Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!


We hope all your dreams come true!


With Love,
Zoey and Osker

Carpenter Mike helped us nail up the first row of siding on the house so it will be straight and level!!!  Still working on staining exterior trim, but it's too cold most of the day to get much done.

Me and Osker were digging a hole that was next to a batch of burrs.  He got em baddd.  He also got caught eating a chicken egg!!  Mom and Dad figured he's just small enough to get in the little chicken house door.  Now Dad is on a mission to determine how the chickens can have free range while keeping Osker out.  He's conducting chicken IQ studies on how well they climb ladders, jump from hay bale to hay bale, and fly through narrow openings!!  At least they figured out what was causing Osker's badddd gas!!

We started digging the sewer trench, but after moving a few of the boulders, a link on the chain broke; then Dad discovered that the sprocket bearings were worn.  So now the digging bar is apart in the barn getting machined, welded, and new bearings.

The last door has been installed so the house is chicken proof!!!  Note the nice big guest room window!!!

This is our "sit on the stump together" trick.  We get a treat when we do it, so whatever...

BTW, Osker's library book cost $15.00!!!  The folks are being a little more careful about what they leave on the table!

This is a section of the air vent system.  It's just a fan that will move warm air near the wood stove to other rooms, or move cool air from the basement upstairs.  It would also work for air conditioning in the future.

The exterior doors have been installed and trimmed except for one more on backorder.  The porch ceiling still needs to go on before the inside is closed in, but we need to decide on recessed lights and wiring first. We bought a wood stove so we can work inside this winter.

Wonkette thinks we've upgraded her hen house!  Hope the last door arrives soon!

Osker ate a library book.  He won't be getting an allowance for a long time.

The forest green metal roof is finished!  Right before the rain and snow.  This was our goal for the year!  Things will slow a bit now during the cold winter months.  

We're sitting on the 12x12 log that was at the bottom of the foundation pit providing support at the footings when we were loading DG with the tractor.  Now it's a bench looking north of the house over the vineyard (far left), and the hot tub (far right). We romp around the field every day!

We had a couple inches of wet snow on Sunday morning.  Osker's first snow!  Easy to see all the critter footprints in the woods.

This must be the slowest metal roof installation on record!  Last week they got the garage done in two days.  This week they've worked on the bottom row of metal on the house, but the foreman got called to jury duty and the other guys don't seem to have the where-with-all to take the next step.  They've missed 3 days of good weather.  We've been staining and trimming the windows to get ready for siding.

Me and Osker "stayed" while Mom got the mail!  She went out the gate, across the road and back, and we hadn't moved!  We got treats for that one!

The 4 gable ends have windows, trim and siding!  They're going to be painted before the metal roof goes on.  We've also been stapling on Tyvek drain wrap and installing windows on the main floor.  The plumber is almost finished with rough-in plumbing.  He needed to run the vents out the roof before the metal goes on.  Also trying to get a coat of stain on the fascia board before the metal flashing goes on.

We got a new toy and haven't wrecked it yet!  When it gets thrown I always get it first!  Osker has his 4 month puppy shot and gained 10 pounds last month!  He's a piggy!

After almost an inch of rain the roof got sheeted last week.  Weather has been good since so the inside is drying out.  Now we're trying to get the gable windows installed, trimmed, and the siding on before the metal roofing is laid down.  The plumber is here too doing the rough-in for all the roof vents.

These workmen are putting up finish-grade plywood on the underside of the gable.

The house is almost all sheeted (the east gable and the garage gables to go)!  Great to see the attic space defined.  It did get darker inside the house because of the porches.  We had over a half inch of rain last week.  Lots of water falls inside, but it dries out fairly quickly.  More showers in the forecast.

Mom says me and Osker didn't do anything cute this week so there are no pictures.  She says we were naughty, don't listen, and ate too much fallen fruit which makes us have to go out in the middle of the night!  This morning at 5 am there was a deer on the back deck eating pears!

We had a little time to relax today!  Been harvesting fruit and garden produce; making jam and drying fruit.

Carpenter Mike hired another framer (a young buck) to help frame and sheet the roof.  It's tricky walking around on trusses.  They're almost done.  Forecast is for rain!  Can finally see how the structure will look!

I'm teaching Osker how to pick blackberries!!  It's the only gentle thing we do!  Osker gets covered with burrs and has to be brushed every day.  Mom even vacuums him!

Here are the ridge beams to each gable.  Looks weird!

In the middle of the upstairs room there are four posts and beams that will support the ridge beam with additional posts.

Here is the view with the house trusses in place.  The gables at each end and the ridge need to be hand built.  The plans are sketchy on this so it will be interesting!

The guys (Dad and Mike) finished sheeting the garage roof today!  We have shade!  This is the view looking north.  The ridge beams, etc were delivered and set up on the second floor ready for framing!

Friday afternoon the trusses arrived on a boom truck and trailer.

The truck driver placed bundles of trusses on the roof of the house and garage.

Carpenter Mike had two guys helping him secure the bundles to the framing.

Then they set the garage trusses and were done before 5:00!

I'm teaching Osker how to swim!  The creek is low this time of year, but there are some deeper pools that come up to my chest. They go over Osker's head!  He learned to swim pretty quickly when he reached the deep pools!

Even Mom caught a gopher (I taught her)!  There was a new hole in her flower bed so she stuck the hose down it and the gopher popped out!  She caught it in a bucket when it was trying to dig it's way back into the hole.  She let it go in the woods.  Me and Osker then finished the job by digging a huge hole in the flower bed.  We got in trouble.

The garage/shop got framed yesterday and today!  Sheeting the outside is next!

We moved more topsoil around the east side of the house.  It's so good to see the pit and piles go away!

Our new yard is one big sand box!  Perfect for me and Osker to play in!

I'm teaching Oskar how to hunt gophers!

His feet get pretty dirty!!  Every morning he runs on the dewey grass, tromps through the dirt, then into the house!

The porch roof posts and beams are going up!  The roof trusses have been ordered!  A couple of the beams are 35 ft long!  We used the tractor to lift them on top of the posts.

Uncle Walt, Dad's friend from college who just retired, came to visit!  He helped us fill in around the porch post piers.

Then we moved a huge pile of topsoil that was on the south side of the house.  Dad moved bucket-loads with the tractor; Mom and Uncle Walt raked it smooth enough so you can now see where the front yard will be!  It's very fine volcanic soil that poofs when you walk on it, so it's still a dusty mess, but now you can begin to see how the new yard will blend into the existing yard.

Oskar got a new bed.  I thought I'd try it out first.  Cozy but...

I suppose it fits him better!

Oscar is such a piggy that he naps by his bag of food waiting for his next meal!

Finally got the porch post piers dug big enough and deep enough for the forms.  That was a back breaking job.

This morning at 6 am the concrete crew started arriving to pour the garage slab and piers!!  Tomorrow they remove the forms and put a coating on the exposed area of the garage footing then they're about done!!

Oh Brother!  Here he is!  My new little brother!  I've heard them talking about it, but imagine my surprise when they came home with a puppy!  He's a 7 week old English springer spaniel.  He only weighs 10 lbs now.  I can run and roll him just like the chickens!!

His name is Oscar.  He's a foodie too!  He goes nuts at meal time--makes me look good.

After all that work building up the patio, covering it with gravel, and compacting it, we had to dig out 13 holes for concrete piers that will hold the posts for the porch roof supports.  They were dug down to the subsoil fill, i.e, rocks, compacted, then filled back in with gravel to be about 12" deep.  Dad used a "jumping jack" to compact the bottom.

After days of spreading the rocky subsoil, we had 4 truck and trailer loads of 3/4- delivered and spread by a guy with a bobcat.

Then it was compacted and rolled.  The patio and garage are now up to grade, ready for concrete.

Dave, John, Jim and Pam came all the way from Massachusetts to help spread gravel and get dirty!  How special is that?!!!