Farmstead Chronicles

  Middlebrook's Full-time employees Ashley looks so cool!  Middlebrook Village South Middlebrook Village North Mish Barn     There's just something about back roads and scenic routes. When I was younger we used to call them "Sunday drivers" when people would drive so slow looking at things. It drove me crazy! Sometimes, it still does. Tuesday morning I was driving to work and thinking look at the beauty around me. So I decided to stop and take pictures of it (right in the middle of the road - that's the joy of the back road). I was looking down through Middlebrook Village as I came into town and had to take a picture of the small town. It really is like taking a step back in time. Everyone knows everyone. The neighborhood kids walk to the Mercantile and the library. Traffic does go entirely too fast through there, if they would slow down they might see more of the beauty too. I turned on Mish Barn and this scene just about took my breath away. It was amazing! The...

Noah helping Daddy patch my tire Sis taking him to the tree swing (just look at that beautiful sky after all the rain) 1 of the Irvine Bros. & the "service truck" Drake mopping the floor Drake being silly mopping the floor     Do you ever see something happen and think "I wish I had my camera for that?" I often watch my kids do something and think, I hope I never forget these moments! It's like a snapshot with your mind. I got a camera for my 40th birthday and I go around with it around my neck taking random pictures of cows, kids, the farm, you name it I'm probably taking a picture of it. The problem is I can't figure out how to get the pictures from my camera to my computer. So I usually take the picture on my phone also. It's a pain sometimes.      These are some random snapshots from the last couple days around the Irvine household. Friday morning I went to get in my car to go to work and the tire pressure light immediately came on, so I had ...

12 puppies (7 girls, 5 boys) Maggie and her babies      As if our life wasn't busy enough this week, Maggie had 13 puppies on Monday. Garrett and Charley were home when the fun commenced. It took her ALL day. I went downstairs once I got home to check on her several times and there were more each time 😓. I would go back upstairs to  Garrett and whine "Is it ever going to stop?" He would just laugh. We will see if he's still laughing when we are cleaning up after 12 puppies in 4 weeks!       To preface how my week was, I worked Monday - Friday at the Merc, we had Vacation Bible School at my church where I was asked to help with 4th & 5th grade and then 12 puppies. She did have 13 originally but the little runt didn't make it. So I was firing on all cylinders this week. Each morning when I got up to get on my elliptical, I would ask God for the energy to get through that day and He did it (I may or may not have had a Redbull or 2 throughout the...

      Sweet Noah T.. This is what I affectionately call him. He is the baby I didn't know I needed, but God did. But God... His plans are always greater than ours. I had Noah when I was 41 years old 😟. I was scared to death to have a baby that late in life. My Grandma Isabel had a baby late in life also. I got a lot of great qualities from the Hinkle's, I never thought this would be one of them. I had gone on the Optavia diet and lost 22 pounds. I remember not feeling "right." I took the test at the store one morning and immediately called Garrett and told him. Insert long pause, that's when I hollered into the phone "Did you hear what I just said?" He assured me he did and then we hung up. I was in COMPLETE shock. We had talked about having another baby a while ago and it never happened so I let it go and continued to thank God for the healthy children I had. I had begged Garrett to have another baby probably a year or so after Charley was born and he ...

      This is my "she shed", it was originally a play house for Charley. My Poppaw built it for her birthday a couple years ago. When I was a kid he built a play house for my sister and I and we loved that place! I wanted Charley to have one like it. This one is very similar, I don't remember ours having a front porch, but it had windows and was tall. The she shed sits on a little hill behind our house. Charley doesn't like to be away from the "action" she is afraid she will miss something, therefore she doesn't go out there so this spring I took it over. I left the little kids table and the kitchen and some books and chairs. I put a desk out here and a chair for big people. I try to get out here at least once a week, but as much as I can. I go out here while Noah is napping because the she shed faces my bedroom and with this beautiful weather we have had I can hear when he wakes up. I can get some amazing "think time", quiet time, work time ou...

    I write this blog in complete honesty and transparency not for accolades, only for others to see that there are people out here doing life every day, the good, bad, ugly, fun, sad and crazy right along side of you.       So Father's Day is hard for me. See I have "daddy issues." I joke around and tell people I have 3 dad's, but in all reality I do. I have a biological dad, an adoptive dad, and a bonus dad. I love each one of them dearly, and each relationship is unique in it's own way. My biological dad, I reconnected with about 10 years ago. We see each other when we can. My adoptive dad has been "Dad" since I was a very little girl. We see each other when we can. Both of these dad's check in periodically and would do anything I asked them to do. They love me and I know that. Circumstances were what they were. I'm not faulting them, I'm not judging them or writing about them to shame them. I hope if they read this they know that. It'...

      I didn't go to college... when I graduated high school I was DONE with school and then I just couldn't decide what I wanted to be when I grew up. Up until the last few months I still didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up (and I'm 42 years old, LOL) and then it clicked. I own a small business with my mother in law in my little village town of Middlebrook, VA. We opened The Middlebrook Mercantile August 1, 2019. I had no idea how to be a small business owner. I had been a waitress in high school and all of my adult life had been in office work. I was working at Marks & Harrison in Staunton and dreaming of being the Pioneer Woman. The store, then dubbed the Middlebrook General Store had been closed for almost a year. It was up for sale, but no successful buyer had come through. They (I'm not exactly sure who "they" are) were going to sell it at auction. I had driven by there twice a day for almost 6 years and it broke my heart to see it emp...

        This is the driveway to our home. At times it can seem like the longest driveway ever (when you forget something and have to back up AND you are already running late) or walking up and down it ( I remember doing that in the middle of the night when I was pregnant with Charley because my legs would ache so bad I couldn't sleep and that was the only relief I would get would be to walk) This driveway leads to the home my in-laws built in the 70's, the home where they brought both of their boy's home and raised them, it holds their memories and ours too thus far. This driveway is filled with vehicles, trailers and a livestock trailer can be found hooked up to a truck ready to go at a moment's notice. Most days I call it "Irvine's used car lot."  This is the house my husband grew up in, I joke with him and tell him he's the only person I know whose address never changed. I have moved around like a gypsy, so I've gotten to experience many "g...

      Now that it is warmer in the evenings, most of them look like this for us. I am fortunate that I get home in the late afternoon and we can spend several hours outside. This particular evening, Charley wanted to fill up the baby pool, but it was too cold for her to get in mind you. She "did it for Noah," lol. Charley fills up the baby pool and gets her chair and puts her feet in it while watching something on her iPod. Noah is eating goldfish out of Charley's bowl on her lap. I am watching them, while pretending to read my book. It's a really sweet moment. One I hope I never forget.       Noah loves to be outside. He runs around and just plays. It makes him sleep well at night (and me too, because somebody has to chase him) I love to just sit outside and watch them play. I love these evenings, the temperature is just right for me to sit outside and soak it up. The long warm sunny evenings outside are good for my soul. I hope you can all get outsid...

 Ok, back to the farm. This is my boy Carter.  Isn't he handsome 😄? We bought him in November, 2022. When I saw him on Marketplace I showed him to Garrett never expecting him to say Yes. He was in Ohio and I just knew Garrett would say No, but he didn't. So we took a road trip. We were literally in Ohio less than 24 hours. Garrett doesn't play, when he sets out to do something he gets the job done and let's go back home. I laugh because when we go on vacation, I drive us there and he drives us home. I'm in a hurry to get there, he is in a hurry to get home.  The family we bought Carter from raised him from a baby. They showed him and he did well for them. At that point he had done what they wanted him to do and they were ready for him to go be great for someone else.  Carter is in the pasture with about 9 cows and he's a happy boy! I can always tell who his current love interest is because he won't leave her side, lol. We are hoping Carter gives us some goo...

  Thursday afternoon, the kids and I decided to take a ride. We went to Lexington and came back home on 39. I hate that road because it's so windy and feels like it takes forever, but we were just riding. When we got into Rockbridge Baths, there is this old swinging bridge beside the post office. They put Christmas lights on it and turn them on around Christmas and I just love it. So I said "Hey, ya'll want to go across the swinging bridge?" We have never been across it. We turned around and parked beside the post office, there was a Grandma there with her grandchildren and they were swimming in the river. Ahh, the memories of my Nana sitting in her lawn chair in the middle of the river behind her house while my sister, myself, and my cousin Drew played.  We walked down and got on the bridge. The sign on the bridge says don't run as it would cause the bridge to sway (and the bridge is maintained by VDOT). Charley went first, then Drake. Let me tell you about Drake...

  This was me yesterday morning. Feeling completely defeated, ready to run away, throw my hands up, say why do I even bother. It wasn't really one particular thing that made me feel this way. I got up and did my normal routine, started doing my chores and just got in my own head so to speak. Sometimes when you are left alone with your thoughts it can be a worrisome place. I used to say the devil is trying to get me today, but then I heard a preacher say one time that the devil doesn't have that much power over you. AMEN! So, I don't say that anymore, instead I say Not today satan!! I had cried probably a hand full of times before I even took this picture. And let me tell you how hard it is mentally for me to post this picture. I do not like to take pictures of myself. The first thing I do when someone takes my picture is blow it up and point out all my flaws.  Then I remind myself I have a daughter who looks up to me and I think she is beautiful! I tell her every day she is...