You may have noticed that we seemed to have gone dark as of lately. Yep, yep, we have been ridiculously busy these past 2-2 1/2 weeks. We’ve been traveling for kids’ sports as both of our children swim competitively. It is a pretty grueling sport as we (the parents) spend 5-6 days per week sitting next to a pool for swim practice smelling the awesomeness of chlorine. Then you add in the swim meets, coupled with travel, it is a real doozy. For us, it is a year-round sport, except for the month of August. [Read more…] about Pressing the Pause Button
My Sad Loaf of Bread
This past weekend, we found that the household had run out of bread. With two growing kids at home consuming everything like human vacuum cleaners, it’s difficult to keep a little bit of anything around the house. So, we are driving home from being out and about when Deidra mentions that we forgot to go pick up some bread. Me being the baker that I am says, “I’ll just make a loaf of bread”, so the crisis was averted – temporarily. [Read more…] about My Sad Loaf of Bread
Why Appraisals Matter
When you are going through the land/home purchasing process it can be quite a tall task. There are many things to do and many items you need to keep on your mind. One of these things is the Appraisal. For those of you who have purchased a home or land before, you may be familiar with it and understand why you need one. For those who are new to buying property, I want to share with you what we have learned while on our journey.
First and foremost, I am not a real estate agent or loan officer, so I speak only from personal experience. We have purchased a home in the past, but we have never purchased raw land. You would think that it would be the same as buying an existing home, [Read more…] about Why Appraisals Matter
Scrambled Eggs With Collards & Onions
This past Saturday I got the chance to go out to our garage and cut a few collard leaves off the plants from my hydroponic system. I have to say, it is quite a joy to go to your own garden and pull them fresh off the plant only to serve them up minutes later.
I won’t focus much on the hydroponic growing system as I will blog in more detail on this later. However, I do want to share some photos and the recipe from this weekend! If you recall from my wife’s post on Real Cooking, we may or may not have exact measurements because sometimes we “wing-it”, but I will try to give you a good place to start. Besides, the way we season, may not be the way you season!
Don’t Ever Buy Land That Won’t Perc
Since we started our journey of purchasing a home again, we flipped back and forth on many things. At first, we were looking for a home with more than 5 acres and under $300K. Uhm, yeah…good luck with that in our area of North Carolina. That may have been the case about 8-10 ten years ago, but you would be hard pressed to find any homes with sizable land for cheap. With the influx of so many people to the area, it has become a seller’s market. People will pretty much buy homes sight-unseen by the time you realize a new home is on the market! Yep, a crazy crazy market it is around here. [Read more…] about Don’t Ever Buy Land That Won’t Perc
Our Journey Begins
Hello, hello, hello! My name is Antoine and I would like to welcome you to our blog. This is the first of what will be many entries by my wife, Deidra, and myself. We have long talked about having our own land where we could grow our own food as well as raise our own animals. We are not there yet, but in December of 2017, we decided to chronicle our journey whether we make it or bust!