Here on the farm...

I just realized that I have not posted in almost a year.  I can't believe that!  So much has happened here.  We now have a regular old farm...or zoo.

We bought a steer that will be going to the butcher soon.  We are really looking forward to having all that meat in the freezer.  On the first day we had him he escaped within two hours of being here and it took us most of the day to find him.  After we found him we had to get the neighbors help to bring him back to our pasture and then spent all evening fixing fence so he didn't leave us again.

We also bought two dairy goats.  One of them is actually my brother Zanes and the other is ours but we care for both of them.  We are having lots of fun making all sorts of good stuff from their milk.  We are now regularly making yogurt which is my new favorite breakfast food.  And if you know me you know this must be special yogurt because I really am not usually much of a yogurt eater.  We have also made soft cheese with the goats milk and it is delicious.  I want to expand into making more types of cheese but cheese is actually a lot of work so I am still contemplating where to start and when to start.  The goats themselves are just fun because they each have such a unique personality.  Having baby goats this spring was quite the experience as well.  Both goats gave birth while we were not home and neither had any complications which was really nice since it was our first time at this.  The babies were fun but they are a lot of work.  We bottle feed our babies so that means up every four hours during the first week and then feedings every six hours...which was not simple with both of us working full time.  And Jeremy was out of town with work when the second set of twins was born so I had my dad's help thankfully in the mornings but other then that I was on my own.

Then there's the horses.  We started out with Cimmy (Cimmeron) a mare we bought from a friend of Jeremy's.  She is 4 and has some training but we have basically restarted her from the ground up and she is coming along quite nicely.  We now have her in a snaffle bit and have been riding her in the arena as well as out in the yard a few times.  She's kind of a small horse but she has a lot of go and even though I was skeptical of getting a mare I am really starting to enjoy her.  After we got Cimmy some friends of ours approached us about a horse they had.  They just were no longer able to put the time and effort into him that he deserved so they wanted to see him go to a good home.  We went and looked at him and even with a minor snafu (he did a little crow hopping at first) we decided that his new home needed to be with us.  He is an older horse named Charlie.  He is also HUGE...but he is a gentle giant.  We have been working some basics with him so far just to build that respect between us and him.  Both of the horses are out at my grandpas house right now because he has the round pen and arena where we can work them plus he has really dense pasture for them to graze on and our pasture was getting pretty sparse.

Some of our friends may think all of this sounds crazy but for us we are living the dream!  We have wanted to be out of town and be able to have animals since we got married.  We are so happy with the move we made.  We both love our jobs, love the animals, and are thoroughly enjoying our house.

PS...on top of the farm animals we still have the two dogs who have become good old farm dogs.

This is one of Cocoas babies...I'm pretty sure this is Little Miss.

This is Cocoa.  She's the more vocal and outgoing of the two goats.

This is Cowgirl one of Daisies daughters and her other daughter Bubbles has her bum in the picture. 

Here I am with Cimmy when we first got her.  She is friendly to a fault.

This is Daisy.  She's much more timid then Cocoa but once she warms up to you she is very loving.

Here is Jeremy riding Cimmy.  This was one of the first days that we got on her.  She is doing so great with her training.  I don't have any pictures of Charlie on my computer but I will try to take a few over the next week or so and get them posted.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our family and friends!!  We had a great Thanksgiving.  For starters Jeremy didn't work...first time since we've been married that the turkey dinner wasn't planned around his work schedule and it was so nice.  We were able to go out to my Grandma and Grandpas house and had a big dinner with them, my parents and my brother and sister.  We were missing Shanon but we got to talk to her which was really nice.  After eating the boys went out and shot the guns and us girls taught grandma how to play Skip-bo.  When the boys came back in we all played cards and it was so much fun.  I really can't remember the last time I saw my grandpa have so much fun.  And we all had fun laughing at him laugh at himself.

Jeremy worked Black Friday but he said it wasn't too bad.  I did some shopping, got his birthday presents all bought...now on to Christmas presents.

We hope that all our family and friends had a great Thanksgiving and was able to celebrate it with the ones they love.

Settling in

Well, we are settling in and loving life.  Jeremy has changed from working at Schwan's to working at CAL Ranch.  He is much happier at the new job and doesn't have to work the graveyard shift so he enjoys it a little more.  He is a "floor man" which means he just roams the store and works where he is needed.

As for my job things are great.  I love the kids and my coworkers are all really great therapists.  I work long days which is hard sometimes but I get Friday off so it is so worth being a little tired in the evenings.

Other then just settling in things are pretty boring here.  We spend a lot of our time at work or sleeping so we're pretty boring.  Maybe something exciting will happen in our lives so we can blog about it but until then I guess I'm done.

We're Here!

Well, we made it to Blackfoot!  We moved in a little more than a week ago and so far we are loving it.
Jeremy found a job working in the Schwans warehouse and so far has worked one day and heads back for a full week of work starting tonight.  It is an overnight job so we are able to spend the evenings together between me getting off work and him going to work so its not a bad arrangement for us.
As for my job, tomorrow is my first day.  I am overwhelmingly excited for my first day but very nervous since it has been a while since I worked with children.

I said that I would post some pictures but I only have a couple pictures so I will post those but they don't do anything near justice to how wonderful our place is.  This is our barn/hay shed, and the front yard.  Some of the things you can't see are the wonderful apple and pear trees at the west side of the house.  We are eating some of the apples with dinner tonight and have been snacking on pears for a few days now although they are not all ripe yet.  We also have a garage/shop and two pastures as well as a small and medium hay field.  Basically we have our dream place!!

Moving!!

Well, I am officially no good at blogging.  I never remember to log in and post so it has been months.  But there is a lot going on at our house so I thought that I would log in and update everyone.

For anyone that doesn't know we are moving to Blackfoot Idaho in 10 days.  I was able to find a new job there that is pretty much my dream job and it is definitely an improvement over my current job.  Jeremy is so far unemployed but he has put in several applications and has some exciting possibilities ahead of him.

My job is working at Camp Hippo which is a therapist owned pediatric outpatient clinic.  I will be working with kids from about 1 to 14ish with all different types of disabilities including learning and behavior problems.  The clinic is just amazing and has a regular style clinic with swings, tables, chairs, regular pediatric clinic stuff, but it also has an indoor and outdoor riding arena for hippo-therapy as well as a rock climbing wall and during the summer time an outdoor swimming pool.  I am very excited about my new adventure and this opportunity to work in pediatrics (which for those of you who don't know its kinda been a career long dream).

As I said before Jeremy doesn't have a job yet but is looking is several different areas and we are hopeful that he will have some call backs on at least two of the jobs by the end of the week.

Another dream is being realized for us with this move.  We have always wanted to have a place where we could raise some animals and maybe have a horse or two.  Since we were having to move and get a new house we decided to try and fulfill that dream.  After looking at a few different options in the area we found our dream home just south west of Blackfoot.  It is a three bedroom home on 8 acres and has so much character.  After we get moved in and settled I will post pictures on here.
Well, I think that is a good update from us for now.  Hopefully I will post more often over the next few months to keep everyone updated on how the move goes and what we get settled into.

New Year, New Post

So I figure if I post now then I won't need to post again until my birthday and still be up with my regular flow of posts :)

Well, things have changed since my last post. I am still in Rawlins at the nursing home and I am not leaving this month. I have extended my contract so I will be there for a while longer. Its a good facility and I like being close enough to home that I can see Jeremy once a week.

Jeremy is still doing Kenpo and we have recently learned that our beagle is not really all that keen on being used as a practice dummy.

I am letting my inner interior designer out and we are going to redo our living room. I am using one of my favorite views as my inspiration so hopefully our living room will be as breath taking as the real scenery. It is probably going to be a process so there may not be a finished product for a few months.

Last month for Jeremy's birthday we went to Denver for a vacation and saw a Broncos game. Sadly the Broncos weren't able to beat the Patriots but it was still a really fun day and it was great to have 5 whole days together where neither of us had to go to work. We also went to Wings Over the Rockies while we were in Denver which is a really cool air and space museum. We spent a whole morning there admiring all the different planes and other neat things that they have. We had a really good time just hanging out and not having a lot of things that we HAD to do.

Overall we have had a good few months and are looking forward to a wonderful new year.

October/November

The past few months have been crazy for us. I have been working in Rawlins as a travel therapist at the nursing home. So I am only home on weekends and only when the weather cooperates. Jeremy has been enjoying his new promation at work and keeping busy with all the new assignments he has been given. He is still going to Kenpo two nights a week and is currently working toward his purple belt which he hopes to get by camp next spring. I will be moving on to a new assignment in January but as of now I don't know where that will be.

Before I left for Rawlins we were able to remodel our master bathroom and I think it looks great. We totally redid the floor, the sink, the paint, pretty much everything. Our next project is our living room but it may be a few months before that is done.

During the end of october Jeremy's uncle became very ill and passed away. It was a hard time for Jeremy's family but through everything Jeremy was able to reunite with his aunts and cousins whom he hadn't seen in years and he was also able to say good bye to his uncle before he passed.

Ok, well, I think that is everything. Hopefully within the next month I will know where I am headed for work next and I will be able to update every one!