I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world. (George Washington)

We made it. We finally made it. And just before the cold winds and snow started to blow. Home. The sweetest four letters in the world.
We went from this:

Our lovely apartment living/dining/everything else room 

To this:

Kate enjoying wifi in our new living room.

Please note the crappy ersatz Christmas "tree" in the corner. By the time we moved in all the tree lots were gone. I suppose we could have gone off with the chain saw and cut down some wild pine tree at night when no one was looking but I don't want to get off on the wrong foot with the neighbors. Also just tromping 350 feet down to the mailbox every day is exhausting! And I have to get on boots, a coat and gloves just to do it! Maybe I can train one of the dogs to fetch the mail and paper (and make me a nice cappuchino while he's at it). No wait that's what I have Tom for.

Anyway, here are the rest of the interior pix:

View from kitchen into dining/living room.

Kitchen (yay finally got the counter top)

Den/office

Master bedroom

Family room in basement

Queen bedroom basement (aka the jungle room)

 

smaller basement bedroom

Basement area where you don't get to look

After big snow, the view from the upper acres towards front property.

The money shot. That's why we moved here. It was beautiful up there. We have seen many eagles, some as close as Otterville Rd. Yes, the drive to anywhere is long, but I like being out here. It's peaceful. We have met so many interesting folks. Many, like our plumber who gardens (so big he needs a tractor) on the side. He has promised to introduce us a guy who starts tomato plants for the truck farms around here. Apparently he is into heritage varieties. And the appraiser who is doing vermiculture (worm composting to you regular people out there). And our builder who hunts and processes his venison. Many of the men even do their own canning! Tom refuses, says it women's work. I'll give him a pass if he ever gets that pizza/bread oven going.

We are hoping to get started on the "farm" this spring but know it to be a long row to hoe (if I may use a farm term). I will keep this blog going as we document how we start a small organic farm. As always, we welcome visitors. You can even stay overnight in your own suite of rooms complete with Dish network TV and DVR! And you know we love to cook. 

In other news: Kate is off to Brussels for 10 days. Then she is looking at an intership this summer with the USDA at Land Between the Lakes, Ky. After that the big plan is to get accepted at a field school for Marine studies in the Turks and Caicos for fall semester. Hello Keith Richards! (He owns a compound there).

Joe just finished his first semester in grad school and did pretty damn good. Maybe soon we can call him "Master" Joe Owen.

Wishing everyone a great 2011. It has to be better than 2010, right? An annus horribilis if ever I saw one.

Patience is not my Strong Suit

Well here it is Dec. 10 and we are not yet in the new house. In fact we just got some upsetting news this week that got worse today.
It seems the kitchen counters were improperly measured by the computer (yep, when in doubt people like to blame technology). But as we all know its GIGO (garbage in garbage out, it's always human error, stupid). Anyway, the replacement counters were going to be delivered in a few days, so we thought, sure we can live with out a dishwasher and sink and counter for a day or two- no sweat we'll eat out a lot! Then today we get a call from Quint, it seems K & D cannot get the new counters in until Dec. 21st. Tom went ape-shit and got right into his old "dealing with vendors mode" (ah, those old management skills never die). The upshot is they are going to put in a sink with 6 feet of generic counter until ours can get done. So Mike and Rach- we can still host you and make meals and kids: don't worry, there will be sustenance and water. The counters BTW are gorgeous (a small section next to the stove was installed).

Here is the finished front.

Yes, there is a sea of mud. We will be buying tons of grass seed this spring. Hopefully, my Master Gardener training will kick in. I just completed my 60 hours volunteer work and got my official badge. But I digress...

Side (south) view.

I'd show you inside shots but since it is a mess with no furniture and, oh right,

NO FLIPPIN' COUNTERS!... what's the point? We move the storage stuff in tomorrow and on Tuesday Dec. 14, we move the apartment stuff. The Pod gets delivered on the 17th. Just in time for Christmas. Every time I will open a box up, it will seem like Santa brought me something. The saddest thing is I won't be able to make cookies or nutroll (the mind is willing but the body is weak).

Rear view.

See, I said there was a party deck. Sea of mud in back too.

Oh, the other crisis was placement of mailbox and existence of our address. It seems because we were a field of soy (not dreams) a few years ago, the post office says we do not exist (yet). I want to make some sort of existential comment here, but I just can't think of anything witty. Maybe Tom and I live in some sort of alt-verse, or in a hiccup in the space/time continuum. Yeah, I sort of like that explanation. We reached a compromise with mailbox placement by promising to build a small turnaround off the drive.

Once we get the place looking habitable, I will post pictures of the inside. It really does look good.

So Happy Hanukah, Merry Christmas, Krazy Kwanzaa and my favorite: a joyous Festivus (Dec. 23) to you all and to all a good night.