April 16th we left our home. The place we have lived since we got married almost 14 years ago. The home each of our boys came home to from the hospital after they were born; the only home they've ever lived in.
We have torn down old outbuildings, added new ones including building a 20 x 40 quanzet hut. When I was 9 months pregnant with our first son, Jason lifted me up in the John Deere tractor bucket to help hold the tops of the hoops while he bolted them together. He laid all the rebar himself for the concrete floor, hired a truck to dump the concrete then he and his buddies leveled it. It still has Jason, Luke and Nate's names and hand prints in the concrete, as well as a trail of goose prints from some overly curious birds.
Jason loves animals, and he loved those geese . He could call out "babies" and those geese would come to him honking back to respond.
We refenced, twice, after my paint mare Boo damaged them. We've refenced many times since by location to fit the need of whatever animals we had and repairs over and over when goats 🐐 would get their heads stuck and wait to be cut out of the fence. The pig pen was used a few times over the years for fresh pork. Can't beat fresh, home-grown bacon! The pig pen has much more memories for our family. In 2014 Jason was taking boards down from the top of the pig pen when a 4X6" board split long ways and he fell 14' landing on his back bend over the 50 gallon barrel that was the pigs water barrel. He fell from that, unconscious for a few moments. By the time Ben and I realized what happened and got to him he was awake and we didn't know he had been unconscious, neither did he. His friend saw him fall, as did our oldest son who was only 4 at the time. They were both in shock and couldn't even retell what they had seen. Jason got up, insisted he was ok and he needed a shower after crashing into the pig pen. We with his parents finally convened him to go to the ER, he had broken several vertebrae in his spine, again. That's a tale for another day.
Back to the animals; countless ducks were born on our mini-farm over the years and were so fun to watch roam the fields eating bugs and swimming in our pond Jason created himself. He also built the chicken coop attached to one of the sheds. Very sturdy, inner part with electricity for those below zero days, neat boxes where we gathered countless fresh eggs and the boys would often fight over whos turn it was to get eggs for the day.
We tried many gardens over the years. Jason is a much better gardener 🪴 then I am for sure! But over the years I got more involved, we never grew a lot but always a few things. As we pulled away today our beautiful garden spot with home hot green house from wooden pallets and giant windows, looked so pretty but so bare as we didn't start anything this spring. And one last very heavy duty wooden plate form Jason made from old boards from the 6 Gun Motel in Cody. He planned to make a little get away cabin in our back field but that's as far as it got.
We brought in a newer, bigger trailer house a year and a half ago. The old one sold and taken away.
Now, seeing the land clean, starting to green, irrigation water flowing through town, ducks flying over head, it's hard leaving Wyoming in the beauty of spring.
But we did! Car loaded with the boys, our cat Cheeto & Ben's hermit crab 🐚 Dolphin, iPads, magic marker coloring books, sticker books, fidget toys, dvds and music.
Happy trails!
Comments