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.

Farm House Renovations Week 1!

On Monday, our demo day at the farm house began! Well, inside anyway. Last week they did the foundation repairs. Today, we found out there is a leak under the foundation somewhere. To fix it, it will cost $250 for the first hour, $150 each addition hour to find the leak, then $1500 to fix each leak they find! OUCH! Lets hope it's just one leak. I'm so glad they are going to get it fixed, just wish it didn't cost so much. I'm also really thankful we don't have to live there while they are doing this work. There is so much work being done that it would be hard to live there and they would take a lot longer. We're having the ENTIRE house remodeled! The guys working on the house are doing a great job, so far.  

Once the house is done, I think it's going to look really, really great! Honestly, it really wasn't that bad to begin with. It's just over 40 years old and since we want everything to be up to code, and certain things weren't working, we thought the best thing to do was gut it and start anew. We're having the plumbing redone in most of the house, electrical wiring done, adding square footage, and completely changing the layout of the master bathroom and closet area. We're gutting bathrooms, kitchen, adding a half bath, and adding a new laundry room/mudroom area. We're also enclosing the screened in patio and making it part of the house. I'm looking forward to putting a big table in that area and enjoying lots of meals with my family and friends.

I've made a few YouTube videos that I'm sharing with friends who ask. It's unlisted so you'll need the link. Let me know if you want to see the house tour. 

Here are some before and after pictures of some of the renovations! We are only on Day 3!

Kitchen before. We're expanding it and going to have a big island.

This half wall in in the kitchen still needs to be removed.

Master Bathroom before

The wall is gone! Now time to remove the tub!

These shelves were located in the space above. We're relocating them.

Before

They are removing this wall to expand the living area.

2nd Bathroom

Sink and vanity are gone

Another angle of the 2nd bathroom

We bought a Farm!

If we talk frequently, you're friends with me on Facebook or got a Christmas card from us, then you already know about our news. We bought a farm! We are so excited about our family's new adventure. The house sits on a little over 8 acres. There's a big shop, storage building, and really nice stables. There is lots of space to run and play and a beautiful pond that is stocked with fish! 

We closed on the house last week. We originally were supposed to close at the end of December. However, 8 days before closing, our bank told us the first contractor didn't meet the bank's qualifications to do the rehab work. So we had to hurry and find someone new that would meet their requirements. Meanwhile, the first contractor threatened a lawsuit and putting an invalid lien on the property for work he never did. We hired an attorney and hopefully everything is going to work out. It's been a roller coaster. We are so glad everything has been finalized. 

The farm house is an older house and we are having it completely remodeled. When we moved back from Germany, we bought a new house so we wouldn't have to deal with any older house issues. So going from a new house to an old house will be difference. We are so blessed to have it renovated, though. The house has 4 bedrooms and a great overall layout. We are making some big changes, though. The master bathroom and closet are going to be completely different. The kids bathroom will be gutted and the kitchen is going to be gutted and remodeled. We're adding some square footage and a half bath as well as new laundry room and mudroom. It's going to look so nice when it's all done. I'll be sure to add some before and after pictures. 

There are questions that people keep asking us over and over. I'm going to go ahead and answer them here.

How are we able to do all of this? 

To be honest, God has given us everything we have. So first, we thank God for allowing us this opportunity. Secondly, we sold our first house we bought early into our marriage. We had rented it for the past 8 years and have done without many things so we could put our extra money in the rental house when needed. When we left for Germany several years after buying it, the market was about to crash and we might have gotten what we paid for minus realtor fees. However, we easily rented it and now that the market is up, we were able to sell it for a much better price than we would have if we had not rented it. In essence, we sold our rental business to help buy a farm. 

We are debt free except for our house. Granted, it took us 10 years to pay off our student loans. But other than that, we have mostly tried to be debt free since early on in our marriage. And if nothing else, not accrue a lot of debt. The first 3 years, almost all of my income went to pay off debt from college. We shared one car, took our lunches to work, ate at home, and lived very frugally. Our dates consisted of going to half off movies at the dollar theater and sharing a meal at restaurants. If you make sacrifices early on in your marriage, they will pay off later on. Many of our friends were buying new cars and eating at nice restaurants. We worked to pay off our student loan debt that was at a higher interest rate that we couldn't consolidate. 

We also looked for a big property for over 2 years! We have really been working on our patience and our realtor has been amazing. Honestly, this was the right time to do this. Even though we've never spent this much on a place, we have made sure it fits within our budget.

So why a farm? Isn't that too much work?

Why is work bad? We're constantly working and doing things. Some of the best memories are made from hard work. Some of the best relationships, take hard work. Working is good for all of us.

Growing up, I had a great aunt and uncle who owned hundreds of acres. When I would visit their farm, it was so peaceful. You could see the stars at night and it was truly lovely. It was fun watching the cows graze and explore their property. From that time on, I have always wanted to have more land and to raise some animals. 

We also like to garden and spend time outdoors. People used to know their local farmers. People used to grow more of their own food. Now we're so tempted to buying cheap stuff from grocery stores that contain many chemicals and very little nutrition. We want our children to know how to grow food, including raising livestock for food, and be aware of the work that goes into it. I think people would waste less if they knew how precious good food is.

So what's our timeline for moving? Have we moved in?

We met with our builder last night. They started foundation work today. The rehab will be done in 8-10 weeks. We plan on staying at our house until it's done so we don't have to live in the dust and are out of the way of the workers. We have a friend who is going to be staying on the property so everything will stay secured. Meanwhile, we need to get our house ready to sell. I think that's going to be the most stressful part of the whole process. 

What animals do you have or want?

We have two llamas and are looking forward to adding a few more animals to our farm. We'd like to get chickens and some pigs to start with. We're also looking into goats, sheep, and cows. For a few months two horses, a donkey, and seven dogs will be staying on our property as well. There are also two cats.

If you have any other questions, please let us know!

Dolly and Llama Llama