Farm Life Begins

Checking out the back yard

We moved into our new house last Tuesday and we're loving the space and the beautiful property! One hard thing is that my treadmill is in pieces in the basement still! Ugh!  I haven't gained back any weight and have held steady at right under 142 so that's good.  One thing about my wellness plan is that the weight loss is sustainable even though I'm not working out and don't really have a strict diet other than not eating sweets. I don't lose weight during down times, but I don't gain any either. Hopefully I can get the treadmill put back together tomorrow so I can resume my work outs!

Here are some pictures of the yard and the house.  The inside is a huge mess so you'll have to wait a while for those photos.  Some of the best things about this house is that we have neighbors that...

1. Have a dog that plays with the kids all the time so we don't have to get one
2. Have an in ground trampoline that the kids are welcome to jump on at any time
3. Have a tennis court that is in kind of bad shape, but the kids can play on anytime, and
4. Other neighbors that have a pool, so maybe we can visit this summer:)
5.  Everyone but us has horses that we may get a chance to ride
6. Is right across the street from awesome hiking/trail running/biking in a state preserve
5. A gated private street that ends close to our house so people go really slow past our driveway. 
It's pretty much a dream location and the house is secondary.  I just want to be outside all day long!

Front of the house. Being 40 years old means too many plants so we're going to cut some trees down eventually.  We do have a lot of really nice Japanese maples and aspens and GIANT pine trees that are way too close and need to be chopped.

Cool pond and waterfall.  I spent the entire day cleaning out all the rotting, stinky leaves and it actually works great!

There are 5 fruit trees on the property.  I can't tell if they're apple or peach yet.  I know one is a cherry.  Yum!

View up our driveway from our mailbox.  There is so much room to ride bikes and play and we're so far from busy streets.  Check out the giant pine tree.  It's also leaning toward the house. Scary!

grassy part of the yard with two bird feeders(one is directly behind the big one) and lots of mature trees

There are a ton of these plants growing all over trellis'.  I hope they're grapes!

You can see how close we are to the mountains.  That grove of scrub oak is where I might put a cool tree house for the kids.

Back of the house.  It has a nice large and low deck, perfect for small children to climb up and down off of.

This is the riding arena.  I think I will put grass in here, line it with wire fencing and put all the animals inside to play with the kids kind of like what the Romans would do to people

This is an interesting tiered feature.  There is a spot to put a little table and there are a couple of benches hiding in there.  It needs a lot of work to make it look manicured but I hope eventually this will be partly an herb garden and partly a peaceful place to eat brunch with a friend. 

Another view.  There are three trees to the left that look like fruit trees.  Let's just hope it's true!

The barn and the awesome view of the mountains. 

Close up view of the barn.  Three stalls, nothing fancy.  Chicken coop is in the middle

This space is where I hope to put 10 or so fruit trees for an orchard.  We want Honey Crisp apples, peaches, apricots, sour and sweet cherries.  Anything else we should consider? As soon as the scrub oak leaves come in it's going to be so lush back here!

This is in the other direction behind the barn.  The animals will be kept here in the middle whereas the garden will be up past those far rocks.  This place even has automatic waterers for the animals! So cool!

Other view of the orchard space

View from the barn toward the house.  The landscaping is out of control, but at least it doesn't cost money for me to take things out or prune