We've found our 'stead

We've finally found it! Months of searching, who knows how many hundreds of ads looked at, various areas researched and debated, and several houses actually visited to and walked over, finally over. It's not exactly what we were hoping for when we started out, but this will still fit our needs without placing too many changes.

The actual land is about seven and a half acres, mostly wooded, with a stream running the length of the land. The woods are primarily hardwood, fairly typical for our area, with some pine mixed in, and of course is located in the mountains. The mountains, we realized on a trip to Kentucky, were really important to us, both of us just felt...safer in them. Fresh water was very important, granted the house came with a well but should the power go out there would be no way to get water out. With a stream on hand there will be water always available, now just to get a Big Berkey gravity filter.

That leads into the other aspect of getting a 'stead, all of a sudden there is a massive list of things to do! The house itself will take some work, it was a foreclosure, so of course there are no appliances with it, and the previous residents took the water heater with them. In some ways I kind of consider that to be a benefit, as I'm going to take the opportunity to install a propane tank, propane tankless water heater, and a propane stove. One thing that should be pointed out, those new en vogue electric stoves with the glass tops, while pretty, are actually very limited in their abilities. Those electric stoves cannot support a steam juicer or a canner on them and the exposed electric coil stoves waste energy by radiating the heat everywhere.

We are trying to work out our goals for this year, which seem to more revolve around trying to raise rabbits, chickens, and perhaps ducks. We would like to start two to three compost piles, and try to start building up the soil with a garden. I don't hold terribly much hope as it seems the land wasn't well taken care of by the previous owners so it will take a lot of work I think to get everything working well, but it will be worth it in the end.

Lots to do...hopefully it will spur me to post more often and to talk about what we are going through to put this together. Here's to new beginnings and a change of winds!