Being Home and Back on the Road

 Finally, we are home and have been about ten days.  We have worked so hard and I am sorry I have not posted since we have been home.  We now have vinyl flooring and carpet in our home.  It looks so good.  Now we can start bringing furniture home from storage.  So, now the only things left to do are the following: get the power company attached, get the plumbing attached to the septic system, get the driveway entrance concreted, and get the well drilled.  Then, after the final move in we can start on our animal shelters and fencing.  We need a goat barn and chicken coop.  We want to fence in the entire ten acres but that is going to be expensive so we will do it a little at a time.  Here are some pictures of what we have accomplished so far during the last time we were home and now.

 
                                         We got the septic system put in last visit home.

                                                       Our kitchen looks great.

                                                           Our master bath, too.

Now, at the start of this post it was July now it is November.  I am afraid we went mia for a while to due to some truck issues we had that caused us to not make the money we usually do.  So, now we are 4 months behind in our timeline of completing this endevor. 
    We were able to finish the floor covering of carpet and vinyl.  We have now finished the guest bathroom and it is now usable if we had water.  We still do not have power or water and have not been able to finish anything else other than we now have gate at the road on our driveway.  Hopefully, we have a truck that will run and stay running and get us down the road to finish what we started.  Again, hopefully, I won't go mia again any time soon.  I am very sorry about this.  Ladyhawke.



Dachshunds

   Today, I thought that I would introduce you to our cohorts in travelling.  We have three dachshunds or otherwise known as weiner dogs.  They are Punkin, HottDogg, and Noodles.  Punkin is 12 years old now as is HottDogg.  Noodles is our youngster at going on 5 years oold. 
     I grew up with a dachshund named Daisy that lived to be 15 years old before having a stroke and had to be put to sleep.
     Dachshunds are a very loving dog and very personable.  BUT they can be very stubborn.  That is their only drawback. I have talked with other dachshund owners that agree with me on that point but like us they cannot have just one. Two or more is usually the way of ownership of dachshunds.  Punkin and Hottdogg are housebroken to walk on a leash and do their business outside.  We made the mistake of pee pad training Noodles when she was the only dog on the truck and now changing her to do otherwise has proved to be most difficult. 
    Punkin when coaxed a little will sing and talk to us.  Back when we had a young man taking care of our home and animals for us while we were on the road, was sitting in the living room and Punkin came up to me and volunteered to start singing and talking to me.  But she would sing and talk, turn and look at him,  look back at me and sing and talk somemore.  I don,t to this day know what she was trying to tell me, but his face turned red and I asked him if there was anything he needed to tell me as she was trying her darnedest to tell on him.  We later did have to send him packing as he was not taking care of our home and animals as we needed.  Following are some pictures of our cohorts.  Hope you like them.

Punkin is on the left.

Hottdogg is on the right.

     

This is Noodles.

     Noodles is the most playful.  She always wants to play fetch or tug of war.  She is also a daddy's girl.  She has to know where her daddy is at all times or she is whining and looking out the window to find him.  Then when she sees him it is a most joyful jig that she performs.  Her body will swing into and form a complete circle with her tail hitting her in the face.  They are the joy of our lives.  Life in the truck would be most boring if they were not in it.  

The year so far in pictures

     I finally figured out picture downloading so here are a few to get you up to date on where we are with our new home and farm.  Don't depend on the dates on the pictures for actual timelines as I am bad about correcting the date on the data back of my camera when I change the batteries.  This is looking down our driveway the day we found the land.  Someone had already cleared two areas on it but had they had since grown back up.

     A week later, after we bought it and after it had been bushhogged.  Believe it or not this is the same driveway as the first photo.  Meet My Beloved Other Half.  The Blacksmith.

     Our new home, the day we went to see it for the first time.  It is hard to tell in this picture but it was in two pieces.

     Day of delivery.  We actually got to see the first half delivered and set up before we had to hit the road again.  We have wonderful friends that we trust to oversee some parts of our home and its building, when we are not home. 

     Seeing our home set up on the property, completely set up for the first time.  We were so excited.

      
    
     Porches added and storage building brought in. Starting to look like a home.
Sort of.  Still have many things to do before actually getting to move in.  But very close.
Thanks for stopping by.  Lady Hawke.
                                                                                                                                 

Archives

Just for anyone that does not know.  I am still learning how to do this blog and have somehow swapped posts.  The correct order of my posts are Getting Started, Travelling, and then Farming.  Sorry.  I'm human.  LOL. Lady Hawke.

Travelling

     Today, we are headed east from California enroute to Atlanta, Ga.  Hopefully, to deliver this load of strawberries by midnight tomorrow.  Then hopefully get another load to go back to California for a turnaround to come home for fifteen days.  We meet many interesting people out here.  Sometimes we meet other drivers when we stop to go into a resturant to eat supper.  Or sometimes other travellers who are not truck drivers that are curious about truck drivers and where we are going.  We get many questions from these kinds.  I do especially from women who cannot imagine driving a truck that can weigh up to 80,000 lbs and has 18 wheels.  In my life, I have driven many different vehicles from a motorcycle, 4 wheeler, personal car, pickup truck, police car, ambulance, and now an 18 wheeler.  All basically the same with some differnces.  It mostly comes down to I can do anything I set my mind to do and of course with God's helping hand.
    There are many times that I have gotten discouraged when driving.  I have had to deal with a fear of heights when it comes to driving over some of the larger bridges that the interstate system has to offer.  Those are the times that God has really come in handy and helped out.  I always seem to get across in one piece.  I say thank you and go on.  But there are 2 bridges in the United States that I have not been able to master yet.  I make it across them but not without sweaty palms and hyperventilation.  One is on I24 in Kentucky going into Illinois.  I have to set my eyes on the other side and remind myself to breathe as I drive across.  As I get across to the other side, I find that my knuckles on the steering wheel are white from the death grip I had.  The other is in Washington state.  It is a very narrow girder bridge that crosses the Columbia river.  Again, the same reaction. 
     I do enjoy driving and seeing the sights that we do.  I do believe that the best rainbows to be observed are in New Mexico.  The strongest winds blow in Texas.  Arkansas has the roughest highways.  Southern California has the most litter. ( no disrespect to any Californians) But to be fair, northern California is beautiful with Mt. Shasta.  I did see my first bald eagle in northern California.  I just cannot understand why in a state that started most of the ecological legislation that it has to be the trashiest.   Oregon's Columbia river gorge one of the most scenic.  Washington state is also beautiful.  North Dakota is the coldest I have ever been to at a -14 degrees. It would probably be easier to say what states I have not visited, those being, Wisconsin, Minnesota and the northeast, north of Pennsylvania.  I have seen some beautiful country but still the prettiest country is always home.  Thank you Lord for alway allowing me to come home.  Lady Hawke

Farming

This is a list of a few of the things that I hope to do at Krooked Pine Farm.  A lot of it is very ambitious.    I know there is a difference in wants and needs.  What I want to do and what I need to do first are usually two different things.  I want to have a garden that is large enough to produce most of the food that we will use, along with an herb garden for both culinary and medicinal specimens.  Also,  I want to have a small barn in which to house our future tenants of nigerian dwarf goats and a coop for the chickens I want to have. I have been looking for a long time at the Delaware breed of chickens.  In doing my research, they just seem to be what I am looking for.  I have not found anyone so far in the area of home that has had any dealing with them.  But there are several farms in the area that have the Nigerian dwarf goats.  A couple of them seem to be very friendly and willing to help a novice learn how to handle and work with them.  I am also interested in the heritage breed of pigs called the American Guinea hog.  They are smaller and are very hairy.  They seem to be very difficult to find. But whether or not we get any pigs will depend on a lot of factors. Those factor are mostly, figuring out what all I am going to be capable of doing by myself each day as My Loving other half will probably have an outside job. 
     My loving other half is wanting to start a blacksmith shop along with having his air cooled VW shop to work on his trike and hopefully, we will have another bus. Sorry, we are not hippies and far from that lifestyle.  But we do love the VW buses and you would be surprised at how much room there is in one and how comfortable they are.  We did have one but life required us to sell it and we have missed it very much ever since.   The bus we had was a 1971 model that had a huge sliding sunroof.  It had a luggage rack on the back half.  We made several trips to the Smokies in it going to "bug shows" and actually won a trophy for it.  It was great winning, even if it was, "vehicle in most need of restoration".  LOL.  My thoughts on having another bus were that it would be great in taking excess vegetables, if we have them, to the farmer's market or to the flea market. 
     Bear with me as I am learning how to use all the blog buttons.  I still don't know how to download pictures to the blog.  I have many of our new home and property and will put them up soon.  A soon as I figure out how. 
    We just left Indiana and entered Illinois, headed west to California again.  After this turnaround, we are going home for 15 days.  With God's help, we will get our carpet and vinyl put down.  And hopefully, get our power hooked up on this trip home.   We are planning, that in October, when we come home, to set out our garden space, till in some chicken litter that we found from a chicken farm nearby.  Then, we will either cover crop it or mulch it to let it rest til next spring.  If needed it will be ready if we happen to be off the road next year instead of the next. 
     Well, thanks for jumping around with me today.  Lady Hawke

Getting Started

     I hope that I actually have enough to say to warrant having a blog.  I always wonder where bloggers find all the words and ideas to convey to keep their blogs going.  But I have to admit, just living life and telling others about it, is a lot to convey.  Telling others of your hopes and dreams and wishes takes up a lot of room.  I hope that what I have to say is a blessing to others and hope that what we do will encourage others to follow their dreams as we follow ours.
    My husband and I are over the road truck drivers and are usually on the road for 2 to 3 months at a time.  We then go home for 10 to 15 days and try to cram our life into those few days.  So far we have been able to purchase 10 acres of land for our dream and have found an 1800 square foot repossessed double wide.  We had the double wide moved onto the property back in the spring when the dogwoods were blooming.  We recently had our septic system put in and our front and rear decks built.  I can't wait to be able to sit out on the front porch and look at the night sky and watch for falling stars and point out the planets and constellations to our nieces and nephews. 
     Trying to do all of this without taking out a mortgage has been quite daunting. Each time we go out in the truck, we make a list of the things we have to do to the house.  We then put the estimates next to each item and then decide which thing we will do when we next go home.  We then, out of each paycheck put aside an amount to be saved.  When we go home, we have that money for those items to be done.  So far everything has fallen into place.  We project that everything we need to do to the house and property will be done by December.  The list of things we still need to do includes putting in the carpet and vinyl flooring, hooking up the plumbing to the septic system, fixing our driveway, hook the power company up to the house, and the most important and most expensive is having the well dug.  Eventually, we want to go solar on the house but we have to go with what we can afford right now.
     After these items are done then we can have the county come and inspect and then they will hopefully give us a certificate of occupancy.  Right now when we go home we have to stay in a motel.  But with God's blessings, we will complete our little piece of paradise and then be able to come off the road.