Things To Read

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Dream Big, Be Patient

As I brought some of our salsa, jalapenos and pears into the kitchen from the pantry this afternoon, I mentioned to Frank how great and unbelievable it is that we have finally reached this point in our lives. It is very humbling and brings great peace to our hearts to have some of our dreams come true. Let me explain.


This morning (Saturday) I made our usual homemade biscuits for breakfast. Then I fed the cats, opened up the chicken house and fed the chickens. This led me to the barn where I fed Pearl, our Pyrenees, milked One Stripe and fed the rest of the does. Enjoying the beautiful sunshine, I made my way back to the house and strained the milk. This time I didn't cool the milk because we needed to make yogurt





After the yogurt was started, it was time to make bread out of the sourdough sponge I had left out overnight to ferment. 



We had set out a bag of Cushaw squash to thaw for a pie a day or two ago, so it was time to get the pie going. This would also warm up the kitchen so the bread would rise more quickly.




By now it was time for lunch, which brings me back to the beginning of this post. It has taken many, many years of dreams, planning, postponing, and planning again to make it to this point. When we were newly married, our big date was to walk around downtown and window shop. We couldn't afford to buy anything. We just spent time together, walking, holding hands, and dreaming. Dreaming that someday we would live in the country and be as self reliant as possible. Now, thirty-something years later, we still have not achieved all of our dreams and goals, but many of them seem to be coming together.



Five years ago, we had not learned how to can vegetables. At that point the only thing we had canned was salmon when we lived in Alaska. 






Five years ago, we barely knew how to garden. We had a lot of book learning, but no practical experience. We grew one fairly successful garden about 20 years ago, then about five years ago we began to garden again.
  
 








Three years ago, I had never made cheese




Two years ago, I had never tried growing herbs.









A year and a half ago, we had just started to get into ham radio.







One year ago, I had not canned any fruit on my own. 







Six months ago, I had never used a dehydrator

  



Two months ago, I knew little to nothing about kefir and had never tried it. 




One month ago, I had never made sourdough bread. I have made a lot of bread, but now I have the self-sustaining means of continuing to do so indefinitely without yeast. As long as the wheat and flour hold out, that is. 



Two weeks ago, we had never tried any herbal, medicinal teas. Today we added some celery seed/chamomile tea to our daily repertoire.




And I almost forgot to mention.  234 days ago we had never had anything to do with a blog. We had been reading a few, but never written anything like this. And, believe it or not, we used to seldom take pictures of anything. Now somedays we are doing something and one of us will say, "Hmm, we should have taken some pictures for the blog." It is interesting how things turn out while you are pursuing your dreams.


You may not live on your own little piece of dirt yet. You may not have all of the livestock or garden space you want. You may not have the money to do some of the things you really feel are important to be prepared. But you do have the opportunity to learn all you can wherever you are. Dream big. Really big. Be patient and frugal and determined and diligent and vigilant. Then dream big again. When Frank and I first got married he had a saying that has been a motto of ours ever since. "Postpone gratification for long-term gains." Think about that. There are so many things we can do without. Sometimes there are things that are nice to have or that we just want. And sometimes it is really hard to put some things off. And then sometimes things happen that cause our goals and dreams to be postponed or changed. But that is not the end of them. Keep them close to your heart, discipline yourself that you might always keep them in focus, and don't allow yourself to be distracted by the things of the world.


Know that most dreams don't come true over night, at least not in my experience. And most days, I think that if they did come true overnight, I wouldn't appreciate them near as much. So, today, my heart is full of gratitude. Gratitude that God has seen fit to bless us with this little spot of land upon which we can achieve the things of our dreams by the sweat of our brow and the touch of His hand. Since we have been here, we have learned much, and I feel we have just begun. Hold fast to your dreams. They may come true in the most unexpected ways.


Until next time - Fern

 

18 comments:

  1. Love your blog. My husband even reads, especially the ham radio postings. I was wondering what cream separator you use? If you don't use one, how do you separate your cream. I want to get a dairy goat, but I want to be able to use the cream also. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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    1. Thank you, we're glad you are finding something useful here.

      We don't use a cream separator. We have one and have tried it, but it is too much trouble to clean up and we didn't like the way the milk tasted after we ran it through the separator. I use a gravy ladle to skim the cream off after it has had a couple of days to rise in the frig. It works great. Since you don't get a lot of cream at once, I freeze it until I have enough to make butter. If you read the 'Making Butter' post it will show pictures of how we do it.

      Please let me know if there are any other questions I can answer. Thanks again for your comment.

      Fern

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    2. I looked at the mentioned post. I think your way looks better than others I have read. I canning jar doesn't take much room. Other blogs I have read said a large flat pan in the refrig. I couldn't see that working without tidbits getting into it. Do you put a lid on the jar or not? Thank you.

      I have to admit, one reason I enjoy your blog is the similarities I see between you and your husband and myself and my husband. My husband got into Ham radio a few years ago. He even commented on one of Frank's articles.

      Many, many years ago I had my EMT license. Currently, I am in education (29 yrs). I love to have my animals. We have taught our daughter, if we care and provide for them they will provide for us. I especially love cooking for scratch meals that contain the food we have raised and harvested ourselves. Dairy animals are next on my list.

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    3. I do put a lid on the cream in the freezer, but I don't tighten it down. I found if I tighten the lid and it freezes on there, it is very hard to get off again to put the next batch of cream in it.

      There are several great types of dairy animals that will provide good milk. Good luck with your new adventure.

      Fern

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  2. Fern, what a fantastic post. This kind of reflection, contentment, and thankfulness is so key to successful homesteading. It's all to easy to look at our long list of things needing to be done and become discontented. That shouldn't be what the homesteading journey is about. What a beautiful reminder you've posted here.

    I smiled when I got to the cushaw pie. I made one from my frozen cushaw yesterday too!

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    1. Thank you, Leigh. We do love our lifestyle. The list of things to do is always long and you are right, can be disheartening at times when we don't seem to be making any progress. But we are so grateful for where we are and what we are able to do and learn everyday.

      Cushaw pie tastes great and is so easy to make. It's funny we both made one yesterday. Enjoy!

      Fern

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  3. I loved this post! These are exactly what my husband and I are working toward. We don't have land yet, but while working toward it I have started learning to can, dehydrate, and make sourdough, kefir, and kombucha. Thank you for the inspiration!

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    1. Hi Machelle,

      That is great you are learning so many things. Everything you learn will get you one step closer to your dream. I find the more I learn the more I want to learn. Then the more I learn the more confident I am. It's a great feeling.

      I wish you the best on obtaining your dream.

      Fern

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  4. I have been reading from the beginning and was so surprised and happy for you that you were mentioned on SurvivalBlog! From Rural Revolution to SurvivalBlog in less than a year. Today's post is awesome. As we finish building our raised beds to keep out the gophers I am realizing that we aren't where we were last year and we won't be here next year. We just keep reading and trying and learning. Thanks so much for all the lessons you have taught us both this year!

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    1. Thank you for reading and you're welcome. That's the way we do it every year, and the next year may be different. It's like Frank's chicken posts, we're going to keep switching birds until we find the one that works here.

      Thank you for the comment.

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  5. This post was so encouraging. My husband and I have dreams to live more self-sufficiently. I want to learn to can and raise a garden. In a world where we are force-fed that "newer is better" and that we must keep spending to keep up, I long for this quieter life even more. Hopefully we will get there someday!

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    1. Well, Mandy, keep dreaming and learn all you can. You never know where you will land.

      Fern

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  6. Hi Fern and Frank,
    Thanks for such a wonderful post... And blog! Love learning through books, but love the practical hands on type of learning even more. Always something new to try, for us this year that will be keeping bees and training horses to harness. The last 15 years we have gardeners and canned, raised milk goats, sheep, chicken, and ducks, but there is always so much more to learn. We love our little Farm and feel blessed to be able to do as much as possible to be self-sufficient. We are also looking into learning about ham radio and have really enjoyed Franks post on that subject.
    Thanks and God bless you both,
    Janae
    Willow Creek Farm

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    1. Janae,

      We've always admired folks that can work with larger animals, but at our age, that is not something we are going to start. It sounds like you have learned much that will be very useful for years to come.

      Frank will continue the radio communications posts through the General licensing information. If you have any questions, please let him know.

      Thank you for reading and thank you for the comment.

      Fern

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  7. Your blog has inspired me so much. Patrice Lewis' blog led me to yours and it's so refreshing that there are folks like you and Frank that are God-loving, patriotic, sensible and down-to-earth. I'm learning a little here and there and we are getting ready to make that big move to our 18 acre property in east Texas. From all the reading I've done, it's wise to start a little at a time. This Spring I shall begin with chickens and a small garden. I'll be blogging to no end soon. Keep posting your wonderful thoughts.
    Blessings your way,
    Alicia

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    1. Alicia,

      I think you're wise to know your limitations and limit the number of projects you start at one time. It's easy to get overwhelmed. We have projects that we started five years ago that are still sitting. Maybe someday.

      Best of luck with your new homestead.

      Fern

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  8. This was such an encouraging post! It's good to be reminded to dream, and that things take time. I'm trying to add a couple of skills per year. Ham radio and chickens are on the bucket list, but it may be a good while before either of those are possible. We'll see what opportunies the Lord provides. Thank you for sharing your journey!

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    1. Thank you very much and you are welcome. It's so good to dream. It gives us hope and a goal to work toward. Keep your dreams in sight, sometimes it takes much longer than we think it should. There is nothing in this world like dreams coming true.

      Blessings,

      Fern

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