Back Home in San Diego & stuff

Since our last post in July we have done so much that has gone unrecorded on our Blog, shame on us for not keeping you all updated. I am going to try and bring you all up to speed on what we have been doing. Sonny & Tinkerbell got together at some point in the last month or two and now have a few puppies here is one of the fuzz balls.


After the puppies were old enough we tried to sell them but there was just not a good market for these puppies out in Tennessee so we gave them all away. Our house slowly fell into further decay since it got so wet in May, the mold & instability became more than we could handle physically and mentally. We felt that if we had stayed in the house we would be trapped and our health was at risk so we had to make a decision and fast. As the summer came to a close we were leaning more towards the idea of moving back to San Diego, we were still very unsure as to how it would all come together. While we were working on making up our minds God saw that we needed some help in that processes, he sent in a colony of yellow jackets to live in the siding and attic of our house. The bees were manageable as long as you did not get in there way, I would have to say that we all, including the dog, got stung several times over about a months time sometimes even in our sleep. We had made the decision to move back to San Diego, Steven started looking for jobs online & having interviews over the phone with many different companies; but we could see that you could only do so much of that from so far away. ( as a side note just before we moved a 200ft tree fell right across our water source for the house, guess God wanted to make sure we did not change our minds and stay) On October 7th we loaded up our truck and headed for San Diego with no job & no place to live all we have was faith and prayers. We left Thursday night and Steven drove through the night & got us to Oklahoma. We spent the rest of the day driving through Oklahoma,Texas and arriving in Albuquerque New Mexico that night. After a very short stay in a hotel we arrived in San Diego on Saturday night very tired & ready for a LONG nap.

Now that we have arrived we are going to place our faith in God that he will lead us in our path. "Faith isn't the ability to believe long and far into the misty future.
It's simply taking God at His Word and taking the next step"
- Joni Erickson Tada

Life

We have had a crazy past few months- even weeks. It seems as though in the Harris family there is always something different and new. We have been racking our brains to figure out what we can do about our "home" that is sinking and stinking. We have looked into many different things. We several weeks ago while praying about what to do we were lead to an answer (we think).

Steven had found listing on craigslist for free brick. We thought that we could use it on our property somewhere so we drove down to get it. In talking with the couple we found out that they are members of our same church. We started to share our story of how we moved here to save our son and family and that we put everything into the farm. When they were told about our house being uninhabitable they suggested a straw bale home. We have always wanted to build a house out of something different. We asked about how much it would cost. They said that they have run the numbers on their floor plan and could have it dried in for $10,000. Since the other options have run short we decided to give it a try. So now we are on a quest to build a straw bale house.

In other areas of our life we are no longer staying on our farm. Several weeks ago we had gone to Lebanon to stay with a friend and her daughter or a few days over an exceptionally hot spell. We were decided to stay a few days longer because Chantelle was feeling better there. That Wednesday she lost her job- the company had tried to grow too quickly and needed to downsize.
The next Friday our friend we were staying with had some medical problems that needed a constant "babysitter" as she puts it. So we have been staying with her and trying to fix our housing situation. Chantelle has been acting as her medical adviser and advocate when she goes to her appointments.

The girls have done okay with adjusting. B-man has had a hard time. Steven takes him out to the house every other day so he can get away from the noise of the city and try and calm down. Overall we are doing just fine.

One thing that we have really learned since we have started this venture is this: If you place a seed or grain of rice on your flat hand and blow it rolls right off. If you cup your hand and place the same grain in your hand and blow it doesn't blow away. The flat hand is like the world. The cupped hand is like living in the hollow of God's hand. I feel such peace knowing that we are living in the hollow of God's hand. I hope and pray that each of you who read this can have that kind of peace.

Our growing Farm

Our Farm is moving forward despite all of the trials that we have had. FEMA came & looked at our property a second time, it was determined that there was damage enough to warrant giving us a grant to make the much needed repairs. FEMA does not cover foundation damage, this was the most heavily damaged part of the house. We are planning on taking whatever money we can get for repairs and fixing our bridge & getting a double wide brought in.

On Wed June 2nd one of our dogs Lucy was hit by a semi truck in front of our house, she has a broken pelvis, brain damage and internal bleeding. We did not put her down because we decided it would not be right to take away the opportunity for God to work a miracle. Lucy disappeared for a few days and we figured that she probably we into the woods & died. Today Lucy showed up very worn & not walking as well as she once did but alive non the less. God can work miracles if we let him, people are so quick to try and do everything themselves which takes away the opportunity of God to step in and show us he cares for all of his creations.

Because we thought we had lost our dog Lucy, Chantelle got a puppy on Friday night and brought her home as a surprise, she is 1/4 Begal 1/4 Coon Hound 1/4 Rat terrier 1/4 Mountain Feist she has two hunting dog blood lines and two hyper blood lines it will be interesting to see what traits she will come out with, my guess is she will need a firm hand & some good training.

This is Steven's Dog Dakota



On Saturday we were given six guinea fowl chicks this will help take care of the tick & bug problems that we have had. Guineas diet consists of 90% bugs as the primary food source, Guineas will go out early in the morning & eat the ticks that have gotten wet over night, ticks are helpless when they are wet.



This past week we have gotten almost our entire garden planted, Steven measured it out to see just gow big it is. Our garden is 55ft x 77ft that is 0.097 acres that may not seem like a lot to some but it is plenty for us. We have corn beans beats Squash zucchini water melon pumpkins carrots red cabbage dill broccoli tomatoes asparagus and hay potatoes This will be the biggest garden we have ever done, we have been working with a mother & daughter at church who does not have a place to garden, this not only gets us free help but also gives us a chance to share our garden with others.




For some reason our goat Jimsbaugh loves to lay on the shovel


I love how they work together to get those rocks out

Ok Dad I have had enough gardening for the day

What exactly has been going on

We moved to Tennessee on March 13th 2010 we have been here for Eleven weeks now. It seems like we have been here for so much longer that that, so much has happened in this small space of time. While we have been here we have remodeled several parts of our house, put in fencing plowed and tilled for a very large garden and went through a big flood. Many would say wow why are you still there with so much that has gone on in such a short amount of time, I wish I had an answer for you but I do not.




Chantelle has decided she wants to go to work & Steven is going to be a stay at home Dad. Being at home with the kids has been a great experience for Dad to be able to work on the farm with the kids by his side. This is not Steven on the tractor but he sure wishes it was



On May 1st-2nd we had a major storm that came through our area that caused a lot of flooding and damage to the area including our own home. Our house sustained a lot of foundation damage that is causing our house to become very unstable. Many of the piers that our house sits on has ether fallen or are tipping towards the front of the house. We have gotten an estimate on getting the foundation fixed and we are looking at $27,000.00 needless to say that is not going to happen anytime soon. We have been looking at the option of having a double wide brought in that will cost about half of that, we have been trying to see if FEMA is providing any funds to help cleanup & pay for the damage repairs. We had an estimate on replacing our bridge that is very dangerous to drive over, we are looking at $ 5,500.00 that would make it so we never had to replace it ever again, we are trying to get a new pipe put in ourselves.





We have been trying to start raising our farm animals we have chickens & goats, it has been a learning experience. Our new Pygmy buck got sick this morning & died this afternoon. J girl was very sad & wanted to know why god would take our goat away from us. It was very sad. :( We have been working with a new friend from church who loves animals & knows all about animal husbandry

The Flood of 2010

Last Saturday we had a really big storm come through, there was more water all at one time than we had seen for a very long time. When the rain had receded we saw that God had performed a great miracle for us. In from of our house was have a drainage ditch with a metal culvert that runs under the drive way. After the storms had stopped we surveyed the damage, we found that some wire that we were using to mark our fencing with had come off and gotten into the ditch. When we looked at the wire that was wrapped around a tree branch as big as your thumb, the wire was wrapped around a chair frame. We can see that god was watching out for us, he truly knows are trials and what we need even when we do not.

Here is the branch that was holding back the debris in the ditch, also here is the pile that was being held back by the wire.




Now that last Saturdays storm was gone we had a week of sunshine and clear weather. On Friday night we heard that there was a chance that we might be getting some rain for the next few days. The rains came & came hard they were more than expected. We went to Lafayette TN to do some shopping when we came home a few hours later to feed our goats we found that the rain was flooding out our yard, we decided at that point that we could no longer stay at the house durring the storm. We loaded up the things we thought we would most need and went to a hotel.

There was so much water falling it made some really pretty waterfalls



After we had stayed a night in the hotel Steven went back to the house to see what damage had been done. When he got there everything with the house was just fine. There was some debris in front of the culvert but that was about it.



Steven tried to pick out the debris in order to clear a way for the water to better flow through, shortly after he had started it began to rain very heavily. Steven went inside the house gathered a few things and felt a very strong feeling that he needed to get off of the property right away. Steven got in his truck & drove over the bridge.

Within a mater of about two minutes after leaving the property this was what happened. If he had not followed the promptings of the spirit he would have become trapped. We pray that it will all turn out good in the end, I know that if we have faith in our lord all will be well.."Trust in the lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thin own understand , In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct they paths" Proverbs 3:5-6

Goat Berries

Now that the goats are on the way back to recovery, we have decided to test the kids knowledge on what they have learned so far about taking care of goats.







It looks like we might have to take the kids back to the class room for a review on goats what do you think?

Our sick little goats

Our goats are sick we took some videos of us taking care of the goats and the steps we took to nurse them back to health.







Overall its been a very educational experience. When you are on a farm the education never stops.

Feeding Time

Today we found out that our little goats have worms,lice and maybe even salmonella. We went to the farmers CO-OP to get them some medications to help them stay alive, we do not want our goats to die.

New Animals On The Farm

Meet the newest members of our Family, Salt & Pepper. These little guys are bottle fed baby brush goats, we got them because their mommies refused to feed them. Our farm is starting to take off and grow.

We have also recently received eleven chickens to start off with. Five of the chickens are old enough to lay eggs and four of them will start soon and the other two wont lay cause they are roosters.

Recently we have been working on cutting down the very high weeds that lead to the waterfall this picture was taken before all of the growth has appeared.

It seems like just as soon as we cut down the weeds piles of trash appear, it would appear as though someone really did not like to take their trash to the transfer station.

Tick Tack

We have been on the Farm now for about a month, it seems like we have been here so much longer. We have gotten so much done in such a short amount of time, so much that we would have never thought of doing given different circumstances When you are put in situations where you are forced to either fix it up or do without you just learn how to do it whether you know how to or not. Since we have been here we have found out that there are a lot of really giving people who are willing to give you so much & help you with whatever need if you just ask. We had a friend named By Golly come by & bush hog our property for us in order to prepare for out Garden, he will be coming back next week to plow everything up so that we can plant.



We have started building our barn, we had someone suggest we build it out of pallets in order to keep the costs down. After checking around with some of the local mills we found one who was not only willing to give us most of the pallets we needed for free but also all of the firewood we needed.




So whats the deal with the sign?

This is an actual sign that we saw in an area we were in. Talk about confusing! So here is a list of what we can remember that we have done on the house and on the farm. (In no specific order.)

*Remodeled upstairs bath.

*Make Downstairs bath usable (it was GROSS!!!)

*Put in wood floor in downstairs bath

*New Carpet

*Wood floor in kitchen (almost done- Thanks Brian!)

*Moved plumbing from laundry room to garage.

*Re-wired parts of the house.

*Dug holes for our fence- On a side note it was not as difficult as digging holes in Tooele. There ts was rocky and dry, at least here the ground is wet!

*Collect firewood for FREE!

*Stack firewood-Chantelle did most of it.

*Catch up on laundry. (at least 3 different times)

*Build chicken coups.

*Chase chickens.

*Learn that chickens come back on their own if you let them alone.

*Learn that chickens will go in their coup on their own at night if they have a small door.

*Heard a chicken snore. Yes, it did snore!

*Build new stairs (Again Thanks Brian.)

*Got 2 goat watching dogs Pyrenese (Huge and Hairy)

*Enjoyed a visit from Josette and Family. (Not sure if Brian enjoyed it.)

*Clean out the waterfall (at least 4 times)

*Explore 5.86 acres of property that takes in 3 different very steep hills.

*Use slate rock as hotplates on the table (Josette's idea)

*Contemplate how to have a date stamp on a chicken's butt so that they will date stamp the egg.

*Laugh with our children.

*Enjoy time as a family

*Have our property bushhogged.

*Mow some areas by hand before we gave up and asked someone to bush hog.

*Roll a 7ft log over the tall reeds and weeds. (That was fun.)

*Pick of ticks at least 3 times a day.

*Tell children to stop freaking out about bugs. (It's not working yet.)

*Unpack a few boxes

*Put up closet bars

*Chasing mice

*trapping mice

*Are you tired reading this yet?

*So are we.

Since we have been here we sleep better ever night. We miss the loved ones that aren't here with us to enjoy this beautiful place.

Our new life on Fed-up-Farms

The last time we posted to this blog it was snowing & very cold in Virginia. Since that day we have made some major changes in our life & the way we live, we did not become Amish or join some strange cult; no we simply moved to Tennessee to start a farm. The House that we bought is a big fixer upper, it is a three bedroom two bath house that sits on almost six acres, most of the property is full of trees but we have about two acres that are cleared. Since we moved in on March 12th it has rained a lot, in fact so much that our moving truck got stuck in the mud on the first day.


The truck was very over loaded & that really did not help the situation at all.

We had to spend about five days in a hotel when we first got here, because it had been so muddy our carpet had been delayed for the install. We have had our share of electrical & plumbing issues as well, the water to our house is fed by a spring, the water lines have not been taken care of at all in the last year & a half since someone lived in the house. Our water heater broke down on Tuesday & shot steam all over the closet that it was in, the water heater was still within that manufactures warranty so we called & they sent us new heating elements wiring panels & blow valve. Steven pulled out the water heater got all the parts replaced & his brother in law helped him wire it back up. While Steven was vacuuming up the water mess the old wood sub floor was getting sucked up as well, yes it was rotted out, Steven put in a new sub floor got all the plumbing hooked back up & got the ot water running again.


We have starting the processes of updating the house, we are putting in a new kitchen floor, we are replacing both toilets and putting in two new showers. One of the biggest problems we have had here is the ladybug infestation, lady bugs had taken up residence in the walls of our home, we bombed the house last Monday & came back to thousands of dead lady bugs all over the place, i guess there are much worse things that we could have in the walls.

Chantelle's sister & husband felt very bad that we have had so much work to do all alone, Brian took time off of work & they drove out help us renovate this old house, last we also had a new friend Andrew come by & help us with some of the isues that we have had. It has been so nice to meet so many good people who are just so willing to help you in any way possible.

More Virginia Snow

In the last few weeks we have really gotten some very strange weather, this area of southern Virginia has never seen so many snow storms over & over again. As much as the snow is disrupting the everyday life of almost everyone the kids sure enjoy it.

Work for Steven has been pretty slow lately, Steven has lost almost 60% of his commissions amount as compared to last year. After looking at our finances & how much money we now don't make we have decided that we will have to stop making the payments & just walk away from the house. Steven is currently working with the bank on some other payment options, if the bank can not come down on the payment by about $900.00 per month then we will have to seek other opportunities elsewhere. While work has been very slow the company has laid off over 13000 people in the last month, they are trying to trim the jobs that are not completely required in order to run the everyday operations. Steven said that for the first time in the companies twelve year history the region that we are in operated above budget by about 90000 so clearly times are getting hard for everyone. About a week ago Chantelle decided in join Avon to try to bring in some extra money, she is having fun talking to everyone about it. Chantelle has her own website youravon.com/chantelleharris if you feel so inclined please take a look.

On a lighter note it is very close to Valentines day, our kids have been hard at work making those cards with cup cakes and candy.



in the past week or so Jenai has been making up songs about Jesus, the song are very cute so I thought I would share one with you

A bit of wintery waether

The last few days there has been some big warnings about severe winter weather coming our way. According to weather bug "Winter Storm Slamming Mid-Atlantic
The same winter storm that brought heavy snow and ice to the southern Plains is moving into the Carolinas and Mid-Atlantic, and will bring up to a foot of snow to the interior Tidewater of the Mid-Atlantic"



When the kids woke up this morning they SCREAMED SNOW they were so excited they could hardly stand it. Steven did not go to work because Verizon Wireless was closed for the day. For all those that live in snow conditions every year you must understand that we only get snow like this every 5-6 years so the city literally shuts because they just don't have the resources on hand to handle to snow on the roads. So needless to say nothing gets plowed and we all just have to wait for it to melt enough to drive on. While our kids freak out about the so we will just enjoy taking pictures and watching them freeze.

Once there was a snow girl snow girl snow girl once there was a snow girl tall tall tall

In the house she melted melted melted in the house she melted small small small

Our totally random spontaneous trip to Tennessee

On Friday January 22nd we decided to take a trip to Tennessee, I know it seems very random. We have been talking for the last several months about moving to Tennessee and starting a chicken and organic vegetable farm. Brokton has been having a very hard time in the city, we feel he would do much better with several acres to run with the birds and the wild animals. As I had said in our previous post about our trip to the farm Brokton did very well he was very calm and seemed to be in a very comfortable place. We have been doing a lot of praying, fasting and pondering on this issue as this will be a major change in our lives.


As crazy as this sounds we have to do what is best for our family, we realize that we will be walking away from a really great job with consistent pay and benefits but our family comes first over any job, fancy house or other worldly things. We are out of debt except for our house. We will be unable to sell our house as we are upside down by about $40,000.00 we will be using money from Steven's 401k to buy property and a house out right, we know this is for our retirement but property is a very good investment. We have had a lot of spiritual experiences as we have prayed about this change, for those of you who understand the power of prayer this will be something you can understand.



As a side note when Steven came back to work after our trip the company had gone and laid off the whole merchandising department and administrative assistants for all of the district managers. This was done with only about a days notice to those involved. The company is doing more with the Senior sales reps giving them more responsibilities so it looks like they will not be needing as many Asst managers.

Here are some pictures from our totally random spontaneous trip to Tennessee