Settling in to the new house

So we've been here just a few days past 6 weeks.  You have probably seen me on Facebook begging for rain. Since we moved we have not even had a total of an inch of rain.  However..... that small hitch aside, we are loving, in love with our new place.  This place is our literal dream come true and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank my lucky stars to be here.  Even though our pastures are currently toast, we have pastures!  I can get up in the morning and do my horse chores, literally in my pajamas.  Those of you who have your horses at home, you just don't know how amazing it is to not have to drive somewhere just to see your horse.  You have a bad day and just need to put your forehead on your horse?  Walk out and give her a hug.  No witnesses.  No awkward conversations.  No half hour round trip and making sure the car has gas, you have your license, your phone is charged.  Just horse therapy in the privacy of your own back yard.  But our place is so much more than pastures.

Many of you probably have followed our Facebook page for our newly named page, Berry Sweet Acres.  On that page I shared a walkabout tour of the new place.  I haven't listened to it because, yeah, I don't do the whole video making thing.  But at the time it was the best way to get everyone a quick view of what our place was shaping up like.  We have more than pastures.  We have flowers!  Lots and lots of flowers and I love flowers.  I am a little nervous about the large number of bulbs that I will need to dig and replant as there are a lot of glads, calla lily and dahlia.  I have never been a bulb girl, but these are gorgeous!  Then there are the star gazer lilies, the morning glories (oh how these make me happy), the clematis, trumpet vine, and the primroses!  Primroses everywhere in every shade of pink.  I'm in love with primroses.

In addition to the flowers and the ponies, our big chickens are oh so happy to be here.  They have a new big "coop" which is actually an old room in some portion of a previous hog barn.  Windows, concrete walls, added a couple of swings and nesting boxes and they are delighted.  But you know what they are even happier about? Being able to be free range.  It is so rewarding to see our chickens out and about, scratching around, hiding under the bushes and yes, even getting to watch Iggy chase the cats and dogs.  Heck, Iggy even thought she could puff up and scare Cutie.  Cutie wasn't amused (or frightened).  Our place was much too big for just 3 chickens so we ordered my personal favorite special assorted bargain from McMurray Hatchery.  Our chicks arrived as straight run which means we have no idea how many hens or roosters we have.  We also don't know which breed any of them are, but that's the fun of it!  Watching them feather out we are starting to make our guesses, but gosh knows most of them will probably be wrong.  They are just over two weeks old today and their coop got a little remodel today.  Well, both coops did.

We also have farm kitties.  We acquired 5 of them with the farm; Lady (the momma kitty) and her two calico kittens, Old Yeller the tomcat, and Pippi.  The two kittens are now young cats and Momma has weaned them.  Since they are more than half wild and we can't get close to them we have affectionately dubbed them Thing 1 and Thing 2.  Not that we can tell them apart.  Maybe they should just be Things.  Before we moved we came to meet the cats.  Sophie was the only one Walt let near and the only one he could catch was Pippi.  And she wasn't all that tame.  Days after moving, Sophie still hadn't seen her cats and was afraid we had chased them away with all the commotion so we went and got her another older kitten, a black and white, from a friend of a friend.  Guess who showed up the next day?  The other 5 cats.  So I guess you could say Soph has a few cats.  Although Robin, Pippi and Yeller are really the only 3 you can pet or are underfoot so that's a good thing.

So what have we done in the last 6 weeks besides move and unpack boxes?  Well, we have been busy.  I feel bad because every time Tim gets his own personal to do list checked off, I add new things. (I blame Pinterest - curse you Pinterest.)  But it is also a Godsend too. My poor hubby always has said he isn't handy.  So when we moved here he was a little nervous about the things that needed building.  He wanted to find someone to help.  But guess what, he did a great job.  I hope that he has learned he can build/do anything.  Of course, Youtube helps. Thank you Youtube!   I'm not embarrassed to say we have had to look at a few tutorials, like "How to install a concrete wedge anchor." That's not basic info in every 6th grade teacher's toolbox.  I can't even say I helped with most of the projects because most days I went to work and came back to find it done.  Let's see what I can remember...

1.  Tim put up a shelving/closet area for his clothes in the laundry area.
2.  He hung up a drying rack/shelf in the laundry area.
3.  He put up closet rods for the girls' room.
4.  He built stalls. STALLS people.  Four of them.
5.  We put up fence.  A lot of fence and made 3 separate pastures.
6.  We put up the outdoor arena and got it leveled (complete with cutting down the tree).
7.  Tim got the boards up in the indoor and ready for the fill.
8.  Lots of trees trimmed and cut back.
9.  We are figuring out the lights, the switches, the keys and more here.  (No one understands what a project that has been.)
10.  We have picked a LOT of berries and frozen as many as we can.  Guess what - round two is ripening on the vine.
11.  We have weeded, sprayed, and replanted (Did you know you can move tomatoes KIND of successfully?)
12.  I have fallen in love with the golden raspberry.
13.  We added fill to the indoor and removed a lot of spikes/nails on every board in the indoor.
14.  We've watered.  A lot.
15.  Put up chicken roosts, nesting "boxes" and chicken wire.
16.  We hung up a curtain until we can get bedroom doors.  Yeah, that is a big project we still have left to do.
17.  Sophie has tamed 3 wild kitties.
18.  Tim turned into Paul Bunyan and whacked down the annoyingly overgrown cedar tree blocking the front entrance.
19.  Tim made me this really cool feeder for my pawing and dish flipping ponies.

What have we learned?
1.  We have a lot of keys.
2.  A lot about raspberries and not enough yet.
3.  A lot about trees and how they grow and what they are worth (and that we have a lot).
4.  Screws - why are there so many different shapes, sizes, weights, lengths....
5.  Horses are hogs.  (Oh wait - I already knew that.)
6.  The fence is hot.  (Ask Tim how he knows)
7.  Some of the switches run certain lights, some run fans, some don't run anything?  We are still learning this.
8.  People take doors on their bedrooms for granted.
9.  It's important to take a little down time too every now and then.
10.  Is it battery drill or cordless drill?  That debate may never be solved at our home.

It's truly been a dream come true to live here.  I love picking raspberries off our many plants and even more so, I love eating them.  I love the beautiful flowers they have planted and those that seem to have just taken off on their own.  I love taking a walk through the woods and watching the sunset over the corn.  I love the campfires and s'mores.  I love my big open house with it's hardwood floors and my pretty little master bedroom.  I love my new pony barn (and we need to stop calling it the hog barn) with it's shiny new stalls and deep mats.  I love my hay storage area and grain storage and the chicken coop!  I love that my chickens get to roam around the entire farm and they are so happy to do so.  I love everything about our farm and I love how happy our family is to share it.

We are all looking forward to our end of the summer get together this coming Sunday.  Can't wait to share our "little patch of heaven" (cue music from Home on the Range) with our friends and family.  And folks, can we all just pray for a little, but preferably a lot, of rain in the meantime.  We've gotten skipped most of the last few showers and it is toast here.