Last May we bought a new house on 15 acres in a small town about 23 miles from the town where we used to live and where we both work.  It is 5 miles north of a military base, and the houses were given away by the military to whomever would pay to have them moved.  Our house was a duplex, now converted into a single family home.   The outside will be redone at a later time, the inside is a work in progress.  The upper left and right corner windows are two of the kids bedrooms.  Another 2 bedrooms are directly behind these, with the master being the middle back of the house.  It’s an odd setup at first, with a big staircase in the front middle of the house.  The main floor is a kitchen, office, dining room, living room and laundry/mudroom off the garage.  It has an unfinished basement that I hope to start working on this winter.

The house already had a chicken coop.  I was more excited about that than anything else!

Nova collecting eggs.  The kids loved it at first, they would collect eggs 5 times a day.  Now it’s just another chore they have to do.

Ella standing in the hayfield behind the house.  It’s in CRP until next month, then I have grand visions of dairy cows and sheep.

Nova on the kitchen table.

Across the road from our house.  Deer bed down here at night and the dogs run over every morning to chase them and eat the droppings.  Eeeeeewwwww.

The coop doors were unpainted when we moved in.  I used up some aqua paint I already had and I love the contrast.

 
Front driveway.  The snow got so deep this year it was nearly as high as the 6+ foot lilac bushes.  Just the tips were poking out.

Another view of the back hayfield.

 Woody our bantam rooster.  He’s so sweet and sounds like a squeaky toy.

First day of school, waiting for the bus on the front porch.

What a mess of disorganized photos!!  This is taking it way back, Christmas 2011.  We lived in the “old house” and were packed in the van to look at Christmas lights. 

We had the longest winter I can remember this past year.  It still hasn’t warmed up to a proper summer yet.  It’s not looking good since school starts in a week.  We purchased a summer pass to the swimming area at the lake and have only used it twice!  Up until late May it was still freezing temps during the day!  We’ve had so much rain this summer, the basement has been leaking water since early June.  Two spots have stopped but one is still trickling in.

Christmas 2012 in the new house.  We hosted Gramma and Grampa for Christmas Eve and then drove to Fargo for Christmas day dinner, and the next day a major Costco trip.  

Summer 2013 view from the back deck of the hayfield.  We just started the second cutting of the year.  Last year’s only cutting was fewer bales than our first this year.

Halloween 2012, we returned to the old ‘hood to trick or treat one last time!  If you look really closely at the red noses you can see winter started in October this year!

Not sure when this was taken but I love Ella’s face in it!

Summer 2013- rescuing toads and snakes from the window well is a full-time job!