hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

Well, we survived. Whew. Saturday went smooth, for the most part. I think I just approached it in a methodical way, and just kept doing the next thing, so while it was jam packed it didn't feel as rushed as I was afraid it might. I guess that mindset stuff really works!
Only downer was that during my lesson (in which Storm was somewhat of a pistol anyway because I haven't worked him), I got a bug in my pants leg that bit/stung me. I finally got it out/killed it, and then the burning pain set it, like it feels when you get stung. I finally had to hand him over to KN and go in the house to put some oils on it, which made it feel way better. The end result was a spot larger than a baseball that was blotchy red and ITCHED and then ended up turning into a bruised mark. Very strange, I have no idea what got me but I was not pleased!! It's Wednesday now and it's not quite faded yet, now it looks like an old bruise. The up side was that it was above my skirt line so I didn't have to worry about having a giant red baseball sized mark showing on my leg!! :lol:

This week has been ok, I was still at all 3 farms through yesterday. I'm SOOOOOO glad that I'm down to 1 again now! It feels like a luxury to only have to make 1 stop in the morning!
I swapped my days in the office so that I could be here for on boarding of a new IT company. Whooooooo boy, we're in trouble! We have a lot of things that are so out of date that they are actually risk factors for our company in major ways, and of course they all need to be fixed YESTERDAY. I'm very glad to be working with this company, I like the guy, and he helped get us through some really sticky spots today (as in we no longer had the password for our server... our previous IT guy dipped out and went MIA and we were missing the password. NOT cool. :somad THANKFULLY, I'm still not completely sure how he did it, but he managed to get in through a log in via my computer and so we were able to get the stuff loaded that he needed to get loaded.). So from here on out it's only upward from here... of course, it's gonna hit the budget rather hard as we upgrade equipment for a little while, but yeah....

Now that my brain is totally fried, I'm gonna go stop by the grocery store and go home.

Tomorrow is gonna be fun. I have my business coaching call in the morning, then I'm heading out with a friend to do a photo shoot at a waterfall in the area, then I'm meeting up with another friend for a bite to eat and hang out for a bit, then I'm stopping by the woo shop to talk to the owner about coming in to do free animal communication readings and to discuss teaching essential oils classes. Gonna be a great day!
 
WHEW. What a crazy weekend.
Saturday we took care of horses, and then worked on the chicken coop. I am regretting that I haven't taken photos, but it's been one of those crazy things that has taken forever, so I just forgot about it.
The BF was all set to try to move it on Saturday, and had the bobcat out, and went to pick it up from the side that doesn't have the overhang on it (I'll post a picture later so this will all make sense...), and it tipped, and landed on the overhang roof. He got it upright again, and then used a strap to hold it ON the forks, and got it moved out away from the shed it was sitting next to where he was working. He moved the bobcat around to the other side so he could pick it up from under the overhang so that all the weight would be on the bobcat instead of hanging out front, but that's when he discovered that the bobcat was actually too tall to fit under the roof. A storm was bearing down on us, we had over 100 yards to go with this coop down a hill, and I was getting frazzled. With the 8' wide coop on the front of the bobcat, he wasn't going to be able to see ANYTHING, so I had to completely be his eyes.
He finally conceded and decided to stop for the day, so we got everything put away that needed to be out of the weather, and headed inside. We weren't inside for long before the rain hit, it was raining sideways. SO glad we weren't wrestling with that thing out there in that weather!
When the storm had passed, only about 30 minutes later, we had 1/2" of rain. I'd prefer that it came a little bit slower, but at least it was something.
We jumped in the shower and headed out to the little airport nearby so that we could take our photo flight. I bought a groupon way back before Christmas for a 1 hour photo flight for 2 people. With a 20% off coupon I only paid about $78.00 for it, which I thought was a great deal. We had SO much fun! The pilot even let the BF fly for a while, and I was like a squirrel in the back seat with my friend's good camera taking pictures. I got some amazing photos!! The pilot flew us over our farm, and my friend's farm, and then we flew up over a huge river with a hydroelectric dam on it, and then out towards the bay before we swung back around to the airport. It was a blast, and now all the BF can talk about is getting his pilot's license. So I guess that's the next project!
We got home way too late, and of course I had to look at all 137 pictures I took in an hour before going to bed.
Sunday we got up, and I headed out to do chores while the BF went over to take care of Cowboy and Coyote. I had my days mixed up, and I thought that my friends weren't getting home until Sunday evening, but it turns out they were supposed to be back early Sunday morning, and I wasn't supposed to take care of them that morning. We hadn't cleaned the barn, and by the time I realized my mistake the BF was already over there. He said they weren't home yet so he went ahead and took care of cleaning up good. I texted her and let her know we fed them for the day, and thankfully she texted me back at noon saying they were almost home. I'm glad we went and took care of them because I know they would have been completely out of hay and bored if we hadn't. I always worry that if they get too bored for too long they'll end up busting the fence, which would be really bad!
When the BF got back he started working on the coop again. TW was supposed to come over to help us get the thing moved because I wanted another set of eyes on it. The BF ended up cutting a window out, and so then we had to wait for him to get it framed out. In the mean time TW had to go back and pick up JP from drivers ed class, so then when they finally got back we got ready to move the thing. I love TW, but she hasn't helped out around big equipment much, so she wasn't sure what to do for the BF to support him. Eventually we got things sorted out and managed to get it onto the forks with the roof over the bobcat. He started to move and then stopped and asked for the second ratchet strap (like I had suggested earlier...) and so he got that set up and away we went again. We take it past the barn, past the house, around the corner and down to the gate to get it into the paddock area where we decided to put it and then realized the gate was too narrow. He tried to bring it in sideways and twist around the gate post, but it was too deep to make the turn. We had the gate off the hinges and everything by this point, and finally he backed in, and still needed another 8" of clearance, so he just picked up the forks and over the posts he went. Thank GOODNESS there wasn't much wind or anything crazy at that moment. He got it in and then down again (huge sigh of relief!) and then headed down the short hill to the foundation he had all set up. He gets it down and then starts to shift it around to get it perfectly lined up with the blocks, and gets it all set down and the straps off and then all the way on the blocks.
It was sitting funny and wasn't level. He is grumbling and going on about how he checked the blocks and he knows they are level and everything. One corner is sitting up and it's tilted funny. I was standing next to it when he went to push it to where it should be and I realized that it rocked over a bump... the bump of dirt that was piled under it from when he dug out the spots for the blocks for it to sit on. DOH! :th He tipped it forward, holding onto the roof overhang while TW and I raked the dirt out under it so that it would sit down. GEESH!!

I was SO grateful to have her there as another set of eyes, even if she wasn't as good at the job as she could have been, it was better than nothing. They had to head out, and so we kept working. It needed a few more coats of paint, and the trim work needed to be painted, along with the door. The BF cut a second window in the back, and I think we'll end up only needing the 2 windows rather than 4 like we talked about. So those are framed out and waiting for the windows to be built in. It looks great, and is going to be really nice when it's all finished. It's just taken forever and a day to get to this point!
This afternoon, if the BF has time, he'll keep working, and then we'll work again tomorrow morning. We have a chance of storms possibly tomorrow afternoon, and then again on Wed, so I know we'll want to get the windows on so that the rain doesn't blow in. He's got to get the rest of the trim cut, and then build the windows. I need to make sure it has enough coats of paint on it, and then paint the trim parts white (it of course is barn red with white trim to match the rest of the farm!). Then the next phase will be building the run to complete it. I'll post a picture later once I can get it off my phone!

So that's pretty much where all my time is going at this point. The house is a WRECK, and so many things just haven't been finished up because I've been so focused on everything else. So it goes in summer...
 
Whew that made me tired seeing what all y'all been up to!
 
It made me REALLY NERVOUS FEM!!

And now it turns out that it was mostly all for naught.

We had a bomb dropped on us last week - the landlord's daughter, DB came to us and notified us that they are terminating our lease, and we have to be out by the end of Oct. They are saying that they need to bring in more money since she and her husband are taking over the farm. Her father, our landlord, didn't have to worry about bringing in money from the farm itself to keep the bills paid, but she's in a different position. So they've decided to ask us to leave in favor of bringing in someone who can do something with racehorses and is expected to pay more/create more income for the farm. We are heart broken. We've been through a huge range of emotions, everything from anger, frustration, fear, disappointment, and grief, all the way to elation at the massive potential for opportunity that this opens to us. The worst part right now is the not knowing. And it is especially hard because we are facing not only losing our home, but also our business that enabled us to keep our home. We're carrying too much debt and my new business is hardly launched to a degree to bring in any consistent income yet.

Having just come home from the NC mountains again, there was a part of me that just wanted to scream and run away to the mountains and hide. But that wouldn't really solve much in the bigger picture, sadly.

So now we're facing moving a whole entire farm. And that d@mn chicken coop! But I'll be D@MNED if we're leaving it here! If we can't take it with us and it looks like we won't be able to do anything for a while, we'll sell it, it's worth at least $1000 now that we've made it all fancy and cute. The good news is that we have 3 months to get all of this sorted out and figure out where we want to go.

We've already got a few leads, and a few opportunities. My farm sitting folks want me to stay in the area, so two of them have already offered "whatever we can do to help" offers. One of them, TW and VO have offered a room in their house, and they have a space over their barn they were considering turning into a studio apartment, and VO told the BF that if he finished it out they'd offer us free rent for 2 years. So we can fall back on that if need be. We'd have to get a storage unit for sure, but it would free us up to really get some debt paid OFF which would be awesome. We'd go from living in a 120 year old barn to living in a 8 year old barn... but apparently I'm half way destined to live in a barn!! :lol: If I had kids they could really say they were raised in a barn!!! Anyway, it's an option, so that is a good thing. They are going away next week, and so I'm going to measure the space and take a look at it to see what we might be able to do to get creative with it. It would be amazing to not have to pay rent for a while to get our bills paid down and get control of things. It would also enable us to buy something and build on it or get it rehabbed without needing to live on it at the same time.

That's our other option is to look for something to buy. The BF has been pre-approved for a decent amount, it's not huge (especially around here), but it should get us something. And we're totally willing to put up a pole building and build out an apartment in it until we can get organized enough to build a proper house.

And of course, there's always the option to find a place to rent. The BF is very done with that at the moment, but we may have to temporarily for a little while.

And TW called me to tell me that the owner of a 40 acre equestrian facility nearby is a relative of VO's, and they want out and want to sell it. I doubt we'll be able to come close to touching it, but hey, I'll call anyway. If you don't ask the answer is no! (That's our motto right now)

I didn't want to start packing, but the BF convinced me we needed to in order to be ready for whatever comes. And he's right, just in case something comes quickly, it will be far better to be able to handle getting it done fast than not. So we'll see how things go. Since we do have time I plan to be crazy organized about how we get it all together and making sure that we know where everything is if it has to go into storage (not like my parents!! :plbb).

So yeah, that's the big update from around here. I haven't had much time to jump on, let alone read about yall's adventures. I hope everyone is doing well and hanging in there. It's been crazy hot here, it's broken a little, but not the humidity. I can't wait for it to go back down, then we can start taking care of stuff outside to get it prepped.... I have a whole freaking farm to figure out how to move!!
 
Holy Cow....That's crazy! I can't even imagine having to deal with that - I'm sorry! But, it very well may open up more opportunities for ya'll. I love the idea of 2 years of free rent and what's wrong with living in a barn, lol!! We spend so much time in 'em anyway. A 'barndominium' isn't a bad idea. I couldn't tell you how many miles I log walking back and forth!

I hope it works out well - keep us informed! :)
 
I would definitely live in a barn if it was free rent! Maybe God is putting you in a better place/situation.
 
Free rent sounds great, you'll be able to manage better there than where you are currently if you can deal with the down sides as I'm sure there are some.
 
I found sometimes in life you get forced to make a change, leave a place, because there is something better in store for you elsewhere. I hope things will work out well for you :hugs
 
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