Final day on the road to Oregon

We rolled into Weed, CA around 8:00 at night and proceeded to Friendly RV Park for the night.

A man met us out front and explained that they only take cash or check. We, being good 21st century folks, had neither. I had to drive the Kia over to the Pilot gas station hit up the ATM for $30 (that the ATM charged $2 and my bank charged another $3). We paid the guy and prepared for the night. The heater in the RV kicks out a lot of heat but is also roughly as loud as a small jet aircraft at takeoff so we couldn’t use it, luckily we had about 1 million blankets to keep us warm.

In the morning, as we were doing the feedings, the couple from the camper next to us came over to say hello. They were an older couple and had both grown up on farms up in Canada. After talking to them for a while we found out he fought in WWII for the Canadian Army and was 88 years old! They like to drive all over and they visit family on their trips. We decided we want to be just like them when we’re 88.

Silly Rocky was not super thrilled to be in the small space.  

Adrian and little baby Pauly seemed just fine in their stall.

After saying our goodbyes to them we hit the road again. This time the RV was squeaking quite loudly for a few minutes causing Ashley a little bit of a panic. “Is it going to explode?” she asked over the walkie talkies we had in each car. “Maybe… but I bet not. It is cold so it should stop once it warms up.” I tried to reassure her. After about 10 minutes of RV squeaking, cats meowing, and Ashley panicking the noise quieted down as the RV motor warmed up.  

After a few uneventful hours on the road we entered into Oregon and then all the way up to Eugene! We exited the highway and navigated some back roads to avoid city driving, and made it to our new place well before nightfall (easily an hour before hehe).  It’s a nice little place with plenty of room for the animals to stretch their legs finally, including our 4 day old lamb, who had spent the majority of her little life in the back of a trailer.

The family enjoying some luscious Oregon grass and stretching their legs! 

Overall, the travel went pretty well for how quickly we had to hit the road and go.  It was a great way for us to do a trial run for the big move to WV later this summer!

-Ric

The Dance of Homesteading and Running Your Own Business (and how I learned to love them both)

Today has been a great example of the dance of homesteading and working from home.  For the first couple of months or so, I struggled with this.  I felt as though I needed to be working solely on the business, and doing the housework, keeping up the house and the animals were all taking away from that.  But recently, as I reexamined what it was that I had hoped to achieve with the business, I realized that one of the things I wanted most was self sufficiency, creating a homestead in our little slice of the world.  And to do that, I needed to also focus on how much money I can save by being at home, which creates a more self sufficient and environmentally friendly household.

I think it is engrained in us that we should work, pay bills, buy stuff, repeat.  And I knew deep down that was not what I wanted.  I wanted to break that cycle, which is where I thought starting my own business fit in.  The first steps were very hard.  Depending on just the hubby's income to live, still having bills to pay, and still very much getting caught up in the hustle and bustle and expectations that we should be making more to do stuff and buy stuff with.  And just the doubt that comes along with the slow growth that happens when you start any business.

I began to think about getting a part time job to supplement and I began to crunch the numbers.  Since we live a little outside of town a few things became apparent.  My being at home allowed me to make almost all our meals from scratch, which saves us a lot and keeps us healthier.  Us having one car cut down on expenses and gas, and if I had a job, too, we would, at the very least, have to pay more for gas, and at the most, would have another car to keep up, pay for and insure.

It started to dawn on me that part of what I love is being able to provide good meals, grow food (when the critters of the area aren't eating them), put food up for later, and generally take care of the homestead that we are building.

And it is a dance.  All this could easily be a full time job, so fitting the business in at the same time can be tough.  I'd say, in all honesty, that I can't give 100% to either.  But I think that is okay.  The business (or the vegetables) may grow a little slower, but I am building on a bigger vision.

And so, today has been a great example.  This morning I got the hubby off to work, then fed the animals, took the dog for a walk and watered the garden, including our new batch of greens I have planted in pots and have covered in wire.  (Humans 1, critters 0.)

After everyone else was taken care of, I started dough for some french loaves, and got the crockpot all ready for potato chowder, with several vegis from our CSA box from Talley Farms.

Then I set to work.  I have an exciting project we are doing with Birch Fabrics for this year's Quilt Market.  Only a littler spoilers...it is going to be a cozy quilt from some brand new Birch fabric.  But more on that soon.

At lunch time, I set to soaking some dried beans for future meals, and baked up that bread.  Then it was back to cutting fabric for work.

After the brain felt nice and melted from cutting as close to perfectly similar quilt pieces, I figured I'd share a few (or more...hehe) thoughts with you.

I hope for all of you starting something new in your life, you allow yourself the time to grow into it.  It is hard, and if you ever need to talk about it, don't hesitate in emailing me here or leaving a comment below.  But if you are anything like me, things will start to fall into place.  Believe me, it is still going to be hard.  But I am learning so much, and am finally starting to really enjoy the ride. (Well, except the dishes.)

Ash

Rolling with the punches and supporting local farms = really good food!

This year has been a year for learning about gardening in our new climate and how to work with all the little critters of the area.  My big hopes for a large, prosperous garden faded fairly quickly when plants that I was told were not on the list of things wild critters would eat were killed off.  Marigolds to keep pests away were 'snipped' off to die, the little boogers didn't even eat them.  Just wanted them gone.  And the 8 tomato plants planted in the spring are now down to 2.  I hope to finally get some fruit off of them now that I have built a large wire cage to try and keep these two alive.  Nothing like watching a squirrel take off with tomatoes in its little hands or mouth to make you realize you need to batten down the hatches.

Almost done with this cage to keep the wild animals out.
A few more tweaks and my last 2 plants might just make it.

My green beans are trying hard to stay alive!
Anything poking out of the cage get eaten, so a new cage will be coming asap.

And that chicken coop that we built has yet to be filled with chickens.  I am pretty picky about my eggs, and would prefer fresh over store bought any day.

Luckily, our friend-lords came to the rescue and asked us to join them in sharing a CSA box from Talley Farms in San Luis Obispo.  They deliver the boxes to handy pick-up points throughout the county, and work with other local farms to fill the wonderful boxes with lots off goodies.  For cheap.  Seriously, so much fresh food for way less than you'd spend at the store.

This big box filled to the brim with vegis and fruits each week? Yes, please!

As for eggs, between the friend-lords' lovely little chickens and our friends out at Vicarious Ranch (check out their fun and adorable Facebook here), I basically never have to get store bought eggs (at least during the laying season here.)   So I can support local farms and ranches and my friends, while getting all the goodies I could not produce myself.

Color coded eggs from the friend-lords!

Baking bread and admiring the lovely colors of my delivery of eggs from Vicarious Ranch!

Last night was such a great and delicious example of how well we eat because of the good food we get.  We used the spinach and heirloom tomatoes we got in our CSA box, baked some french bread (seen rising in the photo above) and some of those eggs to make our own take on this delicious open face egg sandwich over at My Fitness Pal's blog.  Man...this one is definitely staying in the rotation.

We tweaked the above recipe with our homemade french bread and larger portions...cuz we can.

So, even though my efforts this year to build our own garden thus far have not quite worked as planned, our 'failures' have taught us a TON and during which we have found these wonderful farms and friends to support in the process.  It's a win-win for sure.

Life is all about learning, eating real food, and supporting our local farms.  At least it is in my book.  (Well, I'd probably expand upon that a little more, like making goods yourself and supporting local artisans off all kinds, but hey, I am biased.)

Ash

PS - I will be letting you know more about local farms like Vicarious Ranch soon!  We will soon be featuring a local farm, artisan or handicrafter each month.  Stay tuned!)