RIP...

This has really been a week of deaths. It sounds bad, but I hadn't really thought about it until just this afternoon.

Last weekend a good friend of mine from my church in Philadelphia lost her battle with cancer. she was a wonderful woman who touched alot of lives and she is sorely missed. Then on Sunday we realized that Erica, our Alpine milk goat, had died. This we attribute to the fact that Penny (our brute of a goat) had head-butted her once too often and much too hard.

Monday Brindle runs off with the stray beagles and doesn't return (we are assuming he has meet a fatal end). Then in the news we learn about Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and Billy Mays throughout the week.


Today we lost Gideon. This is hard for me to even write. When I came home from church he couldn't get up. We assumed that Kaiser was playing rough again and hurt him. He tried to stand and walk but couldn't. So I went in to get Eric so we could get him in the shade and get him some water. By the time I got back outside (about 90 seconds) he wouldn't even respond to us, so Eric picked him up and took him in the house. We thought maybe dehydration, but not even 5 minutes ago he was his normal happy self, he just couldn't get up. Within 5 minutes of being in the house he was gone, he had a seizure and stopped breathing.

We had alot of crying going on at our house today. Gideon was a great friend. He might not have always been the best puppy and there were lots of times when he tore up the trash and made us mad, but he was always there to give us love. He loved us so much he wanted all the attention he could get.

When he was a puppy and I was working on the phone and computer alot selling Herbalife, he would push the keyboard tray in while I was typing so I could pet him. And he was insistent that I pet him, because if I didn't he would just keep pushing in the keyboard and laying his head on my lap (so I couldn't pull it back out) until I spent time with him.

He had his share of flaws (trying to kiss all the women that came by for a visit, barking at any man that stepped foot in the house...unless they were sitting, tearing up the trash) but he was always there to lay his head on my lap when I was sad, or tired or needed a pick-me-up. He will be sorely missed.

Here are some pictures that I pulled together of our time with Gideon.

Gideon and brothers

Gideon and Darius (Darius and Isis drove him nuts when they would run up and down the stairs, but he always played nice with them)

Gideon loved to supervise the gardeningBaseball is now a tackle sport

Gideon loved when we moved to TN, he finally had enough space that he didn't want to roam anymore.

Gideon Kaiser and Nellie all snuggled up together

Soccer was a favorite sport after we moved. Gideon didn't often win, but this was one of those times he did.

Weekend five....continued

We had such a great day today. Most of our helpers came back and we also had Morgan and Eric for the morning. Once again too many hands, not enough hammers, but we made it work to our advantage.

I have come to 'not hate' my extremely early mornings. I know when my alarm goes off that I don't want to get up, but then I think about how hot it will be by 11 am and how awful it will be by 1pm and I am up and making sandwiches and getting kids up to do chores (yes, chores before breakfast!).

So once again we are ready for work at 6:30, Eric can only work until the sun comes out (an antibiotic for his incredibly infected ingrown toenail caused this), so we want to get as much finished as early as we can.

Since Dad and I had all of the other squaring and straightening work finished we were able to help with the flooring. We started one sheet and as soon as it was nailed in place on the corners we got started with the next one (while the rest with the hammers nailed in that first sheet). At one point I think we had 3 sheets going at the same time, but those nailers were quick and they didn't let us get too far ahead of them.
Tanner was having fun today. He decided to make designs with the hammers when they weren't being used.

We had finished half of the main house flooring on friday (16 1/2 sheets) and we had already done that much by 11 am today (amazing what a little experience can do). It was hotter today and the sun came out earlier, so we drank alot more water and gatorade (thanks Mom!) and Tanner was a lot grumpier (he even took a nap after lunch).

I think the neatest part of the day (other than everyone worked so well together) was when the kids started having a water fight with our drinking water (it was cold and refreshing, and we were almost finished...thankfully).

We also got the temporary electric pole in today, finally. Dad and Morgan dug the hole early when the sun wasn't out. Then 4 of us carry it to the hole and put it in. It really doesn't look like it should be that heavy, but man was that difficult.

The guy from the electric company was also here to stake the line for the electric today, and to give us the bad news how much it will cost us. He tried to take the line over the field to save us some footage (and money), but the span was too great and he couldn't put a pole in the field. So it has to come all the way down the street and up the driveway. At least we will finally have electric and we can use the nail gun (for all of those hard to reach places, like the bracers under the floor). Now all we have to do is cut down a tree and wait for them to put up the poles and lines.

Weekend five

Well, we started our day at 5am. Getting lunches ready, packing up tools, etc. I had to leave the house a bit early and pick up our extra help today.

Since we were ready to start the flooring (and Dad shouldn't be lifting) I decided to get some muscular help for the day. So a few boys from church and a sister to one of them came over to help us get our floor down.

I wasn't sure at first how it would go. I had 2 more bodies than we had originally thought we would need. I didn't want anyone standing around being bored.

After a slow start (it takes time to get everything out) we finally had them putting the floor sheeting down. I stood there and made sure it was going in alright (since I had no hammer to work with myself). I realized after the second piece of sheeting that they had it all worked out. One took charge and did the gluing, the rest had it worked out where they each would nail. It was interesting watching 4 teens (and Madison, she even has her own hammer) all work at nailing a 4x8 piece of subfloor. Jonah manned the glue gun.

Jonah and Jack worked at getting the sheeting in place.
Dakota and his sister Sharron carried all the sheeting over.

Tanner held the glue gun until it was needed again.

Shannon, Dakota, Jack and Madison nailed the sheeting to the joists.
Everyone worked really hard.......and enjoyed their breaks.

It was a great day, we all got alot of work done. The kids got half of the floor done while Dad and I finished getting the rest of the joists at the right place and straight (lots of twists). So I have to send out a BIG Thank you to Jonah, Jack, Dakota and Sharron, you all did a wonderful job!!!


After we were home and showered Eric and Tanner decided to watch a movie on the computer. It didn't take long until they were both asleep. They work hard, and they sleep hard.

We have some of the neatest cloud formations here in Tennessee. I never really noticed the clouds back in PA, but I don't remember them looking like this.

We have here what we call Pooh clouds. They are the clouds like you see on Winnie the Pooh. The kind of clouds that you can lay down on the lawn and just stare up at them and see different shapes in them...a dragon smoking a pipe, a rabbit's head and ears...


One day Nana was driving with Tanner and she said "look at all the puffy clouds". Well, he wasn't quite 2 years old, and he remembered that. He couldn't say puffy clouds, so he said puppy clouds. And to this day, every time the puppy clouds are out, Tanner will let you know.


Another awesome occurrence we have here are beautiful sunsets (and sunrises over the river). I can't quite explain how beautiful some of them are, I need to just start taking more pictures. Here is the one that we had on Sunday night while we were moving the sheep fencing.

Body Odor

Ok, doesn't sound like the most interesting title, right? Well I have been thinking about this for a few days now and I have gone back and forth about posting this one. I finally decided that since this is my journal of our adventure here on the farm, this addition to the blog is vital.

I get up in the morning and put on my farm clothes. Now this could be to prepare to work on the house, or just to get the morning animal/yard chores done at our current home. If I am up at the crack of dawn (like lately) this process is lengthened by maybe 30 minutes...well usually not.

So I go outside, either to pack up the van to go build, or to move hoses, move sheep fences, etc. And what happens, I sweat. Normal occurrence during working in the heat, right...ok, no problem I can handle a little sweat. Then we get in the flow and I am soaked and I need a rag to wipe my face.

Don't get me wrong, it is hot, and sunny...and did I mention hot? Every one is in the same shape, soaked with sweat. Then it happens, I start to smell myself and that is never a good sign. I have hats and belts that are so ruined I can only wear them to work on the farm. They have been soaked through so often they permanently smell like sweaty BO.

So I have given up all pretense of the indoor housewife in the AC. I am now an outdoor farm wife and I can sweat and stink with the best of them. It is a part of my life now, and it will never go away. So watch out, by 2pm we are all pretty ripe around here.

Weekend four

We start early..... The sun is barely up, but who am I kidding, I am barely up. Since it gets so hot now and we are exhausted and sweaty long before lunch we have decided to start at the crack of dawn. I think each day we decide to start earlier.


This was my view Friday morning as I went back home for the gas can at 7am. Sometimes the beauty of this earth amazes me!


Tanner has been having a blast building our house. He was so excited to go, he wanted to make sure I didn't leave him behind. Sometimes when we start really early I leave him home with Morgan until they are up and animal chores are finished and then I pick them up. He just gets so upset when he wakes up and we have gone to work on the house and he didn't get to go.

His #1 job is to collect all of the scrap wood and haul it in the wagon to the scrap pile. Some days he takes it very seriously, other days...his neck hurts. That is a story for another day, but that is what he says when he doesn't want to do any work (he also sometimes uses that line at home when asked to pick up his toys and books).



He was so excited when Papa let him stand in his room on the lumber.









Here is our restful set-up, well as restful as it gets in the 95 degree heat with no breeze. We have a canopy, a few chairs, a 5 gallon thermos of water and a few sheets to keep the sun at bay.


On Friday we continued working on the floor joists. We got alot done on Friday with only about 200 square feet to finish on Saturday. Mom and I continued to saw the boards while Dad worked on aligning the joists and nailing them in (a much harder job, I admit).

Eric mentioned the other day that everyone has a picture on here except me, well... here is me working on the bracers (metal bridging) for the joists. Not sure how he expects me to get a picture of myself when I am the one taking the pictures though. This was a rather precarious job. Mom decided after getting up there that this wasn't the job for her.

We had a few of the remaining joists laid across the joists and I had to scoot along that board and nail in the bracers. Obviously once up there I didn't want to come down until I was finished. Unfortunately it was extremely hot by the time we got to this point and the board was very, very hot. I would not recommend this as a weight loss regimen, but I think I melted off all fat on my tooshie (Tanner's word) from scooting down that boards for 45 minutes in the blazing sun.



Eric spend his time working with Dad and putting in the final nails along the front of the house to attach the joists to the sill plate. Isn't it great that I know all of these technical terms? I almost sound like I know what I am doing...not to be confused with I take direction well and have a decent memory.



I have to take some time to give some kudos to my parents. Without their help we would never be able to get this done. Mom takes care of alot of the normal every day stuff that I would get to eventually, like toilet paper, paper towels, plates, etc. She also makes sure we always have water and Gatorade (or Gladorgade, as Tanner likes to say) available. This is another one of those thankless jobs, but extremely necessary, and I am very thankful that she does it so willingly. I know to her it seems like she sits around alot (when we are not sawing constantly), but she is always there to do whatever is needed (especially bringing drinks).

Dad will tell you he doesn't know what he is doing, but don't let him fool you. He spends most of his time doing the leveling, aligning, squaring stuff...you know, all the stuff seems like it that takes forever to accomplish. I don't envy him is job, but he is good at it, no matter what he says. So here is to you Mom and Dad, thanks for everything you do.

This is the beautiful picture of the bracers that I nailed in. You might not be able to see it so well, but it is such a nice straight line, I do so love straight lines.





So that is what we got done this week, until next time, be happy and healthy and stay in the shade.

Weekend three

We spent all week cleaning the shed so we could have it moved on Thursday. Three loads to the dump took all Thursday morning. The barn mover called at 11am to tell me he was between 1 and 2 hours away (and we hadn't moved anything out so far). We finally finished getting everything out and the ramp off when he arrived. It was at precisely that time that the sky opened and poured for about 10 minutes.

After the rain stopped he got the shed on his trailer no problem. We drove over to the farm and got it to the area that we wanted it. That is when I began to worry. With the recent rain (and our soft ground) he was having a hard time getting the trailer to the right spot without it slipping. Finally he got it there and now we have a building at the farm.

We decided to start early on Friday (since it is cooler). But with all the rain we got on Thursday night we weren't sure we would be able to get anything done. So we decided to check it out before we packed up all the tools and stuff. This is what we found.....a moat.

We decided to work anyway (in muck boots), so we got it all together and were working at 9am. FYI, I can't wear muck boots with capris because I get a a blister on my shin where the boot rubs. So I had to wear jeans. I HATE wearing jeans on hot weather, I am miserable....and I was, all day.

We got a good amount of work done and then the generator died. We only had it for 2 weeks and it was dead. So I packed it up and drove all over Athens to find a repair shop, and one after another said "I won't touch a COLEMAN, they went bankrupt and I can't get parts". So I had to buy a new generator.

Saturday we started early and got to work right away. We worked on floor joists all day. Eric and Madison brought the lumber over to the saw and Mom assisted while I sawed them to the correct length. While we did this Dad was putting them in place and attaching them. After we had alot cut, Eric went to help Dad put them in place. We got almost 2/3 of the joists in.

We got lucky that we had a partly cloudy day, it made it so much easier since we had periods when the sun wasn't baking us (but we still drank all 3 gallons of water that we brought, and almost all of the gatorade)

When Madison wasn't working (or bringing us water) she was playing with Tanner. He was having such a great time 'working'. He piled all of the pieces of wood in the wagon and pulled them over to the trash pile (he did this twice). When he wasn't doing this he was moving dirt. He is such a good little boy and he does a great job of staying out of the dangerous stuff and listening when we tell him something.

I was cleaning up my picture folders this week and came across some pictures that fell through the cracks. So I decided to put them all here.

This first one is the frog that we found in the wood pile. It must have really liked it there because we had to step over it for a few hours before it jumped away.


The next is the turtle that we found in the clearing. We think it is a snapping turtle, but he pulled his head in so quickly we couldn't get a good look.

This is the tiny frog that Morgan found in the grass one day. We couldn't believe that it was so tiny.


Here are the sheep right after we moved them. They really love to eat their grain. They do whatever they can to get into their grain bucket.

Here is my cowgirl holding down a tree branch for the goats to eat the pine needles. She really loves spending time with them and playing with the goats.