Homesteading Where You Are: Raise

This is week six in the:



Week one: Intro
Week two: Make 
Week three:  Grow
Week four: Preserve
Week five: Save


This week is "Raise".

If you've been around these pages at all, you're well aware my husband and I are raising children-two of them. While I could write you a detailed discourse as to why I choose to raise them living this homesteading life, I think this series of pictures sums up the reasons behind our choices perfectly. These were taken before the snow in late fall, but have not been shared before.

Welcome to serenity, also known as home.

 

We're thankful our peaceful home is on this farm. But truth be told, we'd find the pace, togetherness and rhythm of being home and living the homesteading life wherever we lived. Animals or no animals, it's not where you live, it's how you spend your time.  There's so many gifts of being raised a homesteader. Join in and discover for yourself. 

Want to get inspired?  Click on these links and you will, I promise.

Daisy, at MapleHill101, currently homesteads with her family in the suburbs of Central Florida.  Her vision is to move to a more rural property in North Carolina later this year and continue fostering a self-sufficient lifestyle, which includes chickens, a large garden and a permanent clothesline.  

Mary, at Homegrown on the Hill, lives in Southwestern Ohio with her family on a 5 acre homestead. Their goal is to be as much self sufficient as possible. In helping with this goal, they raise a big garden and keep chickens, rabbits, and cattle for food. 

Staci, at Life At Cobble Hill Farm, was bitten by the homestead bug in 2006 and although she began her homesteading ventures in a rented condo, is now homesteading on less than an acre in Upstate NY.

Sue – at The Little Acre that Could, shares her body with an auto-immune disease, and life with her husband. They live in a once-working Victorian farm cottage now bordered by a modern subdivision. She has dreamed of homesteading as long as she can remember and continues to strive toward that goal in rural Atlantic Canada.

Coloring Snow.

Fun in the snow? How about coloring it? I have two peri bottles-one from each birth. I kept filling them up with water and a drop or two of food coloring.

 They paraded back and forth to the house for refills and had a marvelous time.

 And might I say our lawn was mighty colorful.

 But what's better is cute kids in the snow.

 Goodness, I love these two.  And you see?  The snow can *still* be fun. I promise.

Re-upholstered.

I'm a wee bit excited to show you this project.  I will definitely not tell you how many hours I put into this project, as you never will want to sign up to do your own. But I did it!!!  I re-upholstered not a tiny project, but a big project! 

I've done some upholstery before.  A seat on a rocking chair, a set of four dining chairs and two other random chairs. But never a full out major project like this.

So, the story behind it.  It was my neighbor's chair. They were cleaning out their old barn and it was slated for the dump.  I have zero need for another project, particularly one of this magnitude, but somehow, I hear my voice pipe "Don't throw that away! I'll take it!"  Before I could slap myself silly, I found it in my garage. Although he kept quiet, I'm sure my husband would have had plenty to say about that chair being plopped in our garage.

This, apparently, wasn't the first time this chair was destined for the dump.  A decade or two ago, someone would take it as trash for free if it was broken down.  A few sift wallops from a hammer indicated this chair was too solid for an easy breakdown. And so it sat in their big old barn, gathering dust.

Who did it belong to?  My neighbor (who is a grandfather himself), his grandmother.  She sat in it by the hour, so I've been told. Rocked and rocked.

So back to my garage.. It's sat there for a few months. Finally, I said to myself, "Self. Listen up. If you don't do this in the long winter months, it will sit for another year."

That's when my husband found himself doing this:

 And here you have the "before" pic.

 During.  The frame is really as solid as can be. The springs are in excellent shape.  A great piece.

 Drumroll please....the after!

 It fits in with our regular living room set pretty well, I'd say.

 (photobombed!)

I spent a whopping $15 on this rocker chair.  Painter's canvas and some upholstery tacks.

 It's already a fave spot.

 For all.

 I've found the two of them curled up in it a number of times.

So there you have it, a very, very time intensive project. You know what?  I'd do it again. I'm pleased with the results and I really did enjoy working on it. 

Do tell me...have you upholstered anything before?

Another BOG Gift.

My dad made this. Turned it himself. From wood from his woods. He bought the hardware kit.  I love it.

Does he know the perfect gift to make me or what?

Remember the bowl and table he made me? I still love them too. And my napkin holder and candle holder? And my shaker cabinet?  And my cutting boards?  And our canoe? And the motor boat we love? And seriously, I apparently have never shared the kayaks he made (must remedy that).  I look around here and see more tables and picture frames that he's made that I have never blogged about.  And projects he's done here and there, also never blogged about.

And of course there's the toys he's made too:
trains,
trucks, 
car, 
airplane 
  barn,
dumptruck.
bunny pull toy
Kids table and chairs
tow truck. 
Tractor
Square Baler and Wagon
Horse Drawn Cart

Everyone needs a BOG.  I'll rent him out if you'd like.  Thanks, Dad!

At home.

The snow has been falling and the ice has been accumulating.

 It's still plenty exciting to these two.

 Some are starting to get into this "woe is me" about winter.  But for us, it's okay. Really.  Because we still have plenty to do inside.

 

 

May you make the best of today, regardless of the weather.