Farm Update

It has been a whirlwind of activity around the farm over the last 6 weeks, but it was a particularly busy week this last week. Although the boys were on Spring Break, we managed to just about finish up the house and have started work on the outside buildings.

Sunset at Willows Edge Farm

One of our new neighbors stopped by and we were talking about all the projects we did this week. I had mentioned that we got quite a few things from our list done and she said something about keeping a list of all the projects we complete as we go. What a fun - or completely exhausting - idea!

So, here are some of our accomplishments...
Let me start by saying the house was not liveable when we bought it. Actually, I won't go into the gory details.
Scrubbed down all the walls, cabinets (inside and out) and bathroom
We painted the interior of the house, including ceilings
Carpeted the bedrooms and hallway
Installed a new wood floor in the living room and dining area of the kitchen
Put in new floor trim
Got to install a cool, new mount for one of the TVs to hang from the wall
Installed the new floor in the kitchen and entry
Installed new mini blinds and wood blinds in all the windows
Installed closet organizers/systems in 4 closets
Ran wires for the TV antenna to 2 rooms
Modified some of our old furniture and re-purposed it to new uses
Put in a new refrigerator, dishwasher, washer and dryer
Installed a water purifier under the sink
Removed the leaky kitchen faucet and the sink a facelift
Repaired the water softener - it works now
Unpacked most of the 2 horse trailer and half the 6 horse (that is where we stored our household when we moved out)
Installed new kitchen lighting

Scott fixing some bad drywall

Removed some rotten drywall and replaced it
Put in some pretty wainscoting 
Closed off and sealed up 4 floor vent openings that were not functional
Installed a bathroom fan - nope there was no ventilation in there
Put an attic fan in and added a vent opening in the opposite end of the house
We put in driveway alarms on both driveways
Had some new wiring done inside the house
Made 2 runs back to Seattle - one to get more of barn supplies
Culled a lot of clothing, kitchen wares and linens that won't fit into our new, smaller home

Me & Elsie mowing the pastures

Outside, we mowed all the pastures. Almost 11 acres.
Bought a new tractor.
Scraped a lot of ground clear for reseeding
Cleaned out 3' tall weeds from the paddocks of the small, 5 stall barn
Repaired 2 water leaks, 3-4' under ground
Had the Breeding Barn completely wired with some new lighting for each stall, the walkway and the upcoming vet area wired with separate lighting and GFI plugs
The garage got a new wiring panel and a plug for a welder
We put in a special RV plug in for the camper to have it's own spot

A motion sensor light was installed by the garage and one of those big, dawn to dusk lights out in the middle of all three barns
Got a new Propane tank installed outside
Wiring to the Big Barn and the arena was repaired - WHOOHOO!
The boys cleaned up most all the feathers all over the arena (for some reason, it had become a killing area for the local wildlife)
Collected a bunch of owl pellets from the Big Barn
Spread 3 yards of sand around the arena and walkway in the Big Barn
Got an extra Fjord mare for our growing herd :)
Scott, Dakota and Chelsea took their Hunter's Safety classes (20+ hours)

We took a lot of pictures, enjoyed some amazing sunshine and had our oldest come for a month long visit. We have started to make some new, local friends - one of which is from our hometown of Bothell - and have been looking for our new church home.

I know there's more, but that's about all I can remember for now. Actually, looking back at this list, I  understand why we're tired. I think I will start a list for April ... this re-building is hard enough, but re-building a farm that had been run down for so many years? Well, we knew we were getting a project. We are the right people for this job.