Lots of Gertrude

We have new babies!! We will have Gertrudes all over the place, eating up the chiggers and ticks!! (There are two baby Toms in the gang this time.)

Right now they are in the back room of the new chicken house, and will stay there for at least 3 months....we learned our lesson the first time. This chicken house has an enclosed front porch that they can get used to the outside without taking their life into the Mother Nature's hands (meaning they will be protected from owls and wet grass).

In about four months, the new Gertrudes will meet the old Gertrudes......

Home Improvements

January 12 - September 14
Front porch:
Since setting up the mobile home, we have been using the steps that 'came with the mobile' until we decided what we wanted. Well, Jerry found a great carpenter whose built our western tack room (another post down the road) and Ralph gave us a price for both front and back. So we finally gave him a call a couple of weeks ago to get started on the front and decided to go with the back deck as well. The following pictures are a progression of of our front porch and back porch.

Ralph, a our Mennonite carpenter came on Tuesday 9/4 after being with his kids on their first day back to school (a requirement @ the Mennonite school), and got this far with the front. BTW that's a new front door/storm unit that doesn't leak in when it rains!! Plus it has an oval glass insert that fractures the sun when shining into the living room!!

We have had a lot of rain this week which doesn't make it conducive to work with power tools!!! Friday9/7 a little more was done to the roof section.


It's done, it's done, it's done and beautiful!!!









Back porch: again January 12 - September 14
What we had been using because of the height was an old, long table that Roszells had in their barn along with the favorite, handy cement blocks for steps






9/10: Framing for the back porch.....there will be steps from each side.

and the back porch is pretty much done too!!










Now I know you all are saying "Why didn't Jerry build the porches?" Well, he did say he would, and I know he could, however it frees him up to do other things, like school, cutting hay, putting up pipe corrals, etc. and both porches will be done in a week, and way before the winter/rain/snow come this year!!

The fruits of our labor

Labor Day weekend - we are all home, no school or work so we plan on setting up our corral.
Dimensions: 196 ft x 152 ft made with 20 ft pipe panels welded onto the pipe posts. We got started Sat about 8 am to take advantage of the weather. However, it was a bit discerning to hear gunshots a few miles away - I had forgotten about dove season, September 1 as did the dogs until they hear the shots. It seemed so close!

We are using these gates on each end of the corral - Jerry and Wayne are cutting the bolts and will rehang the gate.

Then we went onto attaching the 20ft panels - Jerry welded
all of the Starling Road side - 196 ft on Saturday!

(The sky really isn't pink!! I moved
the scenery choice button somehow
and got some pink in my pictures!!)






Sunday we planned on hanging two gates on the the south side (152 ft), and driving in the posts. Jerry and I bowl on Sunday and we didn't want to expend all our energy on the fence and not bowl decently. So Monday, Labor Day 2007 all we had left to do was to hang the pipe panels - we would have two sides done, and have something visual to show off with...... Jerry and Wayne carrying a panel This is the short side looking @the road. That's Starling Road going north.