Shed

The shed is almost completed!  There are more pictures in the slide show on the right, so you can see what the free standing unit itself looks like if you haven't seen it in person.  This is J. finishing up some of the flooring.  It's got a floated bamboo floor, thanks to some overstock from his dad's shop.  Thank you, Wooden Floor Co., Inc!

We've just been pouring all of our spare time into 1) trying to finish the shed and 2) packing up and sifting through all of our stuff.  It's nice to be able to stretch it out and try to organize and get rid of stuff as we go.  We really need to whittle out any excess, so if you need anything at all you might want to ask before you go buy anything...

Jeremy mentioned yesterday that Andy told him there is a 90% chance the short sale will go through.  I guess I just (stupidly) assumed that since it got approved, there was no way it WOULDN'T go through.  Silly me!  I guess either way, we are out in the next two weeks.  There's really no way we can get 95% ready to move and then just unpack and stay here.  It's now or nothing.  Fingers crossed that everything pulls through, though, because I'd really much rather see someone who really wants this place get it instead of having it sit uncared for AND getting slammed with a foreclosure on our record.  We've loved this house, and cared for it and poured a lot of our energy into it for the past few years.  It would be more than a little heart breaking to just see it be one of the thousands that sit empty in this wreck of a market.

A time of excitement, of change, of movement and purging.  Emptying out our old life and jumping into the new.  It feels good to clean out all of this dust and throw away all of this trash.  Let's keep moving!

Exponential Reality

Imagine your life as a math problem. Sometimes you would be living in the world of negatives, sometimes operating in the world of positives and on rare occasion your life would speed up and operate exponentially. Life would speed up and sequence of events would flash before your eyes with speed and tangled beauty.

We have been talking about living in community, talking about sharing a farm and talking about short selling our house since May. We have shared our communal vision with countless people and dreamt about the endless possibilites of an urban farm. The theoretical became the inevitable this week when we found out our short sale went through. A jumbled web of emotions ranging from shear panic and utter delight, to sadness and giddy elation ran through us. The stress and inconvenience of occupying 2 worlds screached to a halt. God's plan is rolling.

So back to the math problem. Life which was already busy burst forth with a new pace. We got to get the hell out of our house in 4 weeks which means 3 weeks to move. On your mark, get set, oh crap we still both have full time jobs. So we sat down with our new family of 6 and made the plans. Mission One- get the turkeys back to the farm. BJ was loving this plan. Turkey poop and cardboard boxes here we come. Mission 2- finish the shed. Mission 3- garage sale, next weekend. Mission 5- clean out 4 years worth of junk. Mission 6-33 Move in 3 weeks.

Reality is in the eye of the beholder.

Now stress is handled in many ways. Drinking exessively, cussing, taking it out on family, throwing chickens, or praying. God has been drafting this multi family farm/community plan for quite some time; ever since BJ and Sarah were 2 days from closing escrow on the wrong house and since Chase lost our refinance paperwork for the 13th time 2 years ago. I am happy to be joining our families together and look forward to a steady stream of possibilities that this community holds. We/I need to remember to breath and enjoy picking up chicken poop and moving boxes. When life becomes exponential it is an exceptional gift to have caring people to help you move turkeys in trash cans and to remind eachother it is OK to BREATH........

Must-read list.

Current read = The Year of the Goat.  Thanks, Tom!  I have really enjoyed this book so far, and for anyone with a little bit of urban farmer in you I would highly recommend it.  A few other books that I've read and REALLY enjoyed over the past few...Let me know how you like 'em!

Thanksgiving!

We now have turkeys in our backyard.  Refer to BJ's first official post below for the rundown.  Anyhow, I got some great pics with Estelle, the bird lady.  They are as big as her, but she has no fear!  On the flip side, Camille will barely even carry the bantams, let alone the full grown chickens.  Estelle single handedly strong-armed all 5 of the turkeys back into the coop today.  She's definitely earning her spot on the farm!

Tureky Chauffeur?

Life on the farm is full of firsts. Many firsts have been with our recent Thanksgiving endeavor involving turkeys. Its hard not to get too attached to these friendly, but extremely dumb, birds. They followed us around when they were small, running with their wings out and tails up. They make noises you only hear when you accidentally flip to the the hunting channel and see a grown man in camouflage with a bright orange hat and vest (defeats the purpose doesn't it) trying to call some wild turkeys by rubbing some sticks together. Most of the time this man seems less than educated and has way too big of a gun for hunting turkeys.

But as friendly as they can be, they are still bound for the dinner table. Which is where the chauffeuring comes in. Up until this weekend the 5 turkeys (we lost 4 as chicks, 2 to coyotes, and 1 to a leg deformity) were living in the chicken coup with all our hens. We decided it was time for a change when we saw a turkey get into a fight with a hen and almost get the whole head of the hen in its mouth. I had to break up the squabble by throwing my shoe at them. The change involved moving out 5 turkeys to Kim and Jeremy's coup in the backyard of their old house, as they are still awaiting short sale approval. Easier said then done. It is hard to find a box big enough and strong enough to hold a full grown turkey, let alone 5 of them. With the aid of a box, a large plastic bin to hold chicken food, and a puppy transport carrier, we managed to get all the birds into the back of the Subaru Outback. A lot of people tease me about my car, but once again the ole' Outback sure came in handy.

The drive started out fine, I had the A/C blasting so they wouldn't bake, I was a little nervous about the one bird in the cardboard box, but I had a pre-formed contingency plan in effect if he were to escape in route. That wasn't my biggest concern. I didn't realize that 2.5 minutes into our drive, each turkey would empty its bowels and continue to do so for the remainder of the 12 minute commute. In a confined space, turkey poop is extremely pungent and nasty The cardboard box soaked through with poop, the inside of the plastic bin was smeared and covered with it, along with the 3 birds inside it and iur white turkey came out a nice tan poopy color. All in all, I don't recommend Turkey Chauffeuring. And in the event you have to do it, make sure you have plenty of air freshener for your car, both for during and after (my car still has a slight smell)

Home life

As you can see from Sarah's last post, puppies have arrived!  They are extremely cute and we are all now currently in puppy glee.  They are a little shy right now, but finally starting to find their way out of their shell.  They seem to be so smart!  They are herding dogs by nature, so we'll see how their instincts manifest with a gaggle of chickens and children.  I have heard that they have a tendency toward "herding" children, so this should be fun to watch as they grow (although I don't know if my kids will think it's too funny...)

We got some great news last week that our first mortgage FINALLY was approved for a short sale.  As most of you know (though some may not) we have been trying since April to short sale our current home so that we can move into the farm and jump into community living.  I think that especially these last couple of months have been a bit trying on us, having to juggle the two households and trying to pitch in as much as we can at the farm while straining to keep up this home as well.  Between juggling jobs and school, two homes and striving to strike a family balance I know that we are pretty worn out.  We are now just awaiting approval from our second mortgage, though the company that holds that mortgage has been so difficult to work with that I am unsure of what may manifest.  I feel as if we are toeing a fine line between short sale and foreclosure. It will be a relief when this is finally over one way or another so that we can just move over there and start the next chapter in this experimental life.   I think at this point we don't really care what happens, we just are looking forward to it being over with.

Everything farm related is still just so enticing to me and I am really sad that it didn't work out this time with the goats!  I haven't been combing craigslist to jump into this quite yet because I don't feel as if we're anywhere near being ready, but I am really excited about future endeavors involving goats milk and cheese.  I anxiously await the time when I can start The Rabbit Project and wonder when we will be ready to work on the tilapia pond.  So many fabulous projects are turning the cogs in my head, but I know that it must be a slow and deliberate process to avoid backfire and resentment.  As the idea of finally selling this home is a reality, I am now able to somewhat loosen the reigns on my excitement and imagine what the nearer future may hold.  Just praying that these transitions will be as smooth as possible for all of us and that we are blessed with grace, openness and acceptance once we are all living together and that any fears will be unfounded.  Wish us luck!

Our little home for the past 4 years.