Flooring Started, and then it snows

We started laying hickory hardwood floor in the loft last weekend. One finds a whole new set of muscles exists after crawing around on a floor all day. It snowed 8inches on the first day of spring.

Fun Weekends

Larry, Adele, Kristin & Jenna helped us out a lot! That 3-way bean soup was sweet! Tyler spent a lot of time helping. As you can see, he's ready to go home to Bonnie, the Internet, and KU basketball.

Mudder work apparel

Larry & I have been trying to convince the wives to wear v neck shirts on the job to no avail. Sigh.

Pic for OSHA

Everyone wears a hard hat every minute they are on the job!

Will It Ever End?

We've been hanging and mudding drywall for almost 2 months. Here are some pictures.

Marathon Rock Weekend

We spent two 12-hour days hanging sheet rock. Mason, Larry, and Tyler did an amazing quantity and quality of work. We got the office, living room, and some of the dining room done. About 1/4 done, I think. We're using all gypson sheet rock, made in the USA.

Insulation

We're racing to get this puppy livable.... Had a company spray "biofoam" insulation into the walls on Thursday and Friday. It's "green" cause it contains some small amount of vegetable oil in the mix, I think. Anyway, it not only insulates, but also eliminates air infiltrations.

Front Porch

Over the last week we've been cutting the timbers for the front porch. Two posts, two plates, two braces, a tie beam, a king post, and a ridge beam. We haven't cut the rafters yet. This weekend Larry and I got the hardest part of it put up.

Siding, Stones and Stucco

We're making progress on the outside. Stone work is almost done, as is the siding and the stucco. I can't take credit for any of this work. Had to hire some professionals.

Be a Rock for a few Minutes

You're a rock. You're just sitting in a creek bed, minding your own business. You're feeling pretty good, 'cause it's warmed up enough today to melt some of the ice frozen around your toes. A boy comes by. At first, he walks right over you, but then he turns and picks you up. He doesn't pick up your best buddy that is right there beside you--you always thought you were better lookin'.

The boy takes you back across the creek and puts you on a pallet. It's warm on that wood. Feels good. Pretty soon you're taking your first tractor ride, heading for the front porch of the house up on the hill. Do you think you'd rather be back in the stream bed, or mortared into the base of the front porch. Hmmmmm.

Think about it for a few minutes.

Picked up rocks today for the front porch. A lot of time to think when one spends the afternoon picking up rocks from the creek with his dog.

Madison County News

From the local paper.

A woman called 911 and advised that she and a male subject had been in a fight. The male subject, who sounded intoxicated to the dispatcher, got on the phone and said he was going to get on his horse and take off. After calling back, the male subject told the dispatcher that there had been a fight, but that he couldn't remember what it was about. He said that the female went to "whoop up" on him, and that he then slapped her around. He then advised that she was going to bed, and that if he could catch the horse that he was going to "ride it away for the night."

And we wonder why Arkansas has a less than average reputation in the eyes of folks from some other places.

Rock Work

Many thanks to Lisa and Zack who got me a camera for Christmas. (Tyler's carhart cap is coming in handy too, as it's cold out there.)

Just before Christmas we poured the footings and they started the rock work around the front porch. Therese, Tyler and I collected the rock from around the farm. Some of it from stream beds, some from old rock fences that had fallen down, and some from piles of unexplained origin. Lots of rock here in Arkansas. Here is progress, so far.

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Stinker

I was working in the living room yesterday, and I kept smelling poo. Smelled like someone must have come into the house to do his/her business. Looked around and didn't find anything. Then the smell whent away. Then it was back. I looked down and there was Sammy, the stinker. He had wallowed in someone's poo. I suspect that, just to Sam's delight, a worker out here didn't know there was a toilet down the hill. Let me tell you we had quite a bath. Kinda reminded me of changing a few of the kid's diapers. Yuck.

Roof and Windows & my Christmas list

The metal roof is on, and the windows are installed. The plumbers are here running pipes, and the heating and air guys ran the duct work a couple of weeks ago.

I've not been posting pictures for a while because I've broken my second camera. The one that kinda works has a battery issue. It runs down after about 20 minutes... a real pain. Sooo, I've asked Santa for a new camera!

Brackets & Eaves

It's been a nice week and the framers got most of the most of the eaves and brackets put up. They make the outside of the house look much more complete.

Paint Weekend

This weekend Therese, Larry and I painted brackets and boards that will go up under the eaves. The picutes make it look like on Therese is working, but Larry and I did do som painting too. We really did. Yes siree. Really.

Tyvek On

The day after they got the framing done and the osb on the outside, they wrapped it in Tyvek, and we lost our windows ....

Walls Up, Windows Ordered

Costa and his 4 or 5 helpers put up the walls and put on the wall sheathing in 3 days. Would have taken Larry, Gary and me 6 weeks. During the framing the windows changed quite a few times. But we finally got them ordered last week. We're hoping to get them (and the siding) installed in early December. Here are pics of the house, without the brackets, eaves and gables. The 4 front windows look nice from the inside, will keep folks from looking into the living room from the road, and will permit us to put furniture below them (they're 4' from the floor and about 4' from the ceiling). But from the outside they increase the "church" or "schoolhouse" look. Therese says we can "fix" that with tall shrubbery. Ah, the ageold question -- do we want it to be good for the Ramseys inside, or look good for the Jonses from on the outside. Hmmmmm.

Bracket Boys

Over two weekends Larry, Gary and I cut and put together the eave and gable brackets that will hold up the roof overhang. The timber frame doesn't extend out beyond the walls, so we need brackets. They kinda look like the fancy wood posts some folks put their mailboxes on. (For those of you who live in the city, folks who don't (live in the city) have a mail box on a post by the road.)

There are 38 brackets and 16 rafters (including 1 custom bracket in which Gary drilled an extra set of holes in the side before he'd had enough coffee to drink).

All in all it took three grown men about a hour to cut and assemble one bracket. Not much time for fun either weekend, except for the fun of working together (sappy but true). You can see the eve brackets behind Gary in his solo pic. They likda look like toy soldiers all lined up.

Mo dirt wok

Huey and two others (one or both of whom live on "Slow Tom Road" -- not sure if one had to drive slow on it or Tom was slow) spent a couple of days diggin and moving dirt around the back of the house. It makes a big difference. Hope Therese likes it.