We moved!  The water's technically undrinkable, only half the heat works, and we have no appliances, but we moved!  And we feel great!  This is our fourth move in three years as we've moved from farm to farm, learning and looking for land.  We don't plan to EVER do this again.

With luck on our side, we got a nice wintry mix of freezing rain and snow to carry furniture down our exterior staircase.  Up in Easton, we had a solid foot of new snow to shovel to get our rented trailer into the driveway.  But we moved!

In the midst of all doing home inspections, water testing, moving, snow-shoveling, house-buying, and working full time, we're also trying to start the farm.  It's hard to manage your priorities when everything has to be done ALREADY.  You set the alarm for 6am, have coffee, and put your nose to the grindstone.  Some time in mid-afternoon we surface for lunch, then back to work.  We usually break for dinner--quick and dirty since we have no appliances--then back to work til 9 or 10.  The only change to the routine is work:  Cara's working 5 shifts a week waitressing in Saratoga, and Luke is trying to offset our mounting expenses by freelancing some electric work.

One of the things we did manage to do, though, was to coordinate a massive order of harvest crates.  These are the cases we harvest produce into, wash in, and take product to market.  If we'd bought only enough for ourselves, they'd be about $19 each with freight.  By organizing a number of farming neighbors, though, we ordered 1200 of them at about $12 each.  It meant signing a purchase order for a $15,000 shipment, which was a bit scary, but it saved us almost 50% on a very necessary farm purchase.  Our friends at Crandall's Corners Farm took receipt of the shipment, since we don't have the means to unload pallets. 

That's one thing off the list!

Bob Wright was kind enough to meet us at the house this morning to explain some of the creative plumbing in the basement.  The house has been shut down since a hired plumber "winterized" it back in November, and we need to turn on the water and fire up the boiler for inspections and water tests etc.  Old houses are always a little quirky, but we were still bummed out to find the basement floor covered in shattered PVC from a blown water pipe, and numerous copper heat pipes burst...  After Bob left, Luke shoveled out 3 months of Washington County snow while Cara made to-scale drawings of all the rooms.

In other news, we solved the mystery problem with our van:  Turned out to be a burnt up injector harness, which resides INSIDE the valve cover.  Getting the valve cover off in a van is kind of like taking your socks off without removing your boots:  You can't be 100% sure it's impossible, but it sure seems like it.

We finally signed the contract for the farm!

We stopped by the farm today on our way to visit some friends. Looks a little cold... and really blue.