I’m getting chickens this spring. I am beyond excited to say the least. I still have to pick my breeds out and am not sure whether to buy them local or order from McMurray Hatchery. If I order from McMurray then I know that I can get some of my exotic breeds that I was looking at. I did have three species picked out but then I got nervous and changed my mind. Guess we shall see what I wind up with.

So you may be wondering what tree limbing has to do with chickens. Well we are going to have the future chicken coop back by the barn in the small fenced in area. And to get ready for this chicken coop we need to limb trees. We are going to have our brother-in-law build us one. And there is NO way I am going to be limbing HUGE limbs on top of my newly built chicken coop.

We had taken down some of the smaller limbs earlier but still had the much bigger ones that had been on the roof of the barn. So they needed to come down anyways. Lee’s brother Greg gave us a 24 foot ladder so that helped us get what we couldn’t reach before with our smaller ladder.

After much begging on my part to let me have my turn Lee finally let me up. Well mostly because I think his arm was falling off from all the sawing. Jessica came out to see us earlier. So when my arm started falling off she got her turn on limb sawing. I wonder if she is going to stop coming over as she always gets to help in what ever we are doing.

The tree limbs were huge so we are going to use them for next years kindling. Gotta put some of the yard debris to good use eh?

Since our wood stove got installed I have been doing all our cooking on it. Cookies, cake and topping, soups, gravy, grilled cheese sandwiches, eggs, bacon, sausages, biscuits, fried potatoes, popcorn, and ham. It’s been fun experimenting along the way how to get everything cooked best. I have only burned one thing and that was the first batch of cookies. We did just pick up a Lodge cooking trivet so that should make some of my cooking easier.

The most exciting thing we have been doing on the stove cook wise is making popcorn. Yup, you read right. My mom gave us a popcorn maker as a surprise present. It’s all metal and you crank the handle which turns some things (Lee groaning here at my lack of explanation) and moves the kernels around. Then up pops the most wonderful popcorn you could wish for that tastes so much better than that bagged stuff. Not to mention that it has none of the chemicals or bad stuff in it. Then dash salt on it and pour melted butter…..oh its great I tell you. My mom got it from Territorial Seed Company for us if you are wanting one.

This of course is Edgar watching over me as the popcorn is getting made. He has an INTENSE weakness for popcorn and has to supervise the cooking of it always.

Yes we did it again. After much putting off on Lee’s part we finally worked on tearing out most of the living room ceiling. We left a stretch on at the very front of the house as it helps keep the heat in. That part of the ceiling goes straight up to the roof so we aren’t taking it off until we have too.

Lee starts out the nasty job by wearing eye protection but forgetting his breather mask. That and MUCH grumbling. We moved most of what we could out of the way.

I help out by vacuuming the plywood ceiling before it was all way pulled down. That way it helped contain the mess and get less poop everywhere. It actually worked pretty well. There were no clouds billowing up. Still a lot of mouse poop and what not every where, but that couldn’t be helped.

Lee remembered to put on his breather mask. Jessica and I resorted to using our shirts. After Jessica left I went and got my mask though.

Lee was thrilled to see that the builders of the house cut into the ceiling floor joist to install the light fixture. I think that they wanted people to fall through the floor.

We also discovered that there was a house fire at one time. Lee had to take off a few paneling boards by the kitchen to get the ceiling plywood off. When he did that we saw this…

So we are thinking that there was a kitchen fire at one time. The paneling boards are not put back in order so some are chared an others are not. There are also some new two by fours and different nails used to put the paneling boards back up. It will be interesting to see how many more boards are burned like that in the kitchen wall.

And finally the air quality picture…..I so hate mouse poop….

After all the floors had been vacuumed up and then mopped, couch disenfected, showers taken, poop clothes taken down to my mom’s to be washed, and the kitchen wiped down, we are all ready to put off taking out the rest of the ceilings for a long while again.

Lee tore out the paneling by the front door in the living room. Nothing too exciting. Things we discovered by taking off the wall paneling are:

• Tongue & groove covers at least one wall in the front bedroom
• Plywood is nailed over the tongue & groove
• Strange zigzag bracing fills that wall  … more badly done sheer support?

We got snow, snow, SNOW! Maybe it’s not that exciting to the rest of you, but after living in the desert for five years it’s exciting. And yes I know, it’s not that much compared to “some” of you and your snow piles. But it’s beautiful and I’m loving it. Okay, so maybe I do have one complaint with it. There isn’t enough to build anything with. If there had been more I would have been out there making snow sculptures.

Not to leave Edgar out here, this was his first snow he had ever been in. Did he notice anything different? If he did he didn’t let on and had much fun zooming around in it. Business as usual for him.

Yup, that time again. Another burn pile bites the dust. This is burn pile number number four. I really need to get busy and make some more piles. I don’t want to get caught in the summer with 27 piles and not being able to burn.

I’m so glad that we have our stove installed now. There is a forecast of snow for this weekend. Even if we don’t get any it’s still going to be cold. I love my new fire place. Have I mentioned that already?

My Mom and Dad came by along with Jessica for a chat. Little did they know that Dad would end up helping put the wood stove into place. Everything went well until the last two legs were to be put on. They wouldn’t go on right so Lee’s brother is going to bring a thread tap up tomorrow to see if that will help. Us ladies sat around and chatted while freezing. It was like watching our own reality TV show. Jessica suggested putting a tea light into the stove so it would look like it was burning already. Look through the gallery of pictures for the comments to see what is going on.

We have had deer hanging around the last few days. They came up close to eat apples from the tree. Mostly we haven’t seen them even though I know that they are around. In the back field you can see deer trails and a couple of places where they bed down for the night. Looks like big crop circles.

Don’t you just want to hug him? That is before he rips you to ribbons. Jasper looks very evil in this picture. Maybe it’s because I am taking his picture and he only likes Lee. Hmm, maybe he is trying to hypnotize Lee with his eyes.