It's cold and snowing here in my normally warm region. The moisture is much needed, but I don't care for the cold. Me and my little chihuahuas are desert rats at heart and prefer to bask in the warm sunshine whenever possible.
I've been following a blog about a young woman trying to create her own homestead in the northeast. http://coldantlerfarm.blogspot.com/ She wrote a wonderful book called "Made From Scratch" and periodically writes for Mother Earth News. She is having a hard time right now and my heart is with her. She is an inspiration to me as a writer and as a fellow homesteader and I wish her well. I understand how hard things can be when you are renting, and sometimes even when you own property.
I think things are tough for so many people right now, which is why we decided to go ahead and make our move to the country. Even if the property is not ideal, it is doable for a while and maybe it's all we can ever have. I can be okay with that. I think about how to turn our double wide into a sustainable house, adding solar panels and changing the roof line a tiny bit to allow for a clear story to bring warmth into the north side of the house. It really is a nice home and one entire side (70 feet) is south facing, which means when the sun shines, the furnace rarely comes on. Unfortunately we can't leave all of the rooms open because the little ones would be into everything, so the rooms on the north are considerably colder than the rest of the house, well, about five degrees. It's okay, we deal with it fine, but I wonder about putting cement bricks along the north wall, essentially residing the house to give it thermal mass. I'd like to put a sun room and studio on the south side with tile floors to soak up the warmth. Anything is possible, but everything takes money, which is in short supply these days. So we improvise.
I put an add on Craig's List asking for old, discarded whole tires so we can build a retaining wall along the front driveway of the house. Those are easy, lots of people have tires to get rid of. I'm still looking for fencing. Field fence would be great, enough to fence our two and a half acres would be divine, but I fear fence is in high demand and we will probably have to buy it out of pocket at retail price. Expensive, and I'm not sure where that money is going to come from, but I have to keep my goats and llamas safe. They are our real investment right now.
I have faith that it will all work out. The money will show up from somewhere. We will get through Christmas the best we can and the new year will be better. This is the life I've been dreaming about for so many years and I am determined to make it work.
