Ambitious....or delusional??

Either way...that's me! I finally was able to meet one of my "followers" this weekend IRL for the first time this weekend. How fun. I was lamenting that there is no way I can be ready for the "farm warming" party by the weekend. I was talking about being delusional and she sweetly said I was just a bit "ambitious."

So...that being said, we are going to push off the party until Boy's birthday the first weekend in November. Off to update the counter!

To do today: Monday

1. Pick up carpets from Grandview TOMORROW-guy not available
2. Pack lunches DONE
3. Get cash for Corey (firewood)
4. Put more stuff in van DONE
5. Take stuff and carpet to farm Just the STUFF DONE
6. Unload DONE
7. Boy-Math, Handwriting, Comprehension, Geography (in van) MATH DONE
8. Boy-Shower while at farm DONE
9. Make dinner WENDY"S
10. Overtime at 5:30p-8:30p I'M HERE!!!!!

Happy....but Sad

We're so happy about the farm. It seems to be just what we are looking for. I've been working all weekend with my mom and dad to get everything painted and ready for the movers. The boy seems to be allergic to the house (previous owners cats we think) so that is a concern....but I am also just a bit sad.

Things haven't gone as we had hoped (do they ever??) Our current home is in a state of disarray which makes everyone cranky. Business is backed up (which is a blessing in disguise), but that makes it difficult to transition to a new building that frankly is full of junk that needs cleaned out. Also our job. It doesn't look promising that we will get a buyer in time, so we may have to give the house back to the bank. This is so against what we are all about, but being against the wall... We are still praying that a buyer will come in soon and we'll be able to fulfill our obligations, please do pray too!

School is not going well...I guess understandably, but it has not gone well for so long even before the move, etc. We are frustrated that a kid that is smart just doesn't seem to care. We've gone through all the options to figure out how to fix the problem, but it comes down to the boy's attitued to do what needs done. We can't make him care.

I am still working way too many hours at work, but that too is a blessing....and a curse. The extra income is nice, but it is tearing apart the family as I am never home or asleep. Activities outside of the house have ceased to exist. All there is...is work, sleep, eat, school (while sleeping) and back to work...and now working at the new house and coordinating all that needs to get done to transition.

Then on top of everything, something has gone wrong with the plumbing at the old house (making it even less likely that it will sell) and we have no water pressure and only a trickle of water coming out. We've had to drive the 30 miles each way to the new house to take a shower! I tried to call some plumbers, but their prices just to try to figure out what is wrong are out of this world...I am in the wrong line of work!!

Sorry for a negative post, but things are just really overwhelming right now and 3 weeks is a long time to wait for relief (and even then we will still be trying to get used to a whole new place). Please pray!!

We got the keys this afternoon!

On Saturday, Dad and Mom brought a ton of boxes and went to town packing. Of course then the power went out...and we had a house showing!!!

Today, we went out to the farm and took the first load of STUFF. I have WAY too much stuff! Only 15 loads left!

Pictures to be loaded soon....

Oh, and in case you haven't noticed the new ticker....Farm Warming party on October 24th. Watch your mailbox for more information!!

We found a farm!!

An email I sent to our family and friends this morning....

Dear Family and Friends-

First, I'm sorry to not send out a personal message to everyone, but things are in fast forward here. Let me tell you what is going on!

As most everyone knows after my surgery, we put the house up on the market. We've had tons of showings but not the greatest feedback. So only one offer that had us paying them $10K to take the house...umm no thanks. We haven't been willing to drop our price because we didn't have anywhere to go.

Now we do! God is so GOOD!!! Last Sunday, MAN found a farm for rent for a very reasonable price. We went and looked at it yesterday. I don't want to say that it is perfect, but it's very nearly perfect. 90% of the things we felt the new place would need are in place and almost ready to go. The shop is bigger for MAN's business (which is quite busy right now) so hopefully he can have room to do things a bit differently and not have to work quite so hard to get his orders done. It has a HUGE two story animal/hay barn. It needs a bit of work before we can get any new critters, but the work needed isn't too major. Plus all the pastures are already fenced and ready to go. There is a huge area fenced for the garden (I wish it were spring again so I could plant it!! But as my sweetie pointed out, we probably need the fall and winter to get everything else in place...so God's timining is perfect.)

It has a chicken house and fenced chicken yard. That is completely overgrown and the house has not been used for about 5 years, so it will need work. But there are some things that are there that I now won't need to buy that I've been needing (There is a 6 box nest box set up-now that the new chickens are starting to lay, we've been needing a 2nd box. And it has a brooder set up, so it will be easier to add more chicks to the flock). The house is wonderful. Huge kitchen, open layout. Old farm house with really neat details (Decorative hardware on the doors from 75+ years ago) Huge windows. I'm so excited, can you tell???? 2 staircases! How wild is that?! Wood floors. Big separate laundry room (who would think I could be excited about laundry!) 3 BR, 2 bath.

There is also a pump house that has been insulated and set up as a root cellar. Plus there is a storm cellar below the house that I"ve been told has an additional washer/dryer hook up, and a good amount of storage space. There is an additional smaller barn that everyone says looks to be unusable...but I'm not yet convinced. Pear trees, apple trees, crabapple trees. A cute white picket fence around the back of the house. It's only about 3 miles (and only 2 turns) from a major highway. It's only 30 minutes to work and about 20 to church.

So now the fast forward starts! We made a verbal agreement with the landlady last night and will be getting the lease today. The current tenants are going to be out on October 1st. My plan is to get the majority of our stuff packed and ready to go, so we can move in right away. Because the new house is smaller than the old some furniture will not be going. The plan is to empty, clean (carpets, etc) and stage this house with the furniture left, and be moved into the new house. Then all the bad feedback (too much clutter in the house) will have been addressed (our stuff, our chickens, our dogs will all be at the new house) and then we'll drop the price to pick the interest back up. When we first listed we had 18 showings in 14 days. It has since dropped off. Then we are praying God will bring a buyer quickly so we aren't having to make a mortgage payment and a rent payment for long.

Now I have to get in gear and get the fall stuff done here, get packed up and ready to go. Then when we can get in, move and come back here and paint, clean, stage the house and then back to the farm to start unpacking and settling in. MAN will be busy too. He has to move the whole shop (Oh my goodness there are alot of tools out there!!) and get the new shop set up, and still be working on orders that are currently in queue. Even before we added the move, the business was booked out to mid/late October with orders!

So, that's what is going on over here. In the past, I've always had too much pride to accept help from others, always concern of what they would think of my clutter and too much stuff...my lack of housecleaning skills. After my surgery, there were 5 wonderful women that came over to our house to help me. It was mortifying...and one of the biggest blessings I've ever had. I know when I go to help someone else out, I never think about their "stuff" or judge, so I don't know why I couldn't get past that my friends are like that too. I've learned better. God has blessed me in so many ways I cannot even count. Come October 1st, I may have to use these lessons, and if you are bored and have nothing to do (I don't know ANYONE that this would apply to-REALLY!) I might have to call on you for some help! In the meantime, I'll try to keep up on the blog so you know what is going on. The blog address is http://www.wallacehomestead.blogspot.com/

We love you all and know that many of you have been praying for our situation. I wanted you to see the answer to your prayers. We are challenged but excited!
Picture of the new kitchen, with BOY standing on the cellar door looking in.

Baby Eggs

Our Baby Chickens, from Easter, are no longer babies!!

Here you can see the head of Lacey (red colored), most of Maran (black with white) and Dini (white) around the "water cooler" trading the gossip and Lacey bragging that she has been the first of the new girls to lay an egg!! A whole month earlier than I expected!
















It was quickly (the next day) followed by another. The one on the right is actually the 1st egg. It was SO cute and tiny. It was about 1 inch. The one on the left is the next day (or someone else's)














The picture below is of the two baby eggs with a Scarlett Pink egg (freshly washed so it still looks wet in places) between them so you can see the size difference.
















The new eggs are a really dark brown. I can't wait to see Maran's eggs as she is the "Chocolate Egg" layer...and the comets look pretty close to chocolate already! The four babies, Arica, Buffy, and Scarlett are all producing now so we get, on average, about 4-6 eggs a day now. Muffy is starting her molt so we aren't getting much from her, and we still have 3 babies that have yet to start laying. I'm hoping the white chickens will lay white eggs, just to add more colors to the egg boxes!

Now we are looking for another Americauna, so we can have a dozen chickens and get more green eggs. They are the favorite of the household, and of our egg customer's kids. Arica just can't keep up!

And as a teaser....I found something neat on Craigslist that is going to expand the homestead yet again.....more on that soon!

Peaches!!! YUM!

Nothing says summer like PEACHES!!














I got about 25 pounds of peaches and after we all ate about 5 pounds of them...



















It was time to start canning.














I had both yellow and white peaches and I think it made the jars look really neat.














We ended up with 7 pints of canned peaches in light syrup, and 8 jars (1/2 pints) of jelly. And this time I remembered to turn them right side up so they don't defy gravity like the strawberries!!














Onto the raspberries! And tomatoes...and peppers...and pears....and apples....oh and still more green beans!!

Back to Blogging....

Alright...I hope you are ready! I am hoping to do a better job at this. Tonight is not very busy at work, and I actually have my camera, and the "tail" so I will (hopefully) be getting caught up. And be sure to check further back because I will add pictures to the posts that needed them.

On your mark...

Get set...

GO














This is one of the "baby" chickens!

The weekend of endless Green beans!

So on Friday, the BOY and I drove up to Galion to someone's place that was selling bushels of beans. I went with the intention of getting 1 maybe two bushels to can/freeze. When we got there the man told me that they were going to pull up the beans and if I just wanted to bag up the bushes and take them home I could have everything on them. So, thinking this was a good idea, this is what we did. We couldn't see out the back windows of the Versa on the way home as we had 7 trash bags full of bean plants.

After spending the rest of the day on Saturday pulling of about 70% of the beans from the bushes, we ended up with this....














About 55 pounds of green beans (17 gallons). Then they all needed to be snapped / cleaned and the ones that were a bit "long in the tooth" we are shelling for "shelly beans". Like a bean that you use for chili and such, just it cooks in about 20 minutes instead of two hours.

Here the BOY is helping snap the beans.














We gave all the bushes to the girls to play with and eat the beans. They really had fun with it for a few hours and the coop looked like a jungle!



Here's the BOY petting Raindrop.













Now still after snapping and shelling 3 hours Saturday night and 2 hours on Sunday afternoon....this is the amount left to do....so what do you think I'll be doing today??

RIP Ms. Judy

Sadly, over the weekend, Ms Judy disappeared from the coop. We've been having a problem with raccoons, so I'm thinking they had a nice chicken dinner.

Man has now started his quest with a trap! No one gets a chicken dinner before him!

Ms. Judy Sunning herself with Arica:

State of the Garden Address....

I know, I know...I'm late! But only by a day (maybe almost two if I don't get this typed fast) The address was on the agenda for the 5th...

The garden is doing very well...surprisingly. Not as well as Dad's but he got his in two/three weeks before ours and loves miracle grow.

All four tomatoes have fruit. We should be able to enjoy some of the cherry tomatoes in the next week or so.

3 baby zuchinis...which is amazing as I always plant it and everyone else that does has zucs coming out their ears and I don't get any to set. This year may be a change.

We have shelling peas that will need to be picked today. And the limas are climbing everywhere. I planted corn for them to grown up (not so much for the actual corn, but as living trellis) but the corn is past knee high, so who knows we may actually get some. The green beans and wax bean patch (The BOY did all the work on this bed) is doing GREAT and we have 1 inch beans the size of string.

Carrots, onions are doing alright...radishes, lettuce and spinach did not...the seed was old, so it was a chance.

I picked up some 1/2 price brussel sprouts and acorn squash at the nursery and it is in. The squash and cantaloup (we call it "did-elope" as we did!) are flowering. The cucumbers/pickles have TONS of flowers and a few that are gerkin sized.

We have a voluntary pumpkin patch from where the chickens wintered and had harvest pumpkins to eat in November. Also we have about 8 voluntary tomatoes. They are growing just not very fast as it's not a very sunny spot.

We are getting raspberries out of the patch planted last spring, strawberries are pretty much done now. We got one bowl full.

I will get the pictures posted soon!

Happy 4th of July

With the way our government is right now, I don't feel like this is much of an Independence Day, but it's a great day for parades, picnics and fireworks!

The BOY and I rode our bikes from home over the dam to downtown...6 miles. Yes, cudos all around...and then after the parade, rode the 6 miles back home...hot...and mostly uphill. There's where the kudos should be! We did it!





















Then Mom and Dad came over for an indoor picnic (it was raining!). Followed by fun on the driveway including sparklers, pop-its, and watermelon.

Then off to my work to sit in the parking lot for front row seats to the local fireworks! It was a great spot!!! Until the 45 mins to 1 hour to get OUT of the parking lot.

Happy 4th of July to YOU!

back to work...

Yup...I'm back... I was so nervous. I didn't need to be, it's like I never left. Except the new faces that think that I am new. :)

I'm still trying to get things done at the house, too. We've powerwashed the deck. And, had concrete work done to try to stop the water into the garage. The new garage door has been ordered. And MAN had someone come to get the logs that we've been wanting to get milled out of the front yard. It will keep some family warm this winter. There are still quite a few that need cut up, but they are not right in front of the door so it's not as urgent.

I found a house that I like that is at the top of our price range, but with the way the market is, we can't make an offer until we have an offer on ours. We're up to 24 showings so far. Yeah!!