Unexpected Visitors to the Construction Site

One morning when my construction workers climbed to the roof (before the shingles were in place and just after the tarpaper was rolled onto the roof) they noticed there was a lot of residue from birds up there. We caught them in the act! The boys have had to chase our Bourbon Red turkeys off the scaffolding on a regular basis -- and they don't give up easily. I've never seen such a curious gang of birds in my life!

Unfortunately, they also leave a "residue" on scaffolding as well!

This is a photo of the completed roof -- hooray! Today they added more house wrap, and are finishing up the sides with sheathing (I hope I have the correct name for the siding). I'm hoping before they are finished for the season (we will be doing insulation, etc. inside as time and finances allow) they will add a door of some type, because our curious turkeys also enjoy coming in for a visit.

This photo of our cat Squeaky kind of snuck into my blog. He was a wild as a kitten, and our sons captured him with a live trap and tamed him. He is definitely a farm cat; very tough and yet friendly to our family. He reminds us all of a lynx, as he has black tips on his ears, with dark tufts of hair there as well.

We Even Have Fun!

In spite of our busy times here, with building, canning and just living, our boys manage to find time to have fun. David and Andrew built a sled for winter sliding, but decided it would be just as fun to use it in the fall! No need for snow, with the help of Mountain Fire Keeper's garden tractor. Maybe some day we will actually use the tractor to till the garden!

There are advantages to pounding on shingles, since the sunsets are beautiful from up on the roof.

Big Game Hunter

My brother and his wife are here visiting for a few days, and brought our son Andrew's gift from my parents for his 10th birthday. Andrew was thrilled to receive a .22! Just as he was on the phone thanking Grandpa and Grandma, our son Jonathan came running in to say there was a muskrat near the house, and for Andrew to get his gun! Andrew handed the phone to me to explain what was happening, and ran out. He then came in a short time later, stating matter of factly that he had shot the muskrat!

Here is Andrew, the big game hunter.

Andrew, enjoying the cake that Aunt Pam made for him. David is enjoying all the attention as well!

Our Friends,The MacDonald Family Singers

Just wanted to write about our time with the MacDonald family. Actually, I will send you to Carol MacDonald's blog and Bonnie MacDonald's blog since they have already told about our adventures!

Our son Jonathan first "met" the MacDonald's son Vincent in a discussion group called the Banjo Hangout, and began corresponding when they discovered they both were homeschooled. Jim's parents went to hear them when they were ministering not too far away, and became fast friends. We were so blessed to have them come and spend 3 days with us. We worked them kind of hard and they had quick lessons about homestead living, but hopefully they enjoyed their time here.

If anyone would be interested in having the MacDonald Family Singers minister in their area, you can check out their website here.

Just an update: My brother Mike and wife Pam are here helping us out; the men spent the entire day yesterday feverishly working to tarp the roof once again, since rain was predicted for late afternoon and night. It is raining off and on again today, and I can very thankfully report that the rain stayed outside this time! What a relief!

Checking In

Just a note to let you know that we are still here, but a bit worse for wear. This past week we had 2 families staying with us: the Henderson 7 from 1-1/2 hours away, and the MacDonald 10 from Massachusetts. we had some fun times together, and the men and older boys in the families worked diligently on our house, installing sheeting on the sides. One side is completely finished, with 2 more well on their way. Then early Friday Jim came down with the flu! While he was in bed all day, Victor MacDonald and Paul Henderson led the charge and directed the other workers' efforts. By Sat. morning Jim was feeling better, but then it began to rain, so that was the end of construction.

The rolled roofing on our flat basement roof took quite a beating with all the activity, and Sat. night's rain decided to join us in the basement. We had just about every bucket, wastebasket and bowl in use, catching water. Unfortunately, someone left Jim's computer monitor uncovered, and now it isn't working. I am now without a monitor while it's being used at Jim's desk. Hopefully we will get our old laptop up and running for the boys and I. Until then, I won't be able to post any photos or blogs unless we can sneak in and use Jim's computer when he isn't busy.

The rain has stopped for now, and we expect frost on the pumpkins tonight. Thankfully, Mountain Fire Keeper was over while we were heavy into the construction, pulled all the tomatoes, squash, pumpkins and onions for us, and reset the plastic for the hoop house back into place so we have all the vegetables inside, covered with blankets. I haven't had time to do any canning lately, so I have a bunch of ripe tomatoes in the house awaiting the water bath. My brother and sister-in-law will be arriving for a visit and work detail on Wed., and then there is the possibility of more families coming to work on the weekend. Never a dull moment around here.

I'll post more when I am able to do it.

Photo Journal

Well, the truss company was supposed to let us know when they were going to deliver our trusses. Instead, on Wed. afternoon we received a call from the local lumber comany, telling us the semi driver of the truss company couldn't maneuver his truck into our driveway, so he left the trusses at their business! Thankfully, the next day the lumber company brought them in with a pickup truck and a flatbed trailer. Jim and the boys and the 2 men were able to unload them from the trailer.

One family arrived on Friday night, and set up their tents for a cold night of approximately 40 degree weather. Other families arrived on Sat. morning, and the men set to work on the house. The ladies and young children occupied the kitchen, preparing meals and having a great time of fellowship. It was tough to get the men to stop long enough to eat! Two families came from over 3 hours away, and had to get up early enough to do chores before they headed to our place. I am constantly amazed at how the Lord has blessed us with so many caring friends, willing to sacrifice their time and money to come and help us out. I think both days we had approximately 30 friends here -- including children.

This was the challenge for the weekend: installing 19 trusses up at least 16 feet on the house.

This is a photo of one of the trusses being brought in through my future kitchen window.

Looks VERY SCARY to me! I'm thankful I was inside taking care of children and food!

Getting closer to being done; I think this was taken as the men were finishing up for the day on Saturday.

I think a prerequisite for carpentry is to be part monkey.

What a blessing to have been able to borrow so much scaffolding.

Now it's starting to look like a house -- or a barn! Someone said it looks like they could store their combine in it!

Part of the crew in action.

Getting down to the end.

Is that my son Jonathan way up there??

A job well done. We are so grateful to the Lord that there were no mishaps.

It definitely looks like fall is in the air.

Building in Progress

I think we are on our second week of building, and these photos will show you how far we have come. It's really true: a picture is worth a thousand words! That's great, because I'm short on time!

Here's the beginning of our first wall.

Jonathan and Peter are the apprenticed workers for the day with Jim. They have become experts at wielding a hammer.



Even David is willing and able to help out with the building process, and holds a very steady board.

I guess the wall is showing some progress! The pop-up camper is what we lived in for 3 weeks when we first moved up here; we lived there until we woke up one morning to 27 degree weather, and knew we needed to make other arrangements! Anyway, the camper has become Jim's construction headquarters.

I should have one of the experts in here telling me what these photos represent!

This must have been taken just before our friends came over to raise the walls and brace them. In the background you can see the wall to our hoop house, and the blue tarp covers some of our chickens.
The wall is up!

And I think this is the other wall that was raised. It was a good thing the walls were well braced, because 2 days after the walls were up we had wind gusts up to 45 miles per hour. Thankfully the walls stayed up.

This is a photo of the beginning of the 3rd wall, where the peak is starting to take shape. I neglected to mention that the house will have a main floor and a loft, where the boys will have their bedroom. Jim decided it would be better at this time to raise the walls for both levels at the same time, and then later build the floor for the loft area.

Good progress at the end of yet another beautiful day.

Here is our work crew -- minus Peter, who is taking the photos. (I must have been glued to the stove with more canning.) Samson, Andrew, Jonathan, Jim and David.

Jonathan enjoys wearing a harness so he can do some free floating!

The building crew on an electric lift that a friend's neighbor graciously offered to us for use for a few days. We need to take it back soon, since someone else has asked to use it.

In the meantime, this is the view from my clotheslines. We have 9 Bourbon Red turkeys that love to come and visit me as I hang clothes. They enjoy spending their day scouring the countryside for bugs, and then hang around their pen in the evening until Peter gets them back in for the night.

This is the view the boys will see every day from their future bedroom in the loft. We haven't cut down any trees by the lake until we check out our view from the main floor, and will then decide what we want to do.

I will include more photos as I can. If the trusses arrive by the weekend, we'll have a possible large crew of families coming to help set them in place.

Just Checking In

Life has been going by too quickly lately to post or read blogs. I have been canning, canning and canning some more; Jim and the boys have been working hard at framing in the main floor of our house. Yesterday we had friends over in the afternoon to help raise the 2 longest walls! The first section was really scary, as it began slipping out from the bottom. We were able to correct that, get it in place, and then call for reinforcements. The next section went up much easier, with more help and ropes to help with the very top. These walls are 2 stories high, as we are making a loft as well. By suppertime we were pros at getting up the walls. We are so thankful for all the help we had.

Now Jim has gotten to work on the final 2 walls. I'd sure appreciate your prayers, as tomorrow there are supposed to be 20-30 mph winds -- not what we want when the trusses are yet to be installed. That won't happen for a little over a week.

Just thought I would update you on all of our doings. We will post some photos as we are able.

Building Upward

This is what Jim and the boys have been doing while I've been canning:

These are the first walls of our main floor! We've lived in our basement for almost 2 years and will probably still be down there for the winter, but we'll have the main floor roughed in and can work on it as we are able.

Hopefully this Thursday we will be ready to round up some friends to help raise the walls to an upright position. I think Jim was planning to keep them down until the trusses were delivered, but there isn't enough room on the roof to work on the 2 other walls.

Here is Jim, our master carpenter and building trades teacher! It's amazing how his engineering ordered mind can read a book, assimilate the information, and go out and do it. That's how our basement was built as well.

Our Bountiful Blessing -- Corn

Back to our corn story:


This is what the boys helped me do on Thursday night: husking and preparing corn for freezing. I think Jonathan said we processed 20 dozen ears, which gave us approximately 48 cups for freezing.

Now that's a lot of corn! We are so thankful to the Lord for the bounty He has given us. Last night was our first major rainfall of the summer, and I think the rain gauge told us we received about an inch of rain. Just imagine what our gardens will do, now that they received some much needed rain.

Andrew brought in this triple ear of corn; it had apparently grown together on the stalk.

Peter painted this very nice plaque for us. Now we need to find a prominent place to display it.

Peter's Friends

The boys sent me a couple of photos to post. This is our son Peter with our dog, Samson. Peter tried very hard to make him "his dog," and I think he succeeded!

Here is another "friend" of Peters. Unfortunately, these salamanders abound up here in the fall. When they feel threatened, they wave their tail and give off a strange odor. You won't catch me holding onto one of those things!

Corn Capers

I have a huge mess here in the kitchen, but decided I'd rather blog about what we've been doing rather than cleaning up what we've been doing.

David's comment: "Dad, we're harvesting corn like cordwood!"

After all the canning we did yesterday afternoon, I was looking forward to a sort of low key day. The jars of beans and carrots needed to be cleaned off and put away, collected herbs dried, clothes washed and hung out on the line, then taken off and folded, bread to be baked, zucchini to be dealt with ... I actually did a lot of the above, and then just as I was thinking about making supper, one of the boys came in and said something like, "Mom, we just picked 156 ears of corn!" Here we went again. I am still cooking the corn, and then it has to be cooled, bagged, and frozen. I don't have a lot of room left in our freezer, but corn is just one of those things that tastes much better when frozen rather than canned. It's a huge treat in the middle of winter, when corn on the cob is just a dream. We had the whole family involved in washing and cutting corn off the cobs while I was making supper, and now it's processing time and clean-up time. Needless to say, the floor needs a good scrubbing as well!

Here's What's Happening

It's scary, but it feels like a touch of fall in the air. I can hardly believe I'm saying that, since last week we were sweltering in 90 degree heat. Today was more in the upper 70's, and tonight is supposed to go down into the lower 50's. I guess we better start thinking seriously about making some more permanent and warm shelters for our Buff Orpingtons, turkeys and goats.

We've really struggled with our Cornish Cross chickens, as they aren't bulking up at all but way behind schedule in their growth. After starting to lose a chicken a day, we came to the conclusion that they weren't getting enough protein in their diet and did some major changes to that. Hopefully they will pick up in weight and will shortly be in the freezer.

The gardens are producing a lot. This afternoon our friend Paulette came over and helped with some of our produce processing. We canned 24 more quarts of green beans, and filled out the last batch with 4 quarts of carrots.

Later in the afternoon I directed the boys to dig up some potatoes for supper. They came back with red potatoes covered with scab. We did some internet searching, and our conclusion is that we had the soil too rich with sheep manure. When we received the truckloads of manure we didn't have anything other than shovels to spread the stuff, so some areas of the gardens received a lot more than other areas. At the time we didn't realize that potatoes do better in more acidic soil. I hope I'm getting this right! Anyway, we will have to plant something like corn in the potato patch next year, and find a less enriched area of the garden to plant potatoes. Boy, everything we do has become a big lesson this summer, and we certainly have learned a lot the hard way about farming!

After supper we harvested more herbs: catnip, camomile (that stuff won't quit producing!), clary sage, another kind of sage, rue and a couple other ones that I can't remember at the moment. It's so nice to be outside until sundown and not be bothered by mosquitoes. I was bothered this afternoon, though, by finding a small cricket jumping around in the house -- my least favorite of all bugs. I was thrilled last year at not seeing a single one around here, but unfortunately the dry conditions have brought not only crickets but also grasshoppers. The boys were fascinated today by watching how far one variety could fly. Too bad the chickens can't free range around here, they would find plenty to eat.

Looks like we will be roughing in the main floor of our house this fall as well. I'm trying not to think too hard about it, as I remember how busy it was when we first moved up here and built the basement. Some of the lumber is ordered, and we are looking to the Lord for when and how to proceed. What a change it will be, to see more than the ground when looking out my kitchen window!

Beans, Beans and More Beans!

Two days of canning green beans ... and the season has just begun! Yesterday my wonderful husband helped me figure out the procedure for pressure canning, and it turned out not to be as hard as I thought it would be! We processed 35 jars that day. This morning Mountain Fire Keeper came over and brought a 2nd pressure canner, and that really helped speed up the process. I was able to take one of the stove and replace it with another full one, so the processing time was greatly reduced compared to the day before.

We had the whole family involved. Jim and some of the boys picked in the garden, and some boys stayed in to snap what was already ready to go. Mountain Fire Keeper gave us some valuable pointers -- and help filling jars. Now to pick up the pieces tomorrow, and get the house back into shape.