Daydreaming while waiting impatiently!

[tortoise]

DH saw the wood shavings int he barn and I fessed up to buying 5 chicks (as of tomorrow). I am not divorced or homeless! So that's good. His boundary is that he will not take care of them - ever. But I knew that before I decided to get chicks.

We wethered, tail band, ear tag the preemie boy. When he heals from wethering he will be ready to sell. I have at least a dozen people interested in him, so he should be easy to move out of here.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Woo Hoo! Yay for new chickens and no divorce! Can't wait for pics of them!

 

[tortoise]

Chicks are doing well. I need to take pics today before they get ugly!

I sent DS13 to Grandma's house indefinitely - possibly all summer. 3 other cousins are there now and they're under self-quarantine, so it will be like 4 weeks for sure. 13 days left on cousin's self-quarantine and then DS13's self-quarantine starts. It's amazing - I clean a room and it stays clean! Woot! So peaceful!

We're having a new roof put on the barn and another outbuilding. Very overdue! I'm so thankful and I'm mostly trying to not think about how much it costs.

I'm trying to catch up on housework and balance that with garden work. I am doing better on my garden this year than previous years. My seed-starting in unheated greenhouse is going painfully slowly. :/ Barely getting anything to germinate. Our cold snap really hurt. I might be buying a lot of plants or having late harvest - or both

 

[Britesea]

We're having trouble getting seedlings started too. They start out pretty good, then get fungus, or too hot, or too cold. With barely 4 months between frosts IF I'm lucky, I don't have the luxury of a late harvest.

 

[tortoise]

Finally took a chick pic this morning. Just 5 little fluffy things.

DH is scheming to have a plumber come out. Our water slows to a trickle and then goes back to normal. It's weird. We had a new pressure tank put in last year so DH is going to call the company that did that work.

This property is showing me why some people think home owning is a bad financial deal. I think on this property it has been a bad deal! I think the previous owners - going back 100+ years - never did what was necessary to maintain it. Lots of corner-cutting in construction and not enough maintenance.

In 6 years:

• New septic tank,
• new drain field,
• new well pump,
• new piping between the well pump and the house,
• new pressure tank,
• new drain piping to the septic (which ran under the foundation!)
• new helix supports under the barn footings to stop further collapse
• new barn and outbuilding roof

and that's just the big stuff that we had to hire contractors for!

This farm seems to have a history of bankrupting the owners. So far we've been fortunate enough to be able to afford the expenses. But I really hope this is the end!

(it's not, we need to replace the wood furnace because the fire box is cracking)

don't get me wrong, it's not all bad news. We love this place and the freedom and security it brings. Many people are rightfully concerned about their access to meat, but my family will not be affected by the shortage. <3

 

[frustratedearthmother]

My DH says: A house is a jealous Mistress - always wanting attention! Mostly true, lol!

 

[Britesea]

Old houses can be a pain. I've lived in 100 year+ houses for most of my life. NOTHING is ever standard. One time we had to replace the faucets in the bathroom. The sink had this weird 45 degree angle where they were attached. Turned out, if we wanted to keep the sink, there was only one company in the world that made faucets that would fit, and they were in only one, utilitarian style! Most of the houses wouldn't accommodate a dishwasher without extensive refitting because the counters were either too high, too shallow, or both. Electric is usually a pain, plumbing is usually a pain. Septic almost always is gonna need attention. In the fifteen years we've been in our current house, we've had to replace everything you've had to except for the barn stuff (no barn here) but we did have to redo the roof on the studio because the slope wasn't steep enough for the heavier snowfall seasons. We also had to replace the house roof, but that was because a tree fell on it... almost killed DH too- one of the branches punched through the ceiling of the living room and stopped barely 6 inches above his head. If it hadn't been for the fact that the ceilings are solid planks instead of the usual modern ceiling....

BUT...

I love the character of old houses. A lot of them, like our present one, "jest growed" like Topsy from Uncle Tom's Cabin, and you can get all kinds of weird and wonderful. The house in california had 2 septic tanks- one for each bathroom- they were tiny and made from REDWOOD! (they still worked fine, too.) I love that usually they have wonderful mature landscaping. The house I grew up in had camellias growing all across the front that were tall enough to half-cover the windows on the second floor. Most people think camellias don't have a smell, but when these bloomed in the spring you could smell their delicate perfume just driving down the street.

 

[tortoise]

I've only met one house with too much character. LOL. Only part of my house is very old. The mudroom, master bedroom, and master closet are in the old part of the house, built in 1880's. The mudroom floor is very crooked! LOL! The master bedroom was remodeled as "a room within a room". I don't want to know what they covered up! But I LOVE the deep windowsills! Probably 10" deep!

The rest of my house is a series of 2 additions. They were remodeled very DIY. meh. We didn't buy this place for the house though! If we won the lottery we'dd bulldoze and start over. So many concerns that are difficult to retrofit. No insulation... but no space to add insulation. No vapor barrier! and decades of condensation issues, omg. DH was able to figure out a stop-gap vapor barrier. It's better but not great.

Definitely a love-hate relationship with old houses. New houses settle and crack and wear, but they don't get any charm! And mature landscaping too

 

[tortoise]

DH is rebuilding the hay mow door, waaaaaay up high on the barn. He is hoping the roofers will help him hang it when they have a scissor lift here.

I have been pulling raspberry cane from the front of the barn. I had to stop due to the sun and feeling dizzy, but I'll finish it up in a couple hours.

DH and I have been discussing moving the chicken coop. DH wants to use the area of the barn we've been using for chickens and build a clean cold storage room for butchering. I'm disappointed, but if he will move the small free-standing coop that will help.

 

[tortoise]

DH repaired and painted one of the high barn windows and its trim. He worked on painting wood trim on the shop building. I worked on painting the south side of the barn. The old paint is completely weathered away and some rot. It soaks up an unbelievable amount of paint! I didn't get much done!

I weeded a bit in the garden. Took a short walk. Beautiful weather!! We drove DH's collector car to the local drive-in food stand.

Trying to wean the bottle lambs a bit. The biggest one is ready and I hope she teaches the little ones how to eat grass. I need to bathe the little boy and sell him.

DS4's hamster escaped again. He can climb out of his playpen - and he will if he doesn't have enough hides or running wheels in it. Today DS4 took hamster's favorite wheel out and hamster climbed out and ran off. I cornered him under the dryer and wrapped the playpen around it, an set a mouse live-trap in there. A few hours later I her him in the live trap bbut he hadn't set it off. I fished him out of there. DS4 is so happy! LOL! Pet stores should sell live traps as standard equipment for hamster buyers. "You'll need a cage, bedding, food, a running wheel, and a live trap"