We're Growing 'Round Here!

Only one-fourth of the tires we cleaned up!

As I mentioned before, we believe, when God blesses you with ownership of property, it is very important to be good stewards of that gift.  Whomever lived here before us, clearly did not live by the same philosophy, so we've had to do MUCH clean up! (Thankfully, the house was mostly refurbished before we bought it.) 

This has meant lots of trash removal, finding a new home or use for many tires, numerous trips to the scrapyard over the past 20 months, and clearing and burning lots of brush and dead trees.  It will probably take another 3 years of clean up, but....

 


I finally feel like we're getting somewhere, Praise God!  And, we're growing in so many ways, both figuratively-speaking and literally.

Our flowers are growing beautifully.....

Found this peony in an overgrown, long un-tended flowerbed, barely alive, last spring!

 Our veggies are growing nicely.....            
 

Our spring chickies are maturing....

Even our pup, Tig, has nearly doubled in size (and attention-span) over the last month!





Our little agri-business is growing, too....


Many months ago, when our landscape was white and the temperatures were frigid, Don bought..... a sawmill.  "What in the world are you thinkin'?!!", was my response at that time.



With boyish excitement, he explained, "Honey, we're going to build our own barn and a new sugar shack and whatever else you want.... like a picnic table or hardwood floors!"  

Oh....umm.....great.....maybe.

Well, we'll need to thin out our timber, anyway, to give the best maples more space to flourish.....and we do have an abundance of beautiful hardwoods, so.....hmmm....

The "thing" sat at the edge of the pasture, under a bright blue tarp....all...winter...long.  Then, our spring was too wet, plus, Don was really busy, so it sat, still and silent, some more.....

Finally, this week......

HOORAY!!

The wood we're milling right now will be for personal use....

Cherry... I think.  But we'll mill oak, ash and maple, too.

This small, but growing, stack will eventually be part of my hardwood flooring throughout the downstairs of the house. (We're not fond of the wall-to-wall carpeting!)







Once Don and the boys feel really confident running it, (which won't take long with my guys) we'll mill for other folks' custom wood-working projects, and maybe even attach this baby to a trailer to offer "custom milling on your own property"!

Indeed, the possibilities are endless....especially with my husband!  If my guys find they like this kind of work, who knows where it will go....right?

We have a busy couple of weeks ahead of us, with our teens going different directions, so I'll catch up with you, right here, when I can.  In the meantime, enjoy summer, and stop by for some maple syrup and entertainment!