We are still working on getting financing to buy the house. It certainly is much more difficult nowadays, we have been working month after month to pay off DH's debts---which really aren't many compared to the average American these days. I think his total debt was around $2500. We've been paying it off month by month for the last few months, but the houses we've looked at and wanted are being sold---it's very depressing. The house that I posted links for a while ago is still on the market---with its 5 acres of beautiful land (mostly wooded, but that's ok with us!) They lowered the asking price by $20,000 and I am scared that someone is gonna snatch it up before we get approval for a loan. I am so scared, I wake up in the middle of the night in covered in sweat and shaking---I REALLY want this property. I've been trying to let it go---the other property that we were looking at and loved that had a much better house on it sold a couple of weeks ago and I was crushed, but not too badly. I really want the property with the 5 acres, it's more secluded than the other one and just beautful. How does one let that urgency go? I know things will happen when the time is right but I've never been a patient person.Not knowing what is going on with our life---I didn't order any seeds for a garden. Now I know (or assume) we're gonna be here for at least the summer so I want to have at least a small vegetable garden and my herb garden. I'm thinking of doing it all in containers in case we happen to get the house, and then we can take the garden with us. I was planning on planting a bunch of tomato plants in the front yard since it gets a southern exposure there, although I was also interested in trying out some of those hanging bag tomato planters. I am just torn on whether to invest the time and energy into something when we could still possibly be moving. Of course, if we don't move I'll be upset not to have grown my own veggies. It's dizzying, being in my head these days, LOL!
I am so eager to get to my own homestead and really start working towards self-sufficiency. I'm tired of neighbors who are so close they can hear our conversations in our home when they are outside. I'm tired of the neighbor kids teasing our puppy to make her bark when I am working hard to train her not to bark at them. I'm tired of being on a busy street where I have to worry about my kids safety--not just from traffic but from the child preditors that have been out in droves lately trying to pluck young kids on their way to or from school (thank goodness mine are homeschooled!) My younger boys are 11 and almost 9 and I barely let them out of their yard---that isn't right but there is so much wrong around here that I don't feel safe letting them go further than a couple of houses from our house. We live in the suburbs, but I don't feel safe here---cars in the neighborhood are always being broke into (ours was a few years ago) lately there have been a rash of house robberies in my neighborhood. I know these things can happen anywhere, but I have this desperate need to get out of the city, into the country, where I can have some peace and possibly not have to worry as much as I do now.
I've been reading so much about chickens and goats, I am SO eager to
have some of my own. I got a copy of the Encyclopedia of Country Living and I've been reading it from cover to cover--I am eager to build a chicken tractor, have a garden bigger than 1 X 3, have goats following me around like my dogs and giving us fresh milk that I may actually be able to drink (I'm lactose intolerant after a gastric bypass surgery). Living here is easy, keeping house, keeping our small yard nice---I want hard work and to be so tired from working to live that I pass out everynight when my head hits the pillow.Well, I've whined enough for one post---this is what I am doing while we're waiting for financing:
reading anything and everything about country life
learning about solar, wind and hydro power---we are going to be off grid someday
I will plant a small, portable garden---just in case.....
I will buy local, organic produce until I can grow my own
I will experiment to learn, make a small compost pile, anything I grow will be grown totally organic
look for local farms for fresh eggs and meat
use my huge gas guzzler-van as little as possible
keep working with my kids on recycling
go through stuff in the house and freecycle all we don't need/want
We will have our own homestead someday, hopefully sooner rather than later! I'm not getting any younger, LOL!
Ok, now onto my newest WIP, I started the Daisy Summer quilt, I've got the top done and I need to square it up, put on the black and white border and then applique the daisies onto the top. Here is what I've done so far. I am still practising the free-style machine quilting. Dh is building me a quilting frame for hand quilting, so I don't have to hold it while stitching and it'll be easier on my carpal tunnel. That's it for me for now, I'll post more pictures as I get more done! Have a good week!
9 comments:
I can so appreciate your desire :) Hold onto your dream, it will come! All in good time ;) xoxo melzie
The house you have posted a picture of looks wonderful, but I am sure that when you are ready the right one will be ready for you. It is so hard to wait, though. I live in an apartment -- as long as we live where we do, a house will be impossible. But I certainly appreciate the dream!
Lol* My Husband and I were just recently in a similar situation. We had gotten ourselves into a little credit trouble, and to get out, we sold our house (also in a bad neighborhood) and moved to a very nice apartment and paid rent for a few years while we straightened out our credit. It was tough because I have two young girls, and it's heartbreaking not to give them the memories of a home. But to give them any future we had to get our credit straight. So we got rid of all our credit cards and checks. We eliminated all bills that weren't necessitites. We have since, paid off my Husband's student loans, an old repossesion of mine (embarassing as it is to admit, it needed to be done), all of my Husbands credit cards, we paid off his car, and all of our medical bills. This took us about 4 years. But after all that waiting, when we went to get financed, we were pre-approved for more than double what we'd been approved for the first time we bought a home. I don't even think of that house as our first house! It really stunk, but I learned that sometimes, all that waiting you do to get where you want to be, makes you appreciate it so much more when you get there. We finally own our own house again, and I can tell you that I am so much more grateful because I know how much work it took to get it - AND, we knew what we wanted and held out for nothing less than that. So while you're feeling discouraged and depressed, and even though what may seem like the house of your dreams could be snatched up and sold, it might be that the Universe has got you holding out because something better is coming your way! GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT! :) It's true!
Also - my Mother would love your ambitions! Lol* My parents live on three acres just out of town, and have started growing all of their own organic vegetables - they are big on the self-sufficiency idea as well! :) Good luck to you, and sorry for the long post!
Our stories are very similar. We are hoping to move in the next 6 months but we are waiting for a job transfer so we have no idea when it will happen. I'm doing all my growing in containers this year in case we end up moving this summer. It is really hard to live with the uncertainty. I'm also working on getting this house ready to sell and learning all I can about gardening and livestock before we get to the farm. I'm working hard on trusting the universe but it is so hard to wait!
As I read your post, I saw myself in almost every sentence. We recently tried to get a loan to start our homestead, and were told we needed more credit. So we are working on building that up but in the meantime I am chomping at the bit. I have never wanted anything as bad as I want this.
We have decided to get started as much as possible on our dream of self-sufficiency even while we are living in the city.
We have a good-sized garden and I am learning to can vegis and have started making jam and baking bread. We also recently got six baby chicks and are building a small chicken coop.
Hang in there!
Barb J.
Thanks to everyone who left comments, they all helped me greatly!
Thanks Melzie, I'm trying really hard to be patient and let things come as they will, LOL! That's always been hard for me!
It is a wonderful house, Lori, although it does need tons of work but it was priced nice enough that we could afford to buy it and still have money after paying the mortgage to fix it up. Alas, that house isn't meant to be (it was sold) so we'll have to find the dream elsewhere! The dream moves on, LOL!
Thanks for the post, quiltmommy, it was the perfect length so don't apologize, LOL! Thanks for letting me know what you went through, it certainly gives me hope for us! As of today, we have gotten approval for a loan and we will have our pre-approval letter in hand on Thursday---so it starts!
I SO know what you are feeling, Christy! I will do my garden in containers this summer as well, hopefully we'll be able to find something and move sometime this summer! I hope you hear about the job transfer soon! Waiting is SO hard!!!
Hiya Barb! We got copies of DH's credit report and just started paying things off one by one. We still have a ways to go to pay it all off, but he has improved his credit enough for us to qualify for a good loan. I still plan on paying it all off, most of what is left is just small doctors bills--which the mortgage companies don't consider, apparently. I have been baking my own bread for a year now and I started canning last summer, it's a lot of work but I used to just come down into my pantry and stare at all my pretty jars of foods I canned myself. Silly, I know, but it is so satisfying knowing that I did all that! Good luck to you, I hope it all works out for you as well!!!
I wanted to comment on the Scottish Meat Pie Shells that you show pictured. They look great! Are those the ones that you made using a jar/glass?
No, I didn't actually make those, if you click on the picture it'll take you directly to the website it originated from. I use an empty tuna can and mine don't look as good, yet! They do taste good, though! You can buy a press to make the shells, but the woman merchant I buy pies from occasionally, told me that they are extremely expensive and if you are just making them for home, use a jar or a tuna can.
I have been searching for a press or machine for making the Scottish Meat Pie shells. Would you have any idea where I might look for this? A brand name? Anything?
I have not been able to find such a press.
Thank you.
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