Aniversary

Hello everyone, I see you guys very well.

I apologize for the length of time between blogs.  We have been a little busy and it was really hard for me to get some pictures together to put onto the library computer.  But I took some of Tasha's well taken pictures and will try to explain what has been going on here. 

Looking good!

First of all, there have been some celebrations.  At the end of September we were able to celebrate my father-in-laws birthday, gathering with the whole family at my in-laws house.  That was really special because both he and my mother-in-law mean a lot to me.  We have also celebrated the year anniversary of our land ownership.  Boy, it has been a great year. 

The cinder block basement in progress.

Tasha loves, loves cement mixing.  She is an expert!

The house is progressing quite nicely.  We are more than two fifth of the way done!?!?!  If you look at it that first we had to clear the land, level the land, then build the basement, then the upstairs, then do the outside, and then the rest that is needed.  So that is really great news for us.  The basement is finished as far as cinder blocks are concerned!  That is a real accomplishment, since 99% was done by hand, without the use of power tools.  We started with the bottom layer of the cinder blocks, mortaring the whole shebang.  That was a long and hot process.  It was not fun.  Next we put in steel rods to make sure that when someone pushes on the walls, they don't collapse.  Next, we had to mix cement, and rocks and sand to pour into the cinder block holes.  That was a long, arduous process.  We don't have running water yet and so for us to use a cement mixer would have meant to use a lot more water than we had available.  So we mixed tub after tub by hand.  I am thankful for the kids.  They did most of the mixing and Tom, of course.  I tried to mix one tub, and poor Tom had to use a lot of muscles to undo what I had messed up.  Tasha has developed some nice muscles, that weren't there before.  I don't know how many tubs she mixed, but what a trouper.  As you can see, we have progressed quite a bit from the previous picture and where the rods are sticking out, that is where we poured in the cement.  At this time we were using a ladder on the back walls.  That was my job, and I loved being able to look over the wall at the rest of the land.

Yes the air is very sweet up here.  You should try it.

Also the air up there was much easier to breathe.  That is what you tall people must feel like all the time.  After pouring all that cement, I think Sean's comment was that if he sees another bag of cement he is going to scream, we had to go around and make sure all the holes were without water.  There has been a huge amount of rainfall here and so at the bottom of our cinder blocks the water gathers and it takes time for it to get out.  So the kids and I went fishing.  I quit very quickly because the action of ringing out a soaking wet wash cloth was not fun and it was causing pain to my wrists (hmmm, good excuse).  Sean was a trouper and continued.   At the end it was Sean who covered all the walls with plastic so he wouldn't have to continue fishing.

I can hold it up if I really use my new muscles!

The big question is if this is flour or mortar?

Next Tom had done a lot of research and found that when you dry stack the walls you have to have some sort of adhesive on the inside and outside to weather proof it as well as to add strength to the whole wall.  I don't know who was more thrilled when we found out that mixing was involved.  Tom or the kids.  In the end Natasha was replaced as mixer with Sean and myself.  Tom woke up early one morning, and when I mean early I mean early (4 AM), and drove to Home Depot to pick up another mixing tub for us to mix the stuff.  At this time, the weather was getting iffy and cooler.  The boys applied the outside layer in pretty good weather.  We were told you couldn't apply this stuff if it got cooler than 40degrees.  Well, it stayed above 40 just!

Keep it nice and thick

The outside was finished and now it was time for the inside.  That was going to be Tasha and my job, since the boys really weren't very careful with their application of the stuff.  It was pretty uneven and we wanted to have it more even on the inside.  Of course, now it started pouring rain, so Tash and I did the long back wall in the rain, with the stuff slipping off our trowels and the glue separating out of it.  That was great!  Finally the inside was done!!!  That completed the cement work on the basement.

We are doing well, almost done!!!

This is the new school room with studious kids.

The biggest challenge I have right now is doing school.  The driving back and forth is quite a challenge since our school time is so chopped up.  But we manage, and really love the library here.  We have been doing school in the basement, which is really quite a blast.

I will get you for that!

Logan loves the property.  Whenever he is done with school, he is up at the house site, playing with his stick and running around. 

Now we are at the wood stage and I am so glad to say that people are offering their help left and right.  It is nice to live in a state where everyone has built their own house.  There are a lot of people willing to help you when you are doing your house.  The men in the church we have been going to have offered their help and it is up to us to get the material orderly and then in a flash people will come out and smack the whole thing together. I am so humbled by the heart of the people here.  Sunday a couple came up to us and offered us their house to stay in.  It is huge!!!  Also it is 45 minutes away and we just can't do that on a daily basis.  The dog is also a problem, since he kept us up last night and then had an accident on their carpet.  The house is for sale so we really don't want to mess up their nice house.  We are going to stay in our nice and cozy shed again, because it is much easier to get to work.  But it was a real blessing and I wish we didn't have the dog with us.  Now you are kept up.  We were driving with 28 sheets of foam insulation on the Subaru today, which was quite an adventure, since it was very windy.  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang here we come. 

Naw, I didn't do that!

Speaking of celebrations, we have one more major one coming up, Sean is going to be 21.  Yes, it is true, I was there, so don't argue with me about it.  I have proof.  I know it shouldn't happen, but it does happen.

One side done.  A lot more to go.

Enjoy your week.

Tom is taking a well deserved break.