To say this year has been difficult would be an understatement. Yet, through the hard God provided us with friends, family, neighbors, and church members to rally around us and support us!
Let me share how incredible that was…
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House Build
Those two words defined this year. After taking some time off in January, Landon got right back to work on the house build. The progress was coming along and we were feeling ok about meeting the bank’s deadline of August (one year from when we started), although it was still going to be a close call.
Then, in May Landon twisted and crushed his foot on part of the tractor which completely took him out of commission. Praise God He didn’t completely lose his whole foot! It was very scary and made us extremely unsure of how the rest of the build would go. But, after a week or so Landon got right back to work hobbling along on his knees or one leg to get the job done.
He did what he could but when our church heard he needed help, they sent out work crews of men weekly to help him accomplish his tasks. We also had neighbors and friends stopping by regularly to give a helping hand. It still brings tears to our eyes thinking of all the sacrifice everyone went through to help us. We couldn’t complete this project on our own and God helped us recognize that.
In the nick of time, Landon completed the house build by the deadline! We all broke down in tears. The exhaustion, the long hours of work, the lack of sleep, the single parenting I had to do, the emotional toll of everything – it was all so much, and yet the Lord brought us through by some miracle!
It was difficult and frustrating working with our bank all the way through the end of the build, and it took longer to finish up all the final paperwork than expected. We officially moved into our new house on our 5-year wedding anniversary in September, which was really special. The rest of the year we were able to slow down and learn how to enjoy time as a family again. It is a joy to finally live in this house and we will forever cherish it!
Miscarriage
After the house build completed, around late August, we experienced a miscarriage. It was a hard time of loss and grieving. We are so thankful for all the love and support everyone showed us. We are praying that the Lord will bless us with another precious blessing in the new year if it is His will.
Homesteading Updates
This summer we raised another 60 meat chickens, a new flock of laying chickens, and lots more baby rabbits from our rabbitry! It was a blessing to be able to stock the freezer again.
We continued to sell eggs on our eggs stand again, and plan to again next year. I didn’t have a garden this summer due to the intensity of the house build, but my garlic from the fall popped up and I was able to harvest a year’s supply of it with enough leftover to plant a huge batch again!
Now that the house build project is complete, we would like to stop raising meat rabbits and instead raise twice as many meat chickens this next summer. We prefer how easy and quick the meat chickens are and just aren’t passionate about the meat rabbits anymore.
If we have leftover funds we hope to get some electric fencing set up for either a pig or a beef cow to add some variety to the meat we keep in our freezer. The venison we can get just hasn’t been enough to last a whole year and isn’t reliable.
We were able to purchase a pond rake this summer to help get more muck out of the pond. It helped some but we also need to dig it out with the tractor and eventually get an aeration system. Maybe we will get to that next year, we shall see!
All The Monthly Updates
Our Homesteading Journey – January 2024 Update
Our Homesteading Journey – February 2024 Update
Our Homesteading Journey – March 2024 Update
Our Homesteading Journey – April 2024 Update
Our Homesteading Journey – May 2024 Update
Our Homesteading Journey – June 2024 Update
Our Homesteading Journey – July 2024 Update
Our Homesteading Journey – August 2024 Update
Our Homesteading Journey – September 2024 Update
Our Homesteading Journey – October 2024 Update
Our Homesteading Journey – November 2024 Update
Our Homesteading Journey – December 2024 Update
Next Year
Our goals for this coming year are to finish up some things with the house build. That includes sealing off the exterior wood siding, milling more wood for building interior doors, making some progress on finishing the basement, backfilling the land, covering the septic, and improving the driveway. There is always work to do on the homestead!
Other goals for the homestead include having a productive garden, raising twice as many meat chickens, adding a laying flock again and rotating out the old hens, building a wood shed, cleaning up and organizing the barn, fixing and adding some electric fencing, and hopefully adding a pig or beef cow to the property. We also need to replace the new fruit trees that didn’t make it this year.
In the kitchen, I’m working through all the recipes in this Einkorn cookbook, which is fun! I’m also trying my hand at more fermentation and freeze-drying experiments!
Other personal goals would include a trip to Canada to visit family at some point, camping on our land as a family, lots of fun times on Otter Lake in the summer, and more fun times with family and friends!
Once again, all the glory goes to God for keeping us safe, provided for, and protected this year. He has given us so much to be thankful for and we pray that we will glorify Him in 2025! Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!
Kelsey at GoodPointGrandma
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Praise the Lord for His faithfulness and protection! And thank you for sharing! I really enjoyed reading this update!