It's beginning to look a lot like christmas....



Notice the nice cupola Chris built on top.

Well, not really,  but the spirit of christmas is here.  We have no snow and a 5 inch tree,  but the gift of a completed barn has brought us the holiday spirit.  This weekend we are unloading another pod, so we officially have 1/2 of our stuff. 



Inside on the 1/3 of the barn that is living space.

After having spent the past few months on the barn, we are giddy to not be building the barn, but to be moving stuff in.  The large freezer was in this load, as well as the gun safe.  You know what that means.....the deer will now have to be afraid.

We plan to spend the break with a little trip to Florida and moving our stuf out of the old house and into the barn,  as well as moving stuff out of the old shed.  We need to get that shed cleaned out as we are on the list to adopt some 4-h chickens in the spring. 

This week we came to the realization that it is going to be really hard(and long) to build the house ourselves, so we are interviewing builders.  We may decide that it will be more cost effective to just do it ourselves,  but it is fun to think about having someone else manage the whole process. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  Until 2012.....

What are we thankful for....

10. Dry weather for working on the barn
9. Warm weather for working on the barn
8. Home depot. Chris noted the other day that he averages a new tool each week
7. Warm puppy on cold mornings.
6. 4 wheel drive. We traded in the fancy schmancy car for a GMC with AWD.
5. Straw. We used it to insulate under the trailer, protect the strawberries, asparagus ans artichokes, and plant 90lbs of grass seed.
4. Wildlife. Every day we we see amazing wildlife, from squirrels to turkeys, white deer to huge woodpeckers. Life in the woods is better that we expected.
3. Brothers who love to play with each other and get along well. We don't always have this, but when we do, we are thankful.
2. Friends and family, some of you stop buy to help out, or just check on the progress. We get so much encouragement from everyone who likes to keep tabs on our adventure. Thanks for the constant support.
1. Our health, after 1 pneumonia and 2 bronchitis this fall we are all thankful to be healthy again and back up on the ladders hanging siding.

Wildlife

Today is a cold Saturday morning.  26 oF  We are happy to have running water today.  We had two days recently when the water froze.  Chris built a wooden box around the water spigot and put  light bulb in it and that seems to keep things just warm enough.
As we wait for things to warm up a bit before we go out to the barn we have seen quite a bit of wild life this morning.

Two foxes have be around.  They hung out around the trailer for a good bit.  Long enough to look up that fox season is for fox chase only and we can't kill them.  To bad, cause the look like they'd make a nice warm coat!

Then we saw the white deer and her friends just behind the trailer.  They looked at us for a while then moved on.  Deer season starts in 6 days.

We have bird feeders just by our kitchen window with safflower seeds and one with wood pecker mix.  Just this morning we have seen: Carolina Chic-a-dee, Tufted Titmouse, Downy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, White breasted Nuthatch, Mourning Dove, Purple Finch.

We also have two squirrels who frequent the bird feeder who the boys have named fatso1 and fatso2.

In the time it took to type this it has warmed enough to go out and work.  We'll be hanging more siding and working on the garden reconstruction.

Have a great weekend!

6 months of camping

It is hard to believe we have passed the 6 month mark.  We have learned a lot of things these past months....

• I am an expert at small space storage.
• Happy people are made with hot showers, grumpy people are made with cold ones.  After 6 months we finally got the hot water heater working on a regular basis.  It clearly improved everyone's disposition.
• Water Pipes can freeze at 32 degrees.  With the recent snow one pipe froze, but did not burst.  This week my todo list includes a trailer full of straw to close up the bottom of the trailer.
• Building anything takes longer than you think.  After 6 months I would have thought we'd be started on the house by now.  Too many glitches and hopefully we will start before the year ends.
• RV toilet does not create the same sense of contentment as a regular toilet.  It is sort of sad that when we go to home depot the kids are excited to use the real pottys.
• One small dog can bring his weight in dirt indoors in any 24hr period.
• Eating out is our primary dinner option. Cooking with a 1 sq ft of counter space is not easy.  Try it.  Our oven barely fits a tombstone pizza and there is no way we are cooking a turkey this thanksgiving.
• We love some wild animals, turkey, deer, fox, woodpeckers, owls, hawks, but not raccoons, skunk, and groundhogs. 
• When the sun is out so are we.  Any chance to escape to the out of doors is capitalized on.  The boys rarely fight when they are outside and the smell better too.  Recently I have often quoted my grandma N.  "Go outside and blow the stink off ya".
• Love really does grow best in small spaces.  Since we are forced to always be in each others business we seem to know more about what is going on with each other and care more about it.

So the past 6 months truly have been both a learning experience and a pleasure.  Maybe we don't need to build a house.....NOT

Coupoula-Hoopla

Chris up top. View is from the back side of the barn

WooHoo, The coupoula is up and that means we are ready for shingles!  Chris built it from scratch.  We are still on the look out for a cool weathervane to put up there, but for now we are just happy to be progressing to the next step.  We are waiting on the excavator to do final grading then we will have the siding delivered and Chris and I can get to work hanging that.  yes,  he did buy several new tools to put up the siding.  Any excuse to get more tools ;)

William and Cooper

Jackson hauling a really long pallett

Jackson has been helping quite a bit.  He will haul anything and takes great care and pride in hooking things to the tractor with a chain and dragging it to the burn pile.  While Cooper has been helpful too he would much rather spend his day down at the creek catching crawdads.  He and his friend William caught quite a few the other day.

Weekend warriors



The barn as seen from the driveway.  It is 32 x 60.



Chris finishing the corner sofit.

This past weekend we completed the soffits and facia on the barn. It has not been easy.  It rains 3/4 days so even on the days without rain,  it is still really muddy.  Chris started to build the cupola and when that is complete we can order the roofer to put shingles on. I am really happy that I don't have to go way up on the high ladder any more. Those gable end were tricky.

We have started the process for our construction loan, so hopefully construction will begin befor the year ends.

In other news I have passed my test to be a Virginia Certified Land Disturber.   You need to hire one before the county will issue you a building permit.  So we decided It would be cheaper for me to take the test.  Just one less contractor we will have to pay. I am sure plenty of you will get a good laugh out of that one.  I even have an official certificate!  What I really want is a big digger I can drive to make it official.

Earthquake, Hurricane and life goes on

After surviving the Earthquake and Hurricane in the same week, we are back to business.  Work on the barn is slow going.  We have had lots of rain lately and lots more rain in the forecast.  We did get the trim boards and soffits delivered last week and got one side of soffits installed, 1/2 of the skirt board up for the siding, garage doors trimmed and half of the windows trimmed.

This week the health inspector will make his first trip out to look at the well and septic for clearance to release the building permit. We should also be getting the garage doors installed. Chris is back at work full time now so things will have to be completed on weekends only.

Pear shaped puffball mushrooms from our yard.  They are supposed to be delicious, but I am not sure I am ready to test that.

Artichoke Flowers in the garden. 

Just a cool little mushroom.  I have got to find out what it is.