An American Homestead

I am not sure why I expected things to go uneventful yesterday. It seems like would learn, you know? We arrived at 9am, the police were not there, but Hazel had everyone and their brother at her house. We headed up the hill and was soon approached by “Bill”, who proceeded to tell us exactly what we needed to do and how we needed to do it. I called my attorney and waited on a call back. Meanwhile, we ignored Bill. Attorney’s office called me back and told us to ignore him, but if he got too bad to take pictures and leave. Shortly after that, the police showed up. They were extremely nice to me. He was considerate and understanding. He said he would take care of Bill and Hazel. He went over to Bill and Bill was a bit disrespectful. He then basically ordered him to go back down the hill and leave us alone to get our work done. After awhile, he convinced him to leave and told him to not come back up there bothering us.

At 11:15 I left with Lakota to run to town and get some cold drinks. We were all in the hot sun and had started staggering a bit. I got drinks and some sandwiches for lunch and returned back at 11:40am. We took a break, ate lunch and got right back to work. At 12:08pm a vehicle came up the hill with a man and woman in it. They pulled right up beside my car. I walked out into the open to see who it was and my granddaughter was picking up nails close by. They backed up and both of them yelled obscenities out the window and yelled “you all don’t know what you are doing”. I noted the time on my cell phone and continued to work.

We picked up all of the nails around the old home site with a 5 pound magnet on a rope. This was done continuously the entire time we were there. We shoveled all debris, including ashes, into buckets and put it in the trailer. We took the tractor and leveled the ground where the chicken coop had been, hauling off any unburned wood and ashes. We loaded every piece of firewood, loose bark and small limbs that had fallen from the trees on the hill. We picked up every little piece of debris that we could find on the hill. We filled in the small holes where the clothesline poles had been, as well as where the bird feeder poles had been. We raked tongs over the home site with the tractor and went over it with the magnet more times, so we could make sure that there were no embedded nails left. We took the dirt off of the outhouse hole that we had put on before, made sure it was filled in completely, there was no “fluid” left, as it had already been absorbed. We buried the dirt inside the hole and took dirt from the home site area and covered the entire area of the outhouse, leaving a small mound over the actual area. We packed this down several times and walked over it MANY times to make sure it was safe. We then took shovels and rakes and smoothed the area out into a nice smooth mound, packed it down and 3 of us walked over the mound over and over to make sure it was safe and secure. After this we did a final walk though, made sure every concern had been addressed and corrected. I took about 40 pictures of the area.

We covered the debris in the wagon with a tarp, Chris got on the tractor, Don behind him in the truck and trailer and Lakota and myself in the car. We pulled out at 1:58pm and out of the gate at exactly 2pm. Lakota got out of the car and latched the gate behind us. Bill and others were with Hazel on the porch as we pulled out. I took a picture of Bill’s truck and tag, since he was the main one to harass us on that day, just in case it was needed.

We got through just in time and it was a good thing too, working in the sun for 5 hours straight took a toll on us. We would not let Don do much lifting and made him take a lot of breaks because of his age and severe diabetes. I had some heat exhaustion moment in which I became light headed, fell to the ground and it took about 10 minutes to be able to walk a straight line and Chris at 1:40pm started staggering and his speech slurring due to the heat. However, we stuck to it and was able to accomplish the task and get it completed before the deadline. I cannot imagine they could have anything else to gripe about. The sites where the house, wood shed, outhouse and chicken coop were is nothing but level ground with dirt. No debris, nails or wood of any kind are left. I even raked up all of the bark scraps and ashes and such and we shoveled it up and put it in the trailer. However, Bill made some pretty snide remarks while we were there working and I have no doubt he will find something he is not pleased with.
I just hope that it is all over with now and it can end. We have a great opportunity to have the peaceful life we desire on the farm we have purchased. We have yet had the chance to even enjoy being there as we are trying so hard to put this bad experience behind us. Maybe, just maybe they will tire of this as well and put an end to it all.

So that is done and we will wait until Friday to find out of it pleases the masses. If not, we will most likely take her back to court for contempt.

Meanwhile….on the farm

We found a large snake yesterday evening when we were taking a break. I figured to use it as a learning experience for Perrin and called him over to observe the snake. After my teaching lesson on why he should watch out for them and avoid them….he stated in his ever most excited voice how happy he was that I went to the pet store and bought him the snake he wanted! The child wants a pet snake so bad for his birthday this month. He watched in amazement as it climbed a tree and headed out on a dead limb to relax. Maybe….just maybe Perrin will listen to me and not approach any wild snakes. I wonder what makes some children not fear something like that and want one from such an early age?

Other farm news…. The gutter system proved to work last night. We had a storm come through in the middle of the night that left me with a nice 55 gallon barrel of fresh rain water just off the front porch! I will use that particular barrel to water animals, plants and general hand washing and things. We plan to work on the other water collection systems this weekend. We plan to go fishing on Saturday morning and make an attempt to catch supper. I will possibly be canning some beets or veggie soup this weekend as well. As summer approaches, we are starting to see just how well the house does in the heat. It gets a little bit stuffy in the late afternoon, but the front porch is totally shaded, so we just sit out there or down by the Spring where it is cool. Cooking and eating the evening meal outside helps to keep the house cooler on hot evenings. It cools off pretty good at night so sleeping is not a battle of fighting humidity and sweat. LOL So I think we will be OK for the summer, we shall see as time passes. Thank goodness almost every bit of the work that needs to be done is all in shaded areas. We plan to down some trees this weekend and I plan to make an honest attempt to stay away from places that sell plants of any variety. LOL The cats are adjusting to being outside, the fish are OK in the pond Chris set up and Cletus had a run in with the snake yesterday, but is fine.

We had until May 20th to have everything removed from the property. For the record, it rained over 14 days of that 30 days. We were never able to gravel the driveway and the culverts washed out several times. There were many days we were not able to even make it up to the house to begin moving. Regardless, we were able to accomplish our task and took the final load from the property yesterday evening about 630pm.

I knew a priority needed to be removing the items we owned in the workshop and garage. We got the wood flooring from the garage. Hazel unlocked it for us and sat on the porch as we hauled the flooring away. I must add that at least a truckload of wood flooring was missing. I did not make an issue of this and simply took what was left. Hazel had no problem with us taking the wood flooring at the time, other than to say she thought we were going to leave it for her. I explained to her that initially we were going to leave the wood flooring that was in the house in an offer we had made to her, but she turned down that offer. We never stated we would give her the uninstalled wood flooring. She was OK with that and we got the flooring.

I wanted to make sure that we removed everything stored in the workshop, so that we could give her the keys and not have to bother her in moving anything else. We removed about 8-12 cedar boards that Jimmy had given to us to build a closet in the house. Jimmy sent us in his truck to his rental trailer to get the cedar boards and put them in his workshop. His intention was for us to haul them to the house and build a closet with his help. When he found out he was dying, he took 3-4 of those planks to his brother to build a cedar box to hold his ashes. When we were removing our things from the workshop, we took the boards that Jimmy gave to us and hauled them to the farm (approximately 8-12 boards). They are in the shed at our farm. After this, I made arrangements to give my daughter all of the meat from the freezer and sell the freezer to a co-worker. My daughter and I removed the meat (of which there was about 12 packs of beef, 10-12 packs of deer, 2 packs of ham and some vegetables missing from the freezer). I once more made no issue of this, as I had told Jimmy and Hazel to help themselves to the things in the freezer as they need to. I made arrangements to have the freezer picked up and for my son in law to come and get the insulation. Chris called me on my cell phone to tell me the locks had been changed and he cold not get in. I attempted to call Hazel and there was no answer. I got to her house and she was there. I knocked on the door and asked her to let us in to get our things out and she would not have to do it anymore, as I was getting everything. She said that was fine. She got a neighbor, Bill, who started putting his arm around her and calling her sweetheart a day after Jimmy died, to come down. They unlocked the workshop and my friend showed up to get the freezer. Bill and Hazel remained in the workshop as we moved the insulation out and a few boxes of quilting items. My son in law, myself, Chris and Don, Jimmy’s brother, helped load the insulation on Tim’s truck and he hauled it to his basement.

We were concentrating on moving the house and other buildings. Don helped us every day with his truck and trailer. Last week he and Chris were up there working, with Perrin our grandson, and Bill came up the hill to the house site to see what they were doing. He never spoke to Chris, but spoke to Don about his truck and asked Don if he was building a house.

As we were finishing up on taking the house down, I came across two small planters that Hazel had given to me with violets in them, when we first moved into the house. She told me they had belonged to her mother. I had no use for them and knew they were sentimental to her. I put them in my car until I could decide the best way to get them to her. On the 19th we were leaving for the evening with a load of things and I called Hazel. I told her we only had a few more trailers of things to move and the outhouse. I told her that we would have everything gone on the 20th with no problem. She asked if I had sold our wood to Don. I told her no, that Don helped us haul all of it to our farm. I told her I had the flower pots and would leave them on her porch or something when we pull out for the final time. I told her I know they were not part of the agreement but that I cannot keep them when I knew they held sentimental value to her. She told me that she was so sorry this all happened that she missed me so bad she could not stand it. I told her I was sorry it happened as well, but that it was over with and we could both go on with our lives. I agreed to call her on the 20th when we got everything moved and were leaving for the last time.

Chris and Don unloaded the trailer at the farm the morning of the 20th and I was at work. They had Perrin with them. I got a phone call about 10am from the Sheriff’s Department. He stated that Hazel’s friend had reported a theft from a building at Hazel’s and he wanted to ask me some questions about it. He asked if we had keys to the building where were had the freezer. I told him we had until the locks were changed last week. He said he and Hazel were claiming that there were 200 cedar boards in the workshop and she had sold them to him for $3000.00. He went to get them on the 20th and they were not there. They gave him my number and name and insinuated I took them. I told him that I did take cedar boards from the workshop several weeks ago. I told him there were about 8-12 cedar planks and Jimmy had given them to us. I told him we took them to our farm, if Hazel was upset about them we would put them on the trailer and bring them back. There was NEVER 200 cedar boards in that workshop….ever in the past 8 or so years. He told me he cannot tell me to take them back. I offered to let them search my farm, my transactions for the past year, take a lie detector test and whatever…even return those few boards. He said there was no need for it and he would call me back.

I called Chris and Don to let them know what was happening. They had just got the house and was setting the old chicken coop on fire. We chose to not take that down as we were running out of time and could not use the wood on anything else anyway. We moved the chickens in the rain Sunday and decided to burn the old coop as opposed to wasting time moving it. I left work and stopped by the Justice Center. The investigator was going to a funeral and could not see me. I went to the house to help Don and Chris get things done so we could meet our deadline. When I arrived at the house, I pulled in the driveway and Bill had his car blocking the gate so I could not get through. He came up to my car and began cursing at me, telling me not to burn anything up there, yelling that HE is TELLING me not to burn anything and refusing to move his car. I told him I would have to call the police if he did not move and stop harassing me, that we were trying to abide by a court order and he was preventing me from doing so. He pointed his finger in my face and continued to be belligerent. He eventually moved his car and I drove through the gate. He was coming back towards my car so I drove on up to the house and did not get out to shut the gate back. I got to the hill and told Chris and Don what just happened. I did not want my grandson there so I put him in my car to take him to my daughter’s. As I was pulling out of the gate again, Bill began yelling at me again, saying I was going to jail and calling me derogatory names in front of Perrin. I again rolled my window up and drove out of the driveway without shutting the gate, as he was standing there and I did not want a more difficult confrontation.

I took Perrin to my daughter and headed back to the house. On the way I called the police and explained that I needed an officer to come over there so I could get to the home site without being harassed to remove the rest of our things. She told me officers were already there. I told her to let them know I would be pulling in to the gate in a blue car and would wait for them to come to the gate to talk to me. They were very nice, I explained the situation, they understood I was trying my best to get things moved but was being harassed. I asked them to come up to the house site to see what we were doing and they said there was no need. The officer said that he would tell them to leave us alone, that we were trying to get things moved and for us to get the stuff moved out as peaceful as we could. He told me I needed to close the gate when we go in and out. I told him I had been doing that but that Bill prevented me from doing so by yelling in front of my grandson, who cried all the way to my daughter’s home thinking I was going to jail.

So I went up the hill and began helping Chris and Don. I had a friend come to get the culvert pipe that I had bought. We took another load of things to the farm, I remained at the house site. Bill drove up to the house site, stopped and stared at us for awhile and turned to leave. We went to Don’s for lunch. As they were taking another load to the farm, Bill’s brother pulled out behind the trailer and attempted to follow them to the farm. Don felt like it was a good idea for them to not know where we live now, so he rode a bunch of back roads until they got tired and gave up. My daughter, Amanda, came about 2pm and helped load the outhouse and we filled in the outhouse hole. We ran the tractor over the house site to level all of the ground. We took pictures, did a walk through to make sure we got everything. We had some concrete patio blocks that Jimmy gave us. They were at the back of the house and we had them down for a shower area. I was afraid to take them because I worried they would say we stole them or something, so I told Chris to leave them there.

We pulled out at 630pm and closed the gate as we left. The last load of things is on the trailer at Don’s house, just down the road from Hazel. We were so exhausted would could not even begin to unload it last night. We have decided to take it to the farm Friday and unload it, as it will be an ordeal getting the outhouse off the trailer.

So we are done, we are moved, everything is gone. I called the investigator back this morning, because I worried all night crying about that supposed cedar. He told me to not worry about it. He told me he could not tell me what to do with the planks that I took that Jimmy gave to us, that was up to me. However, after what they did yesterday to try to prevent us from moving our things, I will not take those few boards back to her without a police witness. He said he called Hazel and her friend back yesterday and told them he has no proof I took anything or that the boards existed. I am saying there was 8-12 and they are saying it was 200. He said it was a civil issue and he would not be pursuing anything criminal. He told me if someone came to him and said I tried to sell them some cedar boards for $5000 then I would have a problem, but other than that, for me not to be worrying about it. He has a file on it and he is not pursuing it any further.

I don’t know what Hazel and her friend intend to do, or what they can do. The investigator said he told her she needed to give him back his money and drop it. But who knows what they will do. That whole thing has me very upset because it is a blatant lie. There was NEVER 200 cedar boards in that workshop and they devised a lie to try to make it look like I took them. I cannot prove it but I think the entire thing yesterday was an attempt to try to make it impossible for us to meet the deadline on moving our things so she does not have to release the check to us. We have to have that money to make the down payment on our farm and we want this ordeal behind us more than anyone can imagine. We were all injured moving that house, from Perrin falling in a huge fire ant hill to me doing damage to my shoulder and back to a wall falling on Don. Thankfully, we are all OK and we have everything moved. Now maybe they will stop harassing us.

I took the flower pots, a cell phone she requested and any keys we have to the locks that use to be on the workshop and garage to my attorney this morning. They were not part of the agreement, but I have no use for them. All we want is an ending, we never want to be contacted by Hazel or any of her friends ever again. She wanted us out of her life and we intend to fulfill that request. We never want to have to think about her or this experience again. I cried so much yesterday that I lost my voice, my sugar was over 500 and my blood pressure 180/112. This ordeal has caused me more physical damage than mental at this point. The check is supposed to be released to us within 3 days of us moving out. That was yesterday, so she has until Monday.

I have some pics but will post at another time. I just wanted to drop in and let everyone know that despite every attempt to stop us, we were successful in getting everything moved by the deadline.

Now hopefully everything will center around our life on a 100 year old farm….

a priority…..getting a water source at the barn. But we also have that roof and back porch damage that will have to be fixed very soon. It is all on the back porch but will require several days to fix. Watering the chickens requires carrying water from the Spring all the way to the barn. We want to get a system set up like we had at the other house with a gutter and rain collection. Something has been digging around the bottom of the coop. Chris noticed it this morning, I will check it out and try to spot tracks this evening. We are going to lay concrete blocks around the base of the coop. Gosh knows we have enough! LOL! Luckily, SaideMae has turned out to be a pretty good watch dog over the chickens. We are getting about 10-12 eggs a day now, so I will put a sign up by the road to start selling them today. We miss that!

Another priority for me is the bed situation. We are sleeping on basically boxsprings with foam pads on top in the library floor. Well, now that I have managed to mess my back and shoulder up, it is becoming difficult to get up and down. The bedroom is pretty much a storage room right now and has not been painted yet. I am thinking about moving the table over and just putting the bed up in the library for now.

Oh and I think I found a wood cook stove. It is $500 and I go look at it this evening. If it has an oven and water tank on it….I plan to do everything I can to get it. I miss baking!!!!

Other than that….there is much to do on the farm and will me lots of updates now on what life is truly like for us living non electric on our old farm!

I am still not able to give a full lengthy update at this time, as our deadline is up tomorrow and it seems like we still have a ton of things to accomplish before then. Yesterday was my hardest day yet. Concrete blocks and well, I am at this point just not able to lift things like I was a few weeks ago. Years ago I ripped the deltoid muscle in my shoulder and it was NOT a pleasant experience. Well, yesterday I managed to mess that shoulder up again and I am not sure how bad yet, but last night I could not raise my arm. Poor Chris is exhausted and Don has over extended himself as well. We have experienced several injuries this past week as a matter of fact.

Lakota got on the roof with Chris in the beginning of the destruction process and helped get the OSB off the roof. She, at some point in the day, stuck a nail pretty far into her foot. Perrin has stuck a few in his hands and smashed a few fingers while trying to help remove nails from OSB and 2×4’s. This in addition to the fire ant incident, which has made him overly aware of every ant in existence. Don has been having a blast tearing things apart, and working too hard for a man in his mid 70’s. Especially someone who had a brain tumor removed a few years ago. He is so disgusted with what Hazel has done against his brother’s wishes that he don’t even know what to say. He has been very supportive and if not for his tractor, truck and trailer, we would have had no chance in getting that house down and moved. He has been there every day for the past few weeks with us working. His dear wife, Johnny, has made sure we have a hot meal at the end of the day. Don could not wait to push the walls down. Once the OSB was removed and the roof gone, he was over anxious to get walls to fall. He knocked the front wall down and I could hear him laughing all the way to the outhouse. Chris was on a ladder trying to get the walls detached at the corners and I was pulling huge nails from 2×6’s. I glanced up and saw Don pulling the last wall over onto the floor, He swayed it back and forth and I froze. I just had a bad feeling and sure enough, the wall came down, a stud knocked Don off balance and he fell onto a pile of 4’ long 2×4’s. The wall came down on top of him and I felt like I was running in slow motion to get to him, screaming for Chris. We got him up and he gave a nervous laugh. When all was said and done, he had a knot near his rib, lots of bruises and minor cuts on his arms and legs and I made him go home and rest. I tried to get him to go to the Doc for an evaluation, but he refused. It has been 5 days now and he seems to be fine, but that could have been much more serious….even deadly. Chris and I have hammered our hands and fingers and accidently knocked each other here and there with large boards. He was taking the floor down and his hand got jammed between the subfloor and joist. I have bruises from head to toe and now shoulder and lower back issues. We are all exhausted and you can see it on our faces.

Every day we tear down, load the trailer, haul to the farm and unload. From roofing tin to subflooring, it has all been moved. We are now down to the concrete blocks, about 6 more plants, the outhouse and a few odds and ends here and there. We have two huge piles of scrap to burn today and we are burning the old chicken coop. The rain has just been a nemesis to us this past month.

Saturday Chris and I started building the new chicken coop in the barn at the farm. It was raining of course. We built a nice run outside of the coop and then had to take one of the hundred year old stalls and secure it in the barn to put the chickens in. It took almost all day to do this. It rained off and on and I learned that nailing into 100 year old wood is much more difficult than nailing into new lumber. I thought my arm would fall off! Saturday evening we loaded some things on the trailer just as a major storm hit. Don pulled the stuff to his house and we had dinner with Don and Jonny. Amanda and Perrin were with us. Afterwards, they went home and we went back up to the old place to shut the chickens in for the night so I could catch them easier Sunday. Well it rained ALL NIGHT SATURDAY NIGHT. We barely made it up to the old place and then I had to stand in 3 inches of chicken crap and mud with 3 inches of chicken crap and water on top to catch 30 chickens. We had cages in the bucket of the tractor. I caught them and handed them out the door to Chris who put them in the cages with Don’s help. One by one I finally got them all. Then we hauled them across the field to the truck, loaded them and headed to the farm. We had to put a door on the coop and then the chickens went in. They seemed very well pleased. I noticed one of the hens about to lay, snapped a fast picture and then caught the egg as it rolls off the nesting box! We ended up with 10 eggs Sunday and another 10 yesterday. So the move hopefully did not mess them up too bad. They really seem to like the new place. We have to get a decent water collection system up at the barn though, as there is no water up there and we need fresh water daily. So we will hook up a collection system like we use to have at the other place, to collect rain water for the chickens. We can do it so one end will go into a container and the other can go into the run, fill a water container in there with an overflow to run out the other side and down the hill. Yeah we will get right on that as soon as we have time…lol.

I dug up the majority of the plants on Sunday and planted them at the farm Sunday night. Mother’s magnolia and Iris have been safely moved. The Crepe’ Myrtles, Azalea, Forsythia, Day Lilies, Columbines, Quince, Jasmine, Astible and much more. We still have the Yucca’s, Lilacs, Butterfly Bush, Figs and several more.

So today is more blocks. I have to work and poor Chris and Don are there trying to get things done. I plan to get off early and go help. Perrin is sick, most likely from being out in the cold rain Sunday. Poor little thing. Shannon is watching him today so Chris can focus on getting the blocks moved and not on what time Perrin needs medication. Hazel practically runs into the house when she sees up heading up the hill. I imagine her conscience gets to her once in awhile. I have two flower pots that belonged to her mother. Jimmy gave me two violets in them almost a year ago. I have no desire to keep the pots so I will give them back to Hazel as we pull out tomorrow. It will be a sad moment to drive away for the last time, looking in the mirror of what was out home. But it will be a good feeling to know we will never have to pull into the driveway again….we are tired. This whole thing has drained us in every way imaginable. It has hurt and scarred us. It has brought us to our knees.

Here are a few pics of the past week.

I am looking forward to waking up on my farm one day soon and not be in a rush to do anything with a deadline!

Not to busy to enjoy the beautiful things. We spotted this family in between the old house and farm. I had to stop for pictures!

1st load of deconstructed house!

Relentless Rain

Lakota on roof, she helped so much that day!

They threw boards down, I denailed and stacked on the trailer

Another load ready to go!

Don and Chris discussing options

One of our biggest helpers! He has injuries to prove it!

Hauling Chickens in the Rain!

Ready for the ride!

Loving the new run!

Inside the coop

Laying 1st egg in new home!

Almost done….

Rain has stopped I think. Maybe for one day. Wednesday there is 60% chance again and 40% throughout the weekend. There is no way we can get the house taken down if this continues and I am just unsure what will happen. It worries me. I wish I could take off work until the 20th and help Chris every day. He works so hard and I hope he knows that I appreciate him. I would give anything if, when this is all over with, I can take him on a short vacation somewhere. Not worry about anything for maybe 2-3 days. If anyone deserves it, he does.

We did not accomplish much this weekend. Did a few minor things around the farm and that is about it. We could not get up to the house to get anything done. It rained more this weekend than it has in awhile now. I guess if I can be grateful for anything, it is that we no longer live there and do not have to walk back and forth in the rain every day to go anywhere. Of course, when I am at the farm, I don’t want to leave anyway. And when I am gone somewhere, I can only think about how I wish I was home. I suppose it is good to love a home so much.

Drop Dead Fred is still preggers and I wish she would pop them babies out soon! Butters is being overly loving lately. Cutie has a cold, I expect it is from the move. Adjusting to a new place with a new climate. I am sure all of the dust in the old house has gotten to her as well. Poor thing. Everyone and everything else seems fine. We are happy with the farm. We are just worried about getting that other house taken down and moved.

Rain….rain and rain. Rain yesterday, rain all night, pouring rain today.

There is no way to get up to the old house right now. We desperately need to get there and utilize every minute taking the huse down, but it looks like we are going to be dealing with rain until the middle of next week. I feel like we are wasting time and I am starting to worry that we wll be able to meet the deadline.

Devin spent the night last night. We got up, had fresh eggs from the hens and some wonderful cherry bread Johnny gave to us. I had to wash the bed linens and all of the rugs. I want everything fresh and clean for the new house, so I am washing everything! Tomorrow I plan to pack away all of the winter clothes, except a few of Chris’ flannel shirts, as he often wears those all summer. I guess we will spend time working on the bathroom a bit and cleaning the bedroom some as well, organizing clothes and things. Anything that can be done INSIDE. Maybe the rains will stop soon and we can go on with plans to take the house apart.

Drop Dead Fred is about to pop and I am hoping she has her babies inside the house in the next few days. The Sparrows decided they could fly yesterday and the little things flew away one by one. It was kind of sad as the mom was at the nest this morning with bugs trying to feed little hungry mouths and there were none to feed.

I may decide to take a walk in the rain later today and explore the woods a bit. See what else the farm has to offer.

Oh rain….can you not go away for just a few more days?????

There are a lot of emotions flying around Chris and myself lately. The farm is livable now and we are enjoying our life there. The only thing hanging over our heads right now is the old place. We have less than 3 weeks to get all of the buildings torn down and moved to the new farm. I am anxious, but sad as well to have to tear down the house we built just last year. The thing I keep telling myself is, at least we get to take it with us. At one point it looked like we may have to walk away with nothing, absolutely nothing. I worried we would be out $20,000 and have nothing but a large payment on a farm and a second job to come up with the down payment. At least now, there will be no worry about any of that. We will be OK, we just have to make it through the next month.

I got my freezer cleaned out and ready to sell. I have someone who is buying it for $100 this weekend. Tim is getting all the extra insulation from the workshop this weekend as well. So then it will be taking down the house, loading it onto a trailer, moving it to the farm, unloading and going back for more. That will be our daily story until May 20th. I feel sorry for Chris, because with me working every day, much of the hard labor will fall on his shoulders. I had hoped someone in his family would be able to spare some time and come to help, but no one is available. Thank goodness Shannon can come over and help during the day, Tim can help when he is not working and I will be there every evening and weekends. The longer days are helping as well, so we can work until 8pm or so and have enough daylight to be able to actually see what we are doing. I will be thrilled when the house is apart and safely stored in the barn with the vulture so we can get our money from the other vulture and try to forget it all happened.

Chris is an amazing man. I know a lot of people do not understand just how hard he works and how fulfilling our life is for us. Some look at him and think he is wasting himself because he is not off in college furthering his education or doing something to change the world like working a 9-5 job he hates. I would love for any one of those doubters to live his life for one day and then judge him as anything but a hard working, amazing man. His day starts at about 6am. He usually will not eat breakfast, but does have his coffee. He takes care of all the animals right away and then waits for Perrin to arrive. Keeping up with a 4 year old every day is not an easy task. Perrin is all boy and on the go all of the time. Chris is not only the best babysitter ever…he is the greatest Papaw to the kids as well. He does not go off and get things done while Perrin sits in front of a TV all day. Perrin is with him, helping and learning. Chris has wonderful patience and Perrin has benefitted from that. Between feeding him meals, making sure he drinks enough, potty breaks, play breaks, being a nurse to his injuries, hearing “papaw” a million times in one day and making sure he does not destroy valuable items….Chris has to get the chores done, carry water, mow the yard, build this and that, paint something it seems daily, empty boxes, clean, wash dishes, gather eggs, empty pots, cut wood, fix broken things and take care of 8 cats, 2 dogs, a vulture, 30 chickens and a young child all day. When I get home from work, Amanda soon picks up Perrin and Chris immediately starts doing the things that he could not get done with a child around. He stops for supper and goes pretty much non stop until we head to bed about 9-10pm. He then wakes up and starts it all over again 8-9 hours later. He is a hard worker and I love him dearly. We are happy and that is what really matters. Some may look at our lifestyle in dismay and think we are wasting ourselves on this pipe dream. But let me tell ya…. There is not a single day goes by that one of us does not say out loud how lucky we are and the other agreeing to it. We acknowledge our happiness and although the choice in lifestyle may seem odd to most, we love it. Yes, it is hard work and we are dead tired at times, but would we change it for the 9-5 life some think we should live, a miserable job, miserable life, live only for money and bills….no thanks. Yeah we work harder for our water and food and to live in a non electric house…but it is meaningful for us, a joy, a passion, love…and we have no regrets.

As for the farm, things are just perfect and lovely there. We have all of the rooms done but the bedroom. Chris did the bathroom yesterday. I am going to make Drop Dead Fred a comfy, secluded bed in the bathtub so she can birth her babies in there. We have no use for the tub right now, we take out baths on the back porch. I see the farm coming back to life more and more as each day passes. I will be glad to get the outhouse over and get it set up. I miss having that. We have the toilet in the bathroom and Chris has it fixed so we can pour the water in to flush it. That is nice and all I suppose, lol, but I do miss my outhouse. It won’t be long before it is there and in use again!

There are so many wonderful things about the place. There is a whippoorwill that shows up beside the house every night at about 9pm and sings its little heart out until about 6am. The kitchen is just lovely. We eat all of our meals at the table and it is just very nice to cook in that old kitchen and the two of us sit down after a long hard day and enjoy the meal while we look out the window at OUR farm. It is very quiet and secluded down there as well, much quieter than the other place. I reckon we had loud neighbors at the old place, and at the farm, well there is one neighbor back behind us that we never hear anything from, most of the land is empty and an occasional car comes down the road.

We got a clothesline up so I can get a bunch of laundry done this weekend and if we get a break in the rain I will get to hang it out. I cannot wait to get out there barefoot first thing in the morning and hang out some clothes while the birds sing. That too is something I have been missing for some time now. Spring is here and I want to enjoy everything it has to offer to us this year.

So things are looking up. I wish Chris’ Mam-maw in MI could come down and spend some time at the farm with him. I wish she could come and see for herself how happy we are and how wonderful life is for us. Maybe someday soon we can take off for a weekend and go visit her for a few days. It is still not the same as her coming to visit at our home and experiencing our life with us.

I hope to have a family gathering at the house in the next few months. Invite all of our friends and family over for a good old fashioned picnic at the farm. It will be our way of thanking everyone for helping so much through hard work, prayers and kind thoughts and words sent our way. It will be nice to have everyone together for a celebration of the farm…a celebration of a dream coming true and being everything it was dreamed to be!

Yesterday we went down to the farm. I used the excuse that we had to go pick up one of Perrin’s favorite toys he forgot down there. Fact is, he did say he missed his new toys because he forgot them at the “Broken House”. Another fact is, if he had not forgotten them, I would have come up with some other reason to go down there for a little while. It gives me some peace, even if for only a few moments. As soon as we pulled up I checked out the Spring. PERFECT! It was clear, running with no problems and cold. I then headed to the barn to check on the vulture. I am 99% sure it is a black vulture. I thought it was a turkey vulture, but it has no red on the head, the head is grayish black. So I think we have a black vulture. She was on the eggs when I went in the barn. She had not touched the meat I left her, but I read they find their food by the scent of the decay and that meat has not started decaying yet. It was too cold yesterday and at night for it to start the decay process. It should warm up to the 70’s today and maybe she will find the snack tomorrow. She hissed and growled at me for a bit and then got use to me sitting there watching her, so she went about her business. When we got back to the house I had to run in and take a look at the kitchen, just to refresh my memory, so when I lay in bed at night dreaming of what it will look like, I will have a fresh image. We started to leave and saw Tim go by in the van. I pulled back in the driveway and he turned around and came back. He had brought the kids down to walk the back side of the property. We left them there with directions on where to go and it did my heart a thousand goods to drive away seeing my family walking on the farm enjoying themselves. I think I have made the best decision for everyone involved and I am thankful Chris and I can look ahead once more.

So today we close on the farm. When I sign those papers, I am not sure if I will be able to hold back on the tears. Up until now I have tried to accept that we are losing the home that we built, but I guess deep down inside of me, I have held out hope that some day she will come to us and say “I am sorry, I did you wrong, let’s go back to the original agreement”. But I know in my mind that will not happen. When I sign my name to these papers today, the farm becomes ours and it is severing the ties to the homestead we built with our own hands. It stops any chance for reconciliation and any future there in our one room house. It hurts, I am not going to pretend it does not, it hurts bad.

We ran into Hazel on Friday evening at Captain D’s. Amanda, Lakota, Perrin, Chris and myself went after work and Hazel was there with some old woman and another elderly couple was talking to her. We could hear them, talking about us. She had no clue we were there and she was telling these people lies about us and talking about us like we were these horrible people taking advantage of her. I wanted so badly to go interrupt her and inform them all that we have faithfully made land payments to her for a year now. That SHE came to us and suckered us into building that house and paying her and taking care of her so she could back out of the deal when Jimmy died and leave us out $20,000 and no home. I wanted to tell them the truth, but I stayed back to listen to the lies, without her having a clue we were there until she got up to leave and then she saw me setting there. It was as if she saw Jimmy’s ghost standing in front of her, panic, fear, worry, all written on her little face. She practically ran out the door and I am sure she has worried this weekend about just how much we actually heard.

Living there now is a nightmare. We cannot fix the driveway, it is flooded out, my car has been stuck in the mud more times than I can count, we have to walk back and forth through the mud, carrying 50 pound bags of animal feed, clothes to change in to once we get to the car because of mud. We have no life there now, nothing. I have slowly tried to break any sentimental ties I have to the home and farm. I refuse to go look at all of my plants and shrubs blooming, I won’t even walk the property anymore. It is forward from here, today…we move on. We will start preparing our new home, bringing it back to life, starting over there. Yes it hurts, terribly, but it must be done. We have made it through so much already, I know we will be OK. The first 6 months will be very difficult, but after that things will be better for us. Time, patience, hard work, is ahead for us….but so is movement, laughter, love, devotion and dreams fulfilled.

Today I feel anxious, excited and very nervous. Despite everything that has occurred the past year, I place a lot of blame on myself and carry a lot of weight on my shoulders. I trusted people and allowed my family to pour their heart and soul into something that has been ripped from us with apparently no remorse for what has been done to my family. It breaks my heart sometimes thinking about it. So this time, I worry. I am taking a HUGE step into the future once more and it worries me that I am going to put my family through hell again. I have checked, double checked and looked for sign after sign that this is what is best for us all. I am pretty sure it is, but because of what happened, there is some doubt. I just hope some day it will end and I can put all of this behind us.

So we are now 4 days form the closing on the farm. 4 days from signing those papers that will make this decision irreversible. There will be so much to do the first few weeks. We have to get that farm back to life in a short time, we hope to move in around two weeks after the closing date. I have started my infamous list(s) of priorities. It seems like so much to do and I want us all to pace ourselves. I do not want this to be a burden or something we will look back on in sadness. I want it to be a positive experience for everyone and securing a future for us all. So I hope we can put this traumatic experience in the past where it belongs and just focus on the future.

So today the lists are started, I will be pricing paint in the next few days. I got a lot of Lowe’s Gift Cards for my birthday and I will need to figure out how to best utilize them for the house. Right now the focus will be on

*replacing broken windows

*scrubbing the old house from top to bottom, inside and out

*moving important plants from the horror house to the new one (about 40 or so plants/shrubs/trees/etc.)

*cleaning the Spring so we can have clean water

*stripping the house out

*painting ceilings, walls and doors

*taking down broken light fixtures and plugging the holes (including electrical outlets)

*securing doors with locks

*clearing junk from the porch

*putting down the hardwood floors

*securing a good chicken coops and run in the barn

*putting a roof on the root cellar and securing it

That is quite a list and I am anxious to see just how much we will be able to accomplish. I cannot wait to begin!