Not a barn, but a raising

From crete to walls

This week's updates include pouring cement, standing walls and dogs helping out.

Here's where my bed will be in just a few months...

First floor walls start to come together...



Stoli helps out around the job site by attracting all the deer flies away from the crew.


And after a hard day's work at the property, Jordy curls himself up for some doggy dreaming.

House update: $18k in one weekend edition

So what have we been up to? How about spending $18,000 in one weekend!!??!! Yup, to take advantage of Vermont's tax-free weekend, we bought all of our windows and appliances this weekend.

Other exciting news -- the slab is poured. We have foundation. On to the framing! Seth and I were up there today putting the last foamboard insulation piecs around the foundation base and marking out windows and beam locations so they can start framing tomorrow.

Some visuals to go along with where we are at...

The well line goes in to the foundation:
Two views of our bomb shelter -- I mean, bunker basement:

First floor before the pour, with the radiant tubes:
Our view
Where our poop will go when we flush
Meanwhile, back at the ranch.... Magee North goes into full bloom. The rockwall deck garden is particularly beautiful this year.

Site work underway!

So this week we began the daunting, exciting and terrifying job of building our new home. Started on Monday with clearing and digging a hole. Thursday we were milling things up on site. By Friday we wrapped up loan stuff with the bank and on Saturday they hauled away our extra wood. We pour teh foundation walls on Monday!

The future front yard...
Our hole in the ground...
View from our hole in the ground to the southeast...
Our log pile AFTER we milled up about as much as you see here...
Seth and our future posts and beams...
What can I say? The man's got some WOOD!
A farewell to the remaining 2/3rds we didn't need to mill up...
All those years of playing with Lincoln Logs pays off...
This was the second completely loaded double trailer of logs we sold off.

Now, on to foundation walls, drilling a well and framing!

My new hybrid!

Driving down to town today I averaged 80 miles per gallon!! (Ok, it dropped to 46 mpg on the uphill way home, but still....)


With gas prices the way they are, I stand to save OVER $1500 in gas between now and the end of the year!!

Override Douglas's Campaign Finance Veto!

Jim Douglas said himself that he doesn't care about the facts -- that this reform would help make our elections MORE competitive, not less. Hear for yourself:

Gruesome Seth carnage and adorable Jordy

Two very different things, indeed. First, the cute stuff...



And loving his daddy...



And now for the carnage. WARNING -- not for the faint of heart. The left-overs of Seth's fingers after they got sucked into the stone grinder at work tuning skis on Wednesday...

Video of Jordy and Lucy at play

Some video of the two little ones at play.

More from the pack

And here I thought Stoli was going to be grumpy...the boys are getting along just fine.

Who says we only like dogs? Here's a visitor of a different kind, whooo was perched in the yard yesterday afternoon.

Our Best Xmas Gift

With mom...

With Dad...


With his new beggin' buddy Bailey at the kitchen's edge...


Catching some midday sunshine nappies...


And just lounging around with the pack.

Settling in to his new home

So Jordy is settling in quite well with his new pack. Lucy is only having a slight issue with not being the smallest anymore...it's a battle of "Who can be cuter?"

Jordy's Homecoming!

In the small window of 36 hours between Friday and Saturday nigth after teh first bout of snow and before the big noreaster hit last night, I drove down to NJ and back in order to pick up the newest member of our pack, Jordy!



Thanks so much to Jacki Lugg and everyone at RatResQ for helping save Jordy from an unfortunate fate and helping him to find his new forever home with us. For the 7 hour drive home yesterday, he started off in the passenger seat....for about 10 minutes...



...until he moved to his permanent snuggle spot for the rest of the drive -- my lap (not an easy thing to navigate driving a stick shift with a 25 lb. dog in your lap!). It was great bonding time for us.

Introductions to the rest of his new pack went well -- not a growl or grumble. Jordy's inquisitive nature is cute, and at least as of yet, has not gotten him into any trouble. He's a smart dog, and clever indeed. He'll keep us on our toes, and I bet he and Lucy will make a great team on adventures.

He slept last night wedged between Seth and I in bed, even after Stoli hopped up on bed with us this morning. Clearly, the king is keeping an open mind about this new little creature cuddling his mom. Jordy is happy, already well-adjusted and ready to settle in.

More stories to come!

Our new pup to be!

We pick him up down in NJ next Saturday!!!