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05-22-03

  I find I need to make some notes on a particular subject just to perhaps let someone know how difficult a chore it can be. Never make your gate or door (coop) open into a hillside. No matter how little the slope, you will forever be cleaning out the area behind the door or gate. Both the chicken coop door and the gate to their yard open to a slight incline. Every few days I am needing to clear behind the coop door and that's not an easy chore by the time the hens dig out plenty of dirt. If I don't, I will only be able to get the door open a few inches and need to stop what I'm doing and get the shovel for the chore. The gate isn't as bad since the slope is less and the hens don't get to dig around the area but it's still an aggravating chore. 

  When I planned the new garden fence, I first decided where to put my gate. Everyday I have been so glad I took the time to plan it out. 

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04-23-03

  It doesn't seem like we have any extra even with one less payment to make. There are always things unforeseen that pop up at the last minute and demand attention. We'd put lots of our own money into getting my dad moved into his own apartment but then it was only 4 months and he was needing to move into a nursing home. So we are still finding things that we have to pay for since he no longer has any extra. He had to move before his rent was up so we had to scrape up every penny we could just to get it done. Having more to pay IRS, it pushed back getting started on our land taxes. When you look at the fine print, the most extra they charge is for the first month late. Then the amount is minor. So, we'll get caught up soon. 

  I try every week to make progress on the PhancyPages advertising. It's a matter of approach and spending time to see things through. The same goes with spending time each day out in the garden making progress. There was just a little bit of pea sized hail yesterday and that made me hesitant to plant baby plants out yet. I can protect them better when they are portable and I can move them indoors.

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03-19-03

  A true homestead celebration, we've just had our first month with no payment on the land. It is paid off after 10 years. The payments were low but it is so nice to have that much money every month for other things. No, we didn't celebrate; it was more of a just saying, wow! 

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03-12-03

  Already the days are growing hot and time to plant cool weather crops is long past. I am desperately trying to fence a garden space and it is taking much longer than imagined. The farm is now paid off and we can use the money to put into new projects and other necessities. 

  We've decided to go another year with the hens we have now. We aren't anymore ready this spring to start new chicks or put the older hens out into a tractor. I'd hoped to get one going last year but no such luck. The bigger the newsletter has grown, the less time I find for my own projects. Today I am planting Wall of China tree cuttings from last year. They are leafing out and need much more space, immediately. I have lost one of my gardening pages and can't find my notes. Hardly noticeable except to me. 

  We now have two weed wackers that do not work. This is setting back progress but only time and getting back to a regular schedule will catch up anything. An hour a day is physically all I can do but it makes a difference after a few months.

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12-31-02  The following are notes from Byron Tumlinson: 

Nita, I was just enjoying reading and re-reading some of your writings in your newsletter today. I came across the part of filing for a homestead exemption. This is really a must. It gives you a great break on taxes and also has other benefits. There is another exemption that tax offices most often fail to mention. It is the senior citizen tax exemption. I do not know if every state or county has such exemption, but I know our county here in Texas does. If you are 65 or older, you can file for this exemption. I am going to file on this exemption in January 2004. This will completely eliminate the taxes on our property. Although our taxes are only $164 per year now, I look forward to even doing away with these.

I hope this can help someone. Byron Tumlinson Cari T Farm

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  Thank you Byron. I didn't know that and I'll just make sure I place the note where others can find and read it. 

  We have a mild enough winter to use it to get ready for the coming spring. Our soil (sand) has to be really wet and then freeze before it cannot be worked during the winter. No excuse for not getting the chores done. Already the seed catalogs have arrived. Now is the time to get out the names of special varieties we'd wanted to try. My window spinach are looking good but I have yet to find the one variety we found that grew well all winter long. The heat would get it really fast but long days of freeze didn't hurt it one bit. 

  There are always things we would like to get accomplished in the coming season. But they depend on things like getting a brush cutter to clear space for baby fruit trees, the hoses or pipes for running water to the new site and having the money to buy at least a few of the desired fruit trees. To get some Spanish goats working at grazing on the briar and the shrub oaks, it will take a brush cutter clearing the fence line to keep the goats inside their area, then the actual fence and posts and of course, having the money to buy at least a few of the desired goats. 

  If you don't set realistic goals, any failure will seem immense. Take big projects and divide them into smaller parts. Set the priorities, line up the details and research before making the commitment to continue. If you need to see accomplishment, write it down with a box or line beside the notation. As the chore is completed, mark a hardy check or x but make sure you have the next portion lined up and written on the list for achievement. I write down ideas so that I can look back at them later and see if they can be used. There will always be the projects that are not finished. When they are set aside, you must realize which just won't work and which just need some more time and perhaps a little more money.

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12-06-02  It seems as though the changing of the seasons is a time to change our space, to clean out old things we no longer use or find a new use for them. For the holidays, we look to homemade creations to give as gifts. We try ideas that we would not otherwise even consider. Since there is so little money invested, there is also no great loss if success does not come as quickly as desired. It is also a time to look through our collected treasures and find projects we can yet finish and have a fine gift.

  Okay, Randy might not be overjoyed but I will make simple things since I have a list that I've been meaning to do for a long time. Already, I have made a rag box. He will tend to grab anything off the shelf and then I have to mourn the loss of my best hand towel. (All right, I only had one, but it's in that rag box now.) There will be many useful things but they will only need my time and effort to accomplish them.

  The geraniums have been trying to grow on top of the filing cabinet. I tended each plant and fluffed the packed dirt with some better soil. Just try to find a bag of potting soil this time of year. So not to waste any space, I moved the airplane plants and the last coleus to join them under the grow lights. The light coming in the kitchen window, south, is just so low and little of it that I will stick to the grow light space with foil around them. It's nice to have a garden spot indoors while most everything outside is trying to go to sleep.

  I have actually spotted an empty enough corner where I can put our little Christmas tree top. Half a tree takes up plenty of space and decorates well. Christmas can only be as merry as we make it.

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11-02-02  One of the important parts about living in the country and taking care of maintenance and repairs, improvements and such is being able to accept the limitations and adjust to what can be done and what will have to wait a while. We've had to accept that just about everything, including Christmas, will have to be little or none. We've been there before; disappointing to say the least but priorities must be adjusted. The shop will not get done nearly as fast as we'd hoped. The domes will not get started when we'd planned.   

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10-20-02 The shop still has only a floor. It has now been rained on twice. Warped and wet now and it will take a week to dry out. But the in town work schedule will be better. Time change will occur this next weekend but will take weeks to adjust to how and when chores get done. But there will be 2 day weekends instead of 1 day. 

  Max, the quite often bad puppy, has been escaping as often as I fixed the fence where he was pushed it down or over. It will soon be 9 foot tall. I am challenged to keep making it work without having to buy some fancy field fencing and metal posts. But, yes a but! I want the chicken wire back. It is the only thing that will keep bunny rabbits out of the gardens. Field fence will keep out the bigger ones but not the babies. Oh, they are so cute, but they eat up things I don't want them to have. So, we'll compromise and I will build a bigger yard for the Max dog, complete with 2 gates and a much better puppy house. For now, he must stay inside the yard. We do not want to be paying for any damages he causes. Bad dog. 

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10-01-02  The shop has a floor now. I keep watching the forecast and hoping any rain holds off until the roof is on but Randy's time is very limited. The clouds make me think I may need to go put up his chainsaw. We don't have anything to cover the building to keep it dry. We could sure use a good soaking rain but the chances are not very likely.

  Today and tomorrow will be spent getting ready for a visit for the great Baby A. Cleaning my desk and table are priority. Having several open work areas is most important. A place where the paper and colors are handy. Having plenty of stickers is an advantage that uses many hours of time and creativity. We have many pages of activities lined up. On the crafting page, I had added some angels. I know someone who might like a few. I just love the projects that are easy and come out looking like what was intended. Also on the same page, I put what I had found for cutting out snowflakes. They are so pretty even if you have to keep the scissors put up.

  When Max and I were out on an early morning walk today, we went slightly off our property and I could finally see how low lying the area is. The people had moved in a double wide mobile home but it is just a shell, enough that the electric company would hook up the electricity. I guess this was an improvement they wanted to accomplish. But that was all they did. Besides not making the payments they probably did not pay the taxes. I have begun to wish we could buy it as well just to keep the dairy from being any closer than it is. 

  I had read an article on the Homesteading forum where a person had been taking the acorns and reducing them to the tannin necessary for selling to the leather dying industry. I did get some instructions but will have to seek more information before I can begin. I have this horrid need to know the why and why not before I begin. I would like to find what the requirements are before I discover that I have not done enough of the right things. Acorns are in short supply this year. There are several places where they are plentiful but not close by. I need a lot of little people, kids, to help gather the nuts. They are much closer to the ground than I am. I've always thought we might be able to use some of the natural resources to provide an income. This would be excellent. I'd heard long ago about the overseas market to buy beetles but in all my searches, found nothing at all. We have a lot of those, too.

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09-10-02 I had found the Travel Texas advertising and rather than just throw it all away, I made a spot for it in the newsletter. There really are people who take a vacation from the farm. 

  Randy has begun work on a shop where he can start on the first dome. Clearing the area has certainly been a chore. He dug around several clusters of stumps and cut them short. It won't be long before daylight savings time is over and with the shorter days, it will be dark every day when he gets home from town. When the shop is finished, he can work at night and in cold and rainy weather. This building will have a floor. Keep out the rodents and stay dry. 

  I made a batch of doggie num nums yesterday. I notice right away when puppy has ticks, yuck!! And dangerous! This time, instead of requesting a new collar, which takes days and days to work, I made a batch of the treats I'd made all winter. All the ticks were gone within 4 hours. I was absolutely amazed. My recipe will appear on Max's page in the Critter Section. Coming soon, my adventures in raising cockatiels. My hand raised babies have now gone into the 4'x12' floor to ceiling cage and are loving it. Buddy wasn't too happy about the idea like he'd forgotten how to fly. I taught he and Elvis both when they were but babies. Their cage is designed for birds to fly through with plenty of perches to land on.

  The days are noticeably shorter and the heat is not so bad. It is time to get projects done. Like starting a new compost pile. I clean out the chicken coop on a regular basis and if I don't have a place to put the poo, it doesn't get done very often. I would like to make this next spring's garden a bit closer to the house. When it takes too long to get there, I don't go as often. We have 2 grape vines that have done great this year. They actually made fruit clusters, well before the grasshoppers ate the fruit and all the leaves. Only stems left but I will see if they are anything I can cut and root to have more next year. They actually have an arbor but when the soaker hose to the bed sprung several leaks, it was not replaced. They morning glories that had grown over the arbor to help shade the plants were long gone. The plants did not suffer unless they got and stayed dry for very long. 

  Yesterday's chore was to hang the mash feeder in the chicken yard. Hammering a nail into the beam above the area was the difficult part. I'm tall but to get the work accomplished, I had to spend at least half an hour moving things around to maneuver a few steps up, pound the nail in place, and 2 more seconds to hang the feeder from the hook. TA DA. Now, the new hens won't try to sit on top on the can and knock it over. We were losing a lot of expensive feed that way and they usually made a mess down the side of the can. I can sure do without the extra work. 

  If there was a cash value for grasshoppers, our homestead would be making lots of money. Same for the devil bush. It has a most beautiful bloom so I wonder if there is some value there, you sure can't touch it otherwise. I had sent an email to the local county ag person but what I got was a CD to copy about the poisonous plants of the area. It gave us a lot of info. Did you know that to do the studies of what would be deadly if eaten by the animals, they must force feed the plant to an animal that would not otherwise ever eat the plant. Hummm. The wild plum is listed as a bad plant, is actually never eaten by the wildlife, only the fruit. Not even the hoppers will eat the leaves of the plum. 

  The farm will be paid for in 7 more months and that is a great feeling. We'd paid cash for the mobile home and thought we'd start right away to build a new house. Well, it hasn't happened yet. Progress is slower than could be imagined but it is progress. I tend to set my sights lower when things are too difficult. Accepting that we won't get the chicken house repairs all made this years. Just getting the roof patched and recovered, that will be enough for this year.  

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08-23-02  I have realized in putting together the Section on Camping, that we never even think about going anywhere. If there is a vacation, it is extra time spent on the farm. Building projects are planned around holidays and long weekends. We might go pick up a g-baby, but our time is spent on the farm doing forest or farm things with the happy baby.   

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  07-29-02  Over the past month, I have begun to receive articles from Wanda Lynch. She has homesteading experience I admire greatly. In a few short sentences, she answered all my questions about canning. I had done some canning of pickles years ago. Mostly with borrowed jars that had to be returned. I have maybe a case left and a great fear of buying new jars. Wanda has a collection of over 1,000. I am in awe of her pantry so full and ready for the winter. She is the teacher I have been looking for and she is graciously sharing her knowledge. So many times I had written to people asking about what they knew and no one was willing to be the teacher of others. Even those who have written for Countryside would not help or even respond. 

  The next building project will be the chicken coop. The overhang covered part will be enclosed to give one room for nest boxes and one room for roosts. We had thought we might build an ark or tractor but that's so little space for the hens. They do so enjoy having free range and will huddle by the gate eager to get out as soon as the puppy is confined to his yard. They will venture up to his fence confident he cannot get out. The few times he had escaped, he was more frustrated by his inability to get back into his yard. 

  We have begun clearing an area for what will be a big barn. Enough space for keeping the tools and having a work table, to begin working on the house. It will have a floor and good tight roof with no leaks. We have a small barn but it leaks badly and most everything stored there has long since been ruined. The area is thick with wild growth on the lower parts of the oak trees and new scrub growth. There is lots of the devil tree and the what looks like elm. Already I am wishing we had a shredder and a brush cutter. They fall into the category of saving up to buy them someday.  

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  06-16-02  I enjoy reading what other people consider a homesteader to be and most of the time, being self-sufficient is separate from living on your own land. There are a lot of folk that have no desire to raise animals. They are not all vegetarians, just people that don't want to be responsible for the health and welfare of such animals. I have had the worst of luck protecting farm babies from the bobcats and raccoons. Max, the sometimes stupid dog, is not a lot of help but he does leave his scent around. 

  It is the same with veggies and fruits. Many people don't want to be responsible if something harmful is used on them; they can at least blame someone else. Others enjoy knowing everything that was used on the produce. Being able to give away fresh tomatoes both ripe and green and to say, they haven't been washed (it keeps them fresher longer) but since they have never been sprayed with anything, just brush the sand off. 

  Have you ever read all the fine print on some of the fertilizer packages? They say they will give you super roots, super blooms but they also say not to ever use it on any plant which will produce food to be consumed. Not even when the plant is a baby!! Be aware of what you consider using to avoid looking back later to find out what is making you sick. Same way with chicken feed, processed foods, etc. If you don't want to bother, you are best off buying everything from the grocery or deli. If their food doesn't make you sick, you go back for more.

  Don't know where to start? Start small. Like raising just onions. Not all you need for a year, just enough to get experience and know that you want more the next year. I started with just one bed of zinnias and found which beds do best. Of course, that's only in a summer of few grasshoppers. Someday, I'll be raising so many tomatoes that I will be canning whole and sauces with plenty to eat fresh. I've canned tomatoes and cukes before and miss it. I have learned not to make the bed too wide since that would create great areas I cannot reach. The older I get, the more difficult it is for me to get to sitting at plant level and back up again. Bending and reaching aren't too easy either. Raised beds don't help much. The best way to see what will work for you is to try it and see.

  I had hoped to start drying some zinnias this year for winter time enjoyment. But none of the seedlings made it more than 2 inches tall before the hoppers wiped them out. Out on a walk through the woods, I gathered eight different wild flowers. I'll give them the allotted time and see how well I have done. Nothing lost or spent since they were found along the pathway.

  Less than a year now and our land will be paid off and that's a great feeling. We'd saved up the cash to pay for our mobile home so our land was the only payment. Having low payments saw us through unemployment for each of us and then giving up my income. You do what you must and the best you can and do without when you need. Having a good dependable vehicle is worth the payment every month and that will always be a necessity.

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