Christmas Eve

A short comment on last night's Christmas party. It was a lot of fun for me, and I am glad everyone stopped by. I was worried I wouldn't have enough food, but as usual, I over did things, and have several desserts left, though the large Dutch oven of Southwest Soup I made was GONE! I was so shocked, as well as, pleased that everyone liked it.

Today was a busy day. We had finished all of our shopping along time ago, so today we got up early, had breakfast in front of the wood stove, then packed up the vehicles with the lawnmower, weedeater, generator, gas, food, water, gun, ammo and headed to the land. Rodney wanted to try and get the well pump started, and I wanted to take a water sample to have tested. It didn't work out, while the pump had a 220 cord, apparently it pulls more amps and kept kicking the circuit breaker off on the generator.

I am just going to call and get the power turned on out there, so we can test the water, and be able to have somewhere to plug in power tools to get started on the house.

I arrived earlier than Rodney at the land, and set up "camp". I pulled out my little camp stove, and warmed water for tea. The girls thought that was worth giggling over. They played with sticks, pretending they were horses, and riding them through make believe drive throughs at DQ and Burger King.

We all went and set up the targets to shoot my new Golden Boy .22 LR. The gun holds 15 shots. Rodney shot all 15 in the center, I shot 11 on the target, Lauren got 1, Taylor and Hannah got zero.

We then headed for home around 4 p.m., after spending all day out there. We rushed into town to drop off Candi's present she had ordered for Brian and that I was holding for her. The church also had a small gift for each family, and the kids in the congregation. Brian had been sick, so they missed church yesterday, and my Christmas party last night. I dropped that off too.

We then headed for Home Depot for PVC pipe (which closed at 5 p.m.) so we headed for Lowe's (they closed at 6 p.m.). We stopped for dinner at Taco Bell, and the made it home before dark.

Cranked up the wood stove as it was getting really cold. I had the kids take showers and get their PJs on, while I mixed up sugar cookie dough. When everyone was ready we cut out and decorated sugar cookies, drank hot cocoa, and watched the Santa Clause on tv. Blake and a neighbor stopped by to say hi. Sent them off with a small gift for each of their kids (a book and a coloring book).

I mixed up dough for cinnamon rolls for the morning. I just need to wait for them to rise, and then I can roll out, and have ready for the morning to pop in the oven.

Waiting for the kids to go to bed in 10 minutes, so I can get their gifts out.

I am very tired. Who knew that walking up and down 10 acres of "prairie" would be so tiring? I also have a bad sunburn! On December 24th no less! It was in the mid 70's today, and the sun was shining bright. I just didn't think to take sunscreen this close to Christmas. Now I am paying for it. My face is bright red, and my lips hurt. LOL!

Well, I am off to check the NORAD tracker to see how close Santa is, I want to get to bed before he gets here...don't really want to handle the conversation on how naughty I have been this year....yikes!

A little bit of everything

(future firewood)

Today was a little busy...was up early and heading into S.A. to meet with the lawyer regarding my dad's estate stuff. Signed some papers, and brought some with me for my siblings to sign, mailed off the one to my grandmother by overnight mail.

Afterwards, the girls and I had lunch, then headed home to pick up the digital camera and rushed off to the land to take pictures, which I posted in another post below.

I washed more clothes, as well as, folded them, still need to be put away.

Tonight Rodney hogged the laptop to look at tractors (guess I shouldn't complain, he hardly ever uses the computer - I wonder what we will do for Internet access when we move to Big Foot???)

I spent the evening reading my Backwoods Home mags again, looking through homesteading books, and making plans and lists.

I feel a little bad about spending all this money on buying the land, when I know so many people who need food and other necessities. The fact of the matter is that I spent a large portion of my inheritance on other people recently, and while I am glad to help, and want to do more, I also want some land for myself. I will continue to do what I can, but the fact of the matter is that I will soon be funneling every spare penny into my house fund. I need about $15K to build the house. I have about $3K at the moment, after paying the down payment on the land.

DH wants a tractor ( I think every homesteader wants one). Yes, we do need it. It will come in handy shredding the brush, keeping the firebreak cut, drilling post holes, and plowing for my garden, and hopefully future pumpkin patch business. They are just so expensive. There are several on craigslist that are reasonable priced, but he has this thing about only buying a new tractor. I tried to tell him that tractors last a long time, and if you get one that is older, it is easier to fix than the newer ones. I refuse to pay $14K for a tractor, that is just crazy. A used one will work just as well, be cheaper, and allow us to have no payments. I am not getting sucked into the payment thing again, after getting out. We will have land payments, but I consider that an investment, and plan to pay it off when we sell the house in a year of so.

We did head out to the land earlier this afternoon/evening around 5 pm. We took sandwiches and ate on the tailgate of the car, then walked the property again, checking things closer, talking about plans and thoughts, and closely inspected the hog tracks on one end of the pond. Followed their trail a little way, until DH noticed that they had recently wallowed in the mud, and he didn't want to meet an angry feral hog without a gun. So, next time we go out, we will take the 9mm, and the 30-30, just in case.

It was nice eating out there...Lauren commented on how quiet it was. You could hear the wind and the birds..beautiful. She wants to have a bon fire on the property like my sister Ann normally has on Christmas and New Year's Eves at her land. I think I will buy a fire pit though, the grass and brush look way to dry for a ground fire.

Need to remember to take the port a potty with us next time too, would have come in handy for Hannah, she is a small town girl, and a little countrified, but still too citified to use the bushes. She looked so shocked when I told her she could potty if it was an emergency. She said she'd wait. She also doesn't like the long grass, which I LOVE! It blows and waves in the wind, and makes me thing of Little House on the Prairie, and of "amber waves of grain". LOL!

On the agenda for tomorrow is:

wash clothes
clean
make grocery list
make cookies
bake gingerbread

Well, off to bed...good night all!