Shelves and Grout

Let's just say many things are happening at the George Compound and grouting the shower was not one of them for the longest time, haha! For whatever reason, mainly laziness, we put off on grouting the tile for over a month. Maybe longer. But we finally bared down and just did it one Saturday morning. It wasn't difficult, just really messy and hard to maneuver the two of us in the small place with ease. But after probably 3 hours, didn't think it would take that long, it was complete! I love how it turned out. We caulked around the bottom and sides, attached the fixtures and VWALA!

I finished the shelves probably 2 months ago just never updated the blog. Tuned out alright, the stain on the shelf is way darker than I would have liked but oh well, definitely not loosing sleep over it. It's just nice to be able to store our towels in the bathroom for the first time now!

Livin' on a Farm

This past weekend David and I traveled to northeast Ohio where one of David's buddies lives. About 2 years ago he bought some property that had some farm land, a big barn, lots of out buildings, and a big farm house. It's definitely been a work in progress, and will continue to be for some time considering the size and condition of the place. Also, because he's decided to take on some livestock (goats, chickens and pigs) as well as bailing hay. Aaaaand, he's completely gutted the house and is working on fixing it up, all himself (and help from family). We wanted to visit him before winter so since we had the weekend free we hopped in the car and headed his way.

It was a fun weekend that mainly consisted of working on burying a water and electric line that connects from the house to the main barn. We also worked on installing insulation and hanging some drywall. It was good to experience some of the daily ins and outs of owning and running a farm. I'm not sure if David and I will ever go that route, but it's not completely off the table :o)

David really enjoyed the animals

Oh hey buddy

Heath had all females except this one male that he's hoping will get with the ladies to make babies ;o)

Trying to escape

Peek-a-boo, I see you

I'm not really a cat person but these farm cats were my buddies

My sidekick for the weekend

David trying to feed the young goats

Num num num! Sorry buddy, they're bullies

They're so funny how they perch on anything elevated

Trying to get in on the feeding, back off buddy, I need to get out!

Big boy!

PIGLETS! They were funny, so skiddish initially and then were all about you

A few chickens at the farm

12 more chickens at Heath's parents house

Work for the weekend

Assessing the situation. We also added a frostless faucet there at the end

I didn't get a picture but by the time we left on Sunday everything was buried and dirt back in its place. A successful weekend of work.

Loft Complete

Done and done! Second room in this renovation completely finished (lower bathroom is done, pics to come later)! I'll post before and after pictures once everything is complete (shower, trim and shelves left in the master bathroom). For now I think the loft turned out pretty nice and we're just working on rearranging furniture in it to make it a designated office space.

Drywall installed

Taped and mudded

2nd and 3rd coats

Primed

Painted

Outlet wired, covers on, trim installed!

Pickin' & Pressin'

A couple of weeks ago family came into town, which was perfectly timed for some extra hands to pick apples! One of our neighbors has two large apple trees and said we're welcome to pick as many as we'd like. Apparently this was also one of my nieces first experience picking apples! I think she enjoyed eating them more than picking them :o)

The apples blended in so much with all the leaves, but we still found plenty.

YUUM! Our kind of booty out here in the sticks.

It's a black bear in the tree! Nope, just my brother. He was on the "shaking tree" duty. You had to stay clear below or you got pelted with apples but it helped a ton to get the apples up top.

The men brought the muscle. That 30 gallon trashcan was full!

Now that they were all picked and washed, next was to make apple cider. David knows a guy with a masher and presser so one night we loaded the car full of delicious smelling apples and headed out his way.

I forgot to get a picture of the masher, but this thang really stole the show. His press essentially worked by water pressure. We filled the tank with the mashed apples, and in the center of that tank is a "bag" that gets filled with water and presses the juice out the slits all along the tank. There is a gauge to maintain the pressure you want to so after the initial heavy flow of juice where you need to swap out the buckets often, you can walk away and it does all the work. No turning a crank or anything!

It collected at the bottom and we funneled it into 5 gallon buckets. We made 25 gallons of apple cider in probably an hour and a half!

We gave 5 gallons to the neighbors who let us take their apples, we kept 5 and I canned most of it, and we gave 15 to one of David's coworkers who is going to ferment it to make hard apple cider! (The friend with all the equipment got some too, because he says he leaves it on over night and the small drips end up making about another 5 gallons!) The stuff we didn't can we just drank and it was delicious! This definitely was a team effort and we couldn't be more grateful for friends and family who enjoy doing stuff like this as much as we do.

Stone Firepit

This project has been a constant work in progress, and still isn't all the way complete, but it worked for us at least this season. It started with some grading that needed done on the west side of our house that was causing water damage inside. While David was tearing up the hill it was exposing these large pieces of slate rock. As I was going through and removing all the rocks I figured why not use them for a fire pit in the back. We've had a tire ring that we've used as a fire pit but have always envisioned adding stone or brick around it to make it look nicer. Well look what we've just found! Tons of large stones... fo free! Ideally the stones would be set in place with some mortar but since other projects have taken priority recently, this is working for us.

The tractor helped tear it up and the tiller worked the stuff close to the house

Old school

Cozy retreat