When we moved here, it became quickly apparent that the previous owners did not care for this place while they lived here. While everything went fine with the inspections, and things looked good on the surface, we found out that there was actually quite a bit that needed to be done.

It started with the stucco. There was a spot on the side of the house that had damaged stucco. After our first rain, we noticed that it was holding water in the stucco and needed to be repaired.

Once we got the stucco repaired, we needed to get the fence finished. Only the top part of the yard was fenced in, but the rest of the property was open to anyone, or anything, that wanted to meander through. The fence was a long process. We knew we could not do it ourselves, so we hired someone to do the work for us. That person turned out to kind of be a snake… live and learn. Regardless, once the fence was finished, we were able to use the back part of our property to house some of the animals. That way they could have more land to run and graze on, and still be safe. We had the fence crew split our back pasture into two areas. Josh decided he wanted to separate them even more, and after watching the fence guys for a few weeks, decided he could do this himself. So… we dug some holes.

…and Josh and Diego built a beautiful divisional fence.

Once we get a gate, we will be able to start rotational grazing. Rotational grazing is good for the animals, and the pasture. It allows us to keep them in one pasture for a specific amount of time, then move them to another pasture which allows the land in the first pasture to recover and regrow. We can also separate the males and the females, so we can control when/if they mate. This is beneficial so we can have some sort of idea of when they might give birth. (Unlike the current situation we’re in with our Pygmy goats that were given to us. No idea when those babies are coming. But we do know, in all probability, it will be in the middle of the night, in the rain/wind/thunderstorm! More on that later…)

We’ve had to trim trees overgrown for two years, remove bushes that have died, un-bury garden edging, and remove poisonous Oleander plants from the carport. Josh replaced those with a beautiful cedar fence to match the back deck.

Diego helped us clear out the garden on the patio so we could plant a small veggie garden. It had been so overgrown with weeds that we didn’t even know there were separate beds divided out!

The people who lived here before us were just young kids. They wanted this beautiful house, and beautiful ranch, but didn’t know how/or want to keep it up. It does take a lot of work. They struggled. The septic tank had never been pumped. When we had it pumped, they found baby wipes, legos, crayons. Things that could have caused us a huge problem had they gotten in the septic pump. They left a huge mountain of trash in our back property. Garbage, old toys, old furniture. They just didn’t know what to do with it so they hid it. That’s okay, we’ll take care of it for them. It’s ours now.

This property has changed so much since we moved in. Neighbors comment that it now looks as nice as it did when the original owners lived here. That makes us so proud. So if we have to pick up the occasional GoGurt wrapper or plastic car from the bushes… we’ll take it.