House Update

We recently borrowed some scaffolding form some people from Church. We can now put up tar paper and metal lathe with much more ease than when we did it solely by ladder. Still kinda scary, but better; higher. The West side is all done when it comes to tar paper and lathe, still needs a few bales and bamboo. Today Sarah and I started working on the south side, it is slow going, but what isn't with this house? The south side is a literal mud pit and so it is hard to work on the ground level, but fine up on the scaffolding. (Buster often joins us up on the scaffolding.)

Last week there was a lot of flooding and the field east of us (between us and the East fork of the Grand River) was covered in water, I missed it due to my cold, but Sarah took lots of pictures.

Except for the little bit of pond in this first picture, all the water you see is not supposed to be there, it is an alfalfa field. And those are our hay bales! Aren't they pretty!

The tomato worms came back, and this time they are HUGE! Yuck!

Buster jumped into the pond today while Sarah and I were swimming. It was amazing. He leaped off a cement block and went completely under. His little popped up a second later and he looked at us for a second and did a little paddling, then he got out of the pond as fast as he got in. He then cleaned himself until we got out. He is so amazing. Such a little adventurer. Hektor won't come in past his belly, but one day Sarah saw Lucy all the way in and doing a little dog paddling. She is so CUTE. Khova just tries to stay out of the dogs mouths. Poor little thing. He is supper stressed and starting to loose a little bit of his neck hair. But today when we got to the house he looked much better, like he finally took a bath.

When I got out of the car today to open the gate when we first got to the homestead there was a second new lock on our chain that we didn't put there. We think it must be from the guys who mowed our field, probably some miscommunication between the father and son who do it. So Sarah and I had to climb over the gate and walk all the way up there and back. It wasn't too bad. Just a little annoying.

Money, Money, Money!

I got a grant! I have more money for school than I ever thought I would (BYU-Idahowise). Now I can afford to buy some warm underware and such. Happy Day!

Sick Day

I am sick with a cold, boo who. I felt it coming on while at work Monday night and then the next morning during the paper route I still felt weird. By Tuesday night at work I was gone. I could hardly walk my legs were aching so bad. Luckily I was able to steal a few minutes to sit while waiting for more dishes to wash. My nose is all runny, I keep coughing, whenever I stand I start to feel noxious, and my back aches cause I guess that is where the cold has settled. (I think they say things like that in Jane Austen Books.) Hopefully I will fell better by Friday, when I have to go back to work. I have these three days off, thank goodness. Well that's it.

BYU-Idaho

I finally got my financial aid statement on Tuesday and now I know I can afford to go, so I am. And I am very excited! I can't wait to get there. I am so glad that I can get started on my education. I really didn't want to postpone it for another year. I have been working on registering for classes which is hard because everything is full but I only need one more class, so I think all will work out.
I won't have any extra money because I have just enough to cover all the school costs (tuition, books, housing, meal plan, plane ticket out there...) but I am very glad to be able to go.

Garden Green (and Red)

Tomatoes













Jalapeno













Bell Pepper













Cabbage (covered with rye flour to keep moths away).












Broccoli













Kale













Amaranth

Pups

Our Puppies

Hektor and Lucy taking a mid afternoon nap.
Play Time
Hektor is part Blue Heeler and part terrier. He is all dog!
Lucy is part beagle part mystery. She is a sweetheart.
Hektor and Lucy are good friends. Hektor wants more than friendship though but Lucy is not interested in any of that nonsense.

High Rise Bales

Some pictures of the exterior with many bales in place.

The Font/East Side
North Side, look at all those bales!
West Side, So many bales!
South Side, Bale Mania!
Close up of the east (living room) wall.

South Wall

West Wall

North Wall

The Ground on the South Side of the House

Sometimes Things Work

Part of my MySpace blog...

July 1st, 2008

Yesterday an amazing thing happened. We were able to do something! And it only took one trip to town and a purchase of less than ten dollars! I didn't know such things happened. What it was was that there are these braces on some of the walls but they are no longer needed and are mostly in the way now. But our builder used some sort of star screw thing that was buried deep into the wood and we could not get it out. So we went to a hardware store nearby in Iowa and a worker guy there showed us what we needed (a little bit to put inside the battery powered screwdriver(or Sarah calls it, the "powerless" screwdriver). So we got back to the homestead and it fit inside our screwdriver, which was charged, and then it actually took out the screws, all of the ones we wanted to get out, with no trouble. Things like this don't usually happen our homestead. I was flabbergasted. Still can't believe it.
We have bales placed in every wall section that calls for bales at least three or four courses high, so now all we have left in that department is placing the high bales, wire mesh, and tar paper. Then on to other parts of the house.