A month gone, just like that!

It's been a busy month, not only with the house, but with farm work, graduations and Girl Scouts. I doubt it will be much quieter for the next month, so I thought I really should stop for a few minutes to update everyone on our progress.

Quote from Charles: "Those people on Extreme Home Makeover really misrepresent how long it takes to build a house. I thought we'd be at this stage by about Day 12."
All the windows have been installed in the house, as well as the roof trim and ridge cap. We bought our windows at a Habitat for Humanity Rehome auction about three years ago, thanks in most part to the auctioneer, my cousin John Potts. Our windows used to be in the hospital in Henderson (KY)and only cost us $130 TOTAL, for about twice as many windows as we need. Each one was taken apart, cleaned and the corners resealed with silicon. And considering they've been in the barn all that time, they look like brand new.

May on the farm means it's time to bring in the hay and put out the garden. My vegetable garden was nearly doubled this year to get ready for ramped up production. The new part will take a couple of years to condition, but it's nice to look at. The weather really heated up this spring, with days already in the 80s and 90sF. Seedlings really struggle to get started, but we're getting there. I still have to put in some tomatoes, peppers, egg plant and basil. And I'd really like to be done by today! We're also receiving three new beehives from some good friends that are moving to Malaysia soon.

We did a deal with a neighbor and he cut and baled hay for us. About 5 acres of hay gives us 185 bales of about 70 pounds each (or nearly 13,000 lbs total). In return, he gets to cut a further 20 acres for his own use. It may sound a little unfair, but considering the time and fuel it takes us to cut those 5 acres, we came out winners! The only problem was his timing was off - he started baling hay at about 3pm on Saturday. So we had about 3 hours to haul in those 185 bales, get cleaned up and at Graduation by 6pm. We made it, but it was hard work!

I attended both Union County Middle and High School graduations last week. Three of my Girl Scouts - Ashley, Gretchen and Katelyn - will move up to the high school next fall, and Ashley's older sister Kristen graduated high school. I don't think I've been to a high school graduation since I graduated, and it was nice to see so many people attending.

In and out

On Saturday (May 1) my mother, Peggy, and step-father, Scott, came up to Kentucky to help out on our house. The last time they visited (and worked) was in November when we were putting board up on the outside of the downstairs. Since then, we've framed and clad the upstairs and put on the whole roof.

The main aim we had for Saturday was to install our front door. It's a big, heavy French door set, and having extra people to heft it around was a definite bonus. It rained Friday night, so everything was a little soggy, but it didn't rain all morning on Saturday...until three of us were standing outside the front door putting it into place, that is! With only one small injury (Ma got a blood blister when the skin of her waist got pinched between the door and the front steps) and a small mess of Liquid Nails smeared everywhere, we got the door installed, plumb and level.

Aunt Bev and Uncle Steve brought lunch out to us, which gave us strength to do one more little chore. Our woodburning stove was being stored in the barn, and we brought it down to the house, so we can start siting it in place. When we come to install metal siding, we need to also install the special collar that takes the chimney outside the house. The stove only weighs about 400 lbs. so it was a piece of cake. It was a relatively short workday, but it was work we definitely needed two extra people to complete. Then, of course, we had to get cleaned up so we could drink mint juleps and watch the Kentucky Derby!

Kids are growing

This week I noticed about 10 goats all on top of their largest shelter. Is it any wonder it's falling over on one corner? I snapped a couple of photos of this year's kids all playing on top of their house, being babysat by two year olds, Belt and Spot, lazing on the next nearest shelter. The babies are so cute when they're learning to jump and climb, but they're also getting a little too big for their britches. They are still small enough to fit through the gate and it drives mom crazy that her babies are on the other side of the electric fence. From an outsider's point of view it might be funny to see grown-ups running around waving their arms and shouting at the baby goats that are outside the fence, but for us, it's just every-day stuff.

Roof metal is finished

This side of the roof only took us 2 days to complete, compared to 3 1/2 days for the western side of the roof. Part of our improved speed was improved skill, but it was also a little cooler, and we were motivated by predictions of storms over the weekend. It was exhausting work, and hot as anything as soon as the sun came out. All we now have left to do on the roof is: trim work on the gable edges (that's the super-tall peak), ridge cap along the center of the roof from front to back, and touch up all the paint that I scratched during installation.

After we finished the roof on Thursday afternoon, we mowed a lot of grass. Charles did the most part with the ride-on mower and I did around the septic tank with the push mower. I love seeing my lawn freshly mowed.

But it did rain a lot this weekend, a little over 2 inches, and I can confidently report that the rain no longer stays mainly in my living room. A little rain blew in through the hole where the front door will be, but not much, and definitely no rain from the direction of the roof. Yipee! Despite the rain, we did manage to do some work in the vegetable garden, planting seeds for beans, cucumbers, squash, and pumpkins.

Half-way there

When you're roofing, you never use the phrase, "It's all downhill from here," but we completed the west half of our roof yesterday evening. Now with every sheet of metal we install we're closer to the end than the beginning. To say the least, the last 9 pieces that filled in the last 7-feet of width, were difficult. Before these, we could sit on the slightly slip-proof roof wrap and use our right hands to screw the metal down. For the last 9 sheets (2 at the full 3-foot width and one piece about 1-foot wide), we had to sit on the sheet metal and use left hands a lot more.
Now, the sheet metal is very slick - all the better to shed water, snow and ice. In addition, the metal is covered with dusty, yellow tree pollen. Thank goodness I teach a yoga class. My five sticky rubber yoga mats were pressed into service, with the added benefit of padding between our bums and the hot sheet metal covered in bolt-head screws. Sorry I don't have a picture of that - I was up on the roof and needed all my hands to hold on!

What I don't want to be when I grow up

The list is long, but the most recent addition is a roofer. Charles and I spent Saturday and Sunday putting metal on our roof and we are very proud to say that one-third is complete. That's 27 sheets of ribbed metal, 36-inches wide, 12 feet long, 30 screws in every sheet. The west side of the roof has about 4 hours of work to go until it's completed.
I'm sunburned, sore, chapped and exhausted, but it does look good.

Now on Facebook

Heather Kirton and Charles Kirton are now on Facebook. We resisted for a long time, but one of our favorite families is about to spend 2 years in Malaysia at a fabulous private school in Penang, and they're all on Facebook. So that will be the easiest way to keep up with them.
And it just goes to show that maybe I should have joined earlier. Everyone's there, so I'm hoping to make new connections with old Girl Guides, friends from England, and Girl Scouts who went to Poacher 2008 with us. Okay, so I'm texting now, I'm blogging and I'm on Facebook. I might have to go to MySpace, too, but I'm never going to Twitter.