Rylee's Chickens

I look at our chickens and know that they have grown but it is kind of hard to tell when you see them every day so I decided to compare a photo from the day we got them....

To a photo from a couple of weeks ago....
Tony planted wheat seed as nurse crop for grass. The chickens were very appreciative.

This guy looks like the rooster on the wallpaper border in the rental house kitchen. I think he is a very fine specimen.

Day One Hundred Forty Seven - Sheet rock, etc

A lot has happened during the past 44 days since I last posted. The plumbing and electrical rough was completed and passed inspection. The dry wall has been hung and taped, mudded, sanded, etc.

Now I will take you on a tour of the house.

I'll start with what may be my favorite room in the house, my sewing/weaving studio. This was taken from the laundry room door. The outside door is to the left and the kitchen is to the right.

The great room taken from the dining area. There will be stained glass inserts in the two high fireplace wall windows. The door you see is the front door and faces east. Out of view on the right is the staircase and on the left is a set of doors to the porch on the north side of the house.

The dining area taken from in front of the fireplace. The kitchen is on the left on the other side of the half wall. There will be a built-in china cabinet on the dining room side of the half wall.

The loft/bedroom. The doorway on the upper left is the half bath. The French doors upstairs open onto a small balcony. The lower French doors and double windows are in the studio.

The house really does have a kitchen. In the above photo you are actually looking across the kitchen to the loft and studio.

I wanted to include one photo of the fall color. The foliage really looked much better than it does in this photo.

New Granddaughter

Tony and I have a new granddaughter, number four for us; number one child for Sus and Bryce.

Meet Miss Maisy Lucia, born August 30. Seven pounds 14 ounces; 19.5 inches long.

Doesn't she (Susie) look incredibly happy? She did good!!

Day One Hundred Three - I Found My Camera

O.K. so here's the deal... I lost my camera, several days (maybe weeks) ago. After several gentle nudges about updating my blog I made an all out effort to locate the camera. For about a week, I looked everywhere I could think of, most place several times. This afternoon I spied my Pendleton plaid backpack in a large stone jar behind my computer chair. I can't remember the last time I actually used that backpack and hadn't checked it for the camera. But even though I knew the camera was't in the backpack, I looked anyway. Well low and behold, there was my camera! So I downloaded the pictures that were on it.

This is the half bath in our bedroom. Does anyone find it amusing that it looks like a privy? Or an I the only person who sees that?

Let's see, since I last posted I have ordered the windows; the bathroom plumbing; and the range hood. I have looked at lots and lots of paint chips; floor tiles; countertop materials; and lighting fixtures. I have met with the HVAC guy and tomorrow I will meet with the stone mason and the hardwood guy. It is pretty exciting to be able to tell these guys when we will need them.

I will take the camera up to the house tomorrow and take new pictures. Nic has done a lot of plumbing and electrical stuff that doesn't change the way the house looks. But we did get the concrete porch floor poured and Nic got the last porch roof built. It is the porch that is most noticeable as you drive up to the house so having it built really changed the look of the house. That porch roof also forms the small deck off our bedroom, its fun to see what the view is going to be from that deck, but it is kind of scary without a rail.

Day Eighty-one - Bedroom Walls

Yesterday was day 81 and Nic worked in the loft bedroom. I know these photos may not be too exciting to you but they excite me. By county code any attic space enclosed by a wall greater than three feet tall has to have an access door. So since our walls are five feet tall they have to have a door into the attic. The attic space also has to be sheet rocked. I think I may miss rubbing up against pink fiberglass insulation in the attic.

This is the west wall of our bedroom. The small opening on the left is the attic access. Nic offset it to the side so we could place our bed in the center of the wall. To help you visualize the space better, out of camera range to the left will be the french doors out onto our small deck that will overlook the driveway and the barn and vineyard. To the right will be a railing and the living room below.

This is the east wall of our bedroom. The bathroom (actually more of a powder room) will be in the corner to the far left of the photo. Again the opening is access into the attic area. On the far left of this photo, behind the stud wall, is the staircase coming up from the living room.

When we first bought the property we cleaned up several old "farm" junk piles and hauled away tons of scrap metal. We found this cute little corner sink in one of the junk piles. I have the phone number of a guy who reglazes old bathroom fixtures. I hope we can have this sink redone at a reasonable cost so we can use it in the loft bathroom. It is about 14 inches on each side.

Day Eighty - Grapes; Bedroom Door; and Vineyard Visitors

I started my day by harvesting my Edelweiss grapes. I got at least 1.5 gallon of berries which isn't too bad for vines that shouldn't have produced any grapes this year. They are very sweet and already had a faint alcohol taste. I had to fight the wasp and bees for them. Currently they are starting the fermentation process on the back porch and it smells divine. They will make a Riesling style wine.

Nic got most of the rest of the roof shingled. All he lacks is the roof over the south porch. Hopefully Jeff will be able to get that porch poured this week so Nic can get that roof built and shingled. Nic started working on framing the door out of our bedroom onto the upper deck. (Which isn't there, yet, as it will be over the south porch.) We also talked about where we wanted the bedroom walls and the bathroom. We settled on 5' walls. It was fun watching Tony and Nic figure out how much "head" room there would be if the back of the toilet was up against a five foot wall. They they discussed how much "head" room a guy needs. I "sat" that discussion out, since it didn't really concern me.

I'm in the market for a headboard and now I know, it can't be over five foot tall. Our bedroom on Hoover Avenue had sloped ceilings and a wall much shorter than 5 feet. We had to turn our bed around and put the foot against the wall and the head out toward the middle of the room.

After Tony got off work he went up to help Nic. I'm not sure what he did besides pick up trash and hold down this pile of lumber. Somebody's got to do it. I mean is there anything worse than run away lumber? (Nice legs, Sweetie!)

We had our regular, nightly visitors in the vineyard. This poor guy just with through his annual molt and doesn't have any tail feathers.

The peacocks (there are four of them) belong to the neighbor from whom we purchased the farm. They like the vineyard because it is a smorgasbord of bugs. Apparently, after they molt, they also become less amorous. At least they have gotten a lot quieter.

Days Seventy-two through Seventy-nine - Shingles and Chimney

Nic with occasional help from Tony has been shingling the roof. He does nice work, doesn't he? I am pleased with my shingle color selection.

Nic also constructed the chimney. I know it is larger than it looks from the ground but I am a little concerned about Santa Clause getting stuck.

To quote Tony, "That's hard work for an old, fat man." To quote Rylee, "Grandpa, you're not fat."