I always thought I wanted goats for the farm and I do love the four Nigerian Dwarfs that we have but I have fallen in love with the two Southdown Babydoll sheep that I add just about a year ago.  They are wool sheep that are compact in size and are very easy on fencing.   Their cute little faces greet me when I go to feed them everyday. 

I can't wait for this weekend.  Now to create more fenced in pasture and housing.  We will have lambs this spring.  Three maybe four of the ewes are pregnant which is scary and exciting all at once.  I just hope the weather cooperates so we don't have babies while it is cold.

That first winter was very hard on us.  We stapled towels to the doorway of the living room and put a single electric heater on the floor and that is were we stayed for almost three months.  The bathroom was down the hall and no one wanted to leave the living room's balmy 50 degrees to go to the bathroom, which was in the 30's.  We all slept in this same room together in order to keep warm.  

We set up a makeshift kitchen in one of the back bedrooms with a crockpot, a hot plate, and a folding table.  Luckily we had a small refrigerator that we added to the camper so we had a way to keep food refrigerated, even though that room was cold enough to keep things from spoiling.  

We decided that getting a functioning kitchen up and running was first on the list of priorities so the kitchen remodel was put at the top of the list.  We had been pinning a lot of pictures on Pinterest, so we knew which direction we wanted to go in.  The house was built in 1912 so I didn't want to put in a modern kitchen. I wanted all the modern conveniences, but I wanted to keep the house as true to its roots as possible, that and I didn't want to spend an arm and a leg to do it.  

We found open shelving and wide plank floors on Pinterest and fell in love with the look, now to do it on a budget.  We took down the drywall on the ceiling and found ship lap which we absolutely loved.  We also had ship lap on the walls, but needed to leave the drywall up on the interior walls because there was no insulation. Without the drywall we could easily see through to the outside and we didn't want add to the chill in the air.

The first thing we needed to do was figure out the flooring situation.  All that was on the floor was plywood subfloor that had been covered with linoleum squares, making it sticky to walk on.  We wanted wide plank flooring but couldn't afford to buy them, so we found a way to mimic them on Pinterest.  We took standard plywood and had the home improvement store rip it into 8 inch strips.  We then nailed them down like flooring, sanded, stained, and sealed them for instant wood flooring.  It has held up really well over the last two years and we hope to put it through the rest of the house in the future.

Next we bought standard cabinets for the lower part and did open shelving for the uppers.  Open shelves force one to keep the kitchen organized, but we love the look.  Twice a year, we have to take everything off the shelves and clean them, a long and arduous task.  We also found a farmhouse sink at IKEA and decided to go with it.  Finally, we also decided to change the stove from electric to propane and we are so happy we did. 

The countertops were a bit tricky.  We knew we wanted butcher block but we couldn't really afford to do it right away, so we found another pin on Pinterest and decided to put 2x6 boards together to give us the look of butcher block without the expense.  It will be replaced sometime in the future, but for now it works.

Unfortunately we didn't have a pantry, so we bought leaning shelves and screwed them to the wall and they are used for food storage.  It's not ideal but at least we can't buy food we don't need, since there just isn't any room to store extra food.  Maybe in the future I can get a root cellar, but that would require a tractor or a back hoe which I know the hubby is all for buying.

This is the kitchen after the full renovation.  It is much smaller that the kitchen we had at our old house, but we are absolutely in love with it.  In the future we plan on replacing the countertops with butcher block, but the feeling is there with the wood planks.  That farmhouse feel is starting to come back to this little red farmhouse and we love it more every passing day.

We currently have a Lab mix named Bode.  He was the first dog we brought onto the farm.  He is the best guard dog I could ever hope to own.  He will not let anyone on the property without our permission.  He doesn't mind the livestock but doesn't want them bothering him either.

We have a Great Pyrenees named Lily and she is only 10 months old.  She is crippled due to a bad knee but still seems to get herself around the property.  We are going to have her leg removed to help her feel better.  She is a real sweet heart.

We have two Anatolian puppies that we got this past summer.  I am hoping to put them with the sheep when I get the pasture fenced in.  They are giants at only five months old but very laid back.  I can't wait to see how they turn out as they grow.

And then we have the two newest puppies, also Great Pyrenees.  They look like little bear cubs.  I hope they will go out with the goats as they grow.  I can't resist those sweet little faces.  I would love to make them house dogs, but then that wouldn't help with the other critters that wander on to the property.

I know six dogs seem like a lot of dogs but we have a pack of coyotes that would just love to snack on my goats or sheep.  I have created a pack of dogs that will hopefully keep that from happening.