Chicken Update

I think I posted that chicken number one, Ginny, died a few weeks ago. Chicken number two, Charlotte, is still hanging on. She has been an invalid for two weeks now. For about a week all she could do was lie on her left side with her wing sticking out from under her body. She still has the ability to move her legs, so when she scrambled around the ground, she was tearing her shoulder area with her claws. I tried rigging up a sling for her to sit in, but I didn't get the hole in the back placed properly and she was pooping on herself. I then tried using the sling to wrap her up, but it got too hot and I thought she was simply too uncomfortable. My latest idea was to use strips of cloth to fashion little wraps for her feet. I wrapped the cloth around each foot and secured it with a piece of string to keep her claws from scratching her wing. This has seemed to work and her shoulder is healing nicely.

Saturday, however, Jeremy and I were standing outside watching her sleep in the grass. (I had brought her outside for a change of scenery and a chance at bug catching.) He mentioned that she didn't look too well and I told him I was debating which method of putting her down would be the most humane. I took her back into her stall and set her near her food and water and left. A few hours later when I peeked in at her, she was resting on her stomach with her feet underneath her, just like a normal chicken! She's been that way ever since. I don't know what happened. I had prayed just that morning that God would send me a clear sign about whether to put her down or keep nursing her. I'm hoping this was the answer to my prayer and not just a coincidence.

Zucchini Recipes

I knew I was going to be swimming in zucchini and yellow squash, but I guess I really didn't realize just how much of it I was going to have. I've been harvesting roughly two large squash per day for the past month. Since my family is not particularly fond of squash plain or in casseroles I had to come up with some creative ways to use it. Luckily I found a book that's filled with recipes for just about every vegetable under the sun. It's called From Asparagus to Zucchini and it's put out by the Madison Area CSA Coalition. Both of these recipes were taken from this book and have been a huge hit at my house. The chocolate cake is simply scrumptious, even without icing, and it's hard to believe the apple cobbler doesn't have apples in it.

Double Chocolate Zucchini Cake by Scotch Hill Farm
3/4 cup oil (I did half applesauce)
1 1/4 cup sugar (half white and half honey granules)
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini
1/2 cup buttermilk
3 T cocoa
1/2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t each cinnamon and cloves
2 1/2 cups flour (half all-purpose and half freshly ground hard white)
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees; grease a 9-by-13-inch pan. Mix all ingredients and bake 30-35 minutes. You can also make these into muffins. I think they took about 25 minutes.

Mock Apple Cobbler by Inn Serendipity
Filling Ingredients:
3 pounds peeled, seeded, and chopped zucchini (about 8 cups)
2/3 cup lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg

Crust Ingredients:
4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 t cinnamon

Combine zucchini and lemon juice in large saucepan over medium-low heat. Bring to a simmer and cook until tender, about 20 minutes. Stir in sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg; simmer 1 minute longer. Remove from heat. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Oil a 9-by-13-inch pan. Combine flour and sugar in a bowl; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir 1/2 cup of mixture into zucchini mixture. Press half the remaining crust mixture into pan. Spread zucchini mixture over it, then crumble remaining crust mixture over zucchini. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake until golden and bubbly, 35-40 minutes.
*I misread the directions and put 1/2 the crust mixture in with the zucchini and spread the other half in the bottom of the pan, not reserving any for the top. I thought it tasted great and my husband actually likes a thicker crust. Try it both ways and see which one you prefer.

Two Chickens Now

Well, now we have two chickens that are sick. The first one can't move at all and lies in the stall all day. She's still eating, but I'm not sure if she's drinking. I've been going in several times per day with a medicine syringe and giving her water. I've also been giving her watermelon to increase her liquid intake.

I was able to get the second girl two days ago and she's steadily getting worse. She's still able to move and can walk around her stall, but she's pretty unsteady on her feet and sits sometimes with her feet out in front of her. She's eating and drinking and has gobbled up the watermelon I've been feeding her.

I found out that we have a research facility about an hour away so I'm going to call them in the morning to see if I can bring one or both girls in to find out what they have. I've been keeping a close eye on the other girls and so far have not noticed any of them walking funny.

I do have good news on the chickens, though. Up until now they've refused to use their roosting bars in the coop at night. I've seen them on the roost at various times during the day, but never at night. They preferred to huddle on the floor in one big mass. They originally all crammed into one or two nesting boxes, but I solved that by covering the boxes up. I just removed the cover two days ago, put a cement block under the roost to raise it up and give them one more roost, and put overturned flower pots in their normal spot. When I went out to put them to bed last night I noticed that four of them were roosting! This morning the majority of them were up on the roosts when I opened their pop door. Yay! Hopefully they've figured it out.

Now if I can just keep them from getting sick.

New Horse, Hopefully!

We went to look at our fifth horse yesterday and were quite pleased. We had to drive two hours each way to see him, but it was worth it. Each of the other horses we've looked at have had something that needed to be worked on, but this one is ready to go and doesn't need any work. He has beautiful ground manners, has done the walk/trot/canter, and jumps up to three feet. Samantha will need to learn how to use more leg and less arm on him, but that's so minor it's barely worth mentioning.

Albert, or Alarming Leader, is 18 years old, an off the track thoroughbred, 16.1hh, and is greyish white. He's currently being used for fox hunting and isn't on any sort of supplements or injections. He has shown three times under his current owner and she said he placed at all of them. Our trainer will call her tonight and let her know we're interested and would like to bring him here for a trial period. We've already set up the vet appointment for next Friday to have him checked out, with x-rays as needed. We'd like to keep the price negotiable based on the vets findings, but we'll see what the owner says to that.

Our trainer has also told us we can take one of her horses to act as a companion to this one until we either get another one or get our first boarder. She has one that can't be ridden until he possibly heals from an injury. He's supposed to be pastured and lunged once a year until he heals, if ever. He's perfectly fine, as long as he's not ridden. She agreed to pay for all his vet and farrier bills and we'll let him help mow our pastures. It's a win-win in my opinion. She needs the space he's taking up, and I need another horse.

I'll post pictures of Albert when he arrives next week.

No Improvement

Ginny is still in isolation in a horse stall, but she's holding steady. She's eating and drinking and has bright eyes, so I'm hoping for a full recovery. She does move around a little bit, scooting herself a few feet here and there. I just move her food and water to wherever she moves to for easier access. I bought her some vitamin B6 and sprinkled it in her food, so we'll see how that works. I also gave her a fresh slice of watermelon since she gobbled the first one down pretty quickly.

Good news, though. None of the rest of the chickens seem to have the same thing, so it must be an injury and not a disease.

Sick Chicken

I have my first sick chicken. I noticed she wasn't herself last night when I went to lock them up. She was lying under the waterer and wouldn't really move. I picked her up and set her down and she just kind of stumbled and laid down again. I did it again and the same thing happened. When I set the food inside, though, she eagerly got up and started eating. I thought all was well.

When I went out this morning to let the girls out, she was again lying on the floor and one of the other girls started pecking at her. I picked her up and cradled her for a minute and then tried to set her down inside, but she got out of my arms and scooted under the coop. One of the Barred Rock girls promptly started pecking at her. I grabbed her up and carried her to a stall in the barn.

I secured the doorway so she can't scoot out and gave her water, food and a watermelon rind. After doing some research the only thing I could come up with is that she needs rest and some B6 vitamins. Most people said that their chickens recovered after a couple of days/weeks/months and went on to rejoin the flock. She is able and eager to eat, so that's a good sign. I'm praying she doesn't die and now, of course, will have to name her. She needs a name while she's in quarantine. I'm thinking maybe Ginny, after a character on Harry Potter. Ginny has red hair and this girl is a Rhode Island Red.

Update on horse situation

After much prayer and discussion, we decided to send Frosty back to the rescue. We just didn't feel comfortable keeping him as we weren't sure if he would be difficult to handle on the ground. I was originally going to just do ground work with him and do halter, showmanship and ground driving, but his neck is so stiff! He has either never been trained, or he's got some serious bad habits that he's learned over the years. We also decided that we really need something that's rideable. With our limited pasture, it's not feasible to keep a horse that pretty much unusable. I've talked with several people and the consensus seems to be that we won't be able to have more than 4-5 horses on our current property.

So, Frosty went back on Wednesday, but on Tuesday we looked at a wonderful horse right up the road from us. This one is a 12-year-old Appaloosa mare named Natalie. She stands between 15 and 16 hands and is very stocky. She's white like Frosty, but instead of black spots on her undercoat like him, she's got black freckles on her muzzle. She's a BTDT (been there, done that) horse with a quiet disposition. She's been jumped before and would also be good for a beginner. She's in our price range and the trainer said she's almost positive the owners wouldn't mind letting us have her on trial here on our property. She's currently fully pastured and that's the only problem I see with her, barring a vet-check. I plan to bring her in and stall her at night and she might be our only horse for a bit. I'm not sure how she'll respond to either the stall or being by herself. The trainer did mention (and I'm not sure if she was serious) that she has a lame horse that she'd lend us if we needed a pasture buddy.

So, we'll see. We're not rushing things this time. Hopefully this time we'll make a fully informed decision and will get a keeper horse.

Chicken Treats

I've recently started experimenting with "treats" for the girls. I've found that they love cracked corn and will eagerly crowd around me when I go into their yard and cluck at them. They also love watermelon, but are iffy on tomatoes and plums.

I gave them a treat today by spreading out some wheat straw that I bought in their yard for them to peck through. I was going to use it in my garden for mulch, but it was too full of seed heads. Hopefully they love it and will get all the seed heads out. If not, at least the seeds will have fallen to the ground and I'll be able to rake up the actual straw.

On another note, they have officially moved up to grower ration and love it. I have to fill their feeder roughly once a week now. It could just be because they are growing so quickly, though.

Horse Fall

We had quite the scare last weekend. We adopted an 18-year-old Tennessee Walker named Frosty and were planning to keep him as a companion/light rider. We were told he wasn't for a beginner, but would need an experienced rider. We figured Samantha could ride him and get him to the point that I could ride him. She had her first, and last, lesson on him last Sunday. We decided to use the trainer from the rescue organization since she was not only familiar with him personally, but has worked with gaited horses and rescue horses.

Frosty had trouble during the lesson staying focused and kept wanting to take Samantha back to the barn gate. She was able to redirect him and gave him plenty of rest time at a spot in the farthest corner from the barn. On her last lap around the pasture, however, Frosty decided to break into a full-blown gallop. Samantha has never galloped a horse, let alone a horse that isn't responding to leg or rein commands. As they headed towards the barn gate Samantha tried to steer him right to go past the fence post. Frosty decided to go left at the last minute, and unfortunately, Samantha continued right. She fell off and slammed into the fence post, which just happened to be a square one and the only one sticking out into the pasture.

We called for an ambulance because she was coughing up blood and already has serious bruises on her back. After being rushed to the trauma center with sirens on (25 miles away), we were told everything was fine and Samantha was released within two hours. We are so thankful that she wasn't seriously hurt. She doesn't ever want to ride Frosty again, which I completely understand, but still loves him.

Our quandary now is, do we keep him as a companion only, keep him and try to train him, or send him back and get something rideable? He's very sweet on the ground and we've grown quite attached to him.

Horses!

Oh, my goodness! Where to start? Well, we finally got the front pasture refenced with electric braided rope, sprayed for weeds and the majority of the unused stalls cleared of their bedding. We transferred all of the bedding into one stall and will pull from there until it's gone. Each stall had roughly four inches of bedding on top of rubber matting. We are able to use the bedding that was inside the barn, but the bedding that was outside was unusable. Jeremy hooked up the manure spreader and spread it lightly on the back pasture and we used some of it in the compost bins and as footing in the garden walkways. So, we figure now we're ready for horses and our journey begins.

Monday afternoon we went to a local rescue shelter, Diamonds in the Rough, with our neighbor to see if we could find a companion/light rider for me. They had roughly 30 adoptable horses, but we only looked closely at three. One was a mare named Zoey, the second was another mare named Lady and the third was a gelding named Frosty. We all fell in love with Frosty. He's a Tennessee Walker, 17 years old, and about 15 hands. My neighbor loves him because he's gaited. He has at least four gaits, and possibly five. He's ridable and only has some minor issues that can be fixed with consistent riding and work. I called yesterday to set up a time to go back to ride him and was told that 1)someone else was coming to look at him on Saturday and 2)the trainer was going to be there at 1pm. I quickly called the neighbor and we headed out to see him again and ride him.

We quickly decided he was the one and put the deposit down on him. He's getting his feet done on Friday and will be delivered to our house Saturday. We can't wait! We have a 30-day trial on him and if he works out we'll pay the remainder of the adoption fee and he will be ours. This rescue facility is well respected in our area and has already had him checked by a vet, his feet done every six weeks, teeth floated and he's up-to-date on all his shots. They have an open-book policy and we'll be able to see all of their records for him, including anything that was passed along from the previous owners.

To top it all off, we possibly found a great horse for Samantha as well. The rescue shelter also has a regular boarding barn and they have a ten-year-old Thoroughbred mare whose owner doesn't have time for her any more. They are contacting her now to see if she would be willing to either sell her outright or give us a free lease on her with the option to purchase at a set price. This would be so perfect. She has a ton of potential and normally would cost us a ton of money. We're praying it works out. If so, we'll have two horses delivered on Saturday.

Samantha and I spent last night cleaning the tack room and utility room and setting up the stalls we chose for our horses. We still have some work to do, but it's coming along. We're going to spend this morning visiting the different tack shops in the area to get our necessary supplies.

Garden Start

Our gardening experience has officially begun! I started by trying to kill the grass in a 30'x30' patch of yard that had previously been used as a garden. Unfortunately, the previous owner reseeded the garden every year with grass, so it was covered pretty completely. I wet the grass down and laid clear plastic edge to edge, overlapping pieces to fit. I held them down with boards, which were then weighted down with large rocks. The wind is so bad here that I had to redo a section twice because it kept getting blown away.

This partially killed the grass and would have worked eventually, but we needed the grass to be taken care of sooner. Luckily, my neighbor has a plow and he offered to come over when we were ready and plow the entire area. We had to wait for the ground to dry up first because it keeps raining every couple of days. He finally made it over and not only plowed up the garden, but ran his disc over it too! I love my new neighbors!

It was beautiful! I made the comment that the newly turned up earth looked like dark chocolate brownies.

We had some pretty hefty roots down there. We're not sure if they are from an existing tree or one that fell down several years ago.

When he was finished we brought the dogs out and they had a ball running over the bumpy ground.

More pictures coming soon of the raised beds and the beginning of planting.

Chicken Coop

Wow! The guys worked their hind ends off and got the coop pretty much finished in one week. We started with a series of pictures I found on the internet from someone else's coop http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/coop-build and they took it from there. Our coop is very similar, with only minor adjustments.

The beginning of the coop with the floor and walls framed. The total inside dimensions are 4'x8'.

 View of the inside with the nesting boxes on the side. We are looking through the people door which has a window in the middle. The other window is on the opposite side and they are situated on the north and south ends of the coop.

Jeremy putting the heavy-duty axle and tires on the back end to make it easier to move. He was so excited to hook it onto the tractor and pull it out on the road to get it into the round pen.

The dogs thought the coop was pretty cool.

Grandma and Samantha putting the chicken wire on the round pen fencing. It doesn't look too difficult, but boy, was it tiring. My fingers are still hurting a week later.

The coop is finally in place and ready to be moved into. 

 Here are the girls checking out their new digs. They really like the spacious interior and all of the yummy things to eat in the grass. They have already figured out how to go inside by themselves at night. We just go out at dusk and latch all of the hooks to keep varmints out.

New Additions

We moved in on the 26th and our household goods were delivered on the 28th. We spent the first few days putting the inside together and mowing the front lawn. Then we got down to business. Hubby spent three days cleaning out the workshop and an entire day mowing the pastures. I purchased our first chicks, six Rhode Island Reds and six Barred Rocks. I made them a brooder out of a wardrobe box and they are quite happy unless I need to change the water or add food or bedding. Then they freak out quite a bit, but hopefully they'll get used to us handling them. We try to pick up a few chicks each day. Only three of them have names because we aren't able to tell them apart. They are Pip, Pepper and Ginger.

I ordered all of my seeds from Southern Exposure and they arrived within two days! My potatoes and sweet potatoes will come separately, but at least I can get started with this bounty. I got the following:
Snap Beans, Beets, Dent Corn, Sweet Corn, Pickling Cucumber, Slicing Cucumber, Butterhead Lettuce, Looseleaf Lettuce (Drunken Woman), Romaine Lettuce, Shelling Peas, Snap Peas, Snow Peas, Pie Pumpkins, Radishes, Spinach, Yellow Squash, Zucchini, Dwarf Sunflower, Swiss Chard (for the chickens), Chamomile, Basil, Cilantro, Parsley, and Dill.

We'll be purchasing tomatoes, peppers, broccoli and cauliflower as transplants, along with seeds for nasturtium and marigolds. We've decided to use the garden spot that the previous owner used, so once I kill the grass by solarizing it, we'll till it under and get busy. I can't wait to get started.

We made our first major purchase today for the farm, not including the chainsaw. We went to Agri Supply and bought a 3-point sprayer to apply weed control and fertilizer to the fields. A really nice hay grower from the local area stopped by last weekend to look over our fields and tell us what to do with them. He said we have good pastures with good grass coverage, but need to get the weeds taken care of. Luckily, nothing is poisonous! We decided to purchase the sprayer since we'll be using it roughly three times per year. Hubby is going to give the tractor and riding mower a spring tune-up tomorrow and hopefully we'll be able to spray this weekend.

Next projects: chicken coop, compost bins and getting the garden in

In case you were wondering about our name...the previous owners told us we can keep the existing name, so the name of our farm is Seven Pines Farm. We have seven pine trees on the front lawn and they are even planted in the shape of a seven.

10 more days

I can't believe it. We only have ten more days until we move into our new house. We only have four more days until the movers come. They will be here next Tuesday and Wednesday packing, will load everything on Thursday and then we drive out on Saturday. We close sometime the following Monday and our stuff will be delivered Tuesday. I'm so excited!

I measured all the rooms when we were there in February and I've already drawn them all out to scale so I can arrange the furniture. It sounds totally weird, probably, but I got the idea from my cousin. Normally I wouldn't worry about it since we've always had plenty of room. This new house, though, is quite a bit smaller than any house we've ever lived in. I needed to make sure all of my existing furniture would fit, so I could decide what to get rid of on this end before moving. Based on my drawings, everything will fit somewhere. We are blessed to have the office in the barn and will be using the attached garage (more than likely) as my husband's man-cave.

The only real concern is the guest room and master bedroom. Both rooms are very small and will hold only a bed, a dresser and a nightstand. The guest room doesn't have a closet, so we're also going to have to squeeze in an armoire of some sort. The master bedroom closet is pretty small, so we'll end up utilizing the armoire for one of us. We are never in our room, though, so I'm really not too concerned.

One thing that I'm really pleased about is the size of the kitchen. I was worried about buying a smaller home because normally the kitchen is also quite small. Our new kitchen is definitely not small. I actually have more cabinets in the new house than in the one we're in now. I also have more counter space, which is awesome. I can't stand to have everything bunched together and like to have plenty of room when I'm making bread or tortillas. I'm not sure if the previous owners are leaving it, but there's a small table with two chairs in the kitchen now which would be perfect for us. It's right next to the big window looking out over the pastures. I'm going to love drinking my coffee and doing my Bible study there in the mornings.

This picture was taken just to the left of the table. The sink is on the right side of the table. I like that I have a good-sized stretch of counter space between the stove and sink for food prep. My current house has the stove and sink in separate areas, and it's not convenient at all.

Enough for now, I guess. I'll post more pictures once we get moved in and have everything put away.

Farm Name Change

We've already hit a hiccup with the farm. It turns out that the name Fair Winds Farm has already been taken in our area. This other farm doesn't offer boarding, but it seems like they offer everything else. So, my husband and I are thinking of changing the name to Fair Winds Stables. Samantha thinks it's too similar, but we don't think so. What do you think?

Sandwich Bread, Perfected!

I finally did it! My girlfriend gave me a wonderful recipe for whole wheat sandwich bread and my family loved it enough that they said I could stop buying store-bought bread. For now, I'm using King Arthur's Whole Wheat flour for half of the flour and will gradually increase the whole wheat until it's 100%. This loaf comes out light, soft and with a wonderful flavor.

Michelle’s Sandwich Loaf

¼ c milk                                      2 T honey

2 T. butter                                   3+c flour (I used hard red winter wheat)

2 T. oil                                        1 ½ t. lecithin

¾ c water                                    ¾ t. salt

1 ½ t. yeast    

1. Microwave first four ingredients 30 seconds. Pour into mixing bowl, add yeast and honey. Add lecithin and half of flour and mix with beater attachment 5 minutes, cleaning the sides of the bowl as needed, followed by a 5 minute rest period.

2. Add remaining flour and salt and knead with dough hook 5 minutes, adding more flour as needed, until dough is shiny and cleans the bowl.

3. Allow to rise 1 hour until double. Preheat oven to 400˚. Punch dough down, pat into a rectangle and shape into a loaf, turning edges under. Allow to rise in greased pan 20 minutes.

4. Transfer pan to oven, turn down to 360˚, and spritz with water every 3 minutes for first 10 minutes. Check internal temperature after 20 minutes. It should read 185˚-190˚. Allow to cool completely before slicing. *Mine took about 25-30 minutes.

Chicken Coop Plans

One of the first orders of business for our new house is to get baby chicks. I'm probably going to purchase them from a local feed and seed and keep them in a brooder for several weeks until they're old enough to go into their big girl coop. My plan is to get an even dozen as a few may die in the early days. Originally I was going to order from Murray McMurray Hatchery, but they require you to order no less than 25 chicks. Unless my MIL wants to start butchering this year, we don't need that many. I'd like to get Rhode Island Reds, Black Stars and one Orpington rooster, but am not sure if I can be that specific with local stores. The RIR and Black Stars are supposed to be really good layers and the Orpington roosters are supposed to be super friendly. I'm also thinking of getting some Guineas, too, but will have to do some more research on them. They are great at pest control (including snakes) and are good alarms systems.

Rhode Island Red

Black Star

Guinea

I did quite a bit of research online and in library books to figure out how to design our coop. I waffled back and forth over whether to go with a movable chicken tractor or a larger stationary coop. The benefits of the stationary coop are 1)we can make it as large as we want it, 2)I can include an attached storage area with shelving and feed storage, and 3)we can eventually hook up electricity and plumbing. The downside is that 1)we have to be more certain about their pasture sizes so they don't overgraze, and 2)once it's built, it's not going anywhere. The benefits of the chicken tractor are that they're portable so we can easily move them to fresh pasture as needed, including to unused garden beds that need tilling and they can follow the cows and horses to break up manure. The downside is that we can't hook up plumbing and would have to use extension cords if we want electricity.

I think the portability of the chicken tractor won out in the end, though. I've gone back and redesigned the coop (it was originally 10'x16' including a 10'x6' storage area), making it an 8'x6' so it will fit through our pasture gates. One of the shorter walls will have a 5' wide by 1' tall clean-out hatch at floor level. The roosting bars will be in a ladder formation over that area with poultry mesh stapled to the underside so the girls can't get into their droppings. The roost will have a hinge on it so it can be raised for whole-coop cleaning. The opposite wall will have the people door and possibly a window. One of the long sides will have a homemade feeder that will hold 30-70 pounds of feed, with smaller feeders on either side to hold their supplements. The other wall will have their pop-up door, nesting boxes, and the waterer. I'd like to have windows on each of the long walls for ventilation during the warmer months. The flooring will be solid linoleum to aid in cleanup.

This is similar to what our coop will look like, but bigger.

I'd like to have a hinged awning on one of the long sides so the girls have shade. It would be nice to be able to put a smaller roost and their waterer under there during the day. I'd also like to put a loft area in the roof for small storage. The coop would have wheels on all four corners and we would either move it by hand or hook it up to the tractor. I'm also planning to build an 8'x8' fenced run. This would be attached to the coop once it's in position each day and the whole thing would be moved as needed.

We may end up tearing the run-in shed down and using the lumber for the coop. I'll post pictures as we build it and do a coop tour once it's completed. I'm so excited!

Fair Winds Farm

Oh, my goodness! We bought a farm! Hubby finally got his orders after waiting 5 1/2 months. This left us with only two months to find a house, close on the purchase and move. Whew! Last week we jumped in the car and drove the seven hours up to Virginia to spend two days looking at houses in Virginia and North Carolina. On day one we looked at seven houses and the first six were utter disappointments (a disgusting double-wide, a modular that reeked of dog urine and sat across from a school that looked like it was in a horror film, one that needed to be completely gutted, and one that was next door to a commercial chicken warehouse). We were extremely discouraged driving to the last house. As soon as we drove up, however, we fell in love.

Nothing on day two even came close (one was partially swamp, one had standing water and car parts on the cleared section, another needed to be completely gutted, and one might have been okay, but needed too much land cleared) so we returned once again to this house for more pictures and a better look.

The house sits on a fairly busy two-lane road, but since there are no stoplights or signs nearby, we at least won't have to deal with revving engines. We are completely out in the country and considered agricultural. The previous owners operated a horse boarding business and bred Arabians and Paint horses. What does that mean? It already has a stable, fenced pastures and round pen! Oh, and did I mention that we included the farm equipment in the purchase? Yep! We are the proud owners of a riding mower, real tractor with front loader, bush hog, manure spreader (we renamed it the poo flinger), cultivator and fertilizer spreader. We aren't sure, but the owners may decide to leave various other pieces that hook onto the mower.

This is a side-view of the garage and stable. The garage is currently home to the workshop and is storage for the riding mowers. It also has an office where the window is. We will convert the right side into a man-cave for hubby, leave the office where it's at, and turn the rest into Grandpa's workshop. Towards the back of the stable you can see what's either the bedding storage or manure storage.

This is the round pen that sits towards the front of the property. Various fruit trees line the road and run between the round pen and the house. We will have peach, cherry, Granny Smith apple, plum, and pecan.  We may leave the round pen as it is, or remove it and put in an arena instead.

This is a run-in for the horses, but since that area of the property isn't fenced, we won't use it for the horses. Our garden is going to extend probably from the edge of the garage/stable to the opposite property line. This building, then, will be turned into either a garden shed or a chicken coop. We plan to have at least a dozen chickens and their coop and rotating runs would be perfect in this space.

This is the inside of the stable. It has five stalls on the left side and four on the right. It also includes a utility room with water heater, utility sink and plenty of storage space, a separate tack room, and a wash stall with hot water. Each stall has one corner feeder already installed and we'll add a water bucket.

This is the back view of the stable which is completely fenced. You can see the small gate on this end and there's a large equipment gate on the left side by the stable wall. We may use this as a holding pen, but I'm not sure yet. It's currently home to some farm equipment which would have to find a new home if the horses were in there. I may also eventually knock out the walls on this side and make indoor-outdoor runs for a few stalls.

This is the equipment shed that holds the tractor and attachments. We'll probably store the hay inside as well and we may use a small section as a milking parlor for the cow. I'm thinking the cow might be able to use the left side of that fenced area and some of the adjoining pasture. The woods to the left belong to us and has a creek running through the back section. We'll leave that area alone and just enjoy the beauty of it.

The property behind us and the one to the right side of us are both for sale. I'm going to ask both of them if they would consider selling us a small piece of their land for us to extend our pastures. The one to the right is currently being used as farm land, so that would be ideal. The land behind us is wooded and that would mean lots of clearing and land prep.

Hubby's mom and step-dad are moving in with us and will be building their own small tiny house. She's a Master Gardener and he's handy with pretty much anything. Between the two of them, they already have a wealth of experience and knowledge. They owned almost eight acres in Kansas for several years before selling and spending the last year-and-a-half on the road in a travel trailer. They enjoy being on the road, but are looking forward to sleeping in a real bed and enjoying their hobbies again.

Book Giveaway: The Money Saving Mom's Budget

I follow several homesteading and homemaking blogs, one of which is Keeper of the Home. Today's post is a book review of The Money Saving Mom's Budget by Crystal Paine. Stephanie (Keeper of the Home) will be giving away five copies of the book at the end of this week. Please visit her post if you're interested in winning one of these fabulous books.

Contentment in Frugal Living

"It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, who is poor." Lucius Annaeus Seneca

I am on a quest to live a frugal, self-sufficient lifestyle. I'm tired of living the rat-race life. I'm tired of the rampant materialism and consumerism and the discontentment that we, as Americans, are known for. Laurence Shames, in The Hunger for More, said, "More. If there's a single word that summarizes American hopes and obsessions, that's it. More success. More luxuries and gizmos. We live for more-for our next raise, our next house; and the things we have, however wonderful they are, tend to pale in comparison with the things we might still get." I'm tired of constantly wanting more and never being content with what I have.  I think the more we have, the more we want.

Hebrews 13:5-6 states, "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.'" God has proven time and again that He will watch over us and sustain us. God provides us with the things He thinks are important. I need to make sure my desires line up with His desires. Contentment comes when I'm on the same page as God, when I'm trusting that He knows better than I do and that He has my back.

I'm taking part in the 23 Day Frugal Living Challenge at Frugally Sustainable. My prayer is that this challenge will open my eyes and cause me to appreciate the things I already have, while giving me the incentive to push towards a future life of "enough". I keep thinking of days gone by and how larger families were able to live in smaller houses. If you think back to the 50s, 60s and 70s, houses were much smaller, but the average family size was much larger. Why do we need 2000+ square feet for three people? The answer is that we have too much stuff garbage! One of my girlfriends raised two kids in a house that maybe measures 1200 square feet. How did she do it? She thought carefully about each and every item that came into her house and didn't buy stuff simply because it was cool or the latest thing.

As I prepare to move this time, (and who knows, it may be the last time) I want to make sure we aren't buying a large house with a huge mortgage just so we can buy more stuff. We already have too much stuff. My current house is 2200 square feet, but I think we can go smaller. I definitely don't think we need to go larger. As long as I have adequate storage space I should be okay as I have many things I'm saving for when my daughter moves out and when I (many years from now) have grand-children.

January Crafts

My daughter and the weather inadvertently decided on my first craft projects for this year. I will start out with hand warmers, move on to heating pads, and if time permits, grocery sacks. The hand warmers and heating pads are a current must. Samantha's hands were freezing when I picked her up at the barn today (it was 33 degrees) and my hands are constantly cold when I'm outside. The heating pads will be used to keep my feet toasty while sitting in my recliner or when I get into bed. And the grocery sacks, well, they're just cute. I'm tired of using my plain, ugly green ones from the Commissary.

I'll try to post pictures as I go, but here are some pictures from the tutorials I'll be using.

Cleaning Schedule

I think I finally figured out a workable cleaning schedule. I sat down this afternoon and got one hammered out that's broken up for each room of the house. I included things that need to get done every week and even things that only need done on a monthly basis (cleaning the ceiling fan, dusting my bathtub-I use it as a handy clothes rack, washing windowsills, etc).

I would like my daughter and I to work together roughly 30 minutes per day on our daily section, so this is how I have my house broken up.

Day 1-Kitchen
Day 2-Downstairs Bathroom, Foyer and Stairs
Day 3-Living Room, Dining Room, Office, Outside
Day 4-Master Bathroom and Daughter's Bathroom
Day 5-Bedrooms

I debated on assigning days of the week, but decided not to in case we end up skipping a day. With this system  we can simply pick up where we left off and are never behind. Saturday will be our day to do something from the monthly list in addition to whichever day we are on (if we skipped a day during the week).

I'll go ahead and break my days down for anyone who's interested.

Kitchen
Wipe down all cabinets;  Wipe out and sanitize microwave;  Clean stove inside and outside;  Flush drain with hot water;  Sanitize counters;  Vacuum and mop floor;  Clean out refrigerator;  Take out garbage and wipe cans

Downstairs Bathroom
Mirror;  Counters and sink;  Toilet;  Floor;  Dust door and window sill;  Wipe walls-monthly

Foyer/Stairs
Baseboards;  Dust doors, stairs and windowsill;  Sweep and mop floor; Wipe banister;  Clear away excess shoes;  Straighten coat closet

Living Room/Dining Room/Office
Dust;  Water plants;  Vacuum;  Baseboards-monthly;  Ceiling fan-monthly;  Polish table and chairs;  Clean sliding glass door

Outside
Sweep patio-front and back;  Wipe down front door;  Freshen plants;  Clear away clutter;  Wipe down back table

Master Bathroom
Mirror;  Counters and sink;  Toilet;  Floor;  Dust doors and window sill;  Shower-front of door and track (I clean the inside when I shower);  Empty garbage and wipe can;  Put clothes away;  Tub-monthly

Samantha's Bathroom
The same as mine, but she has a tub/shower that needs cleaning and no window

Bedrooms
Wash sheets;  Vacuum; Dust-including doors;  Wipe windowsills-monthly

Daily
Dishes;  Wipe counters and stove;  Fold blankets;  Declutter downstairs;  Check laundry as needed;  Remove kitchen garbage as needed;  Cat box

2012 Goals

I don't like New Year's Resolutions and never have. People make them every year, and I have even made them myself. I find it discouraging, though, that so many people, me included, fall away from the resolutions so quickly after the holidays are packed away and regular life returns. This year I'm going to do something different and set goals for every area of my life. I plan to come back mid-year and again at the end of the year to see how I did and modify, cross off, and hopefully rejoice in what I accomplished.

Faith-consistently spend time with God reading my Bible, doing Bible studies or reading Christian non-fiction, and praying throughout the day; learn to be content with what I have

Children-be in constant prayer for them;  instill a greater sense of responsibility in them; spend quality time with Samantha each day; consistently do a Bible study with Samantha

Husband-be in constant prayer for him; actively seek out ways to be a helpmeet; be more expressive in my love

Finances-find a new budget tracking program that works for us; stay within budget boundaries every month

Food-figure out the art of bread making (I would love to be able to consistently make yummy breads that everyone wants to eat); incorporate more fruits and vegetables into our diet; reduce the amount of bad carbs and sugar in our diet;  switch over to grass-fed beef, chicken and pork

Home-find a workable (for me) cleaning schedule; experiment with homemade cleaners; work on simplifying our belongings

Sewing/Crafts-work on at least one sewing or craft project per month in preparation for next Christmas and birthdays

Handywoman-become proficient with all of hubby's power tools; learn to be more self-reliant instead of relying on hubby to fix everything (he is going back out to sea so this is a must);

Garden-get raised beds made and hoop houses set up; get a compost bin made and compost started; make a gardening plan and actually remember to use it; get rain barrels made and some sort of irrigation system attached; research and find efficient and organic pest control; plant at least a winter crop (depending on when we are able to move into the new house); learn how to use a pressure canner and efficient ways of long-term storage for each crop; build a root cellar for potatoes, carrots, etc

Livestock-make at least one chicken tractor with run; make a brooding box to set up for new chicks; get connected in the local community for information and networking to market our products; get barn ready (or built) for horses and hay storage; prepare pastures so horses and other livestock can be primarily pastured; look into feasibility of owning a goat and marketability of goat milk and assorted products