What a difference a day makes...or two

Wow. I can't believe what J and I accomplished yesterday and half of today with our friends Dave and Bryan. And get this, during wind advisory and winter warnings. It has been beyond blustery.

The majority of the house is sheathed as of noon today. Yesterday morning it was covered in the foam and 2x4's. It made you think, what the heck are they doing??

Let me just say, it is so much quieter than the house in town. Last night the wind was rattling the house and windows. When we were at the farm, shut the door and...silence.

So, Dave was the cutter, and I was the runner and numbers gal. For the most part we set up shop in the barn, which was nice since the door faces east. No wind. Today we moved out to the yard east of the house. Again, the house was a nice wind break for cutting. We borrowed some steel scaffolding and it made all the difference in the world. Once we got to the high spots it went smooth, since the scaffold went across almost the length of the house. We skipped some areas, as we are cutting out for larger windows in the bedroom, but want to wait until they are in, and we are waiting for the electric company to relocate the meter off the face of the house.

Even with the wind, I loved working outside. No matter what the elements (I think) it sure beats an office. And the dogs were well behaved. We just had a small injury yesterday. Ananda, the smallest pup, got a little hung up running through some line fencing. He scraped the inside of his back leg. Like a trooper, he didn't miss a beat and played all day. We didn't notice the injury until we all settled down for dinner. Right now the dogs are passed out on the bed. They played real hard these past couple days. Life is rough.

One of the best parts about the work we are doing has been feeding the crew. It's like family meal at a restaurant. Homemade breakfast burritos in the morning is a nice way to start the day. Yesterday I made chicken fajitas for lunch and had pulled pork going all day in the slow cooker. When we all cleaned up the site yesterday, we sat down for a dinner of pulled pork sandwiches. Yum.

I love the new peak now that we took off the extra roof coming down from the original peak. I can almost see what it is going to look like finished. We will start siding next weekend, weather permitting. So, if anyone is up for providing a little neighborly help, we could use it!!

J tells me I haven't quite told the whole story. Everything sounds so wonderful. We work hard, the house is coming along, building a dream together. Sweet right? It is true. I did edit a little, as I am not one to focus on the negative. We did want to kick each other to the curb for a bit this weekend. It passed around 10ish yesterday morning. You see, fear settles in, usually around the money stuff, like oh my god we just wrote a check for how much and we have how many more to go. And, winter is on it's way and we have how many things to accomplish that we will never get to in time. And, where the heck is my x and the y and did you bring the dog food and enough to eat for six meals... Yah, so, like I said the fear settles in and so does the testiness. Lucky for J, I can't hold a grudge and stuff usually rolls off, after a good cuss or two. Lucky for me, once J gets fed and I tell him it's going to be great after the fiftieth time he asks why did I sign up for this, he is usually quite happy with where we are headed.

The work we are doing now does make for some long weeks, and regular work has been stressful for us both. This physical work actually feels like a nice break. For me anyway. But the weekends come and it is another 10-20 hours of labor only to be Monday again.

When we started I told J we had to make time for the recharge stuff too. Which is why when we finished the sheathing around noon we were done for the day. J made it back to the house in time to change and head to sweat lodge with his crew. Every other Sunday he goes to sweat lodge. Most often he is the fire starter, getting the Grandfathers (the heated stones) ready for lodge. It lasts about two to three hours total, consisting of four rounds of praying, drumming and sweating. He'll be exhausted in a good way when he is done.

My friend Mo and her husband Will are coming up to see the farm with their little one Ronan. I can't wait. Mo was my roommate when I moved to Colorado. When I moved in with J, she moved onto her own farm. They now raise sheep, ducks, turkeys, chickens and have several horses, dogs, cats, etc. Great spread. I'm ciked to show Mo the new place.

And then, relax. It does happen. Sometimes.