I Dare You To Walk The Ridge-Pole

 

If you have never seen "Anne of Green Gables" (I would suggest you watch it-- it's an amazing movie!  Then you'll be hooked and want to watch Anne of Avonlea.), then you wouldn't know that this is Anne walking the ridge-pole of Moody Spurgeon's kitchen roof, on a dare.  In a matter of seconds she finds herself on the ground with a twisted ankle.  She lost the dare and soon finds herself walking home, with her twisted ankle through the haunted woods with her bosom friend, Diana Barry.  You'll have to watch to rest to see what happens, but this scene popped into my head while building yesterday.   

This is our "ridge-pole" right after we installed it.  Doesn't it look lovely?  And, no I don't have any pictures of me walking it. 

Happy Halloween!



The Case Of The Turkey Feathers

That's me above (you can see our house in the background--don't ask me where the tree came from) acting like my heroine, Nancy Drew   I'm looking a pile, of what looks like turkey feathers on our property. 

You might ask:  Where did they come from?  How did they get there??  Where's the turkey???  Why are you wearing high heels????  That's just the way my mind works-- I always revert back to my childhood days of reading Nancy Drew novels.  You might also be wondering how I found them--with my magnifying glass, of course.  Not really.  Nancy would be a big nobody with out her sidekicks Bess and George.  Well, my sidekick is our dog, Patsy.  She has the best nose this side of the Mississippi and can smell out trouble anywhere.

As the mystery started...We were headed out for a walk on a cold, windy night.  We usually let her run free on our property to burn of some of her over-abundant energy, so we can have an enjoyable "walk" instead of a "pull".  Tonight she headed directly for this part of our property

 at top speed-- like she knew it was there, like she saw it happen.  Or maybe it was just that incredible nose of hers (most likely, but it's always fun to jump into "Nancy" mode).  Anyway, Patsy enjoyed what she could nibble on, but the killer didn't leave much for her--just the feathers.  We didn't find a weapon and no traces of footprints, but Patsy did find more feathers just on our neighbors side of the fence.  We're both suspicious of the neighbor dogs.  Maybe this mystery will never be solved.

I have on occasion, seen wild turkeys around, but never near our house.  The ones I have seen have been a really nice "platter-type" size.  I don't even think the killer took the time to stuff it--stuffing is always good with turkey.

Oh, this blog is supposed to be about building our house.  We had planned to work on the roof today, but our famous wind was blowing just a little too hard.  Instead, my contractor did some much needed research on the next steps of our project and I did some sleuthing.

Roof-Roof (but our dog would say "howwwll")

We're getting ready to put the south metal roof on our house.  As you can see, my contractor has the tar paper on most of the roof, but you're probably wondering why we have gone with the scandinavian look??  Those 2 x 4's are to hold the tar paper in place (we get a lot of wind around these parts), plus my contractor can use them to get around on the roof--he's not used to walking around on such a steep angle, up so high.  The wood will come off as we put the metal on.  We need to keep the neighbors wondering what we are doing, right?!  You'll also notice my supervisor chair on the right--I need something comfortable so I can make sure my contractor does the job right?!  Anyway, we're hoping to start getting the tar paper covered this weekend, as long as the weather cooperates--there was snow a few miles south of us, but we didn't get any.  The weatherman says things should look pretty good through the beginning of next week.  Yippee!

Goat For It!

As we work on our house, we dream of what our property will be like when completed and what animals we might raise.  One animal we have considered is goats--they are a managable size and don't supply a super-sized quanity of milk.  On the down side you hear about what a hard animal they are to cage and their stubborn personalities.

Last week in a paper there was a article inviting locals to "Victoberfest"  at Victory Hill Farm, where they raise dairy goats and make goat milk cheese.  Wow!!  Just what we needed--a place to see how others keep, feed, and raise their goats.  Victoberfest got marked on our calendar right away!

What fun Victoberfest was!!  They had goats, pigs, chickens, horses, and lots to see and do.  We toured the farm and found the goats to be a lot of fun and it didn't look like they had any trouble keeping them caged.  It was fun to imagine our property like theirs someday.  Maybe we'll goat for it too!!

Welcome to our new blog!

This is our new blog so we can keep you up to date on the progress of our house and property.  I'll also show you how we manage to live without any running water, electricity or gas.  Join us at our little house on the prairie!  

This is what our house looks like now.  I'll be filling in the blanks with pictures as I have time.  It's come a long way, but at a very slow pace.  We're hoping to get it totally closed up and move in before "Old Man Winter" comes for a visit.  Then we can be working on the inside as the storm rages outside!

We have installed the north steel roof, one chimney, the front door, two north windows and one east window.  Our house is going to be white and we are staining the wood before we put it on so, as you can see, it has a "finished" look to it as we get the siding on.  The left window is our kitchen and the little shotgun window is in our pantry.

This is the east side of our house.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but behind the ladder is our kitchen window and it's installed.  That whole section has been sided-- at least we can say that something is complete!

And one last picture... our new foxhound, Patsy.

She was one in April.  I got her for my contractor for his birthday.  We've only had her since June, but she has won over our hearts and since we are "empty-nesters", she is our new "baby".