Copper-colored glasses

When we started adding on to our house, there were lots of other projects that came up. Things like needing to take the power line to the barn down & bury it...it had been on a pole that was really leaning badly after a large branch came down on it. Things like ripping out some of the old wiring in the house and replacing it with new. And things like laying new water lines to new faucets. All that added up to scrap copper laying around.

Don suggested that the kids start gathering it up to sell. And they jumped on that suggestion. They read a little about it online and found that stripped wire was worth more than burned wire. And so, for several months, when they had spare time, they'd sit in the garage and strip that copper wire. It was probably more tedious than any monetary bonus could justify in most of our minds, but it gave them a project to do together.

They finally finished last month and it sat in the back of the van since then, waiting for us to get to town to sell it. But last Friday, we actually made it there. As a total sidenote here, can I just say that scrap yards are a man's world? I felt so completely out of place there. I had tried to figure out a way to get Don to do the deed, but it didn't work out so I had to suck it up and do it myself. No problems, but I just felt like I entered another world when I crossed the tracks down in the industrial area. My minivan looked a bit conspicuous.

But anyway, here are the happy entrepreneurs!They got $100.03 for their efforts. They were in copper heaven. Don warned them to not go around yanking wires out of our walls now! They assured him they wouldn't, but they did start thinking of other possible sources. Hey mom...do you think you need that outlet there???

The shelves. The shelves that led to a complete room makeover!

I am a woman who loves power tools. How did this happen? My eyes used to glaze over when Don wanted to stop in at Home Depot. Now, I know several of the employees at the Menard's in Lincoln. One of them is convinced that I am there every time he is. He may be right.

I've been building like crazy this summer/fall. It all started with needing a shelf for boots in our new mud room (I'll post about that outcome another time). I discovered Ana White's website and thought, "Hey, if I can build a stanchion for the cows, surely I can put together a shelf!" I did, and the rest is history.

We were needing a bunch of bookshelves as we had been borrowing Don's folk's and they were going to need them back as their house gets completed. So, I found some shelves I liked and got busy countersinking some nails.


Again, I adjusted the plans a bit to better meet our needs. They are individual base and hutch units, but it all comes together nicely and look built-in. The bases are 16" deep and the hutches are 12" deep. I may someday put doors on the base units, but for now, I'm happy.

The hardest part about these shelves was that the wall they were going on had the only heat register and 3 of the 4 outlets. If I didn't do something about it, we were going to be cold in there. Cold and using extension cords.

So, I used some duct tape and some insulated cardboard to build out underneath the shelf so that I could extend the "ductwork" and put a register on the front of the bookcase. It isn't perfect, as the picture shows, because I had to improvise a little...maybe a little caulk would hide the gap though. The other thing I did was to run wires underneath one of the bookcases so that I could put outlets on the front. The big deal is that everything worked! I didn't even cause any fuses to blow!

And new, white bookshelves required me to paint the walls and wood trim. And, put up new window treatments, and rewire the outlets & switches with white. And, put up pictures on the walls and bring in a comfy chaise lounge. The end result? A cozy new library (that doubles as a sewing room with the new sewing table I built...more on that later as well!) A library, by the way, that doesn't even hold all of our books. Back to the workbench!

House update

Things are moving along nicely with the addition. You can see that the retaining wall is just about done and that the house is getting wrapped and windowed (surely that is a word, right?). Don finally decided to rent a Bobcat to move dirt, since we had to backfill around the wall. Shoveling the dirt over, one wheelbarrow load at a time, was just taking way too long. The siding and roofing is supposed to go up this coming week. It'll be a whole new house by next weekend, that is, if the rain will stay away enough to get the work done!

Still in the dark

I'm sitting at what Don likes to call a "chick place to eat where they serve mini meals" because we are still without internet. Surprisingly, no one has spontaneously combusted from the situation. Anyway, here's a quick recap...

We had our first snow on October 10th (pretty early this year). Everything is harvested and the garlic and strawberries are in to await the Spring. We are about a fourth of the way done on the retaining wall. We've hired an Amish crew to install the roofing, but not much is happening right now while we sit in the mud and wait for the rain to stop. Meagan's pet rabbit Riley has died which was hard for the kids to take. But, along with death, life comes to the farm. We expect Caroline to calve anytime now. She was due on the 18th and things are looking good for tonight or tomorrow.

That's all I can think of at the moment. We get internet back on November 3rd, so until then, I'll still be scarce. Thanks for the well wishes and prayers!

Framing has begun

Our concrete has been poured this past week, which is such a relief. We now have a 12-foot perimeter before we get to mud if (when) it rains again.
Abby enjoys having absolutely no restrictions on where she can dig. With our yard torn up the way it is, she can do what she likes.
We brought a framing crew all the way from Tennessee! Well, it's actually less extravagant than it sounds. Josh(of First Fruits Farm NE)'s dad and brother came in to do our job AND see the new baby. They got started today and we are seeing walls take shape!

If you give a kid a camera...

...you are going to get a lot of pictures.

Apparently, Caleb's new goal in life is to fill up my camera's memory card. I have so many pictures of the work that's been going on around here that I could actually make several stop-action movies.

I suppose I could've alternately titled this "Walls", though, because we have them! Or the start of them, at least. And that's a good thing, too, because Don's folks leave Europe tomorrow...they'll be here in less than 2 weeks, most likely.

Our walls for the new part of the basement are these insulated forms with poured cement inside. They will actually only be underground and then the 2-foot base of the exposed walls. Wood framing will make up the rest.

Caleb's somewhat edgy view of the inside of the forms with rebar.

The walls have spent the weekend getting nice and firm and dry and they will begin pouring the floors today. The framers will get here on Thursday. I'll be walking (as opposed to climbing) out a door before I know it.

Clay dirt surrounding the house + Rain = Squelch + Squerch

Work will continue at our place tomorrow. Last week, the footers for the addition were poured and the lagoon was dug. It is fascinating how fast things are moving along, now that they've started. I guess I'm used to the "hand-dug" pace at which we normally build. Now, cement trucks come the same day the footer is dug!That was the footer for the root cellar! Just imagine it filled with garden goodies for a winter's storage!


Lagoons are the preferred system for handling household water waste (isn't that a pleasant way to word what would otherwise be sickening??) in Nebraska. This is mainly due to our very clay soil. In fact, in some counties, you are required to put in a lagoon if you live on more than 3 acres and a septic tank would be a big no-no. The whole idea of a big pond to hold that stuff is pretty gross if you ask me, but they say it is much cleaner, given our soil. Anyway, our house was set up on a septic tank plus a gray water system for everything else, which isn't up to code, so when they hit (and broke) the gray water line, we had them dig the lagoon. That way, everything is nice and legal. Now we have a nice big lagoon on the property...and no, you don't want to go swimming in that.
The addition is coming along quite nicely, but it is not so pleasant when it rains. We are already climbing down a ladder when we leave the house and passing things out the bathroom window. And then we get rain. Let's just say that we all had a good 2 inches of mud stuck to the bottom of our shoes by the time we get across the mud field. The house is not very clean right now. But, I just hold on to the visions of a completed house and a nice new mud room and all is well.

Digging

Tuesday morning, the backhoe arrived, followed by the traxcavator on Wednesday. You cannot believe our excitement. We’ve been waiting since the week of July Fourth for this work to get started, but our unusually frequent rains this year caused our digger’s schedule to fall behind. Then, finally, he was ready to start work on our place.

Before:
The house stands ready, sans porches, to receive her makeover.

There was quite a lot of racket as our patio was torn apart and hauled off.

We are creating a very long retaining wall in order to have a walk-out basement and still have water flow away from the house.

The dirt piled up over the course of Thursday and Friday.

And the dirt pile will get even bigger on Monday when they return to finish the root cellar area and dig out a lagoon.

We now have to climb down a ladder 6 feet when we exit our house. It makes for some interesting balancing acts, especially if we need to take things with us as we leave.

It’ll be even more interesting when the cement gets poured and we either have to walk a plank over a 20-foot span or climb out a window around the back of the house!

Things are changing around here!

P.S. See my greenhouse taking shape in the background??? The clear roofing is going up!

Gee, and I thought I had a hard time keeping up before!

Sweet baby Joshua has complicated life around here. Of course, he's the apple of my eye, but he also makes the time I have on the computer a little more interesting...because I've only got one hand available then. Add to that our regular internet outages (something is causing it to go out all night and periodically throughout the day) and all the other things that demand my attention (do these people really need to eat EVERY day???) and it all adds up to not posting in nearly a month. If I still have any readers left, I do plan to do better. And yes, once again, I am dreaming of the slower pace of winter.

Quick update: We are now climbing about 6 feet down out of our side door (our front door is even higher above ground level) as they have begun excavation for our addition! It is quite a sight to behold...handing a baby out of a house that is practically on stilts! No sleep-walking allowed around here!

I've got pictures to sort through and posts to compose...now just to find the time to do it! Maybe I just need to learn to type one-handed.

A porch demolished and burned

In anticipation of the digging that would be going on this week, we ripped our porch off last week. I came out to find the windows covered (for protection), one pillar off, supports up to help it fall out rather than against the house, and Don and my dad about to knock the other pillar off. We all expected that without the pillars (and most of the supporting nails between the porch and the house) that it would come down with a spectacular crash. Instead, nothing happened!

It took a big heavy chain attached to the roof of the porch being drug by a pickup truck to get the thing away from the house. Unfortunately, right about that time, my camera battery died. The good news was that it decided to die then and not in the middle of the birth.

Once it was down, they again used the chain to drag it to the front of the house to burn. We thought that would be a good spot because it will all be dug up anyway when they go to add on to the basement. This is what is left of the porch...

Don got the fire going and within what seemed like just a few minutes, the fire was raging and we had to douse it. We didn't count on the flames reaching quite so high and so fast. A tree nearby was in danger of catching fire (a tree that would need to come down for the addition, but nonetheless didn't need to be burned!), and so Don threw his buckets of water on the fire and got it back under control. Even after we thought it was completely out, though, it was not. We definitely learned why firefighters need to practically tear a place apart to ensure that a fire is completely out. I think I'll call it "fire safety lessons" for school. Anyway, after that initial flare up, we managed to keep it under control and it burned throughout the entire day. It was, in fact, still burning 12 hours later.
We put it out completely before bed and now have a huge pile of ash and metal in front of our house. The kids are going to earn a few bucks by gathering all the nails they can find. And now, on to the digging for the addition. Things are happening fast around here. All, that is, except the producing of a baby!

Time keeps a-tickin'

I've been so neglectful of my little blog here lately. It seems that the only time I have in front of the computer is when I'm nursing a baby. Of course, it didn't help that we went over our download limit and our provider slowed our connection down to just a hair faster than a dead stop. Thankfully, it is up to speed again, and while it's not the fastest connection ever, it's much better than practically running backwards. And so, I'll attempt to do one of those "catch-up" posts.

Winter has definitely arrived here. While going out to milk yesterday morning, I had to knock ice out of a bucket. Everything was in a frenzy trying to get things done before the freeze. We moved the rabbits back into their winter home in the barn, in cages hanging on the walls. We laid a nice thick layer of straw down in both the barn and coop and put in all the water defrosters. We unhooked and rolled up all the hoses and put away all the summer rabbit and chicken tractors. And we purchased a big load of brome and alfalfa hay for the winter.

The garden is not as ready as I had hoped it would be this fall. We were completely overrun with grass this year because we didn't remove it, so we decided to slice the sod off and get rid of it in an attempt to start fresh next year. We rented a sod cutter from Menard's and then went to town. After Don cut it all, we spent the next 4 days out in the garden rolling it up, throwing it into the pickup truck, driving it out to our pasture, and dumping it in depressions in the ground. I tried to use the pregnancy as an excuse to get out of it, but apparently, I'm not quite as delicate in my 4th pregnancy and they all told me to get back to work. Abby spent much of her time watching us from her stroller and then riding in the front of the pickup...without a carseat...while we drove through the pasture. She had a grand time. It's one more thing about living in the country that I enjoy. Unfortunately, however, we did not get all the sod removed before the nearly week-long rain came. We still have probably 1/5th left. But given that the garden is more than 5 times the footprint of our house, I'm still happy with what we did accomplish. The funny thing is that this past weekend, as we were talking about all that work, someone said, "Hey, you should've just put a couple of pigs out there...they would've killed and rooted everything up." And then someone else offered us a breeding pair of pigs at an unbelievable price. We kicked ourselves all the way home, but I think we are going to take them up on it. They can finish our job and keep that garden nice and fertilized all winter. We just need to throw up a little shelter for them.

We've been working with an architect for a few weeks now trying to plan an addition to our house to accomodate Don's folks when they get here next September. The poor man...he had no idea what he was getting himself into. Just try fitting 4 adults' demands into a house, 2 of them women with their own separate ideas on how to run a household. After a brutal first round, we've all put our gloves back on and are ready for round two. I just hope no one gets a black eye.

Oh, and I got a lovely new camera. A Nikon D60. I haven't had near the time I need to read the book that came with it and learn how to use all the manual gadgets, but I've so enjoyed playing with it in just auto mode. Even in auto, I'm getting better pictures than I've ever gotten before. I suppose I could've uploaded one or two, but then I'd probably not get this post finished, so I'll just wait until next time.

And that is that. A lot can happen in just a short time around here, but that is part of what keeps farmlife so exciting!

Kitchen Makeover

The kitchen is done. Oh, that just tickles me to say.

Of course, we would like to someday replace the stove with a gas one, in matching black. And then there is the possibility of tearing out the south wall to add on, but for now? Done.

It's not that I didn't like have the ceiling fan sitting on the floor in the dining room for 2 or 3 months. I did. Really. No, really. It's just that it does look better in it's new location.

The room already had a ceiling fan, but since everything else changed to light maple wood and brushed nickel fixtures, I figured the dark oak/brass ceiling fan needed to go. It has, incidentally, found a new home in Caleb's room. Someday, I plan on painting the blades to go with his room (animal prints) and I already replaced the globes to be less frilly & girly. He's just glad to get some air moving up in his room. So anyway, here is the before...And the after...

The other thing I did in the last week was to sew and hang some curtains. One of the windows had mini-blinds already, which get the job done, but are so boring. The other window was completely bare. I love open windows, so in the winter, that was perfectly fine. But, with the summer sun blazing in, they needed a covering. I forgot to take a before picture, but...
After...I actually left the blinds on, just in case I felt the need to really block some sun. But, for the most part, I'm sure they'll be left all the way up.

And as long as I'm showing kitchen pictures, I'll take the opportunity to finally display the rest of the remodel. We started this in December, I think, shortly after Abby was born. The old kitchen wasn't bad. But, there were problems. Our refrigerator didn't fit in the old spot. We had wanted to remove the dishwasher. We really wanted an island, as the kitchen was large enough for it, and didn't have a lot of counter space as is. Also, there just wasn't that much cabinet space. Add to that the fact that the kitchen was all dark oak (which could possibly be my least favorite kind of wood), and we decided to go for a whole new thing.

Some before pictures...Again, not bad. Just not ideal and not my style.

So, our new kitchen is all a natural maple, very simple/clean lines. The fixtures are all now brushed nickel.
We also opted for cabinets that go all the way to the ceiling. You cannot imagine how much extra space this gives. I absolutely love it. In fact, I have 4 big drawers and a 36" cabinet all dedicated to school stuff. Before, I didn't even have room for all the kitchen stuff.

We added an island that has a small overhang at the end. We'll probably add a stool for a weary cook there someday, but for now, it's a spot to tuck in a stepstool. The island has electricity, which is so convenient. We mounted my Country Living Grain Mill on the end and that has been truly fantastic as well.
The countertops are all laminate. I would have loved to put some granite or marble in, at least on the island, but it was just too expensive to justify it. I do like the laminate coloring though. And surprisingly, it does not look cheap.

The walls were once covered in a paneling that was, in a word, ugly. I don't know how long it had been there, but I assume it was decades old. There is no way the previous owners put that in. I've met her and have seen her paint choices elsewhere in the house. She definitely didn't choose that. We replaced it with a paintable paneling that I painted a deep chocolate brown. I was a bit worried that it might be too dark, but with the light maple, it looks fantastic. You can see it in the picture of the cabinets above.

The floor was once covered in what you might call "gym tiles". Seriously. It looked like a gym. I found some tile that look like stone with a swirling of browns. It all blends together beautifully.
And lastly, the sink is now a champagne-colored granite. I love, love, love it. It has yet to show one tiny bit of wear. And you know how stainless steel only truly looks completely clean when it is dried out with a towel? Well, water spots simply do not show on the granite. It's a thing of beauty.

So, there you have it. The kitchen is done. And it almost makes me love to cook. Almost.

What I need is one good list

A list and a little accountability. With these two things, one can really get far in life.

We started remodeling our kitchen shortly before Abby was born, and now, 7 months later, it is in need of just a few final touches. They've gone undone. But all that is about to change.

I've decided to participate in BooMama's Before and After extravaganza. That means that I have just one week to finish those touches. And you guys can hold me to it.

Here's the list. It is short, but just daunting enough to keep it left undone. Until now.

1. Install the new ceiling fan that I picked out to better go with the new look.
2. Sew and hang new window coverings.

That's it. It shouldn't be hard. Unless of course something else comes up...but what could possibly happen on a farm full of animals in rural Nebraska in the middle of tornado season? I can't imagine.

Baby, it's cold outside!

I've told a couple of people locally that we didn't have water at home because of a kitchen remodel and both of them said, "Oh, did the water freeze up?" I guess they assumed that it was a forced remodel due to water damage. Which I guess would be very possible since it is currently 4 degrees and 2 mornings ago it was -7. Much different from what we experienced last winter in Arizona!

We still have no kitchen sink, but the water is back on! That means I am currently doing dishes in the itty bitty bathroom sink. And, the countertops on the cabinets that are left are completely covered with things that used to be in cabinets. It is quite a disaster. But, that's not the best part. The best part is that I realized that I am having a dinner party on Thursday night and that there is no possible way that we will be done, let alone have a kitchen sink! It should be interesting.

The good thing is that it is my cousin and her family. They will certainly understand. After all, her mom (my dear aunt) has been working on her kitchen remodel since my cousin's first baby was a beginning toddler. He's now 9.5 years old. It's been years since they've had a kitchen sink. If I finish this before 2009, I'll still be lightning-fast compared with my aunt! Luckily, though, I plan on finishing before February.

Water...who needs it?

Our kitchen remodel is well underway. Today, we took the plunge. Wow, what a bad choice of words since the water is currently OFF to the entire house!

We got to the point today where we had to dismantle the wall that includes the sink & dishwasher. Unfortunately, the sink was not installed with its own shut-off valve so the water to the entire house had to be turned off.

Which means we all have to hold it until tomorrow until Don can put on some shut-off valves and get the water back on. No, no...just kidding. I did have the presence of mind to fill up the tub with water so that we'll have something to pour into the toilet tank to flush with. And, I filled up several pitchers to stick in the fridge for drinking.

What I did forget, unfortunately, was to wash Abby's diapers. She has only a handful left and the pail is full. So, I hit the grocery store and bought a pack of Pampers to tide us over. But, we are still under a time limit because those diapers can't sit there in the pail for too long before they grow legs and attack us in our sleep.

What will get me through this trying time is thinking about how beautiful this kitchen will be when we are done and how much cabinet space I will have. It's a vision even better than sugar plums.

Emergency Butchering

The day started out with a bang. We had intended to get right to work on shingling the garage, but when Don went out to the chicken coop, he found a mess. One poor hen had somehow gotten ahold of some string and brought it up on top of the kennel. (If you remember, the coop has a dog kennel inside and dog run connected to it that we left. It is fenced off from the rest of the coop, but it allows the cats to come in and take shelter.) Well, she got the string all tangled up in the wires on the cage and then around her foot. I'm sure you see where this is going. She jumped off the kennel, but the string caught and left her dangling upside down. When Don found her, her leg was a broken mess. We felt so bad for her. We have no idea how long she was like that. So, we quickly grabbed supplies and went to work putting her out of her misery and getting an early start on the butchering that was scheduled for tomorrow.

We then got right to work on the shingling and did that until we had to break for lunch and Don had to leave for work. Caleb and I got back up after lunch and did another hour and a half of work. I only hit my thumb twice (and cried only one of the times). It was a good day of work. Unfortunately, we didn't get all of school done, but I'm thinking the impromptu anatomy lesson on the chicken must count.

Here is a little funny from the country...
I was sitting in the rocking chair by the front window and Caleb walked up to me. We heard a car and he says that he thinks it is coming from the left. It passes the house, and then he enthusiastically calls out, "Here comes another one! This is sooo exciting!" It took me a while to catch my breath from laughing. I guess he has successfully transformed into a country boy because a city boy surely wouldn't get all revved up over two whole cars!

Surprise Christmas celebration

Last night at dinner, someone mentioned celebrating Christmas early. The kids were positively giddy with the thought. One thing led to another and we ended up opening all the Christmas presents! We'll still do stockings on Christmas morning, but everything else is opened.
Here is Meagan with her doll bed. She loved it. She ran immediately to get her Elizabeth doll and tucked her right in. A big hit.
Here is Caleb with his new Medieval Battle Axe from Grandpa. His eyes truly sparkled when he saw it. I wish I had caught that look on camera.
This is how Abby spent most of the evening.
And this is me wearing my new bee-keeping gloves and holding my new smoker from Don. He also got me the boxes to keep them in. We'll be ready to get a hive going in the spring. I can't wait!

Some other big gifts were:
-I got Don a wood burning stove to put in the garage
-Don and I got a $200 gift certificate to the Farm & Feed store in town from his folks
-We got a coupon good for one milk cow from my dad
-Caleb & Meagan got money from my dad to buy farm animals...Meagan wants rabbits and Caleb wants pigs. We'll be looking for those soon.

There were lots of other things and we feel so completely blessed. It was fun. We ate our Christmas cookies while we opened presents and I gave permission to the kids to eat until they puked. Luckily, none of that went on. But, they enjoyed trying!

Today, everyone is working on unloading Don's parents household goods into our barn. We'll store it there for them until they get back from Ukraine for good and build their house on our property. It is currently 20 degrees outside and flurries are coming down. I'm glad I "have" to stay inside and care for Abby. Since the garage is at a standstill until the snow lets up, we've also been working on the kitchen. We tore out one wall's worth of cabinets and stripped off the ugly wall board that was there. We put up new paintable wall board. We decided that it would be much easier to work with than dry wall, given the way we are needing to do this remodel. I put on 2 coats of a beautiful chocolate brown paint and now, I'm just waiting for them to get too cold to work outside and decide to come install that wall of cabinets. I forgot to take before pictures, but I'll definitely post after ones.

Tomorrow we will do some traveling around to visit the relatives for Christmas. That is, unless the roads are too bad. It is difficult to get used to planning around the weather again...when we lived in Arizona, weather wasn't a concern. Well, unless you count staying inside all summer long because it is 115 degrees outside.

Promised pictures

Nothing is happening here in the way of baby progress. I woke up today feeling actually better than I did yesterday (hardly any contractions). I told Don that and he said, "Good, then you can be productive today."

Ahem.

Anyway, here are the pictures.
Here they are near the edge of the fencing, a good 20 feet from the coop. Given that they hardly went more than 20 inches away that first day, this is quite adventuresome. Occasionally, they get out of the fence, but usually don't stray too far. They seem to really not want to be far from their flock.
Right in the middle of this group, you can see one of the Turkens. I don't know why I'm so obsessed with these guys. Maybe because I imagine that the other chickens make fun when I'm not looking. You know how rough playgrounds can be.
Here is an interior shot of the garage. We had 3 helpers today, 2 neighbors and my cousin's husband. It was about 60 degrees out, but very windy and so felt cold. Everyone was bundled up.
See, it looks like a garage, doesn't it?

Looks like SOMEONE in this house has been productive at least.

Random Randomness

First off, I'll answer the important questions...
1. Yes, I'm still pregnant.
2. No, I don't know when this baby is coming.
3. No, I don't know what she's waiting for.
4. Yes, I'm very uncomfortable.
5. Yes, I will try to post when something happens, but...
6. No, if I don't post, that doesn't mean baby's here! (I made at least one person think that by not posting yesterday!)
I have informed Don that I am officially a watched pot. And, as I told my good friend, A, I just ain't boiling yet!

Second, Caleb has started a blog! If you'll look to the right at my list of blogs, you'll see a new addition...FarmBoy. That's him! He has lots of ideas of things to write about. (He's desperate to tell his version of the plumber story!) He'll also be putting up some of his writing assignments for school, as he has already been typing them on the computer. He's very excited. Now, when you visit, you may notice that his "About Me" says that he has 2 sisters. Yes, we jumped the gun a little, but I just figured it'll change so soon, that it'd be ok. No, you haven't missed the announcement! Go take a look & leave a comment...it'll make his day!

Third, I made my first-ever batch of whey! I was a little unsure of what I was looking for, but it seems to have turned out just fine. Now, I can make more of those Nourishing Traditions recipes. I've also broken out my yogurt maker & hope to get some yogurt (for starter) to get that going soon. Of course, I also hope to go into labor soon, and if that prevents me from going to the store, I won't complain!!

Fourth, the roof is on the garage! Don (with the help of a couple of the neighbor kids) got the last of the sheeting up. Tomorrow, he hopes to get the ends (ladder-like pieces that create the overhang on both sides) and the fascia up and then start papering and shingling. It's pretty cool to see it coming together. I'll try to snap some pictures tomorrow, but again, if labor prevents me, I won't complain!!

And fifth, the chickens are now very comfortable outdoors. When Don and Caleb open the coop in the morning, they rush out. They've also moved from huddling close to the coop to exploring the entire area. And, Chief Wahoo has gotten in a few times but has left them alone. She's decided they are too big. Once, we even found her asleep inside the coop when the wind was bad. I cannot tell you how relieved I am that she isn't a threat to them. I'll try to get some pictures of them in their yard tomorrow as well, but...well, you know.

That's one handy man I married

Yesterday, the walls of our new garage went up! I had mentioned a few posts back that Don was building a garage, but I never elaborated. So, here are the details & a few pictures to go along.

When we bought this house, the previous owner had started a garage. He had obtained a permit, but after putting down the foundation, never finished. So, we had this huge pad for a garage. Don was nearly ecstatic when he realized that it was 2.5 cars wide and that actually, if you put the door on the side, you could fit 3 cars in. We couldn't change the door placement, however, as there were already bolts sunk into the foundation in place for anchoring the walls. But, that is just fine, because this allows us to fit 2 cars inside and have plenty of room left over for his woodworking adventures and other storage that we don't want to have all the way over at the barn.

Don was able to go into Menard's and input the dimensions, make some choices, and have an entire parts list print out. Then, we just ordered it all & waited for the delivery.
The kids and I watched as they delivered the pieces for the garage. They were sufficiently impressed by the truck and the driver's ability to maneuver the equipment.

Don had been working ever since on framing the walls and was finally ready yesterday for them to go up. So, we called our neighbors and a few relatives from Lincoln and like troopers, they all came. Gotta love that!
Our neighbors brought 5 of their 9 children. They were all a great help and we actually managed to get the first two walls up with just their help. Even the little kids, ours included, helped.
My uncle and my cousin's husband arrived by the third wall and everything was really falling into place. Literally! We were all very impressed at how well everything fit together. Here is Don in is new overalls. Doesn't he look the part of a man of the country?
And lastly, here they are putting on the final touches of this stage. In other words, here they are trying to anchor everything so that it doesn't fall over before the rest goes up. Don's hoping that the trusses can go up next weekend. Our goal is to have a complete garage before snow hits.