We’ve been on the prairies one week today! I thought I’d share a little about it now that we’re getting into a bit of a groove.
Graydon (dh) came home at about 6:30 am after his 12 hour night shift. I barely woke as he gave me a kiss goodnight/morning and slept a bit longer before getting up quietly so as not to wake him.
Took my little 2 pound, 7 ounce doggie out for his morning constitutional, let the bigger dogs out, and filled the horses water buckets as well. Can you tell our horses are enjoying life with NO MUD?!
I spent some time doing laundry and a bit of cleaning until the kids got up, then had a bite to eat, a coffee, and spent some time on the computer researching a few things. My train of thought this morning;
-whole house water purification (this is to figure out how to rid the house of the sulfer/rotten egg smelling water). Can be done, but some what pricey. Won’t be happening any time in the near future but good to know it’s a possibility if we decide to buy this place.
-managing small horse acreage/farms, a great link for reading: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pdf/ec/ec1610.pdf
-trying some new ways to contact rogers wireless in hopes of a resolution WITHOUT having to speak on the phone to anyone. SO tired of the phone right now.
Once I was finished my coffee, I decided to get back to painting! The girls and I have been painting my new sewing room. When the movers brought all our things I decided to keep the room as empty as possible until after I could finish painting it. This is an OLD farm house, which I can handle, but what I couldn’t handle was BRIGHT DARK PINK walls AND ceiling in my sewing room. I’m not all that picky of a person, I can live with a lot of things being imperfect, but bright pink walls AND ceiling in MY creative corner of the world? Nope. That’s one thing I had to change pretty quick. lol
I should have gotten a ‘before’ picture, but you can see the pretty pink ceiling non the less!
If they hadn’t painted the ceilings too, I may have been able to handle it for a little while but then on the other hand, I know what my sewing space gets like once it’s being well used and moving everything OUT, after moving it all in, seemed like a total waste of time that a gallon or two of paint could fix pretty easily.
With a room this poorly cared for, even my 12 year old twins were able to help paint without fear of messing anything up. lol They were happy to be ‘grown ups’ and do ‘real’ work!
While painting one of our neighbours showed up. He rents the workshop and quonset on the property (just until August, then they become ours) so while he was here I decided to take a break and ask him some questions about the area, watering animals, and gardening locally.
That turned into an hour+ visit and I learned all that I was hoping to find out, and more!
By the time I was finished visiting with our neighbour, Graydon was awake and it was time to get started on dinner. When he works nights, he leaves by about 5:15 so the three girls and I have an early dinner with him at 4:30. Then I keep things warm for the ‘boys/guys’ when they get home from work.
As I was putting the lasagna into the oven, the electric company showed up to locate where our electric lines are situated. We need to put up more fencing, and in the future hope to build the girls a riding ring, so we need to know where everything is located.
Once we were finished our dinner and Graydon left for work, the girls and I did some cleaning, finished painting my new studio, set out dinner for the guys, and then they all spent lots of time playing & working outside.
Now it’s time for a cup of tea and a snack before bed. It’s been a long and productive day!
A photo from our new neighbourhood.
I’m so glad you guys are getting settled in. I love your pictures. Your sewing room will be great…there’s nothing like fresh paint to make a space your own. I’ll have to go see what you’ve been up to since I’m a little out of the loop.
I’m glad to hear you guys are settling in nicely. We have “sulfur water” here in Duncan and my MIL had it at her place near 100 Mile House. She gave me a great tip: put the water in open bottles or jars and leave it for about 24 hours. The taste will be almost gone. By 48 hours you won’t notice it. We want to get the filtration system too but was quoted around 5000.
Sounds wonderful & looks beautiful, Pietra! Even thru all the work, I can hear your contentment. SO excited for you! Love, Holly
I’m SO glad your family is back together! The land is so beautiful! I have a few tips on your water….we live on the southeast coast of the US, a few miles from the ocean, and our well water is AWFUL. Horrible rust and sulfur. We decided to have Culligan come out, test our water, and we eventually had a system installed that includes a softener, green sand tank, and potassium treatment. This cost us about $3000. The potassium completely kills our sulfur smell and before it was absolutely HORRID!!! I would highly recommend you have someone from a well company come out and check the well, as well as test your water. My neighbors (who don’t have the rust problem as bad as we do) have had success with treating the well with good old bleach– but I would get the opinion of a well person first. If they don’t recommend bleaching the well, then I would call someone like Culligan. If you don’t need to treat for rust as well, you could probably go with a simpler system. Good luck!!
Thank you so much for sharing your adventure. The pictures say it all. I am so HAPPY for you! Water can be a difficult thing. We bought an acreage with 2 gallons per minute deep water well that had gas in the water that made it sputter, iron bacteria that made the toilets slimy and smell, and too much salt for healthy drinking though it is great for washing clothes.The first thing we did was purchase a water system. It was $5000 for a holding tank, chlorination unit, carbon filter, Reverse Osmosis (bottled water type treatment for drinking) and on-demand pump. Ouch! But water is so important to family life that we decided when we bought to take the plunge. No regrets. But, it is best to be completely aware of what you are dealing with in terms of amount and type of water before you buy any place as there are better and worse situations. Definately worth investigating and likely water testing can be done at a local health unit for free. Not sure in SK. But important stuff to know.