Chicken Tractor for the Laying Hens...

We've been busy building things this spring.  The latest is a chicken tractor for the laying hens.  In case you don't know what a chicken tractor is, it is a movable chicken coop or pen.  This allows the hens to have more room to forage for bugs, grass, and weeds without turning them completely free-range where they might eat up all the garden plants.  They also tend to roost and poo on everything we don't want them to around here when we let them free range.  Oh and they think 5 acres isn't enough and they take off for the neighbor's property who also have chickens.  We can't have them fraternizing with the neighbor chickens so contained they must stay!

This chicken tractor cost us $10 or less to build.  We used all recycled, upcycled, salvaged materials  (whatever you want to call it)!  The only thing we bought for this project were 4 hasp closures to secure the doors from predators and high wind issues.  As soon as the weather warms up and dries out some we'd like to paint it a classic red with white trim.  

  

We've decided to add another set of wheels on the other end as well to make it easier to move....because well I am still learning to build things light and movable.  This thing is HEAVY and it takes at least 2 people to get it moved to a new section of grass each day.

I would like to add a window to let natural light in, so far I haven't found any plexi-glass or small windows but I will keep an eye out and when I find something suitable I will be cutting a hole for some light in no time!

In this next picture, you can see the custom creep feeder that Tobers and I built together.  We needed a creep feeder to discourage the hens from wasting feed by scraping it out onto the ground.  We drilled large feeder holes for them to peck into, but not large enough to let the hens waste the feed out on the ground.  It works great, and it holds a lot of feed too which is nice.

I like that the feeder is mounted on the door for easy feed refills.  We used heavy duty door hinges and they seem to handle the weight fine.  We also hung the waterer from the underside of the coop floor so that when the coop moved we don't have to worry about the waterer being tipped over.  Also by hanging it, the waterer always stays level even when it is on sloped ground.

The hens seem to like it in the coop, but they have not been using the roost.  The only thing I can figure is they don't have enough head room on the roost.  So I am going to change the roost height to just about 6" above the floor and that should make it easier to get onto the roost as well as give them more head room once on the roost.  Sometimes there are a lot of tweaks and changes even after you think you are done with a project.

In the next picture you can see the recycled plywood for the lower door has some graffiti on it.  The house that we salvaged this from was supposedly a druggy hangout.  Mr Wonderful snagged all these cool building materials for me when he did a house demolition.  I am always thankful for free building materials because the supplies sure add up when building with new materials.  The downside to using salvaged materials is you have to work around the unique aspects of your supplies.  Damage or holes, warped boards, and other things can make it a challenge to have a nice looking finished product.  

The narrow upper door is the access to the nest box and above the nest box is a shelf inside to store empty egg cartons, plug ins, and a light fixture for winter supplemental light.

A hen looking up from the ground level into the coop.  We need to install a ladder here for them to walk in instead of hopping and fluttering in.

Eggs in the nest box.

More happy hens.

That is the tour of the chicken tractor project.  I can't wait to see it all painted up pretty in red and white, surrounded by lush green grass.   I will enjoy seeing that out the kitchen window while I do dishes I think.

We've also been working on a larger design for the meat birds we plan to raise this year.  Hoping to share that project with you soon!

Kitchen...A Frugal Overhaul

When we looked at this home we knew the cabinets needed some freshening up.  We planned to paint and possibly change up the hardware and add some smoother drawer slides.  I was excited about a quickie makeover for once, after such an extensive kitchen remodel at our last house.  We finally got the keys to the house and we did the first walk through after the previous owners things were out.  I remember being discouraged because everyone that saw the cabinets were pretty much grossed out, myself included.  

There were spills inside and of all kinda of mystery stains, the cabinets were in much worse condition than I remembered, I realized they were hollow core cheap press board doors instead of more solid ones that could be painted.  It became apparent we needed new cabinets.  Not to mention we had to do something about the really scary range hood and the dingy wall paper.  Yikes!  

It was all a little much at first.  Also there was a peninsula cabinet up high that I really didn't care for, it blocked the view into the open living area and I have always disliked those type of cabinets.  The first thing we did was tear out that cabinet, mostly so we'd never have a chance to miss the storage it would have provided!   We didn't even wait long enough to take a before picture of that thing.

We priced new stock cabinets and counter tops at Home Depot and figured it was going to cost approximately $2,800 if we did everything ourselves (installation and demo of old kitchen)   We had just moved in, we couldn't really afford that much so soon after scraping up the largest down payment we possibly could.  Since it wasn't an emergency we couldn't justify taking it out of the emergency fund.  Although it did feel a little like an emergency to be honest.

Why I originally thought a simple coat or three of paint would fix it I am not sure.  I actually think it was God that softened all the "eye sores" for us so we'd go ahead and purchase it and not get bogged down with the little stuff.  He knew we needed this place, he also knew we'd get bogged down with worry and get stuck in it if he didn't soften some of those things until after we'd moved in.  Once we moved in and had fallen in love with the place and saw all the potential right in front of us it was easier to jump in and fix what needed done.  That is our theory.  Looking at this picture I am thinking God must have blindfolded me completely to have walked willingly into that mess.   It is a really good thing I have the ability to imagine how it could look with some TLC.

Tobers grins for the camera with a cordless drill in hand just waiting on the next demolition order of business.

Told you is was gross!  Spud Man is in charge of demo...just happens to be right up his alley of expertise.

Sunshine helps remove staples from the wall where the trim boards were attached.  Demo is such a messy job but we knew it would be worth it in the end.  The counter section she is kneeling on we left as long as we could to maintain water in the kitchen as long as possible.  Don't you just love the wallpaper?  Pft, yuck huh?

We decided to not put any of our kitchen things in the old cabinets and set up a temporary kitchen area in the small dining area next to the kitchen.  We left only the sink base cabinet so we could still do dishes and get water.  Everything else we gutted.

We slowly worked on what we could afford to.  We took off the wallpaper seam trim and primed the wallpaper (the wallpaper was factory applied over 3/" sheetrock so we opted to leave it and prime it well then we added tape and texture along the seams.  We textured with an orange peel finish, did another primer coat, then we painted a nice neutral light beige color.

My Dad had some basic birch cabinets that he had salvaged from an old school demolition that he offered us.  We went and measured them and determined we would be able to make them fit.  Granted it would take a lot of work, creativity, and tedious retrofitting to get a workable kitchen.  We are so grateful for this resource as it did save us about $2,000!  The trade-off was, we'd spend the next 4+ months working on getting them retrofitted, refinished, and installed.  The progress has been slow but satisfying.

Here are the cabinets before we started retrofitting them.  In an off-topic note, you can see in the foreground of the picture we are drying some morel mushrooms from a recent camping trip in the mountains.  Yum!

I really like that these cabinets had another life before arriving here in my kitchen.  The likely history is that these cabinets were built by prisoners for the schools.  They are made of high quality thick veneer over pieced solid wood, what little plywood there is, is high quality.  These are solid and well built.  They stripped down easily mostly because of the smooth profile.  They sanded nice and smooth and they took stain beautifully.

We are also very grateful that my parents helped pay a portion of the cost of the new countertops.  We only had to come up with an additional $100.  So overall we have only put about $500 into this kitchen remodel.  We used our sweat equity of time, skill, and patience.

There are things we still need to do, we need to enclose the new standard range hood to look more custom (this is not shown in the photos, we've made some progress since these pics were taken), we need new flooring, and to finish it all off we need some trims and finishing touches to make it look more custom and less utilitarian.  Trim does a lot to add character for not much money.

Ways we kept costs way down:

#1 Not letting emotion get us in a hurry.

#2 Being patient with the process of doing it the harder, but cheaper way.

#3 Being content with the idea that it doesn't and won't ever look like a showroom.

#4 Embracing the idea of re-purposed items and being creative with your materials to make things functional.

#5 Losing the sense of entitlement, thinking "I deserve this because I've worked hard."  You only get it if you have the cash to pay for it.

#6 If at all possible, don't move certain fixtures that would be expensive to move....sinks because of plumbing, and stoves because of electrical and gas plumbing issues as well.  Moving these items a few inches or even 1 ft either way might not cause any issues but major rearranging of the kitchen layout adds up fast.

This isn't really a before and after post.  It is more of a before and in progress post.  We think this improved kitchen will serve our family well for years to come until we can one day build our own custom home.  We figure all of these projects serve as a very good practice for our future dream home.

We have a few drawer fronts to install under the sink area as well as to the left of the stove.

The new flexible track lighting.  Oh and see that nice looong section of countertop?  We love that area, it is where some serious sandwiches can be built, or dozens of cookies made, or pie crusts rolled out.   Then with the raised bar right there the kids can sit and visit with me or help me while I prepare something.  Or when company comes over it is fun to prepare dinner while chatting.  It is the best part about the whole kitchen!

I hope you enjoyed the tour of our so far progress in our kitchen.  I look forward to many projects around this place. Thankfully, we enjoy a good before and after enough to keep plodding away at projects as we can afford to dive into more.

Keep watching for another update, with some more trim work and finishing touches, we have a ways to go but we are optimistic that maybe this summer we can get a few steps farther.

Dreams Come True...

I can't believe I am finally able to say this....we bought acreage!

So much went into our purchase of this place. This has been the culmination of 15 years of dreams, successes, patience, frustration, work, and the Lord's continued blessings.  We had a few potential purchases fall through for various reasons in the past couple years and it was frustrating, but in hindsight I am so glad they didn't work out.  What we have here is so much better in so many ways.  God is so good to us!

Let me take you back in the journey just a bit and tell you what we were looking for.  We were looking for acreage anywhere from 2-20 acres.  It really depended so much on what it had to offer as far as terrain, water availability  and layout.  We wanted usable land, not something too steep or too rocky to use.  We wanted a home with a nice layout, but we expected a fixer-up because that was going to be highly likely because of our budget.  Plus, we don't mind a challenge, we wanted a diamond in the rough that we could make our own.  Fertile soil was important because we wanted to be able to grow things, water rights were a very definitely a plus.  Water rights are hard to come by in our area and when a place with water rights can be found it is expensive (many times it put a place $100,000 out of our budget range) so we had to stay flexible on this item!  We wanted to be in the country, but not so far that the fuel to get to and from town would be too expensive.  Speaking of expensive....we had a max budget of $200,000 the further under that number the better.  To say there are VERY few places in this range in our area would be an understatement....most had some very big issues that would have been hard to work around.

So with that criteria in mind this is what we ended up with.  Five beautiful acres that are gently rolling with deep fertile soil.  A small, comfortable home that needs some work and character, but is efficient and well built.  Let me clarify a little....the structure is well built, it features 2x6 exterior walls and it is well insulated.  Other things like fixtures and wear surfaces are not so much (typical of a manufactured home of this era), but at least those are easy to upgrade and fix in time as needed.   There is a 22x50 covered carport/hay shed pole structure (an unfinished shop) that has an insulated roof but no walls yet.  The former owners didn't finish it, but that is fine, we get to finish it how we'd like to.  There is another small shed for storage with an attached shelter area for animals.  The best part?  The property has water rights with the irrigation system all set up already!

Here are some pictures of the property the weekend we moved in, enjoy the tour.

Back yard area with our little chicken coop already moved and situated.  Everything needed a good mowing and the hay field was more than ready to be cut when we moved in.

Looking northeast, the backside of the property which is a hay field. 

Standing under the carport/hayshed area (soon to be the shop) looking toward the white shed/animal shelter. 

Standing in backyard looking at east end and back of home which faces north.

Front of home faces slightly southeast. 

As you can see we have a lot of work to do, landscaping, painting, updating, character to add, and customization to do.  We feel like we found the very best place for the money....we paid less than we were going to pay for another place a year before we found this place.  We managed to stay well under our max budget as well.  This was mainly due to the fact that it was a hard to finance property because it wasn't on a typical foundation, but we had the ability to work around this financing issue, and to have the foundation certified by an engineer, our excellent credit score and down payment amount played a part in this as well.  

We feel so blessed to have found just the right piece of property for our family.  One day we hope to be able to build a new home on this place, but we have a few kids to get through college first.  We'd like to pay the place off and build the home ourselves with cash (that is a ways down the road, for now, we are making it feel like our home and enjoying it.)

We have already done some improvements to the place and I hope to post that progression as well.  In the coming posts I will show you before pictures of the inside, specifically the kitchen, that will be interesting.  Did I say interesting? I think I meant to say a little disgusting....I'll let you be the judge.

February Photo Challenge

Ok first this is a just for fun picture. I should warn you, I don't have any photo editing programs that are worth anything so I played with black and white but that was about as exciting as it gets around here. I really liked that the texture of the barbed wire showed up.

Ok on to the February photo challenge. I completely enjoyed this challenge but I was totally stumped on the last one and ended up just skipping it. I know slacker right?

So here we go, on with the photo challenge....

Something ending in ...ing "Shooting"

This is my oldest son shooting a .22 rifle. I love that his eyelashes are in focus and nearly nothing else is. I probably should have cropped this but you get the idea.

Something Dangerous...."Gun Fire"

This picture was so much fun to take, trying different angles, and every second the fire changed so I got a different look each time. This picture was taken through the campfire flames of the guns resting against a nearby burned stump. It was fun to play.

Stripes

This was all I could come up with for stripes, just road striping close up. I love texture and unexpected things.

Road Sign

I love the angle of this one, the blue sky and the deer crossing sign was a fun one to play with. I also love that while I was trying to get just the right shot, my son was right next to me trying the same thing with his new camera he got on his b-day. It was just a fun memory for us.

The one I wasn't able to conquer was the "numbers" challenge item. It was much harder than I thought it would be. All the pictures I took of numbers were so utilitarian and boring I just couldn't put them on here.

My Forest Friends...

I'd like to share with you today about my cute little forest friends. We have a special relationship, really we do. I'll tell you about it but you have to promise not to laugh at me. Deal? Ok here we go....

We were camping near Anthony Lakes in our big wall tent with the nice warm woodstove. Thankfully we brought the stove because even in mid summer it gets really cold at night up there! Anyway we were all sleeping that first night we were camping and I was awoke by something. The strange part was I could feel something had went across my face, whatever it was had claws or scratchy something because I could still feel the sting that something had been on my face!

When the realization that something had been on my face and actually made a sensation that stayed with me even after I woke up was quite scary. Thoughts of giant spiders or cougar claws started to come to surface. What? Don't laugh, nothing is rational in the middle of the night with just canvas between you and the night!

My first reaction was to wake Mr Wonderful up. He stirred, but I could tell he wasn't fully awake. "Honey! You awake?" All I got was a mumble mumble noise from him. "Honey! Something just ran across my face!" I said. He wokes a little more "What?" "Yes, something ran across my face!" Then I heart it. I said "Shhh, do you hear that?" He says "No, what?" "It's still in here!!!" I could hear it scurrying around the tent on the tarp floor! He said "Must have been a chipmunk".

I heard it jump on Munchkin's cot and run around her sleeping bag, then she started to squirm in her sleep.....(I think it went into her sleeping bag for a bit) then I heard it plop back onto the tent floor! Mind your our dog is sound asleep in the tent during all of this. Lazy dog, supposed to be protecting us.

Anyway, I begged Mr Wonderful to save the day, I mean night, and get it. He replies "What am I going to do, shoot it in the tent? It will be fine just leave it alone." I can't believe he just said that! "What? I can't sleep knowing something could shimmy in my sleeping bag or claw my eyes out at night! Not to mention the children!" I thought to myself how I was sure he'd feel differently if he had had his face ran across instead of me. Just as I was prepared to remind him of his duty to protect his family, the noises were gone. The chipmunk had left the tent.

My Forest Enemy

Would you believe I have two stories about assaults from chipmunks? I can hardly believe it myself.

It was my first hunting season shortly after Mr. Wonderful and I were married. I was completely new to hunting. Not only had I walked what felt like a million miles that day, but I had to carry this really heavy gun. It just didn't feel comfortable any way I held it. I tried carrying it by the sling but Mr Wonderful said I wouldn't be ready to shoot if we saw one, plus it dug into my shoulder anyway. I tried switching hands but pretty soon both arms felt 2" longer than normal from carrying that darn gun. I was ready for a rest but I didn't want to stop hunting either. So Mr Wonderful decided I should rest under this huge tree in a clearing. He would loop around the surrounding area and see if he could push some elk out into the opening for me. How chivalrous.

There I was, sitting under this big tree, minding my own business when I hear a very angry chipmunk chattering overhead! Great, now he is telling all his forest friends including the elk I am here under this tree. For quite a while this went on and I could hear that chipmunk climbing around in the tree overhead and little pieces of bark would flitter down from the upper branches. The chipmunk was getting lower in the tree and lower and finally it came out onto a branch just above me and chattered loudly for me to leave his domain. I was not going to be bossed around by some chipmunk. We actually had an exchange of angry words let me tell you! It was a verbal fight.

As a new hunter I knew I was supposed to stay put so I wouldn't end up lost.....like a small child I obeyed. I just tried to ignore the forest siren telling on my location every time it chattered it's warnings at me.

I don't think the chipmunk could relate to my desire to not get lost. He was angry as ever and not backing down in the fight! Then I felt it, the wet drops showering down onto me, into my hair, and on my coat. That chipmunk peed on me! I could not believe this had happened to me. I felt so assaulted! Then you will never guess.....he pooped on me too! Several times in the matter of a minute!

By this time I am trying to find the little sucker in the tree with my rifle scope but of course he is buried in thick branches and I can never get my cross hairs on him.....which makes him a very lucky chipmunk I might add.

Needless to say there never were any elk that came withing view of me.....one because of the siren in the tree I am sure and two if there had been any elk I am pretty sure I was busy aiming the rifle in the tree and never would have seen them anyway!

Oh course when I told my horrific story of chipmunk assault and his warfare tactics to Mr. Wonderful he laughed so hard he had tears in his eyes. When we got back to camp he told everyone all about it. To this day he still tells my story all the time!

Well I have declared war against these little guys. What? They started it not me!

How To Get Kids to Help...

If you really want kids to help sometimes you just have to let them use their toys to do the job!

Amazing what you can get the kids to do when you let them use their toys! We get all kinds of help with yard work and gardening thanks to the thrill of hauling anything in a Tonka dumptruck!

Then there is this beauty.....well I wouldn't call it a beauty but it is rough, tough, and industrial for a reason.

This wagon is built from a great kit we found in the Northern Tool Catalog. This wagon makes it so easy to get the kids to help with things like hauling firewood, hauling animal feed from the car to the feed storage, toting around yard plants for spring planting, we've even use it as a way to move heavy appliances, and so much more.

The other cool part is how much fun they have with it, they love this wagon. It goes pretty fast and it is QUIET, I couldn't stand how loud the old fashioned red wagons were when you tried to take the kids for a walk in it.....oh and the handle is nice and long for adults too.

We have went through about 3 wagons before finally settling on the idea we needed something tougher than the typical red wagon could hold up to. This one has an 800lb load capacity and I don't think it is going anywhere. The cost of the wagon kit at about $70 has been far outweighed by the many uses we have found for this workhorse of a toy!

So there is one of our tricks to getting kids into helping more. Oh and the other trick is they don't have a choice if they help or not.:)

A New Direction For This Blog...and our kitten adventures.

No time like the present to dive back in, right? I am rusty at blogging so hopefully with time I will find my style and develop vision of this blog as I go along.

Oh My! It has been a while since I last blogged. It was fun to look over all the pictures I had featured on this blog and revisit some memories I documented here. I can't believe how much the kids have grown! With that in mind, I want to blog more in the coming year. In a sense it will be a way to create an online keepsake of our family happenings to look back on as well as a platform to share with family and friends.

I figured I could start with the most memorable story from the recent months (ongoing memorable, trust me!). I hope you enjoy this little glimpse of what we've been dealing with for the last few months! Here it goes...

~Kitten Adventures~

We had been wanting to get another kitten pretty badly for over a year. We had been seriously looking for a particular type of kitten starting in about May of this last year. We really love cats with extra toes and we also love calico cats we hoped by some miracle we could find one with both traits. Also we enjoy manx cats with the bobbed tails, they tend to have interesting personalities. We were prepared to have to settle for just one of the 3 traits we wanted either extra toes, calico color or the manx breed. We had been keeping a look out and getting the word out that we were wanting to adopt a kitten with one of these qualities. We didn't go into this lightly and wanted to make sure to get at least one of the qualities we were looking for.

A friend had told us about these kittens she got with the extra toes and gave me the name of the gal who had them. She said she might have another batch by now we could see about. So I called the gal and she had a calico kitten just a couple weeks old and she had extra toes and was a manx! Oh my we felt like we hit the kitten JACKPOT, she had all 3 of the qualities we were looking for! We were so excited. We asked the gal when she would be ready to adopt and she said in another 2 weeks. So I told her we'd call back when it got closer but that we were pretty sure we'd like this kitten.

We called back a couple weeks later asking if the kitten was ready for her new home or if she needed a little more time to be weaned or ready to come home with us that week. She hymned and hawed for a while and asked me if we were used to baby kittens? Well yes, we've raised a lot of kittens so I was really not sure what she meant aside from them whining at night or needing to have their food softened a little or something. I said I was sure we'd be fine caring for it (she said it was 6 weeks old so there should have been no problems in theory). She had asked if I could find a home for another kitten with extra toes as well, because she was getting ready to be on a trip. I agreed we probably could place the other kitten easily since I knew of other people wanting the extra toed kittens. We have two other cats with extra toes and people are always asking where to find a kitten like that.

We arranged to meet at a local McDonalds because she lived a ways out of town and so did we in the opposite direction. She was on her way to work after the drop-off so it worked out well. *Prepare yourself a little before you scroll down and see the picture.

This is what we were greeted with when she took them out of her car....(there just aren't words for the shock we experienced when we saw our little kitty for the first time!)

I wanted to throw up, cry, yell at the lady, and reject them! We shed quite a few tears on the way home that day. We felt so cheated and let down after all the waiting and excitement and fun of anticipating the new arrival it was a sobering experience to say the least! I felt so sorry for these two little kittens I couldn't handle thinking they'd go back home with her and it wasn't even an option because she was headed to work next, she couldn't keep them with her either. We HAD to take these kittens and save their lives, we just had to!

They smelled soooo bad! They had poop-balls hanging from their backsides, canned catfood caked all over their bodies and one had really goopy eyes. I have NEVER seen anything like this. For the life of me I could not figure out why anyone would bring kittens to their new owners looking like this! The kids couldn't even touch them they smelled so bad. I was seriously afraid they'd catch some serious "cooties" by handling them. I cried the whole time we cleaned them up.

While we were getting them cleaned up and noticed some bald spots but we thought maybe the canned catfood being caked on so long had made the hair fall out. We fed them about an hour after we gave them baths with the canned food she had sent home with us. First of all they climbed into the bowl of food and got it all over each other and were frantically eating like they were starving. Poor babies. We realized quickly how they had gotten so dirty the way they ate! We also think the food was too rich for their little systems, as they had constant diarrhea. We switched them to some softened kitten chow and things went much smoother. Here is the calico kitten cleaned up and taking a nice long nap! Can you see her extra toes?

Before long we realized the bald spots were growing, the goopy eyes were worse and the sneezing was a problem. We took the worst one to the vet and figured we could treat the other one too. So the orange one we took in and he was diagnosed with a respitory infection (FURS), worms, ringworm (mange basically), and fleas. Poor kitty. We came home with antibiotics, ringworm meds, and wormer (they weren't old enough for flea treatments yet).

We treated them both, but before long we realized the orange one wasn't going to make it. So we had to have that one put down.:( The kids were so sad! The calico one was stronger and less affected by all the ailments. She responded well to treatment and improved over time.

Here she is a little bigger in a custom hammock the kids made her.

Here she is snuggled up with our dog, Maggie.

Weeks went by, the kitten's ringworm cleared up and we thought things were finally smooth sailing! Only then we realized we all were coming down with ringworm! Uh oh! Weeks after we were first exposed. So we began treating it as directed and just when we thought everyone was cleared up we'd find a new spot! It has been a very long process. You have to treat it for 2-4 weeks CONSITENTLY before it clears up! I should have bought stock in Lotrimin company we used so much.

The worst part is we went on a trip with some friends of ours. We thought before we had it all cleared up and just days before we left it came back on one of the kids! Then their child caught it too! Talk about embarrassing! So this little kitty has quiet the story so far...hence the ongoing memorable part!

Soon after the weather started to turn cold she started getting her "big girl" fur coat in. She turned almost completely grey! She went from completely calico to almost completely mottled grey!

This kitten has had more surprises for us than we ever expected! Her coat eventually grew in and returned to her former darker calico colors.

Here she is today much healthier and happier! Her name is Betsy.

Welcome to the family Betsy!

Update....

So much has been going on lately it is hard to condense it all so I won't even try. We are all doing well and enjoying the unpredictable weather of spring. It is beautiful and ever changing.

We are gearing up for some great things ahead. Our church family is growing and we will be helping out for our visiting evangelist coming in a week. Then we are also helping to kick off a Financial Peace University course, that features Dave Ramsey's teachings. That should take up much of our time but be a very rewarding experience! We can't wait, we have learned so much from his information and find ourselves in a much better position than before we found his teachings.

I won't try to go back and fill you in on the last year because I know I will forget most of it. So we will focus on the future and present happenings instead. Hopefully I will get back to update soon. This week we are cleaning and doing all kinds of repairs and finishing touches to prepare our house to be listed for sale......we are hoping to place an offer on a larger place out of town very soon. If that offer is accepted we will be trying to sell our home. It will be bitter sweet but we are READY to move out of town!