Changes

Hello All,

There have been some changes in the home front this week to speak of. As many of you know we've been added to Mother Earth News' Happy Homesteaders Page as a link, and we are very Happy to be linked to such a well known Homesteading Source. We hope all her dedicated readers enjoy our website as well, and would like to officially thank Mother for the add.

Another surprising change that happened last week was that my husband quit his "off the farm" job. Those of you who know me personally know that we are not a rich family by any means and that we currently count on outside income away from the farm to support us. We hope to generate enough income on the farm to have to work outside the home but it takes either years of building up the means to do so or a whole lot of money upfront to jump into such an enterprise. I'm pleased my husband had the guts to say no more and keep his dignity by quitting.

Steve has always been a jack-of-all-trades type of guy. He can fix a car, install electricity and plumbing in a house. Actually he can build a house from the ground up and he did when we first got married for a company in Connecticut. He has a passion for landscaping and landscape construction, and enjoys his sideline of photography.

So out of this decision the new Night and Day Landscapes has evolved. Those of you who have been following this blog know that Night and Day Landscapes is my husbands photography site linked to this site. Well now Steve is offering professional landscape services to Aroostook County through this site under the company name Night and Day Landscapes. His photography page which is currently being updated will new photos for sale is linked to this new page. It is our hope that we will be as embraced by all of you in our new business as we have been with our farm.

Change can sometimes be scary, but I have faith that the Lord is guiding us down our present path, and that we are doing what is right for our family. We are happy with our decisions and our chosen lifestyle and we hope all of you can derive strength and happiness from our stories of our life.

Another change this week was the finishing of the chicken coop. All our little chicken are now enjoying themselves in their much bigger box. The kids couldn't be happier. My little one's have never actually seen chickens running about a yard before, and the knowledge that these are their chickens makes it even better. How their going to recat when it comes time to stock the freezer I'm not sure. I've already begun to explain to them that these chickens are not pets but food. It will be interesting to see the reaction.

One big surprise to me is that our apple orchard is coming back to life. I thought for sure I had lost my trees to the 50 below zero day that we had back in January. That's Alaska weather not Maine and as far as I know they don't have apple orchards in Alaska. (If you do please correct me in the comment section I'd love to hear about it). So much to my surprise we are getting new growth on the trees and they are springing back to life. I started with 48 trees and lost 5 to animals eating them, 11 to wind burn and weather. My husband says that's not good odds, but I say it's wonderful considering from all the literature I've read I shouldn't have one tree that's alive.

My five year old apple trees that came with the house are showing signs of blossoms this Spring. So that will mean we will be getting apples from it this year, it's their first year of production. So I'm excited I will be having regular apples to can... What variety AI have no idea, and crab apples again this year as well. We are surrounded by abundance.

Our friends from Delaware came up in the middle of May and liked the area so much that they are currently making preparations to make a permanent move to the area. We welcome them with open arms and hope that they too can make their homesteading dream come true. We believe this is a life worth living and we are happy to see that others agree. The opportunities to own property and homestead out in this area are all around and we encourage those trying for this lifestyle to check the area out. It's not for everyone, but for those that don't mind the cold I like to think it's a little bit of heaven.

Thank You,

God Bless.