Getting close to a rough-in inspection...

Mike has placed the second layer of plywood over
much of the first floor now.  It feels much more solid!

We finally got a plumber out to the house...they got a lot done today...
Thankful that they were able to install the master bath shower without having to take down part of the wall!  And so glad that big, heavy green tub is GONE!

From the screened porch looking towards the dining room. 

Scott has done all of the electrical with the help of Mike and Bruce...He has spent sooooo many hours out here pulling wire, and installing boxes, cans, and outlets...He looks like he's having too much fun to me.  I just want it DONE!

The siding is taking longer than we thought, but they are getting close to finishing...

maybe 2 more days of work...I cannot wait to see the black shutters hung up!

They still have some of the back siding to do also...

*******
Another snake!  #4 bit the dust tonight...I was cutting very tall grass/weeds near the pond this evening.  Since it is sloped and near the pond (ie, snakes), I cut it instead of letting Ashley do it.  She can do all the other areas, but I do this spot.  We're bagging all the grass we can to put in the garden (it is so sandy and dry!) and I had just unloaded at the garden and was heading back when I turned a corner and saw a long black thing that I did not remember seeing.  I couldn't stop screaming!  Snakes freak me out!  He raised his head at me!  I think they could hear me scream down at the fire department!  Of course, the kids come running and they join my screaming.  We create quite the scene!  Scott, knowing from the sound of things what is going on, drops what he's doing and came running with a shovel and got this one too.  It was probably a racer, about 4-5 ft. long, right near the edge of the woods - near where we got one last week.  That's a big part of our problem - the house is so close to the woods.  There isn't much buffer of short grass between the house and the woods...The neighbors must laugh at us --- "Oh boy, there they go again!  The new people must've gotten another one"...

Also, we knew it was just a matter of time...a deer walked through the garden and left big hoof prints...He or she also munched on a few corn plants...Hoping Scott can finish the electrical work so we can put up a fence around the garden!  This is too much work for the animals to come in and help themselves!  The watermelon seeds are really sprouting and the tomatoes that I started from seeds are starting to look respectable!  Compost is a big deal!  Our beets, carrots, and lettuce are pathetic...I can't keep them moist which is what they like, especially when they are first sprouting.

Hoping to get an electrical and rough-in inspection by next week...then insulation and drywall can go up...I spoke with LuAnn today about the cabinets.  She said we still have plenty of time and we're on their schedule.  It blows my mind that they can build all of these cabinets in a few days!  I'd love to be able to watch them!  We'll go down there next Wednesday to finalize everything...and write a big check!

Yesterday was 7 weeks...

Yesterday was seven weeks until we had hoped to move out of the rental and into this newly renovated house...not looking good!  We have demo'ed more than we originally thought and everything is taking longer that we expected.  This is the master bath - still not done.  Getting up this tile is so difficult.

Nice master bedroom decor!

The garden is also harder than expected!  Picking out the wire grass roots is endless!  We have removed trashcans of it!  I decided to try landscaping fabric with holes cut out for the melon seeds.

Siding is going up slower than we thought.  My attitude doesn't sound too good! 
Progress is being made though...

I have "rescued" lots of turtles in my lifetime and I have never gotten one this big!  He was on the road right before our property.  Huge!  We think it's a yellow-bellied slider or an eastern river cooter...He is in the fenced back yard for a few days...

This is a decapitated snake - our 3rd one...don't know what this kind is either...It was the most evil-looking thing to watch this guy continue to "strike" and undulate for hours after his head was severed.  His tongue continued to flicker.  Unreal.

Another view of the turtle...he likes the mulched backyard area much better than the back of Big Red!

A friend generously gave us their leftover potatoes...I know it's late to be planting these,
but we thought we'd give it a try...These two rows are only about half of them!

*******

We just found out yesterday that a friend passed away in a mountain biking accident.  41 years old.  Praying for his family...praising God that this man knew Jesus...This project is a small thing.  It will get done...hopefully sooner rather than later.  But this renovation project is all temporary.  Knowing, serving, loving, submitting to Jesus - that's a big thing.  Really -- Jesus is all that truly matters.

Metal roof and sweet potatoes...

Not much work on the house yesterday because of rain...Scott is still working hard on electrical.  He was out there past midnight again last night.  Honestly, this project has been hard on us - physically and on our family.  But we know this is temporary and there are many other people going through more difficult trials than this...Praying for continued good health, wisdom, and perseverance.  This exhausting schedule will not last forever! 

We may have gone overboard on the recessed lights!  We were so concerned about the house being too dark, that we may have put so many cans in, that it's like an operating room!  ;-)  I guess it's better bright, than dark!  Scott killed our second snake yesterday...a 3-4 ft. black snake at the edge of the woods.  I'm glad to have another one gone!  He also loaded up Big Red with plywood from Lowes so that he and Mike can lay it down on the first floor to strengthen the subfloor before the oak goes down.  The HVAC guy will also come back to relocate the vents.

Metal roof (above the school room and front porch) is about 3/4 done...

Twelve sweet potato plants in the ground...never tried this before! 

 

Sweet potato plant ("slip") up-close...nothing like planting white or red potatoes...

Up-close photo of the metal roof...the roof here was too shallow of a pitch
for regular shingles...metal is more expensive up front, but lasts longer....

Siding is getting higher!

We bought some Encore azaleas on sale that I plan to plant on this shaded slope - once the siding/roofing guys are done!  These construction guys don't care much about landscaping/plants!  I'll just wait until they are done!

You can barely tell, but the siding crew installed three rows of the metal roof today -
until I told them to stop because of the rain...we want the roof placed on top of dry material, not wet!

The siding boxes are great for the garden walkways...I just couldn't help myself - I HAD to add something living to the garden!  Our riding lawn mower has a bagger, so I've been adding one bag of cut grass to each "bed" (hoping that it's not full of weed seeds!).  I read that adding not-yet-composted organics will decrease the available nitrogen, so I'll have to add some extra.  Scott bought a bag of organic fertilizer, plus we're adding a mix of peat moss, mushroom compost, and a chicken manure/humus mix from Home Depot.  Come on worms!  Planted 12 heirloom tomato plants this evening that we grew from seed --they look so scrawny!  I'm tempted to go buy some "beefy" looking plants!  A few leaves of corn and cucumbers are poking through the soil that we planted last week-end!  The kids were sooo excited (me too!)!  The wire grass - or whatever it's called - is such a challenge to pick out of the garden.  It's very hard to kill!

Painting shutters...siding going up...

Gammy's gettin' into it (Dawn's mom)!

Hannah and Connor thought this was fun...for the first ten minutes... ;-)

Siding crew workin' hard...

Ashley wanted to participate - hurt wrist and all...

Exterior doors...

The exterior doors have been delivered and most of them were installed today - just one more to go...Siding was delivered and started today...met with LuAnn on-site to finalize kitchen cabinet measurements...still trying to decide between two different colors - a medium stained cherry or a painted "vellum" color (off-white with a glaze)...1/2 of the master bath is demo'ed...Scott took off yesterday and today and has been working hard on electrical...

Front door!  We will paint black...

Now that the front door is installed, this is the first time
that we've really been able to see what the "new" foyer will look like...

Dining room - old door closed in...new double French
doors installed where there used to be windows...exterior will be painted black...

I thought our demo work was done...but here is the master bath disaster. 
This shower tile has been a NIGHTMARE to remove.  We haven't even started the tile floor removal yet...

Master bedroom...

After the demo in the master bath is complete, we'll temporarily remove two studs from the wall shown to install the one piece shower on the other side...We decided today that we may switch the family room and eating/kitchen table area...This room with the fireplace is so narrow...

New siding is going up...looks yellow in this photo,
but it really is white (colonial white)...

Starting our garden!

Justice and Cherry coming over to greet us...Tye is fox hunting with his owner...

Another part of our vision for this place...a large garden...
we rented an 18 hp "horse"!  Here we go!

Very sandy!  No rocks...and no earthworms.  Ashley read in a gardening book that we were to estimate the quality of our soil by taking a "worm census" - count the number of worms in 1 sq ft of soil.  Anything less than 6 earthworms is considered poor.  Not good so far...we've found 1 earthworm in this entire area of tilled sandy soil!

The whole family is helping out...it's hard work picking out all the roots!

Scott inquired, "How much should I till?"
Dawn responded, "I don't know...just keep going until we have to return it..." 

Connor next to the blueberry bushes that we planted in November. 
The next row are blackberry, raspberry, and bush cherry plants.

Hannah giving Cherry an apple treat.   Cherry loves it!

Ashley giving some apples and carrots to Justice.  Yum!

Daniel wanted a turn!



This honeysuckle is growing near the vegetable
garden we are working on - smells wonderful!

It's hard work starting a new garden!  I'm not sure that we can manage this enormous size!  It's about 5x bigger than we probably "need"!  I will admit that my attitude was not so good on Saturday - we were hot, bugs were everywhere, my back was aching...I was thinking, "Why in the world are we doing this?!?  I'm ready to move back to our old house and neighborhood (with our 1/3 acre!) where life was EASY!"  The grocery store or farmer's market is sounding better and better!  Not only have we gained greater respect for the construction trade, but also for farmers!  This is tough!  We also talked about the Laura Ingalls series we read a few years ago (Little House on the Prairie)...remember how they moved out to the middle of nowhere (literally!) and cleared land, planted gardens, and built houses with no electric tools!?!  No trucks, no tillers, no electric saws, no air conditioning, no chainsaws, no air compressors, no lawn mowers, no hoses and just turn on the water, no power, no stores!  Wow.  We are wimps!



What am I thinking?!?  Looking at the 3 acre parcel that the previous owner sold off of the 18 acre "rectangle" to try to save the farm.  She did sell the 3 acres, but she still ended up in foreclosure, then we bought the 15 acres, house, and barns.  We would like to buy this 3 acre piece that was broken off and we're asking God for it, if it pleases Him.  We will not "demand it", but submit to His plan (remembering the Israelites and the quail in the Old Testament!).  We don't have the money for it now...I just occasionally ask God if it would be pleasing to Him, that we might purchase this one day and get the "rectangle" back together...





Section 1 - nine 4x20 ft somewhat "raised" beds...6 are filled with green beans, cucumbers, carrots, beets, corn, radishes, and sunflowers.  The other 3 are saved for another planting of corn in a few weeks...My new favorite gardening book describes a vegetable garden with wide rows, "raised"/deep beds (18-24" depth of soil is the goal for deep roots)...We're all organic, so trying to figure out where am I going to get some nutrients --- now?  MiracleGro would be really easy right now!  We've been composting our vegetable scraps for nine months, but it's not nearly enough!  In the fall, we're planning to plant a "green manure" crop, we'll chop up leaves and add them, and hopefully we'll have some chickens (and chicken manure), so we're hoping next year, our garden will be better...but I need some nutrients for this year ---now!  I know we started our garden a little late, but we decided "better late than never".  We'll move over and start on the next section for tomatoes, peppers, and squashes this week.  Then on to section 3 which is for vines - watermelons and cantalopes.  Section 4 will be for pumpkins and gourds...



I just planted this little Japanese maple...something has already
gnawed the bottom of it...Scott put up this double fence.

*******

"Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the LORD, and when He heard them His anger was aroused...The LORD heard you when you wailed, 'If only we had meat to eat!  We were better off in Egypt!  Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it.  You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month -- until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it --- because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before Him, saying, 'Why did we ever leave Egypt?'" 
~ Numbers 11:1, 18-20

*******

Oh no.  This sounds like me!  "I repent Lord for my ungrateful heart and for my complaining.  We do believe that You led us here...We are thankful...You are good, You are faithful, You have a plan and purpose.  We don't want to waste a single day of this life You have given us.  Please use us for Your glory.  May we magnify You in all we do and make Your fame known among the nations.  Amen."  ~d.