Tyler wetting the concrete.

Tyler mixing the concrete.

Filling each footer with concrete

Digging footers

.

Tyler wetting the concrete.

9/24/07 - 9/28/07 I spent this past week in bed and barely able to move.  The pain has been to much to handle.  On Friday, I went to the doctors to have the staples removed and received confirmation that the tumor removed was not cancerous which was great.  My daughter prepared the car with pillows to make me comfortable for our trip back to West Virginia. 

9/21/07 - 9/24/07 I had outpatient abdominal surgery scheduled.  It quickly became major surgery and my recovery went from 3 days to 6 weeks.  I spent 4 days in the hospital and finally went home to recover.

9/16/07 The well water started to smell again but Christopher had poured a little bit of bleach down the well on the 12th.  We have noticed when bleach is poured you have to replace the filter within the next few days or the smell will not go away.  We have also found that if you let the outside water run, which doesn't connect  into the filter, the filters will last longer and the skunk like egg smell will take longer to come back.

9/15/07  Varun and Caryn took the kayaks to Indian Rock, on the South Potomac River.  It  took them only 30 minutes to kayak down the river while it takes us 3 hours by paddling in a raft.  There isn't a strong current so that might explain a lot. 

Around noon, homemade linguini, tomatoes sauce, and bread was made for dinner.  I think we made pasta in a record time of like 15 minutes after the dough was made and rested for 1 hour in the refrigerator.  We had an assembly line going pressing the pasta from notches 1 - 4 on the manual pasta roller.  Notch 1 was the widest gap to roll the pasta thin, working it way to the thinnest setting of 4 for linguini.  The linguini cutter makes uniform width pasta but you have to drench the pasta in flour to keep it from sticking or you might as well start over.  Boiling them takes about a minute.

Varun was able to shoot a pistol, shot gun, and a 33 deer rifle. The scope on the 33 hit him a little bit in the eye when the gun kicked back after being fired.  Surprisingly, Caryn knew more about guns than he did as her father taught her. 

We had a good time with their visit and hope they return again.

9/14/07  At 6:15 two of my coworkers, Varun and Caryn, and I left work.  We followed Caryn to her house to pick up a couple kayaks.  It had already started to rain.  We made a few stops along the way and finally arrived in West Virginia at 12:30 a.m. Christopher was outside, with the drive way light on.  He was concerned on the time it took us to arrive.

9/13/07  Christopher called me today and told him he hurt himself.  He was moving under an O'sage tree and some of the thorns caught his ear.  He was a little concern for infection but would have me look at it when I arrive.

9/12/07 Christopher and Amia headed for WV to mow the property before our guests arrive on Friday. I will remain in Virginia until Friday which at that time my coworkers will follow behind me to our property.

9/2/07 Tracey our daughter was married today.

7/22/07 Today the weather was mild and gorgeous.  The family ate breakfast and then packed for a rafting trip down the South Potomac River.  It took about 3 hours and our daughter was tied from her inner-tube to the back of our raft.  Our fishing hooks kept getting caught on the rope that surrounded the tube.  Tyler and Johnny had the pleasure of rowing with a 160 pound drag, our daughter at the back. 

The garden that we had planted, with no protection from wildlife, actually was still there, amazingly.  We found that rabbits like green beans and they left us with stocks of stems with no leaves or tops.  The corn survived except for a few stalks as a couple were ate by deer.  The lima beans looked good and were about to flower along side the potatoes.  The ground was very dry and hard as we haven't had much rain lately.

7/21/07 My son, Tyler (adopted), and his brother Johnny came to visit my husband and I in West Virginia.  They drove up in the truck with 2 dirt bikes.  They were here before we arrived and already had a camp fire going.  It was very late by the time we arrived and I was exhausted.  Tyler and Johnny were nice enough to help us unload the car of the groceries and items that I had brought from Virginia. 

Our house is about a year old now and it was time to personalize the inside.  I started off by taping the trim, caulking the edges, and flex stoned the pillars that entered the kitchen.  It looks very good.

Morning came and I cooked up a pound of bacon, waffles, pancakes, and scrambled eggs.  The boys went outside and cut down some trees, rode their dirt bikes, and installed hose bibs outside.  I cooked a leg of lamb, sweet potatoes, homemade bread and corn.  The kitchen was a mess again but my daughter cleaned up. 

After a full meal, and it was good, my husband and I went for a walk around the property.  We had paid someone to grade the drive way 2 weeks ago and we admired the work that was performed. Afterwards, Johnny, Christopher, and Amia went to the river to fish.  Johnny was excited to go since he loves to fish. 

At the end of the day I managed to get the new web store up and running after months of being closed.  

6/29/07-7/8/07 This week we have time to catch up work that we have neglected. 

7/7/07 I made 4 batches of soap.  Each batch contains 5 oz of 36 family size bar soap.  The soap is made from coconut oil which adds volume to lather the soap, olive oil, castor oil to soften skin, tallowate, and cocobutter.

The last layer of cinder block was completed.  We pressure washed the cinder block, windows, and siding.  The excess siding on the corners of the house were trimmed.   The siding and vents were taped off with masking tape to prevented any excess sealer from going where we didn't want it. We sealed the blocked with white UGL.  More of the French drain was completed, not all of it has gravel around it yet. We still need to have access to the footer to install braces for the porch.  Now we are ready to start the porch.

7/04/07 Our son gave us an inflatable raft that his father-in-law didn't want anymore.  We have had it for some time now but it was unpacked and  inflated it for the first time yesterday.  It is an Avon Rover 310. I don't know when it was manufactured but it is in pristine condition.  It was a fire & rescue craft that was used once.  We inflated it the day before and left it over night to make sure it was river ready.  It didn't seem to loose any air so we deflated it and packed it into the trunk of our Honda. Two of my daughters, my future son-in-law and myself are going rafting down the South Potomac River that surrounds our property.  The raft was set in the water at Indian Rock, a state maintained boat ramp a few miles from our house.  The slow movement of the South Potomac gave us plenty of time to do some sight seeing.  Every thing looks different from the perspective of a raft.  The rive cuts through the shale that forms the mountain range in this part of West Virginia.  It looks amazing.  The trip took approximately 4 1/2 hours to go the four miles ,give or take, back home.  We took the opportunity to go swimming, laugh and make fun of ourselves.  Many other people were on the river in canoes and kayaks.  There was one man on a jet ski.  As we floated down the river we heard and saw large gatherings of people on shore having cookouts and a couple of bands playing.  I didn't expect to see as many people as we did but it is 4th of July.  The land on both sides of the river through this stretch is private property and everyone is having a good time.  Everyone we see is friendly.  As we approached the boat ramp closest to our house, our community has three, the river became shallow enough that we had to get out and pull the boat to the ramp.  We had a great time - Christopher

7/3/07 My mother and father came to our house today for the first time.  They hadn't seen the place before and we didn't want to invite them until we had all the comforts of home.  As we have found out in the time we have had this place, that many people are not "outdoors" kind of people or campers.  My mother would not do well without a bathroom with running water.

My mother had purchased four country rocking chairs for our house.  We have them in the house until we can get the porch completed.  They are white and will go perfect with the country wrap around porch. 

6/30/07 We have not had much luck with our well water. My husband had to change the filter twice this week.  We have discovered that when we treat the well with bleach, within 2 days, the filter gets clogged.  Not sure why this happens but I will have to find some time to research this.

6/29/07  Today is the start of my vacation.  I haven't had time off since I went to see Sister Lori. This will be nice.

6/22/07 The field, that had looked like a lawn all winter and through the beginning of spring, has now grown to over three feet tall with grass, weeds and various other thorny, invasive plants. It needs to be cut if we don't want mother nature to take it back. The tractor has a flat tire.  I took the wheel off, put it in the car and drive it to a small shop near (ten miles) our house to be repaired. S.K. Auto.  They are capable of doing major and minor auto repair. Skip Kesner, the owner, helped me personally.  He is very friendly and asks me if I can pick up the wheel at 9:00am the next day.  I said sure.  He calls at 8:30 am the next morning, says "Wheels done."  It is nice to have someone do what they say they are going to do for a change.  If I have any other work that I am not capable of doing myself I will definitely give him a try.  I picked up the wheel, brought it home, put it on the tractor and start it up.  It is going to be a good day. 

I got about 1/2 acre mowed and I run over our harrow chain. Our brush-hog made an awful noise.  The brush-hog is tough but the harrow chain is tougher.  It bent the "stump jumper" on the brush-hog and caused the blades to cut through the mower deck.  The brush-hog is broken, badly. I will try to repair it in the future.  Now I need a new Brush-hog.

5/21/07 The birth of our grandson happened today.  He is 7 pounds 9 ounces and his name is Marvin Alexander Jr.  He looks just like his father.

4/20/07 I woke up in the morning and stared at a groundhog that was roaming around the front of the house.  I have seen the holes he has created in the fields and wonder what kind of problem he will be this summer with my garden. Today was a beautiful day.  This morning I sat outside, soaking up the sun while a cool breeze was present.  I was gazing at the Blue Jays, Cardinals, and Cow Birds interaction with each other at the bird feeder that Christopher had bought me for Christmas last year. I have it hanging in a tree in front of the house.  As I had a hot cup of coffee in hand I thought about the amount of birdseed we go through.  The birdfeeder will be empty before evening rolls around. Above me, were a couple of hawks that kept circling our property for prey.  I have seen them for the past few weekends.  They looked so graceful as they soared, gliding on an uplift of wind.  Their wings barely moved.    

As the afternoon came around the outside temperature was around 68 degrees. Christopher and I took a walk around the neighborhood.  We ran into a neighbor who I haven't seen since we first bought the property five years ago.  He is 85 years old and he was mowing his grass as we walked up to him.  He hasn't been around much due to illness with him and his wife.  After chatting for a little while we took a walk down to the river front and met another new neighbor.  He bought his property a year ago, but I had not actually met him and his girlfriend until today.  He too bought property in hopes to build soon.  It reminded me of when we first started out.  All we had was a dream and the hope to be able to build a home and farm.  Well, we have the home and hopefully the farm will come in a few years.

We reached the river front and noticed last weeks flood had overflowed its banks and deposited about 3 feet of leaves, sand and debris.  This part of the river access had a gentle slop and truck loads of gravel that outlined a community access area. That no longer remains and all that is left, in addition to the debris is mud.  I am sure the community will rebuild it again but that will take some effort.

I went to start up the tractor so I could do the first mowing of the year and noticed a flat tire.  Christopher called our son and asked him to purchase a tube for the tire before he made his trip up here today from Virginia.

Christopher started up the chain saw and cut some Osage Trees that needed to be cleared.  As he cut a few down, I dragged them over to the fire pit.  After 5, 15 feet tall trees, we were tired.  I went back into the house and worked on my website.  I was told a few days ago that the ecommerce store that I was using was closing and now I have to rebuild another site all over again and in just a few days.

Since I can't stay at one job for too long :) I spent some time working on my first appliqué quilt.  This is a king size quilt all done by hand and no machine is involved.  This design is the middle of the quilt.  In the middle of that appliqué I used a blue marking pin for quilts that will come out with water.  This is my outline to hand stitch a design.    

So now the day ends with my update to this page.  Christopher and Tyler are outside in front of the fire pit doing what men do.  They tried to fix the tire to the tractor which popped.  Bless them for trying.  Tomorrow will be the start of a new day.

By the way, the well water still smells after a treatment of bleach was placed in the well from yesterday.  Christopher will do another treatment tomorrow and see how it goes.

4/19/07 I finally finished my taxes at 3:00 in the morning. Wahoo!

4/14/07 Today I spent the day preparing for my taxes.  I'll have to finish them tomorrow. Oh what fun!

4/13/07 While driving home in West Virginia down Rt. 50, a state trooper pulled me over and said I was speeding.  I was upset because I was driving at 42 miles per hour and slowed down to 35 when I saw the trooper had someone else pulled over.  It was dark and I couldn't tell exactly where he was on the road.  As soon as I passed him, he immediately pulled out and pulled me over.  He gave me a speeding ticket and said I was driving 51 miles per hour in a 40 mile zone.  He gave me a ticket for driving 45 in a 40 mile zone.  My husband thinks there was a car in front of us and he must have scanned him but thought it was us.  This is the second speeding ticket I received.  In October I receive a ticket for driving 55 in a 40 mile zone.  The county had just changed the speed limit from 55 to 40 and I didn't notice it.  Needless to say I was very upset and know if I go to court, I can't win. What proof would I have?

4/3 - 4/6/07  This week is spring break so Christopher and the girls (Gala and Amia) spent this time in West Virginia.  They cleared the thorny brush around the Osage Orange trees and the fruit that laid around the tree.  These trees were used by "farmers on the Great Plains in the 1850s called them "horse-apples" or, more commonly, "hedge-apples." When planted close together and regularly pruned, their thorny interlocking branches create natural windbreaks, dust-catchers, and impenetrable boundary  fences that are guaranteed "bull strong, hog tight, and horse high"--but not so high as to shade out too many crops. On the other hand, relieved from competition and placed in the rich soil of a site such as St. Peter's churchyard, they reach up to 50 feet or more, spreading out their crowns to cast a deep but airy shade." (http://www.lewis-clark.org/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=2523) We had cut the branches in the spring and they needed to be cleared.  Branches from the Osage Orange tree are very thorny and sharp.  They used to be used as a natural fencing and I see why.  When clearing branches from the tree, wear thick jeans to avoid cuts and scraps because the thorny interlocking branches will scar you.

The debris from around the house due to construction was picked up and disposed of.  The fire pit was cleared and the extra cinder blocks were stacked 3 feet high around the pit.

The extra non-usable cut cinder blocks were disposed of in the ditches developed from the ground settling after we buried the cables and pipes.  The dirt on top of the septic tank has sunken in about 12" from settlement.  That will have to be filled in with extra dirt once we rent a backhoe again.

On the subject of our well, it started to smell like sulfur again.  I don't think we used enough bleach the last time.  Our estimate of the well dept must be off.  We will treat it again this coming week.  I will be back up here on the night of the 17th.

4/1/07 Our neighbor dropped off a mould board plow since he wasn't using it anymore and we are getting ready to plow our garden.

3/1/07 Every two months we receive an electric bill in WV.  We turn off the well pump, turn down the house heat down to 45 and turn the water heater off at the fuse panel.  It will still cost us about 117.00 every billing cycle.

2/18/07 Due to illness we haven't made much progress on the house.  The block around the house hasn't been touched due to snow and the cold weather since October last year.  We did install a dryer and washer a few weeks back.

My son, husband and guest spent some time in the freezing weather, in front of a burning wood pile at dusk, while snow surrounded them, so they could have boys time together without us women folk. I stayed in the warm house with my coffee and sewed a few dresses for my customers. 

We spent the weekend in WV and there was at least 4 inches of snow and ice.  My Honda didn't do to well and my son, guest, and daughter had to push the car out of the drive way to the main road, which was not easy.

2/3/07  This weekend was fun for my husband and myself.  We took the pleasure of practicing our "wedding dance" DVD for our son's upcoming wedding on June 2, 2007.  Our daughter was entertained as her parents tried to dance with two left feet.  With Christopher's chronic illness he was only able to dance for 5 minutes at a time as he gets very tired these days.  It reminded me of when we were in our early twenties and just dating.  The thoughts make me smile.

Christopher replaced the filter again and performed several bleach treatments to our well over 3 months and so far the sulfur and egg smell is gone.  We have learned that we have to replace our filter once a month.  If not, the smell comes back, the water starts to turn brown and the water pressure will be very low.  This is because the filter becomes clogged.

10/28/06  We arrived in West Virginia after a long week in Virginia.  It is nice to take a break away from the city, work, and people.  We turned on the water pump, since we disconnect when we go back to Virginia, and turned on the hot water heater.  I turned on the facet and there was the egg smell.  Ugh!  I was told that when well water sits, the sulfur separates and you have the egg smell.  After the hot water heater was cycled through once, the smell was barely noticeable.  However, if you shower with the strong smell there, you smell like sulfur too.

This weekend we didn't do anything productive.  Christopher isn't feeling well and he slept most of the weekend.

To date, these are the pictures of the outside of the house so far.

---

Oct 17, 2006

Today we woke up to the sound of rain on the roof. Normally this is a pleasant sound but this morning I remembered that we had left tools outside. I tried to wake my husband to ask if he was going to get the tools. He doesn’t do well on rainy days so he said let them get wet. I couldn’t do that. I woke my daughter, Amia, and ask her to go outside and gather up everything. I’m glad I did because we left the windows down in the truck.

The phone company came out this afternoon and hooked up our DSL connection. Now working from home will go much faster.

We had to leave this evening to go back to Virginia. On our way we stopped at one of our neighbor’s house. They are the treasurer of our property owners association. We hadn’t paid our fee yet this year and thought since they were home it would be a good time to introduce ourselves and take care of a bill. Their names are Gary and Margret. They were very cordial and invited us in. Everyone we have met around us has been very nice. It seems the farther away from the city or suburbs you the friendlier and more personable people are.

---

Oct. 16, 2006

When the well was installed and operational, the water was a little brown but it cleared up immediately. (Millers Bro Drilling, the company that drilled our well, will test our water for us for free if we bring in a sample.) Over a 3 week period, it developed a rotten egg smell which we learned is a non-harmful bacterium. We also learned that shocking the well with chlorine would help reduce this bacteria. Controlling these bacteria will be an on-going effort. Our first concern with using bleach was the effect it would have on our septic. Large amounts of bleach will kill the bacteria that keep a septic system working. After careful consideration and research, we decided since the septic system was fairly new, we would give it a try and hope for the best. We only used 1 quart of bleach with the first treatment. The smell returned within 2 weeks and increased over a couple of days. A ½ gallon was poured in the well casing after that. So far the odor has not returned.

The hot water heater increases the odor from the bacteria. My daughter, Tracy who is a germ-a phobic, will not take a shower here until we fix this problem. Keep in mind this is a very common problem with well water. If you are use to city water, you may have a hard time adjusting to well water.

Well water, untreated can also stains the toilets, sinks, shower and tub. It can also stain your clothes during washing.

Last night my husband went to take a bath and he noticed how cloudy and amber color our water was. He had filled the garden tub with hot water and it looked so undesirable that he just couldn’t bring himself to bath in it. He waited a while for the hot water heater to replenish and then took a shower instead. So this morning, he installed a Whirlpool, Dual Purpose, Whole House Pre-filter, with a 2 micron sediment filter which we purchased from Lowes. The filter housing cost approximately $30.00. It came with a 5 micron filter which I didn’t use. The filter I used cost $10.00 for two. It will reduce Chlorine Taste & Odor, Sand, Soil, Silt, Sediment and Rust (written on the package). It was decided to try this before investing money in a more expensive and elaborate system. It made a huge difference in the color and clarity of the water as well as the sulfur (rotten egg) smell.

After he installed the filter, he flushed the hot water tank and ran the lines clear on all the faucets. He refilled the bath with water and it was crystal clear the way it should be. The filtration system we purchased is recommended for a 3 month cycle. We are generally only here on weekends so we may get a little more life out of it. Then again, the water was so cloudy and brown before the filter was installed that we may not. J

I picked up a 50 pound bag of Salem potatoes from a local orchard grower. I washed and sliced them all. I followed directions on a bag of sodium bisulfate to prevent browning which read; 1 tablespoon of powder to ½ gallon of water. Steam potatoes for 10 minutes and then cool in cold water, then pat dry and dehydrate. Needless to say, this did not work and now I have a whole batch of bad potatoes that are blackened. I did find another recipe to blanch and then soak in 1 bottle of lemon juice to two quarts of water for 45 minutes. That sounds like it will work so I’ll try that next. Thank god the potatoes only cost $14.00 for a 50 pound bag so trying it again won’t be to costly.

---

Oct 15, 2006

Christopher finished all but the last row of 4x8x16 inch block around the house this morning. The block will have to be cut down from 8 inches to 6 inches to fit. It will have to wait until he heals a bit.

For the past two years any fruit trees we planted died. The first year we tried, we planted trees that we ordered from a nursery magazine. They were twigs with a small root ball attached. They could not compete with the native plants and were engulfed in the fast growing field and lost. The next time, we purchased trees from a sale that food lion was having. These trees were over 6 ft. and should not be lost as easy but they did not make it through the winter. All but one was killed. So this year, we are going to try an area of the property that has standing trees. I think the last years trees died because the area was to wet or the trees couldn’t take the climate in this part of West Virginia.

 

While we were out yesterday getting the corrugated pipe we stopped at Abundant Life Nursery and pic