After several weeks of false starts on this blog, we have decided to start by posting weekly updates on happenings around our homestead. It’s been a crazy, busy time, and we are excited to share all that’s going on with our family, friends, and anyone else who wants to follow our journey!
The last couple weeks have been eventful ones! Last week, we had our tractor delivered.
It’s a ’51 Ferguson TO20. It’s been restored, but it still has some quirks. We are looking forward to learning more about how to maintain it and repair it when needed.
After the tractor was delivered, we got to work doing some minor grading on our bunk house build site — mainly removing turf and smoothing out the ground a bit. Since we are doing a pier and beam foundation, we don’t need to fully level the site.
We also finished up a few camp conveniences last week. We built a burn barrel to get rid of paper products. We got a new gas grill so that we don’t have to use our fire pit every time we want to cook. It turns out that the week after labor day is a great time to buy grills — we got ours for half price!
Early this week, we got to work laying out our corners and digging our footings. Since our bunk house is so small, we decided to dig our footings by hand. I marked the footings with stakes and ground paint. Grace and Bonnie-Jean took turns with the pickaxe until we picked up a few more.
The ground on this part of our property is very rocky. Bonnie-Jean and Grace both spent a lot of time wielding a pick ax. I mostly helped with figuring out how to lay things out properly and picking up rocks. It’s a lot of work, but we are enjoying getting our hands dirty. Dolly and Rascal enjoyed helping with this part of the project, too!
On Wednesday, we put up our mailbox. We have had the supplies for a couple weeks, but we had to wait on the mail carrier to mark the site for our box. We got our first piece of junk mail the next day!
We also had a visit from a electric company representative. If things go as planned, we should have electricity in a couple weeks!
That evening, we were excited to see the well rig pull in. Dean from D&D Drilling and Pump Service in Miller, MO had been by to help us choose a site for our well. Still, after all our waiting and hold ups, seeing the well truck was surreal.
They started drilling Thursday morning, and it took most of the day for them to make it down the 305′ to hit water. The milky mess of crushed limestone was a beautiful sight.
We finished the week preparing for next week — cooking, washing, and ordering supplies. It should be another eventful week.
HOMESTEAD SISSIES 