Our New Home

Who knew that we would be writing a new blog called Sunny Side Up Farm in 2014?  It was a surprise to us, too!

Around September we were visiting our grandchildren in North Carolina when we kinda just looked at each other and said, let's settle down again and do something fun.  Like raise chickens, goats, bees and a garden.

I see the look in your eyes.  What on earth were we thinking?  Exactly that.  The earth.  The earth is sick, and people are making it sicker.  Our grandchildren need a healthy earth, and that needs to start with us.  We need less chemicals, disease, and pollution, and better eating, growing, and care of our beautiful Mother earth.  

So, we decided we would go backwards in time where there were less poisons, just herbs and natural remedies; make less of a carbon footprint by using solar and wind power.  Grass feed animals, organic food for them and us, and no GMO anything.

The first thing to decide was the biggest.  Where were we going to do this.  Our family is on the east coast, so that narrowed it down.  We wanted to have warmer weather most of the year, so that meant south.  I took my finger and did the 'point to the map with your eyes closed' trick and landed on High Springs, Florida.  A place to start.  We've never been there before, just through it, so a little research brought us to  Alachua county and some interesting facts.  Gainesville is the county seat with University of Florida comprising most of the population.  Like most university towns, popular city stores, culture and Walmarts were there. That was handy, but taxes were not pleasing.  We liked the area though, and searched a little farther out on the west side for at least 5 acres wooded and cleared with at least a well and electric, but found nothing we wanted.  We went further out, and used Zillow as our search tool.  A couple of agents followed up on our requests, but until we went about 30 minutes north of Gainesville to Lake City at the corner of US10 and US75 did we find an agent who would not give up on finding us the right place.  Lake City is in Columbia County and a good location for us.  US 75 and US 10 give us easy access to get places and easy access for people to get to us.  It's a small city, about 70,000 population, and had just enough for us, without being so far from everything that it would take 20+ minutes to get to civilization but not crowded with traffic. 

And find it he did.  Five acres, half wooded, half not.  We have one house to the left in the photo and one to the right, but can't see either very well.  A horse lives to the right, and there's a donkey around here somewhere we hear once in a while.  Otherwise, only the birds and little frogs that live under the shutters. Unfortunately it was a short sale.  Fortunately, we put in a ridiculously low bid (the first one in 7 months) and got some interest going.  Now, there is nothing short about a short sale, as we parked Bella in High Springs on September 20, looked around for a month before finding this place on October 24, didn't hear a word until January 7, when they finally accepted our offer.  That's when I thought we'd be moving in around the end of January.  Not to be.  While we were going crazy with frustration week after week, they were taking their sweet time.  Our agent was very sympathetic, and let us do an 'in depth surface inspection" (thorough cleaning) so we would be ready to move in when we closed. 

 

 

Photo we put on card to our realtor, Nate

The waiting was agony.  But we were assured that we "got" the house, and we just had to wait for all the lenders to come together.  Finally we received a text from our agent that he had good news, and our closing was set for April 5.  All that waiting and the closing took about 30 minutes.  Arrrrgh.  Now we could start making arrangements!

the last time Gary will drive Bella

First we had to unload Bella.  It was amazing how much stuff was in that small space!  We had to make about 6 trips back and forth from the campground to the house, but we had moved about a month before to a campground closer to the house, so instead of an hour trip, it was just 10 minutes.  Then we cleaned Bella super clean and Gary drove the 10 minutes up to Camping World alone for the last time to drop her off.  We have bought and sold many homes, but Bella was really special.  Probably because of the many dear friends we made along the way.  She will always remain in our hearts as a wonderful memory.  [as of this writing, she has not sold yet]

Our previous house furniture had been stored in Sarasota while had been on the road for four years.  We hired a couple guys to load there, we drove the U-Haul and our new pickup (Snowball) up to our new house in Lake City and had our agent's nephew and friend and 7 members from a church help us unload (and they brought us dinner!!)  It took 4 hours to load, 4 hours to drive, and 45 minutes to unload.  Of course, we are still unpacking...

So, the first order of business is to sort things.  There are two outbuildings, an attached garage and sunporch to the house.  The huge garage is for the truck, the small outbuilding is Gary's workshop, the attached garage is now a storage area, but may be used in the future as something else.

The house is pretty much in order.  No more boxes, but we need more furniture for the two guest rooms.  Then we need to paint.  The house is all white inside, and our furniture and slipcovers are white, so it's kinda Arctic when you walk in.  The deck needs replacing, but everything except the landscaping is good.  Not sure what the owners were thinking when they planted holly trees at the end of the short driveway into the house garage.  Cars would definitely take a scratching, and the Leyland Cypress are practically under the side of the house and hide the porch.  All have to be pulled out, and that may be a job for next week.  We are somewhat fenced on three sides, but not secure enough for little goats to stay in and deer and bears (yes, bears) to keep out.  I'm not sure if we can keep out everything, but hopefully keep in our little goaties.

Have you heard of Straw Bale Gardening?  That's what I'm planning on trying.  It's relatively new, and sounds easy because the straw (not hay) acts as the foundation soil instead of the ground.  Check it out on the web.  I have the book Straw Bale Gardens by Joel Karsten, and it is not difficult to find straw bales around here in the country.  I am planning all kinds of veggies and herbs to eat fresh from the garden and when we can't eat all produced, to can or freeze.  Fortunately, gardening is an all year round activity in Florida, but I can tell you, it got COLD in January and February.  I'm talking 20 degrees, with highs in the 40s some days.  But as gardeners know, that's what makes those collards so sweet!

Then will come the chickens.  Need a coop and run, and we are looking forward to building that.  Fresh chicken eggs taste nothing like those store eggs.  And we will only use fresh organic feed and let them eat all the bugs in the garden. 

Next, bees.  The Extension service has been a wonderful help so far.  They have free classes all the time and can put you in touch with any one for more specific info.  Planning on making beeswax candles, honey and other good stuff.

Lastly, our little goats.  People across the street own goats, but I don't want those kind of big goats.  I want to start with Nigerian Dwarf because they are little, produce the richest milk for yogurt, cheese, soap and don't eat as much.  Plus they are just downright adorable. 

Of course, we either need a dog or something to guard our livestock.  Enter, Bullet, our guard donkey.  Yep, donkeys guard goats like they were their own children.  Did you know that?  I didn't know that until recently. 

So, now you know what our plans are.  God willing, we will be able to do some, hopefully all, of them.  But you will be informed along the way of our adventures. 

This blog was so long, I didn't want to include a million pictures, but there were be some more, probably hysterical as we really have no idea what we are doing and will learn along the way. 

It's crazy what decisions we make along life's path.  My life is nothing at all what I imagined it would be, but, still and definitely ---

LIFE IS GOOD!