The journey so far

     So... what happened?  When we closed on our farm, April Fool’s Day 2015, I just knew I was going to be blogging about all our adventures getting the place set up, settled, situated, and such.  Where did all my good intentions go?  We still don’t have Internet set up.  It seems like there is always something that needs doing.  And once the hubbub of just moving in got sorted, there is the ongoing stuff that just keeps cropping up. 

     Like the tree, which was threatening to crush out little farmhouse, and wound up costing $1500 to take down.  Just to give you an idea, that man is over 6 feet tall.  Just as an aside, and no they’re not paying me to say this, if you are in East Texas, in the north part of the 903 area code, and you need a tree cut, call Cut-R-Down Tree Service.  They have a website and Facebook, too.  Brandon and Kim were lifesavers. 

     There have also been two floods in our area, although all around us people were getting flooded all summer.  Fortunately, our house was above the high-water line.  Our lower pasture was flooded, the fence came down, a few big branches, too.  If it had still been standing, that big tree would have come through our roof.  But there is a silver lining there, too. 

     Our beautiful old barn, that I fell in love with before the house even, has apparently got quite a number of leaks.  We went down to check it out after the second flood, and some of the boards were soaked black.  There were rivulets cut into the dirt floor where water had poured in through the roof in places.  Also, the high-water mark was a foot deep on the downhill side of the barn, which means if we had had livestock in it, they would have been soaked. 

     Upon further inspection, my husband has decided that only about 1/3 of the wood is salvageable and a good part of the siding metal can be saved.  But the barn is largely rotting and won’t be safe much longer.  The top floor is already unsafe and will probably collapse very soon. 

     Another development is, the antique table that was my Gramma’s, then my dad’s, now mine, got broken by the movers.  They claimed to have fixed it, but it broke at the beginning of December.  I was not happy.  At all.  We saved the pieces, and Pa Bell hopes to refurbish it for me into maybe two half-circle tables for the living room, like end tables.  But that’s down the road.  He wants to be certain before he does it, because he knows it’s very special to me. 

     

     In the meantime, I got a lovely farmhouse table and bench that he made for me from pictures I’d saved on Pinterest.  I LOVE IT!  He’s so amazing.

He finished both the table and matching bench just in time for Christmas Eve muffins! 

     We went back to Georgia for a week to visit family and friends quickly over the Thanksgiving holiday.  We had thought to stay longer, but Pa Bell’s back just couldn’t take the bed.  He needed to come home.  Kind of like me.  I need to get home.  I am up at the local coffee shop hijacking the Internet briefly.  One of my resolutions this year is to actually contribute to the blog on a semi-regular basis until we get Internet set up, and after we get Internet set up, I want to set aside a blog day at least once a week.  Until then, I’ll pop in at odd times when I come to town to download work. 

See y’all later!