A Step Back in Time

Hello! Thank you for visiting my blog today. I’m Rebecca Scarberry, @Scarberryfields on Twitter, and author of seven self-published books in four different genres.
 

Prior to moving to Winslow, Arkansas in 2007, I lived on a farm in Oregon for 12 years. I miss raising chickens the most.  In spite of the tornadoes here, my husband, Rick and I now feel we’ve landed in paradise (the Boston Mountains of Arkansas). It’s definitely ‘a writer’s paradise’.
 

Above is a picture of my Oregon farm where I raised chickens and I had a vegetable garden.
 

Before we left Oregon, we sold just about everything we owned and packed our little 2004 Chevy Aveo hatchback with a few clothes and one cat. We stayed with Rick’s elderly aunt for six months in Rogers, Arkansas while we searched for property to buy. We searched in four surrounding states. We didn’t have much money and we were lucky to find the 5 acre farm on a creek we now own. It was in foreclosure. It was overgrown with silver maple trees and the hay was nearly as tall as I am. I couldn’t resist buying the property when I saw the creek with my very own waterfall and all the wildlife.

 

 

 

 

 

There’s a four bedroom home on the property, but it would have cost a minimum of $25,000 to make livable. There’s also a well house with a hand dug well inside. We had the water tested and found out it was contaminated, like most of the wells in the surrounding area. There’s also a chicken coup, and a tin shack.

 

The four bedroom home with ivy growing around the front and chimney.

 

We decided to get a loan and have a 2 story cabin built. It only cost us $7,500. We did a lot of the work ourselves like drywall, paint, and flooring. We decided not to put any plumbing in for a new septic tank would have been necessary. We couldn’t afford that and with the well water undrinkable, it seemed useless. We were happy to have power. I felt like we’d stepped back in time. . . A time when few had indoor plumbing. It was actually kind of fun. Well, until winter hit. The solar shower was out of the question. We started heating water for bathing indoors or we drove over an hour to a cousin’s house.

 

 

  

The above picture is the cabin upstairs bedroom

 

 

  

We were working fulltime and once we had most of the cabin interior done in August 2007, we moved in. Rick built an outdoor enclosed shower stall. We used a solar shower bag for bathing, bought bottled water, and used a microwave, barbeque, and campfire for cooking.  We adopted a female cat, living in the old house, and ended up with thirteen cats. We saved enough money to have the females spade. I now have four cats and two strays sleeping with the outdoor cats in the old house. We also had an underground metal shelter installed by the cabin and bought two weather radios. Very scary when you hear a report on the weather radio saying a tornado is headed straight for you!!

 

 

Thomasina, the cat we adopted.

 

In 2009 I started handwriting a novel. I didn’t own a computer nor did I know a whole lot about them. I’d used a computer on my job as a HMO claims analyst, but I’d only learned how to use their customized program to pay claims. My father passed away October 1, 2009 and I inherited enough money to have a three bedroom custom home built on the farm. Before they started building the new home, an ice storm hit. We were without power for 9 days. 15 trees came down (damaging the old house and chicken coup). It took us days to cut a path to the main highway.
 

We moved into the new home September 27, 2009. We quit our jobs and I started writing full time. I finally got a laptop in 2011, obtained internet service, and joined Twitter. The first week I owned the laptop, my pc got a virus. I was wishing that I had a teenager in the home to help me. The kids today grew up using computers. I didn’t. It’s been a major struggle learning to use the pc properly, type my novel, socialize without high speed internet service, and keep my pc virus free. We finally got city water 2 ½ years ago.

 

                                          

 

 

 

 

My waterfall in the fall.

 

 

 

Picture showing my metal underground shelter, painted red. 

 

We sold the Aveo to a local farmer and I now have this Hummer. I love it! My husband has one too.

 

 

 

                                                        Rick's Hummer.

                    

 

Just one of the great sunsets here in the mountains with a storm headed my way.

The novel I’d written has never been published and never will be. It’s in need of way too much editing and not really worth my time. In 2012, while sitting on my front porch, the story lines for Messages from Henry and Rag Doll popped into my head. June 14, 2012 I self-published Messages from Henry and on December 9, 2012 I self-published Rag Doll. I’m now writing my eighth book and as long as I can keep my pc working, I’ll continue to tweet, blog, and have fun.

My Amazon author page: http://smarturl.it/0z9brq