A Place to Grow Up...

Yep, we're moving to the country! Yesterday we signed the rental agreement and the move in date is in 3 weeks. The top picture is the west half of the new place. The rest of it is a 2½ acre field behind the barn. I took a couple pictures, but the kids were having too much fun exploring and I was too busy being on the lookout for wasp nests to take any more.

The Front Yard.

This is the area directly west (top left corner in the overhead view) of the house. It's fenced off so there will be no wandering children meeting the small pond north of the driveway. There is a small deck off the dining room that these pictures were taken from.

South of the Driveway

This sight (which is what you see from the front door) literally took my breath away when we first viewed the house. The big pond is beyond the willow trees, and right now it's mostly dry. I think there's some sort of blockage in the creek that feeds it, to blame for that. It would also explain why the small field south of the barn is slightly soggy and happily growing cattails.

The Barn

With Emma racing to catch up with Dolly, PC and Butler who had already headed for the back field. I was standing next to the chicken coop to take this picture, but I forgot to take a picture of the coop itself. Maybe I didn't think of it because there are blackberry bushes trying to take over the chicken yard. Speaking of blackberries, the kids had a blast picking and eating as many as they could reach. As I helped Ricka pick her very first berries, I said to her, "Careful! Don't pick the green ones, Ricka. Be careful, you don't want to get snagged by the prickles" and I guided her tiny hand through the brambles. She was so excited to be able to pick the berries just like the big kids, that as we wandered back toward the house, she said to me, "I pick da prickles all by myself! I pick some more prickles?" Apparently, in stressing the dangers of the thorns and prickles, I didn't use the word 'berry' or 'berries' enough!

Inside the barn there are 3 stalls, a work bench/shop area and small feed room. There's another room that you can only get to from the woodshed area on the left (or north side) of the barn, and a fully insulated loft accessible via the outside stairs or a ladder and trapdoor inside.

The back field from the barn.

Here the older kids were heading out to see if there were more blackberry bushes along the back fence. Ricka saw me pull out the camera and smiled for the shot and I'm not sure why Emma was just standing there. Maybe she was already heading back since it looked like it was going to be a long run to catch the other three kids.

The kids still haven't seen the inside of the house, and I didn't take any pictures of it yet, but I think they'll love the inside as much as all the room to run outside! But for now I have to get busy packing!