K2 Graduates!

Eight years, a lot of grit, and numerous schools, majors, part-time jobs, but he finally walked across the stage with a Major in History and a Minor in Philosophy, with enough other hours in Math, Science, and Spanish to probably Major in them as well.

Big difference between upstairs and downstairs.

The carpenter's apprentice.

Building storage shelves.

Snow flurries on Thanksgiving Day!

Moving into the house (last month)

Most of the labor was teenaged, or four-legged.

We lost 15 year old Lilly last week. She was a great dog.

The House is officially Finished!

Another action packed and fun day

It was 28 degrees F this morning, but the animals still need to be fed and watered!

After morning animal chores I had K7 and K8 move the large pile of lumber in the driveway over under the office window because our moving vans were scheduled to arrive today.

Our furniture arrived, but not in the morning as scheduled. We staged one at the front door (leaving enough room for our builder Alan to finish the front porch on Monday and Tuesday), and we staged the second trailer down around back so we can move its contents into the basement. We unload them Wednesday, 10 November at noon, so if you are in the neighborhood, feel free to join us. Should be a good work out because our stuff weighed in at 19, 712 pounds! I am very happy that ABF charges by volume and not weight like most of the other moving companies I contacted.

The lawn tractor's battery died, so we pushed it out of the barn this morning so Alan could get access to some stacked lumber. Later in the day while I was in town, K6 thought it would be fun to coast it down hill to the pasture gate...just before our moving van arrived and had to enter through the pasture. He did not have as much fun dragging it back up hill when I got home.

Almost finished building this house

The banister is finished. It is beautiful and solid.

K8 has been begging for a horse or pony, but why bother when he hasn't outgrown riding the goat?

The back porch flooring and safety railing are finished, and it looks good and has a great view out across the pasture. The porch ceiling will be done by this weekend, and the electrician returns Monday to finish hooking up the security lights and ceiling fans on the porch and in the basement.

K7 at our recent bonfire.

We made straw winter apartments for the two big dogs under the soon-to-be-built front porch. The two little dogs come inside the house at night while the two big girls live outside 24/7 on guard duty.

Rock covering goes on the foundation

A few more interior views

The kitchen.

Master bedroom closet

Inside the new house

Master bedroom awaits the final floor trim.

New animals arrive on the farm

Two dun colored heifers - Surabhi on the left and Heidi in the middle, with young steer Cork on the right. He is destined for the freezer.

The new cows are welcomed (thru the fence) by our bull and heifer.

Our new barn cats - "Lucky" is a month old female and "Jimmy" is a six month old male.

A clean body starts in the shower

Half of the master bathroom. K2 did all the tile work. Neither of us wanted to tackle the glass enclosure, so we hired a professional.

Ouch! Didn't know water could hurt this much.

Had to drill a new water well, which went down 420 feet - it also took our bank account way down.

Happy critters

Red Ferrari likes his hand fed treats.

Randy Red Rooster and his harem around the water trough.

The bounty of our farm

A half gallon of fresh Alpine goat's milk and nearly a dozen fresh eggs every day. The pork is part of the 250 pounds we put in the freezer last week.

...and if you want fresh meat, we can send K6 out with a pellet gun to bag a tiny dove. In the Spring, we will be adding lamb, chicken, and beef to the freezer.

Fresh hay for the critters

16 chickens and 1 rooster arrive Saturday.

Barred rocks, rhode island reds, and black autrolops.

Seven eggs on Sunday!

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