It's Official

The house has a big bright real estate sign out front! I found our MLS listing yesterday-it's officially for sale...



Other things are happening too, 9 days of school left for the girls. Two weeks until our 130 Freedom Rangers and 12 laying chicks arrive. I am giddy and tired. We have a three day weekend coming up -we are going to need every minute of it I think. We have building projects (bean trellis and chicken tracotrs), possibly moving some rabbit cages out to the farm (we have 2 sets so the buns can stay at home in the back-up cages until we move), and taking stock of what we need to do to prepare for chicks. Oh yes I also work Saturday morning 8-12 at the far away clinic-so tack an hour driving to either end of that. That's okay-I can buy alot of chicken feed with those wages :)

Recovery and Discovery

Thanks for the public (and private)words of support. There should be a law against stressful news at certain times of the month :)
I think my biggest stress was in putting myself 'out there', pushing my comfort zones a bit. You see we do have the money to do this (I knew there was a reason for driving an 8yr old Saturn!), I just didn't think we would be called upon to have to use it. I was assuming we could have our comfortable cushion to sit on.
I AM breathing again and thinking things through rationally again. Tom and I will do a little brainstorming about how to proceed -the construction loan has a 12 month term, so we can continue to save and accumulate money as we go through the next year. Perhaps the garage will get built this fall? Perhaps we get another bid for the garage, with us doing more of the work? I'm not sure what we will come up with , but there is nothing like a campfire and a couple Mike's Hard Lemonades to help you think outside of the box.

uggh

I want to vomit. I have too many things weighing on my mind. This is no way to live. The bank called yesterday about the construction loan. The assessor (appaiser?) valued our future home at $187,000. That is basically an evaluation of what our property would sell for in the current market. Problem is, the market here has really tanked. The bank will loan us 75% of the assessed value or $140,000. The estimates we have collected to build a 1400 sq foot house, 2 car garage, mound septic, well and to run electric out (1,000ft!) is 175,000. That is a big difference.
Do you remember that post about 'when i retire'...well we need to decide if that is all talk or will we put our money where our mouth is. Last night talking it over with DH and a bottle of wine it seemed pretty obvious- we do it, but I am worrying this thing to death (that's what i do). Time for a little yoga and then I will transplant my little tomatoes and see how things feel then.
Oh yeah, I also had a post on HWW about technoloy and commuting.-see side link to HWW

Not For the Faint of Heart

Did you know that the bacteria living in and on you would fill up a half gallon jug? In fact there are 10 times MORE bacterial cells in our body than human ones (good thing they are very small!) The article from Scientific American is here.
Pretty cool stuff-but I am funny that way. Our bodies function more efficiently with these little helpers, in fact 40 of our own genes have been found to be bacterial in origin.
I throw antibiotics at pets evry day...maybe I should be looking deeper. These dogs are not suffering an antibiotic deficiency, something else has allowed the pathogenic bacteria to gain ground. Or maybe not. Just food for thought.

Weekend Work

We had a cold weekend, and frankly we were tired so we had a convienent excuse to NOT spend the weekend at the camper. Brrr...3+ inches of sloppy wet snow. I was happy to be in a real house! We spend Sunday at the land. The weather was perfect-very little wind, sunny and 50-60 degrees. DH installed the board walk in front of the camper along with the 10x12 'patio'. Everything is constructed with treated wood in 3'x10' sections so we can use at the house this fall. I am happy to have a spot out of the dirt and mud this summer. We put the 'patio' at the back end of the camper-we will put our deck table and chairs out there along with the umbrella for (a bit of) shade. The camper also has an exterior shower on the back so we can 'hose-off' on those really sticky days.

DH planted his open pollinated sweet corn-I forget the weight -but it was approx 1000seeds. I think it is a little cool for sweet corn, but even with a low germination rate and deer/coon/bear predation we will have alot of corn!

My day was spent in the garden! Yay me! I put in 10lbs of seed potatoes-I ended up with 3 25ft rows ( i must have cut them into smaller pieces this year) About half were the leftovers from our winter storage. I have pictures to help me remember row spacing etc for next year:

We hill the old fashioned way so I think I am still going to wish for more room between the rows...
I also put in two more rows of peas, a whole bed of beets and a row of radishes. The dandelions are taking over the rows and sides of the raised beds. I took the hoe to their tops and that felt very good! I know it will not help long term so next weekend i need to bring stuff for row mulch-I was thinking brown paper shoppping bags covered with lawn clippings. I also need to come up with bean trellis ideas. DH has too much on his plate and after all -I AM HANDY TOO!
The kids entertained themselves -playing 'tennis' on the tractor road:

(we are going to need more balls!)

Look What I Did!!!

I am so proud of myself-look what I did!
Our dishwasher kicked the bucket a long time ago and we just didn't replace it. Bah! Modern conveniences-who needs 'em. As I prepared our house for sale, I decided it was time to have a functional dishwasher. I had a bad experience at our local big box appliance store, so I trotted down to our locally owned appliance store (who also will deliver AND take the old washer away). I paid a little more but I feel better about spending where more money will stay in our community. The sales person offered to put me in contact with a plumber who could install the thing, but he said-'they are pretty easy to install -if your husband is handy he would have no problem'. I thought, he is handy -but SO AM I! It took a couple hours and 1 trip to the hardware store for a new fitting and hose but it works and is not leaking. I keep checking to be sure!
It's a small thing but it is giving me a sense of competency, of 'non-helplessness'.
In other news- the paperwork is all with the bank. In another 2-3 weeks we should have a building loan.
I am having moments of 'what the hell are we doing' as I work on our house-I am 'remembering' how much I like it-the yard especially. Then we go out to the camper which is parked in a bare field where the wind never stops blowing. I have to remind myself that I cannot have livestock in my pretty yard, the trees, shrubs and flowers will come in time(along with hot running water).

VS




My blogging will continue to be very sporadic--keep checking back though

Dragon Eggs

What are 'dragon eggs'? Well you will have to go to Homemakers Who Work to find out!

Kris