Windows and Inspector

It’s been quite a while since we have updated the blog, but I’m going to act like it hasn’t. It’s easier that way. 😉 

Things are moving along on the house at a pretty good clip at the moment. I have all the windows installed, all the plumbing roughed in, all the electric roughed in, the electric meter base installed, and service conduit buried. I also have contractors lined up for installing insulation and drywall, and a local sawmill ready to saw ash logs into floorboards for me. Just Saturday I hired the local bank president and his teenage son to bring about 15 dump truck loads of the excess dirt (from constructing the driveway) back to the house and repair some gulleys and low spots around the house. 

The windows I have installed in the house are not the ones I have bragged about getting, “a house full of windows for $300 plus a load of firewood.” I do still have those windows, but I was forced into installing brand new windows by my ….. building inspector. He remembered, apparently, way back from when I was getting my permit Dec of 2015, when he got offended by my surprise at the requirement of a building inspection, and by my surprise at his unwillingness to let me use local full dimension hardwood framing. He remembered from way back then my interest in installing used windows in the house. So, a month or two ago, after my framing and electric had passed, he told me he would give me my electrical sticker (permission, basically, for the utility to hook me up) once he saw my windows and doors installed and my plumbing roughed in. 

Never again will I be required to work with a building inspector. Ever. New rule to live by. 

I am very close to being completely done with this inspector. Once I get my electric hooked up, it’s done. This last inspection might happen this week or next. I plan to be gone when he comes to inspect. 

From here, it looks like I could really be starting painting and putting the bathroom and kitchen cabinets together in about a month. I need to install one door, and buy and install another, then get inspected. Then the contractors can start. 

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I was doing some thinking recently about my work ethic. I generally don’t mind working, but I also generally don’t want to start a job and only get partway done. I think I use that as an excuse to not start sometimes (a lot of times), and in the past couple of months I’ve realized that it goes much quicker if I believe I can do it, and don’t plan jobs around time available. (This isn’t making as much sense here as it did in my head.) Suffice it to say that recently I am getting more work done on what matters, and less mowing done. 

Anyway, new philosophical breakthroughs aside, I’m excited and I have a newfound vigor and drive to complete this house, because Katie is pregnant with our third child, due in February. 

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Framing & Electric: Check!

Things have been going pretty well over here. A little over a week ago Scott finish the rest of the electric. Last Friday we had the inspection for framing and Electric. There was one minor thing that needed to be fixed with Framing. Also he just had to add one wire into the internal smoke alarms that are wired in the house. Other than that the house passed. So again I’ve already said it before, but I want to give a big shout-out to my amazing husband again, congratulations Scott! He’s worked so hard already from planning, building in the hot, in the cold and in the rain (day and night)! He truly is amazing. He has come so far and I’m so proud of him.

This past weekend he dug a trench so we could put the rest of the electric underground from the last electric pole all the way to the house. I know I wasn’t the one out there digging, but I will definitely tell you it was a hot weekend! 

And I also must admit sometimes you can’t take a country man seriously lol

As I’m sitting here right now, he got home from work today and he is on the tractor putting the dirt back in the hole before a big thunderstorm tomorrow. 
Next, bring on the plumbing 🙂 

What a man needs

Electrical trench

All a man needs is a good woman who’ll bring him the other half of the season’s first sugar snap pea when he’s ass deep digging a trench. Everything else will work itself out. 

Busy weekend

This was a big weekend for our farm. We have been prepping for our next great adventure, piggies! We had to figure out placement, make a home for them, and put up a fence. 

We found a really nice local pig farm, and last weekend we went out and picked out what piglets we would like. We are getting 2 pigs in hopes in several months to have farm fresh meat! 

Yesterday (Saturday), we drove to the pig farm and brought the pigs back to the farm. Liam picked out the black one, his name is Howie. The brown one he decided to name Wilbur. I wanted to name them hammy and chops! The pigs seems to be doing good in their new environment, even after a nice big storm last night. I went and checked on them at 630 this morning and found them in their house still asleep! 

Everyday life…

As I was doing a dayful of errands with the kids, I hear this saying on the radio. It hit me hard, “count your blessings and not your problems.” I wanted to make a post about this because I feel like in our society we always look at the problems. I have to say I was very guilty of doing this exact thing. I lived by always see the bad more then the good in life. 

I have had to deal with some health problems recently. Especially during those times it was hard to see good because I focused so much on the bad. So, I read books and tried hard to change the way I think. I remember one book gave a good example. If you are walking in a garden and see one dead plant, don’t get sad over one dead plant but instead look at the beauty in the rest of nature. There is alot more beauty to be seen than one dead plant. In life we have been blessed with so much more good, but why do we tend to focus on the small parts of the bad? Maybe because alot of times we can’t understand or explain the bad? 

This whole house journey has also helped me change the way I think. Living on this land (especially at the beginning before we didn’t have water or electric), I was hand washing and hang drying all the clothes. Now I have a washing machine but still hang dry. Even in the winter we hung the clothes in the house!

I could have gotten mad, annoyed knowing this problem made alot more work for me. But instead I didn’t even make it a “problem.”  I embraced the resources I had and actually enjoyed being outside washing and hang drying. It helped me think and clear my mind! 

Just some thoughts on a rainy evening and wanted to pass on a good and valuable quote I heard. 

Dirt Farmer’s Rain Dance

I had almost gotten done with the conduit for the electric service entrance (main) about 4 this afternoon. I say almost because a couple of my fittings walked off, but I only found one. 

I made a list for the hardware store for the next bit of work to do, then my wife and I started planting trees. We planted five sugar maples, three dogwoods, two figs, two blue spruce, and a pawpaw from about 4:30 to 6:30.

All weekend, they’ve been calling for rain and storms, but it really hasn’t amounted to much. Those trees needed watering in, plus my mom and I planted a few redbuds and loblolly pines yesterday that needed water. None of the trees are within hose distance, so I put one of the big 275 gal tanks on the truck and started filling. Before 20 gallons were in, it started pouring. 

Chores before the storm

This weekend we are (were) going to have some severe storms. Since Scott had off Friday, we did some outside chores as a family. 

Now that it is getting warm, the weeds want to grow and plants need more water, so we needed to mulch around all the fruit and nut trees we planted in the winter.

Going along those lines, the garden is starting to get weeds. Lots of our plants are starting to come up. About 2 weekends ago I worked on planting seeds in the garden and Scott worked hard planting grass seed. Then for some strange reason mother nature thought it would be funny to have a torrential down pour for about 4 hours straight. Sometimes in life it is hard to understand some things (it hard to always wait for that last piece of the puzzle). Scott and I both worked so hard that Saturday in the heat, to have everything wash away with rain on Sunday. I was saddened by all the hard work going down the drain that night. But then again it put a smile on my face. I had so much fun working that day with the family. Emmie was Scott’s tractor buddy, Liam worked with his toy tractor doing the same thing as Scott. I remember just taking a break in the garden,  (yes I took a picture) and seeing my life, my family in front of my eyes….. I loved it. It was a hard day, we all had fun and got things done as a family! 

Lastly, we can’t forget about the chickens. They needed their bedding changed. Liam and Emmie just love taking care of these birds! Times like these I’m so glad my kids are growing up on a family farm. They learn  responsibilities (without even knowing it) and having fun all at the same time. 

I know in my title I used the word,”chores” but it never feels like chores to me. Doing things like this with my family are just plain fun, no matter what the weather (ok rain is not cool)! We all have a good time helping each other, letting the chickens out, feeding them, working on the garden, etc! Your hard work will always pay off.  One saying I heard and keep close by is, “if you love what you do, you never have to go to work!”