# Hideaway Pines - Introduction



## Hideaway Pines (Dec 29, 2020)

1. What state/province/country are you in and what is your climate like?
  East Texas, It is warm usually, humid most of the time, but I love the heat over the cold.

2. How many people are in your family? Marital status?
  I am married for 40 years now, we have two adult kids who are married, but no grandkids yet.

3. How would you define your farm?
  A homestead in the making - we have 30 acres, but most of it is solid woods. Only the areas we have cleared are accessible.  We do have Rabbits and Chicks, but hope to expand to Pigs soon. We want animals we can manage and butcher ourselves. 

4. What would you do with your spare time if you had any resources you needed?
Spare time - not sure I understand that... ha, but I guess I would build cabins for others to come and find peace in the woods, enjoy nature and be able to unplug from the craziness of the city. 

5. Have you ever built a house, barn , or other types of building? Do you want to?
Yes my husband and I built our 1,500 sq ft barn, it was a challenge, we did this in August and normal temps were around 100 that year, so handling the metal  required gloves. We built our 300 sq ft coop/rabbit house that we call the Coop-a-Hut it has running water, electricity and is predator proof, and we built a large carport, and our house we did use a contractor for the majority of it, but we did all the painting inside and out, and we did all the clean up of the build site each week. But we also had to clear all the land for these buildings since there was not open space on our land. So we have a wood chipper and we have gotten good at taking down trees and Yaupon to open things up a little at a time. We did not want to hire anyone to bulldoze our place, we wanted to hand pick what we removed. My husband can build anything, and I am his handy side kick.

6. Can you weld? Steel, aluminum, MiG, TiG, stick, Oxy-Acet?
me - no

7. Who or what inspired you to be a farmer/rancher, hobby farmer?
We have always wanted to do this since we got married, I would have a 100 animals if I was able, I just love everything about this way of life. As we approached retirement age, we decided it was time to take the plunge. 

8 Is it a hobby or an occupation?
some of both I guess. 

9. In what areas are you knowledgeable and in what areas would you like to learn more?
I have am always learning, but do not want to claim master of anything, I have some experience in Gardening, Chickens and Rabbits - I also love cooking, sewing, and enjoy learning new crafts. I am always coming up with new projects. 

10. In what types of farming will you never choose to do?
anything that involves plows or chemicals. I love the hands on homestead small organic farm. 

11. Are you interested in providing more of your own food supply?
Yes we are moving toward being self sufficient if need be.

12. Where do you end up when you sink into yourself, away from the outside world?
I find myself in a quite spot, pressing into my relationship with the Father and tuning into His heartbeat - which is usually counter to the worlds.

13. Can you drive a farm tractor or a semi?
can, maybe, want to - no

14. Do you make crafts or useful items? Would you want to teach others how to do these?
yes I make all kinds of crafts, I also make my own teas, I do love to teach others and have done some from time to time.

15. Can you legally have all forms of livestock where you are at? Do you have any? What kinds?
yes, no restrictions here - as far as I know.

16. Can you operate a lathe? Metal, wood?
no

17. Do you like to garden? If so, what do you enjoy growing?
yes and everything

18. Do you fish? Bait or explosives?
fish, love the whole fishing concept. 

19. How much space/land do you have or rent? City farm? Country?
30 acres in wooded country miles from any other person.

20. Are you a Novice, Technician, degreed?
novice I guess, went to the school of hard knocks.

21. What is your farm specialty? Or what one would you like to learn?
Back to Eden Garden style is my specialty I guess, along with rabbits and some chicks. I want to learn about pigs.

22. If you could create a degree and curriculum, what would you major in and what classes would you take?
wow not sure on this one...

23. Do you do wood work? framing, finish, cabinet?
no, 

24. Are you interested in herbal animal medicine?
yes, I am big into essential oils, making my own herbs and salves 

25. If you could live any place you chose, where would it be?
depends, I love Oregon, but not sure I would ever choose to leave Texas 

26. Do you use a wood stove for heating or cooking?
no an off the grid gas range.

27. What would your ideal super hero/villain be?
one who can fly and has the ability to be invisible.

28. Are your family or friends also interested in animals?
some are.

29. Do you like to cook? Are you interested in whole foods and natural foods? raw milk? farm fresh eggs?
love to cook, and go organic when possible, try to eat healthy, keto, no sugars or preservatives. Farm to Table is my passion.

30. What was your best animal experience? Worst?
No worst really, best, I had a pet flicker tail squirrel that I adored. 

31. Do you forage or hunt for part of your food needs?
forage on occasion, but not really a hunter.

32. What skills do you have that help you be more a self sufficient farm?
I love to learn, will tackle any challenge and have a husband that can do anything - between us we are quite the pair. 
33. Do you process your own meat? Can or preserve?
we do our own and yes I can and preserve.

34. Do you use alternative energy sources on your farm? Would you like to?
we run on solar and use grid power for now, we have propane for our appliances too. We have our own well and it is also on solar, so we can be off gird if need be. 

35 What is on your to do list?
too long to go into - but my husband is just finishing up his Tractor Shed, which is made up from 9 large trees we cut down, milled and made 24 ft long timbers from, he has completed the structure and is attaching the last of our solar panels to the roof for our final solar array this week. This project took months and lots of work to get all these huge trees cut, milled, treated and raised into the structure. 

36. Have you ever lived completely off what you produce? Would you like to? 
no we have not ever lived totally this way, but are prepared to do so if need be.

37. In what do you trust?
God

38. Do you make and fix things yourself to save money?
Yes we do

39. Has the experience with animals changed your attitude or habits?
not really, 

wow.. this was a lot to answer.. but hope this helps...


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie (Dec 29, 2020)

Thank you so much, Miss @Hideaway Pines, for starting your journal.  <text deleted>

Senile Texas Aggie

2020-Dec-30 10:30: edited to delete text because it was a bad joke that sounded sarcastic, and I didn't want that to be interpreted wrongly.


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## Hideaway Pines (Dec 29, 2020)

it sent before I was done, I have now answered all them... took me some time...


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie (Dec 29, 2020)

Thank you so much, Miss @Hideaway Pines!  I am now following your journal.  Sorry about my previous post.   It was meant as a joke but probably came across as being a wise butt!


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## thistlebloom (Dec 29, 2020)

Welcome from north Idaho Hideaway Pines! Your place sounds wonderful and you and your husband have done an impressive amount of work.
I loved your pictures on another thread, you have gorgeous gardens.


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## Hideaway Pines (Dec 29, 2020)

Senile_Texas_Aggie said:


> Thank you so much, Miss @Hideaway Pines!  I am now following your journal.  Sorry about my previous post.   It was meant as a joke but probably came across as being a wise butt!


ha 🤣no worries, I was frustrated that my attempt to tab over instead posted it before I was ready... obviously need to work on my skills with all this... trying to maneuver the website and understand how it works🤦‍♀️ 😁


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## Hideaway Pines (Dec 29, 2020)

Thank you, it has been a ton of work, but we have loved every min of it. It is hard to get good pics of my gardens, but here are a few more from this summer when things were in full production... this is what we call the big garden, the largest of my three gardens.


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## Hideaway Pines (Dec 29, 2020)

The coop-a-hut is also hard to get into a single pic, but you can see the from of the building and the outdoor run for the chicks... the bunnies are inside the building and they have the section of the back wall that has hardware cloth and goat panel up on the wall. We have had no predator's getting into our babies so far - its been 4 years so I think my husband did a good job. Because we were not here full time when we started the Chickens and bunnies, we needed this to be very safe for them. He buried hardware cloth out 3 feet from the perimeter of the building.


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## Larsen Poultry Ranch (Dec 29, 2020)

Lovely garden and chicken run!


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## Baymule (Dec 29, 2020)

Very nice rabbit and chicken coop!


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## Senile_Texas_Aggie (Dec 31, 2020)

_Happy New Year, Miss @Hideaway Pines!_


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## Hideaway Pines (Dec 31, 2020)

Happy New Year to you as well - and may 2021 be better than 2020!!😁


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