The Prospering Peasant

After months of settling in and getting things livable, I finally got to have my computer back!  Missus Peasant has been using it for her work, and now she does not need it anymore, and there was a space in the room at the top of the stairs to put it!  And just when I was spending a load of money to get the Operating System sorted out on my Netbook computer too!  Windows 8 ordered, a Hard Drive case ordered, and this week’s allowance going to a DVD drive to install Windows 8 from.  The only thing left to get is a new Hard Drive, since I want more space and speed! 

Ubuntu has been a fine OS to use on that computer, but nothing supports blogging like Windows Live Writer, and nothing in Ubuntu ever resembles Windows Live Writer!  Another program that I love is Google Sketch-up, which also is not supported in Ubuntu.  Sketch-Up is marvellous for modelling ideas around the house before buying materials and putting saws and drills to hand.  Eventually I want to model the whole house and property in it, and place it in Google Earth.  Can’t be beat for calculating materials such as paint or fencing and so on!

Photographs are handled better in Windows too.  Windows Live publishes them neatly into the body of the blog.  Windows manages them well in the file system.  Photoshop is a better program than the Ubuntu equivalent, and I am far more familiar with it.  I am just plain unafraid of what Windows has to offer. 

After I finish the upgrades to my Netbook, I would like to put a couple of 3TB drives into my tower computer.  Then there are new monitors in order.  I use the plural deliberately, as the tower is set up to handle two.  It is time to get things back in order so I can work! 

Anyone wanting Ubuntu as a free alternative to Windows will likely find it intriguing, and may enjoy it quite a lot.  If you are without an OS, I do recommend trying it to see if it fits your needs.  Software can be had for all types of uses, and much of it for free.  But many of the free programs available on Ubuntu also have Windows equivalents at the same low price!  You don’t have to pay for MS Office when there is Open Office! 

I will have to get back to you to let you know how the new Windows 8 Store works, and what I think of their pricing structure.  One download is available for up to five computers with the new system.  Maybe Microsoft has caught up to the Android Market and the I-Tunes market.  I will let you know when I have Windows 8 installed! 

Glad to be back in action! 

November has rolled around and there has been plenty to do to settle into the house, and onto the property.  With the first snow having fallen, and our comfort levels tested where the goats are concerned, and where the horses and chickens are concerned, we have found it prudent to build a chicken loft in the end of the barn currently housing the chickens.  This way, the chickens will have a high up place to go to for feed, and the goats cannot get to it to steal their food. 

The chicken loft has been finished, all but a few last details, in the wonderful weather that followed the cold days that brought us the snow. 

The end of the “barn” pictured above is where the chickens live.  The goats will be able to take refuge in there as well when the snow flies and the temperatures drop too low.  The room is 10X16 feet and about 8 feet from the concrete to the rafters. 

Not every day has been the same.  One morning in mid October we awoke to fog, which of course is a reminder of those days spent in England! 

Other days have brought us rain too, although most days have been sunny and relatively warm.  Old Dave is surprised that the weather here has been more tolerable than the Idaho of his youth. 

We pulled in some firewood from across the street from what remained of a tree that had been cut down by the utility company about three years ago.  If the three years is accurate, then judging by the rings, about nine years ago this area was much wetter then it was for the last sic years of the tree’s life.  Prior to that, the tree flourished in wet weather and grew nice thick rings.  The earliest of the trees 44 years were its best by far. 

Certainly terms like Global Warming are on our minds, no matter the cause.  Hopefully we will get settled in for the coming season and plant a full garden that flourishes so we can teach our children, and so we can flourish too.  If the warm weather we are having now is anything to go by, and the rings in the tree, we will do well to sort out our means early! 

We are still settling in here, and with a long way to go!  The house needs various work done in order to make everyone happy, such as fixing the drainage issue at the kitchen sink, and quite a bit of decorating!  We are living on the top floor, and sharing the bottom floor with my grandparents, who we are looking after in their old age.  Both are in their 70’s, and both are getting more wobbly on their feet.  The house is too much for them to look after, and it provides us a place to settle our family down work on our goals of self sufficiency as well as helping my grandparents have a dignified life in spite of their challenges. 

Our boys are still in England right now, and getting things moved around and in place is all on us, and really more me as my wife is pregnant at the moment! 

For photography, there are places around that might serve as workspace for portraiture if I can generate some leads.  They might need a bit of cleaning up and reworking, but I think there are some interesting angles around here.  There are also some interesting props already here! 

The house itself is fair sized, and while it is a bit dated, it is interesting.  It also has got a lot of untapped potential.  But for our lifestyle choice, it has the land and the water access that we need in order to be able to really get some food growing at the start of spring. 

For now, it is all about getting our family and our animals settled in, and making everyone comfortable for the long winter ahead.  It is also about getting ready for our new little addition come November. 

So 2012 is the year of change again, and settling in again.  It is a year of finding our feet in our local community, and of finding out everything works around here.  On Sunday I learned how to work the irrigation system over the road so we can keep the grass growing all summer.  My teacher was the man who is keeping his cows over there with our two horses.  I want to spell his name Sverro, although I am not real sure on it, and my grandparents pronounce his name differently to how he or his wife does.  They call him Sevell. 

There is a lot to learn still about the local community, and about the people.  So far it seems almost too good to be true in many ways.  The people seem friendly, and everyone waves at each other.  There is always a smile to greet us wherever we go.  There are also a lot of events that are happening here this summer such as fairs and rodeos.  There is also a Farmer’s Market in Logan that we are eager to see.  So much to do, and so much to post about! 

“The Prospering Peasant”

So far the life in Idaho has been busy trying to settle in on no budget at all.  The cost of coming up here followed by  the cost of the time spent packing rather than working has been a swift kick in the butt, precisely where the wallet resides.  It’s all work, work, work…  I have a few jobs to do to keep my grandmother happy, and some jobs to keep my immediate family happy, and so far I have not been able to settle into a routine that allows me to post on the Prospering Peasant, or on here, or to get some photography started.  There is just too much to do.  I have not brought my camera out with on many of the drives we have taken locally, but in the weeks to come, I certainly will. 

What I have not been shooting photos of has been the many routes around here that lead up and down the valley, and eventually into or through the mountains that surround us on all sides.  Really, we live in the mountains, but in a large valley on a flat floor of fertile land waiting for the seed, and for the irrigation pipe.  Irrigation was installed here by early pioneers in the area, and for that I am thankful. 

Our set up here consists of one acre divided into half for lawn and house and out buildings, and half for grazing, but with no irrigation on either side, except where the neighbor allows us to run a hose under the fence from his lines, so when he waters his field, we can water our lawn. 

On the other side of the street there is six and a half acres of grazing field, half of it irrigated, and all of it growing nicely.  A local guy puts cows on this field and usually arranges something like a cow for us, however, this year he is paying property taxes and for the water shares instead, as the cows he has cost so much that he only has a dozen for the season. 

All of this is on fairly flat land, apart from the back three acres over the road, which slants slightly downward to a drainage ditch that is always full of standing water in the guise of a long, narrow pond.  The irrigation canal runs right through the center of the property across the road, so there is a bridge over that. 

The barn as I call it is not really a barn in the normal sense.  Instead it is a very large shed made of wood, and it is pretty old.  It has a main room, which could easily serve as a barn, with a dirt floor, and another room which will serve for now as a chicken coop.  It would one day make a lovely canning kitchen though as the vegetable patch is just outside the door to that room. 

There is a separate one car garage that is oversized, and could serve as a two car if the door were big enough. 

The Granary is a building built of 2×4’s laid flat and put together kind of in the fashion of a log cabin.  All of the buildings need some freshening up and cleaning out, but they are all in good enough condition to serve well to their purpose. 

The house is a two story, and is typical in its design, so much so that I have seen a few similar enough to convince me they are built to the same plans. 

More will follow, of course, and especially in the form of photos, once I get all caught up on the settling in part.  There is more to do around here than I care to talk about.  Till then…

I am sat at an old table right now with the computer on it, and a sliding glass window to my left that opens to a balcony, and a view of seemingly endless fields.  One mile down that way is where Utah begins, and everything behind me is Idaho.  The goats are in a half acre pasture next door to the house, and the horses on almost seven acres over the road, along with a dozen cows owned by the man who leases the property over there.  The chickens were let loose in the yard when we arrived, and one of them went to live in the end room of the barn with the four others who were already here, and the rest have moved roost into the enormous pine tree out front.  I need to catch them and lock them in the barn for a few days and let them settle there till a chicken coop builds itself in the back somewhere.

There is a lot to do around here!  Photos will follow, but for now, I am happy to announce that we are here.  The boys left for England the day we drove up here, so they have missed out on all of the fun work so far!  But when they get back, and start school, there will be plenty to do on the weekends, which are three days long up here!  Someone decided to save money by shortening the weeks but lengthening the days.  So they will be out for school from about 7:00 AM till 5:00 PM.  There is meant to be lots of homework too! 

A bit of a garden got planted, but it is not much, so we will continue to rely on Bountiful Baskets for now, as well at the grocery stores.  Fuel prices are still fairly high here too, but we are closer to cheaper food, which is a relief.  Also, hay is as low as $75 per ton right now, which will probably allow us to feed the horses and goats all winter for around $300 or $400.  That compared to about $200 per half ton in southern Nevada, so that’s not bad! 

Yes, pictures definitely to follow…