Getting to know my new homestead

[mousebandit]

Well, hubby got laid off and we pulled the travel trailer on home to So. Oregon and were blessed to have a spot on a beautiful ranch recently vacated and ready for us. The ranch belongs to the grown daughters of a dear family friend who recently passed away, and they all live far away, so we have the whole place to ourselves, although our little bit of heaven is just about 1/2 acre cut out of the side of a hill.

There have been other friends and country folk living up here from time to time, and there have been lots of projects by some of them. We have discovered an amazing root cellar dug into the hillside. It is mostly caved in, but my husband thinks that we can certainly use a portion of it as-is (well, clean it out a little, LOL!) and maybe we can restore the whole thing!! What a dream come true! My own root cellar!

And there are lots of things planted around the perimeter of the hillside - I've found a few raspberry vines, some peas (although I don't know if they'll make it - there was no water for at least a month before we got here), 2 plums trees, an as-yet unidentified tree down the hillside (gotta figure out how to harvest the fruit on it - maybe it's apples!), and our local weed - blackberries - EVERYWHERE! [Note to self - don't jack with the blackberry vines - even little ones that look dead! Get some clippers!!]. I know it's probably way too late, but I'm planting pea transplants and seeds, lots of lettuce, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage transplants, and I've even started some tomato and pepper seeds (ya never know!).

We've got spring fed gravity-system water here, and we're learning to work with that. Thankfully, the trailer has a 12v pump on it, and hubby got a check valve today, so we should be able to have some decent pressure with that, I think.

There's what used to be a good sized pole structure, but it's fallen over into the uphill-hillside, so we're calling it the lean-to, LOL! Hubby is going to brace it so that it doesn't go any further, and I don't know what we'll do in there. There's also an old shed that has been taken over by nasty critters (rats, I think) and is pretty creepy. Eventually I'll get to cleaning that out, and do something with it, too.

There's lots to discover, and TONS of potential here! We've been on the road with hubby's work for the last 2 years, but for a couple of years before that we were blessed to be on 70 acres with a giant greenhouse, huge beautiful barn, and tons of pasture and outbuildings. I learned so much there, and tried lots of different projects, but this place will be so different! The entire ranch is probably close to a couple of hundred acres, with the vast majority of it in beautiful cattle/horse pastures and with ancient water rights to some of the best creeks in our valley. Our little pad is close to the main house (empty now) and both are up on the hillside overlooking the pastures - totally beautiful. So, I will get busy being a good steward of this little portion, and then in the spring, assuming we're still here and hubby doesn't get called back up to work, we'll see about venturing out into some of pastures and other parts of the ranch. Right now, there's some mustangs running in one of the lower pastures, and a stallion in a small pasture at the base of our driveway. So, it's just us and the horses and the blackberries!

Just wanted to share my excitement! It's so nice to be home in the sticks after 2 years in the city, and so awesome to have this great little place!

MouseBandit

[goldengate]

congratulation ! I am truly happy for you. I know you will make the most of it.

[CapeCMom]

I love the descriptions that you gave! I could see it in my mind. Congrats! Post some pics if you can!

[Aamylf]

You sound happier than the millionaires I know. Congrats.

[firegirl969]

Congrats on the homestead! It sounds super. I am glad that you found us and joined in. I look forward to hearing about ya'lls progress up there. What are you going to do with all of those blackberries? I make a mean jam and great syrup out of them.

[NCLee]

Sounds like you've found your piece of heaven right here on earth. I'm happy for you!!!

Looking forward to hearing your progress reports. Good luck with getting that root cellar operational again. Sure wish we had one, btw.

Instead of thinking about going off-grid using solar, think in terms of how things were done before electric lines were strung up to every household. Many essential things have a non-electric solution. Often a lot more work, but do-able.

I'm fortunate to remember the days before electricity came to our farm. And, the many years when just a minimum amout of it was used. Took a while for the transistion to being electricity dependent came about. FWIW, our home was originally totally electric. Been busy reversing that as budget and opportunity permit. Sure, I'm going to use the microwave, while I can. :) But, the alternatives to it are in place.

In closing, look for the ways things were done before AC/DC. Even if you never need to use a cross cut saw or a sad iron, the sense of security the skill and equipment to put them into operation is priceless.

Do keep us updated! Not only of the work/sweat/tears but also of the joy of taking time to smell the roses, too.

Lee

[nhlivefreeordie]

Fantastic!! It appears you have a great adventure ahead of you, and the fact that you already are appreciative of it is a good sign for the future. Good Luck!

[mousebandit]

Oh today was nice! I got my red wrigglers in the mail, and we dumped them into the rubbermaid bin that will be their new home. Drilled holes all around, lots of shredded newspaper and junk mail and a little dirt and water. In a few days I'll start giving them kitchen scrap smoothies! I can't wait to have a zillion wormies!!!

Tomorrow hubby is working on the trailer (we're in a 37' travel trailer) and bringing up a regular fridge! You have no idea how small an RV fridge is until you live with only it and 4 family members, LOL! And he is even talking about making a gravel run to town for walkways and parking areas! Woo hoo! Every minute that I'm not cleaning up mud and dirt from in this trailer is time I can spend on fun projects!

Did have a tough moment today. Nice clean-cut looking older guy pulled up to ask if we would give him permission to pick blackberries in the pasture, out by the pond. I had just been having a conniption not an hour earlier about all the people driving on our road and just going after the berries with no thought to who they belonged to. (The land on both sides of the road belong to the ranch, so I feel rather proprietary about the road AND the blackberries!) So, of course I had to be nice and say, "yes" when I really wanted to tell him no way, LOL! He's not coming back until Saturday morning, so that means I have to get over my procrastination and get my butt busy picking and grinning tomorrow morning! (Of course I'll leave him some, too!)

Oh, and yesterday we pulled the trash out of the root cellar. If hubby gets everything else done, he may start digging a little of the dirt out down there. Obviously, he has to be careful not to move too much or in the wrong spot, so it doesn't finish caving in, but he should be able to clear a path from entrance along the left side to a large open and stable (hopefully stable!!) area at the back. My thinking is, that next spring or summer, if we're still here and this looks like a long-term homestead for us, we can start stacking concrete block walls from the inside. (I'll figure out a plan for the top row and the roof/ceiling when I get there, or hubby probably has a plan since he been doing civil concrete construction for the last 6 years, LOL!) But it will be such a joy to get our food storage out of the mini storage and up here with us. Plus, that will give us a little room to maneuver in the mini storage. You know how they go, it's so full you can't get in to find anything, ha ha.

And, a word to all those who don't want to poison their family, like I almost did. When you find pea vines growing wild, make sure they don't have purple sweet pea flowers on them BEFORE you can the peas up and feed them to your kids! Sweet pea flower "peas" are poisonous! I was so excited, too! Ah well, at least the flowers are pretty!

Well, on top of all my homesteading fun, I am trying to wrap up my schooling (studying to be a medical transcriptionist - work from home) and it's long hours. Gotta get an early start tomorrow on blackberries, then schoolwork.

I'll update again soon! And, here are a couple of pictures:

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c167/MouseBandit/Holland/IMG00247.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c167/MouseBandit/Holland/IMG00244-1.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c167/MouseBandit/Holland/IMG00228.jpg

[NCLee]

Thanks for sharing your pix with us. That sure is a pretty and peaceful looking spot to homestead.

Please, if you and hubby aren't absolutely sure about what you're doing with that root cellar, stop! From the pix there's a huge mound of dirt/rock on top. One false move and it looks like it can come down on you. If both of you get trapped in there.... I hate to think of the outcome. :sad:

Without knowing more about it, I'm thinking that you need some heavy duty shoring timbers set into place as you work from the front to the back. Sounds like, from your description, one of the side walls has caved in. That means the roof support has weakened along that side. IMHO, get the roof supported QUICK!

Enjoy those blackberries! The season is long over here. It'll be another year before I can eat my fill right off the vine again. Eat a handfull for me, as that's my favorite way to enjoy those berries.

Lee

[mousebandit]

Ahhhh, blackberries from SW Oregon. Nothing like it. Hubby took our daughter swimming, and baby is napping, and I'm supposed to be doing schoolwork, but I snuck out and got a little bucketful and I am in heaven, LOL! I'm gonna have to stick these babies in a cupboard where I can't see them or I'll eat every last one despite myself, and not save any for them.

It's a little frustrating that all the huge, drippy ones are just far enough over the edge of the hill that I can't quite reach them without killing myself, and they're hanging there, taunting me. Maybe tomorrow I'll spend some time at it and get a stick or cane or something to grab those vines with and haul them back towards me.

In other projects, we've been talking about earth-sheltered building ideas (start with a greenhouse maybe), and Jeff's now got us an official parking area set up and a great little walkway to the trailer. It's nice and wide, lined with smallish river rock, and has hay down for now. Next week he'll get to the gravel yard and get some gravel to put in there. Some of my lettuce is doing great (salad bowl) but most of the others didn't handle the month-long residency in the 6-packs when they should have been in the ground. Most of my seedlings (a variety of stuff) got drowned out from the regular sprinkler that we were using on the "grass". Didn't realize the tray was in the fallout zone. And, something has turned the fall crops' leaves into doilies - broccoli, kale, cauliflower, and cabbage. Bummer.

One of the only things lacking about this little site is that it faces north, on the hillside. Right now everything is ducky, but come November, it's gonna get pretty dim on this side of the hill and I don't know how stuff will grow, even in a greenhouse, with that little light. There is a west-facing slope over by the driveway, but the hill still rises behind it (more gradually) to the south - more light, but I still don't know if it will be enough. If I were doing a CSA or market garden (both ideas I have stuck in my head - especially the CSA), I would go down into the pasture and get crazy because that is 100 acres of the most fertile, clear, beautiful cow pasture you've ever seen. But, I'm working on my lazy streak, and toting two toddlers down there every day next spring and summer sounds kind of rough, I have to say. At least for a house garden. We'll see. If things are bad this winter and we blow through our food storage, then I may be singing a different tune come spring, though. Plus, by then my weight watchers and running will hopefully have rid me of some of my, uh, excess baggage, and traipsing down the hill might not be such a big deal. (And yes, I do realize that if dragged my butt down there regularly, I might not NEED weight watchers, LOL! I told ya, I'm working on the lazy thing!)

What else is going on? Still trying to identify some (most) of the plants and trees around here. Mostly just trying to get my blessed schoolwork done so I can be finished with the crazy hours and start working and making some cash for projects. At this point, I've procrastinated the schoolwork so long (9 moves in 2 years, in my defense) that I have 2-1/2 months to do 9 months worth of work, or we have to pay the money all over again. ARGH!! Once I graduate and get a job, I will be working like 4 hours a day (or more likely, night) from home and that will be perfect. Plenty of time for the kiddos, and enough to do some homestead projects, and still get some sleep!

Okay, enough yakking - better get to it!

Tracey Mouse

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c167/MouseBandit/Holland/IMG00232-1.jpg

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c167/MouseBandit/Holland/IMG00235-1.jpg

[NCLee]

Tracey, as always, enjoy seeing your pix!

Re: Those out-of-reach blackberry canes. Put a large cup hook in the end of a broom handle. Or, put a screw hook of appropriate size into anything suitable to extend your reach. (Pre-drill if using a large hook in a small diameter dowel, mop handle, or straight tree branch.) Again, eat another handfull for me! :)

How rough do your winters get? Based on how severe your winters are, I'd put winterizing to whatever extent that you need on high priority now. For example, you may need hay bales around the bottom of your trailer to protect the pipes from freezing. Begin collecting whatever you need in order to batten down the hatches, if you're subject to deep snow that prevents travel.

Mentioned this because by getting started now, you won't be under pressure later to get those type things done just ahead of threatening weather. (Been there, done that, and it ain't fun!)

Good luck with your studies. Hope you can check them off your to-do list soon, as I have a gut feeling about how geat your yearning is to be doing something else. Pushing a pencil is hard when you want to be getting dirt under your fingernails. (Been there, done that, too.)

Put a large kids wagon on your want list!!! There's a thousand and one uses for one of them around the homestead. From hauling buckets of water for plants to pulling young kids rather than having to carry them. Not to mention the fun they'll have with their "toy" when you aren't using it to help you. :) (Look for used ones, rather than buying new, as they can be expensive.)

One final piece of advice, if you don't mind. Don't rush things, about the place, until you've been there for a while. Chances are that you'll change your mind, as you see the seasons progress. For example, we have a spot in our backyard, that looks great most of the time. However, a couple of times of year, it's subject to flooding (big thunderstorms and rains from hurricanes). Being aware of that potential has stopped me from using that spot for several different things, that I would have done and later regretted.

Looking forward to seeing more pix, as time permits. Enjoy seeing others get settled in on their homesteads. Brings back good memories of when we did the same many years ago.

Lee