SOLD!!!

Yesterday Dan & I closed on the sale of our Westerville house! Yea! We are very thankful that the Lord brought the right buyer at the right time. Although we would have liked to sell it before now, this is the time when we are really going to start doing things around the farm and the Lord knew that the whole time. The new owner, Erin, is so cute and sweet and nice and I'm thankful for that for my neighbors' sake. I told her she was getting the best neighbors as well.
Time for Dan to decide which tractor he wants to buy, time for me to decide about the size of the garden, time to build the chicken coop and buy those little chickies. I'm hoping my father-in-law might have some time to come up and help me get this garden going this spring. (hint hint)
Thank you to all my Family and Friends who have been praying with us about the sale of our house!

Our First Farm Auction

Saturday Abby and I went with our friends, the Mikulec's, to the Danville Auction. Held twice a month, it is owned and run by an Amish family. Abby got her first experience seeing the way they dress and act and there were plenty of horse drawn buggies to see. We weren't there for all of it, but the auction begins with tools and farm equipment, then straw and hay. Farmers wanting to sell, pull in with trailers loaded to the sky with square bales of straw or hay. Farmers needing some, come with empty trailers or truck beds. (that will be us very soon!) Then everyone can warm up because, it's into a building to bid on all the delicious (and fattening) home-made goodies - straight from the amish ladies' kitchens. Noodles, pies, cakes, cinnamon rolls (this is where I caved in...$1.25 for a plateful of huge rolls, slathered in creamy icing) and also farm fresh eggs. From lots of 4 dozen to 32 dozen. This seems to be the place where all the locals go on Sat. morning. Rows and rows of people, enjoying company and not being quiet for the auctioneer - it's not that kind of place. Slightly dark, lit only by gas lights, warm and fragrant from all the baked good and very chatty & cozy. Oh, I forgot to mention the home-made doughnuts (caved then too... It's called a cheat day, I believe). After all the baked goods are sold, most of the people head home to enjoy their good deals. The farmers in need of any animals stay and mosey on out to the barn. At auction on this day were, many hens & roosters, two half-grown turkeys, 5 or so bigger goats, a baby white goat and approx. 6 (cute) dwarf baby goats. Lots of rabbits and a crateful of beautiful doves. Next time, we might see some calves. We are eagerly awaiting the next auction and can't wait for Dan to go with us!

BUDDY JR.

Buddy is our outdoor (haha) cat. Our supposed Barn Cat. Buddy doesn't really seem to like being out in the cold and snow, so has spent 90% of his time in our basement. (he joined our farm family the end of Dec.) We would like for him to be upstairs with us, warm and cozy, but Buddy doesn't really enjoy Tuckers efforts to play with him - or whatever it is he wants to do with the cat. (it doesn't help that Tucker has been raised on "Get the Cat" and now we are confusing him by saying "Be Nice to the Cat". ) There seems to be a lot of growling, hissing and swatting when they share the same air. Anyway, Buddy Jr. has a reputation for catching, killing and apparently eating birds. We had high hopes that out here in the country, he would exchange his desire of 'fowl' for one of 'rodent'. Lucky for us, the weather has warmed up a bit, and he is spending more time outside. Of course, I have let the dog out twice when the cat was right there by the door. That had the same ending each time - CAT IN TREE. I don't worry about that though, as Dan the fireman says, "I've never seen a dead cat in a tree". Buddy Jr. was out yesterday for a while, and it was starting to rain so Abby went out to call Buddy. Yes, he comes like a dog when we call. As Abby saw Buddy running up to the deck, she excitedly came yelling and jumping into the house to tell me, "Buddy caught a mouse! Buddy caught a mouse!" (you can now understand the sort of thing that excites us these days!)

so blessed!

So here I am, and I really don't know what I'm doing with this thing - I named my whole site 'so blessed!' but was trying to name my first blog that - how well suited though! We are so truly blessed! I still can't believe we are here!
The snow is now melting, as we are having a "heat wave" of the high 40's. I loved having the 4-6" of snow on the ground though. Abby and I had so much fun going out and looking for tracks! We haven't seen any deer in our field yet, but found deer tracks in our backyard area. A few days ago we saw three wild turkeys moving across our backyard. They left the most interesting tracks as they were dragging their long, feathered tails through the snow. (Corey is probably thinking, why didn't we shoot them?) We see big bunny tracks next to several sets of small bunny tracks - so cute! Tucker likes to eat what they leave behind - not so cute!
I may not be getting to the gym very often, but I am still getting a workout, as our small house is best heated with the wood burner. Abby and I are always hauling wood and collecting sticks. I have found out I can split wood! well, some of the wood. Nothing will bring me back to earth about my strength and ablilites faster than when I slam that 8 pound maul into a piece of wood and feel the vibration of impact climbing up my arm to my shoulder! (That one goes in Dan's pile!) If I carefully choose the right size, shape and desity of the wood I want to split - I can do it. I'm getting better all the time, and I like it! It's probably a bit like the feeling Brad gets doing demo. It's a bit destructive....