Homestead Lifestyle Plan

It occurred to me the other day, that I've yet to really say what my homestead plans are.

This always makes me laugh!

My goal is to eventually go 100% off grid. I may be dreaming, given that I live in the desert and finding lots with wells are rare at best, so I may need to accept that I'll be on grid for at least water.

By 2020 (that seems a long ways away, doesn't it?), I want to provide 80% of my family's food. I'm not going to grow my own wheat or grind my own flour, but I'd like to provide 95% of our meat and 99% of our vegetables.

Step One: Buy a house and plant a garden. Seems obvious, right?
Step Two: Procure meat rabbits.

New Zealand meat rabbits!

Why meat rabbits? Well, John doesn't care for beef or pork (or dark meat for that matter). I don't know what's wrong with him. Anyway, that means we eat a lot of chicken breasts. Chicken is great, but I've heard it can be tricky to butcher and prepare correctly. My sister has had a few hens that have become dinner. She says that it didn't go well. One stank, the other two were dry and grisly and eventually went to the dogs. Meat rabbits on the other hand are all white meat and typically taste like chicken.

John is worried that he won't be able to kill the rabbits because he raised a bunny as a kid. I can respect that. Rabbits are small enough I could easily kill and clean one myself. My sister raises pigs and she said I could have all the pig fat I'd like to make ground rabbit in exchange for some meat. Whoo! Everything tastes better with some pig fat. We recently started deep frying in bacon grease. It's so good. It adds a richness to fried chicken that makes it even more satisfying. It makes my mouth water thinking about it.

I've found a woman in a nearby town who has offered to teach me how to kill and butcher rabbits in exchange for crochet lessons! I also found a butcher nearby who can get me rabbit meat. I'm planning on breading and deep frying some of it and turning the rest into shredded meat for enchiladas.

I'm not at all worried that I won't like it. I'm not picky. If prepared right, anything can taste good. John is a different story... I hope that preparing it in a way that imitates his favorite chicken recipes will make him enjoy it.

In addition to delicious rabbit meat, we'll get rabbit hide which I can tan to make moccasins, trim crafted items, line pockets, and make blankets. I want to avoid wasting as much as possible.

Step Three: Chickens.
My sister loves her chickens. I love her chickens. They're sweet, smart, and friendly. Although she's has trouble getting her chickens to taste good once cooked, her chickens are really layers, not fryers. I want layers. I'll be happy to try cooking one if I have too many, but my real goal is to keep them for their eggs.

Step Four: Dairy Goats!

My sweet mother-in-law-to-be has offered to buy my a dairy goat! I'm hoping it will be a wedding present. I want Nubian goats.

Look at that face!

Nubian goats are great because they're good milk producers and decent meat producers. Originally I had been leaning toward Nigerian Dwarfs but then I realized that I'd have to do something with the bucks...and they aren't worth feeding for meat. With bucks being about 150 pounds full grown, killing two a year should keep us rolling in meat (in addition to rabbit). John is even more skeptical  about eating goat (it's supposed to taste like a slightly sweeter beef), but he's more than happy to help me clean and dress goats. The good thing about keeping larger goats is they can hang out with the dogs. Big goats=safer goats when it comes to dogs. Plus Nubians are supposed to be smart and child friendly! We're very iffy on how to most humanely kill them. John says a guillotine sounds like a good idea (most people advocate slicing the throat) as a gun has the possibility of not killing it immediately, damaging the meat (I want to save the neck!), or missing completely and injuring another animal/window/etc. I'm not sure how we'll explain having a guillotine on the homestead though.

Along the same lines of the rabbits, I want to not waste the goats. The hide will likely be turned in to jackets, boots, gloves, etc. I've never tried organ meat, but I have a friend who loves liver and can either teach me how to cook it, or I can always gift it to her. "Merry Christmas! Have some goat livers!"

 

Loan Snag

Great news: we qualify for the loan. Bad news: we don't qualify for the loan yet.

We make a small enough amount of money, I have good credit, John has good work history and income, the only problem is that John has awful credit. We're stuck where we're at for 6-8 more months, depending on how well John handles his secured credit card. Of course, by then it'll be 100+ degrees out. I do not want to move when it's that hot, and I also don't want to  pay to cool a larger house if I can wait it out here just a few more months.

Ugh.

A Little Melt Down

I had a little melt down yesterday while trying to bake a cake. When I closed the oven door, my kitchen floor shifted, rocking the book case that I use as a counter, and throwing my freshly completed cake batter and my hand mixer on to the ground. Cake batter covered the cabinets, the clean dishes sitting on the bookcase, and broke my hand mixer.

It's hard living with 12"x28" of counter space. I cook, bake, and can. It's so difficult and frustrating having no counter space and trying to do anything. On top of that, we're stuck for at least another six months. There's no sense in moving somewhere else for just six month. Plus we couldn't find anywhere cheaper that would let us keep our dogs.

I just hate feeling helpless.

Beginning the Loan Process

Some may wonder why I've started this blog when I'm not really on a homestead yet. Why should I start it now? Well, John and I are beginning the loan process! We no longer live paycheck-to paycheck, but it's been really hard saving up money for a down payment. Well, I was doing research and found out that the USDA has a zero-down home loan program! If you're looking to move to a rural community and are lower-middle class or poorer, you likely qualify.

We found a loan officer to work with, I work with a very sweet woman who happens to be a Realtor on the side, and we completed the beginning of the loan process! The area want to live in qualifies, we are within the income requirements, and only have one problem: John's credit. One awful girlfriend ago, John ended up in debt over needing to break a lease. He was slammed with fees and fines and like any 20-something guy, he hid from it. Well, now it's come back to bite him in a big way. Our loan officer has directed us to a credit analyst who is going to advise John on the best course of action.

Our plan is to have his credit up high enough to qualify for our loan by January. We live in the desert. We don't want to be moving and fixing up a house when it's 100 degrees out! If we qualify in January, that gives us until mid April to find a place and fix it up. Hopefully that's enough time. If not, we'll hold out through the summer (our utilities bills are way cheaper where we currently live then anywhere we want to buy) and buy this time next year.

Oil Pulling

I'm undecided on whether or not oil pulling is hippy bullshit or really cool alternative oral care. I'd read about oil pulling a few years ago and had given it a shot in addition to brushing my teeth. The results? A lot less staining and yellowing. My teeth looked pretty decent. For someone who drink at least 44 oz of soda 5 days a week as well as a ton of iced tea, my teeth looked really white! But then I fell out of the habit.

For those who don't know about oil pulling, you essentially swish coconut oil (or other oil) in your mouth for 15-20 minutes first thing in the morning. That's it. No brushing, no flossing, nothing.

I noticed recently that my gums were receding a bit and I had a dark spot or two along the gum lines of a few teeth.

There's no attractive face I can make to show my gums.

 I still drink a ton of diet soda (it's my one vice), but after oil pulling for about a week, my teeth are pretty white!

I look a little hung over, oops.

As opposed to a dew months ago:

My friend and me at a concert in July.

What got me started again was reading this post from Trina Holden's blog. She recommends organic, cold pressed coconut oil, but I don't like the taste of coconut and already had some regular refined coconut oil in the cabinet. When that runs out I may try organic, refined coconut oil, but I really don't like coconut enough to swish it in my mouth for 15+ minutes.

A First Taste of Entrepreneurship

Late last night I posted a photo of my Slytherin scarf in progress on Facebook

The caption said "I've missed knitting"

When I woke up early this morning, I had three requests. This really gives me hope that I can actually earn money doing this. Will I be paid less than a homeless man? Yes, but that's alright.I knit because it's soothing and I love it. A lot of people complain because I'm robbing people who try to earn an hourly wage crafting. I think of it more in terms of a farmer. The amount of time put in to tilling and prepping the soil, planting the seeds, removing the weeds, fertilizing, dealing with bugs, and harvesting essentially means that when you're paying a few dollars for some carrots at the farmers' market, they too aren't really earning a livable hourly wage - depending on the affluence of the shoppers.

Sometimes I feel a bit guilty, as though I'm robbing those other people, but I want to earn money. I'm charging the same as the average Etsy seller. Fairness and profit don't usually go together.

Scrap Yarn Blanket

Where we currently live has no vent system. Luckily, we live in a relatively temperate climate, but it gets cold at night in a trailer with no insulation and no heater. Last year our space heater went out. We have a small one we turn on in the bathroom while we shower and get ready, but the large one bit the dust. It's probably a good thing though as it was expensive and got warm enough we (or one of the dogs) could have burned ourselves.

I love to knit and crochet. It also means I have an insurmountable pile of yarn - or I did. After using up as much yarn as I could for my scrap blanket I can now fit all of my yarn into one big tote, and I have this blanket:

Picture on our Queen size bed, but would fit a King.

I even added a cute border to use up more yarn!

Cute border

This is actually a modified granny square pattern (as some may be able to tell from the border). Instead of building out from a center point, it's done corner to corner in diagonal. I don't learn well from videos, so I used directions from Crochet Spot. Great pictures, easy to read directions, and photos for both left and right-handed hookers. What could be better?

I did mine with three strands of yarn, and a large mystery hook I found in my car. It has no identification markings on it. It's larger than a K (the larges hook I have that has markings), but not much. Regardless, I wasn't following a true pattern so I just grabbed it because it seemed like a comfortable size for three strands of yarn. As for the weights of my yarn, they're all over the place. It was just whatever I had. As I ran out of one strand, I would just tie another right on (hence the random stripe width). It worked out nicely, and I'm actually really pleased with how the finished piece looks.

For the border, I once again used three strands, cream, tan (or variegated browns) and dark brown. I hadn't included any of those colors in my blanket so I thought it'd make a nice contrasting border. I did a traditional granny square pattern (3dc in each space around) and no modifications needed to be made. It was really simple, just like adding on to any regular granny square. To finish the edge off, I single crocheted three rounds along the edge to give it a nice defined edge. It also gave the blanket a little firmer shape, so it isn't as easily stretched and misshapen.

The nice open weave of the granny squares has made this a nice light blanket for the cool evenings we've been having. It's actually a really heavy blanket (weight wise). I think this winter it will be nice because it will weigh down the rest of our blankets and not be as likely to slip off without us noticing. I hate when my top blanket slips to the floor and I  don't realize it. With how heavy this one is, we'll know.

On an ironic note, I actually had to buy one cream skein and one tan skein to complete the border. I did use 85% of both skein at least. I also went and bought new yarn the day I finished this blanket. In my defense, I am planning to sell what I make with the new yarn.

Trailer Park Garden

Right now, I live in a small trailer park. Unlike most people though, I'm incredibly fortunate to have a small yard. Last spring we put in grass because our yard was made of silt and dust, and our dogs did nothing but carry that fine powdery sand into the house. 600 square feet, three dogs, and pounds of sand ground into the carpet and I finally had enough. As non-desert friendly grass is, it was a worthwhile sacrifice. Currently our washing machine drains into the yard and it waters a good portion of our 100 square feet of grass.

The grass needs to be trimmed!

A few weeks back, I planted sugar pumpkins! Sugar pumpkins are the pumpkins used to make pumpkin pie or pumpkin cookies.  In the shadowy corner is my pumpkin patch.

My pumpkin patch is surrounded by chicken wire to keep the dogs from accidentally trampling them. To my surprise, morning glories popped up and grew along my chicken wire.

Volunteer morning glories!

With the crazy amount of rain we've been getting (almost 4 inches in one day!), my pumpkins have taken off.

The largest leaf is as big as my hand.

 No flowers yet, but hopefully I'll have pumpkins by the time Thanksgiving rolls around!

New Blog!

I'm really excited to start this new blog. I'm hoping it will help me stay focused on working toward my dreams. Read all about what this blog will be and where I'm starting out on the About page.