Happy Birthday To Us!



It just so happens that both of us share March as a birthday month (not to mention my Dad, and a best friend), so this month is usually a month of celebrations.  This year though, we decided to scale back and not exchange gifts.  I mean, why buy gifts when we are getting the ultimate gift, a new farmhouse and land in the country?  Kind of hard to top that!

If we can close soon enough, we might just celebrate our birthdays out there!   So we have no furniture, no stove, no refrigerator....I bet sandwiches and cake on the front porch would make for a birthday celebration we'd remember for years to come!

(And besides, there are two rocking chairs already on the porch, just ready and waiting to be enjoyed!)

INSPIRATION THURSDAY

I've decided to add a new feature to my blog!  I will post a picture, once a week, on Thursday's...a pretty picture...a cool picture...a neat picture....a picture that we saw that inspired us to want to live out in the country, on our own piece of property and hopefully recreate some of that beauty.  It will also be my "day off" from blogging.  I'll just let the picture be the only thing for a day.

So if you come on Thursday and visit, and I know you will, feel free to comment on the picture, or let me know of some pictures you've seen that inspire you!

So, I will call the feature, "Inspiration Thursday".

So here's the first.....enjoy........

Hopefully this will inspire you!

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On the Fence.....a White Picket Fence

Well, Mortgage Broker tells me I should hear from the Title Company ANY day now.  Of course, I'm sure they'll tell me, "yeah, everything is fine, your closing is set for two weeks from now", and then I'll go crazy!  I'd rather get a call from them and have them say "yeah, everything is fine, your closing is set for tomorrow morning!" 

So, instead of continually worrying about it, let's chat about something fun.  Fences!

Picket fence around an herb garden

Picket fence in a front yard

Like these kinds of fences!

I really like the look, it is old school "americana" and that's sort of what style we are going for out there. We've tossed around the idea of more rustic type of fence and that could still win out in the end.  But for now, since the house is an old farmhouse, we just want to make it all look like it's connected.  The property is big enough to have them all over, but that might be overkill.  I'd like one just out the steps by the back door, or at least near the kitchen off the front porch, to grow herbs in.  Something close by, so that 2nd Man can just step outside and gather some fresh herbs for dinner.  Or lunch.  Or breakfast.  You get the picture.  We've got herbs in the city now, they are in clay pots and they do well, but the clay pot keeps them constrained and they never grow to their full potential. 

The second type of fenced garden I'd like to have, is a cutting garden, a place to gather fresh flowers.  Nothing like growing your own.  Have you priced cut flowers in the store?  They can get pricey.  And there is truly nothing prettier than a multitude of colors cascading down, over, and around, a white fence.  I've found a lot of great ideas for that I'll share in future postings. 

Then of course we'll need a veggie garden.  It will be big enough that it will have to be located away from the house (so it doesn't have to take up the entire front yard) and we think we've identified the perfect spot.  6-8 hours of sun, wide open space, nice and flat, doesn't flood when it rains, it will be nice.  I intend on doing raised beds in the garden.  Raised bed gardening is wonderful fun and makes life so much easier for the average gardener.  I'll be posting a lot in the future on this topic (or two) as well. 

Before I wander too far off topic, let's get back to fencing (no not the sport!).  You might wonder why we have to fence the garden?  Well, when living in the country, you have all sorts of creatures roaming around, both day and night.  Stray cats, neighbor's dogs, rabbits, squirrels, opossums, even a coyote or two (or so I've heard).  I realize to keep everything out, we might need a completely covered garden, but then you just move into the land of tacky, ha.  I think a nice picket fence will deter most creatures.  I may change that as time goes by, and freak out the first time something comes in and eats our produce, we'll just have to see what happens, or should I say, "WHO" happens.....



Beautiful picket fence vegetable garden

Another garden, more freestyle than I'd like but still white fence and pretty!

Here are two more pictures of almost exactly what I imagined in my head.  The top one is most like what we want, and they both even look to be about the same size as we'd like to have.  Notice they put chicken wire on the inside of the fence in the first picture?  I would assume that's to keep out the smaller creatures who might slip between the pickets.  Just love the whole look of this, even the arbor style entrance.

The green grass around the outside is a nice contrast to the white of the fence.  I'm not sure I'll be able to make the area around where we want to put ours that green, but trying is half the fun, right?   

So that's a glimpse, hopefully, into the future....now come on Title Company, you're killing us here!

CHICKENS EGGS CHICKENS EGGS...

The front of our property is sectioned off and family lives there.  They have lived there for a long time now and it's their forever home as well.  Cool thing is, because they live there 24/7, we get to live vicariously through their experience with chickens!  Not to mention share in the bounty of fresh eggs.  Last October, the 21st to be exact, they got a box full of baby chicks in the mail!  It still amazes me that baby chicks are being shipped around all over the country at any given moment, but I digress.  They got the hens they ordered, and then ended up with a few roosters too!  The company apparently puts roosters in the box, for no additional charge, to keep all the hens warm!

Boy chicks give off more body heat than girl chicks!  Who knew?

The chicks were adorable.  We even got the honor of naming a couple of them.  

Here they are at only

a couple weeks old.  Can you say, a-dor-able?!

Now though, they are egg laying machines, she said they are getting almost a dozen a day!  Once we are out there full time, we'll be in egg heaven.  In case you've never had a farm fresh egg, or as we call them, a "REAL EGG", they are nothing compared to what you get in the store.

My stomach just growled, ha.

Hard to believe but these aren't "dyed" eggs, these are the way the come naturally from the chicken!  It just depends on the breed.  The chickens out there now are two different types and will produce both brown and greenish colored eggs.
(and yes, the inside is the same in all colors, hey, it's ok, I wondered too!)

2nd Man LOVES to cook.  In another life, he probably would have been a chef at a restaurant.  So he'll come up will all sorts of great things to cook with lots of eggs.  Anyone have some suggestions out there?  He makes a pretty mean Frittata, which uses a dozen at a time.  And of course there is ALWAYS room for an Angel Food Cake.  And naturally, who doesn't want to wake up in the morning to the smell of bacon and eggs frying in a cast iron skillet, with some great, homemade, buttermilk biscuits........dang, stomach growling again!

Anyway, does anyone have any great ideas for use of extra eggs?

Maybe a great old family tradition or recipe or idea?

We want to be able to make some great stuff and share it with the family that gives us the eggs!

Is this THE Week??

We can only hope!  I'm going to check with the mortgage broker tomorrow and see what the plan is.  They told me 2 weeks ago it could be this week.  Well, this week is here, WE'RE READY!!!   Ha.

Our minds are going 100 different directions.  Of course, "I" want to just jump in and start decorating and planting stuff.  But we have to do some infrastructure things first.  Plumbing, electrical, foundation, then flooring, paint, and THEN we can start decorating and buying furniture.  Y'all will be here every step of the way, hopefully offering suggestions, giving us ideas, and voting on decisions.  We want this to be interactive.

Oh, and by the way, we say "y'all" here in the South, it means "you all".  And yes, I know it's not grammatically correct, but it's a Southern thing, you'd just have to live here to understand.

I know everyone is wanting some more pics of the house, and I fully intend to share all, starting after the closing.  That will begin Phase 2 of the journey from city to country.  Until then though, here's a tease....

Rear corner of farmhouse

OK, I told you it was a tease!
This is the rear corner of the side of the house!



By the way, we have great plans for that area back there, it's on the back side of the house, toward the rear fence line of the property.  We're leaning toward a garden soaking tub tucked into that group of trees, and maybe an outdoor shower.  But more on that in a future post....

So everyone send good thoughts our way this week, hopefully by this time NEXT Sunday, we'll own a little farm in the country!

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

Our thoughts and prayers to everyone 

affected by the terrible events of today.

It's so easy to focus on our small worries here, and 

forget about how, in an instant, lives can change forever.

Thinking of you all, from this side of the world....

WHAT'S IN A NAME

I know that it might be too early to figure it out, but I've been daydreaming about a name.  More specifically, what to name the farm.  Sure, I suppose it might take being OUT there to come up with something that seems to fit, but I still think there could be something cool we could come up with.  I really like the name "Farm" in the title.  Like Greenside Farm or Lone Oak Farm, something like that.  Just not sure what the first part of that should be.

We hope to eventually brand our products with the name.  So it's important to come up with something we like and can see on a sign at a Farmer's Market.  Or a jar of homemade preserves.  Things like that.

SO......here is your mission:  Please use the comments section and help us come up with some ideas.

What's the name of YOUR farm or ranch or weekend place and how did you come up with it?  Maybe that will help me figure out how to use attributes of our farm to create a name.

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"

Hurry up and Wait!

Still no word on the closing, it's the waiting that drives me crazy.  Last week they said 48 hours (business days) for one part, and then 48 hours for the title company part.  By my calendar, that's tomorrow.  So I'll have to find out the status then.  I want to call, but then of course I don't want to seem pushy or in a hurry.  What's that old phrase?  "You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar"?  I need to be patient. 

"Good things come to those who wait" is another phrase that comes to mind.....and that's what I'm hoping for.

So, some of you have asked the following questions:

What is our plan? 
Are we moving? 
Are we using it for a weekend place? 
Are we going to raise stuff? 
Is this a business? 
Are you going to retire out there?

The answer to all of those is YES!  We are realistic of course, in this economy, we can't give up our jobs and move out there now, much as we'd like to.  There is a lot to do to do the house first of all.  Sure we'd like to move in and start living there, but there are all sorts of cosmetic fixes to do.  More on that in another post. 

Yes, ultimately, we want to retire out there.  But in the journey from here to there, it will be a weekend place, a place to stay when traffic is too much of a mess.  A place to have parties with friends.  A place to grow organic veggies, experiment with fruit trees and nut trees and berries and herbs.  A place to learn canning, and have 2nd Man baking and cooking with what we grow.  A place to remove ourselves from the hustle and bustle of city life, if only for a week or a weekend.  A place to create and sell things we make with our own hands.  A place to decorate and make into our own.  And yes, finally, when all that's up and running and done, a place to retire to.....

I mean, who WOULDN'T want to sit on their front porch and see this??? 
And yes, this is a view of the property.

Ahhhh......I can't wait!!!!!!!!!  Oh yeah, that's right, I DO have to wait....but not for long.....

hopefully just until next week!

Coldest and Most Stressful (FEBRUARY UPDATE)

So here we were, now into February.  Not only was it shaping up to be one of the coldest in recent memory, but everything was being delayed.  Surveyors not able to get out there, mortgage company said that since it's been so long, they needed updated documents, so it was off to round up more bank statements and pay stubs and all that exciting stuff.  

I felt so bad because I know they are wanting us to hurry up and close, and there is nothing I want more than that but things just aren't happening as fast as we wish they could.  I found myself waking up at night thinking about the whole process. 

We had a couple of weeks where the weather kept falling into the 20's at night, the teens out at the soon to be farm, and barely got above freezing during the day.  This is pipe busting weather.  Even left work early a couple of days because of deteriorating weather conditions, sleet, icing roads, etc. 

A Houston elevated roadway covered in ice and bad drivers

OK, before everyone from a colder climate starts laughing, this is Houston, a humid, tropical environment most of the year, and we just don't do well in harsh cold.  More importantly, people here don't know how to DRIVE in this kind of weather and it's best to just stay home and be warm.  Needless to say, that slowed down everything yet again.  Ice, cold, surveyors, appraisers, it was all converging on us at the same time.  But once we made it thru, relatively unscathed, things started to happen. 

After I resent all the documents once again, things started moving forward again...they scheduled the appraisal for end of the month.  Then the survey was completed and tentatively approved and sent back to the County for "final" approval (how many approvals DO they need?).  But fortunately, by the end of the month, we were almost good to go. 

Appraisal went fine, the guy was super nice, I explained that I understood this house needed work, paint inside and out, some wood repairs, new linoleum in the wet areas (mudroom, kitchen, bathroom), and other cosmetic things, but overall she was a good, solid, house.  He agreed, said everything looked like it was right in line with where it needed to be, he understood why we wanted this place so badly.  Thankfully, he was someone familiar with rural properties and how to best value them.  It's not like buying a house in a subdivision/neighborhood where every other house is the same value or the same style.  Our closest neighbors will be acres away, and in a totally different kind of house. 

But in the end, he said it had great potential, which is what we wanted to hear.

The Mortgage Company said all looked well, and they had sent it off to final Underwriters for approval.  By the end of February, we found it was just a matter of days apparently, and we'd soon own an old farmhouse on acres of land!   Like the image above shows, fingers are crossed!

It's Getting Colder, with Bugs! (JANUARY UPDATE PART 2)

Arrrgh!  TERMITES!!!  Yep, that inspection we had in December showed a few termites.  Nothing that couldn't be treated, but still something we had to deal with, and something that makes you worried a bit when you first hear the dreaded "T" word.  So we had to find a good bug guy and after a little research, we settled on a company and had them come out.  They had to come out in two phases, once to check the extent, and a second time to treat them.

In between the first and second trips, the weather got really cold.  Apparently, bug treatments can't be done in weather that's TOO cold, so once again, we had to wait for it to warm up to be able to get the treatment done.  Stress, stress, and more stress.


So, while we were waiting, we also had to contact a surveyor.  The property we are buying is a large piece of land, originally we were of course just buying the empty land, but when Ma changed her plans, we decided to get the house and a smaller piece of land now, and the rest of the land to complete it later this year.  So in dividing land up, we had to make sure the house didn't end up being land-locked, which is just a fancy word that means there must be access to the main road.  There is in this case, but we just wanted to make sure the County knew that, as well as the Mortgage Company when the time came for them to see the survey.

One thing we discovered during this process is that the wheels of rural county offices move REALLLLY slowly.  Of course, the laid back lifestyle of the country is what we want, so I must learn to not bring "city expectations" to the country.  We felt bad, because the family friend we are buying it from is anxiously waiting for us to close so he can get paid and not have to worry about it any more.  And here we are, 2 months in, still trying to get things moving fast.  More stress.....

Once again, we found ourselves fighting not only the slow wheels of the rural county office, but little did we know, Old Man Winter was making his presence  known and he wasn't leaving anytime soon!

It's Getting Cold (JANUARY UPDATE PART 1)

So here we are, ringing in the New Year....sadly not at the Farm, but in town.  We've always been the non "going out" type for New Years Eve, but we still enjoy watching some of the festivities on TV.  Our personal favorite way to ring in the New Year?  Anderson and Kathy!

 

We'd rather stay home than get out on the roads with all the crazy drivers.  It's just too dangerous at times and I'd rather not take that chance of sharing the roads with some of the crazy drivers that are out there on that night.  Not to mention, I'm not big on huge crowds.  Seems the older we get, the more we like quiet evenings at home, or a dinner with friends.   This year though, we opted for the former, rather than the latter. 

So what did we do in January for the farm?  Well, anything that Ma decided she didn't want to take, or have room for, she left.  So we need to get the house cleaned out and empty and ready for the eventual appraisal by the bank.  So we called a great company, 1-800-GOT-JUNK .  We've seen them on tv and seen their trucks running around town and figured we'd give them a try and get it all done at one time.

Now don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean she left behind a ton of junk, it was just stuff we couldn't use, and stuff just needed to be hauled off and donated and/or recycled and we felt this was the best way.  It's just that our vehicles would have had to make 10 trips, when we were able to pay a fee and get it all done in one load with their big truck.  

It's nice that they recycle what they can and donate good stuff to worthy causes.  I like knowing that someone else can get some use out of something we don't have a need for.  The guys were really nice too, just two of them, and they knew what they were doing.  One of the guys told me it was like playing Tetris, you just have to position everything just right and it fits.  They did a great job and got it all in there.

Got the house completely emptied, except for a washing machine and a stove.  Fortunately, when we buy new appliances, the delivery companies will almost always haul off the old item when they deliver the new one, so we're ok with those staying there for now.  

January was eventful, more on that in a Part 2 post.....

 

.....but here's a hint:   

Let The Stress Begin (DECEMBER UPDATE)

Ok, so I've read that there is a list of the most stressful events in a person's life.  The obvious are deaths, illnesses, financial hardships, marriage, divorce, etc.  Somewhere in that list though is purchasing a home.

This time around, I get the full experience.  Future mental note, don't try to get anything done in December.  Everyone is busy or short staffed or on vacation or out sick.  It's the holidays, the weather, it's everything.  And in December, it all lined up against us and it was next to impossible to get anything done.  Phone message after phone message, email after email, everyone had something going on and was putting things off until "after the holidays".  Don't they know we want to buy a farm house???

The one ray of light we managed to succeed with was an Inspection.  We were finally able to get an inspector out there, in the middle of all the holidays.... This is something we always wanted to have, our own inspection, not just the one for the appraisal by the Mortgage company, but the one to see what, if anything, might be wrong with the home.  Having been through the experience now and seeing the results, I would HIGHLY recommend EVERYONE do this before purchasing a home.  Obviously, you don't want to do it for every home you might be interested in, wait until you find THE one you want, and then have it done.  It's nice to know what you are buying and what will need to be fixed.

It also helps to negotiate price, if potentially major repairs are found.  You can either get the price lowered to compensate for that or have the seller make repairs beforehand.

For those of you that I missed expressing December best wishes, I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday Season, whatever you celebrated, with your family and friends.

Ours was great, knowing that NEXT Christmas, we'd be celebrating at our home in the country!

Where Oh Where.....(NOVEMBER UPDATE)

......have we been?  My last post was "sick day" and then I disappeared.  First of all, we're fine, thank you for those who wrote and wondered what had happened.   Long story short, all is well, great actually!

November we found ourselves in the midst of family celebrations for Thanksgiving.  Ma decided finally that it was time for her to move and she gave us her blessing for buying the wonderful little farmhouse she so enjoyed all these years.

So we spent Thanksgiving Day in a house that was almost all packed up, except for the dining room table and chairs, the china, and, of course, a kitchen full of food.  We had a wonderful dinner, as seen here!  Lots of wonderful food, Turkey, Dressing, too many sides to count, homemade rolls, pies, cakes, and more, it was an incredible memory we will always cherish.

We spent the rest of Thanksgiving Day packing and loading the van, instead of Football and Parades.  But it was all fun.  A little bittersweet, but still enjoyable.  While we were there, one of Houston's infamous weather changes came via a cold front....it went from a balmy 75 degrees and humid, to upper 40's and windy.  The cold reenergized us and we got her all loaded up.

The following morning, Ma, her son that came to help, a U-haul full of furniture, a dog, a cat, and a thousand memories, all headed to Florida.  We went out to visit the house and check on things the following week and the house seemed so empty.  But we're looking forward to the next chapter in it's history as we put our own stamp on it and make it ours.

But first, we need to close.....

SICK DAY

Sorry for my absence.  I always said when I started a blog, I wanted to be able to commit to it full time and not just post sporadically and here a week has gone by!  My apologies.

I will spare you the gory details, suffice to say I was stuck at home for the better part of 4 days. 

While being at home is nice, I'd much rather have been at home and looking out the window at some nice country scenery!  I'm certain it would have made me feel better much faster!

But I'm back and more updates are to come!

So What Kind of Farm Land Did We Find?

You might ask.......where is the land?  Well, it's a long story that I will try to shorten.  We have been casually looking, on and off, for about 7 years.  We've looked in Chappell Hill, Burton, Brenham (yep home of THIS well known place and if you don't know about it, I'm sorry!).  These are all areas NW of Houston.

We hadn't really thought about West of Houston, but one of the reasons we've been so enamored of the country is because of some of our best friends in the world, that we couldn't consider to be more family even if they were family, have lived out there for years and years.  "Ma" as we shall call her, had a beautiful old farmhouse that she lovingly fixed up and saved from some mis-informed yuppies (this was the late 80's after all).  Suffice it to say, they had already begun their 'renovation' by ripping out an old wooden pantry to put in an all mirrored and glass shelved monstrosity, complete with fluorescent lights .  Anyway, she bought the house from them, put her touch on it and made it into a great home on about 5 acres in the country. 

After deciding that it was a bit too much house, she found a small frame house in Houston that was slated for demolition, ironically, not far from where we live now, and had it moved out there.  She plopped it down the road from her big house, onto a family member's property and tucked it way in the back of about 10 acres.  And there she has lived for the last 15 years.

Fast forward to today and she and the family want to sell part of the land, and her house, so that she can move to someplace even smaller and easier to manage.  So the first thing she asked was if we would be interested in her house along with the land.  Originally we had thought about buying just the land, and someday building a home.  Now we might just have the chance for a home that we can use as our base of operations to work on the land and turn it into our dream property.

So that's what we have, and in another post, I will share details of the property, what it looks like, what features it has, etc.

We can't wait to call it our own!

10/10/10 Totally Off Topic.....

But wow, it's 10/10/10.  Or is that Ten/Ten/Ten?  I guess technically it's October 10, 2010.  Still, I think that's cool for some reason.

I know next year, we'll have an 11/11/11, and last year we had 9/9/9 and so forth, but it's still fun.

I read that this is a popular day for people to get married so they can remember their anniversary, and I'm sure it will also be an easy date of birth to remember for all the babies that will be born!

Wherever you are in the world, hope you have a Happy 10/10/10!

More Farm and Garden Reading!

OK.......magazines.  While there a million books out there on farms and gardening and an endless variety of topics related to that, there aren't exactly a lot of magazines that are devoted to the topics you need to learn, but being the magazine business, I'm sure that's directly related to demand for a specific topic.

 

Here are a few of my favorites. While "Grit" has been around for a long time, the one that has the biggest and best name recognition today is probably "Mother Earth News" .  Believe it or not, the magazine is now celebrating it's 40th Anniversary.  "Hobby Farms" is full of great info, and so is "The Herb Companion".  There are even magazines that focus on specic topics, such as "Backyard Poultry" which covers raising chickens, something we want to do for sure (not for meat but for eggs).  But more on that in another post.

There are of course many gardening magazines, it's often hard to choose just one or two.  For farm related topics in general, I think if I could only have one magazine, it would be a tossup between Mother Earth and Grit.  Both cover a wide range of topics.  Be sure and click on any of the links above (the underlined titles) and you'll be directed to their websites for a first hand viewing.

I've really learned a lot from these magazines, not only about what TO do, but what we CAN do in the future,and what we WANT to do if possible.  So many great ideas.  Now we just need some land to do it all on!  SO.....Any other great magazines out there that I'm missing?  Suggestions?  Feel free to post in the comments section!  I'm always up for some new reading material!

NOT SURE WE'LL BE FABULOUS...

....but this is a very fun show to watch.  The Fabulous Beekman Boys are doing something similar to what we will be doing, though on a much grander scale.  A large, working goat farm and a business selling soap and cheese.  It's beyond my realm of thinking right now, but who knows what the future holds?  Still, it's great to watch & we wish Josh and Brent well on their journey!

They just finished airing their first season this past summer and are currently filming their second season.    **  Check your local listings  **

So You Want to Live on a Farm? Do Your Homework First!

So how exactly does one "plan" for a potential farm and/or farm living? 


My first piece of advice is to read...and then read some more, and finally, read even more!  There is a lot of truth to that age old saying that "Knowledge is Power."   Start reading and gathering info and building your own library of information.

There are so many places and ways to get information.  First, of course there is always the internet, just go to Google (or your favorite search engine) and put your search term in the box and you'll get a zillion entries. Ok, maybe not a zillion but a whole heck of a lot.  More than you might have wanted find!  I know that sometimes it can seem like information overload when you are online doing research. 

Don't get me wrong, I've gotten a LOT of information off the 'net.  I always recommend printing the ones you really love or find valuable so you don't have to try to find them later.  I know you can bookmark them of course, but I've gone back a year later and often find the bookmark link has changed and I can't find the info I wanted.  So I print out the ones I want to keep and have at my fingertipes, and I have even been keeping them in binders, but more on that later.

So if it seems overwhelming, you can always do it the old fashioned way and read a book.  This may seem like a no brainer, but honestly, I rediscovered my local library about a year ago and I LOVE it!  Come on, admit it, how many of us haven't been in a library since we had to do that report on Abraham Lincoln back in 8th grade?  I'll admit I hadn't been in a library in years, decades perhaps.  Then, one fine day I found myself in one, while 2nd Man was there for a meeting, I looked for the gardening book section (which conveniently is almost always near the food and cooking section!) and I could almost see the light shining down and hear the chorus singing.  Row after row of free books!  For the taking!  (and of course returning in 2 weeks).  A great resource.  And it's also a great way to 'try out a book' and then if you like it, head off to your local bookstore or Amazon and get your own copy.

If, like me, you are lucky enough to live near a used book store, here in Houston we have a great one called Half Price Books , that is another great source of books.  Again, they usually have a gardening or lifestyle section (what is it about them always being near the cookbooks?) and you can usually get some great deals. 

Lastly there is always eBay or its sister company Half.com . 

My point is, there is a lot of information out there.  It can seem overwhelming but sometimes you just have to dive right in and enjoy.  A good thing about books is that you can get very specific and look for a bunch of info on one topic in one book, for example, raising chickens, or square foot gardening.  Just one book that extensively covers a topic can give you a wealth of valuable information. 

Once you start collecting information (I've been collecting books and papers and articles for years), set aside a small bookshelf so it's all in place.  Or course be prepared, it can fill up quick!  I know from firsthand experience!  In future posts, I will list some of my favorite books, the ones that have helped me with planning.

In my next post, I'll cover some of the magazines I subscribe to, and or read on a regular basis.

Now, go get that library card, fire up that computer, or drive to your local bookstore and start reading!!

    

City or Country?

                         

This kind of living?    OR................

                         

                                   ............................This kind of living?

OK, granted, we won't get the rolling hills and mountains in this part of Texas, but you get the point.  Don't get me wrong, we love having access to the stuff in the first photo, but we want to LIVE like the second photo.

I think we've found a great compromise between the two with the location we have found.  But more on that later!