Monday, January 30, 2012

The Chickens are Coming!

Paintball fun behind the barn
We have had a great week!  The weather has been fantastic 40's most of days and even 60's a couple of times.  Chris and Jackson got a lot of wiring done in the barn and they hope to schedule to have regular electrical service line installed soon.  We hung pegboard this weekend which is immensely helpful in organizing things.  We also applied for the permit to have septic run to the barn and our installer is ready to roll once the permit comes in.  I never thought I would be so excited about a barn bathroom.

Cooper and Yoda on our hike
Due to the nice weather we did slack off a little and have some fun with the paintball guns.  We found some junk bottles and an old tire in the woods to shoot at.  I actually thought to myself that it is so cool we found the junk to shootwhere normally I would be perturbed that I had to clean up someone else's trash.  We also took a good hike in the woods.  We came across a great camping spot on an island between two creeks.  Chris was able to show me where he wants his shooting range and of course I suggested a different spot.  The we settled on a completely different place. 

We ordered our chickens two weeks ago and they will arrive mid Feb.  Chris is not so excited as the rest of us, as he has the most chores to do to get the coop ready.  We ordered 6 Americanas(blue and green eggs) and 4 Austrolopes(black chickens) and 1 Americana Rooster.  I should close now so I can finish reading "Chickens for Dummies".

Friday, January 13, 2012

Oh Crap!!

Yes I really do mean crap or whatever you want to call it. This week when we went to empty the black holding tank of the RV nothing came out. For those of you who do not know what is in the black holding tank, see the title of this post.

Chris shined a flashlight into the outlet and saw an piece of pipe elbow. Ahhhh, easy fix right, just fish it out. Not so, the elbow was stuck within an elbow so it was tricky and at one point the elbow joint got pushed all the way back in. Oops. After extensive googling for ideas, he decided to stick the power washer into the outlet. Brave? Stupid? Genius? It flushed the little piece right out, but....nothing else came with it. That is good and bad because the expected stuff to come with it is not pleasant but since it didn't that means there is a dam built up. Known in the RV world as a case of the black hills.

I'd like to say we powered thru and unclogged on our own, but Don's Johns came to the rescue and pumped us out. However, while we were waiting for them to show up, we both showered (mistake). The guy arrived and Chris went out to help. They hollered in for me to open the toilet, as I did a geyser from the toilet drenched EVERYTHING, and it stunk! Long story but the suction was not set correctly, but we are de-clogged. They do NOT have our vote for #1 in the #2 business.

Other than dealing with crap, we have been organizing our stuff in the barn so that we can empty our stuff out of the house. When the contractors are ready we want to be prepared to begin construction.

Currently our holdup is the loan. It is such a long process. After being approved at the end of summer, we are still waiting and working out draw schedules and other details I never knew existed. To help keep us on budget Chris is considering giving up his mac-daddy movie room. This is a big step for him and we are giving him lots of support during this difficult decision. (big win for Julie!)

Keep your fingers crossed for a mild winter.