Quick update

Wow, who knew moving and trying to get a farm (even if its just a hobby farm) up and going would keep me so very busy!  and its expensive!

Monday our chicks arrived.  I know there are 6 Buff Orphs, 3 Blue Andulusians and 2 Arcaunas for our layers since I picked those by breed.  The "all heavy males" though are a fantastic mix of colors.  It looks like we have Turkens, Barred Rocks, RIRs, White Orphs and I think I noticed some Black Cornish and Light Brahmas but its hard to say.  They gave us about 5 extras too, I'm assuming males also.  We have 1 mystery chick that I think is a White Blue Andulusian but I don't know what gender or even if thats correct.  Its fun trying to figure them out though.
I've been talking to a couple goat breeders and I have choices of Nubian, French Alpine and Saanen goats for our home dairy.  I cleaned the barn today in preparation of whatever we bring home and I order from Caprine Supply a first aid kit and a milking kit.  I also picked up a fence energizer and rope electric line for restringing our fence line.  Still so much to do!
Our current flock of 7 layers have already paid for their feed bag and still have a 1/4 bag left so they are proving their worth.  They are now averaging between 4 and 7 eggs a day.  We finally had enough to share with our very helpful neighbor who was so kind to till us a garden space with his tractor.  Yay for good neighbors!!

wordless wednesday

Home at last!

This has been a whirlwind of a week.  Back and forth from the apartment to the house, moving bits and pieces of our stuff to the new place.  Today we rented the moving truck and moved the storage unit contents over.  We are all pretty tired!

Oh, and we have chickens!  A friend who has chickens graciously gave us 7 hens to get us started (she says they aren't well trained- not that I care at this point) and we've already collected 7 eggs since Wednesday when I brought them home.  The last couple days though they slowed down with the cold snap we got.  They have been having a hay-day (nevermind the pun) in our barn, picking through the old hay stash for bugs and worms and stuff.  They also are quite fond of table scraps and we are thoroughly amused by all their happy chicken sounds.

I've been removing wallpaper with the help of some friends; what a task!  Right now that project is on hold because my husband's office has now taken priority since we were trying to have a bit of overlap on the cable hookup for internet but the company who supplies it says we can't.  I still have to get the final bit of paint on the walls, get the desk bought, assembled and outfitted and then back to the rest of the house.

We've really been enjoying it here.  The big windows make for fantastic mornings, much like being at a vacation home with its sweeping views.  I still need to clean out the wild bird feeders but even without seed we are visited by nuthatches, purple finches, blue jays and cardinals.   There is one male cardinal that likes to tap on my son's bedroom window.  We think he might be fighting a competitor aka his reflection.  What fun!  I'll put up new pics next Wednesday...maybe pick up the wordless Wednesday trend.

Its officially ours now!

Whew!  Glad that parts over, now we can finally get to work!  (can't believe that's me saying that)  We have a lot to do out there...for starters, we need to build a chicken coop because it appears we are getting some nearly grown birds (layers) this next week unless something comes up.  Either way we still have chicks coming in April so that coop is better to be built sooner rather than later.

We also need to seriously prune the fruiting trees.  There is a sour cherry, an apricot and five apples that all need work; at least two of the apples need to be cut down because they have some serious issues and they were all planted about 2 feet apart so they are way too crowded.  There are two grape vines, to which I have two young grapes to add that need pruning.  I picked up four blueberry bushes that need a space where we can amend the soil with acidifier and plant them; we have five other blueberry bushes that I have to decide if we are going to move or let fail at the 9 acre lot (its too alkaline at the lot for them).  I think on those we'll wait to see if they put out leaves since they are bare at the moment.  We also have all those other fruiting trees out there to consider moving; we are leaning toward leaving them out there though since they've been in the ground for two years.

Also soon, we need to get a garden started out there.  Currently there is not a tilled space for a garden and the most ideal place was flooded earlier this year so I'm debating if I want to brave it.  My understanding after talking to the sellers today is that it doesn't normally flood that high up.  There is another elevation that did not flood that we could put in a garden but it really chops up the yard so its not ideal either.

Around the house there are lots of bulbs and rhizomes peeking out from the leaf litter giving us clues as to what is under there.  We've been able to identify tulips, crocuses, daffodils, irises, coral bells and some day lilies.  I have a feeling once we clear out debris this place will really shine. 

I don't expect to be posting a lot in the next week with so much going on but if anything exciting happens I'll put it out there at least on facebook.

Garlic and other signs of life (from the 9 acre lot)

hooray for garlic!  It has new leaves from the last time I saw it

my wolf-y looking dog and my kid (dog is not in any way part wolf)

Honeyberry baby putting out a couple of leaves

flooded a bit here too.  Not bad though, this lot has really decent drainage

House pictures

utility room

bedroom 3/ office

bedroom 2

ugly yellow hall bath

entry

living room/dining room

ugly fireplace insert

awesome kitchen

master bedroom

master closet

master bath

master built-in cabinets

front of the house

see the shiny stuff back there?  That the flooding from the storms as of Monday

looks like a pretty lake huh?

This was as of Wednesday....much improved!

another view, again though much better

Moving Day- coming up

We are starting to plan out our moving day.  Closing is now only 19 days away (YAY!!!!!!) and I suppose its time to start thinking that way.  We are planning the big part of the move on March 26th.  We figure that will give us time to get in there, get any appliances (fridge!) installed before there are obstacles and repairs made (waste pipe) out of the way.  Also my hubby says we must repaint his office/bedroom before he starts working in there.  I guess butterflies don't really suit him.  Other To Do's include getting all the utilities including broadband hooked up since my hubby works from home its an absolute must. 

I've set up a Facebook event on my personal FB page if anyone wants to help us move.  We will be serving lunch so there is free food involved :)