The Homestead Journal ~Vol 2 Week 49-52~Busy, Busy

I debated posting this as it’s long and kind of twisted timeline. But this was written the last month of 2018. Another year is over. 

On The Homestead  ?  

After several weeks of sickness spreading through the home, we are all on the mend. I don’t know if it was the flu, pneumonia or whatever but we all had a terrible cough, congestion. I feel like mine was bronchitis. Thankfully the children didn’t have it too bad. And our immune systems are just a bit stronger.

Colder weather means more inside play. And super rambunctious children. Thankfully they get along 90% of the time

Dad is a chess player. Ive never learned but hes taught most of the children. Abigail bought a Harry Potter chess board.

Weve not had much for winter, its 53 as we close out the year. not that I’m complaining but id like a bit of snow..

We did get a bit of snow on the 5th 

Jacob had a birthday, Abigail made a cake… a tall cake. We were actually able to cut most of it before it toppled over. 

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We have a new cat. She was an adult rescue. We think she is about a year or so. She was left in an apartment. She amazingly sweet. We took her as a foster and the next day Urijah asked if he could keep her. She loves being a family cat. Sapphire likes being a farm cat. She doesn’t care for affection, she is happy doing her own thing. Miss Kitty is in the middle of everything.. Even laundry sorting.. Urijah is very responsible with her. He uses his own money for her food. 

Our Adventures ?

Abigail goes riding on the weekends as long as it’s not precipitating. She loves her new saddle and gear. Isaac and/or Olivia go with her 

Even Addalyn is getting to know horses 

A few times a year we head out to eat as a family. We went to Golden Corral for dinner. We celebrated Jacobs birthday with Addalyn

We don’t celebrate Christmas but we do love colored lights. I think there should be a bigger market for year round lighted displays. I don’t care if its singing dragons or a tree full of lights. 

Yearly Wrap Up  ?

 As I’ve posted before I had pretty much stopped blogging because of two reasons. One was because of time constraints. The other was due to the aggressive stalking and harassment we were subjected to. I felt it best to keep our homestead life a bit more private. I also came to realize that it didn’t help. While I stopped posting about it on BLH we still endured quite a bit of disturbing behavior from the stalkers. I know some are confused by all of this, some understand it and don’t see an issue however, I want to be clear.

WE AREN’T TALKING ABOUT TROLL CHATTER WE ARE TALKING ABOUT ACTUAL STALKING AND HARASSING BEHAVIOR TO INSTIGATE AGGRESSION TOWARDS MY FAMILY, FALSE CRIMINAL ALLEGATIONS AND INTIMIDATION TACTICS.

My husband and I hope to have the Family Court case closed soon and we will be releasing everything. As always I stand confident that our truth will be confirmed and I hope that will end much of this harassment based on false and misleading information. 

I am writing our story. It took me a bit to figure out how to tell our story but I have decided a Blog Book would be best. I will post each chapter in blog form. I chose this form because it allows me to write but to also add links and video. I planned to release the first chapter already but I am working on title. 

So onward to our year end wrap up:

We have had a laid back homesteading year, but focusing on the children and business. We have decided to not keep goats but we have Annie who is a pet. We have tons of chickens and using some roosters for meals this winter. We will split egg collection in the spring as we hatch some for personal stock and for sale, and maintain egg collection for meals. As far as livestock we do plan to keep rabbits for meat again, as well as set up some bee hives. We have our farm dogs. Maggie did pass away this summer and we were deeply saddened by that. The horse has been at a friends barn since the planned move, and have waited to bring her home until we were certain we would be staying and was willing to invest in putting up new fencing. We will be getting at least one other horse and possibly a donkey. Those are the children’s animals and pets so I am not sure what they will decide. We have a 5 year plan to be net zero or as close to it as possible. Its a goal, not a requirement. I have to keep telling myself that. I feel discouraged by our trials but they empower me. 

The business is doing well and I am so grateful for that. Its satisfying to see results from our hardwork. And we worked hard. We have the salon established, just a few things to wrap up. We have a small retail section for mostly boutique items, full service grooming and a self wash tub. I do not plan to expand beyond that but we may add training at a later time. 

As far as the family, everyone is doing well. I will update on personal things in later blogs.

I do want to address a recent issue. I guess its every parents concern once their children start driving. A few weeks ago Jacob had an accident in the Suburban. He was on his way back from taking the girls to the horse. Our road was graveled a few days prior and Jacob hit some loose gravel and over corrected, fish tailed and hit the deep ditch on the side of the road causing the suburban to roll. Thankfully they weren’t going very fast, about 25 when he hit the brakes and there were no injuries except a few scratches. But my suburban was totaled. I’m completely bummed. I loved my Suburban. Last year I bought a lemon and from the day I took it off the lot we had issues. The company split the costs at first but then it just wasn’t getting fixed. We dropped it off back where we got it and took our business elsewhere. That’s when I got the Suburban. 

These photos are the before and after of the road. I call when it gets real bad. Because I want to be sure my $134 in property tax and all of my vehicle taxes are put directly into this road here. 😉 The first photo is Monday when I called, the second is Friday just before the accident. The accident happened just past that barn on the left.

While dealing with getting the suburban matter resolved, the holiday rush for a business, and end of year work, we also had other issues to deal with. I debated discussing it, but I feel its important to document. While we didn’t post the accident online, not even on our personal accounts, the ignorant neighbor Travis Metcalf contacted Al Wilson and Sally Davis to take photos and videos for their tabloid blog. When my insurance company came to pick up, they had to track my vehicle down because Travis Metcalf had it towed. My vehicle was not on or near his home, it was parked in front of a field on the right of way. From what I was informed, this was done to try to cause legal issues for my family. Thankfully it did not, but Travis was allowed to do all of this with no consequence. This is just one example of the instigated aggression against us, and local law enforcement enabling it…… To further show this continued behavior, on the 17th, two other members of this group were at my business in the wee hours of the night. they were there to further harass and intimidate us. We believe they also attempted to vandalize were interrupted by a car driving through. They made it clear they would be back. And of course law enforcement says this is all acceptable behavior. 

I’m not sure how to make this end. Going off line wont help because this is physical stalking, not online harassment. But we will not be bullied from our own lives. So here we go into 2019 taking our life back. 

Favorite Photos ?