Power, Projects & Plans

Yes, this would be a picture of a light on in the new mobile home!!  My Man and the boys got the power installed yesterday afternoon.



A beautiful sight:)



I got all of the painting in the master bedroom finished.

 The counter tops are made of that cheap press board and falling apart.  If you even look at them little particles of wood start falling off, so My Man is going to make some new ones from wood that he and the boys got from a free barn that they tore down before we moved to the mountaintop.

 I didn't paint the wall above the sink because it is old and crumbly too, so My Man will face it with a new back splash and cover the old wall.

Ready for new counter tops.

Hard at work.

Columbus got the rabbit hutch finished - I think it looks great and I'm so proud of his skills and willingness to work on projects around here.

So, the master bedroom needs the carpet installed, and the kitchen counters need replaced.  Both bathrooms remain untouched, but without water that isn't a huge deal right now.  We reserved a moving truck for tomorrow so that we can get our stuff out of storage before next months rent is due.  This week will be crazy busy, but we are well on our way to calling the new mobile - home:)

A Blog Award and a Thank You

Tonya from over at My Cozy Little farmhouse was kind enough to give me The Versatile Blogger award.

Here are the Rules for the Versatile Blogger Award.

1. Add the award to your blog. 

 2. Thank the person who presented it to you.

3. Mention seven random things about yourself.

4. List the rules.

5. Pass the award to 7 bloggers.

6. Inform each blogger that they received the award by leaving a comment on their blog.

 

She was kind enough to put a line through every.single.rule, which I read to mean I get to accept the award and do nothing else.  This sounds lazy when I don't mean for it to, but life is crazy busy right now and I'm going to take the out, but thank you Tonya, this award is very sweet:)

 

 

And then there is Peggy from Hidden Haven Homestead Too who wrote up a very sweet introduction for my blog.  I swear, she brought tears to my eyes she was so nice! 

 

Both of these ladies are a good read and worth your while to check out:)

Beautiful Trenches

I'll admit that pictures of trenches may not be the most exciting thing to most people, but when they mean power and water to us they are some of the most gorgeous pictures in the entire world:)



From one mobile to another.

 

The four year olds moved fresh dirt to the roller coaster - maybe they were trying to make a mud slide?

Baby Man liked the dirt, but he's not too sure about the goat.

Digging - because that's what boys do.

To the well pump.

More trenches to the well pump - look at that beautiful 500 gallon water tank.....I see a hot shower in my future:)

For the drain.  This trench is super exciting too - it means that the drain pipe won't freeze this winter making the kitchen sink unusable like it did last winter.

My Man starts on a trench to his office.

Spot report - No new kids have spots, but some that had them yesterday have a few more today, and the ones from yesterday appear to have lightened a little in color on some people, but not all.  They still don't itch or bother them.  So weird.  For now I'm going to file this in the Mystery Illness folder.  As long as they're active, eating, sleeping and not in any pain I don't think it's much to worry about, though it would be nice to know what caused them.

We're off to return the trencher.  When we get back I believe My Man is going to start on the power connections.....maybe she will have lights tonight?  Wouldn't that be the most beautiful sight - My sweet lady all lit up on the mountaintop?

What Are These Red Spots on the Kids??

I'm calling on all of my armchair doctors and vetran mom readers.  You would think after ten kids I would know a thing or two about red spots and rashes, but I've never seen this before.

Five of the kids woke up with these red spots.  So far, they are on their faces, arms, legs and one has some on their back.  They all feel fine, other than recovering from the colds we've had, and the spots don't itch or bother them in any way.  The six oldest kids, which are also three of the kids with spots, are fully immunized - including for chickenpox.  I guess that they can still get chickenpox even if they've been immunized for it, but they just don't get it as bad.  All of that being said none of my kids have ever had the chickenpox, so I have no first hand experience of what it looks like - other than when I had them as a kid, which I don't really remember.

I'm not real worried about the spots for now, but I am curious about what they could be from.  I kinda suspect a case of chickenpox, but I don't know if there is any way to tell other than see what the spots do over the next day or two.

Any ideas?

So Close

The last two days we have been working hard up here on the mountaintop.  All of us have colds, but the fever has passed - I figured we could lay around in bed feeling bad or feel bad while we worked, so we worked.  We're so close to being done that I just couldn't stand the thought of laying around letting more days pass by.

We started on the master bedroom.

Right after I taped off the lovely fake plastic coke bottle glass dividers someone knocked over a furniture dolly and it broke the plastic.  I knew it would get broken sooner or later, but I thought we would have moved in before it happened.  Oh well, is was pretty tacky looking anyway - I'll just have to figure out a way to replace it.  I was thinking maybe curtains, but this wall divides the bedroom from the bathroom and a curtain doesn't seem very private.

Before shots of the room....

My Man got this cute little freezer at the World's Longest yard sale for $25.00.  It will come in handy when we move in our commercial size refrigerator because it doesn't have a freezer section.

I don't think I got any before shots of the master bedroom ceiling - it had water damage and was falling a part.  We decided to use OSB and then paint the ceiling to fix it.

A four year old who came to visit me while I was painting.  He found this ad and told me he wanted this exact picnic for his birthday:)

The other four year old brought me some sweet little crafty hearts later in the day.

Working hard.

Columbus and Einstein started work on a rabbit hutch.  Winter will be here before we know it and our little rabbit needs a warm place to live.

The ceiling and walls are all primed.

The ceiling is painted.

We took out all of the heater vents to clean, prime and paint.

All done.

 I wasn't sure if I was going to polyurethane the brick floor or not.  When I researched painted floors online some people said they used poly while others didn't.  When I bought my floor paint I asked where the poly was and the young man at the paint counter told me I wouldn't need it - that it would actually make my floor less hard because of all the layers of paint.  I didn't really trust his opinion so I asked another man behind the paint counter and he agreed with the first....sigh.  I decided to wait until after I painted the floor before I decided, and then so many of you told me to poly it that I decided to listen to all of you rather than the Lowes employee. 


I bought a nice roller to roll on my poly - and then when we got home I read that you're not supposed to roll it on!!  We decided to use to roller but disable the rolling part.  My Man rigged up this fine contraption for me.



I got the first coat of poly on this morning and a second coat on tonight.

A four year old waits for me while I poly the floors.

More progress on the rabbit hutch.

Paint on the walls - we're not really sure about this color.  It looks more red in these pictures than it does in real life - in real life it's a little too plum/purple looking than we thought it would be.

Most exciting of all...............yesterday we went to town and My Man bought the supplies to get the power installed!!  He also has a trencher reserved for tomorrow morning so that he can put in the trench for the power and water!!!

I can't believe that we are so close to being done enough to move in!!  There's still plenty of work to do, but getting moved in will be such a major accomplishment!!

The (painted) Brick is Laid

I've got to say - I LOVE IT!  My Man loves it and the kids love it.  It came out just how I saw it in my head and it was worth the extra effort and time.

This is kind of a funny angle because I took the picture
from standing outside of the door, but here's the general look.

A close up of the brick pattern.

I used a couple of old Dollar Store plates as paint pans. 
The paint is oil based and the sponges I scored at Goodwill -
both of them for .99 cents:)  I cut one of the sponges so that I
had a 3/4 and 1/4 size piece to do the edges
where a full brick wouldn't fit.

I poured some red paint on the paint pan and then
drizzled in a little black.

My brick laying apprentice - Sassafras

By this point in the project I feel 90 years old from crawling
around on the hard floor and my feet are cramping up.  The big brickless
spot in the corner is where the couch and a rug will go, so I didn't paint there. 
Besides, without doing that area I barely had enough paint to finish
the rest of the mobile.

From start to finish laying the brick took about six hours, but I also had to stop and take a few breaks, so I think I only actually worked for five hours. If you try this I would suggest wearing gloves - my hands have lots of paint on them and oil based paint doesn't just wash off with soap and water.   Also, don't worry about little mistakes and imperfections - the pattern is busy enough that it is very forgiving and once furniture and rugs are in the room you won't be looking at every.single.brick the same way as when you are down on the ground painting them on.

This was a fun project and really, it didn't take very long.  Though, I will admit I thought I could do it in one to two hours....hahaha.  The floor kind of reminds me of some of the funky decorating stuff from the 70's and makes me think of those mirrored tiles with gold foil in them that people used to put on the walls.....lol....what a blast from the past!

Thank you for the well wishes from yesterday - Baby Man's fever broke in the middle of the night.  He doesn't look so great, but he seems to be feeling fine.  The two four year olds still have a little fever, but with some fever reducer in them they are able to create a high enough level of chaos that I think in another 24 hours they will be back to full speed in their trouble making.  The Rose and Dawsy threw up today, and some of the rest of us have colds now.....and now I feel like an old lady giving a health update...lol.

Sunday Randomness

It's Sunday and three little boys lay in bed sick with fevers.

 The rest of us wait for it to hit us, and I can't help but to think of what poor timing this illness comes at.  It's never a good time, but I really don't want to deal with it this week.  As of today all of the floors in the mobile are fixed.  Yesterday, I got the second coat of floor paint rolled on.  After I let it dry for another day I will add the bricks.  The master bedroom needs some wall and ceiling work and then I can paint them.  My Man needs to get the power in and then, then.....we can move in. 

I'm ready.  We're ready.  These end days in the small mobile are hard at times - knowing that normal living is so close makes the inconveniences of the twelve of us in 600 sq ft even more maddening than usual.  Maybe it's what they call the short timers attitude.  I let chores slide a little.  I let the clutter build with the thoughts that in just a little while longer we will be moving anyway.  I've given up on making it all fit.  I've given up on believing that everything has a place - the is no place left. 

While I work on the projects at hand I think of this home that we were given.  Every minute that I am in her I think of this gift.  Even when I am not in her I think of it.  I sit outside and watch her, looking inside her windows, and think of her source.  I drive up and down the mountaintop thinking of it.  I lay in bed at night and fall asleep thinking of it.  I still can't comprehend it all.  I contemplate our deservingness.  I contemplate the sheer kindness of it all.  I contemplate the magical life of ours that is about to take place inside of her.  I tell myself to not ask why, but to just appreciate her, enjoy her, love her.

I hope that we get to do just that, enjoy and love her, in the next week or two, but normal life walks on and we must keep pace with her.  Sickness, work, and all the day to day happenings that take place up here on the mountaintop will not wait as much as I would like to will them away, so we will see how things go.

Speaking of life - here is some of ours from the last few weeks.......

One of the baby goats isn't adjusting well to the bottle,
so I brought her in and loved on her a little in hopes of
making her feel a little more like eating.

Dinner for 12

All four burners in action....

so I made the potato's in the oven.

Baby Man has discovered his climbing abilities, and he
especially loves to climb up to the computer.

All loaded up.

Baby Man's roller coaster birthday present....the older kids are
enjoying it more than he does for right now.

Because there can never be enough pictures
of a smiling Baby Man:)

HUGE Goodwill score - a commercial grade
milkshake maker for $9.99!!!!

We even had cups at home that were just the right size for the
machine, which really was super lucky because
it didn't come with any cups.

The Shake Master working his magic.