Yearly update : 2021
The Gregorian year of 2020 had been a productive year for the family, as we made key decisions around our family and future. We purchased raw land in the Ozarks. Our youngest son, Rohan had decided to look at alternatives to EMT for his vocation and landed on paralegal training. He had graduated high school early before turning 18, hence opted for closing his college requirements in local community college, while pursuing paralegal. Jay was admitted to Missouri University of Science and Technology (S&T) and has out of the house. Sam was settled in with his medical technology job in the greater Houston area.
With these in motion, 2021 began like any other year for the past several years, on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Temperatures were balmy upper fifties, nights cooler in upper thirties or lower forties. But things had been changing. Our conviction to live closer to the land, which started us to work our backyard garden and have a small flock of animals as the city ordinance would allow, started to grow stronger, as we slowly started to work the land we had purchased in 2020.
Our goal was to follow the wise saying in Proverbs: Complete your outdoor work and prepare your field; after that, you may build your house. We decided to start with our barn/garage, with RV parked in the garage, while we worked to plant our vineyards, orchards, vegetable garden and then bring animals and start farming and then build the house. This meant we leave our 2600 sq ft home on gulf coast to a 30ft RV in the hills.
In February, winter hit both Ozarks and gulf coast hard. But it was felt harder on gulf coast. We had several days of subzero weather with bad planning from our electricity providers, we had various folks loosing power and water for almost a week. God had blessed us with power and water on our home, so we entertained about a dozen college students thru that week, enjoying the fellowship and the warmth. We also welcomed new bunny babies in early spring.
In April, with grace of God, we got a call back from a local contractor and got started on the barn/garage. Since we had decided to look at going back to the land a year ago, this breaking of ground, gave us an opportunity to consider our work options and Raj gave his 3 months notice to his employer, IBM. After 4 months of transition time, Raj left his IBM job where he had been a full time employee for 22 years.
With limited connectivity on the land, we also left most of social media other than to look for used equipment or get resources about animal husbandry. We also got a container to start moving items as we staged the move, with our sons moving to a city to live and study, while we complete the barn and clear things from our Texas home. We sold our Galveston home in July and we continued to wait for the barn/garage to be complete for us to take dominion of our land in the Ozarks.
| From Galveston City | To the Hills of Ozarks |
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In the Ozarks, we have made many new friends and found brothers and sisters in Christ. Our younger sons are full steam ahead pursuing Chemical Engineering and dual (Econ+Paralegal) degrees at Liberty University, respectively. Jay is looking at Winter of 2022 to graduate and Rohan is planning to graduate with double major in 2023.
Our animals both indoors and outdoors have fared well to date, all thanks to the Most High. We started to brace for the prolonged winter that we will face in Ozarks compared to Gulf Coast. We are putting systems in place to adapt and keep every body warm.
Since leaving IBM, Raj was asked to help back. He is contracting for IBM part time with limited connectivity, he does the work from the city few days a week. Stef has been expanding her sartorial interests and has taken up weaving while maintaining the multiple home locations and designing for the optimal animal setups on the land. She also has been researching on various breeds and options for us to drive on the land.
We are continuing to maintain our Friday Night Bible reading, which we started back in summer of 2018, with remote support since 2020, due to split locations. We just finished Haggai and God willing, will be in the Gospels before 2021 is out. We are also enjoying our rest on the 7th day of the week as a family, with worship, reading and good food. Although, the whole move back to the land has taken longer than expected, we continue to stay diligent to our original calling, as the barn and garage is making progress. We get to spend more time with our younger sons, having atleast few meals a week and having a good time seeing them grow up.
We are thankful for Almighty's blessings this year and continue to bank on His faithfulness as He works in our lives, through this transition.
We send our wishes, greetings and blessings in the name of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ
Raj & Stefanie Balasubramanian P.O.Box 247 Edgar Springs, MO 65462
Raj: schroskat@gmail.com Stef: stefanie.bala@gmail.com