Home Away From Home

This post is going to be a little different than usual...this is a special request from my Mom. Today we had an Open House at my parents' house after church, celebrating 25 years since my Dad became the Pastor of this church. Because the house looked so nice, she wanted me to take some pictures. This house is a real picture of the grace of God - an 1800s farmhouse, it was in such rough shape when we first came to NH that the church almost decided to tear it down and start over. They ended up stripping it to the studs and renovating it instead. So this is the house where I grew up from the time that I was 10 until I moved to Maine, and this is where Thane lived for his first 3 years. I still visit on almost a daily basis, as the house is very close to church and to my job. Enjoy the tour!

The living room:

The beautifully organized laundry room/pantry:

The green bottle came from the back yard - there's tons of antique stuff back there that previous owners just threw away!

The hallway:

Master bath:

Master bedroom:

My Mom's work area. In addition to keeping up with the household stuff, she writes ladies' Bible studies and finagles tons of organizational/scheduling stuff for the church, such as the bulletins, calendars and directories.

My brother's room:

Upstairs bathroom:

My younger sister's room:

My older sister's room. This was my room for a couple years before I bought my land and moved out to the homestead. We converted the unfinished second floor of the barn attached to the house into a bedroom. The first floor is Dad's woodworking shop. Dad made the epic oak door at the top of the stairs, as well as the built-in bookshelves.

The kitchen:

The TV screen below is not normally there; it was playing a slideshow of photos from the past 25 years at this church.

So there you have it...a tour of a refurbished 1800s New England parsonage! :)

I hope everyone had a great Sunday!!!

A Few More Photos

Things are going pretty well. My sister and I are grateful that God gave us safety in traveling...we left Sunday afternoon for South Carolina, and made it back late Thursday morning with a puppy and 5 rabbits in tow. It was somewhere around 2300 miles round trip. 

Hazel seems to be settling in well. She's sweet, adorable, and VERY smart. Thane is ambivalent toward her, Molly likes her but can be pretty bouncy, Enna seems to really like her and is very gentle, and...the jury is still out with Breeze, lol. I had honestly expected Breeze to practically adopt Hazel, but so far she seems rather jealous. For now I'm keeping them separate, and I'll continue to monitor things.

Hazel trails after me whenever I let her...so far she's followed me all over the yard, and I've even brought her down to the rabbitry a few times. She barked at a couple of the rabbits this morning, but overall seems pretty chill about them. Here she is meeting my biggest new doe:

And here are a bunch of pictures of the puppies playing this afternoon, taken with my nice camera. Hazel was funny - she would dash over to the older puppies and act all tough, then they would playfully chase her, and she would flee back to hide behind my legs. Then she'd venture out again after a minute. I think she thinks she's a big dog, then remembers she's actually only 1/4 the size of her playmates. :P

Glamour shots of the "big girls." I absolutely love how they're turning out!!

Molly:

Enna:

Jumping to try to catch a tree branch:

And one more of the little munchkin Hazel:

I hope everyone has had a nice week!

Introducing Hazel!!

 First: yes, I'm crazy. 100%. 😂😂😂 

Second: meet Hazel. 

She is a daughter of Henry, from my first Butterscotch Farm litter, and while I wasn't necessarily looking for another puppy just yet, I really wanted to bring that line back into my program, and this was likely my only opportunity to do so. 

My older sister and I are bringing her up from South Carolina... we're currently at a hotel in Virginia on our way back north. We also picked up 5 more Creme d'Argent rabbits because they're very rare and hard to find near me, and we've got her sister Maggie Mae along for the ride too (we're dropping her off in VT) - so we've got quite the menagerie!! 

Many thanks to those who are praying for our safety on the roads! ❤️