Mountain Bottom Farm: August 2013

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Moving The Old Gal-Finally!

The old trailer was definitely a lifesaver. We had bought a 5th wheel camper a few years ago to live in when we bought property - believing that we would buy just land and build on it. However, this property already had a trailer on it that needed a good cleaning but was very nice despite its age. We decided to move from our house that was for sale and go ahead and live in the trailer until we sold our house and could build. We lived in the trailer for almost 2 years and then sold it to a nice couple down the road. So, we get to see it everyday and are so thankful that we had it to live in while in transition from selling our house to building the new one. We knew who the owner was of the trailer and who had brought the trailer to the property 30 years ago. She was so helpful in advising us as to how the trailer was literally attached to the land. The trailer was basically sat in a hole and secured so it could basically never be moved. I don't think an EF5 tornado would have budged the trailer. LOL. Because the trailer had a separate roof built on the top of it and was basically held up by posts set into the ground, the roof had to be removed piece by piece - shingles, decking and rafters. Also, there was a little sunporch type structure built onto the front of the trailer which was Noah's bedroom. It also had to be removed. As you will see in the pictures, we painted his room a golden yellow so when it was demolished the front of the trailer has a weird yellow spot. LOL. After the folks who bought it took the roof off, demolished the sunporch and removed the back deck, it was ready to leave the place it had lived at for 30 years. It was sad in a way but was gonna make this family a wonderful home for years to come. The pictures below show the demolition of the porch, roof and deck. Also a short video show it leaving and if you will look, you will see a slight tilt - at that point my heart stopped. It barely made it out of the driveway!

AT THIS POINT MY HEART STOPPED! HAHA

Gone but not forgotten!

New Living Quarters

Whew!!

I wish I had thought to start this blog when we first bought our property. I am trying to get it up-to-date and to the point where our house is being built. I still need to post a few items regarding the trailer being moved off the property. Then I will begin posting about the building of our dream house. I am heading to bed so I can begin again tomorrow with my blog. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy it.

Spruced Up!

We wanted to go ahead and paint the garage and have that done before we started building. As Rawson worked on the barn I painted the garage. Because we could not afford new garage doors, I bleached the old ones and painted them with a power sprayer. I chose Woodlawn Juniper for the garage and Sundried Tomato for the doors on the workshop. These pictures were taken in May of 2013.

Horses - What It's All About!

Need I say more?! These 5 amazing creatures are definitely what Mountain Bottom Farm is all about. Jantsje is a Friesian (a breed from Friesland, a province in the Netherlands). She is registered in Holland and I bought her before she was even born. I trained her and she is 10 years old. Bella is our 8 year old Belgian mare. A Belgian is a draft horse breed and is seen throughout history as a plow horse. Nacho (a Tobiano) is our 12 year old American Paint gelding and Queenie (an Overo) is our 13 year old American Paint mare. Last but not least, Tucker is a Quarter Horse Arabian cross gelding. Tucker is our oldest at 18.

Nacho and Queenie

Bella

Jantsje

Bella

Jantsje and Bella

Tucker

Friday, August 30, 2013

The Seasons of Starr Mountain

Here are a few pictures of the view we have of Starr Mountain during the changing seasons.

God's Creatures

Animals, big and small, are a large part if not the best part, of Mountain Bottom Farm. We moved here with 5 horses and several dogs and cats. Not to mention 4 snakes, 3 lizards, a giant frog, a hedgehog and 2 birds. Over the last couple of years we have lost 3 very important animals. Noah's Green Cheeked Conure Rico died-he accidently met the jaws of Chancey's Chihuahua Olive. Olive was later killed by a rattlesnake and Noah's Papillon Wasabi was killed by one of the horses during a storm. We still have a hard time with the loss of these 3 amazing animals. We have a handful of barn cats that keep snakes and rodents away. Our oldest cat River is 15 years old and our oldest dog, Gravels, is 15 as well. We have rescued a few more and my sister Calli gave us her beloved Gertie Sue who we adore. Our other dogs are Ivy, Turkey, Lucy and Penny. Here are a few pictures of our animals. I will designate a post for the horses next.

Zip and River