Taking Stock

That's Sal from Jenna's farm, courtesy of 468 Photography. Doesn't he look chilled?

Today's Taking Stock is here, because I definitely have the farm on my mind. There's all kinds of thoughts tickling on my brain today.

The ink is barely dry on the new lease, and I'm angry. Angry at how very stuck we are, and how much that stuck-ness is of our own making. Yes, it's that much harder to save when you're only dealing with 1 income for 2 people, but telling myself that moving forward isn't realistic until we've done A, B, and C...when I haven't researched yet whether we need to do all three (in theory) in order to move forward....doesn't serve our futures any better either.

The real estate market is unbelievably soft right now. I spent time this morning torturing/educating myself by looking at homes for sale in western NC. The only real criteria I threw in the search was less than $150K. I was BLOWN AWAY by the selection. Sure, there's fixer-uppers and a ton of research to be done (I had to laugh at some of the fine print..."no septic of note"....yea, even a greenhorn like me can decipher that one) before we can really start looking, but if we don't start now, we're going to be sitting here 14 months from now, signing another GD lease. I can't do that.

These thoughts were also prodded by the inspection we just had. The lenders for our apartment complex did a full walk-through with no other explanation given. I've lived in apartments for 17 years now, and have never had that happen. It spooked me; and while I'm sure it was routine, it got my wheels turning. Sure, they'd have to give us plenty of notice if something drastic came down the pike (like buying us out of our leases if the lenders decided to shut down the place), but it also really brought home how dug into that place we are. Not just physically, but the concern that we'd have real trouble finding other housing because my credit ain't the greatest. Much as we like to talk about how our reliable rental history will work in our favor, it's hard for it to compete when it's going up against a credit score in the low 600s.

Thoughts like that certainly help with the mindset of: "you must maintain stability, because your options are limited." You read about people moving back home in an interim situation, but that's completely not an issue for us. My mom downsized to a 1-bedroom apartment, and his folks' house is busting at the seams (6 people living in a 1500-sq-ft split level). That's fine, we're grownups, I have had no trouble keeping a roof over our heads. I guess the fear comes from the thought that by wanting to disrupt everything to move out of state, you're no longer keeping the wolf at the door...you're opening the door and inviting the damn thing in.

I want a yard for a garden. I want a house. I want to live north of Florida. Those are the big 3......what the hell's stopping us? If we save X amount with each check with a total saved goal in mind, while continuing to improve the credit and research the move, it doesn't make a damn bit of difference when it happens. I don't have to stay in web editing, not even sure I want to, and I'm willing to work my arse off if it means getting us the hell out of Florida. I'm through being pissed because we're not there yet. Our time is now.

Outside: too pleasant right now (mid-70s)...but it's dropping Friday and we're due for our first freeze already on Friday night/Saturday morning...

Inside: meh.

Wearing: jeans, black flats, two shirts, wild hair ponied

Reading: Animal Dreams and whatever credit repair/first-time homebuyer advice websites I can get my mouse on...immense gratitude to Jenna for being the initial bug in my ear with this post.

Creating: lists

Going: OT Saturday

Hoping.....see above.

Keepers...Motivation

This is going to be a planning weekend. No more screwing around.

All images have been referenced before on Ember Madrone.

Thoughts Thanks to Irene

Seeing the different preparedness lists that come out online and elsewhere before and after a decent storm...it brings to mind how very screwed we'd be if we lost power for more than a day. I hate being that dependent on electric, and I hate how unprepared we are for the stuff of life that happens. For gods sake, we still don't even have renter's insurance! If the place burned down...

It's a combination of city living and ignorance that has us this unprepared. I'm determined to do something about that this weekend. We barely have two pennies to rub together right now, but I'll be damned if I'll let this lack of knowledge continue.

Homestead Revival

So I troll for blogs on a fairly regular basis, as a means of relieving boredom at work. My current interests lie in making a home for Les and I (and our hopeful children, or animals, or whatever crosses the threshold)...somewhere, where I can actually have people over. We haven't been able to entertain at the apartment for literally years; it's a smoky cave of a place piled high with boxes and the detritus of 13 years of packratting in the same space (and it's barely 800 square feet). So I dream of renting a house, where Les will smoke outside (he's agreed to this, thank goodness...I hate reeking of smoke when I'm not the smoker), and decorating it a bit, and finally indulging in the small touches of light and warmth, from real curtains to preserving food to keeping plants and animals, so many things that go into making a home. I finally understand why my pal R said she swore by Martha Stewart when she first got married. I turned my nose up at that snobby perfectionist (Martha, not R) at the time, but I totally get it now, because I've been scouring the web for homemaking blogs for a while now, and from Martha to Pioneer Woman and all the rest, there's some amazing ideas out there, very bright, mostly women who have worked hard to recognize and practice what goes into making a home.

The roadblock I'm stepping over frequently though, is that many of the homemaking blogs out there are by women who have been saved, devout Christians who aren't afraid at all of pushing their religion out into the world, while simultaneously living according to an anti-feminist, overtly modest, and Titus-referencing mindset. It's confusing, and more than a little off-putting to this admitted pagan, and with the exception of a rare few that in spite of their heavy Christian overtones, are beautifully written and so graphically pleasing that I can't help loving them (in particular, Eyes of Wonder and Rosie's Ramblings, something about that family has me hooked), I find myself dropping them and wandering yet again.

Then I happened upon Homestead Revival this week, and I'm once again completely smitten. As you read into the archives, you're once again struck by the Christian faith aspect, but it's more lightly done, and the mission tenets of the Homestead Revival, while possibly unintentional, are written to appeal to any faith.

The Homestead Revival™ Mission:

• Return to the basics
• Live closer to the land
• Strengthen the family through homemaking
• Embrace being a keeper of the home
• Encourage the next generation in homesteading skills
• Build community through sharing

Sure, that fourth one is probably meant for women to follow the Titus path by being homemakers ONLY (and no, I'm not minimizing it, just noting the rule they—literal Old Testament readers—have that says that women shouldn't work outside of the home), but I'm in a marriage where that's possibly never going to be realistic, plus I definitely have a feminist streak. Does that mean I can't apply these concepts to my own life? Of course not! The blog is a goldmine of recipes, ideas, and how-to's, and there's a pile of other bloggers she's noted who are also making it work by living off the land. I wish I had the weekend to troll the archives, but we're going to SC, where computer time is scarce. Whatever, I can't wait to read more!

The Ole Hands in the Dirt Itch

Summertime is sitting out on the back porch with a glass of sweet tea. It's watching for fireflies and smelling good things growing around you.

As summer crests its hill here in FL, I find myself itching to get my hands in the dirt once again. I find myself wanting to invest in two cheap plastic chairs for the back porch, even though we barely have room out there for people. If I consolidate my planting stuff and the cooker stays in a corner, we'd have room to sit out there. Just takes a smidge of elbow grease. It won't happen this weekend, because we're going up to SC, but I want it to happen before summer slides into fall...

I remember how markedly pungent citronella is...we bought two plants of that when we were landscaping the backyard of the house pre-sale. It's a brilliant plant to put out in a grove, IMO, since it keeps the area from being too bogged down with skeeters. Wouldn't mind one on the porch, to keep us from being eaten alive.

I'm hitting that point where stuff is packed and I wish I knew where it was. I'm itching to reacquiant myself with Starhawk and T. Thorn Coyle, and damned if I can tell which box those books are in. Next weekend, I'll start cataloging/labeling boxes for the move, and assessing what boxes may need to be replaced. Also hoping a spare $10 can go toward larger boxes...we've been operating with mainly book size so far, and we're hitting the point of needing more mediums and larges.

I have a trip planned to Charlotte the first weekend in August thru the 10th. Wanted to get a couple of days there to explore and visit a) staffing agencies, and b) real estate offices/property management companies. I've been checking out house rentals on Rentals.com, but until I have a letter of intent from someplace, it's moot. Since I have gotten zero nibbles from real job applications, I'm researching staffing agencies, expanding my search. Looking at paralegal ops that don't require certification, or admin asst positions that fit my experience. May not pay as much as we need initially, but it'll get us up there, and I'm still planning to work remotely as well (not that that's a money maker at all nowadays, but it's something). And if the injections continue to help Husby, hopefully he'll be able to grab something part-time once we're settled too.

This post really belongs in the Moving blog, but as I write these things down, I'm always with my eye on the bigger picture, that of getting us up there, so we can start refining our credit further and get in the market to buy a house with a little land. It's doable, especially as the economy continues to crawl...I pray we can find ourselves in a position to still take advantage of the shitty economy/soft housing market a year or so from now. I still think about meat and laying chickens, 3 sheep, a dog or two, a decent garden. It'll take money and serious hard work, but the benefits will far outweigh the effort required.

25# a Day?!

I think about getting a milk cow for our little patch of land. Apparently, I'm quite talking out of my ass still. This is why it's good that the dream is still so far off...I've got some serious researching to do.

Throwback to Trapper Creek says she's feeding her 9-month (aka nowhere near fully grown) milk calf a regimen of milk replacer, daily pasturing, and then 25 pounds of hay at night with some grain. That's like, half a small bale! That tells me that for just one milk cow, I would need to grow a field of hay on top of buying from outside, just to keep the cow in feed. That expands my acreage needs and increases the whole package. I'm also betting that if I were to try like, 3 goats or sheep instead of 1 cow, I'd easily be talking about the same or more in feed. So I definitely have to research more and put some reins on my initial dreams.

Update

I know in my bones, that it won't be logical to try and find a house that's zoned for livestock when we first move up there. I have too much of Dad in me to even bother with the notion. This could be disappointing if I think about it too much, but really it's just pragmatic...it's going to be hard enough just getting up there. Our credit may not be up to snuff. We will run out of money too soon, no matter how much we save....because once we get up there, there's going to be some big initial expenses: washer/dryer, lawnmower, and couch for starters. So wondering whether or not we're allowed to have a couple of chickens, just isn't worth stressing over yet.

Start with a puppy, work our way up...that's what I'm hoping. Once we're settled into a place, I'd love to get a puppy. Figaro would probably disown us, but I know I want more animals, and I'd love the challenge of a dog. I've been reading more about them recently, training, temperments, breeds, and of course, once we find our little patch of land, dogs will enter into the equation to help with our tiny batch of livestock. But it's in the "we'll see" category, of course...if we're enjoying a small human at the same time that we're settling in, we'll certainly have to shuffle the dreams around some.

My goals for the rest of this year will revolve around getting us up to Charlotte. But I definitely want to start making lists here as well, for what I'm looking for on my little patch of land. These don't have to be there either; of course, I expect to do some building ourselves, but it would certainly help.

Example:

1. A barn
2. At least one outbuilding
3. A sheep/goat shelter
4. A chicken coop
5. At least 2 acres? of fields

Goats, you ask? Well, I found a farm blog recently that had Nigerian Dwarves in stock. They're frickin' adorable and good for milk, so they peaked my interest. Lord knows, if you invest in goats, you need patience, good fences, and patience; but I'm thinking about them anyway.

Been reading the writings/blog of Jon Katz at Bedlam Farm. It's stirring my soul the way Jenna at Cold Antler does, because he's another one who realized he HAD to live this way and jumped into it before he knew exactly HOW to live this way. So there's plenty of mistakes and calamities documented for us poor city folk who're dealing with Barnheart and looking for our own cures.