Our Now Slice of Heaven

We ended up moving off of our original location because the property owner was selling. After countless house showings that we had to keep the house clean for (and with 3 crazy kids under the age of 8 it was NOT easy to do so!). So we packed up our quaint little adventure, said our good byes to what would be the start of Hope Farms. Farm 1 of... who knows?

There's this little back road that runs approximately 10 miles to our new farm. It's a long dirt road that they often call the Champion Haul Rd. And that's exactly what we did. Dismantled 4 stall "Mare Motel" on a flatbed trailer, and everything we had packed into trucks in a convoy to our new location. Panels hanging off ends of trailers, appliances stuffed onto trailers, boxes of household goods and more... When we pulled into our new place, I am sure we looked like the Clampetts from Beverly Hill Billies.

Our new home had been thoroughly trashed. A lot of man house would have to go into this place. I am a firm believer that blackberries are not a gift from God, but a Devil's toy of enjoyment to bring havoc and frustration to any man alive. We had blackberries covering buildings, we're talking piles 20+ feet tall of berries covering berries! They strewn across the whole (what would be now our back yard) barn yard! Fencing hidden, doors hidden, it was a complete nightmare of the amount of work that went into this place.

You know how we got rid of the majority of them? My husband decided to drive his FORD FUCKIN' RANGER through them. With no idea what laid behind or below them. Smashing them, running them over and had wayyyyy too much fun "condensing" them so we could pitch fork them onto the bonfire. Eventually at some point during the struggle, someone brought a small tractor to help pull them and ball them into a giant pile so we could light them on fire.

We regained a good 40' of property that was over grown, found the back of the garage, the missing barn doors that had been ripped off. We located what used to be cattle loading areas and old dilapidated fencing and where at one point the neighbor had a pig farm. Who knew behind all those berries you could actually see your neighbor?

Bud put the Mare Motel back up and the horses were settled into the pasture once the fences were mended. The grass was chest high and the horses were happy. Never mind that it's basically wet land and we have ever since had an ongoing battle with thrushy hooves from being too wet in the Spring, Fall and Winter. It would be another year before the roof was put over the stalls and the horses were able to actually use them.

We put in flower beds, brought in bark and made the front of the house more appealing to look at. Dismantled and removed an old diesel heater and tank system. We're going to overlook the moss all over the roof. The pitch is way too steep and you can't get up there to do anything with it. That will be another project for another day- or another post as I am sure when it goes down... it'll be quite humorous.

During our recovery of the property we found that the previous tenant had a HUGE amount of cats. We found sheets of plastic and cat litter wrapped in there. Pretty sure we had found the remains of dead cats at some point. There was so much clay cat litter dumped in the corner of the front yard under the brush that you had to wear rubber boots out there to do anything or you'd be covered in this thick pasty shit mess. Absolutely disgusting.

As we uncovered and cleaned the property we would find random things that made you think.. What the fuck? Bud even found a pot pipe in the garage tucked into a Marlboro cigarette soft pack. Pretty sure 8 years later he still has it in the garage as a souvenir. I stand corrected- It's proudly sitting on top of a cabinet in his garage I guess from what he just said. Still laughing over finding it...