Springtime in Montana and some completely unrelated paragraphs…

The last two days cleared 70 degrees. The day before that was over 60. Today, we won’t even get close to 40! I’m a huge fan of winter and am always sad to see it go, but sometimes spring gets a little ridiculous!

Our buyers did their inspection of our house this weekend and it looks like they’re really going to buy it from us! I guess this is really going to happen. What a relief…

Our latest idea for what we might do with our property, as far a small business venture, is hops. The price of hops is way up right now (to the point that our favorite brewery had to jack up the price of their beer by a quarter a pint). But even when it isn’t, it seems like a decent money-maker for the amount of work involved. We bought rhizomes for 5 different breeds of hops recently. We’ll start those this year and see how they do, which breeds do best, and whether we like it. Maybe someday we’ll ramp up to an acre or more of hops for local breweries or home-brewers. We’ve even been reading up on what it takes to get organic certification.

That’s one of the things I love about this place we’re buying. The options are pretty much only limited to what we have the time, skill and inclination to do. How lucky are we?

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Updates

I’m beginning to question whether I have the discipline for this whole blogging thing. Regular posts?! Sheesh! Oh, well, if I’m just talking to myself here, that’s fine with me.

Real estate sucks. There, I’ve said it. We found The House. We loved it. Great location, nice land, super-cute house with an attached greenhouse, guest house, 2 productive wells. Everything we were hoping for and more. It was the kind of place I can see myself in for many years to come. It was just so “us”.

It had been on the market since December, but we hadn’t gone to look at because it was just a tad out of the range of what we wanted to pay (less than 10k! We can still easily afford it, we were just being stubborn and cheap!). What a mistake… When our agent called to find out about covenants so that we could be sure we wanted to put in an offer, she found out that an hour before we saw the house, an offer had been accepted. It sat there for 3 whole months, and was gone right when we decided we wanted it. I guess we’re not entirely out of the race. The offer is contingent on a house selling. So if we sell our house first and get an offer accepted, it’s ours unless the other folks will go so far as to get a bridge loan or something! It’s a remote chance, but I’m really praying for it. I just haven’t seen anything else out there that even compares.

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In more promising news, I started some seeds yesterday! Brussels Sprouts, onions, kale, rosemary, sage, oregano and the most lovely broccoli I’ve ever seen. I might have started them a touch early, but I’m just too excited. I couldn’t wait!

This is my first year starting seeds indoors, so I’m excited to see how it turns out. I bought a flourescent tube light and set them up in our heated workshop area. I was surprised it was so cheap. I’ll be sure to take photos as they sprout!

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Blessings…

I had a rough night a couple of nights ago. Without getting into details, I just had a storm of baby-lust (which has begun to border on baby-hysterics), job dissatisfaction, financial and grr-mad-at-husband issues bear down on me and I just lost it, for essentially the entire evening. Luckily, EZ was out of town and I had the house to myself, so I could just lose my shit freely. My dogs never say, “Now Kim, be rational. You’re over-reacting.” Good thing for them, too, because I hear they can remove dog’s vocal chords.

Anyhow, I’m feeling much more positive now. I was poking around the interweb today and blessed1 had a post about 7 blessings. She’s a more religious woman than myself, a lapsed/recovering Catholic, but nonetheless, we all receive blessings no matter what we recognize as their origin. So, after such a fit of negativity, I think it’s quite important to focus on one’s blessings to redirect a bit.

1) My husband, who can be incredibly thoughtful and responsive to my needs if I just let him know what they are. The next day when EZ was back in town I emailed him from work that I just kind of felt like curling up in ball and staying there all night. So when I got home, he was there with a 6-pack of good beer and the Blades of Glory movie and proclaimed it my “Curling-up-in-a-ball Kit” with a big smile. All of a sudden, I didn’t feel like assuming the fetal position quite so much.

2) Perspective from friends. They didn’t even have to say anything. I just let my mind wander to various friends. One friend who has infertility issues. I can’t think of anyone who deserves a baby more than her and her partner, but it’s tougher than it should be for them and they don’t have a zillion dollars to blow on fertility treatments and/or adoption. In comparison, I have little to complain about because I need to put off getting pregnant and might not have my ideal circumstances once I do (disclaimer: I have no clue about the state of my fertility.) In thinking about another friend, who is Buddhist, the philosophy “desire causes pain” popped into my head. How true. I was so upset because I didn’t certain things in my life that I want so badly. The problem wasn’t that I don’t have those things/conditions in my life. The problem is that I want them so badly.

3) Mountain Grouse season opens tomorrow! We’re taking our German Shorthair, Stanley, out for his first hunting session since he got his training.

4) I’ll finally see some friends again this weekend! We haven’t seen each other in forever, it seems, but 2 separate sets of friends are having parties this weekend, so we’ll all get a chance to catch up.

5) A good family. My parents visited us from Colorado after the river trip. It was so good to see them and spend time with them.

6) An empty house (relatively speaking). My parents left on Wednesday! No more entertaining! Less talking! More free time!

7) The fact that though I do sometimes let myself sink into self-pity and sorrow, I never stay there too long. I seek perspective and look for the silver lining. It was not my instinctive approach. I have trained myself to do this over time (I used to have problems with depression when I was younger), but I’m blessed to have the personal strength to do so.

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Things I believe

(Not necessarily an exhaustive list….)

• In a higher, benevolent power (let’s call it, um, say… God?) that gives a crap about us humans
• That I am not smart or omniscient enough to discern which religion has this God’s nature 100% pegged. (But I hope to just pick something at some point anyhow.)
• That God will forgive me that shortcoming.
• That I am sure as hell not smart enough to know what God wants or expects out of any other being on this planet. Their lives are between them and God.
• That my husband, parents, sister and someday children are the most important things in my life. No job, no amount of money, no piece of land, and likely, no other person will ever love me the way they do.
• That my dogs almost made that list, but I would never put down my husband or sister because there’s no way I can afford his medical bills.
• I adore my dogs like nobody’s business, but dogs aren’t human and many humans sometimes forget that.
• That no amount of money is worth significantly compromising my life or my family.
• In doing a hard, honest day’s work, then going home and forgetting all about it and basking in life.
• That governmental regulation should make sense. It doesn’t take local conditions into mind, so often. And that gets really annoying and expensive.
• Neither should we shy away from good regulation just because it’s regulation. Just make it make sense.
• That the above 2 bullets seem so obvious, but you would not believe the idiotic regulation I’ve been dealing with lately.
• That the food one eats is more important than any other factor in one’s health (unless you’re completely genetically cursed, I guess).
• That how one’s food is produced can have positive or negative effects that extend far beyond one’s body and into one’s community, the economy, moral issues, environmental health, the sustainability of one’s entire civilization, so on and so forth. Choose carefully.
• That the crops our Country subsidizes are killing our Country’s people.
• That Farmer’s Markets are the rockin’est thing ever.
• That myself and my husband are the only things I truly want to depend on for my sustenance in the long run.
• That homesteading will be harder than I think, but easier than I fear.
• That almost everything that happens in our lives can be construed as a blessing or a curse. The choice is yours.
• That a positive attitude changes everything for the better.
• That there’s no better way to spend a day than lazily floating down a river. The laziness is optional, actually…
• That Bud and Coors and lots of other beers are 1 small step above drinking carbonated piss with 4.5% alcohol by volume.
• That ripe tomatoes freshly picked from my own garden are direct evidence that the above mentioned higher power exists and thinks I am worthy of such a treasure.
• Many other things that maybe I’ll post about later.

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