I was bored, what else can I say… Edgar needed shaved due to pitch and mats he acquired in his fur during the house project. So I decided to give him a new hair do. I think his mohawk fits him as Edgar ‘thinks’ he is mister tough stuff.
Last year we moved into the house on Sept 22nd. One year later (roughly) we’ve moved back in after the remodeling is complete (roughly). It all feels very … familiar. It’s still bare studs (although significantly stronger). It’s still cold (even less insulation). It’s still a mess (more so).
However, I’m feeling considerably more optimistic about the next 6 months. Last year we moved in after weeks and weeks of cleanup and gutting. We were cold, we barely got the wood stove in before the freezing weather hit, and we spent the winter fighting for sufficient wood supply. Despite having a few indoor electric outlets and hot water, it was impossible to make real progress on any remodeling task because something was holding up everything.
Fast forward a year, and things are similar, but very different. We have 5 cords of split oak, 2 cords of fir, 4 cords of chopped 2by and plank material, and two mountains of cedar shakes. I don’t think we’ll run out of wood. We also don’t have any significant gutting or structural work to left to do. The hated plank room is bare. The plywood ceilings are gone (and actively venting heat). The mouse infested insulation on the second floor is sitting outside in a 30 yard dumpster. The sagging floors have been jacked up as much as can be expected. The house is a blank slate ready for insulation, electric wiring, new water systems, etc.
So, what’s next? Short term our priorities are:
The first three items are a race to replace our plumbing vents. The original vent stacks cut through too many framing members and had to go. Our plan is to bring new ones down the joist bays and then up through a new wall into the attic. Yes, it’s probably a bad idea to be venting our plumbing into the house .. but with the breezes blowing through we’re probably fine.
The remaining items deal with sealing up the largest holes in the building envelop as quickly as possible to retain heat. My current insulation plan will actually allow us to make a big push for insulation before worrying about other building services. This is a good thing. I wasn’t looking forward to another winter of cold.
It’s been crazy the last four weeks during the home improvements. I finally moved back in two nights ago and it is very cold. We have to insulate somehow before winter totally hits. The garden is mostly done for the year. I am just getting in some of the last vegetables.
The pumpkins turned out beautiful beyond belief. I gave four of them away since we didn’t get pigs like expected. I’m not sure whether I will can the pumpkin or make pumpkin pie. I will toast the seeds though.
I got three Lady Godiva’s. I thought I was doing well until my mom told me that she got 37 Lady Godiva’s off of her two plants. Somehow I think my mom’s nice soil combined with better bee pollination really makes for an amazing turnout. I’ve already cooked some of the seeds. I heated up oil, dumped them into the pan, and then salted them generously and they turned out amazing. This is a plant that I will definitely be growing next year. Even the pulp and rind didn’t go to waste as the chickens love them.
My Banana Pink Jumbo winter squash is very big. I plan on just cutting them up and freezing the chunks to later use in hot winter soups. One thing that I noticed being really off in the garden was the pollination of almost all of my squash. I barely got anything off of the plants. Lee plans of getting honey bees next year so that should really help out the garden.
I got a few melons that barely made it in time before the cold weather hit. This was another first for me to grow. I didn’t get them in early enough due to some seedling failures. A couple spoonfuls and that was it.
Finally, I am trying a new weed block approach. The weeds got a little away from me this summer. This is what one of the garden pathways looked like. Not good.
For next years garden I am changing the row layout. Along with that I am using cardboard and straw for the garden pathways. I made sure to strip off all the tape on the cardboard and to make sure there weren’t any staples. Then I just laid the cardboard down in the walkways and put a nice thick layer of straw down on top of it. My garlic bed got the first trial out for this weed block approach. I plan on saving all my cardboard this winter and then when the new garden season comes, just using this approach for the rest of the garden.
We had a new stray show up a week ago. We were out by the chicken pen and Lee made mention that he thought he heard a cat meowing. I told him that I didn’t hear a cat. Then I walked over to look in the barn and sure enough there was this little black cat meowing it’s head off. After a little coaxing it came over and I was able to pick it up. The poor thing was all bones and was light as a feather. We weren’t staying in the house at that time so we put out food and water for it every day when we came over in the evenings.
The little black cat we are guessing is around 4 to 5 months old. It is also blind in one eye and a female. I decided to call her Jack after the pirate called One Eyed Jack of course. My sister complains that I call all my girl animals boy names. I’m just lousy at girl names though and can’t seem to help myself. Jack was at one time someone’s cat as she is beyond friendly. Stray cats just don’t get that way unless someone spends a lot of time handling them. I’m also at a loss on why someone would dump her since she is so sweet. I guess their unwanted loss is our unexpected gain. In just the week that she has been living in our barn she has put on a lot of weight. I plan on letting her be an inside/outside cat if she wishes. Next week I will bring her to the vet to see if she has feline leukemia along with getting her eye looked at.
Lee made an update to the chicken coop. After I put straw in the nesting boxes all the hens decided that it was a perfectly lovely place to lay their eggs. (Here I was thinking that it was going to be a pain to get them to stop laying on the floor of the coop and it wasn’t.) Except there wasn’t a lip on the nesting boxes so the straw kept getting scratched out. That made it so a few of the eggs ended up getting hairline cracks in them from popping out the hen butts onto the wood box.
Lee made a wood bracket, screwed it onto the wall, then slid a board into the first slot against the wall to make a 3 1/2″ lip. A second board was screwed onto the outside of the bracket to make a roost. The roost allows our fat-butted hens to still make it into their nesting boxes with the smaller opening. 
