This is my most recent photo of my children, taken Christmas of 2oo6. This year my oldest son Jeremy (the one on the right) didn't get to come home for Christmas.



We have been so blessed this past year. We have a new grandson added to our family, we are all in good health, have everything we need. Yes, the Lord has been good to us this past year. I am so thankful to Him for His provision to our family.



We are no longer of the mind to be moving at this time. For some reason, it just doesn't seem to be the thing the Lord wants us to do.



So we are concentrating on living to our fullest right here were we are. Making plans for a chicken house, small barn and lots of fencing. We will be raising our own meat. With our big garden, the beautiful orchard we have, planting more berries, and maybe getting some honey bees we will be very self sufficient in the grocery department.



I have been praying the Lord will send us a milk cow, at a price we can afford. I am looking forward to making butter and cheese for my family.



We will be buying some laying hens, and some chickens to raise for meat, getting a few rabbits, raising a few turkeys, a couple of pigs, and hopefully that milk cow will find us. That should take care of most everything we usually buy at the grocery store. With the exception of flour and a few other staples.



We have always been farmers at heart. We raised as much of our own food as possible when we lived in Alaska years ago. Our climate here in Oregon is much milder and makes for easier gardening.



Ed is also planning a greenhouse. Then we can start our own tomato plants and grow some things year round. Like salad fixings, maybe some broccoli. It would be wonderful to step out the french doors of my kitchen, and pick greens and radishes, scallions for a salad for dinner in the middle of the winter! Yes, that would be so nice.



I have received one of our favorite seed catalogs in the mail recently. It is Territorial Seeds, located here in Oregon. So the plants they have tested are for growing West of the Cascade mountains. Everything we have grown from them has been great.



We are growing enough for sharing with others, and canning for winter, and selling some at the local farmer's market this summer. We will put that money aside for next year's seed costs.



I am excited to see what the Lord will do in our lives this coming New Year!

Still here

November is upon us already. Our house is no longer on the market. Looks as if we will be here for another winter. Why, we don't know right now. That is all up to the Lord and His timing.

Our house does look good now. : ) We are going to be adding a few more touches here and there. Like installing carpet upstairs and some flooring in the smaller bedroom also. We will re-do the wallpaper in the kitchen. Still have the stairs to paint also.

Other than that, our story of selling the house is on hold. Now we will be concentrating on enjoying the holidays and focusing on the Lord for the Season.

I have some things planned to help teach our girls the meaning of Thanksgiving and Christmas. We will be doing a Thanksgiving Journal for the month of November. Then we will do an advent study till Christmas which will keep our focus on the Lord and what the true meaning and celebration of Christmas is all about. Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!

The Swinson family is patiently waiting on the Lord.................

More musings

Here we are at the end of September already. We are almost completely finished with the work on the house. Jared is painting the shop now and it will match the house.

Our darling little grandson Avery has made a complete recovery from the surgery and is over 9 pounds already! He is doing so well and is such a joy to have in the house.



We had a moving sale last weekend. Sort of speaking by faith that is............. to call it a "moving" sale!

We have picked all the pears and will be canning them in a day or so. Then there are cucumbers to turn into pickles and tomatoes into sauce. Corn to be put in the freezer also. Even if we don't sell the house this Fall and have to stay through the winter, we will have a stocked pantry.

I will be so thrilled to post the day the house sells and we can start our journey across the country. Sure wished the Lord would give us a glimpse of that day.....

A new edition to the family!

We have a new edition to our family! His name is Avery Tyler Scott, he was born on August 7th. He is my first grandchild by blood.

He had to have surgery to correct an intestine/stomach problem he was born with. So they are still in Portland waiting for him to recover and be released from the hospital.

Now I know why our house hasn't sold yet. My son, his wife and their daughter and our new baby are going to move to Virginia with us. If the house would have sold before he was able to travel, we would have had to rent something until he can go. See God in his wisdom knows what is best even if we don't!

The upstairs got finished the end of July and my son and his family moved in up there. It is now two bedrooms upstairs. All my sewing things are packed up with the exception of my sewing machine and a few tools.

The garden is producing for us, despite the herds of deer that have eaten their fair share of it! The fruit trees are all loaded. I had thought we would be gone by now and there wouldn't be any canning going on this year. I guess I was mistaken!

I will be canning green beans and making pickled beets next week.

There are lots of blackberries to be picked and made into jams also.

Good thing we are finished with the work on the house at last! It has been three long years. We are pleased with the results of our hard work. Mostly Ed's hard work along with my Dad helping him.

Maybe we will be moving this Fall and maybe not..............only God knows when it will be.

We have painted Gables

The gable ends of the house are finished. Just a bit of the eaves on the sides of the house to paint.

Upstairs, the new window is put in, and the drywall has been installed. Now to add the texture and paint!

This place has come a long way in the past three years we have lived here.

Here is a link to our house on our Realtor's website.
www.rwre.com/pub/rwre_detail.php?officeid=c21team&officeno=114-1449

The End is in Sight!

We are almost finished with the work on the house! The only thing left to do is paint the gable ends of the house and the eaves, paint the upstairs, put up the handrail, finish the paint trim on the deck and Ed is going to paint the shop. Then we are finally finished with everything! Praise the Lord. Now we can sit back and just maintain things until it sells.

I am so happy because my son and his family are moving to Virginia with us! A prayer answered for sure. : ) Now I will get to be close enough to watch my grandson and granddaughter grow.

July already!

How did July get here already? The month of June was a bit rainy and we didn't get too much finished on the house because of it.

Ed did the drywall upstairs, which is now waiting for base coat and then paint.

We have gotten some nice things done on the outside of the house recently. We put in two flower beds, planted some shrubs and trimmed up the roses. Looks rather nice if I do say so myself. : )

Hopefully we will be getting our new roof on the house the end of the month.

Not too many lookers at the house. Each time someone schedules an appointment, they cancel due to sickness or some other reason.

I painted the front steps and hand rails finally. Today I will finish that up and Ed is going to put up the trim around the windows that he got painted.

My Dad came over yesterday and mowed all the grounds for us. That is such a help!

Besides doing all the work on the house we have put in our vegetable garden. Not knowing when the house will sell, we felt we had to go ahead with the garden.

Our cherries were ransacked by the raccoons one night. We did get about a 5 gallon bucket full anyway. Thankfully one tree has too small of branches, that won't hold their weight and we got most of the cherries from that tree.

We are taking the day off tomorrow and celebrating the 4th of July. We will be having a BBQ with family at our house, and then later driving to Bandon to watch the fireworks.

Happy 4th to everyone.

The Latest Update

Here it is the end of the month, and our realtor has shown the house twice before we are finished with all the remodeling and upgrades.

We are almost finished with the upstairs. A little more sanding of the drywall compound then the painting. Ed has painted the trim that goes around the windows outside of the house. Now for the time to put it up and do the sofits.

Several of our outside accumulations are now gone! We sold the old pickup, the 5th wheel trailer and the bus finally! Now just a boat to go and a horse trailer. We are also going to sell Eds pickup before we leave. With the things we have sold, we now have the money we need to travel across the country. We have money for gas, and motels and food.

Now we just have to sell the house! We have been having a burn pile every so often and are burning what is not good enough to donate or that no one would want. How freeing it is to get rid of extra stuff! We now must be able to get everything we are keeping into one 26' truck. We will also have a trailer for carrying the 4-wheeler and the garden tractor.

It is going to be wonderful to have a fresh new start and a de cluttered house and shop!

These are the latest happenings at the Swinson house.

House for Sale!

We have listed the house. There won't be any showings until the end of May as we aren't quite finished with the little details here and there.

French doors are in, living room chairs are recoverd, painting downstairs is finished, the kickerboards are installed in the kitchen, and I have rearranged the living room and taken out the extra furniture. Looks much larger and brighter now.

I have gotten some really great ideas from watching HGTV. : ) We still have the outside trim to paint, the painting upstairs and putting in some carpet up there. Painting the stairs and building the new steps to the front door. The roofer is supposed to come by and give us an estimate soon. Then it will all be finished at last!

We have decided as soon as that is all finished we are going to relax this summer. We are going to go to the beach, fishing, crabbing and just relaxing.

The garden is all tilled up and about ready to plant. Our garden is 50'X75' and we plant the entire space. This year instead of canning and drying and freezing all the produce we have decided what we don't share with others, we will sell at the local Farmer's Market. The money from those sales will be put in a savings account titled "Homestead Livestock" and we will use that for buying our farm animals when we get settled once again.

We are moving right along. The place is looking nice as the cherries are on the tree and the roses are beginning to bloom and everything is so green and fresh looking.

We have had another person come to look at the bus today. They are real serious about it. Please let it sell this time!

This is the latest news in the Swinson family.

Progress!

We are making good progress on getting our house ready to list. On Saturday we had a visit with our Realtor. She is the one who sold us this house 3 years ago. So she knows all the work we have put into it.

Not only did she give us an idea of what we can sell it for (2.5 times more than we paid for it!) but she also has a contractor who will do the new roof for us very reasonably. And we don't have to do all the things we thought we needed finished before listing! So it really is possible to get it on the market by the end of May. I am so excited. It seems like this is truly going to happen now.

We have been packing up things that we don't use everyday. Like my Wexford glass and now we are packing up the library and our videos and DVD's. Things to store out in the storage room off the shop. Just so the house will be less cluttered when we show it. Plus it gives us a little head start on the packing for the actual move.

We have the French doors to put in and the upstairs to finish the drywall and painting. Then we can list the house! So please dear Lord give us some nice dry weather to get the doors put in......

Yes, things are moving along at last!

Plugging along........

Yesterday was a beautiful day. We had a warm breeze, blue skies, lots of sunshine. A perfect day for working in the yard. I was able to enjoy cleaning up my herb garden, and pulling up grass and weeds that thought they could grow there this past winter. Now the herb garden is back to looking nice and neat. The parsley is just lush with new growth, my rosemary is lovely, the lemon mint is thick with fragrant new leaves, the chives are nice and fresh and have little buds here and there, the oregano is coming back, the sage has nice new growth and the peppermint is trying to take over! I pulled up excess of it and tossed it into the field. I hope it doesn't take root! Maybe I should take those and put them on the burn pile...........

We have been at a standstill on working on the house this past week, as the wheel bearings went out on our vehicle, so Ed has had to work on the car instead of the house. Plus we were supposed to make the trip to Roseburg to buy drywall at Lowe's and couldn't with out the vehicle.

But after today the Durango will have new wheel bearings and new rotors. That needed to be done before we could drive across the country anyway. So we are just ahead of the game a bit in that department. : )

In the mean time, I have been having Bible lessons with our little daughters. One is almost 7, the other is 4. So far we have learned about God's "10 rules," mainly the one about honoring your parents, and obeying them. Then we have studied a bit on the fruits of the spirit, namely temperance or self-control. I pray that these become a part of their character.

A sign perhaps?

Along with our household things we have to sort through and pack up, we have more "accumulations" that are outside we need to deal with.

Things such as a 40 foot bus, a boat, a horse trailer, utility trailer, a 1968 Chevy Pick up that was to be a project vehicle.

I was looking out my kitchen window one day and looking at all of the stuff we have to get rid of, and I whispered to the Lord, send someone to take all this stuff away.

This past week we had some strangers pull into our driveway and ask about the Chevy pick-up. This young man was inquiring for his father. Next day his father came by with them to look for himself. He will be back on the first of the month with cash for the truck! On top of that, they collect scrap metal to sell on the side, and offered to clean up the scrap metal, engine block and transmission for us. So off they went with all of that the next day! Plus the son wants to buy the utility trailer when we are finished using it. Answer to three prayers. : )

Yesterday a man drove in and asked about the bus. He said he wants to buy the bus!!!!!!!!! He took a look at it yesterday and from what we can understand (he has a speech impediment) he will be back with cash for the bus.

So, I expect any day for other things to be sold and moved out also. Next will be a buyer for our house! Now that will be a miracle for sure, with the housing market in this area right now. But I know our Lord is able to do things that don't make sense to us, but will accomplish His Will for us.

Ed has one knee wall put up in the upstairs and is working on the second. Then he will drywall the entire area, paint and that will be finished.

As soon as the weather permits, we will be finishing the painting outside, adding the railings to the deck, putting in the French doors in the kitchen that opens onto the deck.

When people started stopping in to ask about buying things we need to get rid of, we said it looks like we are doing the right thing and it is the Lord's will for us to move. I am so thankful that the Lord gives us these little signs to help our faith along at times.

Last week the extra clothing from our closets was sold on eBay. Didn't make much money, but the extras are now gone from the house.

Let's see what we can get accomplished this next weekend!

Preparing to sell the house

We are in the process of getting our house ready for sale. We have more painting to do. Inside the hallway needs painting. Outside the window trim and decks and porches need painting. The new deck needs the railing put on.

Upstairs we need to drywall, and add knee walls to the new living area. Then to paint the entire area.

It is not good weather for the outside work. It has been pouring down rain and hailing and being cold.

So in the mean time I am starting to sort through our things and down size some. How does a family accumulate so much stuff?

I am going to take it one step at a time. I am starting with the bedroom and the extra clothing and bedding. Some things that are new or nearly new will be put on ebay for sale. Other things will be donated, or thrown on the burn pile.

It will be so good to get rid of all the extra stuff. I am looking forward to my new house being organized and not overstuffed with extra belongings. How many sheets does a person really need for their bed? I have decided on two changes of sheets per bed is all I will keep. And two blankets per bed. The rest will be donated to family or a charity.

One of the major things we will be packing up are books. We love our books. Most of them are educational or informative. Like how to books and the like.

Now I must be off here to actually do some work.