Do you dream of having your own plot of land one day? Maybe even a farm? One that you can homestead? A place where you can grow much of your own food? Having land where you can husband animals, where kids can run, where you have a little bit of quiet? I can totally identify! No matter where you are – whether you’re in an apartment, on 1/4 acre or less, or you already have a huge spread, there are things that you can do right where you are.
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What I’m hoping is that during this update, you’ll look for things that you can do right where you are NOW. Then start a list of things that YOU WANT to do. Each year then implement 2-3 of those things, so that you are always growing in self-sufficiency.
Inside the Farm House
So there’s a lot going on inside the house, so I’m going to break it down.
Mice? Yep!
We are not strangers to mice problems. We’ve had mice problems in each house that we’ve lived in over the last twenty or so years. We’ve had more of a problem in some houses than in others. After we purchased the house, I was going through some of the kitchen drawers and found tell-tale mouse droppings in a couple of them.
I was on Amazon a moment later and purchased the mousetraps that we’ve used more recently. I mean, how can you say that you love a mousetrap? But as far as mousetraps go, these are the best. Since we put them out, we have already caught 13 mice.
Oh, and did you know, never bait the traps with cheese. Use peanut butter!! I’ve had mice gnaw through plastic to get to peanut flour before. And they really seem to love the peanut butter – I mean, I keep on catching more!
Laundry Room
This is one of the rooms that is getting a big of a make-over. I’ve started with paint. The room used to be sage green with a grey/cream trim. I can’t tell you why, but I was just determined to paint the room a deep purple with a bright white trim. I mean how many times do guests go into your laundry room – so who cares if it’s a brilliant color?
Since I’ve got so much on my plate, it took me a whole week to get the room painted, but the walls, trim, folding doors to the pantry, and door to the kitchen are all painted! Shelves are up, but the flooring still needs to be done, and the trim put back up. I also plan to build a storage shelf between the washer and dryer.
Also in the same room, we have a pantry. I plan to add an additional side of shelving in there.
Removing the Wall 
Since my husband is the pastor of our small church, we host the whole church in our home weekly. This means that we need a room big enough to house everyone. When we purchased this house, we decided that we needed to remove a wall between two rooms so that we could easily put everyone in one room. These pictures are the progression of this project from the start to the day that I wrote this post.
Our New Great Room
The work that has been done to this point is – Removal of all of the old wall coverings – paneling (Ick!), Addition of Header, and removal of the wall. New Drywall, priming, repair and leveling of the floor, and painting of the walls. We still have more to do. We have the floor to go in yet – and a special wall covering behind where the stove will go. Besides that there is wiring and additional outlets are being installed, the woodburning stove is being installed, trim still needs to go up, ceiling fans are still going to be installed.
Flooring
We decided to install all new flooring throughout the entire main floor (minus the bedroom and office – which are carpeted). Flooring should be installed by the end of this week! It’s all getting very exciting.
Problems We’ve Encountered on the Farm
Internet
This has been a two-month-long ordeal trying to get internet. The company I am using has been great! But he’s been having some issues with finding suppliers that either don’t charge $300 to ship what I need (I know, right!?!) or that are in my area so that I can pick it up without needing it to be shipped. We had a breakthrough today, so I’m hoping to pick up the rest of the equipment that I need by this weekend!
Flooring issues
We have one floor going in in all of the rooms (minus the bedroom and office) but we have a special flooring and wall covering that goes in under and behind the fireplace. When we ordered it, we didn’t find out that it wouldn’t be in until the END of April. Um….problem! So after my contractors had some back and forth, they were able to “rob Peter to pay Paul.” That special flooring and wall covering should be in to the store for us to pick up by this weekend!
Another flooring issue that we’ve faced is the use of leveler. The leveling compound has raised the level of the floor to the point that one of the interior bathroom doors will not completely open. My contractor assured me that this is an easy fix. Our back door, however, is also being impeded by the leveling compound – and this is not as easy a fix. But we were assured that it will be fixed.
MudRoom 
One of the things that my friend, her family, and I did this last weekend was to build a bench for the mudroom. The bench still needs sanded and painted. We also need to paint the coat rack that we put together this last weekend. We need to hang everything up, but we made wonderful progress!
Outside on the Farm
Farm Outbuildings
So we have four outbuildings. Three of them have old moldy hay in them. My boys – when they go out to the farm with me on Saturdays, help shovel this old hay out of the buildings. We’re getting a burn pile started. We will burn all the old moldy hay – eventually – when we can get around to it.
Fish
We have orderd and payed for fish to stock our 1 1/3 acre pond. We’re wanting to be able to fish it, and while it was stocked at one point, we were told that it was mostly fished out. This should solve that problem.
Trees
So we already have five apple trees. Yesterday, I purchased quite a few more. We purchased 8 pecan trees (which are hardy for our garden zone 5), 8 hazelnut trees, 3 wild black cherry trees, and 9 black walnut. We also purchased 2 rose bushes (because the rose hips are chocked full of vitamin C) and 9 lilac bushes (which are my moms favorite!).
Garden
I’ve called someone from my husband’s job to come over and till our garden area as we have big plans for this summer! So besides a full garden – which I still need to plan out, we are also going to move our grape vines, black raspberry bushes, blueberry bushes, gooseberry bushes, and elderberry bushes! From another site we also purchased 40 strawberry plants. We know we won’t succeed at everything, but the sooner we try and learn, the sooner we will succeed!
Recreation
My kids have already placed their volleyball net up at the farm, and chosen their Ultimate Frisbee field. We’re hoping to purchase a playground set for church kids and eventually grandkids as well.
Clothes Line
I’ve already purchased two clotheslines. This time, we’ve gone with a different type. We have two square clotheslines that we purchased for this new property. We are going to do our best to use them 3 seasons a year.
What About You?
Do you have plans for your property this summer? Are you dreaming of a new place with more land? I’d love to hear what you’re dreaming about or planning! Share with us in the comments below so that we can all be better prepared.
Together let’s love, learn, practice, and overcome!
that moldy can be spread as a weed preventing mulch, added to a compost pile as you would leaves or serve under foot as a temp walkway in your garden. it will decompose and add a bit of nutrition to your soil. open burning wastes that possibility, puts particulates in the air that harm lungs, and is illegal in many areas for those reasons.