Our Long Way Home- Prologue

Our Long Way Home- Prologue

On the phone the other day, a family friend told my husband that we really should write out our story. The story of our trials this last while. The trials we’ve faced while working toward our goal. The goal of a ‘real’ homestead for our family. Finally.

We’ve shared bits & pieces here and there as we’ve gone along this journey, but haven’t really shared the full journey.

We discussed this while taking the kids out for a drive to sight see the prairies yesterday.

I agreed that yes, I’ve wanted to write about all we’ve been going through, but that I felt like our story wasn’t finished yet, and every time I sat down to write out my thoughts about all that’s been going on, I just wasn’t sure how to do it without it sounding like it was all negative, yet also not making it all seem like unrealistic fluff & stuff. I felt like either it’d all come out sounding whiny, or sounding phony.

I really dislike whiny, and I really dislike phony.

Life, is real, even when it’s difficult.

Negativity in life does not equal = life is negative.

I want to share the positive through it all, as difficult as the positive can be to see at times. I told Graydon (dh) that I wanted to be able to share the story after it’s all said and done, after we’ve reached the final chapter of this story.

As of right now, this moment, Monday May 28th 2012, we’re facing having no home in just 33 days. We’ve been evicted from our rental/lease (a blessing in a way, this place failed a health and safety inspection) and no matter how hard we try, we can’t seem to get the banks to approve us for a mortgage to buy something, rather then rent again, short of some sort of miracle occurring.

We’ve been unable to find another suitable home to rent. A couple of real fixer upper/vacant farms have come up, yet we can’t rent, or buy, a real fixer upper at this time. We have our reasons for that, but can’t fully share those reasons publicly. I’ll simply say it involves adding to our family (no, I’m not pregnant) and the house we live in must be up to certain standards. Any home a family lives in should be up to health and safety standards regardless though. I don’t think that’s asking for too much right now.

Graydon pointed out during our conversation though, that really, the story doesn’t live so much at the END of the story. It’s the struggles, our life right now at this moment, how we get TO that end, that tells the real story. The full story.

Graydon is right. I know that he is. Yet, how does one share so many struggles, while knowing that it is in those struggles that your family is being shaped, created, and are all for a good end, even when right now, they feel so very difficult?

How does one share all these negative trials, the difficulties, in a real, honest, way, while knowing all the while that there’s been so much blessing through it all, regardless of those struggles?

If I share the trials, readers are tempted to feel pity.

If I share the good, readers are tempted to envy.

The real story wants to be shared because it is not a story one should pity, it is not a story one should envy, it is our life, our journey. I’ll do my best to share it as it is, and continue to hope that as I share, it will continue to unfold and that the final outcome will be that we indeed finally come to the end of…

Our long way home.

Meal Planning

Life is busy! Having just moved, and now moving again by the end of June, (no, we still don’t know WHERE, still praying for a home & a miracle!) makes life even busier!

However, I have 7 mouths to feed every day, ages 12 to adult, including three ‘men’!
There’s no time to be TOO busy to create good, hearty, meals!

I find meal planning helps a LOT when busy. I can ALWAYS make the time to cook, it’s a must,  but to try and decide every day at the last minute, what I should cook? I have NO time for that. So planning is a must!

I just finished this week’s meal plan, after ‘consulting’ what everyone would like to see on their plates, and taking into consideration the requests made from me, and also my need for simplicity on my busiest work days, and this is what we’ll be eating.

*I’ve included links to recipes because I LOVE it when other’s share their recipes with me!

Monday- Tuna Casserole (Elsa’s request): http://southernfood.about.com/od/tunacasserolerecipes/r/r90110b.htm

Tuesday- pork chops & rice bake (a favorite that Alesia used to always make for the family) http://www.food.com/recipe/simply-oven-baked-pork-chops-and-rice-142542  with asparagus & Hollandaise Sauce (recipe given to me by our ‘extra’, Josh’s friend Steven who is living with us): http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fsimplyrecipes.com%2Frecipes%2Fasparagus_with_hollandaise_sauce%2F&h=hAQFNFBnA

Wednesday-Homemade Pea Soup (this will be a crockpot meal, as Wed. are my busiest work days, and there is no extra time for cooking)

Thursday-Beef Macaroni Casserole  http://southernfood.about.com/od/pastabake/r/bl30512v.htm  with spinach salad (recipe given to me by our ‘extra’, Josh’s friend Steven who is living with us)  http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Raisin-Walnut-Spinach-Salad

Friday, it’s Steven’s birthday so I asked what he’d like to have for dinner that night, he replied with: Buttered chicken, mixed veggies bake consisting of carrots, beets, yams, yellow onions & fennel. I’ve never made either before, but I’m always up for new recipes!

This week’s baking by whoever cares to make it, either myself, the girls, or possibly even Steven:
Blondies: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/blondies/

Butterscotch Pudding: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/butterscotch_pudding/

How about you? Do you meal plan? If so, what’s on YOUR menu this week?

Name that feathered friend.

Anyone who knows me, knows I love snapping photos, and I love creatures. Birds are a favorite, because of the vast differences between them all! I love the intricacies found in them, like flowers.

Since arriving in the prairies here in Saskatchewan, whenever possible I’ve been trying to capture as many photos of the different birds as I can, so I thought I’d share a few photos with you and see if some of you might know their names.

This pretty creature I’ve never seen before, and have no idea what it’s called. It’s orange-ish with gorgeous black markings on the eyes.

This one I’m not sure of either. There are definitely many birds here that I’ve not seen in British Columbia. I need to find where I’ve put our bird books and start looking them up!

LOVE the bright blue head on this little thing.

I’m quite sure most know the name of the bird above.

And believe it or not, it took me a while to remember the name of this black bird with the red wings…

lol

Can you guess what the black bird with the red wings name is?

Then there’s this one. I need a better, closer photo, of this bird. This was in our back field so I see them quite regularly and will try my best at snapping a closer photo soon. Do you know what it is?

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, this area has MANY bird species of all kinds. I look forward to spending many years capturing photos of as many as I possibly can!

Do you like to bird watch? What’s your favorites? Have any photos you’d like to share with us?

I spent an hour with my camera outside last night, in my backyard.

I spent an hour with my camera outside last night. I snapped a few photos.

Just 215. That’s all.

The amazing part about that though? I snapped 215 photos all in one small area of my new backyard.

As I stood there looking through the camera lens, scanning all around me in search of the next shot, I would constantly pause and listen to the hustle and bustle of busyness all around me.

It was amazing.

I stood there wishing I had brought along my phone too, so I could record not only ALL that I saw, but ALL that I heard too, so I could share it with all of you.

I have the sights in photos, but the sounds were equally amazing.

The largest of the ponds on our rental property here was the busiest.

There were coot’s.

And beavers. There’s always beavers.
The beavers here have been very busy trying their best to destroy the entire windbreak of trees at the back of the property. If you think beavers are cute, I’ll agree, but they aren’t so nice to farm land. They flood everything, and kill lots of tree lines.

And there’s geese here. Lots and lots of geese, and lots of evidence of geese.
(I think I need to invest in some new rubber boots…) 

And all sorts of other birds. Red winged black birds, black birds with yellow that I haven’t named yet, geese, ducks, wild canaries, finches, you name it, this area has it!

The area which we live in is an “international bird area”. From the website linked:

With over 300 species, one day counts of over 300,000, and over one million birds annually, it’s no surprise that the Quill Lakes region is Canada’s most nationally and internationally recognized bird Areas. 

This area is amazing. Have I mentioned we have some bird lovers in our family?

And through it all, the sun was doing it’s thing.

In all it’s usual glory.

Bentley

Shaylah’s puppy Bentley is very cute.

He seemed to have a very rough go of it the first week with our family.

I think  he missed all his siblings and his mama.

But now he’s settling in very nicely and no longer whines a lot. Which is good because I was about ready to go have him vet checked to see if there were other issues going on!

We’ve never had a whiny doggie before, so this was a first for us!

But the secret to keeping a puppy TRULY happy? Bones. REAL bones. Not fake ones. They especially like big bones, like knuckle bones!

Chew, chew, chew, it’s what puppies do, do, do!

Bones will seriously keep your puppy happy for hours a day.

Being in a small town, I was unable to find bones ANYWHERE though! I couldn’t’ believe it! None of the shops do their own butchering, so I had to wait until we could get to the city. Then I was finally able to get Bentley some bones.

And now, he’s a perfect little angel.

Well… just about…

He’s pretty much perfect except he’s a little ‘lazy’.

This is what he does mid-run, ALL.THE.TIME!

He simply stops running and tucks in his front legs to be dragged along. You won’t even know it’s happened until you look back, and there he is again.

I have a feeling it’s a corgi thing.

And on a totally unrelated topic…

I want to know why homeschoolers who wear denim skirts have gotten such a bad rap online over the years? I’ve seen negative comments made in regards to this. lol

I’m a homeschooler, and I wear denim skirts ALL.THE.TIME. I like them! I realized just how much I like them as I was  unpacking my clothing after this move. I believe I have 5 denim skirts of all sorts of shapes.

I also like my cute boots, and think I wear them together well.

So :p to those who ‘boo’ denim. It’s here to stay. In my world anyways.

And if the reference was only to denim ‘jumpers’, then boo to that too. I actually have a couple of those as well.

Old homesteads.

Despite our housing ‘issues’ at the moment, we’re determined to enjoy our new surroundings as much as possible, every way that we can!

Last night after dinner, before I headed back to work, Graydon (dh) and I  hit the dirt roads on the quad.

Remember this old house?

We went over for a closer look last evening.

I have always, absolutely, LOVED old wooden homesteads. Barns, houses, sheds, stalls, if it’s made of wood, and it’s still standing after many many years, I love it.

In my highschool art class we had to choose a subject to draw in pencil, I drew the inside of an old barn from the view of the doorway. Maybe I’ll share that drawing some time.

Aged wood is a favorite of mine. The stories it  could tell… stories I’d love to hear.

I dream of building chicken sheds, horse stalls, and even real creative things such as picture frames, with old barn boards.

One day I may even frame my old art class drawing of the inside of a barn, in barn board.

For now, I’ll simply continue to enjoy seeing the old homesteads, in the old barnboard, and photographing them, as often as I possibly can!

And snapping quick photos of all the other interesting sights we’re blessed to see along the way!

In the midst of trials…

To our family, friends, and valued customers, we could use some heavy duty prayers right now. Our family is fine, but this rental home is not. Major issues, which have now rendered us unable to use water, and there’s been so much more, which I won’t get into right now. We are trusting things are going to get better. They have to, it’s been one thing after another this last while.

Don’t think for a moment though, that we consider ANY of this as a negative against this move! We know 110% we are right where we are supposed to be. We have COMPLETE peace about that! Maybe we’re not 110% positive about this particular house (so glad we are renting it, rather then having bought!), but we are 110% positive about THIS PLACE which we are in right now.

Through all this, we are very happy to be together as a family, and LOVE Saskatchewan and the new friends we’ve made in our new church home & in our new community. There’s been many blessings despite these many issues. We just would prefer to be settled sooner, rather than later, and these issues are making it very difficult to do that. It’s almost impossible to run my business right now, at a time when we need the income more then ever. Our home in BC is still not rented, which means we’re carrying the cost of TWO properties right now, IN the midst of all these other messes! Everything just seems to keep going sideways from the bank messing up our account by a 22grand debit TWICE, to issues back in BC with our property there (anyone want to buy it last minute??? lol we still love the idea of having a rental though, it’s just not coming easy!), to the whole move itself not going smoothly, and then now this mess here in our new ‘home’.
At a time we thought we were going to be putting our feet up, and simply enjoying our new view.

We’re keeping faith though. We must! At some point we WILL see the light at the end of this, seemingly never ending, tunnel!

Regarding co-op orders, and other changes at the Homestead Emporium

I’ve had quite a few inquiries, about co-ops, now that we’re back in business again after our big move.

First off, for those of you asking yourself right now, “What is a co-op?”
It’s a ‘group buy’ where a group of people put in one large order together, so they can receive a discount.

We’ve ran a LOT of co-ops in the past, and I really do love them! They are a great way for those new to cloth to give pads a try! They often bring us MANY new customers who may not otherwise give cloth a try, but because their friends, within their group, can ‘vouch’ for our products, they are willing to take that first step! We often have MANY new customers through our co-op orders who then become regular repeat customers!

It’s also a great way to sell a lot of product without having a lot of the extra work of putting up listings on the cart, snapping all kinds of individual photos, etc.. I usually package each order individually within the co-op, but often ship them all to one person, the co-op host, and she then ships it to everyone else. This works great for our international and/or even US customers.

The co-op’s often bring in a LOT of orders. Our last HC (hyenacart) co-op had THIRTY THREE orders. Right now I’m finishing up two other co-ops that combined have aprox. another 25 orders or more.
As I said, it is a great way to bring in extra orders since these orders are on top of our regular instock and custom orders.

But…

There’s been some changes in our lives recently which affect the business. We’ve moved to a larger homestead now, but, the biggest change is Alesia, our almost 21 year old daughter, moving away.

She’s a nanny in a whole other province now, and she’s no longer here to help me. She’s busy helping to take care of 4 boys ages 8-2 AND newborn baby twin girls!

Alesia has always helped me cut the bulk of the inner, and backing fabrics for co-op orders. This is a LOT of work. To think I can do it all myself now, on top of not having her help here on the homestead, would be foolish of me.
I’m now having to cut all the instock & custom order fabrics myself, so to add on co-op orders as well? I just don’t think it’s possible at this time.

Knowing myself, I’d say I could do it all, and I WOULD do it all, BUT, my family and our new homestead would suffer for it. I would suffer for it too, but I mistakenly don’t worry about that. However, I refuse to let my family suffer for it, and I would prefer not to let our homestead suffer for it.

I began this business almost eight years ago now. Started out REAL small, and have grown the business bit by bit to where we are now. A fairly large family business that is shipping thousands of products all over the world every year! As my eldest two have grown and began to work alongside with me (our 18.5 year old son still does our snaps, bless him!) I was able to take on more work.

Now, the three younger girls are growing up but they aren’t ready to take on any real responsibility quite yet. I’m also very firm about not having them work on things they aren’t passionate about. Julia is passionate about fabrics, and sewing, so she does a majority of the cotton balls and other facial things. Elsa loves to cut out the cotton balls, so she does that. Shaylah, she’s really not interested in sewing, but she loves to draw and LOVES to design ‘stuffies’, so this is why we occasionally have stuffed ducks, stuffed bunnies, and other things in the shop as her creativity flows.

I have no doubt that one day these younger girls of mine will want to take things on as a ‘real’ job, at least one of them, possibly two of them, and maybe all three will decide it’s a great way to make a living. I’m not going to push it though. Right now they are still my little girls, they are not employees.

Once they are ready, and wanting, to do more work, I’m sure we can put out some more awesome co-ops once again!

Or, maybe in this new area I’ll come across someone who likes to cut fabric and who would fit into our Homestead ‘family’. It’d be a big step for me though, so I’m not pushing that either. Adding new employee’s, if it happens, will happen slowly. We’ve just hired someone to help me with online listings etc., and that is going very well!

I like to take things one small step at a time.

For now though, I really do have enough on my plate between instock including the cutting, sewing, AND dyeing of fabrics, a few custom orders here and there, homeschooling these girls, and actually being a big part of running the homestead and feeding this family of six +one (even though Alesia has moved away, we have one of our son’s friends staying with us long term). Feeding three men, three girls, and myself is almost a full time job, certainly a part time job! Add everything else in there, and… it’s more then enough for one person.

I am hoping my customers will understand.

*And believe me, this is NOT an easy decision, and not one I take lightly! This business is not just ‘fun’ for me. It is not a hobby. It’s a legitimate business that I began because we NEED the income. We can not afford for me to be a stay at home mom without this income. This step is a HUGE leap of faith for me! To hope that I can continue to bring in enough of an income to keep our family afloat, without the large co-op orders we have become accustomed to! Especially now, when we have TWO homes to pay for with one sitting empty thousands of miles away!

It really is a HUGE leap! One I’ve known for quite some time that I needed to take because our family life has been suffering all these past months while dh was living, and working, away from home. This is a step I’ve been too scared to take though, but now, it must be done. I just can’t go back to working 12-18 hour days, 5-7 days a week, and barely having time to get our schooling done, and no time to help the kids with their extra activities. That’s no life for ANY family!

In the meantime though, please don’t forget the real truth of it all. Co-ops, if they become large enough, qualify for a maximum of 20% off. The smaller co-ops receive 10-15% off.

At Homestead Emporium, we ALWAYS give our customers 10% off!  

For US and International customers, use coupon code “special” with no quotes, for 10% off!

Our Canadian customers also receive an additional 5% off in way of Homestead Emporium paying the gst. Use coupon code “Canadian” with no quotes for your discount!

So whether we run co-ops again in the future or not, you still qualify for a GREAT discount!
It’s often much more fun to shop via the instant shopping carts because your order comes in much quicker then a co-op order, AND you get to pick exactly what you want and see it before you buy it! While STILL receiving a discount!

I call that a bonus!

So happy shopping to you, and thank you all so VERY much for your continued support of our family business!
Without you, we are nothing, and we appreciate you so very much! We also appreciate you all sharing our business with your friends and family! It really does help to keep the business growing and moving forward!

So come visit us today at our hyenacart where we’ve got new items every Friday at 2pm est/11am pst!
There’s something for everyone this week, from nursing pads, wash cloths, to baby mitts, to pads,  facial items, and more! There’s even diapers on sale!
http://hyenacart.com/stores/HomesteadEmporium/

New puppy on the Homestead & more on Saskatchewan.

Last Thursday we headed to the city of Regina!

Some of you may remember Shaylah’s note a while back (which I can’t seem to find the photo for anywhere in the archives!) which included her plea for a puppy.

Shaylah has wanted a puppy for MANY years now. She’s waited patiently (some times lol) for a long time now and was finally rewarded for her patience last week.

Meet Bentley.
He’s 3/4 Corgi, 1/4 Chihuahua!

Yes, a rather odd mix, however it’s a perfect mix for Shaylah! She really wanted a Corgi, but I felt a full grown Corgi was a bit too big for her. She wants it to sleep with her, and be an indoor dog, but living on a farm means an indoor dog needs LOTS of baths! A pure bred Corgi can get really heavy! Since she’s only 12, I felt this breed mix created the perfect sized Corgi for Shaylah!

He’s pretty funny, and cute!

He definitely looks ALL Corgi. It should be interesting to see just how big he grows to be. His breeder is expecting him to be about 16 pounds full grown. I’m hoping she’s right. Most of our dogs have all gone ‘oversized’, except for my runt of a Chihuahua, Teagan, who tips the scales at 2 pounds, 7 ounces!

On our way to Regina we had to stop by the horse facility that boarded our 5 horses while we were busy putting up fences the first week we were here.

This drive took us through Fort Qu’Appelle.

When most people think of Saskatchewan, they imagine completely flat, barren, land.
However, as we’ve been discovering, there’s actually a lot more to see in Saskatchewan then most realize.

And as we’ve been discovering, even the flat ‘barren’ land in these parts isn’t so ‘barren’ after all!

Day 7 on the prairie

We’ve been on the prairies one week today! I thought I’d share a little about it now that we’re getting into a bit of a groove.

Graydon (dh) came home at about 6:30 am after his 12 hour night shift. I barely woke as he gave me a kiss goodnight/morning and slept a bit longer before getting up quietly so as not to wake him.

Took my little 2 pound, 7 ounce doggie out for his morning constitutional, let the bigger dogs out, and filled the horses water buckets as well. Can you tell our horses are enjoying life with NO MUD?!

I spent some time doing laundry and a bit of cleaning until the kids got up, then had a bite to eat, a coffee, and spent some time on the computer researching a few things. My train of thought this morning;

-whole house water purification (this is to figure out how to rid the house of the sulfer/rotten egg smelling water). Can be done, but some what pricey. Won’t be happening any time in the near future but good to know it’s a possibility if we decide to buy this place.

-managing small horse acreage/farms, a great link for reading: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pdf/ec/ec1610.pdf

-trying some new ways to contact rogers wireless in hopes of a resolution WITHOUT having to speak on the phone to anyone. SO tired of the phone right now.

Once I was finished my coffee, I decided to get back to painting! The girls and I have been painting my new sewing room. When the movers brought all our things I decided to keep the room as empty as possible until after I could finish painting it. This is an OLD farm house, which I can handle, but what I couldn’t handle was BRIGHT DARK PINK walls AND ceiling in my sewing room. I’m not all that picky of a person, I can live with a lot of things being imperfect, but bright pink walls AND ceiling in MY creative corner of the world? Nope. That’s one thing I had to change pretty quick. lol

I should have gotten a ‘before’ picture, but you can see the pretty pink ceiling non the less!

If they hadn’t painted the ceilings too, I may have been able to handle it for a little while but then on the other hand, I know what my sewing space gets like once it’s being well used and moving everything OUT, after moving it all in, seemed like a total waste of time that a gallon or two of paint could fix pretty easily.

With a room this poorly cared for, even my 12 year old twins were able to help paint without fear of messing anything up. lol They were happy to be ‘grown ups’ and do ‘real’ work!

While painting one of our neighbours showed up. He rents the workshop and quonset on the property (just until August, then they become ours) so while he was here I decided to take a break and ask him some questions about the area, watering animals, and gardening locally.

That turned into an hour+ visit and I learned all that I was hoping to find out, and more!

By the time I was finished visiting with our neighbour, Graydon was awake and it was time to get started on dinner. When he works nights, he leaves by about 5:15 so the three girls and I have an early dinner with him at 4:30. Then I keep things warm for the ‘boys/guys’ when they get home from work.

As I was putting the lasagna into the oven, the electric company showed up to locate where our electric lines are situated. We need to put up more fencing, and in the future hope to build the girls a riding ring, so we need to know where everything is located.

Once we were finished our dinner and Graydon left for work, the girls and I did some cleaning, finished painting my new studio, set out dinner for the guys, and then they all spent lots of time playing & working outside.

Now it’s time for a cup of tea and a snack before bed. It’s been a long and productive day!

A photo from our new neighbourhood.