Raising The Roof…

July 21, 2016

I am happy to report that the flooring for the upper floor of the shed was put down this past week.  The hardest part of that project was getting the 4’x8’ sheets of flooring up onto the rafters.  My poor Charming did several of these by climbing up the ladder while pushing the heavy thing up as he went.  I, of course, was of no help at all.  Afraid that he would pop out a hernia while he was doing this, I was constantly nagging him to take a break and brainstorm with me so that we could come up with a slightly easier way to get the flooring onto the rafters.  He finally agreed and we came up with the idea of lifting a couple of sheets of flooring up onto the scaffolding.  We then rolled the scaffolding to the spot in the ceiling that was left open for the ladder/stairs access to the upper level.  From here, Charming was on one side of the sheet and I was on the other.  We could then easily push the sheets to the 2^nd level without risking bodily harm to my Charming.  Although there were more steps involved and it took a bit more time than it took Charming to heft them up the ladder, it was safer for him and gave me something to do that would keep me out of mischief.  Another win/win situation!

Charming made such good progress on the flooring that he was able to start constructing the trusses for the 2^nd level.  He decided to tackle the hardest one first, which was the one on the back side of the shed.  It has about a 1’ overhang to help shed the rain and gives more protection for the shed overall.  He designed, built, raised it into place, and fastened it to the shed all by himself.  I must say that I am continuously amazed by his crafty ideas to build things this big with almost no help from anyone.  He has a true gift for problem-solving on any level.

I can also report that both Charming and I are still in the weight loss mode.  Yay!  So far, Charming has lost 25 pounds and I have lost 14.  Our exercise plan (work) and vegetarian diet seems to be working well for us.  I have gotten quite creative with trying to keep fat out of our diet.  Whenever something needs to be “fried”, such as a stir-fry, I simply add a little home-made vegetable broth to the skillet and quickly sauté the vegetables.  These are decent when served over brown rice.  I also use the vegetable broth to make different kinds of soups, such as vegetable soup or vegetable stew.  I also make “veggie wraps” for Charming using fat-free flour tortillas.  I mash pinto beans (or any kind of bean) that have been cooked in plain water with various spices to spread on the tortilla as a sauce, then layer tomato, lettuce, and cucumbers.  I add some home-made salsa and fold the tortilla.  Two or three of these for a meal gives him that full feeling without a lot of calories.   

I’ve found that the key to eating vegetarian/vegan is really all about the spices and flavorings.  Rabbit food certainly tastes much better if you have something to spice it up.  We eat gluten-free pasta with my home-made spaghetti sauce, without meat.  The vegetable soup that I make is usually served with two small whole grain rolls, layered with slices of tomato and lettuce with a touch of fat-free bleu cheese dressing.  (Being gluten-free, I can’t eat these, but Charming loves them.)  Now that the garden is producing, we have entire meals composed of only green beans cooked with potatoes, onions, and garlic or salads with corn on the cob or baked potatoes.  We also eat lots of lightly cooked vegetables, rice, corn, dried peas and beans.  All of these foods provide that full feeling that is missing in many diets.  Although we don’t limit the amounts of any of these foods that we eat, we usually eat only one serving.  Our attitude towards food has also changed somewhat.  We find that we are now eating to live, not living to eat.  Since the pounds are dropping off and we’re seeing definite health benefits, I’ll call that a win-win situation as well!

The 1st sheet of flooring was pushed up the ladder then nailed into place.

After we improved our process, the rest of the floor was added fairly quickly.

A side view of the flooring.  The opening is for the ladder/stairs.

Charming designed and tested the lay-out of the truss before moving it to the roof.

Jax helps Charming to ensure that the measurements are accurate.

After the overhang is added, Charming moved the truss into place.

 

A back view of the shed...as well as a back view of Charming.

I planted onion seeds at the farm.  I'll re-plant some of these "sets" & use some to eat.

Food for Charming...thick veggie soup w/tomato & lettuce on multi-grain rolls.

Vegetable stew made with vegetable broth, potatoes, carrots, peas & corn.

Working On Our Shed, Stamina, and Better Health…

July 12, 2016

Over the past couple of weeks, Charming has made quite a bit of progress on the shed.  After the floor joists and floor had been put in place, he added studs for the walls and ceiling.  When we go back, he plans to put down the flooring for the second story.  After that, he'll start making the roof trusses and installing them.  I've been dreading the installation of the trusses as Charming will be working high up.  Although he is extremely careful when he works, I still worry (that's part of my job as a wife).  I must admit that I’ll be of little to no help for this part, because my legs start to tremble when I get on the kitchen step stool.  This “infirmity” automatically limits me to fetching tools and cold drinks for him.  These will be sent up to him with the help of a bucket attached to a rope.

When I’m not helping Charming with the shed, I spend my time tidying the camper, fighting (and losing) my battle with the weeds in the garden, picking and freezing raspberries, fixing meals or knitting.  I also spend quite a bit of time mowing around the work area, around the house, and around the camper.  In between meal-times, we work almost constantly.  However, I do manage to get Charming to take breaks by supplying him with tall glasses of something cold to drink and a light snack.  Otherwise, he’d probably work all day without stopping as he is super-focused on getting this shed completed as soon as possible.

On the up side of all of this physical labor is weight loss.  In late May, Charming decided that he wanted to go on a “little-to-no fat” diet so I agreed to try to cook for him using as little fat as possible.  As a result, our new diet (since May 31^st) consists of many varieties of dried beans, several varieties of rice, potatoes, pasta made from brown rice or corn, fresh and/or cooked vegetables, and small amounts of whole-grain bread.  Since I don’t tolerate gluten/wheat products very well, I make my bread out of my own special blend of millet/rice/sorghum flour. Charming eats whole grain rolls that we purchase from the deli section at Walmart.  Being the mountain girl that I am, I couldn’t give up butter…or cheese…or eggs so I do still incorporate those into my diet.  For meals that call for milk, I use almond milk instead of cow’s milk.  So far, Charming has lost 18 pounds and is down one size from the time that he started the diet!  Despite the butter, cheese, and eggs, I have managed to lose 12 pounds without changing my diet too much.  That’s a compromise that I can live with!

Wall #1 A standard-sized door will be hung near the front. Stairs will be added later.

Wall #2  Charming built the walls and then we lifted them into place.

Wall #3 Starting to look like a real building.

Wall #4 Front of the shed will have a large double door with a window on each side.

 

The open area in the ceiling will let us access the upper level for more storage space.

The lilies I transplanted in the spring are beginning to bloom.

I divided the original plant and transplanted the bulbs to this hard-to-mow bank.

These will multiply and the bank will be pretty & maintenance-free in a few years.

This Just Floored Me…

June 23, 2016

Progress on the shed continues at a slow pace.  Charming assures me that putting in the concrete piers and floor joists were the most time-consuming and difficult parts of the building process.  Last week, we got the sub-flooring put down.  That part went fairly fast as each sheet of flooring measured 4’x8’.  We had 12 sheets to put down, with several having to be sawn in half because the sheets needed to be staggered in order to make the floor stronger. 

After the first sheet had been nailed into place, I used the back of a lawn chair as my ladder and hauled my luxury-sized butt up onto the floor to play the part of “Carpenter’s Helper”.  We lifted each sheet into place and then Charming fastened them down with the nail gun.  Just so you know, a nail gun has “collated” nails that are held together in a plastic casing.  As each nail is shot from the nail gun into the board, tiny pieces of plastic fly into the air and land just about every where.  Because Charming had forgotten to bring knee pads, the pieces of plastic would jab into his poor little knees as he worked across the floor. 

Now, I should mention that I’m a really bad “helper” unless I’m constantly kept busy.  If there’s much down time during a farm project, I get bored and my mind will wander to other things like knitting designs, recipes, or I’ll wander off to see if there are any wild herbs or berries growing nearby.  In this particular instance, I fought the urge to go to La-La-Land and instead decided to make the task seem a bit more important than was really the case.  I envisioned myself as a surgical nurse (named Nurse Goodbody) performing the vital function of suctioning away blood while the good looking and extremely talented surgeon (Dr. Charming, of course) performed a critical life-saving heart surgery (ummmm…nailing the flooring into place).  I took every opportunity to quickly sneak my broom into Charming’s personal space whenever the plastic fell anywhere near his knees (often to the point of him frowning and giving me “the look” when I’d accidentally hit his belly with the broom) to quickly whisk away those bits of plastic just before he put his bare knees on them.  (I guess this kind of imagined drama is what I get for watching too many back episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy” at the end of a long day at the farm.)  In the end, Charming sweetly thanked me for helping him and for keeping his knees injury-free.  The bonus was that, when we were finished, we could’ve eaten off the floor of the shed.  It was just that clean!

Next time we go to the farm, we’ll build the walls of the shed.  We did get one wall assembled yesterday.  However, due to a weather forecast of high winds and heavy rain we decided it would be wiser to wait until we had another wall completed before we attached them to the floor.  By next week, we’re hoping to have the four walls up so we (actually he) can proceed to build the 2^nd floor.  (I can barely reach to the top shelf of my kitchen cabinets without getting a bit loopy.)  As I’ve said, progress is slow, but we’re getting used to the routine and little by little things are falling into place.  The time I’m spending with Charming on the farm is proving to be the absolute best time of my life!

Charming nails the first sheet of flooring into place.

First row of floor is finished!

Second row of floor is finished!  Half way there!

Third row is finished! (Note my ladder/chair in the center background.)

Ta Da!  Flooring is finished!

My brother, Jeff, gave me some snapdragons at Easter...

...these are a couple of them at home on the farm.  So colorful and pretty!

The Lovely Song of the Cicada…

June 7, 2016

As we alighted from the truck upon arrival at the farm this past week, Charming and I noticed the familiar high-pitched song of the cicada.  It was extremely loud and it was everywhere.  Poor little Jax spent most of his visit just sitting around, looking up into the trees and the surrounding woods with a confused look on his face.  He’s young, so he doesn’t understand that locusts emerge from the earth on a regular schedule. This is the first (and most likely the only) time he will hear the cicadas. 

What Charming and I didn’t understand was why we had cicadas at the farm and not at our current house when there is only about ninety miles between the two locations.  Hmmmmm…so as soon as we returned home from the farm I did some research to see what I could learn about them.

I found out that cicadas live all over the world in any place that has a relatively warm climate.  So we in America have them almost everywhere.  As I understand it, there are currently fifteen “broods” (or groups) distributed throughout America.  Each brood emerges from the ground at different times, every thirteen or seventeen years, depending on which brood they belong to.  (For instance, Brood V in West Virginia emerged in 2016, while Brood II in Virginia last emerged in 2013.) 

When the cicadas are above-ground, they lay eggs in the crevices between the bark on trees.  The eggs hatch and the nymphs fall to the ground and burrow to a depth of up to eight feet.  They live underground, creating chambers close to the roots of trees, where they feed on the tree’s sap until it is time for them to dig exit tunnels to the top of the ground.  After they surface, they attach themselves to tree trunks where they shed their papery brown shells and emerge as fully grown cicadas.  The males sing their song to attract females for the mating ritual.  Then the female lays her eggs and the cycle continues to repeat itself.

While Charming and I were working on the shed, I lost count of the number of those empty brown cicada shells I knocked off of the structure.  (I know that it’s fine to leave them where they are, but I find them…well….icky…and would like to get rid of them as soon as possible.)  Since Charming, Jax, and I spend most of our time outside when we’re at the farm, I’m hoping that the event will be over and done with by the next time we go back.  I love nature as much as the next tree hugger, but a little of the cicada song goes a long, long way.

This husk clings to a 2"x6" after the cicada has emerged.

Empty husks fell from trees into the holes that were dug for shed piers.

 

Close-up photo of Charming letting the cicada crawl on his wrist...ick!

The cicada emerges!

 

Jax in a flat-out run...he comes running whenever we start the truck or tractor.

Spring Time Means Rhubarb…

May 23, 2016

Spring is here…I guess.  In our neck of the woods, we have had rain almost every day for weeks.  Due to the rain and cool weather, my garden in town is not looking good.  I’m ashamed to even show pictures, it looks so bad.  As usual, I grew most of my tomato plants from seeds, but they look pretty sad.  We did buy some plants from a local greenhouse nursery because Charming wanted to introduce a few new heirloom varieties for seed-saving purposes.  Although those plants looked good when we purchased them, they now look as sad as my home-grown ones.  Since tomatoes thrive on sunshine and hot temperatures, about the only thing we can do is wait for the sun to shine and the temperatures to go up.

Our garden at the farm is mainly for experimental purposes only.  I’ve planted a few things there just to see what will grow well.  So far, I’ve planted potatoes, tomatoes, beets, pumpkins, and onion seeds.  (Most people say that it’s difficult to grow onions from seed, but for some strange reason we’ve always had good luck with onion seeds.)  Because the weather at the farm is always a few degrees cooler than it is where we currently live, frost is a real possibility until late May or early June.  We found this to be true this past week when frost bit the fourteen tomato plants that I had planted the week before.  I think there’s a chance that four or five of them may survive, but we realize that gardening at the farm will largely be trial and error for the first few years.

On the bright side, the previous owners of the farm had planted quite a few things that may be of help with my soap-making and salve-making hobbies.  I’ve recently discovered that we have a comfrey plant beside the porch and a rather large patch of mint in the garden.  Since the garden is not an ideal place for mint (it can be invasive), I’ll have to get it out of there and move it to a better location.  Perhaps by the cottage, which is beside the river, would be a better place or maybe in a large container.  I have plans to try to turn some of this mint into hard candy that can be used as cough drops.  I’ll try the comfrey (along with other herbs) in a batch of soap or salve as comfrey is a healing herb.

In addition to these herbs, I was delighted to find a large patch of rhubarb in another corner of the garden.  Charming had plowed the garden early in the spring just to test out the used cultivator we had purchased.  We were amazed a few weeks ago when we noticed the rhubarb growing, as the cultivator had dug into the ground about a foot.  So I’m figuring we may have lost some rhubarb due to the cultivator, but this determined patch demands to be cut every time we go to the farm.  So far, I’ve gotten about eight quart-sized freezer bags, each full of 1-inch sized pieces.  The rhubarb is a beautiful mix of red and green and it seems to grow and grow and grow and grow.  By itself, rhubarb is a bit too tart for most tastes, so in recipes it’s often paired with strawberries or raspberries.  (Luckily, we also discovered that we have a big raspberry bush next to the house...which will also need to be moved.)  Rhubarb provides a slight tang to compliment the sweetness of other berries.  Right now, in celebration of spring, there are rhubarb recipes in magazines as well as on the internet.  I’ve tried recipes for Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble, Strawberry Rhubarb Slab Pie, and Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp and the rhubarb never disappoints.  So I give a hearty, “Hello Spring and Welcome Rhubarb” every time I taste this scrumptious gift from nature!

The mint patch that is growing in our garden.

 

Although invasive, mint really is pretty and smells wonderful.

The rhubarb patch is 5 or 6 plants big...more than enough for the coming year.

Pretty to look at and makes great desserts...yum, yum!

Jax and Charming removing interior windows from the house.

Jax willingly submits to his daily "farm tick inspection".

Charming in the process of window removal.

Now we can accurately measure for replacement windows.

2nd half of the shed floor will be connected after we finish the final row of piers.

Charming let me remove the wood forms from the concrete piers...nice!

Paving The Way...

May 13, 2016

This past week, Charming and I have been making some concrete progress…literally concrete.  A post or two ago, I shared pictures of Charming digging 2-foot holes for the shed that he/we are building.  This past week, we’ve been mixing concrete to pour into those holes…that hold the posts…that hold up the shed.  (Sounds almost like a round of “Teensy, Weensy, Spider”, doesn’t it?)

We worked out quite the assembly line to get the concrete pouring accomplished.  For each hole, Charming would lift the 80 lb. bag of concrete, open it, and pour it into the cement mixer (a big metal orange tub-like thing, powered by electricity…thank God!...that mixes the cement with water).  While he was doing this, I filled up a plastic jug with water and placed it beside the cement mixer.  I then moved the wheelbarrow into place in front of the mixer.  By the time that was done, Charming had emptied the bag of concrete and thrown the bag out of the work area.  So while he was adding the water into the concrete mixer, I rolled up the paper bag then stuffed it into a large trash bag.  Over the period of a few days, we each repeated these steps 45 times (45 bags of concrete!). 

Luckily for us, we found that we really do work well together.  We each had our tasks to complete and the process seemed to go fairly quickly.  When each day was over we were both tired, but we had actual results to show for our work.

On another, but (I think) important subject, a few weeks ago I went to see my doctor.  For a good while now, I’ve been having some symptoms that seemed to be getting worse as time went on.  Prior to the appointment I made a list of all of my symptoms so that I wouldn’t leave anything out when I talked with the doctor.  Those symptoms included:  significant joint pain (especially hips, knees and shoulders); extreme tiredness (I would get out of breath after just a few minutes of work and would almost immediately start yawning whenever I sat down to rest, but yet had trouble sleeping at night); my heart had also recently started to skip beats; muscle weakness in my thighs and upper arms; and sudden sharp pains in my feet and ankles.  Charming had had Lyme Disease about four years ago with similar symptoms, so I wanted to rule that out before exploring other possible explanations for the symptoms (bad things like lupus and/or rheumatoid arthritis).  Charming and I go to the woods each year to cut fire wood because we heat our house with wood during the winter.  Almost without fail, we each end up pulling at least one tick off of us every time…guess we’re “tick magnets”.

At the appointment, I rattled off my first few symptoms.  The doctor interrupted and said, “Sounds a lot like Lyme to me.”  My doctor is pretty sharp and not like so many doctors who will brush off their patients’ symptoms, thinking that it’s all in their heads.  (We women, especially, get a lot of that kind of attitude from some doctors.)  He said he would request labs for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis in addition to the Lyme test, but if all the test results were negative that he would probably treat me for Lyme Disease any way because I had so many symptoms of the disease.  All of the test results came back negative, but he prescribed Doxycycline, based on my symptoms.  So I’ve been on the medication for about 2 ½ weeks now and I am definitely feeling better.  The joint pain is much better now, my energy is coming back, and I’m sleeping better.  My heart still skips beats, but not nearly as often as it had been prior to starting the medication.  I’m praying that the progress continues, as Charming and I have only just begun to undertake the major work involved in getting our new place up and running. 

The only reason I mention this is because some of you may be having similar symptoms.  If so, it’s worth talking to your doctor about Lyme Disease.  I believe it is much more prevalent than people realize.  If you have extra time, check out this link on the Internet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAcfHS51VEk.  It a bit from a video called, "Under Our Skin".  Charming and I watched the entire video after he tested positive for Lyme.  It is a scary disease and almost everyone is at risk.  You might also want to check out this video about Lyme Disease https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFMwMTuJRkw.  I just thank God for having a great doctor who understands the symptoms and seriousness of this disease.  Here’s hoping you never have first-hand Lyme Disease experience!

Concrete was mixed in the mixer and then poured into the wheelbarrow.

24" holes were dug, then the post, rebar and wire cage were added before the pour.

Filling the hole with concrete.

Charming uses a concrete vibrator to remove air, which makes the concrete stronger.

He then built forms for the concrete piers...

And placed the forms around the wooden post, before filling with more concrete.

A trowel was used to slope the concrete.  Forms will be removed when concrete is dry.