Visitors

We hope to be able to have many people come up to our new "castle" and fill it with friendship and laughter in the future (especially once we have finished some remodeling) :)  And we were thrilled to start that last week with our friends the Roehrers.

The Roehrers are also interested in farming and sustainability, and were very excited for us and our newly acquired land. :)

Josiah loved showing the boys around the back acres.

One of our favorite things to show everybody is our big 'ole Oak Tree.

Josiah measured it and figured out that this massive oak has been around since before the Revolutionary War... (yes, I mean as in 1776... War for Independence) We are pretty proud of our Liberty Tree!

After our exertions outside, we all tumbled indoors for lunch.

Some people sat around and chatted, Josiah had a major audience upstairs looking at his rock and coin collections, with random bits of historic information mixed in.

Meanwhile Faith, Miss Megan, and I finished up with lunch prep for the hungry multitude.

After our satisfying repast, we again visited the great outdoors, this time to trudge all the way across the marsh and bog to our very back acre.

It was quite the mild day (mid-high 30s!!) so the snow on the ground was just right for creating snowmen...

And for snowball fights!!!

The war, with frozen objects instead of lead for missiles, was still in full swing when we made it back to the house. And those who wanted to dip into the intellectual and discuss the various aspects of farming (a warming subject in mid January) had to keep half an eye out for stray bits of shrapnel. :)

As did Miss Mary, who much preferred to use the snow to form peaceful little smiling men, than to lob it at her fellow human beings.  

The war, discussion, and sculpting all eventually came to an end, and our house soon was heated with many people (some sweating from their un-bloody battle). Laughter and conversation now competed for the air waves, as some of the younger groups started games in the lower level of the house, and the exchange of wisdom continued on in the upper level. 

The evening ended (as all days must) and our friends packed up to head homewards to their own farm, leaving behind a delightful day at our little "castle". (at least we thought so! :) )

~Chs

A Flexible New Year

Sometime (alright.. lots of times) life doesn't go quite as planned, but things are a lot easier to handle if you are as flexible as possible, and just go with the flow. 

That is what happened on New Years Eve, the last and hardest day of moving.  Usually, New Years Eve at the Sauve house is a fancy affair.  We pull out the best china, the crystal glasses, have a couple courses of the tastiest food, try to find a nice table cloth, add candles and decorations.. you get the picture.  Alright now, think about moving all day, the house is full of boxes and stuff everywhere. The table in the living room is just set there, not even put together properly... and the fancy china.... uhh in which of the many miscellaneous boxes did we put those!?!  

Thankfully we had thrown a nice big roast in the crockpot that morning.. so at least we would have something to eat... when we could get to it.

Everything took longer than we thought.  We didn't get back to the old house to pick up the rest of the chickens till 7:00 and we were so worn out that getting to it, took forever. Then there was the case of the missing rooster... (gonna have to ask for that story) 

Anyway, it wasn't until nearly 9:00 when we finally sat down (collapsed) at the table minus the tablecloth and decorations, minus the china and candles.. but hey! We did find the crystal glasses and the cider was a fine replacement for the sparkling cranberry apple juice we couldn't find.

The roast was very done. :) and the rolls that we had thought ahead and froze the week before and rewarmed, were decadent!

And despite our level of exhaustion, we managed to accomplish our goal of having a fire in our woodstove insert on New Years eve. Then we crawled into bed and fell fast asleep.

New year's day was bright and chilly. We had decided not to do too much unpacking, but to take the day to relax.

Josiah had to get everything set up in his room though - all the books on the shelf, and his deer rug on the floor.

We were planning on having our very first company in the new house that afternoon. But before everyone arrived Faith and I headed out front with Sadie Rose for a walk down our loooonnnggg driveway.  Sadie is super excited about our new property. She loves jumping around in the grasses and exploring.

We had stashed away lots of food just for this day, along with this gem we found at a garage sale... my "Cheese and Quackers" Ducky board. :)

Lots of yummy snacks.

And desserts!

Josh, Theresa, and Baby-Nephew, along with Mr. Reiche, and a little later Grace, all joined us for our munchy afternoon.

It was nice and cozy down by the fireplace, and it was wonderful to be able to sit down, relax, and just chat and enjoy the food and everyone's company.

Josiah had bought us a puzzle at Lehmans when he was down in Virginia, one that combined 2 of the things we have a lot (some would say too much) of.  Books... and Puzzles!!  We had decided to save this puzzle for New Years day, so it was pulled out and slowly worked on.

Baby entertained everybody... Smiley face.

Mr. Squishy!!!  :) He puts up with a lot..

Moby and Shine had come up with Grace, and Moby was a little jealous of all the attention the baby was getting.

You can't blame us.. look at that face!!

{Kitten.. she has us all wrapped around her little paw, even Mom and Dad}

Josiah, Josh, Faith and Mr. Reiche went on an exploratory trip out back, while some of us napped, and others worked on the puzzle.

"Squishy" took over Kitten's spot on Dad's lap, ready for a nap himself.  

It was a wonderful day of being able to take a deep breath in the middle of all of our hurry, and looking back at God's faithfulness, and forward in trust of His sovereign will and mercy.

~Chs

A Moving Story... Part 3

Wednesday might possibly have been the hardest day of our 3 days of moving. It was cold, blustery, and with a slight depressing overcast air about it. But it would have been much more difficult (or impossible) if it hadn't been for some wonderful new friends that came with their large trailers to help us move some of the last big stuff.

One of the items to be removed to the new property, was our "little" chicken coop. Well this "little" coop was built like a rock. The family joke was that "if a tornado came, we would abandon the house and go stay in the Chicken coop." :)

So moving it was going to be no small task.....

Even with straps, and big trucks and lots of strong guys.. it was still quite the effort. :)

But... Where there's a will.....

... There's a way.

Kitten and Sadie Rose hung out together inside. (on our super dirty carpet....)

Another family arrived with their trailer (which took one of Josiah's hoop houses... everything has to go! :) ) and were super useful grabbing all the extra items off the deck, and from the garage.

Once everything was loaded, all of our helpers along with all of us except for Mom and I, once again headed North.

Mother and I were left behind to clean up the building that we had called home for the past 7 years....

Leaving it looking oh so empty.  This house holds many, many, memories... mostly good ones, but some hard ones. 

Here at this house we first branched out into the world of farming. 

Our first batch of chickies ever, scratched around in the now shockingly bare garage. 

It was from this house that the first of the Sauve's left the nest to their own lives. 

Here, along the back path sheltered under our whispering pines, is buried our Baby dog, along with a few special chickens, ducks, and baby goats. 

In this house Grandpa Learned lived with us, and it was here that he passed from earth to glory.  

Yes... many memories... but they aren't held in the walls now bare of pictures, and the rooms empty of furniture only. They're imprinted on our hearts, and minds too.. so we're not leaving them behind entirely, we'll always have the memories, and now we have a chance to make a new set of them for the next 7 years (at least) in our new Castle!

~Chs

A Moving Story.... Part 2

Tuesday proved to me more than ever the blessings and care of God, and the amazing love and generosity of His people!!

When we went to bed on Saturday, as far as we knew we had a max of  7 people for sure helping us. That will be fine, we can manage, we said, it'll be good.

By Tuesday morning we had over a dozen people we were expecting, and as the morning wore on people kept on calling or just arriving.

In the end we had 21! people come and donate their time, muscles, energy, and vehicles. And that was on Tuesday alone!

While we did try to move a lot of the big outdoor stuff on Monday, we left most of the heavy appliances for when we had help. Hey, gotta make use of all that extra strength right? :)

Sometimes we had a bit of overkill... :D Or, maybe it takes 5-6 guys to move a Piano.. who am I to say??

Not to mention Couch sectionals! 

One thing about moving, is all the little odds and ends that you, being familiar with your surroundings, tend to completely miss!  The clock on the wall, the flowers, the knickknacks on the window sill, the Bible on the end of the couch.... Oh you mean those have to come too!?! :) Thankfully my awesome friend Nic and her amazing Mom were there to help us out and took charge of grabbing all those bits and pieces we overlooked!

Finally all the smaller vehicles (read everything but the U-haul) were packed, and we set off with a caravan north-wards. Josiah and a group of energetic young men were already at the new homestead unloading his trailer and truck load of wood, and we left another group of folks back at the old place to finish packing the U-haul.  Once our entourage of vans, mini-vans and other miscellaneous automobiles landed, it was all fast movement as we shuttled boxes from cars to the garage. With all the help, things were done quickly and efficiently and we were done in plenty of time for the big truck to arrive.

One wonderful thing about having large french doors, that just happen to have a deck off the back of them, is that you can back the U-haul truck right up to the deck, pull out the ramp and... 

... there you go! Right in the house! :)

And the advantage to a split level house is that there are shorter levels of stairs to take large objects down.

The disadvantage comes when you need to put these items on the lowest level, meaning a sharp turn to traverse before reaching the other short flight of stairs. :)

The U-haul was unloaded as fast as humanly possible, and a quick lunch was grabbed in shifts during the process. As soon as they could, a group ran back down with the U-haul to grab the big items that hadn't fit, before the time for returning the truck came.  Meanwhile up at the house, some serious cleaning went on... :)

We even unpacked a "few" boxes and tried to figure out where they went in the little kitchen. (those dishes have been moved at least twice by this point... :P )

After this I am afraid my photo documentation ceases. Thing just got too busy. The truck came back, we unloaded, Dad ran it down and returned it. Most of our helpers left, with many thanks from us, but a few overly dedicated ones (you know who you are!) stayed and helped us set up bunk beds, and chicken coops.

We had a quick dinner, and then gratefully said goodbye to that last group of friends, while we headed back home to pick up a load of poultry to put in the newly finished chicken coop.

Somehow, in the middle of it all, Josiah had managed to section off a part of the back room in the pole barn, which we had planned to use as a chicken coop.

It turned out very nice!!

The first flock of chickens arrived and were settled into their new home, then tired, exhausted, but happy we all crashed into our newly re-constructed, and re-located beds for a quick night's sleep, before heading back at it the next day.

.....to be finished. :)

~Chs