When Pitfalls and Plans Collide

Blunt honesty time...
When it comes to operating a homestead on a shoe string budget, there are times when pitfalls and plans collide. This month or the next several months are like that for us again. Sigh!!!

It's March first and for the first in over ten years for Mel and seventeen for me, we have a car payment due. We were in a do or die situation that nobody wants. Mel hadn't replaced her truck that I wrecked last May.  She was being picky about finding the right vehicle. Her list was rather lengthy of wants. Meanwhile, my 17-year old Toyota van was pulling double duty. Well, it threw of rod and busted the seal. A rebuilt engine would have cost more than the van was worth. It needed to go into the shop, but we couldn't afford the down time with it being the only vehicle here nor the expense. So we were stuck, quite literally. We had to call a neighbor to bring us home.

By God's Grace, Mel found a 1996 Chevy Blazer within a day of earnestly looking. She had enough for the down payment, tax, title and tags, but it left us with about $160 until the 20th of February (It was only the 5th). She has 6 monthly car payments of a little over $200 a month which isn't bad. She had a friend finance it despite of the fact she hasn't held a paying job in almost 4 years! It was a "Thank you, Jesus! moment. As much as we hate being in debt again, our back was against the wall. Our homestead is three miles from town and our closest neighbor is 1/4 of a mile away. We had to have transportation.

With all the bad weather we've had, Mel didn't drive it. After about two weeks, she tried to go to the library and grocery store. The car didn't start. The alternator was defunct. So Mel called Auto Zone for the part and had them deliver it to the tune of $158. We now had $2! I actually had $45 in my account but couldn't get to the bank.

Mel got the part and put it on. The battery was dead so Mel put it on the charger. It didn't hold a charge that meant a bad battery. Another $180 to replace it and now the car payment is due! Sucks to be us right now. We were supposed to be ordering chicks this week for the next stage if Mel's poultry farm. Well, the poultry farm business plan has been put on the back burner for the time being.

My question is, how can you make income if you are topsy curvy in finances already? When the  best laid plans just aren't feasible? Somethings have to give and in our case, it's the new business venture. There's no way around it. It's going to be hard enough keeping groceries on the for us these next few months let alone having extra mouths to purchase and feed. When our first batch start laying, we'll have some extra income to work with and by then, the Blazer should be paid off too. We'll start saving for my vehicle. Hopefully by the end of the summer, I'll have one.

I'm beginning to be concerned just where the money is coming from. I'm more than qualified for half the jobs in the newspaper. In fact over qualified, but I'm physically and marginally mentally unable to work anymore. And, I also run into the same problem as Mel, I'm too blasted old. I'm older than her. Mel's depression keeps her out of the job market. Around here, the help wanted section is maybe half a column long (3 or 4 ads any given week).

So what are we going to do? I'm praying and Mel's kind of losing it. It was financially tight, but we were squeaking by and that was before car payments. I can't deal with this. I'm standing on God's mercy and promise. We'll get through this too and it will be another "Thank you, Jesus!" moment. I've had so many of these moments in my life. When all else fails, faith is answer. Mel is coming along, but still a long way off from total faith, surrender, and trust in God. I will say that since I've been here, she has grown in faith.

I usually do not speak at length about my faith in this venue very often, but I've also made no secret about being a minister in my work-a-day job prior to my strokes. So it should not be surprising to y'all that I'm talking like this. Building strong followers and fellowship is/was my life's calling. It's the reason I left my old life behind when God told me to come here in the first place. If nothing else, I am a faith-filled, obedient child. He has given me all and asks very little in return by comparison. Just as in our forefather's time, it is again for this homestead.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo

Progress Continues at the Cockeyed Homestead

As the days and nights continue their warming trends towards summer. I can already see the progress forward as we grow our homestead to how we want it to be every week. Considering we're two sexagenarians, disabled females, and on a tight shoe string budget, we're making it happen one baby step at a time.

The orchard is coming along slowly but surely. More raspberries, grapes, elderberries, and fruit trees will be bought, traded for, or given to us this year expanding production while they mature. The apple trees are blooming , the peach trees are setting fruit. We're hoping the old peach and apple trees, one each here when Mel got here almost 6 years ago, will bear fruit this year. Trimming branches off the existing apple and peach trees each year has given us ample chew sticks for our rabbit and the local colonies of cotton tails.

The existing trees, having been neglected for too many years, are out of control and are over 15 ft tall. My balance isn't the greatest, as you can imagine and Mel's grace, aka stumbling and falling while walking on solid ground, has me concerned when she climbs up on the roof. Let alone climbing trees anchored in sloping ground, with wayward branches with and using a chainsaw. Just the mental image alone gives me the willies.

That's what happens when you decide to pick up stakes and start your homestead near a small town. Who you gonna call? Nobody, because you don't know anyone and you can't afford to pay someone else to do it. You have to get creative and think outside the box to get the job done which both of us are terrific at.  But unfortunately in this case, it's failed us. So for now, we do what we can and take care of them the best we can.

The roof in the living room is still leaking. We thought the silicone had done the trick. In the coming weeks, we are trying a different tactic. We'll be ripping out the ceiling and insulation. Where we see daylight and mold has to be the problem, right? It's affecting both of our health now. I'm back on asthma medicine that I haven't had to use in 50 years other than a rescue inhaler. I might have used 1 inhaler a year. It's a daily thing now. The weather is warmer, we can tackle this job if we can get a week's worth of dry days and I can afford the repairs.

So now I'm budgeting for roof repairs. It's not only the roof, but the wood that needs to be replaced, new insulation and some sort of replacement ceiling covering. I'm thinking of thin plywood or paneling for that. but before any of that, there's the cost of the batteries ($100) for the tools to operate. ARGH! You see the see the source of my financial rants of late about our finances? I'm treading water here.

If I sound  depressed, I am in a way. I updated our Cockeyed Critter page and deleted Benjamin, our ermine English angora buck. He was one of Mel's favorites. He joined his son who died last week. I announced a few weeks ago that we were downsizing our rabbitry BUT not this way! Plus all the hens we lost...6 total over winter and early spring due to coyotes. It gets down right depressing at times. Yes, they are livestock and earn their keep, but they are like our pets.

What killed them. I dunno. It could have been fifty different things We'll be pulling down all the cages down early.and be giving them all a good scrubbing and bleaching. It's that time of year. We do it four times a year. Their barn was emptied of composted bedding, but these rabbits went down fast. Max 48 hours so I'm ruling out feed (they were eating the same as all the rest). I'm ruling out infection because it takes longer to manifest, but the two bucks were 8n side by side cages. I could play the twenty question game all day long and not have an answer.


It seems I'm always griping about finances lately, doesn't it? A few months ago, I went from a monthly $500  project budget down to a $50 dollar budget. It's harder to get things moving forward with that kind of budget crunch. It seems everybody that can help is $65 an hour or greater and nobody can fix something in an hour. The less cushion we have the more repairs or replacements we have to have. These are few, but we can't do without some basics.

Baby stepping with style

But, if we keep plugging forwards and keep our eyes on the goal, it'll get easier over time. Mel built a ram pump to bring water up from the creek and we've Gerry-rigged a sump pump for the hydroponic grow system that can later be expanded for the new greenhouses and irrigating the garden and orchard areas. Our toilets flush and animals are now watered using rain water catchment for their needs. This is major progress. They were done with what we had on hand. Some of these projects had items purchased years ago waiting for the opportunity to buy additional items, and some were just scrap found here and about or from other projects. We're baby stepping to our goal our way in style and laughter. We'll be thanking God for every step forward. With Him in the plans, how could we ultimately fail?

Y'all have a blessed day! I know we will.

Cockeyed Jo                                               

Building Organic Garden Soil, Finances, and Homestead Design

Well, the cardboard is laid. At least it is all out of the house. It was quite a pile. Since Mel is in summer mode, she's spending the majority of her time, in not building mode, on the screened back porch because it is cooler. The formal dining room was being used as the cardboard storing area. All the shipping, drink, and assorted boxes are broken down as flat as they can go. All the packing tape is removed. Who wants plastic in their organic garden, not me.

When we get a goodly stack, table and surrounding floor is covered, we set about moving them where they are needed. These areas right now, is the vegetable garden for stubborn weedy patches and the orchard. It's a slow process building soil this way, but we're in it for the long haul. Doing something the right way always takes time, but the end results are worth it.

I'm waiting on the rains next week to thoroughly soak the cardboard in place. Then, I'll cover it all

with straw and hay. I'll wait until it rains again to soak it all in place before I add the compost layer or sprinkle bone meal over the area. I'll repeat this process again and again throughout the fall and winter seasons (without additional cardboard layers). By the time the snow falls, it's time to quit and let it all cook during the rest of the winter until early spring. This type of layering is a "lasagna" gardening technique for building organic soil. Instead of a chopped leaf layer, Mel will blow leaves from the property. Instead of peat moss, we use wheat straw and fescue hay (both are relatively available and cheap here). Two 4x5 rolls of hay ($45) will cover the 1/4 acre orchard in several inches. We roughly measure each layer by the foot.

Worms love the wet cardboard. They are drawn to it devour it, and lay their eggs in it. Then, they will get started on the upper layers during the winter speeding up the composting over winter. The worm tea fertilizes the broken down material. They'll also break up the hard clay. So long as you feed them, they'll stay in the area. They'll multiply at will in the warm, composting layers creating a bio-diversified soil mix. In the orchard, this will be the second year of doing this and the last giving us almost four feet of new soil to plant in.

Building soil this way, on such a large piece of land isn't easy. It's time consuming and often back aching labor. It would be easier and more expensive hauling in three dump trucks worth of top soil and compost in. But there is no telling what is in those truck loads. From experience, I've found "compost" less than half composted material (branches and too green stuff mixed in). Fill dirt and top soil is often riddled with weed seeds just waiting for the opportunity to sprout. I want to reduce my labor not increase it.

Last year, we did a "back to Eden" layering with shredded trees and branches waste with a combination of cardboard and straw for the orchard. We had an abundance of tree "trash" after hurricane Irma blew through. This year, not so much. Thus, the lasagna gardening technique. Sometimes, one method just isn't doable because of the expense. I mean nothing beats free with a minimum of labor afterwards, right?

We're building this homestead on the cheap because we don't have thousands of dollars to do it with  Granted, I did shell out $1500 to have the orchard area cleared and terraced. It was necessary to expand our homestead infrastructure. It will return to me many times over in produce, grain, and straw... not to mention fruit and wine.

This was a major expense on my fixed income. Anything over $500 a month is what I consider a major expense. Still, I'm thankful that I have that amount of sort of dispensable income being on just Social Security and my retirement check. I owe of this all to my beloved's careful financial planning. God give him rest. With Mel full time on the homestead and not working outside the homestead, it's a blessing to be sure.

Cockeyed Homestead layout design

We are planning our homestead with aging in place in mind. After all, nobody is getting any younger. It's only smart. We are both sexagenarians already and women to boot. That's not to say that being women alone is a hindrance, but working smarter, as well as harder at times, does come into play more than if we had a man around to do the heavy lifting. The majority of our housing, barn/workshop, gardens, orchard, livestock are all in half an acre rather than spread out over our two-acre property.  This is only partly due to the landscape of the property. The other part is accessibility  in the design layout of ours.

I had thought to plant my berries and grapes on the top tier of  our orchard but changed my mind and planted them on the second tier from the top. The berries and grapes are easy enough to tend to on the second tier. The berries and grapes enjoy full sun on the second tier and protected from strong winds that can sweep through the hollow. Once the fruit trees mature and grow in size, the berries and grapes will have even more protection, but still have plenty of full sun because of the terraced hillside.

Example of our elevated pallet raised beds

On the top tier is more shaded so it's perfect for the raised pallet beds with herbs. While most herbs love full sun, the sun gets pretty strong and heated in Georgia. The partial shade will benefit them on the top tier. There will also no watering issues because of them being elevated beds. A simple soaker hose system attached to the 375- gallon water tote should supply them with ample wet stuff throughout their growing season. The beds will over winter with a thick blanket of compost and mulch.

Did I mention that these beds do double duty? In the space below the beds we stuff with large, perforated, black trash bags filled with moist leaves. These leaves will compost and form mold that increases the biodiversity. Ants and worms will work to break down the leaves over time. This way the space these beds take up do double duty. To make removal of these bags easier, we tie long pieces of baling twine around the top of these bags with the other end wrapped around a nail on the outside of the raised bed. The baling twine is recycled from the bales of straw and hay we purchased during the years.

We'll even reuse the bags too until they are too torn up to use again for leafing. Then, they will be cut into 3" strips and braided them to form weed deterrent mats under the fruit trees. The braiding will allow water to seep into the ground and it makes them stronger. They'll have many more years of reuse to them. I even reuse baling twine to make these. As the trees grow they will need bigger mats so nothing goes to waste. I'll even leave rows gap stitched together so I can plant garlic in the gaps. Garlic keeps moths and other pests away from fruit trees. On average, every five rows of braids gets a gap row for garlic, onions, or leeks. So once again, this shows multiple reuses/repurposing of items that usually end up in landfills. It doesn't have to be pretty. It just has to work. Nothing goes to waste on our homestead until it is definitely unusable again.

Y'all have a blessed day.

Using What's Available for the Homestead

The homestead just after purchase

The Cockeyed Homestead is all about resourcing what's available and repurposing to get what we want and need. That's what our YouTube channel is all about. Not that we are opposed to spending money when we have to. The barn and rabbitry enclosures cost a pretty penny or two. Yes, we could have done a building project for those, but the needs was immediate. Mel had a Lexus that would not do well without a cover of some sort and she needed a workshop for building projects. Sanity prevailed when working with power tools in rainy or snowy weather. The purchase of the rabbitry couldn't wait with the loss of two of our angora rabbit does over the summer.

But things like the chicken coop and run, while a need, it could be a repurpose/reuse project. By repurposing pallets and reusing fencing, they now have a coop and run for almost free. The chickens had been left to free range and roost wherever for a year. Chicken poop was covering almost every flat surface.  They were left to roost, even during the winter, on Mel's front porch because they'd out grown their coop. Our gardening attempts were decimated and something had to be done. The situation just wasn't healthy for them or us. We couldn't even gather their nitrogen rich poop for composting. It was a waste of a valuable resource too.

We needed a new, larger wood shed for fire wood storage. The previous one was falling apart. This was also a need, but one that wasn't an immediate need. We had all summer to plan and build it. So free pallets could also be used. Leftover roofing and siding from the barn made it safe from rain while the open spaces in the pallets provided ample ventilation for seasoning/drying the wood. The wood from this wood shed allows me to light our wood stove with one match.

The winds that blow up and down through our hollow allows for ample kindling and dead fallen trees each year all we have to do is gather it. Junk mail and my discarded packing boxes sets fire quick. But all that being said, the wood stove was not without expense this year. The stove pipe needed to be replaced this year. The rust had actually eaten large holes in it. That was something we had to purchase new. I guess we could have searched for some that was cast off, but it would have been a lot of effort for little results.

Yes, this one is only $17 at Home Depot

The purchase of good tools can be found at one of the local pawn shops. I purchased Mel a brand new Dremel and accessory package somebody pawned. It had never even been opened for less than $100. Perfect for small jobs and there are always small jobs where the big saws are overkill like cutting a 1/4" dowel rods with a shop saw. Even Harbor Freight doesn't sell it that low. A scythe for the grain we plan to grow was $20. Totally rusted and dull, but nothing a little elbow grease and a wet stone can't fix. We had looked at the ones in the hardware/big box stores and they were cheaper, but not as nice as the old one we bought. The curved handle makes using it more body friendly. With the straight handle, you end up working your back and upper body too much, plus it's hard to do the step, swing, sway motion that is more ergo-dynamic for cutting hay and grain. Work smart to avoid body injury is a priority on this homestead. Cheaper is not always better. After all, we aren't young anymore. Both of us are on the downhill slide of 60.

We look at everything with an eye of how many uses can it have. In my mind, everything should have multiple lives and uses. I'm also thankful for everything I have. I was searching through my belongings housed in the barn yesterday. I was looking for a particular yarn to make Mel's birthday present with. I found the old tattered, handmade and stitched quilt that had once graced my husband and my bed.  It had been made by my husband's great-grandmother. I was flooded with memories of quilting beside my mother and grandmother, and our first years as newlyweds with children. I hugged the quilt before I placed it carefully back in its box. When I rework/repair it, it will grace my bed once again in my tiny house next year. Even if I use it as batting for a new cover, it will provide warmth in the winter and memories to hug me every night.

Enough sappy stuff. My point is everything can have another life even us. We just have to open our eyes and spark our imaginations.

Y'all have a blessed week.