Slowly but surely...

...we'll get there.

There's been so much going on, having to split time between land preparation and getting the current house ready to sell. We've made (and are making) a few major updates, so rather than no posts, I'll post all that exciting stuff too!

After the unplanned bathroom renovation (posted below), we have found another project or two.

We decided to lift the edge of the carpeting in the closet in one of the bedrooms...we spent the rest of the day removing ALL the carpeting in the 3 upstairs bedrooms, hallway and stairway. Then I had to go out of town on business for a week, so Mike 'planned' while I was gone. This weekend we'll spend most of our time sanding floors. Once done, they'll be lovely. I just know we have a few weeks to go.

After that's done, we have a little painting to do, and hopefully we go on the market. During that time, we are hoping to get a fence up at the property (been thinking that for awhile now, but maybe finally it will happen).

Fall - Finally!

We haven't been to the land in over 3 weeks, due to having to redo a bathroom in our house. We are preparing the house to put on the market, and in the course of painting a bathroom, Mike decided to pick up a loose floor tile and look under it. Oh such a bad decision. Three weeks or more later though, we do have a very nice newly tiled floor, a freshly painted white cabinet and a brand new sink and light fixture. Needed to be done, but sorely got in the way of playing at the property.

Finally this weekend we managed to sneak away, and even managed to talk Adam into going with us. The more the merrier, there's a lot to do up there. I have to say, the upper 60's, lower 70's was a great relief after the many upper 90 days we spent working up there this summer. The leaves showed some color, giving us our first glimpse of what living out there will be like in the fall.

The majority of the day Adam was leveling the still rutted land while Mike and I sighted and marked where the fence will go. Adam's first statement after he made the first round on the tractor (which we now call Bob), was 'Yeah, I gotta get me one of these'.

We got 2 sides of the property marked for fencing, and are really looking forward to getting that fence up. Hoping in the next few weeks to get the corner posts put in (may be taking up some of those offers to help ... Andrew). I'm sure we'll have a perfect fence...

Maybe...

It was a really fun day. We had a picnic lunch on the back of the trailer. It's 16ft long, about as big as my dining room so it was perfect. We managed somehow to get back out and work a little more after that, rather than stretch out and take a nap.

We are getting our drawings marked up this week to get back to the architects, and we have a list of builders to interview. It's getting pretty exciting, the plan is to start building in Spring, and there's a lot to do between now and then.

Next Saturday we plan to go play, uh, work again getting a little closer to fencing day.

Yes, I think his tractor's sexy...

And I'm pretty sure you can see it from outer space. It's REALLY orange.

We finally bit the bullet. We retired Bessie back to her little shed, and made the plunge and purchased a new tractor. Of course we also had to buy a bush-hog, and of course a box blade, and of course a trailer to haul all that stuff on. Of course.

We tried out the new tractor and bush-hog yesterday. WOW. We cut the entire 5.6 acres in 4 1/2 hours. If that seems long, consider that the last time we did it, it took 7 hours alone on just the back 3 acres. We couldn't believe the difference. Now we're trying to think of ways to keep each other off the tractor. Our friend Andrew says that won't last...I don't know Andrew, it was pretty darn fun. We'll see.











We only saw one critter this time (except for the brown bunnies that hop out from the grass occasionally). I looked around and saw this little thing looking at me (a little creepy looking actually). A teeny o'possum, about the size of my hand at most. He was very interested in me, following me with his beady little eyes as I moved around. I think I liked Waldo better. (Click for an up close and personal view).


A little Rocky Mountain Spotted fever can't keep us down. Mike is back at 100% plus, feeling as well as ever after our little scare.

The day had started at 4:30 am when we got up to go meet some friends for a 30-something mile bike ride. We did that and went straight to the property and worked all day. Did the cutting and lots of trimming, etc. Yes, we slept VERY well last night.

Coming next...the fence goes up.

Courtney says we're country folk now. Maybe so.

Where's Waldo (that's what we'll call him)

Well the tree line/underbrush clearing is done! After many hours of hard work, we can actually walk/see through the treeline. Not that I'll probably be doing much walking in there now. Last weekend we parked the truck up under the trees, let the tailgate down for a place to sit and cool off, and went to work. We got a lot accomplished. At one point when I took a tailgate break to cool off, Mike decided to join me. As he walked up, he said in his ever calm, quiet voice, "Hey, why don't you come over here and stand by me for a minute?". As I slowly got up and walked toward him I said "There's a snake over my head isn't there?" -- to which he repied "Yes". Sure enough, as I looked up, there it was...all 5 or so feet of it. Don't know how I knew that...just did. We let him be, went back to work and finished up. When we went back to the truck to leave, he had moved on. (Be sure to click on the images to enlarge them and see his little head raised and looking around)

Now it's time to build a fence...I'm thinking fall...I'm sure Mike is thinking next weekend!

Bush-hogging finally done!

We spent all day yesterday clearing off the back section of our land. It was a long, long hot day. Just like the front part of the property, the back part was about 5 foot tall in places, and had several small trees.



So our strategy yesterday was that I would do the bush-hogging and Mike would clear the tree line. After 7 hours on Bessie I'm not so sure about that strategy.

When we took Bessie out for the first time a few weeks ago (a few posts down below), she was charming and cute. Yesterday, not so much. More like aggravating and exasperating. We did get her spruced up a bit...she now has all tractor tires, no car tires, some new belts, and actually has an alternator so the battery stays charged. But that didn't make her behave any better.

I stopped every two or three rounds, and we added water and/or oil. We finally decided that maybe the radiator cap needs replacing (hope that's all it is)and the radiator doesn't have a big leak. Not sure. We ended up adding 25 1/2 gallons of water and 4 quarts of oil before the day was over.

Mike worked hard and did a great job clearing out the tree line.
And he only saw one snake! And of course no picture of the snake. He did say it was long and green, so at least it wasn't a copperhead or water moccasin.

Finally, all the clearing is done, and let me say, I think it grew!!
It seemed much, much bigger when we could see it all.

The last order of the day was to take Bessie home to her little shed. Mike drove her, stopping every 1/4 mile to raise the bush-hog because the tractor is too small to keep it up, and I followed along in the truck. A LONG 5 miles to her shed. This may have been her last big job for us, but even if we replace her I think we'll have to keep her around.


All in all, a very productive day.

Green Acres here we are...

Funny how the more you look at something the more it can grow on you. We've looked at this piece of property so many times, and talked out the issues so many times, that suddenly it's turned into the perfect place for our new log home. It's at the end of an approximately 1/2 mile dead-end road, with only two other houses on the road. 20-30 minutes to work, depending on traffic. Woods all around, a creek about 1/4 mile through the woods.

So we made an offer, it was accepted with only one counter-offer, and we closed on May 29. We were so excited and didn't know what to do first. We decided that the first order of business should probably be to bush-hog the property and see what we really bought :-). So, being very frugal now that we are land poor, and not wanting to spend the money to hire that task out, we decided that of course we can do this ourselves! There just happens to be a tractor and bush hog up at Paulette's dad's house that has just been sitting in the shed since he passed away. No we haven't exactly done this before, but how hard can it be?

Meet the newest addition to our family...we think we'll call her Bessie...

We aren't exactly sure how old Bessie is, but we did find a label on her today identifying her as a Henry Ferguson...best we can tell from limited research is that the last one was made in 1938, then Henry Ferguson joined forces with Ford then later with Massey.

Yes, she's been around the block.

She's a bit tempermental. We had to stop and burp her occasionally, talk to her, jiggle wires, etc. and on we'd go. But not without a few rests (ok, smoke breaks...her, not us).

Did I mention NO brakes? NO brakes.

Only those that knew my dad could appreciate the lengths he went to in order to keep this machine running...yes, that is a piece of screen door screening for a filter, and yes that is a real bungie cord. And you may have noticed her fake front right leg (it's a CAR tire :-)) Gotta love my dad.

It was quite a day...taking turns on the tractor, running right into the unknown.






Mike made a discovery. They just don't make cell phones like they used to . Can't even hold up to a little bush-hog.

We only had one scary episode (no, we didn't consider it scary when the two front tractor wheels would raise off the ground). Mike discovered a hole about the size of a small grave (maybe dug for perc test?), when I say discover, I mean he realized the tractor was on it's way into the hole before he realized it was there. (did I mention the 4-5 foot sage grass). He was getting ready to abondon tractor, and it suddenly pulled up and out.

A lot to do on the next trip.


All in all it was a really fun day and we're really looking forward to going back out and attacking the back 40.

Sort of, kind of, but not really...

...ok, here's land. Not exactly what we were looking for. It's not exactly square (not even close), no green grass, no woods and slopes on the backside (there are woods as you see, just not on this piece of property, however, it does have a nice treeline dividing the property in two). Basically everything you see that is brown and at least 4 foot tall is the land for sale. But, it is 5.6 acres, and it is in the country. And we do have big imaginations.

Land Search

We've been looking for this perfect piece of land for over 3 years now. We decided we want to build a log home and we are sure we'll find that perfect 5+ (but less than 10) acres, in the country (but not too far from town) square of course, with green grass. And of course on the back side there'll be woods and slopes for Mike to build mountain bike courses.

That's possible...we're sure it is...