Disobey Fear

This past Fall my relations with my previous landlord became strained, to put it mildly. With the brood I have, it isn't easy to pull up anchor and move. I searched in vain all around Auburn for a little bit of acreage. What I found instead was almost an hour outside of Auburn:  a house on a large estate that came with a job.  
I'd been in Auburn, running my cleaning service for 24 years...change is frightening. The key is to disobey fear and take a chance.
"Change is the law of life.  And those who look to the past are certain to miss the future."  John F Kennedy

Here's a montage documenting The Move From Hell:

Mom, Davis, Jason and Jonathan deserve the highest accolades for all their help during the most stressful, worst month ever.
So, it appears that I now live in Heaven.  Pinch me.  The situation here is polar opposite to the last four year deal.  Let's start with the garden...

From a tiny vegetable garden where I had to draw water up from a well by hand to an acre on which I can plant whatever I want and irrigate with lake water.  This is the tip of the iceberg. 
Granted, my new house was in really bad shape.  I did some repair work and all the painting, but Joe's crew of workers tore through here and fixed every plumbing leak, replaced every rotten board (think entire bathrooms), sorted electrical problems, redid the skirting, the list goes on.  All of it paid for by my new employer/benefactor/fellow animal lover.  In the past rental, too often, I had to do the work myself and pay for the materials.  
I came home one day to find my front porch was gone. 

Within a week, a new one was in its place.  Do pinch me!

This is the result of all the house mending:

Cole relaxing in his new living room.

...with fireplace.

And plenty of wall space for all my beloved books.

Soothing moss green bedroom.

Cheery blue guest bedroom.  The only guest bedroom because the other has become my tack and feed room:

A big kitchen too.

A screened in back porch has become my workout room.

That's just the house.  Let me tell you about the job, starting with an example of my daily commute:

Traffic report on Wood Duck Way:  nil.
Every day is different and with so much to do, there's no chance Cole and I will ever get bored.  You read correctly, I take Cole to work with me most days. Side by side with my best friend, out on the farm -- this really is heaven!