Two Silos Farm

This last Monday, our chicks arrived. We had set up a plastic 150 gallon water tank in the chicken coop for them over the weekend. There are 15 meat birds, 10 pullets for eggs and one “free rare” chick in the box

They were real happy to get put in the bigger tank.

We’ll leave them in this spot for a few weeks, and then they’ll get moved into the nursery section of the chicken coop. That spot has a trap door and a small yard, but it will be even longer before we let them go outside.

My hubby was off work all this week; they were in between phases of the project. I planned on taking half day Thursday and Friday off, and we got things all set up to lay carpet on Friday. His parents were planning on coming over that weekend, so we were sort of rushed trying to get things done.

We had already picked out the carpet several weeks ago, so hubby only needed to make sure they still had it in stock, and reserve the stretcher. He went to Menards Thursday morning, so when I got home around 1:30 Thursday afternoon, we started laying the floor. Hubby did the hallway by himself before I came home, but we needed to do some figuring on layout for the living room so asked him to wait for me before starting in there.

Here is the hallway, ready for a “final” surface.

And here is the living room with only a few pieces to cut and set around the bay area.

Once we got the flooring down, we headed into town with the stock trailer and picked up the carpet. We had the stretcher reserved for Friday morning, and hoped to have things ready to go bright and early the next day. While we were there we found a remnant that would work for the hallway. Eventually we want the same carpet in the hall, eating area of the kitchen and into the den, but it’s gonna be a while before we are ready to do that, and this will do just fine for now.

When we got back, hubby had the fun job of installing the tackless strips. He sure hates working with that stuff!

He also put a placer board down where the stair tread/railing will go. We were pretty tired and decided that was enough for the day.

We got up early Friday and fitted the pad,

And laid out the carpet, and then headed in to pick up the rental tools. We have our own kicker, so only rented the big stretcher. It has been several years since we’ve laid carpet, so we had to refer to our “how to” book quite a bit. Good reference material sure does come in handy. We’ve got a small library of books, guessing how to do something isn’t much to our liking. It’s easier to do it right the first time than do it twice, but we still mess up once in a while.

Here’s hubby getting the stretcher set up.

And the finished job.

We got done early enough that we only had to pay for 4 hours rental on the stretcher. Then we took off in the truck up to Redfield to pick up my new couch. We looked all over the place, and settled on one my hubby found up in the small town he was working in. Our room is not real big, and we wanted something that would keep with our “old country home” look.

It’s not the most comfortable couch, but it’s good enough to please my hubby, and we both like the way it looks in the room.

At least now when the in-laws showed up the next afternoon, they had some place to sit.

Saturday was my Birthday, and we went to town and picked up my new TV. We don’t watch TV much, but when we do it’s usually movies, and I wanted a wide screen for that. It’s not a thin TV, but I’m happy with it. Besides, I saved enough on my cheap dining room set (found at Shopko when we were looking for a book shelf) to afford the TV. Since we’ve given away our last two nice oak dining room sets, figured this time we’d buy a cheap set. Will probably have this one for years LOL!!

I think I got this a bit out of order . . . I only got a start on the garden before finishing the tile work, the rest of the work on the garden waited for another weekend.

There is only so much to be said about setting tiles, so I’ll show pictures instead.

Here is finishing up in the hallway.

And around the stairs into the living room.

This picture shows the tiles all set and ready to be grouted.

Almost done grouting, this spot is about ready to be cleaned.

Here is the floor, grouted but not cleaned or sealed.

This actually took me several days working in the evenings to get the rest of the tiles set. I did the grout all in one day, but needed to let it cure for a while before sealing. As it turned out, I had time to set the wall tiles and let that cure before I got around to sealing the floor mid May.

This was the next weekend (May 5^th) setting wall tiles.

All the tiles are up, and ready to be grouted. I didn’t actually get to that part until after we installed the carpet in the living room.

And for those who are wondering, here is a picture of what will go in that corner.

Don’t remember if I shared about my garden yet or not. If I did, you can close your eyes while I show my pics again.

Did I mention I love my craftsman tiller? This works like a dream, and what I had so hoped my Troybilt would be like.

I got the big one that does both forward and counter rotating tines. With the counter, it really digs down and rips right through the sod and not a drag at all (I mean that literally after getting dragged off my feet by the TB more than once).

I did try it in forward rotation just to see what it would be like, and even with it set a bit deep, when it would start to dig in and take off, the back end would lift a bit (was not digging in) and the front end would tip down and bring the tines out of the ground and the machine wouldn’t take off on me.

I worked up the ground; with it set as low as it would go on the first pass, and I didn’t even bother mowing the grass down first. It is slow going, but boy did it do a job on breaking up the sod. But once it’s worked up, I found it was best to switch to forward rotation. When the ground is worked up, the counter rotating tines about cancel the forward rotating tires, and the machine just sits in one spot. I could either set the depth much shallower, or switch to forward rotation. Switching gears only involves moving a lever, so no big deal. It also has a neutral so you can push it around when it’s not running without a lot of hassle, unlike the TB that has cotter pins on the wheels that have to be moved to “freewheel” it. That neutral position alone is worth quite a bit more money in my book.

Here is the garden after breaking up the sod.

Then I had hubby scrap off the loose soil, and haul in several bucket loads of well rotted manure and some sand to lighten it up (that is when he broke his hydraulic hose).

Then I used the tiller to work the manure/sand into the ground. The sand/manure was maybe 2” thick, and the ground underneath was untilled. You can see how well the machine is churning it up with just one pass.

It’s got 17” tines, and you can see how low the machine is riding in the ground. After I got that worked in, I spread on two bales of peat moss and worked that in too.

Then because I was lazy, I waited for my hubby to have the chance to spread the loose dirt he had scrapped off back over the ground I had tilled up. I like to get it pretty deep, and one pass isn’t deep enough.

It’s all ready for me to go over it again, working the top dirt into the lower dirt. I have two more bales of peat moss to spread in, and then it will be ready for planting.

I’ll be putting a fence around it to keep the assorted domestic and wild critters out of it. Don’t know if it will work but we’ll see. Already had “rabbit” tracks in it. You know those really big rabbits with big ears and white tails that like to eat gardens? The same type that ate two of my pine trees last year. Son has been after the small pesty type, but we’ll have to wait till fall to get after those really big ones. I put the garden where it will be real easy to keep an eye on it, or we won’t be the ones eating all the produce.

Cathy

Tiling update

Just a quick update. Spent most of yesterday working on the tile. Here is the room after I got the floor cleared off, before setting tiles.

Spent quite a bit of time figuring out where to set the first tile. Didn’t want to end up with goofy sized pieces, and I think I did ok figuring it out.

I started in the middle and worked toward the edges. At least I have to openings into this room, so I can work both sides.

I mixed up half a bag (about 25 lbs) of thinset at a time. This is what I got set with the first bucket.

Then I took some time to fit and cut some of the edge pieces. Since the tile saw makes such a mess, I set it up outside. Sure was a nice day yesterday (it’s snowing right now).

That saw sure does make easy work of cutting those tiles. Mixed up the second half of the bag of thinset, and went back to work

Spent the rest of the afternoon fitting and cutting tiles. I don’t have any more set than the previous picture, but here is a picture of the tiles fitted. I have to pick up the loose ones and mix up more thinset, but not tonight . . .

Decided it would be funner to make MnM cookies instead of setting tiles. Had lots more excitement yesterday, but it’s bedtime and I’m still tired out from yesterday. Did manage to put a hole in my bluejeans – accidentally sat on the trowel . . . yea, I put a hole in my backside too LOL!!