A former city-slicker learning the ropes of living off the land. Currently living on three acres with water shares.
Last Sunday I went with my brother to Lowe's. It's there that I found my apricot trees! Two different kinds, not Blemheim, but they are freestones. Got those planted. I ordered more grow boxes and Chicago hardy fig trees from Costco. We do need to order more compost. Like LOTS more! Got the peppers planted in the first grow box.
I purchased Steve a fun thing for the property.
For Mother's Day we drove to Coalville, a good distance away to pick up some water totes for the Park Valley property. We don't have water out there so we need to bring it in and store some. I had been trying to get these for months now and every time I saw them up for sale on FB Marketplace they were sold out. I saw them when they were initially $50. We paid $100 each. I saw an ad for them today and they are now at $150 each. Yikes. While we were doing this errand my son-in-law loaded the dead calf into our SUV to be taken to the animal pit in the morning. Kinda gross, but it is what it is. We were desperate.
Later that evening I made Amish White Bread. One of the best sandwich breads ever. Very pillowy.
One of our calves didn't make it overnight. We had called him Mr. Friendly because he was so sociable to us. Sad day.
Yesterday we had 3 cubic yards of compost delivered. I think we need more, but I'm leaving the math up to Steve. We'll see.
I've been accumulating plants over the past couple of months and today we started some planting. We planted the 4 trees that were purchased from Costco. Jonathan Apple, Granny Smith, Lapins Cherry, and Bartlett Pears. We need a second Pear tree to cross-pollinate.
We have blueberry plants, raspberry, blackberry, and strawberries. Today at Call's Nursery in Elwood, we picked up an Elberta Peach tree, tomatoes (big beef, purple, Hawaiian yellow), cherry tomatoes (cherry, yellow pear, grape), tomatillos, onions (red and white), garlic, peppers: sweet banana, jalapeno, bell peppers (green, red, yellow), artichokes, cucumbers (pickling, slicing, and lemon), yellow crookneck. They were out of zucchini. And a sweet potato plant. We need to go back for other potato starts. I'm on the hunt for Blumheim Apricots and other fruit trees. Especially since the orchard has room for 12 trees. We'll end up with a porch full of all kinds of herbs.
Yesterday my son-in-law brought over two babies. One was born that day, the other the day before. Holstein boys. We've taught them to drink from a bucket. However, this afternoon they both are laying around lethargic. Come to find out the dairy rips them from mama without getting their colostrum. I hope they pull through. I went in and pet them for a while.
We hired a contractor to grub our weeds. The plan is to put in grow boxes and garden in the front yard. The south side will have berries all along the property line. A fruit orchard will go in front of the goat pen. Need to do some planting.
We closed on our 10-acre property in Park Valley on April 28th. Tuesday we met with Raft River Electric to install a power pole. That will happen in about 3 weeks. Not sure if we're going to start with a shipping container or a shed. The shed will be a 20' x 20' and be our tiny house until we can build a small house. Both Steve and I agreed that everything has to be paid in cash for the Park Valley property. So, I've got to earn some moolah. Probably going full-time at the post office. They're hurting for employees and I've staved them off long enough.
Shed would look something like this.
Small 1200 sq ft home would definitely be this one.
https://www.houseplans.net/floorplans/146200032/modern-farmhouse-plan-1200-square-feet-2-bedrooms-2-bathrooms
As a side note, I've told Steve that if our current home ever values at $1.2 mil we're selling and retiring to the property. HA. Just kidding, but not.
Hoooeeeey, the stomach flu is going around and it's a real bad version. But that didn't stop our household from getting things done. My brother stayed in the guest room as he just listed his Layton home for sale and he needed a place to stay while there were showings for the home. Such a hot market right now. Poor guy though, I was sick and couldn't really hang with him. But, he helped Steve cut the strawberries and get them ready for the freeze dryer.
Eight pounds of strawberries ended up in two - 1 gallon baggies. Although one baggy is fuller than the other.
We purchased a large Harvest Right freeze-dryer with a premium pump (the quietest of pumps) in October of 2021. It was our splurge from selling the Bear River home. This is right after it was delivered and we hadn't picked a spot in the home yet. It's now against that back wall in the background. Our dehydrator sits right next to it.
It's been a long minute since I last posted. In July of 2015, my husband Steve, was bumped off the freeway. He rolled three times. In the end, his left side of his body was busted up. The long-term lingering effects are that he's paralyzed in the left arm and has lots of hardware in his left leg. He's aged considerably and we've had to make lots of life changes.
We went from Bear River City to Magna. A well-loved 1898 farmhouse on an acre with a water share to an unincorporated area of Salt Lake County into a late '70's split level home, sardined with homes right up in your business.
My agreement to Steve was that I would live in the suburbs for a period of 3 years to beat the capital gains tax (I had no idea the requirement was really 2 years). Meanwhile, my online fabric business that I started in 2015, right before the accident, grew. The business took up the whole basement. The business bought a Gammill Statler quilting machine and took over the master bedroom over the garage. Steve is the quilter and in Magna he had quite the clientele. I worked full-time at the post office as a clerk. But, the 3 year expiration date came and we prepared to go back to Bear River City. The plan was to build a pole barn and put the fabric shop there. But, we took in a dear friend's (who passed from pancreatic cancer) disabled adult son when we lived in Magna and the Bear River home was not suitable. The home wasn't suitable to host family gatherings and the number of grandchildren had grown. I needed to host family gatherings. So, in August of 2020 we ended up purchasing a fairly new home, built in 2017, on 3.03 acres, with the water shares, on a sleepy dead-end road. WE WERE IN LOVE! This house has everything! And I could have the grandkids over without worrying about being on a busy road or a house that didn't really allow for babies to crawl on the floor.
The ground is kind of virgin ground. Our homestead/farm is not set up yet so we get to do the planning of the layout. We have a northern pasture and an eastern pasture. Over the summer of 2021 we purchased three goats, a mom and her two boys. We didn't have a closed off area for them yet so we tethered mom and let the two boys run around on the property. Mom was distressed when she could no longer see her boys so we needed to build a fenced in area quick. Especially before the ground grew cold and we couldn't get t-stakes in the ground. Being busy working out of the home, in my shop, running a household, caring for two disabled people, I just couldn't find the time. Then I got sick with COVID, the Delta variant. Man, that wiped me out. All I could think of was the pasture for the goats. So, as soon as I was no longer fatigued and sleeping all day I went out and started pounding the t-stakes into the ground and putting up cattle wire. Mind you, I was still sick with COVID. I just had a tiny breakthrough of feeling good and took advantage of that. I probably shouldn't have. It wiped me out. My daughter, Cheyenne, and her husband took pity on me and finished the last little bit. We also purchased a cattle hutch for the goats.
