Planters

To speed  up the process of getting the garden going, we're going to grow some smaller plants in planters. Mitch put together these planters from 2x12, and I filled them with the soil that was delivered and some soil from the ground.

Lattices around perimeter of house

Now that the house is permitted, we can get homeowner's insurance.  The agent came to inspect the house (just the exterior) and he told us that the perimeter of the house has to have some kind of lattice or fence underneath, in part to keep animals from going under the house, but mostly to keep people from putting a lot of junk under the house and creating a fire hazard.

For the past several days, work shifted from the new structure to the lattices.  We decided to use a simple horizontal lattice made of 1x4s. 

The side of the house (with a nice view of the new window trim)

Behind the house by the gas tanks

The other side of the house

The soil that we have is very rich and light, but also full of rocks (we live on a volcano), so any soil we dig up from the yard requires a lot of de-rocking before we can use it.  Gardens here also have to be raised somewhat to keep out snails and slugs that can transmit rat lungworm.  So to speed things up we finally gave up and got a load of soil. This is one truck load of soil.  To the very left are some planter boxes that Mitch made and will be used for the first plantings.

New chickens

Some new chickens appeared in our yard--a very scrawny looking hen with four chicks.  We have no idea where they came from--perhaps someone dumped them and they wandered into the thicket.  They were very skittish, but were willing to come out for some food.

Hiding in the thicket

The hen is about half the size of our other chickens, and the chicks are very small, even though they have their feathers.

Painting

The fascias were put in the breezeway, and over the past few days, I've been painting as much of it as possible.  The posts, fascia, and other exterior boards will remain exposed, so eventually they'll get painted the trim color.  The joists (beneath the floor) can get wet from rain, so they get painted to prevent water damage, and almost everything that's exposed gets painted to prevent sun damage.

Breezeway extended

The posts and beams for the next section of the breezeway were put up, and the rafters put on.  Also, the blocks between the rafters were put in on one side.

Breezeway roof

The rafters and ridge for the breezeway roof were put up.

Breezeway construction continues

The posts and roof beams for the breezeway were put up, and the hangers for the rafters were attached. The joists for the floor were also put in.

Hole in roof

For the breezeway to connect to the existing roof, a portion of the roof has to be cut and some of the framing removed.  The connection between the two roofs is quite complicated, the cuts have to be made precisely, and making the connection with existing construction is much more difficult than if it were all new construction.

This is the initial cut into the roof.  Some of the framing (rafters and purlins) have been removed.

Missing chickens

Our chickens have gone missing.  The two black ones disappeared about two weeks ago, and we haven't seen the four (nearly full-grown) chicks in two or three days. We don't know if they wandered off, were abducted, or something else.

Here's something to remember them by.