Productivity is...

Building 2 trellises for the garden
"Installing" a rain gauge (ha!)
Hanging 2 *free* cabinets above garage workbench.
Cleaning said workbench (it was a mess)
Watched both Transformers movies and Star Trek (hey it was something "to do" so it counts).
Created my own "garden stakes" from recycled steel bars I found.

There's probably more, I just can't think of any more right now. It's nearly the LAST DAY OF 2009.

I didn't need to dream of a white Christmas...

Instead, I just went outside.

From Blog Photos

That's my house. You'll notice on the right, the truck is not in the driveway. I'll let you figure out why :)

Here's my wife and one of my sisters making snow angels at my Mom's house Christmas Eve.

From Blog Photos

I've also spent a good deal of time working on getting the garden ready. Here's our two 4x4 plots fenced in, with the compost bins in the middle. There will possibly be another 2x12 plot behind those, where I might try to grow corn. I'm still not sure how or if I'm going to do that.

From Blog Photos

The compost bins, and the compost-maker.

From Blog Photos

From Blog Photos

Last but not least, here's what started about 30 minutes ago.

From Blog Photos

Today is the day!

We're finally getting our furnace fixed!!

Also, I still haven't gotten 3 gifts. It wasn't that big of a deal because I had Wednesday to get them. But now, due to a funeral, I'll be gone Wednesday, and I'm not really sure when I'm going to get time to go get the gifts.


Now on to some actual homesteading stuff.

I've been looking at building a stone house, though that seems more and more unlikely with additional research, due to some environmental constraints. Did you know, however, that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) allows you to "mine" all the rock you want, from public lands under their control? That's awesome for those of you who live out where there is plenty of rock. Want to know how much it is, here in N. Texas, for 1 ton of rock? $120. That's insane. If you wanted to do your entire house made of stone, you're looking at about $1800 in rocks, not to mention MANY trips to pick it up, because your truck can probably only hold about 1 ton. (Obviously that number changes due to the size of your house)

So, perhaps I will still use stone in our house to be built one day. It's just too awesome not to.

9 days

Still no heat. It got down to about 26 or so last night. I have no idea how cold it is in the house, but I know our fridge must be saving a lot of electricity :D


Christmas is almost here! I am trying, but I'm just not in the mood this year. It's hard. We had "Timeless Christmas" the last 3 nights at church, with lots of activities like hay rides, petting zoos, campfires, a live manger scene (I was Joseph and Katie was Mary), and I played in the band Sunday night.

In other news, my sister is home from West Virginia. Yay! Family is what makes the holidays so great.

Cold.

Sorry I have not posted in a while. This is the 5th consecutive day with no heat, and doing simple tasks is quite a chore because it's so cold.

Pray for me too, I'm in a heck of a battle with my mind.

Chores chores chores

Isn't it funny how the more time you have to do chores, the more chores you have, thus limiting the amount of chores you can complete?



I picked up a few more books:

The Self Sufficient Life

Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto

Square Foot Gardening

And one that I have my eye on is Five Acres and Independence. I skimmed through it at the bookstore but didn't buy it as I have so many already.

We'll see....

The pros of a 4 bedroom house

With the temps expected to drop to about 13 degrees tonight, we just bring the animals inside :)

From Blog Photos

^^ Rabbbit in a box ^^

Of course, that might be a tad harder to do if we had chickens, goats, cows, pigs, etc.

Thank you, ma'am

Today I made a significant step in my quest for homesteading. I made my first ever purchase at a feed store.


Okay, okay, maybe I am stretching that just a tad.

But in all seriousness, I needed to pick up some feed for the rabbit. Sometimes, the simplest (and cheapest) answers are right beneath our noses. I scoured the local pet stores, department stores, and even specialty stores for feed.

Department stores - extremely small quantities of feed at extremely high prices.
Pet stores - limited varieties of feed, and very high prices (averaged $40 / 25 lb. feed.

The local feed mill provided me a good brand, Purina, at an incredible price. $12.50 for a 50 lb. bag. Not only that, but the store attendant carried the bag to my truck and loaded it in the bed. My wife believes (and she may be right) that the feed store might just be my new favorite place. THEY HAVE EVERYTHING!!!

If one day I end up moving a tad south of here, but still close enough, I will be using this place for all my primary farm needs. You don't get polite, personal service at your local pet store, and you sure as heck don't get it at a department store.

So that was a good end to a rough few days. Katie's grandparents' house (up to the north in Arlington) was burglarized in the middle of the day. Not only that, but the next evening, Katie's school was burglarized. I expect a lot more burglaries (and for the criminals to become more bold) as the economy gets worse and Christmas gets closer.

Remember folks, if you don't have a firearm for self defense in your house, it could save your life. The teenagers who burglarized her grandparents house had a large butcher knife that they left in a chair in the living room. I truly thanked God that no one was there, as who knows what might have happened.

Last thing, a quick note for any of you with compost bins. Oak leaves are NOT "browns" but rather "greens". It turns out, that is what caused my compost pile to stall for several weeks. It seems to be back up and running after some fresh "ingredients."

Have a pleasant week!

Operation Move Paws...

The rabbit has been moved to the back yard. He seemed to take the move pretty well - didn't try to escape or anything. Hopefully he'll be warm tonight.

BTW, he has no name, technically. We give him a new name every day. Today his name is Darnell, and tomorrow his name is Felix. Yes, we are a weird bunch.

On a cold Autumn day...

nothing beats sitting by a fire, sipping ice cold sweet tea, and having some wonderful pot roast.

Sublime.

Work to be done

As winter has hit us like a frying pan over the head (it snowed here yesterday, even before my friend in Pittsburgh???), I realize just how many projects need to be done.

1) Though the garden is staked off, my land is on a slight hill, and I need to level the food plot to so I don't have irrigation problems. It's 6' x 27' which is 162 sq. feet. That should be a nice big crop of food.

2) The rabbit NEEDS to be moved outside. The smell in the garage is overwhelming. True, that's partially because we didn't get to clean out the cage after our vacation, but still... The problem is that, as I've said before, animals (besides dogs) are not allowed in our deed restricted subdivision, and 3 houses can see directly into my back yard. Hiding a rabbit hutch will be quite a task. I am going to go get some camouflage burlap :)

3) The compost bin was doing great, up until a couple of weeks ago, when I added leaves. Maybe I through off a ratio or something. It is not hot anymore, and the leaves look virtually the same as when I put them in there :-\

4) Firewood - you can never have enough.

That's all for now...off to get some work done!

Vacation

What a long, long vacation. It was great. Now, however, I'm back in the grind of things. Dealing with traffic, dealing with incompetent coworkers, dealing with infuriating technology. Again, a love/hate relationship.

Never underestimate the power of others' knowledge ;)

When we finally get everything picked up and settled down a tad, I'll work on getting some pics up on the blog, of our various vacation spots, and our newest addition to the "farm."

Thanks for stopping by!

Vacation, Day 1

We're in Ardmore, OK, currently. We'll wake up early tomorrow and head to Turner Falls, which should be beautiful. Hope it's not too cold!

Technology

Technology hates me. The feeling is mutual.

The Composting Game

Well the leaves are starting to fall "in force." My favorite game of "ask strangers for their [insert composting material]" strikes again.

I got a 55 gallon trash bag full of leaves. Woo hoo!

I give it a 7.5

From Blog Photos

By the way, I forgot to take my own picture of the finished cornbread, so I just picked one online that looks remarkably like mine.

Here is the recipe

BANG!

Sorry I've been away for a few days. This is why:

From Hunting

For 2 years I haven't been able to harvest a deer, and this year, I was ready. Didn't see anything Saturday morning (except a couple doe) but that evening, I feverishly watched the road near the stand. A quick glance to the field and back, and the deer was standing right there.

I hastily grabbed the gun and swung it out the window. The deer noticed. No time to care or worry, though. By instinct I put the crosshairs right behind the shoulder, and squeezed the trigger. The rest is history.

12 points; by far, the biggest I've ever seen in person.
Over 160 lbs. field dressed.
18.5" inside spread
BOTH ears notched
The base of the antlers are so large in diameter, I cannot close my hand around them fully.

Needless to say, I am stoked. I'm having it mounted, and just like my grandfather's big buck, I hope to still have it to remember these memories 35 years later.

Goodnight all, thanks for checking in.

What a Day

I would like to start by thanking those who serve in our armed forces. As you are probably aware, at least 12 people were killed, and 32 wounded (numbers still sketchy) tonight in Killeen, a few hours south of here. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of those affected. God Bless you all.












I made my first homemade bread. The taste was impeccable, if I say so myself.

From Blog Photos

Last:


17 hours and 46 minutes....

45 hours

In 45 hours, the weekend starts.

But this isn't just any weekend, it's symbolic to me, in a sense. It's the first weekend (opening day) of hunting season. It's a time of the year when I spend more time with family, celebrating birthdays, holidays, or just cold days.

It's a time when everyone just seems to become friendlier - wishing people "Happy Holidays" and "Merry Christmas." I cannot wait.

Now, on to the good stuff. I got a recipe out of the only Mother Earth News magazine I have, for a plain-jane artisan bread. It's been rising for nearly 2 hours, so it's getting close to being done. I can't wait. Here's a few pics:

From Blog Photos

From Blog Photos

My wife said "why does it smell like beer?" lol

Thanks for stopping by!

Dangit!

Do not put eggs in your compost bin.

Not much to say today. I just know if I start missing days, I'll never be back. Good night all, and have a pleasant Wednesday.

Hamburgers in the Dark

Barefoot, outside, in the cold. I love it.

Of course, it's only 67 degrees out. A wonderful temperature here in Texas. On Sunday, I decided we would have hamburgers tonight. I did not take into account it would be dark outside, thanks to Daylight Savings Time. Thank goodness there is a full moon looking down on my BBQ.

So, let me formally introduce myself and my situation. My name is Stephen, and my wife's name is Katie. We have two "children" - our dogs Sparky & Jenny, both of whom are Boston Terriers.
We live in the Metroplex (or Metromess, if you prefer) in a suburb between Dallas and Ft. Worth, and south of Arlington. The reason we moved to this particular house was because of many factors, but the main one was the lot size.

Now, before I tell you what the lot size is, you have to promise not to laugh afterwards :)

Our lot is 1/3 of an acre, situated on the edge of a subdivision. On three sides of us are 55 acres, 18 acres, and about 15 acres. As my grandpa said during our search for a house with a lot of land (and near our jobs, and in a good school district, and being a "new" house, and 100 other requirements we held our search to)... "the reason land is so expensive now is, they're just not making it like they used to." We had so many requirements that it eliminated a LOT of properties. That is nothing against the house we're in - it is absolutely perfect, minus being in an HOA. That's another story I'll get to later...

So, what to do with all this land? Well that's why you're here. Whether it be gardening, composting, or heck, breaking the HOA rules and doing some other "homesteading" duties, we'll see as the years go on.

Well, the burgers are done, so that's a wrap for me. Thanks for checking in.

How to look crazy, steps 1 and 2

So the other day, I was driving home and I called my sister
"Hey, I have a strange question"
sis: "umm, okay, what is it?"
"You know how you have a rabbit you're raising for FFA?"
sis: "yea?"
"Can I have it's poop?"
...silence...
sis: "what!?!???"
"It's for my compost pile!"

lol, so that was one strange conversation. Then, I got off the phone, and pulled into my driveway. Across the street, the house that is still empty had a crew working on the landscaping. I hesitated for a sec, then ran across the street. I asked him if he was just going to throw that grass away. He looked at me like I was insane for a minute, and said yes. I asked him if I could keep a bag of it. Now he was SURE I was certifiably insane...but, he said sure. I grabbed it (WOW that was a heavy bag) and ran back across the street.

^^ above is a post, shortened a tad, I made on the CAF Locals website. ^^

So here are a few pics of my recycle bin area. I got inspired from a TV show about a couple who recycles a lot of stuff they have laying around, and turns it into useful things. I thought I would try the same, so here's what I've got.

Compost bin - a large tub which originally contained grain or minerals for cattle. Got it for free from my grandpa.
Rotation bar - I was throwing out an old broken lamp, when it occured to me it was really just a bunch of pieces screwed together. I have turned that lamp into about 4 things now.
Frame - Just some spare wood pieces I had from random projects.

From Blog Photos

From Blog Photos

So far we have composted the following items from around the house.
Bell Peppers
Bananas
Shredded newspaper
Dryer lint
Grass clippings
Rabbit droppings
Eggshells
Bread
Napkins

Doing this not only helps out your garden, but helps get rid of a lot of other stuff that normally just gets thrown in the trash. Save a few trash bags a year!

Thanks for checking out the blog.

Welcome!

Welcome to the first post! I figured I should start a blog to kind of document how my ambitious dreams pan out. That's something we'll have to see as time goes on.

As for the title of the blog, I'll leave you with this, from my all-time favorite musician.

Too many times we stand aside
And let the waters slip away
'Til what we put off 'til tomorrow
Has now become today
So don't you sit upon the shoreline
And say you're satisfied
Choose to chance the rapids
And dare to dance the tide

I will sail my vessel
'Til the river runs dry
Like a bird upon the wind
These waters are my sky
I'll never reach my destination
If I never try
So I will sail my vessel
'Til the river runs dry

Stay tuned and keep in touch.