Bored so making garden plans

 I'm completely bored. I currently have no projects I'm working on in the house & have none planned. The garden is my next project but its a couple months out yet. We did get it rototilled & put a lot of compost in the soil but its far from ready to plant. 

I've got a good selection of seeds, many heirloom but mostly not. That's OK, we'll see if I can even get anything to grow. 

I want to do raised beds in addition to in ground. I've got heirloom corn for eating and decorative corn for Halloween, I've got pumpkins and a few other tall things that can all go in the ground. I'll need to plant the deco corn a long way from the eating corn & then I'll need to keep the rabbits, chickens & deer out of the garden.

I only have one container for a raised bed so far & its small, I'll either have to build a bunch from scratch or buy kits. I'd like to have whatever I use be uniform.

There are about 13- 14 eggs in the incubator that should begin hatching tomorrow or the next day so of course we're expecting the coldest days in the coming week. I'll have to find a way to keep them warm inside the house for a week instead of in the barn in the brooder.

Flooding

We decided to go for a drive to go see how flooded the Skokomish River was.

Its been raining all year, inches and inches of rain. Our farm in drenched, the dirt can't hold any more water & its just forming lakes. We haven't seen this much rain in a very long time, years.

This is the Union River outside of Belfair; it's supposed to be a creek.

Here is the Skokomish. It was this high for miles & miles. Its not helping that there was a high tide right as we were in the area so the water has no place to disperse to.

To be honest, this river floods every year but not this high, this is the first time we've seen the houses on stilts still have high water. The road we usually drive down was closed & I'd say it looked to be a few feet deep. 

Here is a photo from a trip a long time ago of the road I'm talking about:

We have seen Salmon fish swimming across this road before.

After we couldn't go see that flooded road, we headed north on Highway 101. 

Stopped at Potlatch State Park for lunch.

This was the view

Continued north, through Quilcene and Chimacum, the headed east over the Hoods Canal Bridge 

Then south on Highway 3 toward Silverdale. There was an accident so bad traffic so we decided to do a bit of shopping at Sportsmans Wearhouse and Sierra Trading Post. 

I got socks & a new flannel shirt.

After that we headed home but there was another accident just past Bremerton & ALL THE ROADS WERE BACKED UP. All the side streets, all the main roads, everywhere just crawling. It took us 1.5 hours to go a 20 minute drive.

I enjoyed being with my husband & our dog, out on the road with no political BS on the radio. A day off work & not doing projects at home. 

That Didn't Last Long

The offer on the house fell through and we were thrilled that happened. 

You see, I don't want to live in a trailer in my In Laws pasture while we look for another home and I've decided I can stay here forever as long as I don't know where we're going to end up. Lan doesn't want to make an offer on another place until we have cash in hand. I had started packing, again, but it was HARD not knowing where my stuff was going to go and for how long. There weren't any good houses available for sale in Idaho or Montana when we were looking.

The people paid for a home/property inspection, found dead mice under the house. Big deal, they were all dead. They had also ruined the insulation but oh well.

Then the people wanted a septic inspection & the guy they chose to do it said one of the two arms had failed & the other had extra stuff added onto it, done illegally by 'some homeowner'. 

The people offered us $25,000 less, saying the drain field would cost them that much to repair. 

We said NO. 

They backed out.

Whew.

We spent $1,600 for our septic guy to come pressure wash out the drain field arms and do video; he said there was no failure, just dirt that you should expect after 40 years. He told us the Distribution Box needed to come up, it had sunken into the clay about 6". The 'illegal' stuff wasn't even there, it is exactly as the county plans were drawn up in 1978. 

We replaced the 'D' box & the pipes connected to it, brought it up to the correct height and put gravel on top to keep it up. Installed 2 risers over the tank openings & got it buried again.

This was in seriously rainy weather, all of it. The 'D' box, pipes & risers cost an additional $800 so we put $2,500 into it all together, just 10% of what they wanted to get out of us.

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So now I'm turning the old dog room into a pantry. It measures 8x8, has this closet inside it. Its also got an outside window, an outside door & a door into the kitchen. I had to clean all the dirty dog dust, dirt, mud and smell out of there. Painted all the walls & trim then started on the closet.

We put in the supports at measurements I found here 

(this Pinterest photo)

It didn't work perfectly since our closet already had the one shelf & dowel but I worked around that. I want 5 gallon buckets to fit under the bottom shelf, I want the top shelves to be a bit smaller so I can use them & they aren't closed off by the ceiling/top of the door area.

I cut all the supports & painted them before I put them up; later I figured out they weren't thick enough & with any weight they would bow & fall. 

So we added more support on the left hand side but Lan put them up before I could paint them. 

That's OK though because I need to paint a couple other spots on the supports too. I hadn't painted the tops because I figured they weren't going to show but once we put the shelves in I discovered a few of the tops will show.

Here are the shelves I got painted today. The color is SHADED GRAY, its the same color as the room trim & on our bedrooms & bathrooms trim upstairs. I've got 1/2" of paint left in the can & still need to paint 2 more shelves and the doors.

These will be painted soon but not tonight.

Same with these doors, they will be painted but I'll need another gallon of the paint. 

Sigh. 

I'd rather get a gallon of the paint, then there is plenty left over for any spots I need to redo upstairs.

This is the door into the pantry from the kitchen.

A can holder similar to this will also be built, it will go on the wall to the right of the window & left of the closet.

I might do another one of these between the door to the kitchen and the outside door, all depends on how many cans I end up getting. There seem to be a lot of them in the kitchen now, stored here & there but I'm sure once I get things organized in the pantry that it will seem bare.

I have a Food Saver vacuum that I use a LOT and now I'll have a place to store all those containers that are currently stashed in various places. I don't feel like this is enough supplies to last very long in case SHIF but it will be better than nothing.

This silly drawing is what it should end up looking like.

 

We Got A Full Price Offer

We got a full price offer for the farm,

had it listed on Zillow for $649,999

The couple who offered are from San Diego

I sincerely hope they appreciate at least the house

They aren't hors people & it hurts my feelings that they won't even appreciate the quality of the barn

The lady was about 30, said they have a 2 year old daughter, an African Gray Parrot & an Australian Shepherd. That damn dog will just chase the chickens that I offered to leave here for them.

They wanted to keep our generator, the riding lawn mower & the tractor with all the implements. WHF do they want a tractor when they don't even do farm animals? We said NO on the tractor. 

When they tried to offer $15,000 less for no tractor, we said take it or leave it.

On Wednesday they had the inspection.

Yesterday it was the water test.

Then the septic inspection, which didn't go well. They discovered that one of the two arms has failed & practically accused us of 'fixing' the other one.

Today said they want $25,000 credit for repairs to septic and that the roof over the implement shed leaks so it needs to be replaced & there is no insulation under the floor except in the kitchen but rats got into that so its ruined. 

I said no, price is $650,000. Take it or leave it.

Stubborn assholes will probably take it.

I don't want to move, we have no place chosen to move to. I don't want to live with my in-laws, they are hoarders & their house smells. I'd go to work stinking to high heaven.

We should know Monday morning if they choose to purchase or back out.

 

Cleaned The Barn

The barn wasn't too messy but I wanted to straighten it up some & get current photos.

At the front end, this is Macks stall that Wifi uses and Gussys stall just past it.

From the back.

You can just about see the aisleway net. It came off a ferry & fits here perfectly. Horss could easily jump it but its a psychological barrier more than anything. They all respect it.

Four of the stalls have corner feeders but Gussys is too high for him so he gets his bit of grain in a rubber feeder on the floor.

Actually all of them are getting theirs in tubs on the floor right now.

I love that there is water in the middle of the barn aisle

Are a safe place to hang halters where the horses can't get to them & mess them up.

This red & white rope is used more than all the rest put together.

Wash rack

This drain grate came from the same farm where we got the stall fronts

Stalls from the back of the barn. I've got hay in this one right now & there are a bunch of colored hay nets just waiting to be fed to the horses. They are color coded, blue for Joey, green for Wifi, red for Gussy & black for Mack. That doesn't mean they aren't all fed out of whichever one I feel like giving them but Gussy gets a lot less hay, Wifi gets more than him & both boys get about 10 lbs each feeding.

That net on the door is from the ferries, I've got 2 & they make great barriers to keep the horses in if I don't want to have the doors closed.