The Dogwoods are in bloom

Hi All,
Just a few pictures so you can see what has been going on around here lately.  Over the last couple of weeks we've cleared some hiking trails through the woods. On Sunday we walked one and marked with surveyor's tape close to a dozen dogwood trees. As far as the house goes we've been working on the floors. Just about done with the bathroom. Stay tuned!

The dogwoods are in bloom!

We put a nesting box up for some Wood Ducks we've had around. 

Hard to make out the small stick coming out the top of the aluminum foil, it's
a Pawnee Pecan grafted to the trunk of a Hickory tree. We learned to graft in our
Master Gardeners class last week.

That's it for now.
Take care.
Brian

Fishing for Chickens

Hi All.
No, we haven't been fishing for chickens. But grandkids have been fishing and we got some chickens.

On President's Day we had grandkids for the day and were very successful with our fishing experience.

Adelynn with a bass

I took about ten pictures of Gracie with her fish. The fish was
spinning around and every picture it was flat and almost
invisible so Susan helped out by holding it still.

Landon with his bass, one of three fish he caught.

And then there were chickens. As planned, we bought some chickens on Friday. Three full grown hens and four chicks.

The three hens in their chicken tractor

The four chicks in their box in the living room. Their home
for the next six weeks or so.

On Sunday, our first egg.

Not the goose that laid the golden egg but the hen that
laid the first egg!

That's it now.
Take care.
Brian

Green Acres is the place to be...

Hi all,
Once again I've neglected my posting duties. We are making progress but not quite as fast as when we had someone here helping us. It's not just the help but the longer hours we work when someone is here.

As far as work on the house goes, we've been working on floors and our shower. Wood flooring from the building in Arp is now down in our bedroom. Besides a step closer to being able to move back into the master bedroom, it has opened up a bit of space in the living room. We've also  got the flagstone down on the floor in our bathroom. There is plenty more to do there but it's a start. The tile in the shower is also up.

The wood flooring is down in the bedroom

The tile is up on the walls in the shower and the
flagstone part of the floor is in place

Besides working on the house we have finished up our hen house for the impending arrival of chickens. We plan to buy four adults this coming weekend and then raise some more from chicks. Anyone need some fresh eggs?

News to me: Chickens eat not only grain / seeds and bugs but also grass

We will move the chicken coop every few days, along with a fence to keep the varmints out,
so they can have fresh grass

We made the chicken coop pretty much out of left over this and that.
It isn't pretty but it will be getting a coat of paint.

That's it for now. Once we have some chickens running around I'll post some pictures.

Take care.
Brian

A few pictures

Hi All,
Thought I'd post a few pictures so you could see what we've been doing lately.

Stacking wood in the great room that will eventually be flooring

Putting up beaded board that came out of the $200 house in Arp
 for an accent wall in our bedroom and bathroom

Also put an accent wall in the guest bedroom

Black pipe and water spigot lights we made for over our bathroom vanities,
when we have vanities.

Shiplap going up on our bedroom walls.
This is what we will use on most of our interior walls.

That's it for now. Sorry some of the pictures are a bit dark, should have taken them a couple of days ago when we had sunshine.

Take care.
Brian

Dereliction of Duty

I was surprised to see it has been over two months since my last post. Work on the house hasn't progressed as much as you might think since then. We did get everything we wanted out of the house we bought in Arp. Since then we have moved my son and his family to Kaufman and my daughter and her family to Denver. We volunteered at the Formula 1 race in Austin, had our friend from LA (Lower Alabama) visit for a while and our friends Kent and Heather that we met when we were in the Bahamas came for a long weekend that included T+2 (our Thanksgiving celebration on the Saturday after Turkey Day). We have a neighbor that is clearing some pasture and we've so far cut about three cords of wood. Some of it is split and most of it is stacked. 

On to some pictures of what we have accomplished...

A good bit of our time has been spent trying to get our bedroom door working. It's a bit....   different.

Susan laying bricks for the pad the wood burning stove will sit on

The finished product

The mat for the heated floor in the master bathroom is figured out

The mat is taken up and a cork underlayment is glued down

Then the mat is put on top of the cork

Self leveling compound is poured over the mat

The flagstone that has been sitting in front of the house since forever is starting to be put in place

That's it for now. I'll try to be better about posting. Right, I'm sure I will.

Take care.
Brian

As if we didn't have enough to do

Hi All,
Well...   In Susan's words, we should not be left unattended.

Week before last our neighbor sent us an email about a "living estate" auction in Arp. Arp is a town of 970 about twelve miles from us. So the Friday before the auction we went by to look over what all they had. It was kind of an antique / junk / florist business that the lady had gotten too old to run. The building was originally the office for a lumber yard, we've heard it is the second oldest building in Arp, built somewhere around 1930. The Arp Fire Department had gotten some sort of a grant and had bought the entire block and was going to build a new fire station. Everything had to go. I mean everything.

Walking through the building we noticed at least some of the flooring was wood. We still need some wood for the floors in our house so I thought if I could get it cheap enough, it might be worthwhile.

The auction started at 10:00 Saturday morning, with the big items scheduled to be auctioned off starting at noon. Right at noon they auctioned off some guns, some trailers, a riding lawnmower and then got to the buildings. There was no interest on the 35 x 35 tin shop out back. When they started on the house the auctioneer started at $300. I waited to see what kind of interest there was. Not a single bid. When the auctioneer asked if there was any interest in the building I said I'd give $200. Not a single other bid. I just bought a building in Arp, Texas!

The building either has to be moved by October 31 or they will bulldoze it. So having nothing else to do these days (NOT!), last week we started tearing up carpet and linoleum to see what we had. We found that we had more wood flooring than we thought but the foundation is rotten.

View from the front of the house. Don't you love the color?

View from the side with some of the auctioned items still in the yard.

The backroom with the wood floor that got my attention.

Grady and his son Andrew finding more wood flooring in the front rooms. With Duncan's help.

Behind the walls in the backroom, lots of beadboard.

My brother Gary and I tearing out the beadboard for reuse in our house

So far, after five days, we've got most of the beadboard and most of the flooring. Another day or two and we should be done.

Back to the comment about being left unattended. Anyone have some free time to keep an eye on us?

Brian

A Garage and a few other things

Hi All,
For most of the year we've gone back and forth on when to build our garage / shop. Do it now or put it off until next year? We decided to do it now, we need the storage and work space. So here are a few pictures of how it progressed.

Last Monday at 8:30 AM and the first wall is up

By Tuesday afternoon it is framed, has siding and a roof

Friday spray in foam insulation was done

Besides the garage we did a few things in the house...

The mantle is finally up

We liked the interior brick wall so much we decided to turn the corner and do another

That's all for now. Take care.

Brian