Its still a Pilgrimage......

Today marks the one year date from when our offer on our house was accepted. I've thought long and hard about whether we should continue this blog or maybe start a new one....or whether we should just do nothing. I came to the conclusion that even if no one reads what I write....i will always have this "web journal" of sorts to look back on! So, I am continuing to write and dare I say, will do a better job this time around!
The Gerrick Pilgrimage started out initially because we sold everything and bought a trailer to live in full-time and travel to find our new permanent dwelling. We left Minnesota and then later Ohio with nothing but what fit in our Nissan NV 12-passenger van and our 31ft travel trailer....it was very much a "pilgrimage". But, here we are now, in a house, settling down, starting our own little homestead, so I thought about changing the name....our journey was after all over, right?!? Not in the least!!!
The journey of our life is still going strong and long...just in a completely different "direction" now! So, the name stays.

So what has this past year looked like for the Gerricks?

Well, for starters, we are the very proud and ecstatic owners of 3.69 acres in Melba, Idaho!

Luke and I decided the best thing to do was pretty much relax the first year...after spending a lot on a down payment and then having to turn around and spend a lot on fixing our well pump and un-for-seen dental problems we just didn't have any funds to pour into doing ANYTHING else!

Luke got what was supposed to be a promotion at work shortly after we moved into the house...and it had "potential" (Finance Manager) to be a great next step in his career but ended up really screwing us over...so back to sales he went by the end of the sales season. Sadly, we lost the opportunity during the busiest part of the season to put money back into our savings which caused for a very financially tight winter for us. But, we've been there before (you know, that place with no money) and we STILL managed to pay OFF our van an entire year EARLY, so that was a HUGE BLESSING for us!

We took advantage of the time we had to watch and learn about our property and to plan what and where we wanted everything. We got to see how the irrigation works and how much it cost us at the end of the year and how much water we got from it. We got to see what the weather does in every season (even though we had spent the previous year in the area it was actually about 30 miles North and in an entirely different growing zone!) and figure out sun patterns. We tested our soil to know what kind of remedies, if any, were needed and which specific plants would need what specific remedy. We tried our best to figure everything out FIRST so that when we're finally able to start doing anything we don't have to scramble to try to figure it all out!

So, here we are now....in the Spring of 2018. Ready to start (slowly) turning our home into a homestead of sorts. We have a plan and are starting to have the business (at work - for Luke -with RV sales) which means we will soon have a little extra money to start the transformation!!!

-Lamentations 3:21-23-
"But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."