A Hello and a Building Update...

First of all I want to say a big "Hello" to anyone who has happened onto this humble blog by way of the Des Moines Register article. We feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to share some of our passion with so many people. If you are new here I hope you stick around and join in the discussion (even if you just want to ask questions or encourage others). Also, if you like you can subscribe to receive the posts in your e-mail over in the right hand column.

Secondly I also wanted to thank everyone for their encouraging e-mails and inquiries about our pork, beef, and poultry. I will be getting back to you this week (hopefully in the next day or two), but things are pretty busy on the farm because my in-laws are in town for the whole week to help build. Which of course takes me to the building update...

I promise that I won't inundate you with all sorts of crazy pictures of me working on the house (or attempting to work on the house), but we are really excited to actually start work on the inside. So, today I will post a picture and give you an update. If you want more regular updates or more details on the house we are building check out my wife's blog.

Sunday my wife, my father-in-law, my four-year-old son, and my two-year-old daughter spent about three-and-a-half hours in Menards (hardware store/lumber yard). I was there about half the time, but also spent time shopping for a wood stove. Needless to say they were a bit worn out by the end of the day, but when it was all said and done we had a pretty good chunk of the materials we needed to build our house. We took a few things home with us that night and sent the rest on the delivery truck.

Yesterday was really just a "get things ready day". We built a couple of platforms so we could work on our high ceilings (10 feet), made some sawhorses, hung up the joist holders, and carried all of the materials (delivered on a semi trailer) inside. But, as you can see from the picture above we were able to get one wall sort of up!

The plans for the week include roughing in the electrical, putting up the walls, and tackling any portion of the sheet rock that we have time for. It will be a busy week, but it also brings us just that more closer to spending nights on the farm (we are already spending a portion of everyday there).