And, just like that, everything changed.

Gosh, where do I begin?  So much has happened since my last post!  Quite honestly I have little desire to be on social media lately.  Covid -19 has left me scared, uncertain, stressed and anxious.  Everyone has their fears and THIS has always been a huge one for me.  I just can’t allow myself to feed into everyone predictions and conspiracy theories.  It’s not healthy and it doesn’t help the situation. So, I have limited my time on social media.

With that said, Al and I are working double time to get out of here!  That has been our main focus these past two weeks.  13DogFarm practices in social distancing daily. I’d rather be quarantined on 50 acres than on 1.  And, it will be a great relief to know that if our kids need a safe place to go they can come to the farm.

Al and I have still continued to alternate our visits to the farm.  Al spent the first week in March there preparing the outbuilding for storage and doing some much needed grading.  Might I add that among all the other crap going on we have had a terrible battle with the rain!  It’s been difficult trying to get any grading done and moving stuff to the farm has had to be pre-planned around when it is not going to be raining.  Al came home for a few days, then we both went to the farm the second week.  We spent the first day or two organizing all the holiday decor bins in the outbuilding and we hung the largest barn quilt I have done to date.                 

The fireplace and woodstove were installed,  as well as, some outdoor light fixtures,  the outdoor railing and extended deck were completed  and our interior doors finally arrived.  Once the interior doors were installed the framers finished with all their tasks, packed up and left.

The momentum really shifted this month.  It has been a long, slow journey but, March showed up ready to play. Al left for Georgia a few days before me so, I spent my days cleaning up debris, scrap wood and metal from around the cabin .  I also tried very hard to just relax!  It was so peaceful being there completely alone.  There have been folks in and out of the farm since before August of last year!  The painters did show up the day before I headed home though.  I spent my last day cleaning up the inside of the cabin.  I mopped all the floors, cleaned windows and sills, dusted the baseboards and cleaned the cabinets inside and out.  That felt really good.  It actually felt like the cabin was really ours. 

The dogs and cats are all doing well.  Honey and Bun have found their spots at the cabin.  🙂 This will obviously need to be addressed once Herc and Teenie arrive.  I don’t want a dog launching through a window. We have some ideas on how to handle one being to place cardboard around the bottoms of the windows (dog eye level) and/or installing gates at the end of the porches so Honey and Bun can’t enter.

Since returning home I’ve spent my days in quarantine packing up as much as possible.  I also have been relieving some of my stress with cooking.  I love to cook.  I have baked, not one but, two mac and cheese casseroles.  (Hey, my lunches lately have consisted of mac and cheese and red wine.  Don’t judge.) I made homemade pizza sauce from scratch, chicken enchiladas in the slow cooker, sausage, cheese and eggs balls and bagels  (all keto friendly) and I have used my vacuum sealer on everything.  🙂

Al took another load of boxes to the farm last Sunday.   While there the granite guy came out and measured all the bathroom and kitchen counters.  Hopefully that will be installed within the next few weeks.  We ordered all our appliances and those are to be delivered by the end of March.  We finally picked up our couches that we purchased back in October, too!  Al left yesterday with another trailer full.  So, we now have legit furniture in the cabin.

With this whole pandemic happening now, our goals have drastically changed.  We initially planned to move in small increments while building the fenced in yard, and obviously, waiting for appliances and granite, etc. to be completed.  However, we believe now it is in our best interest to get moved as quickly as possible.  Our fear is Georgia will go on lockdown and that would most certainly hinder our coming back and forth.  Our home is Tennessee now so, we could get there but, we would have issues coming back into Georgia.  Also, I prefer to be with my husband if everything does go south. Is this crazy or what? I don’t want to leave half my stuff here either.  So, right now, we have decided to rent a truck and transport as much as we can in one move.  This is obviously not the ideal way we wanted to move there but, we both feel it’s the best thing to do right now.  The dogs will have to be walked on leashes until the fence is completed. We are praying the weather cooperates so this can get done as quickly as possible.  Thankfully we have a couple of framers coming back to help Al.

These are uncertain times for sure.  Please keep us in your prayers as we navigate through all of this.  We just want to get there with our dogs and most of our belongings.

Thank you !  Stay healthy, stay quarantined!

Elisa

P.S.  We received our seeds in the mail this week!   Tilling the garden and planting are coming soon!