It may not exactly be the harvest I’m waiting for…
But one thing I love about homesteading is that nothing goes to waste, not even the weeds I pick from my garden
The chickens, ducks, and guineas love the bounty of fresh greens and dirt!
And so do the sheep!
And all was not lost for us humans today.
I was able to gather a pretty decent crop of rhubarb for us too!
If you are on our Facebook page, you may have seen some of this info already but I wanted to share more complete details here on the blog about our adoption process.
We have a tentative move in date for our ‘new’ son set for mid July. We have some work to do beforehand here on the Homestead. As you know, our family has incurred the costs of moving three times this past year, including the big move all the way to the prairies of Saskatchewan! And we are still covering all the costs of our home back in BC since moving here to be together as a family again and close to my husbands work. We are finally settled into a home where we will stay, and this is where our adoptive son will join us. We never stopped moving ahead with the adoption process through all the chaos of this past year, because we know this boy is meant to be a part of our family! We were not willing to give up! He is worth it!
However, there is a reality we are up against now. We are short one bedroom in this home. We have the space in our family room to build an extra bedroom, but it’s going to cost a fair bit due to the work needing to be done, and to do it properly, and safely.
We need to completely replace the current window so it can open for a fire escape, (it’s a solid pane and may need to be made bigger). A proper wall needs to be put up and we need to put in a door.
We are at a standstill as to what we can do financially at the moment, but this work needs to be done by the time he arrives. So we need to come up with the funds quickly, to get it done in time.
Hubby already works all the over time he can, and I work more hours than I should, often late into the night, each and every week to cover extra gas and other extra costs associated with the adoption course two hours away these past months, on top of the bills of two homes etc.. So I thought about others who adopt, and the many families my husband and I have supported, and donated to, over the years, to ease the burden of others adoption costs. I realized maybe it’s time we stop trying to do this all on our own, and reach out to say, “Hey, it’s our turn, we are almost to the end, we could use some support now.”
I don’t share this because I feel we are owed anything in return for the support we’ve given in the past, I share this because our future son is worth swallowing our pride so we can get this done, done on time, and get it done right! I also know what a blessing it’s been over the years to know we’ve helped others! Each time we see a photo of those adopted children we’ve contributed to, it is salve to our hearts! I know some of you feel the same way, and receive joy from helping in this way.
Which brings me to my plan to get this done. I’m having a big stocking, with some auctions including items from others who have so very graciously donated to help! The stocking will be held at our hyenacart shop on Friday, June 14th.
I’m mainly going to focus on special things I know you, my customers, would love to see. For example, often I’m asked if I would sell my dyed fabric. I never do, but decided I’ll dye a couple of special pieces and auction them. I’m going to create some special one of a kind packages. I’d love to hear more of what you’d like to see! I love to hear from you all and do my best to try to make your wishes come true, so I thought I’d start the ideas rolling! I’d like this to benefit our soon to be son and our family, but also bless you greatly too!
Some of you have asked if you could help by simply donating funds, and I wasn’t sure how to go about collecting from you. I had a wonderful facebook friend from our page share info about an international fundraising website we might like to use for our adoption expenses. However, after looking into this option, and researching others past fundraisers, I’ve decided against this route. I’d like to share why.
I’ve seen others who used fundraiser sites get ‘verbally’ ripped apart by naysayers/haters. We’ve decided we are simply going to work hard to put together an awesome stocking, and if
people would like to support directly, because they feel led to do so, we are going to trust that you will take the extra few moments of time to email me for information on how to do so at homesteademporium@gmail.com
Or if you use PayPal, you can simply send anything you like directly to that same email address.
Adopting, and adding a 14 year old boy to our family is emotional enough, along with the difficulties our family has been through this past year. I just don’t think we could handle ANY haters/negative comments from people who don’t take the time to get to know us, at the moment.
Unfortunately, when it comes to adoption there are plenty of people who like to think only people with a good amount of extra money should adopt. We know the truth is, only people who care enough to share their love, their family, their homes, and their lives, should adopt. How much money we have RIGHT NOW, is relative. Our family works hard to keep on keeping on. We have made it through a lot! It’s that same determination and willingness to keep our heads up, through these hard times, that made it possible for ALL of us to even consider adding to our family. We know this added expense for renovations that we just can’t really afford at the moment is a temporary financial difficulty, and we will get the work done one way or another. Extra work never stops us from anything worthwhile, and we know this adoption is worthwhile!
If you would like to come alongside our family and support us, we truly appreciate it!
And in reality, you’ve been helping all along! Every dollar made from the Homestead Emporium shops has always gone directly to support our family, including this adoption process! So even if you can’t give ‘extra’ help now, if you’ve ever purchased from our shop, or if you’ve ever shared our Facebook page, our blog, or website with your friends, you have already helped and ARE a part if this process, and a part of the Homestead Emporium family.
And as always, for this we truly thank you and we pray you will be blessed in return!
Again, the email to use to contact us about how to help, or to support us directly through paypal is homesteademporium@gmail.com
*If sending directly via PayPal, please label it as ‘Adoption Support’ so we can keep all of these funds separate.
The date of the Big Surprise Stocking is set for June 14th!
We hope to see you there and please share on Facebook ect. once we begin advertising!
I will also continue to post updates of the adoption progress here and on our Facebook page. Since our adoptive son is a part of the foster care system, I’m unable to share proper photos of him with our family publicly but once the adoption is finalized, you can be sure we will have some family photos to share at that time!! In the meantime, I’ve put together a couple of ‘collages’ that should be safe to share. Forgive the silly Groucho mask on the one. 
On Sunday we skipped church to continue on with the long weekend of work!
In the afternoon we went over to our friends, Steve and Delia’s farm to pick up our new sheep. They asked if we would mind helping to round up some cattle while we were there, and we said SURE! It sounded like fun!
Our friends have a ‘real’ farm with over a thousand acres of land. Land, land everywhere!
Their property is actually one we had looked at to possibly rent last summer when we were in desperate need of a place to stay, with just TEN days left to find something. It was a good thing we hadn’t chosen that place to rent, since it sold just months later, to our friends!
We were able to round up the cattle out of the pasture quite easily, and into the pen. Then they were separated Some of last year’s calves were still nursing, even though new calves had come, so it was time to separate them from their mamas.
Once the cattle were all sorted out it was time to gather our new sheep. Three sheep and two lambs.
Steve taught us how to band the tails, and how to band for castrating. What a simple, effective, and almost pain free way to get the job done. It should be ‘interesting’ to see how it all turns out over the next few weeks.
As you can see, they really didn’t mind much at all.
Then we loaded them up and brought them home. Finally, all the work over the last days, and weeks, has been worth it and everyone is happily home!
This past weekend in Canada was a long weekend, and my husband happened to have the entire weekend off too! Well, off from his ‘day’ job, but certainly not off from working as we did more in this long weekend than he probably does while AT work!
It is a real blessing to have a handy husband, and most of all, one who is willing to learn how to do just about anything in order to help his family!
First up on Friday evening while all five kids were out at a Youth dinner at church, sheep fencing!
Any time we do fencing, we rent the post pounder from our local co-op store. It saves SO much time. In the amount of time it took my husband to pound ALL the posts for the entire sheep yard, I dug ONE hole with a hole shovel.
I did pause each time to guide my husband to each new post site while he towed the post pounded from one to the next, but still… that hole took a long time. However, it got me up close and personal with the soil here on our land for the first time. It’s like soil I’ve never seen before. Very hard to explain but it’s very dense, moist, dark and rich. A good soil from what I can tell with my limited soil experience! It made me that much more excited to start gardening!
We were able to get all the posts in before dark, and even got up the stucco wire for the sheep fencing! It was a great recommendation from our farming friends Steve and Delia. They are also the farmers/friends the sheep came from. A huge help in our new sheep endeavor!
(Delia is also my friend who has the shop Delia’s Pantry , if you haven’t checked out what she offers for sale, you should do so! I buy my elderberries, raw cocoa powder, yogurt starters, sour dough starters, powdered vitamin c and all sorts of other stuff from her shop!)
By the time the kids all came home from Youth Group, the fence was up!
On Saturday the first item on the agenda was to clean out the barn and get the sheep stall ready! It was a MUCH bigger job than expected, as is usually the case with these things!
Graydon (dh) and the three younger girls, Elsa, Shaylah and Julia, had already spent every spare moment over the last few weeks taking trailer load after trailer load of soiled straw out of the barn. Barn cats had been using almost the entire barn as one giant little box and it smelled just like it! We love our barn but hated the smell and the thought of all that cat feces and urine everywhere. The worst part of cleaning it up was needing to wear good thick face masks while working. It made the already hot job even hotter and we’re so glad we began working on the barn right away, rather than when the weather became even warmer this summer!
All together Graydon figures him and the girls removed 30-40 trailer loads of straw from the barn. We were unable to finish getting every last bit out of the loft but the cats seemed to have kept the loft rather clean, using the stalls as their litter box, so they decided to leave the last bit of straw up there. It will have to wait until we fix the roof. For now, it can catch any leaks there might be from spring time showers.
Once the barn was empty, Graydon pressure washed the walls and stalls.
Once with water, once with cleaning solution, and then gave it one last final rinse. Finally, the smell of cat was barely noticeable!
The barn was finally just about ready for Shaylah and Julia’s sheep!
We’ve been on our new, our FINAL, homestead now for a couple of weeks and things are going well. We’ve (mostly Graydon and the three youngest) have been working hard outside and in the barn (have I mentioned that I LOVE our barn?!) getting things ready for the arrival of Shaylah’s sheep! It’s been a dream of hers for a very long time to have her own sheep.
First it began with wanting ONE sheep for wool. Shaylah felts wool creations, so this made sense.
Then I felt she couldn’t really get just one sheep or it would be lonely, so we began looking for two sheep. Possibly a breeding pair. We were originally wanting Shetland Sheep, as we felt they were a nice size for a small homestead.
Well…then Shaylah fell in love with a certain sheep at our friends farm. She named him Wally.
Quite the character. He looks like he’s smiling here!
I wasn’t too worried about this love of Shaylah’s, since he wasn’t for sale!
In the meantime, we continued the hunt for Shetland sheep, with no luck!
Well… then our friends called one day and asked if Shaylah would like to have Wally. They were down sizing their farm and were not going to breed sheep any longer. And would we also consider 1, or even 2, of their favorite females to go along with Wally?
We pondered this. They were not the breed we originally wanted, BUT, emotional attachments are sometimes more important then particular breeds, and Shaylah already loved Wally so… ok.
So now 1 sheep became not just 2, but 3 sheep. Julia decided she would LOVE to have a sheep too, and since she’s a very hard worker and loves farm life, even though she already has a horse and a dog, we said ok! Now the girls can care for the sheep together.
So now we were at THREE sheep, or so we thought…
2 female sheep don’t come alone in the spring time…lol
We’ve gone from 1, to 2, easily to 3, and now to 3 sheep PLUS 2 lambs!
It’s pretty easy to say yes to lambs though. Plus, as much as it may be difficult when the time comes, the lambs are not here to stay. They will be sold in the fall and it will become a way for the girls to earn some funds for the care of their ‘pet’ sheep.
Shaylah has plans to use the wool for her felting business too. We’ll be learning how to shear, and turn the wool into fiber! Lots of great learning adventures to come!
And next spring, there will be even more lambs and the fun and learning will continue!
Patches. My quiet companion this morning at 5:30 am.
We’ve had her since birth. She is Alesia’s cat, Alesia was there with Patches’ mother when Patches was born almost 15 years ago. Alesia was just 7 at the time, & now Alesia is almost 22. Patches has been on a raw food diet for a good part of her life and has never had a need to visit a vet for any ailments.
She became an indoor only cat when she was 9 or 10 because she would occasionally get lost. The last time it happened she was gone for weeks and came home weighing 5.5 pounds. She’s normally 10-12!
I like Patches, but I’m not a real cat person. I’m much more a dog lover.
There are barn cats on the property here, but they are completely feral, and that bothers me. I want to be able to catch them and see what their health is like. I caught one on camera once, and it looks healthy but I’d still like to be sure.
Barn Kitty
So pretty with those bright orange eyes. They say calico’s are always girls, that’s what I’ve heard. So I expect this would be a girl. I’m really surprised we’ve found no kittens! Shaylah has been trying to catch the barn cats, with no luck so far. Not even with tempting food!
I would have preferred to bring in at least one barn cat ourselves that’s friendly, but now I’m not sure it’d be a good idea if we can’t catch the others to check their health first! I wouldn’t want to spread anything from current cats, to new cats.
On the prairie, barn cats are a definite must with any feed around! Mice are abundant, and I’ve heard rats can be too. Right now our barn is still in clean up mode as we prepare for sheep arriving this week but once they are here, we’ll need to stay on top of any unwanted visitors (rodents)!
Our previous home, the one we just moved out of, was the home I had fallen in love with so long ago, the home I wanted to move into since my husband first moved to the prairies of Saskatchewan, the home I had asked him to go take a look at, to see if it was possibly THE home for us, the BIG BEAUTIFUL home that was so fabulous on the realtors listing was my DREAM home.
The size of the house was fantastic, plus there was a two car garage and 87 acres.
I felt it was a piece of heaven on the prairies! When we first moved in, I shared about my love of the great big beautiful home:
http://homesteademporium.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/the-long-way-home-continues/
But… as our Long Way Home seems to have proven over and over again this past year…
It just was not meant to be. Here we are, after our third move in one year.
When we were first given our notice to move out, I grieved. Really, I did. I loved that home. What’s not to love? The kitchen was amazing.
The great big tub with the great big crack that my hubby fixed, was my favorite place in the world whenever I was stressed. I could never understand how the previous person’s who lived there all left the tub cracked, and unusable, when they could have enjoyed it all that time as much as I did!
Don’t get me wrong, the homestead we are in now has a LOT that I’ve enjoyed from the start, the big barn, and the beauty of the mature yard site. As Shaylah said the other day, it offers the best of all we loved about our BC hobby farm, trees and trees galore of ALL sorts! Nature at it’s finest! This, I love about our homestead. There’s also a HUGE garden, and lots of fruit trees. I love all this about our new homestead too!
However, there were things I didn’t like so much. It’s much less land, just under 18 acres. The home is much smaller then the home I had fallen in love with, but in all fairness, it is still 2400 square feet, so it’s not small by any means.
The house…it’s well used, a typical prairie farm home that’s in need of a good amount of love. The kitchen is the exact same kitchen from when the home was built many years ago. The bedrooms are small, our bedroom furniture won’t fit and even with half of our bedroom suite out of the room, my husband and I are still hitting our knees on the remaining furniture, just the bed and the dresser, every day. My sewing room is unfinished and certainly not ‘refined’. I’m trying my best to pretty it up, and I’m actually getting there. It’s difficult with a rather small, no, a non-existent decorating budget, but I do have lots of fabric at my disposal, and, I am creative. I have full confidence that I’ll do more then make it work, I’ll make it beautiful.
However, the house does have it’s positives too. The fact that I even have a sewing room is huge. Many women don’t have sewing rooms. I know that I am blessed and I do appreciate that. The floors in the house have all been updated and are good, even if not what I would personally choose. Although there’s wood paneling everywhere downstairs in the basement, the upstairs walls have all been freshly painted in neutral colors and I have NO desire, after THREE moves in one year, to even TOUCH a can of paint, so that’s a BIG plus.
And I know that just as we’ve done before, Graydon and I will turn this well ‘used’ home into a wonderful retreat one day. We know how, and we’ve done it well, we can do it again!
I really do love the barn, the huge shop and quonset on the property are awesome for my hubby and son, my soon to be humongous garden is like none I’ve had or even dreamed of, and the every loving fact that we are FINALLY home to stay… this week I learned a REALLY big lesson about watching out for what you want in life because sometimes you’ll regret it!
This past week, we had insult added to injury. To add to the difficult task of paying for TWO homes, half way across the country from one another, and all the bills that go along with TWO homes, and our main income barely covers the two mortgages alone. Then there’s the extra’s in life like FOOD for seven, often eight people (our pre-adoptive son spends several weeks at a time with us, we don’t hold fund raisers, or ask for aid for this adoption), gas to get to work, incidentals that pop up etc.. To add to all that, this week we received our final bills for the BIG BEAUTIFUL home I loved so much. The electricity bill, and the gas bill.
Whoa Nelly!
On top of our monthly payments for electricity and gas that we’ve been paying all along, we were hit with just shy of TWO thousand dollars for electricity, PLUS just over ONE thousand dollars for gas!! In just EIGHT months of living there! It seems the monthly payments were ‘guesstimated’ much too low, and believe me, they were already high!
I assure you, we are NOT frivolous people! We’ve lived in many a home before, and never had these kinds of costs!! It’s sheer craziness!
I told my husband, that extra cost may just be worth the knowledge that I will NEVER, EVER regret not being able to stay in that BIG BEAUTIFUL ‘dream’ home!
I am SO happy to have had to give up my dream home now. I’ve learned my lesson, and learned it well! BIG dreams come at a cost, one I’m not quite willing to pay the rest of my life!
I really just wish that lesson hadn’t come at such a ‘literal’ high cost!
And now it’s time to get back to sewing! I tell myself in times like this, to the tune of Dory’s song in Finding Nemo, “just keep sewing, just keep sewing…” and I thank God, over and over again, that I LOVE what I do!
So remember, when you shop at Homestead Emporium, YOU are making our ultimate family dream a reality. YOU have helped, and continue to help, our family live on this wonderful new homestead of ours. My NEW dream home. The one YOU and good friends, have helped us to attain! The dream home that won’t cost us an arm and a leg for the rest of our lives! You help us get by every.single.day! YOU even help with our adoption! Even if you can never adopt a foster child yourself, you have the knowledge that you helped another family who could! For that, as I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again, we are very thankful!
We’re staying positive. We’ve gotten this far! The house in BC WILL sell!
It WILL happen.
And then we’ll be truly living the ultimate dream!
*update. I was wrong about the gas bill, praise God! They actually owe us a small credit! Phew!
My husband works shift work, 12 hour days. Either 6am-6pm or 6pm-6am. This means bed times around here can be quite varied, depending on which shift he’s on.
This week it’s 6am-6pm.
I think I may like this shift best. I usually try to get up early as well, to make the most of my day. Most of my life I’ve been a night owl, but for the past number of years I haven’t enjoyed it. I like the quiet of being the first one up, having a cup of coffee, in the stillness of the early morning. I enjoy reading, and writing in my prayer journal during this time.
Last night I must of been tired because I fell sleep at 10pm. Not usual at all! That was great, but waking at 3:15 because my body and brain seem to think if I’ve had 5-6 hours if sleep, I’m good.
I counted ‘sheep’ til just before 4:00 until the birds began to chirp outside my window and finally gave in, and got up!
By 5am I was enjoying my second cup of coffee.
By 6:00 I woke Julia since she likes to get up early too. She fed the horses and we both had breakfast and then we headed out for a bike ride.
We came home and had a smoothie and I made a pot of home brewed ice tea with stinging nettle and lemon grass. I hope to be offering teas in the shop soon.
We were finished school by 11:00.
I had a bath, made dinner, and helped Elsa bake a belated birthday cake for Graydon (dad/hubby).
We had lunch and then I spent the afternoon until 5:55 working in the sewing room. By then it was time for dinner and cake.
Now it’s 8pm and I am ready for bed! It’s been a productive day!
On the homestead this morning.
Horses were fed.
Dogs walked…some cheated.
So difficult to resist the hard working farm dog.
Other dogs helped with hay. Or figured it was time for a nap in the hay. Yea, that’s right. That’s what the hay is there for.
Last but not least. Frogs were found. Shaylah is truly home now.
Walk with me, via my iPhone, at dusk on the new homestead.
I was looking for Elsa and Shaylah. It was starting to get dark! One thing about a farm. You don’t see your kids much!
Picture this barn, new tin roof and fresh red paint. One day.
This may become the hog house. It’s stronger then it looks.
There’s our horses. One day this will all be fixed up fencing. One thing at a time.
Looking back at the barn as I continue on my way to find my kids.
I’ll head down the path behind the barn towards the fields. I can hear voices in the distance.
There’s Shaylah.
And there’s Elsa, and Scout, and Levi, and Bentley.
Now we’ll walk all the way back to the front of the property to show you some more.
To the north down the road.
To the south.
And back to our cozy little home again, hiding amidst the trees.
