Sat June 13th... Back from the Craft Show... What a relaxing day of fun!!!!

We arrived at the library lawn about five minutes before the announced eight o’clock starting time. Isabelle of Alpacas-4-Pets wasn’t there yet, so we waited on her arrival to help her set-up her display of Alpaca related items. Pictures as soon as I find them...

Short Post this morning and a Hello!!!

Rush...Rush...Rush! We're off to the Greenville Craft Show at the Greenville library! We could have a bunch of pictures for this evening, so check us out.

And we want to give a big hello for the person watching us from State College, Pa. HELLO!! Many years ago I lived in Marysville and went to elementary and high school in State College, before moving to Lewistown Pa, so a big PA Howdy to ya!!!!!

Friday, June 12th... Come One...Come All... To The Greenville Craft Fair......

All you local people should plan to come to the Greenville Library, tomorrow, Saturday the 13th for the annual Greenville Craft Day. It is held on the front lawn, right in front of the library and if you show up, you can meet Vicki and I, as we sell our crafts and donated items, to benefit the Columbia-Greene County Hospice Program.

We will be there sharing a little spot with Isabelle and Wendy, as they represent Alpacas-4-Pets, Isabelle’s Alpaca rescue, based in Coxsackie. It is a gala event and Isabelle and Wendy enjoy bringing Caleb and Joey (their Alpacas) to the event each year, because the kids just love them.

We will be selling our “Go Green with Hospice shopping bags”, the original “Alpaca Bean Key Chains”, Angel key chains, homemade fragranced soap, hand made perfumed candles w/ pottery bases and more. 100% of the proceeds go to the hospice program.

We also have an appointment to take Casey Mae to the Vet to have her stitches taken out. It has been well over three weeks and the incision looks healed, except for where the stitches ooze a little from her being over active which pulls on them. It will be nice to know they are out and she is healed. She wants to play so bad and we really don’t allow her to because of the tearing of the stitches. Not that the incision is of concern, just the tearing of the stitches causing trouble with bleeding, which will be gone this afternoon.

After returning home, we will finish all the craft items to be ready for tomorrow. That will entail going to the dollar store, or somewhere and picking up a few small, cute containers for the key chains, soap and such.
We need to wrap the soap, drill a few more holes in some angel key chains, install a few more grommets and rope handles in bags, then install labels and we’ll be ready.

Looking at the weather and the sunny,humid conditions, it wasn’t hard to determine that we would not be out in the sun building at all today. The breeze is beautiful and refreshing, but the humidity is a real killer as soon as the breeze slows, so we’ll reserve building for another day. Perhaps we'll do a little wiring work in the bunny brothel, so we have a light and receptacle......

Thurs June 11th... Today we celebrated one of Joe’s Birthdays, Tomorrow is the other...

How cool is it, having a birthday today and another one tomorrow. Joe's mother always said his birthday was actually on the eleventh, as he was born before midnight, but the hospital screwed everything up when they made his birthday officially the twelfth by doing all the paperwork the next day. Rather than fight to re-do all the paperwork and records, he just rolls with the flow and celebrates both days!

We moved about forty five or fifty young chicks from the brooding house to the bunny brothel with the others already there to allow more room for the younger birds. We found about four dead birds in the last two days...... crushed it seems, so we felt they were getting to big to be together and in the night when it got chilly, the scrunched together and some ended up on the bottom getting suffocated or crushed. Now there is plenty of space for them in the big bunny room and they can set on the floor or roost on perches we put up for them. They will be easier to care for there anyway.

Tomorrow we will finish all the items for the Saturday Craft Fair in Greenville, and we will go pick up more items we need to get everything ready.

Possibly... we will return to building on Sunday, when we will continue to build roof trusses and then maybe move to the rear deck project. We’ll see.

Wed June 10th... Two days of sheer Hell with fingers and toes......Ouch!!

For the last two days, I’ve endured raw finger tips that all but make it impossible to type without pain. Imagine cutting your finger tip off at the very end and typing. That’s about what this is like. The psoriasis causes raw blisters to break open, which bleed and then start to heal... except they stay sore for weeks and don’t ever really heal and sometimes the finger nail separates from the finger tip too. Usually accompanying this wonderful treat is a ration of little water filled blisters on the bottom of the feet, which make walking or standing extremely painful too. I try to function with this as best I can, but sometimes (like the last two days) I just find it too painful to type. I tried to build, but that is painful too. Sometimes I have other aches and pains that accompany this crap which completely knocks me on my butt. Today we did make it to Middle Field Lumber to pick up our roof rafters, but it was a real trick to load and unload with leather gloves that protect, yet rub the sore spots on my fingers.

This evening, we went to the library to paint. I tried to do a pastel with my good hand and held the paper with the heel of the other hand. That worked ok, but I sure didn’t enjoy creating an art piece anyway. Sometimes you just aren’t into it... and this evening was one of those times. Tomorrow will be day three of the rawness and I hope the pain starts to lessen a little. The marks are scabbed over now and should be less tender. (I hope)

I still have a bunch of grommets to put into the “Go green for Hospice” shopping bags, but I couldn’t use the punch and hammer to complete them yet. Maybe tomorrow I can do them and we need to go to Wal-Mart for a spool of rope for handles anyway, so perhaps until we get home with rope, I can put the rest of the grommets in and install the rope handles. They need to be finished for Saturday when we will attend the Greenville Craft Show on the library lawn. We want to attend with Isabelle and Wendy to sell some shopping bags and maybe some Alpaca key chains or soaps to benefit The Columbia-Greene Hospice Program.

Tuesday June 9th... No Work Today... Taking Joe to the Doctor for a Check-up!!

It has been a week since Joe (Vicki’s Dad) had his surgery; therefore, we will take him for his check-up with the doctor so they can see his knee where they operated on him. After that, we will stop at Wal-Mart for coffee and some other necessities, then head for home.

We will not do any work outside today, because everything is wet, swollen and slippery, so we can work on the hospice shopping bags that we will take to the Greenville Craft Sale scheduled for this coming Saturday on the lawn of the Greenville Library. We will spend the day there with Isabelle, Our friend from Alpacas-4-pets in Coxsackie, NY. She is there every year with her friend Wendy and they take Caleb and Joey, their Alpacas, which are always in great demand.
We will sit with Isabelle and Wendy for the day and just talk and enjoy the sale as we try to sell a few items to benefit the Columbia-Greene Hospice Program we represent as Nature’s Friend’s of Hospice, Inc.

Monday June 8th... Got the walls completed and the roof started... then Blammy...

We got to work this morning and tied in the walls and installed the supports for the ridge board, then threw the ridge board up and installed the first six roof rafters. We can do several more before we run out of material, but Vick has already called Ed Pooters of Middle Field Lumber for the necessary lumber we will need to finish up the roof and fly rafters at the ends. We had company this afternoon from Schoharie. Our friend Joan came with Harvey, her husband. Vick and I met Joan at Paster’s Chiropractic last summer when Vick screwed her back up and everyone up there, except perhaps Jim, wanted to visit the farm..... Dr. Mike Paster included, but this is the first time any of them made it.
Anyway... after they left for home, Vick and I worked on the roof framing until I couldn’t stand to be on the ladder any longer. Hence the Blammy!! I was done! Below are pictures of the roof, the bunny brothel... with bunny installed, the Bantams and alpacas. Enjoy!!!

Imagine going for a big bite of fresh hay and seeing this pop up!

Lookin' Good!!!

We did what my knees could stand today...

The Boys...

Now that's a HAPPY FACE!!!

We'll finish the roof ASAP

The Bantams

Wuzzie the Rabbit

Dinner time... Yummy Yum Yum...

Monday June 8th... We’re Back in the Building Mode after several Phone Calls...

After a lousy nights sleep and lots of unnecessary fuming all night long... I searched the internet and Vick called the sawmill and talked to Ed Pooter’s Jr., who assured us that the lumber is certified #2 building lumber and that we would not have any trouble. He told us that the law had been revised and that you can build a three story structure with rough cut lumber. This is what I thought he told me previously, but I wasn’t sure enough to just shrug it off. Now we know and we will pick up on building again. Actually, we have it in writing from a website now. Vick found it. I’d like to find out why Richie would do such a vindictive thing as wait until we were this far along before making his “It’s illegal... people can be killed statement”. I also wonder why he doesn’t know about the Empire State Forest Products Association, the NYS department of Environmental Conservation and the NYS Building Codes Council's action to amend the code to reinstate the “local option” and permanently adopted it back into law in June of 2003. All sawmill owners were then given workshop training on grading their lumber for building purposes. Ed assured us that he would not be in business if they hadn’t changed the law and he assured us that we have all #2 building lumber and he would supply a certificate if necessary.
Enough of this crap........ Because we have more important things to do! As soon as Vick is ready to go out and start, we’ll pick up where we left off last evening when this stupid business began.

We’re ready to set the ridge board and then place the rafters into place. Once all fitted, we’ll attach tie boards and then with this all finished, I’ll move to digging in the footer drain. After it is in place and covered over and everything is backfilled, we’ll then install the porch deck, posts and tie in the roof with our building rafters to make one slope on the front roof. Richie suggested this one, which was a very good idea and we’ll go with this one!

The young Bantams were sent to the bunny brothel to inhabit it and become familiar with their new world for a week before venturing out into the real world with the other free ranging chickens. Next week, perhaps they will be turned out and the Araucanas will come over for a week too. We’ll see.

Pictures this evening....... stay tuned!

Sunday June 7th... Got a door on, then had it Slammed on US, But Good!!

This day started out really great! I was ailing a little this morning with back and side pain, (Kidney like pain) which finally worked its way out, so we went to the bunny brothel and installed a door frame and the door. We then closed in the soffit all the way around and then moved to the hospice gift shop. We worked on that until my brother-in-law decided to drop the bombshell that we probably won’t be able to pass inspection because of using rough cut lumber...... He says it’s illegal to build a public building with rough cut lumber. He should know; since he is the architect/designer/builder. Needless to say, we aren’t happy.I can't understand why he waited until we purchased the lumber and framed half the building to tell us this. What else could possibly go wrong? We're done for tonight... hopefully tomorrow will be a lot better..........but I don’t know how!