The place we made a home

We bought our 15 acres, more or less, around the spring of 2012, and moved onto it, in the fall of 2013. Our home wasn't anywhere near complete, for that matter, it still isn't. So we spent our first winter in one room of a single wide trailer. 

When I say we, I mean my wife Jonell, our young three year old daughter, Lydia, and me. Three people in one 16x20 room, of a 1974 mobile home, for the winter. With wood heat, and a one hundred year old wood stove and no wood stock piled. Although our land was nothing but wood. 

We learned as much about what not to do, as we did about what to do that first winter. We burned a lot of green and wet wood. Five miles from the nearest paved road, and about a mile from the nearest neighbors. I had hand picked the spot on our land where our home would be. 

Somehow we knew, as the snow showers turned to a cold rain, and the first signs of spring emerged all around us, that surviving the winter, meant that we had passed the test, and the land had accepted us. Over the years we would see many driven off their land, when faced with a brutal winter or cruel summer. 

There would be many more tests for us in the years to come. But none that would come close to the trials we faced that first winter. Nor would we ever be as close. It showed us how to be a family. How to laugh, live and love. And most importantly, how to survive. 51 years on this earth, and not once had I even held a chainsaw, still, I went to work clearing what we now consider our homestead. I probably did a lot of unorthodox, even what many would consider dangerous things along the way. What doesn't kill us, makes us stronger, and I'm still standing, so to speak! 

Through the years we have raised goats, pigs, guineas, turkeys and rabbits. We still have chickens, ducks and turkins. I guess you could say we still have pigs, although they are in, what we like to call freezer camp. All have brought us both joy and heartache. And we've have learned a good amount along the way. Trial by fire, I guess you could say! 

We've worked on this property quite a lot, and have managed to carve ourselves out a nice little place in the woods. It's not for everyone, but we call it home. Through the years it has grown in size to accommodate our needs. 

100 years from now, when our childrens children are working this land. And we are nothing but a memory they have of bygone days, I only hope they will remember us fondly. And appreciate our struggles, in these early days, the sacrifices made, and the dreams we had. For it is a dream, we hope will be shared by many generations to come!