Finally, all four ducks are laying. We began getting two eggs a day on January 11. Since then, we had two eggs almost every day, waiting for the day a third duck would lay. Then, yesterday (1/26) there were four, and four again today. One of today’s eggs was a whopping 4.4 oz, a record size for these ducks.
ALL DECKED OUT – PART II
A while back, I had a post called “All Decked Out”. This showed the completion of the deck. However, the railing was not up. So, here’s “All Decked Out” – Part II.
We had a few days of nice weather, so I moved back outside and put up the railing on the deck. There are code requirements to meet, but we wanted the railing to be as minimally obstructive to our view as possible. We think we succeeded.
Here’s a pic looking at the house from where the horse paddock is:
This one shows an outside view looking across our pasture:
This is from the inside looking toward the barn. You can see a bit of the finished ceiling in this one.
One by one, we’re ticking off the things needed to get our final inspection done and to be able to move in (CO – Certificate of Occupancy). We’re almost done setting up the kitchen to make it functional enough for CO. Laurie textured and painted it. We have the counter in and the sink should be hooked up in the next day or two. I will be building custom cabinets for the kitchen over the summer, but for now, we’ll have a few cheap-o cabinets just to get by. The bathroom is well underway. I’m working on tile while Laurie is working on texturing and painting. We’ll post more as each area is complete (enough for CO).
It’s starting to feel like we’re coming into the home stretch. Another 4-5 weeks and we could be moving in! WooHoo!
SPOT FLIES!
Silly Spot. She seems to be my silliest duck.
 |
| For the third time I know of, Spot has gotten herself onto the deck. |
 |
| She’s not terribly concerned, just looking at her buddies below. |
 |
| Her buddies are checking her out. |
 |
| She contemplates her departure. |
 |
| And….there she goes. Flying like a real duck! |
 |
| She’s just gotta work on that landing. Not too graceful. |
Silly Spot!
WHERE THE DEER & THE ANTELOPE…UH…INVADE?
Life at the ranch isn’t all about building a house. We continue to be amazed at the scenery and wildlife. We see a LOT of deer. Occasionally, we see a few elk. Only one time have we seen one lone antelope walking down, of all places, Antelope Lane 🙂 . That is, until yesterday.
They must have been planning this huge invasion! Laurie noticed the horses running in the pasture. When she looked out the window she discovered what they were all excited about:
There must be over 50 antelope in this group! They are just outside the fenced portion of our pasture. At first the horses and antelope all stopped and just stared at each other. Then they all relaxed a bit.
A little later in the day we had some neighbors over for dinner. We told them about the antelope and showed them some pics. As if to “show off”, the herd reappeared and treated the neighbors (and us) to another live viewing.
What a wonderful place to live! As always, we give thanks to our Father for these blessings.
ELECTRIFYING!
We got everything done that needed to be done in preparation for finishing up the electric. The electrician came out a week ago and finished up all the electric. So, now we have lights, hot water, live outlets everywhere, outside motion detector flood lights, etc.
Now we can work all night if we want to. Wait a minute! We’re retired…we’re not going to do that!
Laurie and I are continuing to stain and put up the ceiling tongue and groove boards. It’s really looking nice. It is getting more and more to feel like a real house.
I’ll start focusing on the bathroom next. Putting in the shower tile, bathroom floor, vanity, toilet, etc.
MOVING RIGHT ALONG
Well no, we’re not actually “moving in” just yet. But we are continually making progress. It’s been an entire month since our last post, and during this time Tim has put up the drywall, and we’ve begun preparation to get it textured and painted soon. Here is (left to right) front door, kitchen (showing back side of counter, where the sink will be), hallway (utility room window at the end), bathroom door, and the edge of our closet.
We’ve begun covering the ceiling with pine from a local sawmill. We like using local and/or “green” products as much as possible, and have found a sawmill where we’ve ordered all the wood for the interior: ceiling, trim & flooring. We found a tung oil product that uses a natural citrus solvent, and is “zero-VOC”, meaning: it smells nice and won’t give off dangerous pollutants. (see Real Milk Paint) The vertexes of the ceiling and walls, and the compression ring under the dome will be blue-stain, or “beetle-kill” pine for a nice contrast. We plan to build our kitchen cabinets with the blue stain pine as well. We will be attending a class in January to get tips on building the cabinets, and I plan to help and learn as much as I can about the process.
We took advantage of some holiday sales and ordered some appliances through amazon.com**, and received them a couple of weeks ago; a range, microwave & “combo washer/dryer”, which washes & dries in the same unit. A nice space-saver, we have a smaller one in the RV and have grown to like it. It’s ventless, so we won’t have to vent it out, and it runs on just 110, so is also an energy saver. Tim has the washer set up, so I’ve begun to use it in the utility room–it is nice to be doing larger loads! We will be setting up a temporary kitchen, with sink, range, microwave, shelves & enough counter space to get by after we move in, while we build the cabinets in our workshop alongside the barn. They will take a while to build, and we’ll be cozy in the house while we do that. We will also probably move in before we install the flooring, and will do as much of the finishing for that in the workshop as well, prior to putting it in place.
We enjoy being inside working where it’s warm. Our gas stove does a nice job of keeping the place toasty. We are coming along nicely, and think we may be able to move in within a couple of months. Only time will tell.
We had a nice brunch on Christmas Day at a neighbors’ home. It was a cold, snowy day, and nice to travel just a quarter mile for some neighborly fun.
**We’ve become real fans of amazon.com and Amazon Prime, here in our rural location! We can order all kinds of stuff and get it in two days, which means fewer trips to Canon City or Colorado Springs.
TRIPLE CLINK AND READY TO FINISH
We have developed a fun tradition with our dear friend Trisha (in North Carolina). Whether we’re together or apart, if we have some good news to share we celebrate with a toast. We call it a “clink” (think of glasses clinking together). Any drink will do, ice tea, water, wine, fruit juice. it’s all fun. And if we’re not together a “virtual clink” over the phone is just as good.
We called Trisha the other night to report a Triple Clink. We passed the electrical rough inspection, plumbing rough inspection and framing inspection all within a few days of each other. It was a stressful but rewarding week.
Here’s a pic of the crawl space with the electrical and plumbing ready for inspection:
This pic shows the interior walls all framed up. You can see the plumbing and electrical in the walls.
I did all the plumbing and gas pipe myself. We sub contracted out the electrical work.
The framing inspection passed with flying colors. This is where the inspector has a last chance to look at all the structural components of the house before you’re allowed to cover anything up. Once again, he complimented us on our work.
Now we’re ready to start finishing the interior. I started putting up drywall today. The floors, ceiling, kitchen, bathroom, trim, etc. are all on the agenda and we’ll be working on those things over the upcoming weeks. The timing couldn’t be better. It got pretty cold outside and started snowing today, but that’s OK because we can now work inside out of the weather!
We bought our gas heating stove. The brand (Jotul) is Norwegian; I’m half Norwegian, so that’s a good fit 🙂 Here’s a pic from the brochure:
We’re getting the propane tank delivered on Monday. Then we should be able to fire up the stove and keep the house nice and toasty while we’re working inside.
We’re truly amazed at how much progress there has been. We looked back and determined that we broke ground on June 29th, and here we are working on the finishing phase of the house. What an adventure!
FIRST EGGS!
 |
| First eggs from Golden Cascades, 14 November 2015 |
There were TWO EGGS in the duck house this morning! This is a full month earlier than the first eggs we’d gotten from our previous ducks.
One of the eggs (the larger of the two) was crushed, but the other was unbroken. They both had some blood on the outside, and the shells were not real hard. The smaller of the two was about the size of a medium to large chicken egg. I did not want to eat the egg, due to its messiness on the outside, but I cracked it open and it was fine on the inside.
One of the ducks, Bess, had a gooey mess hanging from her rear–I imagine she was one of this morning’s layers. A couple of days ago I noticed she had a quacking fit. Quack, quack, quack…constant for several minutes. Perhaps she knew this thing was growing inside her. I can’t help but wonder what these ducks must be thinking the first day they lay an egg???
IT’S “EX-SIDING”?
OK, ok, really bad phonetic pun, but I couldn’t resist. We have a little over half of the house sided now and we’re truly excited about how it looks. The siding is fiber-cement, and should be pretty much maintenance-free and fireproof.
I did all sides of the house where it had a deck. I will have to put up the remaining siding from a ladder.
First, we put on the house wrap:
Here I am putting on the siding:
This shows a view from the deck:
Here’s a view from the pasture:
We have to still put up railing around the deck, but that will come later.
The weather is getting colder, so I have fewer hours in the day where I can get out and work. Oh well, I work outside when I can. In bad weather, I’ll be able to work on the inside putting up interior walls, roughing in plumbing and electrical, etc.
We’re really amazed at the progress to date. Not bad for a couple of amateurs.
- Note from Laurie: Last night Tim called some neighbors to ask a question, and when the wife handed the phone over to the husband, we heard her say, “It’s the round house people!” I guess that’s how we’ll be known around here! By the way, I think Tim does great work, eh?
LIGHTS FOR EGGS
The ducks are now 21 weeks old. I love the way their color camouflages them to protect them from predators. This is one of their favorite hangouts. Can you count all five? (Where’s Waldo?)
On Monday (10/26) I put a timer on a light in the duck house. It’s coming on just before dawn right now, and each week I’ll increase the amount of light they get until they’ve got at least 14 hours of light per day. Hopefully they will think it’s becoming spring, and this will stimulate egg production. We’ve also gotten a thermostat to put on a heat lamp, so on the coldest nights they’ll have some warmth. How pampered they are!
It was 17 degrees in the morning a couple of days ago, but usually around 25-30. I’m beginning to have to break up the ice in their water bowl each morning, and sometimes their pool. Eventually I will stop filling the pool, but as long as it melts during the day, I’ll let them continue to enjoy it. Soon we’ll be adding the water heater to their bowl, so at least they’ll be able to drink and dip their heads.