Updates at the Homestead

We’re a few months into our third year in Upstate New York after the move from California. For most of the basics, we’ve found our groove and have made some updates to the home that we had planned for down the road but had to take care of sooner rather than later due to circumstances.

Things like a primary bathroom remodel due to a plumbing service tech breaking through a PVC pipe elbow high up in the wall of the bathroom for the line heading out from the kitchen upstairs to the septic tank down the south slope.

Or converting our heating from a wood-fed boiler to an electric boiler due to the loss of the “dump zone” the wood boiler uses to dump excess heat (there was a carbon monoxide scare thrown in there, too, thanks to a faulty propane backup boiler).

We’ve also had a backup generator installed that runs off of our 500 gallon propane tank and is controlled by a transfer switch.

Oh, and having to lay new gravel on the 440’ driveway.

We eventually plan on adding solar power to the property in the near future, so the boiler conversion was on the To-Do list, but much farther down the line.

One thing we hadn’t thought of much was adding beehives, but thanks to becoming friends with a neighbor down the road, we’ll be adding over 100 hives this year. He works for a local honey producer and there is a cleared section of our property right across the road from his house that is about half an acre. He does beekeeping on his own time, as well, and we talked about possibly letting him put some hives up over there.

We’ve long wanted to explore beekeeping to help do our part to provide habitats for local bee populations, and with his skillset and access, 2024 will be the year we do just that.

The space will also be planted with a small apple orchard (for hard cider), and I may clear some more of that section to make more room; I can always use more wood to mill for the projects we have planned.

I’m really excited for what 2024 has in store for us here on our little slice of wooded paradise, and will share the progress here as we go.