Chickens. Yes, chickens. I haven’t really written yet about our move to Arkansas from Atlanta, so let me enlighten you!
In May, the hubby and I decided that we wanted to move to NW Arkansas to get away from the noise, pollution and overcrowding of city life in Atlanta. Why Arkansas? Well we have family and friends here that we just adore, and upon our visits we fell quite smitten with the place. It is small, slow paced, tons of open country land and the people are incredibly friendly. Brian has always dreamed of living on a small hobby farm, so we thought this might be the future.
We began looking for land online to eventually build a house and move the family within the next couple of years. We found a few lots we liked and contacted a realtor to find out more information. He sent us a ton of other property listings, along with one that he knew wasn’t what we were looking for since it was already developed, but the price had just been dropped $30,000 and it was a terrific deal. OH MY was it a good deal.
A 4 bedroom, 2300 sq. ft. house that was only 4 years old, 10 acres of property that was half pasture, half woods, an unfinished guest house/cabin, a brand new metal barn, a stocked pond, and all the quiet, peaceful country life you could ever want only 15 miles from town. Plus the big kicker, it was totally in our price range since houses are so much cheaper in AR than in GA.
Brian drove to AR that weekend and snagged it. Totally unprepared, for me, site unseen, insanely freaked out. The same day the owner accepted our offer, he received 6 more offers. We were quick to the draw, and it was ours. Oh shit, is all I could say.
Since there were other offers, apparently better than ours, we had to drop our contingency clause that we wrote in that said we had 90 days to sell our house before closing. Now, we had to close in 30 DAYS. Yes, you read that correctly. We had to prepare our house for the market, list it, sell it, get a loan, figure how in the hell we were going to move the family across 4 states, and possibly afford to pay 2 mortgages while our house sat on the competitive Atlanta market. Oh wait, but there is more. I will have to quit my dream job of 8 years that I’ve had in ATL and start looking for something else. Brian will have to find a new teaching job in Arkansas too. How will we afford the moving truck? How will we move 3 large dogs and 2 cats, 2 cars, and ourselves with a baby? Am I stressing you out yet?
Somehow we managed to get our house ready to sell in 2 weeks, and put it on the market. It sold in 5 days. Seriously. We got super, super lucky. There was a family 3 houses down, currently living with the wife’s mother, who were looking for a home of their own not too far away from their family support unit. They saw our For Sale sign go up, came by for a showing and made an offer that night. They wanted to close in 3o days. YIKES.
So we moved. Packed the house in 2 weeks, started moving the next, everyone was here by July 4th. After much trial and error of proving that my job could still be done 100% remotely from another state, my employer was gracious enough to let me keep my job, however only part-time and on a contract basis. (a.k.a. Bye-bye benefits, health insurance, 401K and paid vacation.) The hubby, on the other hand, is still struggling with the stupid Arkansas school board that won’t accept his Georgia teaching license unless he pays to take a whole bunch of classes through the AR state – that he has already taken, mind you. So he is subbing at the moment until we figure things out.
We are poor. We are broke. We have no insurance. But darnit, we have a beautiful home, clean fresh air to breath and tons of peace of mind. We don’t regret it for a single moment. Quality of life has gone up at least 5 times.
So if you are still reading this, we come to the chickens.
Brian always joked in Atlanta that he wanted a pet chicken. And I mean, he would bring it up ALL the time. So about month after we settled in here, he decides to order some baby chickens. He does it online after I am in bed, WITHOUT asking me, and orders 25 of the darn things!
25!
O.K. remember I am not a country girl. Raising chickens is not in my “things I’d like to do” list. But Brian did know that I grew up with ducks and a pond in the backyard. So he threw in 4 ducks as a “see honey, I got you something too” compromise. Oh, clever devil.
I have to admit, I did love the ducks – while we had them. Since releasing them to the pond as adults, the neighborhood dogs have killed all but one girl, and I am extremely sad. We hope to fence in our property and the pond soon, and try again. Lots to learn.
So I leave you with tons of pictures. These were taken months ago, which will explain the green summer grass.
The baby chicks when they were only 3 days old.
One of my little duckies that was killed by the stupid dogs down the road. He is about 3 weeks old here.
This is our front yard!! Believe it!
A back view of the house. Sorry, Brian didn’t take a pic of the front and I’m too lazy to go there and take one now.
The big, open and airy kitchen.
And here is what is on the other side – the big, open and airy living room and breakfast area.
Part of the pasture.
Waaaay back, is my future studio and guest house. Behind it is the pond, next to it is a weird pavilion that they had a hot tub on. We are going to turn it into a gazebo.
Inside the studio. Look how big! (that is Brian’s Dad in the photo.) We still have much work to do on it. Insulation, walls, window unit, electrical, etc.
And there you have it. Our move in a nutshell. So much more detail, but I’ve already written the 200-page novel. County life is the best!!
