Framing party

Well, I've hurt my back.  Badly enough that I have to take it very easy for a couple of weeks to heal.  Nature's way of telling me to slow down and catch up on blog posts?  If I don't make any sense, its the Morphine talking.

Soooo, back to October....we held a framing party!  We had some great helpers show up to lend a hand.  The weather cooperated, sunny and even if a bit chilly.  We worked hard and had fun.  It was really neat to see the walls go up!

Getting started

My dad, Steve and neighbour Barry working on the East wall

This dashing mustached gentleman was handy with a hammer 

Lifting the beams was tricky.  It took a lot of muscle to move them without heavy machinery

I don't think Chris stopped smiling all day!

Break time, in the bathroom

Georges is pretty handy with a chainsaw.  This is the kind man who drew up our house plans for us.  He's been a huge part of our journey

Fitting the pieces of the puzzle together

Youssef, Barry, Steve, and Chris happy to finally get these beams lined up

Solstice and Gramma keep an eye on the crew

Told you they were heavy

This was the hardest part, getting that beam up on the post

At the end of the day, the 4 posts, and 3 beams were up.  So were all the single level walls on the main floor.  Many, many thanks to those who participated! 

Insulating, Backfilling, and Sill Plates

Once the block work was done, Chris applied a coat of tar to the walls.  Then he glued sheets of foam board to the tar.  2 layers thick at the top.  Then he shoveled, by hand, hundreds of loads of clear stone gravel along the base of the walls.  He then laid drainage pipe (Big "O") and covered it with many more loads of gravel.  All this in his "spare time"!  This man works a full time job, comes home to eat dinner then goes out to work on the house.  After helping put the kids to bed he goes back out and works after dark using spot lights.

Big "O" covered by clear stone gravel all around the base of the foundation and down from the window wells.

Big "O" and foam board along the West facing wall

Planks over muck puddles

I don't know how many hundreds of wheel barrow loads Chris walked from the pile of gravel at the front of the house to cover all the Big "O" around the house.  Note his use of construction sandals

He had some help.  Appropriate work clothes optional here too

Clogs, red velvet dress, and hoodie for shoveling gravel?  Why not?

Finnlee makes a great counter weight while Phoenix cuts the foam board with the hand saw

The South facing wall needed a second coat of tar.  The first coat cracked in the extreme heat and direct sun in the days following its application

Chris was excited to use the Kubota on loan from his boss Lynn to do the backfilling and move some of the rock.  Without this machine, Chris would have done it by hand and it would have taken ages!

Attaching the sill plate in the dark

Zander helped with the pressure treated plywood that covers the foam

Cedar strips that the mill up the hill sells cheap as waste wood cover the seams in the plywood

Just this week the foundation was approved by the building inspector, so now we have a green light to go ahead with the framing!  We're planning a work party!  Want to come party with us?

Pest control

We have a little mouse problem.  Not in the house, but out in the mudroom/storage shed that Chris built along the side of the house.  We put out traps and catch some, but there are always more.  We found a solution though...a cute one at that!

Meet Simon and Oliver

Milk brothers.  Simon, the orange tabby, is about 8 weeks old.  His mother disappeared from the farm before he was weaned.  Oliver's mother adopted the litter and nursed them along with her own, 9 in total!  Oliver, the gray tabby is 6 weeks old.  They believe they are brothers

Simon is more shy than Oliver, but he's coming around. 

He proved his worth by catching his first mouse on his second night here!

Oliver is a snuggler

I think he will be a good hunter too

The chickens didn't know what to make of the kittens.  At first they came running over making food noises.  Then when the kittens started moving around the chickens ran away calling out in alarm!  By the way, these are our older chicks.  Junior, a rooster, Dorothy, another rooster, Tiny, yet another rooster, Amelia, rooster, Buffy, still yet to be determined, and our girls, Flower and Breech.
Did you know a rooster learning to crow sounds like a kazoo?

Solstice is in love

And its a very good thing kittens are tolerant!

Its been a long time since I had a kitten.  I still miss Zeppelin and Sebastian, 
but its nice to have cats around again

Almost half grown

Chickens will start laying between 16 and 24 weeks.  Our big chicks are 9 weeks old, and the little chicks are 6 weeks old now.  Its amazing to watch how fast they grow and to try to figure out who their mothers are!  Mama hen, Salt, has decided her babies are big enough to be on their own.  She laid her first post-broody egg last week, and that night she slept up on the perch with the other hens and Fred again.  Leaving her babies in the nest alone.  Since that night, she and the chicks ignore each other completely.  She will chase them away from a yummy scrap of food instead of calling them over to share.  I didn't expect the transition to be so sudden!  But the chicks don't seem to mind.  They are big enough that they can't all fit in the nest at night.  They keep together in a group, just as the big chicks do.  Both groups forage around the yard separately.  Sometimes they mix together with the hens too, but they pretty much keep to their own age group.

The bigger chick on the left is Buffy from our first clutch of eggs.  The other chicks are from the second hatching.  They don't have names yet

6 of the 7 older chicks.  From left to right; Breech, Dorothy, Junior, Amelia, Flower, and Tiny.  So far we're certain that Breech was fathered by Dodger, the Americana rooster we didn't keep.  If she is female, she will be called an Easter Egger and her eggs will be blue, green, or pink!  I'm also pretty sure Amelia is a rooster.  No crowing yet, but her (his?) tail feathers are growing in long and curved and a brilliant blue/black

A strong foundation

One thing we are learning on this journey is that good community is priceless.  When Chris had the footing forms ready to pour cement, he called a few friends.  His boss, Lynn, came over with his tractor and cement mixer attachment.  Friends Louis, Youssef, and John, lent their time doing the dirty, heavy work too.  My dad, Steve, spent many hours helping out too.  Together they all spent a very full day, working past dark, to pour the cement footings.  Lynn came back the next morning to finish up the last bits.  Many hands certainly makes the work go faster!

Lynn driving the tractor, Chris down in the trench

Its hard work

My Dad helped put the pieces of rebar in the frames before the cement was poured

Lynn on the tractor, John at the top of the hill, Louis at the base of the homemade chute, and Chris on the left.

The homemade chute did the trick....for a little while

The next step once the cement had hardened was the block work.  Chris's dad Adrian, a bricklayer by trade, came from Saskatoon to help with that part. As Chris says, "After all a parent should do their best to give their children a good foundation!"  Row upon row the walls rose out of the ground.  Its nice to be able to see the actual scale of the house.  To see the size of the rooms.  To show the kids where their bedrooms will be.  To see your dream coming alive.
 

The side door on the West wall

The back wall looks imposing, but I've been assured it needs to be that high!  Once the floor is in, the block work won't take up so much of the height

Adrian laying the blocks on the South facing wall

Cutting the blocks was messy, dusty work

They cut out the centres of the top 2 rows of blocks to lay rebar in and fill the channel with more cement

The last block!

Parging the outside of the blocks

The last batch of mortar!

Job well done

Well, not quite done.  After Adrian left, Chris and my Dad mixed the cement in the smaller mixer to pour into the top 2 rows of blocks.  Chris made hundreds of trips up the hill with a bucket of cement to pour into the channels

Rough work on the hands

Now moving on to water sealant, drainage, foam board, and back filling.