Progress- a long weekend in pictures

Whew! What a weekend. I have been a bit frustrated since it seems that we haven't been able to get out to work until lunchtime all the four days I've been off. Of course, there have been good reasons. But much progress has been made. Thursday morning J15 and I moved almost the entire contents of my closet to the new house while V worked at home- he had a big deadline for his paying job. But in the afternoon we got the drainage system finished for the house. And just in time- Friday night into Saturday morning we had 8/10 inch of rain and....the basement was dry!!!! Hoorah! It appears to have worked. Friday, the boys hauled composted horse manure from the barn/yard to put on top of the plastic rain barrier next to the house. Now I just need to plant some pretty annuals for landscaping and we're all set.

I didn't have much time to work in the garden but at least we got rain so I didn't have to haul water.

We got another head of broccoli- YUM!!!

The basement- will it ever be ready to move in???

V works on the last of the heating/air ducts.

The basement is a mess, without any walls as yet. But it is dry. and much of it has the insulation up and V finished the duct work today. We did get the concrete slab poured and the air conditioner unit is moved back into position. We just need to have someone come and reconnect it and recharge the system and we're all set. The ducts are all reconnected and the system works. We had the fan running this afternoon to circulate the air.

While V worked on the duct work. J15 and I worked on the upstairs bath. The drywall is all up, the cabinet is set in place and the tile backer subfloor is all ready to go.

It doesn't look like much but it represents several days of hard work!

We will tile get the toilet and sink base in place next, then tile the floor, and finally, tape and mud the walls. It still seems like a lot to do but we're making good progress.

The tile is all ready to go!

We're feeling the crunch now. We are required by terms of our mortgage to move by the 21st, so we're in the final push now. We're probably not going to have the basement finished, maybe not even J15's room done. But she will be gone for a week in New Orleans from the 20th to the 27th so maybe we can finish her room then.

I"m going to see how much time off I can talk my co-workers into this week. We NEED to get this done!!!!!

I hope you all had a fabulous long holiday weekend.

Drywall and massacres

It's been a busy day here. I was up early cooking and baking. It's my turn to provide bread for the Sunday service at church this week so I baked some bread this morning. I also created a summer fruit massacre that I'll be featuring in a bit.

But in better news. We worked at the house all afternoon (V had work to do this morning and I was in the kitchen). J15 and I got half the bathroom drywalled!!! Tomorrow we will finish the drywall and hopefully have time to put down the tile backer board so Sunday we can put down the ceramic tile. Maybe by the end of the weekend we can have a functional bathroom upstairs.

Drywall in the bathroom!!

We're still working on getting all the animals to play nicely together. It's amazing, Ticket is doing better with Mandy, the kitten, than with Spaz, who has supposedly lived with dogs before. Mandy is much more willing to let the dog sniff and lick her. At least Spaz is big enough to fend for himself.

Ticket is still getting to know Mandy.

I did make jam this morning. I didn't have enough of any one thing so we have a melange of fruits. Black raspberry, blueberry and peach. J15 nicknamed it "summer fruit massacre" and it stuck. It's REALLY good.

Summer fruit massacre!

Tomorrow is another busy day. We're planning to take some time tomorrow to celebrate the holiday and just enjoy being out at the house. J15 has another date with her new beau to see the fireworks. I don't know- 3 dates in two weeks. It must be serious. The scary thing is- he has his license and drives!!! EEEK.

Help?

I'm posting today over at Homemakers Who Work on the difficulties of asking for help. I suffer badly from the 'do it myself' syndrome but I'm working on it.

Independence Days- take 2: week 9

What a busy week it has been. I've been weeding like a fiend for the past two days (well, only in the evening today) The garden is starting to look a little better. I've discovered the drawback of the wonderful, loamy soil that I've got. It dries out quickly. It seems like only last week that I was lamenting that we were having so much rain. Tonight I was hauling water to drooping pepper plants. Of course, the hose is back at the town house since we are using it to pressure wash the garage. sigh

But on to the business at hand. It's Monday again, time for my weekly check in with the Independence Days Challenge. I'm still finding this challenge quite helpful for me in organizing all those things that I'm doing. Even though I know we're accomplishing a lot, sometimes it seems like I'm just spinning my wheels and not getting anywhere. At least this helps me see what I've gotten accomplished toward our goals.

1. Plant something- nope.

2. Harvest something- Behold!!!

Chard, and two firsts: broccoli and a hot wax pepper.

Ok, I know it's not normal to harvest the first broccoli and the first pepper on the same evening. But I'm really excited about the broccoli. I've never grown it before and with all the craziness of moving it got planted out really late and looked pitiful for the longest time. I was actually surprised to find a head of eating size and a bunch of little ones coming along when I was weeding. The pepper- I just couldn't resist.

I also harvested some raspberries and saved some chive seeds.

3. Preserve something- again, only my sanity. Working 6 days straight last week and then only having one day off has been draining. But I only have to work 3 days this week and then I have a 4 day weekend. I may even try to take Wednesday as a vacation day if it stays slow like it's been. I'm really glad that I have so much vacation banked that I can use. I've used a lot of it this spring.

4. Reduce waste- just the usuals: recycled, composted and used cloth bags at the store. We've been repurposing as much building material as we can out at the house with good success. I've slowed down on collecting boxes. We've still got quite a stash and I'm not sure how many more we will need.

5. Prep and storage- not much stored. House prep continues. We've been focusing on waterproofing the basement since much of my food storage space will be down there, not to mention J15's room, my sewing room and the 'play room' so getting it reasonably watertight is a priority before we can start to finish it.

I'm also counting the cats as 'prep and storage' material. They will be figuring prominently in our mouse control plan. I'm actually glad now that we got them before we moved. They and the dog have been getting acquainted slowly but we've been having to keep them isolated from him when we're not available to 'supervise'. This means that J15 has their litter box in her room, which is NOT where she wants it on a permanent basis. So, hopefully they can work things out before we move so we can have the litter box in the downstairs bathroom as we had planned and have the dog leave them in peace as they move about.

6. Build community food systems- hmm, not so much, I've been rather self centered lately and not focusing so much on my community. I'm hoping to make up time later.

7. Eat the food- Still working on eating down the freezer in prep for moving. I had raspberries on my cereal this morning. YUM! We're going to have to incorporate broccoli into the menu tomorrow! And I'm seeing an omelet for breakfast with sauteed hot pepper and onion. I don't normally go in for that big of a breakfast during the week but it sounds sooo good.

I'll try to post more regularly this week but I make no promises. The fabulous weather is supposed to hold through the weekend. Highs in the low 80s, low humidity and clear skies. Sounds like great weather to finish a bathroom.

i've been a bad blogger

It's been a lean week for posts this week. We've been busy. I worked all week plus it was my Saturday to work this weekend. But I did manage to finish up a little early yesterday and we took advantage of the fabulous weather to get some work done. Here's an update of what's been going on.

Nothing I've done, but here is a tiny apple from the mystery tree in the yard. Look closely.

V was laughing at me this afternoon in the yard. We were working to fill in the holes the previous owner's dogs had dug in the yard. I had filled in a hole when suddenly I heard a squeal and realized that I had buried a nest of baby bunnies. We carefully excavated them and then teased each other on how 'soft' we were, even though we knew that they would potentially nibble on the garden.

Spaz is settling in. Please disregard the need for vacuuming.

Mandy finally settles in for a nap in the rocking chair.

The cats are settling in. The dog has been out at the new house during the days since they've been here so they have been having a chance to explore without him around. They won't let him near them so he has decided to bark at them from a distance. Ugh. Mandy has become a bit more bold, coming out to look at him from behind the baby gate we have put up in the door to J15's room (their sanctuary). Ticket is, I think, excited to get to know them. His tail is wagging in a friendly way and he really, really just wants to sniff them all over. He still doesn't know kitty behavior so he is trying to interact with them as if they were dogs. Poor guy.

But in even bigger news:

The well pit is filled!!!!

We just need to put down a layer of plastic that we're doing for waterproofing the basement, a little topsoil and horse manure, get the concrete slab in place and we're set for reinstalling the air conditioning!!!! Woo Hoo!!!!

V and J15 work to install the plastic water barrier.

V has come up with his water abatement plan for the basement. The biggest problem is that there is really poor drainage away from the house for any rain that falls. So, we spent time this weekend excavating a drainage ditch between the house and garage. There will be a plastic barrier fixed to the house and lining the ditch to lead water away from the house. It meant a lot of digging this weekend but hopefully, it will help keep moisture out of the basement. We've got both the North and West side of the house done and those are the sides that leak the worst.

I took advantage of the fabulous weather today to spend several hours in the garden weeding. I tried to rediscover my onions. Let me tell you, pulling large smart weeds from around small onions isn't a pretty thing.

And to end on a positive note:

Raspberries! Both black and golden.

The first 'real' harvest of berries for the year from the raspberries at our town house. I'm not expecting anything from the ones I transplanted this year so at least we'll get a few from the plants I didn't move. I probably won't get enough for jam this year but I'm looking forward to berries on my cereal for breakfast tomorrow.

Meet the newest family members

Yeah, I know. I said we were going to wait until we got settled in the new house. But we made the mistake of making a trip to the animal shelter yesterday afternoon. We actually ended up with two new additions to the family.

This is Mandy

I don't have many good pictures of her yet. She doesn't stay still long enough. She is a tiny little thing. About 11 weeks old. We're a bit worried about her with the dog. She is about a mouthful for him. I don't think he would hurt her on purpose but he just wants to play and they're not ready for that yet.

This is Spaz

He's a year old- a bullseye tabby. After a swat across the nose the dog has been giving him a wide berth. Ticket is curious but Spaz isn't ready to play nice yet. Of course, they've only been here since about 5 this evening so they've only had about 4 hours to settle in. Spaz has spent lots of time under the china cabinet and we've been keeping Mandy mostly upstairs in J15's room to keep her away from the dog.

It will be an interesting few days while everyone gets used to each other.

Independence Days- take 2: week 8

Another week gone by- another week that we aren't moved yet. AAARGH!!!! This seems never-ending. We did get some good progress done this weekend but goodness, things just don't go as smoothly as you would wish. V and the children will go out tomorrow morning while it's still cool to see if they can get some work done. V hopes to finish the framing for the bathroom medicine cabinet and the wiring for the GFCI outlet above the sink. J15 can help him bring in some sheetrock since we forgot to do that before we left this evening. I think the children are going to work on finishing filling the well pit. One bonus of all the rain we have had it that the dirt has settled nicely and we can see how much more we need to add to actually fill it up. It has to be filled and settled before we can reconnect the air conditioning unit that will sit on top of it and believe me, with the temps in the 90s and high humidity that has suddenly become more of a priority. With all the cool weather we had been having it didn't seem that important but all the sudden it hit us in the face that we don't want to move until we have air, especially since the basement won't be finished and we'll all be sleeping upstairs where it is hot (it was 85 in the living room this afternoon. Of course, if we were there full time we could open windows at night to let in the cool air- oh wait, most of the screens still need repaired and the mosquitos are fierce. sigh.

Anyway, it is time for my weekly IDC update so here goes:

1. Plant something- Nope.

2. Harvest something- radishes and chard. A little bit of lettuce, but as soon as it got hot here it bolted so it needs ripped out (in my spare time). I did pick the first two golden raspberries from here in town. The ones we transplanted out to the farm most likely won't produce this year but there are still plenty here in town and it looks like we will still be here for raspberry harvest so at least there is that good point.

3. Preserve something- No. I've thought about freezing a bit of chard since it looks lovely but I'm not sure I can find the time. I need to make time I guess. One more thing to add onto the list.

4. Reduce waste- the usuals of recycling, composting and using cloth bags. We even remembered to take our cloth bag when we stopped at the home center this afternoon. I'm thinking of using some of the packing cardboard from some of our purchases as mulch in the garden to try to keep down some of the weeds. I am slowly getting control of the weeds in the tomatoes but the onions and beets are looking pretty sad. Maybe I can have children weed those- it's pretty easy to tell an onion from a weed- even for a 9 year old.

5. Prep and storage- nothing much here. I'm actively trying to NOT store anything new at the moment- even though it's tough sometimes. I'm really hesitant to move much in the way of food stuffs out to the house when we're not there all the time to keep an eye on it. But no more mice since the 3 we caught last week and V found another entry place around the fan housing for the bathroom vent in the basement bathroom. Whoever installed it punched a hole through the foundation block for the fan but didn't seal it well so it was yet another mousey highway. But on a positive note, while V was patching it this evening I went out the basement door to the garden and there was enough of a suction to move air in and out of the space he was working on, which tells us that the house is much better sealed than it was before. So progress is being made. Before there were so many holes in the mudsill that the house was like a sieve.

7. Eat the food- no problem here. We're trying to eat our main meals out of storage for the most part. But we've still been having to make multiple stops at the grocery store each week. With the children home from school they have been going through gallons of milk and lots of bread for sandwiches. I haven't been baking my own due to time constraints. It's a good thing that the grocery store is located on the direct route between houses so it's an easy thing to stop.

I hope this week coming week will be a bit more productive than last. No word from our insurance agent as to a deadline. But I work on Saturday so that takes me out of commission for the day. But it means that I have a 4 day weekend for the 4th. EEEK! July is coming up that soon! We need to get moving- literally!