Life on the Farm

We were very grateful our home sold in this current housing market, and even more grateful that Dad and Sherry opened their doors to us this summer!

SherDen Farm is such a beautiful, relaxing place!  Thanks for sharing your wonderful home with us!


Jack (the cat) supervising Dad and Skott hanging the bat box on the silo



Skott and Dad baling hay.



Daddy and his "Powermaster" tractor

Lindsey visited.  This is her mix puppy "Sasha"



This is a hilarious shot of "Big Boy" Roscoe buck



Lots of yummy goat milk and cheese curds courtesy of Solo and Blossom!  This is Dad and Solo.

I loved how this twin always kept her feet up on the rail when you fed her



Milo on the birdbath

Nia snoozin on my stomach one lazy afternoon

Taking the dogs on a "walk"

View of the farm across the valley

The sky was amazing that evening!



The old hay barn



Skott took a lot of great shots from inside the barns one afternoon



View of the farmhouse from inside the barn

The following photos are not photoshopped or anything.  Skott actually took them with his phone one morning after work.  This is looking out over the garden into the hay field.  Soooo pretty!

Back Online

We had one last family dinner together the Sunday prior to our move.  We went to Round Lake.  It was a gorgeous day!

Mason, Skott, Aundray, (Nic), Max

Carrie made the most delicious homemade chocolate and bacon cupcakes!  YUMMM!!!

Our move back west was challenging.... to say the least!  Our biggest hurdle was the fact that no one would rent to us without us viewing the property in person first.  Fair enough, but also extremely frustrating in that no one would "pre-approve" us before hand (run our credit, check references, etc) so that we would be ready to sign once we found something.

My Dad helped us load the truck on Monday.  Hard to believe everything we have easily fit into a 10'x20' storage unit:

Measuring to make sure its all going to fit into truck :)

We left early Tuesday morning.  I am so glad Skott had the skills to drive that huge truck and trailer!  He volunteered to take the dogs with him so I had the nice, quiet car all to myself!  Good thing! -he told me Fucie whined for the first couple hours.  Eventually, they settled down to this:

We drove from about 7am until 11:30pm.  We stayed in Billings, MT.  Ran through the sprinklers at the hotel trying to locate an outdoor outlet so we could plug our freezer in.... We were so exhausted!  Izzy was nervous and panted the ENTIRE night.  She was literally shaking the entire bed.  After a little sleep, we woke up and headed out.  Hit a lot of construction that afternoon around Yellowstone.  Made a quick stop in Jerome and visited "Mamma Jerri".  Then headed on to Glenns Ferry where we stopped and visited Skott's "Mom and Pop" and his Aunt Joyce.  Then on to Boise/Meridian for the night.  We stopped at Heidi's first.  Mom and Seth drove up from Utah, and Rachel and Josie were there also.  It was wonderful to see everyone and we really appreciate them all coming over, despite the late hour.  Got to hug and kiss my sweet niece Ayla.  I haven't seen her in over a year.  Wow! -what a difference.  She was so cute toddling around and kept trying to feed the dogs bits of food through the (closed) screen door.  Adorable. 

We left Heidi's to go sleep at Josies new place.  Wish we would have had more time to visit.  In fact, I should have just skipped sleep altogether that night thanks to more panting by Izzy.

We left Boise Thursday morning and continued on to Oregon, arriving late at night in Lincoln City.  The retarded desk clerk misdirected us and we ended up getting "stuck" in the lower lot with the truck and trailer because the ramps into the lot were too steep to get out and there were a couple vehicles blocking the way.  Finally managed to position the truck as to not block anyone and we collapsed into bed.  The next morning we went out to move the truck and got a lovely scolding by the day shift front desk lady.  Love it when you call ahead to make arrangements for things, are given wrong information, and still get yelled at because no one can communicate or pass down messages.  Ah well, we got it all straightened out amidst dealing with a gushing toenail from Izzy... she drags her back legs when she walks and she managed to snap off her toenail below the quick.  Luckily, a vet clinic was close by and we were able to get some styptic powder to stop the bleeding but not before she had made a giant mess of the bathroom floor.  Oh, and did I mention we were supposed to be out doing drive arounds with the rental people?  Yah....  it was a crazy morning.

The place we really wanted had just been rented out the day before.  We looked at a couple places in the morning, then the landlord had some other appointments so we went and got breakfast/lunch where we discovered we had ran over a nail somewhere so off to Les Schwab we went.  Thankfully, they got us in quickly and fixed it up for no charge.  After that we went back and looked at another place and decided it was the best of our options at the time.  It is a duplex townhouse, built in the 1970's, but very roomy!  We love the fact that we are only about 4 blocks to the beach. 

We FINALLY made it to the beach about 5pm!

We had to stay in the hotel all weekend until our credit check came back.  Late Monday afternoon we got the keys and started unloading the truck into the garage.  It took SO LONG to unload.  We were already a day over our allotment on the truck so we decided to just return it that night.  Oh, but before we could return it we went and picked up a washer and dryer we found on craigslist.  Then we headed to Salem, which is an hour away (but the nearest Penske drop-off).  Ate our first fast-food of the entire trip, and consequently, both got sick on the way home (when will we ever learn?), and got to bed around 2:30am.

Whew!

Life is good

We really are alive, despite limited cell phone service (one teensy little bar that allows for text messaging, at best) and no internet access (except the library or when I'm at work).
Life on SherDen Farm is wonderful!  I love all the animals and the peace and quiet.  The sunrises are to die for, the garden produce is delicious, and the company is accomodating and gracious.  It's all good!

We had a bit of a rough start at the farm -our frenchie attacked a kitten (in all fairness, the kitten WAS teasing her...) and in my gallant efforts to get the kitten out of her mouth, I, myself, became kitten and my poor fingers got crunched.  Luckily, Sherry was outside at the time and ran in to get Skott who came running out and had to use pressure points to get Izzy to release her jaw off my fingers.  For a dog with very little teeth, she managed to go all the way through my finger with her back nubs, plus the skin on top of my finger was all cut and ripped.  One trip to the ER, a $1,000+ medical bill, 3 trips to the vet (located 45 minutes away), an awful antibiotic reaction, and two weeks later, I am mostly all healed.  Poor Izzy -she has a prey drive that has landed her in two more scraps with cats...  This last time the cat got her pretty good and the last few times she has seen said cat, she hasn't tried to chase him anymore.

We are still hitting the job market with a few leads here and there.  Keeping fingers crossed!  My job at the hotel has been really hard lately as far as mean people go.  I'm ready for a biology job.  So ready.

Sorry I dont have any pictures to post.  I wish I did.  It is so pretty out here.
Hope all is well with everyone.  I apologize for my lack of contact, but know that we love you all !

Has it been almost a month?

Geez, I just realized it has been FOREVER since I've blogged.  I have a handful of unfinished ones saved, but it seems like blogging is the last thing on my mind lately...

Quick update:
We sold our home and we sign next week.  We tried and tried and tried to find a rental in Eau Claire that would 1.) rent short term and 2) accept pets.  No luck. I'm pretty sure I talked to every landlord in this entire county!  We decided that committing to a 1-yr lease completely negated the reason for us selling in the first place so we took Dad and Sherry up on their offer and we will be living at the peaceful SherDen Farm inbetween our moves.  I LOVE the farm and I am looking forward to spending time with Dad and Sherry.  I'm going to get some awesome audiobooks read, as this move increases my commute time by an hour.  Oh well, it will be worth it!

Dylan (Skott's 15 yr old son) came to visit for three weeks.  What an adjustment!  He is a good kid and we had a lot of fun with him!  He got a long really well with my nephew, Mason, so that was nice for him to have someone to hang out with while we were at work.  We went camping 2x while Dylan was here:  once to Door County and once to Nugget Lake.  We wanted to go back to Door County for the Fourth of July but they were all sold out.  Nugget Lake was still a blast!  Despite the heat and the fact that the campgroud ran out of ice (really?).

We are moving along packing although as the time draws nearer, the "to-do" list is growing faster than we can keep up.  Keeping with the Shaw moving tradition, we will be putting everything into storage on one of the hottest days of the summer. Seriously, it has either poured rain or snowed every one of our eight moves.  This will be the first time we have ever moved when 1.) It hasn't rained or snowed and 2.) Skott hasnt bought a gigantic package of Sharpie markers (he always thinks we're out despite the fact that we have at least 30 of them in the office).

I promise I will update more when all is settled.  The job search continues.  I have put out lots of apps.  Skott has been in contact with some old friends in Washington and I have been looking at Master's program and Research Assistant jobs.  **crossing fingers**

Have a great summer!

Family dinner

Family dinner was a Greek/Mediterranean theme this month.  Dad and Sherry brought pita and hummus, plus Dad brought some of his homemade cheese curds from their goat milk.  They were so good!!!  Justine brought a delicious spinach salad with feta and lots of good stuff on it. Carrie brought kalaskhlsdfskbdland  ????? none of us could pronounce it/and or remember how to spell it, but it was good!  We made some meat thing on kabobs (once again, the name leaves me) with a spicy yogurt sauce.  There were fresh fruit smoothies for dessert.

Luckily, the rain held off so the kids were all able to go play outside and several people were able to sit outside and eat.  Since everyone was so spread out, I didn't get many pictures. 

Sadly, this is the last family dinner we will host in this house :(  If all goes as planned, we will sign on the sale of the house July 20th.

The floral design Skott made in my smoothie

Skott handled all the food and dessert tasks.

Paco was a little freaked out by all the people

Carrie likes her smoothie!

Kenalee and Erika

Kenalee loving Erika

Justine

Sherry

They know who the softie is to beg from

Remember Me

Remember Me

Author: Unknown

Remember me when flowers bloom
Early in the spring
Remember me on sunny days
In the fun that summer brings

Remember me in the fall
As you walk through the leaves of gold
And in the wintertime - remember me
In the stories that are told

But most of all remember
Each day - right from the start
I will be forever near
For I live within your heart

Maple bacon + dark chocolate

For family dinner at Carries last month we were instructed to "bring something with bacon".
This is what we brought:

Maple bacon and Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies!

(yes, I realize the picture is sideways.  Blogger was flipping it every time)