Our first month in Texas

Our first month in Texas. What have we been up to this first month in a new state? Remodel progress, new farm animals, adjusting to TX!

I was walking back from checking the mail, down our long dirt driveway. Admiring the lush green grass being enjoyed by our milk cows. The wildflowers blooming all around me. The warm sun on my skin, a slight breeze on my skin, and the smell of all the rain that fell the night before.

And it hit me how wonderfully crazy it is that we are here.

All the way across the country.

I never would have imagined we would leave Montana, but here we are. I’m so grateful for the twists and turns of life where God leads us in directions we couldn’t have thought of, but are so much better than we imagined.

We have been in our new house almost six weeks now and are starting to feel settled.

Every morning we go out and milk Lois the family milk cow.

Y’all, I had so missed having the routine of a milk cow!

There’s nothing quite like it!

She is a beautiful Guernsey that is giving us almost 2 gallons a day of golden creamy milk, and is due to calve again in September. Eleanor and her have become fast friends and are attached at the hip constantly. Unless of course Eleanor tries to take Lois’ food then she becomes enemy number one in a second. Lois don’t mess around with her food. But then if they are separated Lois will cry and break through fences to get to her.

Cows are such fickle creatures.

But I love ’em all the same.

I’ve been shocked at how long it’s taking Eleanor to shed her crazy thick winter coat from being in Montana. The week we left it was snowing, and since we’ve been here so many days have been in the 70’s or 80’s! Her coat hasn’t shed much yet but it has become super curly from the humidity which is super cute! She’s a curly cow now.

The house is feeling a lot more like home. All our furniture had to be replaced. So the first week or two we sat in camp chairs and on a wooden bench. Now the living room is filled back out with comfortable furniture. All my artwork is hung around the house. Luke got my washer and dryer inside instead of out in the barn. I even have a dishwasher all hooked up in the kitchen!

House progress

This house is definitely a fixer upper! The guy we bought it from started building it a few years ago and never finished it. There are a lot of things that make us scratch our heads and wonder what he could have been thinking in that moment.

One of the walls has studs that go horizontal instead of vertical.

There is only one outlet in the whole kitchen and its INSIDE one of the cabinets.

The washer was hooked up outside under a bush to the garden hose.

He was running the oven, the water heater and the dryer off tiny little bbq propane tanks.

Big chunks of he house aren’t even insulated, especially back in our bedrooms. So whatever temperature it is outside, it’s almost the same inside. That is something we need to work on soon, is at least getting the rest of the roof insulated before the heat of TX summer hits us!

Luke has almost the whole pantry / laundryroom all remodeled already.

He had to take down some walls, re-frame, add some windows, then he put on all new shiplap. He built new cabinets himself, and put up shelves with cool cast iron brackets. The walls are a gorgeous baby blue color, the cabinets are a very dark almost black that in some lights is bluish and some lights it’s greenish.

I am going to add a lot more color in this house than the house we remodeled in MT! The last remodel the walls were all white, this one is just calling out for more color! Blue in the pantry, olive green in the bathrooms, I think I might even go a little crazy with wallpaper in our bedroom.

Once the finishing touches are put on the pantry he will move on to building us a giant kitchen table with long benches! Then we need insulation put in the ceilings, and after that who knows! Maybe putting the big windows in the living room! Gah, I just love projects like this! I had really missed living in a remodel!

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And beannachdan (blessings)!

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