Foundation

This is taken standing on the front porch.  The boys are leaning on what will be the mudroom and behind them are the forms for the garage foundation walls.  looking into the basement you can see the door to the vault room.

The concrete boys did lots of work last week as they set and poured the foundation walls.  It realy gave us a look at the size of the new garage and add-ons.  Chris had a busy weekend moving the water pressure tank to prepare for the concrete floors to be poured. 

The bees have survived their move to their new hives and it looks like all three colonies are thriving. They all released their own queen from her cage and have begun making honey and pollen stores.  Yoda had a run in with the bees in their first days here.  All of a sudden he came bolting around the corner at full speed rolling and rubbing in the grass to try knocking them off.  I guess that will teach him to not play with the hives.

Yoda has been the constant source of entertainment.  Last week while talking to Chris on the phone,  I decided to feed the chickens.  Yoda seized the opportunity to enter the coop and exit via the chicken door into the chicken run.  He had a grand time pouncing on chickens.  They were not amused by his antics.  I had dropped the phone to chase the dog and apparently did a lot of shrieking.  When I found the phone I had dropped in my panic,  Chris was still on the line.  His only comment was that it sounded like a 911 call.

Jackson and I made a planting bed this weekend.  He worked really hard to dig, separate and plant some bulbs.  We also planted some flowering quince and lamium.  We (I really mean me) are having a hard time not buying all the plants that are out at the stores right now.  We did buy some cool things ... pink forsythias, hollyhocks, corkscrew grass and landulum. Since I will have to try to keep some of them alive until the house is ready for landscaping,  I decided to try my hand at propagation.  I've divided and replanted several plants.  Hopefully come fall they will be alive and have a spot by the new house in which to grow.

Progress

Chickens using the "Chicken Jungle Gym"
as well as shading themselves under Jim's chicken pergola.

We have had lots of progress this week. The footers are dug and poured and the basement is entirely cleaned out. The mason has finished his fixes and tuck pointing. We narrowed down our stone choices to one color and the brick color is down to two choices. We made some changes to the garage layout which have necessitated a new building permit so we are waiting on that to come through. We ordered exterior doors and windows this week as well. With all the progress it is hard to not get overly excited. The boys are talking about how to decorate their rooms and I even got a paint chip deck from the paint store.

Hard to read but the bright orange sign says
"Grandma and Grandpa's place."

We also had a nice visit from Julie's parents. Boy did they accomplish lots while they were here. Jim cut vines and trees along the driveway, the property front and in the woods. We are lucky he can wield a chainsaw. Jim and Marie cleaned the future movie room in the house, that was a chore we have been avoiding for weeks. The chickens needed a spot for shade so Jim and Marie also repurposed a pallet into a chicken pergola. Those are just some of the highlights. The chores they helped us with are just too numerous to mention. We tried to get them to stay longer in the lush accommodations of the barn, but the call of a hot bath and actual beds won out over the port-a-potty and camping cots.

Chris installed 3 new bee colonies this week. They seem to be doing fine and settling in to their new homes nicely. Julie had to pick up the bee packages in her car (not the open bed truck). Ask Jim and Marie about their ride with 10,000 bees, some of whom were not in their nice bee packages. I am sure you will get a good story out of them!

The garden is just waiting for life. While the asparagus had several spears it is lacking the quantity to feed the family. So we will wait another year and hopefully next year will be a bumper crop. The blossoms on the strawberries look so promising, they are both large and numerous. The broccoli is looking good, and the parsnips, fennel, squash, lettuce and cabbage have all germinated. This weekend I hope to put in lots more to really get things going.