How is it November already?
I have sat down at least three times and started post to update since our arrival home after our cross-country trip. But it has been such an insanely busy season that I only ever got half through, interrupted only to come back to an already outdated post and start over. So this is the fast forward version of our fall!
Not only did it take a few weeks to catch up on life (mowing, weedeating, weeding, catching up on general maintenance neglected all summer long…) out favorite apple tree came down a few nights after our arrival requiring chopping, hauling and burning AND all of our cars seemed to go out at once. The suburban was never revived and we have been on the lookout for a 4WD replacement ever since. Oh, and the washing machine died day one into the massive piles of laundry I had been “saving” to avoid laundromats the last week of our trip! On top of all that we dove right into soccer season, which is something we really enjoy as a family, but with 5 out of 7 kids playing it makes us a bit CraZy.
Micah had his first season on the high school JV team so
that kept us running out for practice and games just about every weekday. Hannah joined an elite travel league which took us to Charlotte a few weekends (!!) and I coached the
boys U12 team with Malachi and Elias. And Moriah played too! Coaching is one of those things I have grown to love. It keeps me in the sport I grew up playing with my family and provides quality interactions with my own and other children. A nice change of pace from the daily grind of mothering and homeschooling. But the pace of keeping up with 4 teams (that’s why Elias has to play with the big boys - cuts out at least one team!) is pure insanity. Most weeks there was soccer every.single.day. Toss in schoolwork, meals, laundry, housekeeping… It's nutso.
AND we bought a tiny home with our oldest kid, Abbey. She graduated in the spring and we have been trying to decide how to help her into the next phase. She has chosen not to attend college, but to continue with her musical aspirations locally through teaching and performing. And she is
starting a job at the local ski resort where she has worked the last few years. Either way, rent is absolutely ridiculous around here, putting on an addition to the house is equally out of our price range, but it felt like something kind of had to be done to get her out of a 10x10 bedroom with 3 sisters. All of our pondering during the trip led us to the tiny house idea. Ideally it would have doubled as a rental (upstairs rents out, she lives in the downstairs) but we came to the conclusion that our finances wouldn’t allow us to really complete that project before all of our children had flown the coop. Already built, reasonably priced, ready to move, lots of options… seemed like a great solution.
It has turned into much more of a project than we anticipated (they always do, don’t they?). We had to prep a spot on the property - which required several weeks of clearing, leveling and gravel. And then hiring a friend to haul all 12,000 pounds of it to our property. Several finishing touches have been needed - paint, sealant, stains, caulk, shelves, oven, toilet… and the big one, electricity. We were excited about the solar generator it came with but it has become obvious that actual electricity is necessary
for her to be able to live there full time. So now we are waiting on the county to come put it in, permits, people, deadlines and paperwork.
And that brings me to our recent decision to shift our priorities here on Brambly Mountain Farm. Our trip away was so refreshing and it really made us realize how much the farming has tied us down. For a season, it has provided a lot of ways for us to dive into some things we have been interested in learning and exploring the idea of providing for our family through our property. But as our children have gotten older and their interests have taken them away from the home more and more frequently, we have found that the farming aspect of our lives has brought us additional and unnecessary stress upon an already stressful period of life. Teenagers and launching kids is not for the faint of heart and the further we step into this phase of life, we have a greater desire to reserve our time for spending time with our kids and investing in their interests, rather than making them feel forced to participate in ours.
And so, we downsized all of our garden spaces to just one small space left to grow our favorites in the summer. For now, I won’t try to kill myself and my kids with two ginormous
gardens! Instead, one garden will become a better field space for the soccer, football and volleyball they enjoy with their friends. The chicken area will become a puppy yard. We still have the hives, which we harvested 4 gallons from this summer. And the new permanent fencing allows us to keep our Spanish meat goats relatively easily. Our garlic was left in the ground too long this summer because we got back so late, but that’s ok.
Just one less thing to think about for now.
I have been wanting to downsize for a long time. For a while, the idea seemed too much like admitting to homesteading failure or burnout. And there is some of that. But rather than holding on stubbornly to an old dream that no longer fits our lives, we are moving forward with some new ideas. And there’s nothing wrong with that :).
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
I promise I will talk about Scotch Collies in my next post!!
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