Cheers to the end of 2017

If you follow my blog I have wrote about a lot of our downfalls in 2017. Will and i often comment on how this was the hardest year so far so they can only go up...or so we hope. I am not going to recap the bad things as I hope to never relive them again but I want to recap the good.

January.....had our first batch of lambs. Started calving. Heather nominated for church council.

February.....moved into our (hopefully) forever home. Continued calving. Iowa beef expo. Surprise 35th birthday party pulled off for Will. Bought a new cattle trailer.

March....continued calving. Bought 2 new cows.

April...finished calving. Started working on plans for Wills dad's next step in life....assisted living and selling his house. Fast planting season

May...cows to pasture. Father in laws house listed for sale. Spent most of month cleaning out his acreage. Lyndin got tubes put in.

June...AFRICA! accepted offer on house. Parade season.

July...happy birthday America. Spent weekends in west union enjoying cows being on pasture. Jim moved to assisted living and loves it. Chickasaw county fair. Open cattle shows.

August...Lyndin turns 2. Iowa state fair.

September...another batch of lambs and goats. Redid bull barn. Bought j bunks. Big 4 Fair

October...Weaned calves. Harvest started. Chopped silage. Accepted second offer in wills dad's house.

November....Welcomed my goddaughter Mya to the family. Brought cows home. Thanksgiving. Sold feeder calves for $200 per head more than last year. Harvest finished. Finally finished family room in basement.

December...christmas. new years. Getting Christmas tree. Lyndin was a flower girl. Closed on wills dad's house. Heather accepted position on 4h youth council and will accepted beef superintendent position. Bought 30 new cattle gates.

We did have a successful year overall even with all our bad luck but I guarantee we are both looking forward to 2018 and a fresh start. Cheers to staying positive and things looking up.

If your thinking of marrying a farmer...

It is October and that means any plans made will be without my farmer. It's not the first, nor the last I will have to RSVP to a wedding 1 for sure, 2 depending on the weather....

It's harvest season, which means anything I do that isn't in the cab of a semi, likely doesn't involve him.


It has been 3 years since we said, "I do", and planning another play date so Lyndin doesn't notice her dad is gone.

If you're thinking about marrying a farmer, stop.

You will think about an insane schedule, completely dictated by weather the seasons. And completely out of your control. Completely.

You will picture interrupted dinners because someone showed up for a load of cows at an ungodly hour and interrupted weekend getaways because the cows are out. The cows always get out.

You will think about being solo at everything from weddings to funerals, that is, if you can even go at all.

You will think about making budgets and vacation plans based on the price cattle, knowing full whatever your plan won't be right.

In fact, it won't just be your budget that won't go as planned. It will be everything. EVERYTHING.

You see, marrying a farmer is full of risk. And thinking on it too long might let the risk overshadow a lot of things.

Things like riding together in the ranger to check cows, saving a calf you both poured your souls into.

Or watching your child's face light up when a baby lamb stands for the first time. Or raising your children knowing that the value of hard work will be engrained so deep in them they won't ever know any different.

Or being woke up at 1am by your farmer finally coming home - not from a night out on the town - but from a long day of working toward everything you both want.

Or sitting on the deck together, watching the sun rise over the land, animals and children the Lord has entrusted you to care for.

So if you're thinking about marrying a farmer, stop. Stop thinking and just do it!

​Because this crazy, dependent on the weather and price of grain lifestyle, is truly the greatest blessing in the world.

Even if it means going to everything stag.

Happy 3rd Anniversary

Today marks three years of Will and I being married and what a ride it has been. September 20, 2014 was a lot less hot than it is today. We got a little rain in the morning and the afternoon was just beautiful. We chopped corn the following week where this year we did in two days before. What a crazy three years it has been.

Will and I are still close with all of our wedding party except for one usher (family drama). We have welcomed into our hearts a daughter and 2 nephews (my sister's 2nd son and Will's "Brothers" third son) and a great nephew (Will's niece's son) and in those three years along with watching our nephews  who were just month's old at our wedding grow. There has been a lot of up's and just as many down's, but we have made it.

Marriage is hard work. There is a lot that goes into taking two different people and making them live cohesively and then add kids into the mix......crazy! I can say we have both grown individually, as a couple and as parents. Life is busier than ever, but we are surviving. We have made new friends along that way, some by crazy chance (like cows walking 3 miles to their house) and some by fate (like Will's cousins he didn't get a chance to grow up with). We have both taken a long look at who we want apart of our lives and who we need to cut out. Sometimes it is clear to us and other times we had to learn the hard way.

Our farm has grown by leaps and bounds. We added farm land and pasture land. We sold cows and added cows. Will even decided to part ways with his first bull he bought 9 years ago. We have upgraded our facilities and learned new ways of doing things to make things easier.

The one thing that stays the same is the love and commitment we have for each other, our daughter and future children and our promise to raise our family on the farm. As hard as it gets we will never fail as along as we don't loose site of those commitments.

Fall is coming Fast!

A week ago I thought harvest was never going to come. The corn was as green as it could be and the weather has been perfect for us but terrible for drying corn, but a lot has changed on the horizon in that week. Fields of corn and beans are drying up quickly and the weather is feeling more and more like fall. I would say we will be chopping within a week and harvest will start shorty after that. I think Will is feeling the pressure to get things ready for cattle to come home as we spent all weekend digging in posts and working on barns. The winds we had in May really did a number on our bull barn and wind break. Our contractor is about done with the bull barn repairs and Will and my dad worked on the wind break this weekend. I am not looking forward to Will going into the fields for harvest. Even though he really isn't home a lot now, he is a least able to do chores, during harvest that responsibility falls onto me. Last year Lyndin did not see him for 38 days. I am hoping since she is a little older maybe she will be able to spend some time in the semi with her dad this year. I learned last year that I really rely on my family and friends to help me get everything done during this busy time. As Lyndin gets older she likes to do her own thing instead of helping me and she doesn't like to sit still long enough to enjoy the tractor.

With this cooler weather it gets me thinking of Christmas and how busy our schedules can get so I am trying to pre-plan this year as we also have a family wedding during the holiday season. So if I ask about Christmas plans don't think I am crazy. I am just trying to squeeze everything in.

Shortly we will have feeder calves for sale. With the corn prices so low, now would be a great time to feed out some cattle. If you are looking for any, let me know. We also have a few show calves left if anyone is needs some quality show stock!

We made our own "high"

After all the lows we have had this year, Will and I decided to make our own high. Will has always talked and dreamed about owning an Australian Shepherd, but we never quite found the right fit until a Facebook post popped up in my news feed about a family looking to re home a 9 month Australian Shepherd male. I immediately sent a message to the lady and went and found Will. It was like it was meant to be. He quickly fell in love with just a few pictures. After talking to the lady they were looking to re home due to his anxiety when strangers came into the yard. He was great with their 2 and 3 year old daughters and other dogs and animals, but didn't like strangers, especially males. We decided to take the risk and made arrangements to meet in Austin, MN to pick him up. Well, after a few days of anxiety that the deal would fall through, we got to meet Sully. They asked that Will and Lyndin hide while they introduced him to me first. Sully jumped out of the car and right into my arms. He was full of kisses and love. Lyndin couldn't stay away any longer so she came running over and Sully greeted her will a million kisses. They both were in love. Then it was Will's turn. Will walked up and Sully sniffed him and went back to kissing Lyndin. The previous owners were happy with that response to him because normally he becomes aggressive. We loaded Sully into his kennel and off we went. We had planned to stop at a park about 30 minutes out of Austin to let both Lyndin and Sully run. Sully jumped right out and played on the playground with Lyndin and went right over to Will. They instantly had a great connection, so much that Sully road in the front seat with Will on the way home. It was great to see Will smile when he would look at Sully, I knew his heart was full once again.

Once we got home we introduced Sully to Aspen and Ahlee. After a few battles Aspen and Sully turned to playing. Ahlee is still a little unsure. We left Aspen and Sully in the garage overnight and moved Sully to the shed this morning. We noticed he liked to run after cars as one went by last night so we will need to teach him his boundaries before he is free to roam.

Sully has already started working on sit, stay, come and kennel and responded very good to those with us. He did chores with us last night and never once was aggressive towards any of the animals. I think he is going to be an excellent fit and a big highlight for our family. Our dog Aspen who is half german shepherd/half blue heeler has started showing some aggression towards the cows and other animals so we are hoping Sully will help calm her down. Will is hoping to work with Sully more to train him to watch gates while he is doing chores.

What a great "high" we had yesterday. Lyndin woke up saying "Ahlee Out" to put him outside and then "where Ully" as she wanted to see the new family member.

Bad News, Keeps Getting Worse

I am almost afraid to pick up my phone when I see the realtors name pop up. Once again closing was delayed....15 MORE DAYS! Will and I have personally been funding the house renovations and his dad's care since July 5, 2017 and we are broke because of it. Closing was originally scheduled for August 18, but here we are with another extension. Unfortunately there isn't much we can do to fix it except wait.

There are a few positive things going on in our lives tho....We found out that his Godmother and cousins are planning to spend the weekend with us at the Big Four Fair in Nashua. What an awesome honor to have them take a weekend out of their busy schedules just to spend time with us. Due to estranged family drama they unfortunately didn't get to grow up together but me being the loud mouth that I am, brought them back together and it has been the best thing for both parties. Will's godmother/cousin, Michelle, is the 4H advisor in Fayette County and grew up raising cattle. Her husband Galen and kids, Travis and Amanda, have opened their arms, expertise and home to us numerous times. You would think that Travis and Will are brothers as they walk the same, talk the same, and act the same. We are so honored they we get to be apart of their lives and they want to be apart of ours. I can't even count the number of times I have called them last minute to watch Lyndin and they always jump at the opportunity. It reminds me that we are doing something right in this world. Travis has a way of calming Will down in the stressful world of showing cattle. I must admit that showing feeders is a lot less work and a lot more fun. I think we found our niche.

I will wait to share the other positive thing that we are looking forward to in case it doesn't work out. (NO, I AM NOT PREGNANT).

Closing the book....

After spending countless hours cleaning out my father-in-laws home to sell we picked up the final load this weekend. Will's father is suffering from memory loss and we made the decision to put him into assisted living. Thankfully he was more than willing to go to one. After looking at a few places we found Cobblestone Court in Sumner, Iowa and he fell in love and so did we. The day after we got home from our trip to Africa we moved him into his new home. Since then we have seen improvements both physically and mentally and are indescribable. In order to afford this next chapter in his life we starting the process of selling him. Thankfully he has a beautiful place and perfect location so it didn't take long to sell, but then came the hard part....getting everything out. Will and I spent endless hours there throwing away and giving away belongings. My father-in-law already had the things he had wanting as he had been staying with a friend a couple years prior to this decision and we even rented it out for awhile, so the house was the easy part. The outbuildings on the other hand were an organized mess. Dumpster loads and scrap metal loads consumed most of our free time this summer, but we are officially done. With fingers crossed closing will be held this Friday.

When we moved Will's father in he was down 24 pounds from 2 months previous, he could barely walk and his memory didn't last beyond on couple minutes. I am happy to say that he has gained 5 pounds in a month and takes daily walks and he can remember things beyond a couple days. What a great change. He often asks about his bothers and sister with whom he doesn't have a relationship with as I think he is starting to realized how alone that makes him. We do keep his siblings updated on his life as best we can, but our hope is that they will pay him a visit and hopefully they will have a future together for the years that are left.

Here is a picture I received last night of Will's dad dance on "main street" at the assisted living. He is happy to be able to do what he loves once again!

Reality is HARD!

After the last month of working cattle and going to open shows, Will and I took the weekend to go watch the Simmental Show at the Iowa State Fair. Unfortunately, we did not show cattle down there this year, as being in Africa would put us too fair behind. We learned that it is a lot more relaxing watching for the bleachers but we also know that we can't sell cattle from there. Working, eating and sleeping farm is hard work on its own, but add in a full time job and a sassy 2 year old and the days are really wearing on me. Doing anything takes 4 times as long with a girl on your hip. Don't get me wrong, I love all the farm has to offer, but I need to learn how to better manage my time. I am always expected to take care of everyone else. Making appointments, running errands, going here, running there, do this, do that, along with make supper, do laundry, bath night. No where in there do I see, take care of yourself. Will always asks me to make a list of things that I need done that he could help me with. Needless to say I made a list 4 months ago and the only things crossed off are the things that I did. Frustrated is my favorite word anymore. I know we are both busy and he is handling what he can, but multitasking is something he can't do. I find myself spending my half hour lunch break doing errands for everyone else that most the time I don't have time to eat.

The Chickasaw County Extension Office is sponsoring a workshop about well being and I am really working hard on trying to establish some boundaries to improve my well being. I am learning that I need to say "no" more when people ask me to help them out, especially the ones that don't like to return the favors when I need them. I am learning to take time to myself in order to 'reset' from the day and prepare for the new one. I am a work in progress that's for sure!

We have a 2 year old

Where does the time go? On Friday we woke up to a 2 year old in the house. Although she has already been in the "terrible 2" phase for quite some time, it is crazy to think she is 2. Lyndin is so full of spunk and attitude but with her smile she can move mountains. Friday night we took a break from cattle and hosted a birthday party for her. She had a great time playing with her cousins and opening her new gifts. She is so loved by everyone around her and has no idea the impact she makes with her smile. We are blessed parents.

Back to work we go.

Today we all went back to work and daycare. Lyndin about jumped out the car in excitement when we pulled into daycares driveway. I had a pile of jobs to work on but got caught up by 4. Will left way before I even thought about waking up and won't be home to late. Back to reality.

Time to go back to reality.

As we are sitting at the gate waiting for our first 9 hour flight I have some time to reflect.

This was an AWESOME adventure but it is safe to say we all miss home. It was great to spend time with family and see how the other half of v56 farms live. As different as it may be to us, they love it. We miss our crazy schedules and little together time but the time we do spend together is priceless.

Lyndin misses her animals more than anyone can understand. Every time we saw an animal she just melted over here. We all miss the freedom the farm offers for us 3. Lyndin has her daily chores which she enjoys doing. What would take us 10 minutes to do takes her 1 hour but we wouldn't ever speed her up. I will never let anyone take that freedom and chores away from her. It is her time to be alone with her animals and unwind from the day.

I miss the flexibility of being able to go and do what I want when I want. In Africa we needed a driver everywhere we went. I enjoy my freedom to plan my own schedule and just go. I also miss the quite and serenity of the farm. With just the three of us there it is quite. The animals respond better to quite soft voices to lead them and with just us 3 we can offer that.

I think will misses the freedom to do what he needs to do. At home he goes and does what he needs without a worry where Lyndin and i slowed him down here. I think he finally realized why I ask for 5 minutes alone when he finally walks through the door at night. I may not always get it but hopefully he will now understand why I need it.

We are all ready to go back to being a family of three and back into our routine. We are ready to break Lyndin of same bad habits she learned over there and go back to our normal.

It is 10:30pm in Africa so our first flight is over night. Praying for lyndin to sleep so maybe I can get some rest.

Talk to everyone when we get HOME, WHERE OUR HEARTS ARE!

Relaxing day

2 days until we get back on the plane to iowa. I must admit I miss home and I think everyone else does to. Lyndin would do anything to have her animals with her again and her freedom to run.

This morning, Saturday, July 1, Will and i went to our schedule eye appointments. Eye exams only cost $5 here so we took the opportunity to get our exams and ordered some glasses at half the price as home.

Next we went for sushi...yes us cattle farmers LOVE sushi. Over here most restaurants have play places for the kids and most parents bring the kids' nanny with them to supervise. I have learned that i am the Nanny, the gardener, the driver, the housekeeper, the mom and the wife. Definitely a different life style over here.

Mossaui market

Every Friday at village center they have mossaui market which is similar to our farmers market but with homemade crafts and goods. In Africa there is never a final price. The sellers give you a price and you start to dicker so i was pretty excited as I love to dicker. We walked out of the market with many great souvioners at prices we would be embrassed to say in the states.....so cheap! Will has always wanted a pair for Angola cow horns, while he didn't get exactly what he wanted..he got a pretty cool pair. Tonight we are going to visit the david sheiskel elephant orphanage, which we always hear Samuel talking about. Lyndin has an adopted elephant named Rapa there that we often get updated on so we are excited to actually meet him.

The elephant orphanage is only open from 5 - 6pm for visitors. We didnt arrive until 5:30pm due to their usual traffic so we didn't get to see the elephants coming in for their bottles. The elephants range from a couple years old to 2 years old. The goal is to rehabilitate them to survive in the wild. Each elephant has a keeper with them 24 hours a day. They even sleep in their rooms on bunks. During the day the elephants are able to go into the national park to find food and exercise, then at night they are brought into their pens for safe keeping. The young ones have to be bottle fed every 3 hours.

We were able to see rapa and get some pictures. It was pretty amazing.

US AID dairy farm

HiOn the way home from samburu we were fortunate enough to stop and see another one of jens projects. US AID took applications from over 400 people wanting to improve their agricultural business and 21 projects were selected. The livestock market we saw was one of the them along with the dairy farm ran by a women named Agnus. We were greeted by a lady that has a dairy herd of 10 cows, laying hens, boilers, and a few of every animal. She is the only person in northern kenya to have purebred milk cows and produces some of the best milk and yogurt. Agnus was awarded a grant to build a new dairy barn to hold 20 cows and a chicken house to hold 2000 laying hens. It is quite a project as they needed new power and water ran to the site. She currently has 14 employees but will increase to 16-18 at the new site. She isn't even in the new buildings yet but she is already looking towards what is next. She is quite the entrepreneur. She is so appreciative of the US people for helping to increase her supply so she can feed more people.

It was amazing to see and hear her positive attitute. Against all odds she is making a difference to her community and soon to her region and beyond. Her yoghurt is better than anything I have ever tasted and she will hopefully soon be selling it in stores. What an inspiration to us all.

We continued on our journey home to Nairobi where we will get to relax for a few days.

Samburu elephant tent camp

Our last destination on this leg of our adventure is samburu national park where we will be staying at the elephant tent camp. After paying our park fees we made it to our camp for the next few days. The elephant tent camp is just as it sounds but we stay in 5 star tents and eat good meals. Safaris are usually active in the early morning on late afternoon so upon arrival we settled in and had lunch before we left our our safari at 4:00. I must mention that we have had the same driver/guide and vehicle since we left niabroi. Here the drivers are with you 24/7 along your drive which is awesome to have as they know the animal locations and local language. So Thanks, Joshua. While waiting to leave for our safari an elephant walked right past our tent and we had monkeys trying to get in. We are literally in the middle of no where but have Wi-Fi of course.

On our afternoon safari we say a bunch of different types of gazelles and antalope. Elephants. Giraffes. Zebras and birds. But to see the big five we needed to find a leaphord and lion. With no luck we headed back to camp for supper and to get up early to try again.

The next morning we left at 6:30am for our morning safari. After a short while will spotted a leaphord walking in the dried up river. It was beautiful. It doesn't tale long for word to get around that a leaphord had been spotted as vehicles came from all over.

They are experiencing what is expected to be the worst drought in 60 years.  Huge rivers are almost completely dry. Many animals have moved on looking for water while some die from lack of water. It is a very sad situation with no man made fix available. I ask all of you to add Africa to your prays for rain as they desperately need it.

After seeing the leaphord we were pretty excited but little did we know that we would be finished up seeing the big 5 with a lioness hunting a small zebra. We could tell the lioness had babies recently. Of course once again vehicles came from everywhere to watch the hunt which slowed the lioness down. After a while of watching and waiting we decided to leave her be.

At the night hunt we were fortunate enough to spot another leaphord along with seeing the same lioness and her kill, a small zebra. They are beautiful creatures.

Along with seeing lots of monkeys and baboons  (Lyndins cousins) we ended our day at sunset with drinks.

Tomorrow we take off back to niabroi after we stop at a local dairy to see their operation.

USAID Livestock Market

Today we are spending the day at the US AID cattle market which is one of Jennifer's projects. The building of the market was completed in January of 2017 and the first market was held in May. The market is home for locals and brokers to buy and sell goats, sheep, cattle, camels, and donkeys. It is very similar to the Waverly animal swap that we attend a couple times a year. The animals are first brought in through the screen area. Vet inspections are not common here and are only used when requested. With herds roaming it would be hard to keep accurate records. The sellers then gather their animals in a group and wait for a potential buyer. The buyer and the seller make the transaction themselves. Some animals are bought for local consumption and some are bought to be shipped to bigger cities. We received a tour from the project manager and livestock coordinator. Will was able to offer insight on how we do things and we were able to gain insight on how things are done here. There are a lot of similarities since this is a us project.

The cattle are sold per head instead of per pound as we do back home because of the lack of scales. You buy what you see here where we have some sort of records on vaccination back home.

The locals are taking great pride in the market so far which is helping establish a more consistent pricing structure. The women feel safe going to market alone because of security and not having to carry so much cash due to bank on-site.

It was quite an adventure to learn about how our market system is beginning to work in Africa. I am sure it will be am adjustment to the people but hopefully the outcome will be successful.

Lyndins safari

Today we took the day to please lyndin and Samuel by going to the animal orphanage by mt. Kenya. It was the best day yet. Lyndin absolutely loved this place. The animals are all rescue animals and live and wonder in the orphanage. Lyndin got to feed monkeys, baby buffalo, and ostrich. She made friends with the tour guide and got personal treatment. We saw Cheetahs, hippo, llamas with a day old baby, a variety of monkeys, antalope, leaphord, and so much more. There was a 152 year old tortious that lyndin was able to sit on. I really wanted a picture of that as I remember seeing my mom riding a tortious. It was great to see her run and play and be happy like she is when she is home on the farm. I will be adding pictures once we are back home.

Tomorrow we head to our next destination and visit the cattle market.

Safari

We woke up early to get a good start on our animal search. I love checking cows but this was pretty amazing. Ol pejeta conservancy is Huge with hundreds of different wild animals. We started by first seeing Angola cows which are Wills favorite, imagine that. They have huge horns that grow straight up. They are native to Uganda but they brought them to the conservancy to produce embryos to put into their native cows. Their native cows are mostly dairy breeds so they are hoping by using the embryos they will get more beef influence. I forgot to mention....this is also a business trip which you will hear more about in the coming days.

Next onto the rhinos. We were fortunate to see both black and white rhinos and even a baby that was only a week old. In part of the conservancy they have a blind rhino that they rescued and you are able to feed and pet. Lyndin was alittle afraid but stepped right up to feed it with daddy's help. That's my girl.

We say hundreds and hundreds of zebras, gazallas, impelas, worthogs, cows  and bush bucks.

Along with elephant families, cape buffalo, hyenas and a couple gariffi. It was pretty awesome.

They have a chimpanzee conservancy within the park. You are able to see some of the 36 chimps that make that place their home. Chimps are not native to this region so they are acquired through caught smuggling, poachers killing mother's and babies are displaced and other unfortunate circumstances. To make a donation to help the chimps Lyndin became a junior member.

After 6 hours of safari we headed back home to roast a goat. Yum!

The equator

On the way to our destination we got to stop at the equator. A gentlemen showed us how 20 meters north of the equator the water goes down clock wise and 20 meters south it goes down counterclockwise and on the equator it goes straight down. Of course it is a tourist attraction so for 600 shillens you can get a certificate stating you were there  along with pictures, so we did it as we will probably never see it again.

We piled back in and onwards we go.

After going up some small hilly roads we made it to our house for the next few days. This place is up on top of the hills with nothing but miles and miles to see. We are able to see mt. Kenya right from our bed. It is completely different then the beach house as it has windows and doors and it gets cool out. They haven't had rain since April so it is getting very dry and thru are not expecting relief till December. We complain when we don't get rain for a couple weeks, imagine 8 months.

We settled in and had supper and made our plans for the morning.

And we are off...again

After a peaceful night back at the house in Nairobi we woke up and started packing for our next adventure....Ol pejeta conservertory near Mt. Kenya. First we got to experience the market as we needed to get good and supplies for the trip.

The mall is basically just like ours back hone but they have butcher shops for meat, grocery stores for fresh fruit and veggies and small clothing shops and knick knack shops. Nakama is like the Wal-Mart of Africa which basically everything you could need and prices similar to American goods. Will and i got pop to bring along which will be a nice treat. They ever had a pizza hut street car but i didnt have enough time to try it. Maybe next Friday when we go to the misai market (farmers market/flea market)

When we arrived home our safari truck pulled up. This thing is right out of the movies. Our driver, Joshua, we be with is for the next five days as we enjoy seeing the sight and animals of kenya.

Our three hour ride to our destination was very interesting. We got to see corn fields, coffee fields, del Monte pineapple fields which will be imported to the usa, logging farms, tree farms, rice fields, cows, goats and chickens everywhere. Roadside markets selling fresh local fruit, coal, rice. They are a year round growing season so they can usually get two crops depending on the rain. They are currently in a mild drought so water supplies are limited. Jennifer said in may they had to truck water to their house in order to have a water supply.

No matter where we go people are always trying to sell you something. So people are high and want to be very persistent while others let you be. When I think of a third world country I dont expect everyone to have cell phones and modern convenience but they are very modern here but about 15 years behind us. The music they listen to is the music I listened to at the skating rink 15 years ago. They have car washes and televisions and most places have Wi-Fi. Golf courses and dominos pizza. Their water is full of bacteria but they still drink it so they are sick alot. Jenn keeps saying there are the haves and the have nots. When we went to knokama it was like shopping at shopko back home.

But then you drive through the villages and you see such filth and poverty, but they could be the riches people around.  Kids go to elementary  school and depending on the parents finances go to high school and beyond. Jobs are limited as there is way more people than jobs so unemployment rates are way high. The cost of labor is so cheap here so the women and the men both work depending on what jobs are available. It is a different world in most ways but in some ways not so much.

Goodbye beach

Day 6 we said goodbye to the beach. What an awesome adventure. We got to experience things you would only dream about.  Like seeing turtles go to sea. Sand and water for miles. Monkeys everywhere you turn and just all around tranquility. We ate our last seafood lunch and took off to the airport. After an hour flight we were greeting by our driver and headed into rush hour. Can you image 5 million people all trying to go somewhere at the same time? It is CRAZY. Horns honking, motorbikes going in and out of traffic, pure crazyness. I still can't get over how dirty it is here. Even the air is dirty. We can't drink the water as it is full of bacteria  so bottled water it is.

The country is trying to make some improvements to infrastructure and running water and electrically lines to help improve quality of life but like I said, they add 1 million people a year.

August is election month which happens every 5 years. In the 2007 election there were multiple attacks and people as two tribes were pinned against each other. That really put a stop to tourism and it still hasn't recovered. They are expected this election to be a peaceful on but they still but everything on high alert and discourage and sometimes forbid travel into the country. We thought Trump and Hillary were bad. This is a million times worse over here.

Tonight we have some time to unwind and repack for our next adventure which we leave for tomorrow afternoon....stay tuned.

Our beach week

We arrived safely to a beautiful 4 bedroom house that could be in a magazine. It is all open and authentic. There are no windows and locks on all the doors to keep the monkeys out, yes monkeys. There is a pool right in the social area which we are learning is stressful with Lyndin.

Of course we jumped right into the pool after settling in. Lyndin loves the water and has no fear of it. She has learned to jump off the edge into my arms and would love to do it without me catching her, I'm sure.

Part of this adventure is getting to eat fresh seafood for lunch and dinner prepared by the personal chef. As you should know, will and i love seafood and lyndin has followed in our footsteps. The previous day we place our order with a local fisherman as to what seafood we would like for the following day. Lobster. Grouper. Parrot fish. Oysters. Calamari. Crab. Red snapper. Everything was so delicious. I can say that we will be seafood out of awhile after this trip.

The beach is just a short walk from our villa. It is beautiful and no one in sight. Actually most of the hotels and resorts are empty as the election is in August. And in 2007 there were attacks amongst the tribes and it got bad so tourism basically stopped. It is trying to bounce back but very slowly. The beach is nothing like I had seen before. Water for miles and the tide is so unique. It is never in or out at the same time. The locals seem to know exactly what time it will be high or low tide but we couldn't figure it out.

Starfish Island

Day 2 we went on an adventure to starfish island which is a tourist attraction and conservation area established by a local fisherman named Siaid. Did you know that starfish came in a variety of colors and some even have 6 points? Because of the unique colors locals would sell them to tourist as souveniours and the starfish population declined. So Siaid gathered the local fisherman and asked them to not sell the starfish and instead establish an area for them to live for the future generations to enjoy. After years of trying he finally succeeded and picked a small sand beach that can be seen at low tide to gather the starfish.

Upon arriving to starfish island you go around a gather the starfish you can see and place them in the center of the island. Here you could play with them, take pictures, and Siaid told us all about them. It was a neat experience and we have never seen a starfish in person let alone a colorful one.

Day 3 was a rainy day but we were still able to enjoy the beach and the pool inbetween rain showers. We decided to take a taxi to town to see some sights. We stopped at a restaurant that was right on the beach and got to see parachutes jump from the plane and land on the beach. It was cool.

Day 4 we went with Siaid to a snorkeling area he knew. When he said we had to walk to it. We had not idea what he meant. Through the weeds, down a cliff and a long ways in the water but we finally reached a pool that was perfect for snorkeling. I was the first to try it out. Man it is a different experience when bottom is 10 feet below you, but i managed to do a few laps and see some unique fish. Then it was wills turn. He jumped in and how a mild panic attack so quickly got back out. He was able to enjoy it in the shallow water where he was able to touch ground. You defiantly have to be a good swimmer to snorkel. We were not really fans of it just because of not be able to touch bottom.  So we traveled back to the villa just in time for supper and bed.

Starfish Island

Day 2 we went on an adventure to starfish island which is a tourist attraction and conservation area established by a local fisherman named Siaid. Did you know that starfish came in a variety of colors and some even have 6 points? Because of the unique colors locals would sell them to tourist as souveniours and the starfish population declined. So Siaid gathered the local fisherman and asked them to not sell the starfish and instead establish an area for them to live for the future generations to enjoy. After years of trying he finally succeeded and picked a small sand beach that can be seen at low tide to gather the starfish.

Upon arriving to starfish island you go around a gather the starfish you can see and place them in the center of the island. Here you could play with them, take pictures, and Siaid told us all about them. It was a neat experience and we have never seen a starfish in person let alone a colorful one.

Day 3 was a rainy day but we were still able to enjoy the beach and the pool inbetween rain showers. We decided to take a taxi to town to see some sights. We stopped at a restaurant that was right on the beach and got to see parachutes jump from the plane and land on the beach. It was cool.

Day 4 we went with Siaid to a snorkeling area he knew. When he said we had to walk to it. We had not idea what he meant. Through the weeds, down a cliff and a long ways in the water but we finally reached a pool that was perfect for snorkeling. I was the first to try it out. Man it is a different experience when bottom is 10 feet below you, but i managed to do a few laps and see some unique fish. Then it was wills turn. He jumped in and how a mild panic attack so quickly got back out. He was able to enjoy it in the shallow water where he was able to touch ground. You defiantly have to be a good swimmer to snorkel. We were not really fans of it just because of not be able to touch bottom.  So we traveled back to the villa just in time for supper and bed.

Lazy day

Our first full day in kenya was a lazy day. We slept till 11:30 am to catch up on our lack of sleep the last 2 days. Then Lyndin and Samuel were able to play outside and just enjoy the beautiful 70 degree weather.  After supper we were off to bed early.

Saturday June 17 we left for our first adventure. A week at the beach. We had a crazy car ride to the little airport. It was the first time that I got to see kenya in the daylight. Crazy. Scary. Sad. Dirty. Are the words that come to mind. The cars have the steering wheels on the opposite side and drive on the opposite side of the road. There are no stoplights or stop signs, just round abouts and their horns telling other cars to make room. Speed bumps keep the speed down but also make for a bumpy ride. There are a lot of people walking right along with the cars and they do not move for the cars at all. I dont know how many times I could have reached out of the car and just touch someone. When the roads are full and you have to stop and wait your turn there are people everywhere trying to sell you things. They have some very good entrepreneurs here but unfortunately costs are high and profits are low. It is sad how dirty this place is. Trash is everywhere and people live right among it. They build their houses out of whatever they can, tires, tin, wood, trash.

Arriving at the airport is completely different then home. There is security EVERYWHERE in Africa. No matter where you go you are searched or scanned. In reality they are protecting the people from their own people. There are places that we are not allowed to go that is why we always have drivers. It is indescribable how much security there is. You would think that security detail alone would produce enough jobs, but i just learned that Africa has 38 million people with 1 million more added each year. I guess when you don't have a job you have plenty of time to procreate.

There is minimal security at the airport compared to other places. For instance there are three guarded gates just to get to Jenn' s house. At the airport we basically walk right on to the plane with whatever we had.

We had a one hour flight to Ugunda which would take 8 hours by car. After arriving we were greeted by the driver and started on our way to the villa. Let me tell you...i will never complain about our gravel roads again after traveling these dirt roads. The last turn closest to the villa is almost completely washed out. You would never completely understand how poor this country is without witnessing it yourself.

We made it.

Leaving Tuesday night June 13th for Minneapolis mn for our hotel and car babysitter while we are gone went very smooth. After a pretty unsuccessful night sleep it was finally departure day. We had most of the day to kill so i decided to treat myself to a pedicure and manicure while will and lyndin layed low. 2pm it was time to move our car to long term parking and head to the airport. After walking right through security all we had to do was sit and wait. Since Lyndin was out of her routine she took a nap so that helped time go by. We were able to board the plane early in order to get Lyndin' s carseat secured and ready to go. For the first flight we had seats in the middle row. That was a tight fit especially with the car seat. But non the less it worked. Lyndin did great on take off and loved having her own tv screen and movies to watch. We were provided supper and breakfast which wasnt the best but after the second  flights food we found out it was awesome. 8 hours later and little sleep for us all we were on the ground in Amsterdam. We had a 4 hour and 20 minutes layover and let me tell you it was the longest layover. Lyndin was dead tired and fighting sleep and through a huge fit. No matter what we tried she would not stop. It was a rough couple hours for will and i but as soon as we got in the plane lyndin was sleeping and quiet. International fights are terrible compared to american flights. Terrible food. No charging ports and they kept the lights on.  9 hours later we landed in niabroi kenya around 10:15pm their time.

We had to go through immigration as soon as we got off the plane. We we escorted to the front of the line since we had Lyndin with us and basically walked right through. After waiting for luggage we were off to look for our driver. 25 minute car ride and we arrived to grandma linda and antie Jenn waiting for us.

Our next adventure!

V56 Farms is about to embark on our next adventure. At least for 3 weeks that is. The other half of V56 farms lives in Kenya, Africa. Will's sister, mom and nephew reside over there due to his sister's job so we are getting the opportunity to travel there to see what their life is like over there. Will has been over there twice already but as a young single man and not with an almost 2 year old and wife. So tomorrow night after work we are traveling to Minneapolis, MN to spend the night before we take off. Our first flight is 9 hours long with a 4 hour layover and then another 9 hour flight. My nerves heighten just from typing that. I am hoping Lyndin leaves her attitude at home and traveling goes just fine, but with her you never know.

We spent this past weekend prepping friends on the cows, chicken and sheep/goat chores. Tried tying up some last minute projects and packing, packing, packing. Packing wasn't as bad as I thought it would be as we will have laundry available and summer clothes fold up smaller, but just the fear of forgetting something can become overwhelming.

We have all our shots done, passports ready, visa's verified and two days of work left before we take off. Stay tuned for pictures and updates!

New year's resolution

After having a rough day Will asked me to go do something for myself. After thinking about it...I had no idea what I would want to do. I have consumed my life around work, Will, Lyndin and the farm that I lost what I like to do. I really enjoy quilting but had to put that on the back burner as we don't have room in our home to do it. I like to go shopping but Farm bills seem to take the extra spending money. I lost who I was. When I went to the grocery store I got what Will and Lyndin liked and not necessarily what I liked. So...for my new years resolution I decided to make time for myself at least once a month. I need to remember who I am so I can be the best I can. Thursday night I was able to treat myself to a hair appointment. After highlights, cut, and Brazilian blowout I came away feeling a sense of peace. I also took Friday off to have some time to myself which was much needed. So here is to a new year and a renewed me.