I can't stand it anymore. I've decided it's time to rent a full storage space.
The one's at the park are actually boat storage with dirt floors. That makes them less than half the price of other "climate controlled" units around here. I have been renting a half of one with my stuff on pallets. After the last rain, I was putting more stuff in and the mud was awful. I came out one inch of mud on my shoes.

A neighbor just put a floor in his unit. It really made a difference. I thought I'd put some plywood on some pallets and make a floor I could take with me.

I really need to clean out the trailer and have a place to do some work, even if it's only warping a small loom. I simply am too crowded to do anything but sit at the computer or lie down. It's making me nuts!

Step One for Homesteading

I can find tons of info on how to build a house out of just about anything for cheap, how to build solar systems, how to build, well, you name it. What I can't find, is how to get the land to build on! Somehow, I have to get enough money to buy land.

Seems there are two choices - save money from what I have - which is precious little. Or make money - which is coming very slowly. Or the third option would be to win the lottery. Ok, two options.

I am working on increasing my income from my online work. Writing didn't work out for me, but Zazzle hasn't been doing too badly. I do need to put more time in and slow down on the family history stuff.

Another option would be to convert my old camper into solar electric. My electric bill is pretty low, but I could save the money and put it aside for land. Still at about $40 a month, that's $480 a year. It would take about 10 years to even get close to having enough. And that's after spending a lot of money on equipment. Of course it would be good to have on hand in case of emergency. So maybe that is step one.

I'd love to run out and buy the stuff I need, but that is beyond my means. So I will have to collect the stuff as I go. I need to experiment with low-cost systems until I feel ready to jump in with a bigger system. I just saw a tent cooler that ran off of a small rechargeable batter that looked like a battery for a fence charger. Wonder if that would work? If I can start with a small battery, I can charge it with the power from the camper. Or I could just buy a deep cycle battery from Walmart.

I'll have to do some research. All suggestions would be appreciated.

The Family Has Taken Over my Life

I know I haven't been writing much lately. I've been obsessed with family history. It's like a puzzle that won't let go. Some days I wake up, eat and sleep the mystery. Sometimes I discover something that only leads to more questions. Here's an example.
I thought I had everything I could find on my great-great grandmother Eliza Jane Welch Pettey. I knew when she was born and when she died. I knew who her parents where, although I didn't know too much about them. I knew who she married and who her children were. I even knew where she was buried and had even visited her grave. What I didn't know, surprised me.
During a visit to my dad's I happened to pick up a book of our family history. I scanned through it and just by chance started reading about Eliza Jane meeting William H. Pettey, my g-g-grandfather. But what startled me was the comment that she was living with her sister, Fannie, in Nacogdoches. I didn't even know she had a sister.
Fannie was married to Mathias Myers so off to search for census records. Sure enough, I found Mathias Myers, Sarah F. (Frances "Fannie") a couple of children and "sister-in-law" Eliza Jane Welch at 16 years of age. The sisters both gave their father's birth place as Ireland. I already had found that Eliza's father was a James Welch from Dublin Ireland, born in 1830. And she listed her mother as Martha Willis from Georgia. I had even found a record of their marriage in 1854 in Lawrence County Alabama.

Where did Martha go?