Woo Hoo! Ryan hit his 1st Home Run today, I was so proud of him. I was a little sad that Mark missed it, he had to work. He also hit a triple and a single. The won their game 7-3.
I am really glad Ryan is into sports. Since he is homeschooled, he doesn't get to interact with too many kids and there is only 1 kid his age that lives on the mountain. He plays Football, Basketball and Baseball so, with all of that he gets a good bit of interaction with kids. I'm sure get a little tired of just myself, Mark and the animals. Unfortunately, there are no HS groups in this area either so thank goodness for athletics!
Saturday, June 4, 2011
History of how I got to where I am today...well kind of!
Several years ago Mark realized retirement was in his future. He had to ask himself what he wanted to do when he grew up... He decided he wanted to be a Farmer. For several years we searched many states trying to find where we were going live for the rest of our lives. On our way to look at some land in Kentucky we drove through West Virginia and noticed how beautiful it was. Once we were back home in Virginia Beach, we started looking in West Virgina.
The Navy took Mark overseas for 8 months. While there, he scoured the Internet for a farm in WV. He found a nice looking log home in a small town called Hinton. The weekend he got back, we loaded up the kids and went looking. We immediately loved the area. Although the house and land were not what we were looking for, the area was. There happened to be another place for sale on the same mountain but, it just wasn't right. At that time we were shown another place that wasn't technically for sale but maybe, to the right buyer. So, we stuck a note in the door and crossed out fingers. Several weeks later we received a call. A few months later we were proud owners of 53 acres on Brooks Mountain in Hinton, WV.
We have spent many weekends in WV working on the property, making plans and hanging out with some wonderful people. Initially Mark spent a lot of time going up and cleaning up the property, it looks great. He removed trees, cleaned up around the pond and removed stumps and trash. So what next...? We realized that the site where the current house is, is where we want to build our house. The current house is more of a shack, we actually called it indoor camping. The problem is, if we tear it down, where will we stay? We threw around many ideas and our final decision: Garage/Barn/Apartment. We call it the GBA or Bartment for short. So we started the project; a 32 x 48 concrete building which will be home until we build our FINAL home.
In June 2010 we closed on our house in Virginia Beach, where we had been living for the past 12 years and headed to our new adventure/life in West Virginia. Our goal to start and Organic Farm.....
A lot of work has been done in the past year land clearing, barn building, and more land clearing. We have added animals to our farm so far we have 30 chickens and 3 pigs!
In addition to farming or trying to I am now homeschooling my now 8 y/o son Ryan! Yes, homeschooling! It is something I thought I would never in my life do, but I do now. When I grew up I only remembered weird religious people, so I never thought it was for me. We had met 1 couple in WV that homeschool (HS)and they were just like us well, when we realized that WV schools weren't for us, I gave them a call. Ryan was in school about 3 weeks when we knew that school here wasn't going to work. About 3 weeks after that we began our homeschooling journey! We just completed our 1st year (2nd grade). He just completed our 1st standardized test and are awaiting the results. We have to test yearly for WV to make sure I am doing a good job! That is a little surprising to me because I am sure i did a better job than what he would have gotten in the PS (public school) here!
The Navy took Mark overseas for 8 months. While there, he scoured the Internet for a farm in WV. He found a nice looking log home in a small town called Hinton. The weekend he got back, we loaded up the kids and went looking. We immediately loved the area. Although the house and land were not what we were looking for, the area was. There happened to be another place for sale on the same mountain but, it just wasn't right. At that time we were shown another place that wasn't technically for sale but maybe, to the right buyer. So, we stuck a note in the door and crossed out fingers. Several weeks later we received a call. A few months later we were proud owners of 53 acres on Brooks Mountain in Hinton, WV.
We have spent many weekends in WV working on the property, making plans and hanging out with some wonderful people. Initially Mark spent a lot of time going up and cleaning up the property, it looks great. He removed trees, cleaned up around the pond and removed stumps and trash. So what next...? We realized that the site where the current house is, is where we want to build our house. The current house is more of a shack, we actually called it indoor camping. The problem is, if we tear it down, where will we stay? We threw around many ideas and our final decision: Garage/Barn/Apartment. We call it the GBA or Bartment for short. So we started the project; a 32 x 48 concrete building which will be home until we build our FINAL home.
In June 2010 we closed on our house in Virginia Beach, where we had been living for the past 12 years and headed to our new adventure/life in West Virginia. Our goal to start and Organic Farm.....
A lot of work has been done in the past year land clearing, barn building, and more land clearing. We have added animals to our farm so far we have 30 chickens and 3 pigs!
In addition to farming or trying to I am now homeschooling my now 8 y/o son Ryan! Yes, homeschooling! It is something I thought I would never in my life do, but I do now. When I grew up I only remembered weird religious people, so I never thought it was for me. We had met 1 couple in WV that homeschool (HS)and they were just like us well, when we realized that WV schools weren't for us, I gave them a call. Ryan was in school about 3 weeks when we knew that school here wasn't going to work. About 3 weeks after that we began our homeschooling journey! We just completed our 1st year (2nd grade). He just completed our 1st standardized test and are awaiting the results. We have to test yearly for WV to make sure I am doing a good job! That is a little surprising to me because I am sure i did a better job than what he would have gotten in the PS (public school) here!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)