Getting things together

I finally sorted my seeds and found out that I have no less than 6 varieties/packets of beets, 3 of the same variety packets of spinach, 3 each of pea types and green bean types....what I'm saying here is "Hi, my name is Melody and I am a seed addict".  Kinda feeling like a hoarder about now.  A hoarder who will have a really awesome, yummy garden this year.
The house is still in the works.  We have an inspection coming up on Wednesday that will make or break the deal (not worried though).  If they find anything major we can walk from it.  Fortunately my husband and a friend who happens to be a contractor had already looked at the house inside and out (except the roof) and determined it looked pretty good AND there was an inspection from two years ago that a bunch of things were brought up and fixed at that time.
We are still undecided if we are selling our 9 acre lot.  On the one hand, its a great lot for growing hay, animal feeds and grains.  We could fatten up grazing animals over there if we added some fencing and there is a lot of wild fruits along the perimeter that are pretty awesome.  On the other hand though, its a monthly payment that doesn't really earn its keep now.  The money we pay into that lot every month could go a long way into the new house and its acreage.  Also the upkeep of the lot is a pretty decent task all by itself.  We had been relying on a local guy to cut the hay but if you've been keeping up with my blog you already know that so far that hasn't been really working out.  So if we keep it, we could really use to buy a tractor and hay cutting equipment.  More $$.
If we keep it then we really need to earn money off of it.  Enough to offset at least some of its costs.  Steers could pretty easily do that as the demand for grassfed beef is pretty good, we'd need to purchase though the livestock, fencing, vet bills and processor fees.  A CSA could do it pretty well too, but for that option we really do need a tractor.  An orchard could work, but there are a lot of apple orchards around here. Pastured poultry, maybe, but I'm concerned that we'd have trouble keeping them safe from predators when we aren't right there for them.
Sorry guys, I get to thinking on paper sometimes with this blog and just start rambling on.  I'll keep you posted as things get interesting.

Accepted Offer!

I'll keep this short since this is all just getting started but we have an accepted offer for a house! It's all pretty exciting and there is a lot to get done between now and closing so here we go.

counter offer

Their counter offer was terrible.  They barely left their original price and are refusing to make any of our requested repairs.  Mind you we haven't had the place inspected yet so there might be more needed to the place than what we requested.  I have a feeling that this may end up being a dead end.  We have a price in our heads that sounds just right for this house and they are still 10k above that price in their counter offer.  We plan to counter back but I don't think they will like it.

Tomorrow I go and look at another house, one that is in the running right up with the one we bid on.  Its in the next county....about a 1400 sq ft log cabin on 8+ acres w/ a barn.  I've heard from my husband that its a tad small but we should be able to work it out.  Its out in the middle of nowhere so I don't suspect anyone would have a problem if we added on to it in the future.  (One of the things I won't miss from our old cookie cutter, vinyl village home we used to live in...the one with a restrictive HOA)

My seed order arrived in the mail today and I'm feeling so charged for this spring's garden.  I need to start a few seeds soon for cold weather crops and artichokes but we have no place to set up the mini-greenhouse.  We really need to find a place soon!

Offer in

We put an offer in on a house just outside of town here.  Its a nice big house with 5 acres, a barn, pastures, hayfield...its really just lovely.  We offered 85% of what they are asking for so come Monday we'll get an idea on if they are interested in negotiating.  Fingers crossed!

brrrr! cold day for looking at houses!

We are still house shopping.  Its really hit and miss, a lot of homes overpriced for this economy and even more that need more work than would be sensible for us with a toddler roaming about.  We're looking pretty much anything within an hour of Indianapolis that has greater than 4 acres.  Its a smaller list of homes than I would have anticipated. 

Our realtor is also sending out letters and making phone calls to the houses that border our lot and see if anyone has been considering selling.  To us, that sounds like a pretty good option too.

We are putting in a poultry order this weekend for shipment in April.  If we are still in this apartment by then it should make life REALLY interesting; keeping chicks in a small apartment isn't my favorite idea but fortunately its only until we get away from frost and they gain some feathers to keep them warm or until we get a place where we have room.  So far the order looks like it will be 25 meat chickens (a mixed bag of heavy breeds), 10 layers (2 americanas, 2 blue andulusians, 6 buff orphingtons), 2 geese, 7 ducks and 7 turkeys - all whatever breed they give us.  Should make an interesting brood!  I'm following the advice of Joel Salatin to get only as many birds as you can eat in a year on your first bunch being as we are new at this.  I'm really hoping we get a decent breeding set of chickens, turkeys and ducks out of the deal so we can either let them restock us next spring instead of placing another order. 

I'm still working on my seed inventory.  I think I've got most of the garden covered though.  I'm going to try picking up some organic sweet potatoes and starting my own slips this year.  I completely forgot to grow them last year and they will be a brand new experience for us.  I kept all my smalls from my regular (and by regular I of course mean Cranberry reds, All Blues, Yukon golds and Russett burbanks) to plant this year and I'm really hoping they'll be good by time planting comes 'round.  I think I found a use for all that hay that was ruined last year....garden mulch!  Surely we can use it for mulch and maybe it will breakdown and help improve our garden soil.

House shopping

After the holidays we are going to look at houses.  I'm pretty excited and nervous about it too.  On one hand, I've put so much energy into the land we have and trying to get a house on it that I think I'm having some trouble letting that idea go completely.  On the other, it would be pretty exciting to have both and having both really expands our possibilities. 

There are a few complications to the idea of having two properties.  One big one being that there is no water source on the current lot so we may have to consider either hauling water, digging or having dug for us a well or setting up some really creative rain water containment system.


I have a lot of ideas roaming about in my head of things to do if we had two plots to work with.  Growing crops and trees on the one we aren't living on comes to mind....that would leave us free from having to do much over there in inclement and winter weather.  This spring, house or not we'll be adding in critters so I should have some lovely pictures once we get going. 

I expect this will be my last post for the year and maybe for a while (or at least until I order seeds) so have a happy holidays!