The First Year

Yesterday marked our official 1st year anniversary of moving to our 'forever farm'. There have been a lot of learning curves as well as some great moments that have happened so far. Below is my abbreviated list of things, good and bad, I've learned from living in the country.

1. Dust. It's everywhere. The outside of the windows, the inside of the windows, the inside of my car and we won't even talk about my car exterior. One of our neighbors warned me about the dust and there's nothing that she could do about it. I didn't believe her and I was wrong.

2. Speaking of dust, the traffic on our gravel road is crazy! It's not just that there is a lot of traffic, which there is. Passenger vehicles and large semis drive down our road going at least 50-60 mph. Incredibly dangerous since there is an uncontrolled intersection next to our house. It is a large fear that I will witness an accident there.

3. Snow is the devil. This past winter was a rough one without a way to move snow. Luckily we've added a tractor to the mix which will help dramatically. Mark would actually go out with the snow blower. Great if we lived in town but not so much with a descent amount of drive.

4. Buying 5-6 acres has been commitment for sure. Especially when the previous owner was 90-some years old and hadn't done any regular maintenance in quite a few years. Mark and I have gotten frustrated at times because there just isn't enough time in the day to do all the projects we'd like. We have to keep reminding ourselves that getting this amount of land and buildings 'pretty' is going to take quite a few years. Fixing 15 years (or more) of neglect isn't going to happen overnight. There's current a deck being built where the brush is in the picture below. More to come when it's finished!

5. Someday I will have a normal shower in the bathroom instead of the basement. I've lived 1 year without one so it's not the end of the world but in the middle of winter it gets a little chilly :)

6. Well water is tough on your clothes and appliances. More than 1 article of clothing has been ruined because of rusty water. Friends would ask how the water was on the clothes but I didn't notice anything until about 6 months in. I've found something to use to help but haven't tried it yet. Our washing machine is all stained inside due to the rust. We've been researching whole house water treatment systems to help with this issue.

Part of the aftermath of a party

7. Family/friends. We are incredibly lucky to now live close to our family and some of the best friends we could ask for. Yes we made friends in McCallsburg and I do miss them but there's something about reuniting with those old friends and getting together like nothing has changed. Our parents enjoy us living closer for sure and I do too. Saturday morning trips to see my mom for tea and sometimes breakfast for the kids has been something that I look forward too! We love having people over to visit. Our house has hosted more gatherings the past year than the previous 7 years at the old house (kid birthday parties excluded) and we can't wait for more.

8. The peace and quiet (minus the crazy cars driving by) is refreshing! More than once we've had a naked child running outside or as my son tells us, he pooped outside a couple times (we still have yet to find proof of that). Sitting outside and just watching the world go by is very calming. Our house it at the top of a hill in the area so we get a great view. Neighbors previously that were a tad crazy and by crazy I mean lots of yelling at dogs, herds of grandchildren living with grandparents, the older children that refuse to move away from home and like to have parties, trying to pull a hitch out of their truck with a long chain attached to a tree and last but not least, having the sheriff show up to arrest the boyfriend of the neighbors wife, kicking out the cops window and the ambulance showing up for pepper spray use. We lived on the wrong side of the railroad tracks for sure.

Hi George!

9. More space. The extra space is great but also a curse at the same time. Just as I suspected it's a lot harder to keep up with cleaning double the square footage. The messes in our old house looks much smaller now so in turn I don't clean quite as often. When I do though, it's harder to get out from under it.Organization still gets to be an issue as I'm still going through moving boxes very slowly.

The spare room is still a disaster!

10. Our vision of things to come at the new house is exciting! We have a beautiful property to clean up and make our own. The 1st stage of our deck and barn fencing is coming along nicely. The problem with a vision is time and money. All we can do is slowly keep chugging along and chip away at what we're planning on being our forever home. 

It's never too early to start chores

We are incredibly happy with the first year and can't wait to see what the future holds. There will be road blocks ahead I'm sure but in the long run it's all about working hard to complete our vision. It will take time but then again the world wasn't made in a summer.

Angel Wings

It's been a long approximate year for my family, immediate and extended. There have been many times that I started writing something for the people close to me that have lost their earthly life in the last year. Each time I only get a sentence or two in when the eyes start filling with tears. Today I face those feelings and finish what was started....I hope.

I always hear that death tends to come in threes. Hopefully that means I've had my fill and will have a long break. Even my kids have had more experience with death recently than they should. There were a lot of interesting (and honestly very cute) conversations in the car with my little people about heaven, angels, the use of cemeteries/heaven and the possibility of care bears up in the sky as well.

4 people and 1 special dog have went to a place where they can keep tabs on all the people that mean a lot to them as well as reunite with those that passed before them. Each of those people held a special place in my family. My Aunt Deloris, friend Joy, my Grandma Marj and Mark's Grandpa DeWayne and of course I can't forget our dog of 15 years, Miss Caroline.

Aunt Deloris and Grandma Marj were sisters. My dad's side of the family was always a tad unconventional in what I called family members. To this day I really have to think about the actual relation with people..hopefully I get this right. 'Cousins' are what I call my dads cousins and Deloris was actually my dads aunt, my Great Aunt. Hard to follow I know :) Pretty sure it's still hard for Mark to fully grasp all of it and sometimes I still get confused. Long story short my dad was raised as a brother to Aunt Deloris. Amazing lady who I still remember loved to garage sale. If it was a good deal, it was coming home with her. I spent time in her basement when I was younger with what I think (?!?) are my 2nd cousins playing video games or swimming in their backyard (children of my dads cousins). Ugh...I still get so confused. That pretty lady died just over a year ago and my funniest memory was of her and my Grandma sitting in the backseat of my parents car. They were headed to my brothers wedding in Colorado and my parents thought it was a great idea for Deloris to come along and keep Grandma company during the long drive. What my parents didn't take into consideration was how.much.they.talk. Hearing my mom tell the story still makes me giggle. Those ladies could talk for hours every day on the phone so being able to talk in person was great for them!

(I will try to find the perfect picture for this tonight. I know I have it...just have to find it still in the moving boxes!)

Joy is a dear, dear friend of mine whose life was taken incredibly too early. We hadn't had a long friendship and it was a match that some people called unconventional at first. We were very different people but our friendship blossomed very quickly while attending Iowa Central Community College together. We had known each other for a few years through 4-H but it was only in passing. Oddly enough her 2 best friends in high school were close friends of mine but our paths still didn't cross. Our close friends had gone off to other colleges and we latched onto each other quickly as a best friend. While both attending Iowa State our friendship was still there but we went our separate ways to 'find another side of us' or whatever college kids do. After graduation we kept in touch but we got even closer when Joy moved to Story City. Once again we lived close so we picked up right where we left off! It was at this point that Joy became the glue to a foursome that will forever have a large piece of my heart. Joy, Julie, Emily and I always got together during holidays when everyone was home. There was no way we weren't going to see each other if Joy had anything to say about it. We had always talked about having girls trips and never had the chance to do one. In Joy's honor Emily, Julie and I got together in Minneapolis this past weekend to plan our big trip. The toast during dinner and the feeling of her sitting as the 4th person at our table has stuck with me this past week. This past year has brought the 3 of us much closer together than I thought possible and Joy is the reason behind that.

Dear Grandma Marj, so many things I could say about her. She was incredibly feisty. Always made sure to have ice cream, brownies or cake, cookies, candy and Diet Pepsi in small cans on hand at all times for people who would visit. It was your own fault if you ever left her house hungry because she would force feed you. Grandma would always ask what she could bring to a family function. While we told her to only bring her chicken and noodles, it never failed that she'd bring an angel food cake, some fruit and banana and/or zucchini bread with her as well. The last time she was at our house was when she dropped off a meal to feed 20 people when moving into our house. It ended up raining so I waited around until Grandma showed up and we ate together instead. She was always worried about us and would call to check in on us and the kids! "Sorry to bother you, I know you're busy" is how she always started her calls. Most Grandmas were the homemaker type but not her. Yes she would cook but baking and sewing (other than crochet) weren't her specialty. She was running the farm and working outside instead.

Grandpa DeWayne is someone I didn't get to know as well as my own grandparents obviously. To me he was always the strong, silent one in the room. While I never got to know him well, Mark thought the world revolved around his Grandpa. He was always telling stories of fishing in the pond or riding the 4-wheeler around the farm. Long before we were engaged Mark was excited to take me to the farm for the 1st time and drive down to the river on the 4-wheeler.Like most older men he didn't hold Lane or Evy right away. I'll never forget the 1st time DeWayne picked Lane up, put him on his lap and started feeding him M&Ms. We all looked at each other and then started taking pictures quickly before the moment passed.

Last but not least is Miss Caroline. Mark and I got her from my brother when we first moved in together. Cost us a case of beer since she was one of the last puppies left from the litter. She was incredibly loyal and loving towards humans (not so much other animals) but unfortunately her old age got the best of her. Caroline went blind a couple years ago and started having seizures in the couple months before she died. Once and awhile the kids and I go out to 'pet' her and leave a treat on the ground next to her. Lane made me take a flower out of my flower pot and put in next to her!

The regrets of when someone dies are hard to let go. Whether is be the text you should have answered right away, trip to see them even if it wasn't convenient at the time or just making time for that lesson on how to make chicken and noodles just right. I know that I'm not the only one with these types of feelings. All I can do is to try and live my life according to their expectations. That's one reason why our girls weekends will be done on a regular basis (extravagant or local), why I promise to make perfect chicken and noodles by trial/error and why putting the extra miles on my car isn't something I think about any longer.