Posted in Homesteading
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Reading Maa's Mom entry tonight reminded me of a site that I had heard of quite a while back. I always thought we would have moved by now so I never followed through with it, but it sounds like a great deal. Here is the blurb from the main page: WELCOME
Every year millions of unsold, high-quality, nursery plants are destroyed.
Sheltered workshops all over the Nation can provide jobs. The problem is to find enough work to keep the doors open.
We find unsold plants, have those workshops package them and... The Plants are YOURS FREE! You pay only processing and shipping Reserve your FREE Plants Now! So apparently all you have to do is pay for shipping and processing, which I believe is a very modest fee of $7.95. Like I said, I have never done this, so I cannot guarantee how healthy the plants and trees are, but $7.95 is not a big risk! Here's the link: http://www.freetreesandplants.com/index.html Also, I just found out that if you join the Arbor Day Foundation for just $10, they will send you your choice of 10 free trees that are right for your zone. Not a bad deal at all! Here's that link: Hope this helps someone. Thanks for stopping by! Blessings, Carol
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Posted in Homesteading
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Just an update to let you know what we decided about the land and house - Keith called a family meeting to talk about it. The kids and I do want the place, and I think Keith does, too, but we cannot buy it until we sell our house. So, we have to all pitch in and help him get things done around here. It'll take a while, but it will be a lot easier on Keith, and faster, if we all help. So, if the property is still available after we can get this house sold, we'll probably go for it! We'll just let the Lord work it all out. If it sells before we can get it, we'll just assume that it wasn't meant for us in the first place, and that He's got a better place for us. Here's a partial list of projects we need to do around here before we can list it to sell: 1. Redo the kids' bathroom. (Started on that last night.) 2. New tile in entry way. 3. New carpet in living room, hall, and bedrooms. 4. Do something to the wood floor in dining room (the water heater leaked and got under the wood floor and it buckled up. 5. New paint inside and out. 6. DECLUTTER!!!! For my part, #6 will be the hardest on me. All five of us are pack rats, and it'll be pretty much up to me to decide what goes and what stays. I have a really hard time doing this, so somehow I will have to just buckle down and do it. I know I'll feel much better after it's all done. Have a wonderful day today! Blessings, Carol
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Posted in Homesteading
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to Sweetmama2 and Blue Apple for the encouragement! I know that it can be done - and have all the confidence in the world in my hubby - he is a very talented and gifted carpenter. We'll be doing a whole lot of praying about it! I don't know why, but I have felt drawn to that house ever since I read about it on the internet. And when we first walked in, just the smell of it welcomed me - I know that's silly, but I just love the smell of an old house. It reminds me of my childhood summers spent at my uncle's house in Arkansas. We'll just wait on the Lord now! |
Posted in Homesteading
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We were able to see inside the house this morning - didn't know if we were going to since we had such a heavy rain last night and it was supposed to rain today as well, but didn't. We were a little disappointed because the interior wasn't in as great condition as we had hoped. This will definitely be a major fix-er-upper. My brother and mom met us out there as well. Between my brother and husband, they decided the house might actually have been built before 1925. It looks like it may have been moved there from somewhere else. The porches are all made of concrete, and it appears that there once was a fireplace that was taken out and a wood stove put in. A lot of the ceiling will have to be ripped out where it has leaked. The back rooms were really pretty decent, though. All the rooms were big. It's about 1500 square feet, but actually seems larger than our 1600 sq. ft. home. The only small room is the kitchen, which was a little disappointing because I have always wanted a huge country kitchen, and the washer and dryer are in the kitchen as well, but I think the wall separating the kitchen and the dining room could be torn out to make it all into one big room. The property is owned by an elderly woman who is in a nursing home, and a lot of her stuff is still there - all the beds, couches, several desks, two 1920 circa vanities and wardrobe - even some clothing! The realtor didn't know if that stuff would be removed or what, and it was a little hard for Keith to check out everything with so much stuff piled everywhere. Oh - I loved all the glass doorknobs! Keith doesn't really think we could make the attic into a room for Shera because there's not much room that is tall enough to stand in or even room to put in a staircase, although I'm sure she wouldn't mind just having the pull down stairs leading up to it. They really want their own rooms! There is actually some insulation in the attic. Luke is excited because the room he picked out includes a pet mouse living in the wall, lol! Keith and the kids walked all over the property, down to the pond, and got extremely wet - especially Luke who fell in a hole where the pond had flooded from the seven inches of rain they got out there yesterday. There are a lot of mesquite trees and cactus further out on the property. Well, I know that I am just rambling about everything so I hope it all makes sense. We have such mixed emotions about it. The house has such great potential - I really, really like it, and there doesn't seem to be anything that couldn't be fixed - but do we have the money to fix everything? I don't know how much we could actually get for our house, and we don't have a lot of equity since we refinanced a few years ago. Plus, it's not anywhere near ready to be sold, even though Keith has been working hard to remodel and fix things up. It's a matter for a lot of prayer, but I know the Lord will work things out the way it's supposed to be. Blessings, Carol |
Posted in Homesteading
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For as long as I can remember I have dreamed of living in the country, ever since I was a little girl visiting relatives in Arkansas. I've always wanted horses, chickens, cows, you name it - I wanted it! My children also want this, and fortunately, my husband shares our dreams as well. In fact, we have looked for a place for years, but we have never been able to find anything that we could afford. We figured we would either try to find someplace where we could build ourselves (hubby is a carpenter/homebuilder), or find an old farmhouse that we could restore. We may have finally found it. From looking around on the internet, I found a place about 45 minutes from here. It has 18 acres, an OLD farmhouse, and a near acre pond stocked with fish. We went out to look at it, just ourselves, on Tuesday night but by the time we got there it was growing dark so we didn't get to see very much. I wanted Keith to see it before we called the realtor to see if he thought it was worth working on. He thinks maybe it is! He wants to see the inside, so I called the realtor this morning and we are going out tomorrow morning to see it. The kids and I are so excited! The house was built in 1925, has three rooms and two baths, wood floors all throughout. It also has no insulation that Keith could see, no central heat or air (which is really no big deal to us), the paint is peeling badly, and it will take a LOT of work to restore. Supposedly the interior is in better condition than the exterior, but we'll have to check that out for ourselves. To be honest, it is not the place I have always dreamed about. There are very little trees except in the front along the fence, and there is another house built very close beside it. But I know that we may never find, much less afford, what we consider the "ideal" place, and we are all more than ready to move! I would love to hear stories of anyone restoring an old farmhouse. I know it can be done, and I have all the confidence in the world that my husband can do it, just not sure if we have the resources to do it. I'm excited, but trying not to get my hopes up at the same time. The kids love the house and are ready to move in yesterday, lol. The girls desperately want separate bedrooms, so I am hoping we can turn the attic into a room, but the attic would take a lot of work just in itself from what we can see on the outside. So, say a prayer for us! It would mean a lot of changes - since I am the main transportation for my mom to the doctor, to church, store, etc., we will definitely have to make some kind of plan for this. My van is getting old, and making the 45 minutes drive several times a week would be pretty hard on it. We would either have to live with my mom while we fix it up or buy a travel trailer to live in while we work. Lots of details to work out! Well, I may be putting the cart before the horse here, because we really won't be able to know anything until we go and see it tomorrow. But the possibility of maybe being able to finally move to some land is just so exciting! Blessings, Carol |
Posted in Homesteading
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I received this email the other day and thought I would pass it along. I don't know if it actually works or not, but it's worth a try if you get stung! Bee/Hornet Cure: *The interesting thing is what the Doctor told me....
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Posted in Homesteading
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Here is my list of homesteading skills I would like to learn this year:
learn to sew learn to quilt learn to knit and/or crochet (I have one daughter learning to knit, and one learning to crochet!) learn to make soap make own laundry detergent learn to can learn to make do or do without
I know there's many more skills I'll need to learn, but I would like to master these at the very least.
Blessings, Carol
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(probably the hardest for me!)Posted in Homesteading
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Hello and Happy New Year! Do you make New Year's resolutions? Do you keep them? I very rarely make them myself because I tend to forget about them. This year I am resolving to get my priorities in order; namely, God first, hubby second, children third, others next, then myself. My prayer is that having a blog will help me keep myself accountable, even if no one else ever reads this!
I chose the name "Homesteadin' Dreams" for my blog name because it is hubby's and my dream to homestead some day. Ever since I was a very little girl I wanted to live in the country but only got my wish when visiting relatives in Arkansas every summer. My husband, however, grew up living in the country and would love living there again. So for now I am learning all that I can and trying to incorporate a homesteading way of life in our little suburban home.
Well, I'm off to the store to get all the stuff I need for my part of New Year's dinner tomorrow. May everyone have a very blessed day! |
