New Phase – Making Offers!

New Phase – Making Offers! #2023 #Family #Encourage #PropertyHunting #Land #PuttingOffersIn #ExcitedForMovingForward #PrayingForFavorAndWisdom #FutureTartFarm #OpenRuralLand #GenerationalHome

March 15, 2023

New Phase – Making Offers!

Finally!  

It feels like I haven’t written in a century!  We finally reached the phase of savings where our available investment capital (aka cash in the savings account) is enough to make some offers on certain pieces of property!  

We know that the only way we are going to find and afford a simple house with enough family room for our dreams is to build it from the ground up on property we own outright.  We are consistently told we don’t make enough.  We know this.  Oh well, the mortgage on a $160,000 property (15 years, after down payment) is approximately $1400/month ~ guess those who have been renting for $2800/month can’t afford a loan.  Can’t change the system, you just have to think outside the box!

Anyway, back to the seriously amazing excitement!  We’ve been looking at properties and placing offers within our budget.  Our budget will grow as our savings slowly does.  Someone will agree to let us buy a property from them – or a miracle will pop up where someone owner-finances half a property or some investor decides our family is worth the risk and does a private loan.  I’m open to pretty much anything.  We want OR land; our family dream is back to a farm with chickens, our aviary, rabbits, the ability to help shelters again, growing 95% or more of our own food again – we are only offering on spots with at least an acre.  A miracle would be 5 or more acres close to the WGV area (like that cool little abandoned spot near the turn to trailmark).  Our goal is a generational home.  Space for our family to stay close.  A farm to share food from.  Somewhere our children and grandchildren could always come home to.  Saving a tiny bit of Florida’s agricultural heritage (teaching things Grandma Jeanette taught me).

Just sending out offers is super exciting for me!  We’ve designed and planned and researched.  I keep praying this is our family’s next step.  

Hopefully we find something before September (when rent goes up again)!  I’m just so excited about seeing the light at the end of this tunnel – it’s been a long road.  It’s like a restart.  I love restarts!  

Thank you for reading!

Type at you next time!

~Nancy Tart

Encouragers: The Chaos Of Joy Mother

Encouragers: The Chaos Of Joy Mother

October 9, 2022

I’m sitting at the desk at gym, taking payments and checking liability waivers for our open gym one Friday at noon (every Friday noon to 1pm is Open Gym – basically, allow your kiddos to expend all their energy just before naptime!).  She pulls up into the handicapped parking space.  I smile. 

This woman is such an amazing encourager to me!  She has overcome more physical and medical challenges in her life than I could ever understand.  She has five little ones all five or younger and normally is accompanied by at least one nephew in the same general range.  She is such a blanket of calm mothering in a sea of chaos – and her smile!  Such joy!  She chooses joy!

I call her the “Chaos of Joy Mother” because you’d think her life with five littles zero to five years old would be chaos.  (I see some of her posts on Facebook and yes, it’s laughable, amazing, lovable chaos!) Add in farm animals, countless stunt-double-training apparatuses in their kid-ninja-warrior yard, kids turning the house into ninja training course, and homeschooling… I love her beautiful chaos!  She’s the type of calm mother I hope I am.  Minus the goat and stretching births out a bit, one of my girls pointed out that there were some family tales we turned into “The Funny Sisters” stories that are probably relatable. 

She encourages me by her love of life!  She is always doing something new or allowing her daughter to try something new.  They grow in love, life, and faith by expounding on the adventures life hands them.  This is such an encouragement to me.  I pray for them and thank God that I see her.  She probably doesn’t see herself as an encourager, but she totally is by the joy she shares!

Sometimes chaos is where you find your joy.  I know some of the craziest moments in my life are where I felt I couldn’t do anything else BUT find joy in Jesus and look up. 

While I’m driving to my first school on our afterschool pickup route, I happen to hear “Season, a Joy Bringer” and I smile at her anecdotes.  She is always focusing on how to share joy.  I feel the Chaos of Joy Mother is always sharing something she finds joyful with us – some see it as joy (like me) and some as craziness (are you kidding, you did/allowed what?!).   In our journey of life, I am super thankful for those who encourage me.  I pray I am an encouragement to others. 

I’m super thankful for the Chaos of Joy Mother because she and her little angels always make me smile with their love, wildness, and crazy adventures! 

Type at you next time,

~Nancy Tart

Lucas’ Balls (Timewarp Story)

January 23, 2022

Lucas’ Balls

(Note: This is a timewarp story from May 25, 2017. ENJOY!)

Vegetables are a fun subject for writers.  Toss in toddlers and you have instant comedy.  For example:

Lucas loves to eat.  We tease that if it doesn’t eat him first, he’ll eat it! (Okay, maybe not that bad, but he will try to eat popcorn kernels, cantaloupe rinds, sweet potato skins, and even bones – yes, he tries to eat the bones!)

At the produce market, we’re loading up on yummy veggies to have sitting around for my amazing chef/babysitter/awesome sister to create dinner with.  Lucas loves to help.  He’s tossing perfect Sebago potatoes into the bag (he never misses), squishes a pepper (we’re buying this one) with “Yummy!  Green strings!” (If we chop peppers he eats them raw), and “yeah!  Sticks!” as we bag carrots (which he tries to eat before they are weighed).  Despite Mom continually repeating the accurate name of any vegetable or fruit in the world, Lucas appears to prefer his own made-up nicknames for everything.  (Onions are “ouch,” pumpkins are “pies,” and broccoli are “trees” or “flowers”)

At the counter, Jaquline helps lay out our items while telling the manager what each vegetable is.  Manager stops setting Brussels Sprouts in pint baskets to ring our items; he is chomping on fresh cherries.  Lucas points at the basket, he’s super excited (Brussels Sprouts, roasted or raw, are his favorite).  “Mommy, PLEASE BALLS!”

“Lucas, we already have your balls in the bag,” Jaquline informs instantly, while showing him a bag of said vegetable (using the nickname I have tried to eradicate).  Mr. Manager’s face is crimson.  He pops another cherry in his mouth (maybe he hopes everyone will think the red came from the cherry).  A couple at the back of the store chuckle.

“Yes, we are getting Brussels Sprouts, Lucas,” I say calmly, trying to decide if I want to become microscopic or be proud that he loves his veggies aka balls.  I’m sure my face matches the cherries too.  (I’m beginning to think this is why my teenagers remain outside the store.)

As we pay, Mr. Manager neatly boxes everything up, scoops up a handful of cherries, slides them in a baggie and deposits them in Lucas’ reach with: “here’s some snacks for my favorite customer who loves balls” and winks at him.

Teenagers! Boys! I don’t know which is worse. “Daddy!” as we get home, Lucas shrieks, “look what we got, balls!” “Yummy balls,” he grins. I amend my thoughts to include, men!

But, yes, this is hilariously funny and I’m sure we will laugh about Lucas’ weird names for everything one day… if I can live through it!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time,

~Nancy Tart

Memes to Voices

November 10, 2019

Memes to Voices

A friend was showing us her flower arrangements: she said, “expectation versus reality.” To me, both arrangements looked amazing – her husband had given her a few bunches of flowers which she artistically set in two gorgeous table arrangements.  She thought one was excellent and the other so-so.

Instantly my heart dipped backward in time.  In the time it took to blink, my brain chattered.

Expectation: University of Missouri Rolla’s aerospace engineering degree PHD

Reality: a two-year college plus a scam university for a BA in Business Administration with Healthcare Management that I’ve actually never used.

Expectation: 14-y-o dreams of my perfect 1996 jeep wrangler softtop with big black rollbars, a bike rack, removable doors, and my Lady (German Shepherd) hanging out in the passenger’s seat.

Reality: any paid off vehicle with enough capacity for everyone’s booties and our doggos works.

Expectation: an old fixer-upper, huge farmhouse style two or three story house sitting on at least 5 acres with established trees and room for animals and farming that my children could grow up in for their whole lives.

Reality: several homes we’ve bumped in and out of through all of Christina’s 16 years, each seems to be smaller and in worse condition than the last. This last one sent me to the hospital and messes with everyone’s breathing.  I can’t wait to leave.

This all flashes in my mind before my eyelids shut in the blink – isn’t that how fast the enemy attacks us?

I complement her beautiful arrangements, which are bright and absolutely lovely, I can’t see how she sees one as “not very good,” but then I’m not a flower arranger just a woman with a true appreciation of all growing things (maybe I’m secretly a hobbit).

Before I step back into the office though, the mental assault continues…

(Someone mentioned that this year was tough for them and I couldn’t possibly understand)

This year?  I lost my father, my Daddy, the professor who was always ready to delve into deep philosophical discussions and my Mary, my baby sister I was always supposed to protect.  It’s this year I find myself crying over clouds, sunrises, songs, scenes in movies, even lines in sermons.

BUT!

I stop it there.  I am a daughter of the King of Kings, I have been bought by my Savior’s blood, loved from when He knit me together in my mother’s womb, I have the power to renew my mind through God’s word!

I remind my mind: ever heard of Joseph, Moses, David, Paul?  They didn’t get exactly what they wanted in life – their expectation didn’t match their reality, but God gave them better!

I combat those “expectation” teases with:

Reality: I came to Saint Augustine because I missed UMR’s 80% scholarship by 10 SAT points! God directed me to my amazing life!

Reality: who cares what vehicle you drive as long as it gets from point A to point B?

Reality: we have always had a roof over our heads.

Reality: I am thankful!  I love my life – all the crazy, wild facets of it!  I am super thankful that I followed God’s nudges in pivotal points in my life that led me to this wonderful time I am now at.  I pray that He continually places me where I can touch others, reach more people for Him, impress on my children’s hearts, and be used of Him as He wills.  I have totally surrendered to Jesus.  I trust God’s will in my life.

You know why?  He knows me way better than I know myself.  I can’t imagine life without Louis – in two years, I will have spent half of my life knowing Louis. He is my best friend, confidante, cheerleader, and life partner.  I love being connected to my “soul mate!” I can’t imagine life without any of my children, nieces, nephews, or gym girls!  I am so thankful that God sees me fit to witness to them, encourage them, and build into them.

I’m human.  My own voice is the worst danger to my mind.  But I have the power to renew my mind by reminding myself of the good things God has given us and of the promises in His Word – He will never leave us.  All things work together for good.  Thank you Jesus for leading my life journey and please keep my eyes always on You despite what my mind tries to say.

Type at you later,

~Nancy Tart

Meet Swan, Tiger, and Grizzly

Here are Becky and Christina’s newest triplets – Swan, Tiger, and Grizzly! Cuddly balls of fur and cuteness!

January 24, 2019

Meet Swan, Tiger, and Grizzly!

Becky and Christina’s guinea pigs had three little piglets!  (Taylor, mom, is Christina’s whom we adopted, and Becky’s TobyMac was purchased with the store employee promising he was really a she… read here for that story!)

So about every six months or so, our little piggies pop out a couple of new piglets.  First was our Sweet Potato, who went to a lovely home near ours.  The last was another trio.  The girls take finding a home for their sweet babies a big responsibility!

Becky finds a “theme” for their names.  The first one was vegetable, the second one was desserts, and this one is animals.

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This is Swan.

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Tiger (so named for the white stripe)

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 And Grizzly (coloring played a role in this one’s name)

We don’t know the sex of these little piglets just yet because Becky thinks they are “too comfy” snuggling with Mommy and Daddy to “invade” and examine them.  Toby is such a devoted Daddy to the piglets.  He will even make a growling fussy noise if one of the girls opens the nursery roof when he’s bringing grass up to Taylor while she’s nursing the piglets. (They like fresh Spanish Needles better than even Timothy Hay!)

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But when the adults come down to take a baby break, the girls get to peek at the babies!  When it is cool, as it has been lately, we don’t take them out of their protection until they are better able to regulate their body temperature.  Baby Guinea Pigs are born fully furry, eyes open, scampering about, and almost independent. (They will nurse from mom for 3 to 6 weeks, but start eating fresh grass brought up by Daddy almost immediately!)

In the cycle of our little farm the younglings get to see birth, life, and death as it plays out in seasons on a smaller scale than in our own lives.  We are honored to see births and become responsible for the small life gifted to us (yes, even the frog egg cluster they saved from the drying pool and hatched them to “save them” from drying up).  We will keep one or two of these little angels as they become permanent members of our little tribe.  I love how tenderly the girls take care of their animal responsibilities – Lucas calls them “my animal friends.”

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Yummy Harvest

Yummy harvest for us, fried treats for our doggies!

August 4, 2018

Yummy Harvest

Primrose (Christina’s 4-year-old Aussie mix) is waiting by the stove while we walk in and out.  Nothing is cooking there yet, but she knows this is harvest day, and she knows Rebeccah’s special treat is to fry up livers in butter.  Mom likes them, but it started as a treat for the doggies.

Funny how they know.   Sheba (our family’s 11-year-old Aussie mix) pretends she’s too old to move and half-wags her tail from her favorite spot in the house – curled up on top of the air vent in the den.  She strategically puts herself in the room where most people congregate, next to the shoe shelf so as they are leaving she can shoot them with sad eyes to see if she can guilt anyone into talking her outside.  Sheba perks up each time one of the kids comes in the back door, but since no one is carrying the big canning pot yet, she knows it’s still sleeping time.

In I come with the canning pot – Louis has decided to barbecue the chickens, but only three fit on the grill, so the fourth and all the trimmings are in that pot.  Usually, all the chickens are in the pot to be dissected, wrapped, and put away.   The gizzards and hearts are wrapped and frozen (I’ll fry them next time we have fried chicken).  Today’s harvest was tender young chickens and the preferred method of cooking is grilling or baking, whole.  So the fourth is wrapped and frozen.  This leaves the trimmed skins and livers.  The skins are saved for broth (I’ll add the bones and whatever trimmings from the birds being barbecued and simmer with some seasonings, this round should net about 2 to 3 quarts of “concentrated” broth.)

Rebeccah takes control of the livers.  Now Sheba and Prim are sitting by the stove, wagging their tails and almost begging.  They know that stuff is going in their bowl.  Livers don’t freeze well.  They are best fresh.  The only one in the household who likes liver is Mom (me), but I don’t like to eat a ton of them.  So I’ll take a few ounces and leave the rest for the pups.

Finally!  Rebeccah is done (it really only takes about three minutes, but looking at the dogs, you’d think they were waiting for years).  She rinses the pan in just enough water to make sure all the yummy goop is washed into the dog bowls and splits the contents of the pan between the two dogs.  They’ll get all the skins and other meat bits off the bones after I’ve boiled and strained the broth the next day too, but fried livers are their every-two-month treat, and they LOVE it.

Our theory is that Prim realizes the chickens are the liver treat source and therefore protects them jealously from any other animal – but she’s never hurt a chicken because she likes the finished product.

Yummy barbecue for us, yummy treat for our canine protectors.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

 

Watching Growth

From plants to chicks to rising bread: we all grow at a different rate!

June 18, 2018

Watching Growth

Have you ever watched bread dough rise?  It takes FOREVER!

Have you ever planted a seed or set out a new plant in your garden?  You sometimes don’t see the slow growth – sometimes you don’t notice until, “Oh, wow, there’s a red tomato on that bush!”  The plant was watered, de-bugged, and looked after for about 100 days but never really watched.

I planted my elephant ears in spring… now they are taller than me!

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Our baby chicks were cute little fluffs of fur, totally dependent on us to keep them safe, feed, and water them.  Now, they are nine weeks old.  Fully feathered, they look like miniature adults.  They don’t need us to pamper them and hide them from the rain or help regulate their body temperature; just some food, water, and a cat-proof shelter is fine.

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My oldest daughter is almost considered by the state to be old enough to command a 1-ton vehicle!  I still see her as the tiny bundled angel in the picture on my wall.  Of course, I literally see that she’s grown.  Sometimes she doesn’t see it.

Sometimes I don’t see my own growth.

God is always working on us.  Since none of us are dead, we are still improving.  Sometimes we get frustrated at ourselves because we don’t see any growth.  Maybe instead of imagining ourselves as rising bread, we should think of ourselves as growing plants.  Maybe not elephant ears – okay, sometimes we do grow quickly.  But with some things we are like the White Cedar (growing about 6 inches per year) or the Saguaro cactus (gets only one to two inches tall in the first 10 years!)

Sometimes slow growth is hard to see.

A wise man plants trees under whose shade he will never sit.

Wow, that thought says to me that those who choose to invest in long-term growth are wise.  So rather than expect instant results when I’m allowing God to work on my life, I understand that sometimes tiny steps in the right direction eventually lead to the finished product.  I will choose not to be frustrated with myself for not being a fast enough learner; I will choose to rest in His care and allow time for growth.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

 

 

Guinea Pig “Toddler”

June 30, 2018

Guinea Pig “Toddler”

Since we had a baby Guinea Pig (Sweet Potato) born on the fourth of June, we’ve been studying Guinea Pig growth.

Oh my, do they grow fast!

Not only do these amazing animal moms deliver live babies with a full coat, open eyes, claws, and teeth, but the baby is about 20% of the mom’s size.  (About 10% to 15% of her weight though.)

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Sweet Potato’s mom is Taylor (Picture is mom & baby)

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Her dad is TobyMac (Picture is dad & baby)

At 22 days old, Sweet Potato learned how to go down the ladder from the hutch where she was born to the ground to graze on grass (Guinea Pigs are better tractors than chickens!  They graze grass down to about ½” tall and then squeal because they want more!).  The girls have now stopped calling her a “baby” and claim she’s a “toddler” Guinea Pig.

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The girls have been loving on Sweet Potato since she was born.  They snuggle with and coddle all three adults, but Sweet Potato is the sweetest.  She knows how to tickle!

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One day soon, Sweet Potato will find a lifetime home, but for now, the girls love “raising” her so she will keep being sweet and friendly!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

 

Conquering Ticks

Our natural solution to ticks.

August 10, 2017

Conquering Ticks

We live on what we call a tiny farm.  It’s just over an acre.  It was abandoned before our landlord bought it, spruced it up, and cut down all the brush.  When we arrived in April, we discovered that a twenty-foot walk from our carport to the front step attracted lots of ticks!  Not the big, easy-to-see dog ticks, but tiny ticks the size of a period!  (Yes, some are so small they can fit on the head of a sewing pin, the girls have tried it – they also are fascinating to look at under a microscope because the light goes through them!)  Some were slightly bigger.  (No, we’ve never taken pictures of them!  We are usually inside when we find them and we smash, burn, or flush them, instantly!)

Research taught us these were a variety of deer tick.  The small ones are called “seed ticks.”  In part of the tick’s life cycle, they are newly emerged in their tick form (small adult form) and need just a little blood to finish growing.  So they bite and release.  The duration of this bite is between ten minutes and an hour, so sometimes we caught them and got them off.  We got very adept at distinguishing tick bites from the bites of other minuscule horrors of Florida, like sand gnats, mosquitoes, fire ants, and yellow flies.  We all know that ticks attach themselves once they are full adults.  (For this variety, full adult size is about 1/8th of an inch in diameter – the size of a small print “o”.)

I hate ticks.  (Who doesn’t?)  I don’t like pesticides.  (We want to eat food from this yard!)

Luckily, I have chickens!

Chickens are opportunistic omnivores (aka, scavengers).  This means while most people envision them eating dry seeds and corn, they actually have a palate that inclines them toward consumption of living organic material such as insects, microscopic organisms, fresh new plant shoots, and anything moving that is small enough to fit in their beak.  My chicken flock has always been known to hunt actively for mosquitoes and flies.  (Yes, they run along under the flying insect and jump to attack once they perceive catch is possible.  Several times they have smashed into a fence or wall while hunting in this manner.  Side-effect: human entertainment.)

Roosters (grown-up males) seem to find ant larvae a delicacy and get all excited digging up ant beds and telling the others, “here, some awesome food!”  (A few hens join in this feast, but others look at the ant-larvae-loving chickens with “eww, gross” expressions.)

Our laying hens (females) and breeding roosters stay in the covered henyard.  Our “biddie-babies” (the girls have made-up terms for every stage; this is newly hatched to 6 weeks) and “baby-toddlers” (6 to 10 weeks) share the brooding pens so they can be protected from rain, draft, and heat in the pre-feathered chick stage (biddie-babies) and to protect them from our area’s population of kites (beautiful, small hawk-like birds who hunt young chickens).  The “big toddlers” (10 to 15 weeks) and “teenagers” (15 to 24 weeks) roam near the henyard because they are too big for the kites to carry away.

They will forage all day for insects and leave the free-choice feed completely alone.  They stay within about 25 feet of their water source at all times (during or just after a light rain, they may wander a bit farther, but not normally).  They LOVE seed ticks!

Within two weeks of our natural pest control plan, we could walk to the carport with zero ticks!  Within a month, the strip of back yard where we hang clothes and the kids play was nearly tick-free!  It’s been five months and they have cleared an expanded circle that includes parts of the front yard.

(My bulb beds helped grow the circle as they love to eat insects that eat the bulbs and the plants hold dew.)

Slowly, our chickens are conquering the tick population in the rest of the yard!

In closing, if you have a tick problem and don’t mind chickens scratching through your plant beds, maybe consider a pest control plan that rewards you with organic fertilizer… and eggs too!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

 

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