Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Answers....


I thought I'd take a few minutes to try to answer a few of the questions that were asked after my last post.  I'd like to keep my anonymity as much as possible, but I'll answer your questions to the best of my ability!

Our "new" property is actually the homestead where I spent my childhood.  I grew up here!  When I was 8, my parents moved us from Vashon, Island to the outbacks of the American Redoubt.  We are about 2 hours from the nearest population center (a small city of about 30,000 people).  Although our business is in town (population 411), we live about 15 miles out of town.  One morning on our way to the butcher shop Miss Serenity and I had to slow down for turkeys, Sand Hill Cranes, deer, a Bald eagle and a small herd of elk.  In the last week we've seen moose, bear and a mountain lion.  Every morning I wake to the cacophony of birds, rushing creeks and swaying fir trees.  I am home.

We no longer live off-grid.  For the first time in nearly 20 years we have light switches and flushing toilets.  We have doors and walls and kitchen cupboards.  We have a washer and a dryer and instant-on hot water!  But, we haven't forgotten our past.  I still cook on a wood cookstove in the winter and use propane to cook in the summer.  I still have oil lamps filled and at the ready and have contingency plans for non-electric refrigeration.  We have an outhouse and alternative water sources.  And, when we have the time and money, we are going to install solar panels, re-establish the spring and install a hydro-electric turbine.

I have a dining room!!!

We're going to put a door where the window is

And my tablecloth....
And the garden.....I have a garden - a real garden with topsoil!!!  The gardens are actually my mothers, I'm just care-taking them for her.  She and my dad have cultivated the gardens for about 7 years, amending the soil and adding organic material.  The berries that I have been transplanting and pulling out are raspberries and strawberries.  The berry patches have exploded and taken over both the veg garden and the orchard.  My mom and I have been working to tame the vines and make room for the rest of the garden vegetables.  I've taken over the orchard (I can see it from my kitchen window) and that is where I have been installing my Huglekultur beds.  I've pulled all of the strawberries from the orchard and contained some of them in one of the new beds and put the rest in boxes, toted them into the butcher shop and have given them away.  Between the raspberries and the strawberries, we given about 12 huge boxes of berry plants away this spring!

Looking out my kitchen window to the orchard - where the Huglekulture beds are



The big garden where we've been trying to get the strawberries and raspberries in order
Owning a business is a whole new way of life!  Our family has always worked closely together, but we've always had very different jobs.  We've had to learn how to not just live together, but to work together as well.  Our son has had to learn to be a boss and we've had to learn how to run a business and how to take direction from our son!  We've been blessed to be able to have our younger children working by our side (after they're done with school for the day).  They scrape steaks and wrap meat, they label packages and scrub counters.  They taste test sausage and carry crates of meat to customers vehicles.  Sometimes Sir Knight and I are overwhelmed by the blessing of seeing our entire family busy with the family business.

Our back door

The view from our outdoor kitchen area
When we moved here, we left part of our heart in the town we used to call home.  Maid Elizabeth and Miss Serenity had stayed behind. They both had jobs and Maid Elizabeth owned a home.  Neither daughter had plans to move - but both struggled with missing their family.  After Serenity's job ended last fall, she realized that nothing was anchoring her where she was and she came home to us.  She bought a tiny house and moved it behind the butcher shop.  She joined the family business and became half of our slaughter team.  And now she is days away from moving again - 20 miles away.  She has taken a job as a woodland fire-fighter and will be heading off to fire school next week.  And then, there is Maid Elizabeth.  She came to visit and accompanied me to a yard sale.  While there, we overheard that the house was for sale.  The home, built in 1900, was darling.  It was set on 3 acres, with a barn, outbuildings and garage and was bordered by a creek.  In fact, the creek was what separated the property from our butcher shop.  By the Grace of God, Maid Elizabeth bought that house, sold her other home and moved here about a month ago.  And as she was helping at the butcher shop one afternoon, someone drove up and offered her a job.  Only God can do that.

And so, exactly one year after we moved (today is our 1 year anniversary), our whole family is here and settled and still pinching ourselves to see if it is all real.  It has been an adventure - and adventure wrought with storms and filled with grace.  And now we stand on the mountain and proclaim God's goodness and marvel at His providence.

12 comments:

  1. Thank you for the update and the answered questions.
    It must be nice to have your whole family together again.
    I'd like to move to a place like that, but I know that God has me where I am for the time being for many reasons.
    My big news is that I am getting married this fall; after many years God brought me to meet a Godly woman I have known of but hadn't met. She will be moving from Texas to join me here after our wedding.

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    1. Jonathan, I'm so very happy for you!!! Congratulations!! I pray that God blesses you mightily! Oh, that He has answered the prayers of your heart!

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  2. Happy Anniversary and Welcome "Home". Thankyou for sharing your story. What a blessing!

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  3. Thank you for sharing your stories and pictures of your beautiful home. While reading this I must have said, 'Wow....' a hundred times.
    Wow,
    Dock Guy

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  4. It was wonderful to read your latest post updating your readers regarding your new life's venture. I remember reading your other post, years ago, "The Blessings of No" which brought me to tears and now read this one with teary eyes, once again. So happy for you and your family and may our Lord God continue to bless you all.
    Ramona from NC

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  5. What a beautiful place and to have family all together again - what a blessing! I do love your updates - thank you.

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  6. "I am home" is a once in a life feeling, God bless.

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  7. Thank you for the update on Maid Elizabeth, have been praying that she would reunite.

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  8. God keep you and bless you.
    A friend from the Benewah.

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  9. "There are no 'ifs' in God's Kingdom. His timing is perfect. Let us pray that we may always know it." --The Hiding Place

    So glad to know how you all are doing. It thrills my mother's heart to know you're together.

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  10. Congratulations on the beauty of your life and seeing your children made you proud.
    A.jones
    Florida

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  11. I have really missed your messages. I am also glad that you have the whole family together again. From the height of your garden fence I assume that there are a lot of deer there. Was it maid Elisabeth that got one several years ago at the old place?

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