Introductions

This year my husband and I saw one of our life goals come true. We moved into the country on a little over 5 acres. It has been a dream of ours to start a small scale farm the last four years. It's amazing how things can come together. We now have more space to roam as well as more than twice the house space we had before which is a lot when you are a family of five crawling all over each other. Our children are Tamarin 6, Lemur 4, and Howler 3 (names changed to fit the monkey theme). We are expecting girl number four in November, so stay tuned for that excitement. Yes, that's right, all girls. When my oldest was a toddler climbing on things we began calling her our monkey. The pet name has stuck and we refer to all of our kids as 'me monkey'... I dunno... I guess we wish we were pirates with rheses on our shoulders..... Hence the title 6 monkeys in the country, a little premature to be calling us 6, but I prefer to look at it as faith the new one will be just fine :) She's already keeping me up at night and causing grief for me so she counts.

Now the place we moved to sat vacant for about 5 years. It was not the worst reposession we had seen during our time looking for a new place, but it did need some work. For example, this gem:

HAD TO GO!

I mean really, there are deer, real ones, out that window everyday and the previous owner felt the need to have this plastered on the wall.....  All the flooring and plumbing had to be replaced. New coat of paint, everywhere, new appliances, new air conditioner, water heaters, some of the electrical lines, pretty much everything that could be replaced needed it. There were some broken windows, still a few windows that don't work, but at least they shut! Replaced all the light fixtures.... or working on that still... the plumbing fixtures too... Next year replacing the counter tops is on the agenda since we know a place we can get them cheap. They are chipped and missing bits, but are functional for now. Basically, we have our hands full for the next few years just in house projects, but it's worth it for that view!

 

There is a barn and a stable on the property as well. They are falling apart. We're hoping the fire department will do a controlled burn on the stable next spring since the roof is falling in. It'll probably be too dry to do it this fall. It's just one more thing for us to have to get onto our kids about right now, "No! You cannot go to the stable! It'll fall on your head!"

Our barn leans. It's pretty funny to look at, but it's still standing that's what counts. You can tell it used to be painted the traditional red and white, I think if I tried to paint it it would fall over like an old Laurel and Hardy movie. We are using it as our coop right now, the birds don't mind the leaning :)

 

Our perimeter fence is mangled and worthless. It doesn't keep anything in or out. I saw a mountain lion a couple miles down the road last night so that has jumped up the list of priorities now! Have to love country living! You can raise things to eat here, but you might end up a meal yourself.