The Ponderosa and Pete the Cat

The previous owners called this place The Ponderosa because of the magnificent ponderoasa pines surrounding the house.  I think we'll continue with the tradition.  The biggest trees are in the back, but the front trees are pretty impressive even after Mark took down two giant trees and some massive bushes.  You can see the logs from one tree in the picture above waiting to be relocated to the firewood pile.

Our house produces some pretty cool icicles, making the winter view out the windows very cool.

This was a beautiful sunrise that I woke up to through the master bedroom doors.

This was a sunset from the front yard.  The boys thought it was a fire in the sky.

The work continues here outside.  Mark just finished rehanging the gate to the backyard and installing an automatic gate opener and lock.

Mark has also done lots of tree clearing.  His goal is to rid the entire property of the nasty Russian Olive trees.  We have done several cleanups of the sticks and rocks from the field.  One day Timmy pulled a little toy wagon around the field all by himself and filled it with sticks and rocks and then dumped them in the dumpster,  I love that he wanted to work on his own accord.  That is him way out there cleaning the field.

It hasn't been all work outside.  We love that we live at the end of a circle.  The kids enjoy riding their bikes out on the street.  This is not something we could do at the old house.

When we bought this house we inherited a barn cat that came with the barn.  We have named him Pete.  He is a nice looking all black cat that showed up as a kitten and has been here for a few years.  At first he would run away the second he saw us and we wondered if he would ever be friendly.  After a little bit of patience from the boys and good food daily from them, Pete was friendly within about two weeks.  He loves us all now and enjoys being petted.  He sleeps and eats in the barn and spends his days roaming the place and we hope he's catching mice.  However, the only proof of his hunting abilities has come from the remains of little birdies rather than mice.

Brian and Timmy have been diligent about feeding him daily.  They trade off feeding him each week.  They are even putting on head lamps and feeding him on their own after dark if they didn't get it done before the sun went down.  I love the responsibility in gives them to take care of Pete and good training for future animals and pets.

Thanksgiving

This year Brian and Timmy did not make as many Thanksgiving crafts at school as they have in the past, but I love what they did bring home.  Brian's writing of the first Thanksgiving cracks me up.

At school, Brian wrote some things he was thankful for in Chinese.  He is thankful for mom, grandma, Timmy, everything, China, and America.

Timmy brought home this half colored paper from school one day.  At the bottom it says he is thankful for the new house, the cat and his family.

 This year Mark's parents were scheduled to leave on their mission after Thanksgiving, so we offered to host at our new house. Good food and a good time was had by all.

The kids took advantage of the nice weather and the large play area.

They found a neighbor friend way at the back of the property to chat with.

They were so cute exploring and playing together outside.  I'm not sure though how the two big kids convinced the smaller cousins to pull them around the field in the wagon.

I love Thanksgiving because I like the extra opportunity it gives me to be thankful!  I am blessed beyond anything I deserve.

November

The beginning of November was filled with packing up all of our stuff.  I still have no idea how we fit all of it on one floor of that house.  We moved into our new home on November 8th.  It went more quickly than expected because we had so much help from family and friends and the weather was beautiful!

Not only did I have to deal with all our junk, but the previous owners left a lot of theirs as well for me to sort through.  We're still finding more things the throw away tucked away in the outbuildings.  In the middle of packing and getting ready to move, Mark found as amazing deal on a nice piano.  He was smart enough to jump on it and moved it straight to the new house.  It was my Christmas present this year and I love love love it!

After we moved out all our stuff, I had the task of cleaning our old house and getting it ready for the new owners.

Luckily Timmy (actually my wonderful Mom) was able to help me on two different mornings.  I've never had that place so clean before.  We said our goodbyes to that wonderful house and closed on November 19th.

After closing on the old house, a great weight was lifted from our shoulders and we really were able to enjoy the new house to its fullest.  I love the pellet stove that I can light on cold mornings right next to the kitchen for a cozy breakfast.

The boys were overjoyed at the first snow of the season, and Mark and I got to watch their delight from the comfort of our warm bed.  I love our master bedroom and the view into the backyard.

Then we (Mark) got to work!

 
He started right away tackling this jungle of overgrown tangled trees and bushes in the front yard.

The boys enjoyed "helping" by riding on the tractor.

One day we celebrated something special (maybe it was closing on the old house, I'm not sure) by eating at Black Bear Diner.  Yum!

Immediately after moving in, our contractor friends started ripping out the basement in preparation for the apartment.


Since then they have been working steadily and it is almost done!  This has been the view in the backyard since we moved.  Contractor trucks, huge dumpsters, Timmy, and Cue Ball (our contractor's dog/wolf that has become Timmy's best friend).

We've made a gazillion trips to Home Depot with many more to come.

Most of November was actually very warm and the boys were able to mow the entire field.  I love not having waist high dead weeds out there.  Brian and Timmy were in heaven driving that tractor.

They also loved getting to work in the huge sand area out back.  This is the view from the master bedroom window.  I can't get over how much I love this place.

These little birdies right outside my kitchen window always make my day.

The end of November brought Thanksgiving, which deserves a post of its own.  We have so much to be thankful for!

Buying and Selling

My life feels like a dream for me right now.  It is a beautiful wonderful busy dream.  There is a moment every single day when I wonder how it happened that I am living here.  Maybe writing it all down will help me realize the reality of it all.

 Back in September we were happily living here.

We had been in our charming house with the amazing backyard for almost six years.  We loved it and knew we could stay there for a long long time.  However, we were needing to make a little decision about it.  You see, we had rented out our basement apartment for the entire time we had lived there, and our current renters were building a condo of their own and would be moving out at the end of the year.  Both Mark and I were feeling like we wanted more space than the upstairs of this house provided, so we were considering taking over the whole house and ending the tenant income we had come to enjoy.  But then we started thinking how nice renter income is and how much we enjoyed having someone else pay our mortgage.  It was a bit of a dilemma. We wanted more space and renter income at the same time.  So Mark started exploring real estate options.  We thought of buying something else to rent so we could use all of our house for our living space.  We looked at options in the neighborhood and thought about commercial real estate.  Then one day, September 23, 2014 to be exact, as Mark has often done in the past, he sent me a bunch of links to different properties.  This time he included some listings with horse property.  That got the wheels turning and the dreams coming and I just knew I was ready for some real animal property.  You can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl.

The last property link he sent me blew my mind and seemed so amazing and so much money that I dismissed it as impossible to be right for us and I went about my day.  That night when Mark got home from work, he casually brought up the last and amazing property he sent.  We sat in the study and looked at it on my computer. As we talked and talked about that property and the finances late into the night, my doubts about it melted away and the reality of making it work started to sink in.  It was perfect in every way.  I was falling in love with that place just looking at the pictures and talking about it's every detail.  Neither Mark nor I could sleep that night as our heads were full of the idea that it could actually be a possibility.  We knew we had to see that property and we had to see it as soon as possible.

The next morning Mark asked his realtor friend Johnny to set up a time for us to see it.  The show time was set for 5:00 p.m. that day.  After what seemed like a very long day we met at the house to check it out.  It was even better and bigger and more perfect for us than we had thought.  Not only was it perfect, but the owner was there to tell us that they were very motivated to sell and to give him any offer even a low one.  Once again we stayed up late into the night, maybe even all night, thinking and praying and talking and making sure this was what we should do.  The next morning Johnny submitted our offer, which was much less than asking price.  They didn't accept, but they didn't refuse either.  We went up a little bit and Johnny did some talking and the offer was accepted the next day, Friday September 26th.  Within three days we went from not even looking to move, to buying our dream house.

The pace of life got kicked up a notch at this point.  We needed to sell our house for all the finances to work out smoothly so our realtor scheduled a photographer for the next day.  The next day!  I had to stage my home and get it ready for photographs within a few hours.  I've never cleaned so fast and smashed so much stuff into our closets before.  As soon as the pictures were taken, I had to pull everything back out of the closets and start removing all of our stuff so anyone who wanted to see the house would not be crushed by items crashing down on top of them when they decided to open a closet door.  Luckily Mark's parents have plenty of space so we could temporarily store half our stuff there.  I'm also lucky that Mark was able and willing to take care of ALL the paperwork and financial side of buying and selling.  I took charge of the house and packing and the kids he did everything else.  We were also blessed through all of this that our parents were able and willing to loan us money until we sold our house.  It lessened the stress more than anything else could have.

My days were full of packing, organizing, cleaning, and the regular daily routine for the kids.  Mark's days were filled with work and trips to the bank and signing document after document and phone calls and then he would come home and we would talk and dream about our new house.  After two open houses and lots of showings, our house went under contract within three weeks of it being listed.  It worked out so well.  The buyers wanted to keep the renters and were happy about the property.  Here's some pictures of it then.

Buying the new house went smoothly as well thanks to both our parents.  We closed on the new house on Halloween, October 31, 2014.  Here are some pictures from the listing of the new house.  A lot has changed since we've moved in, but I want to remember what it looked like when we saw the place.