Lorihadams-- hi guys...been busy!

[TanksHill]

Glad to hear things are going well. I can't wait to see the pictures. It's nice to hear you granny liked the kitchen. Kinda like putting her blessing on the place!!

Wow, two calves?? Those ought to fill the freezer nicely. don't worry about the goats. Once you get settled I am sure you can squeeze one or two in with no problem.

Have a great day!

gina

 

[keljonma]

Moving can be so fun and exhausting at the same time. Don't forget to stay hydrated and take some breaks. I am looking forward to new pics.

Enjoy your holiday!

 

[lorihadams]

Monday

Well, let's see....where am I? Exhausted.

Friday my parents came up and informed me of my granny's wild night with the kids Thursday/friday morning. At about 1am she said she heard crackling and popping from across the road. She said it just wouldn't stop and she was going to get up to see what the neighbors were doing at that ungodly hour. She said when her feet hit the floor she got rocked by a huge explosion and the sky lit up. The crackling and popping she heard was all the paint and varnish in the guy's garage exploding. When the garage blew it funneled all the fire through the breezeway that attached it to the house and set the house on fire. Granny woke Papa up and he ran across the street to see that the guy and his elderly parents were safely out. The older lady was hysterical and insisted that she go back in for her 3 cats so they hosed her down and let her go. She got back out okay and was taking a shower in my granny's bathroom at 3am. The son was so out of it he was waving a 9mm around and the police had to restrain him with handcuffs. Everybody (including the cats ) got out safely but the house was a total loss. By the time my parents came to get the kids Friday granny and papa were exhausted.

We were able to move over all the animals this weekend and get the kid's playground stuff moved over but not put back together yet. We're getting there. Still have to go back to the other house and get the plants and the cats and one dog (neighbor took Charlie, our lab/golden mix) and all the frogs/lizards/turtles. Daddy and Chad got the fence done for the birds yesterday and it looks great! Probably would hold a goat or two.....may have to sneak some in there if I can figure out how to keep them out of the chicken feed. :/

The rabbits are happy, they have a nice place to run and play now. We did lose the roof to the chicken coop on the drive over (still can't figure out where it is). We had enough leftover decking boards from the back deck to cut them to fit and we'll cover them with tar paper and shingles either today or tomorrow and never know the difference.

Had to get 4 new tires put on the truck....all the stress and strain from the last couple of months of towing and hauling finally put them over the top. Had to put a spare on the right rear to keep it from blowing out. They had over 70k on them and needed replacing soon anyway. Gonna try to get the stuff to do the clothesline today and hubby is at a friends house helping him cut down trees today for a little while. We owe him, he's helped us out a lot.

Put some stuff on craigslist and if we sell everything it should cover the cost of the new tires! We also found a shed on craigslist that we may buy if the guy will come off the price a bit that will do very nicely to hold the lawnmower and tools and Tyler's gator and outdoor toys. it's a 12x16 and the guy just moved and needs to get rid of it but it is in excellent condition. We're going to offer him $1500 and see if we can get it.

Today I have to go through all my books and decide what to keep and what to take to the used bookstore for credit. We have lots of boxes for the goodwill store too. I went through the kid's bookcases and put all the "baby books" in a separate box that I may take to the church tomorrow and see if they want anything....otherwise they will go to a local secondhand store and then to goodwill. Should be able to get some cash for them.

I miss having my birds free ranging but at least I can see them out the kitchen windows puttering around. With all the hawks and stuff the place we relocated them to is perfect. I'm very happy with it.

Gonna take some pics today for everyone to see and I'll try to get them loaded up later.

 

[lorihadams]

I just posted pictures under the Family section. There are a lot of pics, before and afters so you have been warned

Some are a little grainy so I apologize.

 

[lorihadams]

Well, we had some trouble with our other car (it has almost 140,000 miles on it so it was about time) so I am stuck at home doing laundry today. I still don't have a clothesline so I am drying all the towels and blankets/comforters that we used in the move to wrap furniture on the deck railings cause it is 104 degrees outside today. I've been trying to do our clothing at night so that running the dryer won't put so much strain on the ac unit and I have convinced my hubby that setting the thermostat on 70 when it is over 100 degrees outside is absolutely ridiculous. I have it set closer to 80 right now with the ceiling fans running and we are fine.

I'm almost done, I think I have 2 loads left to do. All in all I think I have done about 8 loads today. All the sheets from the beds had to be washed from the move, the sofa cover, and all the wrapping blankets and towels.

I put some activia in the freezer this morning for the kids and they thoroughly enjoyed their treat after lunch. They are both playing with their magnet boards and Ty is doing his numbers and letters and Maddie is working on her shapes and colors. I found the magnet boards at walmart a few months back in the discount bin and one side is magnetic and the other is dry erase with pre drawn writing lines. I got them for a steal, with the magnets, for like $3 each. They love them and one even came with some animal magnets.

We went and got Tonka last night and he is enjoying being back in the house....he's laying on an extra comforter in the living room.

Chad is going to the house tonight to try to do some prep work on the kid's rooms so I can start cleaning and painting maybe tomorrow.

Hopefully we can get the old house finished up this weekend and put it on the market next week. We are hoping that by pricing it a little lower than the other comps in the area we may sell it a little quicker but in this market, who knows?

After we get settled I really need to get cracking on my homeschooling plans for the upcoming school year. I need to sit down and make a list of objectives for the year than HAVE to be covered according to my stupid state (Virginia sucks for homeschoolers, lots of rules and standards of learning).

I think our shed from craigslist is not going to work. It's a shame cause it is exactly what we need but it is going to cost us $7-800 to move it and for that plus the cost of the shed we could build our own on site WITH the lean tos.

The good news is that our chicken/duck/rabbit run is large that I really think that I could put 2 nigis in half the run with a small shed with a dirt floor. We have so much pasture in the front that we are thinking of taking up the fence posts that we put in and helping Chad's uncle put back up the original metal rods with 3 strand electric and getting a couple of his calves to put in the front.

There's more trees and browse in the back for the goats and the limited space back there will help me keep my numbers in check. I can always cut stuff from the front pasture to supplement them. We could use the existing fence in the back with a top and bottom strand of electric and I think we would be okay, we are planning on putting some cross boards on the bottom and top of the fencing so it would help a little with the strength of the fence. We'll see.

We can sell the leftover fence posts to help with the cost of some other projects. The garden and clothesline!!!

We are thinking of doing the shed in between the chicken run and garden area and that will allow all our outdoor stuff to be close by and it will be a lot easier to run electric to it on that side of the house. I want to put my freezer out there.

It's nice to just kind of relax for a day....even if I am buried in laundry

 

[lorihadams]

Well, got a call from the mechanic yesterday and when he got the part he ordered for the car he discovered that they sent him the wrong thing. So it will be tomorrow before we get the car back.

DD had a total meltdown last night at bedtime and subsequently wet her bed this morning, par for the course. So, I am doing MORE LAUNDRY. UGH.

Finally got to cook a meal last night....made deer tacos with rice and corn. They were YUMMY...

Chad got the aquariums moved over last night so guess who got to clean them?

He got the prep work done so hopefully we can get the painting done this weekend and finish the inside of the house. Still need to clean the floors and powerwash and clean out the shed but we now have to build a shed before we can move all that over. We're working on it.

Hubby got a taste of the duck baby roundup last night. I got tired of sweating my rear off trying to catch all the babies and get them into the hutch with the adults. Hopefully they'll all get sold this weekend at the swap.

 

[TanksHill]

I take it ducks don't put themselves to bed like chickens??? Sorry to hear about your car.

Sounds like you are settling in nicely. A day of laundry is a nice way to hang out and get some rest. If I am not mistaken most air conditioners only have a 20 degree split. So if it's 100 outside yours is only capable of getting to 80 anyways. Sorry!! I hope it get cooler for you guys soon.

I wish I was closer I would take some of those post off your hands. You may want to hang on to a few though. Couldn't you use them to build a run in shelter for goats?

Good luck with the homeschooling lesson plan. I don't know how you manage that and regular life as well. Not my forte I guess.

Have a nice day!!

g

 

[lorihadams]

Well, the ducks usually do put themselves to bed but hubby didn't want to move the duck house over so we converted the rabbit hutch to a duck coop. Problem is that the babies can't (or won't) get up the ramp with the adults. I put two smaller step ups for them and they still won't go in. Hopefully I won't have this problem after Saturday's swap.

Last night we had to get one of the moving boxes out and hubby held it open while I grabbed a stick and shimmied under the hutch and herded them into the box. Took us a few trys but we finally got 'em all in.

Maddie and I just got done watering everyone for the second time today and cleaning out the baby pool for the ducks. I am desperately trying to save my blueberry bushes and gave them a drink while I was out there too. My fruit trees look like they are doing pretty well though.

We also can get old telephone poles so we may build a pole shed for the goats! It don't have to be pretty!!!

 

[lorihadams]

Well folks, we're going to church this morning. It has been forever since we've been with all the moving and such. The kids are super excited. Chad is helping a buddy build playground stuff for his son this morning and I got all the liriope planted at the new house yesterday. We also primed both bedrooms at the old house and put a fresh coat of paint on the living room where the kids had scuffed it up. We're in the home stretch. Shed will be delivered Thursday and then we can clean out our attic and old shed and get that finished and hopefully do the final cleanup at the old house and put it on the market officially.

Sold our jon boat....got enough money for it to pay to move the shed. We really didn't use it enough to justify keeping it.

Decided to sell the Wii that my MIL gave us for xmas over a year ago and that just sits here. I can't justify spending $35-$50 per game. That's just ridiculous....If I want to get up and move I'll go outside.

My light brahma took a break the last 3 weeks to help raise the ducks but it seems that the duck mama's have taken over the responsibilities and I found her sitting on 8 infertile chicken eggs in the coop last night. She pecked the crap out of me when I tried to remove them so I have arranged with a local woman to get a mixed bag of fertile eggs....mottled Java, cochins, silkies, showgirls and americaunas. She's going to label the eggs for me. $10 for a dozen! I am super excited about it but hubby says "NO more birds." Whatever, I'm going undercover and sneaking them in anyway. My hens are 3-4 yrs old and I'm gonna need some replacement layers soon anyway so

Gonna go into town after church to get some spray paint for the trampoline and outdoor furniture and revamp those, I'm hoping I can find some chair cushions for them too. We have all this decking and nothing to sit on

I may try to pick up a few plants for the front of the house, I know of a local greenhouse that is having a sale so I may see if I can pick up some last minute perennials(sp) for the new house. I also need to look for some trees for the front yard but I am seriously considering going into the woods and digging up some and moving them. We want something that is native to the area so that seems like our best bet and there are lots of little saplings that shouldn't be that hard to move. We'll see if I can get hubby to go for it.

 

[lorihadams]

Well, Sunday was great! Had a good time at church and got the kids signed up for VBS next week! They're semi-excited.

Then met with a wonderful local woman that gave me not 1 but 2 DOZEN fertile eggs! She told me that she was gonna charge me $10 but when she saw how excited the kids and I were she wouldn't take any money from me. Most of them were Mottled Javas but she had one cuckoo maran eggs, 6 EE/java crosses, one white java, and one mixed breed mixed with a mixed breed. I am super excited about the mottled java, I have wanted javas for a while now. My broody was sitting on them when I checked on her last night and she came out this morning to eat/drink and then went back in after about a half hour.

My chocolate hen has decided to go back to setting on her old eggs but I think they are not going to do anything....been too long. I may put some of the EE/java cross eggs under her since she seems determined to set now.

We went to the store after lunch and bought the kids 2 saucer type folding chairs. We only have the couch in the living room now so they have been piling on us on the couch. They were $19 each. Then we found a set of lamps on sale from $80 down to $40 for 2 table lamps, one mini lamp and a floor lamp so we bought them. Our old lamps in the living room got broken during the move so we thought $10 each wasn't too bad.

Got 2 trees for the front of the house and a rug for the back door to help keep the mud out of the house.

The school supplies are already on sale so I may go back and stock up on some stuff for the kids. Maddie got a calculator and I got Tyler some more construction paper. Today they made marching band hats and we had a parade around the house. Too fun!