Part VII: Inspection Time

Grandma and Grandpa Wagman drove all the way from northern Minnesota for a visit in October 2004. This was their first visit, so they were given the grand tour. They probably saw more than they wanted to see! Jim always loved to show people around our homestead. The basement was finally enclosed, and the door was set in place.

Notice our front stoop! It's amazing what one can do with wooden pallets. Notice also the mud ... It clung to everything, and the inside concrete floor was a mess. Grandma and Grandpa just happened to visit after a period of rain, and the mud was very slippery. The driveway (which was just a cattle path) was so slick that only a 4 wheel drive vehicle could make it in.

All it took was a walk to cause a person to grow about 3 inches from the mud clinging to their shoes. It was terrible! Of course, it was just one more fun thing for the boys.

This photo is the back of Metigoshe Ministries, where we were living at the time. While my parents were visiting, Jim headed to Minot (about 1-1/2 hours from here) to buy supplies and parts at Menard's. He also came back with my new kitchen stove firmly attached to the roof of the car. It's amazing what you can do without a truck or trailer!

Grandpa helped with the electrical work needed to install our water heater. We were preparing for an electrician to finish with the hook up of various things so the state building inspector could make his inspection. Grandpa had some very special apprentices.

The electrician had quite an audience!

Jim would set up his laptop and work in the corner of the basement. As you can see, things were moved into the basement, but nothing was set up. I would stay at the retreat center and make meals, then bring them over to feed the family. Our days were full.

Jim felt we couldn't afford to install a septic system, so our bucket with the toilet seat came out of the woods and into the basement -- behind the refrigerator.

We did not have a very good experience with the state building inspector. He wasn't happy that we were going to spend the winter in our basement, and seemed to get upset at any little thing that wasn't what the code required: No outside light, not enough outlets, etc. He was also not happy that Jim and the boys did most of the wiring themselves. Finally after being overly critical, he calmed down and sat at the table and discussed various items with Jim. By the time he left we discovered that he could actually be quite decent. I guess it was a lesson to the boys that "A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." (Proverbs 15:1)

Doing Chores

Jim and the boys left this morning to head to some friends' farm about 3-1/2 hours from here. They will be back tomorrow, and their main reason for going was to pick up more goats. I guess they will bring back 2 pregnant does and a buck. We lost our buck in January, and also lost a doe. I sure hope our remaining adult doe and 2 kids will remain healthy and not pass anything to the new goats.

Since I am the only one home, I am holding down the fort with taking care of the puppies (actually I am keeping Selah the mom from getting into trouble while in the house) and doing the chores. This has been good for me, since I am usually doing something else while the boys are out taking care of the animals. It felt great to get out early this morning to receive directions from our very capable sons, and then in the afternoon to check on the egg laying business.

I found 6 eggs in and under the nesting boxes. However, our rooster has decided to become ornery and seems bent on attacking me! The other day I collected eggs and was surprised when he jumped on my leg. This time it was out and out warfare on both of our parts. I don't know what one is supposed to do with an attacking rooster, but I hit him with a branch until he quit. I guess this means we've become enemies, since he did it again tonight when I was checking everything in the shed and putting the turkeys away for the night. He leaves the cats and goats alone, but apparently I am a threat to him. Our poor hens are also taking a beating, since at least 3 of them have feathers on their backs pulled out. I would gladly push for butchering him, but he is the only rooster we have and are hoping they will produce chicks later in the spring. I guess doing chores tomorrow will be another "wonderful" experience.

Even though it was rather cool and windy today, it was nice to be outside instead of working on things in the house. Our German Shepherd named Samson walked me down the 1/4 mile of very muddy driveway and begged me to throw rocks so he could go retrieve them. Whenever our son Peter is gone he becomes my buddy and does everything he can to get me to play with him. I love dogs, so it doesn't take much!We saw lots and lots of geese heading back into Canada, and noted that it won't be long before the ice is off the lake.

Our dog Selah is the one that just had 5 puppies. She reminds me so much of what I was like as a first time mom: very uptight and nervous. I never knew puppies this young could make so much noise ... All she has to do is step out of her whelping box and they immediately start whining and yelping for her. She then is so torn about going outside or even to get a drink of water. I hope she learns to relax soon, or she will wear herself out. That crazy dog still has her intense desire to go for our chickens and turkeys, so I have to stand outside any time she goes out and make sure she leaves them alone. Maybe she could take that rooster and knock him down a few pegs! Just kidding, I think we still need him.

I am looking forward to sunny, warm days, and planting in the garden. I was offered a parttime job recently, and it was very tempting to take it. However, it is my desire to work with our family here on our homestead instead of spending hours away from everyone. There are a lot of things afoot on our farm, and I want to be a part of it. Our older boys are talking about using a garden plot to grow vegetables for sale. That will take up quite a bit of their time, so I will be needed to work in our areas of the garden. I can't imagine what it will be like to be picking raspberries from 600 plants! At the rate the boys eat homemade raspberry jam, we'll need every berry we produce! I have a feeling, though, there will be plenty left over for others.

Movie by Andrew

We are trying to figure out why Andrew's movie isn't working .. Stay tuned, and we'll have it fixed!

Exciting News!

Our dog Selah delivered 5 healthy, chubby black puppies. They are so cute! Selah is such a good mother. We knew last night she was beginning the early stages of labor, as she couldn't settle down and was doing a lot of panting.

Our son Jonathan built Selah a whelping box; we had trouble getting her to stay in there, but when the time came she headed straight for the box to deliver her puppies. It didn't take very long before all 5 were delivered.

I wish I could show you some photos, but Selah is mostly black and so are the puppies so it doesn't make for clear, sharp pictures. It's been a bit tough to get anything done around here, since I love puppies almost as much as I love babies!

If anyone is looking for an interesting breed of dog -- look no farther. These puppies are 1/2 German Shepherd, 1/4 Border Collie, 1/8 Blue Heeler, and 1/8 American Eskimo.

First Day of Spring!

The boys reminded me that today was the first day of spring, but around here it's mud season. I am planning to continue writing about our adventures with moving up here and starting our homestead, and the next installment is partially about the mud. More about that later.

I think the last time I wrote I mentioned that one of our goats was very sick. Well, she died the next day. That was over 2 weeks ago, and we have tried our best to do what we could with natural remedies to keep our remaining adult doe and 2 kids healthy. This morning the doe was experiencing diarrhea, and I sure hope the family we bought the goats from is correct in saying it could be a result of detoxifying. We'll just have to wait and see.

Our dog Selah is due to give birth soon. This is a new thing to our family, and I hope everyone is around to watch the birth. Selah is kind of a high strung dog, and I hope she does okay with everything. I have been worrying about her, as I see how tough it is for her to get around these days. Guess I remember all too well how it felt the last week of my pregnancies!

We spent an afternoon last week planting seeds at friend's house. She has a wonderful low cement wall solar collector which is perfect for the seed trays. The house faces south, and plants grow like crazy over there. I look forward to the day we can start seeds in our own home. Jim was checking various catalogs for the plastic we need to cover our hoop house; we didn't completely take off the plastic last year since we wanted some protection from the elements for our garden tools and made a small shed with it where the plants weren't growing, and the sun weakened the plastic. I think we are looking for a higher grade of plastic that won't be bothered as much by the sun.

Hopefully the next time I post it will be back to the book!

Home from Convention

Life has been a whirlwind lately. We left a week ago Tuesday to prepare to testify at a House legislative committee regarding allowing grandparents to homeschool their grandchildren. What a fiasco! I don't understand all of what happened, but apparently the legislative council goofed somehow and the state's homeschool bill went from about 6 pages to 7 lines! In order to work on the bill for grandparents they first had to reintroduce the whole homeschooling bill. Even the legislative branch seems to not know what they are doing! One particular legislator was very hostile to homeschooling in general, and we left knowing some bad things could happen to our bill.

Our drive to Fargo was anything but peaceful, since a big winter storm was brewing. I was glad I wasn't driving, but it was also tough to just sit there and pray for safety. We were also pulling a trailer, and I wondered at times if we could make it up some of the hills on the interstate. Needless to say, we were very thankful to finally hit town and get unpacked.

Thursday was crazy. We were supposed to get set up for the convention, but instead a lot of the day was trying to figure out how to deal with weather related items. Thankfully, Skeet Savage, her daughter Mercy and son Israel Wayne had flown in on Wed., so they were ready to roll. Unfortunately, Steve Demme of Math-U-See had gotten as far as Chicago, and made the decision to fly back home. Even the recording company from Kentucky got as far as Iowa City and had to turn back. That meant no taping for the convention! John Mesko (Good Farmer John) had also gotten snowed in back in Minnesota, and may even still be snowed in.

As if one storm wasn't enough, there was a temporary lull and then another blast of blizzard conditions hit the area. We ended up with about 1/3 of the people that normally attend the homeschool convention when it is held in Fargo. We still felt people were ministered to, and that made all the hassles worthwhile. The Lord's will for the convention was accomplished.

This week we are working on getting back to normal -- whatever normal is! The first order of business was to shovel out from the storms. Thankfully the snowplow had come in and cleared our driveway, and friends shovelled a path from the top of our hill to the door of the basement so we didn't have to wade through 3 feet deep snow while unloading our car. The weather is supposed to make a drastic change by the weekend, and we'll be into the 40's. This time it is above zero!

We are still having goat problems, though. One of our does was down again when the boys went to do chores this morning, so we spent a good part of the day working on her. By tonight she was up and eating well, and we hope to keep her that way. I'm so thankful it didn't happen while we had friends watching our animals. We should have kittens and puppies by the end of the month, and this will be very interesting!

The Hills (as locals refer to our area) aren't quite as hillbillyish as they used to be ... Two nights ago we received a call from a neighbor to let us know that someone had stolen a truck with a trailer, and when they drove on our gravel road had gotten them stuck. Instead of just leaving them, they burned the truck and trailer, and left nails and other construction materials strewn across the gravel road. After a call to another of our neighbors who didn't know anything about this event, I received a call back with further information. Apparently the truck and trailer had been stolen in Fargo and driven all the way up here. So far the culprits have not been apprehended. We have to get back to the scene of the crime and get the nails, etc. off the road so we don't end up with flat tires when we head out that way.

Back to our homeschool bill. Today the committee took up the bill once again -- and didn't tell us they were going to do it. All we asked for was to allow grandparents to homeschool their grandchildren, and this is what the attached amendment would do (and they took out the provision for grandparents to be able to homeschool their grandchildren!):

1. A mom without a college degree could avoid being monitored by the local school district if she took the national teacher's exam; the amendment would change that to "the pre-professional skills test".
2. Required testing was originally set for children in grades 4,6,8, and 10; the amendment would change that to grades 3, 4, 6, 8 and 11.
3. Testing can be either the state assessment test or a nationally normed state achievement test.
4. This amendment would require parents to pay all testing costs.
5. It will be the "grade level proficiency score of the state assessment test" that will be used to determine extension of monitoring or evaluation for learning difficulties -- just as the 30th% and the 50th% of the nationally normed tests are used.
6. Instead of "basic composite score" it now reads "composite score" or "score", depending on which line of the bill you read. In reference to remedial plan, it also reads, "every subject tested..."
7. A new section reads, in part: "Violation of chapter - Penalty . If the superintendent of public instruction determines, after a hearing ... that the child's parent has violated a provision of this chapter ... the ... school district ... monitor the parent for a period of one year. If the parent is already being monitored ... extend the monitoring ... for a period of one additional year. The child's parent is responsible for the cost of any monitoring required by this section".

I say all this to say -- North Dakota has the reputation at Home School Legal Defense as being the most restrictive state in the country for homeschooling laws. This takes the cake.

New Adventure for Our Family

Today we were invited to our neighbor's, which is a mile north as the crow flies (longer by road). They have about 30 sled dogs, and needed to take them for a run before the weekend, when they are hosting some type of "wilderness women" type thing at the local state park. So, I got to ride in the sled with our oldest son driving, and then our 2nd and 3rd sons took another sled, with my husband Jim and our youngest son taking the last sled. Our neighbors used snowmobiles to ride alongside, in front or in the rear to make sure we were doing okay. The weather was perfect, and we had a great time! We traveled a distance of 12 miles. I am ready to do it again! We were taught how to harness and get them attached to the sled, as well as how to use the sled itself. The dogs were just itching to go, so it was quite wild and noisy before we got going. By the time we got back they were a little on the tired side, since they were pulling us up and down hills the whole 12 miles. The owner of the dogs raced in the Ididerod back in 1999, and only has one dog left from the original team.

If you want to see photos and a short You Tube video of our time, check out our son's blog at www.jonathanjbartlett.blogspot.com.

Heading Down the Home Stretch

Just a little over a week from now we will be heading to the ND Home Educators' Conference in Fargo, ND. I am the occasional secretary for the Assoc., and my boss is Jim. Not only are we preparing for the convention but working to keep the freedoms ND homeschoolers have attained and stem the tide of attempts to take some of those freedoms away. The ND legislature meets every other year, and this legislative session has been a doozy for us homeschoolers. So far we have done okay and even received the right for grandparents to homeschool their grandchildren, but yesterday was "crossover day," and all the bills switch from the House to the Senate or Senate to the House. Needless to say, the fight will be on again next week as the various committees meet. It's been such a blessing to see all the homeschooling families that continue to send emails and call their legislators to fight for what they desire to see happen within the state.

Our homeschool convention will feature Skeet Savage and her son Israel Wayne from Wisdom's Gate. Steve Demme from Math-U-See will also be speaking. We are also glad to have Good Farmer John himself -- John Mesko of Lighthouse Farm (blogs with Northern Farmer, Jim V. and Nathan V. at http://www.scepaniakfarms.com/blog/ ). John will conduct a workshop and also offer at booth in the convention hall.

My son Jonathan and I have lots more to share regarding our adventures with homesteading, but it's kind of on the shelf until the convention is over.

We're Tough!

I found this section of an article in today's Fargo Forum online newspaper. This will give you an idea of just how tough we are up here in the frozen north!


Temperatures dropped below zero in Minnesota on Saturday morning and were expected to remain there until sometime Tuesday, the weather service said. By noon Monday, subzero temperatures had blanketed the Minneapolis-St. Paul area for 58 straight hours - the longest stretch in 11 years.
In northern Minnesota, the temperature crashed to 42 below Monday morning at Embarrass, 38 below at Hallock and 30 below at International Falls, the weather service said.
Veterinarian Wade Himes wasn't too concerned as he ate breakfast at the Shorelunch Cafe in International Falls.
"We get up and go to work, and people come and see us. I don't think anything changes that much. (You) just dress warm," said Himes, 69.
Grand Forks, N.D., also registered 30 below.
"For this time of year, this isn't that unusual, as far as temperatures go," said weather service meteorologist Bill Abeling in Bismarck. "To get record temperatures this time of year in North Dakota, you've got to delve down in the 40-below region, so we're not even close."

(PS: That's not true. When we got up this morning, the temperature on the outside thermometer read -40 degrees! Maybe that is why our car wouldn't start this morning ...)

Part VII: Building the House

The basement foundation was finished, and now it was our turn to enclose the sides and roof. My brother Mark had very generously offered to forgo his usual camping near the Boundary Waters in Minnesota to help us work on our basement. We are so thankful for the week he gave us.

Our well was being dug the same time we were working on the basement. Jim had contacted as many well drillers as he could find to hopefully get someone to drill before winter set in. One man agreed to come, but never showed up. Finally, a man came over to check things out, and told us he would soon return to get busy. We had to learn to accept the schedules of the various contractors, because there were days when they would just plain not show up -- with no explanation. We had been told to get someone over to witch for water since there was no guarantee that water would easily be found. That just didn't sit right with Jim and I, since we feel divination like that was not something the Lord would approve of. Instead, we prayed a lot about the correct location for the well.

The day the well drillers showed up was the day Jim felt impressed to change the location of the drilling. Instead of drilling in an open space he asked them to please drill closer to our power pole. That was fine, and they began drilling.

I can see why not many people make well drilling their occupation; it is a very dirty, muddy, cold job. They must have worked on our well for at least a week. Shortly after they began they hit a large rock and had to move over just a bit. We continued to pray!

We take photos of everything, and this one shows our first bit of water! We were so thrilled. Of course it took drilling down 243 feet to hit water. We were charged $5.00/foot for the test hole, and then an additional $8.00/foot to actually develop the well.

The drillers had to come back on a Saturday when we were ready to bring the water to the house and install the pump. Jim was away from home that day, so the boys and I were in charge of doing what we could to help out. All I can remember is how bitterly cold it was that day in October.

The man who excavated and poured our basement brought his backhoe to dig the trench for what was needed to get the water to the house. It was amazing to watch him operate that backhoe, as he actually walked it across the trench so he could dig in front of him as he went along. When he was finished he walked the thing back off the trench!

While all of this was happening, I had an amazing conversation with the well driller's assistant. Besides telling me he was missing his son's basketball game and the well driller was missing his grandson's basketball game, he told me the well driller was as thrilled as we were to find water, since he had drilled just 2 miles away from us a few months earlier and never found water. He had not expected to find water on our land. We were praising the Lord over that revelation!

While all the well drilling was going on, Jim, Uncle Mark and the boys were working on enclosing the basement. In this photo, Jonathan was making scrambled eggs on our Coleman stove. He knew how to use the stove much better than I did! Uncle Mark taught the boys how to catch hornets, since they tended to swarm us every time we sat down to eat a meal.

Jim chose to utilize wood for the parts of the basement that would be above ground, including the entire side facing the lake. The basement was built into the side of a hill. The cement contractor used this type of machine to smooth out the floor, and people often ask us how we ever got it so smooth.


Uncle Mark was great at teaching our boys the fine art of housing construction. He seemed to have all the time in the world to answer any and all questions. Mark later told me the burden of the construction was not on his shoulders, so he was much more relaxed about it than Jim was.

We also had the Kenney family up from Fargo for work detail. Their children were soon referring to my brother as "Uncle Mark," and learned as much as our boys did.

Everyone had a job. Jim was learning a lot from Mark as well.

Boys and Gerbers go hand in hand!

That corner is where our bathroom is currently situated.

This is the side of the house that faces the lake, which is farther down the hill.

Finally getting the roof ready for winter! We weren't sure how a flat roof with rolled roofing would handle snow and cold, but we gave it a try. We didn't have enough finances left to install windows, so we faced the winter living in a dungeon. The only window we had was in the door.

Left to right: David, Andrew, Peter and Jonathan. This was our makeshift door until Jim could install the real thing. This piece of plywood was nailed in front of the opening to keep critters out while we were back at Metiogoshe Minstries for the night.

Caleb Kenney getting a lesson from Uncle Mark in the proper use of tools. Peter was taking the lesson in as well.
Our time with Uncle Mark wasn't all work ... There was time for play as well. Our boys and the Kenneys had a lesson in black powder loading and shooting.

We have a nice shooting range developed by Jonathan. Kenneys seemed to have as much fun as our boys!
While all the building was happening, the ladies fixed meals over at Metigoshe Ministries. What a crew!

October 4, 2004. The Lord gave us beautiful weather in which to build. This was the summer the area had its last frost in June, and first frost in August! We went from raw land to starting our own homestead in the Turtle Mountains.

Real Winter

Winter has definitely arrived. It's actually been cold -- and very cold indeed! We continue to learn the ins and outs of farming, and unfortunately we sometimes have to learn things the hard way.

Last Saturday the boys went down to the goat shed to do their chores and discovered one of our does was down. Ebony was laying on her side, too weak to get up. The weather had turned very cold overnight; the temperature in the afternoon was in the 20's, but by morning it had dropped to 30 below zero. Poor Ebony was very cold. Jim and the boys rigged up 2 heat lamps, and added bedding and a blanket for her.

Jonathan thought we should check on Ned our buck, since he hadn't heard him stirring yet. David ran over to his shelter, and was very upset to find him dead. We aren't sure just what happened, since he seemed fine the day before. I usually call to him when I go outside, and if he is in his shelter he will stick his head out and greet me. He had done that the day before, so it was a great shock to me.

I am very grateful for a network of people we have come to know and love, who gave us good information on what to do to save Ebony. She is still weak, but gaining strength. We continue to check on her because if she falls over onto her side, she cannot get up on her own. It has been exciting to watch how patient and caring the boys are with Ebony as they tend to her needs.

Part VI: Our Home in Between

Before we officially moved, Jim and the boys spent approximately 2 weeks on the land, gathering information on contractors, contacting the local phone company to bring in a phone line, adding electricity, etc. Jim knew there was the distinct possibility the house would not be ready before the snow flew. Approximately 3 miles from our house was a retreat center on Lake Metigoshe, aptly called Metigoshe Ministries; Jim contacted their office to see if there would be a possibility of our family bunking in there until the basement was finished enough to move in.

Friends surprised us by driving up just a week after we moved up here, and stayed at Metigoshe Ministries. Part of their facility is an old church that was moved to the site, and bunk rooms were added for visitors to use at a very reasonable price.

I was still in a state of shock after having moved only a week previous to their visit, and was so thrilled they had brought enough food to feed our family as well. I hadn't brought much in the way of food with us, since I knew I had no place to store anything. (In one of my other posts, I explain how our outdoor refrigerator and freezer were storing tools, etc.) Part of my culture shock was also due to how expensive food was to purchase in our town's 2 small grocery stores; I could purchase a jar of unsweetened applesauce in Fargo on sale for 99 cents, and in Bottineau when it went "on sale" (and they rarely had unsweetened) it was at least 3 times that much. I was finding it very hard to cook anything for a reasonable price. Metigoshe Ministries not only had bunk rooms, but there was an area in their building called "Life and Growth" that had a full size stove, apartment size refrigerator, and living area. We ate out meals in that room, since it was very chilly outside. Anyway, our time with our friends gave us the opportunity to scope out where we could possibly live on a short term basis until the basement was roughed in.

Jim's folks came shortly after our friends had gone back to Fargo, and stayed for a little over a week. The night before they left to head back to New Hampshire was the coldest night we had experienced: 27 degrees! That is a bit chilly for living in a canvas pop-up camper. Jim decided it was time to do something about our living arrangement.

That morning, we jumped into our van and made a trip over to Metigoshe Ministries. We talked with the people in the office, and were told we were welcome to move into the Life and Growth Place. What a blessing it was to have a warm, dry place to stay! We were given two rooms, one for the boys and one for Jim and I. We knew any time someone wanted to stay in the rooms we occupied we would have to move upstairs to their actual bunk rooms.

It rained steadily that first night ... So much so that when I helped get our youngest ready for bed (we even had easy access to a shower!) we discovered the rain was running in from the ceiling. I found the lady who stays in an apartment on site, and she realized the worker who was reroofing had neglected to tarp the roof! As I was running around helping to mop up water and placing buckets in strategic areas, Jim was on the roof with the director, nailing on tarpaper. What a night! Of course, the boys thought it was great fun.

How great it was to be able to clean up and sleep in a nice bed, after working hard during the day on our basement. I made meals in the Life and Growth Place and then brought them out to Jim and the older boys. I tried to keep the area clean as much as possible, since there were quite a few people that would walk through there and even use the room. We cleaned up especially for Sundays, since a church also meets on the premises and Life and Growth was used for Sunday School.

During our stay my parents came from Minnesota to see us. It sure was nice to have a place to visit that wasn't out in the cold!

Our family has many fond memories from living at Metigoshe Ministries. Jim tells everyone we stayed there for 59 days and 128 loads of laundry! The staff truly went out of their way to help us out when we needed a place to stay. Not only that, but out of our time there we developed relationships. Our oldest son has a vacuuming job there and I am occasionally called upon to help out with cooking, cleaning or office work. The Lord truly blessed us with our friends at Metigoshe Ministries.

Authentic Agriculture

Last winter I was reading posts from a Christian self-publishing Yahoo group, and happened across a family that called themselves "Lighthouse Farm." Something they said made me curious, so I checked out their website: www.lighthousefarm.com . I discovered we had two things in common: They were currently living in Indiana, and were packing up and moving to the family farm in Minnesota. Well, I lived in Indiana for 3 years and am originally from Minnesota, so they were as good as family to me! It was then I started reading Good Farmer John's blog.

This was my introduction to what people were calling Christian agrarian thought.

Jim and I moved to the country because we wanted our boys raised in the country, and needed the space to grow our own food and do other things we had dreamed about. Jim is the thinker in the family, and knew a bit about the large agricultural corporations and how corrupt they are. My only knowledge of the Monsanto corporation was its name; a friend from Fargo worked for them, and also married a chemist in the company.

John Mesko has written an excellent post over at the Northern Farmer blog (www.scepaniakfarms.com/blog) entitled, "Authentic Agriculture: Defined." Reading this post will give you an idea of what our family has been thinking, since we are in agreement with the Meskos in what they are expressing. I am very grateful to Good Farmer John, since he has helped me to understand the times with regard to farming, and also to see the importance of raising healthy, wholesome food for our family.

Part V: New Adventures

In spite of all the busyness involved with getting settled and working on the basement, there were times of fun and entertainment for the boys. When we lived in the city they always wanted to build a treehouse, but strict city codes forbid that from happening. This tree fort was one of their first creations -- and it was truly a work of art! We called this one Andrew's treehouse, and he worked diligently to make sure it was sturdy. I soon figured out that anything damaged or thrown out would soon make its way over to Andrew the junk collector's fort. Andrew could recycle just about anything!

Finally the day came in later September when the cement contractor came to get started excavating the basement. Dan seemed to enjoy being around our boys, and even though he had a lot of jobs going at once in other areas as well as ours, managed to give each boy a lesson in operating a backhoe. This particular photo shows our oldest son working the controls.

Another dream Jonathan had while still in the city was of trapping and hunting. He managed to read every book he could get his hands on regarding the tricks of the trade, and was itching to bring the information he had in his head down into his hands.

Well, the man we bought our land from used to be quite a trapper himself, and whenever we stopped over at their house Jonathan would pine over the traps he saw hanging in their pole building. I guess the last day Slim trapped was over on our land, and he managed to catch 67 muskrats! Someone mentioned Jonathan's interest, and Slim told us the next time he caught a raccoon eating his corn he would give it to Jonathan. His method of getting rid of the varmints was to catch them in a live trap and then drown them. That way the pelt was in good shape. He soon caught one in his trap, and called us to come and get it.

We didn't have all the tools of the trade, but Jonathan did a good job of skinning the raccoon. After he was all done, he hung the carcass across the field and on the edge of the woods for the coyotes. We noted later those carcasses continued to hang and were untouched by anything but flies! Maybe coyotes are fussy eaters.

Jonathan's handiwork was stretched on the side of my wonderful outhouse that was built especially for me by Grandpa Bartlett, and they looked pretty impressive! (The picnic table was also made by Grandpa B, and hauled all the way over here in pieces from New Hampshire when they came just 9 days after we moved to the Turtle Mountains.)

And how, do you ask, does raccoon taste? We all thought it tasted just like chicken, of course!

Part IV: A Welcome Set of Visitors

I thought I better get busy once again, before people begin to think we gave up on our project!

Here goes ...

As I explained in my last post, our pop up camper was situated across the field from our semi trailer, refrigerator, "compost toilet" -- and electricity. That meant a lot of activities centered around the electrical outlet. I was used to taking a shower every morning while living in the city. Well, the only real way we could clean up now was to make a 4 mile trip to Metigoshe State Park to use their facilities. We sure made good use of our state park pass that year. Approximately every 3 days we would hop into our station wagon to take showers. That was one time I was glad I had boys instead of girls, since Jim had the job of making sure the youngest to the oldest got cleaned up. There was one time when I had to take David and Andrew in to get them cleaned up in the ladies side, so I had to make sure it was just us. This park has very rustic facilities, with no source of heat other than the water from the shower. We had to stand on wooden grates to keep out of the drain, and try hard to keep towels from landing in the not so quickly drained floor to dry off and get dressed. I was thankful that it was after Labor Day, so the park was very sparsely populated and we pretty much had the facilities to ourselves. I did end up with a nasty case of something like Athlete's foot, and was thankful to discover friends in Texas that had developed a salve that took it completely away.

The boys just told me about times when someone would come into the shower room -- only to discover the place was full. There were only 2 shower stalls and 2 toilet stalls, so Jim and the boys made for a full house. I wonder how popular we were in the park.

The state park also was our source for drinking water, so we filled up our 7 gallon water carriers any time we made a visit over there.

Doesn't this look like a good way to wake up? Dump water on my head and make an attempt to style my hair! I am standing in between the power pole and the refrigerator.

Nine days after we moved onto our land we had a visit from Jim's folks. They pulled their camper all the way from Gilmanton Iron Works, New Hampshire to northern North Dakota. In fact, they pulled through the border station at the International Peace Gardens just after the memorial service for 9-11 (in 2004). We sure were glad to see familiar faces. It was a bit chilly, as you can see by the winter jacket Grammy is wearing. Even Jonathan had to keep a hood on to keep warm! The boys had picked her a bouquet of local wild flowers.

Grandpa received a bouquet of Canadian thistle! Of course he played right along with the boys' joke.

Here we are: middle of September, and we are all wearing warm jackets! I used my 18 quart roaster to make everything, from bread to stew to whatever. I did discover that it took much longer to cook something out here, because it was cooking in cooler weather. The same went for my crockpot. I plugged everything into an extension cord that ran from the semi trailer (where I set up my "kitchen" on the workbench in there) to the power pole.

Grandpa B brought an old pump with him to see if we could use it in some way. They decided to submerge it in the lake to draw water up to the top of the hill for using in any way other than cooking or drinking. The boat Jim is in is a little 12 foot sailboat that he and the boys built in the office of our house in Fargo. I think when we moved there was still epoxy glue on the carpet ...

I will have to ask my experts (the boys), but I think this photo shows Grandpa B setting up the piping that would run from the pump to the top of the hill. They purchased a small Culligan filter like the ones used under a sink to filter the water. However, every time they would siphon the water up the hill the filter would become clogged since the water was so dirty.

It's a bit hard to tell in this photo, but by the time Grandpa came into their camper from working with the pump he was soaking wet! It had begun raining.

Grandpa B felt sorry for me, as all we had was the "compost toilet" in the woods (check out my Part III blog entry), and decided his next contribution to the farmstead was a good old fashioned outhouse. This is how it looked as they brought it over to its present location. Thanks, Grandpa!

Part III: Getting Settled

Since all we had on our newly acquired land in the country was our pop-up camper and the semi trailer, we needed to be creative in how we organized. Jim decided his office would be in the semi trailer -- with his "desk" being the clothes dryer that was sitting on top of one of his workbenches. He kept everything in there: from paperwork to our cell phone (that really didn't work unless we walked to the top of the highest hill on the property).

We did not have a well, so that meant I traveled the 15 miles twice a week to use the town's laundromat. What a job that was! I wonder what the town regulars thought when I would drag my huge sacks of laundry in and take over the big front loading washers. I didn't have clotheslines yet, so I had to use their dryers as well. My youngest used to beg me to take him along, since right across the street from the laundromat was the grocery store and a bakery. The donuts tasted great.


I remember the first week we were on the land ... Jim and the boys were over at our old Norwegian cabin cleaning it up, and I was sitting in front of our camper, pretreating and sorting dirty clothes to take the next day to town to wash. All of a sudden I heard the sound of an engine, and lo and behold -- up comes a UPS truck, driving through the middle of the field! What a welcome sight, and yet so out of character so far out in the boonies. I enjoyed having a bit of conversation, and then off the man went again.

The boys and I drove to town one day to do laundry; I took everyone, because I promised them we could check out the county library. It was definitely a disappointment after having a large university library right across the street from us in Fargo, and we also discovered we could no longer order books through interlibrary loan for free. We would have to pay $2.00/book to make a request.

Anyway, it was raining that day, so I wanted to get back to the camper to try to figure out what to make in the rain for supper. There are two ways we can reach our land: one way takes us past 6 homes on 2 miles of gravel, and the other is a very narrow gravel road, with no human habitation. The boys talked me into taking the uninhabited way in, and I regretted it as soon as we got going. The road hadn't been well maintained, and I was not used to driving on loose gravel with muddy ruts from recent rains. There is a hill not too far from the entrance to our property, and I slid down sideways in our van! My heart was in my throat, and I was so thankful that we didn't roll. When we got to the bottom the boys' comment was, "Wow! Let's do that again!"

I don't remember how long it was, but it took a long time to finally get a cement contractor to begin work on our basement. We spent more than we initially expected on our 160 acres, so we had less than we expected for construction of our house. By this time the days were getting colder, and we wondered if we could live on the property for the winter. We checked with a local realtor to see if we had any options in renting a place for the winter; she had a few ideas, but nothing seemed to fit our needs. One morning we awoke to only 27 degrees, and we knew we had to close our time of living in the pop up camper.

The boys were so proud of the "outhouse" they had constructed for me! They thatched one wall to give some privacy, but the other 4 directions were open to the woods. There was also a thatched roof that did keep out the rain, but not much else. The compost toilet consisted of a wooden box with a toilet seat and cover, with a 5 gallon bucket to catch deposits. The Rubbermaid container held wood shavings that we used to add to the contents of the compost toilet. Toilet paper was also stored in the container, since mice enjoyed chewing on the paper. I also made sure there was waterless handcleaner handy. I told Jim this was not exactly a very private place, and come fall when the leaves in the woods fell there would be absolutely no privacy from the workers who were finally starting on the basement! Jim had great plans to use the compost called "humanure" for eventual spreading on our garden areas, but I have had a hard time with that thought. I guess there is a book written on the topic.

Our beige refrigerator was a throw away from an apartment building across the street from us in Fargo. At first we only had the dorm sized refrigerator on the left to use for storing food, since Jim was utilizing the refrigerator and chest freezer to store tools. That little refrigerator was soon not enough room, so Jim relinquished the refrigerator to use it for what it was intended for. The power pole had our only outlet for electricity and was located across the field from our pop up camper. I had plenty of exercise that fall, because I was constantly running back and forth from the camper to the refrigerator and semi trailer, and back again. The compost toilet was located in the woods not too far from the refrigerator and freezer.

Here is a photo of our first home. The camper was supposed to sleep 8, but it was more than cramped for Jim, myself and our 4 growing boys. I grew up in the 70's and so did this camper; it was decorated with avocado green and bright orange cushions, with a bright orange sink. The tent was used to store coolers before I could use the refrigerator, and also towels and other supplies. The tent leaked, so I had to keep everything in Rubbermaid containers. The little canopy was loaned to us by Jim's folks. They arrived for a visit from New Hampshire just 9 days after we moved up to the land. They were such a help to us, since they brought their big camper. We were able to bake in there and eat inside instead of in the cold and rain. Grandpa Bartlett felt sorry for me, and built me a real outhouse!

This last photo is of our "driveway," which is 1/4 mile to the gravel road and our mailbox. It was nothing more than a cattle path. This was taken from close to our mailbox, looking up into our property.

Part II: Our First Night in the Country

This is a "rebroadcast" from my very first attempt at blogging back in January 2006. In order to chronicle our adventures, I needed to add this one to the story.


My husband Jim and I and our 4 sons moved the end of August 2004 to the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota from the "big city" of Fargo, ND. Having lived in the city for all of my life, living in the country has been a whole new experience for me. The boys immediately took to country living and have loved it ever since. My experience has been more like throwing a cat into water! Yes, it is possible for a city girl to become a country girl, but the adjustment takes more time for some than others!

We arrived on our property around 6:00 p.m., later than anticipated. I had only seen the land once, to see if I thought this was the property that God had planned for our next residence. Jim and our sons had already spent two weeks here, living in our 1974 model pop up camper. Jim had decided not to close up the camper the last time he was here, thinking everything would be okay and it would look more like someone was living here. Well, during the week they were gone the area received about 7 inches of rain, and there was a terrible wind storm. When we arrived we discovered that one of the cables to hold down one side of the canvas tent on the pop up camper had broken during the storms, allowing rain to enter the camper. One half of the camper was soaked, including the foam cushions that made up two of the beds. We hauled out the mattresses, and tried to clean up as best we could. I am not a camper, as I enjoy the comforts of a nice bed and bathroom facilities, so this was not the way I had anticipated adjusting to a life of camping!

I did not know what to expect in the way of food storage, so I brought only the bare minimum of food. We had been given a refrigerator, but I soon discovered that Jim was utilizing it for the storage of tools. My chest freezer was also sitting outside -- with many tools inside. We did have a dorm size refrigerator, and that was large enough to store a half gallon of milk and some eggs, but not a whole lot more. Thankfully we had stopped in the town of Rugby to eat supper before arriving, so I didn't have to tackle using the camp stove that night.

Our bathroom facilities consisted of a compost toilet in the woods, located across the field from where the camper was situated. The toilet was originally close to the camper, but Jim had moved the camper across the field to make sure it was out of the way from construction of the basement. The boys had thatched a roof and one wall for the compost toilet, but there wasn't any other source of privacy!

I struggled to figure out a way to sleep all six of us in the camper with half of the sleeping facilities completely soaked. I managed to place Jim on one of the tables that converted to a bed, and used a mat to cover up the wet plywood and rolled out his sleeping bag. The "dry side" table was brought down and Peter (10) and Jonathan (13) slept on that. The trouble was the camper's manufacturer's idea of a double bed is a lot smaller than mine, and Peter kept falling out of bed. I placed myself, Andrew (8) and David (5) on the dry double bed side, and now know the meaning of being "stacked like cordwood."

Bedtime was interesting. We took turns telling each other to "don't look" as someone would change into nighttime clothing. Thankfully everyone cooperated and we all were ready for bed. I needed to "use the bathroom" one more time, and as I was more than a bit on the crabby side I decided to find it myself. I took a flashlight and proceeded across the very dark field and into the woods. I found the compost toilet and did what I needed to do, then got turned around and ended up walking deeper into the woods instead of out. All I could think of was how many beady eyes would stare back at me as I shined my flashlight to try to find the way out! Thankfully I calmed down enough to find my way back to the compost toilet and out of the woods, but my heart was certainly pounding.

I don't think anyone slept that night, as a wind came up and blew in a circular motion around the field and through the trees. I remember one set of trees in particular would rub together and make a kind of squeaking sound. This was the first time in my life I had heard the howls of coyotes, and wondered if they could or would chew their way through the camper's canvas and to us. I felt guilty as I had the two younger boys sleeping with me on the side of the bed toward the outside (they were smaller and the ceiling was lower over there), and was afraid the coyotes could get to them before me. It's interesting how many unreasonable thoughts can go through a person's mind when overtired and very much under stress.I neglected to mention that we did not have electricity since the electrical pole with an outlet was now across the field, not far from the compost toilet. It was a cloudy night, and as soon as the last flashlight was extinguished there was nothing that could be seen -- not even my hand in front of my eyes. It was a very strange feeling to not even be able to see the boys that were sleeping right next to me.

Later that night the rain began to fall. The camper's roof was metal, and what was probably a soft rain sounded more like BB pellets bouncing off the roof. We all lay as still as we could (who could move?!), waiting for daylight to arrive.

Our Move to the Country

I decided I better get busy and journal a bit about our move to the country. My sons had posted these photos quite a while ago.

Our family lived in Fargo, ND, in the heart of the city. Jim taught in the Engineering College at North Dakota State University, and the college was right across a busy street from our house. It was a blessing that he could work from home, then walk over when it was time for his office hours or to teach a class. Jim's desire was to permanently work from home, and no longer had an interest in teaching in a secular university. Many times he would be squelched when attempting to bring his Christian faith into what he was teaching. Besides, he felt the Lord had something else in mind for our family.


We have four boys, and our backyard was too tiny to keep them occupied. We did not allow the boys to play in the front yard unless Jim or I were out there with them, since there were so many people walking by on their way to the university. Jim would take the boys out to state parks or the national grasslands -- anything to give them the freedom they desired to run around and enjoy themselves.

We felt the Lord stirring us to sell our house in Fargo and use the money to purchase land in the country. This search took approximately three years. Jim is originally from New Hampshire and I from Minnesota, but we both felt strongly that we wanted to stay in North Dakota. Our family spent a lot of time doing internet searches, putting out "feelers" by asking people if they knew of land available, and praying for the Lord's direction.

I will blog another time about the adventures we had while searching for land. Finally, on June 30, 2004 Jim called me on the phone to tell me he felt he had found "our land," and gave the owner earnest money. Later that week the entire family took a trip up to Bottineau, ND, and we prayed and felt that this indeed was the land the Lord had for us.

We figured the best way to transport all of our worldly goods was in a semi trailer. Jim found a company that sold old trailers, and one was driven up from the Twin Cities and came to rest on our front lawn in Fargo. I'm sure it was quite an eyesore for the neighbors, but it gave the college students something new to look at as they walked past our house to school. While Jim was spending time up here trying to contact companies to bring in power, phone, water, concrete, etc., I was back in Fargo, feverishly packing up. It was quite a trick to pack everything so the contents wouldn't shift when the semi hauled the trailer the 5 or more hours up to our land.
We were very thankful to have the Kenney family help us with the "big stuff." What a challenge to fit everything in! The work benches you see in this photo are now my kitchen counters in the basement we are living in. Boxes were loaded first, and then Jim's shop tools were placed at the end of the semi trailer.

There is an ordinance in Fargo against front yard parking, so approximately 5 days before our actual moving date a police officer showed up and asked Jim when the trailer was going to be moved. When he heard it would be within the week, he let us go and we breathed a sigh of relief.

This is the Bartlett version of traveling like the Beverly Hillbillies. We borrowed the Kenney's trailer and brought up to our new land (5 hours away) anything that could sit outside and be exposed to the elements. As Jim was pulling away with this load he almost couldn't make it out of the driveway, since the back end of the station wagon was too close to the ground to make the dip down to the road and the trailer hitch touched the ground. Whew! He made it!


Since we really wouldn't be unpacking for a while, I decided to use a recipe card box and list on individual cards the contents of each box. This made it much slower going in the packing business, but at least I knew when I needed something it would be easier to find. I can't remember the exact count, but my numbers on the boxes reached over a hundred (not to mention what Jim and the boys had packed of their own stuff!). We also packed all of our furniture into the trailer; good thing we never did have much, and what we had was almost all second hand! All the wooden objects needed to be wrapped to prevent scratching, etc,. and I was very thankful that on Mondays a certain thrift store in Fargo had 99 cent sales, so I came home with a lot of cheap quilts and blankets to do that type of packing.

We were thankful that one of our neighbors had a brother who did over the road trucking for a living, and offered to pull the trailer up for a better price than what another company had quoted us. I was a bit apprehensive, as this guy was very eccentric and I thought that if I didn't know whose brother he was I would be afraid we would never see our possessions again! He told us to relax, as his main job was to haul million dollar jet engines all over the country. His family had a lake cabin not too far from our location, and wanted an excuse to go up and do some fishing.
Well, we arrived at our pop up camper about 6:00 in the evening, and at approximately 8:00 the next morning our semi trailer arrived. Nothing to worry about, most everything survived without damage. The trailer was a life saver, as it was parked next to our utility pole where the outlet as located, and I could plug in my toaster oven or crock pot and do a better job of cooking than on the camp stove! I could also store some of our food items in the trailer, and it became our "home away from home."

Always Learning Something New

Our family can add one more item to our growing list of new things learned. Yesterday we got going early and drove 1-1/2 hours to help our friends the Hendersons with butchering and processing pigs.

It was very cold outside, and I felt sorry for the men having to work in such a biting cold wind. Donna and I stayed in the house with their younger boys while everyone else did the pigs in. I must admit I was thankful not to have to watch that process! The pigs were killed and gutted, and then it was time for lunch. When I really stop to think about it, it's amazing that anyone could eat after gutting a pig, but activities like that just become another fact of life when living on a farm. A friend once asked me how I could stand working with dead animals, and I guess I can honestly say if you have to do something -- you do it. Must be part of God's grace in helping me to do just one more farm related activity.

Later in the afternoon we were ready for the actual processing of the meat. Hendersons have a bandsaw that was purchased specifically for meat cutting, and it did a very slick job. They also use it for processing venison, and Jim and Jonathan had a lesson from a great teacher in how to do the various cuts of meat. My job was to wrap all the meat. I sure hope I did a good job, as I don't want to waste any of it. I don't remember how long it took, but I thought we were done with the first pig; however, I was informed that we had only processed half of it! Porkchops, steaks and ribs just kept on coming my way.

We didn't make it home until 1:30 a.m., but we certainly weren't empty handed. One of those processed pigs came home with us. What a blessing it is to have home grown chickens, venison, and a pig raised by friends in our freezers.

Just Stopping By

We are in the midst of processing the 2 deer our son Jonathan shot during hunting season. We had planned to take care of the venison during Thanksgiving weekend, but Jim was sick and we just let the meat freeze upstairs. Unfortunately, we didn't let the venison thaw out long enough, so we are kind of butchering rather than processing! That's okay, though, as we love to use hamburger. Goes farther that way.

In spite of the very cold wind chills, the basement has stayed warmer than it did last week. Jim decided to try keeping the floor heat going along with the woodstove, and that has helped immensely. It's still quite breathtaking at night when crawling into my sleeping bag (!!), but it isn't unbearable any more.

My oldest son Jonathan and I are in cahoots together to work on a book this winter (don't ask me where we'll find the time, but we'll manage), facetiously titled, "Improvisational Homesteading: Making Do." The boys have 2 posts already for me to work on in the "drafts" file, so I better get busy. Jonathan posted some photos and wrote about our first goat shed over at his blog. (The link didn't work, so try going to www.jonathanjbartlett.blogspot.com .) You folks will be our guinea pigs, in trying our hand at writing. Jim tells me I need to just do a little every day, but my personality would rather spend lots of time in stretches! Guess I need to just do the best I can.

By the way, I found an interesting little tidbit when going through the mail the other day. This came from a little booklet in a sample issue of "Country Woman Magazine." Here goes:

"Here's a trick to save your hairdo, especially during plowing and planting time. This trick works for me when I sleep, too. I wrap toilet tissue lightly around my hair, holding it in place with thin bobby pins. I tie a nylon net scarf over my head and clip the sides. It's cool because the air blows through, but every hair stays in place while being protected from dust."

Maybe us farm ladies could start a new style! I wonder how it would do under the hood of my parka ...