once we get out there. Sid because he’ll have 40 acres to run and run on, and the baby because she loves to play in the dirt. We are so looking forward to being able to let our girls roam and explore without fear.

Ok, I need to get back to packing. See you all later!

And for those who subscribed, thanks! I’m honored.