Overdue update

It's hard to believe over another year has passed since I posted anything. Of course, since there are no viewers at this point, and this is more for my own cathartic record, I suppose it doesn't matter. However, for future reference and the benefit of future friends of this homestead, here's an update.

We are now in the process of actively trying to move to our homestead. We're debating whether to sell or rent our house in Iowa. We have considered three main options for living purposes on our land. The first is to build a nice garage/shop/barn with an apartment above it. The second is a yurt, and the third is a locally made log cabin. Much thought and research has gone into each of the options, but for now we're leaning strongly toward the last option. They're stout, fairly energy efficient, earth friendly, and cosmetically appealing. A cabin should also go up rather quickly and should add some good value to the land. We hope to set it up to be, as much as possible, off the grid, for the sake of principal and also as a reflection of our desire to live more simply and more self sufficiently.

Last year not much happened on the land. With our new situation in Iowa, and 4 young kids, there just wasn't time to do much other than try to keep the grass and weeds cut down. This spring has been different. We've added a small orchard--some apple, pear, and peach. We've also added a big patch of strawberries and blackberries, although there are some wild blackberries and black raspberries scattered around the 9 acres.

This past week we had a neighbor with a tractor and plow come and turn over a couple strips of the hayfield to be used as a garden. The hay ground has been in hay for a long time, and has more than its fair share of weeds and grass. The soil looks pretty good, but does have some rock, which is a new phenomenon for me. I got the soil tilled up with my BCS tractor and we planted a large portion into potatoes, with some tomatoes as well. For now, we're not going to put in a ton of other vegetable, since we can't be at the land often enough to keep up with them.

We also ran the old well for awhile this weekend to pump some water for watering the plants and trees. It still runs, but needs to be pumped out since it hasn't really been used in at least 10 years or so, I would guess. I hope to get the old cistern cleaned out and tuck pointed for storage use.

Here is a short video I put together--it is not great quality and, unfortunately, I videotaped it sideways with my phone, so it's not great to look at, but it does give a couple views of our property and has a short clip of me cutting hay with the sickle mower on the BCS tractor. Also are some pics we took this weekend. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaXaSbAJYUw