Mail box accident

At 7:30am Sunday morning someone woke us up knocking incessantly at the door. Over and over. The dogs were going nuts. We go to the door, Rog in boxers and me in red cat pajama bottoms. There were two deputies at our door to tell us that someone had fallen asleep while driving and hit our mailbox. Really hard. The mailbox and the mail were all over the road. The 4x4 post it was on snapped in half. The woman then corrected to the right, directly in a huge bean field. She drove pretty far into the field too. She was kind enough to call the cops instead of just driving off. She has insurance, so we should hopefully get reimbursed for the new mailbox we had to get.







Then Roger left the mailbox inside while I was shopping and Roger was outside. Jax then ate part of the brand new mailbox and the screwdriver.


In farm news, we harvested the black beans. They're just like regular beans, but you leave them in the pod until they dry. They turn black when they dry. Then you split the pods and pick out the beans.


We also got a pumpkin! It's a bit early, but the vine rotted, so I had to pull it. Not sure what to do with a pumpkin. I've tried making pumpkin bread with real pumpkin before, but it was all stringy.

The bathroom is finished!

Remember this mess?



It is finished and it looks great! We have new paint, new lights, new towel racks, new light covers, new towels and mats...

Chicks and painting

A video of the chicks:



When the chicks first came in the mail, I forgot to post the picture of them in their shipping box.



Also, today we put the primer on the bathroom walls, and Roger caulked the shower.

Porch Staining

When we bought the house it was apparent the porch had been neglected for some time. It was gray and warped. It looked like the wood had never been sealed.

Last week, Roger used a deck cleaning solution and pressure washed the deck and we were relieved to see it brought some color back into the wood, although it was still pretty pathetic.

Today we stained and sealed the wood! We used a tinted seal, so we only had to go over it once. It took four gallons of seal. The wood was very, very thirsty.

Before:


After:

We got robbed

The Helpful Gnome got robbed.



Someone forced the back door open and went through all our stuff. Closets, drawers, up into the attic, broke open our fire box, unwrapped stuff, etc. They took 10 playstation 3 games, two jars of coins, and a handgun and nearly 100 bullets. For all the time the must have spent going through our stuff, they left a lot of really pricey things, like the flat screen, the playstation, the digital camera, the laptop, the liquor, et al.

Playstation games, coins, firearm.

Luckily, I still had the receipt for the gun, so the cops reported the serial # to the pawnshops. However, the cop who responded told us no one ever pawns the guns.

We're hopefully getting a dog this weekend. We also ordered an alarm system.

Landscaping, chickens outside

The chickens have upgraded to outside! It wasn't really ideal for them to go outside at two weeks of age, but they have filled up the wading pool and were going stir crazy. I transported them in a giant bin and basically dumped them out on the grass. They were pretty upset, but then got really excited when they discovered bugs. They play this awesome game where one finds either a) a bug, or b) something they think is a bug. When this happens they grab it and run away and the entire flock follows trying to steal it away.


You may notice that the chickens are half feathered and thus, pretty ugly. It's normal, they're losing their fuzz and gaining real feathers. It's only ugly on the yellow guys.

They spent the night in the lean-to under the heat lamp. I was really worried about them being outside and it being chilly, but I went out this morning to check on them and they were all up and running around. I went out around 11pm last night to check on them and half were under the lamp and half were balled up together in a corner. I picked them all up and moved them under the lamp. I think the space was so big they didn't realize there was a heat source.

In other news, Roger did some landscaping. He pulled up these ugly wooden pieces of wood and laid down really nice looking rocks. He added topsoil and now the flower beds look really nice!




We also moved out the compost bin Rog built. He's going to attach doors to it tomorrow, so pictures of that will follow!

And lastly, for your entertainment, baby birds trying to sleep but keep being interrupted.

Basement Foundation

We hired a guy to put carbon fiber straps on one of the basement walls that has had some bowing and cracks in the cinder blocks.

http://www.fortressstabilization.com/

Is the product we had done. Supposedly it's so strong the cinder blocks will explode before the straps give out. It's stronger than bracing the walls with steal beams! Of course, it is a very expensive product, but it doesn't take too long to install so you save on labor. Here are pictures of the straps on the basement wall.