Snake in the Coop

Well hey ya'll! It has been so long since I've written a post that I seriously had to click around a little bit on the ol' blogger home page to remind myself how to actually begin a post.  Apparently blogger has been updated in the last year.

I had such a great day today.  At one point during my day I had an lol moment, to myself, (imagine that) and I thought ohhh you should make a blog post tonight.  So, tada!!  My Spring break kicks off tomorrow, so it's the perfect time to unwind and tell a story.

Ahhhh...a break. I so need one.  I came home at the end of the day and just plopped down on the bed for 2.5 seconds before I had to get up again.  

We finally found land.  Eeek!!  Accidentally, stumbled upon this little gem.  It is considerably less acreage than what we originally set out to buy.  We looked at a tract on the same road twice in one day, and on the second trip we decided that we didn't like that one..

So after leaving that property I saw a for sale sign on the way out, and made Kyle turn around to go back and check it out.  I looked through my stack of listing print outs in my hand, but it wasn't in my search.  We parked outside the gate and walked up the long, winding driveway.  I stood at the top of the hill..looked around..couldn't believe my eyeballs..opened my mouth and said "this is it".  

I may have said that a few times while standing there.  I was so excited.  I had only said "this is it" one other time.  This spot is less than a mile from my other "this is it" place, so in a way I secretly had my heart set on that general area anyway.

(I got this shiny new gate for Christmas)

Kyle was ready to call our agent right then.  I was like wellll let's wait a minute. Let's look it up in my system at work and make sure it's legit.  So, we did..it was about 2 acres less than our minimum.  We were looking at tracts 5-50 acres..this one turned out to be 3.5.  So, I wanted to sleep on it..or stay up all night thinking about it..however you want to call it.  Think about it was basically all I did.  It was the only thing I could think about. 

I looked into it further, drove out there a few more times...I was so wishy washy because I was afraid I would regret not holding out for more land.  One weekend I printed 57 listings for of all of the areas we love, and decided that after we look at them, we will drive back out to this place and if we love it over all the other places, then we will make an offer.  

We left early in the morning.  Drove around to three different counties and even into another state, but none of them made my little heart skip a beat.  So, we went back out to the last one, one more time....and called the agent before we left.  

The next morning we signed the paperwork to make our offer official.  Eeeeek!!  And then it was rejected.  Three times.  We decided to give up...we had a set limit that we were not willing to go over so that was it. I wasn't going to get my little dream piece of land in the middle of the forest.

  A week or so later it was eating me up inside.  I couldn't stand it.  Having worked in the real estate field for over 20 years I already knew our last offer was more than it should have been..this guy must have thought a lot of his property because he was asking entirely too much for it. 

Somehow I convinced myself.. and then my husband to make one more..just one more offer - and that will really be the last offer.  And if he rejects it again, well then whatever..he's an idiot.  I justified our last offer because all of the utilities were already on site..which is rare for vacant land and it would be money we wouldn't have to worry about spending later on down the road...well, that plus I reallly wanted it.

I'm basically stubborn...if I really want something I don't give up that easily. 

So, another call to our agent.  I wasn't holding my breath.  The next day he called me at work.  Our offer was accepted!!  Yassss!!  My mouth dropped open. I couldn't believe it. Our agent couldn't believe it.  It is prefect you guys..and even though it's less acreage than I intended to buy we still have plenty of room to be able to do all of the things we planned to do with it from the start of our search.  It's wonderful, I love it, and it's mine.

We took our Great Dane out over the weekend and he loved it as much as we do.  

Moving on to my story....  Oh my gosh ya'll...so at the end of Summer last year Trey went to gather eggs...a few minutes later he ran inside and said "snake in the coop"!!  

Snake in the what??!!

This is my snake in the coop, face.  In case you were wondering.

He wasn't kidding.  He went back outside..with my phone and selfie stick (haha) and then came in to show me this.  All this meant for me was 1.  My egg collecting days are over, unless it's Winter. I'm not kidding.  and 2.  I died.  

There was a snake in my coop.  A big snake.  A big, HUGE snake that got in my coop from we still don't know where..or when...or how.  

Current situation is I'm making the same face pictured above, you just can't see me.

Trey is the snake wrangler.  I'm semi-proud/sometimes concerned that he's an adrenaline junky and is not afraid of anything, but do I wish he wouldn't man handle snakes in front of me.  

I basically died again.

  Ya'll..our nesting boxes are so high that little ol' 5'5" me has to stand on the bottom ledge of the fence to even see inside the nesting boxes...so ok..when the snake finally decided to exit the box...his head was already touching the ground and slithering away before his tail was even out of the box.  

I'm still making the face and I may have just died again.  I seriously can't even.

There you have it.  I died a thousand deaths..in one day.  And then again just now 3 more times.   I was thinking of this story today and it made me laugh.  1.  Because I'm moving to the woods..where snakes live.  How many times can one person die?  and 2.  Well, isn't number 1 enough? 

A friend at school was telling me that he saw a snake over the weekend, so obviously it's on my mind..

Every time I go in the coop or the run I cringe thinking a snake is watching me and is going to jump out and eat me alive...then I would die..again. But for real this time.

  

I just want my girls to be happy and safe and not have to worry about sharing their space with intruders.  My girls are proud of their eggs...just ask my neighbors..because they announce it to the world every time they lay one..and they definitely don't want to share them with sneaky slitheries.  Is that even a word?

Thanks for stopping by to read my ramblings.  I hope your weekend is as cool as you are!!

xo,

Carrie

Whatever Floats your Goat..

For someone that typically has a whole lot to say I definitely struggle lately with starting a new post.  It turns into a whole lot of staring at a blank page, shutting down the entire computer, then starting it back up ten minutes later because I have finally thought of something clever to write, only to end up staring at a blank page again..  But at least I can talk about my busy minded blank pages and actually use it as a good intro.  See what I did there?  That..is clever. Right?!

Can I just take a minute or two to talk about how adulting can be overrated, and how frustrating it is when you know what you want and you can't have it? Or in my case, can't find it.  I'm talking about my future farm.  About a month or so ago we finally found the one and only place that I have actually fallen in love with throughout the entire journey of our twoish year search.  I think we looked at 12 properties that day, and this was the last one because it was the furthest away.

A lot of properties we look at don't even warrant us getting out of the car.  It's frustrating how deceptive the Real Estate agents are with their photos.

This property was in a different town about an hour away from where we live now.  A rural farming community with a population of a little less than 4,000. As I stood there at the highest point of the property, I felt it.  This was it.  This was the one I've been waiting for.  I could envision exactly where I wanted my little Craftsman Farmhouse to be built.  I imagined my entire family coming over for Sunday dinner and me finally having enough room for all of them in one place. I loved the idea of the kids exploring our new place together. I couldn't wait to find out how magical it would be to watch the sun set for the first time. In my head I was already planning my first camping trip for after the closing just so I could sit in my chair all cozied up by a fire, filled with anticipation to watch the sun set and be awake in time to watch it rise again.  You guys know how much I love my sun rises and sun sets.  <3

As we walked the property nothing could wipe the smile off my face, or the warmth and joy I had in my heart.  On the way home we talked about all the places where we could put the chicken coop, and where to eventually build a barn/shop.  We talked about needing to build a lean-to right away to shelter what little equipment we already have.  I was so excited talking about where my garden and clothesline would go.  Not to mention expand my chicken family..I'm dying for a Lavender Orpington.  I am even open to eventually raising a few meat birds and harvesting them ourselves.  Gulp!  Trey talked about his tree stand, and Kyle couldn't wait to get a new tire for the M and get it out there with a bush hog to start cleaning it up.

Two days later we met with the lender at our bank.  A few more days later we found out that the land had restrictions. I think my mouth dropped to the floor and I had no words.  It was like the light in my heart was knocked out of me in an instant.  Who puts restrictions on a place in the middle of no where?  A place where literally your only neighbors on three sides of you are cows and behind you is a forest?  For the love of Nancy, I want cows for neighbors!!  This little gem, my dream come true..it was perfect, perfect, perfect....except it wasn't perfect for me..it wasn't perfect for the fact that they would not allow poultry, swine, sheep or goats.  Which is a deal breaker, because hellloo?!  We come as a package deal and this meant, no deal.

I cried my eyes out for a few days straight. The ugly cry for at least the first 24 hours.  My 16 year old consoled me while holding back his laughter because I was pretty much being an idiot grown baby adult crying about something I couldn't have.  And I swear if Kyle or Trey asked me one more time why I was crying, their light would have been knocked out too.  Really though, don't you hate it when you cry because you're crying because you knooow you're being an idiot?  Me too.

But seriously. Let's be real.  When you know what you want - you know what you want, and when you think you have finally found what you want, only to find out you really haven't found what you want, it does break your heart for a split second.

So, time marches on and we are back on the search again.  I'm still slightly recovering from my heart break so I haven't been obsessively looking every single day like before, only a few times a week. Although, I did find a fabulous place that was fabulous except for the house was the opposite of what we are looking for, which was pretty much an immediate no. Plus, I really really want to start from scratch and build it ourselves, so I'm easily turned off at finding something that already has a home on it, unless it's a cabin that we could live in while building.  But guys, this little house on the prairie came with a baby goat nursery. A. Baby. Goat. Nursery!  Talk about tugging at my maternal baby animal heartstrings.  Not to mention extremely dangerous for a gal like myself that could easily fall in love with baby goats to fill my baby goat nursery up with.   It also had a solar paneled chicken coop and the cutest little garden shed.  It was almost like it was meant to be mine.  Except it wasn't.  Annnd this is the story of my life lately. Ugh.  Heart. Breaker.  I could write a book, but for now this post will have to do.

Happy weekend, my friends!

xo
Carrie