Black Mold Rears It's Ugly Head

I woke up at 4:30 this morning contemplating my life and that of my families lives. I went to bed about 2 am. I am sick but at the same time grateful for the blessing of health I do have. I am tired but at the same time coming to terms that it affords me nothing to "sleep" my life away. I am lost but at the same am found like NEVER before.

Again, I am wading through emotions of personal opposition and trust. Trust for myself. Trust for my husband. Most importantly, trust for my God. Reexamining faith and it's place in my life. Recognizing I have already been given all the answers....finding them....and believing in them, is the hard part. Does everyone go through this or is it just me?

Wednesday evening I started to get sick. My children have had mild coughs, runny noses, watery eyes, etc. since the beginning of the week. We have had rain all week which has been a big blessing seeing how east Texas is on the verge of a drought. But...it rained for a week straight. Oh, it came and went but every single day we had some rain, usually in copious amounts.

Within a few days of the rain starting, we noticed a black spot forming on the ceiling of the family room. I commented about it to Chris and then went about my daily doings. 2 days later we saw that the spot was growing quite rapidly and was now uncomfortably large and quite foul looking. We called my Dad who promptly came to look at it and covered the space where the hole was in the roof with a billboard tarp until the rain stops and the roof can be fixed.

I began to vaguely remember, years back, friends of mine sending links and talking about this black mold that houses can get which has potential health hazards and can cause illness. Very quickly and very profoundly.

I mentioned to Chris that I remembered this and asked him if he thought it could be making us sick. Both of us have had pretty severe allergies since moving here. Allergies, for me, are COMPLETELY uncommon. For Chris, he has dealt with them his whole life so even though they seemed a bit worse than normal, we both thought nothing of it at the time. Dean has had allergies off and on too but as we thought back, our memory was that all our kids have had some discomfort or another, since moving here, that simply looked like allergies and was treated as such.

We decided to leave the house that evening and come and stay with my mother in law in town. Upon arriving, I spent the next several hours researching black mold and the "effects"...if any....on human health. This information is from one of the first websites I looked up. Another one is HERE!

"According to a 1999 Mayo Clinic Study, nearly all chronic sinus infections (afflicting 37 million Americans) are a result of molds."

"A 300% increase in the asthma rate over the past 20 years has been linked to molds. (according to 1999 USA Today Cover Story)"

That seemed scary to me. As I read on, I saw that many of the symptoms we were having, and had had on a regular basis since moving in, were congruent with what I was reading. I had heard of a dear friend who moved to California to move close to the coast so she could relax and heal from breast cancer. Only to soon find out that her house was covered in mold and making her sicker than ever.

Chris went back today and with mask in place, cleaned up the mess. We researched cleaning agents that we're supposed to be more "natural" and less invasive on human and environmental health. He purchased one and used it only to find it didn't really work that great. Unfortunately, he had to pull out the Clorox and he said within twenty minutes the mold was gone. Of course. Refreshing to know how often we, as a society, use Clorox and how effectively it kills life. Oh well. Just one more check on the chemical list I'm already putting together.

For now, we are still here...at my mother in laws....waiting out the storm, figuratively and literally. I don't know if the mold is causing all or any of our health issues. I am feeling somewhat better but am still pretty sick and we have been out of the house for 2 days now. I think it's so hard to know exactly what to peg on our health issues just because allergies can look just like a little cold and allergies are quite prevalent here in Texas. I believe there are SO MANY factors that go into each persons health, that all of them should be looked at before a proper diagnoses can be formed.

So, I'm wondering what each of you think. Give me your opinion. I know I have many family members in the medical field....please speak up and give your insight. All you alternative friend...you too...don't hold back. We are praying and searching for answers on how to properly deal with this situation. Last thing we want is our children's health compromised in anyway. We are willing to take the measures, if need be, to thwart that from taking place.

Living in the lake house has been such a blessing for our pocketbook. We will be forever grateful for Grandmama and Dad letting us stay there. Thank you! Thank you~ But if changes are needed then changes we much make! If staying is the order of the day....then stay we will!!

Abundant peace to all,
Rachel

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
~Albert Einstein

Splendor & Beauty

Today we are headed out to the land to start PULLING and CUTTING! I am posting pictures of how much the land has grown since we originally cleared it 4 months ago. Dean is in some of the pictures. I put him there to show the height. He is 5 ft. tall. There was NOTHING grown when we got here 4 months ago and now it's up to my chest. We are SHOCKED and EXCITED! It means good things for our garden but TONS of work for us right now.

We are going out today with the intent of pulling up and cutting down as much as we can. Also, I'm posting pictures our goat Francis. There's one of him up above. We sure LOVE him. We're anxious to get his fence up so we can put him on the land asap. Wish us luck!

Pratt and Francis! So CUTE!!

Ok, here's what you see right when you pull up to the section we plan to cultivate. We figure we orginally cleared about 2 acres and that's what your looking at here. This picture is taken right in front of our car. Notice the amount of pulling and cutting we will have to do. We thought about just paying someone to do it but we are going to see how much we can get down today doing it ourselves. Yes, we know we are crazy.

Here's the picture with Dean I was talking about. This plant was just a root in the ground 4 months ago. We just can't believe it!! 5+ ft. in 4 months. Whoa! We just can't believe it!

This is the walk way that walks us down to that group of trees you see in the background. Also, down to the brook. Once you pass that grouping of trees the tempatures drop immensely because of the brook and shade.

The beginning of the grouping of trees that was in the background in the picture above. Just some of the splendor and beauty we have been blessed with. Thanks so much Dad and Grandmama!!

Some more beauty! We researched at one point the name of this flower but have forgotten it. Some type of passion flower I think. We should see it in real life. It does take your breath away!! It smells lovely too!

Here's what you see as you walk behind the grouping of trees seen above. The tall trees in the background is where the brook is. This is where it is MUCH cooler!

The right side of the brook when you are facing it!

The left side of the brook when facing it!

More splendor and beauty!!

This is really exciting for us to see because this means we have a GREAT water run off right down the middle of the land. This is what the water has done to some of the mulch, pushed it down the hill. We're anxious to get the pond in to catch all that nice water for us!

This is just one of the dozens of OUTRAGEOUSLY large anthills on the land. This pretty much SUCKS! We are finding ways to get rid of them in a naturally. We'll see how it works. I had a dream last night about finding herbal insect repellent at our local health food store. We're going to look today. I've pretty much had it with getting eaten alive. If it's not the ants then it's the mosquitos. Last time we went out I came home with about a dozen bites. So much for raw foods and healthy eating as prevention. Oh well.

Lastly, here is Mabel all ready for us to head out! The most slendor and beauty we've seen yet!!

Until next time.

Abundant peace to all, Rachel

Mosquito Net, Watermelons & Homeschool

Here are the pictures I said I would post. I know ALL of you are jealous!! I actually like sleeping underneath this. Aside the whole roach issue, it's also kind of romantic...in a way. Well, when you don't think of it as a mosquito net. Maybe I'm stretching it a bit but WHO CARES? I'm ecstatic about it! I have a side view and a front view so you can appreciate it as much as me. I have had several people ask how our garden is doing too! A couple months of ago we thought our cucumbers were gone because of the heat. They did stop producing but the leaves kept growing and flourishing. Now, as the weather has cooled a bit, they are producing cucumbers again. For the last month, we've gotten several so that's been really FUN!!

Our tomatoes are pretty much dying right now. In one of the pictures of our watermelons, you can see our sad tomatoes plants behind. But....we're VERY HAPPY to say that our watermelons are doing GREAT!! We bought some different heirloom varities so some are striped and some have these cute yellow speckled dots.

We are EXCITING to get started on our fall garden. I'm planning on filling ya'll in on everything we plan on planting and taking pictures of the land and where we are putting the garden spot. This week we are going out to the land with our new goat. Oh....I'll take pictures of him toO! We named him Francis after St. Francis of Assisi. He is our lawnmower right now.

This is our BIGGEST melon right now. I just can't wait to slurp it up!!

This is our watermelon bed that is doing the best. Notice the tomato plants in the background. You can't tell but they are in a different bed. Chris thinks these watermelons are doing so good because he mixed in quite a bit of wood ash with the compost and such.

Lastly, here are my AMAZING kids doing their homeschool!! Just thought I pass it along!

Peace to all, Rachel

Hitting "The Wall"

We hit the wall! Chris and I spent the last week figuring that out. That was/somewhat currently is, the problem. We think.....

Last night we were watching this funny movie called "Run Fatboy Run." It's a British film about a guy who runs out on his pregnant girlfriend on their wedding day. 5 years later and after she finds a new guy, he realizes he made a mistake and wants her back. During those 5 years he has gained quite a bit of weight. Also, he is concluding that he is unhappy and has been unable to follow through with anything of importance to him.

He meets his love interest's new boyfriend and he happens to be running a marathon for a charity. The main character decides he is going to run too and prove to her that he can follow through, with the hopes that she will want him back.

I won't ruin the movie for you because I think it's good enough that you should see it but there's a scene that impacted both Chris and I profoundly. He's running the race and soon after starting , he gets hurt. He's lying on the ground deciding if he should keep going. The movie leaves you assuming he doesn't. As time passes, you realize he is running the race while being pretty injured. During the middle of the run (or walk since he was so injured he's walking pretty slow), he stops. Everyone around him is sure he has hit "the wall." In the movie, a brick wall appears before him and you can tell he just doesn't think he can see a way to get through it. Then....a brick is removed from the middle of the wall. He stands on his tip toes and looks through it.

Mind you, at this point, I assumed he was going to see his love interest. She was the one it seemed he was doing it for so I only guessed that she would be on the other side motivating him. Nope. He looked through the brick only to see himself on the other side.

Chris and I were talking this morning and he said, "I'm like that guy in the movie last night. I felt like I'd hit "the wall." You've seen some of my previous posts. You understand just a tidbit of the struggles we've had. They may not look like that much. They're probably not in the grand scheme of things. But....just like the movie when the main character was injured, he merely stumbled a bit but still got back up. I feel that's how things have been for us up til now. Just things to stumble over but then you just pick yourself back up.

Where we are at now feels much different merely in the fact that we see the wall, we feel the wall, we are completely conscious to where we are at in comparison to the wall...how we got here....and are now asking ourselves if we can go forward. And even more importantly, asking ourselves the question of...if we do go forward why are we going forward and for what reason?

Well, I'm very happy to say I think we have and are getting our answers. I'm scared to put this out there because then it seems so much more real but we decided to make a 2 year commitment with the adventure and then see where we are at. We already knew some of the reasons why we made this decision. Where we are at now only heightens our awareness and shows the picture clearer than when we arrived in Texas.

Chris and I are looking through our wall right now. We see we are doing this for ourselves and our family. We see that I am doing this for me and he is doing this for him. We see that even though this is THE MOST challenging thing we have ever done, we believe....we hold out hope, that the end result will be more rewarding than we could ever imagine. We say that full well knowing that it could turn out completely different than we even had planned.

So, I am happy to say....we are climbing over, or scooting under or just plain plowing through our wall right now, knowing we will come out victorious on the other side. I think anyways.....hehehehe!

Abundant peace to all,
Rachel

Permaculture 101

"Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and perennial agricultural systems that mimic the relationships found in the natural ecologies. It was first developed by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren and their associates during the 1970s in a series of publications. The word permaculture is a portmanteau of permanent agriculture, as well as permanent culture."

"The intent was that, by rapidly training individuals in a core set of design principles, those individuals could design their own environments and build increasingly self-sufficient human settlements — ones that reduce society's reliance on industrial systems of production and distribution that Mollison identified as fundamentally and systematically destroying Earth's ecosystems."

Here is wikipedia's definition which I think tells it MUCH better than I could. I had heard about permaculture a few years back from some good friends who had been trying to apply some of it's principles into their home garden. It sounded intriguing back then but, at the time, we weren't in a place where could apply any of it's teachings.

Once it was time for us to make this change, we started gathering all of info we could on the subject. One of the main inspirations for me is the people I found at a website called "The Path to Freedom." I have a vague memory of someone sending me an email link to their video YEARS ago. I remember watching it then and feeling this swelling inside me. I had no idea how deeply it I was impacted until recently. I have scoured their website and watched the video over and over.



Now, I'm not sure if they are applying permaculture ideas into their set up but my what I've seen and read I can only assume so. It's just that I don't think seen the actual word permacuture in their stuff but I'm not absolutely sure. Just let me leave it at that.

We decided to go straight to the source with our first book about permaculture, "Introduction to Permaculure." We have really loved this book and found that it has been a MUST for what we are trying to do. But...we also found it to be written in a textbook format which tends to lean it more toward the boring side. Along with use of language and verbage that was somewhat over our heads. (We are most DEFINITELY a bit on the slower side)

After months of reading, we were grateful for another recommendation. A book called "Gaia's Garden." Also, a permacuture book but a MUCH easier read. When to read both books together, we found that understanding the first book become easier. We found that whatever we struggled to understand in "Introduction to Permaculture", would tend to be explained in a bit more understandable way in "Gaia's Garden." We do feel that we need both books to get and apply needed information in regards to the teachings of permaculture. We do plan on purchasing and reading Mollison's Permaculture Part 1, 2 and so on. There is so much information in just the 2 books we have now that we feel until we can really glean and even apply some of what we already have there is no need to purchase more yet.

One idea that we realize is a MUST is the DESIGN. Well, I should say if you are starting how we are which is square one with bare land. Design is a must even if you are doing what the Path to Freedom people are doing too! It's just you start from where you are at and what is or is not available to you. Our situation I think is a bit different than most because we are starting at square one.

This has been an EXTREMELY daunting task for us. To be honest, we really don't know what we are doing. We are gleaned mega doses of information from people and books but we have never actually applied any of it til now. Trying to create a design that is highly effective and reusable in all aspects has taken much more time than we expected.

These books have truly been a life saver in so many ways. There were so many ideas and concepts that we already knew would work to help build what we are wanting but we just didn't know how to apply them. This is where the books comes in. I think anyone with an endeavor as ours has many ideals they want to meet to create self sufficiency. One main ideal for us is freedom. We want freedom from enslavement of debt and bills and such but also freedom to do what our lives what we truly want. When we want and for the most part, removing ourselves from being beholden to anyone or anything. Freedom. Freedom. Freedom.

We've have found that with the ideas and principles of permaculture being properly applied, homesteading seems to be more of a joy and less of a headache. We assume so anyway. We have already found this to be true, to a small extent, with our garden. Just applying permaculture to our garden, we've found it to be much easier and less time restrictive than expected. We have most definitely made many mistakes with this first garden but feel our fall garden should be better and more concise.

I think I will stop here for now. We are still in the process of deciding what type of earth friendly home we want to build. Come back for my next post. Earthbag? Earth berm? Underground? Adobe? What to choose? What to choose? We have some ideas. I'll tell you all about it.

Abundant peace to all,

Rachel

Update On Roaches

I guess while I was gone to Utah, Chris had his mother come and spray something (I don't really want to know what, at this point). Since we have been back, the amount of roaches has dropped to almost non existent. So, the future plan....to spray more chemicals. We are only spraying them in the kitchen, bathroom and patio since we think that's where they're coming from into the rest of the house. We'll see I guess.

The REALLY exciting news though. My mosquito net came yesterday. Can you imagine the world I live in now? I am ECSTATIC about receiving a mosquito net. I NEVER thought I would hear myself say that but I am. And I'm thanking the Divine for helping me find it. Yep. That's the way my life works.

Lastly, the heat has died down. Don't get me wrong, we are still sweating but temperatures have dropped to 95 degrees or even below on some days. Blessing...blessing...and more blessings. The sweet smell of reprieve. I mean that literally too! You can only imagine how some of us smelled by the end of the day.

I think I FINALLY found my silver lining. Thanks for EVERYONE's help. I couldn't have done it without you~

Abundant peace to all,
Rachel