Hello, the last time I was able to write was in March. It has been such a very busy period for Hubs and I. I got my New Mexico driver’s ID, Hubs got a job, I had a couple interviews for an online teaching job (it didn’t work out but I am okay), my sister-in-law’s and friend’s dogs crossed over, friends back home had newborns, we tried fermenting different things, we had to fix our car again, Hubs and I made steps in our personal health and goals… Here are further updates on our homestead life for the months of February to April.

In February, Hubs did get our mini loft bedroom completed after he decided we needed more space. By lifting the bed up, he created a living/sitting/dining area under the bedroom. However, we took over a month of sitting on the floor for our meals to finally clean up the living area and put in benches and some storage space under the seats. At the end of February, Hubs had begun working on seating under the bedroom and by April, we got the benches completed and our old dining table put back up so we could sit and have dinner together. It was delightful to have that back again.

Looking at the space we’ve created, I can barely recall what I’d thought he had planned to do when he one day said, “I want to build a loft.” He had said that after mentioning wanting to extend the old bedroom space northwards. I use the word “bedroom” loosely because really, we live in a tiny home. Well, it has started feeling like rooms since we got the loft completed. Initially, I thought we were going to have so much more space that we could kind of crouch down and climb down some steps into the extended room. So it amazes me how much I’ve learnt about myself and my approach towards feasibility. This is a huge reflection on my upbringing and nature. I dream big and believe I will be able to make the jumps and leaps towards it, while Hubs dreams big enough that he makes the leaps towards accomplishing things.

To create the loft as my husband did, he framed it and made sure it was extra secure. It needed to be strong enough to support both the weight of our bed and the of us. The frame consisted of rows of 2x4s (long pieces of wood) that were secured to a frame of 4x4s which was secured to the walls. This was the base for our bed. That frame was then further supported by standing 2x4s on each corner.

Essentially we had created a very tall bed.

In April, we got our kitchen table tiled too! Hubs’ parents came to visit and brought their tiling tools with them. I got to learn how to lay the tiles, cut them, grout and seal.

Since moving in and working full-time, it feels like we haven’t spent as much time working on the house. However, alongside creating a mud room, insulating the house and building a loft, we also got a green house going. In the beginning, we couldn’t fully utilize the green house because it was still very cold once the sun set. It would be near freezing on some nights even up until May. Many of our plants did not like the cold so we had to keep a few of them inside our house. This was mainly seedlings/sprouts we had and a few other larger plants — a banana, a golden snake and a fig plant. Later on, we got a passion fruit plant too and that stayed indoors as well. Hubs also had a hydroponic system set up inside. A green house helps a lot but the plants aren’t as strong as they would be when fully exposed to the elements. Yet, the plants grown in the hydroponic set up were beautiful and they grew much more quickly.

Besides working on the house, we’ve had to work on the car too. Here’s a not so fun update: In this past year, we’ve spent a lot of time and money on our car. It is an old 2001 Subaru with a lot of miles on it. Aside from the all new tires and oil change, we’d put in new brakes, back lights, wipers and Hubs did a lot of these himself… it actually drove considerably well but then in March, we had to get our car towed. We were stranded about five minutes from town. The car held up for most of the ride that day, and that entire week in fact, but had been making a strange scratching-clanking sound in the back driver-seat wheel. We weren’t sure what was making the sound and I was convinced something needed to be looked at asap but given our financial circumstance, we had to wait, especially since we had just paid for new tires the month before this. We were terribly fortunate to have driven the car that whole week with it only breaking down the day it did. That day, the lug nuts came loose and were sliced off from the spinning. As a result, the wheel got detached and we could not drive the car.

After hours of waiting, it got towed. The person who came to pick it up kindly dropped us off at a rental place and we had to rent a car, again. Very often, it has felt like we would take two steps forward and one step backwards. I am used to having back up plans and feeling extra secure. Living here has changed that. We keep forging ahead.

We did get the wheel fixed and could breathe easy again. There is no point in holding our breaths here, waiting for the next thing to happen, but I think I’ve done that a bunch of times this past year. Yet, what else can we do in such times? It is dusty and a lot of the roads are dirt roads. Yet, Hubs and I know this is what we want to do. We want to turn our small plot of sandy desert land into a beautiful lush homestead. So we let go and breathe into it every day. I count my blessings. We know we have to get a new vehicle. We’ve spoken about that and are saving to get one. (Spoiler: We do!)