First Month at the Farm

Our first month at the farm has been busy to say the least. Ups, downs, and all-arounds. Below is a topic-separated update (as organized as I can manage with my brain all over the place like it is these days).

DECEMBER BADNESS

Every story has ups and downs. We’ve had our fair share of them since starting turning the page in this new adventure into farm life. We lost our 11 year old kitty cat soon after we got here. We don’t know if he just ran away because of the silly, slobbery BIG golden retreiver and lab mix puppy that came and stayed on our porch for a couple of days (he was harmless and there’s no way he “ate” Quaker)… or maybe the cayotes got him (way more likely). There are hawks, falcons, wild boars, bobcats, mountain lions, racoons, hungry dogs that people drop off on the roads out here in the country, and all manner of freeway traffic out on the interstate if he were to try and make his way back to our city home. It’s a dangerous world for a city cat in the country. Our black and white cat, Loki, had lived here in his younger years, so he sticks close to the house. Loki gets along with our farm cat, Lucky, who has always lived here and was one of my mama’s cats while she was alive. So now we are down to TWO cats at the Cat and Cactus Country Farm. The boys want kittens, but that won’t happen until Mama feels like enough renovations are done and school is caught up to warrant bigger distractions. It isn’t just the boys who would be distracted by kittens. The one thing my mother said more to me than “I love you” was “Heather! Get that CAT OUT OF YOUR FACE!”

BATHROOMS

What’s the number one thing that prevents women from doing a lot of camping in the wilderness? You guessed it: lack of functional bathrooms. Well, at least that’s what it is for me. Even “Glamping” is too primitive for any more than a weekend. I can tell you that I loved almost every minute of my trip down into Antelope’s Lower Canyon except the first descent (almost dropped my camera and people afraid of heights need not apply)… and the restroom on the Navajo reservation tour company’s property was a huge hole that smelled like rotting sewage and dead things. Paying nearly fifty bucks for two people to go into the canyon, you would have thunk they could upgrade the plumbing. Shoot. Harvest some rain water. Something! It would have been preferable to find a spot in the deserted badlands to pee behind a cactus. Seriously.

The point is (and you might already know this if you’ve been following me on Instagram or Facebook): our very first project here at the Cat and Cactus Tiny Country Texas Farm is to FIX THE RESTROOMS. I’m not talking about fixing them JUST to make them pretty. Sure, they needed a beauty lift, but these puppies were dangerously needing attention. Melty, crumbly wiring, rotten support beams from years of leaks and mold, ceiling falling and holes, mysterious leaks in the walls, cracks in the tiles, sinking floors, sinks so crusted over with lime that they don’t drain any more, busted pipes from winter freezes pouring water under the foundation, doors that don’t actually shut… yeah. It was time someone put some TLC in to the restrooms around here.

So we’ve begun. Renovations are at hand. Photos of the progress are spread throughout this post. The bathroom has gone from almost 100 year old fancy green and pink mid-century tile that my grandma and mama used to walk on… to a hole in the ground under the pier and beam house…. to a patterned tile shell, waiting for shiplap and fixtures. So close, but yet, we are still down to one working toilet and one working sink for six stinky, impatient people.

I’m resisting the urge to call this the third world farm and instead remembering each day to be thankful and pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ who are living in refugee camps in the Middle East. It’s good to remember that our problems are usually ALL first world ones.

PRAYERS

A friend of mine came over and prayed with me over the land and house and she actually touched the dirt while she was praying. She told me to walk the perimeter of the land and pray. As soon as we get the lawn mower working again, and get some of that tall grass mowed, I think I’ll start. For now, I’m keeping clear of the snakes and bobcats over here where the grass is short and hoping God hears my prayers even though they are a little less fearless.

I’m praying for lots of things… our nation, our leaders, the persecuted, the hearts of my children, the hearts of our loved ones and for healing for friends and family… for my own continued good health, our routines, our renovations and the funds to make them happen… and honestly, I’d love it if you join me in any of those prayers. I just picked up a copy of my latest Bible study (besides the amazing digital ones I like on Youversion)… “Choose Brave” by Love God Greatly Ministry. It was referred to me by a friend. Can’t wait to study it. I could use some bravery… I know it will come in handy out here in the wilderness.

RAIN

Since we have moved here, it has rained like Noah’s time. There have been nights when I wondered if the house might float away. The rain has stopped the work that started the day after Christmas on the bathrooms a number of times. The contractors who were trying to finish up the first bathroom BEFORE they went back to their regular jobs after Christmas holidays ended have had to push out the completion of our master bath into a weekend work schedule, and the blasted rain has pushed the timeframe into the middle of January. It has also pushed my renovation budget up {insert pouty face here}.

The rain actually was part of the reason I pulled my back out (on my birthday right after Christmas). That also pushed up my budget, by the way.

The private drive was so bad the mail carrier was getting stuck in the mud and having to be pulled out by chain; true story. We had a mountain of pea gravel delivered and it still isn’t all the way shoveled out evenly on to our long driveway (which seems so much longer when you are doing manual labor to improve it). I guess I’m not as young as I used to be, because after shoveling, I pulled my back out and feel bruised pretty bad still. Thankfully, the chiro visit took the shooting pains away. THAT was horrifying. My poor mother and grandpa… nerve pain is the WORST.

It’s actually raining NOW. Tomorrow they come to finish the master bath, hopefully! I’m praying the puddles are all dried up before dawn. We need sunny Saturdays and Sundays ahead…

PURGING

I’m still working on purging the junk. We are paying for our three storage units still, too. The plan is to get the carport enclosed so we can consolidate our storage into the garage for the short term. Then I’ll be selling all my stuff off. Here’s to hoping it will raise some much needed funds for more renovations. The guest quarters we were hoping to build and use some of the furniture in is going to cost too much money for now, so we are just enclosing the carport and stopping renovations for a while to save our pennies again. Paying 400$ a month in storage is just stupid money. So if there’s any furniture you liked of mine in earlier photos from the city house, let me know. I’m probably selling it all… including my mama’s four poster rustic bedroom suit that cost over 2K twenty years ago back in Houston. It is as solid as they come, and I’m lamenting letting it go… but it will only collect cobwebs in the carport and there’s no place for it in our tiny farmhouse.

The memory of my mama and mawmaw are a shelter in the storm. Keeping too many things was one of my mom’s major issues in her later years. Downsizing hurts sometimes, and it was too painful for her. It’s a necessary GOOD, though, to simplify and declutter your life. It helps to know that my grandma did the same thing when she moved into this house, and somehow it never looked crowded when she was living here. That’s the goal… to get rid of enough stuff that we are comfortable and have only what we need.

My husband cleared out my grandpa’s old tool shed (which had been chocked so full of RUSTY OLD STUFF that you couldn’t even walk in it) and found a few treasures and a nice place to clear out for a man-cave. I have yet to get comfortably done with any room in the house… but he keeps reminding me that the hard work has already been done… my grandpa did it when he moved and built this place into a home. If I can just keep plugging on, we will eventually “get there”.

HISTORY AND FUTURE

My aunt came by and told me some stories about the house and the land. One part of the house used to be a garage apartment and the other was a motel unit from an old vintage hotel called the Blue Moon. She remembered the neon sign from when she was really young. The door number was A1, and that’s what my grandpa called it for as long as I can remember back in childhood. I used to think it was haunted because he kept it full of junk and it was full of cobwebs and critters. I can remember chasing farm cats in the building and thinking that tiny restroom with green tile (that I just demolished to renovate) was the smallest little scary cave of a restroom in the world. I would have laughed until I cried if you told me I would one day be calling the restroom in A1 my master bath.

Aunt Renee told me that my grandpa was born in a house that was just about 20 feet from the one I’m living in. He later died here on the property, as well as my mother. My grandma was at the hospital when she died, but she lived here during all of her retirement years. The fact that my children’s great grandpa was born here in this place we now live adds yet another generation to how far back this property goes in my lineage… well beyond my memory, which began in the early 70’s. My grandfather was born in 1926. The buildings that he moved here were old already before they got here, so I’m not certain of exact dates, but it is likely from the fixtures that parts of this house are over 100 years old. I’ve begun collecting information about the land, the house, and all the things regarding family history for the kids. Maybe one day I’ll have time to get a book done for them or at least put it all in some sort of scrapbook.

There’s not much left of this sprawling property… not even ten acres; but we are thankful for this little bit of country with all the rich history it holds. My grandpa and my mama were very sentimental about this place. While I never was previously, I can say that it has a way of growing on you. I can’t promise we won’t ever sell and move… but God is the only one who knows the future… and for now, at least, which is all we are given, we plan to give this country life a go.

LIVING WITH LESS IN GRATITUDE

God and I have had a few conversations that go like this:

“You know, God, I could live here a long time if you help me get it to where it isn’t so primitive. We need some money to fix it up.”

Then I get reminded of people’s problems that are way more important than Pinterest-perfect decorating… people in ICU fighting for their lives, people who lost loved ones before the Christmas holidays, people dying of cancer as I write this, people with broken lives who are struggling to find hope and purpose to move forward, people in danger because of persecution or war… and I nod in agreement back to God that maybe it isn’t as important as I think to have penny tile or glass on the greenhouse walls.

Maybe gratitude for even the less-than-what-you-hoped-for is a form of worship and giving of self. Could be.

And here’s a thought that steps on my toes as much as it does yours: Maybe you can turn Pinterest and magazines into their own kind of idol… and maybe you can waste a lot of life wanting things instead of being freed up by contentment and thankfulness so that you can focus on the real home of your dreams (heaven).

Hebrews 11:13-16 ~ 13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Leaving behind the easy life… looking forward for the rewards that the hard life will bring. I don’t know about you, but I think that kind of implies there might be a little hardship in this journey we are on… unfortunately or maybe not. Maybe what we see as unfortunate will really be a blessing somehow. Give me a little bit so I can find the blessing in that back pain… maybe I’ll come to it eventually…

So today I’ll send back the clawfoot tub I purchased for the kids’ bathroom. It was a splurge and it won’t fit through the door, anyway. How’s that for God putting a wrench in the plan? Back to the drawing board on bath number 2. I’m going this weekend to look for a cheaper option and to pick out the tile (that is less expensive than the other tile I wanted). We will find a way to make the old doors seal and keep them. Maybe a dime in the door jam will do the trick. I’m keeping my grandma’s color scheme, too… white and green with a hint of orange… and that way, I can keep my mama’s green curtains.

Let’s pray that we have enough to get the carport turned into a garage and the greenhouse built.

I’ve wanted a greenhouse for as long as I can remember.

So what if there isn’t real glass in the walls and I don’t get a panoramic view of the back pasture… the plants won’t care. Neither should I. And I do have FEET. I could just walk outside and see it from there. Sheesh. Get over yourself, Heather. Quit whining.

P.S. If you have any spare bricks, sand, pots, plant stands, landscape fabric, dirt, or garden tools – well used and rusty even – send them my way! I’d love the company and my back would love the help. This garden spot will be a silver lining for sure.