Viruses on Our Off-Grid Homestead
Miserable itchy spots!
We’re back…after nearly two weeks of silence! All is well in our tiny house on our off-grid homestead, but we’ve been hit with viruses. My computer was infected at the same time that Evenstar’s computer developed an electrical problem. That left us Silver Oak’s ancient dinosaur desktop which is slower than pond water, and almost worthless.
We were also hit with the chicken pox virus. We’ve been blessed with excellent health since moving here over five months ago, but we’re glad to be getting this particular childhood sickness out of the way. All six of our kiddos have taken their turn the past few weeks, and we are now out of the woods and able to get decent sleep again. How miserable it was for a while! We’ve used up lots of lavender (essential oil) and green salve to dull the itches and promote healing to all the blisters.
Attempting to drill a well.
I hope to catch up this week on some of our ventures. We started drilling our well! Yes, an actual well! We’ve lived this long hauling water to pump up to the tanks on the roof, something we did not expect to do, but resources have been very scarce. Even though we are drilling it ourselves, the plumbing and pump were too expensive to move forward. We’ve run into snags and since this is a busy time for landscaping it is slow going. But we’ve started!
We just had a huge answer to prayer receiving our adoption tax refund for which we’ve been hoping and waiting for nearly a year. It was so exciting I couldn’t help but holler and cry a bit. At first the children wondered what was wrong, but soon rejoiced when they learned the good news. Now we can purchase fruit trees, which is what the children requested for Christmas. They each want their own trees, so we will go “Christmas tree” shopping in April! And now we can purchase solar panels and save on the monthly fuel bill. What a blessing!
Yesterday we went on a Sunday afternoon walk together as a family. It was eight kids (two with four legs), two horses, three dogs, and Silver Oak and I. Left behind were Buttercup (the cow), some of the goats, the chickens and guineas, Evenstar’s rabbits, and the cat. We trekked down our lane and then scouted around the front seven or so acres of our property.
The troop heads down the lane
Little Bird rides her answer to prayer (read http://www.livereadynow.com/critter-update/)
There are wildflowers blooming, new gopher tortoise burrows, and lots of sweet smelling palmetto blossoms. We are so grateful for this wonderful opportunity the Lord has given us to homestead on our own little piece of property.
Stopping for a rest at the front of our property
Visiting the pond
Silver Oak handles Zoe, a new potential guard dog for our livestock and homestead that we are trying out for several weeks
Next I’ll tell you about the adventure we had getting stuck in the sand.
Blessings,
Linked w/Barn Hop, Morris Tribe, White Wolf Summit Farmgirl, Growing Home, Frugally Sustainable, Live Renewed, Our Simple Farm, A Rural Journal, Simple Lives Thursday, My Simple Country Living, Ole’ Saturday Homesteading Trading Post, and Seasonal Celebration Sunday.
So sorry to hear you’ve all been sick and with chicken pox yuck!! I can remember those from childhood. No fun. Your water table must be really high if you can drill a well that easily!!
Hope all goes well for you. Our well experience on this property took us down 535 ft. and stabalizing it with bentonite before we were able to successfully get all the pipes down for completion. It’s been a great well though and since it’s below the level of a large nearby lake, I think we’re safe even in drought. We hit a good aquifer.
Wishing you continued success on your homestead and a return to everyone being healthy!!
Yes, here in Central Florida the water table is quite high. Consequently we can’t have basements or underground root cellars, but we have an advantage in being able to reach water underground easily.
Thanks so much!
It dawned on me this afternoon that I hadn’t seen a post from you in a while and I said a quick prayer hoping everything was all right. Now I know why I hadn’t heard from you! I’m so glad everyone is doing well again.
I hope all goes well with the well-drilling. That will be a huge blessing to y’all when it is finished. They are expensive indeed. I’d like to add a hand pump to ours but our water is a little rusty so I’m not sure if the water would be usable straight from the pump.
Have a great and healthy week!
It feels good to be missed!
And especially that you prayed for us. Thank you for caring.
We want to put an electric pump plus a pitcher pump on our well. I can’t wait to have a pitcher pump! They seem so romantic to me. I’m sure reality will strike soon though.
Maybe that’s why I love pitcher pumps… I’m a hopeless romantic at heart! But, I think you’re right, reality will probably set in sooner than we think, hahaha!
I hope everything/everyone has recovered. I would love to spend the day at your place. You might not have it all finished yet but your photos always look like your family is so close and having fun together. That’s a wonderful thing.
Your words are so kind. We do have fun together, which is wonderful! But we are normal people and not everything is always fun.
We would love to have you come for a visit! If it ever works out let me know and I’ll give you directions! We have guest quarters in the camper if you can stay a while.
Goodness this reminds me of when I was younger. My parents adopted six children (2 sib groups) and life was busy fun on our little homestead! I found your blog through the Teach Me Tuesday link up. Here is my link-up : http://likemamalikedaughter.blogspot.com/2012/04/how-to-tuesday-green-smoothies.html
Thanks for stopping by, Hannah. Your household must have been a busy one!
So glad your refund finally came. I love that they asked for fruit trees! Are they picking any particular types?
Good luck with your well! We had a very long summer without water one year when our spring went dry during a drought. 3 months of borrowing water from the closest neighbors was a little rough. Luckily, their well held strong enough to provide for us all until we had water again.
Yes, they all want citrus of some sort: lemon, grapefruit, tangerine, navel orange, juice orange. And then they also want mulberry, mango, Florida peach and apple, etc. The list goes on. But I’m so happy they have a vision for what our family is doing!
Three months with no water is a long time. We are really ready for a well. To put it mildly!
Oh dear- you poor things- hope you all feel better soon! Thanks for sharing this at Natural Mother’s Seasonal Celebration Sunday! x
You’re welcome, Rebecca!
Awww, you poor dears. But I’m glad you have it all out of the way now. That’s great! Love the new dog! I hope works out for you.
Thanks for your sympathy Nancy. It was rather pathetic around here for a little while.
So glad it can only happen once!
So far Zoe is doing well, in spite of killing a chicken her first week here! We’ve been working with her and now the chickens can walk right up and eat out of her bowl and she doesn’t even look at them. Fast learner!
I’m a new reader and really enjoying your blog. I’m sorry you were feeling bad, but glad that everyone’s is now on the mend.
Thanks so much for stopping by and introducing yourself! We are all glad to have the chicken pox a thing of the past!
I hate that you all had the chicken pox go through all the kids. I bet that was miserable. This may be a dumb question, but if you all are in a homestead type environment, how did the kids get the chicken pox? Were they exposed to it from other family/friends or somewhere else? Thanks.
Good question! My brother’s children had them and our kiddos were all together at Grandma & Grandpa’s house, as well as for Farmer Boy’s birthday party. I had tried to expose Evenstar when she was younger to get it over with but she would never get them. So now it’s done, and we don’t have to worry about them getting them when they are older, which can be more dangerous.