Turn Here Rose (got out of bed to update this!)

Its been a hectic week. But, we have a building being delivered within the next 2 weeks! Its not what I want, but its more than I figured to start with.
Its a 14 by 36 foot 'portable' building that some guy used as a reptile house. The economy being what it is, no one has money for snakes, and if they do, who can afford to feed em? Rats ain't cheap.
Anyway, this guy, in order to keep his reptiles nice and warm, has completely insulated the walls and floor, installed lights and electric, and partitioned the ceiling into an attic, rather than just a loft.
Of course, there are some minor issues I can work around. 1. The fiber board he paneled the walls and ceiling with are warping, and some are water stained where he watered the walls along with his reptiles. 2. The 'ceiling' such as it is, being also paneled with warping fiber board, is only about 7 feet. Kinda claustrophobic for me, but I'll see about that when it gets delivered. 3. There are NO windows. There is a whole in the back wall where he had a heating/conditioning unit that he took out before giving up the building, and getting some natural sunlight is a priority for my sanity. I don't think I can deal being in a building without natural light available without losing what's left of my sanity. 4. There is plumbing, but it all runs along the ceiling, and has mist nozzles for the reptiles. Useless to me, and I'll have to plumb the whole thing myself, running everything under the floor. I'd have to do this anyway, but its a hassle having to remove the existing and fix the ceiling.
All this is workable as I planned on having to insulate and this has been taken care of. A toilet, shower, windows, and sinks are my first priorities at this point, but before any of this can be done, it has to be delivered. All I know at this point, is they will call me 24-48 hours before delivery, sometime in the next 10 days.
So this week, I have been trying to rush and level the site where it will be installed. I went out Tuesday night, as it was supposed to rain 'sometime' Wednesday, and did as much as I physically could to level the mounds of ash and dirt compacted over the last two years, moving the last of the crumbling bricks, and clearing out the few remaining trees in the way of the ingress for the building.
Well, it never did rain on Wednesday, but was now supposed to on Thursday, so I decided to just stay out and get as much done as I could on Thursday before the rain. This is also why my posts were messed up on Thursday, because Rose volunteered to take care of them for me, and didn't know she had to hit the "publish" button after scheduling. She did her best, and I appreciate it. They got posted late, but they got posted, so no harm, no foul.
Then it didn't rain on Thursday either! I was taking way too many pain pills for my liking though, and in order to move the dirt where I was leveling the site, I had to get on my knees with a military style pick/shovel, load the dirt on a tarp, then, making sure I didn't make the load too heavy, pull it to a lower area and dump/spread it. I can't use a full sized shovel without my shoulder screaming, and although it'd be faster, I'd be out of it on pain pills, which would defeat the purpose. All this shit is killing my shoulder, but I now have a time constraint and HAVE to get it done.
I didn't get back out on Friday. Basically couldn't move. On Saturday just pulled branches out of the way as Mrs. X cut them out with a reciprocating saw. Lighter and easier to handle than the chainsaw. Not going out today, but will head out tomorrow and get back to work. Once I get it done, I can go back to doing as little or as much as possible on my own timeline. And stop taking these damned pain pills!
Not many photos, as I just don't think of it until I'm back in town, and then its too late. A little focused on what I HAVE to do while I'm out there...

My Semi-permanent camp. Got tired of taking it down, putting it up. So now I just load and unload whatever I give a shit if it gets stole, and leave the rest there. The left flap is lowered in case it actually decided to rain sometime... That's my hearth on the left. I put a metal milk crate kinda thing on the top as a 'warmer'. And the open front can't be seen from any roads, so I have a degree of privacy.

One of the dead cedar trees that had to be removed. The stump is out of the way, but the branches had to be removed to allow ingress for my building. Still one left to remove at this point, but it has since been removed and turned into firewood for my hearth.

Speaking of which, here are what's left of the limbs, all ready to keep me warm during the cool nights.

The area still needing to be cleared. The front of this pic is where I have just started leveling. I know, it don't look like much. As it stands, I have finished about half of the length. The area is 15 feet from the row of remaining bricks on the left, to that patch of grass in the background. Which is where my pump is located. Plus I still have to remove those left side bricks to uncover the outer foundation header. What you can't see here is the buried pylon footers buried in the middle.

Some flowers to the left of the path from the driveway to the foundation. I also have some purple irises in my front field, black eyed susans, and morning glories along the left side where my camp is, along an old fence I'm going to leave up. Plus all kinds of wildflowers.

These, the irises, and morning glories are all to be left in place and cleaned out per marital decree. The black eyed susans and wildflowers will be allowed to flourish wherever the hell I ain't mowing...

 

So, that's the news from down on the farm. Join with us next week, same time, same channel for the next installation of the ongoing saga of  "Turn Here Rose farm".

 

Late addition: (I actually woke up after going to bed exhausted, and realized I hadn't update this. Hope the fuck it was worth getting my sorry ass out of bed. I'm beat!)

This morning I was on Craigslist looking to see if anyone was selling a cheap goat or two. Found some wethers, (Neutered males) for 25 bucks, (bucks. get it?) but the drive was way to far for it to be worth it. Even wethers smell something fierce when riding in the back seat!

But I did find an interesting opportunity. Some guy about 20 miles away was selling 2 mini potbellied pigs for 25 dollars each. Couldn't pass that up. So now I'm a pig farmer. And yes, I will eat a potbelly. They are bred for that purpose in Vietnam, and regularly slaughtered as a meat animal. I haven't yet butchered one, but know folks who have who say there is no difference in the meat quality. And here's a bonus: I got a breeding pair, and the sow is pregnant! So if I decide to recoup my original investment, it will only be between 2-4 weeks before she dominoes, and I can sell any extras. Don't know yet, but will see.

Now the fun part. This was a spur of the moment purchase, so I had to get some fencing and posts to keep them in. By the time I got the materials, the pigs, and made it out to the 'farm', (hmmm, its got pigs, it MUST be a farm now!) it was getting late. So I did the unusual and listened to some advice from my wife. So this is how they are set up for tonight, and I'll go out tomorrow and work on a more permanent (and hopefully still somewhat moveable) pen for them. Looks like I won't have to till my garden plot anymore!

Poppa Pig



Momma (to be) Pig

Enjoying an evening at the pool...

 

Yes, that is the defunct pool at the farm. I ran a double length of fencing across it, used some old yard furniture pieces off the 'lawn' to fill in the edges, (tied down with fencing wire) and put up a shade for them. The pool is shaded on the wet end in the mornings, and I'll be out there before the sun gets high to build them a 'for real' pen.   



 Now I just need to get a goat...