Chocolate Box Cottage Diary, Volume 2

Week 15: April 16, 2022

Happy Homestead Anniversary #4! I can say that now and mean it, but Homestead Anniversary 1 and 2 were anything but.

Time for a trip down memory lane, back to four years ago when we left the 2-story yellow farmhouse and moved to our little homestead in the mountains above Lost Creek Lake.

Humble Beginnings

Humble beginnings at Chocolate Box Homestead. We made do with a bed, card table, and two camp chairs for furniture the first four months. Basically, we camped in our house. (I don’t necessarily recommend it.)

Sam and I both had in-town jobs. His commute was and still is 45 minutes, mine was an hour. Our youngest daughter, Miriam, was in her senior year, four weeks away from graduating from high school. Her daily drive to school was close to an hour, as well. I have since left my town job and work from home.

Animal Friends

Toby the Magnificent took to retirement with undisguised satisfaction. He loved his venue, a camp chair (doubling as a clothes drying rack) by the wood stove.

Sam’s smile made it all worthwhile. Somehow Sam managed to pack two dozen chickens, a couple of beehives, and several cats into the back of a moving truck. Moving to a rural place was his dream and he waited patiently until our children were grown.

Peek-a-boo! Teddy and Tilly, two Blue Toulouse goslings lived in a tub in the living room until they were big enough to live outdoors. They provided endless hours of entertainment and kept me from sinking beneath the weight of my to-do list.

Sam made a deal with friend Tim Hunter for a steer and a cow with twin goals of keeping the pasture mowed to reduce fire danger and providing beef the first summer.

Beef on the hoof, enjoying their new home.

Miriam with her little dog, Charla, on one of our Sunday-after-church picnics on our place during the early days. I keep picnics simple, purposefully. Often the menu consists of egg salad sandwiches with eggs from our hens and homemade bread, sliced veggies and fruit, and ice tea or fresh-squeezed lemonade.

Back to the Present…

It snowed from Sunday through Wednesday and again on Saturday. In April. In Oregon. Bushes and fruit trees are heavily weighted with wet snow.

Homestead garden: potatoes, carrots, peas, and greens, are under there somewhere! Tender seedlings in the greenhouse are doing fine!

Proximity to Phil’s Frosty is a plus! And when I say proximity, I mean half an hour away, so it’s not as dangerous as it sounds.

People see the pictures I share weekly and imagine this beautiful life – and it is. But pictures never tell the whole story, remember that.

If you’d like to know more, read my “Once Upon a Cottage Story.”

These weekly posts are my way of reminding myself of my blessings, so I don’t take them for granted. Each of our lives consists of both hard and beautiful things and it’s up to us to choose what to focus on.

If you want to view life through a lens of expectant wonder and thankfulness, I highly recommend the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann VosKamp. It is life-changing!!! Do yourself the great favor of reading it and beginning your Gift List. Friend, would you consider purchasing the book used rather than new? Here is my “share” link to my favorite online seller of gently used books. (If follow my link and sign up for their Book Rewards program, your qualifying purchase may earn us both credits toward books!)

We are in the perfect place for now! Because we are right where God wants us. So are you.

Blessings,

  Michele

PS. Want to read about another, very different week at Chocolate Box Cottage? Try this one.