The hole in our backyard got a little bigger to accommodate sewer and water at about 5' deep and then the electrical/phone and extra conduit at about 2 1/2' deep.  It has since been back filled (pictures soon).  Also, here is all the apples off of our one apple tree.  When we bought the house this tree was in rough shape and I thought we would have to tear it down. Instead I pruned it back a little and thinned the apples this year and they turned out much better than last year.  They are some of the most tart apples I have ever eaten so I am not sure what they are.  It looks like pie and sauce are in order.

The dogs are usually crated when we travel but they were spoiled on the way home from WA this weekend

Studio Update

The insulation turned out great.  The studio will be much better insulated than our house which is a bit sad.  Drywall is going up tomorrow by yours truly, who will also be taping and texturing. I haven't done whole lot of it so it will be a good practice/refresher course. Siding is 2-3 weeks away from being delivered. 

 Here are some current photos of the studio ready for inspection (it passed).  Now it is ready for siding and insulation, then drywall and paint.

Free paper shredder. Any takers?

At least she listened to me when I told her to sit for the picture.

This is Meredith taking over James' blog. Since it's been like two years since I've posted on my blog...I figured it would be easier to make a guest appearance on this one.

Yes we have a puppy, 3 chickens, and 1 rooster (it was supposed to be a chicken). Within one month's time we somehow managed to acquire five pets. Chestnut or Chessie dog, NOT Chesy as James spelled below which in my opinion is too much like Cheesy, is helping us get our daily exercise and is keeping us on our toes (literally she likes to bite our feet). She is very worried we might become victims of identity theft so she thoroughly chews all the papers in our office trash can before we take it out. She is a good dog though and so far we have taught her sit, down, shake, and heel. The chickens-Thelma, Little Red, Bullet, and Louis (formerly known as Louise) are super easy to take care of and we are hoping they start producing eggs soon!

Enjoy some more pics of the dog:

Progress

I hope that progress looks like a mess because that is how I feel our yard, house and lives are most of the time these days.  We moved all the letterpress equipment out of the shed into the garage so it is a mess.  Tore down the shed and have started a new one so the yard is a mess.  The garden/flower beds received some much needed attention yesterday but are still not completed.  Only six of the eleven sprinkler valves work because they were dug up when the shop was excavated. The chickens finally have a place to call their own where they have a little freedom and the dog can't harass them but it still needs a little work.

One of these days I hope that we will be done tearing down and can just build up but I guess it is just part of the process. It can feel overwhelming at times but I just remind myself that it will be worth it when it is done. (Although, I think I may never be "DONE" whatever that is)

A few pictures of the "PROGRESS" atleast that is what I will call it today

Dog

Chesy is the newest addition around here.  She is only about 7 weeks old and if full of energy.  Chesy's mom is an australian shepherd and the dad is a lab. She loves to play with kids and follow me around. Hopefully she will be a good runner and hiker.  Part of our reasoning for getting a dog is to keep away the raccoons and red fox from the chickens that will soon be outside once all their feather come in.  I have seen the red fox pouncing around the pasture behind our yard a few times and would hate to have one eat all of our new chickens

CHICKENS!

Meredith and I are the proud owners of four chickens: an americana, silver lace, rhode island red and golden sex link. For now they have a home made of cardboard in the laundry room until they are old enough to move outside in about two months. We are trying to come up with names but havent quite learned their personalities well enough yet. Hopefully we will have eggs starting this summer and I'm afraid we will have more than we can handle so get ready for eggs all you that live close by. The coop will have a more permanent home as soon as we can find the best location in our yard for it. I have been hearing horror stories about the raccoons around here eating entire flocks of chickens in one night so I am trying to decide the best way to prevent that from happening.

Chicken Coop

with meredith in st. louis at a print conference I needed something to do today. with only 50$ and a little bit of scrap wood I built this sweet chicken coop. I plan on finding some old metal at the salvage yard for the roof and with a fresh coat of paint it is going to look great. now I just have to find some chickens to put in it so we can have some fresh eggs! I am also hoping to get some good fertilizer out of them for the garden.

Counters In!

The counters are finally in which means that the final inspection is scheduled for tomorrow. I hope everything goes well. We aren't super happy with the way the counters turned out but we will make new concrete counters in a few months. We think and hope that we learned from our mistakes. The materials don't cost a lot for concrete counters but they sure do take a lot of time so after a little break I think we will be ready to give it another go.