Our order came in from One Green World. Added on to the previous tree list we now have 11 more trees to get excited about.

• Amere De Berthcourt (Apple Tree)
• Dolgo (Crab Apple Tree)
• John Rick (American Persimmon)
• Mitchell (Pawpaw)
• Taytwo (Pawpaw)
• Smyrna (Quince)
• Ribina (Mountain Ash)
• Rosina (Mountain Ash)
• Illinois Everbearing (Mulberry)
• 2 Korean Stone Pine Italian Stone Pine
  

Update (03/31/2009):  We ordered Korean Stone Pines because they are fast growing and cold hardy.  When we got our order in the mail, we checked all the fruit trees for accuracy but assumed the two evergreens were the ones we ordered.  Oops.  Looks like the customer service agent picked the wrong trees (perhaps because they never had any Korean Pine’s in stock .. according to a manager).  Since we did not catch the error until 1 month had elapsed, customer service was very unhelpful.  They didn’t return our calls, claimed in a letter that we had had the trees for 2 months, and so forth.  I mean, their order summary claims we placed the order in Dec 2009 (10 months future to the actual date ).  You’d think they’d be a little open to admitting part of the fault.

Needless to say, we are very upset about this experience and will not order from them again.  If they had made any sort of concession it would be different, perhaps accepting the trees back and a half refund.  This was never offered.  We did, however, learn something more disturbing.  A manager told us that the 2 weeks is final, so if our bare root trees don’t bud out in the spring .. too bad.  Pretty convenient for a company that ships most of it’s product when it is dormant.

I really wish the whole experience could be different.  One Green World is an environmentally-responsible company with a great selection of rare varieties.  I also realize that plants are an unreliable product, so I don’t expect a no-questions-asked-1-year guarantee.  However, all businesses should be expected to fix their mistakes.

Hmm, what is there to say about this other than yes I did burn another pile of brush.

We have seven fruit trees planted now. Next week we will have eleven more trees coming. We are very excited. The three that have been added to the other four mentioned previously are:

• Montmorency (Cherry Tree)
• Empire (Apple Tree)
• Cox’s Orange Pippin (Apple Tree)

It’s been dry enough that I was able to start our fourth and fifth burn piles for the season. Four more piles are waiting for me to burn and more to be made. I am going to feel very happy when our land is completely cleaned up.

Yup, we have managed to put off working on this room for over a month. Mostly because we knew it was going to be a pain in the butt getting all the plywood off. Not to mention we would be in for major mouse poop showers again.

First off it meant clearing everything out of the room. It had become the store all for everything we had torn apart in the house that we will want to reuse again. Then came out the handy pry bar for tearing off the trim. Poor Lee, he hates ripping out the plywood walls.

Here is an overview of the room.

A few of this rooms lovely highlights are the fix jobs on the ceiling done with tape. One spot uses duct tape to patch delaminating plywood. The other spot uses scotch tape to fix a crack in the plywood. There were two mouse holes in this room. One you can barely see in the left side of the closet picture above. The second was a duct taped (but chewed through) hole behind the box in the corner of the same  picture.

After the first two pieces of plywood were taken off the walls we came upon something odd. Odd in the fact that this one wall has nailed boards behind the plywood while the other three walls all have tongue and groove like the exterior sheathing behind the plywood. We also had to admire the wood grain. You don’t see grain in plywood like this anymore–certainly not in stuff that’s going to be painted.

The last thing that we found interesting was that it looked as if they reused some plywood that they got somewhere when they built the house. It was painted pink underneath the trim of the window. The other parts that we uncovered were not like that and the original paint  color that we are seeing on the plywood is a taupe kind of color.

Well, we stopped after ripping the two boards off. It was late by then. The important thing being that we finally started on the room. Now it will be easier to go back to working on. Least I think. We still have that ceiling to take down and we have seen a precursor to indicate major mouse poop rain showers again. That always makes you want to put something off.

Today we went and got four fruit trees. This is only a start on the many fruit trees we plan on getting. I have a whole list that needs to be filled.  We are going to put most of them inside our (future) vegetable garden fence so the deer won’t bother them.

• 1 Lapin (Cherry Tree)
• 1 Gravenstein (Apple Tree)
• 1 Chojuro (Asian Pear Tree)
• 1 Shinseiki (Asian Pear Tree)

My Chicken Sedan has walls and it’s metal roof on. Still a bit left to do on it but I am very excited  and can hardly wait to get my chickens in it.

I finally made it down to Territorial Seed to pick up some seeds for my summer garden. I have actually had my seeds all picked out for several weeks now–just couldn’t get to the store before it closed.  I haven’t got everything yet as I want to buy some plants and fruit trees still and a few more seed packets (they were out of a few). Lee and I know where we want the garden but we are going to have to build the deer proof fence before we start planting.

I am so turning into my mother.  I used to hated vegetable gardens and only liked flower gardens. Now, while I still love flower gardens, I am much more excited about vegetables gardens then when I was a child.

The coop has been started. I am so, so very excited. The chickens have been ordered. They won’t come for another month or so. I am getting 25 chicks in five different breeds.

• 4 Silver Laced Wyandottes (my first pick was sold out so I got this breed instead)
• 4 Araucanas/Ameraucanas
• 4 Speckled Sussex
• 4 Dominiques
• 9 Delawares

Our coop isn’t designed for 25 birds so the extras will either be given to our family members, sold, or eaten. Our extra fancy coop is designed for 15 birds max. Still not sure what I am going to be doing with all the eggs other then making lots of omelets, pound cakes, and palming eggs off on family members. Lee says I should try selling some. Not sure how that will go. Anyways I am still very excited about having my own eggs and chickens at last.

Here is the completed base. Right now it is on blocks as trailer wheels will be added later on. That way we can move the coop around to different spots on the property as wanted

It’s got a frame up. We are going to use one of the windows we will be replacing from our house in the coop. For the door way we are going to make one for now and maybe later on also recycle a house door into the coop. On the right side of the picture there are going to be nesting boxes cantilevered out from the wall. I have to say that when I told Lee I wanted a chicken coop I didn’t know it was going to be so fancy. He told me ‘we might as well build it to last since we are going to have to spend money on it anyways’. So since the coop will cost so much my brother-in-law suggested calling it “The Chicken Sedan“. Thanks Skip. I am very happy with the new Chicken Sedan.  The name seems apropos–no back seat, but lots of laying going on.