I'm a BAD Blogger

Now that things are getting interesting I have not been posting very much! BAD BLOGGER! Land purchased, work commencing. I drew up a couple house floor plans and we arrived at one which was workable. Small passive solar ICF construction, very open living space. Three bedrooms, 1 3/4 bath, built on a slab so we want/need a concrete 'safe room' for tornadoes. The plan I workd out has 1150 square feet-no walk in closets or master suites here!

The idea is to really force us to pare down our 'stuff'. I have been taking steps along the way to get us to 1200 sq feet (plus garage!). Many, many trips to donate at Goodwill, getting rid of holiday decor that is not special to the family. The homemade nativity set made by great Grandpa Carl stays, the plastic, plug-in, snoring Santa and outdoor light displays are gone. I'm down to 4 boxes of christmas stuff, 1 box for Easter (mostly the kids baskets) and 3 for Halloween; but I know I can do even better than that! I also got rid of my clothing dresser last year. All my clothing fits in 1/2 (okay, okay 2/3) of our standard sized closet with organizer. The little house will be a challenge as our possessions have grown to fill the space we occupy now -about 2400sq ft -including partially finished basement and 1 car garage.

Anyway, we signed on Friday and met with the builder on Saturday. He will turn my grid paper scribbles into a real code upholding floor plan for the loan officer. They will then loan us 75% of the assessed market value. The assessment and paperwork usually takes 3 - 4 weeks during which time I will be arranging well drillers, septic system installation and the public utility to run electric from the road. When we get the go-ahead from the bank in the beginning of May I can be ready to pull the trigger -so to speak.

I also talked to the real estate broker I wish to list with and told him I would like to list May 1st. So now I (WE) have 4 weeks to pretty things up. It is certainly do-able but this will not be a house to pass a 'white glove' test. It is what it is, a decently maintained older ranch in a really sweet family neighborhood in a great school district. It is lived in, has a butt ugly kitchen, a kick-ass deck and yard, its a HOME not a showpiece. Hopefully we can price it to sell before our new mortgage kicks in!





The beautiful pictures I had in my mind of the land have faded a bit with the realities of the work in front of us. It is a 10 or 20 year marathon -not a 2 yr sprint, I continue to remind myself of that.

I'd Like To Scream

We have the contract and title insurance in hand and today I met with an attorney who specializes in land contracts. It turns out Mr Nice Farmer failed to mention that he does owe quite a bit of money to the bank on this piece of land, there were all sorts of verbal promises made about upkeep of the driveway which did not make it into the written contract. So now I get to call him back and ask him WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?.

Hello Old Friends

I can feel the sunshine flowing through my veins, waking up my sleepy brain. I uderestimate the effects of the long dark winter on my psyche. My focus turns inward, to the bare necessities, and just placing one foot in front of the other. I am sitting in the east bay window letting the morning sun pour over my face, ahh, warmth and awakening.

Things are becoming REAL on the future farm front, we had a successful soil test performed last fall-for a mound septic system, the land was surveyed and the stacks of old ginseng rafters disposed of. The purchase contract is in the mail to us as I type.

We are buying 4 acres plus a 800' x 33' driveway easement for $3,000 an acre. This is a little higher than the $2,000 to 2,500 which seems to be average for farm land in this area-but it is adjacent to dad's 40 acres and that was important to us. We will also have a land contract for the remaining 15 acres of farmfield at the same price at 3% interest for 10 years, with the option to pay off early.

This is a little convoluted but the bank assessed the property at $2,000 an acre which meant to get a bank loan we would have needed to place %15 percent down PLUS the $19,000 dollar difference between assessed value and purchase price. We decided to buy the building site and driveway outright to make the bank happy when we do the construction loan and final mortgage, and Mr. Nice Farmer will finance the remaining 15 acres at a very NICE interest rate while allowing us full use of the acerage. Now all we have to do is live in our camper while the house is built, sell our current house and start the girls in a new school!


(Picture from last fall-view towards the south-the house will go about 100 feet down this south facing slope with a view of Dad's woods-to the left of this shot- and slough.)


More tomorrow about my ideas for the farm!

Winter Walk

This weekend my husband and I ditched the children :) and took a much needed woods walk. It was about 15 degrees but sunny and no wind. I had my new Carharts and was ready to roll! We walked our newly surveyed 20 acres and then slipped into Dad's adjacent woods. It was a great work-out! I didn't think we had enough snow to warrant the snow shoes but we forgot what the wind does out there. The sun and the sweat and the dream of things to come were just what we both needed!


An 'island' of grass with lots of mouse activity


Birds in the fencerow


Rabbits


Raccoon!

Plant Sex

No one guessed what the pictures in the previous post were...plant porn. Electron microscope photos of pollen enhanced with color. Once giftmas (oops christmas) is history-I will break out my old paints and see if they are all dried up or still usable! It's been years.

A helpful radio announcer reminded me that there is only 20 days until gift..christmas, I better order gifts for the girls. They have been circling and cutting out pictures from the catalogs we receive for months! Everyone else is covered, I think.

I have been working out 3-4 days per week. I feel great. The scale is not moving much (5#) but my blue jeans are much looser-as in I can pull them off without unbuttoning. Its something, I'll take it 5# at a time.

The land contract on our 20 acres is going forward. We will buy outright 4 acres plus the 33x800ft driveway, and write a contract with Mr Nice Farmer for the rest. The surveying will happen next week -to the tune of $1,000 ouch! The builder we will use is available for next summer. We will get together with him sometime in january to go over our scribbled plans.

I need to work on a post for tomorrow's Homemakers Who Work. I think I will talk about my personal hero the FlyLady...interested...come visit us there.

*WARNING_GRATUITOUS KID PICTURES*
(i don't think I posted these from this summer)


Erin before her first class--she's crazy nervous but it doesn't show


Lizzy on Beljit with trainer Liz Rice-Beula

Specialist or Generalist?

So I'm a bit of a doomer. These days if you haven't had an uneasy feeling about the future you must be completely sleepwalking through life-eyes wide shut. I have been waking up to the fact that the status-quo will change, has to change as we run out of cheap energy, as sea levels rise and human migration occurs. I have no idea when any of this will happen or how; will it be slow and orderly or an apocalyptic four horsemen type ordeal? I have written before about adapting being the key to making the best of changes/surviving an apocalypse. This is the background coloring my general take on the future -yeah, cheery.
I am approaching a crossroad in my career where I need to decide -specialist or generalist. Our clinic has been changing alot over the past year, the level of care has gone up, we are providing really quality medicine and looking to push our selves further-with the purchase of an ultrasound-Doppler flow so our ACVIM DVM can start doing cardiology consults along with standard abdominal US. I have to admit to coasting a bit in the last two years- I have not been burned out and not very focused on my career. If I wish to perform at MY self-expected level within this practice I have some work to do, focused continuing education, a big backlog of journals to digest- I have NO wish to be the practice owner who is years behind, medically speaking. Part of me is excited by this prospect-we have a great group of veterinarians and clients who would appreciate this level of care for their beloved babies. This is the route the industry tells us a 'healthy practice' should strive for; specialization and a high standard of care (along with a healthy bottom line).

But the flip side is that I am feeling increasingly uncomfortable about where we are headed. We can do X for your dog, it but should we? Human health care costs have spiraled so high, and I can see similar things happening to veterinary care (but minus the insurance issues!). I am legally obligated to inform a client about the 'standard of care' for a particular issue. With the advent of the Internet the standard of care for Smallsville Wisconsin is the same as that in the most affluent Manhattan neighborhood. I can't bear to see my clients wrestle with the idea that the best option for their pet's condition is a procedure or medication which is so far out of their reach financially, I can't bear to see them feel like a failure because they cannot afford the best care or even the second best care. But it has to be offered. Period. Even to little old ladies with rusted out barely running cars, who are already supporting their unemployed daughter in FL and has a diabetic 14 yr old cat who really needs a dental (sorry, she is one of my clients!)

With our (planned) move to our (planned) homestead next summer, I have the opportunity to re-think my career. Perhaps I should become a generalist. Instead of investing my time into brushing up on cutting edge small animal medicine, I should learn (or should I say re-learn) about beef cows, small ruminants, and chickens. Will the need shift away from animals as surrogate children and back to animals as tools for survival with-in my working lifetime? Will pharmaceuticals be available at a reasonable price for animals? Should I concentrate on husbandry -not letting them get sick in the first place-will people be willing to pay $ (or firewood) for that? Should I learn to be a veterinary herbalist and grow my own medicine. This is where I am leaning, it scares the crap out of me, honestly.

Thanks for reading my rambling-I need to put thoughts into words and paragraphs to see how they hit my 'gut'. In writing this out I can see where my heart is taking me. Now to figure out how to make it work and still pay the bills.
Kris

PS-Mr Nice Farmer is interested in pursuing the land contract (maybe he needs the money just a little bit more than he let on). We would buy outright the easement and the building site (maybe 4 acres?) and write a contract for the rest. That will make the bank happy, and me too!

Setbacks

Setbacks-plural-as in more than one!

Setback number one: call from nice bank lady, the appraised value of the 20 acres is $40,000. Nice farmer wants no less than $3,000 per acre. If we want to proceed we will have to come up with the difference. Instead of the $7,500 down payment we were anticipating, we would have to cough up $27,500. Yikes. We have it, but it would not leave us much for a house. I am fairly certain nice farmer will not bring his price down, he has said this before. I am fairly certain we will not spend the lion's share of our hoarded savings on land down payment. Delaying the move into a more sustainable home/lifestyle is not something I am willing to do. I am anxious enough as it is about waiting until spring to build/sell our house. I continue to wonder when this house of cards we call an economy will come down around us. I worry about inflation and interest rates. I just plain worry. Time to think outside the box.

Setback number two: actually not a setback but a not moving forward. Less than 1 lb loss last week. I swam 4 times last week, but didn't keep track of food intake. My little shortcut was not helpful and I have learned a lesson. Write it ALL down and have a plan the night before. I was/am pissed for faltering but in a good-strengthening resolve kind of way. Lifting weights yesterday helped alot. I forgot how much I loved lifting, not I just need to find my old Powerman5000 and Metallica cassettes to put in my Walkman- ha, ha.

Scared-Addendum

The driveway

Yesterday was fun -tromping around in the mud, imagining the possibilities...but i am also scared sh@t-less! It's time to put my money where my mouth is-literally. The 20 acres passed the perc test -marginal- but a pass. So once I have the county's paperwork in hand (next week) we will take the plunge. I have butterflies! I am getting out of my comfort zone. Am I really going to follow my dreams and take responsibility for creating my own life vision? Yes, yes I am.
Time to start thinking about floor plans and farm layout. And of course continuing to save, save, save!

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Further thought on this subject...I have bundled all my anxiety about making fundamental changes into this land purchase. Buying and building -not such a big deal, moving family to the sticks -still not such a big deal, selling my share of the clinic and (while still working part-time) and turning away from a high cash flow lifestyle -well that is where things get a little dicey! The journey starts with a single step and we are taking a very sane approach to this. The point is happiness, security and sustainability. When we find our 'happy spot' we will know it!

One 'Door' Closes...

The fixer-upper is off the table. The trustee for the estate decided he could not sell it for the low price he offered. That's okay. I am at peace and am in a state of openness to what might happen. That sounds really new-age dippy but there it is. Tomorrow I meet the soil test man and the backhoe at the 20 acres of field which butts up against my dad's woods. If the soil will perk test for a septic system then we wiil buy it. If it doesn't and a holding tank is our only option then we will not. Period. (there is another parcel of land for sale 1/2 mile down the road) (with a woods) (in the preferred school district-no 'school choice' and meeting the bus on the corner-only 50 yards, but still). I am excited about building our own 'ARK'. Passive solar, wood heat, water collection systems, off grid (maybe).
I'll let you know what happens tomorrow -if I have time before scooting off to work!
Kris

Lipstick on a Pig

The girls and I picked strawberries last week. I was disappointed with the berries-but what should I expect when I wait until the LAST day of picking for this particular farm? They were small, and just average flavor. I guess these berries will be mixed with peaches or rhubarb for jam. I picked up my first hot water canner and funnel, etc. No excuses now!
We processed our 12 week old Florida White meat rabbits. We were down to 2 from 4 in the litter. The tiny runt was given to a neighbor girl for a pet, but it died in our hot spell ( it was truly tiny had a different hair coat and drank ALOT of water-pituitary problems-diabetes insipitus- I'm not sure ). She of course was heart broken and i agreed to let her have a replacement rabbit. Sigh -next time I will know better!
The butchering was not awful- for me it was an anatomy refresher and a chance to look at livers, lungs for signs of disease. There are certainly things we will do differently next time (like skin BEFORE gutting and not using a stump riddled with ants as the execution site) but all in all I thought we did all right. My daughter backed out of the tanning process so I am now in the process of tanning with a kit we bought at gander. I will have pictures to share for anyone who promises not to ridicule me :) If I am going to eat meat, I will use all that animal has to give to me and not be wasteful. Can you say fur lined mittens?
The old farmstead which had such promise from across the lot line is not such a great deal. She has put on a new roof and siding on the house and has really done some nice work on the interior, but the old stone walls in the basement have caved in in one location, and frankly this old farmstead needs someone with either more money or more construction skills than we have right now. You can put lipstick (or siding) on the pig... On to plan B. More about that when I have details nailed down!
Our home is beginning to feel foreign to us, the girls even brought it up. We have been spending so much time on the farm that being at the house doesn't feel like home anymore.

Kris

Changes

Sorry for the erratic posting schedule--lots of things on my mind, I haven't felt composed enough to put together a coherent post.
We just returned from another long weekend in the country. I have to say -hot running water is one of the seven wonders of the man made world!
The time we spend at the camper/ArkWork Farms has been changing us. Externally we are browner from the sun and the dirt which has become ground in-but not leaner yet (too many steaks and brats-not enough homegrown veggies-but that is changing). Internally we are changing as well-more thoughtful and less reactive-its hard to put a finger on but I like it. It has been so cool to see my DH return to the man I remember-creative, resourceful, (and sweaty!). He has spent too much time behind a desk it the past 10 years.
This weekend we (mostly he) built the second chicken tractor. The banties in the apple orchard need a new home-the apple are growing on the baby trees and I don't want them to eat those precious apples. The plan all along was to get them into a tractor so they can fertilize the grass. Once the second batch of meat chickens (the Nuggets as we like to call them) are done the hens can go back to the coop. (Or we will be living next door and we will take them)




The garden is looking great! I had no idea I could create something so beautiful! we are currently harvesting radishes, lettuce, some bolting spinach, swiss chard and peas. The pepper plants are struggling a bit-they are puny but starting flowers, the turnips continue to be eaten by a tiny iridescent bugs which eat holes in the greens-but they continue to grow and I can see nice purple skinned tubers in the ground. The show stopper in my garden are the four rows of potatoes. They have such beautiful flowers! I should have planted them further apart, we were not able to hill them very well, so i just filled the trench between the rows with old leaves-it's all an adventure!

I was very disappointed on the 4th, I discovered my children do not know how to spit watermelon seeds--I mean really, what is the world coming to? They have never had a watermelon with seeds-it was fun to see them try to spit those buggers out.

I will leave you with a view from our (camper) front door: ArkWork Farm on the right and the adjacent old farm (future home??) on the left.

Weekend Wrap-up

Another busy weekend has flown past, but in a good way. Full of things I am proud of. Mom is feeling better and may return home tomorrow! Lizzy had a nice 7th birthday party with her friends (I got lost picking a girl up, and nearly ran out of gasoline but made it on time -mostly!). Both girls showed at a local 4H show-Lizzy in a lead line class and Erin in a walk-trot class. They both did their best and had fun. It still floors me to see them up on this 18 hand horse with such confidence.
My novice garden is going well! We hilled potatoes-they are starting blossoms. I finished the pea trellis (sticks and strings leading to the perimeter fence) I am seeing that it may have been a bad idea to plant so close to the edge-I am in mortal combat with quack grass in these areas. But the edges seem to be protected from something which is making my turnip greens look like fine green lace. The turnips planted in front of the peas-along the weedy perimeter fence look great-the plants in middle beds are full of holes. Hmmm, habitat or beneficial bugs? My pepper plants also look like they want to die, they have turned a yellow green color and the lower leaves have a grayish tracing in the leaf away from the 'veins', the new leaves do not have the grey so I believe that is just the old leaves getting burned from all the sun. I fertilized them lightly and watered heavily, hoping that will get them back to a normal-not death bed-color green. I also removed the milk jug cloches from half the group. They were only transplanted 1 week ago.
The carrots did not germinate well-i think they were too dry, so the bed I take spinach out of will get more carrots. I am in love with the garden! I just wish I lived where I gardened-or gardened where I lived :)
I have been thinking about this having a foot in two different lifestyles and it kinda sucks. I am so thankful that I have had the opportunity to play with this homesteading lifestyle (thanks for sharing your farm Dad), but being between is not much fun. I am anxious to see if our house will sell. I am anxious to start work on our own place instead of 'playing' on someone else's place -even though it is shared with such abandon!

For Your Viewing Pleasure

View of barn from ArkWorks Farm, the farm needs lots of TLC. Lots of junk laying around and outbuildings (like that corn crib) which are dilapidated. The barn is still in good shape-structurally.



My garden-raised beds approx 2 1/2 feet wide x 15 ft long with lots of lawn clippings in the walkways the rest of this fenced area will be sown in cover crops-the soil is very clay-like.



The laying flock temporarily housed in apple orchard. Banties and leghorns. Any idea what the big black rooster is? He is very mild tempered toward people, and has this beautiful green sheen. He was included as a free 'rare' breed with last years cornish cross meat birds.

On Big Rocks and Small Potatoes

I've been pretty quiet for a few weeks. I have not been very good company for my family, my co-workers, my clients or my blogger friends. I had withdrawn into my protective shell and am now just starting to peek out. In the last 4 weeks I have re-read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and finished the entire Twilight series-that is what I do to escape and I have had it BAD lately. I look back and think -what a waste of time! But it was what I needed.

I've been thinking about big rocks. I have been scattered and not focused on the important things in my life. Tom and i attended a time management class a few years ago sponsered by Franklin Covey. The take home message was this: your time is finite, fill it with the most important things first, the not so important things can fit around the so called 'big rocks' like river sand. My big rocks are my children, my husband, my health. I realized my business is not even close to a big rock-so why am I filling my life with it? Now I need a job to make money just like anyone else, but this business takes up a disproportionate amount of my life. When I am not at work I am thinking about it (and resenting it). I plan to sell my portion of the clinic within the year. But first the exciting news...

After much soul searching, Tom and I have decided to place our house on the market. I hope to have it ready to show by June 1st. It looks like we will be able to buy the farm adjacent to my fathers place. It is a 100 yr old farmhouse which is partially remodeled, a nice barn (which will need some new roofing) and a bunch of out buildings which probably just need to be knocked down! She would like to sell 20 of her 40 acres (we want first dibs of the other 20). I am calm and happy about moving our family out there but a mess when considering getting our house ready to be looked at by strangers. I am paralyzed right now...where to start. It doesn't matter I just need to start!

My (very first) garden is going well, no great! Not that anything is really up, but it is so much fun! The girls and I planted potatoes last weekend (10 lbs of seed potatoes--caribe, rose gold, yukon gold and i think pink cloud), onion sets, spinach, beets, swiss chard and kolrabi and some peas are in. Today I am headed out with more lwn clippings for the walkways and to finish the garden gate. I will also finish the chicken tractor. This time I will remember to bring the camera so I can post some pictures.

Erin (the 11 yr old) will be in her first horse show this weekend. She rides saddle seat on one of the lesson horses both sat and sun. I am so proud of her! I was a horse crazy kid too, so I love being able to give her this experience.

Thanks for listening my heat feels lighter already!

(Christy -thanks for the great book review on 'One Second After'- scarey and totally plausable. It has me revisiting food storage and self reliancy in a less abstract way.)

where dreams and responsibility collide

No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth. But I was in Las Vegas for a professional meeting, which is pretty much the same thing! Las Vegas is another world IMHO. It was good to get away for a while but even better to come home! I have avoided total burnout -for the time being anyway.
My 10 year old daughter is signing up for her middle school classes. She has opted to take all EDGE classes, which are accelerated classes. She is also getting excited about Forensics and Band class. DH and I are finding it very hard to take the chicks out of this school district. We have been listing the pros and cons of each location in our minds. We have decided stay where we are. We have about 3/4 of an acre in a quiet neighborhood, a fantastic (but big) school district, we are both within 3 miles of our work, and my Mom lives 5 blocks from us. We are going to focus on the urban homestead but still have our camper on Dad's 40 to play and cut wood on.
I am more than a little sad about this, but also excited about the potential to turn our lot into a model for what can be done 'where you are'. The drama queen in me still wants to turn my back on my normal and socially acceptable life, but the parent and responsible adult knows this will be a good thing. I will still cut way back on hours in May once we have more help at work. There is no buyer for my portion of the business in the near future so retreating just is not realistic. Ugh! This responsible crap is not any fun. I will put away 'escape to the country' for now and concentrate on energy conservation, creating vegetable gardens, fruit trees, and time with my girls.

I'm Back

I haven't been posting for a while. I have been holding my breath...and now it is time to breathe again (before I turn blue!). I have been waiting all week to meet with the woman who's property we wish to buy. She owns the farmstead next to my fathers land. It went well, she IS interested in selling this spring. So I will begin to breathe again and start looking/thinking forward again. She showed us around a little and my ideas are less abstract now!

Catch up time

It has been a long time since my last post! There have been alot of things going on--mostly between my ears :) I have been working out 5-6 days a week and it is both depressing and empowering. Depressing because at one point in my life I had lost nearly 50 lb and was lifting weights like a fiend-to the point where I was considering entering an amateur body-building contest. Now here i am again-nearly 40 with 50+ lbs to loose-but now with 2 kids, a business and a husband to care for ( he thinks he is self sufficient but he is not --haha). Empowering because I AM doing it. It is very hard to care for myself before others but I am getting the hang of it.

Working out has really helped me to stay in the moment, I suffer from anxiety attacks sometimes-when every thing seems so out of control. I have come to realize that these episodes of anxiety are the result of getting out of the moment-obsessing about next weeks or months work schedule, or thinking about ALL the things I should do around the house-instead of thinking about what I need to do TODAY. It really takes a concentrated effort to pull back once the anxiety cycle starts but a good session on the treadmill helps alot, its a walking (and running) meditation.

We had let the land search cool off and I think some time was what we really needed. Looking at some of these pieces of land helped us to define what it is we are looking for. I think we will wait for spring and offer to buy the property next to my Dad's place-it is not for sale now but it sounds like she is considering a move. I would like to be close to my family and DH is good with that as well. We would be able to help each other-him with kids getting off the bus and we can help him as he gets older. This is a significant departure from our original ideal of building an off grid home, but instead we can consider a remodel and it has a large barn and several outbuildings !! I am at peace with this idea -it feels right.

We are taking delivery of 1/2 grass fed beef in a week or two --i am excited about beef! Sorry Dad-we love your chickens but now we are ready to mix it up a little! We also have our garage as weatherproofed as we can get it and DH is wood working again-it is good to see him happy and not bored in front of the tube! The home made christmas gift workshop is up and running again! I'll post a few pictures after christmas -sorry family no peeking!

On a sad note my worms have passed on to the big bin in the sky! We had hundreds of fruit flies in our house and they were breeding in the bins-so the bins were put outside to freeze. Maybe the worm eggs will survive until spring. ??

Thanks for reading and stay warm out there! K

FITNESS

I am so sore, I can not sit down with out my quads screaming at me, I am sweating and exhausted but I have never felt so good! This is the first week of working out with a trainer and following a high protein-eat every 3 hours-oh no, not more chicken-diet. My sugar cravings are almost non-existent which is huge for me-really huge! Even better than the lack of cravings, the prospect of loosing weight and being in better shape is what this has done for my mind. I am calm and centered and HAPPY. Endorphins are a wonderful thing. Last week I was so far in an emotional hole, no- PIT-that I was having a hard time seeing my way out. But I'm back now!



This calm centered state of mind is helping me to re-assess where we are with our search for land, or maybe I should say search for a simpler lifestyle. Yes we need to make some changes to our way of living-but do we need to have 40 (or more) acres in the middle of nowhere to accomplish this? Maybe the roadblocks we have reached are a way of fate/higher power/karma telling us this is not our path?



Our goals for this family: 1) spend more high quality time with the girls

2)Hmmm, I am stuck for what come next-the girls are the key!

3) Not being completely dependant on the industrial agricultural machine

4) Not completely dependant on oil/coal for our energy needs

5) Buying stuff does not equal happiness.

I can do all of those thing right here!

I will let go of the forty in the woods for now. The things I CAN and NEED to focus my energy on now are financial and personal fitness, not beating myself up because I do not knit my own socks, homeschool my kids or make sauerkraut! :p (But kudos to those of you who do!)
K

Just a thought...perhaps SAD is a coping mechanism for the winter. My heritage is northern european, where the winters are long an unrelenting. My theory is Seasonal Affective Disorder is a trait which was selected for in the far North. How better to survive 6 months of winter than to withdraw and sleep alot. Evolution at its best! Instead of thinking 'what is wrong with me' go with it (up to a point- I realize that SAD can be very severe in some folks). Be sure to get plenty of outdoor exercise and don't totally withdraw, but what is wrong with sleeping a little more??
I am curious how many of you'all are affected by SAD (on a scale of 1(best)-10 (worst)) and what is your genetic background?
We looked as some more land yesterday...had two really nice walks in the woods at least. It seems that we can find land which is wooded and beautiful or land which is in crops but nothing which has a little of each! One of us will have to settle and as Tom points out it takes longer to grow a forest than to clear a field, (I guess that depends on who is pulling the stumps ;}). I am leaning towards the woods which is landlocked-it will be less expensive and then we are 100% comitted to being off the grid. Hmmm I seem to be drawn to the remote and inaccessable, what does that say abotu me?? K

Patience

We have been searching for land to build our new life. It has been an eye-opening process. We started by looking at homes/farms with acreage, but realized that these homes really were no different from our older ranch home in town- if the power went out for more than a day we would be really screwed! Non-reliance on fossil fuels and the power grid is important to us...so we will need to build our own!

So now we are looking at just land, but where? We have drawn a mental circle around our current jobs; approx 30 minutes commute. Which school district? The girls are both in a really great elementary school program and I would love for them to stay. However, land within the district is becoming very expensive and it is really not a farm community. I feel like we would not have enough mental distance from our current lives. It just feels too close. I am also not crazy about the large number of kids in this school. The graduating class will be close to 500 kids. So now we are looking at more outlying areas. I have compared school graduation rates, ACT scores, etc and visited the school in the area we like. Again it just felt right.

We have found a piece of property which fits our needs and wants and is affordable. Wow. Now is the hard part, waiting. There are some right of way issues and we need some co-operation from a neighboring landowner before we can put in an offer. So now it is out of my hands. I have to wait for the town board. Winter is closing in around us and I really need to have something tangible to feed my homesteading dreams. I will have faith and know that it is beyond my control (and develop a back-up plan!). K