Let Me Catch You Up. . .

I know, I know, I haven't written an entry in well over a month. Forgive me--I was holding possibilities so gently in my heart that I could not put it down on this blog. Much has transpired over the past six weeks! Some grass has been growing, although right now our land looks like a 14 year-old boy trying to grow a beard! Three garden boxes have been planted, filled with peas, kale, swiss chard, potatoes, carrots, spinach, romaine, and more. Tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, beans, zucchini, summer squash, and cucumbers will be planted starting April 15th. A Master Gardener friend cautioned me to never, ever plant warm season veggies before April 15th in central Arkansas. Since she's a "Master," I'm gonna stick to that rule!

We got a storage barn with 2 lofts--it's 14' by 16', I think. We moved most of our boxes and other storage stuff into it. We payed $225 down, and we pay about $140 a month for a couple of years. The crazy thing is, we still had so much room in the barn after moving all the stuff into the lofts that we decided to turn the main floor of it into a bedroom! We fit our queen bed, our couch, a twin bed, two dressers, and a TV comfortably into the barn. We even have a space for our seven new baby chicks and their heat lamp under the entertainment center! The cabin has a window that we've been putting a fan in when it gets hot. We also got an extension cord and put a power strip in the barn so that we can have lights, TV, and a space heater for cold nights. Are we crazy? Absolutely! But we love our "Magic Cabin," as we have dubbed it. We even hung up pictures and decorated with colored lights! It's much more comfortable sleeping there than in the camper. Of course, the kitchen and the bathroom are in the camper, so we spend lots of time there, too.

Let's see what else is going on? Oh, yeah--WE BOUGHT A YURT!!!!! There's a lovely family in Indiana who posted their yurt for sale on the internet. I'm a Facebook fan of the Tiny House Blog, which I HIGHLY recommend, and they happened to feature the classified ad on their Facebook page. I responded to it, asking if they would consider payment arrangements as opposed to immediate full payment. And omigoodness, they said YES! As it turns out, most people who are in the market for a used yurt don't have thousands of dollars laying around. We didn't have the time off or the extra money to make the trip to Indiana to see the yurt, but we had a friend who lives there go for us and take pictures. That, along with pictures from the owners, convinced us that this was a perfect choice for us. The yurt comes with all sorts of extras, including the wood for the deck, the loft, a large wood stove, kitchen counters, solar panels, a solar shower, a composting toilet, and many other goodies. The outside certainly has some wear, but the essentials are in excellent condition. And we can purchase new outer vinyl coverings from the company that made the yurt for a very affordable price down the road! We feel so blessed right now, and we can't wait to go pick up our yurt--we get it in the middle of May. The total price tag? $11,000, paid out over a year. Not bad, huh? We signed the contract and mailed it off just today!

We're still fairly worried/concerned about putting up the deck, siting the yurt, fixing some erosion problems, and affording things like water hook-ups and sod and all the little things we're not even thinking about. But we're working a LOT, trying to save money, and we're just going to take things one baby step at a time. Patience, patience, is the lesson for us on this journey. May we learn it easily and well!

Here's a couple of pictures of the yurt we've bought: