This weekend Paul's mom came to visit for the weekend and brought Paul's Aunt and Uncle, Anne and Marty from Atlanta. As they drove into the farm, a King Fisher flew across the road, greeting them as royalty.  After lots of humming and hahhing we unloaded the wood stove they brought us as a rather literal house warming gift. Paul made our first movie of the farm that his mom is taking back to Montana for his brother, sister, and nephews to see. 

We are making progress with our very shy mules with the help of our apple tree which provides endless mule treats. The dominant mule, Cumin, will now come right up when we call her just to check and see if we have fruit in hand. She let Anna touch her nose a couple of times, but still jumps back with nervous mannerisms if we move too fast. We love our mules! Hopefully we'll bring them some chicken friends soon. 

Paul has been working on the house everyday. On his drive in each morning, he sees a troop of thirteen turkeys making their way though the field taking care of any stray insects. With a pink sky and a light breeze, he has to pinch himself to be sure he's not dreaming. That, or just look up and see the so called house he's trying to restore! 

After a visit from the termite man, several days digging the crawl space deeper, and several weeks building new walls, we are making some serious progress towards our new home. The days digging under the house took on a new meaning the morning Paul found an arrowhead!! We can hardly believe it!

We'll post photos of the house soon. Until then. . . .  

Anna and Paul

Ouuuchhhhh

Joe Joe came out today to have a look at our progress on the demolition phase of the back house's remodeling project.  As always, he had some great ideas about how to improve the finished product which made us even more excited.  

Unfortunately, we had a minor setback as I dropped a heavy sink on my thumb while putting it in the dump trailer.  It is broken and swollen, but tomorrow I am off to a hand doctor to get all fixed up. 

We are going to start with some grading projects tomorrow as I will have to find ways to keep busy that dont involve using my left thumb.  The show must go on, well because it is just so fun working on our dreams.

We spent some time at our new neighbors house today which was great.  They are going to help us build a wood fired pizza oven as soon as we get to a place that allows us to be frivolous.  It is so comforting to have met such wonderful people just one door away.  

We'll keep you posted on our progress this week, and we hope that you all had a wonderful weekend.

Paul and Anna 

Ups and downs

Smashed tiles floors, stolen well pumps, broken windows, cursing drunks, and police. That's what our property offered us tonight. At some point Paul and I just looked at each other and laughed. What a crazy adventure this all is. 

Yet the good out weighed the bad. We met three of our neighbors. One came over to tell us that he was so happy we were there and to feel free to walk on his 9 miles of trails anytime we want!!!! The other neighbors walked over to lend support during the whole ordeal with the old tenants. They were kind and supportive, and stayed with us for over an hour to be sure we were okay. They even let us know that they had rescued three of the twelve cats living under the back house. 

We feel so embraced and welcomed by the community. It filled us with comfort. 

Paul spent the day ripping out drywall and carpet from the back house, revealing what seems to be a good shell of a home. Our friend Jim stopped by to say hello and that was a nice surprise in Paul's day. 

We left at 9:30 not having eaten supper, ready for some rest, but so full of gratitude for one another and for the love we have. It wouldn't be anything without each other. It feels so good to be pursuing a dream and living through all of the adventures that come with it. 

the farm

friends at the farm

Today we enjoyed  the farm with twenty trout, two sweet  little girls, best friends, and a construction expert. 

Some favorite moments: Maddie and Izzy wanted to feed the mules. I wasn't sure how friendly the creatures were and was hesitant. Izzy invented the apple kabob, and we spend the next half-hour feeding fruit to the mules through the fence. Together, we named the mules Cumin and Sleepy. 

The girls' dad, (a big supporter of the farm and yoga friend), helped us to determine which of our two houses is most worthy of immediate repairs. Both structures need extensive work, but with his guidance, we've chosen what we call "the back house." That building is much smaller than the "front house"--about 800 square feet, and we think can be gutted and remodeled in 5-8 weeks. 

We knew we loved Jim a long time ago, but that love grew bigger today when he looked at us and said "I'm a little bit jealous. My house is cute and nice now and there aren't many projects left, but you've got a piece of crap to work with here!" His enthusiasm and positive outlook was just what we needed. 

We ate a picnic lunch by the creek and saw a few trout. With a bit of exploration and the help of Katie and Andy's polarized sunglasses, we saw twenty or more fish in our little swimming hole!

Yellow, blue, and orange butterflies lined the banks of the creek today drinking from the wet soil. The girls put their hands next to them and they climbed on for a ride! 

After a walk in the woods and a bit of forest exploration, we played around in the red barn. We opened the doors to the upper hay loft and my, what a view.  Mountains, fields, and open sky.

Andy helped us to identify all of the cardinal flowers on the property as well as carolina allspice and real live hazelnuts.  

It was a day of leisure as we didn't fire up any of our grass cutting machines.  Its amazing how much you can get done with observation and good advice.  Sharing the farm with Katie and Andy made our dream seem all the more real.  

We've decided to start some demolition work on the back house on this Wednesday, so until then, happy trails from the farm.