Old Man Winter

Old Man Winter, has reared it's head here on our little homestead. I'm fully aware that living in the Midwest, in January, is always a roulette of weather conditions. We have been very fortunate for many years to have milder Winters. This one, began Thanksgiving weekend with a blizzard, a beautiful December, and to this point in January is atrocious!

This month alone, we've had about 34" of snowfall, and about an inch of rain. The winds have whipped through here with gusts as high as 50 mph. We've had several days of not being able to get down our road due to snow, drifting and ice. We have managed to keep warm, but our wood pile is diminishing quickly from the excess cold, and being to get somewhere to cut more is a huge challenge.

As the homestead life I've lived for 8 years now goes, this Winter is proving to be the worst since we've been here. Since Winter 2012, we have had to make investments into our house to attempt to keep it functional and warm. We invested in it the money it took to get done what we could. That being said, we made some choices on materials and purchased them through a big box retailer to try to save a few dollars. Friends, do not do this!! Don't make the mistakes we did. These big box retailers, their products even if a good brand name, are seconds or flawed materials. Throughout different issues we have found in the different projects, I contacted the store. I spoke with the management, and even sent emails and tried to contact their corporate divisions. I was told the same crap, "we're sorry you had an issue. Our products are priced to consumers, consumers purchase them, we are not responsible for anything beyond that." Now, let me ask you, if the products you had purchased were windows, exterior doors, lumber, plumbing supplies and electrically supplies...how in the world are you supposed to return all that crap? Absolutely NONE, of the issues we've had, would have been noticed prior to installation! So, a lot of money has been wasted on substandard materials, and having to repurchase new materials, a lot of time wasted having to redo what we can, and as I'm finding this Winter...needing to redo several projects because the substandard items originally purchased, have allowed other areas to be infected with issues. Save yourself a bunch of headaches, use your local lumber yards!! The prices may be a little higher, but it will undoubtedly save you having any extra issues or have the expense of having to redo your project anyway.

Ok, off my soap box and back to this homesteading life.

Many times, I've looked at my life wondering just how I could make it closer to what I really want. When we first moved out here, we did what we thought we had to do for utility service, which also proved that they weren't real smart either, since they had everything marked wrong! Anyway, we put up a cheap shed to have some additional storage and a place for livestock. We had gotten a couple of old semi trailers that didn't have the axles and used them as well. Since then, we've found our setup is not working. We had 3 sides of our property that had fencing, and paid to get up half the 4th side. We haven't been able to get the rest finished just yet. We had cross fenced the front of half and made paddocks to allow a better grazing system. We had fencing set for hogs, a building and feeders...before we took our 2 year adventure in Southern Missouri, we got rid of all that. One of those axle-less semi trailers has been used for a chicken coop, but it's now falling apart. Our cheap shed, is just that. It's 3 sided shed, that has served a purpose, but it's not what we need now.

I think as we begin to settle back into our homestead adventure, there's going to be a lot of change come to fruition. There are many areas of our homestead that are no longer working, no longer serving a purpose, and there are several areas that need drastic repairs/builds. The chemical runoff of the fields around us, has either depleted the hay/pasture soils or completely killed off sections. The chemical mist from surrounding fields even killed off my garden when it was first planted. We do not use chemicals on our homestead. I am strongly against them. Since Old Man Winter is making his presence very well known, it's giving a substantial amount of time to plan, assess, pinpoint and address the areas of issue.

We basically live on knob. We do not have any trees(aside from a few shrubs that are about 5' tall) on the front half of our property. A 20 mph wind sounds like a freight train blowing through here. Getting some fast growing wind blocks is a very high priority. Finishing our perimeter fence, and fixing many fences that were damaged while we are gone is a high priority. Deciding what to do about our need shed, as opposed to what we have, getting gravel to replace where ever the other gravel went, replacing the hydrant that was damaged while we were gone, finding auto waterers to not fight with all the frozen tanks next winter is a massive need. Getting a tractor that works, hay equipment that works, are both major needs.

The 2 years we ventured south, were to find wages and employment that were better than what we could find here. While did find just that, our homestead sat for sale, for those 2 years. While we fought against outside influence on several sales...I'm grateful to be on our homestead. I am disappointed to have to take such a massive decrease in pay and benefits again, and can only hope that we can continue to make it all work. This Artic blast that we seem to be getting this month is challenging my own positive outlook, however, I am focusing on my relentless list making, my constant figures, my garden plans, researching the best trees for fast-growing windblockers, and thinking I really need something stronger than coffee!! :)

As life goes, this adventure continues, and I'm looking forward to finishing projects, making the necessary changes and welcoming those that want to be in our lives without causing drama! Stay tuned....

Salli