Graduation & New England Fall Trip

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!  As you know, we stopped sending Christmas Cards several years ago, but chose to keep everyone updated through the year with this blog.

The above photo was taken in March 2015 in hopes to use for our Christmas photo this year. If you've not been keeping up on the blog-the reason we are dressed this way is that we've now made the decision to go back to our roots & live off the land!

Sort of...we still have indoor plumbing (I'm not giving that up!) and refrigeration is needed for all my cheese.  Our freezer is pretty essential for all the venison and cattle we butcher every year, and though our oven/range combo did finally give out after 20 years, we did buy a new propane range/oven as I'm not into eating the above mentioned animals raw.  We could cook it in a pot over the wood stove that does still provide heat for our home (and we may try that someday) but I'm not planning meals in a timely fashion anymore and now require a faster way of cooking our meals.

 And though Leah is now doing our laundry for us, I'm not sure she's ready to rub each piece of the "way too many clothes" we go through in a week - with a bar of soap- over a washtub.  We do line dry our clothes...most of the time...except when its cold...and wet.  Which it hasn't been in California too much lately, but wet clothes are very heavy.  And our line isn't in a convenient location for Leah to haul the load out. So we use the gas dryer to dry the clothes since mom's been out of commission.

And then of course there is our vehicles.  Though I'm not out and about anymore much, Scott still has to get around for work and a horse would take too long, and might end up costing more money (though maybe not much).  Mainly because it would take too long for his inspections (I'd never see him), and it's just not a practical means of transportation in these modern times.  

Come to think of it, we have way more modern conveniences that would make our lives a little more challenging if we had to do without.  They are certainly not essential, but necessary for our way of life.  Such as Scott's computer for work.  And our cell phones, for communication to the outside world, because again, our rural lifestyle makes it a bit more time consuming to make house calls to all our friends and family.  And this list could go on and on.  Suffice it to say that we aren't quite living off the land and we rely on way too many modern conveniences to consider that at this time.  Our stint participating in the Environmental Living Program at Sutter's Fort showed us that!

And despite all of the modern conveniences today, we hope your family has a wonderful, old-fashioned Christmas, celebrated with family and friends, rejoicing in the true meaning of the season.  The celebration of our Savior's birth.

Merry Christmas for Scott, Jill, Leah & Nolan