I'm told it won't be to much longer now

 I'm told by both TK and by Tony the bank dude (yes, that is how I have him listed in my cell phone) that we should hear something from the appraisal soon...as in the next couple of days.  This is so unnerving.  I'm mostly worried that the appraisal will be too low and we will be back to square one (or two since we already own the land).

I did have the pleasure of visiting the old house I grew up in since its in foreclosure now and I have to say that I thought I might be more interested in buying it at one time but in reality its just too much work.  It was a little sad to visit memory lane, after all I did get married there, had my sweet sixteen birthday there and so much more.  The house is in some disrepair but not unlivable or impossible to make nice.  Its also going for a bargain so I REALLY hope that someone who buys it will fix it up and really love it.  Houses that old really deserve to be well loved.

I did get some pruning done in the last few days.  All of the fruit trees have now been fall pruned and the trees on the back acre have been relieved of their water sprouts and dead limbs.  By fall pruned I mean pruned to restrict growth.  I'm really hoping to properly train our fruit trees to be a manageable size and highly productive.  I'm also really hoping we actually get a few pieces of homegrown fruit next year.  We still need to fortify and possibly move our blueberries, plant the new honeyberries and goji fruits I just received yesterday and move the surviving raspberries into our windbreak.  Lots to get done before winter :)  Oh and we have more orchard trees (1 each apricot, apple, nectarine and asian pear) on the way and 3 additional blueberries.  Some year we should have a crazy amount of produce from our own land...I can't wait.

Maple Valley Off-Grid Farm

First let me give you the linkage to them:
www.eclecticculturefarm.blogspot.com/
http://www.maplevalleyfarms.net/
http://www.maplevalleyoffgridmercantile.blogspot.com/

So after visiting the beautiful Hope College in Holland, MI we headed north to visit Homemaker Ang of Maple Valley Farm.  She greeted us with spiced cake and coffee and we got a peek at farm living for just a few hours.  They are off-grid but not like the new generation of off grid but rather the Amish version of off grid.  I didn't take any pictures of inside the house, quite frankly because I forgot but I did take some outdoor pictures.  We didn't stay long, mostly because we were trying to get back to Anderson that night but we really enjoyed meeting the family and getting a look around. 

a quick picture with Homemaker Ang

the fawn, Betty

Those crazy kids!

Maylon pets the fawn

Mighty Hunter Neil petting the fawn

Cute!

the cabin bedroom (which you can rent for a night ;) )

a view from one of the rooms into the kitchen

kitchen complete with wood stove

another cool building on the farm

the view of the main farm from the cabin

a trail in the woods leading to the cabin from the pond

isn't this scenic!  They said there are some big fish in there.

One of the girls coming up the road on her pony.

milking time

mmm...bacon!

Crazy Week!

This week has been an incredible roller coaster. 

Monday- I'll keep this short, basically we found out last week that we were pregnant, however, the pregnancy appeared to not be viable and I had a miscarriage on monday.  We are fine, this is something that has happened to us several times (4) before and while it sucks we are moving on and not trying to dwell on it. 

Tuesday- We left Tuesday evening for South Bend to visit my sister.  I <3 her :)  She's the best, we really kind of sprung on her with us arriving late, with our dog (who I totally neglected to make plans for while we were out of town)....and she loves our son-  I have the best sister!  Really!

Wednesday-  We had the privilege of listening to Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms speak at Hope College in Michigan.  The earlier lecture was "Ballet in the Pasture".  In summary, it was a description of the whys and hows of their farm's pasture rotation system of cows, followed by chickens, followed by pigs and rest.  We plan to model some of what he does on our own farm.  The later lecture was "Local Food to the Rescue" and that was about the ins and outs of the processing, packing and sales of locally produced meat.  I've not listened to that one yet because my husband and I switched off between watching our son and the lectures.  We filmed them both so we will watch them more closely later and I may have more details to add in another blog post.
Later that day we visited Maple Valley Off-Grid Farm.  I'll make a separate blog post for that one too since I have pictures to share.

Today!  Thursday- We have bank approval on the house subject to the pending appraisal.  That's really the only thing holding us up at this point.

Still waiting on the bank

Well, title says it all.  We are still waiting for a response from the bank.  We know it went over to appraisals because they finally cashed our check.  I'm making a basic assumption that they would have ran our finances before it went to appraisals so we should be nearing the end of the process of the bank part.  Either they will say yes or no.


I've contact two Indiana goat breeders to let them know we would be trying to obtain dairy goats in the spring.  I was thinking on getting two, I figure at just under a gallon a day, two would allow me to have milk to make ice cream, cheese, store some and have plenty to drink too.  Also in the plans are some broilers and layers.

I'll be glad once we get going on all this stuff, its stressful around here right now with the way things are around the apartment.  We're pretty squished and just lots going on.

anticlimatic

There is nothing going on right now.  We hired the builder, we are waiting for the financing and the garden has slowed WAY down. 
I've been dreaming.  I still have lots of that going on.

Yay! we are moving forward!!!

Ok we are onboard for building this fall.  Sounds like after talking to the finance guy that we should be approved (not worried) and able to get started.  Trying to wrap my head around it.  Its this plan
The Raleigh

A

Moving forward?

Moving forward is more of an inquiry than a statement today.  Tomorrow we speak with a builder about beginning a build.  Its very exciting but I have some concerns related to financing that hopefully won't amount to anything. 

The hay has been rained on now many times and I'm sure is only good for cows.  We've had a couple of people call on it but they never seem to follow through with the call back and pick up.  Not exactly sure what's going on there.

The garden is fading fast with the exception of a few plants; okra, popcorn, cowpeas, pintos, chard and kohlrabi.  I'm actually a bit eager for the end of this years garden.