We are abundantly blessed here at Pure Water Hollow, but from time to time we have more than our share of disappointments and discouragements. We are currently in the midst of such a time. I am going to unload several complaints with this post, so if you want to be encouraged, you may want to read something else. But maybe it will be encouraging for some of you to discover that "homesteading" is not always a rose garden, and even those of us who have been successfully striving for self-reliance hit some road blocks at times. In the real world, I’m sure we have all had projects that have gone awry.
I think spring time has the potential to be the most depressing time of the year. Christmas time also. These are the times when expectations are high and excitement is in the air, but when life does not live up to the glorious expectations, it is easy to fall into a “down in the dumps’ type of feeling.
First of all, the geese are getting to us. You saw them down in the play field in my previous post. Well, we do not like them down around the house because they are so noisy and they leave nasty messes all over the yard where the children like to play. They also get close to the road and we are afraid they may get hit sometime. They used to be easy to scare back up to the barn, but lately they have not run back up the hill away from the house when we go out and wave our arms at them. So, we spent some time putting up a fence in front of the pond to block them from coming down to the house. This worked for just a few days and then they figured out a way around the fence (and we are not yet ready to enclose the entire pond area). So now, we have to deal with their annoying behavior everyday. (Mother Goose is still on the nest, thankfully.)
Speaking of annoying, our dogs are driving us crazy also. For some reason they have gotten into the habit of attacking our garbage cans and spreading garbage all over the yard. The dirty diapers are the worse part. Also, Luna has been sucking eggs with a passion and leaving the shells all over our driveway. She can’t get our eggs from the coop, but we don’t like her getting into the wild chicken nests either. Mammoo continues to go crazy and chase cars, and she has now taught Luna and Champ to join in. Champ can be incredibly annoying by wanting us to play ball with him all the time and “nosing us” whenever we are outside. We are considering finding new homes for Mammoo, Champ, and Luna. Chief is the only one who is a “good” dog, (although I think he joins in with the garbage raids).
The yard is getting us down as well. The ice storm left a lot of trees lying around that we have not had the chance to get all cleaned up. Now weeds are starting to grow all around them. We couldn’t get our lawn mowers working early on. Now we have a new riding mower, but we still have to clean up the trees before we can do much mowing!
We are getting down also because the garden is way behind schedule. A tree from the ice storm fell across the fence encircling the garden and the fence was getting in poor repair elsewhere, so I decided we needed a new fence around the garden. At first our tiller was not working, so I didn’t get the garden ready. Now the tiller is working, but we are waiting on the fence. If we don’t have a fence, the chickens and geese will eat all of the seeds we try to plant. We put plenty of composted hog manure on the garden and tilled it in a bit, but I need to get it all tilled much deeper.
Speaking of hog manure, we had moved Sally and Nellie into the barn stalls so they could give birth safely to their piglets. Last time they were expecting, I moved them to the barn one day and they had piglets the next! This time, I had it down that Sally would give birth on April 21st and Nellie on April 25th. Neither one of them has yet had their piglets, and now I am wondering if they are pregnant at all! This is very, very disappointing, especially since I have about 13 of them sold already, as soon as we get the piglets weaned. There has been much interest from folks wanting to buy this group of piglets. We moved Sally and Nellie back to their outside lots because a barn stall is so small. If we have no piglets to sell, I won’t have the $600 plus dollars I was counting on. We will keep watching them, but we really don’t know what is going on.
Meanwhile, the pond behind the barn was looking very good. The ducks and geese were enjoying it and I liked seeing how full it was. In a matter of moments it all changed. It sprang a leak through the dam and washed out a cavern underneath the dam. We can still walk on the dam, but it will likely cave in anytime. It caused a flash flood down by the house as thousands of gallons of pond water came rushing down the hollow. It spooked the chickens and flooded our driveway, leaving all sorts of debris lying around the sides of the creek and in the driveway. I already knew that I needed to get some digging machines to raise the dam up a bit since it had settled so much and slipped some. Now I need to do some major excavation to try to get it right. I would like to have a tractor with a back hoe, but I’ve not found any in my price range yet.
There is still a little water in the pond, but we could now see the mud that was once under water. In the mud, we saw dozens of duck eggs! We had found a few duck eggs weeks ago, so we knew they were laying, but we did not know where. Now we know that those sorry ducks had been dropping their eggs right into the pond! That was a discouraging fact to discover, but what was just as bad was when we saw the ducks going around and eating all of the exposed eggs laying around in the mud! We gathered what we could to just keep them away from the eggs. How do you keep ducks from eating their own eggs? Between the ducks bad habit and Luna’s, I doubt we have much of a chance for ducklings. At least I had not stocked the pond with fish yet…
Over in the goat barn, we had a mudslide behind it which has been causing water to back up in the barn from the hill. We have been dealing with that for some time, digging ditches to divert water, but it is still a discouraging mess! I had hoped to have stalls and other things built in there by now, but we are still trying to get it dried up. They have also pushed their fence down in several places and are getting out now, almost at will. We have to repair several places in the fence. Other than that, they have not yet been as frustrating as the pigs, ducks, and dogs.
Inside the house, Lisa has been wanting to remodel the bathroom for some time. She started tearing out the old dry-wall a couple of weeks ago and we purchased materials. Time has been our enemy and we have not been able to get much done on fixing it back up. It is frustrating for her because she knows what to do and how to do it, but each day has found so many more activities to fill it up and the bathroom has not gotten done.
If it were just one or two discouraging events, it would be "par for the course". We could deal with a few adversities smiling. But it seems that we have gotten more than our share of setbacks during the past couple of weeks, and it is difficult to have a cheerful outlook!
We will persevere, of course. We will look for the lessons the Lord is trying to teach us. We will pick up the broken pieces and re-build and re-do. We will continue to thank God in the midst of our discouragements. We are not going to give up, or give in, and we will rely on God’s leadership and help. In a few more weeks, things will be looking up for us again, and if not, we still will try our best for His glory!
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5 comments
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S on April 27, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Sounds like you need help.
Can you hire / barter with someone?
If you had a couple extra sets of hands to get you caught up, I don't think life would be so overwhelming!!
Maybe even a weekend with friends and family helping???
Laura
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amanda on April 27, 2009 at 2:10 pm
You sound the way my hubby feels right now as well. He is about to "throw in the towel" as far as the garden goes. Too many "critters" have been feasting on all of our hard work.
Not enough money to "fix" the problem. He even came home last week and put himself on the roof acting as a "sniper." A rabbit sniper that is. Wouldn't you know it though, as soon as he went on the roof for a better shot, the bunnies suddenly dissappreared. :- (
Always learning and ever praying. I pray that the end of this day sees you and your family feeling better. it's all on THE LORD'S hands :- )
We are all in this together as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Amanda <><
Matthew 6:33
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homesteadingwife on April 27, 2009 at 5:53 pm
When we start feeling this kind of discouragement, I tell my husband we need to step back, take a deep breath and do one job at a time. I know you already know this, but sometimes a little humble reminder helps. We are also behind on our garden, due to the fence being down, due to the ice storm. We also had some rabbit copes damaged and my husband has tenditis in his right shoulder, and can barely use his arm. We are slowly getting things back together, it will take time, but with the our help and God's strength we will manage, even if my larger garden has to wait until next year. I still have another little garden site, that can be used this year. I know that God will bless us for just trying to do our best and he will bless you for trying as well.
Just take one step at a time. Take a moment and make a list (lists help me) of what is important and major and check off what gets done. One job at a time really does wonder's when you see it on paper.
Saying a prayer for you and your family.
Lynn
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LittleHouse on April 28, 2009 at 10:55 am
Eric,
We are here for you all!! Would you like us to come an help? We would Love to!!!!!!
Marc and I have so many things we would like to get done… our list seems to grow daily. We also know that everything we do is God's timing.
To me it sounds like you all need to take a deep breath and to re-group. I would suggest to write out a small to-do list and pray over that list…asking God to show you what needs to be done now and what can be put off until you have a little more time.
Don't ever forget how much we Love you….and we think your homestead is great….I wish everyone here at homesteadblogger could come see it!!!!!!!
I will be praying for you:)
Much Love to all,
Renee
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Schatzi on April 29, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Wow…now that is incredible. I have no idea where you find the time to tend to everything you have just mentioned…and I'm sure there are hundreds of things you haven't mentioned. It's great to see you with such a great attitude about it all.
I sure hope your week goes well…greetings to all your family…and look forward to hearing about your wife's bathroom being finished LOL.
Blessings,
Connie
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