Spring...Time To Get To Work!

Once the snow melted grass began to grow and it was easy to see the beautiful slope of our land. Our beautiful, trash-filled land. Yes, trash...LOTS of trash. The snow had hidden it all! It's hard to see in the pictures, but it was everywhere...small pieces  (hundreds of cat food pouches!) and large items like tires, TVs, and dishes!? There was once a house on the land,  but it had burned down years before. All that remains is a slab. The previous owners had a large 'dump' in their backyard.

There was also lots of scrap metal, two metal buildings that were falling apart, and an old, broken down truck. We had a local ministry come get all the metal. They came out and loaded every single bit of metal...it was fun to watch them work and unbelievable how much metal they fit on their trailer, including the truck! They use the money to fund an orphanage in South America, so it was a huge blessing to them and us. Too bad they can't turn in trash for money.

With the metal gone it was time to tackle the trash!  We made a plan and waited for the first nice weekend to go out and have a BIG clean-up day. At the time,  the kids were 12, 9, 6, & 3  [I was a few weeks pregnant with Carter]. The older two were the most help, but even the Littles were able to pick up a large amount of the trash. We worked all morning and had a picnic lunch. It was fun and felt good to see the progress.

Crossing the Border...the Adventure Begins!

We moved to Arkansas in August, 2007 with a plan to purchase land within a few years, but for various reasons the right patch had not been found.  In early January, 2011 Greg and I were driving the backroads of Missouri, and dreaming. Talking about our desire to own land, but after a very L-O-N-G search we were feeling discouraged...what we thought would be very easy had not been easy at all and we were beginning to wonder if our dream would ever come true. That's when the miracle happened, as we rounded a bend, on a dirt road, there it was...a For Sale sign, not a typical for sale sign, it was actually a paper plate nailed to a tree with words scribbled in a ball-point pen, '6 Acres For Sale' with a phone number. The small writing could not be read from the road and when I told Greg it was a for sale sign he laughed, but did pull over...

I knew by the smile on his face that I was right. We called and sure enough the land was indeed for sale! We pulled up to the closed gate and looked as far as possible without entering the property.  The land was beautiful with gentle slops, a dry creek, and a large hill. We were very excited! A month later we were the proud owners of six glorious acres in Missouri...the adventure had begun!