The wood flooring is down!

Hi All-

A couple of updates and pictures from the last couple of weeks.

First and foremost, the wood flooring is down in the great room! Yeehaa! It's taken about a month to complete it. That's not the only thing we've been working on in the last month, there's only so much of that you can stand at a time. Nailing the floor down wasn't all that bad, it was prepping the boards to go down that took the time and was less than exciting.

Still work to be done (sanding and staining) but at least we aren't living with concrete floors any longer

This past Thursday we received a special delivery- ten baby turkeys. We had so much fun with them last year, right up until varmints got them, that we had to try again. It is sad but true that baby turkeys just look for a way to die. We're already down to eight. They were a day old when they arrived and it's not uncommon to lose half of them before they reach eight weeks.

Best picture I could get, it's hard to get down to their level

More news on the animal front, putting his nose where he shouldn't, Duncan was bitten by a snake. All indications were it was a copperhead. So, if you want to know how veterinarian offices are operating during the Covid-19 pandemic it goes something like this. You park in the parking lot and call the office. They put you on the list with everyone else that is in the parking lot. At some point (about and hour and a half for us) they come out and get your pet and take them into the office. A bit later they bring your pet back and tell you what they did. A few minutes later someone comes out with the bill for you to pay. I should say this particular veterinarian office never takes appointments, it's alway walk up, first come first served. Unless you're bringing a horse or some other large animal. Anyway, Duncan is fine and has already been spotted chasing a snake so he didn't learn a thing.  No surprise there.

Last but not least, Susan harvested her first zucchini from the garden today. This is the first year we've actually gotten zucchini from the garden. Thanks to our friend Stan that told Susan about using Liquid Smoke to keep Squash Vine Borers off of the plants.

Our first zucchini

That's all for now. Take care.

Brian

While there is no where to go...

Hi all,
My last post announced my re-employment but as you might have guessed with the current state of affairs I have been furloughed. Actually it's much more about the price of oil than Covid-19. Of course the price of oil might not be as low without Covid-19 but the price war between Russia and Saudia Arabia was the main factor.

With lots of time on my hands again Susan and I are back working on the house. Susan was working on it while I was working but some things really need two people. So here's an update on what we've gotten accomplished.

From the beginning our vision of the exterior of the house was board and batten. Battens are finally going up and it's making, in our opinion, a big difference on the way the house looks.

Here's the exterior as it has been for the last year

Now, with battens

We also have finally started putting wood flooring down in the great room and dining area. The flooring is out of the building we paid $200 for a year or more ago. Once it is down we'll sand it and refinish it. Putting it down has been realitively easy (thanks Tony for the floor nailer!) it's the getting the nails out and all the 90 year old dirt gone so the tongues will go in the grooves that takes all the time. We now have almost half of the flooring down.

The first furring strips going down

The first six rows of flooring down

Besides working on the house we have accomplished a few other things.

We made a very fast trip to Atlanta in order to get the last of Susan's possessions.  We worked out we were gone for about 38 hours, 22 of those were spent driving on I-20. A big thanks to our friends Mark and Tammy that not only gave us a place to stay but also helped us load the trailer. In the rain.

While Susan has done this before, I wanted to try my hand at beekeeping. We've been going to local beekeepers meetings (until they, like everything else, were canceled) and ordered two colonies. They are here and appear to be thriving.

Opening the hives to feed and check on their progress

 And of course we take a little time to fish in the pond.

Biggest one I've caught here

I think mom can learn from daughter

That's all for now.
Stay safe.

Brian