Out like a lion...in like a lion?!

One of my previous blogging traditions has been to a "one year later" review post near the end of the December.  I think I've done this in just about every blog I've ever had.  It was fun to link back to them and see how life has changed over the years.  My internet presence dwindled for a long a time and those blogs are long defunct...so there will be no linking this time around.  I can tell I've slowed down becuase now when I google myself (don't judge, you and I both know you ALL do it) my results are pretty slim.  In fact my doppleganger's life looks pretty appealing at this moment!

Anyway, I digress.   So a year in review.  Here's the recap on 2016 (just the big stuff!)

1. Move to "the farm" (well really, that was the tail end of 2015, but this was our first full year there
2. Fisaco with old property.  I'll blog about some other time.  It's still fresh and still upsetting.  But I'll say this....be very careful when you purchase anything with loans strongly tied to federal funding.  There are loop holes/conditions you may forget about from the time you purchase your home to the time you sell your home.  Read your current mortgage before you do anything.  
3. Several vehicle break downs.  Yes, vehicles have been taking a crap left and right on the farm.  Which leads to?  You guessed it!  STRESS and BILLS! Yeah!!! 
4. This..  What are you looking at?  Well this, my dear readers, WAS the start of my barn addition.  It was going to be my tack and feed room, plus office space.  It WAS the front porch off of our old house, which surved a 30 mile road trip to our new house, but didn't survive a LOT of wet snow and ice. I think we can salvage the floor, but the roof...well, it's a gonner and framework for the walls are a gonner too.                                                       
5. I left a very cool job and started another cool job.  I have been REALLY lucky in the job world.  I always have been very selective about the sort of work I take and always seem to find something fun.  
6. Hubby was out of work shortly after I started my new job.  This really made things VERY tight for us.  We have been making house payments on two properties over the past year and this has been bleeding us dry. Common on sence would tell you this is a bad thing to do.  Unfortunately our move to the farm was not planned.  We had to leave because of intensive mold damage in the old home which was harmful to everyone's health, particularlly my husband. 
7.  I became one of those wacky essential oil ladys.  Essential oils wormed my way into my heart and while I don't think I'm going to save the world with yoga pants and essential oils like this guy jokes about (watch the whole thing, it's pretty funny); I have found that I feel better about having a little more control over what I'm cleaning with and what I'm using to support my health.  
8. A litte minature horse name Princess wormed her way into our hearts.  We purchased a minnie for our youngest who rides and drives.  I am excited to learn a little something new about driving (since I pretty much know nothing...).  
   
9. I dove into the world of clicker training because I wasn't getting a lot of riding time in (job+children in sports=busy) and I wanted to still maintain relationship with my horses.  It was something I knew very little about and knew there are sort of two camps (it is the ONLY way to go or it is a STUPID way to go).  Then I found Mary Kitzmiller, who uses lots of training methods including this one and started learning.  I also found Shawna Karrach's website to be helpful.  It's been fun, takes so little time, and I can see a differece in my relationship with my horses.  It's not a surprise this would appeal to me since many of my cool jobs have been behavior analyst type work and clicker training is really a behaviorist approach. 
10. Blended family drama.  I'm just going to stop there.  Just know it's been an emotional year. 
11. I decided to attempt to replicate the horse blanket preference research study.  Two cool conclusions with this study (1) We blanket our horses far more than they prefer and (2) Horses can learn to tell us when they would like to be blanketed.  Since work+childeren in sports=busy...you can guess what my progress has been.  If you'd like to try and replicate the study too, read the article.  It is super detailed and the research protocol is in there. 

I *think* that summarizes the big stuff!  Now lets get on with 2017.

    We started off the year with a CASH offer on our old property.  We were forced to list with a realtor (yes, we were really forced) and received a cash offer before the listing even hit the MLS.  We close on the 27 of this month, less than two weeks after our offer was received.  We had slowly been moving off of the old property but had to move super quick once this offer came in.  Again, I'll blog about the whole moving/old house problem after we've officially closed and I can really say this chapter in our lives is OVER.  Moving has been somewhat of a showing of who are true friends are and which family members we can turn to for support.  And while I didn't do an ask out here in google land (I know some of you would have been here in a heart beat!), we did ask many of the local folks we know to help.   This experience just kind of put things into perspective in that aspect. 

So--here's to the new year.  I'll keep moving one hoof at a time and I hope you will too!