Home is where the heart is

Thank you for joining us in our adventure like no other!

It has been almost 3 months since my last post concerning knitting or anything fiber related and 6 months since anything about our land we were waiting to move on, so I wonder what kind of post this will be?

 We are finally Home!!!!

 Do you not know how long we have been waiting for this? We purchased our property back in April but it was bare of any home, electricity, sewage or running water. It was just used to keep cattle on and the last time there was a home on it was maybe back in the late 40's if I remember correctly.

 We have been waiting because my parents were also going to move onto the land and their house needed to be built in order for us to move our fifth wheel trailer there to connect certain utilities up to. We purchased our '93 Jayco on Craigslist for $2,000 and we have been living in it for about a month.  

husband took off some of the wall in the slideout and replace it

 When we first purchased the trailer it was dirty in the inside and some of the siding came off and there was minimal water damage and some old mold here and there. After chatting with Dustin about it I said, "Well, we want to save money and you want to homestead. This could be our first project fixing it up!", after consulting with my dad who (along with my mom) went with us to check it out and found that it was actually very sturdy and sound (just needed some lovin'), we decided to make this Saved By the Bell era trailer our temporary home until we build our permanent dream home!

Let me go back and reminisce all that has happened when we first moved to our Home...

a break after cleaning rented house

 Packing up the rental house we stayed in for the past, almost, 2 years was quite easy as we didn't have much anyways but the cleaning... phew! That was a different story. We wanted to be a blessing to our amazing landlord who has shown us so much grace and mercy the very first 2 months moving in...

 When we first moved to Tennessee, Dustin worked in his new job merely a month and a half when he was let go to our shock. We were very nervous and somewhat afraid because we barely knew our surroundings, we had zero family in the area and we were just getting to know new people, so we were somewhat alone when this happened. We were afraid we would have to already move out of our home, so Dustin talked to the landlord feeling helpless and embarrassed that we just moved in and now we were about to move out on a year lease.   

My hottie loading a uhaul truck

 Our landlord was very compassionate and empathetic with what we were going through he said, "I will lower the rent $100 until you get back on your feet. Just let me know when you have a permanent job and we can raise it back to what was agreed upon."  The relief was so stupendous I broke down crying in deep gratitude. 

When Dustin found a better job than he did when we first moved here (he is still there today and they are so good to him!) we immediately told our landlord and before we even called we were so excited to raise our rent back to the original price! 

We were so happy we couldn't wait to raise the rent on ourselves. HeeHee!

Another blessing to have such a wonderful landlord was when my parents decided to leave California and make Tennessee home they were wondering where they would live. We asked our landlord if they may stay until we found a permanent home and he, AGAIN, was so understanding he agreed.

 When we cleaned that house we didn't just clean... we SCRUBBED and made it glisten and so clean you can drag your tongue across the floor of that house without getting a lick of dirt! We also had Sadie Girl (our large labrador) and you wouldn't even know we had a dog in that house.... Another blessing was when we first  looked at the house we didn't know he didn't want pets, so when he met with us the very first time we had sadie in the car. He was a little hesitant but after meeting Sadie girl for the first time, he fell head over heels in love with her (that pup knows how to make any person love her) and immediately took the "NO PETS" off the lease and there was no fee for her!

Stayed in a hotel for 3 days until my parents home was ready

  When we moved our furniture we (meaning Dustin and I) had to do it all ourselves (except unloading, we had a friend help us do that). Let me say something about my man... he is a genius.

 He loaded the whole house so quickly (I helped with small items) with large furniture he was not just the hulk but he was also the Brain using ingenuity to move very heavy items from the house to the truck and played some "tetris" with every item packing everything snug to make room for more if needed.    

My Viking man fixing bottom of trailer

We moved a 3 bedroom/2 bath home into a 5x10 storage unit and into a 32' trailer. We really purged what was not needed and what could easily be replaced.

 I love living small. I love our tiny kitchen, tiny living area and small bedroom (our Queen mattress fits perfectly). I love the simplicity of our lives now. Don't get me wrong, I do want a nice size home (i'm still not sure if farmhouse or cabin style yet) but it's nice to remind ourselves that big doesn't always mean better. I feel more peace living in our tiny home than I did when we rented a large home! Crazy, isn't it?

 Before moving in, my husband has been working fortifying the trailer, sealing leaks, ripping out some of the interior walls to kill any small mold issues and adding insulation and re-paneling... When I moved in I cleaned whatever needed to be cleaned, and began putting items away playing my own kind of tetris, such as, where to put my spinning wheel and fiber goodies, ALL our clothing, and many other needed and desired items (i'm still in shock how much room this trailer has!), Dustin told me after we moved in, "Wow, what a woman's touch can do to a place. When I came everyday it was so dull and lonely in here. It just felt like I was coming to fix something that wasn't mine yet. It was cold and lifeless. Then you moved in and made your presence known with the way you fixed everything up and the way you decorated and just you here brought this trailer to life... It's no longer just a trailer, it's a home. And a home I can't wait to come back too after work." That absolutely made me teary and happy!

First breakfast in our little home!

We had our first Thanksgiving on our land there. My parents were on the road so it was just Dustin and Sadie girl and myself. But I wasn't going to let that small area and very tiny oven stop me from making that Thanksgiving a memorable one...

A man and his dog on his land

We went to Costco and got a 12 pound turkey ( perfect size to fit in the oven and fridge), I purchased stuffing package and all the trimmings to add into the stuffing, turkey and to make gravy from scratch. I also purchased what I needed to make pumpkin and apple bread.   

Night before Thanksgiving I cooked for over 3 hours prepping and dicing and cutting and stuffing and glazing. After I prepped the turkey I looked out our kitchen window and saw 16 wild turkeys pecking away near a large water bucket we put out there for the wild animals as our pond dried completely up as East Tennessee has had a horrible drought. For a second I thought, "Sorry about your couins, turkeys." He was delicious. Ha Ha!

For about a month I just could not STAND the design of the interior walls. It looked like Saved by the Bell had a party in there and the 90's stayed plastered on the walls. I needed a solid cottage color. after a week of contemplating what kind of color I wanted I researched the best kind of primer for the walls (Gripper brand just in case anyone was wondering) and went to home depot and purchased a Cottage color from Behr. I started my project, Dustin liked what I was doing, grabbed the brush from my hand and decided to complete it.
 
 Hey! I'm not going to argue, if he wants to paint, by all means go ahead! Heehee!    

Choosing a color for the walls

 Anyways, fast forward to now...


It's December which means it is the most wonderful time of the year... Christmas! 

Each year I love going to get a tree from an amazing family-oriented Christmas tree place called Bluebird Christmas Tree Farm that we enjoy going to now every year to either cut our own tree or pick up one already cut.  But this year I thought there would be no way we could pick a full size tree and place it inside our home. I was really sad because we don't know when we will build our dream home so that meant for a few Christmas's we wouldn't be able to put a tree in our tiny home.

 I was thinking of getting a table top tree but after some eyeing a certain area of the living area and measuring I thought, "I will make this happen... we will have a tree no matter what!"

Perfect size tree, perfect color for walls!

 We made sure to get a tree that was not taller than my husband and perfect height would be my height (i'm about 5'4) and skinny as possible.

 We went to the tree farm and guess what? We found the perfect tree! We decorated it with Christmas Jazz on the background and Sadie girl watching curiously as Dustin did the lights first (that is HIS job and I love that he is so uncompromising on that and that he delights in the simple things like Christmas time... our children will cherish that in a father.) and I made french toast with bacon and coffee in santa cups with marshmallows!    

 Our dreams is starting to become a reality but also we realized what we thought were big dreams are nothing but that the simple things we are working toward and we are living in now are what dreams are made of! We are blessed, we are safe, we are secure, we are full of joy, full of thanks and full of hope!

First night moving in Dustin was fixing a leak. Such a hard worker!

Fried apples for our first breakfast. Yummm!

First night at our home we drove half a mile to be with our community of fellow believers to worship around the campfire

Sadie girl and I enjoying a view of our land after or walk

Spinning from the lock in my little home!

We get our drinking water from a local park that has a nonstop flowing fountain of fresh spring water!

Merry Christmas from the Edberg Clan to you!

There is something about my man...

A hay bale at the top of our new land cut and baled by our neighbor for his horses

" ... I'll fly away, fly away, Oh Glory
I'll fly away; (in the morning)
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,
I'll fly away (I'll fly away)...."                                   




Softly Allison Krauss was singing away on my laptop in our small apartment living room. Sadie girl was gnawing away on her chew toy at the feet of my darling husband... Dustin had his feet up on our $15 table I found at a thrift store, sighing as he usually did when browsing the web looking at homesteading sites. Dreaming... always dreaming but yet had a restlessness within him that was longing to bring to life these dreams he had, yet, glancing around our small 2 bedroom apartment in the small town of Alpine, CA with only a teeny tiny backyard (enough for Sadie Girl to walk around in) proved that all he could do was dream of the farm and farm animals he desired to have in order to be self sustaining.


Darling husband looked to his left with a small smile as his wife sat quietly trying out her very new drop spindle she purchased for only $17 which also bought a small amount of alpaca roving. She sat there frowning over her spindle trying to understand it and though the frustration was growing her determination was growing, she would not give up! Finally, her spindle began to twirl awkwardly, yet she was understanding she had to pinch and draft... the weight of the spindle wouldn't draft the roving itself!

With a sigh of contentment she leaned back and relaxed spinning away.

I recently went to Yuma, AZ with my parents to pick up a dodge neon that used to be mine. While there I visited my dad's parents and he picked guamachil fruit from their property to bring back to Tennessee and plant on our property and hopefully it will grow! The buds in the pod that hold black seeds you eat and it taste like a very sweet almond with even a hint of tamarind (what I tasted). Very beautiful and delicious!

There this young couple sat enjoying the quiet evening but yet inside her husband he was wrestling with an urge to just... just... "... I'll fly away... i'll fly away..." the song continued. That was it! He wanted to fly away with his tiny family and start his dream, but how? When? Where?

 Elisa looked at dear husband and casually brought up homesteading and dreaming along with him about purchasing land and becoming more self sustaining, he then said, "But what primary farm animal would we want? I want to handle animals for a purpose... but I wonder what?" as he said these words he was hypnotized by the spindle beginning to finally lose it's awkward twirl and began to confidently twirl gracefully as it's handler kept drafting more confidently. 

Wild raspberries, a colorful butterfly, and happy bumble bee... so much life on our land!

Elisa stopped the spindle and placed it on her lap and looked up at the ceiling wondering along with him and with a nonchalant tone, " Would be nice to handle sheep for the wool. Maybe have a small business spinning yarn or selling the raw fleece..."

As if there was a sonic boom we both jumped at the idea Elisa mentioned and looked at each other, Dustin placed his feet on the ground and sat up straight and said firmly with a flash in his eyes, "That is it! That is IT!"




He then began to research on sheep, looking at photos and videos and could not STOP! His passion began, his dream was one step closer to becoming a reality, there in the small 2 bedroom apartment where they dwelt in the small town of Alpine, CA.

Spinning away at the top of our property... so much inspiration around me!

What I am currently spinning: Under the Sea

   Fast forward to today...

There we were on our 22 acre pastured land in the great state of Tennessee 1 year and 8 months after that conversation looking at the beauty of what God has blessed us with in awe how far we have come in just a short amount of time... an added blessing is that my parents has invested in this land believing in our dream and will also build their dream cottage just a walk away!

My husband working so hard near our pond

 Today, I watched my husband as he passionately used my father's weed whacker and removed long grass that was not cut by a neighbor (who cut our pasture for hay for his horses) and as he rested from his work he would have this serene look in his face and excitement in his eyes... I saw it... A man who has found his purpose and realizing that his dream was no longer just a dream but now becoming a reality. 

Taking a much needed nap. How handsome is my man!

There is nothing more sexy than a man who won't stop dreaming and working toward his passion. Nothing more attractive than a man working in the hot sun sweating away, smelling of the earth, with eyes filled with determination and a heart consistently thanking the Lord or His goodness and mercy and guidance! 

There I worked alongside him cutting down branches at a nearby tree where we will be building our small tiny temporary home until we have raised enough funds to build our dream farmhouse. 

Dreamers dream but people of passion take action.

My grizzly man, how you inspire me and I am constantly rising in love with you.

We are back with incredible news!

Oh my... it has been AGES since i've written in my blog! Many things have been happening in my life since October of 2015 to now (May 2016). Some things that have kept me away have been character building and my patience was stretched and strengthened and many other things (more good than "bad") have been so amazing I just didn't have time to keep my blog updated!

 But for now, everything has calmed down to the point that I can finally sit down and write, i've missed this!

In just 6 months my knowledge in my craft has increased and my art has improved so much and my passion has sky rocketed through the sky when it comes to crafting and spinning, one thing that has got me so excited was my parents have FINALLY made Tennessee their home!

 Oh Joy! My parents are my heroes. They have been there for my husband and myself through so much (good and bad), they are our example and many times I will hear my husband whisper to me, "Their love and godliness is a relationship goal for you and I."

My parents on the left (my mom was 21 and my dad 19 ) and today. almost 42 years married and going strong!

 This past April they finally put California behind them (they made California home for over 35 years) as they realized Dustin and I are their only close family left and wanted to be close to us, especially since Dustin and I are desiring children, so what better experience to have grandparents so close by.

 When they arrived we four began to look for land to purchase so that we four can build two homes on it and be closer to our dream of homesteading and keeping sheep... It happened!!!!!!


We are now owners of 22 acres of open pastured land with a large pond! The owner used it to only graze cattle and now that he is in his 80s he wanted to sell it. My parents and I teamed up and quickly purchased and now we are in the process of getting permits for septic and building. We are so overwhelmed with excitement we cant stop talking about it! 

First thing we did after we closed the sale was head over to our future home and take a picture. This is just one part of the whole land... so much beauty!

One of the first things we four did is stake the site where we want to build. Throughout the building process I will be taking photos and sharing when I can. If you want to quickly see how we are doing and don't want to wait until I write on here, please visit our Instagram.

 The grass has been growing so much it has reached past my waist. A neighbor was so wonderful he came and introduced himself to us and asked if he may cut all the grass for hay which we were more than happy to say, YES! 

We are learning to recognize what is being grown on our property from what is good to what is not and we even found barley being grown in patches here and there throughout on part of the pasture, so that was exciting to see!

 My parents home will be just seconds walk from where we will be building! Not too close where we have no privacy but close enough to see. It seems we four will be building from scratch and since my dad has experience building small homes we four will be building from the ground up! 

 My parents will be building a 2 bedroom small home and because my husband and I want to eventually build a farmhouse we will be building a tiny home to quickly have it done (hopefully by the end of the summer we will be done with it. We shall see.) so that we can save up and maybe in 5 years we can begin building.

 We do want to immediately have chickens and prepare our garden so that by next spring everything is going strong and Dustin is think in a year to 2 years time we shall have our first flock! 

Dustin taking off the For Sale sign from our fence... that sure felt amazing!

At the moment, we are unsure what breed(s) we want to keep (for sure we want a dual breed) so I just began a Wool Study to see what breed I like the best to spin from and even see how we can even crossbreed if we wish, but that is more for later. It's all going to be a lot of work and we just can't wait to get in there and make our dreams become a reality.

I bought Dustin a shirt from Livin' Country to congratulate him being a step closer on homesteading and becoming a shepherd... Yes, that is an outhouse design on the shirt! Lol! He loves this shirt so much he's been wearing it as much as possible! Check them out!

So far, I have spun and still have pure Border Leicester locks, long wool Lincoln locks, suri alpaca, and just got my hands on 2 oz of blue ribbon (local 4-H) Romney locks and waiting on 2 oz Wensleydale locks. 

 So much happening, so much to do and we have a lifetime to do it! What an adventure we are living!

Dustin standing next to our large pond. Water level is low but will rise again hopefully soon!