Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Monday, June 28, 2010

The second cabin is in place! Praise the Lord! I have been holding my breath in near panic over this second cabin. Until they actually came down with it to where the first cabin was put, I was nervous. Husband had worked so hard getting ready for it trying to clear out everything that gave the “Cabin Boy” (Hannah’s term) problems. If they were still there, he would have not delivered it. But he showed up and with a helper to help guid him down the trail. The path we cut is half a mile long and he delivered it using the mule like he did the first time. I don’t think the mule was ever meant to be driven half a mile one way like that. He also straightened out the first cabin, and leveled them both so they are very close to being the same height. (A lot of cinder block was used and we will have to get more just to make sure there is enough support underneath.)

Tomorrow, we are going to move the goats and the trailer up there. The camper will eventually be my office and used as “guest quarters” when we have people come to stay with us. The goat section is set up. We will just need to put the goats up there. We are going to eat one rabbit and release the others. If they make it, great. If they become food for another animal, fine. But they were abandoned and we’ve done rabbits before. I have no desire to raise rabbits, was never asked to care for them or if we even wanted them when the other family left. They require too much special care and not having the ability to free range (even in an enclosed pen like the chickens and goats) is not an ethical quality I can do. I can barely tolerate having to pen animals. Granted, it is a wide open pen and they have lots of room to run and play, but they are still penned. But outright caged animals rubs me wrong. If we want rabbit meat, we will hunt them in early winter and stock up on rabbit meat. Otherwise, we won’t have any. How many times have I ranted about confined animal meat and here we were basically forced to continue it? I don’t think so. As I said, they will either survive or they won’t. But I will not continue to keep them caged. That goes back to that whole compromising our morals and values thing I was talking about. I had talked extensively about various options to “free” the rabbits so they can have a normal hoppy life, but I was shot down, laughed at, made fun of, and ridiculed over the very concept. But they were not our rabbits so I couldn’t force the issue very far. Well, now they are and while I would love to set up a “free range” area for the rabbits, quite frankly I don’t have the time or the energy. I still need to set up the chicken area and move our broody without disturbing her or her nest too much and ruining her broody cycle. Especially if we want healthy chicks.

I had it out with our tenant this morning. Come Thursday (the 1st) he will be three months behind. He kept making one excuse after another and even tried to pull the whole if we only had access to a fax machine, he would have money for us. Excuse me, but this is a town of less than three hundred. I can’t just run into town to pick up a package of socks. That requires planning and a two hour trip. What makes you think there is a fax machine here? I also told him that regardless of why we might need the money he owes us, he still owes us. We have been more than patient with him. Even though it is in the contract to charge late fees, we never have. Bottom line - Come Thursday, you will owe us $1200. We will be in town late Thursday night and at your front door early Friday morning. Anyone else would have had his butt out in the street a long time ago with the number of times he has been late with payment. Be thankful we are the landlords and have a lot of patience. I also said we will be at his front door early Friday morning. Amazingly enough, he said he will have money for us and that he already has some. We’ll see. I doubt it will be the full amount owed. Thankfully, we have never become dependent upon his paying his rent. We use the money for extras. Things like “Oh, look. The ER bill came in.” Or “Oh, gee. This and this need to be replaced.” If we depended upon it for monthly bills, we would have been out of luck a long time ago.

Anyway, the children are playing and my husband is making burgers for supper so I am going to enjoy making goo-goo eyes at him as he slaves over a hot griddle.





Tuesday, June 29, 2010

We are currently taking our “boo-boo truck” to get estimates on it. We finally got a hold of the claims department and got a claim number. It was also confirmed that we have a $0.00 deductible which is what we pay for. I set it up for a $0.00 deductible when I initially got our insurance. I just pray that Allstate does better with this than they did with the house.

Hannah: Charlie’s picking me!
Charlie: I’m not picking. I’m pinching. (As if that is supposed to be better.)

We’ve been talking about the future with the cabins and our plans for the interior and the exterior. One of the things we are wanting to do is have a small orchard of fruit trees. This is something we have been wanting for years but have never really gotten around to. Maybe now we will. We will have to fence them off to keep the deer out. We were also discussing a root cellar of some kind and how to go about setting one up. We are still working out the details fo that. That is at least a year off since we are not having a garden this year. There is no way with all the work we have to do still. Granted the most labor intensive and scary work is done, but we still have windmills to set up and solar panels to set up.

Before fall/hunting season, we have to explore and mark the perimeter and spray purple paint. Purple paint around here is as good as and as legal as “No Hunting” signs. If you hunt our property, it is by invitation only. In other words, I know you very well, like and respect you, and would trust you near my children with a loaded gun. There are people I know, like, and respect, but would not trust alone with a loaded gun much less near my children. There are people I trust near my children with a loaded gun (that is they know how to handle a firearm no problem) but I have zero respect for them.

Among the things to do today when we get back from Forsyth is moving the goats. We have the area set up. We get them moved up there, come back, get the fence that they are in, move it up, get it set up, and move the boys in. Get the boys and girls separated. We are also going to need to round up the chickens. That’ll be fun! (Not.)

Next time I have internet service for more than a few minutes, I must look up wind turbines. That will be our next big purchase. I remember them being less than $1,000. I just don’t remember how much and I need to figure that in and save for it. We want two of them. One thing is for sure. It looks like horses are going

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

From SIL/Auntie Barb...Saw on TV that you can use lion pee to keep away deer, foxes, coyotes, etc. Now all you have to do is hunt for the mountain lion's scant again and sniff around for the urine. You can buy it also. May if they collected it from some of those big lions from Africa it might scare the mountain lion off. Tell the kids am waiting impatiently to see them!!
Love to all. PS You know I'm kidding about the lion pee right?