Learning new things.

The frost layer must be melting, the driveway mud pit is drying up. I heard my first frog of the season while my son and I were throwing rocks on a pond. I'm actually sad that winter is over, I usually hate winter. There is no more winter silence when I step outside. I came to enjoy the rhythm of winter, splitting firewood, a hot wood stove, drinking tea, and skiing. It was a mild winter though, only a couple weeks of -20 degree weather. Nice weather means more work.

I learned how to use a wood saw and I made a wood soap mold.

It turned out OK, my cut boards are less than straight. It was a challenge to hold the board and run the saw. the last time I used a saw was in 7th grade wood shop glass when I made a gumball machine. Its not like when you watch This Old House and the wood crafter that has been doing it for 20+ years, has all the tools and table saws ever made in his shop and makes an entire set of table and chairs and gets them perfectly cut and sanded.

I also learned how to add scents to my soap from one of my mom club friends. I purchased some premade scents. I made two batches; one with essential oils which took 3 entire bottles and I colored it with turmeric.

The second with fragrance oil and colored it with this purple clay that turned a brown color. I'm excited for them to cure so I can test them out. I made a soap label, now my soaps look a little nicer when I give them as gifts. 

My son completed a coloring contest in the local paper and won a packet of seeds. He picked out peas and is very excited to plant them. 

We have a shower!

FINALLY!!!!!!!!! After six months I can take a hot shower in my house.

It was truly wonderful. No more truck stop showers with creepers trying to come in and having nightmares about getting crabs. (they are pretty clean for being a truck stop). We had to hire an electrician to wire in the tankless water heater. We could not find this heavy duty wire that was required for the job. When the snow melts we will have to get going installing the gray water system. We are still boiling water on the stove to do dishes and emptying the gray water bucket after but that isn't that big of a deal so I can wait.




Spring has also brought mud season. The work truck got stuck in 6 inches of mud in our drive way. We started parking the cars on the street and hiking to the house. Once the frost layer melts the standing water will be able to go somewhere, until then mud. I love my mud boots by the way. I look like a total nerd going to town covered in mud from the shins down. I also had to buy my son plastic mud pants with suspenders. Its easier to put on these mud pants and go outside then it is to keep him inside and clean. He built a construction site in the back yard that is a mud pit for all his Tonka Trucks.









 

My son is learning about what makes plants grow. He planted sun flower seeds and is in charge of watering them. 

Maple Tree Tapping- Part 1

We put in our maple taps in this weekend. I mentioned before I got the supplies from a friend that was no longer needing them. We have quite a few maples but I only put in 4 taps. Since it is only my first year doing this I didn't want to get over my head and be drowning in maple sap.

This first part was very simple. Find a maple tree. Drill a hole on the south- south east side.

Tap in the tap with a hammer and hang a bag.

One bag has about a quart of sap the other three are still empty. Hopefully we get more as the days warm up.

Storage

After living here for 6 months I'm starting to get a feel for what I like and don't like in our kitchen.  My husband had the idea of  getting rid of all of our dishes except 1 plate, 1 bowl, 1 dessert plate, 1 fork/knife/spoon and 1 glass for each of us. Less dishes to wash, right? So that's what we did. I hate it. There is never enough forks or spoons. We make 3 meals a day in our tiny kitchen and if you are tasting your food or shredding roasts you run out of forks and spoons for the meal.

Without running water its not easy just to wash the fork you are using. I would like a full set of flatware. I have to heat water on the stove to do dishes and empty the sludge/rinse bucket, I tend to wait until after dinner to wash all the dishes for the day and just do it once. I have my Grandma's china set stored away so if we do have guests over for dinner I have plates for them to eat off of.

Having such few dishes does save us a lot of space. Digging the pots and pans out of the cabinet was annoying so we used empty vertical space above the bathroom to hang them. Its so much easier and less noisy putting them away.

My husband finally got our vent a hood installed. We found this in the scratch and dent area of the store for $150 regular price $700 and  I love this thing. It sucks any grease or bad smell right out of the place. I can render down my deer fat now for soap making. I'm squirreling away money for tiles for a back splash.

I had to get creative and use empty spaces and vertical spaces because our place does not have any closets. I did a shelf and hook set up by the front door with low hooks for my son's gear. I got this cool bench/shoe rack from Ikea.

I used this normally awkward space on the fridge to hang hooks for the broom/dustpan. I had the counter fabricator make this tiny L shape as a micro office desk. We keep the computer, phones and pens and paper here.

We built shelves at the top of the stairs as a mini pantry.

We definitely need more shelves especially when we get the garden going for canning and fermenting.

Relocating with a toddler

One thing I think gets over looked when people make huge life changing moves is how it will affect their children, especially toddlers. I know I did. I was very caught up with getting things completed and "move in ready" at the homestead and I was overwhelmed with packing up our place in Minneapolis and sorting our belongings into 3 piles  a) KEEP b) DONATE c) TRASH. I never really paid any attention or researched moving with a toddler. From what I have read since toddlers do not tell time they know what to do based on their routine. Moving upsets their routine! When we moved my son was 2.5, still in a crib and mostly potty trained. We had a routine of my husband working full time 40-50 hours/week and me staying home and working 16 hours per week (2 weeknights and 1 weekend shift.) When we moved everything got flipped upside down for our son. A brand new place to live, no parks near by, no play dates, we got rid of his crib for a toddler bed, Papa's work went down to 25 hours and my job went away all together. Not to mention boxes everywhere everything out of sorts. Oh and the two cats ran away into the woods. We did not have running water at the time of our move, so our routine of bath before bed went away too. My son flipped out, I mean really flipped out. He started biting more, he was throwing terrible tantrums and waking up a lot at night. I would just have to pile us in the car and drive with classical music on in order for him to calm down. I could not figure out what was going on. Then it dawned on me, oh yeah he has no idea what to do. I started to research what we have available in this local area and in our small town. The library has a story hour, the family resource center does weekly play dates and the homeschool moms do weekly meet ups with the kids. My son was also missing his Papa only time. I started taking a weekly morning off on Thursdays (for my sanity and their father/ son time). I'm very strict with the routine now. Breakfast, tv show or free play, an outing to one of the places listed above or weather permitting outside play, snack, books or tv show, nap, snack, free play, dinner, bath, books and bed. (my husband does bath, books & bed). It took a full month but his tantrums and sleep improved.

Here are some resources if you are planning to relocate with children:

http://www.babysleepsite.com/sleep-training/how-moving-homes-affect-baby-toddler-child-sleep/
http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/feelings/move.html#
http://parentingsquad.com/tips-for-moving-with-young-children

start to finish

 I'm going through all the photos my husband uploaded from his phone to the computer and I found the pics of our progress this year. He was able to get a job transfer up here so our plan of "we will slowly finish the cabin in 5 years" got bumped up to 6 months.







This is what the place looked like when we first purchased it.

 The lady we bought it from had it set up like this. She wanted an off the grid cabin. I do not believe she lived in here during the winter even though she said she did. She said she heated with the wood cook stove and a propane garage heater. (Its January now and its -25 with windchill. Our wood stove has been burning all day long, no way she could have been warm enough.)






She had built these stairs. We tore them down to make room for a tiny bathroom, which is now at the bottom of the stair case.









We got rid of this wood burning cook stove. I had no interest in cooking with one but more importantly it didn't get warm enough to heat the place in October so there is no way in January it could heat the place.

  Our loft still looks like this because we ran out of money to put up paneling. Our bed is under that window and our son's bed is at the opposite side.





We put two picture windows in we got for cheap off craigslist. The tiny windows pictured in the first pic above did not let in enough light and if I live in the woods I want to be able to look at it if its too cold to go outside.

 Here is the other window we put in and the railing the insurance company said we needed to install.

 We got the place sheet rocked and built the ladder to the loft to replace the stairs. The wall is up for the bathroom. We installed a pocket door because of the lack of space for a regular door on the bathroom. We hired out to do this because neither one of us had time to come up and spend the time to do it.

A railing was put up to the loft so my son would not fall down. Right now my sewing machine table is set up against the railing. Its very dark up here which is great for sleeping.

 Sheet rock finished and the inside looks so bright and welcoming.

 I saved about half of the cabinets. I sanded them and painted them and replaced the hardware. There was no way we could afford brand new ones.

My husband put in a bamboo floor. Its colder than carpet that's for sure but with a toddler, a dog and being mud and dirt everywhere outside the carpet would have gotten trashed.

This is what the finished kitchen looks like. We still need a chest freezer. Three meals a day come out of this tiny kitchen. Art projects are done and card games are played at the table.




Winter took a turn for the real cold. We got down to -20 air temp. The water pipes for the well froze up. We fixed it with a hair dryer, heat tape and a space heater in the bathroom.
I took up cross country skiing. I was thinking since I normally hate winter I need to push myself out of my comfort zone and try it. My friend gave me her skis, boots and poles. I contacted the local ski club and they invited me to do free lessons with children. I have to say these children can fall and get up way faster than me. I'm actually enjoying myself. 

Snow

Winter is finally here in Northern Wisconsin.

It came extremely late this year, due to El Nino, which is fine with me. The day time temps have stayed in the 20s and we got our first big snowstorm. My son and husband turned a small hill outside our front door into a sledding hill. They built a cardboard box wall to crash into.

We got to test out our lawn tractor and snow blower attachment. Our property slopes to the south so the extra parking area/turn around spot was not able to get plowed. The tractor got stuck in the heavy wet snow and had to be pulled out with the Jeep.

My son turned 3 and I made him a construction cake. He only wanted the trucks and could careless about the cake. Next year I am just going to make him a donut tower.

We had our first Christmas here too! We roasted a ham and opened gifts.

My son received a toy chainsaw which he is over the moon about. During the heavy snow storm the weight of the snow knocked down a tree onto the sledding hill and he helped my husband buck it.

I received a voucher for rifle training through the Appleseed project. I am very excited to work on my rifle skills. I would love to be able to hunt grouse.

Our tankless water heater arrived!! The home store near us does not carry the wires to install it, so still no plumbed in water. The truck stop I have been taking showers at, their hot water heater broke so I have not been able to shower there. Some friends and (brother on Christmas morning) let me use their shower!

I joined a local moms group that has a meeting and gets together for coffee and moms night out. They also do some volunteer work in the community. Its sort of weird trying to make new friends as an adult, especially if you are a stay at home mom, you really have to get out there and make it happen. I did a painting night and I really enjoyed it. The advertising said "winter landscape on barn wood" I thought it was going to be like a Bob Ross painting event. Instead the instructor wanted us to paint snowmen. I did not want to hang snow men up so I painted a pic of our home in the woods. It was a great time!

Since it's the end of the year I'm reflecting back on 2015. It was in March that my husband applied for the job transfer and got it. Then we sold half of our crap to move into a place in the woods. We totally switched our lives around to live within our means and debt free. We are moving towards more and more personal liberty. My goals for 2016 

- tap maple trees

- start small raised bed gardens 

- remove brush trees and get fruit trees in

- build outdoor pizza oven

- start focusing more on homeschool preschool

- take more personal days for just me

- find a babysitter so I can have some time with my husband