Newest of the New!

Well, sometimes things work out for the good, and sometimes they work out for the good. :D

We didn't end up going to my sisters house for the winter, her Parents in laws own the property and they didn't want a lot of extra people on the property. So that leaves us at Treehaven for the winter. Just as good, I love it here and so does the hubby.

So, we have some more insulation up, and the woodstove in... Although, Pioneers we are not! lol. We have yet to build a sustainable fire in it. and it smokes a lot. But they say practice makes perfect right?

It LOOKS the part at least. ROFL. Hopefully we can get that fire thing down to a science before the true cold hits. Just in case though we will be getting at least a 25 gallon bottle of propane (or two) and will get a propane heater that will crank out the juice on it. That way, if we can't get the fire to work, we won't be nothing but frozen fishsticks come Spring.

Either that or about 6 more dogs. Either one will work. Although, I don't know if our king size bed is big enough for a total of 9 dogs. lol.

Hubby and I are planning on getting 2 or 20 cats. Living out in the wilderness, there is bounds to be a lot of "pests" and the last thing we want is a rat/mouse invasion once the temp climbs some. I mean, we just brought in a minimum of 6 months of stored food with us! It's like we put out a sign that reads "eat at Treehaven"! No varmit can resist that.

The Berkey is a God Send! It takes even plastic tasting water and makes it palatable. For those of you who know me, you know that is a miracle in and of itself since I can't stand the taste of water alone. I have to have tea, lemonade, juice or anything except plain water. So all our drinking water is going through the Berkey. The good news is that each set of filters will last us about a year! Whoot!

Our wonderful brother in law bought us the backer board for the woodstove (didn't want us burning down the house with the heat), as well as chains for the truck so we can get over the pass into town come time when the REAL winter hits. He's AWESOME. And no, you can't have him folks, he's my brother in law! So there!

As a side note.. My MOTHER called on Friday! Huh? Out of the blue. Ok, so we haven't talked in 2 years. Sometime I'll put up the whole story as to why, but long story short, I had told her I didn't want to hear from them until I got an apology from them for the language that was used unwarrented towards hubby and I. They have never apologized. So, out of the blue on Friday my mom calls to tell me that they are possibly moving from Oregon to Missouri/Kansas/Ohio... I already knew this, as they talk regularly to my sister (their favorite kid of course! lol.) and sis regularly talks to me. Ah, family politics. Anyway, mom knows sis told me they were thinking of moving come Spring, so I don't know why she called. Hubby says that it may be her way of offering an olive branch. I don't know. I'll call her back this week and see what the true reason is that she called. If she wants to patch things up, ok. I'll even invite them down to the property... Although they will have to bring their own cabin/tent/camper/sleeping place, There isn't room in our 200 SF cabin for company! Lol. Eventually we'll get a few more cabins out here, then there will be room. Until then though, everyone will have to BYOT (bring your own tent)!

The kids LOVE being out here. Mostly Thor and Freya. They run and play and dig and just love it. Pan loves it to play, but he shivers all night long most nights. We've taken to putting him under the covers with us... This proves a two fold positive. He gets warm and stops shivering, and so do we! Lol. Freya also sleeps under the covers with us. Had to teach her that, but she likes it now. So with these two in bed with us it sure does help us with the warmth. We tried to have Thor sleep with us, but he must just get too hot! He will sleep on the bed for a bit, but sure enough, after about an hour he gets out of bed and climbs down on his very padded doggy bed on the floor. There have been nights that he sleeps right on the FLOOR itself with no doggy bed under him. I guess that he is still getting to warm those nights. Though, I can't imagine being to warm out here... I don't think a night has been above 40 since we arrived!

We have to take the water bottles with us into town today, we have used 1/2 our suppy of water, and we don't want to get stuck up here with no way to water. That would suck a lot! We still have some juice, and pop, but that won't really keep us. Hard to cook oatmeal with apple juice... although... It would probably taste pretty darn good! lol. Since we drink herbal teas or oatmeal everyday, the water is kind of important. To keep our hands clean, we use alcohol hand cleaners almost constantly. And for now we have wet wipes for our bodies. For my hair though I use water and when we "shower" we also use water. The dogs drink water, and we drink water. Thankfully, I am smart enough to have purchased almost everything with water in it. Sardines in water, tuna in water, chicken in water, soups that are not condensed. Some stuff you have to use water in though, powdered milk, dehydrated meats, teas, hot chocolate, on and on... Once it snows we'll be able to melt the snow on our stove, and then put that in our water jugs, but until that happens we'll just have to take them into town and find a place to fill them.


Ok, that's it for now. I'll probably have more for you soon.