YEP I have been absent for most of 2025.

This is going to be one of my LONG post LOL.

Since deciding to sell the farm and relocate to a Free State, I decided to at the same time become a whole lot more obscure. Also I have been beyond busy sorting all of a farms worth of stuff in to different categories....... The Give away or Sell Pile, the Dumpster or Scrap Yard Pile and the I need to keep this and move it pile. I also had to have that all done and relocated by August 15th when we closed the sale of the farm. At the same time I had to find where I was going to move to and buy the new place prior to selling the farm so I had someplace to move all the Krap I kept. All total the move once it got underway took twenty two 7 hour round trips using every trailer I own.

I ended up landing in Missouri Ozarks at a pretty remote location in a maze of gravel and dirt roads at the dead end of one of the roads. My backyard is the side of a small mountain and my front yard is around 5 acres of the valley floor bordered by a small creek. Pretty much my perfect place for a retirement homestead.



I am totally and fully retired now And with the move completed and the farm sale closed up I can relax a bit and put more focus on the porch sitting.


In a few weeks I turn 57 years old and have been doing a lot of reflecting on my life and the choices and circumstances to brought me to this point. And I am not complaining even a little bit about this point in life. To be able to have mostly retired in 2020 at 52 and fully retired by age 57 owning everything outright with ZERO Debts is a good thing Now not everything that happened in getting from there to here was so good but that is life. And lets be for real the last 5 years from 2020 to January 2025 were far less than pleasant. I mean being widowed was not great and hey everyone needs a X girlfriend that tried to kill you with rat poison and yes dealing with the after effects of that poisoning were not pleasant. Fortunately I have mostly recovered from it and the perm damage from it is minimal and won't bother me too bad going forward.

The new place came with a nice little 2 bedroom log cabin and a in decent shape smallish 100 year old barn. After the move I decided to go visit a woman that I have known for a longtime in North Carolina. And well ended up spending a Month on the North Carolina coast. And well I did not come back and move into the Cabin alone LOL. Fear not she has no motivation or plans of poisoning me............Yet.......... At least not after 3.5 Months together day in and day out on the homestead

We have been deciding on what we want to do here and building it. MRs Thunder came with Rabbits, Ducks, and Muscovys so the first order of business was building a addition to the old barn to house our rabbits.









And then it was done Rabbits, Chicken, Duck and Lamb are going to be our primary meats going forward.


This for them time being contains the Rabbits and the Chick Brooder Cage that holds around 50 chicks at a time. I have a building kit for a 12x20 pavilion that we still need to build that will be the Chicken Coop in the near future.


But other things need to be done before we build the chicken coop. Like raising a area up and leveling it to build a new and larger barn!


I can move some dirt with that M5660 tractor and its box blade and big bucket I kept the Kubota M5660 and the Kubota BX25D with the backhoe.


In the process of digging out the mountain base for enough clay to raise up and level the barn building sire I dug out a pretty good size hole LOL. It ended up being about 40 feet across and 60 feet long and I managed to get about 5 feet down before hitting ROCKS. So we are going to buy a big pond liner and make this a pond to raise catfish or bass in to add some variety and fish to our diets.


And then then the new barn building site was ready! It is not going to be a huge barn at only 24x60 but it will meet our present and future needs.


We NEED FIREWOOD for the coming winter so we have been making it in between building projects from the scrubby trees I pushed out for the barn building site. It is not oak or hickory and mostly consist of cherry which is far from ideal firewood but if we get lucky and have a mild winter the 4 cords should make enough BTUs to get us through.


Yep I kept the Kubota RTV and its trailer as well More handy here at the new homestead than it ever was on the old farm.


And finally what we have been working on most recently is building a 12x32 addition to the back of the cabin for the Food Hoard and a summer/canning kitchen and laundry/shower/mud room. Right now the second bedroom has all of the shelves from the old place food shipping container and two of the 30cuft chest freezers. The addition is nothing fancy I basically build a deck and a low ceiling pole barn around it and then framed between the post with studs. It will also let us get the washer and dryer out of the bathroom and turn that space into a proper closet.







A whole new Journey for the last 1/3 of my life.




I finally broke down and bought a new truck. After doing a lot of research and deciding what would serve me the best I decided on a Toyota Tundra. I have had it about 4 Months now and it gets the jobs done. Picture is loading up the livestock trailer in NC with rabbits. Dealership in NC gave me $4500 more in trade for the Camry than I paid for it and the truck was $3500 less there than it was in the dealership I use in IL. and they had the color I wanted!

Life is good now days and we are going to keep her place in NC and go back there every 4 Months for 2-3 weeks. LOL I have no interest in living on the coast and dealing with sand, tropical storms and hurricanes. Also way too many people for my taste. And that pink/red stain on my shirt is one of those slushy things I managed to spill down the front of me LOL. Good to find a woman that actually knows what she is doing on a farm and homestead and we just have fit together with the same idea, goals and how we want to live. 18 Months ago when we first started talking we decided we were just not right for each other and a 1000 miles between us made us just a waste of time to be anymore than online friends that chatted now and then. Well that didn't work out like we thought it would Haha. Soooo when it came time for me to leave North Carolina and head back home to get the new life started here....... I was informed that "YOU AIN'T LEAVING WITHOUT ME!!!"


Well that should catch up everything I have been up to and doing since I dropped off the face of the Earth

 

It's good to see you back,, you've certainly been missed ,, happy to hear you've been doing well. Looks like nice little spot you've moved to .

 

Good to see that you're still kicking. Folks get a little worried when you just stop posting. Especially when you've just survived a serious poisoning.

I can't imagine moving. I had my fill of that in my youth when I could carry everything I owned on my back. I'm pleased that you've found a happy place all the way round.

Do try to stay in touch.

 

may God bless you and yours and keep you all well, safe, and protected in Jesus name amen

 

Getting past that poisoning was rough. TBH the arms trembling and twitching made it almost impossible type or even drink a cup of coffee LOL. Doc was real worried that a lot of the damage would be perm and walking around with flailing arms was going to be my new normal. About 6 weeks that stopped and now just occasional tremors in the right arm that are pretty mild. Yeah this is my forever home, I just do not have another move or start over left in me. So I chose it very carefully and intentionally limited the open land so I could not make hay and have more than a small pasture.

 

Hello you old pirate! Glad too see you finally retired for about 10 minutes. Pray your doing well!

 

So Glad to read and hear Sir !
Sloth

 

Good to see your not dead, that's some good news for sure!

 

Good to hear from you again, and glad that y'all are happy in your new forever home.

 

So glad your are alive and kicking Kamp, looks like things have turned around for you-- new place, new companion. Don't be a stranger

 

YEah Retired has been almost as much work as not retired! and 2025 will go down in the books as one of the craziest, worst, best and hardest years of my life for sure. LOL Selfie I took after the 22nd and last load of the move was pulled in to NewHome. LOL my ass was on the edge of beat after all of those round trips and that last day I just wanted to be done and made the last 3 back to back and finished it up with a 23 hour day of hook trailer, drive, drop trailer and repeat......... And the move was done!!! Then Mrs. Thunder said you should come to NC and visit me and spend a few days on the Coast resting and relaxing. LOL I slept for around 10 hours straight got up and me and the dogs headed out on a short 1000 mile drive to South of Jacksonville NC. Then a few days turned in to a Month and WE came back and moved into the new cabin. LOL and since the day we got back here to MO. we been working our asses off building everything and doing everything we want and need to get done before winter.

 

Glad to see you back. Your good view of life has been missed. When you get to heaven you will probably make improvements for St Peter on the Holy Gate. Love that attitude.

 

Speaking of dogs, where is my favorite, the leader of the pack and hero, as I don't see him in any photos. I think his name was 'Poo' or 'Pop' something like that...

Man-oh-man, you make me feel so damn lazy every time I read your posts. LOL! I've had the idea for a catfish pond for quite a while so I might go forward with it using yours as a model so don't be surprised if I ask for more details in the near future. Too late here to start now but maybe next year.

BTW Welcome back! I was beginning to think your Black Widow had made a successful return. Do you know if they finally caught, charged and incarcerated her? Would be nice to know another whacko is off the streets...

 

Poo and Her Second PoP are both alive and well. BB Died at a ripe 18 years old a few Months ago. Poo and PoP are not ancient yet but are 11 years old now. 3 Great Pyrs Came with Mrs Thunder and her Alpha has been being educated that Pyrs are nothing but bark and fur and that she is not a alpha anymore. The New PuP got the Name Baby Bear or LOL BB in honor of the old girl Rat Terrier.... BIG BEAR LOL. She is a Pit/Catahoula Bulldog Dad was a 80 pound pit and mother a 75 pound Catahoula so guessing BB will be in the 80 pound range when she grows up.


Not going to say much about the squatter as it is now known beyond there is a criminal element that is kind of stalled for the time being.

There won't be any water in my big hole in the ground until next year either. I have to finish up everything already in process before I have any more ideas LOL.

 

Was wondering where the beautiful white Pyrs came from

 

Our Biggest Olaf and the other new puppy Gizmo.

 

Looking good man, I hope Johnny Depp picks you up in the next Pirates of the Caribbean flick, You'd be a good one!!!

 

Oh! THERE you are!

Ozarks are good. I've given them more than one glance myself, but on the northern Arkansas side, counties bordering Missouri. Sure beats the shit out of a state that's run by Chicago. I simply can't believe you stayed there that long.

But I'm getting kinda comfortable in the Arizona mountains, where I am now. Deep red county in a purple state with a lot of SoCal transplants. Ill see how that goes. The first indicator of an impending problem is usually a dramatic rise in taxes, including property taxes.

Great to hear from you once again!