Pink Squirrel Farmstead

Before moving to Lamesa I filled all of our meds on the way out of town. I had to get all of our prescriptions transferred to our new pharmacy to get filled. I’ve never really liked the process because its usually a headache. I have been with the same pharmacy for 2 years now in Dalhart and they are truly amazing! We love them and it was a sad day when we had to transfer to a new pharmacy. We started out with one here and they were not the best on customer service nor great with communicating with the doctor’s office. Since I had only gotten a couple prescriptions filled and had not transferred them all I went out looking for a new pharmacy. I found one on the opposite side of town to use and they were definitely much better than the first one we tried out here. I do not like to use large corporate pharmacies and prefer the mom-and-pop shops. Everything seemed to be going great until we got to our oldest daughter Cheyenne’s meds. She is the only one with 2 insurances’ because she has my husband’s insurance and she has her disability insurance. The prescription portion of the insurance is the same company for both insurances which made it a bit confusing. Finally, after 3 days they got it, all sorted out. I was kind of in panic mode because I am leaving to go out of town early on Wednesday morning.  

After the pharmacy this morning I went to check the mail. Back story, when my car got flooded and Chad and I went to check on it the next morning and it still wouldn’t move we ended up going to breakfast. While at breakfast I left my retainer at the restaurant and had to get a new one. My orthodontist is about 3.5 hours away one way so I had to find somewhere around here to get a new retainer made. Finally found one and went to see them on Friday. They made my retainer and it was in my mailbox when I checked the mail today. That is amazing! Today is just Monday! Then my phone rang it was Paula our realtor. My heart sank…. please don’t be bad news…. Please don’t be bad news.

I answered the call and she was just checking on us and letting me know everything is good to go and still set for Wednesday for closing. She asked me if I had talked to the title company about the wire transfer and I let her know I would be sending it today. I cannot believe it’s only 2 days away! Y’ALL!!! I am going to own my dream farm in 2 days! I went and got a coffee from the best coffee shop in town and headed home to start the wire transfer.

I was super nervous to do the wire transfer. It’s kind of scary to send that kind of money. There are always issues with people dealing with fraud and I would be devastated if that ever happened. I called to bank and started to transfer. I know our bank is amazing and we have never had any issues with them. I honestly thought the transfer would be harder than it was. I got the email stating the wire was initiated. Eeekkkkk this is becoming so real! Within the hour the wire transfer was complete. Let the count down begin! We are one step closer to being Kentucky Farm Owners!!!!

Buying you own home in the country is exciting, but I feel like people don’t talk about the hard stuff that goes along with it. I can guarantee you will not be in the dark along our journey. The good, the bad, the not so pretty will be shared.

Why is hiring someone to do work for you so hard? I would do it myself if I could, but legally sometimes you have to hire professionals. Is customer service not a thing anymore?  When looking for an electrician we called literally over 20 businesses and one person answered their phone and unfortunately none of others have even tried to call back. How do you have customers? Do people just not want to work with out of state people or do they not want work at all? I honestly don’t get it, maybe I am just grumpy because there is so much in the air right now and I don’t do well with change.

We have contacted an electrician regarding having electric put on the property. We started contacting this electrician right after putting in an offer on the house. We like to know what will needed to be done and the costs. After several conversations with him he has yet to give us a quote, he says due to prices constantly changing……can you please just give me a ballpark?

Finally on Friday while we were browsing around Lowes trying to get some prices for some things, we are wanting in the house the electrician called us back and we were able to set in concrete a date/dates (not a time) that he would be able to come meet with me at the property to get things started. But he now is also going on vacation and has several other jobs lined up…. seriously we have been trying to schedule this with him for weeks and he knew when we wanted to get started. Then he tells us that we will also need a certificate from the health department for the septic tank before we can get electric turned on.  My thought is why didn’t he tell us that on phone call number one? Why didn’t the electric company tell me this? Why not give me all of the details at one time so I don’t have to rush and get them done last minute.

After we got off the phone, we called our realtor regarding this new found information. She is seriously the best! She contacted the seller’s realtor to have them get with the health department to get the certification. Thankfully they were able to set up an appointment with them for Monday to hopefully get this taken care of.

 I know there are going to be many instances like this along the way but man I sure wish there was a manual or something to help out when you have no idea what you should do. It is very exciting knowing we are 3 days away from owning our dream forever home. We look forward to being able to share pictures of Pink Squirrel Farmstead. Hopefully some of y’all are as exited as I am 😊

Everyone but Chad is heading to Kentucky to the new house on July 21. Chad will be coming up soon a

fter, I cannot wait for him to see it! He will probably be quite a grumpy-guss while I am gone to Kentucky without him. I will miss him so much but there is so much to get done. Since the house is Amish built and had an Amish family living there, there is not electricity in the house at all. We have been talking to an electrician and have a meeting with him first thing when we get there but we know it might be a while without electric. The only bathroom that is at the house is an outhouse pictured below.

As you can see there is not a shower in the bathroom in preparation, we found a portable shower that hooks up to a propane tank for hot water and a water hose on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08R3C8TR1?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share. We got it in the mail about a week later. I am all about being prepared so I wanted to test it out beforehand. I am definitely glad I did. The directions are not super helpful…. Not sure any directions are. After a trip to the hardware store for a double metal female connector, I got it hooked up. Well, the first time I followed the manual directions……bad idea water was spraying everywhere from the connections…insert a few bad words……then it began to rain.

It rained for a few minutes and I had time to calm down I tried figuring out what I did wrong by watching a ton of useless YouTube videos. Now it was time for some trial and error. There was an orange connector that the instructions said to use to hook it up a different way that I tried using and it worked. Hunter was willing forced to be the Guinea pig. He put on his swim trunks and bravely tried it out in between rain showers. We thought that it may be loud but there was actually no sound coming from it other than a few clicks when the pilot was lighting. The water was instantly hot. VERY HOT! We had to turn it down and Hunter pretended to take a shower with it.

We did think that the shower hose was kind of short so we ordered an extra long one off of amazon which will https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QFXNFN2?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share make it much easier to shower. We do have a long term plan for the portable shower but that will have to be for another day. Can you guess what one of the first orders of business will be?

Growing up I have always dreamed of owning a Bed and Breakfast. I never thought this dream was attainable until we found this house. We only have one more child in school then we will somewhat be empty nesters. Oh, that makes me feel so old!  Anyways, On the top floor of the house is 4 bedrooms and a seating area. We plan to turn three of those rooms into rooms for the bed and breakfast. We plan to turn the fourth bedroom into a luxury bathroom with an antique claw foot tub and a walk in shower. When you go to a bed and breakfast what do you like to see in the bathroom? Bath bombs? Bath salts? Sugar Scrubs? Old Fashioned Soaps? Please give me some ideas for items to have available.

In the seating area upstairs, the plan is to have library/coffee shop feel with large bookcases filled with books, board games, and movies. There will be some comfy chairs and a large TV for the guests to enjoy. I want the guest to feel comfortable and at home.

Of course, I plan to have homemade pastries available for the guests at all times and a large breakfast with their stay. I love baking and cooking in general but I love, love, love to feed people so this will be amazing for me.  The rooms will all be similar but different at the same time. There will be a farmhouse theme in the décor and of course there will be animals for the guests (and me) to enjoy. I want people to be able to come and have a farm life experience with their time at the farm to be special. I think that memories are made with experiences that can last a life time.

There will be tons of work to do to get this ready but we also have several years until Chad can retire. We did not get a loan to buy this house and with my car being totaled out we will have no debt; my car was our only debt. We plan to work on the house as we have the funds to stay debt free. We have other vehicles so we do not need to replace my car at this time, not saying I will not miss my fuel-efficient car. But on the flip side I will also not miss my car payment each month.

In addition to the upstairs, we will also have an amazing basement for the guest to relax in but that will be for another day. Please leave me some comments on suggestions for the upstairs retreats. I would love to know what you would think would make the guest stays unforgettable.

For the Amish people their top priorities are faith, farm, and family. The old order and new order have strict rules that are different from community to community. They do not use electricity, drive vehicles, or even have phones in their homes. The Amish still use horse and buggies for transportation or hire someone to drive them. The Amish live more plain simple lives and still do things like their forefathers. They also dress very plain without buttons; some communities can only wear black or white dresses while others allow muted colors. By restricting access to television, radios, and phones the Amish are able to keep the modern world from intruding on their lives.

The Amish lifestyle is very interesting to me. The Amish thrived during the last year while others worlds were turned upside down. They were not worried about toilet paper or food during the pandemic because they know how to survive without the modern conveniences. The Amish have a strong sense of community spirit, and often come to help out those in need. Much of society could learn so much about family values from the Amish. Though the Amish are very private people.

The home we are purchasing from an Amish family does not have plumbing, it does not have electricity, and is in such a peaceful place. It does however have an outhouse. When I was there viewing the property, I could just feel the calmness in the community. People were not in a rush to get somewhere; they were genuinely nice. I did not come in contact with one unhappy person. It was refreshing to watch the horse and buggies go by loaded with 2-3 Amish men talking to each other, not with cellphones in their faces.

We do plan on modernizing the home with electricity, along with indoor bathrooms and internet but we look forward to a simpler life style and enjoying time with each other. As I observed some of the tasks the young woman was doing while we were touring the house it amazed me.  They only had a few outfits each. They did not use a closet so the items they had were out and visible. The house had minimal furniture and was not cluttered in any way. The couple had a gas-powered refrigerator and a gas-powered washing machine. Right out the front door she had a wood heated water tank that she used to heat all their water for laundry, cleaning, and bathing. Inside she had a small stock tank that they used for bathing. When the power goes out, I feel like I am dying without AC and worrying about our food storage. Now, I will say that I will continue using air conditioning but I will live a simpler less cluttered life when we do finally get to move there. I do think that when you are not accustomed to using it like the Amish then they don’t really know what they are missing. I think their beliefs and faith are amazing. I love how outside influences do not change them.

The simple things in life are often the most important. This philosophy is what I hope to accomplish as I envision the next step …….

Friday morning July 9th, I had a text from Chad to call him when I wake up. Oh great, that usually means bad news. And it was. The insurance company decided to total my car out. The motor would have to be replaced and it would cost more than the car was worth. This is heart breaking to me. I loved my car. It was my first new car, and I only had 3 more years to pay it off. The settlement amount is less than the payoff amount. I have no idea if we have gap coverage. I am freaking out and wondering why nothing ever seems to go smooth. It is always one step forward and three steps back. Sigh!

I look in our fire box with all the important papers and try to figure out if we have gap coverage. Oh, thank goodness we got it! Now that we have it, I have no idea how that even works because I never thought I would ever need it. I call the company and start a gap claim and they let me know that they will be emailing me a list of documents they will need.

I am not one to put things off, if I do, I will forget about them. I pull up the email and see a list of documents needed from the finance company and a list of documents needed from the insurance company. Okay no big deal, I’ll call and get them sent to me so I can get them turned in ASAP. Now the finance company is also the gap coverage company so I am not sure why I need to even be involved on getting the documents but whatever. So, I call and I get transferred, and transferred, and transferred over and over. They even transfer me back to the gap claims department. At this point I have been on the phone for over an hour and a half, I am fuming and I lay into the person on the line. Luckily, he is very understanding and decided it would be best if he stayed on the line with me while I talk to the other department so if they won’t give me the documents then he would be able to talk to them. Of course, they still won’t give me the documents I need and after the guy from claims talks to them, we find out it is because insurance has not sent anything over to the finance company yet so they don’t know anything about the car being totaled out. Why didn’t they just tell me that to begin with?

 As soon as I get off the phone with them the insurance company calls to let me know that I would need to make arrangements with the repair facility to get my personal belongings out of the car so the procurement company could pick the car up. The car is located an hour away in Lubbock and I have Chad’s truck here for my transportation. FYI, I have a strong hate for driving his truck. It is a giant truck that I definitely do not want to drive through Lubbock. I called Chad and let him know I was going to come get our SUV from him.

When I get there to switch out keys with him, he took me to lunch. I’m sure he could tell I was trying to hold it together and I needed that time with him. We talked about us getting a new car if I wanted to and just being able to talk to him made me feel so much better. I drove and got my belongings out of the car, went and picked up and said goodbye to my car. I went to Walmart to get a few items we needed, and found some red shorts on sale for my daughter Cheyenne (red is her favorite color). Chad had mentioned that the cheesecake factory had several flavors of cheesecake if I was interested. I put the Cheesecake factory in the GPS and went to get us one. I mean why not? Cheesecake makes everyone feel better after a bad day.

Once the offer was signed by the sellers, the closing date was set. We close on the house on July 21^st. There was a cute little Amish family that lived in the house. The young woman was there when we went to look at the house. She had told us that she just gotten married and moved in to the house in February. She and her new husband were building a house but it was not yet finished. She had the house decorated with only a few things and it was adorable how she had her and her husband’s names on everything. You could see the love in her eyes as she talked about her life with him. She showed us around the house a little and on the porch, she had a couple plants hanging. She was so proud of them. She went back to working on her laundry that she did in a gas-powered ringer washer and I went to explore the house and property.

At first, we did not have a closing date set because we wanted to make sure that the sweet couple would have time to get moved in 30 days or if we would need to give them 60 days. The seller assured us that they had a brother right down the road that they would be staying with until their house was completed. It was supposed to have been done already.

We got the closing documents emailed to us on July 9. I called around trying to find a notary that is open in the evenings because Chad and I both had to sign at the same time. And well he works all the dang time. I called one place and they closed at 5 pm. Well Chad doesn’t get off work until 5:30 and has to drive 45 minutes home. That wasn’t going to work. Chad suggested I post on Facebook blog shops asking about it. I am not on many of them here because we have not been here in Lamesa very long. Chad got home and asked me if I wanted to run and get a drink from this adorable coffee shop here called Tin Bucks Coffee (if you are ever in the area, you should definitely stop in, everything is amazing!). So, we hopped in our SUV and went to get coffee and tea. While sitting there waiting for our drinks and chatting with the owner and the baristas I saw that someone had finally commented on my post with a mobile notary. I saw a brochure on the counter for the company and we gave them a call. Talk about being at the right place at the right time. We were able to get the documents signed, and then mailed off first thing the next morning.

June 26^th started like any other day, sun was shining and it was as hot as it can be. Chad was working on building us a storage shelf for our room in the RV. There is never enough storage in an RV and we were lacking a good way to store our clothes. I made dinner and then took the kids to the movie theater. When we got home, we brought the shelf in and set it up in the house because it looked like there was a rainstorm in the distance. The wind started picking up which is quite nerve wracking in an RV. But it was nothing that we had not been through before. It started raining and the power went out.

 I got a call from Payton that the power was out at the movies and they were ready to be picked up. Chad and I hopped in my car and headed to get them. On the weather app there was a notification that there was a tornado that touched ground west of town. Now I am freaking out… mind you I have no idea which direction is west and all I can think about is something happening to the kids. Payton called crying and freaking out because of the storm. Mama bear kicked in and I was going to get to them over hell or high water.

Well, I didn’t really mean I wanted to go through high water but apparently flash floods is a real thing here. As I was driving along the water got really deep really fast. I had Chad call Payton and it went to voicemail. He tried it again and she answered but she was crying. She was so scared, she said it was very loud in there from the storm and she was so scared. I was praying that it wasn’t from the tornado being close to the, I had nowhere to pull over to get out of the flooded water, and the water was flowing like a mini river on the streets. I tried driving through the middle of the road where the water wasn’t as deep but it wasn’t helping. My car is pretty low to the ground and it almost died a few times. I was praying to just get to my kids and know they are okay. I looked to my left and I saw a car being pushed by the water backwards toward my car. I began praying, please God no, please let me get to my kids, the car wouldn’t move, Chad told me to push on the gas, I had my foot to the floor it wasn’t moving. Please God No, I said over and over. The car started going again and the other vehicle barely missed me. I was now about 4 blocks away from the kids. We kept going, the roads are all flooded and I am scared as can be. I still have no idea what direction west is and I have no idea where the tornado is at this point, I just don’t want it to be near the kids or near Chad and I.

We finally get to the movie theaters I pulled into a parking lot that was not flooded and put it in park. I took a deep breath and did everything I could not to cry because I was so overwhelmed. The kids were fine and they ran across to the car in knee high water. Hunter kept turning around and running to get his sandals over and over again. It was a much-needed laughter. We decided that it wasn’t safe to try to get home and we were going to just go over a couple blocks to the hotel and stay there for the night. We are all soaking wet but we were all safe. I went to back up the car to drive and the car wouldn’t move. It wouldn’t go forward or backwards. My head went crazy. What am I going to do? I don’t know anyone here. Phone service is very spotty and I can’t even check to see if the weather is going to clear up soon. Luckily, Chad was able to call a coworker that was able to come pick us up. We all piled in to his truck and thankfully we made it home. Please pray for those that lost everything. We were so very lucky. We will just have to deal with the car being towed to a repair facility tomorrow.

The phone rang and I saw it was from our realtor, my heart started pounding. Did they accept my offer, were the sellers counter offering? Was there another buyer and they took their offer? Ugh my mind was going crazy!  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity (probably only about 60 seconds) the realtor let me know that the sellers verbally accepted my offer. YAY! If I wasn’t driving, I would be literally been jumping with joy. I keep calm and professional during the phone call but the second I was off the phone I called Chad and then Carla to let them know that they had accepted the offer, while my dad called my mom to let her know. This was so exciting well except the part that I was still driving back to my parents’ house. We finally got back to my parents a little after 1 pm. I picked up Payton, who stayed with my mom while we were in Kentucky. I visited with my mom for a few minutes, she wanted me to stay the night but I was ready to be home in my bed with my hubby, and I headed towards home. Another 7 and a half hours to home.  

The drive was pretty uneventful at this point I was just ready to be out of the car at this point. I told Payton not to ask me to go anywhere tomorrow because I refuse to get in the car for any reason what so ever. We got home about 8pm that night and I was ready for a show and to lay in bed and I was beyond excited to see Chad.

My dad and I headed back to Texas. The drive home was full of conversations about the house. We love it! We are so excited but also nervous about if we will get it or not. On the drive we hit a big rainstorm and were only able to drive way under the speed limit with minimal visibility which added time to our drive. Better safe than sorry. When the rain started to let up our realtor called to let us know that she had sent over our offer and that the sellers had 24 hours to respond. Let the waiting begin. We continued our drive home. We drove and drove and drove some more until we got too tired to drive any longer. We finally stopped for the night with 4 hours left to go.

Of course, I am super excited and I’m talking to Chad on the phone about it and my dad it trying to sleep so I go into the bathroom and take a relaxing bath while talking to him all about the house. I had turned the AC in the hotel room down to as cold as it goes because I like to sleep in a meat locker as my dad says. I am a big girl and he is a skinny man. While I was in the bathroom my dad snuck over and turned the ac up to 74! Who in their right mind can sleep like that? I thought the AC was broken. I was about to go to the office and talk to them about it. But then I had seen it had been turned up. The AC war has now begun ha ha ha (in my evil laugh), maybe he will sleep in or stay in bed longer if its colder in the room.

The next morning my darn alarm clock goes off at 6 am (ugh! I just want to sleep but I know I have a long drive ahead of me) and my dad has already showered and started the coffee pot. He then tells me about how cold it is in the room. I told him I was trying to get him to sleep in later so I could get more sleep. He said Well I did stay in bed about 45 minutes longer because he was so cold. He said he covered his head and tried to breathe heavily to use his breath to warm up under the covers. I died laughing. My evil plan worked. We went next door to McDonald’s for breakfast and continued on our journey.

I got a call from the realtor letting me know that the seller’s agent was still trying to get into contact with the sellers of the property. The sellers are an Amish family so getting in touch was a little harder. Yes, the house we are buying is an Amish house but I will talk more on that later. But isn’t that really cool?