Hello all. hope you are all doing great and enjoying your summer.
We have been doing well for the most part. Renters have been amazing. We are loving the wonderful people we get to meet. 
Well, as for the title of this blog? Yes, we were hit by a bad storm on July 23rd around 5pm. We were at our house in town as we had renters at the farm. In town, we had some wind, thunder and rain. But north of town at the farm, they had high winds. No tornado confirmation but there must have been straight line winds. Our farm was damaged with the loss of many many trees. So sad to see. We have a lot of clean up to do in the woods. We were very fortunate that we did not have any building damage, but we sure lost a lot of trees. The farm also lost power for 12 hours. Thank goodness the hubby was able to get a generator hooked up for our guests. They were happy with that as the weather was not so pleasant. They were great troopers and we were happy that we were able to get the house back up and running. 
As I said, we lost a lot of trees, but sadly we were not the only ones. It truly is so sad to see all the damage that happened from this storm. Here are some photos. These are from Huckleberry Road. It was totally covered. These pictures were taken after some cleaning up happened. The other trees are from the front yard and driveway. We continue to find more and more on a daily basis that are damaged or just plain uprooted. 
We are thankful that this is all that happened. Still sad to see some of these really old trees just gone. We just have faith that this is natures way of keeping it cleared.  
Till next time my friends. Always remember. 
Doing nothing can sometimes lead to the best of something. 

Wait… What???? NINE???  
YUP!!!!! 
We have now officially caught 9.  Let me say it again. We have officially caught 9 woodchucks in our live traps this season. So, that means since Easter weekend, we have caught 9 woodchucks, 6 squirrels, 2 bunnies and 1 raccoon.  Everything was released at the farm except the woodchucks. We (meaning hubby) takes the woodchucks 10-15 miles away and releases them.  I really think we need to start tagging those little $hit$ to make sure they are not finding their way back to the farm.  Never and I mean never did the hubby and I think we would catch 9 in our life time , let alone in just a couple of months. THE STRUGGLE IS REAL PEOPLE! 
We know that we have invaded their space, but we feel we need to take it back, so the fight is on. If I were a betting lady, my money would be on my hubby and I.  I say we are determined and he says it  is German stubbornness. Either way those little $hit$ Will not win. (Thinking positive thoughts) 

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Well my friends, today was a day that I became good at something.  Losing .. Yup Losing. Let me explain…
First I woke up earlier than normal as I wanted to get to the farm to get the mowing done. I went through my normal morning routine and headed to the farm. Once I arrived I discovered that I forgot the keys to the barn back in town along with my headset.  I drove the 2 miles back home (4.89 a gallon gas) pick up my headset and keys and continued back to the farm. 
Unlock barn and get tractor out to mow. It started right up and away I went. I believe I was about 7 passes into the front yard circling around to the back when I came around the corner and saw something in the yard. Hum??? What was it. My first thought was, another bleep bleep woodchuck was in the yard. (The woodchuck story will continue later in the post) As I proceeded closer, it did not move. I think thought, oh crap and turned around to check out the mower and yup, sure enough it was a wheel from the mower. 

Well, that day was cut short.. (no pun intended) until the hubby could get it welded back together. So I took off the rest of it and proceeded to take it back to town for repair. 

Next was cutting and hauling away tree scraps to the back burn pile. Hubby had used the trailer and found he, yes HE, lost the pin for the trailer. Quote un quote ya, I lost the pin but you should still be able to use it yet.  Ok.. See for yourself.   Yes indeed, the pin is a most important part of this adventure.. 

Yup, that would be the lost trailer… No one was hurt in this adventure even though my dog is the one who let me know it was no longer behind us. How ? Thanks for asking, she jumped when it made a large noise when it unlatched.  Funny, the actual pin that holds it to the hitch must have just bounced out unhooking the trailer and then it went right back into the hole. So the only thing lost was the trailer from the 4 wheeler. I then stuck a stick through the hole to hold pin in until we could fix the situation. Ahhhhhh.. Just another day in paradise… Huckleberry Hideout Paradise that is.  

Well, well, well... Here we are waiting for Spring weather. We have had the cold, the wet, now we are waiting on the flowers and the warm. Soon my friends soon.
What is happening at Huckleberry? 
We have had a few things happening/happened. We were able to finally have the time and the weather to put in the last of the new windows on the second floor. Amazing how much they help with the cold and the wind. 
Just received our tree order, so we planted 150 trees in the cold and rain yesterday. Let's see how it goes.
Placed a bench out back for those evening walks to watch the moon rise and sunset. Our daughter gave us that idea and we are excited to use it. When we have those full moons, it is just beautiful to watch it come over the horizon. The red moon last month was breath taking. Sorry no photos as we took that moment to just take it all in. 
Fire pit is done and ready. This will be a welcomed addition to the front yard. We had a ring before, but now we have a nice area to relax and enjoy a good camp fire and of course some s'mores.
Was able to put another coat on the wood floors and paint on the wood floors upstairs. 
Will be working on garden beds this weekend for Mother's day. 
Still pulling buckthorn from woods and we lost some trees in the high winds, so now there is even more for clean up. Treating for the wild mustard and garlic. It is a never ending battle. I keep telling hubby that those goats would really earn their keep.. But first they need to be living on our farm. hehe I am trying, really I am.. 
We enjoyed a wonderful extended weekend at the farm for Easter. It really is becoming a family tradition. Egg hunts, scavenger hunts, campfires, kite flying and always great food. 
If you follow our facebook you will see that we have a fun surprise coming in the very near future. It will effect our renters and hope to bring a little fun to their stay. Stay tuned for more. 
In our advertising with Airbnb, one of the questions it asked was, Are there loud noises and the other was about pets.  I hope my answer does not hurt us and people actually read what I wrote. 
Pet(s) live on property — Well our "pets" have lived on this property longer than we have. Please do not think of them as "pets" even tho we call them such. They are all wild animals so please respect them and their land.

Potential for noise — The beautiful sounds of the country/nature. Our frog friends can be a little loud along with the coyotes and of course the best alarm clocks nature can buy... SONG BIRDS!! enjoy..
I really hope they can read into my sense of humor. 
Time to sign off.. Happy Spring everyone. Remember to enjoy the little things. Even rain and clouds have their part to play. 
Here's to your adventure, where ever it may lead you. Learn to let go and smile.. Oh Smile .. It feels so good. 
​Until next time.. 

Welcome to 2022, we hope your 2021 wasn’t so bad.  We consider ourselves to be blessed with a good 2021 and looking forward to an amazing 2022.
With the start to a new year, I am sure some of you are making those New Year resolutions.  I say,”good for you”.  I also say,” make sure those resolutions are within reach.” Seriously! Why set yourself up to fail.  Set them small with room to grow. Trust me it will be much more rewarding . 

So, what’s new at Huckleberry Hideout you ask? Well, let’s see…
Add a few more bird feeders, painting floors, remodeling the upstairs bathroom(kinda).  Old tub removed and new tub and tile being added. Fun floor painting done with 3 more rooms to go.  More shelves and towel bars added.  I would love to say more, but we need to keep some surprises. 

We had a wonderful Christmas with all the kids and grand kids home. Enjoyed an afternoon and evening of sledding at the farm.. All I can say is, we have some amazingly adventurous grand daughters!!! What fun we had!!! 

We here at Huckleberry Hideout want to thank all of you for being apart of an adventure of a life time. The more time we spend at the farm and in the country, the more we don’t want to go back to town. There is something to say about living in the country. I compare it to the saying “southern slow” in the country things just happen at a difference pace.  Never did I think this old farm house would find its way into my heart like it has. ( considering in the beginning I wanted to plow it under) but I am so great full we didn’t. There is something so special about this place and about this beautiful property that just fills my soul. I especially love when our renters feel it also.  I am a true believer that God puts us where we are suppose to be, when we are suppose to be there. I thank him every day that he has lead us here.

Here’s to you our friends, family and even our enemies, may God bless you always and show you his beauty everyday. Just stop, look and listen. He is there. 
 
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Well, the last time I updated was back in January.  Things have been busy, very busy.
The house is renting very well. The downside to that is we don’t get to work on as much stuff as we would like. The upside is, we are meeting amazing people. For the most part it has been very good experiences, of course there has been a few exceptions. It is a learning curve for us that is for sure. I can absolutely say that the good has out weighed the bad even though I was ready to take this place off the market. We didn’t and because of that we have met some very amazing people. I have prayed daily for my calling to present itself. I believe it has.  I am loving this adventure as everyday is a new and beautiful day full of “whatever”.  

Our little Hideout will forever be a project in motion. You can come and stay this summer and guaranteed when you come back next summer things will have changed. The ideas are endless.  

Right now we are getting the maps built to hang on the “where I come from” wall. Those should be placed this next weekend after renters leave Sunday.  Then next on list is putting in new windows when they arrive, completing outside work around house, filling some holes, getting wood cut, replacing an out building, getting barn in barn dance shape and on and on and on…  we truly will never run out of things to work on or create.  

A very wise bear once said…
SOMETIMES DOING NOTHING CAN LEAD TO THE BEST OF SOMETHING
Here at Huckleberry we wish you the very best of nothing!

We have twins… we do not have names as of yet, but we are working on it. I thought the babies were done in this house, but we were surprised to find out that we have twins…