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!
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