An update on the last 7 months!

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve written a blog post and I am SO sorry about that!  Life has been crazy and every time I sat down to write, something either came up or I just could not think about what to post.  We have had a very busy summer here on the farm and now that winter is closing in, things are starting to wind down and the time for rest is here.

Lets catch up on the things we’ve been working on!  Our biggest project of the year was probably our garden and greenhouse.  A lot of trial and error and a lot of “Oh crap” moments.  We built our green house by hand and without a kit so there was some trial and error there.  After repairing one thing several times, we found a better way to secure it.  After blowing the sprayers on the end of the irrigation system several times, we found a way to secure them.  Believe it or not….excessive heat in NY was an issue over the summer and since we aren’t fancy yet, we don’t have special sides that roll up with a crank so we had to do it ourselves.  After several different designs, we realized how awesome it would be to have those special motorized sides!  Note to self:  Save up for those!

The wind was another challenge…. which we were not surprised by honestly.  We had been told by friends that the wind is bad here from time to time, but we survived the summer.  Let’s see if we can survive the winter wind and the weight of lake effect snow. 

In the garden, we created some raised beds both in the green house and outside.  We were gifted some strawberry plants and placed them in a bed outside and they quadrupled since.  The bed is overflowing with plants and I’m excited for berries next year.  We planted cucumbers and potatoes in another raised bed and zucchini and sugar snap peas.  Inside the green house, we planted cherry tomatoes, lettuce and bush beans.  All did very well, but next year, I think we will stick to pole beans outside the green house.  Our lettuce bolted in the second planting, so we were unable to harvest.  We also added a garden outside the greenhouse and tried to grow something in the soil on our property.  We didn’t have the best success, so we are planning to amend the soil and prep it for a better season next year.  Fingers crossed!  We also added a couple apple trees, a peach tree, a cherry tree and 4 blueberry bushes.  I’m excited to see some fruit from all of these in the next few years. 

Another big project we started and have yet to finished is replacing our railings on our back porch.  They were starting to get a little loose and after we got an outrageous price for materials, we decided we’d make our own.  A friend of ours had recently taken down some cedar trees and so we made our way over and picked out some decent sized trees and brought them home.  I purchased a draw knife and started removing the bark by hand.  If you’ve never done this before, take it from me; it’s exhausting.  It looks super easy when you watch other people do it and then you realize every muscle in your back hurt after spending a few hours stripping bark.  It’s why this project is going to take WAY longer than I expected it to.  I also got the bright idea to use large branches as spindles and give it an even more rustic feel.

WHAT WAS I THINKING?

Why did no one slap me upside the head and be like “Hey Kristen…this is WAY more work that you really wanna bite off right now.”  Thanks guys.  Anyways, I sucked it up and we got some of the railing done.  It may be a project for the spring though.  We will see what happens over the winter. 

At the beginning of the summer, we hired a company to do some logging in our woods.  We wanted an area cleared for what will eventually be a site for a bigger barn.  We also had them create a cleared path all the way around so that we could easily drive full circle around the barn if we ever needed to.  Eventually, I think we may expand pasture area up there for the goats.  If Matt had his way, we’d have pigs up there too, but I’m not sold yet.

2020 is coming to a close and I couldn’t be happier.  I’m praying 2021 is better.  I think we all need some normalcy in our lives.  We host Thanksgiving here at the farm every year and this year, we were missing some people at the table due to COVID-19 cases rising again.  I’m hoping that soon we will be able to have meals with them and spend much needed time with them. 

While the pandemic has been debilitating, I can’t help but look at the positives it did bring to our lives. My husband is a hard worker and often times, worked long hours at the office. We had more unrushed, family dinners in the last 7 months than we probably have in the last couple years. While he was still working, most days, he was working from home. It was nice to have him here all the time, though I’m sure he was tired of the constant noise over the summer. 😉 Extra family time was our silver lining during 2020 and I am forever grateful for it. It has taught us to slow down a little.

Dear Diary,

When does April end?

For real though.  I feel like we are stuck in Twilight Zone.  Life has slowed down for us here at Thistle Dew, like many of you I am sure.  Initially, when this pandemic really kicked up, my husband was still going to work every day.  The stress of that alone made the entire household a bit tense.  He would leave the house with anxiety and I’d be home with the kids anxious about him coming home and potentially bringing something with him.  Thankfully, he’s now home 3 days a week and we’ve gotten ourselves into a sort of schedule that works.  Let me tell you though…I am NOT cut out for homeschooling.  We have 3 small kids and even the toddler wants to get in on school but makes it VERY hard to teach the others what they need to learn.  Often times, he becomes a distraction.  I’ve resorted to giving him tiny pieces of paper and a glue stick and letting him go to town.  That usually buys me about 10-15 minutes until he’s bored.  God bless all you moms who CHOOSE to home-school.  Share your voodoo secrets.  I kid I kid…  

 

Speaking of KIDS!

 

Let’s check out what the heck we’ve been up to here at Thistle Dew.

 

In February, we added another Nigerian Dwarf goat to our little herd of three.  Cleo was a pregnant doe we acquired from the farm where Ollie, Odell, and Poppy came from.  Cleo had triplets…two boys and a girl.  The girl will be returning to the original farm and the bucklings will likely head to new homes when they are weaned.  Cleo will stay here at Thistle Dew Farm.

 

 

In the beginning of March, back when he had first spring(I think were on like 4th or 5th winter now), we built our own green house.  We’ve wanted one for a long time and finally had the chance to build one.  In early April, a windstorm came and we had to take the plastic off so not to risk it being shredded.  We got it back up and replanted everything so we’re back in business.  It’s been about 3 years since we had a garden and we’re so excited to get it back up and going.  My kids eat WAY too much fruit not to grow our own at this point!

 

Our flock of chickens keeps growing.  We lost 6 guineas to a hawk attack in a span of 3-4 days.  Guineas are great for tick issues and that’s why we have them on our farm.  While they are great for tick eating, they’re not the brightest crayons in the box and tend to NOT sleep in the coop.  We tossed some eggs we THINK might be guinea eggs(they’re small and kinda pointy at the top) into the incubator in hopes of hatching some, but the more I look at them, the more I think they’re just regular chicken eggs.  Oh well!  I did candle all 7 of them and they look like they are developing quite well so we shall see what happens in 14 days.  Maybe some chicks!  This is how chicken math works people…it’s a slippery slope.

 

All in all, we are finally getting settled into our new homestead.  The kids are enjoying the property.  Since we’ve all been quarantined, we took the time to set up Gym class outside.  Santa brought the kids  a zip line and a slack line so we found spots for them and got them all hooked up.  Luke isn’t a big fan of the slack line but all three kids are obsessed with the zip line.  It truly was like Santa knew we were gonna be stuck home for a while!  

I’m hoping to get back into blogging about our family and farm so stay tuned for what’s to come next!

 

Everyday is a new Beginning.  Take a deep breathe, smile, and start again!

 

 

 

I’m past due on a post, but life has been crazy. We’ve moved into the new location of Thistle Dew Farm and are getting back into the hobby farm life. Finally!! It’s been exactly two months since we moved in and we have so many projects going on!

It turns out, we live on a giant rock. We had a fence installed for 5 acres of land for the animals to have access to. Ramsey LOVES all the space he has to explore and dig. He’s currently working on a hole under a pine tree that I am sure will be opening up in China somewhere.

The chickens and guineas enjoy foraging the woods for any bugs they can find. We’ve added a few chicks to the crew to give our egg production a variety of color. I can’t wait to have blue eggs! The peacocks are doing well. There are 4 all together and we are pretty sure we have 3 females and 1 male which is….the perfect setup for when we decide to free range. They’re getting big and have been moved to the grow out pen. They’re a little skiddish, but I think they’re warming up to me!

 

On to the kids!!!

The goat kids I mean.

They’ve been adjusting well and we haven’t had any issues up until yesterday when I noticed Ollie(my favorite) was walking into the walls as though he couldn’t see! Sure enough I tested him on a few things and he had no eyesight. After much research and conversing with some awesome goat ladies, we diagnosed him with something called Goat Polio. I had never even heard of this before!

Goat Polio is a deficiency in thiamine in the body which can cause neurological issues and blindness. We got Ollie on the medication he needs and other supplements. He gets injections twice a day for 5 days. This is my first time ever having to do injections so it’s a learning experience for me as well.

This morning he greeted me with some tail waggin’ and he jumped up on my leg like he used to do every morning. I’m hoping that’s a good sign and that he will continue to progress.

The kids are adjusting to the new house pretty well.  It’s a bit smaller than our last house at 1400 square feet and only 2 bedrooms(until we get the basement finished), but it’s cozy and we are so happy here.  It finally feels like home.  We’ve struggled with that since moving back, but we’ve found out place.

We are hoping to add a female doe who will be kidding in the spring.  We’re excited for the new things to come and blessed for all that we have been given in life and the experiences.  Until my next free moment!!

 

There fore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
                                                         Mark 11:24

We’ve been really quiet here at Thistle Dew for the last several months.  It’s not because we had better thing to do, or simply just forgot about the page.  In fact, we’ve just gone through a huge life change.  I’ll start at the beginning for those of you just joining our journey.

In the summer of 2015, we decided we wanted to grow our farm.  We hunted for property and it took us until April of 2016 to find exactly what we were looking for.  We put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears prepping the 17 acre horse pasture for what would soon become Thistle Dew Farm.

Fencing needed to be fixed.  Fencing needed to be put up and pastures created.  A 72 foot x 72 foot covered run for our peacocks was built so that they had the room needed to grow, etc.  Grass mowed, gardens planted, ponds cleaned, creeks deepened, etc.  You know…everything that comes with building your farm the way YOU want it.

In March of 2017, we moved into our dream home.  A home we designed ourselves and a home we even did a lot of work on ourselves.  It was our forever home.  We made it so that when we were old and gray, we could live comfortably on the first floor with no issue.  It was perfect.

 

We had started our livestock with chickens, turkeys, guineas, peacocks, goats, and our two livestock guardian dogs, Bandit and Frosty.  We did attempt ducks temporarily, but Frosty wasn’t quite a fan and often times would chase them around.  We had to quickly send them to new homes.  We were loving this new life we had built for the most part, but we were also missing something.

Family.

Yeah, our family came to visit quite a bit.  And we loved having them, but when it was time to leave, the girls would break down in tears for hours after company left.  It was heartbreaking.  After a few months passed, Matt mentioned the dreaded idea of “moving back to NY”.  It was sort of a crazy idea.  Jobs weren’t all that great up here and often times hard to find.  He applied to a few here and there, offers were made but they just weren’t a good fit.

Now, Matt is a hard worker.  He’s good at what he does, but was starting to get ‘bored’ in his roles in Finance.  He felt like he was supposed to do something more with his degree and all of a sudden of job for a non-profit Drug and Alcohol Rehab facility back home came up.

WE WERE HEADED HOME

This job was minutes from where he grew up and only an hour from where I grew up.  The chance to be back near our family had come up and while we were somewhat hesitant, New York won.  We made the decision to move back home to be close to family.  Our kids are going to get to GROW UP around their grandparents!

Matt and I both had the chance to grow up with our grandparents close by and both agreed that this was what we wanted.  Now…..it doesn’t mean that it was all sunshine and roses that we were moving back to NY.  I met some really great people in Virginia.  The weather was wonderful-especially in the Winter.  The people were kind and our neighbors were some of the most helpful and caring people I’ve ever met.  They were truly always willing to help.  But, I had just built my forever home AND I had all these fur and feather babies!

We knew that we wouldn’t be able to bring the chickens and the peacocks or the goats because of the stress of them moving.  Bandit and Frosty were coming with us.  That was, until we couldn’t find anything with land.  Bandit and Frosty aren’t your typical household dogs.  They REFUSED to come inside-EVER.  They lived outside and that is what they loved.  95 degree weather or -10 degree weather.  Outside with their animals was where they wanted to be.  So when we couldn’t find anything with enough land in the area we were looking, we had to make one of the hardest decisions ever.  Bandit and Frosty would have to go to a new farm in order to continue to live and be happy in life.

We found a wonderful 40 acre farm sanctuary that was in dire need of some livestock dogs.  They were having some serious predator issues and needed protection.  Hope and Serenity Sanctuary is now their new home.  They have so many animals to protect and take care of and I know Renee and her team will keep him safe.  They’re a great non-profit business and if you’re in the Manassas area, please check them out!  They do all kinds of things involving kids with special needs.  They keep me up to date on how Bandit, Frosty, Tippy, and Dot are doing.  Everyone is happy!

Back to this crazy idea!

So.  We put our house on the market and go through the processes.  Matt and our oldest moved up to NY in March while myself and the younger two stayed in VA.  It was honestly the HARDEST thing I think we’ve ever done.  For 3 months, we lived in 2 different places.  The kids and I came up and would stay and visit for the weekend, but the long drive was taxing.  The last trip we had, I decided that I needed to find a place for our dog Ramsey to stay so that we could come up and stay longer than just a few days.  Raymond and Destiney of Sargent’s Farm near Front Royal VA have a farm and offer a variety of meats, eggs, and other things, offered to take Ramsey to their farm for an extended period of time and we were so grateful to know that he would be safe there.  They are not only fully fenced, but also familiar with Great Pyrenees as they have their own. Check them out at the Front Royal Farmers Market on Saturdays on Main Street!

For those of you who don’t know Ramsey, he’s a puppy from Frosty and bandit’s September 2017 litter.  He’s a 9 month old 85lb puppy….who is indoor/outdoor.  He’s basically a miniature pony that we have inside the house at all times.  But guess what……I LOVE HIM!  I was devastated when I found out we wouldn’t be bringing Bandit and Frosty with us to NY and a month after they went to their new home, Ramsey’s owners reached out to us and we brought him back to Thistle Dew.  He’s a big ole goofball, but he’s part of Bandit and Frosty and I’m so grateful to have a part of them still with me.

Moving on….this brings us to our move.  Matt and I went down to Virginia and with the help of his Dad, his brother, and a couple of our friends, we were able to pack up the entire farm in like…36 hours.  I don’t know how we did it, but we did it.  We grabbed Ramsey from Sargent’s Farm (they had been taking care of him for us for a month while I was up here) and we headed back to NY first thing in the morning.  Within 48 hours we had moved out and into our new home.  Now, our new home only sits on about 4.5 acres so we won’t be as “crazy” as before, but we plan to continue to keep Thistle Dew Farm going, just at a different location.  Some clean-up has to be done and some dead trees need to be removed, but we’ve got about 3 acres with a pond that we plan to transform into our little hobby farm.  We will also be planting a garden and probably some fruit trees and berry bushes.  Hopefully, we can get them in this year!

Please feel free to continue following us on this newest journey we have created for ourselves.  I’m sure I’ll have some good stories come winter time.  Matt and I need to re-teach ourselves how to survive in the Tundra on Central NY and our poor kids won’t know what hit them when they have to walk through 2 feet of snow to get on the bus.

 

“And suddenly you know…it’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.”

                                                                                                                                -Author Unknown

In 5 days, our little man, Luke will be 6 months old.  Where has the time gone?  In 5 days, our little man, Luke will be 6 months old.  Where has the time gone?  
For real.
I feel like just yesterday, he was given to us!  As I was nursing him this morning, I lay on the bed quietly watching him.  He’s at the stage now where EVERYTHING is a distraction so we have to go to quiet places to even get him to eat.  I plopped the 3 year old down in front of some Daniel Tiger and headed into the bedroom.
While we laid there, I watched as he explored my face with his hands.  He’s become so much more observant these last couple weeks.  Usually, I wear glasses, but when I lay down, I take them off and he loves the fact that he can see and touch my eyes.  I also don’t mind the close one on one time I get with him.
What this caused me to realize though, was…Crap…this very likely could be my last baby!  My last moments of snuggling these tiny human beings and just watching them learn and explore with their hands.  While we haven’t decided that Luke will be our last, I think we’re both leaning that way.
The struggle is real for me when it comes to whether we are done or not.  I know my husband looks at me like I’m crazy SOME times and my mom looks at me like I’m crazy ALL the time whenever I mention it.  I’m not crazy…really…just in love. ❤

How did you know you were done?  Like, I’ve heard moms say: “Oh yeah.  I knew I was done the moment I had such and such.”  I don’t have this feeling and to be honest, I don’t think I’d ever have this feeling.  As much as being a parent is a struggle sometimes, I wouldn’t change it for the world.  I love my kids.  I love watching them grow and learn.
At the same time, there are things I want to do with them as a family.  Disney world being one of them.  I’m 33 and have never been.  I WANT to take my kids there while they are still kids, but I also want them to be old enough to enjoy it.  At the same time, I want them to be old enough to believe in all the magic that Disney has to offer a young child.  If we keep adding to the tribe, I feel like we will never get there.
I think my husband is more worried about me going through another pregnancy as opposed to not WANTING another child.  My 3rd pregnancy was the roughest of the three.  I struggled to stay hydrated and ended up in Labor and Delivery for Dehydration a couple times.  There was a lot of stress and towards the end, my blood pressure, which has always been perfect, was elevated.  Luke also had some severe jaundice as well which caused extra time in the hospital.
Cherish the times you have with your children and your families.  My mother always said that the time went by so fast and I didn’t believe her until I had kids of my own.  My oldest is starting Kindergarten in the Fall and my 3 year old is going to preschool.  I have no idea what I’m even going to do with myself while 2 out of the 3 are in school!  Coffee dates?  Quiet walks in the park with a sleeping infant? I will have at least one free arm and have NO idea what to do with it!  How do you even function with a free hand?!
I feel like that topic could be an entirely different post all in itself.
So let them be little ’cause they’re only that way for a while
Give them hope, give them praise, give them love every day
Let them cry, let them giggle, let them sleep in the middle
Let them be little

                                          ~Lonestar

 

We’ve been in the house for about 5 months now and we’re finally getting some grass! Although, it’s brown. For real, last year, we were delayed on putting our driveway in because it rained for a month. This year…it hasn’t rained in a month and a half save for here and there. It takes 2 hours to water everything. Yeah! You read it right! 2 Hours every other day to water trees and gardens and flowers and animals..and on and on. The poor grass has been forgotten and feels like a Brillo pad if you dare to walk barefoot on it. My kids do the rain dance regularly..sometimes clothed sometimes….

Moving on.

Settling in is happening here. We’re currently looking for someone to seal and stain the cabin which also brought about finishing projects that weren’t finished by the builders. While we live here, we still have quite a bit to finish. Thankfully, we are pretty handy and learn quickly. I must say that I’m truly impressed with the things my husband and I can accomplish when we work together. Log siding had to be put up both on the front of the basement and along the bottom of the foundation before we could even have an estimate done for staining. Between juggling 3 kids, 2 dogs, and the whiniest goats I have EVER seen, we were able to finish and it came out awesome! A bit tricky in some spots, but it’s done!

All the animals are doing great. We’ve added 12 guinea keets to the farm in order to work on tick population. This year has been terrible for ticks and those little buggers are a Guineas dream come true! Currently, we’re in the process of attempting to hatch some peacocks, though we aren’t sure it’s going to happen. For some reason, our hatch rates are null this year. We’ve moved the incubator down into the basement in hopes of keeping the temp and humidity levels a little more stable. Fingers crossed!

 

Here are a few more pictures of some things we’ve been up to!

Short and sweet this week. Until next time!!

How is it June already???

May was busy for us and we have some new additions! I know I know. You all are wondering “What in the H E Double Hockey sticks are they doing over there?

Well, I can’t blame this one on the hubby cuz it was ALL me. My mother in law continually asked me what happened to the committee?! She thinks we should put a committee in place and ask the committee before being allowed to buy anything that breathes. Sorry Sheila! I had to!

So in our last post, I talked a tiny bit about Goat Milk soap and the nubian goats, yadda yadda yadda. Well, Jelthro is McKenzies dad and I just don’t feel right line breeding her with him. Sooo…..

Welcome Tippy and Dot!!

How could I even say No to these sweet little faces??? I picked Dot up(she’s the all black one save for the spot on her side). She literally fell asleep in my arms within minutes of holding her. <Enter AWWWW> She had me wrapped around her lil hoof.

We put both girls in with McKenzie so that she could have a friend. A few weeks later, I went out to feed them all and found poor Tippy with a broken leg. The only thing I could think of was McKenzie maybe stepped on her when they were all sleeping together. Our poor baby had to be splinted. At least she’s doing it in style!

It’s been about a month now and she’s doing awesome. She chases her sister around like nothing is even wrong with her.

The rest of the month has been a blur for us. Our oldest daughter graduated from Preschool and turned 5. I can’t even say it without getting a frog in my throat. How do I have a 5 year old already?

Each year we do a joint birthday party for our 2 oldest. Their bithdays are a month apart and Memorial Day allows for family to come down to celebrate with us. It’s probably my most favorite time of the year. BBQ’s, family, nice weather. Ugh! It just goes by too fast. It should be like a week long. I could handle family for a week…..I think….I’m kidding MOMS!

Anyways, the girls had a wonderful time and the weather was amazing.
The house is coming along…slowly. We just had the final grade done and it looks beautiful. We’ve added some fences to allow the goats to have a bit more freedom but not enough to come up on the porch and eat all my flowers!

The garden is on and though we are positive our soil is terrible, we do have SOME things growing. Next year, we may have to do raised beds or find a way to really throw some nutrients into this soil.

I think that’s all for now. It’s late and I’m ready to relax for a little bit.

 

“I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the World.”

                                                                            -George Washington

I think….Spring is here to stay…Finally. We’ve been here for almost a month now and we can’t even explain how great it is to be living here finally after a 2+ year process from start to finish.

Thistle Dew is growing. I was hoping for some down time between moving in and developing it as a farm, but my husband had other plans. He’s lucky I love him.

When we started this journey, I was a Work from home mom with a 3 year old and an almost 1 year old. Our plan for the blog was to allow friends and family to watch the developement of our life long dream come to life. Well…life happened. And it happened hard and fast and I didn’t get to post as much as I wanted to. Especially in the last several months of progress. We had a newborn baby and newborn puppies to take care of. Matt was working here at the house to help it get finished for final inspection and i was keeping kids and puppies alive while packing up our rental by myself.

LIFE.JUST.HAPPENED.

We have all these plans for the future here and we are slowly getting settled enough to start working on them. Are we unpacked completely yet?! Hardly! That will be my plan for the next couple weeks though.

We still have a lot to finish that the builders didn’t complete before leaving the job. Let’s not talk about that though. It stresses us out. Lets just say…mama has learned how to work a lot of tools!

What NEXT?

My sister and mom were in town this weekend and this morning, before she left, she hung out with the kids so I could do the chores without having to take them out into the rain. As I was feeding McKenzie, our newest baby goat, I thought about this blog and where we should go next with it. The house is built, but Thistle Dew is just getting started.

I have so many things I want to try! I just need to find the TIME to do it.

Jethro, Ellie Mae and McKenzie Dawn are the newest additions. They are Nubian milking goats. McKenzie is Ellie’s first baby and because she was so young when she had McKenzie, she ended up rejecting her. What we didn’t know when we went to pick all 3 of them up was that the baby had been rejected by mama and that we would have to be bottle feeding her for a bit longer. And here I thought I was done bottle feeding baby animals when the puppies were finally on puppy food. Luckily, she’s just starting to ween so it shouldn’t be too much longer.

With dairy goats, comes goats milk. I’ve always always, did I mention ALWAYS(?) wanted to try my hand at making my own soap. Then I found a recipe for…

Wait for it….

Goat milk soap! Apparently, it is supposed to be super amazing for your skin and so I think…once Ellie is a litle more familiar with me and has another baby, I might try to milk her and attempt it. Look for a post on that in the future! 😉

Goat milk soap, among other things has brought me to where I think I want this blog to go. Not so much a HOW TO blog, but more a….”I’m gonna try this thing out and see where it goes! Sort of like the pinterest fail posts you see! Only, instead of posting a picture, I’ll post what I did and how and what works best…even if it’s a fail.

Hopefully this is something you all will be interested in following and something I will be interested in writing about. If there are things you’re interested in learning about or trying, but don’t have the time, let me know! If it’s something I can try, I will totally try it and let you know how it’s going. I have my first experiment already in the works and will hopefully be posting about it in the near future among other things that come with the Spring season on a farm.

Until then.

Just living is not enough….one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.
-Hans Christian Anderson

It’s been a SUPER busy month at Thistle Dew, which is why you haven’t gotten an update post from us in almost a month!

We welcomed our 3rd child-a boy into the family. Luke Phillip was born on January 25th 2017. He’s such a wonderful addition to our family. We are truly blessed. His two big sisters are completely and madly in love with him.

As most of you know, we added 2 Great Pyrenees dogs to Thistle Dew back in November. Well, Frosty had a litter of 10 puppies on January 29th! They are the cutest things EVER. 2 are white like their parents and the rest have the badger markings that are on the ears of mom and dad.

On to the HOUSE!

We’ve hired another contractor to come in and assist our current one in getting the house finished. Our lease is up at the end of February and we were hoping to be moved in by then.

A lot has happened since adding a few more guys. The second floor is just waiting on flooring and trim around the windows and base of the walls. It looks AMAZING!! The tile in the bathroom was put down earlier this week.

The first floor walls are nearly finished with the ship-lap. Again….looks AWESOME! The large windows are in and the porch has been started.

The roof will be started this Sunday and should only take a couple days to finish up.

Everything from appliances to flooring to cabinets is set to arrive in the next week. I think once the cabinets are in, it will hit me like a ton of bricks that this is really happening. I know….I know….how has it not yet?! It has…but it’s hard to picture the kitchen and dining area because there’s just nothing there. It’s a big open room.

It’s been just about a year since our dream of Thistle Dew started. Even though we are still in the beginning stages of this dream, we’ve already learned so much. Matt and I are both chomping at the bit to get over there full time. To be able to walk out the door and feed the animals and then come right back inside and sit by the wood stove with a cup of coffee to warm up. To put this crazy 3 level townhouse behind us!

Stay tuned for some more updates in the very NEAR future!

Panoramic view of the living room, kitchen, dining area…all open to eachother.

 

We’ve been busy.  BUSY BUSY BUSY!

Our Christmas was wonderful.  We had my husbands mother down for a visit during Christmas and my mom came down a week or so before as did my Father in law and his wife.  The girls LOVE when we get visitors.

They were pretty spoiled.  Not by us!  But by Grandma!  I guess it happens when you’re lucky enough to have 3!

Back to Thistle Dew…..

We’ve had some really amazing progress since the last time we hung out with you all here.

The goats…Ragnar and Loki have adjusted VERY well.  We’ve even allowed them to free range the property completely.  The colder weather these past couple weeks have not been their favorite, but they came out of the goat shed yesterday and started to wander a bit again.  It was nice to see.

Frosty and Bandit are doing well!  They just had their checkup and everything looks great!

BIG NEWS!!!

Frosty is expecting puppies at the end of January.  We saw at least 4 on the sonogram but Great Pyrenees usually have anywhere between 9-14.  Let’s hope it’s not 14.  Mostly because Frosty and I share the same due date!  We are both due with babies on the 27th!

Baby number 3 will be joining us soon at Thistle Dew and we can’t wait to welcome our first baby boy to the ‘farm’.  We’ve been blessed with 2 beautiful girls who are not only amazing, but have the biggest love for their new brother!

Enough family news….

On to the HOUSE!

WE HAVE AN ALMOST ENCLOSED HOUSE!

It’s been a very LONG road.  But we’re so close to being able to move in!  Once the decking is on, we’re hoping to put the trapezoid windows and large front door(Everything under the tarp) in.  Once those are in, we will be able to close up a few places, finish up the electrical on the roof so that can be put on and then cabinets, tile, floors etc.!

We do have tubs!  And let me tell you…being 9 months pregnant really makes me wish I could use this one right now….

I think the biggest struggle my husband and I have going right now is matching tile for the shower and around the tub to the flooring.  We are by no means interior designers….so it makes it MUCH harder.  If you’re willing to give us some pointers, don’t hesitate!  We could use them!

Keep checking back for more updates.  Once the walls are ship-lapped inside, I’ll have more pictures for you!

 

P.S If you’re interested in one of Frosty and Bandit’s puppies, please feel free to reach out to us!

 

Think Spring!