Letter of intent to pull kids out of public school and printable report cards

So, for those of you who have been following along you will know that we were not planning to leave until May. However, things tend to change unexpectedly.

Pulling my kiddos out of school in the middle of the year is hard. This was one of my biggest challenges to be honest. We really can't wait for summer vacation however, because the Rocky Mountains do not have the double growing season that we are so accustomed to in South Louisiana. There are several reasons for our move at this time, but we really want to take advantage of the lovely weather so that we can prepare for our first winter.

Every state has different laws and some states require 10 days written notice prior to withdrawal. Check your state laws on homeschooling. This is very difficult because most school administrators may think they know the laws, but really have no clue about the homeschool laws. Every situation is different.

I maybe enrolling my kiddos in public school when we get settled in. Each kid has their own choice. It is their right. The public school system in Colorado is much better than Louisiana and does NOT use common core! YEY! That makes my heart feel super happy! (Okay can you tell I have a kindergartener?)

After much deliberation from my kiddos they all decided to finish off this year at the new school.  I had written a withdrawal letter for homeschool before, but I have never had to transfer them before. This was new territory. After much research I have created a sample transfer request letter.

You can download a sample transfer intent I created here.

Now that covers the youngest two kiddos. However, my oldest is homeschooled now. So, that means I need to make sure that he has a proper report card. Wow! I found an amazing resource for this!

So now that all that is done I have one less thing to worry about!

Top Tents to Start Your Homestead

So the story goes....

We have 5 acres that we are ready to build on! By the way we have 98 days left until our move date! Yey! The days are closing in and we are getting super excited! Everyone keeps asking us, "Where will you stay while you build your house?" Well, here is our answer...

We are planning to stay in a military tent while the weather is nice. We stayed in a regular six man camping tent during our last visit. However, with the kids and the extended use we know that is not going to be enough for our needs. So we ordered a GI tent to use during the nice weather. If our house is not liveable by the time the weather gets cold we plan to rent a house for the winter. (Or something along the lines. We have several back-up plans if you were wondering.) These reviews are based on our research and opinions. Our needs were taken into account, which include but are not limited to; durability, water resistant, stovepipe flap, ventilation, size, and price.

Without further adieu I give you our top tents for camping out on your homestead during building...
 



Guide Gear 10x10' Teepee Tent

This one is great for use as a separate kiddo room or if you only have 2 adults. Anymore than that and you may get a little cramped for long-term use. So, although it isn't an actual GI tent, this one seems like a good option if you plan to get your building done within 3 months. It is waterproof and has lots of ventilation. It features a 6'6" center height, sleeps 6 people and only weighs 14 lbs., 13 ozs.

Guide Gear 10x10' Teepee Tent     
Military-Army Temper Tent 20' X 48'

This is a great base camp tent! This GI tent can be used year-round and can fit many people. This tent has many amazing features such as aluminum walls and the option to extend the length. The center height is a whooping 12'3"! This tent is pretty pricey, but totally worth it if you plan to live in it for longer than three months or if you have a dozen people. The downside is the weight. This tent weights in at 200lbs! One man cannot carry that alone unless he is super strong. I really love the stovepipe shield and the large screened panels. It is also fire, water and mildew resistant so that is a bonus.

Military-Army Temper Tent 20' X 48'      GP Tent 4 Sided 16′X16′ Military Tent

Another nice GI tent. This tent has 4 side walls each 6′ high. Center height is 10.5!. Tent comes complete with canvas roll for mallet, rope and tent stakes. There is no info on weight or how many it sleeps, but it seems to be a little smaller than the GP Small, so probably sleeps 6 or so. Nice tent for glamping down the road if that is your style, too.

GP Tent 4 Sided 16′X16′ Military Tent      GP Medium Tent 16′ X 32′ Vynil

This tent is a beast! Since it is GI you know you are getting high quality mildew, water and fire resistant. This is the tent for long term in extreme conditions. The down side is that there are no windows. I do like the ventilation and the stovepipe flap though. Did anyone say Alaska?

GP Medium Tent 16′ X 32′ Vynil      10 Man Arctic Tent 17'6 X 17'6

This was my favorite tent since we first began our search over a year ago. I fell in love with this one! Keep in mind the ten man sleeping is super tight. After researching it more I found that it sleeps 6 comfortably to live in. I love the snow cloth. This could also be used with sand to keep the sand storms from blowing the tent as well. Not only is the tent fire, water and mildew resistant it also has an extra fire-resistant liner too. This thing has tons of features and for the price it is almost a no brainier. Why aren't we getting this one? Read on...

10 Man Arctic Tent 17'6 X 17'6

Guide Gear 18x18' Teepee Tent

Although this is NOT a GI tent I am planning to purchase this one in the next few days. Why? It makes a great storage, changing room, kiddo space, or guest room. For the price it makes an excellent supplementary tent. I would NOT use this as my primary tent! This tent has a generous 9'9" center height, sleeps 10-12 people and weighs 21 lbs. 4 ozs. The steel poles are nice, but I would rather aluminum. I don't see anything about a stovepipe flap, but there is plenty of ventilation. It has a floor which is always nice. At this weight I could see Josh and the boys using it for backcountry hunting trips in the future. So, this one is on my buy asap list!

Guide Gear 18x18' Teepee Tent

Finally our #1 pick....

GP Small Tent 17'6" X 17'6" Vynil

This has been Josh's favorite tent since he first laid eyes upon it. The size is just right for us and it is very durable. The center height is 10′ 6″ and it has 198 sqft of floor space! This is also a GI tent so it has the same amazing duck material which is fire, water and mildew resistant. It features 2 7' doors which is pretty neat. This one does not come with the floor, much like all of the GI tents, so that is a separate purchase. We have already purchased this tent and are anxiously awaiting it's arrival!

GP Small Tent 17'6" X 17'6" Vynil      You can find more similar tents here...
 
Which of these tents do you find your best fit?

Do you have any other tents you would like to recommend?

(VIDEOS) A first glimpse at our homestead

So, I have been promising videos forever. Sorry to be such a slacker on this, but we have been busy bees around here.

Here is a little video I made about our week long adventure. It was amazing. We camped out on our land for seven days. We would have stayed longer, but it is a 24 hour drive. Originally we wanted to bring the kiddos for our first look at the land, but we were blessed with a real vacation. My in-laws were kind enough to care for them for the entire time we were gone. We finally got the honeymoon we always deserved.

Thank you to everyone that helped us. And for all the friends we met we hope to see you again soon.
  

So without further ado I give you a first glimpse at our 5 acre homestead...

May you live wild and free,
Candice

World Nomads Film Competition 2014

So, I might be a little slow out the gate on this one. Okay very slow...



Anyway we met some amazing women on our trip to Colorado in 2014. They were in the middle of an amazing journey across the US. They really inspired us. Here is their story.



Be on the lookout because I will be featuring them again in our upcoming video that is also a little behind.



Well what can you expect we are getting ready for a 1200 mile move! Oh by the way we only have 111 days left!











Here you can view the entire blog post.

Fundraising on Tumblr

I know I haven't gotten around to showing you how absolutely amazing our land is, but today we have another topic to discuss.

We have already rented our moving truck! What fun! We thought about it for months and we have decided to rent our own truck and pack everything ourselves and he will drive with his Jeep in tow behind. It will be 1200 miles, so we are renting a 16' truck.

Thanks to my hubby I have become so much less attached to "stuff" over the last 10 years. Sure there are things that we have to keep like photos, baby items and general keepsakes, however we really don't need most of what we have. I have also learned that the bigger your house is the more stuff you have. It's just basic math. So in an effort to have a much less cluttered life, make our move easier and live simpler we have decided to reduce our "stuff."

We have already donated over $2,500 worth of "stuff" to our local GoodWill and we are ready to start selling. We have started a Tumblr account for our sales. This way everything that we are selling is in one general location and we can easily update when something is sold. We will be selling until about 2-3 weeks before our move date in May. After that everything left will go to GoodWill and Habitat for Humanity.

So without further ado, here is our new Tumblr account...


I hope you enjoy this new online moving sale we started. Contact us if you have any questions. We are thinking about keeping the Tumblr site up after our move too to sell any excess we have while building our homestead.

Lots of love,
Candi

About Us

Josh and I met in 2005 and soon began our family. We have 2 very active boys and a little princess. They mean the world to us and we enjoy spending as much time as possible with them.

Although Jos was a Navy brat, he did most of his growing up in South Louisiana like me. We both have seen the effects that living in "Cancer Alley" has done to us. We have serious allergies and so much more. We knew that we needed to get out of Louisiana as fast as we could to prevent our children suffering the same fate.

We struggle to find organics and anything remotely healthy here. Most of the south doesn't seem to care about their health in the slightest. Wellness is not a culture, it's sickness. There are doctors and hospitals getting rich on every corner. Vitamins and holistic health is frowned upon here.

It was 2009, the year our daughter was born that we decided we needed a plan. Where would we go? What will our new life be like we wondered. Josh and I are extremely different people. We have a hard time agreeing on things at times.

We came up with a 5 year plan that was rather simple. Own at least 5 acres of land with a mountain view and camp out on it. The deadline was Josh's 35th birthday. I can tell you that we have already completed this goal and we are working on our new 5 year plan now. You can read about our first trip to our little slice of heaven SOON!

After 2.5 years of searching for property, we were frustrated. We looked in Missouri, Tennessee, California, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Oregon, Wyoming and Arkansas. None meet our criteria. Finally we wondered why didn't we look in Colorado?

But with hard work and determination we settled on a location, the Rocky Mountains! Not just any spot in the Rocky Mountains though. We chose the San Luis Valley in particular. He wanted to see the sunrise or set over the mountains, but living up on the mountain itself was not a requirement for him. He just wanted to be close enough so he could drive there within an hour. I fell in love with the desert in Arizona years ago and I wanted something close to that. I also love the flat land in Louisiana because I get motion sickness rather easily to be honest.

Please follow us on our journey from South Louisiana to our little Rocky Mountain Homestead.

Disclosure and Privacy Policy

Disclosure Policy

This Disclosure Policy is valid from October 13, 2014.

[TL;DR] The Disclosure Policy For My Typical Readers
In a nutshell, you can assume that I will

make money from every post I put on this blog. If I’m not making money from every blog post, then it was an oversight on my part and it will be corrected soon. If you don’t trust me enough to provide you with an honest opinion or recommendation of products and services that are mentioned on this blog, you should probably stop reading it now.

The Disclosure Policy My Lawyers Make Me Put Up
This blog is written and edited by Candice Veazey. From time to time it may also contain guest posts written by a group of individuals. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content.
The owner(s) of this blog is not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owners. If we claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product or service area, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.

This blog does contain content which might present a conflict of interest. This content may not always be identified.

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This policy was created on October 13, 2014.