Water, Electric, and More.

Took Friday off of work so we had a three day weekend on the farm.  In the past, that meant just an extra day struggling in the bathroom.  But with the bathroom done, it seems like things are moving along more quickly.

On Friday morning, after a good nights sleep in the teardrop, I started with the water.  As you can see from many pictures of the farm, we have yellow rock everywhere.

No surprise, it is also in the water. The drain pipes I removed were FILLED with the yellow rock, and water left sitting in a bucket leaves the yellow sediment at the bottom.

*Normally, I would insert a picture here of the bathtub filled with yellow water, but the only one we have is one with a person bathing.  If it is Laurie, she wouldn't want me to post it here, and if it is me, you wouldn't want to see it*

So I bought, and inserted this weekend, an inline filter.  It actually went well, and I finished quickly.

Well, with that task done, I quickly moved on to the next.  A few weeks ago, in a storm, wind took off about 7 shingles from a ridge on the roof.  I know enough about roofing to make the repair, but the steepness of the roof, and the height of our home did make me pause.  Added to this, is Laurie's constant belief that I will hurt myself in ordinary tasks, and cannot be trusted (Okay, there was the incident with the circular saw, and well, lets just move on).

The actual work did not take long, and I was done in about an hour, but It was high, and steep, and well, it is done.

The rest of the weekend was spent mowing the lawn, watering trees, working on the garden and.....

The master bedroom has been completed.  That means that working a few weekends a month, for 3 months, has given us updated plumbing, a new bathroom, 6 outlets upstairs when there were none, and two roomsx completed and rewired.

In any job of this size, it is REALLY easy to get frustrated with how long things are taking.  Laurie and I both have dreams of the house done, a few dogs, chickens, and sheep.  A horse or two, and a pony for the grand kids.  Steers grazing.

And Artists.

Artists everywhere, painting, sculpting, exchanging ideas, and community.

But I digress.

When the dreams run deep, it is hard to see all the steps needed to reach those dreams, and to take them patiently.

But we will.

-Greg

Back to Work

Making Progress

Well, once the question about the birds was answered it was time to get back to work on the farm. I always have certain goals in mind of what I want to accomplish. If I can accomplish most of those goals than I know we are making progress. With that said, I would have to say it was a productive weekend. 

My goals

1.) Finish preparing the rock wall garden.

2.) Texture paint the bedroom ceiling.

3.) Mow the lawn.

4.) Water the trees.

5.) Put the baseboards up in the bedroom.

Well, I accomplished all of these goals except the ceiling is not done. I ran out of paint. I guess I did not learn the lesson I passed onto my readers last time (always buy more than you think you need and then take the extra back).  

In addition to completing my goals I also accomplished a few more tasks that were not goals.

Take a look!

A homemade Christmas gift is now hanging on the inside of the bathroom door for robes, towels etc.

After hours of sponge painting a textured ceiling I felt compelled to be creative. I added a wall painting in the bathroom above the tub.

The base boards are now up in the bedroom.

As you can see, some outlets have been completed too, thanks to Greg.

 

Completed rock wall garden; ready for planting. The end dirt will be filled in with grass.

The last highlight of this trip was that Greg finally got the bathtub fixed; no leaks.  We actually took a bath! 

Anticipation

Waiting for the Weekend

It's been a long time (nearly 2 weeks) since we have been at the farm. I really miss it! Which is good because then I will be ready for work when we arrive Friday night. I can't wait to see the birds and how much they have grown. I wonder if they are flying now? Hopefully, they are still there.

In my anticipation I did this small painting from one of the pictures I took on our last visit. 

Hunger

I will write again after the weekend. Stay tuned!

Laurie

Sharing our Home

A Love Story

When we started working on our house we noticed a bird nest on top of our porch light.  One day Greg held up his camera high and took a photo of the inside.  The photo showed five eggs.  As we continued to work on the house we noticed that the Barn Swallow would leave the nest each time we stepped out onto the porch. We started to feel bad but we did not know what to do about it as this was the only way into the house. We tried to limit our stay on the porch as much as we could so we would not disturb her and her eggs. As time went on, we noticed that she was getting a little more comfortable with us and would stay on the nest even when we got real close to the porch. We also noticed that she had a partner nearby watching carefully on the telephone wire. At times, she would fly away while he would fly in and take her place at the nest. They were already sharing parental duties.

As usual, we had to take a break from the farm and return to West Allis where we currently reside. When we returned to the farm, Greg found some eggshells on the porch. He once again, held his phone up high to get a picture of the inside. When you looked at the picture, it looked empty. Great sadness came over me as to what happened to the five babies. All of a sudden, in swoops Mom.  Why was she returning if her babies were not there?  This continued to weigh heavily on my mind for awhile. Was she mourning? Do birds mourn? As I went about working on the farm I kept glancing back at the nest and there she was and her partner swooped in again. From the inside of the house you could see the nest from a small window. I took a break and stood on a chair to get a closer look. I kept seeing some grayish movement. My mind went back and forth thinking thoughts such as (there are babies in there) or (there is a loose stray feather blowing in the wind). Finally, I saw a fuzzy head and attached to it was a beak and in swooped Mama with something for it to eat. Such joy came over me as I now knew the babies had survived. 

Back in West Allis I decided this would be my first painting of the summer. A perfect love story. It becomes a love story about so many things: the birds, of course, but also the love story of Greg and I and the love story of the this farm. I am thinking this painting might need to find a permanent home on a wall in the farm house.

A Love Story