Fall cookout

This past Saturday we had a cookout at the farm with several family members and friends. It was a beautiful sunny day in the high 60's with a slight breeze. After feeding our faces we went on 4 wheeler rides, fishing in the pond and shooting some trap.

I went down on Thursday with my friend Rick and his son Luke (5 yo) to get everything ready for the cookout. We started by getting the area ready by installing a culvert and leveling the area where the cookout was going to take place. Next we put down gravel moved the smoker in place, installed the cook top and setting the picnic tables up. My cousin Ron brought over 3 additional tables and chairs and we were ready to start cooking.

Preparing to install the drain tile

Moving dirt from the big pile to level out the cookout area

Loading dirt into dump truck

Dumping at site

Tile installed and dirt leveled

The gravel spread out

Smoker, cook top and picnic tables set

Chickens on the smoker

Chickens, Boston Butt and Pork Loin

Smoker in action

Doodlebugs with my sister and her grandson

My sisters husband, cousin Ron and his Dad my Uncle Billy shooting the breeze.

Nephews riding the 4 wheeler

Mom and her friend Mary

Hungry people waiting on food, the secret to a good bar-b-que is to have it ready at least an hour later than you tell everybody, that way they are good and hungry and will eat anything.

Cut up smoked chicken

Time to eat

Nothing much better than a beautiful day, family, friends and good food.

Until next time,

Tim

Man cabin kitchen cabinets

I've been looking on Craigslist trying to find some used kitchen cabinets for the man cabin. I found some a couple of weeks ago not to far from where the farm is located, they wanted more than I wanted to give but I made an offer anyway. About a week ago last Tuesday he countered but it was still more than I wanted to spend so I countered back and told him I would be at the farm on Friday and Saturday. I never heard anything back though, last Tuesday he emailed me back saying he would accept my offer and could I pick them up on Thursday before noon. When I left the farm the previous weekend I had left my covered trailer down there because I was going to pick up some drywall the next time I went down there. I had to wind up driving an extra 3 hours out of the way to get the cabinets picked up and hauled back to the farm. Below are the cabinets when they were still installed in their house. They are hickory wood.



Now all I have to do is get them up in the cabin.

Until next time,

Tim

Man Cabin update

Spent the weekend down at the "Man Cabin" this weekend, worked on Friday and Saturday and lounged around on Sunday at Mom's house. I ran the power from the main panel in the barn to the sub panel in the cabin and ran 7 outlets so I don't have to have extension cords everywhere now. Next on the agenda is to get the bedroom walls and bathroom walls up then install the temporary overhead lights and the rest of the outlets installed. That will probably be about all that will get done on the inside before Deer season. I want to get the retaining wall installed and the front yard area in grass before winter.

I bought a sectional that has two recliners and a sleeper sofa for the living room off of Craigslist, it's really too nice for a Man cabin but it was only 6 months old and I made an offer on it and got it for a great price. I'm also an avid rocker so I went to Big Lots the other day and found a really good deal on a rocker recliner as well.

I brought this little kitchen table down from the "shack" and put it in the dining area, we (family) have had it since the late 60's and it was used when we got it, the quality back then was so much better, all the chairs are still like new, no tears, rips etc.

This is the temporary kitchen, it is a Cabela's camp kitchen, I got it for free with Cabela points I had. The picture is kind of dark but it has zipper storage compartments underneath for storing plates, food etc. On top is a toaster oven and microwave and a coleman one burner stove.
This was Jonathan's first bed, we had given it to his aunt and she called last week and didn't need it anymore so here it is.

This is the indoor outhouse, it will have to do until I get the bathroom finished. The cots will go in here when the outhouse is gone.

This is where the bathroom will be when it is installed.

I put out food plots about a month ago, it has only rained on them once before this weekend, hopefully they will take off now.

Until next time,

Tim

Catching up part 6

With the outside completed, except for the front porch and rear deck it is time to start on the inside. Since this will eventually be my woodworking shop I am going to leave the area as open as possible.


Before the bat insulation and horizontal studs were installed I used spray foam (Foam It Green, great product but a bit pricey) to spray all of the vertical and horizontal seams to give me a tight seal as well as keeping out the creepy crawlers. It was close to 100 degrees that day with very high humidity, on top of that I had to wear a pair of Tyvek coveralls and mask. I was sweating so much that the mask clogged up with sweat and I couldn't breathe, I had to raise up the mask take a few breathes and then spray some more. The big problem was if you didn't spray for a few seconds your tip would clog up and you would have to replace it. When I was finished I was so weak from sweating and the heat I had to set down about 15 minutes to recover, when I took off the coveralls I was drenched from head to toe, I couldn't have been any wetter if I had fallen into the pond.

Until next time,

Tim

Catching up part 5

After the roof sheeting was installed they started framing up the windows and doors. Once that framing was complete the rest of the sheeting, trim, gutters and shutters were installed.

Now it is time to start on the inside.

Until next time

Tim

Catching up part 4

After the sub floor was installed it was time to start setting the walls.



As you can see from the picture above we had to remove the sheeting from the existing barn to tie in the new building.

Tomorrow we start on the sheeting, doors and windows.

Until next time,


Tim