Spring, Houses, Fences, & Bees! Oh My!

So much has happened since the last time I posted!  The contractor we hired did the excavation for the shop and filled in a bit of the "moat" where the house is.  And guess what!  More rocks!

I've almost got everything moved down from the house to the storage container.  And everything is pretty much organized!  Thank you to Mom, Dad & Brittany who helped me out tremendously with that project!  This week/weekend Dad is staying up in the trailer and meeting with contractors to get bids on the demolition and framing of the house.  We are hoping to have the help of one of my cousins to put of the perimeter fencing in the next few weeks so we can finally bring up Roxy and Arnold (our dogs).

 Last weekend when I was up at the property (doing laundry & chilling), I noticed once of the feral cats decided to have her kittens in the bathtub inside the house.  There were three little newborn kittens when I got to peak inside.

About three weeks ago, Dad and Mom when to a picnic in Orland for Northern California Beekeepers and picked up two boxes of bees my dad had ordered.  On their way back to Bangor they stopped to visit me at the Chico Farmer's Market.  Then after work I met them in Bangor and we watched Dad introduce the bees to the hive. Unfortunately, we weren't quite as prepared as we should have been and didn't have a feeder and the super boxes for the hives that he bought were the wrong size for the supers he already has.  We had to use some American ingenuity to create some feeders out of old juice containers.  As of last week, the both the new hives are thriving and hopefully we won't have to buy any more hives from outside sources for a very long time.

I hopefully will have a bit more time to post with only two weeks left of school for the summer, but I'm still going to be busy with my summer jobs!  We are all stoked for this new home and can't wait to see our dream become a reality!

I wish there was something new...

I've been super busy with school and work...and thus not been able to help out much or be too involved with what is going on with the property.  We have gotten a lot out of the house/shed into the storage container.  I'm hoping to get it completely finished and organized over spring break.  Right now, it's more moving things down there and not too much in the organization department.  But I know I need to get it organized before we start demolition and then rebuilding.  I know Dad has met with a few contractors for bids on excavation and we have yet to hear back what the bids are and who we will choose.

 It's hard for all of us to be patient and proceed step by step with this ginormous project, but with patience will come our reward.  The time we have taken in waiting for the right time to proceed with each step has given us the opportunity to move things around, change our minds, and make more informed decisions so we don't regret building something in a spot that if it were a few feet over would have been perfect.

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! And all the rest of those greetings!

I can't believe it is already 2012!  We just got the new 20' storage container delivered and I am in the process of moving everything in the "house" to the container.  This does not just consist of moving items from the top of the hill to the bottom, this involved moving and organizing a mass amount of tools and other items!  We have also hired an architect to draw up the plans for the house with all the engineering and everything!  We should begin the actual building after the rains pass!

Did you know...it is getting cold.

I know it has been forever since I posted...actually the day after school started so that makes it like almost twelve weeks.  Yikes!  The pump house roof is officially finished with a gutter and everything (except and drain spout).  February is coming up quick and soon after that we will begin demolition and start the remodel/construction of the house.  Friday, I met Dad up there and we spent the night.  If our dog Arnold had been there we would have been fighting over him to keep out the cold.  It was freezing!  Saturday, we put in part of the fence for next summer (and the permanent) garden.  Dad pounded in eight posts and we strung around 64 feet of 5' tall horse fencing.  I now feel like a hypocrite with all that I have said about crazy cross fencing with only one or two sides...I'm currently an offender!  We also battled the wind and put a tarp over the roof of the trailer.  It is still coming along...next time is tree trimming and brush clean up (hopefully, everything is dependent on the weather).  So long for now.

Gahhh!

For those of you who do not know, this past month has been crazy (and the next few months promise to be crazier).  I'm now back in the college scene (for the time being) and have made a move, started school and other crazy things of the sort.  Unfortunely, for my lovely blog followers (who are few and far between) I have nothing exciting to report.  Nada. Zip. Zilch.  So I apologize, but I am still alive and hope to have lots of exciting news in the near future!

Last week we had both the well pumps pulled and fixed.  I wasn’t there, though.  I was judging Equine Champion Challenge at the California State Fair with my friend Jessica.  So we finally have reliable water.  

Our garden is growing.  Tomatoes, watermelon, sunflowers and squash.  We set out our soaker hose for the lower garden (which will eventually be the main garden).  

We framed out the skylight we cut out of the roof on our pump house and stapled down the tar paper on the roof.  Next week the plan is to put the on the metal roofing.  Then comes the siding (of which we may have some somewhere...)!  

Oh...Well

It's summer, it's dry and we don't have water.  The well is out again.  We called Precision Pump out to figure out what is wrong on Thursday.  We still aren't sure exactly what it is, but they are coming back out Tuesday to fix it for good!  In order to fix the well, the pump has to be pulled.  So, the roof we put up last week now has a skylight! 

While the well guys were working on the well and pump, I did housekeeping in the house/shed.  I made enough room to set up a work table!  I also disturbed a bunch of wasps...luckily they didn't know it was I that wrecked their nests. 

Our kittens are still alive and healthy.  They will hide in a corner and watch me.  I hope I will be able to tame them enough to pet them someday!