Getting here and life in MS

We've been here in Mississippi for almost 2 months now. I can't believe it's taken me this long to post something...oh wait, I can. I am never good about keeping this thing updated! Anyhow, we're all moved in, with only a few untouched boxes in the garage.

So let's see...our trip out here. We spent 3 days driving here from TX. The first day was a fun-filled day visiting a farm in Brenham, TX called Yonder Way Farm. Paul has these farm blogs that he keeps up with, and Yonder Way is one of them. Jason and Lynsey are husband and wife who traded their city life for life in the country 4 years ago. They have 3 beautiful daughters. Jason's aunt, Debra, also lives on the property and helps manage the farm. They are doing a grass-fed cattle operation, along with pastured pigs and chickens, just like what Paul and I want to do someday. Since we were hauling our deep freezer in the trailer, we went ahead and ordered some meat from them and picked it up. While we were there, Debra had some down-time to show us around the farm. It was so good to get up close to the animals, see the farm in action, and know that the meat we were getting was raised naturally, in ways we agree with! We must have stayed there 2 hours just soaking it all in and secretly wishing we were living that lifestyle right now. We met Lynsey, and 2 of the girls. Ruthie is about Caleb's age, so it was fun to talk about what they are doing at this age. Lynsey is super nice and was willing to talk to us all about their lifestyle and business operation. Jason was off getting goats, a new addition to their farm. Paul said he felt a little weird because he already knew so much about their family from reading the blog. As we left, Lynsey asked if we have a blog, to which I responded "Yes, but I'm not very good about updating it...it's nothing fancy and mostly to keep family updated on Caleb." She said that was fine and maybe we could be blogging buddies! How fun! This is her family blog. I doubt there is anything she'd care to read on my blog, but maybe we'll keep in touch. I got all excited later that night when I thought about having someone to talk to about farm life. Someone who made the transition from city life to farm life, like I'm going to do someday. I'll admit, I'm a little scared. Excited, but scared too. I don't know if I will be able to make it as a farmer's wife.

We've been eating some of the meat that we got, and it's really good! You can tell it's different from store-bought meat. The beef is leaner, hardly any fat, and the bacon hasn't been smoked or cured. It will take some time to get used to cooking it - it's much easier to overcook steaks. Here are some tips for cooking grass fed beef.

This is the only picture I took. It was taken while we drove away. I wish I took some of the animals.
OK. Back to our trip out here. That evening, we visited friends right outside of Houston. The Haggards lived next door to us in IL when we lived there. They had 4 children when we parted ways, and now they have 5! Their youngest was born the same month as Caleb. We enjoyed a nice dinner out and they even shared their family worship time with us. We visited briefly the next morning on our way out of town because we kept our trailer in front of their house overnight. It was good to catch up with them!
The next night was spent in Jackson, MS. We arrived in Columbus on a Friday, and the housing office wouldn't let us pick up the keys to our house. So we stayed in the TLFs on base, which are really old and not great. The next day we were able to pick up our keys and get into our new house! We spent the rest of the weekend unpacking and organizing what we had brought from TX before the movers arrived on Monday with the rest of our Charleston goods.

We live on a cul-de-sac with about 9 other houses. Our neighbors introduced themselves within the first few days and informed us there are about 20 kids on our street alone! Wow! There is only one younger than Caleb. Everyone has been really nice and welcoming so far.

Between work and home projects, Paul has been busy. He hasn't started flying with students yet, but is close. At home he has been working non-stop on our organic garden. One of the things we made sure we asked about before living on base was if we could have a garden in the back. The answer was yes, so right after we got here, we planted seeds inside, hardened them off, and just recently planted them in the raised beds Paul constructed. We hired a company to set up the fence for the dogs, as hard as it was for Paul to watch someone else do work he knew he could do. But we couldn't beat the price and the convenience of having it up and ready to go for our pooches. After no backyard for 5 months, they are loving it!

We are searching for a church, but have not made our final decision yet. I've been going to some spouse functions to try to meet some new people. And Caleb is almost one...I can hardly believe it! There is so much I'd like to share about him growing up, but I think I'll have to save that for another day. At least this is a start!