Weekend Update: Insulation and More Mud

Ghon and I party hard these days - spending our Friday nights at Lowes, with kids, rocking out to Hall and Oates.

Yes, Hall and Oates over the PA at Lowes.

Of course this weekend's project started out with a trip to Lowes. We picked up 10 sheets of cellulose insulation for the living room. One step at a time, that room will get done!

Saturday brought a slow start to the day. Jonathan headed out with Pop for the morning, making his rounds at Taekwondo, the barber shop, then shopping and lunch at Costco.  Ghon headed to the farm to work, and Genevieve and I teamed up for the grocery shopping. As we finished, Ghon let us know another trip to Lowes was in our future. Damn.

Two trucks converge first at the gas station, then Lowes for some lumber. Apparently, back at the house, using 2x4s, which we have TONS of, was not going to work right for completing the walls. We had to down size to 1x4s, over the insulation, for the drywall to later attach to.

Genevieve enjoyed this trip to Lowes more than any other. She rode the cart, watched forklifts, helped pull lumber off the rack and put it on the cart, then went for another cart ride. She had a blast with just mom and dad.  We grabbed lunch and headed home. Ghon took the lumber in his truck back to the farm, while G and I unloaded groceries, then picked up Jonathan.

Renovating the house can be challenging. Everything doesn't always go as planned, time and materials are limited and skills are sometimes lacking.

This weekend, I admitted defeat and almost came to tears.

I absolutely suck at hammering nails.

My first glimpse at this came while trying to secure the floor boards. This weekend, even for a very short period of time, pushed me over the edge of incompetence.

To me, it doesn't really matter if it takes me two times, or even three times as many swings with the hammer as it takes Ghon to place a nail. I'd just like to get one in without help. First they fall out, then they get banged in at an angle, then I try to correct it and the bend a new direction. Seriously, some of my nails had more curves than the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. All most every-single-time, Ghon would have to bail me out.

I'm a nailer failer.

The first step is admitting the problem, so perhaps I can improve with time and practice. But on that day, I declared defeat, put my hammer away and begged for appointment to another task.

Jonathan has some troubles too, but hopefully will follow Ghon's footsteps more in this department.

The other task I took on was just as challenging.

I am marking the stringers to build the staircase. Armed with a tape measure, square, pencil, and the cheat sheets I created, I tried to mark off the stairs on the stringer. It got a bit confusing - and made me nervous. These are important cuts, and I want to make sure I get them right.  I marked off the first board, then decided I wanted to recheck the math and perhaps make a template out of paper before I declare the stringers ready for cutting. These are too important to screw up!


If there is one thing we have at the farm, other than projects, it's mud.

Where the driveway ends and the mud continues.

This has been such a weird winter; 25 inches of snow in 24 hours, then it's 50 and melting the next, followed by another week of freezing temps. I mentioned in the last post, that much of the field is wet, not damp, but wet. Our driveway is a wreck, and it doesn't help that Ghon and Tim still drive beyond the driveway in their trucks. One day, there are tons of tracks in the mud, the next day, they are frozen. It's hard to walk on no matter what.

Deep muddy tracks.

Over this weekend, it was mud. And as I am finishing writing this blog, it's once again covered with 8 inches of snow and sitting around 10 degrees.

There seems to be this magnetic field between my kids and mud. Perhaps it's all kids and mud. But both keep asking to play in the mud. I've let them jump in the mud puddles at the house we live in plenty; they can go inside and change. I do try to keep them out of it at the farm. There was no such luck. Jonathan went out to help Ghon and Tim collect some firewood, and once he was dismissed from the task - he found mud.

No, of course we can't run around the mud, we run through it!

I just had to kind of give up at this point.

Muddy butt was not from a fall, but from sitting in the field.

Perhaps I doomed myself by suggesting he wear his Mud Dogs baseball hat.

After all the mud play, it was time to unload and stack the firewood. Once it was all loaded, Jonathan helped carry a few loads inside. He's a strong kid - and can carry 5 pieces at a time!

We wrapped things up a little earlier than normal. In the end, we had a fire going, wood pile restocked for the next pending storm, and one section of the living room wall insulated and almost ready for drywall.

Insulated and it feels so good!

The other big news for the week: We've been in touch with paranormal investigators. Ghon had posted a note about the farm on facebook and mentioned the activity we experienced two weeks ago. She has a co-worker that completes paranormal investigations and put us in touch with her. She definitely thinks it sounds like there is activity in the house. Our friend Faith was also interested in getting a feel for the place, and came out last Friday while Ghon was there. She felt many positive, happy vibes through the house.

This Tuesday, March 4, the Real Life Paranormal Group will be visiting and trying to contact whoever might be hanging out in the house. Ghon went to the house to take care of chickens and had a little talk with our spirits. He mentioned that the folks were coming, we weren't trying to spook them out, but get to know them and not be afraid. He swears that when he walked out of the house and to the chicken coop, he smelled a woodstove/fireplace burning, and not a lick of wind was blowing - that it couldn't have been from a neighboring house. Were they getting the place ready?

Ghon and I will be taking turns hanging out at the house to see what happens and what is found. I'm pretty excited, but when it comes to the time for me to BE there - I'm also a little nervous. That post I'm sure will be interesting.