We hope you had a wonderful Christmas! Unfortunately, we couldn't join the family in Michigan this year for the holiday season. We had planned to enjoy Christmas breakfast with the ladies, but Michelle came down with pneumonia. Poor thing! We assured them that the timing of our celebrations didn’t matter; we just want her to feel better. So, our festivities are still ahead of us. We had a lovely video chat with Cat's family while they celebrated at her sister's house. Seeing their faces made being away a bit easier. Later, we headed to Brenda and Shawn's for dinner. The weather was fantastic, and we played card games outside until dusk. The food was delicious, and the company was even better. Brenda was so thoughtful and prepared a gift basket for us. Cat is really looking forward to making homemade gifts to share next year! Just a heads-up: next Christmas, all gifts will be homemade. Speaking of gifts, the one we ordered for Cat's daughter still hasn’t arrived. USPS seems to have taken it on quite the detour across the country and is now holding it due to their error. I had to contact the company for a replacement. I had a tough time coming up with gift ideas, and now this! Hopefully, the kids will receive their gifts before the end of January.
As usual, we’ve been quite busy around here. Honestly, we often lose track of time and what day it is. We made a commitment to accomplish at least one task each day, no matter how big or small. We were being too hard on ourselves for not achieving enough. Things rarely go according to plan—weather acts up, things break, or tools and supplies seem to vanish into the black hole. But as long as we keep moving forward, that’s what truly matters.
The food forest is now bordered with logs, which looks great and helps define the area. We cleared out the side yard for two reasons: to mulch materials for the garden and to prepare the future home of our permanent clothesline and grassy area. We’re maximizing our yard space for all our growing needs. Currently, the clothesline is the only grassy area we have planned, as Cat needs it for walking barefoot and connecting with the earth.
The garden beds we’ll be using next spring are almost ready, except for the top dressing, which we’ll complete in the spring. We’re excited to get crops in the ground! We had hoped to plant a few fall crops, but that didn’t pan out. That’s okay—the root crop area is currently being prepared and will need thorough tilling in the spring. Right now, we’re just adding a layer of good soil. As we work through some of the wood stacks, our gardens will expand, but for now, they will serve us well. We’re focused on cleaning up the yard, and we can’t wait for you to see the panoramic photo in our four-month update! We’ve decided that all the materials we’re raking up will go into the chicken yard. Chickens are another goal for spring, and the materials will provide them with great things to scratch through and compost down.
Rick built us some temporary stairs while we wait for the porch to be added to the cabin. Thank goodness! Cat is not the most graceful person, so it was only a matter of time before she hurt myself on the shaky setup we had before. The best part is he made the stairs from leftover materials. Unfortunately, they won’t work for our future porch, but we’ll find a new purpose for them. He did an excellent job, calculating everything in his head without needing an app "quite an accomplishment! I’m proud of him." - Cat
The Jeep received some much-needed brake maintenance. Well, that’s what we thought when Rick went to change them. They looked fine until he got to the second-to-last one, which had a crack, and the other side was falling apart. Now we can enjoy a quiet drive down to the mailbox! Haha!
We spent more time working outside over the past two weeks, but we also accomplished a few things inside the cabin. The shower stall is completely installed; we just need to connect it to the on-demand water heater, which will then be linked to the pump and our water supply. We still need to set up our rain catchment system, but we’re managing well. It’s still a bit rustic, but we know this is temporary. Our composting toilet is up and running, and it will be improved when we build a cabinet for it. The last task we completed in the cabin was adding the grid work on the ceiling. It turned out amazing, giving the space character while covering the seams, so we didn’t have to mud and sand them. We plan to spend some time on touch-ups and fixes, but we’re waiting to do them all at once. Once the cabin is fully finished inside, we’ll tackle all the touch-up work.
One exciting development: we ordered Starlink! Our previous internet service was terrible for $50. Yes, the new service costs more, but the speed is incredible. We no longer have to wait until we go to town to upload our blogs. The service was activated today, and here we are, writing the blog! We’re thrilled about this upgrade.
We are going to end this blog by wishing everyone a very Happy and Healthy New Year. 2025 was monumental for us. We had the big move to sell our house and move down here. There is no regret. He discuss sometimes if we should have waited a few more months or left a little earlier. To be honest, we left when we should have. Monetarily we met our savings goals and debt goals. We stocked up on most everything we needed or we could think of. We had our list of items we had to get down here. There was much planning and forethought to all of this. It was the perfect time. Here is my wish for you in the new year. Life is meant to be lived. Please do not just exist. If there is a dream you have been sitting on, what are you waiting for? You don't have to jump off the cliff and go do the dream, take the baby steps that will help get you there. If you are lonely, there are plenty of organizations you can get involved with. If you are just plan lost, reach out to somebody to help you find direction.
Our goals for 2026
completed cabin and porch
clothesline
chickens
gardens
maybe another animal
hives mystery
a new deodorant recipe
Rick is just focusing on getting all the things built.
Remember Small Steps Get You Miles
Rick & Cat
Add comment
Comments