little river canyon






It's become tradition to go to Little River Canyon when family is here, but usually when we go, there's water! Not much this time. There was enough, though, for the girls to have a great time and not want to leave. Naomi was slip-sliding everywhere, while Maddie tried to catch fish in a candy wrapper, and Abbey was the explorer. We had a great time, but we missed you all! AJ

Alton and Sherry

Alton and Sherry came for a couple nights. Alton needed a "fix" on the farm. Every time he has come over to work on the farm with me, I have always told him, "When what you are doing stops being fun and starts being work, then it is time to quit!" This is the first time he has told me that his "fun" has become work-- with both of the jobs that I gave him. Take a look at the photos and see how much fun Alton is having. I can't understand why he thinks that this is work.

Cheryl and Sherry came out in their beach clothes and asked what can we do to help you?" They make good job site supervisors. Here they are in their element standing in the doorway of our bedroom closet.
Just so no one will say well what were you doing? Taking pictures only? I have added one action shot of myself.


Hot and dry makes for good framing weather

We had a birthday party for JKAMN tonight -- all five of them since we will not be with them on any of their birthdays. We had vegetables -- peas, corn on the cob, fried okra, cornbread, cabbage, potato salad, stuffed eggs and other trimmings. Wish that JKSD could have been here to share in the meal and good time around the table. The cake is an ice cream one that Nana concocted -- ice cream sandwiches around the outside edge.
Jason and I went out to the house site about dark and most of my pictures did not take but AJ took some today and she will post those later tonight, so you will have a better idea of the progress. The pic above is from the play room looking up and Jason is standing about where the main entrance to the h0use will be. Floor joists were installed today and they will start the floor decking tomorrow. All framing for the basement is completed and now we can finally tell more about the size of rooms and flow through them.
This shot is from the road leading up to the house. The road continues up around behind the house and we will enter the house from the back (or the front or whatever you want to call it. It is going to be very tall!!

I am taking Jason and Kelli to Pine Mt. tomorrow to see IMPACT 360 campus and to meet the staff. Denny and Sherry will come tomorrow evening and stay through the weekend. JKAMN leaves on Friday am for Mimi and Pop's for the night.

Pete is 80! Mimi's reunion





We had a good trip to MS this past weekend celebrating Pop's 80th birthday and Mimi's Downs family reunion at their house. The reunion went well. I don't have any pics of the reunion as AJ took photos, but I do have one from Poplar Springs Church cemetery. Mimi is talking to my cousin, Sandra, from Little Rock. I will post below some pics from Pop's birthday party at Lusco's. It was a lot of fun and I heard Pop say that that was the best time he had in a very long time.


Cayson did the sign. Good job, Cayson!

















Sticks going up

Jason took some pics out at the site today. Ron is on the skidder and I am on the trackhoe.


This was the first wall up and I was there to help them put it up. That is the bedroom window frame, not a door. 2x6 walls in the basement walls.

Cheryl is standing in the double window in a bedroom on the "view" side.

Pending good weather, the framing should be finished in a month.

Almost ready for basement slab




The view is from the "front" of the house - up the hill -- looking into the basement. A bedroom will be where the sawhorses are. The black is the waterproofing. After final inspection of gravel placement tomorrow, the slab will be poured on Friday.

We start putting up the building next week. The sub-contractor has ordered a load of lumber to be delivered on Monday, so the "sticks" are going up right away.

We have water at the barn now. Cows have eaten down the back pasture and the bull walked through the fence to get to some grass in the garden site. Good thing we came along right after he got out. I had to put the cows back in the front pasture with the calves for them to have more grass. No rain for three weeks, so I will be out of grass in a few days if it doesn't rain. I am thinking that I need to sell some cows or calves next Thursday -- sale day.





The bare spot is where I moved some dirt in a low spot. The dirt in the background behind my pond is where Stephen is still spending money on his pond trying to get it to hold water.

Back at Brian

Good to see you on the blog, Brian. Not sure if Jeremy and Kimberly have seen that yet. Jason and Kelli are still in Idaho. Right about now they are wishing they were in a lodge with a hot tub rather than being "hostages." Cheryl, Allison and I leave with the three girls in the am to go to Greenwood to see my folks. We will celebrate my dad's 80th birthday on Saturday and on Sunday we will have a family reunion -- my Mom's side.

The water line to the barn is going in. We are taking the water line from the barn on down to the garden plot--350 feet away. By the way, all that I got planted this year in the garden plot is okra. I planted that late because of the drought, so hopefully in a couple weeks we will have some okra.

The pump is hooked up at the well at the house site and we have tasted the water-- a bit of iron flavor that we will have to treat and work on, but it is good cold water.

We have electricity at the barn! We also have a light on the power company pole near the barn on the road below the barn. It comes on automatically at dusk.



The plumbing is in and ready for inspection on Monday. Next step is filling in with the gravel, then the slab. After that we will be ready to put up the "sticks." We have one framing bid in now and are waiting on the second bid. Hopefully by the middle of September we will have the whole house framed. That is the part that goes quickly. After that it will slow down as we wait on sub-contractors to show up for work on schedule.

Notice the short wall on the left side of photo. That is a "wingback" to turn water away from the front of the house. The pvc pipe going up the back wall will serve as the drain for a future bath in the second floor (loft) -- should someone else decide to have a bath up there and develop the other two future bedrooms.












Poured walls completed




The basement walls were poured yesterday, and today they removed the forms. the walls are complete. Tomorrow they will put in the plumbing in the floor of the basement. The next work will be pouring the basement slab.


The first photo is taken looking down on the temporary electric pole. The pole with the transformer will remain there after construction is completed, but then the electric line will come underground to the house. I am standing just in front of where the garage will eventually be built. The front door of the house will be just about where the right wood brace on the temp electric pole points. As you walk in the front door, the kitchen will be in the corner on the left. There will be a screened porch going off to the left of the top of the wall.



In the second photo. I am standing about the same place, but looking down into the basement. That is a 12' poured wall, so the basement will have a very tall ceiling -- about 10' when we are finished. I am looking down into one of the bedrooms in the corner on the left and the play room is the part that sticks out in the front. Another bedroom is to the right of the play room.





In the third photo, I am standing about at ground level below the house looking at the same bedroom from the opposite angle. The rest of the walls in the basement will be framed up with wood.








Electricity was finally hooked up at the barn today. The waterline from the well at the barn to the tank in the barn and on to the garden plot was delayed because the electricity was not hooked up. Now it is scheduled for Friday.








Jason's post


I got my flipflops dirty at the farm. I helped fix the gate that Jeff broke. Brian helped me a little. Dad watched. Brian wanted to get new parts at Lowe's instead of Home Depot.

From Brian -- we fed the cows and the fish (Al is the albino catfish) and messed around so we wouldn't have to get back to the house and bathe the kids.

From Dad -- The photo is of the forming of the foundation poured walls. They will complete the forms on Monday and hopefully pour the walls later on Monday.

The water line from the barn well to the barn will be laid on Monday, also. They will also run the water line to the garden site -- 350' down the road.

We are all having a good time here at the house. Lots of activity with nine children -- all spending the night tonight.

Footings finally




It took two and a half weeks, but the footings are poured. First, there was the county inspector demanding a letter from an engineer that the footings would be on sound ground. Mind you that we excavated tons of dirt to pour the footing on very solid ground. After that we had to get back on the waiting list for the crew to return. When they did return a week ago, the pump truck arrived on time, but the cement truck got lost -- both from the same company!! By the time the cement truck arrived it started raining and he could not get to the top of the work site because the first inch or so of soil was very slick. So, finally on Monday they poured the footings.




We finally got a heavy rain last evening. My neighbor records all rainfall and that was the most rain we have received since March -- 2 inches. First time since March that any water has flowed into the ponds. The smaller one dried up a month ago and I had the dozer operator deepen it.




The rain caused some erosion problems and Ron and I worked on it tonight as the water was draining into the excavation and footings. The crew is scheduled to return on Friday to put up the forms for the poured walls. We are supposed to get the walls poured on Monday.




The photo is of the pump truck that pumps the cement from the cement truck and spreads it around the footing. The pump truck will be back for two more times-- the walls and then finally for the foundation. That's $550 a visit!!




We closed on our construction loan on Tuesday, so the clock is officially clicking.

New post


Family,

I am new at this, so hope this works for you to keep up with our house construction.

We are waiting on an engineering report before the county will OK the pouring of the footings. We are not pushing too hard because we don't have a construction loan yet!! Power lines are up and ready to connect to temporary pole and to barn. Need more work on electrical panel inside the barn before we can get inspection passed on the barn.


We have TWO wells: one at house site and one at the barn -- right where the fire ring was. Both wells are 200 feet deep. We are grateful that we got good water in both.


The back fence is finished, and we separated the cows and calves yesterday. There is much baying and moaning between the cows (with swollen udders) and the calves (separated from mommy), and I am sure our neighbor will be glad to hear that sweet music stopped in a couple days. I paid a neighbor to build the back fence. He and his son did it in about 30 hours. If I had continued doing it myself hiring a laborer to help me and taking the same amount of time, I would have saved $180 ONLY. That's about $6/hr for my time. It was definitely a bargain, and I am happy to have it done.
Mom saw this house in northern Maine on our trip and it is very similar to what we are going to build. This one has a prow on the front -- comes out to a point in the middle-- and ours will be flat across the front. I will figure out how to get the plans on this blog site. Where the garage doors are will be bedrooms in the basement.