“It’s Broken”

That’s what I heard when I finally figured out the number that had been calling me repeatedly was my home phone and I called back.

My 11-year-old daughter was panicked. I was able to get out of her that she thought one of the chickens had a broken neck and was flopping around in the brooder.

Because we were nearly done at the one store, I figured the rest of the grocery shopping would have to wait. It was going to take me at least 45 minutes to get home, since we still had to check out.

My response was, “Separate her out and I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

You may have figured out by now that while I’m not writing as much as I used to, it doesn’t mean that nothing is going on around here. I’ve come to learn that when you live on a farm, there is never-ending stuff to do.

This is some of that stuff.

I pretty well knew what I was going to walk into, but there was still a chance that it was an actual broken neck, so I didn’t pick anything up at the time. I probably should have, because sending Hunny to buy baby vitamins on the way home was something neither of us thought we’d ever be doing again.

When I got home, I was surprised to see that my favorite silkie, Silver, was not only not dead, but actually wasn’t as poorly off as I had expected. My relief was short-lived.

It took me a while, but I finally managed to get a picture:

Go ahead and click and enlarge the picture. I’ll wait.

Yes, her feet are flat on the ground. She is not upside-down. And yes, her head is completely on backwards.

This, my friends, is what wry neck looks like.

It didn’t seem to be hurting her; she just seemed more confused than anything else.

Because I research things endlessly even when they don’t apply to me at the time, I knew that wry neck was not usually fatal, and that there was a way to treat it. The most critical issue was going to be making sure she had adequate food and water intake.

Wry neck {sometimes called ”crook neck”} seems to most often affect Silkies. Some thinking is that because silkies have a vaulted skull (a hole in the top of the skull), this makes them more susceptible to injury.

Some believe it can have a neurological cause, and sometimes, diseases like Marek’s and Newcastle’s can have wry neck as a symptom.

Others believe there is a genetic component to it; and others think it’s a vitamin deficiency.

In our case, I think it’s injury.

I’ve had silkies before; I’ve got 8 right now, and this is the first time we’ve had a baby affected. I wasn’t there to see what happened, but we’ve got at least 3 boys in there right now, and well, boys will be boys. {I am not fond of adolescent cockerels, but usually they grow out of the obnoxiousness relatively quickly}

Once I got home, I was surprised to see her preening and eating and drinking. I was hoping we would have a mild case of it, and I’d be able to get her back in with the others in a few days.

By evening, I knew it was going to take longer than a few days.

Hunny had been called and was bringing home baby vitamins; Poly Vi Sol *without* iron, to be exact. He had to go to two different places to find them, and when he did, wow- $10 for a 1.75 fl oz bottle. He reminded me that the vitamins cost more than the chicken did.

By the time he got home, Silver had already been switched over to a yogurt/crumble mash with added vitamin E capsule squeezed out.

The following morning, I went back into town to get some selenium, which is needed to help the vitamin E absorption. I also went ahead and went back to Tractor Supply and got some 20% protein chick feed and some electrolytes for her water.

I am not a big believer in extra added stuff as a rule- unless it’s needed. I figured electrolytes in the water couldn’t hurt.

I always give my babies yogurt. Yogurt has extra protein for growing chicks, and it helps give them good intestinal bugs, of the probiotic kind. Got a chick with pasty butt? Give them yogurt.

I always give my chicks yogurt by day 2, and I have never had an issue with pasty butt. I’ve gotten chicks that came pasty, and the yogurt cleared it right up.

Yogurt is a triple whammy- probiotics + good for additional protein, and also a help in keeping hydrated, because it’s not quite solid.

The electrolyte powder comes in a packet, for one gallon of water. I confess  I did not measure out a gallon, since the packet says to use fresh every day. Now, I assume some of that is to get you to buy more product, but I wasn’t going to risk it. I put a couple of pinches in the water mix.

The first few days, I crushed the selenium and mixed it in with the electrolyte water, in which I put a dropper full of Poly Vi Sol {without iron}, and I also added the vitamin E, to make sure she was actually getting some.

I had read that they should get 50 mcgs of selenium. The dosage I had was 200 mcgs. I got a pill crusher and crushed it into quarters. I had read one situation where the lady crushed some and put it in the entire bottle of vitamins, but I didn’t really want to go that route.

I did a heavy dose of selenium on day 2- 50 mcgs in the water and another 50 mcgs crushed into the food.

The vitamin E capsules are 400 I.U.s, which I gave twice a day. I just snipped the capsule enough to squeeze out the contents and put on the food and in the water a few days.

The wry neck was exhausting.

She often had to rest.

Then she’d perk back up a little and eat some.

And then another rest.

She was lonely, that first day, so I added a friend for her; one I knew couldn’t hurt her.

By the time I got up on day 2, things were not looking good. Her head was completely dragging on the ground {which was nasty, because they still poo….} and she was going in circles. She could only go in reverse, which resulted in her getting wedged into the corner much of the time because she could only go so far.

I also knew she needed to be alone so as not to stress out another chick, and so she could just rest without having anything else in the same space.

By day 3, I was feeling really sad. She was clearly distressed, and wrestling around with her neck was wiping her out. Her balance had gotten worse, and she was also now falling over. I have to be honest and say I didn’t have a lot of hope for her at that point.

But, I had read that while progress was slow, it would happen. So, I tried not to despair and just waited.

In addition to the yogurt, I added some scrambled egg. She got more egg and yogurt than crumble those days, since I was really trying to bump her protein. Eggs are not only full of protein, but they also have vitamin E and selenium in them.

I also made a point to get the liquids in her. I had initially dipped her beak in her water the first day, to make sure she was getting enough, but by days 2 and 3, she had deteriorated enough that I knew it was more stressful to do that then just have her on my lap and use the dropper.

Medicine droppers are easy to find, and they don’t cost much; just like the 88 cent pill crusher I had gotten.

It’s important to just dribble the water drops on the end of the beak so that the chicken doesn’t aspirate {inhale} the water into its lungs. I basically camped out in the office those first few days, watching, watering, and researching. I didn’t want to miss anything.

Day 5 was the day there was actual noticeable progress. Silver had her head up more and more, and her appetite had dramatically improved.

Today, we’re at the 17 day mark. I could probably put her back in with the others, but the boys are still too rambunctious for me to be relaxed about it. Plus, while her preening has improved and is back to normal, I think I want to give her a bath and clean her head throughly.

She’s also got a buddy in with her again. When she started hopping out when we left the ‘lid’ off, we knew it was time to get her some company. We’re rotating chicks out, so when she goes back in the big brooder, she won’t be a total stranger to them.

If you ever think about getting into chickens, know this: there are abundant resources online to help you with whatever: coop design, identifying chicks, predator information and control suggestions; feeding, and yes, illnesses and emergencies.

Here are a few pages that I used as templates for our situation:

A success story that gave me hope: http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/662850/a-happy-ending-to-a-wry-neck-chick-story-with-pics-with-update

More clinical information, including treatment suggestions: http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=casestudiesemergencies&action=display&num=1160927052

You’ll notice that we didn’t use prednisone. While there are some that swear that using it in addition to the other treatment is necessary, I thought I would give the other suggestions a go before giving a steroid that would compromise her immune system.

Let me recap what I did:

Poly Vi Sol WITHOUT iron- comes in a purple box and I found it with the baby/child vitamins at Walmart. You should be able to find this just about anywhere they sell baby stuff. I gave a full dropper full in the water dish and an added boost of a solid dropper-full of just vitamins for the first few days. By the end of the first week, I was just adding it to her water.

Vitamin E capsules- 400 I.U.s x 2 a day

Selenium- 200 microgram pills, cut into 4 pieces. I used an entire pill in with her water/vitamins the first day; most of it going into her water. If you think this is too much, by all means, stick to a lower dosage. I thought a boost on the first day (which was day 2 of injury) wouldn’t hurt her, especially since she had gotten worse.

Yogurt- good for protein and hydration. I always use plain, non-diet yogurt. Anything with flavor just seems to really stink, since I add some crumble to the top so it doesn’t get flung as far.

Egg- I used both scrambled, and also boiled. The key is to mash it so the pieces are small enough to be eaten, because they can’t smash it on the ground to break it into smaller bits.

Electrolytes- this should be next to the Save-A-Chick stuff; not quite the same, as this is more vitamins/minerals as opposed to sugar/pick-me-up-go-go stuff.

Patience- you’ll probably need it, along with a good dose of hope. I’m pretty sure prayer helps, too.

Time- I am fortunate that I’m home and that the kids are willing to help. It has been hugely helpful to have the kids tag-team with me to make sure she always had food and water, and wasn’t getting too distressed. Because we had her water in bowls instead of a regular waterer, drowning was a concern, because in theory, she could get her head in there and not have the strength to get it out.

As you do with baby chicks, you can add some rocks or large marbles to the water so that they can’t get the whole head in and drown. I took the lid off of an old sports bottle and floated it in the condiment dish. Because I had such little liquid in there, I kept the bowl tipped so the liquid was more on one side than the other, if that makes sense.

Another thing I did was to use a small box and put her food plate on it. I used a saucer for her food. Because she could only go either in circles or in reverse, she was again, dragging her head through her food- and the shavings were getting dragged into everything, too. Having the dish on the little box helped keep her head and the shavings out it, and also helped to encourage her to get her head up a little higher.

I used the dish to better keep track of what she was eating; plus, yogurt is gooey.

I will also confess to giving some massage. In people, we call this condition torticollis. I know massage has been helpful in infants, so I thought, why not try it on my chicken?

While I am absolutely not angling to have more wry neck, I think it was overall less stressful than I imagine coccidiosis would be; having an egg-bound hen, or some other unknown situation.

So. That’s what I’ve been up to. What about you?

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I’m Addicted

If you’re reading along, you are no doubt shaking your head, rolling your eyes, and probably sighing, thinking, “Here we go again. Will she never stop? Someone needs to do an intervention.”

Ya, I know I’m addicted. It’s just not a “problem,” as far as I’m concerned.

Last Monday, I added silkie chicks to the brooder. Can you see me doing the happy dance?

A pusher friend of mine knew I was going to order silkies, and suggested she knew a feller that had some silkies and regularly had them hatching out. She contacted him, and sure enough, he had 4 silkies- 2 white, 1 silver, and 1 black.

You may remember me ranting about wanting white silkies, which is how I ended up with my 2 boy Sultans when I came home with 5-toed bantams last year and 4 buff silkies. Turns out, we totally fell in love with our buff silkies, too.

This year, I had planned on getting buff silkies, in addition to blue, black and white. I was going to order them from the hatchery, and they would be here mid-June.

Then, my friend told me about this gentleman, and I thought, if I could get them locally, that would be better. Plus, I wouldn’t have to get as many.

Because he charges more for the blacks and had silver hatching, I thought I would substitute the silvers for the black silkies. So. He let me know what he had, and I dashed off to go pick them up.

I came home with 2 whites and 1 silver silkie chicks. Squee!

These chicks hatched, as I understand it, within days of each other. Here is one of my white ones. You can already see her crazy hair. We named her Mo.

 

You can see her black skin peeking through; one of their unique, defining characteristics.

 

 

 

I love that round little poof!

This next fluffy baby is Silver.

 

 

 

According to the American Silkie Bantam Club, “The colors which are recognized by both the American Poultry Association  and the American Bantam Association are White, Black, Blue, Buff,  Gray, Partridge and Splash.” I’m trying to track down which category my silvers fall into. Two things I’ve learned about silkie genetics are that I don’t know anything and they’re confusing.

He said he’d have 12 more hatching out in the next two weeks. Since I wanted 6 and came home with 3, I would wait for 3 more.

Yesterday, he let me know he had 2 more white and 1 more silver hatch. We made arrangements, and I went out to get them today. I didn’t bring the 2 whites home because I want an even number of each color, to up my chances of having a girl in each color. That means I have 1 more silver one to get, if it hatches out next week. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Even though I won’t have buffs this year, I am thrilled to have the silvers!

I can’t wait to round out my silkies! I will say- things are starting to feel more “normal” instead of “new,” and most of that, I think, is due to the peeping coming from the brooder. ♥♥♥♥♥

 

 

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I’m _______

Obsessed.

Strange.

Cuckoo.

Bizarre.

Insane.

Uncouth.

Demented.

Sick.

Nuts.

Happy.

Euphoric.

Bitten.

And those are just the single-word descriptions. I may have to make a new category. Because, you see, even though I *know* this happens every single time, whether I plan it or not, I continue to repeat the deed because I am, quite simply, addicted.

I am pretty sure if someone was mapping my brain at those times, the pleasure center would be lit up like a Christmas tree, and you could see those neurons firing the message to send out some oxytocin; maybe even some prolactin. {And it might be contagious, too, so watch out! }

Wednesday afternoon, I headed to Tractor Supply to get a stock tank and horse feed since they were out on Tuesday. They told me they were getting bantams on Friday, so on the off-chance that they got some silkies, I figured I’d get a stock tank since the brooder didn’t make the move.

The stock tank would be fine, and we can reuse it for the horses when we’re done. It’s a good stop-gap measure.

So there I went, mostly to get food for the horses. You know you have to walk by the chickens, yes? 

I spent close to 2 hours there, talking to people about chickens. There was a very nice lady who had just gotten some, and she was taking pictures, trying to figure out which breeds she had gone home with. We started talking, and pretty soon, we had covered all kinds of things, particularly coop design and the space requirements per chicken. {A good rule of thumb is 4 sq ft per chicken; large fowl.}

I talked to some gentlemen, as well, and suggested they all go the Backyard Chicken website and forums. The forums have all kinds of sections, including starting chicks, breeds, predators, and coop design. Really. If you are thinking about chickens, start there. SO many people are willing to share their plans with you it’s not even funny. You won’t regret it!

I spent all that time jabbering and then realized Hunny was going to be coming home soon, so I needed to skeedaddle.

I was in the parking lot on the way out when I realized I had forgotten to get the stock tank. *sigh*.

So, Thursday, I headed back to get the stock tank. And, I wanted to check the time that the bantams for sure were going to be getting there. Turns out, they had literally just gotten there. They let me come back an hour later, after they had time to get warmed back up, and pick through them.

No silkies.  

BUT. They did have other, four-toed, feather-legged bantams. Tractor Supply has a minimum of 6 chicks to take home……..

You can see where this is going, can’t you? You might think I would be thinking, “I just ordered 40 large fowl and 15 guineas the other day. I know I can order the 8 in the breeds that I want and get them here in June.”

Ok, I admit I was thinking that.

Louder than that voice, though, was the one whispering, ”You haven’t had these kinds of feather-footed chooks. Look, aren’t they cute? Look at how small they are! Awww, they’re so fuzzy! Aren’t they cute? And there’s only 6 of them…….”

Because we haven’t built anything yet, I thought, what they heck- let me text Hunny and see what he says. I explained to him that I would have to end up with 12 bantams total because I’d have to get 6 more; or if they didn’t end up getting any in, I’d have to order 12.

I could hear him rolling his eyes.

I did mention, though, that bantams are so small that you really need 2 of them to make 1 large chicken, so you could get more with the same space.

Struck down again by chicken math!

So we dug through and picked them out.  There were exactly 6 feather-footed bantams.

I had no idea what they were. Naturally, when I got home, I got down to business, researching to see if I could identify them.

I think I might have a clue what these cuties are.

I think {and certainly, I am no expert} that this is a Black Cochin chick. I think I have maybe two them. One I’m real iffy on, because he’s somewhere between this one and the other suspected Barred Cochin chick. I’ll show pictures of them last.

This little cutie I think is a Buff Brahma. If feather sexing works on this breed and is the same for others, this baby is a girl. I only have one of them, but she is pretty zippy and is very, very active and busily trying to fly and get into everything. Her tail feathers have grown since yesterday. What a riot!

Rounding out my set of 6 are these plumpers. You can see how they have a fuzzy yellow tush and more yellow on their bellies. They all have a similar wing pattern, tipped with yellow. These actually look a lot like our Barred Rock chicks did.

The one I question is not as yellow-y as this little bug, but is not quite as solid as the chick I suspect of being a Black Cochin.

At this point, it’s a waiting game until they start feathering out and we can really tell what they are. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to have chicks again! There is just something about hearing their little cheeps that brings a smile to my face.

I’ve also continued to be amazed at how fast they grow! You can literally see them growing tail feathers and getting their other feathers. You can see their egg tooth when you first get them, and watch as it gets picked off or worn down and disappear. And I have to laugh at them digging and scratching; doing all the “big kid” behavior, when it’s not something that’s been learned by watching other chickens.

Already, we’ve had some races {where they race and try to fly but end up just zipping all over} and we’ve had some hockey, when they thought a piece of shaving was a bug. They are hilarious- it really IS ‘chick tv!’

It’s been another unexpectedly busy day. At this point, I’m just tired.

So now you know. I’m _________.

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Euphoria {Otherwise Known As: Return of The Chicken Math}

I’m tellin’ ya, it’s a drug. A heavy- hitting, fly -to -the moon, squee-all-afternoon kind of drug that leaves you high and darn near breathless with euphoria.

Raise your hand if you are nodding along because you know what I’m talking about. {I’ll pretend I see you }

When we moved, as you may remember, one of the primary criteria for the new digs was the ability to have chickens. You may also recall that we ended up with horses instead.

Hunny finally got tired of me whining decided that despite the chaos, it was ok for me to order some chickens. I had been looking online for a while and came to the realization that it was going to be a few months out before all the breeds I wanted were ready to ship.

I spent the entire morning shopping. While I generally despise shopping {as you know because you’ve been reading along all this time} the only kind of shopping I don’t completely hate is- {wait for it……} shopping for chickens.  There is something about checking out your breeds and then finding the best dates and prices on them.

This time, we were going to do it right, without falling victim to chicken math. Every time I’ve gone to buy chickens, I’ve fallen prey to it. Literally every. Single. Time. {Like, the time I Almost Did Something Bad and then ended up with Babies anyhow…….}

This time was going to be different, though. “Why,” you might ask? Well, we’re in the country for one thing, and for another thing, I was planning on getting more than the 23 I ended up with last time.

So you see, there was no reason for chicken math to creep up on me this time because I was already going to get as many as I wanted.

I spent all morning shopping online, and had my breeds and quantities picked out. The only real issue was that I couldn’t get them until the end of June, which is, well, meh.   

I thought, “Gee, well, as long as I’m down at tractor Supply, I’ll ask them how their shipping works. After all, the hatchery I talked to this morning would mix large fowl with bantams with no problem.”

So I asked. And they told me no. No biggy; I can order my silkies in a smaller quantity.

In the meantime, my oldest daughter had found another cool looking breed that she though would be neat to have. And I thought, “No biggy; I’ll just order a few of those and tack them on to the order.”

Are you laughing yet?

Come to find out, yes, there’s a minimum order of 25 chickens. BUT. You have to order the breeds in quantities of 5. I called Hunny and talked it over with him before I did anything. And bless his heart, he was fine with it!

Initially, I was going to have a total of 31 without the guineas; 8 silkies and 23 large fowl. Because I was not going to pay megabucks to have the 90% accurate DNA testing done, the silkies were going to be straight run.

When it’s straight run, you can figure on about a 50/50 mix of boys and girls. So, in reality, that means we would only end up keeping 4 silkies, unless I could con talk Hunny into breeding and selling down the road. {Keeping my fingers crossed, but not holding my breath!}

So, in reality, that would put me around 27 chickens, which is a good amount of chickens. 

One other thing we decided on was getting guineas. Now, you may be scratching your head and wondering why, since we would have plenty of chickens.

Guineas are great at getting bugs. So are chickens, but the specialty of guineas is ticks. And, they will eat the bad bugs in the garden without eating the garden {I’ve heard- we’ll see- I’m a bit skeptical on that one, though}. While I’ve heard guineas are messy and loud, they are very good at alerting to predators and other unannounced “visitors.”

Another primary reasons guineas are such a good thing when you live in the country is that they will help control the snake population. I could do without snakes, so this seems like a win-win to me!

One of my bigger concerns is that because they roam, they might get chased by hunting dogs and then shot. In theory, this land is off-limits, but since we’re new and some haven’t figured that out, we’ve seen hunters from the hunting club out here. I don’t remember if I wrote it up, but there was one set of hunters in the front pasture with my HORSES that went and dragged a deer carcass right in front of them and my daughter who was out there. Ya, things are going to change next year!

We’ll have to see where we land with that.

I did a lot of looking online, and I finally ordered 15. Tractor Supply had a minimum of 25, and I just do not want that many.

Which ones did I settle on? I ordered 5 of each:

Lavender guinea:

Royal Purple guinea: 

and White guinea:  

Now. Onto the chickens!

I actually did not order silkies today. Tractor Supply is getting bantams on Friday, so I’m going down there first thing in the morning to dig through them like we did last time. Hopefully, they will have a good variety, or else I may order the ones I want in a few weeks. That would put them here late June.

I did, however, order 5 Buff Orpington pullets.

The two big yellow chickens were our BOs, Butternut and Daisy. Butternut was the flock mistress, and would protect the chicks from the dogs. She would even peck Little Dog, who learned she didn’t like having her nose poked. Butternut was huge, and it was awesome to see her fluff her neck feathers out.

This was one of my absolute favorite breeds because of being a dual-purpose breed: good for meat and eggs. {We don’t eat our friends, though. }

They are good all around- good in confinement and heat and cold tolerant. It’s also listed as a “Recovering Heritage Breed” with the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.

Blue Andalusian.   I got 5 Blue Andis, too.  After having our hearts broken saying Goodbye, Dear Jasmine, I vowed if I ever got the chance, we would get more Blue Andalusians, but all girls {pullets}. So we did.

Andalusians are a “Threatened Heritage Breed,” and they are simply gorgeous! They are medium layers of nice white eggs and are heat tolerant.

If you’ve seen pictures of my eggs before we moved, you will no doubt know that none of my flocks are ever complete without Easter Eggers. EEs are commonly found at hatcheries listed as Ameraucanas, but because they come from hatcheries, they are actually Easter Egges. This is because hatchery birds don’t meet the breed standard all the time; some of them are rumpless; some are muffless and/or beardless, and of course, some of them lay brown eggs.

Out of our last flock, we had one that laid a brown egg; two laid olive eggs {yay for olive eggers!} and the rest laid the typical blue/green eggs.

They are SO cute as chicks because they look like chipmunks!

EEs are an all-around great chicken- they do well confined and are a cold and heat tolerant breed. I can’t say enough good about this breed. I settled on ordering 10 of these girls.

As I was choosing breeds, I was looking for a balance of egg color. I, personally, like to see a nice variety of egg colors in the carton. A very nice brown egg layer that is something special to look at is the Silver Laced Wyandotte.

SLWs are another breed that are cold and heat tolerant and do ok being confined. While I was happy to see that this breed is listed as “Recovering,” it didn’t deter me from ordering 5.

Before getting chickens, I had no idea the wide variety of colors chickens could come in. I admit to going a bit hog-wild this time.

One of the egg-colors I have always drooled over was the really dark brown chocolatey eggs. 

YUMMY!!! Marans lay these eggs, so I got 5 Cuckoo Marans. I was particularly pleased, because Cuckoo Marans look a bit like Barred (Plymouth) Rocks, and since we weren’t getting any, I knew my middle daughter would be thrilled, because her favorites were the BRs. 

As I was thinking about breeds, my daughter noticed the Silver Lakenvelder, and I remembered that it was also listed as a “Threatened” breed. I thought, “I’ll just add a few of those” and that’s how we ended up ordering 5. The Lakenvelder lays a nice white egg and does well in confinement and is heat tolerant.

One of the more interesting and unique chicken breeds is the Silver Spangled Hamburg, also known as “the polka-dotted chicken,”

When I discovered these a few years ago, I swore I’d get some if I didn’t have to order a boatload. So, I ordered 5. The Silver Spangled Hamburg is on the “Watch” list. It lays a white egg; does best free-ranging and is heat tolerant.

So. Let’s recap:

Brown egg layers: Buff Orpingtons (5), Silver Laced Wyandottes (5)

Dark chocolate eggs: Cuckoo Maran (5)

White egg layers: Blue Andalusian (5), Silver Spangled Hamburg (5) and Silver Lakenvelder (5)

Colored eggs: Easter Eggers (10)

Regular math: 23 large fowl + 8 silkies= 31 + 8 guineas= 39. {I probably would have rounded to an even 40.}

Chicken math: 40 large fowl + 8 slkies + 15 guineas= running afowl of 63 birds!

Ahhhh, my loves, I’ve been waiting!

**pictures courtesy of Google, My Pet Chicken, Meyer Hatchery, Feathersite, Backyard Chickens, etc etc

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Moving Day

It was not entirely unexpected, but it happened a bit fast. We knew this day was coming, but I’ll admit I was completely stressed out about it.

Tonight, I look out and see a lonely 2 horses left in our front pasture. However, we own at least 5. They just aren’t here.

2 days ago, our good friend D called to let me know about another horse opportunity. This was not another rescue; just an awesome opportunity. D and T were going to be in the general area anyhow, and they had 2 horses, 1 pony, and a puppy to go see. They took a saddle and promised to send pictures.

In the meantime, we made a mad dash to Tractor Supply to check on fencing.

The original pre- Thursday plan was to move all the horses. Gone. All 5 of them. Kapoof.

As seems to be par for the course, things changed moment by moment. We had hard decisions to make. And. It. Was. STRESSFUL.

Saddlebreds are a hot-blooded breed. Numerous people told us these two horses would never be good for riding; that we could never control them on the trail because of the breed. The mixes- Saddlebred/Quarter Horse were even worse.

And yet, we knew our two Saddlebreds. We knew how calm they could be; how gentle. We made HUGE leaps with both Flicka and Boi, and probably decisions that weren’t the smartest at the time, like saddling Boi just to see if we could do it. {He was completely calm, by the way, even when we tightened the cinch (or cinched the girth; whichever you prefer ); he did not even move- and really, we don’t need more of a lecture; we get it. }

The tipping point was when we decided to go for the new horse. Where were we going to put everyone?

Halo needs to be fattened up more; Elia {we’ve been calling him Jambalaya because he’s a jumbled mess } needs to be weaned. We’re undecided what to do with Blondie because we’re not sure she would ever be a good horse for trail riding, and she’s a ways off from being able to be ridden. So, we’re going to give it some time and see what we want to down the road.

Magic needs some attitude work, but she is still an awesome horse. Angel, however, is pretty near perfect. She needs some saddle hours and a thorough evaluation to make sure she is completely child-safe. She already parks out, which means shorty me can probably get on without a bench.

Magic and Angel got moved first, and that went very well. Then it was time to head home and move the others.

Halo went right in {incidentally, she went back to her first home and original trainer} and Elia followed right away. We had some shuffling around and baby came out and then we had a little bit of work to get him back in. Once they were secured, it was time to get Blondie loaded.

Have you ever tried to trailer a wild filly for the first time? No? Us either.

And let me tell you, that was a lot of work! Obviously, I didn’t get any pictures. It took us about an hour, but we got her.

In addition to moving our horses, D and S (the gal who drove the trailer to get Magic) were doing a horse swap over at his place. By the time he and S got back, Blondie was loaded and we were ready to go.

Horses got settled in and then we came back home for tack. At some point, he called and let us know the Saddlebred “people” were on their way. So home we went. This was going to be the make-or-break decision time. And we were dreading it…………….

At the end of the day, we’re trying to track down registration on Flicka to see what she’s been trained to do. As we thought, she had been broken and most likely shown and can even park out, although she basically needs to relearn everything.

Boi has bonded with our oldest daughter. He is a *completely* different horse when she handles him, and he does very well with Hunny and me, too.

They are both still here, and we’re going to get him gelded before sending them off to Saddlebred camp  training. We realize these two are our project horses, but we are cautiously optimistic.

I really believe God brought us *here*- to this house; to this property; with these horses. I think we were supposed to save them. We realize it may not work out the way we want it to, but we really feel like we owe them a chance. It’s not their fault they were abandoned and ignored. We’re willing to give them a chance and see where we land. And, of course, we are totally attached to them and we love them, so that helps.

We really just want everyone home, and we’re working towards that goal as quickly as we can. Within the next several weeks, we hope to have the horses home and also get our chicken arrangements underway. Even with all our horsey fun, I miss my girlies!

So. That’s what we did today. Have we’ve graduated from being chicken people to horse people to full-out farm folk? I think just maybe we’re getting there…………………………

And I wouldn’t have it any other way!

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A Horsey Tale

Once upon a time, there was a lady who lived in the desert with her family and her chickens. She was not fond of the desert, and longed and longed for years and years to move somewhere green. One day, after 17 years, it looked like her wish might come true.

She prayed and prayed. And she tried to be patient, even though it was really hard.

After 4 months and lots and lots of patience {and prayers}, her wish came true. There was much packing, and with some tears of leaving good friends behind and having to rehome the 23 chickens, the family made their journey east. The plan was to live in the RV; all of them- 4 kids, 2 parents, 2 dogs and a cat- until their house sold.

The lady knew she needed to get a feel for the local real estate market, so she made a short list of houses to look at. Her number one requirement was that they be allowed to have chickens. Another deep desire was that it was close enough to work so her hunny could continue to come home for lunch. And, of course, it had to be the right space for their homeschooling family of three girls and a teenage boy.

With those things in mind, she made her short list of houses to look at, knowing it would be probably summer or early fall before they could get into a house.

Within 2 weeks, said lady was going out of her mind in that small, small, space, what with 4 kids, 2 parents, 2 dogs and a cat. She began to think that the housing market would have to wait, because she was going to have go back to the desert until the house was sold.

To get her out of the small, small space, she decided she would at least look at a few houses; one of which was a new listing and piqued her curiosity, because the pictures were confusing. That first day, she went to numerous houses, but the one ‘confusing’ listing stole her heart…………

{If you read back, you can see the drama of getting to closing……}

Within the first week of moving into the heart house, a few things happened. Most of the neighbors stopped by to say hello and to introduce themselves. This was very interesting, because in the heart house, there were no other houses that could even BE seen. So, to meet all the neighbor people in the unseen houses was a fantastic and unexpected joy.

The biggest thing that happened, though, was that they began to realize from talking to the new neighbors that the 5 horses in their front yard were abandoned. The neighbors had been sporadically feeding the poor horses.

Upon further inspection, the lady and her family realized that the mama horse with the new colt was actually starving to death, and was going to die in the next week or so, if something wasn’t done right away.

The tipping point came one day when the lady went out front to see the horses in the front yard and realized that not only were they not being fed, but they also had no water. None. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

The lady saw red.  After getting the horses water, she packed up her oldest daughter, and they drove 20 some miles one way to get the horses food. She explained the situation to the nice folks at Tractor Supply, and came home with lots of food for the horses.

Over the next month and a half, the lady and her family continued to feed the horses. They paid for food, for the vet, and for the farrier. They began working on a permanent solution for the horses

And that was the birth of a new horsey family………………………….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I can’t begin to tell you how *furious* I was when I realized they had no water. And that the folks we had seen who seemed to be feeding them were another neighbor’s kids who came every now and then to see if they had hay.

I absolutely REFUSE to watch an animal starve to death, particularly one as intelligent as a horse, and in my front yard, no less. Not gonna happen.

So. Here’s what’s out front. There are two Saddllebreds; a mother and her son. Flicka is 16; Boi is about 5 or 6.

Flicka

Boi

She was pregnant when brought here, and we’ve heard her price tag was $10,000. As far as we know, she has never been ridden, but we think she’s had some work done prior to coming here. Boy has not had any work done.

Halo is a 16-year-old champion barrel racer and is a Quarter Horse. She has a three-month old colt (he was just born when we saw the house for the first time) that is a Quarter Horse/Saddlebred cross.

Halo

Halo and Elia

Elia earlier on

Halo, Elia, and our neighbor, D

Blondie is also Halo and Boi’s offspring. We think she’s around 2 years old.

We’ve got Halo in the pen up front with Elia (the baby) and she’s a bit sad to be separated from the others. She’s getting a ton of food everyday, in accordance to what they vet has told us to do. We’ve got her blanket on her when it’s cool/cold because she has no body fat to keep her warm, and she needs all the calories she can get. We figure she’s gained about 200-250 lbs since we started feeding her, but she needs at least 300 more.

I am not joking when I say death was imminent.These pictures were taken when she had added maybe 100 lbs. Baby was awfully skinny, too, because she didn’t have much to give him while she was starving. Had we not intervened, they would both be dead by now.

Did I mention that none of these 5 horses are even ours?

It’s a complicated situation, but we are hoping to get custody of the horses and also the land that surrounds our property, so that we can add our own horses and not have to deal with a whole lot of fencing.

In a perfect world, we would get the land and end up with a working farm, that would allow us to be a rescue horse sanctuary, without going bankrupt. This is a work in progress, which we pray won’t take too much longer to settle. The horses need hay, but I am loathe to feed a lot of horses that could be sold out from under us. Either way, they need more hay soon, and we’ll keep feeding them and getting the ticks off.

Chickens are on the list, too, but we have a lot of work to do first.

In the process of taking care of the horses, we’ve completely fallen head over heels in love. We are in love with the land, with the house, with the area, and with the horses. We would not have made the leap into horses if it wasn’t for our awesome neighbors, D, and his daughter, S. The girls are exchanging work and feeding for riding lessons, and we all couldn’t be happier!

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Horsey Tale, which will have more pictures documenting our adventure and our creatures……………………

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I’m a Slacker

Yep. I am. Now I’ve said it out loud and you know.

I really didn’t intend to end up like this. I’m hoping I don’t stay this way for long, either.

I have entirely too much do and I’m feeling overwhelmed.

I’m feeling overwhelmed by the amount of painting to be done. I’m overwhelmed by the amount of blood spatter in this house. Seriously. {Kids, this is a prime example of why not to do drugs- you’ll lose your house and the new owners will be totally grossed out when they clean and paint it to make it livable……..}

I haven’t really run since we left. I feel like it’s a guilty pleasure that I can’t allow myself to indulge in when I have so much other stuff that needs to get done.

Honestly, I’d be happy to stay curled up with a book and look out the windows……

I did, however, make my son some curtains. He was tired of having to change his clothes in the closet because he didn’t have curtains. At some point, I’ll take pictures of the whole room, once I get the last set of curtains made and he’s gotten it painted. In the meantime, here they are:

You may remember me complaining about the bird nesting happening when I was making my girls their sundresses last spring. I’m glad I didn’t pitch my machine. It worked just fine. Hmmph. I’ll have to diddle with it some more when I get back to the dresses.

Once we get things painted, I am not sure how much time I’ll have to be online. Life is changing, and in a really good way.

Have you ever been somewhere where you know that’s where you were meant to be? Like deep down in your soul you knew you were where God wanted you to be?

Ya. It’s like that here. If I have to be buried somewhere, I’m changing my mind. I’ll forgo Tin Cup, Co, for being buried on the farm here somewhere. {Which is legal here, too- one of these days, I’ll write about that, because it’s fascinating!}

Anyhow. What’s taking up my time? Life is taking up my time; mostly in the form of creatures.

We had been here for about a week before we realized that the 5 horses in our front yard were only being fed by neighbors, sporadically. And they had no water. 

You can see where I’m going with this…… not only are we feeding them, we’re rehabing the mama horse that was near death from starvation. Turns out, she’s a champion barrel horse. As in, big $$$$$. Out of the 5, she’s the only one saddle broke{n}, so we’re starting with her.

She’s an {American} Quarter Horse. There’s another out there that we know he paid $10,000 for and never broke. Ya. She’s an American Saddlebred- you know, the high-stepping show horses? Ya. Her son is a Saddlebred as well, and then the foal {colt} and the filly are both a Quarter Horse/Saddlebred mix. Boo.

One of these days, I’ll write the whole thing up, with pictures. Mama is now as happy as a clam out there, with her blanket on and in a separate pen so she can eat undisturbed. Baby is eating solids and is weaning, so that’s good.

Besides the painting (seriously, I have gotten two bathrooms finished, and that’s it- while 12 ft ceilings with crown molding is beautiful, it’s a pain to paint…..), we’ve got chickens to set up for, in addition to our own horses {yes, you’re reading that right} and still get things unpacked.

Kitchen appliances came. Turns out, the ovens are too tall, so the cabinet guy needs to come back out. I didn’t get any Christmas baking done. I’m hoping he can come and get that done so I can get some of my breads made soon.

There are SO many loose ends at this point. I lose an entire day going into town for shopping. So far, I haven’t been able to not make two trips in every week, because there is always something urgently needed. Yesterday, it was horse food. Today, it’s groceries, since the big winter storm blew through and it was pouring rain so I just got horse food and came back home before the worst of it hit.

There’s a schedule to keep to, too. Horses are fed at 8 am and 5pm; mama gets lunch as well until she’s gained the last 300 lbs; and most days, I take the girls to feed over at our “neighbors” house in exchange for their weekly riding lessons.

And then, there is the steady stream of visitors. I’ve decided that I’m going to give it another month, and then after that point, we’re going to start handing out paint rollers to visitors. We absolutely LOVE the company, but it’s not conducive to me getting the painting done.

On top of all of this, we’ve got a new puppy. That means someone needs to supervise her until we can count on her to go to the door every time she needs out. I had no plans for more pets, of course, but when a friend posted a picture on FB of a purebred border collie pup who was being given away because as the runt, she was going to be too small to work with cattle, I couldn’t say no.

Big dog, you may recall, is a{blonde/red merle} border collie as well, so we are very familiar with the breed. Had this been any other breed, I would have passed, because we don’t have time right now to deal with stubborn doggies {like little dog, for example, who we LOVE to bits and pieces, but is really quite stubborn }.

But, having lost out kitty a month ago, and seeing her cuteness, I couldn’t resist. So, here is our little Oreo. 

When I can get out of my slacker mode and get more painting done, I’ll be back to write some more. In the meantime, don’t forget me!

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On the Edge

Tears of release;

Weep with relief.

God On High be praised;

Peace in my soul renewed.

His handiwork shines;

And reminds that it is all Him……………………….

*sigh*

I don’t remember a mortgage being quite like this; ever. If you’ve been reading along, you will know I’ve been doing some head banging. Ok, well, not really. I haven’t just been doing some head banging- I’ve been doing A LOT of head banging. So much so, that I’m pretty sure I have a sizable dent in my forehead.

The requirement changing that I referenced in one of my last posts was just one of the bumps in the road. You may {or may not} be aware of the factors that are taken into consideration for mortgage approval.

One of the things they most look at is what’s called “debt-to-income ratio.” In a nutshell, they want to make sure you aren’t overextended and can actually PAY for the mortgage.

You may think this sounds like common sense, and really, it is. You may be surprised, though, at the number of people who go into mortgages not having a clue what they can really afford- which is NOT the same as what they can qualify for- and then {in the past, before the new regulations} would totally over-extend themselves.

Before the housing bust and collapse, a certain amount of “high risk” mortgages were mandatory. I’m pretty sure that’s come back to bite them in the butt.

SO many people were upside down in their mortgages, and couldn’t sell because the property was now over –valued and wouldn’t appraise. Then, many of those same people had either balloon payments coming due or had an ARM {adjustable rate mortgage} mortgage and had been paying basically the interest on the mortgage with the lock-in-rate coming due.

Many people had planned on having a low payment {or one they could afford} for 5 years then using the equity in the house to refinance at the end of the term, which would allow them to not pay PMI (mortgage insurance). Some people planned on selling the house {with all that extra equity} before their mortgage was set to get locked in; using the profit as their next down payment, and getting a regular monthly payment they could afford.

But the market tanked; home values went in reverse, and a lot of people wound up in houses with regular long-term locked-in monthly mortgage payments they couldn’t afford. When that happened, houses were foreclosed if the bank wouldn’t accept a short-sale, or they couldn’t get the house sold despite listing as a short-sale and still ended up in foreclosure and losing their homes.

Now what we’re seeing are regulations that are super, super stringent. I have heard horror stories of people who were self-employed with histories of consistent income with enough in reserves and other accounts in addition to funds for down payment and closing costs that couldn’t qualify because they couldn’t “prove” where their income for the last 5 years came from because they didn’t hang on to hard copies every single incoming penny.

I have heard all kinds of stories about people who have had closing dates and then couldn’t close for some odd-ball reason; I’ve heard about people who actually did close but then the bank didn’t transfer the funds to them which then delayed their move-in date.

It’s just been strange.

The point here being that all kinds of things are unusual trying to get mortgages these days, and it’s my opinion that it’s particularly so when you don’t have your other house sold.

To keep our debt-to-income ratio where we wanted it to be for the two houses, we went ahead and got rid of a monthly payment. For the last few years, I’ve been paying this account electronically {as I do all my bills} and it *always* clears and is credited to my account in 2 days. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

Except this time. Nope, this time- you know, the ONE time I NEEDED to have it paid on time- they completely lost the money.

Yep. They sure did.

And it wasn’t just a regular-monthly-payment amount of money. *sigh*

A week after it still hadn’t posted to my account, I started getting mad. My bank showed it had been paid and cleared my account. But the receiver of the money had no record of it.

That resulted in considerable phone calls back and forth with my bank so they could trace the money; and also numerous calls back and forth to the other place.

Then there were faxes. Paperwork needed to be sent to them with requests to different departments on the receiving end; all of which had to be signed. They needed “proof” from my bank that showed they had received the money. Because I don’t have fax capability, that meant that Hunny had to take time out of his massively busy schedule to do it. Blarg.

This one little piece of the puzzle was going to screw up everything else! And by that, I do mean everything.

What hinges on an on-time closing? Let me tell you….. The day we close (Thursday), I have my floor guy coming in to begin refinishing the floors. That won’t allow for carpet to get in until the following Thursday. That’s arranged, too.

The carpet takes two days (Thursday and Friday) and the semi with my furniture comes Saturday.

Because my house is getting loaded {and has some remaining packing} and delivered here, that means someone has to be there to let them in and supervise. That means 2 plane tickets back- flying there on Saturday and then flying home here on Wednesday. Oh- and a car rental.

Do you see all the moving parts to this?

It’s what I call the “domino effect.” Have you ever tried to stop falling dominoes? What happens? Things get knocked all caddywhompus and it’s near impossible to straighten them out.

If I don’t close on time, I can’t get my floors done on time. If the floors don’t get done as planned, that pushes carpet back. If carpet gets pushed back, my stuff will have to sit on a truck, if they let us.

Why else am I so concerned about my timeline? Well, gosh, if you haven’t heard- there was a hurricane. While it didn’t hit us directly {although the Outer Banks got hit pretty hard} because we’re about an hour and a half inland, that means that availability of supplies could be an issue if we are delayed.

And then that might mean another few days in the campground, because our month will be up. Those extra days are paid at a significantly higher price. We’ve talked about moving the trailer to the house and plugging in there, even though we can’t get in because the floors can’t be walked on, but the sticking point is laundry.

We’re doing numerous loads during the week. It’s nice doing them here because we can get them started and just check back, instead of having to literally sit there all day.

We found the local laundromat- they call them “wash houses” here. Not only do most of the machines not work, but they don’t have any hot water. So, laundry is an actual concern. Hunny wants me to get an rv washer/dryer combo, because we have two sets of hookups in the house {even though the bottom floor hookups are in a spot where the floors are being redone} and we may go that route, although I’m not sure how that will work when during the week they are redoing the floors.

In the midst of all of this, I have the cleaning that I can get to, and getting ready to paint. The plan is to get most of it in one fell swoop so we don’t have to make repeated trips 25 miles away, one way. Lots and lots of organizing; lots and lots of trips for supplies need to be orchestrated; working around contractors.

Next week, I need to get all my utilities started. I very much feel like this is the calm before the storm. I’ll be relieved when the whirlwind is over, but this definitely falls into the ‘the only to get to the end is to go through it’ category.

Tomorrow, we blessedly get to do something “normal,” as we’re going on a homeschool field trip to a farm. They’re giving a tour of- you guessed it- a chicken coop. I am seriously hoping my kids won’t hijack the instructor.

It’s the last little relaxed day of fun before things seriously get wound up. Hang on to your hats!

Yesterday, I had Gaga {Lady} running through my mind.

This morning, after getting news about travel arrangements, this was the song that came to mind: Shout to the Lord {Hillsong/ Darlene Zschech}.

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It’s Like That

You know how it is when you have a plan and you are determined to stick with it because you know you don’t have any other feasible option? And then something comes along and turns the whole thing on its ear and you end up doing something else entirely?

Ya. It’s like that.

When we got our second house in NM, we still had the one we had been living in for 7 years. Before we could put it on the market, we had to repaint inside and replace the carpet. None of that could even begin before we got moved out.

Moving took about 2 weeks, before I was able to get in to paint. Then it took about another several weeks before we could carpet. All told, it was about a month after we had moved out before we got it on the market. And then, it took another 45 days to sell; this in the midst of the inclining housing market.

Did I mention I very nearly went insane? Yep. For reals.

The baby at the time (#3) was 14 months old, and that was the last year the oldest went to school. He was in 1^st grade. So I was driving back and forth to school 2 times a day in addition to having a baby and a toddler and trying to keep them entertained while I was painting and moving all the stuff I could move into the other house.

That wasn’t what was making me crazy. Nope.

What made me bonkers was the stress of having 2 houses and 2 house payments. I could see our financial future swirling down the drain.

I swore at the time- and for the subsequent 10 years- that I would never, ever, EVER do that again. Never, ever, ever, EVER again would I buy a new house without having the other one sold; I would never, ever, EVER again have 2 house payments.

Apparently, I lied. And I’m totally, completely nuts.

When we got here, I went and saw 5 houses I had seen online that seemed to meet our space requirements; had some acreage, and as best as I knew, would allow us to have chickens.

In that group of houses was a house that I had only seen online a few times. The few pictures I had seen left me really confused. And, it was a foreclosure, which I didn’t want to touch with a ten-foot pole.

To get a feel for the market, though, I put it on my list of houses to look at initially. I’m pretty sure it was the last house we looked at that one day.

I remember saying out loud when I got into the master bedroom and saw the fireplace that we had a winner. I really was joking, of course, but told my realtor that the house went on the really short list. I mean, after all, it was missing a Jacuzzi in the bathroom and it needed *a ton* of work- work that we had decided we’d rather not have to do if we didn’t have to.

It didn’t have a garage, either, which was a major strike. I had 2 freezers, an extra fridge, and all of our tools in the garage. We really needed a garage, even if it wasn’t tall enough for Hunny’s truck to get inside. Otherwise, the space was good, but it wasn’t perfect.

The next few weeks brought a lot of other houses. I think I looked at somewhere around 20, which for this area, is not a huge amount, but one of the defining “must haves” was the ability to have chickens.

I’ll say, I was really surprised at the number of houses that had acreage but didn’t allow chickens. One house that really fit the bill only allowed a total of two pets- even though the current owners had 3. The other knock against a lot of the houses was location.

I’ve been spoiled for forever, because Hunny has been coming home for lunch nearly every day since we moved to NM. One of our ‘most desired’ wishes was that the new house be close enough to work that he could continue to do so, but we realized going in that this was going to be a very slim possibility.

Over the course of the last few weeks, I learned a few things. I learned that the bulk of the houses that we looked at all needed the same amount of work, yet cost around $100,000 more.  I also learned that the market here, unlike where the other house is, is still moving quite nicely.

The other thing I learned was that interest rates had hit another, new low. It baffles me, honestly, that people are not jumping all over this, since the housing market in many locations has slowed, as I understand it, due to the impending presidential election.

This makes absolutely no sense to me. It won’t matter WHO is in the White House if your mortgage rate is locked in. Could jobs be lost? Sure. That possibility is not going to change from where it’s at now, imo, regardless of who is sitting in the big chair.

What *could* change, however, are mortgage rates. And it’s my supposition that with as low as they are now, they are most likely only going to go up. NOW is a fabulous time to buy a house and get locked into a stunningly low interest rate. Just sayin’.

You’ve probably figured out by now that we did actually do the thing we swore we’d not do.

The day I went in with the offer, I was having a hard time keeping my stomach contents in. Too much was unknown, but the only way to get actual numbers was to make an offer and see where things were going to land.

We’ve also figured out that long-term with 2 parents, 4 kids, 2 dogs and a cat in an RV really of any size leads to a whole other kind of stress.

The kids are crabby. The dogs are crabby {well, not little dog so much, but big dog has been going after her, and it really is a matter of time before little dog gets injured} There is a substantial increase in the cost of food for buying smaller amounts and not being able to shop sales, in addition a HUGE increase in gas when you have to drive 50 miles round trip every few days to get food. It became apparent that something needed to change, because this situation was absolutely not sustainable.

This basically left us with two options: either I would need to go back to NM and take a few kids with me, or we needed to buy something here.

The other end of this was the knowledge of knowing you’d found the right house, and knowing it would not be there come spring, because of the moving market. Surely, someone else would see the value and know they needed to snatch it up.

As scared as I/both of us was/were, I have maintained from the beginning that this whole thing has been divine providence- if the house was meant to be ours, it would be. It wouldn’t be, though, if we didn’t DO anything to make it happen, and we needed to seriously look at all of our options.

So. We’re closing on November 8.

Interestingly, I am not stressing over the financial end of this. We’re still hoping the NM house will sell soon, but the back-up plan is to rent, which we absolutely did not want to do. We have never aspired to be landlords, but with the property management group, it’s going to be better than if we had to deal with everything ourselves. If we get folks in for the short-term, we can get the house listed back on the market come spring, when things pick back up.

I had hoped to close a little sooner, but there is a load of stuff that needs to happen, like getting my move settled. I’ve also got to get the new carpet arranged, and get the floors refinished, if it’s in the budget. I have to get utilities arranged, and hopefully get better internet out there than we get here. {I’m not holding my breath, though}

Here’s the short list of why we love this house:

• The space. The main house is 3603 sq ft and 3 stories. The top floor is the bonus room with attic that we’ll completely finish down the road. It actually has all the right spaces- 4 bedrooms, plus office, eat-in kitchen and dining room. It has a large living room, which we much prefer over a smaller ‘great room’ and formal living room. The office is actually an office space, which we love.
• Fireplaces. It has 3 in the main house. 2 of them have gas inserts. I think we might leave the one in the dining room alone, but the one upstairs we’ll change back to wood-burning like the one in the living room.
• It’s got gas for the cooktop. As I was looking, that was one thing that was next to impossible to find out here. All told, there were a total of 2 houses I looked at that had gas.
• It’s got the floors that I absolutely adore.
• The porch/balconies are awesome! We have our own door off the master bedroom.
• Great storage space.
• Property. Have I mentioned HOW MUCH I adore this location? ♥♥♥ We’re working on getting the surrounding acreage. It was chopped up when it went into foreclosure, and when/if the other acres get taken back by the bank, we’re going to snap them up. Both surrounding pastures are being leased, as we understand it, to someone who has horses. I love seeing the horses- I’ve seen 3, including a baby.

And then there’s Moo. Moo is the cow that lives across the street. The rest of the surrounding plots are active hay fields. You simply cannot beat the location and the view, imo.

• It’s about 2.5 miles from the campground. That means it’s absolutely no problem for Hunny to come home for lunch.
• And, one of the main selling points was the guest house. Yep. It has a whole second house. It needs some work {like getting rid of the acoustic ceiling, painting, and repairing the deck}, but getting a second 1,084 sq ft house wasn’t even on the radar, so it’s a huge bonus.

It has the same reclaimed floors {from some ‘historical’ building- probably a barn is what I’m thinking}; full kitchen, large master bedroom, etc. The walk-in closet in the little house is bigger than the one in the big house.

There’s also a loft for short people up top, and another fireplace that has been plumbed for gas. Apparently, the folks who built the big house lived in the little one while they were building. It has a fully functioning kitchen including a dishwasher {which needs to be replaced} and utility hook-ups,

Obviously, I could go on a good long while about this house.   I’ll be sure to take before and after pictures, because this house needs a *ton* of work love.

But- and this goes without saying- I am ESPECIALLY excited to get in and get to work on getting more chickens. We’re going to try and get the bulk of the other stuff done first, so that may well put us at springtime for chicks, but that’s great motivation to get {and then stay!} crackin’.

For the first time in a really, really long time, I am looking forward to decorating for Christmas. I am looking forward to going all out and doing the big holiday meal for Thanksgiving, too. There is always plenty to give thanks for, but this year, we’re feeling especially blessed.

Here are some pictures to share my excitement. 

Because life is a soundtrack, I leave you with Defying Gravity, from the Broadway show, Wicked. I quite feel like this at the moment.

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It’s the Final Countdown

Yep. It is. And I’m trying not to panic.

We delayed by a week so we could get more done ourselves instead of farming it out.

You never know how much stuff you REALLY have until you pack it up to move.

Honestly, I have no idea why I have so many sets of china and oh my word- stemware? Really? Why? We never use it! Ok, well maybe we used it once or twice, but I was totally sick of wrapping and packing it.

Packing has been easy compared to rehoming the chickens. I’ll tell ya, we are missing them.

Well, ok, we’re not missing the noise the boys made, but we miss their crazy personalities. Numerous times, we’ve gone out to check for eggs, only to be reminded they aren’t there. Numerous times, we’ve gone outside, while preventing the dogs from escaping to the backyard, only to realize they can go out unsupervised in the afternoon. Boo.

I found a fantastic rancher lady who works with all the local 4H kids who was willing to take them. ALL of them, including the boys. She didn’t really want them, but thought she could find some kids who would want to show the boys, especially because the two are rare breeds and all are bantams. Once she learned we were moving, she decided she’d take them.

Do you know how rare that is? To find a single person willing to add my 23 chickens to their own flock? She already has 32. And yet adding mine was not a big deal, as she is completely set up for them. Wow!

I had to make 2 trips to get them all out there. She has 10 acres and a huge, huge chicken pen, although her chickens all free range late morning, just like mine do. {The point here is that in theory, most chickens lay their eggs in the morning, so many people keep them in for a few hours and then let them out. I never had a problem- all of ours would go back into the nesting boxes to lay.} She wanted them a few days before we left in the event she had questions or whatever.

My biggest worry was that they would be eaten and not loved like we do. Obviously, no one is going to love them like we do, but she has a chair she takes out in the evening, and hunkers down to watch them. And ALL of her other animals were clean and well fed; their stalls/areas literally darn near spotless. She is in the habit of rescuing animals (like cows and goats) and is the one people call when they have concerns over their pregnant animals. I know this, because she took a panicked call while we were there.

And, I only had to tell her my name once before she began using it. {which is rare, for such an unusual name- most people can’t remember it and are therefore hesitant to use it}.

She is also a kid magnet. I could tell this, because I heard a whistle and then the yelling over the acreage started. The neighbor girls wanted to come over and hang out with her. Her response was, “Did you ask your mama?” and then,”Watch out for snakes!” Within minutes, those two little girls were holding hands with my two younger girls, and they were still there when I got back with all three of my girls.

Anyhow. I have a completely clean and quiet conscience and know they will have long, happy lives with Miss M on her ranchette. Thank you Lord!

I’ve got something like 7 dozen eggs in my fridge that we have been unwilling to eat, because once they are gone, well, they’re gone.

Conversation in the car last week:

 J (10): “Does this mean once we’re out of eggs, we’ll have to go to the store and buy them?”

Me: “Yes.”

J (8) and J (10): “Ewwww! Gross!” {gagging noises}

J (8): “I’m never eating eggs again! They don’t even taste like real eggs! And they’re white!”

J (10), adding an addendum to the sentiment: “I’m never eating eggs again either. At least until our new chickens are laying. Then we’ll eat their eggs. You’re not going to make us, are you?”

And lo, there was wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Even a literal minute ago, J (8) says, “I don’t wanna buy eggs.”

We miss our chuckins.

No, really, we do. So much so that every one of the girls (myself included) have dreamt about chickens. The guys don’t care. They would just as soon eat them.   Although, Hunny is still in the habit of going to let them out every morning, and it’s still kind of instinctive for him to head that direction.

So. The final countdown is upon us. 4 days is what we have left, and company is coming on Monday. Monday is our last packing and mopping-things-up day. We’re going to do a big stranger chicken fry for road food. And then we head out early Tuesday morning.

In the meantime, I’ve been washing, packing, painting, and grouting. And trying not to panic. It’s amazing what all you need to do when you’re never going back and can’t just grab stuff you forgot.

The kids each have a tub (did I tell you this already?) that is their winter “closet,” in the event that it takes a bit to sell the house. With the market the way it’s been, there’s just no telling. Since we won’t be back, we need to be prepared.

Closet space in RVs is not hugely abundant. So, the totes will get packed outside and tarped until they’re needed. In the meantime, the kids have packed their duffel bags as they usually do when we hit the road. I have 2 big totes for my winter clothes and running gear. And then I have to take all of our legal information, so we have it on hand if we need it (particularly for the next mortgage).

We have a three-page checklist that is still mostly still un-crossed-off. And it’s not because we’re not working. It appears the way I made the list is not quite the same as how we’re tackling the house, so right at the end, the entire thing will get crossed off. 

And now that I’ve spent entirely too much time writing, it’s time to get motivated. I think I’m up for an omelet this morning. I have about a half dozen silkie eggs that need to be eaten………..

Because life is a soundtrack, I leave you with The Final Countdown by Europe……….

 

 

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