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October 16-31, 2014

10/31/2014

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PictureThe screw gun crew- John, Katie, Jamie- saluting the completion of the roof
We have a roof!!!  On the 19th, Sunday evening at dusk, the last roofing panel was installed, just in the nick of time as it turns out.  Monday morning it started raining and has hardly stopped since.  But, we are nice and dry underneath and it's kind of pleasant to hear the drops falling on the metal roof, knowing that there isn't even a single drip coming through.  (The old barn was built with salvaged roofing and there were tons of holes.  No matter how much we tried to patch them up, there were always drips that made for a squishy mess on the dirt floor).  The crew was Bill and myself, plus Jamie, Polly, Jeff H. and John.  Once again, they have our eternal gratitude.

PictureDebbie and Mary building feeders
On the very next day, my friends Debbie and Mary arrived from Bellingham to help out for a couple of days.  I gave them the plans for the feeder bunks, told them I needed 4 of them, and they went right to work.  They are both handy with tools- Debbie having helped build a Habitat for Humanity home, and Mary having built her own log cabin in Alaska with no experience, but an instruction book and a heart full of enthusiasm and determination.  They brought all those things to the Lamb Ranch and even stayed one extra day to get the job done.  When they left we had 3 completed feeders and one almost done- all I had to do was put a few pieces together.  I can't thank them enough for their help and support.  It is so gratifying to know that our friends are rooting for us!

Pictureconfused flower
As usual, I haven't been doing much of anything other than barn building.  Bill has been very busy with moving his office and his surveying work.  We have both been appreciating the change of seasons, though, with the Fall colors appearing in the few trees that are left.  We lit the first fire of the season last week, when it finally got too cold in the house.  We are really missing all that nice split firewood that burned up.  We have stacked a new pile, but it's not under cover, so we are doing the blue tarp hillbilly thing, plus it's not split and it's green.  We just look at each other and say, "at least we have wood", which is something.  And I continue to be amazed at how persistent Nature is in wanting to grow back.  I have seen lupine and other plants that normally grow in the Spring sprouting up all over the place.  Seeing Spring flowers at the end of October is just weird, but I am happy they are there..


The dogs are so patient with us- they don't have a nice dry barn, and have been pretty wet lately, but are not complaining at all.  And they continue to do their job amazingly well.  One day I heard them bark, and then heard some rocks falling on the burned hillside.  I looked among the trees and saw a big bear.  It wandered slowly up the side of the hill and disappeared over the ridge into the neighbor's hay field.  I was on my way to check the water supply screens, but since the bear was headed that direction I decided to wait until the next day when Bill could come with me.  We normally see bears around late September- this one was a little later than usual, but probably just had it's fill of fruit from the orchards and was heading to the hills to find a nice cozy spot to sleep for the winter.   Callie was the first to sound the alert that time- she's really coming along.  And just a few days ago, she barked all night long.  We couldn't figure out what was wrong- couldn't see any sign of predators or other problems.  Then the next morning, I was outside and heard the unmistakable sound of a coyote yelping, very close by.  All 3 dogs were barking like crazy, and it all went on for about 5 minutes.  Then the coyote stopped, and all went back to normal.  I never did see it- the bare hillside has lots of echoes now that the trees are gone, so it's hard to tell where sounds are actually coming from any more.  

Bill is on his own this weekend, and is going to work on getting the barn ready for siding.  I am spending the weekend attending a class on fiber sorting and grading.  It promises to be full of information and I am very excited to learn more about how to produce high quality fiber products. The class is at the old Grange Hall in Molson, WA.  When I googled it to get directions, I found that Molson is listed as a ghost town.  Appropriate for a class that starts on Halloween!  I just returned from the dinner and orientation, and it seems that there are actually a few people still living there.  The Grange Hall is a wonderful old building with lots of history on the walls and a big kitchen that has a still-functioning old wood stove.  Stay tuned for more news in a couple of weeks.
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October 1-15, 2014

10/15/2014

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PictureHitting the nail on the head
Once again, the time has flown by, and with the help of friends and family, the barn continues to take shape.  The trusses went up in one day (thanks to Larry and Jerry, who have about 75 years of construction experience between the two of them).  The rest of the weekend was devoted to rafters, and by sundown on October 5th we saw our building actually looking like a barn.  My job during the following week was to start attaching the skip sheathing, which involves climbing around on the roof, so I only do it when there is someone around to keep an eye on me.  My mother came over from Seattle for a few days and helped out with applying sealer to the wood that will be used for the doors, and being my standby while I was on the roof.  (Since our guest quarters are gone, she had to stay in a tent, but was a good sport about it. )

I managed to get one lower side done, and then our friends Jeff and Maria came last weekend and we made more progress.  Bill and I figured if we worked an hour or so every day after he gets home from work, we can get the rest of it done by this coming weekend.  The only glitch in this plan is that it is now getting dark by about 6:30, so I got some big halogen lights so we can work as late as we need to.  With any luck we will have the metal roofing on by the end of this weekend (or most of it anyway).



First truss is up!
Stacking them up
rafters going up
satisfying results
Skip sheathing going on
Ready for roofing
Picturetaking a bath
The puppy, Callie, is growing like a weed!  She stands taller then Nellie now, and is participating more and more with the guarding duties.  On at least one occasion she was the first to alert to something outside the pasture, and then all three dogs went together to the fence line and barked until it was gone.  (So far I have not seen what they are barking at, but it’s usually deer or a large bird such as grouse).  This is a new step for her, as she used to hang back and let the older dogs go to the front line while she continued barking.  One of her favorite things is to stand in the water trough- I don't get it, but it doesn't hurt anything so we let her indulge.

Picturestarting a new wood pile
Our new chicks are finally big enough to avoid being tempting for Lucky the cat, so mama has been taking them outside for the past week or so.  They have the full range of the area around the house and lower pasture, and are exploring all of it.  The spend a lot of time in the garden, which is normally not allowed, but I just don’t have time to repair the fence so I’m letting them donate compost and dig around in there.  It’s amazing how they all manage to stick together- it’s keeping mama busy that’s for sure.  We are just thanking our lucky stars about the weather- haven’t had a frost yet, and the days are still warm.  We haven’t needed to build a fire yet, which is a good thing as we have not made any effort to stack up fire wood.  I’m starting that this week, and keep thinking about the 11 cords that we lost in the fire.  So much work up in flames!!  My little chainsaw is my new best friend right now.  


PictureBill and Brian at their new office
We have a few other things we’re dealing with, too.  Last week one of the delivery trucks drove over a water line and we had to dig it up to repair it.  In the process, we found the phone line, unfortunately.  So part of our precious weekend time was spent repairing that.  And of course, another irrigation valve decided to break and I couldn’t shut it off, so that was another 20 mile drive to town for parts, and a couple of hours of time.  All I can say is thank goodness for the backhoe!  I used to do the digging by hand, but now it’s a relatively quick job and a lot easier on my back. 

And, although I have not mentioned it because it’s not directly related to the ranch, Bill has moved his Surveying office from Winthrop to Twisp, which is a big deal.  He was in the old place for 13 years,  so it’s been quite a process to pack everything up and get it all in place without interrupting his work, which is getting very busy these days.  



PictureBeautiful orange dahlias!
Even though it seems that our lives are just overflowing with work, we are taking time to appreciate the little things that we love about this place.  Fall is one of our favorite seasons, and I am stopping every once in a while to look around and observe the changing colors.  Although both of our big aspen groves are gone, there are a few survivors that are starting to change to yellow, and there are some places along the highway where the sumac is still alive and turning the beautiful brilliant red that I love.  I am even looking forward to raking the cottonwood leaves to start another compost pile.  And I was very excited this past week to finally see the dahlia that I planted in the Spring.  The ones closest to the wood shed burned to a crisp and I feared they were dead, but within days after the fire they started growing back.  I had forgotten what the colors were, but the first one just bloomed a few days ago and is a beautiful orange. 

As I write this on the morning of October 15th,  there is a light drizzle outside.  It sprinkled off and on all night- it’s the first rain we’ve had in a long time and most welcome.  The dust has been getting really bad, and the lawn has been looking brown.  I am going to take this opportunity to clean the house and update this blog and have a relatively quiet day.

Stay tuned for more news in a couple of weeks.



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Sept 16-30, 2014

10/2/2014

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I feel like I don't have much to report, but when I look back at the photos of the past 2 weeks I see that we have actually made a lot of progress.  A routine has developed, where we have big work parties on weekends, and Bill and I do what we can during the week.  It's working out pretty well.  Our friend Jerry, who is a contractor with 35 years experience has volunteered to help out, and we are grateful for his expert advice.  I don't know what we would do without him!  We got the concrete poured in record time- less than an hour for almost 10 yards.  Even the truck driver said "that was a really good pour!" when we were done.  All the glulams went up, which turned out to be  easier than we thought.  The hayloft floor went in (that was my job during the week- screwing down plywood), and we got a start on the rafters.  I have to admit to escaping for a few days last weekend to attend my sister's 50th birthday party.  I had a great time, and got back on Sunday in time to put in a few hours before the work crew called it a day.  
PictureChicks are growing up!
Our mother hen continues to cluck over her chicks, although they are really growing up fast.  They still have their baby cheep cheep voices, but soon they will start sounding like grown up chickens.  I am keeping them in their separate section of the coop for a little while longer, but soon they will be let out to explore the big world.  They are still pretty cute, especially since they have started roosting at night on the rail, all lined up in a row with some on the ledge above, and some standing on mama's back.

I don't have any recent photos of Callie, the new Maremma puppy, but she is doing great.  She had really bonded with the older dogs, and is learning every day.  Her guarding instincts are evident, although we haven't had any predators since she's been here.  Today she and the other dogs were barking at something on the hillside, but when I looked to see what it was, it turned out to be a grouse.  They were pretty serious about alerting the flock and me to this intruder, though.  She still doesn't go to the fence line with the other dogs, but hangs back and lets them do the serious work.  I think it is only a matter of time.  She is growing fast- almost as big as Nellie already, and only 4 1/2 months old!


This weekend we will be setting trusses and hopefully most of the remaining rafters on the barn.  It won't be long before we have a roof.  I'll post photos and updates in a week or two- stay tuned!


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