2018 ~ Family, Friends, Fun and More!

As I look back on the year 2018, I love that it has been so filled with family and friends foremost! 

Started the year with a wedding, became grandparents in the spring, met "Daniel Boone", visited family and friends, friends visited us, watched sculptures being made, and toured southwestern Indiana and learned more about its history.

We added a Guesthouse/Storage/Hobbies & Interests House to our property. We will be living in this house, until the Cabin is finished. So, we have been working on making it nice for our visitors. In between visitors, it will be our goal to use this building more for following our interests and passions.

As you will see below, I have been continuing to follow my interests in photography, genealogy, stargazing and identifying the wildlife around us. 

Visit with Hubby's Family. We are lucky they live
near wedding we attended.

My family started the year with a beautiful wedding. Glad we
Be there to help them celebrate!

Daniel Boone stopped in for a visit at
my library!

The Guesthouse was delivered in March...

...and now y'all can come visit!

Our friend came to visit, and we checked
out the fantastic West Baden Hotel!

Our friends, and my son, came to visit in October.
We found out how many people you could fit
in the front of our camper! Lol

This book continues to be my guide to the stars,
as I keep learning the constellations.

It took about a decade, but we were able to recreate
this photo. My, how they have grown!

The beginnings of our water catchment
system... stay tuned!

I started an Identification Page on the blog. Check it out!
I am adding our local wildlife, as I am able to identify them
through books, etc.

Bedroom is now complete, mostly! Just adding
shelves, decorations still.

Iron Pour @ Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum

Actually Pouring the iron
@ the Iron Pour

This time, it was an Aluminum Pour @ Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum

We welcomed a granddaughter in April!
(Callie Cat pic is to protect privacy for their
new little family.)

Our plans for our patio area 

between houses

Lots of drywall patching was done
this summer.

We got the electricity hooked up to
the Guesthouse just in time for
the air conditioner!

Catching up with old friends.
I miss seeing you!

Hanging out with George Rogers Clark in Vincennes.
Paintings tell of Indiana's beginnings.

Spirit of Jasper train in Jasper, Indiana.

Genealogy has shown me that I have deep Indiana
roots. Spent lots of time working on my genealogy blog, also.
(This Hoosier's Heritage)

Volunteering transcribing veterans' memorials
to make them searchable for the Honor Roll Project

Sometimes you have to hunt for a good photo,
and sometimes it just lands on your window! 

And, with this little guy, I will end this post. Thank you for sticking around (like Froggy!) this year, and I hope to hear from you in 2019!

Everyone, have a very Happy New Year's Eve, and a blessed new year!!!      🎉  📅 .🎉

Why Small House Living is Perfect for Us!

Have you ever been out driving  🚘 and got lost? So, you start taking these twists & turns to find your way back?

And sometimes, the new route turned out to be so much better than the one you were on before you got lost! 👍

Even though the twists & turns 🔀🔄🔀🔃were not part of your original plan, they turned you in a new direction that worked out well.

That is a good way to describe how we ended up with our Small House Living lifestyle. 🏡

A few years ago, we had the bad luck to be victims of identity theft.  💵💲💵 Although we were able to solve some of the problems caused by this, our credit score took a nosedive! 😡

When your credit score is in the 700-800 range, you have a lot more options.  When it drops down to the 400-500 range, not so much.

So, what are your options? 🔍🔍

We owned property where we wanted to build a small cabin, but we couldn't get a mortgage. ✂📃✂

If you are paying rent to a landlord, you can never get money saved. 💸

So, for us, our best option was to buy an Amish built shed, and convert it into a small house. We can make payments each month, like a rent. However, we are closer to paying it off with each payment. 💰

My DIY'er hubby is able to do the work, with some help from his friends.  The good craftsmanship makes the shed a solid, strong structure.  🔨🔨🔨

We are still in process of conversion, but here are a few of our photos. Just remember, it will look a little messy until we are done! Lol

Our home fits right into the lifestyle that we were looking for before the turns in the road!

😀The following reasons that we were looking into small house
     living might be why it would be a good option for you, too!

Why Small House Living is Perfect for Us:

👉Wanted to Downsize (A good book to browse for this is "Downsizing the Family Home" by Marni Jameson)

👉Want to Become Debt-Free & Mortgage-Free

👉Want to Keep More of our Paychecks

👉Like Being Able to Follow our Passions More

No matter which path brought you to your home, it just has to be be perfect for you.  🏡😍 🏡 Not for anyone else!

I just wanted to give you a glimpse into why we made our decision for our small house, in the hopes that it just might help you decide what is right for you!

I would love to hear 👂👂👂 a little about your story, and how you came to your decision for your home. Maybe we can help others make the right decision for their home! 👩💭❓👨💭❓

Fall Beauty In Its Many Forms

My favorite time of year is most definitely fall! 

🍁🍂🍁🍂

The leaves are changing into a beautiful palette of orange, red, yellow, and gold...and when the sun hits them, it is just spectacular! 

The heat of the summer has gone, but the frigid winter weather has not shown it frosty face yet. 

Bonfires with friends, walks in the woods, and just taking it all in....Ahh, nothing better! 

I also love that you never know what you will see when you look out your window! 

Here are just a few of the views that I've had in the last several weeks in our neck of the woods...

Glimpse Out the Truck Window at the Homestead 

Beautiful Fall Drive to Work

Foggy Morning Landscape

A Glorious Country Sunrise.. 

In All Its Beauty! 

What is the best Fall photo that you have?

 Let us all see it! Send me your best Fall Photo in the comments!

Friends, Fun & Photos

Isn't it awesome when friends come to visit?  This month, we had the chance to put our small home (and camper!) to the test.  Over the course of nine days, we had a grand total of 11 people visiting.

Yes, you read that right! ~ Eleven!!

Between the small house, the camper, and even borrowing a couch...we did it! Yay!!

But, oh, we had so much fun!!

We only had one actual thing on our agenda.  The rest of our plans were going to be by the seat-of-our-pants, but we were going to accomplish our one-and-only requirement:

To do updated versions of these two photos.  They were taken at a nearby train trestle that is huge.  As you can see, the photos on the left, were taken approximately a decade ago.

The children seem to have grown up just a little in ten years time!

(Source: Beautifully Chaotic Photography)

(Source: Beautifully Chaotic Photography)

We took in many other local sites during the week, also.  Just a few roads away from our home, is a local artist by the name of John Haywood. He takes the idea of "Reuse & Recycle" to a whole another level. 

John makes artwork out of just about anything! The following three photos show off just a small portion of his creativity! These pieces of artwork are made from old glass insulators, spoons and knives, colored glass bottles, glass ashtrays, and so much more!

Artwork by John Haywood
(Source: Beautifully Chaotic Photography)

Artwork by John Haywood

Artwork by John Haywood

That same day, we drove over to the Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum (https://www.sculpturetrails.com).  The public can pick up a guide at the beginning, and walk along the trails that house over 100 sculpture installations.  They have done a fantastic job of adding the artwork to the already beautiful countryside. Everything fits together quite well!  Artists come from all over the world to do internships, help host Iron & Aluminum Pours, create artwork,  teach the public about art, and so much more!

(Source: Beautifully Chaotic Photography)

Although Goosepond Fish & Wildlife Area (https://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/3094.htm) can sometimes be teeming with all kinds of birds, we were not so lucky on our trek around the wetlands.  In fact, the biggest surprise we had was when we startled a deer hiding in the brush, and he jumped out & ran ahead of us on the path!  LOL

I found this cute little nest not too far off of the ground. No birds nearby, but the nest was still fully intact and looked fairly new.

I tried to explain how there are times that these grounds and water can just be teeming with tons of birds. With our lonely experience that day, they would not believe me. I had to pull up a Google search for Goosepond to show them many pictures taken on these grounds with many, many birds in them! LOL

Bird nest found at GoosePond 

Even though our camper is a smaller one, we knew that it could hold several people. 

However,...we didn't expect them to test that theory!  Here is a good photo of all of the kids checking the capacity of the one bed at the front!  I guess that it passed their seal of approval! LOL

(Source: Beautifully Chaotic Photography)

The mother of this big bunch loves photography, and loves nature!  She took several fantastic shots of our property.  In fact, I had trouble narrowing it down to just a couple to include here. 

I love the different perspectives she finds in her shots!

(Source: Beautifully Chaotic Photography)

(Source: Beautifully Chaotic Photography)

And, just some good clean fun!! This little guy couldn't decide if it was more fun to sit in the leaves, or throw them in the air!  But, he was definitely having a blast!

I had so much trouble getting a good shot of them playing this game of Slapzi. They would stop laughing long enough that I think I could get a good shot, and with the turn of the next card...

they were at it again!  LOL

Last, but not least...I think my hubby loves this photo the most!  Not just because of the fun of "Bumper Mowers". But, because it tells him he's got help coming in the mowing department...keeping this homestead under control!

That's it for another week at the homestead!  Another week of good times, good friends, and good family!  And, to top it off, the older kids even helped us get a few projects done!! 

Hope you had almost as good of a time reading this post, as we had of living it!