The buzz

My garden is growing beautifully! Well, most of it. I have some beans that have drowned in the ground (we have been having an abundance of rain this summer) and my lettuce and turnips have fought and mostly list a serious bug battle... But a still have a little of both that survived. For my first year, I'll take that ass a success. The problem is with the bees.

My squash, cucumbers, and melons are growing big and healthy, flowers galore every day. Have been for weeks. I should have produce falling out of our patoots! Instead I have had 2 tomatoes, and one of those is still ripening. That's it. No baby growing succubus, no mini cukes, nothing. The flowers bloom and them promptly fall off as though they have been plucked. I tried fertilizer, compost, putting taps I've then in the rain to reduce the amount of water they get, even extra watering. The exact same thing keeps happening. What the hay?! Bees. That's what's wrong.

We are usually over run by pollinators here. Butterflies swirling around us as we walk through the yard, need buzzing and flitting about the clover crowns, even wasps claiming their territory about the eaves. This year we're lucky to to see one a week... Of any of them. Big ag has taken over the farm next door and its impact is very notable. They use GMO seeds and exorbitant amount of pesticides and herbicides. Its bad enough that I'm not even going to save corn seeds. I don't want GMO contaminated seeds.

Turns out that when your flowers aren't pollinated they will just fall off. Right now I'm looking into getting a loaner hive. There are bee keepers who will place a hive on your land to pollinate your crops and then come pick it up when your done with it. In my book, these folds are Heroes! In the mean time the girls and I are going to take some advice from a dear friend and paint our crop blossoms. You go out at like 7:00 am and use a paint brush to pollinate your crops yourself. You brush the centers of each flower in succession a few times then move to the next flower. Hopefully it will help. All this work, stress, and money for naught would be very aggravating.

This has helped me to know, in my heart of hearts, that we will definitely have our own hives in Washington. For our food and the world's. Without bees we are all screwed. Bees are a fantastic indicator of the environment and from what I see right now, we are all in trouble!

Even though we are leaving at the beginning of the summer next year, I am planting a butterfly garden on our land here. Lots of flowers. I may even guerilla garden the road sides as a go. It is my personal fight for the bees.

My baby step for today... Plant flowers and vegetables that allow bees to feed all year. That will draw them to your land and keep them in the world. Use no chemical based pesticides at all. We are killing our bees and by so, killing ourselves. We are growing our own food, collecting rain water, saving and reusing heirloom seeds, clustering our errands for less gas usage, put bricks in our toilet tanks, time our showers, and brush our teeth with a Dixie cup of water. We trip breakers when a leave the house, shut of lights all day and spend as much time as possible in the same room together at night to save power. We boycott GMO foods as best we can, use very little processed foods, buy locally grown produce and consume less so a can afford the organic versions of our favorite foods, make our own detergents and cleaning supplies, and use no AC at home or in the car. Wee even buy chloride free water. But none of this will matter with out bees.

Today I hope you find drive. The drive to do and be more than you are.

A little itty bitty teeny tiny Slice of Heaven

Last night, it suddenly hit me, I may be living, working, homesteading and home schooling the better part of a year with 2 kids, 2 dogs, & 2 cats in a space smaller than my living room. 

HOLY CRAP!

That's the kind of epiphany that makes a sane person rethink their decisions.
Good thing I am absolutely insane.

Ssssshhh! *whispers*  Don't tell anyone, But I'm actually even more excited than I was before!  A bit more apprehensive...  but immensely more excited!

I, you see, am the new proud owner of a 1973 Startcraft Wanderlust Travel trailer.  I don't know the dimensions on it (it isn't here yet), but its smaller than my 20 x 13 living room....  Much.  The travel trailer has a dinette, a sitting area, 2 large beds, and a 3/4 bath.  All the amenities you could need.  Granted the dinette and sitting area turn into the two large beds, but do you really need a dining table at night? 

We didn't even know we wanted a travel trailer.  We had kicked the idea around and decided against it.  That simply getting a utility trailer is what we were going to do.  But of course, that was when we still planned on building a 10,000 sq ft manor on our land (we're looking at around 2000 sq ft now, and that includes the sleeping loft, and basement).  A lot has changed since then.  We knew we were going to need a truck/SUV anyway.  And a second vehicle would be nice.  Preferably with 4x4.  So I have been looking at SUVs and trucks on Craig's List for a vehicle we might be able to afford to pull the utility trailer and Hubby has been looking on Craig's List for the trailer.   Divide and conquer (and still leave mom enough time to vacuum the floor).  As he was going through things he finds the ad for the travel trailer trailer and sends it to me.  After a long text conversation we come to the conclusion that this is the best route for us to go.  We will save money on hotel rooms on the trip and have a place to stay when we first get there before we get a chance to get set up.  I call on it, call hubby, call back on it, and it's gone already.  WHAT!?!  Well, not gone gone, but claim has already been laid.  Someone else had called while I was talking to hubby and made arrangements to pick it up at 6:00 in the morning.  I am devastated.  Really!  I was so excited and had already figured out where to scrape up the money for it (we had some money saved, but not enough...  I had to do some juggling) and everything.  But the gentleman selling the trailer told me to call him back at 7:00 am.  If the first guy does not call or show, it's ours.  I got no sleep that night.  Not a wink!  I was too excited!  By this point, The Hubster and I, had already decided that if we can get larger housing sooner, then awesome, but we would realistically aim for tax return season.  Not only would we have more money from our return, but we'd have saved more money, and people would be selling their single wides (all we want to start) for cheap cheap cheap as they were replacing them with double wides purchased by their returns.  That would make it possible that the girls, critters, and I would live, work, home school, and homestead for 8 - 9 months in this trailer that we probably weren't even going to get.

At 7:00 am I called, readying myself for heart break.  I was already giving myself the Pollyanna pep talk...  *That's ok, we just weren't to have this one.  When it's time we'll find another one.  At least we know what we really want now and we have a jumping off point.  This one just wasn't supposed to be ours.  We'll find something better.* ...that conversation.   It wasn't so much the trailer itself we were hooked on.  Any travel trailer with a bathroom could have worked.  But this one was an amazing deal that we could afford right away!  It is road ready, it has a small plumbing problem, but Hubby can fix that!  We searched a LOT of interwebs and almost no other travel trailer was close to the price, and if it was it was in horribly shoddy condition or states away.  I almost hyperventilated waiting for him to answer the phone.  I just knew he was going to say no, even though I just knew that trailer was supposed to be mine.  Then the kind gentelman answers the phone and informs me that the first guy was a no call, no show and that the camper is mine if I want it.  *airpunch-jump-squeal-happydancehappydancehappydance* Yes!

                     This will become our comfy cozy micro home.  I swear I'm not crazy.  My Mother had me tested.  ;)


I went to see it and took one look at it and thought...  Oh WOW! This is small!   But didn't we want to downsize and simplify?  I mean, we were already down to a truck bed (SUV bed) and utility trailer.  There's no room for a TV or a game console.  Think of how close and connected me and the girls would be?  I am 100% certain there will be times that we all annoy the crap out of each other.  But, we'll be forced to communicate.  My day won't be packed full of fussing about frivolities, like messy rooms and vacuuming.  It was cute and cozy and with the right touch, it would feel homey and intimate.  And then, when we moved into the single wide, we'd be so grateful for the upgrade instead of belly aching about it's lack of size compared to our home here.  At that moment I reminded myself that this move isn't about stuff and things.  This is the opposite of that.  It's about having enough and not being grateful in spite of it, but because of it.  It's about slowing down and simplifying.  The simplification of life, of family.  And I knew that this little metal tin can on wheels was exactly what I wanted.  The girls were excited looking at the pictures online.  They were gung ho for living in such close quarters.  Booter rambled about how much we could talk to each other.  Ladybug went on and on about how much time we'll get to spend together and how much stuff we can do... she thinks it will be exciting, like Little House on the Prairie.  I even read some blogs about other families doing the full time camping thing and none of them would trade it for a second and would do it again in a heart beat.  Some it was until they could build their home (sound familiar?  lol) and they genuinely miss the closeness, both emotional and proximity, and often times go for extended getaways in their simple former home.  And in all honesty, it'll probably only be several months that we live in there.  Though there is a large possibility that it will be for longer.  I'm trying to prepare for a year....  better safe than sorry.  And I'm torn.  Part of me wants to get into a bigger place asap, but then there's part of me wants to stay in the travel trailer as long as possible.  I am really looking forward to building my relationship with my girls.  To teach and love and to be taught and loved in return.  Ladybug is closer and closer to a teenager everyday.  I would love for us to have an immensely strong relationship before she starts to hate me.  And Booter is only two years behind her, but often feels twice as left out.  How wonderful for her to feel super important and helpful.  And their relationship as sisters will grow and strenghthen too.  A year long family bonding experience sounds fantastic to me. And we get to decorate it.  *squee*

I plan on decorating it in complete Shabby Chic.  And I plan on making all the decor myself...  up cycling a LOT of it.  Fun!  Well, me and the girlies will do it!  What an awesome opportunity to teach them how to sew and to reuse things in a new way.  Of course we do a lot of that already.  But this is going to be epically awesome!  We're gonna frou frou that thing up!  Hubby said I could do what ever I want with it.  It is mine, essentially.  It will be just me and the girls 98% of the time, so it has to be comfortable to us.  So yeah....  lace, florals, and feminine colors will abound!  There will be some remodeling (light remodeling) and customization done to make it exactly what we need.  It's a daunting task to think of how we're going to get everything we need into that little space.  But compared to all the benefits we're going to get out of it, that is a challenge I am willing to take.  And we're going to paint the outside!  White and lemon yellow sound awesome to me, but hubby says he wants some say on the outside since he has to tow it.  LOL!  Good thing I didn't mention the white pink and lavender idea....  ;)

That is my update, guys.  We have a lot going on between the garden (which is frustrating as all sin), the all natural products (trying to start my own home based business selling my concoctions), non processed foods (not as easy as it sounds in small town southern USA), and unprocessing our lives (well, we're trying to).  It's a little crazy, but 100% worth it.  I am even more excited to take that giant plunge into the next stage of our lives more now than ever!  As far as baby steps....  do something tangible to reach your goals today.  Take the first scary step into the possibility of failure.  You may fail, but you will learn from that failure.  And those lessons are beyond valuable!  Even greater, you may succeed.  And then the bounty of the universe awaits you!

Today I wish you courage.  Sometimes the hardest part of changing who we are is to stop fearing what we might become.