The Walls Are Up At The Shop

Raising the first wall....

Eman building a short section of wall that will hold a window....

Another wall up....

Oh doesn't the Gman look happy???? He's finally getting his shop!!!

Raising another section that will hold a window....

At the end of the day, ALL of the walls were up!

Site Supervisor.....he really knows what he is doing!

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Shop Progress

Here's one of the walls the Gman made up....

the guys are going to build them on the ground, then stand them up.

Another wall....this one has the man door framed in....

Rough fitting the sill plate.

The windows that will be used....the other day we sorted thru the pile and the Gman picked out the ones he thought he wanted to use.

I got them all scrubbed up, the window screens as well. They were pretty gross and dirty...they had been in storage for quite awhile.

The Eman and JP have arrived, and the guys are already up at the shop site working on the next walls. We have the trusses being delivered tomorrow afternoon. The Eman isn't worried, he says "Piece of cake" to get the rest of the walls done in time!

The metal roofing will be delivered at the same time. We are putting the same dark green tin on the roof, as we have on the house....Melcher's Green, it is called.

It will be interesting when it comes to choosing siding for the shop. Since we simply cannot stand the white vinyl siding on the house, we are going to take our time finding something nice to put on the shop. Then, eventually, the house will be resided with the same material.

Later today, the Nman and Kgal will arrive! I am sooo looking forward to this weekend with my family around me!!!

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Full Steam Ahead on the Gman's Shop

Finally! He has waited a long time but finally we are moving on to the next phase on the Gman's shop! If you want to read about our adventures in getting the foundation done, click on over here

Here's the site. We have done nothing since 2 years ago....my breast cancer diagnosis meant a big delay.

On Friday, we had a load of crush dropped....and the Gman rented one of these big tampers....

He used his big machine to put the tamper inside the foundation walls. He had already used his machine to scoop loads of crush and put them in there.

Tamp...tamp....tamp....

When he finished it looked pretty good! This will just make it easier for framing as the inside will be nice and level. Eventually we will get a concrete slab poured on top of the crush.....

The wheelbarrow sitting outside what will be the big main door.....

The tools are pretty much ready for the framing to start!

Last year, Gman got a heck of a deal on a bunch of windows off of Craigslist. Later today, we will haul them out, look them over and he will decide which ones he wants to use.

We are going to be really busy this week! Tomorrow night late, the Eman and JP arrive. Eman works in construction and really knows what he's doing, so he will be the Supervisor for the shop project.

Thursday, the Nman and Kgal arrive....everyone will be staying until at least Sunday. Yeahhhh! It's going to be wonderful to have all my children in one place up here in the 'Boo!!!

We're hoping to go to the lake one day after work and bring a picnic along....should be fun!

Friday late afternoon, the trusses and roof tin are to be delivered. The Eman figures the shop will be framed by then, and the trusses can get put right onto the roof with the crane.

Here's hoping!

I'll keep taking pics and posting about the progress!

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Veggie Garden and Berry Bed Pic - Part Three

We have zuccinis growing - we should be eating the first ones any day now....

Onions - 3 rows planted at different times. I've finally got those weeds out of there!

The strawberries are coming on really nicely - we haven't put any away yet. Why? Cuz I sit in the strawberry bed and eat them!! They don't even make it up to the house....

I think we will have a really good raspberry harvest this year - we tasted our first berries last nite.

Garlic - all the scapes are now removed and pickled and put away in the pantry...

The plants themselves are very strong looking - can't wait to harvest the first fresh head!

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Mulching Pathways

In an effort to reduce the number of darn weeds in the main garden, I've had to resort to mulching the pathways. We have Lots of empty paper feed bags from animal feed....so I've been laying them down on all the main paths.

I've been overlapping them by a good margin, in an attempt to ensure weeds don't start to come up between the bags.

And..since we still had a full bale of straw left from last Fall, I've put the straw down on top of the paper bags. Then I wet it all down with the garden hose, just in case the wind comes up. I don't want the straw blowing away....I need it!

Hopefully this works, it should. I've got my hands full enough as it is with trying to keep the weeds down in the gardens. I need every bit of help I can get!

Come Fall, the paper bags should have started to break down and they'll get tilled under. If they're still in good shape, I'll lift them up.

What do you use for mulching your garden paths?

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Ginger 3, Mice 0....and da Wolf? Well....2

Well well well....seems like we DO have a little Mouser here!  Be forewarned, this post may make a few of you a little squeamish.....

A few days ago, I was taking a break from weeding the darn garden and was sitting up on the porch. I saw Ginger come up and it looked like she had something in her mouth.

Da Wolf was already up on the porch resting as he had had a hard night running around the perimeter fence, barking at the coyotes.

I looked over at Ginger and then noticed a mouse running around on the porch. More like running away than running around. Ginger went running after it and started batting it around.

"Oooooh good!" I thought. And apparently da Wolf thought the same thing. He got up from his blanket, walked over to Ginger and her mouse and....yes he grabbed that mouse!

He turned around and looked at me, and he had a mouse TAIL hanging out of his mouth. Ewwwwww! Then I heard Chomp Chomp Chomp....disgusting! I had to have a glass of wine to get over the sight of that!

Meanwhile, Ginger obviously didn't see da Wolf grab the mouse, cuz she was still running around the porch trying to figure out where it went!

Soooooo, the next day I go down into the garden and Ginger came with me. I don't know how long I was down there, maybe an hour. I'm hot and tired so figure I will sit in the shade on the porch.

I get up there, and Ginger is playing with ANOTHER mouse! This time she had killed it. I don't know if it was still warm or not, but I wasn't going to pick it up. So I called da Wolf, ha!

Up he came, took one look, went over and CHOMP. There goes another mouse...EWWWWWWW!

Then last evening, it was getting to be twilight and Ginger still hadn't come up from the barn (where she spends several hours a day now on her own). I'm calling her, but no Ginger.

Now, she is pretty good to come when I call her, but not this time.  So I give a sigh, (cuz I am Tired and the last thing I want to do is go down to the barn Again) and get my shoes on to go down and get her.

Why do u think she didn't come up to the house? Yup, there she was snacking on another dead mouse! Now da Wolf was coming along, and Ginger's back goes up. I guess she had figured out he was stealing and eating HER mice.....

Luckily for Ginger, this time da Wolf walked right by as he didn't see the mouse Ginger was trying to hide from him. I let her play with her dead mouse for another couple of minutes, then I picked it up with a shovel and put in the barn garbage.

Ginger got picked up and lovingly carried back up to the house by proud Me. Of course, I didn't let her face get anywhere near mine, I don't want mousey guts on me!

The evidence....Ginger's second mouse!

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Veggie Garden Pics - Part Two

Continuing on from the previous post, more garden pics!

Tucked in between Swiss chard and spinach....

I have a half row of radishes and one and a half rows mixed lettuc...

Spinach...and lots of it! It is now starting to bolt as you can see the beginnings of the flower stalk in the picture.....but the spinach is still tasty!

Yesterday, I took out every second plant in two of the rows....I am trying to get in there to pull out all the chickweed.

The spinach, of course, went to the laying hens and the pigs. At the time, the pigs were out on pasture and wouldn't come when I called them.

So, I just threw all the spinach plants into their house ha!

They got a nice surprise when they got home!!

Rows of mixed lettuce....I just threw all my lettuce seed packets together and mixed them up.

The cabbages....they are getting strong and sturdy leaves now. They are just beginning to form heads.

We grow BIG cabbages up here....the record so far is 15 lbs!

Broccoli and Cauliflower plants.....

Broccoli is starting to form heads....we are just a few days away from picking our first head.

Green Bush Beans....the row cover is there in case we are expecting overnight temperature dips...any forecast for 5 C or below...they get covered up.

The zuccinnis do as well. The rest fends for itself!

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Veggie Garden Pics - Part One

Want to talk a walk thru the main veggie garden?

Peas....these are shell peas growing up the perimeter garden fence....

The potatoes are flowering!!!

I planted these potatoes too close together, I think .....anyway, I did get them hilled once and within about a week they went Kaboom. Now we can't even get in there!

These potatoes are spaced better - we just heaped buckets of good aged compost around each of the plants. No more work needed here until harvest!

Carrots, I think there are 10 rows there? They were overrun with chickweed but I spent a lot of time on hands and knees pulling it out.

Turnips gone wild! I'm still just thinning them out. Seems quite a few people want my turnips this year!

Beets....thinning these out too....

More pics later today hopefully!

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Yesterday's Harvest

Here's my harvest yesterday....naturally grown veggies = Total Yumminess!

There's some beets, quite a few turnips, lots of Swiss chard, 2 bags of washed greens. There are also a few onions (albeit small ones) and some funky looking garlic scapes!

Are you harvesting lots of veggies yet? I know a lot of readers live in warmer climates than we do, so am sure many of you are already canning! It'll be maybe another month before we start with that.....altho I do need to pickle the garlic scapes - Gman Luvs them!

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A New Guest Room

I'm working on finishing off one of the guest rooms here at our place....we will need it for when we have groups of friends and family up for holidays....this summer the Eman and Nman, along with their gals, will be up. We're hoping they can all make it for the August 1 holiday (BC Day).



I have a lot of tidying up to do in the new guest room....right now it seems to be just a storage room. There is stuff all over the place in there. Oh well.....Once I get it done, it should look great! We're going to get twin beds for that room. I think that makes more sense than getting another double bed. We've already got a double bed in one of the other guest rooms.


I'm thinking of getting bedframes in a country style....either that or iron, that would look nice too! There are some beautiful beds over here! Hopefully I can find some nice country style bedside lamps to go in there too.



And...rumour has it that right after the long weekend, we will be starting to frame the Gman's shop!! Finally! We're getting excited about that...he has waited a long time! Sphere: Related Content

What's That in our Barn?

What's that up in the barn loft???

Yup!

Ginger kitty found her way up into the loft already.....and uh...no, she didn't use the ladder!

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A Working Weekend

We've gotten a lot done this weekend, altho it wasn't All Work....

here's the main veggie garden, it is really booming now!

All the potatoes in this garden are now hilled....

We're harvesting mixed lettuces, chard, spinach and turnips on a regular basis.

The strawberries are just now starting to get picked...and eaten....quickly!

This is the fourth strawberry bed. I thought we would need it for this year to plant the newest runners in. However with the cold winter and hardly any snow cover, we did lose some of the berry runners we had put in the third bed last year. Even tho they were covered in straw....oh well....

So I planted buckwheat in that strawberry bed....it's a great green manure, try it on one of your open garden areas!

Yesterday we spent a lot of time in the Animal Garden. I got it weeded, and the Gman hilled all the potatoes, then did some more tilling. There were quite a few areas where the seed didn't come up, so he retilled that and then I went along and planted turnips.

We need the feed for our pigs, and turnips are so nice and quick...and the pigs love them!

We spent all morning one day on a nearby lake fishing. I managed to land a Kokanee Salmon (landlocked salmon). We had several bites, but only this one made it in the boat! The following morning, we fried it up and had it along with scrambled eggs with fresh herbs.

Gotta love the homemade meals around here!!!

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