AHHHHH!!

OK, this was crazy! I had just finished cutting Logan's hair and there was hair all over the bathroom. He was just getting in the bath tub. I was doing laundry and there were clothes all over the couch, I hadn't made the beds this morning since we had no showings scheduled for today, and there were Legos everywhere. Of course, this is when I get a call that someone wants to see the house in 5 minutes. You don't want to turn a showing away so I said ok. I then ran around like a crazy person for 5 minutes. I made the beds, opened the blinds, turned on lights because it is raining today and the house is a little dreary. I threw the clothes in the basket and put them in the basement. And they showed up.

I let them in, told them my son was in the bath, apologized for the Legos on the couch and ran upstairs to clean the bathroom Logan was in, which of course was the master bath which is a main selling point of a house. While they looked around downstairs, I got Logan dressed, used a towel to clean up all the hair in the tub and on the counter (Logan has really thick hair and it gets everywhere after a haircut), and threw a rug over the hair on the floor. No time to vacuum!

Overall, the house didn't look bad, but there were some things out that usually wouldn't be and we were there for the whole showing. They only stayed about 5 minutes, I'm not sure how long a showing usually lasts, I hope they didn't rush out on our account.

My adrenaline is rushing! I can't seem to calm down. Wow, I guess there is always an incident like this when showing a house. So far we've had at least 3 hours notice for a showing, usually we have 24 hours notice.

Tomatoes and an update

I guess I can't call them seedlings anymore, they've gotten too big. They are now full blown plants. I transplanted all my tomatoes yesterday out of their little plastic cups and into pots. It was past time to do it, they were getting a little root bound.


Don't they look nice! I have 2 Amish Paste, 2 Hungarian Paste and 2 Sweet Olive. I hope we move in time for me to get more in the ground before winter comes. Winter comes later to the Atlanta area so I'm going to try when we get there and hope for the best.

A close up of one of my Hungarian Paste.

I'm very excited by this! I've never successfully grown tomatoes from seeds. Of course, it won't really be successful until I get tomatoes from them but I've never made it this far before. Having a grow light helps so much, it was well worth the money! I'll probably get another one for next year.


House update:
The house has been on the market for a week. We've had 8 showings with another scheduled for this afternoon. We don't have any scheduled for tomorrow yet but Sunday is a big house hunting day around here so I expect to get some scheduled today. And our house will be in the paper today with a bunch of pictures and stuff.


2 of the people that came to look bought other houses, 2 of them have further interest but aren't in any hurry since it is a buyer's market. 1 actually came back for a second showing, they were trying to decide between 3 houses, they still haven't decided yet. And the rest we never heard back from. It is really frustrating our realtor that so many people aren't getting back to us on what they thought.


We also had a realtors open house this week. We had about 10 realtors through and they filled out comment cards. They all liked the house, said it was in great shape and had a wonderful lot. There were some minor criticisms that we fixed or decided to ignore. About half thought the house was priced right and about half thought it was too high. We were the same price as the 2 other houses that are the same as ours but they both dropped their prices this week, so I'm guessing we will be dropping our price soon.


On the upside, 2 of the houses for sale in this neighborhood sold this week so there is less competition. They had both been on the market 4-6 weeks so I guess it was their turn. There are only 2 other houses in our price range for sale in this neighborhood now so that is good.


We've had a showing everyday this week and I have to admit I'm getting a little worn out trying to keep up with the house. I have to have it show ready every day. I love having so many showings! But it is getting tiring to wake up and clean every morning. I may be going overboard but I just want this house to sell so much!

UPDATED: As of 9 pm Saturday night we have no showings scheduled for Sunday. I guess the rush of showings is over. I have to admit I'm feeling rather discouraged right now.

Update on house

We had 3 showings today which is pretty good in this market. We're waiting to hear from our realtor to see if they were just realtors or actual people looking to buy. We'll also hear what they thought of the house and know if we need to change or work on anything.

At 8:30 this morning Mark heard someone pounding on our garage door. He went out and it was an older woman who was visiting her friend who lives across the street. Turns out it has been this woman's dream to live across the street from her friend so she was coming over to say she wanted to buy our house. She asked Mark what she should do now, he told her to call her realtor and arrange a showing. She seeemed really serious that she wanted to buy our house. Mark said she was shaking and on the verge of tears she was so excited. Hopefully she isn't crazy!

Seedlings

The seedlings are doing great. Growing really big and all. The peas, spinach and swiss chard were all transplanted a few weeks ago and are doing well.


The rest, which are mostly tomatoes moved outside about a week and a half ago. They are living in a large rubbermaid container that is acting as a makeshift cold frame. I remove the lid in the morning and put it on at night. The high sides protect them from the wind. The tomatoes are ready to transplant into big pots and put out into the elements. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about them. I don't want to fill our deck with pots but I also don't want to waste our seedlings. I guess I'll start transplanting them and see what I end up with. I may end up giving some away.

It's Official...

We're moving to Georgia! The house went on the market today. We'll be somewhere outside the Atlanta area, either Monroe or Commerce if you are familiar with the area. We can't move until the house sells so send us fast house selling energy!

The last 3 weeks have been insane here! We've repainted the whole house, including inside all the closets and pantry, we've cleaned all the stains out of the carpets (and some took a lot of work!), we've packed up about half of what we own, we re-did all the pictures and decorations, we stained the deck, and planted all new flowers. Our goal was to make it look like a model home. And I think we did it! Even the realtor was impressed with the work we did. I think the house looks really nice, but it certainly doesn't look like our home anymore.

Logan has been great with all this, he's helped so much and hasn't complained too much when the stress of it all got to Mark or I and we became unpleasant to be around. He is making his bed and cleaning his room every morning without even being asked. He is just as eager to move as I am so that helps. I'm sure we will have some sadness and trouble adjusting from him but so far he's been nothing but positive.

Here is a link to our listing if you are interested: http://www.psre.com/public/viewList.asp?ID=1.472.11982.48393.17903.19436127

The listing will be on all the real estate sites tomorrow and we should start having showings this weekend. It is all very exciting, as well as scary and sad. As much as we want to move, it is going to be hard to leave everyone and everything we know here. Luckily, I already know a few people in the Atlanta area from blogs I read. I'm so eager to meet them in person!

Cute pictures

We took my dad out to the farm Saturday to meet the sheep. We were hoping to work with Senate while we were there so he could see Logan doing it, but I wasn't successful at catching her this time. I guess we still need to work on catching Senate without Trebs there to help.

This is the newest baby on the farm. Her name is Phoenix and her mom died during birth. So she is a bottle baby. We are getting to give her the 3 pm feeding every day this week. We are both very excited about it! She is so sweet.


While I was trying to catch Senate, Loretta was following Logan around wanting attention. He finally gave her some.

This was a 4H sheep at one time and you can tell. She is very friendly and loved eating the treats Logan had brought for Senate.
Since I wasn't successful at catching Senate, I decided to put the halter on Loretta since she was following me around anyway. She did just what Senate did when we first put the halter on her. Loretta was not happy!

Here is Senate with her mom and sister, safely out of my reach.

Senate - days 4 and 5

Saturday when we went out for shearing, Logan also worked with Senate. She is getting much easier to catch, which is nice. He tied her to the fence for 10 minutes or so to let her calm down and then he started walking her. This is the first time he'd really walked her. She fought and jumped around for the first 5 minutes or so but Logan was patient and she lost interest in fighting. She then walked next to him pretty nicely for about 15 minutes. She would tug or stop every now and then but really she was being very well behaved. It is amazing after only working with her 4 times she is to this point.



Logan looks like he is in a zen sheep zone here.

We went to work with her again today but I didn't take any pictures. We didn't tie her to the fence at all, just went straight to walking. It went really, really well! She is learning to walk with Logan. We also practiced stopping and getting her to stop next to him and starting like you would do at a show. She should make a really good show lamb. We'll go back again Friday and get her used to be felt up by judges.

I thought this was going to be a long struggle but it is going so quickly! And she is eating real food now so we can start giving her treats which will make things even easier. I'm so glad we decided to do this, we both have so much confidence now about getting our own lambs someday.

Seedlings

Seedlings are doing good. The peas, spinach and swiss chard have gone outside to live and are doing well. Although we haven't had any sun since I put them out. The tomatoes and a few other things are still inside and also doing well.


They should be ready to start hardening off and be moved outside soon.

Sheep shearing

On Saturday we went to the farm to help shear all the sheep. This was their full shearing. She had hired 2 professional shearers to come out and do the shearing, so we were there mostly to watch and help when we could.

First, all the sheep were put in the hoop house and confined to a small area with cattle panels to make them easy for the shearers to catch. Don't they look happy?

Then, the 2 guys would pull a sheep out each and get to work. First they trimmed hooves.
Then they started down the stomach and moved to the neck.
Down the neck and onto the sides.
Lay the sheep down to work around to the back.
Flip the sheep over the get the other side so that your cuts meet at the back.
Pull the sheep out of the fleece and let them go. You now have a complete sheep fleece sitting on the ground with no sheep in it. It looked so cool!
Take the fleece to the table and skirt it. This means removing all the poopy parts that you don't want ending up in your yarn. These fleeces will be sent to the mill to be spun into yarn.
Naked sheep! They look so funny without their fleece.

Fleece is interesting because while it seems yucky and coarse on the outside, the inside is so soft and clean. The part that was up against the skin is wonderful!

It was a really fun day and we learned so much! Logan also worked with Senate and is making great progress, but I'll post about that later. Things have been crazy here the last few days so I've fallen behind on posts and answering comments.

Senate - Day 3

We went out to work with Senate today. It was a much more successful day. I caught her instantly and we got the halter on her and took her to our training spot. She only freaked out for about a minute before settling down. She actually feel asleep! Brisket is the black dog you see, she is old and very calm and helped us calm Senate down. I think Senate could feel the calm energy coming off the dog.

Skinny Puppy also decided to come help, but Skinny Puppy does NOT have calm energy. Luckily, she got bored quickly and went on her way.

After having so much success with Senate, Logan decided to try to walk her on the lead. That went pretty well, Logan was able to keep her moving but keep her from running. It is a good start. That gate in the background is where we are tying Senate up to work with her.
Here is the promised picture of the speckly lamb. Isn't it pretty? This one is for you Twinville.
And the piglets have grown so much! But they are still friendly.

Working with Senate

We went out to work with Senate today. It went better than last time. It took about 15 minutes to catch her, we need to work on that part! But after we caught her we took her away from the other sheep and tied her to a fence. Then we just sat with her and pet her while she freaked out about the halter for 5 minutes or so. She calmed down and just lied there looking like she wanted to die. We gave her a lot of pets and tried to give her some treats, but she isn't really eating food yet so treats held no appeal. This time was a lot less stressful, at least for us :)

Gemini the cat decided to come help us. Cats are always helpful.
After working with Senate for about 20 minutes, Logan got to give Loretta her bottle. Loretta is getting really obnoxious, she followed us around the whole time we were there yelling at us, and chewing on my pants. It was pretty funny, we were chasing Senate around trying to catch her, and Loretta was chasing us crying the whole time!
Look at her get into that bottle.
I'm not sure if you can see it in this picture, but when she was done her whole face was covered in milk.
And a pretty black and white lamb for those of you who like that type of thing :).
There is a really pretty new baby that is black with white spots all over. I wasn't able to get a picture today because she is still in the barn, but when we go back she should be out on pasture and I'll get a picture of her. The spots are precious!