Where do you begin when you are beginning in the middle??

So, everyone else seems to have a blog, so I suppose I will jump on the band wagon--but I feel like I am starting in the middle of a book. Let me start with the most recent events, and that is selling our house in Tooele (*sniff*) and moving to Grantsville.


So, in June, after just having delivered (literally) numero ocho--Liam Connor--Shawn and I were eating lunch and decided to go look at a house next to our friends in Deer Hollow. Great house, great price, greater location--so we called our good friend and realtor Vicki had her show it to us--we looked at it several times and made an offer, then listed our house.

That house was riddled with issues and was essentially unsellable (it's still sitting unsold 8 months later); we found another, made and had an accepted offer--but shockingly, it didn't appraise for the sale price! So we found another, made an offer, it didn't appraise...over and over and over!  It would seem that there just weren't any houses to be bought! I mean, we DO need a large house and wanted a certain location, but where we were looking, you would think the houses would appraise.  Hmmph.  Pretty ironic though that all the while the government was telling us to stimulate the economy by shopping, buying homes, etc--yet the VA lenders kept devaluing every house we found. Suckers...

So, the list of 6 bedroom houses got shorter and shorter. We did not want to move to Stansbury Park...so it was either Tooele or Grantsville. Totally fed up with looking, Shawn was tasked with finding us some houses to look at. He found 6 or so, so one night after work we went house shopping found one that was really cool--very high end.  A custom built house with high end wood work, appliances, etc--but owned by an odd guy.  We made a great offer...but this odd duck declined our offer and came back with some strange conditions. We rejected and placed an offer on a conservative home not far away, on an acre of horse property.  The best thing was that is had a kick-a** stove, upgraded appliances and 2 furnaces/airconditioners, etc. That offer was accepted, negotiated back and forth a bit...and here we are...living in Grantsville. 

It's certainly not the beloved house we put so much sweat and tears into, but it's a good house with 'good bones'; it has great features...it's just a little small, and not customized like we (I) like yet. 
Anyway, that is the biggest thing we have been up to over the past 1/2 year...looking, stressing, moving, and finally settling and making a home. 

Afterall, home is where your heart is, and mine is definitely wherever my family is.

Rednecks or RANCHERS???

Looking at the MLS Shawn gave me on this house, my first thought was what in the H-E-double toothpicks are WE going to do with over an acre of land...duh. We have kids who hate mowing the grass, Shawn despises yardwork--mostly my continual desire to change the landscape and upgrade our yard (primarily when I have been conveniently pregnant for the past few years... heh heh heh) so what on earth are we going to do with an acre?!

Get chickens, that's what! I was adamantly opposed to any chicken raising in any form, whatsoever. I have always been told they stink, they are loud, and to be honest--I got hen-pecked (half to death in my mind) as a child, so I was more afraid of them than anything...but oh my goodness, they are so pretty and the kids just love them--so I am now a reformed chicken-hater!

Well, once you have crossed over from domesticated pets like cats and dogs into livestock...you may as well start becoming self-sufficient and raise your own beef, right?!  Hmm--not so sure on this one.  I think my exact words were "I am not getting up at 4am to feed cows..."

Sure enough, we got a steer.  An ornery hereford named T-Bone.  Wow--what an animal to cut our teeth on.  He did the exact opposite of everything everyone told us he'd do...so, to "calm him down", we got Fred.  Yep--another steer.  So we sailed right on past 'self-suffient' into raising enough food to stock the food pantry in town.  Hopefully we can find someone to buy some of this.

This is our first attempt at breaking T-Bone

This is sweet ole' Fred

He is so gentle that Pierce can climb up and pet him

So, as much as I hate to admit it--I am a total sucker for the the animals.  I can't say I go feed them at 4am, but I do go out there a lot and play with them, pet them, etc.  It'll be a sad day when I finally load them onto the trailer, but it's been a great learning experience.  So, I'd definitely eat my words and not call myself--or anyone with livestock--a redneck again. :)