BIG Thank You

Someday we'll make a list of those who have contributed to our homestead endeavors, but for now, I'd like to thank those of you who have helped pay for things, given us useful things, taught us about stuff, and given us your support in many other ways.

First thing that comes to mind is Mark and the chainsawing...I need to thank him for teaching me how to keep my body parts connected. We have been using the a saw pretty frequently up here, and I wonder where we would be if we couldn't run the saw properly. Also, I would like to thank him for the help packing our moving van...which was almost more dangerous than running a chainsaw!

Next would be my Grandparents, who have been blessing us financially. Their frequent encouragement has also helped considerably. I look forward to spending time with them again, either when they visit, or when we visit California again.

You might not believe it, but we were lacking two MAJOR things when we moved. One was a fireplace. This house didn't have one, which was a little scary being that the power goes out for days occasionally. The other thing we were lacking was a gun. And after seeing a young black bear from the deck, we were a little nervous about being up here and having no defense against the bears, and coyotes, and a mountain lion too. three days after moving in, with my Grandparents here, my uncle ran in yelling about a bear. "Yeah Right" But a couple minutes later Grandpa called everyone to the deck and pointed the bear out.

Anyway, Mom met some people through a ministry and they were beyond generous when they delivered some groceries to us. Then they took it beyond, beyond generous when they gave us a woodburning stove, and a scoped hunting rifle. I am in the process of getting deer tags for the upcoming season, and their gift will be mighty handy!

My 'Adopted' Aunt and Uncle (very close friends) blessed me almost to the point where we questioned their sanity by giving me a violin right before we left California. They had come by a couple violins in some way which I can't remember, and because none of their children are currently playing the violin, they lent one to me. This violin is the only one I've ever played, and I am really attached to it. So parting with it in California was not going to be an exciting experience for me. I am very grateful for their gift (a gift for a few birthdays, Christmases, Graduation.....). I try to put it to good use every day, and I hope to bring glory to the Father by my playing.

I don't want to think about where we would be if our nearest neighbor was not there to pull us off the driveway whenever we get stuck. He has been a God-send considering that we're always calling him to help get us sorry Californians out of the snow.

Last but most assuredly not least is our new church family. The folks at Reformation OPC have extended a TON of hospitality to us. Not only frequent invitations to activities and dinners, but gifts of meat, a cat, muscle (helping move in), and good fellowship.

If I have not mentioned something, there is the possiblility that it slipped my mind, though I can't imagine that happening!

May we all be so blessed by God and our friends.

Our Chicks: 2

They thought this was terribly funny, and instead of helping clean everything up...they ran for the camera!

Sven...The Cat

A good mouser is always welcome on a ranch, and with all the predators, you are bound to have more than a few cats over the years. Our first cat on the property was given to us by a family at church who found him in a hole by the road, his mother and siblings having been killed. He was very very small, and reclusive for a while, but that has changed. Levi named this little pest (that's what he is) Sven...yes Sven, pronounced just like it's spelled. Though extremely cute on the outside, his mentality towards everything is "Kill it...Kill it....." The only time you can pet him is when he's dead asleep, the rest of the time he's busy attacking you. That said, I am grateful to have such a vicious cat to fearlessly slay all evil-doers...or at least try.

Our Property

We were looking for room to run, keep livestock, raise families, and of course room to play. We also wanted to be within 30 minutes of places like churches, grocery stores, hospitals, and all the rest. What did we find? 35 heavily wooded acres, with the Pike National Forest as the backyard. Pike National Forest is 1.1 million acres in the eastern front range of the Rocky Mountains, offering motorcycle trails, hiking trails, spectacular views of some of Colorado's 14er's, and hunting (I can't wait!). How do we have access to all of that acreage and yet live close enough to town? You'll have to check with my Heavenly Father for that one!

I am sure the phrase "If you don't like the weather in Colorado...wait 10 minutes." has passed your ears before, but I can confirm that the saying is true. In the summer when we moved there was sun for 30 minutes to a couple hours, then random rain for about 20 minutes, and on and on....This winter has been extremely light, which is good, but also bad. Our driveway has been seen by a number of hard core Coloradans and they have all told us that we have one of the worst driveways in the state. Very steep, and shady (so the ice won't melt), and we still have a car from California which doesn't make it up without tire chains. That's the good part, that we don't have to deal with a lot of snow and this ridiculous car. The bad part is that we need all the water we can get, and without much snow....not much water, sadly.
I have a potential building site for my home, and Levi will be taking this house that's on the property now. Mom and Dad will have either a small cottage type house, or an attached suite on one of our houses. We also have a couple spots in mind for a barn, and other outbuildings.

When (not "if") you visit our place, we pray that you are able to enjoy the peace & quiet, the trees, the river, the deer, and good company.

Our Chicks: 1

A few weeks ago we picked up 24 baby chickens as the first official livestock on the property. Levi and Mom are the ones organizing the whole chicken operation, Dad and I just help with little things like building the coop, other muscle work, we will be collecting eggs now and then, and other things like that. We plan to sell the eggs to some local folks, and eventually make a nice profit from them.

After several days of happily running around in the trough we noticed a problem with one of the smallest birds. Mom had some ideas about what the problems was and tried a few things to help. The conclusion was that the bird needed to be put down just in case she had a contagious virus or something. A local feed store had just gotten a load of chicks so we drove out and bought a couple replacement chicks, which are slightly younger than the rest of the chickens.

All 25 are now doing wonderfully and are showing good signs of continuing that way.

Dad and I have been working on the coop lately, using logs off the property. One of our main philosophies is to use what's available, trying to keep all the costs down. We noticed a shed falling over on the side of the road, and asked for the metal roofing off of it. The owners agreed and gave the metal (which is not cheap) and some of the usable lumber to us.

If you've never had fresh eggs...like really fresh...you have no idea what you're missing!