::moving to this town::

Seriously, the last two weeks have been insane.  We moved out of our old farm and moved into our new town.  We got Gus and the goats settled in at my brother inlaws house.  We stayed there too for a few nights, and heard Gus going crazy one night.  We went outside and Gus was about to rip apart a coyote that was going after the goats!  He earned his stripes as a life stock guardian dog, because he was going to kick that coyotes ass.  I couldn't love that dog any more than I do.  We went out with a flashlight and once we spotted the coyote Josh went in and got his gun.  He shot it and it went down immediately.  That thing was way to brave and way too dangerous.  I also learned that the DNR says it is legal to kill any nuisance species that is threatening livestock.

Max and Lily started third and seventh grade at their new schools.  It was a little bit of a transition, but it only took them each about two days to find their stride.  I'm so impressed with how brave Lily is.  13 is kind of a fragile time for a young girl and she has just taken in the adventure like a hero.  Mr Max is still young enough that he had six best friends by Wednesday.  Quinn stayed home with us for a week and then started his new daycare.  The lady that runs it is a modern day hippy.  She is peaceful and all the kids call her Nana.  I love her.  She's the best.  I'm feeling so good about those kiddos right now. 

I found us a rental house that is one mile from our inlaws and 1.5 miles from our new farm.  I took the Zillow listings that had been on the market the longest and tests the realtors asking if their clients would be willing to rent their houses out for a few months.  I got lots of no's but I got one yes and that's all it took.  The house is a great rental.  Very clean and in a great location.  It's two stories which is a change for us, but the kids love it.  We are so lucky that we found such a great opportunity. It actually has a master suite which has been a big adjustment for us!  AND an attached garage, which I'm not sure I can ever live without.  We have the lease till May, then they are going to list it back for sale and we can stay there month to month till our house is done.  We hope our renovation is done by late July.  Fingers crossed on that.  I'm hosting our family Thanksgiving at my rental this year for the first time in my life.  Excited and nervous.  

We closed on our new farm on November 21st.  We had the honor of meeting the old owner, who was such a wonderful lady.  Her husband passed one year ago, so we did not get to meet him but he sounds like he was a really great guy.  He collected cars and other "junk" which he had filled the barn with.  She said his four kids worked every day for 1.5 months to empty out the barns.  They still left us a few treasures, and I'll go into more detail about that another time.  We had such a wonderful closing.  I could have talked to her for hours.  I told her that she or any of the family can come by any time they want to see the progress.  When she left we hugged and she told me that she was so glad we were bringing life back into the place and that he husband would have loved it too.  I almost cried, she was just so gracious and kind.  No wonder that place has such good karma.  We drove right out to the farm and just walked around smiling for an hour.  What a great place. 

I promise soon to post a full room by room of the house and barns.  And - we found a designer/builder.  Much more to come about her.  She's amazing!  It was love at first sight.

::moving day coming up::

I think I am going to throw up.  This moving day stuff is actually going to happen.  I can't really believe it.   I thought 100 different times that this was going to fall through.  We close on our current farm we are selling November 15th.  There are going to be some decent tears about this place.  I LOVE this place, and our future land in definitely not as cool.  It doesn't have all the stunning hardwoods and pines like this place.  BUT - the potential is limitless because the land is flat and blank (minus the 12K square feet of barn!!!!!!!).  I am excited at getting to plant the trees I want; like Ginko's (not the smelly kind), Tulip tress, Birch, Walnut, and a BUNCH of fruit trees.  

Still this actually moving process sucks.  I guess I forgot that the family room has a cabinet over the extra fridge out there.  Apparently, it never got cleaned in 10 years.  It had old pictures and frames and some of the most foul dust of all time.  I also found about 25 empty Go-Gurt tubes sprinkled in various hiding locations in the playroom.  The food rules are changing around here for sure.  My kids are really feral.  It's true. We have two big moving days scheduled and hopefully, that with about 15 other one trailer load trips to our new place should get us moved. 

I met with our first design to build guy.  It was nothing like when Chip and JoJo do a walk through but I think it went well.  We meet with him soon to discuss costs, which I am sure will give me a heart attack.  That I will then recover from and move forward.  We have a day in two weeks where we are meeting three more reno companies, so we keep working on gathering information.  We don't actually even close on our new farm till November 21st.  So my poor, patient, kind realtor has been letting us in several times to get the reno process started.  She'd so sweet.  I love the girl.  Our plan is to stay with Josh's brother's family till our place is done.  It's asking a lot of someone to take in a family of our volume so we will keep an eye on how that is going.  I don't want them to end up hating us now that we will be living less than four miles apart for the rest of our lives.  

Let's not also forget that I am trying to keep my head above water with grad school.  Next semester should be my last one, assuming that I pass.  Which I better, but I don't want to get cocky.  I have finally had the wonderful opportunity to go part time at work.  Never in my entire life have I been part time and it feels like a real luxury.  It also feels like I am skipping class, and I feel a little bit guilty about it.  Really, I've only been part time for two weeks but it is amazing.