To say we see a lot of deer out here is an understatement. Up until lately, most were does, often with fawns. The past week we have started seeing large groups together, many of which are bucks (as many as 9 together). We take an evening drive at dusk every evening to see the wildlife in our neighborhood. Always deer, sometimes wild turkey.
 

Interior shots: new house

We are still combing through boxes and trying to get more organized, but have progressed enough to offer some pictures that should adequately capture the interior of our new home. We really like all the wood we were able to incorporate:  alder for door and window trim and cabinets, hickory and cherry for the floors.  We used slate for bathroom and entry floors. 

Sample pics of exterior; new house

We're still sitting on a construction site dirt pile, stonework to be completed, garage door to be put on the "toy" barn, landscaping to be done, etc.  but we are in!  We are extremely pleased with the home we ended up with.  Architect Richard Brenner, Contractor Bob Crider, and Charlcie and I combined to end up with a house that exceeded our expectations for architectural detail, quality of construction, and functionality. Richard and Bob were very accommodating in every regard and offered many suggestions along the way that added so much to the final product - while being very patient with our fickleness - both are great guys.  Charlcie and I even managed to survive each other during this mostly exciting process!

 

Celebration time!

Ben and Myka made the trek from Little Rock to Mountain Home to see our new house - we kept our promise that they could be our first guests. We think they were impressed. We also used the occasion to continue Myka fest, July being the month of her birth. And for the past four years we have also had the pleasure of celebrating the anniversary of Ben and Myka. And we naturally had to dine at PJs to mark the special events.

Morning Walks

It is really nice to wake up and take an early morning or late evening walk in the country. Since we are in our new house, we manage to get in at least a couple of miles each day, and sometimes double that. But, it is really not that grueling considering all the wildlife, the cool morning air, and some mornings we have the mist off the river. We always see many deer, a variety of birds, and sometimes wild turkey. We have landed in the place we need to be and we're diggin' it.