It was just time.

I changed my ring tone to green acres today. I figured it was just time.

Chickens!

Chick on left is an austrolorp.  the one posing is an americana.

The chickens arrived!!  We are super excited to have them.  Our americana birds come in an array of colors.  we have yellow ones, brown ones and grey ones.  They are 9 days old now and have grown tremendously in the week we've had them.  They are starting to get their wing feathers and their tail feathers. Right now they are in the barn under the heat lamp and should be ready to move to their coop in early March.  I guess that means we should start building the coop?  Yesterday i staked out the chicken yard and I think I have Chris convinced that he does not have enough time to build the coop himself and we can have someone else build it for us.  Otherwise,  one of the boys may have to give up their room.

Chris worked all weekend organizing the barn to get a space ready for the water to come in and a place for the pressure tank.  This kids an I mostly played with the chickens.  Yoda loves the chickens and will sit and watch them for ages.

We are enjoying mild weather,  upper 50's to 60's.  We sure hope that will eliminate typical spring backlog for the construction industry.  We have our fingers crossed that we will not have to spend another winter in the RV.  As fun as camping is,  we all will enjoy having a house again!

Cold, Hot, Cold, Hot

The past couple of weeks have been all about temperature. We had some really mild weather and the daffodils are up about 2 inches.
We took advantage of the warm weather and worked in the chilly barn and hung foam board on the ceiling and walls of the workshop area. Now we have a nice insulated spot we can heat and spend some time there.
Now that we finally have a heated space in the barn, our 12 volt system in the RV broke. That means no lights, and the electric starter on the hot water and furnace do not work. We spent four days using lanterns and space heaters, but Thursday the mobile rv repair man(our new best friend) came by and we are all fixed up.
We had a big win this week, in that we closed on our construction loan. It was pretty funny to see our names listed as general contractor for the project. Last week we got our initial building permit applied for and the health department gave us the go ahead. We are now on the list with our ccontractor to get the septic to the barn installed and initial grading started. The cement guy has us on his radar to do the foundation and we are accepting the final bids for frameing.

It is hard to believe that we are actually ready to start construction! 9 months after we moved out here. Yippeee!

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".

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.

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.