We moved to our farm and then we disappeared (blogwise).
What happened?
It’s not really just farm life, it’s the process of moving that has worn us out entirely (and to be really fair it’s also our lack of internet…would you believe that out in the boonies there’s a limited amount of customers the internet provider can take on and guess what, the spots are all taken).
So the chaos started when Christine asked the movers if they could fit something extra in the truck and they said no, they couldn’t, and then pointed to the totally full 24 foot moving truck and then back at the stuff that still filled about 1/3 of our garage.
Shit-ake mushrooms…what happened there?
I thought back to when I moved to New York with one large suitcase. That was literally all I had for both me and my daughter. I lived simply and didn’t need “things.”
How did I accumulate so much stuff? So much that we would, over the next week after the moving truck was unloaded, need to haul nine more SUV loads of our stuff?
It’s horribly embarrassing to have so much “stuff.” I can act like it’s not my fault, that it’s not my stuff, that it belongs to four humans and a dozen pets…but in the end it’s still horrifying and embarrassing.
Luckily the whole family feels the same and we’re working on condensing. We have to since we moved from a 2800 square foot house to 2000 square feet.
Need anything? Let me know. We may be able to hook you up.
So we’ve been busy driving 90 minutes round trip to get more stuff from the old house that we have hardly been able to enjoy farm life. If we’re not driving, we’re cleaning our old house to leave it as perfect as possible for the landlord. If we’re not doing that we’re putting up fences or painting or fixing things up in the new house.
Unfortunately last weekend while we were moving my oldest daughter went to the beach and brought back a nasty cold. She’s been sick all week and gave it to me and for the past 3 days I’ve been struggling to function; not a great time as I can’t just stay in bed and heal. It’s been exhausting, but I’m trying to stay positive.
I’m finding joy in the little things, like mowing the lawn, which has become my new happy place. Riding on the lawn mower compares to jet skiing for me. A place of peace, aloneness (in a good way), and meditation.
I LOVE it.
I was not allowed to mow the lawn my whole childhood/teen years, and I only used a push mower for the first time as a 30 something year old. Now I’ve been loving the riding mower. Another great thing…giving farm tours. I’ve given three so far and they’re the best! I also love looking out the kitchen window while I’m hand washing dishes (I’ve never liked dishwashers and now we don’t have one!) and seeing the horses in the pasture. It’s heavenly.
The first 24 hours we got to the farm we saw THREE snakes. The first one was wrapped around our back deck post and was close to my ankle. I screamed because of my city girl roots and it must have scared the snake because next thing I knew it was slithering quickly down the post and under the deck. I’m guessing he was 4-5 feet long. Then Christine saw a small snake on the front porch. And the next morning we went for a walk and there was a HUGE, probably 5 feet or so, snake stretched out in the barn. Our realtor, after seeing pictures in a text message, reassured us it was just a rat snake so we left it be.
Still though…three snakes in 24 hours?? Welcome to farm life? Hmm.
So back to the past few days…the horses got here on Friday…
…and so did our first farm babies…6 guinea keets and 2 Polish bantams.
We had not planned on getting them since our first batch of chicks is being shipped out May 7th as is our first (and only) order of ducklings. But our mail order guineas were not going to be shipped until June and we felt the sooner the better since they eat bugs all around the property and we don’t want the dogs to get fleas (so far so good and homemade dog food has really helped prevent bug issues anyway, but you can’t be too careful because fleas in Texas are a serious problem).
When a fellow farmer messaged me that there were guinea keets at the local farm store I made a beeline there only to find out that they were sold out (100 in one day!!). The next day we went back and they had another shipment in and we picked out three “normal colored stripey ones” (isn’t that the technical phrase for them? Haha) and three white ones (still probably not the real name for their coloring, but whatevs).
And then we fell in love with a ton of other chicks and put them in our box but once I came back to reality I remembered that they would be vaccinated, unlike guineas that don’t get vaccines, and so we put all but two Polish back. I figured the Polish could be our first trial birds and if they make it AND they really are hens and not roosters (the feed store lady had a bizarre way of “checking” to see if they were hens…something to do with holding them by their neck scruff and watching how their legs were dangling down…not sure that sounds very reliable) then we will have to figure out how to separate them so we don’t get their eggs mixed up with ours. Or we can just sell them. Or maybe all our non-vaccinated chickens will die and then the vaccinated ones will be the only survivors.
So that’s our farm so far. 3 dogs, 4 guinea pigs, 1 rabbit, 1 cat, 2 horses, 1 lizard, 1 betta fish, 6 guineas, and 2 chicks. It’s a good start but we’re missing a farm dog. Our Anatolian Kangal is finally coming to us Thursday.
My biggest worry is that the invisible fencing turned out to be much more expensive than I had thought it would be, so that’s not going to work out right now with all the other expenses, and we have had two dogs jump through our front gates recently and get onto our property. I’m a dog person, even a big dog person, but I am terrified of dogs I don’t know, and these brindle mixes running through our yard while we were outside was not fun. I’m out to buy a BB gun now to keep us and our puppy at least a bit safer (I couldn’t kill someone’s pet dogs but I could sting their bottoms them enough to get them to leave).
We are also planning on covering our gates with something this week (maybe chicken wire?) to make them dog proof for both keeping unwanted dogs out and for keeping our dogs in. Right now we haven’t had trouble because we leash walk our dogs (yes, we live on 17 acres and leash walk our dogs…it may sound funny but it feels safer, especially keeping them away from snakes). But with the livestock guardian dog we will need to be more careful.
Another update I just thought of. The breeder an hour away (which is now two hours away now that we’ve moved) who I just adore and am getting twin doelings from mid-May texted me because she knew how much I wanted a doe in milk. I told her I had been to a dairy and was considering getting two Nubians in milk but that their milk was a tad off to me (it had a goaty flavor).
Side note: I know I’ve discussed the goaty flavor and how goat milk has the ability to taste just like cow milk IF you keep the bucks far away from the does. This week I’ve had many goat people tell me this is an old wives tale and is not at all truth. But the two goat milk samples I’ve had from farms who DO believe this tasted GREAT and then I tried milk from this dairy who keeps the boys and girls right next to each other and it’s undrinkable for me. Completely goaty aftertaste, like the goat cheese I avoid at the grocery store. So I was having hesitations about buying these does (is it the bucks nearby? If so, how long til the milk tastes good? Is it a nutritional deficiency like other people have told me it could be? She gives a lot of minerals and supplements so what if it’s not? Is it the Nubians? No, they’re supposed to have really great tasting milk…hmmm….).
And then the breeder I like messages me and says that she has a doe in milk to sell.
She said that having three does in milk has just been wasted on her family because it’s more milk than they can drink. So she has a Mini Mancha that would be the best one to sell since she doesn’t respond well to a milking machine and they like their farm sitters to use machines when they travel, which is often.
She sent me a picture of her and it was love at second sight (because I had met her, but couldn’t remember since my attention was mostly on my doelings). She is my favorite color of goat and has the most beautiful eyes.
Love, love, love.
But then a few days later she tells me that the goat has randomly started taking to the milk machine and that they’ll probably end up selling the mother of the twins I’m getting. Which of course should make me happy because then we could bring them home earlier since they won’t need to be weaned first…but I just really wanted the goat that is my favorite color (and also so I don’t sound quite so shallow she was also super friendly and I petted her a lot while I was there). The practical thing would also be for me to buy the one I like best since she is not related to the twins at all and could be bred to their babies if they end up having bucklings in the future. But it’s not up to me, so I just have to sit back and wait and see how it plays out. She said she’ll decide in a week or so.
Tomorrow is our last day at our old house. One more load (or two) and then we can close that chapter. This week we will focus on fencing for the goats, which already started going up today (oh and found two more snakes, this time one copperhead, fun times) and also fencing on the gates so that our puppy can’t escape. Our big goal this week is to unpack ALL the boxes and have everything set up because my family is visiting on Friday. This is also the end of school for our youngest as she will now be homeschooling with her sister.
The kids are loving the house! Everyone seems mostly happy here. In spite of all the changes, there haven’t been any major regressions like there usually are. I’m glad things are going so well. I was thinking about people who grow up living on a farm and then move into the city and I wondered how they live without the stars.
I’m already unable to look back. I am made for country life.