Way at the End Acres...A Little Homestead with BIG Heart

[NHFarmMomma]

In order to start my journal off on a good foot I feel like you need to get to know me, my family, and my little homestead...

My name is Mary. I'm in my mid 20's... I am a born and raised NH girl! I love everything about NH except black flies and mudseason... and mudseason isn't bad except my driveway is one-mile long, very muddy... and maintained solely by my husband and I... *Sign* For a couple weeks every years we ride our ATVs in and out so that we don't kill our vehicles. That sure is a lot of fun...

Anyway, everything else about NH is wonderful! I love the colors and smell of Fall in New England, making apple sauce and more apple pies than any family should eat, the cool crisp air and the smell of the woodstove buring for the first time in the fall.

I am married to my amazing husband Larry we have a little girl named Chloe who is three and a baby boy on the way... His due date is September 27th... And we are all so excited.

We live off the grid in Grafton, NH... waaaay out in the woods. The other "members of the family" on our little homestead are...
Jack - English Belgian Draft Horse (SO BIG)
Special - Miniature Buckskin Horse (Stallion)
Elvis - Miniature Paint Horse... Rescued from a kill pen...
Thunder & Lightning - Pygmy Goat Wethers... Silly little guys...
15 Assorted Laying Hens
4 Bunnies (Hamburger...Moo...Max & Ruby)
Dundee and Gabby - A Pair of Spotted Austrailian Ducks (Hence the Australian Names)
Buddy and Baby the house cats
Sam the "all bark" Black Lab

E-I-E-I-O...

Sadly, I feel like I am missing a critter... Hmmm.... No, I guess that's it... for now *wink wink* I tend to collect the little critters... we started with just Jack...

So everyday we have lots of little chorse to tend to and I am so excited to be raising my daughter, and soon to be son, on a little farm. I lived on a farm for a few years as a kid and learned so much about rural life and was so happy, I couldn't imagine living any other way now...

My daughter, Chloe loves to help with little chores around the farm. We planted our gardens together, we build critter pens together, she helps collect eggs and loves to just sit and sing to the animals... Ah, a little farm baby. Makes me happy.

It's finally time to get the zucchini, summer squash, and cuckes in the garden... Oh I can't wait! This year we are also growing lots of greens (Spinach, Swiss Chard, and Lettuces), Green and Yellow Beans, carrots, beets, radishes, peas, too much rhubarb, and sweet corn! Yum-O! I've never been able to get corn to grow at our house... so we'll see!

I've been canning for a couple weeks now. I have a supplier to buy produce in bulk and split the yeild with my mother... The deal is: she buys the produce, I can it... and she gets a little under half the jars... Works for me! Finished up a 50# case of carrots last week... some of those carrots were as big as my lower arm! No kidding! I fed a few of those to Jack because they were just too darn big! Tonight I am going to be finishing up a case of peaches... They on the other hand were the smallest little peaches I've ever seen! It took peeling a million of them to get a canner load of pints ready to can! Last batch tonight!

Well if you're reading my post I guess that's enough info for now... I will post agin soon.

Make everyday what you want it to be...

 

[TTs Chicks]

Congrats on the upcoming baby boy -

 

[TanksHill]

Welcome!!!

Your homestead sounds great. Congratulations on you new little boy. Boys are adventures in themselves.

Can you tell me how you found a supplier to buy produce in bulk? I have a garden but don't produce anywhere near enough to supply my canning needs. Living in Southern Ca most things are available year round but I usually buy when things are in season and cheap for canning. I would love to go directly to a grower.

When you say you live off grid are you solar powered or living without electricity?

Welcome again,
gina

 

[NHFarmMomma]

Well, living off the grid was never really a plan we made we just sort of stumbled into it... Nearly literally... My husband and I (he was still my boyfriend then ) went for a little walk/hike in the woods near his home and we literally walked out into the front yard of Paul and Ann... the previous owners of our house.

The odd thing was we were one mile, from an old dirt road... so really off the beaten path, and there was a real estate for sale sign in the lawn! Made me laugh out loud...

So anyway... being freindly, extroverted, and curious we walked up and nocked on the door. This was September 2005... Seems so long ago now...

We talked to Paul and Ann about the house and like most older people they wanted to show us everything and tell us their own off the grid tale... So we listened... They showed us the house, the yard, the beautiful flower and veggie gardens... Soon it got pretty near dark and we said we had to go or we would never find our way home... Turns out the end of their "drive way" was about a quarter mile from ours... Neighbors.

Paul and Ann invited us back for dinner that weekend to talk more about the house being for sale...

Ann made the most wonderful dinner... baked chicken, fresh green beans from the garden, mashed potatoes also from the garden... I was sold on the life style... I wanted it...

Well to make a really long story into just a regular long story, we ended up "renting to own" and moved in on October 17th 2005... We later financed it through a bank but Paul and Ann were in a hurry to head south for the winter and retirement... We bought the house from them outright in January 2007, three days before our daughter was born.

The first winter was great. Yes the driveway is long, we plow it ourselves and have all the peace and quiet we could need.

Then mud season came... and we got the first dose of how bad having a self maintained road really was... We ditched and hoed and drained puddles and rode our four wheeler in and out... it was nasty. I was sort of unofficially given my own parking spot at the Bank because I had marked my territory with the mud that would dry and fall off my Jeep Grand Cherokee everyday...

Every year we add a little more gravel, hard pack, and stone to the road in the places it was still muddy the year before and every year it gets a little better. We only had to ride in and our on the four wheeler for two weeks this year and not everyday... just to save the cars when it was rainy or what not...

The quiet at my house can be a little spooky to "regular" people... Before living off the grid I never noticed how much noise a regular house makes... The compressor turing on and off on the fridge, fans, heating and cooling systems, even just electricity running through the wires makes alot of noise. At night we flip a switch and our power is shut off... and it is dead silence. Man, do I sleep well at night!

There are millions of wild birds living near our house and they sing me awake everyday...

We run a generator for an hour or so every day. This charges our bank of batteries and runs the water pump for hot and cold water out of the "regular" faucet... We also have a red cast iron handpump right at our kitchen sink! I love that... I use that most of the time, even when the generator is on and I can use the regualr faucet... So when the generator is running we do dishes, clean, take showers etc... The rest of the time we run off the batteries.

I was asked once if we just sit around with oil lamps and play dice or whittle... Too funny! Our house is just the same as most people's... We have direct TV, though we shut it off in the summer because we just don't watch it... and we have a laptop, and blackberries for phones... Pretty modern...

It's just quiet...

 

[NHFarmMomma]

My parent's own a concession business where they sell food at fairs and the local stock car race tracks...

My mother just adds a case of this or a case of that a week to her order and I get it at a great cost...

So my momma is my connection...

 

[ToLiveToLaugh]

Sounds so peaceful and fantastic! I think you'll find some kindred spirits here. Welcome!

 

[PunkinPeep]

So nice to meet you! Welcome to SS! I think you're the envy of a lot of us who would like to be off grid but haven't made it yet.

I might be from Texas, but i've been out of Texas long enough to know there's no such thing as too much rhubarb!

 

[big brown horse]

Hello and welcome to SS! Your off grid living sounds magical and peaceful to me!

I can't wait to read more!

 

[valmom]

Your place sounds lovely!

I know what you are saying about the mud- we are on a town maintained dirt road and it still gets hubcap deep.

 

[NHFarmMomma]

For someone who doesn't really like rhubarb... what we have is too much... Last year I learned how to can and made lots of rhubarb sauce to give away as gifts... people were like "Ok, what do I do with this?" I did make some Strawberry rhubarb upside down cake that was pretty good...

So I didn't get the peaches finished last night but I get out of work early today and plan to go home and get it finished up...

And some laundry... boo.

What are your plans for the weekend?