The year isn't even over yet, and already I'm looking back, and thinking of all the new things which 2010 contained for my family and myself. Here's a quick compilation:
We moved onto our property. This actually happened at the very end of 2009, but I'm a sloppy recordkeeper, so I'm going to count it.
We set up our solar power system, and began using it. Then our batteries started dying, and we've used it less and less and less. We're hoping what we've got will hang on until new equipment is purchased later this year.
We now heat our water (mostly) with solar, too. (We have a gas hot water heater for cloudy days.)
We started vermiposting! That's where you use worms to create compost for you. We have two buckets full of worms outside our kitchen, enjoying our food scraps.
I started dying my hair. I look my age now. ;-D
The girls and I learned how to can food. So far, we've only canned green beans, but those came out great. After the excitement of the wedding next month, we hope to have time to do much more of this.
I made homemade English Muffins! They were really good!
We started running cattle on our property. We've actually owned our bull for a few years, but he was a gift. Now, we've purchased a heifer, and are looking about for others to purchase, so that we can raise our own beef.
I started driving a manual transmission vehicle. I know it's pathetic that I haven't already learned this, but I never needed it in the US, and our first 5 years in Honduras we didn't use a vehicle at all (as we lived on an island which didn't have roads - we traveled in boats). After four years in the city of Gracias, and now most of a year living outside of the city, it's just becoming necessary for me to drive here, and our vehicle is manual. So, I'm doing it. Gradually.
In the next few weeks, I'll become a mother-in-law for the first time.
Oh, and the icing on the cake: this year, for the first time in our lives, Allen and I are being audited by the IRS. Sigh. I could have done without this one.
3 comments:
Congrats on the vermacomposting. I just started a regular compost pile not too long ago, but wonder if a vermcomposting bin might be better when living in Honduras...I'm thinking it might not attract as many bugs/animals??? Where did you get the worms from? From what I've read only certain kinds work for vermacomposting.
English muffins at home-recipe please!
Now when your beef is slaughtered, how will you store the beef? And what happens in a power outage?
I put a link to the English Muffin recipe on the post, just for you!
In answer to your worm question, we inherited the worms from other missionaries, and I do know that they were special worms, brought from the US for this purpose. We haven't had problems with the bins attracting animals, but we do occasionally get a sort of fruit-fly thing happening in them. It hasn't been a big issue, though.
Love your blog, Trish! I can resonate with so many of the trials you write about. I'm so excited for your family that you are welcoming a new daughter soon. Hope the wedding is a wonderful celebration of God's love..... Oh, and sorry about the audit!!! Not fun.
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