Life on the Farm....kind of like the Beverly Hillbillies, but in reverse! We left our lovely home and moved to a shack!

Hello out there!  Hello? 

 Well.....I'd LOVE to show pictures of our new house - all finished and painted, ready to move into!!  I'd love to, but that's impossible as we haven't actually built it yet, ha! 

We are a bit different than some (sounds better than WEIRD) and therefore, we are actually building our little farm before we build our house.  We made the cabin basically livable (doors, lights, milk house heaters, running water, bathroom...) and then started on the farm.

The chickens donated a few dozen eggs to nearby daughter and she's got them in the incubator and heading toward HATCH DAY!  Our hens are looking a bit scruffy as they molt, but faithfully keeping us in fresh breakfast food (eggs, not chicken....)  I'm trying NOT to start new chickies myself as I'm spread pretty thin as it is, but Spring makes me want ALL THE ANIMALS!  A really fun thing is that our neighbors have new lambs and they run up and down their field next to us IN LITTLE LAMBIE JAMMIES!!!  I kid you not, all of the lambies are wearing colored jammies!  Be still my heart.....

The garden and orchard were a huge tangled mass of blackberries, intermingled with trash.  It's near the road, so thoughtless people took advantage while it was still abandoned and dumped things.  The previous occupant was apparently a collector-of-all-things-construction-related and the amount of old pipe, wire, metal, rolls of cyclone fence, wood and decaying sheds of such things are truly astounding.  We've hauled many loads away and have many more yet to go.

 It took quite a bit of both hand and tractor work, but we've cleared it, fenced it and planned out our new garden & orchard and managed to get our new baby apples, pears, plums and pie cherries purchased and planted (before the current stay-at-home rules).  Spuds and onions are in, too!

We've got a load of topsoil and cedar garden boards waiting to make raised beds.  The raspberry plants I brought from the old place are planted and starting to show signs of life.  Daughter gave me strawberry starts and they are planted near my two big rhubarb plants and I'm starting to imagine strawberry rhubarb pie in the not too distant future!

We also rebuilt our pump house roof, extending two sides to make a rabbit barn (my first litter here born yesterday!) on one side and wood shed on the other!  Dave just finished the electrical work in there, including power to my temporary greenhouse, so I can finally start seeds in the next day or so and keep them warm at night.

This is the first time in almost 30 years that we've actually had neighbors and we've met most of them and even some that just walk our road for exercise!  As a matter of fact, a pleasant couple that we've seen a few times stopped to chat over the garden fence one day and the next day brought me Hydrangea starts for my flower bed!

We made a new temporary pen for the goats (who are due to kid around the end of May) and we've cleared the spot for the barn!  This next week should see us setting up the auger on the tractor and digging the holes to start the posts and beams!  When the barn is framed, we'll turn our attention back to the house.

We work hard and our joints hurt and arthritis kicks up, so we choose a simpler task for a day or two and then hit it hard again!  We've got some trails through the woods now and the sounds of creek and breeze in the back 18 acres soothes our tired souls.  It's starting to kind of feel like home....most of the time.  We'll get there, after all we lived in our last place for almost 30 years!

I do miss having a house big enough that things have a place to be and really miss my kitchen island and my sewing (escape) room, but we're doing fine and making good progress.  Our goal is to have the laundry, dining & living rooms finished before next winter.  The last phase of our house building will come after that and will be our new bedroom, den, sewing room & bathroom 'wing'. Lots of work and dreams ahead

 While Dave builds the barn, I'll be painting, gardening, picking up and helping out.  I'm working on a goat stand right now as I'm behind on getting the girls hooves all trimmed up for kidding season.  That's 10 goats....which makes 40 hooves that need trimming!  We occasionally refer to this place as Doyle's Back-Achers for a reason!

Thankfully my fence-building and gardening skills are better than my computer skills!  These 'farm-in-progress' pictures are NOT in the order I wanted and I couldn't get the text where it ought to be, but HEY IS THE SUN SHINING???  I'LL MEET  YOU IN THE GARDEN!!! 

Do I get distracted?  Yup.  'Nuf for now, I'll post more when we've done something else and I'm not too tired to think!  Bye!

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.   John 16:33