Merry Christmas

My little bitty Yule/Christmas tree at the cabin, December 20th, 2015. Surrounded by sheds, unusual rocks and pieces of prospective arrowheads that didn't make the 'cut', and all found on the ranch. What you can't see are the solar powered lights that come on at dark. That's when the tree really gets 'festive'.

From our place to yours, we wish you all a Blessed Yule, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry

Pictures from December 2015

Sunrise, December 5th, 2015

21 quarts fresh venison, 12-5-15

10 pints fresh venison, 12-6-15 (yes, the jars are green glass)

Wall behind heater looking better, 12-6-15

8 point whitetail I watched from my stand, December 12th, 2015

Blue jean & bandana quilt I started and finished in 2015, just for the cabin bed.

December 2015 Update

December 15th, 2015

A lot has happened since my last post, in spite of it being a 'lean' year pertaining to finances. But, we've managed to get a few things accomplished, and we are thankful for that.

One thing I've learned in my life is to start small. Whether this pertains to a home, a business, or even a relationship, if you start big and take on too much too soon, you set yourself up for failure. Well, we started with nothing and it's taken us six years to get the 'ranch' to the point it is now. Far from complete, but better than it was even 3 years ago.

We've been ridiculed, put down, treated like imbeciles, and hurt more than I would like to admit by the criticism, ugliness and jealousy of people, but none of that has stopped us. In fact, some of those who put us down and made fun of us during our journey, claiming that their journey was the ONLY way, have now bailed because they started too big and tried to make it happen too fast. I hope that their youth, inexperience and ignorance paves the way for their hard lessons to be learned and turned into mature wisdom, if that is even possible.

But I digress...

We finally were able to insulate the cabin ceilings with R30 insulation over Thanksgiving. To keep the insulation dust from raining down on us, we then installed a heavy plastic moisture and dust barrier over that.

We finished insulating the walls of the bathroom and finished the sheetrock in there as well.

It has made a world of difference! In fact, the one night that it was 33 degrees, I had to turn off the bathroom space heater because it was so warm in there! We had a heavy rain storm come through this past weekend and we could barely hear the rain on the roof. Before insulating the ceiling a mere shower would sound like a major hail storm!

We completed the electrical wiring in the house and to the travel trailers, as well as running fresh water lines to the travel trailers and hooking them all up to a septic tank with field line.

The travel trailers now have DC power via smaller solar panels and individual batteries at each trailer.

Our deer cleaning station also has lights and water! YAY!

We've connected four 275-300 gallon water tanks for a maximum capacity of 1200 gallons of fresh water.

I am at the ranch every weekend and any time my husband is off work. While we do have a small refrigerator that is powered via the inverter, I rarely use it and prefer to take my small ice chest. It just puts less stress on the inverter and battery bank to not have to use it.

Two weekends ago I pressure canned 21 quarts and 10 pints of venison at the ranch. Not only does pressure canning tenderize the meat, but it will keep for much longer than freezer kept meat and requires no refrigeration.

I do all of the canning at the ranch because my antique propane stove is heavy duty as opposed to the glass top electric stove I have at the on-grid house in town.

Next week our family will celebrate our first Christmas at the ranch as our daughter and her family travel out here for a few days. We chose the ranch because there is much more room there than our tiny little 'in town' house, plus our SIL hopes to hunt a bit.

Our free ranging deer have benefited from year round supplemental feeding and watering, especially in a year that suffered through several summer months of drought and high fire danger. Thus far I've tagged out on bucks, and my husband, son and father have taken one each. My hunting is pretty much done for the year because I don't like taking does, but I still go sit in my stand to see what I can see and enjoy the peace, quiet and inaccessibility to people. I think I'll leave the harvesting to the menfolk from here on out.

As I bring this little update to a close, I know that we are blessed, and I am thankful for God's provision and care. I also pray that 2016 turns out to be a 'fat' year financially because there are just so many projects we still need to accomplish!

If you are reading this, my family and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Prosperous and Blessed New Year!

Alot has changed in 6 weeks...

Alot has changed in six weeks and since my last post. I could be disappointed, and probably should be, yet I am not. 
I believe in a Higher Power who knows what's best for me, my family and our situation, even when I might think I do, but probably don't. I believe the Higher Power hears me when I pray and lately, I have been praying a lot. 
Moving out to the cabin is a dream that I've held on to for a long time. Probably longer than we've had the cabin or the land. However, within the past two weeks, I've had answers to prayers, even confirmation to those answered prayers, and I now realize that living out here full time at this moment is not what is best for us. And, I have peace within my spirit and I am okay with this. 
Maybe some day in the future this will be a reality. Maybe the timing will be within God's will in the future, but I have no doubts that right now is simply not the time or within God's will for us.

I went out this morning and found that right after I left the last time, someone came into the cabin yard and moved, broke and/or destroyed most of our solar lights and their solar chargers. Nothing else was destroyed or manipulated in any way that was evident. I spoke to a Border Patrol official and he told me that illegals have been known to do this, probably because they want total darkness.
Whatever the reason, whoever the perpetrator might have been, I had a moment where I said quietly, "Thank you, God for speaking to me!"
You see, the last time I was out there I was suddenly overcome with an intense feeling of foreboding and a voice in my head was shouting, "YOU DON'T NEED TO BE HERE! YOU NEED TO BE THERE! (As in the home in town.)" I tried to make sense of the feeling and quieten the voice, but both only became stronger and louder. I decided to listen and 15 minutes later, I was on my way back to town and the feeling did not leave and the voice did not hush until I pulled into my drive. Then I felt such incredible peace and only then did I feel SAFE!
Finding the things I did this morning gave me a cold chill. What if I had stayed and ignored those feelings and that voice the last time I was there? I get a morbid feeling that had I stayed I might not be writing this today.

There are many people who believe that the illegal aliens are only coming to the United States to better their lives and that they are harmless. They feel that Border Patrol and residents along the border are being 'mean' to these poor people and so on and so forth. And while I am sure that there are many illegals who are indeed harmless and who are only wanting a better life for themselves and their families, I also know that not all are harmless, and anyone who believes otherwise needs their heads examined. The thing is, not everyone crossing the border illegal is Mexican, and that is where the real problem lies! 
The point is, how can anyone tell me that I should trust people who are most definitely criminals, even if they are just here to find work? If they were honest, wouldn't they go through the proper channels in obtaining a Visa or Green Card, instead of paying 'coyotes' to bring them across or 'signing up' to be a drug 'mule' in order to gain 'safe' passage from 'coyotes' and drug cartels???



 

Simple and Basic

I'm pretty selfish, I guess, when you get right down to the nitty-gritty of it all. My dream of living out here, off the grid and far away from civilization, has nothing to do with improving the world as a whole or producing any type of educational benefit to the masses. All I really care about is how this will impact mine and my husband's life, how this will allow our dreams to become reality, and how it will benefit us in the long run.
This type of life is not for everyone and, in fact, it is for very few. There is nothing easy or simple about it, regardless how many times we, or others, may claim that it is a 'simple life'. 
It's not. It is far from 'simple'! 
A better word would be 'basic'. It is getting back to the 'basics' of life and understanding that there will be a lot of sweat and hard work to maintain this 'basic' life. The simplicity comes in realizing that we, as a world, have become so spoiled and enslaved by the easy things of the world, such as a flip of a switch or turn of a knob to give us electricity and water without a thought as to how it travels to us or how much we are paying for that ease of transport. We no longer have to physically exert ourselves for the basics. We just pay an enormous amount of money to the electric and water companies for the right to have electric at our finger tips and water from our taps. It's bad enough that we have to pay taxes in order to keep what is rightfully ours in the first place!
A simple life arrives when you stop and realize that, with a little sacrifice and a lot of hard work, you can have the basic necessities of life without having to be enslaved to a power company. A simple life allows you to take back control of your basic needs and necessities, where you become independent and solely responsible for those basic needs.

Presently I reside in an old, poorly built, poorly designed, uninsulated house in town. I am currently hooked up to all of the 'on grid' things such as electric, city water, ground line telephone, high speed internet and satellite television. Summers aren't too bad, but in fall, winter and early spring I feel as if I am going to freeze to death! The walls and ceilings 'sweat' and I have to constantly battle mold and mildew. My stove is electric and when we lose power, which is pretty darned often, I am unable to cook. My yard is so tiny (less than 1/8th acre) that I could easily throw a cat from any direction and clear the fences. I also live just a few feet from what can sometimes be a pretty busy highway. Because of that highway, plus the town ordinances against pets running around without leashes, my dogs have to stay behind a fence and my cats have to stay indoors. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but I have one dog and two cats who are suicidal and always end up in the middle of the highway! Add to this that I have two boys who hibernate in their rooms with game controllers in hand because I have allowed them to become dependent on the ease of electricity and internet.

So, I sit here and I pray...I pray for the sell of this house and a permanent move Out Where the Wild Things Grow. 
I am excited. To break away from the 'norm', to get out on our property, to build something where nothing once stood, to get busy, be active, be free.
I am fearful. To break away from the 'norm'...how bad will it hurt? Am I too old to chase another dream? Can we make this work? Will we fail? Will this house in town ever sell?
But, if we never get the chance to try, we will never get the chance to know!
So, I pray even more!!!
One day...



 

Our Wild Things

Out Where the Wild Things Grow

March 14, 2015

The first time I ventured out here was well over 40 years ago...sometimes it seems as if it were only a few days ago. 
Having been born and raised in southeast Texas, where the pine trees loomed higher in feet than I could ever imagine counting, the virgin hardwoods were thicker around than mine and my brothers hands laced together could reach, and where rivers, creeks and even rice field canals held water year round, this place was a whole other world!
Rocks and thorny things took up every inch of space; tall rocky hills and deep thorny canyons were everywhere. The Mexican mountains could be seen in the distance and the sky was endless, glorious and the biggest thing my eyes had ever seen. A person could see for miles upon miles without anything obstructing the view. The air was fresh and filled with the sounds of nothing more than the wind and perhaps a bird or hawk. Deer, both whitetail and mule, could be seen just about anywhere you wanted to look, and if you trained your eyes to find them. Rio Grande turkey, while not easily seen and not always prevalent, were a thrill to watch whenever you did spot them. A variety of raptors and a few owl could be seen, as well as land roaming predators such as mountain lion, bobcat, coyote and fox. There were also javelina, jackrabbit, desert cottontail, raccoon, badger, porcupine, skunk, as well as ground squirrel, rats, mice, horned toad, Texas Spiny Lizards, rattle snakes, red snakes (aka coach whips), bull snakes and garter snakes. Scorpion, tarantula, black widow... these are just a few of the hundreds of different spiders, reptiles, birds and mammals that call this area home.
The first time I ever saw a white skunk was out here, and it was also the first time I had ever seen a skunk that large. It probably weighed a solid thirty pounds! All these years later, I've never forgotten that skunk!
Two evenings ago I watched two gray fox feed on corn in my front yard. That morning I had watched deer, both whitetail and muley, jackrabbit, desert cottontail and 13 lined ground squirrel feeding on that same corn and in that same front yard. It dawned on me, as I watched the fox feed...This is 'out where the wild things grow'. 
This is my home now.
Out here, where the wild things grow!