A Week With the Backhoe: Swales, Ponds, Root Cellars and Blessings
Last week was backhoe week here on the homestead and in the community. It was a busy time and long days for Stewart, but it was a great blessing to watch more water catchment and root cellar action happening in order to further our sustainability.
There was much watching by little boys on our homestead and others. It was hard to keep these guys focused on school and chores but we always had some time to spare to go check out the latest of Daddy’s digs.
And all of the children got a turn on the backhoe with Daddy. Annabelle was just a little bit excited when I asked “Who wants to drive the backhoe with Daddy?!” She likes to keep her feelings close to the chest, that one.
This little project with the pallets was neither a goat shelter nor a tomato shader nor a grape trellis (all great ideas you’ve now given us, though!). I think I’ll let Stewart tell you about this, or at least wait until I fully understand the project. But, I can tell you that the hole that dirt came from is to be a root cellar and storm shelter, Lord willing.
We watched the weather closely leading up to backhoe week and throughout and prayed that we might get our usual fairly dry weather. Well the rain stayed away… until Friday night not much more than an hour after Stewart finished up on one of our neighbor’s fields.
These photos are taken on our homestead and we got to see the water being put to use in swales holding water and ponds that may someday supply goats with water.
It was fun to go on a tour of it all with Daddy and the children, Stewart getting to see the fruit of his labor and the children generally frolicking (and falling) in the mud.
I often feel like a spectator here on the homestead, nursing baby in tow and camera at the ready. But thinking back on the past three years (our landiversary was last week!) I really see what spectators we all are. Most of what has come to pass over the past few years I could have never have planned for or envisioned. Because it’s so grace-filled, from the shells of newly hatched chicks to the kale taken out by grasshoppers to a storm blowing in at the end of a blessed week such as this.
Today I crawled into bed and read your entire blog it feels like. I cried, laughed, cried and felt so immensely proud of you all. And I have no idea who you are. I’m all the way over here in New Zealand with a family, with values so similar to yours. I desire a much more simple and honest existence. You’ve given me the courage to face myself and be true to myself, even if it’s not moving to homestead it in the country (land here is so expensive), but just take the time to enjoy life, live simpler and slow down and smell the coffee/flowers/babies. To not cost money we don’t have, to give my husband more support in the form of the ability to choose what he wants to do, not a slave to my grocery bill. I was googling coconut flour and I found yiu, and I know God intended this for me, to challenge me, to inspire me and to push me. For now I’ll continue to cry, with relief? Tears of shame? I’m not sure, but I feel something.
I’ll keep visiting and watch your family as you all grow and learn and share this journey. Just please know the difference you have made for me today, and for my husband and our two little children over here in New Zealand.
Bless you all 🙂
Hi Michelle,
Oh that is so sweet. Thank you for following along with us and for your presence here.
Wow – congratulations on such a productive week. Tell Stewart he looks pretty good up there on the machine 🙂
Shannon, your family is such a joy to me. I can’t tell you how excited I get when I open my email and see Nourishing days in my inbox. You are truly living the life the way i believe God intended us to live. So much hard work, but so rewarding at the end of the day. Thank you for sharing your beautiful families journey with us! It’s almost like reading a good book. I can’t wait to get to the next chapter!