An inspiratonal story by a disabled woman who is homesteading! I am so amazed by her gumption and intestinal fortitude.

I just read this great story by a disabled woman who is living on her own terms. She makes me ashamed that I ever have complaints about aches and pains. If she can homestead from a wheelchair then I can do even more! You will be inspired by her story. Please read it. Homesteading", no excuses! We've never heard a story quite like this one--and we've heard a lot! If you need inspiration, you'll find it here.

It snowed yesterday and today

Hello friends, It has been cold in the mornings and there has been some snow flying around in the air and even sticking. But by afternoon it is melted. Just the way I like it. I am continueing to finish prepping my garden for winter. The original garden area is all completed with newspapers and leaves on it waiting to be rototilled in the spring. I now have about 10 or 12 bags of leaves waiting for me to prep a new half of the garden...in other words, I am going to double it's size. I will probably make one half all strawberries and the rest into several smaller raised beds. My worms arrived and are growing and eating and hopefully making compost. They were very small and thin when they arrived and about a fifth of them were smashed and dead in the bottom of the bag. But the survivors are already getting bigger and looking healthier. They did not arrive until a week after I was told that they would be here, so they were probably dehydrated and hungry. I have a huge firepit in the very back of the property that I have decided to make into a large outdoor worm pit in the spring. I have been cleaning up scrap lumber from a old construction site (with the owners permission) and I only have a few pieces of long lumber left. I need to find a truck to borrow to bring it home. Now I have been told that I can clean up the left over lumber pieces at the construction site of our new church building. I started today. The wood is all muddy but I cleaned the bigger pieces off and they are now drying in front of my woodstove. Most of them will just be burned in the stove but a few good ones may make some small shelves or something....maybe birdhouses? I have done so much today...picked up two loads of bagged leaves from a family in town. Put the leaves out on the last 2/3 of the garden area. Went to the dump to drop off the last of the garbage from the first construction site, then filled a huge box with newspapers from the dump recycling bin. They are very nice about letting me take papers for both my woodstove and my garden. I also got a wheelbarrow without a wheel at the dump. It says no salvaging but the "dump man" Cliff let me have it, he even helped get it into the back of my car. He used to live in Bend, OR in the '70's. He lives in Montana now. He seems really nice. His dog is a heeler. I usually don't care for heelers because the ones I have known have been mean but his is a really nice dog. I did not take my little "sweetie" dog out with me today because it was just too cold for her. I can't stand to see her shivering. Last night we had a potluck at church (not the new building yet), and many people brought different kinds of dishes made with various meats. We had bear, goat, beef, chicken, and pigen dishes. I took ice cream (I didn't have any wierd meat and I had to go straight from a Dr. appt. in Sandpoint). The kids all loved me for bringing ice cream. I had a mammogram about a week ago, and they found a suspicious spot, so they want me to make another appointment for another mammogram and possibly an ultrasound. It is probably not anything. It's funny because I had a breast biopsy in 1989, and a second one in 1999 (both negative) and now here it is 2009. I wonder if they will do another biopsy this time? I'm not too worried about it, in fact I keep forgetting about it and I am afraid I will forget to make my appt. for another mammogram. I need to do that this next week. I am finding that I am actually a country girl and did not realize it my whole life. I love puttering around my little farm. In fact I am naming my new little farm the TRIPLE J FARM. Then I can put a label on my worms, my berries and fruit and vegetable when I take them to the farmers market next summer. I have decided that I want some small farm animals but I haven't decided on what to get or when. It will probably be awhile since I need to figure out housing for any animals. And how to feed them (moneywise I mean). I'm thinking chickens, rabbits, pig, goat??? who knows...maybe it is just a pipe dream anyway. I spent this evening watching DVD's while I dried wood in front of the fire and rolled stacks of paper to put down in the new garden area. Well so much for my day. I am sure it sounds really boring to you all but it is actually joyful and relaxing for me. Much less stress in my life right now. Except for having no money but hey what do I need anyway (besides food, shelter, gasoline, car insurance, prescriptions, medical bills, etc). I just don't think about what I do not have and I enjoy what I do have. Hope you can say the same about your life. Love to all. Your favorite farmer girl.

What a great day today has been.

I started out by sleeping in a little. Then I straightened up the house, made a fire, moved firewood from the old dog kennel (that needs repairs) to my front porch where I can make kindling from it. I raked out about half of the dog kennel, there was great old leaves and plants that are now in a compost pile. I picked up a lot of wood chips and bark pieces that will be good for starting a fire once they are all dried out. The whole back yard is still full of these because of the firewood being split back there. My whole living room is covered with newspaper and wet wood chips, drying by the wood stove. It really looks messy but the wood will come in handy during the winter. Then after that I spent a couple of hours digging by hand half of the front flower bed (in front of my porch). I mixed in compost and then planted some perrenials. I still have more to do but it started to rain and I ran out of time. Then I went to my granddaughter's house to help her celebrate her big 9th birthday. Then I took all three girls out to dinner. I got them home just in time to eat a piece of cake with ice cream and go to bed. I am planning a trip to the Spokane Temple Thursday evening so will need to hem my dress tomorrow. The one thing I am not so good at is hemming. I hope I can get it straight and not too short or long. Well that was my day, how was yours? Jan and Jeannie, Thanks for joining as a follower of my blog. Talk to you soon.

Keeping busy in my little house in the big woods!

Hello friends and family, I have been busy working outside as well as inside. I have finished getting newspapers down on my garden area. I removed the wire fencing to be replaced in the spring with taller fencing. It was not high or strong enough to keep out the deer, elk or moose, let alone the bear(s). I will rototille the newspapers and leaves into the soil in the spring after it has had time to decompose. I plan to ask the neighbors, who have horses and cows, if they have any manure that I can add also. I have also began raising red wiggler worms. They make great compost and can be sold for fish bait or to other worm breeders. I can also sell the excess compost after I use what I need for my garden and flower beds. What a fun new hobby. One of my granddaughters loves worms (she usually likes to tear them apart) so she is excited about my new hobby also. I have been splitting my own kindling and my arms are getting stronger, my back also. I am raking up leaves from under the fruit trees to put on top of the newspapers in the garden. That is the hardest of the yard work right now. They are pretty soaked so not so easy to rake. But the grass underneath definitely looks happier. When I run out of leaves from my yard there are zillions everywhere, so I may ask if I can rake up other yards to start a compost pile outside too. I try to keep physically busy as I find it makes me feels much happier and pleasantly tired at bedtime. Tomorrow is my granddaughter J's 9th birthday. I plan to take her presents to her in the afternoon and then spend the evening visiting with the kids while their parents go to a meeting. They are so busy. I love to be able to have time with the girls just to read books, tell stories, play game and talk. We sometimes rough house some, which their dad finds annoying so it is good to be with them when the parents are gone. They love to tumble and dance but tend to get louder than he likes. I thnk that I am a good influence on them that way. Every kid needs goof off time. It is getting late so I will go hit the sack now. Would love to hear back fom some of you once in a while. Love to all.

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Gardener’s Journal, the official blog of Gardener’s Supply

As some of you know, I love to garden. This is one of my favorite gardening blog sites. Feel free to visit it and look around. Green Thumbs up to you. Cathy Gardener’s Journal, the official blog of Gardener’s Supply