Good Morning, from this side of the States anyway! Just wondering what your respective homesteads are like whether you are still trying to get there or not. I cut way down on expenses last summer, live in a small mobile, saving all I can toward putting a cabin on my land in Southern Idaho. This is the first time in years I won't have bottle calves to raise, a big garden to put in, baby chicks, baby rabbits, and you know the list goes on! To help with withdrawl, I would love to hear about where you are all at with your places beyond the sidewalks!

-- Lynn in Wash. (crabbyfiddler@earthlink.net), January 30, 2002

Answers

A six room (7 if you count the attached sunporch/greenhouse) block 50s era farmhouse (2 bedrooms right off the kitchen), sitting on 1.2 acres of the best garden ground on a country road 7 miles from a 20000 pop city and 30 miles out of "Rocket City". Free standing 30x40 foot latice sided out building for raising container fish and rabbits and a 10X30 greenhouse on the south face. Four plum trees for wine making and 4 apple tree yearlings trying to get established. A 20 square SFG garden and I may try a 20 x 40 traditional garden. And not to forget the up to 20 bins of worms, depending on the season.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), January 30, 2002.

I love my place, it is pretty magical. I have 40 acres mostly wooded. Maple, birch, and some old growth white pine (100+ years). There is open pasture, swamp, flowage of some sort, ponds both vernal and other wise. I have several tree plantings around and am a designated tree farm. I have an eagle's nest that the DNR has records on going back to the mid-seventies. I don't know if it is the same pair but if could be. They are pretty prolific at lease two babies a year. The continental divide runs through my property but there is only a small hill where that is. I have a lake on the other side of the road I can see from my bedroom. The house was built around the turn of the century, it is an old Sears & Roebuck kit type house. All the hard wood flooring and molding you could want in a house. Ther are two decks, one up stairs between 1 & 2 floors and one off the dinning room, and I have a three season front porch. Ther are several out buildings not in very good repair but they are repairable. For animals I have 3 horses, 2 llamas, a goat, 2 geese. 4 angora rabbits, 2 dogs, 10 cats, 2 birds, and a rat. No chickens yet, the foxes got all mine last year. I'll order some in the next month or so.

Good luck with your plans, you'll get there.

Susan

-- Susan in Minnesota (nanaboo@paulbunyan.net), January 30, 2002.

My homestead is a work in progress, I have 6.5 acres. Looking out my kitchen windows I can see Mount McGloughin lovingly dubbed ice cream mountain. I live at the foot of two Table Rock mountains in the beautiful Rogue Valley, I live about 15 miles from Medford Or. There is a seasonal creek that runs down the back of my property. I have a barn/shed and a chicken house and turkeys house.... I'm going to tear them down and rebuild. I currently have 4 dogs, 4 goats, 1 cat, a pair of canaries, and parakeets... coming soon are a pair of steers, chickens and turkeys....I would like to get a milk goat also.... I have a 4x 50 foot raised bed that I'm cleaning out to plant this year, and another spot about 20 x 20 Im going to plant also.

-- Trina in Or (trina@ccountry.net), January 30, 2002.

An example of why I love this place; I was sitting here a little while ago and one of my eagles swooped down and gathered a talon full of sticks. Nest building, yes spring is on the way. Another reason; This morning while I was out doing chores, it was -10 and the sun was rising. The air was filled with ice crystals, not snow but crystals. With the sun shining on them the air shimmered. It was almost blinding, absolutely fantastic, like diamonds suspended in the air.

Some of the wonders of living in a northern climate!

Susan

-- Susan in Minnesota (nanaboo@paulbunyan.net), January 30, 2002.

Trina--I grew-up in Grants Pass--spent my first 18 years there. And I am well familiar with the table rocks you are talking about! How neat! Brings back a lot of wonderful memories for me, are you around the Gold Hill area???

-- Lynn in Wash. (crabbyfiddler@earthlink.net), January 30, 2002.

Hi Lynn, I am about eight miles out of Gold Hill. Its always so much fun to run into people that are familiar with your area.

-- Trina (trina@ccountry.net), January 30, 2002.

EVeryones homesteads sound so scenic and so cool. I have 3 1/2 acres on the edge of a very small town(pop 350). I have an old small house and a big yard. My wild life preserve behind the house is still pretty full of trees and vines but am clearing it off slowly. I was told it was "dozier work" but as a bonafide tree hugger there will be no bulldozier on my place. I have 6 apple trees 4 peach trees and 2 pears in my new orchard, they are all very young. I have Nubian goats 1 buck 6 does and am buying a Boer Billy this spring to raise meat goats. I have 4 rabbits, 3 dogs, 4 ducks and too many chickens and 5 barn cats. I don't have a garden any more but raise a few tomatoes and squash and found my antique pole beans at seed savers this year and will raise them and Amish Pumpkins. My chickens are a mixture of Australorp Roosters and hens with some RI Reds and white Rock hens and some wierd crosses that friends gave me. I also have my beautiful standard Partridge Cochins and some banties for setting. I miss living in the country in Tennessee but all the family lives in Kansas, so I am here too.

-- Karen Mauk (kansashobbit@yahoo.com), January 31, 2002.