Seasons of Change

As I sat by our fire pit a few months back, I was thinking about how much I enjoy the change from summer to fall.  The cool crisp nights, the starry skies, hot beverages, warming comfort foods, and the leaves on the ground are definitely a welcome relief from the hot humid summer days.  I was talking to my nephew about a huge season of change coming up in our lives and how it's sometimes hard to let go of the comforts of the "norm".  Life can get comfortable and when a new path presents itself, we have to decide whether to stay comfortable or embrace that change.
We are embarking on a new journey, a new season in our lives.  We have decided to fulfill our dream of becoming homesteaders.  You may be wondering, "what the heck is a homesteader?"  "Broadly defined, homesteading is a lifestyle of simple, agrarian self-sufficiency."(wikipedia)  We know not everyone would choose this lifestyle, it seems a bit weird, I know, but we can't wait to own our own homestead and live more simply.
How did this all come about?  Well, I was raised with a sense of self-sufficiency.  My parents always grew a garden and stored food from the harvest.  I remember thinking how hard working a garden seemed as a kid and thought, this is crazy, the grocery store has this food, why all this work?  Most of my friends were watching TV or playing barbies in the summer, while I picked and shelled beans, canned tomatoes, picked up potatoes, and shucked corn.  Beans were the worst, they took forever.  But looking back now, those bean shelling days are some of my fondest memories with my family.  We would all sit outside, or around the kitchen table if it were too hot, and have a good time talking and racing to see who could fill their bowl the fastest.  There was always a few arguments over helping a slower sheller (a-hem, Amanda), once we finished our own bucket.  It felt like torture, having to sit still for that long as a kid!! lol  Now tomatoes were kind of fun.  Amanda and I would take turns cranking the juicer or scraping the seeds out, it was like a neat science experiment.  Even though we all dreaded it and complained a lot, I am really grateful now for those summers since I learned a lot about family garden life and growing your own foods.  I never thought I'd desire this life for my family, but here I am, ready to give it a go.
Over the past 3 years, I've developed a passion for whole, organic-ish living.  I shop completely different now, use natural body care products, and try to be as resourceful as I can to treat the Earth well.  So naturally, I began reading a lot about raising your own food and making natural care products. etc.  We've just slowly integrated a lot of these things into our lives, and we began dreaming of an even more simple life.  So then the dream of owning more land and doing more self-sufficient things began to form. 
About this time, I was pregnant with Elijah, so while I did what I could, I knew this would be a slow process since we were raising young children.  When I was seven months pregnant, Jason and I spent a weekend at a bed and breakfast called Butterfly Hollow.  We knew that two babies meant less time for us, so Noah stayed with Pa and Nanny and we spent the weekend alone.  It was absolutely perfect.  This place was amazing, and best of all, it represented our dream, when we really had no idea what that looked like in real life.  The owners, Dave and Sharon, were the most gracious hosts, and we developed a life-long friendship immediately.  I read their story about how they had bought this land, renovated the farm house, and began living a more self-sufficient lifestyle.  They began sharing their little paradise with others after opening the B&B and I am so glad they did.  This sparked our fire to someday own a little place of our own for our family.  So we began dreaming....
For inspiration, we bought the book, The Good Life and started talking about how life would be on our little farm.  We knew it would be a while since we were about to have another little one in the house and at the time we had several medical bills yet to be paid off.  We developed a plan to get out of debt as soon as possible, and making this dream a reality.  Meanwhile, we would start small, here at our own home, and learn some homesteading skills.
We did join a local CSA, Red Springs Family Farm, to begin eating from the garden in a larger way.  We knew this wasn't the time or location for us to start our own big garden.  That summer, I started harvesting our weekly basket of produce and making some new things, like pesto, relish, and salsa for storage.  I also started freezing some things when we had extras.  It wasn't much, but we sure were proud of it! lol  We were introduced to many new foods you can't find at the grocery store, so it was very exciting. This year was our third year participating, and we learn more about harvesting each time.  The Entwistles are also a very helpful and have become an inspiration since they pretty much live "off the grid."  We look forward to learning more from them as we begin our own journey.
The first year, we just grew some herbs in planter boxes on the deck and they did great!  Last summer, we also grew a small raised-bed garden. We raised radishes, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, cantelope, peppers, and squash.  Everything did grow, some things better than others, and the squash eventually took over the space, but it was a good first experience overall. Elijah loved eating the cherry tomatoes right off the vine!  This year, we pretty much grew nothing, lol, because Ava Mae made three and we knew it would be a challenge to keep up with the work.  So we participated faithfully in the CSA and it was a good year with them.  They also brought blueberries, eggs, and raw cheese this year, so we had a good amount of local foods this season. 
Jason has a few projects going too.  About a year ago he started to make home brew (beer), and is really good at it.  He has made several different types, but my favorite is a vanilla apple hard cider.  He also has some wine going and some vanilla extract is working too.  Hmm, all his projects involve alcohol...ha ha!  
He also constructed a little fire pit area by the wooded area of our back yard and we have enjoyed many nights by the fire, usually with a drink in hand, lol.  We have an awesome tree canopy above our hammock close to the fire pit, and it is the most peaceful place in our yard.  We kind of created our little "homestead" in the sub-division.  You don't have to have land to homestead, just start where you are.
 So for the past three years, we've been dreaming of what we want our new place to be like.  We've looked at places online and in the real estate books just to see what was "out there".  We refinanced our home last year to take advantage of the low interest rates and we went from a 30 year to a 15 year with about the same payment.  So we felt like our dream was getting closer, but still not time yet with another new baby on the way.  Our plan was to stay here about 2 more years from the refinance and then start looking, no rush though, we really love our little home here, so we were content.
Fast forward, year and a half later, early September 2010.  Jason and I were in the van and started talking about our "dream" again.  It had really been strong in my heart for a few days, so when Jason said, "let's just start looking," I got really excited!!  We had planned to take the boys to see Pa and Nanny, and Jason went to the store to pick up pizza for dinner.  He picked up a couple of real estate books and I started looking through them.  I was in the "zone",  hoping to find a few possibilities that might be worth looking at.  It was kind of odd to actually be looking since we hadn't really been talking about it until that brief moment in the van hours earlier.  I couldn't stop looking, in fact I was up until 2 a.m. looking online.  I found several that looked pretty good, but I kept being "drawn" to this one particular listing.  It had about 12 acres, a house built in 1991, nice creek with swimming holes, and several outbuildings.  Then I noticed WHERE it was and got really interested. (I'll elaborate more on this later.)
So the next day, Sunday, September 5th, I called the realtor who had this property listed to see if we could view this property.  Usually when we see something, we like it and go on because something is missing on our list of wants, but this time, I felt excited to see this place.  The realtor said she would call the owners and see if we could come out that afternoon.  She calls back about 10 minutes later and explains that she has a funeral to go to but "the owners would gladly meet you to show you the property."  That was really neat because who better to explain the land than the owners, which usually doesn't happen under a listed property.
So we drive out to the place, a beautiful and familiar drive, and turn onto the road the property is listed at.  We see a house close to the end of the road, and I said, "maybe that's it?", Jason is like, "no way."  But it wasn't that house, but the next one down the gravel road.  I see it and immediately love the land...the house, while very rustic and cute, was a little close to the gravel road, so I thought that might be a deal breaker. I felt almost in a cloud like daze, it was weird, lol.  We walked through the house first, and learned that it was Amish built, so probably solid construction.  The layout was very different, non-typical, but more functional for farm life.  A few weird quirks here and there, but some neat character and 100%  liveable.  It also has a basement, big plus!
So then we head outside and the yard is just beautiful.  Lots of shade, a beautiful creek, a super nice detached garage(man cave), chicken coop, small stall shed, a tractor shed, garden shed, wood shed, and Noah's favorite, a tree house!  There is mostly flat acreage, so useable land in case we want to build another home.  There is a great gardening spot, wild blackberries, grapes, a mulberry tree, sugar maple, and hazelnut tree!  So the land layout is perfect with a few extras.  We end up staying for 2 hours and really bonded with the owners, super nice believers.
So we leave and the wheels are turning.  I really like it, it feels like a God-led find in my heart.  So much so, that I had forgotten the issue of the gravel road beside the house.  This was our ONLY hang-up, and it was a big one to consider with three little ones.  I was consumed with the thought of this place.  I couldn't quit thinking about it.  Jason and I went back and forth, trying to decide if this was "the" place.  Jason said the only way we could even consider it would be if we immediately build a fence along the road side of the house so that the kids could not get past it.  He made some calls and found out that a fence could be built but that the county does have the right to road usage for part of our yard, but that they saw no problem in putting a fence there because the road is not a main use road, confusing, but basically he got the clear. 
So we waited for about 4 days and prayed and let our hearts meditate on the thought of possibly buying this place.  I researched the history of the Amish community that lived in this area(also more on that later) and felt an immediate draw to the place.  We went back to the property and spent more time with the owners.  We talked to a realtor about selling this house and representing us in the purchase of the new place.  So we made the big decision to go for it!  The only issue was selling our current house, so up on the market it went, and we made an offer on our new homestead.  We got a great deal on the property and the sellers allowed us to have about three months to sell our current home before closing, what a blessing.
On December 10th, we officially became the owners of our new place!! We are so excited to begin this new journey.  We have so many ideas, so many dreams, and we know this will be such a great place to raise our family.  I love country life, it is so peaceful and simple.  I know we will have so much fun working together to make our vision a reality.  We have so much peace and know that God's grace is going to guide us through all of our adventures.  We hope to bless others and find ways to show love.  I think some sort of ministry will be birthed out of this new path.
We still have not sold our current home and I know you might be wondering how we are going to handle two houses.  Well, we got it figured out for a while.  We have prepared financially and know that the timing will be great, I just have peace that it will all work out perfect.  It was a big decision because we are very wise with our financial blessings, but we know this is where God wants us to be.  Every provision has been met, and then some.  Jason has had the best winter of his career so far, and we are extremely thankful for that.  I am praying for our current house to sell to the right family.  This house is so blessed, we love it, and it holds special memories, but it's time to move on to a new destination and make new memories.  It is almost Christmas and we feel like we have gotten an amazing gift this year, a dream has become reality.
Soon after the holidays are over, we will start working on transitioning to our new place.  Jason is going to start working on building that fence and I will begin making the house a home.  I look forward to sharing our homesteading adventures with you all and maybe inspiring you to step out of the hustle and bustle of daily life a bit and just enjoying this beautiful sufficient Earth God gave us to enjoy.  Blessings to you all and hope you have a wonderful Christmas celebrating the best gift of all, Jesus, our amazing Saviour.    
   
 

Stay tuned...

Sorry I've been MIA lately.  I know I have a few followers, so just wanted to let you all know, I am planning on writing more very soon.  Life is good, lots of great changes, lots of growth, which means...lots to share.  I have learned that I have to manage my time with three little ones, and it's been challenging to find time to write.  I feel the inspiration coming back.  I'm gonna work on my layout a bit, learn some new tricks on getting pictures uploaded, and fancy up my page to get me motivated to share my thoughts a bit more often.  Even if no one follows me, I've realized this is an excellent way to journal and document milestones, I love reading my own blog to see how I've grown and to even learn from myself!  So stay tuned, lots of new things to share.  Here's a sneak peak of something I'll be blogging about quite often.....