Life in November

We have slowly yet surely been getting settled since we moved our Family at the beginning of October. A big move like this is exhausting, and exciting, and just so much more work than I anticipated. But, the fog is slowly lifting.

With so much going on, and also so little pretty home decor stuff to show- I thought I would just share a little of this and a little of that! We started back homeschooling at the start of October- missed our first day back to school picture- but my kids are in grade 7, grade 5, and grade 1 this year… plus a little 3 year old toddler who keeps things interesting! Everything was back ordered and delayed this year with so many new families homeschooling- so we really eased in which worked well in it’s own way, since we have also been trying to unpack boxes, explore our new surroundings and do all the things.

Animals

I did share this news over on my instagram page ( while I haven’t posted much on my feed, I share often in stories) but we got a Puppy! Our first family dog, and she is precious. Her name is Poplar aka Poppy. She is named after the Poplar trees that grew abundantly in our home province of Alberta, and she is a rapidly growing Great Pyrenees. We brought her home early October. Puppy training has been a bit of work, but it’s also gone surprisingly well! She is crate trained and sleeps inside at night, but will eventually be an “outdoor only farm dog”. He breed is very protective- and fearless against predators like bears and cougars- which we have an abundance of.

We have an apple orchard here on our new farm, and there were multiple bear skats this fall, as well as several broken trees from the bear(s?) having a good old snack. It makes me nervous… and sad for the trees! But we are adjusting. We did inherit an old Great Pyreneese but sadly his owner ended up coming to get him to put him down, as he was doing very poorly in his old age. We were thankful for the time we had with him.

It turns out our 3 barn cats are more like 5… We lost one of our roosters, Sweet Pea, to a predator. The kids were devastated- as we all felt responsible for him not having the right set up. It was the week we moved, and there was chicken drama with the 2 roosters constantly fighting (long story) Anyhoo it was unfortunate.

So- that leads us to our new chicken coop. Which is a reused small livestock structure we dragged up from one of our pastures and plopped right in our back yard. We were temporarily housing our chickens in the greenhouse, but we moved them into their new home last week. We got that set up just in time to pick up our new pullets! (which are like teen chickens almost ready to lay! So no more roosters!!) We got 12 ISA Reds. They’re all so sweet- but of course there’s a little chicken drama in the hen house adding them into the mix with our other chickens.

The House + Projects

Our farmhouse is old (as I mentioned in this post) But we are really only jumping into minor updates to spruce things up for the time being. I’ll share more about that in another post, but we replaced our bathroom door for a barn door, painted another bathroom, painted the living room, built up the floor in a room to make a dining room, and replaced bad drywall and added all new trim in one of the bedrooms. Not to mention painting, painting….

And we’ve also built a large kitchen cabinet base… more like an island. Oh dear there’s a lot! Outside we have sent away multiple dumpster containers of garbage, junk, and scrap metal from the workshop, property and barns. We’ve had multiple burn piles, and oh ya… built a new beautiful shed. We are also working on putting an office into the workshop building… so we have been busy busy. Goodness- no wonder I feel tired. lol That isn’t even the full list.

I plan on sharing more on our projects in future posts of course!

My hope is that I can share more regularly here. But man, I kind of have a giant 2020 emotional hangover. Which has sapped so much of my creative energy. Many days I have to pray and pray to release the all too present knot in my stomach. Our world is hurting, and my heart is feeling it along with everyone else. Also… time feels so limited these days. But I LOVE my little online corner of the world, sharing and connecting here. It is life giving to me, and I hope that it has offered my readers ideas, encouragement, and resources throughout the years.

Matt and I just keep turning back to God. This move has been hard ya’ll. In so many ways it doesn’t make sense in the normal world… but also, it makes all the sense. So we just keep putting one foot in front of the other, following his voice as best we can. We have felt the prayers of many and the love of family and friends carrying us through.

“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” -John 10:10

-Miss Ash