A happy day swimming!

We finally got to use our swimming pool yesterday. We may not get to use it much more this season. The weather was warm and sunny, in the 80's. The pool's temperature was around 80 degrees. It was cool but still enjoyable. So far we had not used the pool because of bad weather or because we had other things going on and didn't have time. The kids loved playing in the pool for all of the reasons that kids love that kind of stuff. We also had some visitors, old friends that Chris knew from Mesa named MaryLou & Kenny Glass. Chad Wilcock, MaryLou's son, and his 4 kids were there too. MaryLou and her family relocated to Missouri many years ago. We stayed in touch and MaryLou and Kenny gave Chris and I a place to stay while we were doing the job search, etc. Yesterday they came to visit us and enjoy the pool and hot tub with us. They were our second visitors on the farm who stuck around for any length of time. This past Monday we had the sister missionaries, our first guests, over for dinner. We are now accustomed to entertaining visitors so just let us know when you are coming.

New animals on the farm

I wanted to share pictures of the new animals on our farm. We are housing six horses that belong to the first counselor in our bishopric for the fall/winter season. They are beautiful to look at. They run and play and eat all day. Here are some pictures of them.

Here is a picture of the buckskin. She is a mare. There are five mares and one stallion. They come and talk to us over the fence. They are friendly.

We found this turtle in our yard. We put him in a box for a few days and then released him back into the yard. The kids had fun with him while we cared for him.


Here is our new dog. He showed up on our property yesterday and adopted us. That seems to be a trend around here, we either find animals or someone gives them to us. We are really starting to utilize this farm's potential! There's plenty of room, so the more the merrier! We have not chosen a name for him yet. We also see squirrels all day running up trees or drinking from our water in our bird bath dish.



This is our cat, staying her distance from the dog...




This is the cat and the dog checking each other out but keeping their distance. I'm happy to say, they are now friends.

We finally made it!

It feels like it has taken forever, but we are finally here and living our dream on a small farm. We couldn't be happier! The move went pretty smooth. We arrived here in Milo, August 31 and closed on our house the same day, YEAH. We walked around the property that night and many days since and have felt so extremely blessed! It feels like we found our piece of heaven on earth.

The ward here is great! It's wonderful to have instant friends. We received lots of help from our ward unloading our trailer. The ward consists of approximately 100 active people living in about a 50 mile radius. There are around 23,000 people also living in that same radius so we have a lot of opportunities to share the gospel. There have recently been 9 new members join the church in our area. We have already had the opportunity to assist the sister missionaries teaching the gospel to a young family who is investigating the church. They have a son around Adam's age and Adam also came with us to help in the discussion. It went great! The spirit was strong, and both Chris and I missed our missionary days. It truly is a great and marvelous work.

The kids are so excited to be here also! They run around all day and have lots to do. We adopted two new cats with the farm. We did not know they were included with the farm until the day we got here. They are outside barn cats. The kids love all the animals here! We have 2 cats, 3 bunnies, 20 chickens, and we are temporarily housing 6 horses for the winter. We are now just looking for our family cow. We have lots of options here for good milking cows, we are just waiting for the right time. We first have to clean up the milking barn, where the chickens currently occupy. In the meantime we have found another family farm close to us that raise and milk goats. So we are currently buying goat milk from them until we can set up shop for our cow.

Adam and Annika started school this week. They are adjusting well, especially Aunie. Kindergarten is all day here, from 8am-3pm. So I was worried how she would do. She has pleasantly surprised me. Both Adam and Annika have great attitudes about school and even about getting up at such an early hour. This week they road the bus to and from school. So that means the bus picks them up at our house at 6:40am sharp. They never complained and the ran to the bus with smiles on their face. Aunie was especially excited to ride a bus. Chris starts his job next Monday so he will drop them off at school in the morning and the bus will take them home. Adam has homework every night and he takes it very seriously. Also, Adam is soo excited that he gets to start cub scouts! You can start cub scouts if you are in 2nd grade here. So he already started last Wednesday.

Life is great and we have meet many wonderful people here and have also had unique opportunities. Missouri is a well kept secret. The lifestyle here is much more laid back and pleasant. The nature is beautiful. We miss our friends and family and encourage all who have a desire for this kind of lifestyle to follow us here. We have 23 acres and are willing to share with others.

Stacy