Well, here we are! One month has passed since we moved into our new house and land. I’ve been a terrible blogger and instead of bite sized chunks of information, I feel like I just end up dumping one thousand pictures when I get the time. So I thought I would hop on here and just share a little bit before the information becomes too overwhelming. Here are some things that we have learned and what we have done so far!
We have unpacked and moved in…
We bought 33 chickens…
We lost 1 chicken
We have massaged a lot of chicken gullets. And wiped quite a few chicken butts.
We cleaned out at least two years worth of goat pee and poop
We have built a chicken coop
We bought a zero-turn lawnmower and learned how to drive it. And discovered that mowing our acreage takes 3+ hours.
We have picked and harvested tons of cherries and mullberries. We are learning how to cook and store our bountiful harvest!
We are growing some sunflowers…
We have had a lot of guests over. It’s so fun to share our land!
We had a flood…
We planted a weeping willow tree
We have enjoyed almost 200 hours outside (in one month!)
Here are 5 lessons I’ve had to learn in the last month.
- 1. Everyone is muddy. All the time.
The amount of outfit changes and towels we go through showering off all the mud is also insane and I wasn’t quite prepared for it.
- It’s not very glamorous.
Some people make homesteading look glamorous, but it’s really not. It involves a lot of sweat, a significant amount of blood, and many tears. It also smells sometimes!
- It doesn’t immediately solve all of your problems.
Guess what? We still have bad attitudes on 5 acres of land! We still have grumpy days and good days and we still have to pay bills and make dinners and snacks for all the people.
- It’s either money or time. What would you prefer to spend?
Every project either requires time or money. Since we don’t have much of the latter, that means that we are using a lot of the former.
- My kids haven’t said “I’m bored” yet this summer
Truly, my kids have not uttered this phrase. There is SO MUCH to do around here and it’s been an absolute blast. We are so thankful that we get to live our dream life and that the kids get to live on land as they grow up and discover the world and they habits they need to build. I’ll take the mud and the non-glamour and even the bad days and still be so, so, so thankful that we get to do THIS.