Chicks Are Here!

The feed store, the Tractor Supply (an incredible country supply store) and the Farm & Garden section on Craigslist are all advertising "Chicks Are Here". Anthony's been chomping at the bit to get more chickens since we got our first small city flock over three years ago (of which we have four remaining survivors who barely lay these days). Chickens are great pets, easy keepers and lay beautiful, delicious, glorious eggs. 

So this morning after a little looking online, we settled on heading up to Villa Rica, GA in response to a craigslist ad. 

Me:  "Stella, want to go to another farm and get baby chicks?"

Stella: "Yay, yay, yay!"

After dressing warmly and with boots and a twinkle in our eyes, we headed out...on a really long 45 minute drive to the garage of a guy with a blue tooth on in a subdivision. *Sigh*. Whatever...he had chicks! We came away with 25 assorted standard breed chicks including Partridge Rocks, Barred Rocks, Comets, Rhode Island Reds, Araucanas and two, two-month old Silkies.  With our car full of peeping, panicked chicks and a whining/crying toddler (and two adults who really needed to pee) the car ride home was sorta ugly. Buuuuuut now we have these gals (hopefully gals):

Though the Silkies were chosen by me as special pets, they're acting as the little Standard's mamas. Darling!

Hello Honeysuckle.

Magical Beginnings.

This post is really overdue. We found it (and already moved to it). After years of talking, window shopping and long, long country drives, we found it, renovated it and moved into it. Thirteen acres in downtown Palmetto with a two level ranch that needed some (major) TLC. You can read about Palmetto here: http://www.citypalmetto.com/index.aspx?NID=865. The house sits near a quiet neighborhood street with the bulk of the property to the south and west (behind the house). It is really the best of all worlds. We are in a proper neighborhood, albeit country-style with VERY little traffic, blocks from downtown Palmetto and about 3 miles from Serenbe. (www.serenbe.com) and Chattahoochee Hills. Oh, and about 20 minutes to Atlanta. Better known as unincorporated south Fulton county. This is about as rural as you can get this close to the city. It is a very beautiful part of Georgia; rolling green hills with still-active cattle farms (the old school way with land passed down from generation to generation) perppered with newer, younger farms as well (www.manyfoldfarm.com). We aspire to become a working farm as well (more on that later).

The Property: 

There are two streams...one in the fenced pasture (about eight acres or so) and one behind the back fence line, in the forest.

This photo is the one in the pasture, just behind the house.

How cute is this foot-bridge?

There is a beautiful cypress barn. It is very rustic andneeds a little work to make cozy for critters but it's roomy (four stalls) and features a hay loft.

This photo is a "before" picture. All of these pics were taken late summer/early fall when we were falling in love with Honeysuckle.








The House:

We closed in September and started a major remodel. The house was a foreclosure and it complete neglect and disrepair. There was some extensive water damage but good bones. The floor plan was traditional ranch-style with smaller rooms chopping it up. The above picture is of roofers taking off the metal roof and re-installing it (it was on wrong!). 

I shot this video when I first went through the house; there was a lot of water damage and mold. Poor, sad house. It appeared as though there was some effort and attempt at a remodel but it was just done wrong. But we saw so much potential. A large ranch built on a daylight basement...if we could only knock down some walls, open and brighten it up...we were excited.