Sunday, December 19, 2010

Uncle Oby and Auntie Josie

Sweet sleep after playing the day away.
Luke roaring at his aunt. I believe he said he was a wolf.

The children reading with Uncle.


Our new animals

This is our barn cat-Ansel. He is black and white. This is as close
as I've ever been to him. (He is in the center of the picture)

This is Huck getting decorated by Daphne.

Merry Christmas!

Ryan is the center king.
Live Nativity at Lynchwood.

Dear friends and family,

Merry Christmas! We hope this letter finds you and your family in good spirits and health.
This year has been a great adventure. Here are some highlights.

We are very excited to announce we have a new home. Our journey started in late 2006. At that time, we thought we just needed a bigger house and yard.

We decided to wait until there were more homes available on the market, which ended up being a very wise choice. As housing prices fell, we saw more and more options available. We sold our house in Troutdale and moved into a rental in the outer parts of Oregon City in November of 2009. We thought we would live there for a month or two until we closed on a new house. We ended up putting at least 6 offers on different houses in a years’ time. Most of our weekends were spent looking at houses in Corbett, Boring, Eagle Creek, Estacada, Molalla and Canby. We even ventured out to Washington state several times.

As of this November, we are now living in a wonderful house on 5 acres in Sandy. It is a lovely home with a good layout that fits our family well. There is a shop, small barn and 3 pastures divided by a white 3 rail fence. The prior owners took very good care of it so it was mostly move-in ready. We are now working on getting it set up the way we’d like to have it.

Our new neighbors have a horse boarding facility and have around 18 horses on their property. This gives us a view of beautiful horses right next to the house, with no horse maintenance! There is also a small pond, which we hope to stock with trout in the future.

Ryan is enjoying farm life. In the short time we have been here he has cut the fields, plowed the driveway, and scooped the leaves with his tractor. He is happy to have a shop with elbowroom for his projects. Ryan currently is contemplating how to set up for the animals we will get next spring. He and Luke spend a lot of his off work time doing farm work together. They enjoy riding the ATV and working alongside each other. .

This will be Ryan’s 10th year at PacifiCorp. He is currently manager of external reporting.

Shelsea is excited about having a permanent home to live in. She is now working on getting the house running in a more orderly fashion. She is also schooling Luke this year, and enjoying doing so

She is learning about how to raise farm animals, plant gardens, compost, and store food. This has been especially challenging given that the food must be gluten, nut, oat and sometimes dairy free. But she is confident she will find good substitutes.

Luke is 5 and in kindergarten this year. He is learning to read. He particularly enjoys learning facts about wildlife.

He is adjusting to farm life well. He enjoys riding the tractor and ATV with his dad. He is learning to help with the yard work, getting firewood and is learning how to take care of our dogs It is good to see him growing up and having mature conversations with his dad about what they will do on the farm together. Luke wants to do everything like his dad!

Daphne is 2. She spends her time playing pretend with her brother. She is a little shadow now and wants to participate in whatever activity everyone else is doing. She especially likes to help her mom cook and unload the dishwasher. She is also our little singer. She will belt out a song almost anywhere.

We also adopted a dog. He is a 6 year old, chocolate lab named Huck. He fits right in. He and Smokey like to go on walks together. It is almost like he’s been here all along.

We hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas and a good new year!