First Signs of Spring

Flowering currant

I love to see the first signs of spring around the farm. This year, although it is very late, it is also a bittersweet feeling.

Chives getting ready to flower

Seeing things starting to bloom is a reminder of a budding future growing season and yet, we won't be here to see so many of the plants come to full bloom with our upcoming move. 

Perennial Pansies

And yet, here I am, sharing one of my loves with you. Seeing them bloom just can't be kept all to myself. I am taking pictures all around the farm so I will have a focus and drive for the next farm. Are yours blooming late too? What do you have in your yard?

Planning for Life on the Road

While we have been closing down the farm and packing things up, we keep thinking of things that we will need to take care of a whole lot differently living life on the road. Little things like mail. No big deal, right? You go down to the mailbox and grab you mail, recycle the stuff you don't want, read things you do and life goes on. We've already started by canceling a lot of  what most people might call junk mail (horse people call catalogs Christmas in ... name your month). A post office box is next in the line of business.

Finances. Deposits can be made online with the click of the camera phone. Transfers between banks with the click, click of the mouse. Most of the bills can be paid online and banking can be done anywhere these days. Sheesh, you can download your statement and never see another piece of paper again from the bank. I guess that was one of the easier things.

Other things we've taken for granted over the years include stockpiling. A term used by many coupon shoppers I guess, but we've been doing it since before it became cool and trendy. Hubby turned an old, un-used mud room into a big, wonderful walk in pantry for me (a Mother's Day present I still cherish to this day) where we got to stockpile items when they went on sale. By the way, our new home on wheels has a ton of storage for a camper. Stockpiling will not be completely eliminated but will be a little more of a challenge.

Schooling. Now we've almost exclusively home schooled our kids, but it's been with the help of video "tutors" as well as specialty classes. Life on the road seems to eliminate some of the fabulous classes we've had and at the same time opens an entire world of learning opportunities around every corner for the entire family. US History; hands on. We are going from home schooling to road schooling.

Most things we've got a pretty good grasp on alternative ideas but then there is Housekeeping. Hmmm. My biggest question for all those pro RV'ers out there...how do you vacuum and mop the floors? Do I pack up my new vacuum to go on the road with us? What about the vinyl flooring? I'm not going without, I do know that much, but really, how do you do it?

We are under no grand illusions that everything will be a cake walk. Heck, we know there will be days we'll want to walk out while the car is moving. We've got some special things we have planned for the boys on the road ... we'll share that another day.

Any of you camp? What are the must have items you take with you?

In Search of Greener Pastures

One of our reasons for the big trip is searching for the next "Willows Edge Farm" location. We've grown so much and done a lot and so well where we are here in Bothell and yet we have a strong desire to grow and add more in the food department. Particularly grass fed beef that actually tastes good.

me at my home in Seattle with the folks

We, well actually, I, would really like a little more warmth and a little less rain. I am a Seattle girl from the beginning. I was born at the little Group Health hospital and taken home at 10 days old (in a cardboard box, might I add) to our home in north Seattle. I truly am a Seattle native. And yet part of me has always loved the sun and despised the rain.
Yes, I know the rain is what gives the great Pacific Northwest such lush beauty and green pastures. I really do understand that in my head.

My heart (and my arthritic back) though, longs for a warmer locale. A place with big oak trees to sit under and sip some lemonade. A place that has rolling, dry pastures that go on and on. A place for the horses to run with big, long strides. A place to watch our children grow, play and learn. A big red barn. I love those old, big, red barns.

Don't know where it is yet. Thought we had found it a couple times, but it has been elusive so far. This time though, we feel the urge to press on and truly move forward, and take that leap of faith. Spend some real, dedicated, quality time searching for the greener pastures.

Scaling Down

Well, we are less than a month out from our move and are at the point of scaling down. The farm part had to be the first to scale back - what exactly do we have to keep and why.

Elsie Rose

We ended up deciding that we had to keep 2 horses ... Elsie Rose, who is my little princess. Right there almost with my oldest daughter. She was my first Fjord and although she has her little "horse moments", she is still one of the great horse loves of my life. And then there's Ole. While we've toyed with the thought and even put him up for sale, we really can't part with him. How can you replace a stallion of his quality and temperament for the price we did have on him? Between training, long hours and entry fees alone, it would cost double his pricetag. That doesn't even include trying to find the right bloodlines and purchase cost orginally. They are keepers.

While we truly love and adore the other mares, we could not justify trying to keep them all while we are on the road. They have found amazing homes and are going to do great things with their new owners.

We've also decided to keep most of the tack. We'll have a tack & yard sale to get rid of a few extras, but with horse gear continuously increasing in price, it really is not a bad idea to keep the great stuff.

Now for the house and the rest of the property though ... we've lived here for 15 years. Talk about accumulation! Craigslist has been a great friend for us. We've been able to sell quite a bit of good stuff. You know - that stuff that sits around and is too good to just throw out or give away? OK, time to let go! It's also given us a little spending money that we didn't know we'd have. Bonus!

For now, we're going through, room by room, to see exactly what has to stay. Next post will be about what we are going from (the house) to what we are going to (the 5th wheel). 2400 sq ft to 240 sq ft.

Ready to join us for the adventure?

Closing the Farm

Well, we're almost there ... the farm is closing up by mid April. Desmond went to live on a great farm in Fall City, WA. Mina and Neesa are heading down to Oregon, Elsie Rose will be heading over to continue work as a therapy horse and Ole ... well, we're not quite sure where Ole will end up yet. We're still trying to finalize his plans.

We're getting ready for the next adventure in our lives...for the family and for our farm. We welcome you to join with us for the next part of the journey as we travel across America, learning about our rich history with our boys (I have to say, this will probably be our biggest home school project ever) and blogging about our adventures. We plan to stop at many farms along the way - we, along with most farm owners - enjoying finding out what makes things "click" in different areas. How they "do" farming can be completely different than how we "do" farming. Finding the perfect place to re-establish Willows Edge Farm is on our list of travel projects.

We will continue to post where we are in each stage of the way and have another post coming in the next few days as to our short term plans. You WON'T want to miss that one!