New Life Old Farmers

My Loving Spouse said, “I don’t need any big deals for my birthday.” Even though he was going to turn a significant number. He ‘might‘ not have actually said, ‘deals’, it could have been ‘surprises’ or ‘parties’ or whatever, but I know for sure, that he said ‘need’, which is totally different than ‘want’.

Actually, I did know exactly what he wanted…more than anything…it was to see Number Three Son. Number Three has been gone for the last few years working with his church, so it had been sometime since My Loving Spouse had seen him.

Number Three and I (with a bit of help from Number Two) hatched a plan. Tickets were booked, and My Loving Spouse and I set of to the airport to pick up a ‘friend’ of Number Two Son. It is hard to get My Loving Spouse ‘flabber-gassed’, but we did it!

Tuesdays are reserved for Croquet. So far, the wind always blows hardest on Tuesday. We told Number Three to grab a hat that fit tight, so he could earn the ‘straw hat’ point.

I did break the news to My Loving Spouse that the Croquet ‘Pot-luck’ was actually a “Pat-luck”. Everyone was bringing dishes that he especially liked….Korean BBQ, Molasses cookies, pickled asparagus, guacamole, Irish Death and a new cocktail created by Number Two called The English 70! We are celebrating you!

Everyone, especially My Loving Spouse enjoyed all the food and drink at the Pat-luck. The wind howled and Number Two won….again! Someone needs to do something about that, as he is already the only one with 2 Green Bandannas.

Forth of July found us eating and drinking, (who knew that it was ‘Thirsty Thursday’ and beer was $2, luckily, we had a designated driver) in Yakima for the Pippins game. Hot dogs, beer, ice cream, kettle corn, tums….

A tiny little pancake for the boy, before he had to head to the airport and our week came to an end.

Time with his dad was precious to them both. Finding that he has grown to a delightful guy, was a gift to us all….as we share a love of history, and old architecture. I planned the surprise for them….but believe me, I am blessed.

Oh, my heck. We did make it to the end of school and have commenced enjoying the delight of summer…. a very, very windy summer, but summer break none-the-less.

The wind, often at 30 mph has taken a toll on the speed of our remodel, but as I sit here, we are moving forward and this is a very, very good thing. My Loving Spouse and I removed the cabinets along the wall that is to come down.

I do love demo! “Can I just whack something?”, is an often spoken sentence by me!

Yes, this did feel very good.

The wind, the wind, the wind has kept our crew a tad off kilter, but progress is being made which is exciting to us.

It is amazing to watch the ‘pros’ at work. I think the biggest thing I’ve learned is how planned out and careful they are. They lack the the chainsaw welding mayhem, we (My Loving Spouse and I ) tend to dive in with.

As they often need to balance…

…both wind speed and the ability to stand upon little bits of wood. This father and son team work so well together, they are a treat to watch.

In the meantime, we talk to electricians and call every plumber in the book and then some. As fun as it is to watch professionals work, finding good workers is exhausting. (Note to young people, go into plumbing, you’ll never want for work!)

Thank God, literally for My Handy Cousin, who was calling. “Do you need help? What needs to be done? What are you doing at the end of June?” My Handy Cousin and His Handy Wife would be on their anniversary weekend and would be happy to come and help.

We had no well laid out plan, as everything depended upon the ‘wind’, but we always have jobs or projects to do, this year more than most.

We had hoped to use his knowledge and his roofing nailer to put the roof on, but ‘wind’…

Honestly, it is always a bit hard for us to accept help. We are grateful for it, but it is more in our nature to give rather than take. However, the accomplishments of a day and a half…were more than we could ever, ever do! My Loving Spouse said, “Your cousin is a bit like a Jack Russel terrier, you just mention something and he is on it!”

A porch light was installed, the laundry room sink was installed (for when we loose our kitchen sink), the lawn was mowed, seeded, a truck bed full of mulch added and fertilized.

Then the real fun began!

We knocked the wall down! My Handy Cousin is careful, methodical and has every tool in the book and then some. (Me, I just wanted to whack it down.) His way was safer and less messy, but I did get to push the big piece of wall down once he’d sawn and cut and muttered to himself. Yes, it was very rewarding and I was grinning from ear to ear.

We sat and had a cold beer and then a load of hay was delivered. We were all back on our feet unloading and stacking 75 bales of hay.

All of this weekend was a wonderful gift and fun to work together, and I can’t help but think what our mothers (sisters) would think of us now. The very best part? Sitting together in church on Sunday morning…and we are blessed.

Some of us at school are counting the days until summer vacation is here. The rest of them…have somehow not learned to count yet.

Our remodel keeps limping along…

Each step is exciting to us…we’ve got footings and stem walls and one of us has just learned these terms.

Our view is delightrul with Mother’s day chairs…built out of wood so they don’t actually blow away in the Ellensburg wind. I love looking out the window and seeing them beckon to us…

To say nothing of the my other favorite view…

With only 4 hens and 2 of those broody, we knew we needed a few more hens. We picked up 6 Cuckoo Maran chicks and in the dark of night, slipped them under the Mother-to-be hen, whose name is awkwardly ‘Stewart‘.

She woke up to six babies and began clucking to them, strutting around the hen house.

Welcome to the Miss Moneypennys….all six of them…named by this cutie who named them, as he was playing with some plastic money at the time.

We are ready for school to be out, I keep thinking it is spring. We’ve got buildings to be built, and weddings to plan for and trips to enjoy and Grand KIDS to see, and so we know for sure, that we are indeed very, very blessed.

Our excavation site had 3-4 inches of standing water in it and the only ones thinking this was a good thing were our ducks.

The problem was our time of year. As we were not able to excavate prior to the canals being filled for irrigation and all the fields around us being irrigated, the ground water level can be up to 4 feet higher at this time of year. We need to have it dry enough to fit forms for concrete and NOT have to go back to County Planning.

My Loving Spouse came up with a plan. He set off for Yakima first thing in the morning to purchase Memorial day necessities, a new flag, a new barbecue and a sump pump.

He drilled holes in a barrel for water to flow into and marked the site we wanted to ‘plant’ the barrel.

We were ready to try what we hoped would be a solution to our second “unwanted” pond.

Our aim was to use our post hole auger to drill three deep holes.

We hoped this would limit how much digging we needed to do by hand, in order to fit the barrel in the hole…a hole that would fill with mud and water.

The post hole auger did the job. We now take turns digging the dirt out of the hole.

The hole quickly becomes too deep to dig from the ground. I go into the hole to dig it out.

I dig around in circles…

…sometimes getting stuck in the mud. My Loving Spouse fetching me shorter and shorter handled shovels.

My long arms come in handy.

Eventually, the only thing left to dig with, that is effective is our feed scoop we use to feed the chickens.

We get the barrel into our hole. I (being the muddy one with muck boots on) go into the ‘second’ pond to dig a small hole through the dirt wall to facilitate the water flow toward the barrel.

The sump pump gets out fitted in the barrel and we (not really ‘we’, My Loving Spouse) attaches a bit of fire house to the end of the pipe.

The pump is plugged in and we wait.

We are gleeful (and muddy). The sump pump is pumping out of the barrel like nobody’s business. Within a couple of hours, we can even see ‘dry’ land within the excavation site.

All I need now is a shower and a large dose of Advil, as my back is a tad sore.

I am however, humming “It is well, it is well, with my soul”. It is one of my favorite hymns. I can even hear My Boyfriend Bob singing the refrain in the back ground…

and I am blessed.

Somewhere along the journey, I’ve learned to say, “Oh, well” usually when things go wrong or adults express to me things that are going wrong….

“Oh, well.”

‘Did anybody die?’ is often my second question and then again…”Oh, well.”

I thought to myself, as I pulled out of the driveway recently….”Oh, well.” Our square hole had water in it….this was not good. “Oh, well” I thought, and then thought again…”oh, well….as in a well...a well with water in it” the pun was clear to me.

Yes, our excavation is having ‘issues’. Something to do with irrigation and ground water…. No remodel has ever gone to plan, why should we be any different?

Just as the excavation was starting to have ‘issues’, Dear John and Dear BJ pulled into the yard, with Turk the City Dog. They were on their way from Arizona to Alaska with a few stops in between, Glory Farm being one. We were delighted to see them. Dear John had previously asked, if we had any ‘projects’ for him, which made both My Loving Spouse and I start to laugh.

Upstairs we had 6 new windows awaiting installation. We’d had the windows for sometime now, as ‘Someone’ (My Loving Spouse) was disinclined to be crawling around on a roof covered in snow and ice, so that new windows could be installed, making the upstairs a tad less windy and less bug friendly.

The wind was not blowing, the snow and ice were gone and My Loving Spouse had someone to help him, (who actually knew what he was doing.)

“It was so easy working with Dear John”, said My Loving Spouse. Of course it was, he knows what he is doing and then…he finishes most of the job, while you took off for work.

Adding the trim, painting and making it all look great…

We are grateful for all their help, encouragement and friendship. We love their visits….and are blessed to call them family.

As for the water in our excavation…hmmm, considering this time last year we were driving home from the hospital….all I can say is,

“Oh, well.”

I realize that ‘schedules’ are a first world problem. We had a ‘schedule’ (hope/idea) for the kitchen remodel.

Here’s how it’s been going so far.

Schedule- Hire the demo/excavation company to remove the shack and do the excavation.

Reality – No one calls us back, so we start demo ourselves. Instead of 1 week it takes more than 3. No track hoe’s available to rent, so we do it with our tractor. We hire Big Nick, my BFF’s son who is young, strong and gets along with My Loving Spouse like no body’s business to help us be the muscle. We happily pay him as he saves a bit of our sanity and tons of back pain.

Schedule – The site is clean, so now we really do need that excavation company to come and dig out the site, so the foundation can be pour.

1 out of 5 companies call us back. Two more weeks pass….our schedule is going haywire. We worry, that if we do not get the excavation dug, the contractors we need for the next step will have moved on to bigger and better projects. Can you spell frustration?

‘People’ say, “Isn’t this a job you can do yourselves?” Hmmm…..

In a word….’no’. We cannot. My Loving Spouse puts a hole through the door with the tractor, runs over a nail and breaks 1 fence post. I’m only cataloging these tractor ‘woes’ as this will be a long restoration and I may need you to all remember, that not all of the tractor mishaps are my fault.

I vent/whine/express my frustration over the lack of excavators in the valley who know how to use a phone to my BFF. She says….”Would you like my Brother’s T’s number?”

Please hum the Hallelujah chorus!

We rent a mini back hoe and Brother T not only answers his phone, but shows up early. (He’s my favorite!)

He’s ability with the track hoe, is a thing of beauty. My Loving Spouse can barely empty the dirt he excavates quickly enough.

Just then Our Neighbor shows up to see how all is going. Luckily for us, he drove over on his tractor. He jumps into the dirt removal and the excavation moves along rapidly.

One little minor wire, that nobody knew was buried right there gets broken. It seems to run the shop electrical. We’re not even bothered, because our hole is being dug. Our favorite excavator says, “Well, you can’t make an omelet without cracking a few eggs.”

Three hours later we have a square hole.

I open the door from the kitchen just for fun.

The excavator says, “Watch that first step, it is a doosy.” We laugh, so extremely grateful for his help, for someone who will answer the phone! As he says, “My Momma and Daddy raised me right. If someone needs help, you help them”.

I shut the door, the clock falls of the wall and hits me on the head! Ouch, however, I am grateful for the calvery that showed up and helped us out hydraulically….and I am blessed.

Paddy The Pilot, was My Loving Spouse’s ‘handle’ when we met on Match.com (see, it does work). In a nutshell, if it floats or flies, he loves it. How he ended up with a wife, who gets sea sick and air sick, well, those questions were not actually addressed on Match.com’s website.

His latest vehicle for flight is a two seater Power Parachute. The pluses include, being able to take off and land in a hay field, and if there are any problems, well you are already attached to a parachute.

We, dog included, went over the hill last week to watch him fly. He is actively pursing his Sport Pilot license.

I hadn’t been with him before, because we had to get up long before the crack of dawn to arrive in time for optimal weather conditions. Last Sunday, I played the part of the ‘good’ wife and went to watch him fly. (This Sunday, I stayed home and happily pulled weeds).

We transported his Power Parachute on the trailer he made for it from an old boat trailer. Trailers are expensive. Old boats are free, so he perused Craig’s list for an old free boat….which came with a trailer. (Anyone want an old boat? It is currently in our big barn. It is free, trailer not included.)

He did some take offs and landings and flew around the airport a bit.

He is happy, and talks about flying a lot. I don’t really understand how it works, which is okay by me. However, unlike many of our projects this one leaves him happy to soar, not just sore….

So we are blessed.

We were set to have the dumpster hauled away first thing Monday morning, so we could begin filling it again. Unfortunately, Waste Management was short handed and we were days away from a fresh dumpster. Simple set back or a bigger plan?

Tuesday early afternoon I received an email from a Seattle based blog reader. I’d never heard from her before, or knew about her, but there was an immediate connection. She and her husband have been restoring an old home in our neighboring town. Old siding is hard to find and in a nutshell, if we haven’t emptied the dumpster could they come out and dig through it?

Arrangements were quickly put together. Her Spouse called My Loving Spouse and they were on their way over.

‘We’ll be stopping in Issaquah, do you want something from Trader Joe’s’, my new Dumpster Friend asked. I laughed as this is always THE Question when some one is coming through Issaquah to us.

I said to My Loving Spouse, “When you talked to THE Husband, did it seem like they’ve been our friends for a long time?”

‘Yes, exactly!’

To say we ‘hit it off’, would be an understatement. We delightfully shared all the wood we could find, that was useful to them. They dug around, thrilled to be able to out fit their home that needed wood both inside and out, re-arranging and making more room in our dumpster as they went. This was a win-win for us all. We were delighted that these old bits would be used again…

Sharing, making and meeting new friends, who will be back for more wood… and we suspect a bit of fun as well.

Oh, indeed we are blessed.

For years we tried to use the back bit of the house. It had no foundation and was falling off. It was 3 old pieces of house or porch or cold storage plan with 12 inch walls filled with saw dust. The ceilings were filled with sawdust as well, and it was always dirty…what a surprise.

This weekend it came down. Bit by bit, wall by wall.

We did it ourselves with a few new tools. A crow bar for him, a respirator for me, as I am allergic to sawdust.

Sawdust was everywhere, every time we opened a new wall or board or ceiling….it was in our hair, our ears, our eyes and blowing across the valley, with thanks to our winds.

I was sad as I pulled out cut/square nails, all very old indeed. I was not sad when I pulled on a rotten wall, that came apart easily….sawdust flowing out of boards which were beyond use.

We gazed at where the new kitchen sink will be.

There was no shortage of nails.

With each wall we took out, we thought…is this it? Will this be the one where the roof finally falls, (away from the house…we hope). We were cautious and careful. We broke some rope, and we broke some chain. We smashed a knuckle or two, but for the most part…we came through the ordeal unscathed.

Our first roll off box for debris is full…we’re waiting for the second.

Thrilled to have the wind blow as much of the sawdust across the valley as possible. We still have a tad of clean up to do.

….and what did we find in our 100 year old walls besides sawdust?

a skirt…

A flannel shirt….

An old pepper can…

A few burlap bags, an handful of old overalls and rags… a bird’s nest.

A wasp’s nest…

It is fascinating how they are built….

We find how the old house was put together…. an older roof hidden under our metal roof, as we see how one bit was added on to another. We’re a teeny bit tired, a teeny bit overwhelmed, a great bit excited.

Lucky and blessed indeed.