One of those days

You ever have those days where you just can't seem to catch a break?  They cause great big ol' sighs and sometimes a few tears if it is really bad.  Luckily mine isn't quite that bad.  The sighs yes, tears?  Not yet. 

We've been working on buying a house and property which if you've been reading this you know.  So today we got some not great news about inspections and financing.  I don't know all the details because I haven't been in the thick of it.  Tom has.  What it boils down to is that if the seller doesn't take care of some things we won't be getting the farm. :(  Although that is disappointing we aren't giving up yet.  We just never know how things are going to change.  The scary part is that our rental is for sale and there is an offer in on it.  This could be good or bad.

I have a couple of hopes.  One I'd like the farm, but if we don't get it I'd like to be able to get out of this lease (whether that is because of a sale or not) and be able to say see-ya to our realtor/property manager.  To say the least we haven't been impressed.  We feel like we need to use her as our realtor right now in order to get out of our lease.  But if we don't have to do that she is sooooooo getting ditched.

So we are going to suck it up, have some pizza tonight, go to a college volleyball game, and just hang out as a family.  Whatever happens will happen.  Things always seem to happen to us for a reason.  Same as when we bought our last house.  We really wanted one house but the more we looked into it the less we liked despite really liking the house and area.  It ended up in the flood plane and a few months after we bought our house, the one we'd been looking at flooded.  See?  Sometimes things just work out for the better.  Let's hope it is that way with this too.  No matter which way it goes. 

Now I guess I should fold the ever growing pile of laundry on my bed.

Grrrr!

Wordpress is at it again.  I can't post there.  How do you maintain a blog when it won't let you post?  So frustrating.  I'm off to see what I can get done today.  Not a bunch of motivation, but lots of coffee. If I can't have one I should at least have the other right? :)

Snippets of thought

*Some days are just destined to get nothing done.  Even if you feel like tackling the world sometimes it just can't be caught.

*We just had school pictures yesterday.  That was kinda fun to think about Bear having his first class picture and all.

*Household chores can very quickly become overwhelming.  Especially when you don't like the house you are in.

*I have too much crap!  I'm beginning to think I need to get rid of almost everything.  A few pieces of furniture can stay and the food can stay but otherwise most of it needs to go away.  I think a Goodwill trip is in order today.  I was going to do a yard sale but I just don't have the gumption.

*I can't wait to officially learn how to spin.  I have my wheel.  I have my class lined up.  It starts today.  I do need some roving to spin but I'm hoping to pick that up at class.  Oh I'm so happy about getting this started.  I've wanted to spin ever since I got to try it as a little kid.  I'm sitting here wondering about spinning my border collie's hair.  I think I could.  He certainly has enough of it.  I'm just wondering about how to clean it.  I'm also thinking that no matter what you do the fiber that results may always smell like wet dog if you get it wet.  That doesn't sound like much fun.  It might work for a rug or something though.  I don't know.

*I've discovered I'm really bad at meal planning, cooking, and fixing that sort of stuff.  I just don't want to deal with it.  For myself or anyone else.  That sounds horrible since I'm the mom of two little kids that need to eat.  I also really enjoy canning and some baking.  It is just the everyday cooking, planning, grocery shopping, and dishes that I can't stand.  It never ends.  I could do the grocery shopping or the cooking.  But planning, cooking, eating, then the clean-up just stinks.  I think my mom was the same way which is probably why I am the way I am.  Part of my problem is that I never want to run to the store to get all the ingredients of a recipe.  Of course it is always last minute too because I never plan it out.  Oh well.  Something I need to work on finding a way to get it done because we all need to eat.

*Besides cooking and all that I need to figure out some other sort of cleaning schedule.  I just really dislike cleaning this large stinky house.  Not that I ever really enjoy cleaning. :)

I think it is time to call a painter since I think the kiddos are actually napping.

First inspection

It starts today.  Oh how I hope it all passes.  I really want this chunk of property.  I want to live out of town.  I want to be on 10 acres of my property.  I want the pantry in the basement.  I want to be away from these two very busy streets and the canal.  With two little ones and a dog it just isn't very safe.  And I want a piece of property that isn't totally infected with puncture vine.  This rental is so infected there really is no grass and one cannot even walk to the car without getting a shoe full of the damn goatheads. And yes, I feel that strongly about the things.  They hurt!

So, my fingers are crossed, I'm asking any and all dieties to allow all to go well and I'll go out there after I drop Bear at school.  Then I can get a good count of things needed and some measurements.

Wanderings of my morning thoughts

I'm discovering as parent schedules really do get hectic during school.  We don't even have sports, band, drama, or any clubs going on yet.  This is only preschool for goodness sakes.  I guess I always kinda thought a lot of the scheduling and organizing hype was a little over the top.  I'm beginning to get it.  I can't imagine having several teenagers right now.  At least the way things work they let you ease into this whole crazy school schedule.

Somehow I have to figure out how to get it in line with everything else we have going.  Tom's schedule with school doesn't help any there either.  It is kinda fun though too.  There is lots to do on the weekends and none of it costs very much money.  That's always a plus.  Things like tonight we have a college volleyball game to go to and tomorrow Tom is running a 5K.  Well, with the cold we've had he might be walking the 5K.  Lung capacity is a good thing to have during a race.

Well, our house on the farm is getting a little closer to a reality.  We have our first inspection on Monday.  As far as I know this will be the general/pest inspection that every house goes through when one is buying a house.  After that sometime we'll have a well and septic inspection along with the appraisal.  The appraisal is the scary part.  That is what our loan hinges on.  Because of that and the type of loan we may be painting the buildings.  Which is good since we were going to do that anyway.  Then once we actually close we'll be looking at replacing a couple windows to start with and a couple of tiles need replaced.  They are just plain missing.  I think it is only 6 in the kitchen and maybe two in the bathroom.  I'm thinking we can do that for under $10.  We might splurge though and put a decorative border in the bathroom and use some of the other tiles we pull from that to replace the couple that are missing elsewhere.  That way they match in aging.  We'll see.  I am really excited about the claw foot bathtub.  I love claw foot tubs.  They are a wonderful thing to lounge in a bath.  There is no shower but that doesn't bother me.  I grew up with a tub only.  Now Tom might be bothered by that. We'll see.

I'm working on a couple of lists for the property.  They are not ready for publication yet but they are a garden list and an equipment/needs list for a farm.  Lots to think about when doing a farm even if we decide to never have critters.  There are still things like managing noxious weeds and maintaining a garden.  At least we've got our riding lawn mower with snow plow and chains.  We found it for a great deal at a yard sale.  And then we went to an auction and we got a dump cart that hitches to the lawn mower for a great deal too.  I have enough chicken supplies to get started with chicks but I will have to get a larger feeder and that sort of thing down the road.

Oh I can't wait to get my hands on our property.  Will it be easy?  No.  Will there be days I wonder why we didn't buy a little lot in town?  I'm sure.  But to have 10 acres to let two kids run on will be wonderful.  To be able to let the kids do 4-H and FFA(Future Farmers of America) animals if they want to.  Just looking at that sentence makes me wonder what happened to the FHA(Future Homemakers of America).  I'm beginning to think they should bring it back but not make it just for girls.  Everyone should have to take it.  Everyone needs to know how to prepare a basic meal, do dishes, do laundry, and balance a checkbook/debit records. 

I say this because I look at myself and many other folks that really don't know how to do anything when they move out of their parents' house.  I knew more than most of my peers but I still had/have a long way to go.  The basic home management skills just aren't there because we haven't had to do them.  And now that Home Ec. and FHA are pretty well gone there isn't anyone teaching it.  And yet we are all expected to know how to do our jobs and maintain our homes at age 18 or 19.  Is it any wonder that America has 30+ year olds moving back in with Mom and Dad?

Just things I ponder with my first couple of cups of coffee.  I don't mean to get on a soap box or anything.  But I guess I can do that since this is my blog and not anyone else's.  What it all boils down to is there is a lot going on here and my brain is going a mile-a-minute.  It is nice to not be going to work outside the home and it is nice to not have to worry about making one little mistake that may kill someone on that next flight. 

I think now that my coffee is cold I should actually get dressed and finish reading the paper and hang out with the kiddos.  Maybe I'll actually decide on paint color for the house too.

Grab a beverage, this one is a bit long.

I'm getting very frustrated with my other blog.  I'll get a post written, spell checked, and then I'll go to post.  Nope.  The "publish post" button will not highlight to click.  So frustrating since it was highlighted just moments before the spell check process.  It has to be some sort of glitch with that.  All I know is that now 2 of my posts are gone.  Oh ya, that's the other thing.  It doesn't save the draft.  Extremely frustrating.

The first day of the missing post wasn't so bad. But yesterday's was especially frustrating because I was trying to build my list of plants for the garden, orchard, and landscaping at the new house.  I am putting the cart before the horse a little bit here as we haven't  officially purchased the place yet.  Although my plant list applies to wherever we end up.

So in light of that I may end up posting most of my garden stuff on here as well.  I hopefully will also have some yarn/fiber projects to post about as well.  Last weekend I ordered a spinning wheel.  I've been tempted to do such a thing for years.  I spun once as a kid at some craft fair but never found anyone to teach me to do it again.  I went to the Fiber Art Fair here the other day and found someone who would let me play.  Oh so much fun.  I'm signed up for a beginning spinning class that starts next week at the college and my very own wheel should be here in a couple of weeks.

In thinking about what I'll need to spin it has me thinking about what animals I could have on our new farm.  The place is pretty well set up for goats and/or sheep.  We won't get any for awhile but it is something to think about.  I'd be interested in looking at Alpacas.  Their wool is some of the most expensive and therefore would be nice to not have to buy from someone else.  I don't know if it is so expensive that it would warrant keeping that animal though.

See, I think I have an advantage and yet a disadvantage from other folks just starting a farm.  I've had animals before.  I know that a lot of work goes into having animals.  There are vet bills, hay, trimming hooves, fence mending, hair cuts, and protection from predators.  See most animals that us humans use for meat, milk, and fiber are prey animals.  Most predators look at a flock or herd as a bit of a smorgasbord.  Why not?  Here they are, all penned up just waiting to be taken.  After all, that is why us humans keep them penned as well.  Sure we don't do it right off the bat and we try to do things in a humane way but that doesn't mean that the end result is any different when concerning the meat animals.

So what does all that mean as far as advantage or disadvantage?  It means that I know what I'm in for.  That covers them both.  It means I'm more reluctant to get animals but I will hopefully know how to care for them better than someone with no experience.  I'm more inclined to weight the plusses and minuses that is for sure.  Things like the Alpacas.  Is it worth having to care for them, protect them, pay the vet bills, care for the fences, care for the pasture, shear them, and feed them?  Does that all cost less than the fiber from someone else?  Probably not.  But then too I have to ask if I would be able to make money on the excess fiber and or yarn I could spin.  Something to look into.

As you can tell there is a lot to think about in buying this farm.  And now there is a job posting at the college I would qualify for.  I've thought about it and I'm flattered that they keep talking to Tom about me for the position, but I just don't think right now is the time to go back to work.  I'm enjoying the time with my children and the lack of stress that a job puts on.  I love that we have no daycare costs.  Tom can go to meetings and I can take classes without having to worry about childcare.

Speaking of the children... They are dying for lunch and then need a nap so I'd better quit babbling on here.

Randomness

Oh I so dislike when I start this process and what I was just thinking about writing is all of a sudden gone.  Hmmmm... what then?

Guess I'll tell you about what is going on in general.  We are buying 10 acres which involves setting up inspections, appraisals, and telling our current landlord we don't really want to be here the whole 12 months of our lease.  I suppose we could live here if we had to.  We just really don't want to.

My four year old just sat down and did 40 sit ups and is now doing "push ups and some stretching."

The going to bed process keeps getting longer and longer.  All sorts of excuses are thought of to stay up or get up.  It is amazing what all they come up with.  Hungry, thirsty, hot, cold, too tired and many other excuses.

I'm trying to get into some sort of routine for this whole staying home venture.  I enjoy staying home but I do need to get my routine figured out so the kids have some sort of structure.  I've never been good at doing and sticking to a routine.  I'll get it figured out someday I suppose.

I'm off to see if I can help convince the kids to go to bed.  Whew.

Whew!

We are buying a farm!!  Well, so long as the well, septic, and other inspections go okay, we can get out of our rental lease, and the bank says yes to lending us money.  Lots to do yet but so long as that all goes well we'll be the new owners of the old Abner place!

Today has been a crazy run around day for getting paperwork done on my house in Oregon too.  That sale closes tomorrow or Monday.  Tomorrow is when it is planned but Monday is an in case paperwork gets hung up in the mail.  I will be very happy to have that headache relieved.  That has been about 2 years of dealing with lawyers, court crap, and spending a ton of money.  I don't think my aunt intended it to be any of that when she left the 3 of us the house.

For those that don't know and want to know:  My aunt left us a house with the stipulation that her partner be able to live there until he moved or died.  In other words a Life Estate.  That was great.  No big deal.  Right?  No.  We had it stipulated in the Estate Agreement that all parties signed when she died that he would pay taxes and utilities and maintain the house in good condition.  Well, then I stumbled upon the fact that he wasn't paying taxes about 1 1/2 into it.  So we have spent the last almost 2 years exchanging letters, great big whoppin' tall tales (from him), and later lawyer summons, judgements, quit claims, and finally an eviction notice.  And then he left us all sorts of wonderful crap and damage to clean up and repair.

No idea who is watching out for us but the day the house was listed an investor offered us a cash sale "as is."  Yes, it was way less than we were asking but the closing date was sooner rather than later and everything is in cash.  I'm good with that.  I am very ready to have that headache gone.

Now if we could just get our MT house sold.  I know my renters wouldn't like that but I would.  Either that or we'll have to see about refinancing the place so it can actually make us some money.  I really don't want to be a long distance landlord though.  Especially since we don't have a property manager.  We might have to look into doing that.

I'm excited to plan things out for the Abner place.  Red and white barn paint.  House paint, we haven't decided colors there yet.  Windows, a couple need repairs or replacing before winter.  A good scrub all over.  And last but not least we need to buy a refrigerator, a range, and a lawn mower.  Unfortunately the last three are not going to be cheap.  Even if we do a used riding mower it still won't be cheap.  We'll do new appliances though.  We've never had good luck with used refrigerators and I'd like to start with a new range.  Mostly because people generally want way more bells and whistles on their appliances than we like.  We don't want anything fancy.  Just functional.

Oh, I do need to shop for handles for the kitchen cabinets.  So far I've found some that match perfectly on e-bay but they aren't cheap and they were only sold in pairs.  I need more than 4 handles.  I'll have to see what I can come up with around here in the antique stores.  There are some great ones here.

Let's see, in other news.  The kids and I have a trip to take for a wedding next week.  There are all sorts of activities we have planned for this weekend.  Fiber Art Fair, Farm and Ranch Museum harvest fest, and who knows what else at this point.  When we get back from our wedding trip I'm signing up for a spinning (as in yarn, not on a stationary bike) class and a Zumba class.  I can do both as freebies, I think, because Tom is faculty at the school.  Kinda cool.  Speaking of that stuff I'd better see what I can do about signing up for that.  I'd also better get a couple things boxed up so I can mail them.  I'm not sure what happened to my free time this week but it appears to be gone.

And waiting...

Well, kinda.  We are still negotiating.  Back and forth.  We want the property, he wants to sell the property.  We drove by yesterday.  He was baling hay on the property.  Nice to think we could probably have about 7 acres of hay off of there.  Looked like decent grass hay too.  I don't think some of it could be weed free though unless we do a lot of work on the weeds.

The kids can even have their own rooms at this place.  And we would still have room down in the basement for a guest room and den.  Is the place smaller than this one?  Yes.  But it is bigger than our St. Iggy house and there is a whole lot more outside to play with at the Abner place.  I'm excited to have a smaller house again oddly enough.  Here are a couple of photos from the property.  Won't the chicken coop look good with a fresh coat of barn red and white trim?

One of two chicken coops

The view looking South from behind the horse barn. The single tree out there is one of the property lines.
 

Waiting

We are waiting to hear about our counter offer to the seller's counter offer.  Good old negotiating.  It is funny.  When we first saw the place online we put it in the "no" pile because we looked at it an online satelite picture.  The guy across the road has a lot of equipment in his yard that looks like a junkyard from the air.  When we first went to look at it we looked for the equipment.  You can't really see it from the road.  Oh, you can tell there is a farm and the tractors etc. that go along with that, but you can't see everything that is back there because of trees, sheds, house, and garage.  I was pleasantly surprised.  I had thought from the aerial shot that the place was doomed. 

We were also scared by the online listing because they didn't post any pictures of the interior of the house.  Usually that is a very bad sign.  Walking around the property we liked the property but were still a little scared about the house.  We didn't have a realtor with us the first go around so we couldn't get in the house.  We went back a couple days later with a realtor and got inside.  Wow!  Beautiful hardwood floors, cool old farmhouse sink with drainboards on either side, chrome and laminate counters, and metal cabinets straight out of the 50s.  Then we went in the bathroom.  Clawfoot tub!!  In the master bedroom, cedar lined large closet!  In the basement, root cellar pantry!  Had they put pictures up of the interior I don't think the property would still be on the market. 

Everything does need cleaned.  I'm dying to take some mineral oil to the wood floors and see what is under the dirt.  I want to replace the 6 tiles in the kitchen and the 2-3 tiles in the bathroom.  There are so many cool buildings and features about the place.  Even the basement someone has started dividing it into some rooms that we can finish and add two rooms to the house.

One bathroom is a little inconvenient but not a deal breaker by any means.  Especially since Bear keeps asking why we have 2 bathrooms here at the rental.  He giggles and tells me it is silly to have two.  Maybe he's right.  Especially if we clean out the outhouse.  Growing up in a one bathroom house that had an outhouse for years I know they sure can come in handy.

I'm trying to decide if I want both poultry houses as actual poultry houses.  We might have to see about moving one and making it a well house.  We have two wells there and neither has a well house.  I can't imagine that is really a good idea for winters.  Plus the well for the yard and fields is a bit of a pit and I don't want little ones exploring where there are probably critters hanging out.  It looks like a perfect spot for spiders and wasps.  It has been covered but needs new boards.  There are plenty of boards around the place to do that with, but it just needs done.

At least the waiting is giving us time to think about what we want/need to do and get some prices.  Also, we've been watching the paper.  It looks like we should be able to find most of what we want for a lot less money either in the classifieds or at an auction.  Most of the things that we want to do we can wait until next summer when Tom is on summer vacation.  A couple of windows can't wait although we are seeing lots of different options for taking care of them.  We have a couple of home improvement stores here in town and there are all sorts of antique and second hand stores around.  Way better selection then Missoula.  A little surprising since this area is much smaller.

I suppose I'd better get another cup of coffee and get going with my day.  Trying to get into a routine hasn't been the easiest here.  At least it is cooling off.  That gives me more motivation.  I should finish making the crackers I started the other day.  I got distracted making yogurt.  It turned out pretty good too.  Okay, I'm off to get coffee.

Abner

Well, we did it.  We put an offer in on the farm.  It is called Abner.  The Abner's lived there since about 1935 and after Roy died, Maude sold the place to the neighbor.  He's the one selling it now.  Isn't the Abner Place a great name for a farm?  10 acres, 7 outbuildings that include two chicken houses and an outhouse.  The outhouse is filled in and has been storage, but I bet it could be restored.  I know, funny thing to be excited about but the place only has one bathroom and with a family of four that can be an issue once in awhile.

We have a few projects that we have to do to Abner:

* The house needs windows. A few of them have to get done before winter or else we'll be very cold.
* There are tiles that need replaced in the kitchen and bathroom.
* Everything needs paint.  We want to do the classic barn red with white trim for the outbuildings and then something else for the stucco house.
* The kitchen needs appliances.  A refrigerator and stove to be specific.
* A garden needs put in so we'll lay out where we want it and do some work to prep the soil for next spring.

Of course that all hinges on whether or not our offer gets accepted. 

Fall thoughts

Now that the temperatures have dropped I think I found out what my problem has been.  Almost 100 degrees F does me in even if I don't think it does.  It dropped into the 80s and wow I feel better.  Amazing what 10-20 degrees will do for a person. Despite that I do need to find a bike shop or go to the dreaded Walmart for bike tire tubes.  You don't ride anywhere in this area without a pump and spares.  Too many goatheads that come from puncture vine.  It hangs out on the side of the road because the goatheads get stuck in car tires and get kicked out along the road.  It makes for some treacherous bike riding.  I'll need to get some tubes for the trailer I have too.  I wonder if they make solid tires for it...

Fall is in the air!! I love Fall.  It puts me in a mood to bake, stash food, and get ready for winter in general.  That feeling is something I always get.  I think it goes back to when we all had to do a lot more preparations to survive the winter.  I do wish I were making the preparations at a farm.  More specifically my farm.  Such as life I suppose.  I'm debating cleaning out the chicken coop at our rental and getting some chickens.  It might be awhile before we get our farm, but then it might be really soon too.  I don't know how it will all work out right now.  We have two major things to work out.  Financing and getting out of our lease.

Speaking of fall baking I think I'm going to try to make pop tarts.

Gripes

I hate how some days I have no energy.  I know I could be doing lots of things to rectify that, but I don't seem to have the energy to do that.  Dumb I know.  I can hear some folks telling me to talk to a doctor.  I know what the doctor will say.  Eat more fruits and vegetables and get more exercise.  It is easy to say not so easy to practice.  Habits are hard to break. 

I've never been one to go someplace to exercise.  Mine always came from a physically demanding job or fun.  I just haven't been doing that lately.  Also, my problem has been that although I eat breakfast and lunch my body doesn't seem to think I have.  I wonder what else is going on.  Mainly I'm sure I just need exercise.  I just hate to go someplace and pay to exercise.  I don't want people to watch me.  Don't know why exactly but I've always felt that way.

I'm hoping things start happening around here as of today.  Now that the holiday is over I should be able to get some things moving on these house projects.  Speaking of which, I'd better quit griping to the world and get some things done with that.

Finally some pictures

 My wonderful little family struck a pose as we were looking at the 10 acre chunk of property.  Mia was copying the way Tom stood so I had Bear join them and got a picture.

 This is the view from behind the barn at the property we want.  See, NE isn't nearly as flat as some folks have claimed.  I love that it is open farmland.

The chicken coop on the property that we want.  It just needs some junk moved out, a good cleaning, it might need a window, and a coat of paint.  Then it just needs chickens installed.  It is a very solid building.  Actually they all are.  That was one of the things that impressed me about the place.  So, tomorrow we go see about financing and hopefully make an offer on the property.  Oh how I would love to move out of this rental!  I really don't want to pack and unpack again but to be out of this place would be wonderful.  Moving schools won't be fun for Bear but I think we can work our move to be over Christmas break so it would be a more natural split.  I hate to do that to him, but kids are pretty resilient about that stuff.  Not that it is any more fun, just that they seem to adapt quickly.

The house is smaller by almost 1000 sq. feet than the one we are in.  Oddly enough I'm okay with that.  Apparently I like being crammed into a small farm house.  It is one of the things I haven't liked about the rental.  Too big, too easy to accumulate stuff.  In moving again I will be getting rid of more stuff.  Amazingly you don't get rid of much when someone else is moving you.  So once again I'm working on a yard sale pile.  At least we are on a good busy corner for a yard sale.  One of the things we don't like about our rental.  Two busy highways and a canal.  The property we are looking at is at the end of the road.  The only thing past it is a pasture, corn field, and the river after that.

I really will work on getting some more pictures on here.  I think I actually know where my card reader is now. I had to pull this photos from me e-mail that I had used from Tom's computer.  Oh the joys of moving.  Nothing is where it is supposed to be.