First a quick update on Diane's chickens. They are doing great and all have made it to pullethood. Our neighbor took his 9, so we are down to 18 layers. However, we think it will be 17 layers, because one of them is really looking like a rooster. Here are two pictures we took back at the beginning of April. They look like full grown hens now, but I don't have any recent pictures.
Here is the site we chose to use. The stick is the middle of the garden. That was the middle of April. Here is the layout for the garden. Both of these pictures were taken while I was standing facing south next to the woodshed. The shadow in the second one is the house. As you can tell we are doing raised beds, which meant bring in lots of soil mix. Not shown in the second picture is our area for the trellises. But you can see those in the third shot. You can also see some of our frost hardy plants already in the ground. Since this last picture, we have finished filling the beds, putting in the fruit, and many of the vegetables. But that did not happen until May. I don't have current pictures of the garden either. Jon's folks are here and they helped us with the last big planting. There will be one more after they leave, and then several smaller plantings through out the growing season.
Towards the end of April,
we gave up on trying to paint the inside of the house ourselves. Between planning the barn and garden, and getting things ready for each, we just are out of time. We started with Diane's room and then did the living room. We sponged painted the far wall of her room and the slanty ceiling pieces - that we did ourselves. Then had the rest painted purple. I was hoping to show what it looks like, but we haven't gotten her room fully put together again. Even so, here are pictures of her room as we were doing it. There is white primer on the walls covering the interesting yellow color.
There is no such thing as a "bad" color. But it is amazing the difference a color you do like makes to a room. Her room seems so much more cheerful now. I've included a picture of what it looked like when the previous owners were still here. As soon as we get it up completely back together I post those pictures as well.
Here is a picture of how the living room looked before,
and then two of it in the process of painting. Jon nearly has the bookcases finished. He still hasn't had time for the doors. They look wonderful. This picture is with the primer, not the actual color which is dark green. As you can see the house will look quite different after we are finished with it. We hope to continue with the painting in June, but first we must meet some other time lines.We also had the barn started.
Which is something we have waited for in anticipation. Not only will it house Diane's chickens, which are currently living in the garage. It will house our llamas. The painting and the barn started the same. But the week before Jon and I cleared most of the trees from the area where the barn is being built. We were hoping to build it behind the garage, but with the cost of everything rising, we decided to build it next to the garage on the far side. I thought I had taken pictures of the area before we started, but I can't find them.
So here is one taken last fall just before snow hit. The barn is being built just to the left of the white tarp. The second one kind of gives you an idea of how it is located with the house. Third picture is the footings. The last two show the last two days of progress on the barn.
That really sums things up. We have also joined the local homeschool group and are getting involved there. I am helping with a 3 day teen workshop for community theater. Rehearsals for the summer play start in a few short weeks. And soon we will be doing Llama Drill Team at a local fair. As I said, Jon's folks are staying with us for two weeks and will be leaving on Memorial Day to go home. We have not been lazy to say the least.
