What a week it has been down on the farm! Starting seeds, up-potting seedlings, Spring cleaning, website building, dirt deliveries, doctor visits, Alzheimer’s, grills and so, so much more.

Have you ever felt like you just couldn’t get things done. You feel like you are being pulled in fifty different directions all at the same time.

..and then when those 50 things were done, there were 50 more waiting for you?

So, you are, in fact, getting things done…but not the things you need to do for you. Not things you want to do. Although those aren’t getting done either. I’m talking about actual things. Things you need to do for yourself, for your goals, for your business. Instead, you are getting things done for everyone else. Yeah…that’s been my week.

But, I’m not here to complain.

So, let’s talk about the past week here on the farm. Sunday, which is today, is a day that Jeremy and I usually try to spend together. Last Sunday, we spent our time together starting seeds. We had to do a lot of up-potting. Those seedlings needed more room to grow. They aren’t ready yet for the great outdoors. Today, there are more seeds to get started, and more seedlings to up-pot. Other than the usual Cole-crops, most of our seedlings are baby herb plants. Some of those will go out to the garden as companion plants. The rest will be potted, and placed in/on my “sundeck garden.” 

A Little Background…

My parents finished building this house – with their own four hands – back in 1980, when I was 13 years old. They started building it just two years before that. I was just 11, and we lived 180 miles south of here down in Groves, Texas. Every weekend, holiday and vacation was spent here, in Elkhart, Texas, working on this house. You can’t tell it from the outside, but inside it’s a typical farmhouse for the most part. 

The house is two stories. It has a bedroom, a bathroom, a big storeroom, and what my parents always referred to as the “Hobby Room” all upstairs. The Hobby Room is a huge room with a small cabinet and sink, and it’s where my Mama painted and sewed, and my Daddy played his various musical instruments, wrote songs and recorded music. (No…he isn’t someone you’ve heard of…but that was a choice he made because he wanted to keep his family together. ) 

On the end of that huge room, there are sliding glass doors that open up to a sundeck, which sits atop our carport. I used to lay-out up there to tan when I was a teenager, but when I left home, it was rarely used.

Eventually, the railing around it rotted and fell away. At some point, it started leaking down onto the carport, and the fix was just to tar and shingle it. The railing wasn’t ever replaced. About seven or eight years ago, when Jeremy and I were still living in Arkansas, there was a freeze, and a pipe burst up in the attic. I don’t know who fixed it, but that fix was to cut the pipe and cap off the water to that little sink.

Mama died in 2010, and she had not been up there in three or four years before that…and my Daddy isn’t the neatest, most organized person in the world. So it was a mess when Jeremy and I moved here. We’ve been here since March of 2023, and that room still isn’t finished…but there is organization, and cleanliness under all the clutter…and a working sink. In one corner of that room, I start my seeds. 

Back to the Present…

I have one very tall shelf, with grow lights under each shelf, and a smaller shelf set up with 3 sets of these awesome mini-greenhouses. And of course, there are heating mats under everything…which can make that room overly warm. Luckily, we brought our mini-splits that heat and cool with us from Arkansas.

Those mini-splits are possibly the best things ever invented. The house has central air and heat, but I think when the unit was replaced at some point, a big enough unit wasn’t purchased, and it’s like an oven up there in the Summer because, well, Summer…and it’s hot up there in the winter as well, because heat rises, and it’s rising right up stairs, making the rooms up there unbearable…until our mini-splits took care of that problem. 

It’s not the same as the greenhouse Jeremy built for me in Arkansas…pictured on the right, but we are making it work…for now. Next year, I want another very tall plant shelf with grow lights, just like the one I have.

Often, that’s what homesteading comes down to…making it work with what you have. Overcoming whatever obstacles stand between you and providing what you and your family need. In this case, my family needs fresh, wholesome vegetables later this summer and fall, so I start seeds in winter, and Jeremy transplants them when they are ready.  

Around here, and I guess on most homesteads, the months don’t work like they do for “civilians” (non-homesteaders). Instead, we live by the seasons and the weather and what needs to be done, and the right, or best time to do it. So, we had a successful Canuary (January for civilians), and put up enough food for the year. Now, we are in what I call Cleanruary…or February for those civs.

Let Spring Begin!

That’s right…I start Spring cleaning in February. I’m not as young as I used to be, and things don’t work like they once did and frankly, things hurt and I get tired more easily. So, instead of doing Spring Cleaning in one day (in my 20’s) or in one weekend (in my 40’s), I now Spring clean over a period of 6 weeks, focusing on targeted pre-planned areas. This way, I’m finished almost exactly when Spring starts, and gardening moves into full-swing.

Luckily, I canned and preserved the hardest, most time-consuming things first, back in January, and while doing the easier stuff, towards the end of the month, I was able to get the Kitchen clean from the top to the bottom, inside and out. It’s also beautifully organized, even if I do say so myself. But I’m 4’11” while Jeremy is 6′. So, on the weekend before I will be spring cleaning a specific area, I hand him a list of his share of the work…like cleaning out light fixtures, top shelves in cabinets, tops of the icebox and stand-up freezer, etc.

I also have him do anything that requires more muscle than I have…like moving the piano for just a minute so I can vacuum under it real fast. 


Anyway, by February 1st, the kitchen was already done and I moved on to the living room and dining room…which are combined. Jeremy did the fans and light fixtures the week before, as well as the triple sliding glass doors and we washed all the curtains and put them back up, and he had to move furniture for me to vacuum under, etc. By the time he was done helping me do the things I couldn’t do, all that was left was dusting and vacuuming the main tracks. It was done. by February 2nd, and I took the rest of that week off to recover and work on this website. 

On February 9th, I cleaned the upstairs and downstairs hallways, the entryway and pantry, and the stairs. It doesn’t seem like any of that would be much work, but it was! We have six big dogs that go in and out at will through the xx-large pet door, and three cats. Things get VERY dirty. So, believe it or not, those few areas stretched out from Monday through Friday. 

Spreading Out the Work

The following week, which was last week, I started the two bathrooms (upstairs and downstairs). I also got the laundry room started, with Jeremy hitting those high spots the weekend before. Because we are fairly neat people (me and Jeremy), and my Daddy – who has never been neat – has Alzheimer’s and doesn’t really move much beyond his chair except to use the bathroom and to go to bed, the bathroom cabinets and drawers were already tidy and organized.

Monday and Tuesday…I did the upstairs bath on Monday and the downstairs bath on Tuesday and got the hardest one, the laundry room, done from start to finish on Wednesday…then spent Thursday and Friday working on the website. 

That brings us to this coming week. For me, the weeks start on Monday, which is tomorrow. There is, of course, more Spring cleaning to get done. I’m hitting the three bedrooms this go around. I have a sister who needs me to do her taxes, and I’ve got some herbal remedies I need to mix for her and also for my cousin. 

And of course, there are many, many more seeds to start, as well as the current seedlings to tend…and my sweet Daddy to tend. He will be 90 in May.

At this moment, even though it is Sunday, Jeremy is out shoveling dirt (soil) into our garden beds. We had 12 cubic yards delivered this past Friday. It’s BEAUTIFUL dirt! It’s organic and soft and black.

Every time I walk down in that direction…I have to stop and sink my hands into that dirt. It just feels good! There’s nothing but red dirt near the house, and it’s just loaded with clay. Obviously not the kind of dirt you want to plant things in. But this first…this is the kind of dirt you dream of if you grow things for a living.

Yesterday, Jeremy received his Father’s Day gift (very early). It’s a Pit Boss wood-pellet Grill and Smoker. He loves it. His old grill was about 15 years old and falling apart.

He works so hard around here, and then goes and, as a truck driver, works 70 hours a week, then comes home to the farm…which is his second job until I convince him to give up that fist one.

He’s been talking about all the things he wants to grill and smoke! He’s been perfecting some really awesome rubs for brisket and pork, which we will be selling in our Etsy store hopefully soon.

I Am a Daddy’s Girl!

Five years after Mama died, Daddy remarried. When he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, she left him. It was decided among the family, including my Daddy, that Jeremy and I would sell our place in Arkansas and move here to take care of him. The agreement with the rest of the family is that this house is where me and Jeremy will live out our lives.

So, we sold our more established farm and started over…and while we were starting over, we paused our Etsy shop. Now, we are almost ready to open it back up…almost. 

I thought I would live out my life on our farm in Arkansas. It’s funny how things change in the blink of an eye. God has other plans it seems. Caring for someone who has Alzheimers is NOT easy. Somedays, it is more than a full-time job. Other days, it’s just fine, and the memory lapses and repeated questions aren’t as “severe.”

I know that too can change in the blink of an eye. But I will never, ever put my Daddy in a home. It was a promise I made to my mother concerning him. That promise was made directly to him after his diagnosis. Promises, and keeping them, is a pretty big deal to me. 

Being back “home” here in Elkhart does have its perks. One of the boys I went to school with grew up to become a doctor, and his practice is right here in our small hometown…and for my Daddy, he will make house calls. In fact, we are expecting him any minute…

Until next week,