Gustave Flaubert

"I believe that if one always looked at the skies, one would end up with wings." - Gustave Flaubert

Henry Ward Beecher

"The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy." - Henry Ward Beecher

Gardening

There’s a lot of naturally growing edible plants around us, the best of which are blackberries, grapes, mulberries, and walnuts, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t want to grow a whole bunch more.

In fact, one of the first things we did after settling in was make a garden.

This endeavor began with putting up a seven foot tall perimeter fence, electrified on the top and bottom (a lot more critters here to protect from). We then marked out rows on contour. Each row is 30” wide, raised above the 18” wide, sunken pathways. There are about 25 rows in total, each averaging 45 feet long. The whole enclosure is about 5000 square feet.

This may sound like a lot of work, but it’s actually been very easy. We are used to clay soil with lots of rocks. We had to work hard to improve the organic content of the clay, so that it would become crumbly enough for productive gardening. This place has sandy loam. It is so easy to dig, and driving in posts and such is almost laughably effortless. We still have to add organic material and mulch, but that’s just good gardening sense!

So far we only have six of these rows made and planted. They are currently producing (or about to produce) radish, carrots, spinach, turnips, peas, beets, onions, and broccoli. The rest of the space is planted with a cover crop that we feed to the rabbits. We also have a few trees, shrubs, and all kinds of herbs planted around the inside of the perimeter fence. In all, not a bad little garden patch!

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Gardening

Junkhounds

There were so many things we loved about living in Mexico, but one thing that sucked was the lack of junk. There, things very rarely go to waste and the trash is always filled with, you know, trash. Not so here!

When we arrived, the house was bare except for a fridge, stove, washing machine, dryer, and... wait for it... dishwasher!

We brought no furniture with us, so our first main job was to buy beds, sofas, tables, etc. This was accomplished on two fronts: craigslist and dumpsters. The former provided both free and very cheap items, but it was the latter that stole the show.

We live within reach of a big city with a large university. So, when it was time for student leases to lapse, we decided to go prowl the dumpsters in the student areas. It was unbelievable. There were literally hundreds of beds, sofas, tables, desks, shelves, trash cans, etc. sticking out of or beside overflowing dumpsters. We tried our hardest to do our part to limit this waste, taking as much as we could, in several trips, but we didn’t even make a dent. Along with most of our furniture, we even got our first ever TV (which we use to watch things via internet).

The things we found aren’t new and don’t necessarily match, but they’re all in good shape and suit us perfectly. So now we have a fully furnished, comfortable home, and all for less than $300.

We plan to visit the dumpsters again next year, to furnish the cabin. But then what do we do? We can't just let all that good stuff go to waste, but eventually we're going to run out of space to put the stuff we collect. I guess when that happens, we'll just have to build the kids a house, and then maybe we could furnish a storm shelter, and then... well, we'll figure it out.

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Junkhounds

William Hazlitt

"We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts." - William Hazlitt

Daniel Boone

"Nature was here a series of wonders, and a fund of delight." - Daniel Boone

New House

 

For the first time in our life together, we are not living in a home that we built ourselves, which is a little sad. The huge benefit to this is that I’m not sure we would have had the energy to start from scratch again! The downside is that it’s taken a while to get to know the ins and outs of the new place.

Both of our previous two homesteads were built with nature very much in mind, using the sun and the land around us to do most of our heating and cooling. We were also off-grid, so no bills besides internet and phone. This place is not nearly so efficient, and it is one of our goals to get everything to a much higher level of self-sufficiency than it is.

That said, the house is beautiful. It’s nestled into the woods of East Texas and is very private and cozy. You can’t actually see the place from anywhere until you’re right up on it, which suits us just fine.

It’s a two bedroom building, built in 1941, with a large living space that’s divided by a central fireplace. There are two bathrooms and a pantry area. In short, just what we need, at least for the time being.

Off to the side is a small, unfinished cabin. We’re about to start working on this, converting it into a two room, one bathroom guesthouse.

There is also an absolutely huge and amazing workshop, which has two rooms and three bays. This was kind of a mess when we first got here, but we’ve been gradually cleaning it out and tidying it up. It is so far beyond the shop we built on our previous place and we love it.

We have plans galore for this new stage of our lives, and we are looking forward to everything we might be able to achieve.

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New House

Socrates

"He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature." - Socrates

James M. Barrie

"God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December." - James M. Barrie

William Blake

"In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy." - William Blake

Merry Christmas 2017

I know people are kind of used to my erratic blogging technique - steady posts for a while followed by long, long absences - but this time around, it’s been a little worse than usual, with my last entry in April!

The long and short of it is that we moved, not just house, but country! Anyone that has made such a move will I’m sure sympathize. It’s a big deal, and oh so overwhelming.

Firstly, it took us a long time to come to the decision, which was based mainly on the desire to be closer to family. Next, we had to pack up and sell everything, move the “keepers” over the border, and then unpack and buy everything back! And lastly, there has been a long adjustment period, getting things done at the new place, and generally settling in.

We are now pretty much set up. We have a long list of things to do, of course, but we feel like we’re making daily progress. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll try and get back into regular posts to catch you up to speed, but in the meantime I wanted to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a wonderful 2018.

We’re having Christmas with Abe’s mom, who now only lives 20 minutes away!

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Merry Christmas 2017

Dennis Franz

"Coming from Chicago, I like a white Christmas." - Dennis Franz

John Burroughs

"How beautiful the leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days." - John Burroughs

Roy Bean

"And finally Winter, with its bitin', whinin' wind, and all the land will be mantled with snow." - Roy Bean

Hal Borland

"Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence." - Hal Borland

Joseph Joubert

"When you go in search of honey you must expect to be stung by bees." - Joseph Joubert

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

E. F. Schumacher

"Eagles come in all shapes and sizes, but you will recognize them chiefly by their attitudes." - E. F. Schumacher

Antoine Lavoisier

"Vegetation is the basic instrument the creator uses to set all of nature in motion." - Antoine Lavoisier

Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Mountains are earth's undecaying monuments." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

Freya Stark

"Curiosity is the one thing invincible in Nature." - Freya Stark

Voltaire

"The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error." - Voltaire

William Wordsworth

"Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher." - William Wordsworth