Anyone out there - it's been over 2 years since I've posted

Well, I'm in my 3rd Spring of living off-grid in a southcentral KY county. I finally got a garden planted this year, and it's coming along nicely. No pics this time around. I rarely get online anymore, just when I come to a friend's home to charge my cell phone. Last time I was online was in February!

Using a woodcookstove has now become routine, as well as heating water on the stove to bathe, do dishes, and do laundry. I still need to get better at preparing for Winter as far as stocking up on wood. Though the past 2 Winters have been mild with very little snow. My first Winter here, I got snowed in twice, even though I have a 4WD truck.

Learning to can on a woodcookstove has its challenges. Keeping the fire hot, and getting a good amount of coals going to begin with is the key. I bought some pig meat from a neighbor whose son had raised two hogs - I got 65 lbs of ground meat, and 10 lbs of loin. That was at the end of March, and I'm hoping they will raise more hogs, and then get them butchered in the Winter, and I would buy a whole hog this time around.

I've gotta get a new digital camera, and will take some pics of the place, and see about getting some of the garden. My dogs got ahold of my other camera, I haven't tried it, but maybe it still works. Sorry it's been so long since posting - I hope someone is out there somewhere! LOL

I'll try to post each time I get online from now on with any news. At least then it will be a number of times in a year. HA!! This is a rather boring post, isn't it - I just don't have my creative cap on today!! Take care everyone, and I hope to be in touch more often than every 2 years!!LOL

Hidee-Ho There Friends

Hey Everyone! Sorry no pics today either. Life at Hidden Acres Farm is going well, but it's pretty cold. We've had a couple of snows, and are in one now, and I am snow-bound. I've walked to my friend's home to get online and charge my cell phone, and check email - I had 519 messages! I haven't been online since I last posted here. Oh, the name of the farm is what my landlords, The Weavers, named the place where I am living.

Yesterday I was so lonesome, since it'd been since last Thurs that I spoke to or saw anyone because of the snow storm, that I walked about 4 miles to my landlords' home to say Hey. Mrs Weaver was gracious enough to invite me for lunch. They are in the midst of butchering, so there were 15 of us at the lunch table. The walk there was a killer because I was walking into a west wind, my eyelashes had icicles. And boy! did that hot chocolate that Mrs Weaver offer me taste good! I had a great time, and the walk home was a piece of cake walking with the wind, but I did find a blister on the ball of my left foot - *whine*. So, today, when I decided to walk to my friend's home, it was pretty easy since she just lives about 2 miles from the cabin, and the wind is light, and it's not snowing.

I'm slowly learning what type of wood burns quickly and heats quickly, which ones take a while to catch the fire, but burn long. When it's in the single digits at night, I'm up most of the night to keep the fire going because it does get cold on those nights in the cabin. But last night it was about 12 degrees, and when I got up this morning, it was 60 degrees in the cabin, with hot coals still in the stove, so restarting the fire was easy, and me and the cats were warm as toast in no time flat. I loaded the firebox, and turned down all the vents so it would burn low and slow while I'm here at my friend's place.

Two of my male cats still like going out in this weather, but they both have a good layer of fat and hair to keep them warm, plus they know they have a warm place to come in and get warm again. I've not been doing any more canning, although I did buy 2 10 lb whole pork loins and can that meat, and got 7 quarts, plus 9 pints, and still had some meat left over for a meal or two. This canned meat that I've put up has come in so handy during these 2 storms we've had where I've been snow-bound for a week - each time. Christmas and New Years was uneventful, but I did notice last night that the daylight time is increasing, where it is not pitch black at 6pm, but still a little light outside - a sure sign of good things to come in the Spring.

I hope you're all well, and had a blessed Christmas, and a wonderful New Year. May this year bring you many blessings. Take care Ya'll, and thank you so much for following this blog of mine, and for all of your wonderful and helpful comments. Oh, I do leave a pot or two of water on the stove for humidity, as well as for making coffee and hot tea. Thanks for the heads-up on that Sawn. I'll talk with ya'll soon. May God's abundant love and blessings be upon you all. So long from snowy Casey Co KY.

Long time . . . no post!

Hey everyone! I'm in town and at the library in Casey Co. It's been a long time since I posted. I've been pretty busy getting ready for the Winter, and just had a rick of wood delivered. Plus I have over a rick of "slab wood" that is from a sawmill - smaller pieces and slabs of wood taken off the logs that have bark on them. And everything is in the woodsheds.

I've spent the last couple-three weeks canning. Turkeys were on sale at the local grocery store and I bought 2, just one at a time. I put it in my cooler on the front porch to thaw, then baked it in the woodstove. The first one turned out a little dry, but I got an oven thermometer for the second one and it turned out great. Between the 2 birds I got 11 quarts of meat, deboned. Then I canned 12 pints of chili. And now have 40 lbs of russett potatoes in the cellar waiting to be canned, and will hopefully get to those soon. Although the grocery store here has whole pork loin on sale very cheap, so I hope to get a couple and can those with a little onion and garlic added, and I can process that meat raw, and it makes its own juice.

My latest purchases besides wood have been a double-blade axe, and a small hatchet for splitting some of the slab wood that is too wide for the stove. Oh, and someone asked me if I had electricity. No, I don't have it, and I have the wood cookstove for heat and cooking. I'm finally almost all of the way unpacked, and have some more things to sort thru before moving my bed up to the loft. The cellar is under the whole cabin, so quite large for a cellar, and there's plenty of storage space, and a ton of shelving made just for canning jars. And with the hard, hard rains we had in the last few weeks, it doesn't leak at all - thank the Lord!

Sorry no pics today. I have been coming into town to do laundry, then take it home to hang dry, and there are lines running across the ceiling in the loft, so I can take home what I washed today and hang it up inside. The cats are doing great, and my youngest, Pookie, has caught numerous voles, and is so proud of himself that of course he brings them to me. One of my females, Annie, caught a vole and brought it inside and it was still alive, and it got away from her, so I'm assuming it got out some way since I've not seen it for weeks - or smelled anything dead! LOL

I'm not sure when my next posting will be. I don't come to the library much. If I come to town, I generally just get errands done, and need to get home to do chores, etc. But I'll try and be more reliable in the future. I really appreciate all ya'll's friendship and for following this blog. Oh, my email account had been hacked, but I went in and changed my password, so hopefully that will cause the hacking-sending out spam emails to stop.

Take care everyone, and I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I sure hope I post before Christmas, and maybe next time I can post some pics of the cabin and valley in the Winter with snow. We have had a little snow lately, but this weekend we're getting rain on Saturday, then snow on Sunday with very low temps. It was in the single digits at night a few times this week. God's abundant blessings be upon you all. I'll be back soon, from Casey Co KY.

Wash Day at the cabin

Just a quick post to show about the day I did laundry at the cabin. I am at the public library in Casey County checking email and doing this post. Hopefully I'll be coming into town once a week to check email and blog a bit. Without further ado - here is the first wash day at the cabin.

My bathtub doubled as a washtub for doing the wash.

And the agitator is my trusty sponge mop.

My boiling water bath canning pots served as my rinse tubs.

The load was too big to do all of the rinsing in one tub.

Here I've finished rinsing half of the load and the other

is waiting to be rinsed.

Here's the rinsed load with my basket of wooden clothes pin.

It's ready for hanging on the line.

And - TA-DA - here is the clean laundry hanging on the clothesline

that I had to put up that day - it was about 5 p.m. when I finally got

the laundry hung out to dry, and it stayed out overnight

and all the next day to dry.

Not a very exciting post today, and I don't have a lot of extra time to spruce it up. Thanks so much to all of you for following this blog, and leaving comments - they are much appreciated. I'm gonna try and be more organized to get postings done on the day I come to town. I'm still unpacking, and also getting ready for the Winter. I've been able to get some wood delivered, and will get two or three more loads delivered by the end of the month.

Blessings to you all - have a wonderful week. We're gonna have great weather so I can get some things done outside, as soon as I get over this cold. Thanks for stopping by and reading this post today. Have a blessed Monday. Take care, from Casey Co.

Simple Silent Sunday

A photo from fotosearch.com of a view I am seeing often since I moved to Casey Co.

Have a peaceful-blessed Sunday, Ya'll.

Take care.

Meet the Neighbors

These gals and guys are my company most days. I like to sit outside in the rocking chair on the front porch, and it is so quiet that I can hear them pulling the grass up with their mouths. You will see that the pasture looks very highly grazed. The Mennonite young man who takes care of my neighbors comes everyday and moves them to new pasture. So this area is part of an intensive grazing system. Sometimes they get out of their fence and come and visit me around the cabin. So without further ado - Meet the Neighbors.

I think I need a new digital camera - so that will go into the budget planning over the next few months. It is overcast today - but this seems really washed-out, sorry for the poor quality. Looks to me like there is a mix of dairy and beef cows - Holstein crossed with Angus, Hereford, and Charlois - a lot of the females have that bony appearance of dairy cows.

Hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday, and have a blesseed rest of the week.

Take care Ya'll, from Casey Co KY.

Silent Saturday

Early morning at the cabin in the valley - Casey Co KY

Have a blessed Saturday Ya'll

Simple Sunday - just some shots

Just some photos today - here is the view looking to the back of the cabin.

There's my bathtub on the wall, and the door to the left is to the

dumb-waiter that is lowered to the sub-basement to keep things cool.

I think there may be something wrong with my camera, but this looks a bit

blurry on the left, but this is the back of the cabin, so you can see the

size of the place in this photo. And it is built on a hill, so that is what

you see from the front, the three levels. There on the right leaning up against

the cabin is my mailbox post, someone pulled it up out of the ground

before I had a chance to put up a mailbox. So, my landlords are gonna

get it put back up and I'll then get a mailbox.

That bar across the top got into the photo - it is one arm on the

clothes line frame, but I need to get some clothes line wire for it.

Here is a photo of the woodshed, and also the outhouse, and you can't

see it, but the rope is attached to an old farm bell, just in case I run into

trouble. I don't get any cell phone reception down in the valley. My neighbors

down the valley should be able to hear me.

This is a little blurry thru the windshield of my truck - it's on the way down

the ridge into the valley where the cabin is located.

Another photo out of the windshield. This is what it looks like coming up

from the valley, onto the ridge opening, then I go thru this little bit of

wooded area to get to the main road.

Hope you enjoyed these photos today. I meant for it to be a simple

Sunday post, and it turned out more complicated than I thought.

I'm getting online mainly at my friend's home, so I don't have to

go into the public library.

Take care All - and have a blessed Sunday.

From Casey Co.

My coming home move

I made it to Casey Co, and will post some pics, but not a lot of detail right now. Everything went fine with the move, finally. The guy that was supposed to load for me was stuck in FL on another move, and when he thought he would be in town, was still stuck in FL - so the move had to be changed to last Tuesday.

OK - here are some shots of the cabin and area.

This is a shot of the cabin from across the way, and that is the driveway

going up to it. That cross piece of wood by the cabin is the hitching

post for the horses when my Mennonite landlords, Mr and Mrs W 

come to visit or if someone comes to repair something.

This is a shot taken from my front porch of the stone bridge that was built

by the W family, who built the cabin for their son and his wife.

A morning shot from the front porch.

The porch faces north, and the cabin sits in a valley

so there is fog every morning, and heavy dew.

Here is the dairy barn when Mr and Mrs W's son was

trying to get into the dairy business, but was not successful.

So the buildings are not being used now, but I am hoping

that I may find some use for them in the future.

This is inside the cabin facing the back, or south.

I think you can see the staircase going up to the loft, and

there is Alpheus on the cat tree.

This is the wood cookstove with my various "tools" needed

for cooking. I have just been warming up food on the stove,

and haven't really done any cooking yet, but am planning

a trip to the grocery store today to pick up a few things.

So I will cook tonight, hopefully.

This is kind of a dark photo - but it is my cat Sarah,

and a basket of goodies, and a flowering plant that Mrs W

brought over when she and Mr W came my first day in

the cabin. They came to give me a crash-course on

lighting the wood stove, and a few other things

I needed to know.

That's all the news from here. This is kind of haphazard, I know.

And I will do a better job of it next time, and show the dumbwaiter

where I can keep items refrigerated in the sub-basement.

So, I've made it a week here, and it's been easier than

I thought it would be, but it isn't Winter yet! LOL

Oh - the outhouse does have a toilet seat, so I'm not in

jeopardy of getting any splinters! ROFL

Take care All, and I'll write more soon.

Have a blessed Tuesday.

Friday Fotos

You've heard of wine in a box - here is cat in a box -- Miss Annie.

Of course my cats have "cat" beds, but they

seem to like anything BUT their own beds.

Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, I have yet to master taking pics with my digital camera, plus it's a cheapy camera! I'll have to invest in a better one sometime.

Hope Ya'll have a great & blessed weekend. I will be offline for quite some time since I am moving tomorrow and don't know when I will get to the public library to update my blog. But I will have photos of the move, and pics of the cabin, etc. Thanks for all of your well-wishes for my move. The weather is going to cooperate greatly, and is supposed to be in the 70s for a high, which is great with the cats riding in the truck with me, so that they don't get too stressed with hot temperatures.

See Ya'll soon. Take care, from Fayette Co KY - soon to be Casey Co KY.

Thoughtful - Thankful Thursday

I was thinking today of how many years ago it had been since I'd wanted to be involved in farming, and it was back when I was in grade school and into high school. Back then, I wanted to marry a farmer, and have 12 kids, work on the farm, as well as cook huge dinners for the family and hired hands just like the farmwomen of old.

Things changed, life happened; I did get to raise some chickens, a few hogs, and a couple of heifers when I lived in Bismarck ND with my then husband, but my management skills had much to be desired, I know better now. Then I worked for 9 years with a university swine research unit; and before that helped on another university's farm with their hogs and sheep.

After working on the swine research farm, somehow I got lost, and forgot about farming and working with animals. Probably because the farm was a confinement system, and I couldn't see working with livestock in that environment any longer.

Somehow, come 2006, my yearning for farmlife returned, and I started reading up on raising chickens, and goats, and sheep - the Storey Publications. Began learning more about intensive grazing, and its benefits.

Then, that fateful day occured when I heard Suzanne McMinn on NPR's Inside Appalachia - about her blog Chickens in the Road. That's when things really turned around. But maybe some seeds were again planted when I made friends with a gal in Casey Co KY on a Yahoo group, and back then, which was about 2006, I had dreams of moving there and helping her on her farm.

I think that things happen for a reason. Most of my life I have wanted to live and work on a farm, work with livestock. I've had the chance to do a lot of that along the way, even marrying a son of a farmer, and though it didn't work out, and Steve had no want of farming, I still got to work with his Dad some on the farm and come to love it even more, and get his Dad's support in my wanting to learn and experience farmlife.

I honestly believe that God has been preparing me for this moment of getting the chance to move to Casey Co, and become involved in farming full-time. Even the experiences I had when I went camping in Amish country in Lancaster PA have shaped me to this day. When I was there, I went next door to an Amish dairy farm and asked if I could help them finish milking because it was starting to get dark, and they looked like they may need a hand, if just to carry the milk buckets to the large holding tank.

All of this reflection is just to say I've been thinking a lot today, and am increasingly grateful and thankful of the experiences, good and bad, that have brought me to this time in my life. I am thankful for all of my blogging friends who have given me the courage to do what I have dreamed of, and for their encouragement and support. I see through your experiences how many possibilities there are, and to not give up on my dreams. So I now say a heart-felt thank you.

These are my reflections for a Thursday.

I hope Ya'll have a great rest of the evening.

Take care, from Fayette Co KY

Soon to be Casey Co KY

Thankful Thursday

This Thursday, I am thankful for sore muscles - all over my body!

There has been construction going on at my apartment complex, inside and outside the buildings since the new management took over in January of this year. Lately, the banging, sawing, heavy equipment moving has gotten on my last nerve.

So, yesterday I took a trip to my beloved Casey County KY to visit my friend Bobbett, whom I will be farming with when I move there at the end of September. We spent the day clearing out her no-longer-producing tomato plants and weeds from six cattle panels. Then moved the panels to the barn.

You wouldn't think it would take about four hours to do such a thing, but it did. There were still some good tomatoes on the vines, some ripe, some to make fried green tomatoes with. We took our first break for a drink after about two hours of work, and to cool off since it was in the upper 80s yesterday, though there was a nice breeze blowing.

Our second break, though, was the one I was looking forward to the most. We went back out and worked some more after our first break. Then, this is what was waiting for us during our second break before we ate lunch.

Bobbett and her parents have a nice swimming pool at their place, and we both jumped into the pool with our work clothes on. I had on shorts and a t-shirt, and Bobbett had on the same. It was delightful to say the least. We spent about thirty minutes in the pool, then went in to have some pasta salad for lunch. Then we were all rested up and satisfied with food, and went out to finish our task.

I left there about 5:00pm, having gotten there about noon. It takes almost two hours to get there from where I live. And today, I am sore all over from my finger tips to the tips of my toes, and what a wonderful workout it was. I think that the move to the cabin, and my future in farming with Bobbett is going to be a success. And we'll get more done outside as the weather cools, than we did yesterday.

Take care, Ya'll. And have a blessed Thursday. What are you thankful for today?

thanks to fotosearch.com for the use of their photos

News from Casey County KY

I was standing in line at the pharmacy today, and my cell phone rang. But I was talking with the gentleman behind the counter about my prescription, so I didn't answer my phone.

So I looked at the number that had called, and it was from the Mennonite couple, Mr and Mrs W. They don't have a phone in their home, but near Mr W's shop is a public phone booth for the Mennonite folks to use to make phone calls.

There was a message on my voicemail from Mrs W saying that all of my references had checked out, and that I could rent their cabin from them. They are going to be cleaning inside and out of the cabin for the next couple of weeks to get it ready for me. No one has lived there for almost 3 years, and the grass/weeds have grown up quite a bit. And there are some things inside the cabin that need to be repaired.

So I hope by about the third week of September I will be making my move down to Casey County KY. I need to call Mr and Mrs W back to let them know I got their message - and find out how much rent is going to me - we didn't decide on an exact amount when I was down there a couple of weeks ago. But I know that it will be way less than what I am now paying in this 2 bedroom apartment in Lexington.

I'll keep ya'll posted. I am headed to Casey Co on Wednesday to help my friend, Bobbett, with some of her garden work. I need to get out of town for a day, and be somewhere where it is quiet. There is construction going on around the apartment complex with heavy machinery, etc, and it's making me a little edgy. Time to head to the country for a few hours.

Take care, Ya'll. And have a blessed Monday evening, from Fayette Co KY.

A Trip to Casey County

Note: None of the photos were taken by me - they are from the Internet - I forgot to take my camera with me on my trip to Casey County - 8-(

On Saturday, I drove SW of Lexington to Casey County, where I will be moving at the end of September. I met a great Mennonite couple, Mr and Mrs W, who have a small home or cabin that they may rent to me - if my references check out! LOL

Some of these photos are ones of Amish and some are Mennonite, I know that there is a difference between the two, but I wanted to share some of what I found on the Internet.

The cabin is small, just 16 x 20 with a half loft for sleeping. There is a porch on the main level, and also one on the loft level, which has a porch swing. The area is hilly, and down from one of the hills comes the spring that furnishes the cabin with water. The cabin also has a dumbwaiter where I can put items that need to keep cool, and it is lowered to an area that is in the sub-basement, or below the basement, into a spot that has a spring running in it. The full basement is poured concrete for plenty of storage area, and a lot of shelves for keeping canned goods. The cabin is built on a hill, so the basement is a walk-in.

There is a kitchen area with a deep sink, counter space, and cupboards that run high up towards the ceiling for plenty of storage space. There is a small vanity next to the kitchen counter to wash hands and face. The source of heat and of cooking is like this Pioneer Maid wood cookstove.

Up the hill behind the cabin is an outhouse and a woodshed. There is a large boiler tub where a fire can be started under it to heat for a bath in the warmer weather. I haven't figured out how I am going to do laundry yet, but could conceivably get a gas powered wringer washer, and put that in the woodshed. There is one of those umbrella-type clothes lines so that soon the back of the cabin will take on this look.

For the time-being, when I first move in, I will be doing laundry at a friend's home and bringing it out to the cabin to hang and dry. There is a laundry line in the cabin on pullies that is located in the loft for drying clothes during cold weather. One thing that concerns me is that the lines from the spring to the cabin may freeze in the winter, at which time I'll need to haul water from my friend's home.

I was glad I just bought Ruby, my truck, last Monday because I couldn't have gotten to the cabin without her on the one lane gravel roads. On the way back from the cabin, we drove on a road that went thru a creek, and then up a steep hill. My Toyota Echo would've never made it.

It's going to be an adventure. And I'm not sure how much blogging I will be able to do except maybe once a week when I go to the public library in town to use my laptop. I'm not even sure I can get cell phone recpetion out at the cabin. My current carrier Sprint doesn't have any reception in that area, so I will have to find one that will. I was hoping to get a BlackBerry and keep up with email that way, but time will tell.

I'll keep you all posted on what transpires with this move. My first concern after moving will be to get a good supply of wood for cooking and heating before the weather turns too cold, and the prices go up. I imagine I'm gonna be eating a lot of store-bought canned food for a while until I get my feet under me and figure out how to cook from scratch on the Pioneer Maid. I really want to be able to do some boiling water bath canning and pressure canning to stock up for the winter, but I'll just have to see what time allows. I could easily see myself getting snowed in if we have a bad winter. Oh, and there is a large pond on the property, so like FarmerPam at Life on a Southern Farm, I may be taking my Ivory soap and take a dip in the pond to bathe while the weather is still nice.

Wish me luck, Ya'll. Take care, from soon to be Liberty KY in Casey County.