A little pause before the big move

Well, it looks as though we may have sold our Shawnee house, which is awesome! So within a month we will be down to one house payment :-)

It also means we have A LOT of stuff to move in a few weeks. And we have a few more things to finish up here at the farm before we can close on the mortgage here. Hmmm. Generally, we are, well, we're overwhelmed.

After visiting with the bankers about the new house, we swallowed our disappointment and hustled to finish up a couple of things quickly. And now we are waiting to hear what else they need.

We've also prepped a little for the move. Brent will be installing a floor in our attic storage space on Saturday. That will give us space for boxes that can be lifted up the stairs. And we finished up the last closet in the master bedroom.

While Brent is installing the attic floor, I will be packing boxes and clearing out our master bedroom and bathroom at the Shawnee house. Sunday, with the help of my step-dad Pete and his van, some of the furniture will move.

I think the next 3 weekends will be about the same.

Meanwhile, just to keep us smiling, I've been snapping some pictures of the silly, fuzzy boys in our backyard.

The most endearing alpaca pose (sniffing my face).
This is Mr. "T".

Loki and Tigger practicing synchronized chewing.

An alpaca argument (always over food-because there are no girls).
That is Toby on the left.

Mr "T" looking like the boss
(this is my new wallpaper on my phone)

Tigger (foreground) and Tuscany.
Tigger's dad was a mystery until now. I think Tuscany was the guy.

Especially when I found them kissing!
Just kidding. They probably accidentally bumped into each other.

Progress on the barn

Brent, Jeremy and I had a long weekend due to the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday. So we took the opportunity to tackle one very difficult part of the barn construction - the roof.

Brent and Jeremy applying metal to the south side of the roof.

Really, it was almost all Brent and Jeremy. There are some real disadvantages to being short. Their long limbs worked much more efficiently than my short ones moving between trusses and handing metal and tools across long distances.

We started on the north side of the building on Saturday. We spent over half a day on Friday reviewing the plans and researching the application of metal trim and insulation. So we understood the sequence of application and where adjustments would be needed to the framing.

There was also a problem to solve: how to stand on the roof to attach the metal after the bubble wrap insulation was applied. You can see in the photo above that Brent devised a ladder that could be moved as each metal panel was attached.

As luck would have it our first day, Saturday, was incredibly windy! That helped us understand the need for those other boards you see on the roof in the picture. Those are helping hold the insulation down. The staples we used are no match for the wind. The north side blew off in a couple of places before we got it covered with metal. But it still looks good.

The alpacas don't know what to think of their new space yet. They seem to be wondering why we have things in the way of their favorite bathroom spot :-)

Remember that fiber that I've been processing?

It's a hat!

 It took me a year but I finally converted the first bits of hand-spinning into a hat :-)

This picture show all of the colors.

When I started learning about alpaca fiber, I was very curious to know what a spinner would think of it. So, as we visited some alpaca owners, I would ask if I could purchase some fiber. All of them just gave me fiber in various amount (sometimes A LOT).

The first, white, fiber I received was already processed into roving. That is the very top of the hat and was my very first attempt at spinning. The rest of the hat was either combed or carded by hand and then spun with a drop spindle into a single ply yarn. Here is a link to the blog post about processing suri fiber and processing huacaya fiber.

My hat is very heavy and very soft. And, best of all, it is all natural alpaca colors - nothing is dyed.

My next creations will be from our very own alpacas. Because they rolled in cockleburs in 2013, their 2014 shearing could not be sent out for mechanical processing. So when I brought them home, I also got their fiber (in seven large trash bags) for hand processing and spinning.

I have a lot of fun ahead of me :-)

Another weekend of barn building

Brent and the boys (except Skylr) worked on the barn over the weekend and made a lot of progress. They installed all of the roof trusses!

Blaine, Logan and Jeremy working on the trusses.

We had several showings at our old house in Shawnee and I needed to move some of the house plants, so I wasn't around to see them putting the trusses up. But sure love the look of their work. After this photo was taken they continued attaching the horizontal braces (purlins). And, now, our barn is ready for the metal.

Brent and I plan to cover the main barn with insulation and metal this weekend. That will give the alpacas a dry spot to be while we built the lean-to roof (the area that is now covered by a tarp).

Hope our fuzzy guys like the new digs!

Nice weather means work outside...

Finally, there were a couple of warm days over our holiday break from work. Brent took the opportunity to tackle a big job - the roof trusses for the barn. I helped a little but, mostly, Brent, Jeremy and Blaine did all the barn work.

Brent cutting off the last 6 poles.

The first truss is up!

In all, 3 of the 7 trusses were raised yesterday.

While the guys were working on the barn, I piddled around and tried to stay busy. One of the projects I landed on was making a feeder for the alpacas. Here's what I came up with:

My first try at an alpaca feeder. I only had to cut 3 boards!

My feeder was made entirely out of lumber from the construction waste. We have a lot of good lumber. The challenge was finding the right size pieces rather than cutting more up and leaving more waste.

My little project didn't make a dent in our piles of waste.
I better get started on that chicken coop!

In addition, Jeremy helped me extend the space the alpacas have available for grazing. We doubled the size of their space and they seemed ecstatic! I think it was the first time I saw them run. It was also the first time I realized how easy it is to contain them. It took several tries to convince them they could move past the old fence posts.

 At the end of the day yesterday, this is how the alpacas' enclosure looked. Their temporary roof was back in place, but you can see the beginnings of the "real" roof to come. Their feeder is in their barn and they have new grass to graze.

Lots of progress for the alpacas.

I'd say we had a productive couple of days :-)

Closets

Living in our new home has been great but we still have a lot to finish up - like closets. Lucky for us, even though we had no rods in the closets, we had some portable garment racks to hang our clothes these last few weeks.

Since we had super-cold days following Christmas, Brent and I decided to change our plan to work on the barn over the break. Instead, we worked on closets!

Two of the Master Bedroom closets are now finished.

Me working on the little linen cubby in the lower level bathroom.

 The small storage space for linens in the downstairs bathroom was a real challenge. Our air nailer could only be used for part of the job because the space was so narrow. And I was the only one that could fit into the space - and only if I turned sideways. I'm surprised I didn't hurt myself. Two-handed jobs meant that one arm had to go over my head!

It's only 12 inches wide and 24 inches deep
 but we didn't want to waste the storage space.

It's amazing how much more room there is in a house when things can be put away. We still have one big closet to do in one of the bedrooms downstairs. But being able to put our clothes and towels into closets has made our little house feel much more like home. :-)

A few sunny days...

Brent and I have been enjoying the free heat that a few days of sunshine provided and learning a lot about how our passive solar house performs. As the temperatures plummeted after Christmas the sun came out. Other than the glare, there is little to complain about in a home like this one. Each sunny day raised the temperature in the house 10 degrees.

Our mornings would start at about 65 degrees and by around 2:00 p.m. the temperature inside would be over 75. We resisted the urge to open windows on those days, knowing that heat would carry us through the night. On sunny days the only heat that runs is the hydronic floor heat. And that comes on only when the temperature in the house falls below 70 in the pre-dawn hours. And so, the lower level of the house stays a consistent temperature while the upper (above grade) level fluctuates.

We are learning new things daily. And Doogle (our beagle-ish dog) is enjoying his favorite thing…napping in the sun. Okay, it's really his second-favorite thing to do. His first is eating :-)

Doogle snoozing in the sun on our heated floor.