TanksHill...Roll on!!

[TanksHill]

Thanks guys. Out of the 15 hens and 1 roo, 10 hens and the roo came back. But two of the girls were injured and needed to be put down. There are a couple others who look a bit beet up. Not sure how they will do.

I feel bad, I kinda flaked and left the run open. We found two coyotes in the yard but with the damage caused I think there may have been more. I really need to let them free range to keep my feed cost down. So I feel like I am between a rock and a hard spot. Looks like the cost will be down now just by other means. It's a bummer.

It's been one of those weekends where I just feel like why bother. I am a bit down and the chickens are last on my list of priorities.

I was on line yesterday. I found that the farm in Missouri I love was on Craigslist. Last year they were asking 265,000. It's listed for 190, 000 now. I don't think it will last much longer at that price. Bummer. It is a big Amish built home on 100 acres, with a greenhouse, well, barn and pasture land. I know it is way more than I need but I love the house. Very simple, it has electricity and water but just to house not actually inside. Would need a bit of work but I love the idea of starting from scratch.

I sent the listing to my Auntie who lives there. She loved it. I showed it to my dh and he made an odd noise and walked away.

We only have about two months left before we will need to make some big decisions. Who knows. Good thing is I looked up my house on Zillow and the estimate has gone up. Second thing is the paving guy may be coming this week. That I will believe when I see it.

In the mean time everyday life goes on. Fall has set in around here. Well at least for this week. It's just over 50 out side this morning. Kids are off to school. DD had a major meltdown this morning about her shoes and socks. Sets an awful tone for the morning. I hope they weren't late...

We are trying to head to the desert for a weekend. We have some friends going in a couple weeks. Maybe some down time will be good for all of us. Who knows.

Have a great day. gina

 

[Farmfresh]

Where in Missouri is the house located?

 

[TanksHill]

Sunday October 18, 2009

sorry FF I never answered your question. The house is in Mansfield.

I had a great weekend. We left on Thurs morning and headed out for our first desert trip of the season. My dh had took Friday off and came home Wed saying no work on Thurs. So we turned bad into good and took off a day early. Headed to Ocotillo Wells, our local desert. It's about 100 miles away and not to bad of a two hour trip. We loaded up the kids and all of our toys and hit the road.

It turned out to be a great weekend. We met 4 other families there and I think we had a total of 11 kids under the age of 9. Boy I don't know where they get all their energy from. I could barley stay up. Even my dog was pooped.

The weather was way hotter than I anticipated. It must have hit 95 on Thursday and Friday. I didn't bring enough drinking water so we had to buy it locally. Which cost an arm and a leg but we had to get it. The wind stayed away and we had no major injuries. All in all good family fun.

On Sat day I was sitting next to the trailer and looked up to see some guy about 200 yards away launching into the air on a huge jump. Unfortunately I also witnessed him come down separately from his bike and roll repeatedly. I stood up and screamed, rather girly I must admit, and everybody went to help him. He was pretty lucky just scraped up an elbow and hurt his pride. It could have been much worse.

We made it home today about 2pm. Most of this week I will spend catching up on laundry and homework with the kids. But well worth it.

Other than that I must admit I love the Nifty Knitter. I finally figured it out. I don't know what my problem was before but I made a couple hats for my girls. Took just a couple hours on each. The fat yarn definitely works best. Now I know what I making my nephews and nieces for Christmas. Thanks for the encouragement Dace.

For the past year we have been collecting paving stones from a guy we know. He gives us leftovers and tear outs from jobs he does. We finally had the patio put in last week. It was amazing only took two days. Looks fabouloooous!!! No more dirt coming in my back door. I can't wait to get my bbq hooked up.

Other than that I have just been doing the normal stuff. Thinking about getting the garden cleaned out and re filled with compost and horse poop for spring. Lost of tomato vines to pull and compost. I was thinking of getting some of those pipe holder thingys and making a hoop house over on of my beds. Trying to grow some stuff through our winter. Should not be to hard.

My 3 chicks are doing well. Just hanging with the rest of the flock. They are getting big quick. Two little black ones most likely Barred rocks and on Ameracanna(sp). I am thinking about combining my coops now that I have so few birds. I wonder how the old girls will take it? My Roo should be happy.

Well I think thats about it. Just getting settled and catching up on whats been going on around here. It looks like some of you are already having winter. I need to get some wood stacked off the back of my house and prep a couple rain barrels. Never enough time to do it all. I will just keep trying. Little steps right??

Have a great night, gina

This is my older two up on the ridge planning their next move.

This is my little on stayin cool and playing in the dirt. I don't know where she gets that from.

 

[Farmfresh]

I've never been to Mansfield. The closest we get is Camdenton, which is near our family lake cabin.

Great photos!

Now we need some of that patio!

 

[FarmerChick]

She is soooo cute Gina!

Glad you had a great trip! Feels great to unwind and slow down and enjoy.

Sounds like all is going well for you! That is great!

 

[lorihadams]

LOVE the cowboy hat! She is so cute!

 

[TanksHill]

From what I have read Mansfield seems like a nice place. I think no matter where you live a home is really what you make of it. I thought about posting a picture of the pavers but its kind of a sea of stone. I will see what I have.

Here aer the pavers up against the house. We added gas and water next to the house for my bbq. We are on a hill so the wind at the back of the house made it impossible to bbq. You can see my yard is quite a mess. The patio is on the South side of the house and faces East. The rest of the yard needs some TLC. I am planning on adding a walkway and handicap ramp down to the driveway level. That is why we still have all the rest of the pavers in the yard. I do need to get them organized though. Living on a hill presents many challenges but we love the view.

Thank you Karen !!! I don't know if we really slowed down much. Desert play is tiring and dirty, but it was nice to get away from the normal stuff.

Gina

 

[lorihadams]

WOW, you guys did a great job, that patio looks great!

 

[Farmfresh]

VERY nice!

Are the pavers set in sand or what did you use as a substrate?

 

[TanksHill]

My yard was pretty bare bones. We had to cut away about 15 ft of hillside when grading to build the house. So there was not a ton of top soil or loam. The grass died last year so we scraped it this spring.

The installer brought in what they call "base". It is a mix of poky rocks and some dirt sand stuff. They used this to create the slope away from the house. Then they put sand on top of that to set the pavers in. This was just a really basic install. Nothing fancy. What you can't see is the hillside on the right side of the patio. It is a 2 to 1 slope and I really need to put in a little retaining wall with a french drain. But that will be another project for another time.

g