Taking a Brief Hiatus... maybe... sorta...

Sorry for leaving you in suspense wondering where I was and when I was coming back. (You were wondering right? Or is that just my overactive imagination at work again?)

My unexpected trip turned out to be very fruitful and we are now in possession of a "newer" car. One which gets approximately 900 km (559 miles) or more per fill up. I can't tell you how excited I am about that! Fuel prices continue to rise and spending $20 every time we needed to make a trip into town was killing our budget.

Now that I am back however, my poor garden is looking rather overrun and I am in full blown "prepare for winter" mode. Along with all the other farm chores I am slightly (insert quite) overrun on a daily basis and my list of things which must be done now keeps getting longer. This has given me quite a dilemma. I spend at least 1.5 to 2 hours daily on my blog and FB page. This is time a really don't have to spare right now.... sigh....

In order to keep my sanity (although many will say that left me a long time ago) I will be scaling back my time writing and concentrating on my garden and winter prep for the next little while. I'm NOT going away! Just have to get everything done before it freezes!

We started our first fire of the season in our wood stove last night. While it was wonderful to feel the heat and listen to the fire crackle I also felt sad that this wonderful summer has come to a close. Fall is now in full swing and the geese flying overhead are urging me to hurry ever faster to stack the wood in the woodshed and bring in the harvest.

Please be patient! I will post as often as I have time. 

Killing Three Birds With One Stone (No birds where harmed in the writing of this blog)

First came the house, then the barns and out buildings, now, five years later it is finally time for Mountain Man to start building his shop.  But wait! We still need a summer kitchen and a green house! Uhg! So much to do on such a small budget!

Winters here are usually so cold you can't spend much time out of doors which creates a closeness which can be lovely at first but by January we are both ready to pull each other's hair out! Not literally, but we always get a bit of cabin fever in the winter and tempers become a bit short... OK... once in a while if the winter is particularly long, a lot short. Hey, the sun rises at about 9 am and sets at 3:30 pm, I blame the sun....

When you are doing everything on a shoestring it can take a long time to build anything. So, my ingenious man has come up with a plan. He will get his shop for those frigid winters and I will get a summer kitchen for all my canning as well as a green house area to start my plants. He is very busy in the summers and won't spend much time in there anyway.

Being that we are off the grid and power is always at a premium and depended on the sun the windows on the south side for the "green house" are necessary for light as well. We are just making them a bit bigger than the original plan. The wood stove will go in on the side where the garage will eventually be and the pipe from the stove will go through the wall and into the garage side to heat it just enough so the cars will start at -30 and colder.  We have traded out or bartered for a lot of the materials so far since cash is always in short supply. (Gas for the vehicles is now up to $1.26/liter ($4.76/US Gallon) and it costs us $20 for every trip to town)

When Mountain Man first came up with his plan I must say I was a bit surprised. How many men would willing choose to share their shop (substitute private domain) with their wives? I'm a lucky woman.