Well here I am in Oklahoma. We are purchasing our 75 acres, and renting a small house until we can put something on the land. Our land is extremely beautiful. I have missed you all and am looking forward to hearing all the news. Wendy I tried to call you the other day, but you weren't at home. I will try again soon. I love Oklahoma!

Little Bit Farm

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), October 19, 2000

Answers

Glad to hear all is well .Hope thing goes quickly with your building plans.

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), October 19, 2000.

Welcome back and God bless you. You do sound happy.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), October 19, 2000.

Little Bit! Great to hear things are going ok for you. Missed you on the forum, and sounds like your place wasn't involved in the fires. Hope to have more news from you soon, and Welcome back! Jan

-- Jan in Colorado (Janice12@aol.com), October 19, 2000.

Welcome Back, Lil Bit! It's good to hear from you again. I'm glad everything is apparently going well!

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), October 19, 2000.

Good to hear from you! We are happy that you are back! Keep us updated on all your progress.

-- Debbie T in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), October 19, 2000.

Welcome back you have been missed as I miss any of the woderful people that are regular posters on this forum I have some down moments but this forum and our God do help so much. Now is when I really wish we chould have attachments on this forum would love to see your land and and peek into the house building etc.... I know it will be a great experience for you and us as we here the reports on your progress. Where in Oklahoma are you at? I am 50 miles east of Springfield Mo. Maybe your house warming will be a chance for many of us to meet. God Bless. gail

-- gail missouri ozarks (gef123@hotmail.com), October 19, 2000.

It hasn't been the same around here with you gone! So glad you like your new place. Seventy-five acres! WOW!!! You can walk all day on that property! Best of luck to you.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), October 19, 2000.

Well, what does your new place look like? Trees, grasslands, rolling hills? I've been thru OK a few times, big Quarter Horse country, and lots of hills. I've been wondering how you've been gettin' along, so glad you posted. You can put ALLOT of goats on 75 acres! Good to hear you all are doing allright.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), October 19, 2000.

What a great opportunity. We can share your experience with you without the work! Keep us posted.

-- Cheryl Cox (bramblecottage@hotmail.com), October 19, 2000.

Welcome back, my friend ! I see you found the beginnings of world war III in the other thread. I was just holding them off till you arrived with the artillery. lol. Hope you are finding much happiness because after you move you can't find anything else if you pack like I do ! Great to have you back !!!

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), October 19, 2000.

yeehaw and yippee! Glad you are back and so wonderful to hear about 75 acres!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tell us more please! God bless.

-- lesley (martchas@gateway.net), October 19, 2000.

LBF! I was just wonderin about y'all last evenin. So glad everything went ok. Let us know more when you can. It's real good to have y'all back on here. We all missed ya!! May Almighty God continue to bless your family. Matt. 24:44

-- hoot gibson (hoot@pcinetwork.com), October 19, 2000.

YEA!!! Hi Little Bit! Ugh, sorry I missed your call! Am sooooo glad you and your family are doing well, the place sounds beautiful!! Ahh, 75 acres....wonderful, wonderful! It is GREAT to have you back, saw your other post first and thought to myself, this sounds like Little Bit....eewwweee-it is!! See you did not waste any time wading into the fray, he-he! Good to have you back!! God Bless and will email you later. Wendy

BTW, I like gail's idea of a housewarming party, we would be there!

-- Wendy@GraceAcres (wjl7@hotmail.com), October 20, 2000.

Good to hear from you! Hope you had a good trip! Are you going to write an article for the mag. about starting up on your new place?

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), October 20, 2000.

It is soooo great to be back! Thanks to you all for your welcomes! I honestly don't know where to start. There is so much going on. Joel I missed you too, but I think it would be stretching things to say you were holding anything back on the thread in question. More like making things interesting, I would say. This forum wouldn't be the same without you. As for finding things I am lucky to be able to have found my computer. I spent a week looking for my software.

Hoot, I am glad that you are still here teaching us all about life. I really think of this forum like a community, and you sir are a trusted elder we can all learn something from if we'll only open our minds and listen. Thank you for keeping me and my family in your prayers. God truly took care of us. This was one of thos times in life where we really had a chance to stick our neck out and trust that God would take care of us. He never lets us down.

Wendy I will try too call again.

Now for my story. How do you get 4 children two adults and a dog across the country and conserve money. Well first you sell,give away, and throw away everything that won't fit in a '75 Ford Van and '75 Ford pick up truck. This means nearly everything. Boy you really learn what's important too you when you have to pare down your possessions to the basics. How much are you willing to give up for your dream? I honestly now know what this question really means. You know what we have done is a crazy thing, but God has blessed us immeasurably.

The days before we left were a nightmare packing and cleaning experience. We got everything packed and still had a pile of possessions left over. Oh well, they weren't that important. To the trash can went some nice lamps, a couple of fans, and a host of other things. All I can say about the cleaning is Thank You God It's Over! We finished with the house two days later than we wanted to, at 4pm on Sunday. Well needless to say we were exhausted. I begged Joe to let us get a room right in town, but he wanted to get on the road, so we drove for an hour and then got a room. Men! This got us half way to destination Fresno for a round of family goodbyes.

We got up the next morning and went and said good bye to my husbands brother, My favorite aunt, My MIL and a host of my husbands extended family, then we raced down the road an hours drive to catch my grandparents before the flew off to my great-aunts funeral in illinois. We caught them and got to visit for a half an hour before racing out to get on the road to drive to Barstow 4hours away to meet some very good friend from southern California. When we left Porterville I called my friend and they left from southern California shortly there afterward.

In bakersfield we stopped for gas and then realized a couple of miles down the road that my son had left our gas cap back at the gas station. Well we went back and looked around. By tyhe time we searched for it and realized that we weren't going to find it, it was 8pm. Keep in mind that we were still supposed to meet our friends. We stopped in Tehachiapi and called their cell phone. They were already in Barstow. We agreed I would call them 20 minutes later in Mojave and they would tell us where to meet them. Well it took us a little longer to get to Mojave because every child had to go to the bathroom after I got off the phone! When I called my friend she said we'll meet you at this rest stop way out in the boonies almost an hour east between us and barstow. Well, that is what we did and we both arrived at 10pm. We enjoyed spending a couple hours with our friends at a rest stop in Boron. Our kids said goodbye and I said goodbye to my friend and then they left. Toward the end of this I was beginning to feel a little shaky. It was 1am and I was on physical and emotional overload. I got in the car and drove a hundred yards and pulled over and quietly had a meltdown. I knew it was not safe for me to drive. We decided to go into Boron and see if they didn't have a motel. Boron does have a motel and it was like a gift from God that it was there! I have never been soo happy to see a motel in my life. It was like one of those Movies where a man is wandering in the desert and finds an Oasis.

The next morning we woke up early and set off for the border of California. I still felt like death warmed over but that was an improvement. I will finish our story in another thread later today or tomorrow. Suffice it to say I never thought we would get to Oklahoma. It seemed like the trip would never end.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), October 20, 2000.

LBF - Glad you made it after such an exhausting beginning. That's when those nagging little doubts like to come in and ruin our peace - glad you hung in there. Can't wait to hear about the land. I'm originally from Kansas, and sometimes I get to missing all that wide open space. Is your place like that, or woodsy? Keep us posted on your progress, please. We'll be cheering you on! Glynnis

-- glynnis in KY (gabbycab@msn.com), October 20, 2000.

Hi Little Bit Farm--

We must of been abandoning California at the same time, though I went to Missouri. I am so glad to be outta there, I bet you are too! I can relate to your travel experience all too well. We missed you. Oh, BTW, I used to be know as Silicon Valley Man's Wife.

No more, my friends, no more!!!

-- Carleen (netorcs@mo-net.com), October 24, 2000.

Congratulations!!! It's good to have you back! 75 acres sounds like enough to keep your hands full for a while, at least. I'm really glad to hear that you've made it beyond the sidewalks (over the rainbow)!

-- Laura Jensen (lrjensen@nwlink.com), October 24, 2000.

Congratulations Little Bit. I can't wait to hear about how you build your new homestead. 75 acres sounds wonderful!! I'm also curious to hear how you like Oklahoma as you go through the seasons. It's so exciting to be on this forum and share in others' experiences. Living vicariously can be almost as much fun as doing it yourself. Take care and glad to hear God blessed your trip.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), October 25, 2000.