Head of Falls

It turned out to be a really hot summer after all the rain. We had been spoiled by our pool and being able to jump into it whenever we got too hot working around the farm. The water tank wasn't big enough for all of us, so we had to find a new place to cool off. A new friend told us about a place where there is a dam and you can swim there. It was by the Head of Falls church and turned out to be exactly 5 miles from our driveway.

Its a beautiful place to swim, you can take pool loungers and float down the river propelled by the water spilling through the holes at each end of the dam.

For a jacuzzi like experience, you can brace your feet against the rocks and sit in front of the outlets and let the water pound on your back like a water jet.

There are big rocks to sit on and bask in the sun while being cooled by the water.

This year we would like to take a canoe down the river, it looks like a beautiful canoe ride!

We had so much fun swimming at the dam!

Happy Homecoming

When we sold the house, we were hoping that we would be able to move after our youngest son, William, came home on leave to visit. He had been in Afghanistan and we were so eager to see him. We moved to the house when he was just 3-4 so it was all he remembered living in and he wasn't too happy about our selling it. We were hoping he would get to stay there one last time, but it didn't work out that way. So 3 days after we moved, he arrived "home" to find all the things he remembered piled here, there and everywhere and a family trying to sort things out and figuring how to survive in a camper with no electricity or running water. He opted to stay in a hotel!

We were so glad to see him, and he really helped out in putting the horse shelters together and other things we had to get done. I felt so bad about him visiting under these conditions, we were so busy we had little time to relax and just visit. He said he felt like he was back in Afghanistan! We did get the Port-a-Potty while he was here, so that helped. But he was reduced to shaving using a Barbie jewelry box mirror!

It was a tough time for everyone, but his next visit at Christmas was much better.

Here Chick, Chick!

We made a lot of mistakes when we moved here last July, and one of them was waiting to move the chickens last. The other was leaving the chicken coop for the new owners because that meant that we HAD to move the chickens last!

Since it rained the whole month that we had to move, we didn't have a chance to build a new coop, so the chickens needed to stay in the horse trailer until we could get that done. So on closing day, we were, of course, running late and the last thing to do was catch the chickens. Alan and I were on our way back to the house after delivering the horses to the land. We called and asked the girls and Darren to catch the chickens and put them in the big wooden box we had left.

We had left the chickens in the coop to make this easier and they had no problems with most, but one did escape! So as the new owners were making the last walk through, my kids were outside chasing a stubborn chicken around the yard! We got there and it was another 1/2 hour before we finally got the darn thing, and put them all in the horse trailer. By now there was no way we could take them to the land and get back in time for the closing, so we settled for a quick wash up at the neighbors to get the sweat and moving grime off and headed in town to the lawyers with the horse trailer carrying the chickens in tow.

It was a really warm, sunny day, FINALLY, and the closing didn't go as smoothly as planned. One bank didn't transfer something they should have, etc, etc. and we ended up sitting there for a while waiting for it to be straightened out. I was getting concerned about the heat in the trailer with the chickens also being in a box, so during the wait asked Alan if maybe we should go check on the chickens. The real estate agent for the buyers (who it turns out I knew through horse-related friends) asked me what I was talking about. So I told her that we had run out of time and had to bring our chickens to the closing with us. She couldn't believe it, and I think she thought they were in our car! I told her not to worry, they were all buckled in! We had a good laugh and the chickens were fine when we were done. We really felt like the Beverly Hillbillys though, and probably looked like them too!

So we got back to our new home and set the horse trailer up as the chicken coop.

For the next few days though, a black and white chicken, which is the what the one we couldn't catch was, kept coming up to "visit" us at the camper while the rest of them stayed around their new "coop". I really think it was that darn chicken and she thought she was very special because of all the effort we put into bringing her along!

A few nights after moving here, I went down the check on all the critters for the last time and found a chicken that had fallen off the side of the wooden box and gotten caught hanging upside down between the side of the trailer and the wooden box. All I could see in the flashlight beam were sticking up chicken feet and I was thinking, "What the H---!"  I grabbed the feet and they were cold. I really thought that she was dead. I moved the box, pulled her up and got her right side up again. She was still alive and gave me a look like "whoa, HEAD RUSH!". I set her down on the trailer floor but she couldn't walk right away, just kinda wobbled around like a drunken sailor then plopped down again. You could tell she couldn't feel her feet. By the time I went back to the camper, she was looking better, and her feet were feeling warmer, but I didn't know how she'd be in the morning. She ended up being fine and I made sure the box was further away from the side of the trailer!

We did get a chicken coop finished fairly quickly and they seem to really like it!

We're very happy we brought them along, as they have been a big help in clearing the land and keeping down the ticks!

Blueberry (our oldest chicken) checking to make sure the tractor is in gear!

Where do you want this big boy?

The Redneck Spa

When we sold our house, we left behind a big 30' above ground Doughboy pool with a deep end. It was a great pool, we'd had it 13 years or so, and the kids lived in it during the summer. The girls grew up having the pool, so moving here and not having access to it was very hard for them. Luckily, they are inventive little critters and discovered a way to keep cool in less space!

Chase is wondering what they're doing in his water dish!

They even had a mud beauty treatment!

Wonderful Wednesdays

I was going through some pictures from this summer, documenting our move and adventures, and realized I wrote posts but never published them, or meant to write posts and never did. So I thought I'd update a bit and share some of the memorable moments of last year.

One good decision we made when moving was to have a porta-potty delivered until we could get our septic system in and hooked to the camper. They delivered the potty the first Wednesday we were here, it was actually the first thing you saw when you drove in. My sister thought that was completely tasteless while I thought it was extremely comforting to visitors! Anyway, part of the deal is that they come out and clean the potty once a week, and I bet you can guess which day that was! We quickly learned that if you got a chance to go spend the night somewhere else or were invited out, Tuesday was the day to shoot for. We all looked forward to Wednesdays and the nice clean potty we would have! You come to really appreciate such little luxuries in life when you're living a bit raw. We were really glad to see the potty go, once our camper was hooked to the septic, but it sure made life easier while it was here. Plus, you never knew what you'd find sneaking out of it!

The Decision Please!

This is the first house plan that we chose and really liked. We thought it may be a little too big for us, so decided to try and modify the plan, taking off the wing on the left side of the picture, which was the master bedroom. I pictured the house in a light yellow, Alan reluctantly agreed!


Then we found this house when driving around, checking out the modular homes and really liked most of it, but it was a bit too small, so we tried to combine the two plans to make one that would work for us. It was a bad decision to do that. Nothing was working out the way I wanted and it got very frustrating and overwhelming to where I didn't even want to think about it. So I didn't, just put it on hold and got settled in the camper for the winter and got through the holidays. The one thing I've heard most people say who have built a house, is that they wish they had taken more time. Getting into the house became more important than doing it right, so I'm trying not to make that mistake and not rush into anything. Hey, camper living isn't too bad really!



So about the end of January, I really started focusing on the house plans and what to do about them. I told Alan I was done with trying to fix the ones we had, maybe we should start over. So I pulled out the plans of the first house, and really, they are almost perfect, probably why we picked them in the first place! It is a little bigger, but the wing is what makes it all work. I went on line and looked up the plan, and found MY HOUSE! Someone actually built it, this is a real picture and its exactly how I imagined ours would be, its even light yellow! So now we're getting a few little things tweaked on this plan and we should be good to go! The main floor is about 1200sf and we'll still have a loft, so about 300sf upstairs, 1500 sf isn't huge so it should be doable. The wing on the right in the picture will be the entryway, and eventually there will be a garage attached. There will be a daylight basement where the girls will have their bedrooms, bathroom and a living area.

Here are some rough drafts of the floor plans, if anyone has any ideas or suggestions, please share!

1st Floor Plan

2nd Floor Plan

How Fast They Grow

From this:

To This:

in just a few short months.

They may be big, but they still remember their tricks!

Wilbur kneeling for a chocolate doughnut

Birthday Rodeo

On Macy's birthday, January 20th, it was a snow day at school so we decided to go see "Avatar" in the afternoon and do some shopping afterwards. We had a great time, getting home after dark, about 5:30pm, tired and ready for some supper.

Everyone else got out of the car and I gathered up some things and stepped out. All of a sudden I heard a noise that I've learned too well, a noise that sends a sense of dread coursing throughout my body,

"OINK!!!"

I look behind me, and here comes Wilbur, trotting up the driveway to greet his long lost friends and wish Macy "Happy Birthday" I'm guessing! The pigs have been shut up in their pen since we got too much snow to open the gate, and the build up of snow made it possible for Wilbur, who can hardly drag is hind legs over a leetle log, drag his huge butt over the fence! When he gets out, he is soooo happy, he just runs around, rolls in the snow, scratches his butt on every rock, visits the horses, and leaps in the air, kicking his heels out in joy. We're usually freezing, in a hurry and not amused. I've heard the girls mutter more than once, "Where's the gun?"

Meanwhile, Petunia is screaming in her pen and Amber runs down to make sure she doesn't escape too. Of course, since its not her pig out, she's all for the 5 cent bullet solution.

So we get Wilbur to follow us down to the pen, we get his front feet up on the gate and it looks like we'll be able to just hoist his butt up and over. I wish I had my camera, because at that point, when things were going well, he really did look cute. Once Alan wrapped his arms around his hind end and tried to lift him up, Wilbur decided he was out of there and slid down and ran off. Alan chased him and was able to grab him around the neck. It had been snowing all day and we had a good amount on the driveway, so it was slippery and Alan went snow pigging for a good distance, leaving dragging heel marks in the snow. It was hard to figure out what was happening amid the shouting and pig squealing. Then Wilbur did the pig spin, whirling around and around until Alan couldn't hold on any longer. Wilbur escaped into the horse pasture and went to say hi to his buddies that were waiting for supper. They tried to help by threatening to stomp him, prompting Macy to go screaming into the pasture to protect her pig.

I tried to sweet talk him back into the pen with food and scratches, would almost get him to the gate, and off he'd run. Alan tried the headlock tackle once more, again getting tossed aside like a rag doll. By this time he's swearing, the pig is squealing, the daughters are screaming and the puppies are running around "helping" by almost getting trampled and barking. I was getting concerned that Alan would be injured in his pig riding attempts, as they can move quite quickly and they would disappear into the darkness as they battled up the driveway and I would lose sight of them in the dark, having just the noise to figure out who was winning. Sadly it was always Alan laying in the snow when I got there.

Finally he went to get a lead rope, we'd been trying to corral old Wilbur for about an hour, setting up obsticles to herd him to the gate, etc. We'd dug the gate out and opened it some, but had to be careful because Petunia was still trying to get out. Macy was following along, crying and yelling that he better not hurt her pig! I'm sure the thoughts he was thinking at that point was much more destructive than she would like to know! He finally got the rope around Wilbur's neck and herded him back down to the pen. Every time Wilbur tried to escape one way or the other, Alan would pick his front end up with the rope and get him back on track. Of course the pig squealed as if he were being murdered, and Macy was still following along screaming, and Petunia was still calling for her friend, but we were making progress. Alan did get him to the gate, and we managed to shove him in without letting Petunia out.

We all went back to the camper to make some supper and have birthday cake. It was all I could do to not keep breaking out in hysterical laughter remembering how funny Alan looked getting dragged around by poor old Wilbur! Even he had to laugh about it the next day, but he wasn't too amused at the time.

A picture of the big "ham".