Thank a Soldier

From time to time, the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots.
--Thomas Jefferson--

Anything is an improvement!

I love the projects we are taking on around here!  Mema tells a story about her nephew Nicky.  When she and her family moved into their house in the country, folks came out to work.  Nicky told his mom, "I like working out there.  Any work you do is an improvement!"

Ticks

We haven't even been outside this morning and I have pulled 2 (crawling, not biting) ticks off of Theo and 1 off of myself.  Yesterday, I pulled 3 off of Eden (they were already biting) and one off of Theo!

I was thinking of waiting on the chickens until we were a bit more settled, but I think we need some form of tick control!  So, I have been dreaming today.  I know I don't want a large flock.  I want 6-8 birds at most.  I want a pretty egg basket.  Well, not the actual basket, but the eggs in the basket.  I want friendly breeds.  I want good layers and possibly dual purpose breeds.  I want a coop with a run.  I plan to let the birds "free range" on a part time basis, but want them to be penned up when that is more convenient for me.  So, this is what I have come up with...

A Glimpse of this Country Life

We said goodbye to Davis Avenue on April 22nd.  Brandon and I chose this house before we 

were even engaged.  We got engaged in the front yard, we spent 8 great years there.  

Both of our babies came home there and we have a lot of memories wrapped up in these walls.  Bittersweet (okay, mostly sweet).

Twisty-turny life!

I have been neglecting the blog. Not because there is nothing to report (because there is),
but because I am a bit annoyed at the way things are going and I hate to sound 
ungrateful!

Our house is SOLD! The new family who bought it closed on April 22nd. We moved out of 
the Davis Ave house on the same day and into Hunter's Grove!  

A quick catch-up!

I have been really neglecting the blog lately.  I apologize and hope to do better, but I'm not making any promises!  Great news, though...

We sold our house!  

Right now we are jumping through government hoops to fulfill the requirements for our buyer's VA Loan.  We are down to 2 weeks before closing and things are a little bit stressful and very busy!  Theo and Eden have been "helping" a lot.

Yesterday we had 5 panes of glass in the house replaced.  Today, a buried oil tank is coming out of the ground.  It's setting us back a few pennies.  There has been a steady hemorrhage of cash since we signed the contract to sell.  Hoping it stops soon, so there is something left to put into our own "money pit" out at Hunter's Grove.

We have been making a little bit of progress out there, too.  

We have been cleaning each week and have gotten the bathroom, family room, kitchen, dining room and spare bedroom done.  Saturday morning we plan to finish the living room.  Hopefully I will get out there one more time before moving day to work on the upstairs.

In all of our cleaning, we have made time to stop and enjoy ourselves, too.

We are so excited that we have been able to make a few purchases that are not for the Davis Ave house and those are fun!  We bought a (used) riding lawnmower.  Brandon hopes to give it a workout on Saturday!  We also purchased an antique freestanding farm sink for our kitchen renovation!

We are looking forward to sharing more as our life changes this summer!

Under Contract!

After 4 1/2 long months, we have a contract on our house!  We made the deal yesterday and we are happy with the result.  We certainly didn't get rich off of it, but we will be able to afford to do a couple of things at Hunter's Grove that really need to be done.  Our closing is set for April 22nd!

In case you happened to look at the time stamp on this post and are wondering... caffeine + excitement = insomnia!  ETA: I just looked and there is no time stamp on this template.  I'll just tell you, it's 4:30 AM and I have been awake since 2am.

There is a lot to do in the next few weeks.  I hope to find the time to share it all with you!!