Disclaimer: The following is not from Tonya but from her husband.  Consider this entry to be like the part of a movie that is left on the cutting room floor but is later added to the DVD version.

Trying to pick out an appropriate placard for the move; I was looking for “bio-hazard” or something nuclear related. “No Prawns” from District 9 would have also been cool.

Don’t let little girls pack their stuff without parental supervision.  I found a bunch of tiny boxes in the trailer with things like one small stuffed animal in them.  No wonder we went thru so many rolls of packing tape.

Going out to eat has been fun.  At the Village Inn during free pie night Sammy discovered throwing (he's throwing jelly packages) and is using Calvin as a backstop.

Kid’s meals are bigger in MO.  Sammy: “Come on Lady, I’m only 1 ½… are you serious? I'm going to have to throw more than half of this across the table!”

One evening all we had for dinner was pumpkin pie.  The meal was great (TJ made them) and the best part was that we didn't have to get new plates dirty for dessert.  If more families only ate dessert for dinner it would reduce the amount of water needed to clean dishes and help save the planet.

The chicken lady (Tonya may not like me posting this).

To compensate here’s a cool pic of Tonya that has nothing to do with MO (except maybe that she looks like Josey Wales' great great great grand daughter).

Keena really likes her new room.

I love this truck, it compensates for my lack of farming knowledge.  When I show up at the feed/tractor supply people automatically think I know what I’m doing.

The van... well not so much.  With some Ford products it would be nice to also own a tow truck.

BTW, the Tractor Supply in Leesburg is the equivalent of a 7-11.  The tractor supply type stores in MO are serious business, they have fork lifts and loading docks that you pull up to (Tonya posted a pic of one).  You can also buy oil the old fashion way in 55 gallon drums.

The only nice thing about being alone and trying to find a renter for the house in VA is that I can eat chocolate at any meal.  These are awesome.  They must be the equivalent of meth in the drug world.  If the kids were around I couldn't get away with this.  They would think “dad eats one whenever he wants so it’s ok for me” and with only three of these in a box for $4.75 I couldn't afford it if the whole family got addicted.  When I get back to MO I’m going to have to hide when I eat these.  I also get to drink beer whenever I want (thanks to Vinnie for this one).

Chick Days

 Now that our animals have adjusted to their new surroundings…           

 

…we are ready for more to raise.  

   
The plan was to get chicks in the early spring so we could have egg layers in the late summer, but Saturday was Chick Days at a local hardware and farm store so we decided to bump up our plans a little.  We bought 200 chicks along with ten guineas and five ducks just for fun.  There was a water trough available to use on the property for a brooder, so we put 100 pullets (females) in it along with wood shavings for bedding.  We had to buy another trough for the second 100 that are “straight run” (a mix of male and female).  All the roosters will be heading to the stew pot when they are old enough.

The red light is what makes this set up a brooder.  It keeps the chicks at a nice warm temperature, imitating the warmth of mama hen.  Really, any strong incandescent bulb will do (as long as those environmentalists don’t outlaw them all).  The red light will allow them to get the sleep they need at night so they don’t think it is daylight all the time.   

We just need to keep them fed, watered and dry.  The ducks are a bit of a challenge, they drink three times the water and like to get it all over them and their bedding.  Aren’t they cute?  

Family Bonding

     A friend told me that one of the most precious things when they moved was the time the family spent together.  All they had was each other and their relationships grew.  Someone else who I know and moves quite a bit told me that the first six weeks are priceless for family bonding, then a child gets invited to a birthday party and the world pours in.  The kids are enjoying each other and having a great time.  Don’t make a wrong assumption as is common when reading blogs; frequently someone gets on another’s nerves, out of work, or up on the wrong side of the bed.  We haven’t found the solution to have a perfect family but they are having fun doing things together.  

     Three of the boys went exploring and found a cave with the excuse that one of them needed to describe a place for his writing assignment.  Two went exploring down one side of a hill and ran into a nest of yellow jackets so they turned around and flew home, each leaving one of their Crocs behind.  After three days they ventured back to get the lost shoes.  One of the rooms in the double-wide mobile home on the property has a painfully bright, pink room.  The three girls have spent hours setting up and playing with all their girly toys.  The second oldest has been baking pies frequently.  The kids pulled out some old games last night.  One of the boys, in an attempt to get out of unpacking the truck by secretly riding off on his bike discovered that, "It was a lot of work to get out of work."  He and one of his brothers flew down a very steep hill and then spent many grueling minutes pushing the bike up. 

  

    Our family van was out of commission for a week, but thankfully is fixed and in better shape than it has been in a long time.  The kids want to get out and make new friends, but they have been enjoying one another in the meantime.  

A few moving pictures...moments we will never forget.  The first trailer load, the one we packed twice.

Many of you asked how we moved the animals. Here is the answer: goats, rabbits and chickens. The chickens even laid eggs on the journey.

After the night of the storm at the Days Inn.

My "little" tractor I towed.

The milking stand even got squeezed in with the animals.  

Paul's excitement during the storm.

We made it!  All of the animals survived, from the dairy goats down to the red-eyed tree frog.  There may have been a couple bees that squeezed out of their hive, but the two queens and the majority of the workers are busy enjoying the pollen found in the Ozark Mountains.  I am still without internet but am mooching off the free WIFI at Mickey D’s and the local library.

The adventure was not without its challenges.  Plan A ended up turning into plan F or G (I lost count).   The shipping company, who said they would send someone over beforehand to look at our sea container but didn’t, informed us after we packed the thirty-foot container full that they couldn’t take it.  Thankfully, another shipping company had a trailer free to send over to our house on the same Friday, so we spent the entire day into the late night stuffing it (thanks for your help Graham and Sean).  They took it the next morning and we prepared to leave Tuesday in the wee morning hours.   Two was the departure hour, but of course all trips get off to a late start and we left at three ante meridian. 

The early morning hours didn’t bother me, the lack of sleep didn’t bother me, and the little children in my van didn’t bother me, it was pulling a trailer with a little 2 ton tractor in the dark, up and down the hills of Pennsylvania and West Virginia that bothered me.  And then there were multiple construction sites with cement barriers I had to squeeze through that made my blood pressure rise.  But God is faithful and his mercies are new every morning, and boy, I was looking forward to that sun coming up and some flat land to drive on.  After that experience, I was a pro at towing. 

Notice we took the Northern route.  My dear husband was not thinking about all that we would be towing when we started out the way he had gone before, so those hills added hours to our trip.  (Yes, they are hills; I grew up in the Rocky Mountains so everything out East is a hill).  The driving was smooth until the evening when we met our first tornado warning with thunderstorms.  Welcome to Missouri!  Paul and the older boys were ahead of us and they continued on through the night since they had the animals.  My mom, the five younger ones, the dog, little creepy things and I stayed at the Days Inn.  I was so concerned about all the details, but the Lord worked them all out.  They took dogs at the hotel, they allowed me to park my monstrosity so I didn’t have to back up, and they even allowed my two extra kids (according to fire code) to stay in the room.  We had a nice complimentary breakfast the next morning and made it to Highlandville with lovely weather by the afternoon.  My poor husband drove back to VA the Sunday after we arrived and still has a lot of work to do—more loading, cleaning, fixing things, etc.  We are missing him.   

The view is lovely, the house works well for us, and the dog can finally run free like a dog should.