Last night Scarlett and I were out taking stock of the property since most of the snow disappeared with the warm temperatures yesterday and I stopped in my tracks and beckoned my ear for a better listen, it was a Red-Winged Black Bird! Every year there is always the conversation about how spring must be close if the Red-Winged Blackbird is back!
Apparently the Redwing Blackbirds were a little late getting to our place!
Luckily spring is just around the corner and I cannot wait, the weather is going to be nice so I can get started on everything I want to do with the garden, the chicken coop, the barn… the list goes on and on! I felt like I was ready to go and had everything in order to start all of this year’s projects but now that the time is here I’m having “Oh crap!” moments and realizing I might be a little less prepared then I thought.
I love getting to change from my bulky winter boots to these darling rubber boots in spring!
When we were in the coop last night I was doing some measuring for some nesting boxes and setting up a nice spot for the girls to roost instead of on top of the feed container where they hang out now. We then went into the main area of the barn and I saw our cute wooden ladder that we use to get into the haymow sitting on the floor and remembered that I wanted to get some brackets to mount it to the posts in the barn so it won’t be in our walking path anymore and I started to get that overwhelmed feeling creeping up. I have a tendency to be a little impatient and when I get an idea in my head I want to do it NOW! Partner that with some recently manifested anxiety and I was getting way in over my head before the season truly even started! I had to make myself pause and stop my mind from racing ahead of itself.
My TRUE sign of spring! When my mom’s horse starts shedding it means we’re getting close to spring. When my horse starts shedding, it means spring is here!
Last year when I was trying to get everything done for the season I made a monthly to do list instead of having one big, “Get it ALL done list.” This really helped me visually break it down and plan for each weekend which is when we do our larger projects around here since we work during the week and it really helped! It not only helped me plan but also helped my husband because he knew what I wanted to do in the upcoming days so we could chat about it and get a clear picture of what he needed to do that weekend as well for his business and make it all run smoothly.
I am definitely a need to write everything down kind of person!
I of course want to get everything going on our property that I enjoy, the garden, making the chicken coop cute AND functional but I am trying to get myself to slow down and enjoy the process. The process is never-ending, there is always going to be something that needs to be done or something that I want done so I’m trying to enjoy it because, as they say, getting there is half the fun!
I was petrified of moving, I had never moved an entire house before and just the thought of it stirred up an irrational fear in me. When Coby and I moved in together all I had to move was my bedroom in my parents house, not too crazy. Now, ten years later we were moving an entire house, horses, chickens, equipment to sustain an acreage and an adorable 11 month old baby and all of her paraphernalia as well. I was panicked!
Packing Like a Pro
I like to fancy myself somewhat of a minimalist, I had always told Coby that every five years we should pretend we’re moving and get rid of junk. Well, pretending to move and actually moving I found out are two very different things. It really made me examine why I was keeping stuff and do some intense Marie Kondo’ing and get rid of items I was holding onto for illegitimate reasons.
We started packing early and in each room we had everything completely boxed, labeled and put in a pile so once we had family and friends show up we made a human chain and started passing the boxes! I know we have all been in the situation where we have showed up to help someone move and all of their stuff is arranged like it’s any other day, NOO! This makes it miserable for everyone not to mention unorganized for the mover because people just start throwing things in boxes, there’s no rhyme or reason as to where it goes. We were adamant that we would be prepared for our helpers.
Enjoying our last breakfast in the house in what was left of the living room.
Luckily, my work office had just moved buildings about six months prior. Our county had bought a different building in town and our small building consisting of four offices and the food pantry were switching locations. One of the ladies has moved numerous times and had the genius idea of color coding everything. Each office had it’s own dedicated color of duct tape that they sealed their boxes with. It worked like a charm! Every piece of equipment in my office was bedazzled with a piece of red duct tape. At our new building we labeled each door in the corresponding color. The movers were great and hopefully appreciated our resourcefulness.
I decided to try this approach in our move as well, I color coded and labeled everything to a ridiculous degree and hung a coordinating sign in each room as well. I may have gotten a little ribbing from our help about not knowing which room was the living room BUT I was only asked where something went maybe five times the whole day!
Moving Day for the House
We do have a pick up and many of our friends and family do as well but that still equals a lot of trips. While there can be some draw backs to having an over the road truck driver for a husband there are some pretty good points to it as well. Coby borrowed a dry van trailer (the most common enclosed trailer you see driving down the highway) from the company he hauls for and we were able to get the entire house packed in the trailer in 2.5 hours!
Our own “Moving” truck!
Moving Everything Else
I have to admit that Coby did a lot of the outside stuff on his own as time permitted. The manager of the acreage we had rented from told us to take as much time as we needed to get stuff out, we moved the 1st of December and our contract technically ended on the 18th so we were focused to have everything done by then. Coby borrowed my Dad’s dump trailer and moved the entire shed in one trip, including the chickens in their little chicken house! We borrowed a livestock trailer from our good family friends to move the boys, our horses. This was sadly my greatest source of stress. I bought my horse Chocolate when I was in the fifth grade, he was my baby before I had a baby. He doesn’t like the trailer, not sure why but he can be an idiot when it comes to trailering. A few days after we had moved the house and built a makeshift holding pen we picked up the trailer and went to the local pub and grub for lunch before getting the boys and Coby bought me a beer so I would calm down! It must have worked because Chocolate loaded like a dream! We put hay in the trailer so my mom’s horse practically ran in there. Chocolate took a few steps in and slowly backed out but was still calm. Within ten minutes he was loaded and we took off. I was so worried he would be thrashing around in there but when we got to the new house he almost looked bummed that he had to get out. I wanted to make it a very positive experience and let him leisurely walk out and start munching on the little slivers of grass. We say that this place must be meant to be due to him traveling so well!
Great Move = Great Beginnings
Keep moving fun, it’s the start of a great adventure!
Our moving day was actually great, it was fun with our family and close friends helping us start our life in our forever home. We would take turns watching Scarlett as we needed a break and tried to make it fun for her so she wasn’t upset with the change, she didn’t seem to care at all. The only problems we had is that we are missing a weight for the weight machine, not sure how that happened. Also, my Grandma had made large, framed family trees for her and my Grandpa and the glass on my Grandpa’s broke. This was actually a blessing because it made me realize how faded the names were as grandma had wrote them in pencil so I am going to trace over her handwriting with an archival quality pen. All together, including lunch that my mom supplied in crock pots our move took 9 hours tops, it was fantastic, I hope yours goes just as smooth!
Pearls, Ponies, & Pacifiers 