A fun weekend with family!

This past weekend Troye's brother and his family came over. We had a great time hanging out. We cooked good food, shot the BB guns, went exploring, had a huge campfire and stayed up way too late! It was a super fun weekend!

Deer!

I forgot to post our pictures of the first deer we have harvested on the property! We have tons of deer but they can be difficult to see during the day! Troye set up a tree stand and was able to see several. He shot a very large doe. So excited to fill the freezer with deer meat! We are processing our own meat too!

Working together

One thing for sure, there is never a lack of work to be done! We have so many ideas and projects we want to do, it can be hard to decide where to start! We want the barn done but honestly with time and money a factor it will take longer than we would like. We have rabbits on order and scheduled to be delivered in January and we need somewhere to keep them. We started working on a simple green house to give he rabbits a place to stay. We are also still tending to the garden.

A hunting we will go....

So deer season is here! Everyone is excited and ready to kill a deer but for some reason the deer have vanished! Smart on their part but not good for our freezer! Part of the problem is our neighbors on all sides! One decided to timber his land just two weeks before opening day and another decided to build a pier on their pond on opening weekend! Sure is hard to hunt when everyone around you is moving and making changes to the land! But we are still seeing evidence of deer movement, we just have to find the right time to take one! It will certainly be really exciting when we do kill one!

First snake!!

Yikes! We have seen the first snake on our land. It was in the woods and Colt spotted it. We all went to look and sure enough there was a small snake! I am so glad that this is the first one we have seen in the 11 months we have been coming to the land! I sure hope we don't see another one for a long time!!

Finding berries!!

We have been walking the property and trying to identify different plants and trees. We want to clean up some areas but don't want to kill or get rid of any food bearing trees! We have two pecan trees but they don't seem to produce much so we are going to see about having them grafted. We have also learned that we have American Beautyberry plants and Farkleberry trees! Both are edible berries though best used for jelly! So we are in the process of picking the berries and hope to have our first batch of jelly soon!!

Day 79 - Rv

Today we headed to the land.  The water was scheduled to be installed but when we arrived they were not working on it! I called and found out that the permit had not arrived yet so they couldn't start.  The septic guys were there installing the tanks.  That was great but also problematic.  They need water in them so that they don't float up.  So after lots of calls and discussions we finally decided that the septic guy would bring about 800 gallons of water tomorrow and then if more is needed the guys from the water company would get more water from the fire department.  The water company is trying to be helpful since this delay is due to their mistake.  And we do appreciate that.  After lunch we worked on the barn.  We are just staking out the perimeter for now.  But it is fun and exciting to work on something. The boys had fun playing in the rock and dirt piles that were left over from the septic digging.  We were tired when we headed home!  I was really sad that we couldn't just walk into the house and sleep!  The septic should be finished tomorrow and then hopefully we will get a permit soon and can start the boring and connect the water.  Of course the holiday on Wednesday means that nothing will happen until Thursday.

Day 70 - Rv

We woke up early and enjoyed to cool morning air, which quickly turned hot!  The boys were excited because Grammy, Grumpy, Grandad and all the cousins were coming over!  Colt and I headed to town to get some items and Troye and Cam worked a little. We showed the house off to Grammy, Grumpy and Grandad.  Then we went to Trinity to eat at DQ.  We were gone about an hour and when we got back Bobber (who was in his kennel) was very sick.  He could barely walk.  Troye and Grandad took care of him and got him to the creek.  He laid there for hours, not able to move.  We are very sure he had a heat stroke.  Uncle Trev and Aunt Steph came but because of Bobber being sick we didn't get to have fun.  Grammy and Grumpy had to head back too.  After about 4 hours of Bobber being in the creek, Troye and Trever had to carry him out.  We brought him back to the camper and made a  bed for him.  He never even lifted his head.  We will have to get him to a vet but since it is the weekend we will wait until monday.  :(

Day 69 - RV

We got up early and loaded up all of our camping supplies (not the rv!)  We went to the water company and took care of that business then headed to our property.  We were able to look in the house and we all enjoyed being able to just look without anyone there working.  The workers were not there at all today. But all the work they did this week looks good.  It was super hot so we just sort of hung out and rode the 4 wheeler and such until dusk.  Then we got ready to cook supper and realized that part of the grill was missing! Ha!  so we went down by the creek and set up the tent and then made a small campfire (it is 100 degrees!) We cooked hotdogs over the fire and then had smores!  Cam declared "this is the best day ever"! We have glow sticks for the boys so they put those on then we went riding on the 4 wheeler in the dark.  It was so much fun!  Just before bed we rinsed off as much dirt as we could then headed to bed in the tent.  It was still hot but in the middle of the night it got pretty cool.   It was a super fun day!

Day 51 - Rv

Well we headed out to the land early so we could see the road work being done and then watch the house move.  When we arrived they were working on the road.  The contractor informed us that the moving crew had truck troubles and the house would not be moving today!  Ugh!!  But we hung out and watched the road being fixed and talked with the contractor.  They were done in just a couple of hours and were about the head home.  The tractor they rented was not scheduled to be picked up until the next morning so they told Troye to have fun!  Troye was so excited!  As soon as they left he jumped on the tractor and started driving!  He quickly figured out how to work the bucket and started clearing the land!  I took the boys to DQ for lunch so Troye could work.  When we got back he let the boys each have a turn riding and driving the tactor!  Fun Times!!  We ended up staying until almost dark! We just couldn't pass up the opportunity to use the tractor for free (they are expensive to rent)!!  I think Troye was on the tractor for almost 7 hours!  But he was able to clear lots of the land!  We were so excited and thankful that they let us use it!

 

Day 45 - Rv - HOUSE DAY!

Today was the day!  The house made a move today!  The boys and I went to the land and waited for the house to arrive!  It finally arrived (took a while).  It was cool to see it on trucks and ready to be delivered!  They quickly realized that some work had not been done to the road way.  There were a few trees in the way and the turn was going to make it difficult to get the house into the land.  They took the chainsaw and started chopping more trees down.  After several trees came down they were able to get the house into the land.  The bad news was that there were still several spots that would make it difficult to get the house to the foundation.  The driveway is 850 feet long.  They started trying to clear by hand but then it was decided that they needed to get more equipment.  So they moved the house sections together just off the road in a clear spot.  They will work to get the road cleared more and then move the sections into place.  So we are a little closer to having the house in place, just not as far along as we thought we would be at this point!

scrambling to cut trees down! The house is blocking traffic!

waiting on the road!

Day 39 - Rv - Foundation!

Today we headed to the land to watch the foundation being poured.  The inspector arrived shortly after we did and performed his inspection.  Everything was as it should be so the concrete trucks were dispatched.  Two trucks arrived and started pouring the concrete.  Only two guys were working so they had to work fast to keep the concrete from drying before it was smoothed out.  The boys enjoyed watching the trucks and all of the concrete being poured!  After they were done with the initial smoothing the boys were able to scratch their names into the concrete and we also put the date.  It is getting exciting!! The concrete will dry for several days before they will move the house.  Since Monday is a holiday they are expecting to move it on Tuesday.

Post 38 - RV

Yea!  We went to the land today and ground has been broken!!  SO EXCITED!  We thought they were going to pour the concrete but they inspector could not make it out today so they are planning on pouring the concrete on Wednesday.  It was still exciting to see some progress being made!  We had to stop by the TXDOT office to pick up the final permit for our culverts.  After that we headed back to the rv stopping by Target for a new floatie for Cam and some pool toys.  We have started making it an evening ritual of playing football or frisbee behind the rv each night.  The boys love it and it burns off some of their extra energy.  Tonight we also had some ice cream cones as a treat.  Not that you will be able to tell from the pictures! Ha!


checking out the work!



Good ice cream!

Day 28 - Rv

Today we went out to the land!  It is our land (well the banks) but we wanted to go and enjoy it officially for the first time!  Troye's brother and family came with us.  We played in the creek, had a picnic and shot bb guns!  The boys had a blast!  It was very muddy from the rain last week.  The boys loved running around and getting stuck in the mud.  Troye bought the boys bb guns.  This is Cam's first one and he was one proud boy!  He wouldn't stop shooting!  And was so proud when he started hitting the cans!   It was a fun day!

Cam is so ready to shoot!

Here we go!

Both boys shooting!

The gang of boys (big and little) shooting!

Day 25 - Rv - CLOSING!

We finally did it!  We closed on the land and house! It took 2 hours and so many signatures I can't even count! I honestly can't believe the day actually arrived!  I thought we would celebrate afterwards but both of our heads were killing us, we just wanted to relax with the boys!  A friend mentioned that it is different than buying a house because after closing we didn't get to rush off to the house like you do when buying a house already built.  So many some of that super excitement will resurface when construstion begins!  Don't get me wrong, we are excited!  We have a meeting tomorrow with the house people so we should find out more about the schedule!

Day 21 - Rv

We headed out to the land today.  We thought we would be the official owners by today, but that isn't the case.  But we needed to go check out a few things anyway.  I needed to grab the mail and we wanted to check out the rv park near the land.  It is a nice rv park but after stopping by we decided to stay where we are till we can move into the house.  We are meeting our neighbors at our current place and we have a super nice spot and lots of stuff to do.  The other rv park doesn't have as much to do and we could only pick certain spots and they just were not as nice as the one we have.  So at least we know where we will be staying for a little longer!  It was a super hot day so we didn't stay long at the land.  We just rode the 4 wheeler looking at the dozer work that had been completed.  We came back to the rv and went swimming!  We needed to cool off!

Day 11 - Rv

Today we headed to the land.  We went by to see the dozer work that was started today!  Amazing what just a little moving of dirt can do to the looks of the land!  Sure hope i like the land once it is cleared!  It really did look good and I can see that we are going to have a huge pile to burn!  After we stopped at the land we headed to the TXDOT office.  We had to sign a paper for the culvert permit.  This permit is necessary to get the culvert approved and apparently can take a few weeks to complete.  We also spoke with the loan officer and we are meeting tomorrow for a final look at papers.  Once this is complete we will schedule closing for early next week! Getting closer to starting construction!  Yea! 

Doesn't look like much, but work has at least started!

Day 2 - Rv

We had a great nights sleep last night! I was glad to sleep on a real mattress instead of an air mattress!  We had meetings at the land today so we got up early and loaded our utility trailer with wood and stuff to take out to the land.  There was a slight chance of rain and of course it rained!  We were still able to meet the electric company man and a guy from construction.  But we were not able to leave the trailer.  It was just too muddy and Troye's truck would certainly get stuck.  So we brought it back!  But while we were at the land we took advantage of the ripe blackberries! We picked a bucket full!  I promised the boys we would make blackberry cobbler tomorrow.  Tonight we made freezer jam.  We made both blackberry and strawberry!  And it was GOOD!  We decided to have breakfast for dinner so we could eat the new jam!  The boys both liked it and ate a huge dinner!  Can't wait to make the cobbler and go pick more!

Picking the blackberries

Making Jam

The blackberries!