The new house

Hello again and greetings from a mostly unpacked and put-together Hazelnut House.  Having been here for a month now, we are settling in to our new surroundings.  The inside of the house has come together nicely - amazing what fun paint colors can do - but the outside is a bit overwhelming.  We don't have a lawn, but rather a field that's quite uneven, but still fun to play on.  Just be careful of your footing.  Little Sis has a hard time walking around on her little legs, but she'll only get bigger and stronger as time goes on.  There are vole/mole holes all around, as well as blackberry starts, those buggers.  I wanted to get some goats to control the blackberries AND get our own milk, but alas, I don't think that dream will come to pass for another year.  Because we have coyotes around, we would need a secure stable and fenced area for said goats, and seeing as we are trying to save money for a house, we don't want to put any unnecessary money into this one.  I still hope to have chickens eventually; we'll see if it happens.  Again, because of predatory animals, we need a good, secure place for the chickens.  I know we would love them if we had them.  I'm wondering if we need an outside cat or two to control for mice.  So far, no problem.  Thankfully our nearest neighbors have a very friendly dog who likes to come over and play with the kids, so we get our animal fix there.  I'm all about having outside pets, but no inside ones, thank you very much.  Having a gravel road and driveway along with a lack of a proper lawn makes it hard to control the dirt in the house, but been raised the way I was, I've come up with a good system and the kids are great about following it.  Thankfully we have a big-ish entry way, which is often has a dirty floor, but oh well.  If it stays there, I can deal with it.

We love the big, open feel of our house, with large windows facing east and west.  We've had almost daily beautiful sunrises, and the view of Mt. Hood is so pretty, if you're looking out the right window.  The kids found a great climbing tree before we even moved in, the trampoline is up, and the play structure will be soon.  I've started playing catch with the kids, which is really fun and cute. Their little hands can't quite get the mitts to close around the baseball, but they do their darndest.  And HH is hard at work in the yard everyday, trying to make some head way on a yard that was maintained by a 80-90 year old single man for ten years.  Yikes.  There was garbage strewn about the entire yard when we first moved in.  There is SO much work to be done, but it will be fun to do it bit by bit.  It's hard for me to find extra energy for anything like that, I'm so tired all the time.  But I can do an hour at most everyday and every little bit helps.

I am so, so thankful that rain has returned to us once again.  It has been such a dry, warm winter, the earth feels happy to be wet again.  Holy cow, we had some serious wind today!  The girls were so cute, running out to play in it.  Big Sis is much like me, or how I used to be, wanting to go outside and feel things.  Once upon a time before marriage and kids I got to go to Prince Edward Island for an ultimate girl adventure.  One morning while out on a walk on my own I stepped out onto the red rocks over-looking the ocean and the wind just blasted me.  I had to lean into it full tilt to not be swept away.  I hope I always remember that.  I felt alive and full and powerful yet very weak, if that makes any sense.  The wind today was quite exhilarating too, but not as romantic as being on red rock on Prince Edward Island over looking the ocean.  :)

By the way, living on an acre is so fun!  The kids played outside for hours on Friday.  Daily baths might need to become a thing here because they get so dirty.  When I go down into the neighborhoods and see the houses so close together, I don't know that I'll ever be able to go back.  When the time comes to buy a house, I hope we can find an acre or two of our own, and enough money to pay for it. :)

Have a great week!