Greetings 

Hello to everyone! Can you believe it's April? How exciting! 

If you are new to this blog, welcome! To learn more about us and what we do, here is a link to our "About Us" page, and we thank you for joining us in this storytelling journey of farm life and Homesteading!

I particularly love this month of April because not only does it include Easter, but we also have two birthdays in our family to celebrate this month for our sons. Trevor turns the big 21 (enter shocked face here), and our second son Blake will be turning 18, another big year to celebrate!

So, if you're reading this and you are local, hop into Mosier Market and give Trevor a good singing to of "Happy Birthday To You" for a jolly dose of embarrassing fun, haha! And perhaps, you might see another Darr boy, Blake, working there soon, too.

What's Up on The Farm Side of Life 

This spring season has greeted us with interesting and somewhat moody weather. We have sometimes experienced a multitude of seasonal weather in one day! Snow, sleet, rain, wind, sun, cold temps, warmer temps...we've enjoyed it all back and forth. We are just waiting for the conditions to dry out again.

In the meantime, we have achieved some small successes and those add up to improvements over time, so I consider that a win.

*Travis used his new tractor to dig out the horse shelter and fix its uneven ground, and Willow appreciates that very much! He also used the tractor for a few other jobs such as making the path bigger to our wash station for produce, and moving manure around (because that's always fun and exciting) to aid in the composting process and add to the garden beds.

*Here on the Homestead, there is one box of produce planted so far, containing some greens and radishes. The Odell acre of land has one row of salad mix, Arugula, baby kale, and radishes each.

*A few hiccups along the way have been that the tiller stopped working for a while, but Travis was able to get a new part for it. Also, we arrived home from town the other night after a dinner out with family, to discover the next morning that my car's two right-side tires were completely flat. Travis is at Les Schwab, as I type this, getting a whole new set of tires put on. 

That's rough! New tires are a huge expense but it is something we were going to get done this year anyway. A large piece of metal was found in each tire, and it remains a mystery as to how and where they got there, but it doesn't matter now. We will move on and be grateful to be able to get it taken care of.

Garlic
Garlic that survived the winter.

*A bit of good news is at least some garlic made it through the winter and that makes me super happy, woo hoo! Last year was warmer so the garlic was so much taller than it is this year, but at least we have some. We'll take it!

An Auction Win for the Tiny House

In case you're wondering, no we did not put the tiny house up for auction. If we did, we would have announced it first, and one thing is for sure, it would sell for a mighty fine price!

Alas, Trevor is still happily and comfortably living in it, and with the help of his dad, he was able to bid at the Auction Sales Co on some cupboards and cabinets that are just the right size for what his little cabin needs.

We are assuming the cupboards came from a local hotel. We were able to go to the auction yard and do some measuring and inspect the cabinets to see that they are in good condition. 

Travis followed and participated in the online bidding for Trevor while he was at work, and just when Travis was prepared to stop bidding because the price was climbing, Trevor won the bid right at the highest limit he was willing to pay.

What a score!

tiny house
Cabinets from the auction yard.

There are nine cabinets of various shapes and sizes and this saves Trevor about $1500.00 compared to paying $120.00 for only one small cabinet through Home Depot. He would have never been able to get a whole bunch to choose from and use.

I am hoping to carve out time this month or next to make another tiny house blog of its own and do a tour/update video of what it looks like now since Trevor has been living there for a year come April 9th, his birthday (which falls right on Easter this year), so stay tuned for that. You will be able to see the before and after cabinet images.

Rolling Right Along

In other happenings, the book I have been working on now has a cover and is getting prepped for marketing.

For those of you interested, it is a story from a mother's perspective of her young family's time living in a haunted house.

It's definitely not my normal writing style or topic, however, I started this book a decade ago when my own kids were small, and I recently decided to pull it out from the shadows and make a go of it. My spirit feels lifted by accomplishing this old dream I set out to do years ago. I am finally taking a plunge into new territory with this book, as I am a creature who typically prefers to stay in my "safe zone" and not take risks, but life is short and I'm not getting any younger so, here I go!

It's never too late. My words of wisdom to everyone are, "Be creative and brave enough to take risks sometimes."

I have no idea if this book will be a success or not but I will share more information when it is ready, so that you may read "The Glory House" if you would like.

The last few odds and ends for us in our small part of the world is that the guys are back to playing paintball in the hills of Mosier and this makes me super happy for them, especially our son Blake, who has worked hard at getting this going, and he has put a lot of money into it so that his friends, family, and community members can have fun and fellowship together.

And that's a wrap! In order not to bore you too much in this month's reading, I will sign off now.


Until next month, take care of each other, enjoy all that this spring season has to offer, and be blessed!

Amy E. Darr

3 Corners Farm

Mosier, Oregon U.S.A.