Chapter Five: Home Again

The fun just never stops here.  We are currently in the final days of the building project.  Our house is ALMOST finished.  The floor is finished, carpet-wood-the whole nine yards…  Trim-done, doors-done, appliances-done.  We have even bought the closet poles and a few shelves for places like the pantry.  Those have to be put together, but easy enough, I say!

About the only thing that is left to do is the siding outside, which has been totally weather dependent, and the counter tops inside, which we are still waiting on to arrive.  Oh, and tile a shower- no big deal!  Other than that- DONE, SON! 

However, the drive way has been KINDA muddy.  All that snow we got this winter…  you know, the record setting levels, which of course had to happen the first winter I moved here…  well, all that has to melt.  And melting snow ironically enough, turns into water!  You know, I never really considered what would happen to snow when it melted…  I mean, I knew ice turned into water when it melted, but I just never really thought about the snow melting and causing the area to flood.  Call it a southern thing, I just never thought of it. 

The huge dirt piles that line the house from the basement being dug last September are keeping a lot of the water from moving onto greener pasture.  Keith, last weekend, got out a pump and a hose and started pumping all the water away from the house.  It was creeping concerning-ly close to the house…  well, not a creep.  It was a mad dash.  All it took was three good days of melting now and the snow is almost completely gone.  Even the mountains of snow that have been dumped in random parking lots is starting to fade.  I have to say though, Winter held on to the bitter end.  And when Winter went down, it went down hard. 

So, moving in to the house is a test in patience for me.  And that’s crazy, because how long had we waited for something like this to happen for us and how long have we waited for it to get finished?  And now I am concerned with a couple more days?  I’m anxious.  We all are.  The happy next step in our dream is just across the street, but the drive way is a good candidate for a mudding rally or something.  Don’t get any ideas though, they have been working on fixing it and I would rather we be able to get a truck up the driveway with all our stuff. 

Yesterday, we got all the fencing we would need to put up a temporary fence for our goats until we can get pasture established.  While I was at the farm store…  I found a goose!  So, I brought it home!  This little goose, who I have named Frenchy, is just about as cute as you can get.  I know some people might have their reservations about geese, but this thing has blown everything I thought I knew about geese straight out of the water.  She is snuggly, and when I sit down on the floor…  she jumps into my lap and snuggles in.  Adorable.  She does need a friend though, because she kind of freaks out when she is alone. 

I also ordered turkeys to be delivered in June.  We plan on raising these in the pasture with organic feed as needed.  Mostly pasture raised though.  Then come around Halloween, we will be taking all the ones we are not keeping to the butcher and breeding the ones that we don’t eat for next spring.  Turkey raising will be new for us.  We haven’t done this before. 

There is just an air of readiness and excitement in our home.  Especially with Spring having finally sprung, everyone is just ready to be out and doing something.  And one of the greatest reasons I love Spring, is because you get all the babies that come with it!  This year, plus all the chicks, ducklings, goat kids (I have to specify that), and whatever else comes along, we also have a people baby!  New Dude is growing so fast!  

I am so grateful for this opportunity, and everyone is working trying to get this going for us.  Keith’s parents really are the driving factors.  Without them, none of this would have happened.  So, I have been trying to come up with ways that I can show my gratitude beyond a “thank you” because that doesn’t seem like enough to me.  That just doesn’t express the way I really feel.  Maybe fresh pasture raised eggs, garden grown ripe tomatoes, turkey at Thanksgiving for until forever?  Maybe? 

Today I hope to start packing.  As of until now, the work has been living at another house and not always accessible.  I mean, we have work here, too, and with six kids…  you are never short of it.  But eventually it becomes normal and even…  dare I say it?...  easy, but no less busy.  Then you feel ready to add something else to the plate.  I think we are at that point.  Ready to move in and live in the midst of all the work that there is to do and move in: pack up here and unpack there.  Start making it less of a house and more of a home.  Hang up our family pictures.  Unpack my Fiestaware, put books on the shelves, put a houseplant in the window…  that’s how I know I am home.  When I can walk in the front door and feel complete.  Like everything that is dear to me in under this one roof. 

The great thaw has started, now let’s go home.  

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig!