Our humble homestead

**owiebrain** · 11-26-2005, 01:00 AM

I introduced myself up in the welcome forum but figured I'd jump right in here by telling you a bit about our homestead. (Bear with me--I'm a rambler!)

We bought 23+ acres a little over 2 years ago. It came with a ... dwelling of sorts already on it. We call it The Armpit. The following spring, we started building a new house with great expectations that all would go smoothly and we'd be moved in by winter.

Here we are, 2 years later, and we're *almost* finished with 1/3 of the house and hoping to move into that portion by Christmas.

It's an earth-berm, passive solar, concrete house with reinforcing steel. Sounds fancy, huh? Well, it's not.

We took out a small construction loan to get it started and have been building it with our sweat and scrounged parts and occasional extra money (i.e. eat ramen noodles for a month so we can buy windows

). So...it's slow going.

On the third that's almost done, we just have to get the roof frame up, fill the concrete blocks with concrete, insulate and skin the roof, seal the concrete floor, and install the windows. Oh, yeah, and throw up a quickie temporary wall where the rest of the house is to be built. Hubby's a welder and has been bringing home free scraps of beam, sheet metal, etc for us to use for the temp wall (makes great outbuildings, too!).

Most of the land is wooded with oak, pine, and hickory with a few other odds and ends here and there. About an acre or two, where The Armpit and The Future Mansion are is cleared. We started up a garden our first spring here, clearing and tilling up an area roughly 100' x 75' (don't hold me to those dimensions--I can never remember). We worked on improving our clay/rock soil and it's much improved this year! This spring, we worked the whole thing into (bare-sided) raised rows and love it. Hubby built me a greenhouse (20' x 9' if I remember right) from scraps at work so I had the thrill of not having to start 10 bazillion plants in the house. We'll be dismantling it and rebuilding it, enlarged, attached to the new house. Where was I? Oh, yeah. I'm a tomato and chile pepper NUT! I plant around 100 each of tomatoes and chiles each year. I save seeds and have gobs and gobs of varieties. This year, I've started getting into alliums a bit more. This fall, I dedicated 2 of the raised rows to various allium varieties. I'm also starting an orchard this fall with 3 apple trees and 3 pear trees that should be arriving shortly.

Critters: Other than the obligatory dogs and cats, we raise hogs (from some wild hogs someone gave to us) for meat and chickens for meat and eggs. We also have one goat, Spock. We originally bought him (and his 2 friends who died) to eat but, dang, he just keeps hanging around and clearing the brush for us. Our pond has a few fish there for the catching but we're all really horrible fishermen! Friends keep us supplied with venison which is a good thing since we never have any spare time to hunt ourselves.

We have many dreams of what the place will be like if we ever get to it all and they are, of course, constantly changing. Only time and money stand in our way. I'm not sure which is in shorter supply--time or money??

So there's a bit about our little homestead-in-the-making.

Now I need to go hunt down some frugal grocery/meal challenge threads so we can afford to finish the 1/3 house before Christmas!

**Hardy1** · 11-26-2005, 10:34 AM

Good luck with the building Diane. I had to laugh at your goat - just doing too good a job around the place to end up being eaten!
W

**marym** · 11-26-2005, 10:56 AM

Sounds challenging and fun. Are you journaling your progress. It would be fun to read.

**owiebrain** · 11-26-2005, 11:59 AM

Originally posted by marym
. Are you journaling your progress.

http://www.diane.mamasbloggin.com/

If you click on "House Construction" in the menu on the right side, you can avoid all of the gardening and kid pics mixed in.

It starts last year so there are gobs of pics!

**Valerie in WA** · 11-26-2005, 10:12 PM

Diane, I'm so glad you've joined us. I enjoyed looking at your blog and will check in frequently.

Do I correctly recall that you homeschool? If so, please pop over to the Alternative Learning area and join us.

**hollyhill** · 11-26-2005, 10:38 PM

I admire you, I don't think I could build a home with such little ones around.

So will the house be partially underground?

And I love the alliums! They look great.

**Katybird** · 11-29-2005, 07:33 PM

Diane, your family is adorable. Your boys look like they are having so much fun in all your photos on your website and your little girl is just precious. I really enjoyed reading through your site and will visit it often.

I am so glad you have joined us here at Frugal Village. It is great to have you here.

**owiebrain** · 11-30-2005, 04:56 AM

Originally posted by hollyhill
So will the house be partially underground?

Yes, ma'am.

**Darlene** · 11-30-2005, 07:49 AM

Diane, I love your blog. Your kids must have a blast just playing to their hearts content. Not everyone has a foundation to skate & ride your bike in. Your dd is just the sweetest & is going to have her hands full with all those brothers.
Your new home is going to be so grand, aren't you gonna miss the armpit a teeny weeny bit? My guess is your gonna have a bonfire & frolic about.

**Michele Annette** · 11-30-2005, 11:57 AM

Diane, I think it's great that you're building your own home. Your kids are so cute! Welcome!

**PrairieRose** · 11-30-2005, 06:11 PM

That's very inspiring....In my younger years I wanted to do just that, but now...I'm too lazy

Great going though. You'll be so self sufficient, I'm proud of you.

**jlxian** · 12-01-2005, 09:53 AM

Diane, your place sounds just wonderful to me! I applaud you and your DH!!!

My husband's uncle lives in SE Oklahoma (well maybe a little north of SE). And I understand Big Foot lurks around your area of the state. Any sitings?

**owiebrain** · 12-01-2005, 10:10 AM

Originally posted by jlxian
My husband's uncle lives in SE Oklahoma (well maybe a little north of SE). And I understand Big Foot lurks around your area of the state. Any sitings?

Shhh.... Don't tell anyone but I'm Bigfoot! With my freakishly large size 11 feet, I like to stomp around barefoot and naked, showing off my incredibly hairy body while making grunting sounds. Hey, you'd grunt, too, if you had to haul around these big, heavy feet! The silly folks around here always start screaming and running around like I'm some sort of monster. I'm so horribly misunderstood...

**jlxian** · 12-01-2005, 05:52 PM

Diane, well I bet they don't run and hide when you show yourself. LOL. I meant no offense asking about Big Foot. We recently watched a cable tv show about Big Foot and I recall a good part of the show concentrated on SEOK.

Seriously, I'm just tickled to find a Villager in familiar territory!!