It's finally starting to look like it might be a house. The windows and exterior doors are in. The roof is on each of the porches and the carport. This next week the guys will be putting on the rest of the metal and putting up the interior walls. Then the electrician and the plumber come in and do their thing.
Back porch view.
Thanks for everyone's comments about the weather. This is just too funny to let rest. Have ya'll been reading everyone's posts lately? It's all about this crazy extreme weather we've been having. But what's so stinkin' comical is listening to the weathermen. First, let me say a big thanks to Tammy for enlightening me on the difference between freezing rain and sleet. I truly did not know there was a difference. We just always called it sleet. Yesterday, I kid you not, we were forecasted "abundant sunshine". It's not percentages any more..it's forecasted in amounts!! But get this... Kathleen was forecasted frozen fog...what the heck is frozen fog?! Where do these guys come up with this stuff? Remember the old Parkay commercial "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature" and it lightnings when she snaps her fingers?
I would love to keep hearing from everyone what's in your forecast? What do you expect to see when you open your door in the morning...a slathering of freezing rain, two scoops of frozen fog, sprinkled with a few cats and dogs? Curious minds want to know...
This is the way I've been feeling the last couple days. One day the wind is blowing like crazy from the South and the next day it's blowing like crazy from the North. When I was trying to either open or close the door to the RV, I felt like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz trying to get into the storm shelter but the wind was so strong she couldn't get it open. Where are my red slippers when I need them!?
With all his acrobatics, he really has the horses stirred up this morning.
In the still of the dark, the new morning on this flat quiet farmland is interrupted with a continuous line of headlights making it's way towards RiverBend Farm with still sleepy-eyed workers waiting for the activity of pouring concrete. They sit in a line of trucks, waiting for their turn to dump their load for at least nine others to spread and even out. Once they start, it is all business and they act quickly all working in a synchronized action. 
Hello...I'm still here. It seems like everything is needing my attention all at once. We've had some absolutely beautiful weather here so the house is coming along. It's 77 degrees, the sun is shining, a breeze is coming in off the land and it's an "open the windows" kind of day. 
Concrete is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 7am. Today the guys are working high on scaffolding putting in soffits. Poor Jasper is having to stay on the chain today because he loves running and playing on the plastic layed down under the rebar. Then when he plays on it, the neighbor dog comes r
unning over to play and I'm scared they are going to trip one of these guys...that would be worse than bad. All of the dogs will have to stay tied up tomorrow or we'll have a bunch of little doggy footprints in the concrete. So, while Jasper is tied out in the back, the DirecTV goes out...well, duh, the cable is lying on the ground. I take one look at Jasper and want to lay the blame on him. Then he looks up at me with those "What? no beans?" squinty-eyed look like Jake on the Bush Beans commercial. Okay, it couldn't have been him. His chain doesn't quite reach. All I know is that it's loose as a goose and I can't a signal...so now I wait til Monday for that serviceman. I am not so mechanically inclined but I might give it a try later and see if I can fix it.
You've got to click on this picture and look at it closer up to see her expression with those beady eyes.
Yesterday morning started pretty stressful trying to get everyone on the same page...it wasn't happening. After getting three of the contractors here and listening to them each voice views on how things should be done and watching them remove caps and cowboy hats, scratch heads and replace caps and hats (at least twice), I decided this was not working at all. At this point in time, there were too many hands in the pie...somebody had to go. So the man who is actually initiating this building and who built our barn is going to complete the framing. He's the one we wanted to do it in the first place. Enough said about that.
So yesterday was supposed to be cold with temps only in the 40's and lows last night in the 20's. Of course, it didn't happened as forecasted. It reached in the low 60's yesterday. But since I thought it was going to be cold, I made all the guys a batch of Taco Soup and cornbread. They were so cute sitting there at the picnic table eating their lunch and I wanted so much to take their picture but thought it would be too rude so just took a picture of the lunch. It was so cute, one of the kids told me that was the best soup he'd had in his life....does he not have a mama to cook for him? I'll include the recipe for this soup. It came from a church cookbook where my niece attends church. Naturally, it's packed away so I'll just wing it for you. You can add however much you want according to how many you're feeding.
Taco Soup
hamburger meat, browned
one pkg Taco mix
one pkg dry Ranch dressing mix
can of diced tomatoes, Mexican style
can of diced tomatoes, plain
one can black beans, do not drain
one can pinto beans, do not drain
one pkg frozen corn, or one can yellow corn, undrained
Top with shredded cheese and serve with tortilla chips or cornbread.
Yesterday, knowing that it was supposed to get pretty cold, I pulled out the blankets for the horses. Here again, I couldn't find Bridgets but did find one to kinda fit (she's on the right). It was a little big. She didn't care..she looked so cute anyway. But the real kicker was Jess (on the left). This is the ranch horse that hasn't known a stall much less a blanket. She came off a ranch out of Kansas and when I first got her in the wintertime, she looked like a wooly mammoth...ugly...but in our Texas winter, she doesn't put on near the heavy coat. I thought it was going to be rodeo time yesterday when I pulled out the blanket. I practiced with her some in the daylight before I left it on her at night. She did awesome!! She loves it! I'm having a blast with her. I can't wait for warmer weather and the time to go ride. But this morning before sunrise, they were still donning their blankets.
I finally got the chickens moved over to their new house. Check out my carpentry skills on their little step ladder...ha! It might be ugly but it works. I went out to take their picture and the ones that were out came running up to me. I'm loving it!
Yesterday's weather was super windy. Today the high is 62 and no wind...perfect day for putting on the roof insulation and metal. These guys are clicking along.
Today the trusses went up and the roof boards..I don't really know what they're called. It's all a lot of lumber to me. And the boards around the bottom. So now it's not just a bunch of posts sticking up out of the ground..it actually looks like it might be a building.
e week after next.
The chicken house is finished and here ready for my little biddies! It is awesome and Gary, in Taylor, did an fantastic job. It is better than expected. Now I've been scurrying around today to get it all ready for the arctic blast that's supposed to hit in the next day or two. Nothing compared to what you folks up north are experiencing but plenty cold for this Texan. I see pictures on your blogs of your chickens in the snow and I can't even imagine having to deal with temperatures that low. A strong northwest wind is blowing across this river bottom today making it feel even colder than it is.
If any of you have ever done any RV'ing, then you will know that a travel trailer is put together pretty much with popsicle sticks and duck tape. There's not much to them so they can be light enough to be on the road full of one's prize possessions. Truthfully, they're flimsy as heck! And with that, so is the plastic bathtub that is not much bigger than a #10 washtub. Ours is a tub/shower combo... I don't know why they call it a tub because there is no way I could get my fat butt down in the tub let alone figure out how to get back up! But anyway, ours, for the second time now, has cracked....gee, I wonder how that could be with our dainty little bodies in there!! Because of the crack, there is no way to take a shower so this morning I had to "bathe" out of the bathroom sink, which is comparable to the size of the tub. I actually felt cleaner because I could take my time. Please understand that the hot water heater in a typical RV holds 10 gallons. That's about 3 minutes of shower time. We've just about got it down to a science. So while the guys were out working on the house, I was here in the RV playing Mrs. Repairman getting high on fiberglass resin fumes. 
When my daughter called this morning to ask what I was doing, she said "Now, that's living in the country!"
It should start taking shape pretty quickly...plan for the trusses to go up Monday. Can't wait!
her hand, there is vent sexing. Chickens have their genitals internally so if you squeeze out some poop, you look for a little bump in the "vent"for the males. I'm here to tell you right now that you will not catch this girl squeezing the hineys of my chickens! Either they are hens or roosters and at some point in time, I will find out. In the meantime, it's a guessing game and I'm guessing that Big Hilda is O'Henry. That's Big Hilda in the bottom right of the picture towering over the others. Time will tell.
pe.
I'm including an older picture of the barn. The house is going to match the barn except the house will have great big cedar posts across the front porch. I was thinking of a green front door with a Texas Lone Star in it...but then I don't want to cover it up with a screen door. I keep thinking if I look long enough something will come to me...I don't have too much more time to be looking!
