Welcome to Morgan Acres!

Hello!

How exciting to be putting together my first blog.  I like to fancy myself quite a wordsmith, so I'm actually quite surprised I've not created one before.  It's doubly exciting that the event spurring on this blog's creation is the launch of my own company, Go Green Sustainable Industries, LLC, along with my bosom friend and business partner, Alison Manes (click her name to be taken to *her* most beautiful and entertaining blog).  Ali and I have created our first product offering, LolliDoo(TM) diapers, and we're introducing it to the trade at the ABC Kids Expo in Las Vegas beginning September 7, 2008.  Visit our website at www.LolliDoo.com.

Given the birth of our company, our product, and this blog, I thought an introductory post in order.

So...

Welcome to Morgan Acres!

My husband and I were ever-so-blessed (words cannot even begin to describe my gratitude) by a family member and given a small piece of unimproved land in as a wedding present in 2004.  We've given our little corner of the world many nicknames, but the ones that have stuck are "Morgan Acres" and "It'll Do."

We have a lofty vision for our little humble abode: to create a place where can be as self-sufficient as possible, living in such a way as to minimize our time apart from each other as a family, while minimizing our environmental footprint.  We'd like to live and work here, and we created accommodations to facilitate that.  My husband has a door/wood shop in a separate out building, I have a glass studio in the garage, my sewing room is over the garage, and we have an office area where we conduct business.  We are both self-employed and provide an income for our family in that manner.  We are whitewater raft guides, too, my husband and I, and during rafting season will pack the family and tent into the van and head off to the river.  We have a large-ish garden plot where we plan to grow whatever produce we can, preserving and storing as much as possible to meet our food needs throughout the hard winter months.  We are also exploring the possibility of adding solar panels to meet our electrical needs (I, personally, would love to be able to harvest wind energy, but we just don't have the space, personally, for a mill...but, who does?).

We built our house.  Literally, from the ground up.  Or rather, my husband built our house literally from the ground up.  I supervised (I'm gifted in that regard).  We used many re-claimed items in it's construction, mostly from Habitat for Humanity, and much of the trim-work came (or is yet to come) from the few trees we had to cut down for our building site, including the creation of siding from downed cedar trees.  Much of the "frosting" on the house was created (or is yet to be created) in my glass studio (the kids' bathroom is already tiled with my creations, the light fixtures, sinks, etc., are yet to come).   It took two years to get it livable, being that we also had to provide for our needs in conjunction with building and also took time-outs for birthing children; as such, it still isn't completely finished, but we've begun to create a life here that, quite honestly, I would have a really hard time leaving, if it ever came to it, and we're completing the project as we're able to find time.

We have a beautiful little chunk of land on a northern-facing slope in the Selkirk Mountain range, often referred to as the Foothills of the Rockies.  Smack in the middle of forested land, bordering on thousands of unimproved private acreage, we're surround by epic views and plentiful nature and wildlife.  On a walk up our driveway one day last fall, I witnessed a cougar munching down on a deer who was unfortunate enough to lose its life by untold means, I scared a black bear out of our garage who'd stopped by to check out the small bucket of compost waste (we've since moved the compost WAAAY away from the house), sat for untold hours watching the family of turkey vultures who've nested in our trees and fly in every night to provide soaring entertainment during the dinner-time hour, and had the privilege to provide a week's worth of temporary safety for a mother moose and the baby she birthed just feet from our front porch.  Additionally, we're surrounded by such extraordinary beauty provided by Mother Nature in the form of cedar, birch, fir, and tamarack, interspersed with wildflowers, wild raspberries, ivy, and much greenery, all of which we're using to maintain a landscape surrounding the house that's native, growing wildly and bountifully with minimal watering and care.

Our location is prime for recreation.  We need only don our shoes and head out the door for epic hikes or snowshoeing/snowboarding (depending on the season, of course), and we do so frequently, as a family.  I suppose you'd say, too, that we reside on a "secondary" lot that sits up the hill from a spring-fed lake, a lake on which we're fortunate enough to have family living.  So a short little walk yields much splishy-splashy fun.  Additionally, we've made our space home to a frisbee golf (or folf) course, and we spend untold hours chasing frisbees up and down the hillside.  Not to mention, the untold numbers of toys that exist naturally, as ALL of the forest's bounty is fair game for playing (see the teeter totter picture below).  Lucky for us, if we pile in the car, we're surrounded by the most prime whitewater rafting in the country.  Needless to say, we firmly live by the motto that "the family that plays together, stays together."

Now please allow me to introduce those of us who are fortunate to call Morgan Acres home.  There are eight souls residing here (beyond those with wild souls, aka aforementioned cougar, bear, deer, etc.) and I've affirmed time again that "Eight is enough."  The family members who walk on two legs are my husband, Carl, and myself, and our three children.  Deven, 9 at the time of this blog entry, Skyler, 3, and Melody, 1.  Our four-legged loves: Sir Walter von Morganstein (miniature schnauzer, currently laying on his well-worn plaid doggie bed at my feet under the desk, often called the "yuppie yuppy" or more simply, "Wally") and Monster Buck and Daisy Jane (frequently referred to as one word, "BuckerooandDaisytoo"), our black lab puppies.  You can see, now, why we have a need for a whole garden plot to meet our nutritional needs.

I suppose that's it, for now.  There's a little introduction to our home and way of life.  If you're into it, stick around and check out the photos I've attached below.  I hope you enjoy them!  I hope, too, that you'll come back around my blog to see whatever it is I'm going to blog about!  lol!

Thanks for visiting!

Peace and Love,

Melissa

Eh, that's probably enough, n'est pas? :)