Time has flown. Here it is 3 years later and the middle of another planting season. So much has happened. I want to share with all of you our struggles and good fortune, but it would be writing a book!
Our tiller broke again when a drunk driver ran it over almost killing me, my husband, and our then 4 year old son. The drunk also managed to destroy 50% of what we had planted last year.
We purchased two nanny goats. They are very young, but we should breed them this year. I enjoy their company as much as the idea of having milk form them.
We have a newer car that we got for a price I could not refuse and my husband had found work closer to home for about 9 months. He lost his job last month. I have a work at home job currently where I make 200-300 a month. He was making only 300 a month at the end of it.
I wrote two books and have started to make a few sales. Not enough to put food on the table, but some pocket change.
We took in a family of four in 2012 that I knew which was living on the street literally and gave them a home for 5 months until they got on their feet. 2012 gave me a very good garden and we fed everyone (All 12 of us) out of it until about November when the frost killed it. By December, it was truly horrific. The pantry was bare and our garden was dead. This was before my husband found work. So it was up to me to figure out something to feed everyone. It wasn't very easy. I got very creative on the recipes by adding chamomile to bread and Mullen, herbs usually reserved for teas. It made the bread sweeter when we had almost no sugar, honey, or molasses. By the end of December they found a home and work. I was so thankful. Most of the beginning of 2013 was devoted to recovering. By June, things were better, until the drunk driver showed up.
Last year was the first real Christmas from mom and dad my kids had in 5 years. My husband had good work at that time and we bought them toys for the first time in a long time. I even bought them new clothes. Now that he is out of work, I am kicking myself in the rear for spending the money. The kids did love it though.
I guess I will update on my planting later. I'm tired, it's late, and I just got off my shift.
Still living in the Hinterlands an update
April 21st, 2014 at 09:27 am
April 21st, 2014 at 02:05 pm 1398089108
Your garden feeding so many people in 2012 speaks so well of your skills. I'm pretty sure you were in extreme drought, as we were here in Missouri. I peeked in so many dumpsters to find empty kitty litter jugs which we filled with water every day and drove 3 miles away to where we had planted a bunch of peach seedlings. But we did not have to keep people alive with them, we just had to keep the trees alive.
Were you able to replant anything after the drunk drove through?
April 21st, 2014 at 02:28 pm 1398090505
What are your two books about?
April 23rd, 2014 at 07:38 am 1398238682
I never was able to replant after the drunk ruined it all. We lost so much. I never did get to can anything. It was heartbreaking.
CB in the City, I wrote two books named "Food For You" and "Bringing Up Baby". Food for you is a book meant for the younger person moving out of their home for the first time. It details how to buy foods, keep a price book, how to use coupons, and also how to cook. It has a lot of very basic information in it, such as the equipment you really need to run a frugal kitchen, how to make pea soup, why a crock pot is awesome, etc...
Bringing up Baby for under a thousand dollars in the first year was aimed at the people in my life that say they can't afford to have a child. I intend to write more books to the effect of how you can raise children without spending a million over their life time like so many popular magazines claim is needed. This book isn't as successful as "Food For You" and I think it is because I take such a personal stance in it. However, it has some very unique and creative answers to problems young parents face. I provide online links through out to support my assertions. In the future, I will not provide as many links as it dates the book.