I had trouble deciding what to call this post. It was either “How to Keep Chickens From Dust Bathing in Your Flower Bed” or “What I Did for Lunch“. One thing I’d like to post about is my schedule. Being lucky enough to work for a great company, I am telecommuting from Hillsville, VA (EST) to Boulder, CO (MST) – a two hour difference. My work hours will be the same as those in the office: 8am to 5pm MST with an hour lunch somewhere in the middle. It works out perfectly because I wake up at 6am EST but work (for pay) from 10am EST to 7pm EST. That gives me 4 hours in the morning to do my chores, eat, shower and enjoy a cup of coffee on the porch before getting down to office work. Then at 7pm I can stop work, put up the chickens, eat dinner with my wife and maybe enjoy an hour of reading or TV before going to bed. PERFECT! But…
Living a Simple Life
Moving To The Country, Gonna Eat Me a Lot of… Apples?
24 hours from now I’ll be driving a moving van through Kansas or Nebraska on my way back east to our new property in Southwestern Virginia. It has been a whirlwind month so far. Everyone keeps asking me if I’m excited to finally be moving “out to the farm” but either it hasn’t hit me yet or I’ve just been too busy to let it register because I’ve just been going through the motions and checking off tasks without actually thinking about what a big deal this is. Subconsciously I must realize it, however, because I have been waking up with aching jaws, apparently clenching and grinding my teeth during the night.
The Time Has Come…. We’re Going Home!
After nine months of planning and years of dreaming, the time has finally come. Next week Missy and I are going to head off to Europe for one last itch of the travel bug, and upon our return in two weeks we’ll be headed for Hillsville!
Homesteading, Back-To-The-Land, Rural Skills, Foodie, Self Sufficiency Books
When we bought “the farm” it was our intent to put our city house up for sale and maybe live in it for another year while waiting for a buyer. To our surprise, someone snatched up our little wannabe-urban-homestead the 2nd week it was on the market. Unprepared, we rented a duplex and found a caretaker for our new 15-acre property on the other side of the country.
Sometimes Life Just Isn’t That Simple
My wife is trying to sell her car. She still owed payments on it so I paid the car off from our savings with the plan being that she’d pay back our savings after she sold the car. It’s just easier to sell a car when you have the title in hand.
Reminder To My Future Self…
It is the end of a decade and the end of an era (The Denver Era) so I thought it would be an appropriate time to take a snapshot. Sometimes along the road of life we lose track of what was important to our earlier selves. Usually we’ve just grown into different priorities. Still, it is important to be reminded of our values and priorities as they were at a given point in time so that we might hold our older selves accountable to our earlier selves.
Giving & Receiving Useful Gifts
I got a Poulan Pro 18-inch 42cc gas-powered, chainsaw for Christmas. It’s the kind in this chainsaw comparison. Along with it I was given some stocking stuffers like work gloves, ear plugs and some smaller gifts like a book on chainsaw maintenance and helmet with a face shield for cutting wood. I gave my wife, among other things, several sewing and knitting books, some contraption that helps her ball up hand-spun yarn, some wool… Next year she might get an actual spinning wheel, but the darned things cost over $400 new so she’s fine with a drop spindle for now.
Making an Indoor Worm Composting Bin
In the video below we show you how to make a cheap and easy indoor worm compost bin that works better than any of those expensive “worm condo” type systems you see in gardening magazines. I tried store bought composters several times and, although some were better than others, I’ve yet to find a system that works better than this one. The best thing about making an indoor worm composting bin from plastic storage bins is that you can do it for under $10. Here’s how…
Be Better Off
You really can be better off by turning things off. That’s the premise of Better Off, a book by Eric Brende, which chronicles his 18-month journey of self-discovery in an Amish-like settlement somewhere in middle-America. I really enjoyed this book for several reasons. First, I like that Eric was exploring the balance between technology and simplicity and trying to find the right recipe for him and his family. If you read our “about” page or pay attention to this blog at all you’ll know why that appeals to me.
How To Make Your Own Soap
In the video below I demonstrate a very simple homemade soap recipe using lye, lard, coconut oil, peppermint oil and food coloring. Homesteaders used to get lye from dripping water through wood ashes, and lard from butchering and/or cooking animals. Although I’d like to try it the old-fashioned way eventually, we’re sticking with store-bought lye and lard for now.
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