This crazy, bright-orange, jelly fungus pops up now and then out of old deck boards or fence posts after a rain. It makes for something happy to look at on a drizzly day.

What Christmas living in a trailer with little kids looks like:

As I was walking up the steps this morning onto the porch, this caught my attention... I am used to seeing ice form in those geometric crystal formations. I had no idea water could freeze into such beautiful vine-like patterns.

This dent in the subfloor is the result of my trying to hang 2"x10"x10' ceiling joists in one of the bathrooms while Chris was doing something else. But I did not give up and managed to put up the rest of the joists ALL BY MYSELF!

Here is the view of the topside of the ceiling right before I called it quits for the day: Of course, Chris kept working and finished the rest.

Mike and Chris work on the kitchen's ceiling joists.

Living room.

After having the sky for a ceiling for so long, it feels strange...

Dragon is finally pulling his weight around here... This is his second mouse this week.

Quick Non-Building Post

It's not all house building around here these days, although it feels like it.

Today, I let Jane out of her hutch, only to find right as we headed out the door to go to the grocery store that she had dug under the fence and was out. Grocery plans aborted, I chased her around the yard until she ran under the deck and found her way under the trailer. The neighbors have a live trap, but it was too early to disturb them, so I set about devising my own trap. A carrot, an emptied out storage bin, a stick and a string, and I had myself an old-school trap. I just needed patience. Eventually, I sent dragon under the trailer to chase Jane out. She didn't seem to be finding my baited trap, so eventually, I crawled under the deck with a chunk of celery and coaxed her close enough to grab her. I suppose I need to line Jane's entire pen with rock before I dare to let her out of her hutch again...

Another funny sight today: our dumb chicken (that's not very nice of me, is it?) decided she wanted to roost on a section of 5 foot chain-link fence. She flapped as hard as she could, only to fly right into the fence. Loud noise, embarrassed chicken, good laugh.

As if we don't have enough going on here: trying to build a house, having a child in school and all that entails, parents moving down to TN and trying to help them out as best I can, me and the kids fighting colds for the past two or three weeks... I started another quilt. So night that I am not completely exhausted, I have been trying to cut and sew the blocks. I think I almost have enough blocks done to piece it together... I'm hoping to have it done before spring so Joe can make good use of it.

Today, we finished fixing the headers above the big windows and doors, finished framing out the closets, then put on the top plate. Not bad for a husband and wife team. Chris was about to make me help start hanging the 2 x 10 ceiling joists, but I'm glad he decided on cleaning up the site and reorganizing before the rain hits this evening.

I know. I bet you all are wondering what the kids were doing while we were so busy today. I won't lie. They watched quite a few videos. And they played outside some. Kudos to Finley and Joe who took care of and fed themselves and Z all day long.

Setback

Setbacks are what occur when you are doing something for the first time and don't know the code book by heart. Thankfully, we are smart enough (most of the time) to catch mistakes before we get in too deep.

Today, we discovered that some of our headers (big boards that go above window and door openings) are not beefy enough or supported enough to pass codes.

Time to break out the sawzall. The fixes shouldn't be too difficult.

Walls, Day 4

A forest of studs.

We have all the main walls done on the main floor. All that is lacking are some closet and bathroom walls.

This is the view out of our bedroom window:

After weeks of dry weather, the rains came. And the barren soil that was packed by the hard play of children soaked in the water. And little, green slivers of life sprang up, ignoring the threat of oncoming winter, reminding me that there is always hope for new life.

Walls

Chris and my bro, Mark, got a good start on the framing yesterday:

We lost another chicken.

Found one of the Polish hens dead in the coop this afternoon. She looked like she had just fallen asleep, face straight down in the hay. Finley and I performed a quick burial, then I cleaned out the old bedding in the coop. So now we are down to three.

Finley decided she wants us to get five more chickens in the spring for a total of eight. (Notice the focus on first grade math.) She still wants some that look like Goldie (the deceased Araucana), and is starting to talk about a rooster, as well. We shall see.

It is finished.

The subfloor, that is.

Chris and I worked feverishly today. I must say, we make quite the team, and have been managing to avoid heated discussions about the way things should be done. I was thankful, however, when Terry showed about the time I had to pick Fin up from school and helped finish things off.

Time is rushing toward me from all sides.
The past and the future is growing shorter in this middle age.
Now that life no longer stretches to where I can't imagine its end,
I am remembering how important is this present.
And in that remembrance, I am lamenting the lousy coffee in my cup today.