FIRST GREEN EGG

I've been waiting and waiting, and yesterday I finally found it!
The first Ameracauna egg has arrived! Isn't nature amazing?

OH YEAH!!!

OH MY GOSH - a dream come true!!
Look what's sitting in our trap right now...

OH YEAH!
This is a gently-used  Kubota 95 hp tractor - with a CAB, and RADIO, and AIR CONDITIONING!
And a front-end loader.
And a 15 FOOT BATWING SHREDDER!

OH YEAH!
Isn't this a thing of beauty?

So I've gone from shredding with this:

6 feet at a time.

To this:

15 feet at a time.

That's 2 1/2 times more with each pass than the old shredder.

I'll be finished in no time!

What will I do with all this free time?!

OH YEAH!!

"HERB" BED

Originally, this area in front of the building was going to be my herb bed. Big John helped me line it out and put in the edging. I added lots of compost and had the chickens help me till it in. But it just wasn't wide enough to hold the herbs I wanted to plant. So I changed the plan and made this a flower bed - problem solved!

I spent today adding more material and planting. I can grow vegetables pretty well, but I'm notoriously bad with flowers. The fact that I have free-range chickens and geese doesn't help the situation. Over the years, I've come to know which flowering plants geese don't eat. Plumbago seems to do well in the heat and without constant watering, and the geese won't eat it. I decided to alternate plumbago with a pretty yellow-flowering plant that I can't remember the name of - hopefully geese won't eat it either!

I'm happy with the finished product - the flowers dress it up quite a bit. There will probably be a pretty little fence installed (as soon as I find one) to keep the dogs from wallowing in the cool dirt. And there might be more beds along the north and east sides in the future ... in the distant future!

ONE YEAR AGO TODAY

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One year ago today, we began construction on the building to house a commercial kitchen, studio, and workshop.

What started out as this:

evolved into this:

then this:

and now looks like this:

What a difference a year makes!! Big John worked his tail off almost every spare minute he had. I can't count how many fishing trips he passed up - just to make my dream come true. What a great husband he is! We are both pretty happy to be just about finished. We love working on projects, but this one has been a killer.

I've started moving things into the kitchen and studio.

I still need some shelving in the kitchen, but other than that, it's good to go. In the studio, we're waiting on a countertop to come in that will go along the north wall. Under the south wall, Big John is going to build a cabinet to house this treasure of an old sink I found.

It still needs a little cleanup, but that's probably about as good as it's going to get. It's a good thing 'perfection' isn't the look I'm after! This beauty is exactly what I was looking for. In fact, we found the same sink in the restaurant where we bought the vent hood and Vulcan stove - but it wasn't for sale, no matter how hard I tried. A couple of weeks later, I ran across this one - for free! Right place/right time!

This weekend we hope to get the lattice put up around the building, to keep the chickens out of their favorite daytime napping spot. Then I can continue work on the herb bed along the porch. 

Big John's workshop is completely finished, with just a few things that still need to be put away. We've been able to use it to complete the trim work in the studio, and it's a really nice space. With the building project winding down, maybe he'll actually get a chance to enjoy it!

I hope you enjoyed the look back at our "little" building project. It's been fun!