Tuesday morning when I looked at the clock it said 3:57.  I decided to get up.  We were planning to get up at 5 anyway, so we could get an early start for the tree farm.  It was supposed to be the day of the “final grade” for the new house, when heavy equipment, perhaps a bulldozer, would be used to rearrange the yard around the new tree farm house.

      I wanted to be there for that as much as I wanted to be there for the day they tore down the old farmhouse.  We left about 6 a.m. so we would get there in good time.  About 6:05 a.m. the builder sent us an email saying it had been canceled, which we found out two and a half hours later, after we got to the farm.  We still had a good day and Gayle got to see most of the sinks in place and other progress.
    For this trip, the last of the woodwork is in around the doors, so we still have a little priming to do there before we finish the painting.  It will be awhile before we get all of that done.  All the door knobs were on this trip, including the pulls on the bedroom closet doors, and the back storm door and lock set had been installed, too.  The basement sink and the water heater were in place, although the water heater had not been hooked up yet. We could have gotten into some painting and staining, but since we were up for such a short time (Gayle had to get back to sing with the church choir at 6:30), we didn't bother.  At least in the future, it will be nice to have running water for the cleanup after painting. To this point, we've had to use gallon jugs of water and a little pan of water beside the garage to clean paint brushes -- and ourselves. 
     Through the course of this project, I would like to have been there every day, but I would have driven the builder and the subcontractors crazy. So it was best that didn’t work out.  For this one-day visit, we spent most of our time sweeping up the bedrooms, because the carpet was supposed to be installed on Wednesday.  That meant that we would be able to move beds and furniture into the bedrooms when we come back up the day after Thanksgiving. 
        I also want to do a little deer hunting, even though I am not an avid hunter.  I got a license and the deer are a problem in our region, and we have learned to like venison, so I need to spend a few hours in the woods this season looking for my trophy buck -- or a nice doe to make my "Red Hot Texas Venison Chili" during the coming winter.  
    We are really eager to get into the house, but not eager enough to repeat our camping experience of a few weeks earlier, when we slept on mattresses on the living room floor with no running water in the house.  When the carpet is in this coming weekend, we will start to move in and put up some beds and we will have to abandon our Mauston Super 8 Motel friends for the comfort (and views) of the new house.  Our mornings will come with the sound of the woods instead of the sounds of dozens of semi-trailer trucks coming and going at apparently what is a favorite stop on I-94. 
    As it turns out, the next phase of this project will probably be as incremental as the building has been.  We can't get all of the furniture and accessories in one weekend, we can't rebuild a kitchen in one weekend, we can't get window treatments for 12 windows (many of them double windows, one four windows together) done in one weekend either.  But...just being able to stay at the farm again - in a wonderful new house - will be great!







The old blue chair on the front porch is in need of a new paint job and a little warmer weather - which is a long way off.