Wednesday, May 29, 2013

A Whole Lot of Hole!

Wow, did we have an exciting weekend at the farm!  The pad has been excavated for our house!!!!  Our plan was to get the hole dug, then allow the still damp soil in the bottom to dry in preparation for pouring the cement foundation.  Alas, as usual, things didn't work quite as planned.  Less than a week after excavation, the heavens opened and promptly turned it into a mud bath.  So, now we wait a little longer for that foundation.  Once the cement is poured, things should be able to progress a little more smoothly, but until then it is a waiting game.
In addition to the house progress, the pad for the shop is also going in (again cement-weather dependent, although slightly less so), the driveway has been gravelled and compacted, and wonder of wonders, we got an official county address pole.  We are officially on the map!!!! Woohooo!!!  Also, the meter box should be going in as I type, and that means we should have actual, real electricity before we go out there again.  Talk about a game-changer!  We are rapidly moving from the stone ages into civilization :-)
While we were out there, AdventureDad and I also repaired the much-needed wind break for our baby orchard, and did some heavy-duty tractor shopping.  We live in a remote enough area that the county will not commit to plowing the road in the winter, so the tractor (with snow-blower) will be our link to civilization during the winter.  We made some great progress, and I am sure I will be posting more on that in the future!

Back home in Gig Harbor, I had an exciting day today when my first chick hatched.  Yes, the craziness has progressed to me incubating eggs in an attempt to get some chickens of a hard-to-find breed (in general, hatching eggs are easier to come by than chicks, but the outcome is far from certain after they get scrambled by the post office during shipment!)  It is nerve-wracking, but a lot of fun!  Yes, I am now officially chicken crazy!
O finished her last day of school today in true NW style...  a picnic complete with rains slickers and galoshes.  M's Kindergarten goes until June 18, so we have a little while before summer break officially begins. 
The baby horses are growing like weeds, and I have made pretty good progress halter breaking them, although I am dying for a round pen to work them in.  It is much harder when I have to chase them in and out of all of the nooks and corners in their current pen!  The AdventureGirls are becoming more and more interested in the horses, which makes my heart smile.  I have been reluctant to push them, as I don't want to overdo it and ruin the fun of the horses.  I am hoping my strategy will bear fruit when I can get a nice calm kids horse once we move to the farm!
AdventureDad is literally counting the days until he is done physically with the Army.  The plus side of house construction getting off to a slow start is that our time apart will be much shorter.  Now, we will likely be in the house less than a month when he can come join us at the end of November.  Yay!

I think that is it for now.  Enjoy the photopalooza!!!
Another Use for the Hay Rake

True Robin's Egg Blue!
AdventureGirls in Their Element


The Hole

Windbreak Mark 2

It's Official!