Llamas getting sheared!

Even though we have not moved into the farm house yet, there's still always something going on there. Yesterday we hired our vet to come out and help shear the llamas. He had to sedate them to shave them. Our friend, who also gave us the llamas, helped shear them. Dolly was quite scared! Llama Llama seemed to be okay, but Dolly cried and cried. It was really sad. They both look so nice with their winter coats off. I'm so thankful this only has to happen every two years. The kids loved seeing the llamas getting sheared, petting them and Princess even got to kiss them. It was sweet. I love that our kids are getting to experience life with animals. 

Before

Before

They had to put the llamas in this hold to get them their shot.

A llama beard!

Big llama beard!

Farm House Renovations Update

Life has been keeping our family very busy. We're looking forward to everything being done at the farm, moving, and not having anything big planned for a while. 

Progress is being made on the farm house. Sadly, we had a few setbacks this past week. One being the power company had to disconnect the power to our property when we informed them of the poor wiring, which apparently is extremely dangerous. Thankfully, that has all been fixed, even though it cost us 3 days of work. The other setback was our plumber decided to work off the job. So the plumbing, which should have been completed, has been delayed by another week and will hopefully be done this coming week. We did find another plumber, the original plumber we hired, but our general contractor told us in the beginning that he wanted to use his guy. 

Floors were supposed to go in next week. Most likely they will not. Below are a few pictures of the open floors. The biggest plumbing issue we have is a leak from the kitchen sink out. They have to cut a new water pipe out and under the house to the septic. Or they need to find and fix the leak. 

On the positive, the back room addition has been almost completed. All but two new windows have been installed. The electrical wiring has been done. The cabinet maker is working on the cabinets. Once we resolve the plumbing problem and they fill in the floor, they can hopefully lay the floor, install the rest of the drywall, texture and paint, install cabinets, and finish up the job.

Before: We removed the wall to add a sun room/breakfast room

After: Sun room/Breakfast room addition

We also put our house on the market two weeks ago and got an offer the next day. We are past their option period and are just waiting on the appraisal to schedule an appointment. We are scheduled to close in less than a month on our current home. God has really blessed us with a quick sale. Selling a house has been one of the most stressful things I've done. I am NOT a natural homemaker/house keeper. I like things being clean and orderly but I have to work so hard to keep it that way.  

This week on the farm, we're having the llamas shaved. Hopefully the plumbing will get fixed, drywall will be completed, and the last windows installed. Meanwhile, we'll continue packing up our house up for the move. The original farm house completion date was in 3 weeks! Not sure if we're going to make that. We can hope and pray, though!

We bought some Goats and got a Dog!

Last week we bought a tractor and two goats. The kids named the goats, Copper and Penny. We also adopted a dog, Porridge, from the lady we bought the house from. She asked us if we would take him. He is a really sweet guy and very protective!

We let our dog swim ins the pond yesterday

Asian Massage Review

Taken after my massage of the massage table

I have been having back pain off and on for about two years. Packing and moving boxes has really intensified the pain. That along with carrying an 18 month old and 3 year old around, can really wear out a back. I started seeing a chiropractor a few times a week and it's helped some but hasn't solved it. I talked with my friend who is a physical therapist and hope to see him but apparently, insurance companies require me to get a prescription from my doctor to see a PT. So, rather than take my kids and myself to a doctor's office filled with germs, I decided to try an Asian Massage first. I love natural remedies for things and have done acupuncture and have had success with homeopathy, so this seemed like the next logical step. Here is how it's different from a Swedish massage.

-the massage therapist gets on the massage table with you to really be able to work directly on top of you. I think the massage table is a little wider than traditional ones.

-she stretched my body. From my arms, to my legs.

-she used her hands to really pound on my body, including the bottom of my feet.

-she used a warm blanket to start with to warm up my body. When she was done, she used a warm, wet towel, to wash off the oil from my body. I thought that was nice. 

While I listened to the instrumental version of "Moon River," my pain was removed. I'm going to try it again in the future.