Monday, May 9, 2011

Madness!

Things have been absolutely crazy-busy around here.  The weather was fabulous all weekend and we worked like mad.  Slow but sure progress was made on the chicken coop.
I did what every homesteady Mom wants to do for Mother's Day-
I got to stain siding for the new coop.  Isn't it a pretty color- it's what all the well-dressed coops are wearing this spring... and it coordinates with the shop.  I did NOT want to get it the same color brown as the house and barn.  blah.
And Ticket was helping with framing the North wall.
 It turns out that he is, in fact, 16 inches on center when lying down, LOL!  He served to hold the studs in place.
Here is the first wall going up:
We're attaching it directly to the wall of the shop so it took some creativity.  But, this wall was finished (including the electrics wired) and the North wall has been framed.
But, the most mad thing we did was this evening:
We bought a car!
This really wasn't on the agenda but timing and availability came together. We  have run into issues- especially on weekends where all three drivers (V, J16 and I) have different things to do in different places and drop offs aren't convenient.  Now that J16 is working at the farmer's market on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings it will be more of an ongoing problem since V has kum do class on Saturday mornings as well.
But, we found a great deal on a used Smart car- a 2009 Passion- to be precise.   It is what J16 has been drooling over for at least a year.  They are, as you can see, quite tiny.  It is essentially a roll cage with a 3 cylinder engine.  The body panels are all plastic so it is light weight and incredibly fuel efficient.  It averages 40 mpg- not too bad with gas prices the way they are at the moment.  Technically, this is my car (I'm on the title) but in reality, it will be the one that J16 drives.  One of our local dealers imported two used Smart cars to sell here since the closest Smart dealer is in Chicago.  They have had this car for less than a week.  This particular car had been owned by a Mercedes dealer as their loaner car for customers having work done.  So, it has low mileage and has been exquisitely cared for.  I haven't gotten to drive it yet but I hear from J16 and V that it's zippy and fun to drive.  This was definitely NOT on my list for the week but it will make the summer easier and this will be J16's college car in the fall of 2012. (eeek, that makes it seem SO close).
I feel quite unsustainable and not at all practical or frugal at the moment, becoming a three car household, but, I guess things fell in together for a reason and this seemed like the right car at the right time.  Of course.... now she OWES me...... Mwahaha

8 comments:

  1. i DO like the coop color!

    and what a cute car! i'm sure j16 thinks being in your debt is worth it. :)

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  2. Congrats on the car! I think the coop will look great in that color!

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  3. I'm a big believer in color. Too many times, we see life in shades of taupe, cream, gray and white .... just look at the nearest housing development. Color screams a secure happy home!

    And I LOVE the car!

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  4. I think a smart car is a great choice if you need a 3rd car for teens! We used to have a ford festiva and it was the perfect errand car (and 40 mpg too).

    The coop color is lovely!

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  5. The car is cute...When we had 3 teens driving and we bought a car we kept the one we had instead of trading it in.. With teens you need that extra car... Our teens had to share the car.. it was for work and school..it helped so much with the running around.. You will feel like you have some freedom but some worrries to but hey the freedom is great...

    Scorcher for today they say.. Ugh.. But we wanted the warmer weather.. This weekend is suppose to be nice...

    Have a great day..
    Lisa

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  6. LOL...JUDY!!!

    I took a quiz once to check the carbon footprint (you know--one of those green things) and because of where we live out in the boondocks, and a couple of other issues, we scored much more poorly than I would have ever imagined. lol We are some of the greenest people I know...and we have 2 vehicles too. have to. And we have to drive 20 miles to everywhjere. And that's okay.

    Love the car. Love the coop. Mine is painted hunter green, because it's what we had on hand. In fact I mixed a few colors together to use it up...lol

    Heat wave here too, it was 70 degrees already at 7 AM. Crazy!!

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  7. How flippin' cute!!!!! I'd love to have a car like that! And a coop the size of the one you're building!!

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