Life On a Farm . . .

The past few months have been quite a whirlwind for Ian and I. We were notified that we had to move out of our flat in January because the owner of the property is selling it. So we started on the house hunt in January and didn't find a place until the end of March. Actually, we found the perfect place in the perfect location and thought we had it, but then at the last minute the owner changed her mind because she wasn't comfortable with us having two dogs in the property. I am not sure how the second dog made the difference, but apparently it did because she was okay with us moving in when she thought we only had one dog. Anyhow, that put us back a few weeks and we had to start looking again. Eventually we found the right place and we think the property itself is even better than the first place that we lost. So it seems that it worked out for the best after all. We moved out of our flat the third week in March but don't move into the house until this week. This last point of reference has been the most difficult challenge of our move. We had to find temporary accommodation for the interim period which was extremely tough considering we were looking for a three week period and the place had to accept pets. So the place that we are currently living in is a holiday cottage on a tree farm. Yes, we are living on a farm . . .

Life on the farm is challenging to say the least. The cottage itself is nice enough, but it is very small. Ian and I, along with the dogs, are living in practically a one room house. It does not have central heating, but rather uses a wood burning stove to heat the place. This wouldn't be so bad except that spring is very similar to winter in Scotland and it is COLD. Last week we got over a foot of snow which was not so much fun since we don't have central heating! I have to say the mornings are the worst because inevitably through the night, the fire has gone out so we are waking up in a very cold cabin. And I have to admit, I am no girl scout so I am awful at starting a fire. Poor Ian has had to start so many fires in the past few weeks!

In addition, there is no internet connection at the cottage and it doesn't get good cell phone reception. Because of this, we have not been able to talk with friends and family very often and working has been a struggle for me. We eventually found the best working arrangement for me which is sharing an office with Ian! I think he is really going to miss me when I am no longer at work with him, but I am not so sure that he agrees. Needless to say, we are getting to spend a lot of time together in confined spaces right now. There are very few people in this world that I could spend so much time in such small spaces with, but Ian is definitely the best of them all. We are making it through this but at times we have both wanted to scream at our dogs! They have cabin fever just as much as we do!

We have been using this opportunity to do a lot of exploring of the countryside. We all enjoy the country walks through the farms, Grace especially. She gets into so much out on the farm and is constantly dirty. Over the last weekend we took the dogs to Ballater for a hike. Ballater is a beautiful town about an hour from Aberdeen located in the mountains. They have great walking, hiking, and biking trails there. We had a great time on our mountain hike, climbing up through all of the snow. By the time we got back to the cabin all 4 of us were so exhausted we didn't care how small or cold the cabin was!

So we are moving into the new house in 2 days, and yes I have been counting down the entire time. I am really looking forward to having our own space with a back garden that the dogs will love. When we get moved in I will post pictures of it. There are 2 spare bedrooms so lots of rooms for guests! We are hoping to have lots of visitors over the summer.

Now here is one more interesting fact about life in Scotland. In the winter, badminton is a popular sport and good alternative to tennis which is also popular here. Ian started playing badminton shortly after we moved to Aberdeen with some of his coworkers. Aberdeen has an annual corporate decathlon, in which companies have teams of employees that compete in various events. Badminton was one of those events this year, and a few weekends ago Ian was competed in the badminton tournament with his company's team. Here is a picture of Ian during a badminton rally! It is not the best quality because I took it with my phone, but I think it is cute!

Well if you have tried to reach us on our home phone lately, I apologize for not being able to speak with you but please try to call again next week when we are back to normal internet and phone connections!