Pretty good week...

We got a ton done this week. The pictures don't really tell the whole story. Most of the work was putting up the interior walls, got the second floor down, and started on the upstairs walls. I've got to work in St. Louis this week so Leslie is going to be on her own next week and then I'm back and we should be able to get things ready to put the roof on Friday and Saturday. I have to admit that it will be nice to take a little break. We have been going at from 7:30 until dark 6 days a week for the last 3 weeks and Leslie and I are both worn out. It's been a long time since I've slept this good, except for the night's that the cramps in my hamstrings kick in, those are awesome!.

We also had a new addition this week. We have three mares that are with foal and one of them finally delivered. They are all a couple weeks overdue. Misty, who is our babysitter, had a little bay colt. Just what we were hoping for out of her. The pictures aren't great, we'll try to get some more posted soon. We should have two more babies in the next couple days, hopefully.

In other news. Bronson ran the 200 in the big Hershey track meet and won. He was pretty excited, however, while he was trying to figure out when he was supposed to take his turn in the long jump he missed the start of the 400 he was supposed to run and then while he was trying to figure out how he missed the 400 he missed his turn in the long jump. He was not a happy camper but the when he won the 200 he was back to being happy Bronson. I asked him how close the 2nd place finisher was and he told me that he kind of waited for him to catch up and then took off so it wasn't such a blowout. Also Kaitlin competed in the District track meet and set a new district record in the shot put. Beat the old record by a foot. It's kind of funny because there are these girls who are really into and do the whole psych yourself up and then the whole backwards, hop, hop, through thing and Kaitlin just kind to steps up there and takes one step and chucks it out there, 35 feet. Who would have thought?

Week 3....

Well we're starting week 3 of framing and we are going to have to pick up the pace. I'm supposed to go out on the road next week and I'd really like to have everything up to the trusses. We think we're going to hire a crew to come in and do that in a day or two because it's complicated and I don't want to die falling from the roof. Here are a few updated pic's. Note the big tall wall that is just under 18 ft. You should have seen Me, Leslie, Cooper, Kaitlin and Lil trying to stand that thing up. I'm certain we would have not gotten that thing up if it weren't for Jeff(the professional) directing traffic. We're pretty much moving on to interior walls downstairs and then the upstairs. Interior walls are going much faster than the exterior.

The End of an Era

This weekend was truly the end of an era. Ever since Leslie was a little girl she would spend every Saturday with her family at the Utah Livestock Auction in Spanish Fork buying or selling horses. When we moved here to Benjamin we continued the tradition. I think in the last five years we've bought at least 15 horses from them. It's great Saturday entertainment and there is a core group of people that are always there. Due, mostly to urban sprawl and the fact that STUPID PETA have made it illegal to slaughter horses for consumption, after over 50 years the auction has closed it's doors for good. We went over for the last time and visited with all the regulars and had our last Auction Burger, best burger in town, and watched the horses run through for the last time. I'm sure we'll have a few weeks worth of withdrawals on Saturdays, good thing we've got other things to occupy our time for the next 8 months to a year. We also got a ton of work done on the house this week. We were able to get the crawl space framed and the sub-floor on. Lessons learned: Things always take longer than you think, experience is way more valuable than reading a book, fire a few shots with the nail gun before starting a wall(ouch!), mistakes can always be fixed. Here are a few pictures of our progress. These were actually a couple days old I'll post some news ones tomorrow.

Latest Goings on....

Well it's been a pretty busy couple of weeks. Leslie and the three younger kids made a trip up to Salmon, Montana with Grandma and Grandpa Allred last weekend. They were going up because Leslie's sister Lena had a mule and horse she was selling at a big sale so Leslie thought they'd tag along because there was also a visit planned with one of Leslie cousin's who she has not seen for a long time who lives in Darby, Montana. I opted to stay home with Cooper and Kaitlin for reason which did not become apparant until after they got home and gave us a detailed trip report. Let's just say that things were a little crowded and leave it at that. As you can see from the photo here Addison had lots of fun. Any chance she gets to put her butt in a saddle she has fun. She's become quite the little rider. Even likes it when she gets dumped, which doesn't happen often, becuase it adds to her legitmacy as a cowgirl.

This weekend was the Benjamin Stock show. Kaitlin has a sheep that she showed along with a bunch of other kids. This stock show is kind of the warm up for the Spanish Fork Stock show where all the 4-h kids bring their livestock to show and sale. Kaitlin had a lot of fun as you can see. Her sheep was invited back with about six others for final viewing for Grand Champion. She didn't win it but her friend did and Kait was pretty excited for her. This picture illustrates why Kailey's sheep was the Grand Champion and Kaitlin's was not. With sheep it's all about the butt. The bigger the butt, the more to eat. Yes in 4-h they have these kids raise these animals, make them real pretty to show-off and then they sell them to someone who is going to butcher them and eat them. It's like the anti-PETA organization and I personally think it's great.

Yesterday we ordered the concrete to poor in the crawlspace. We had some really great neighbors volunteer to help. That is hard work. I want to say that I gained a new respect for guys that do concrete work for a living but it's difficult for me to respect someone that does something that hard for as little as they get and not find something else to do. Maybe it get's easier the more you do it. I'm pretty sure I don't want to find out. But we got it done and now we'll get some lumber delivered and get started on the framing.....

Foundation wall....

The forms were pulled off the foundation wall yesterday. We spent the day today cleaning up. Our neighbor, the contractor, hates a messy work site so we've been very vigilant about keeping the place cleaned up since he drives passed the house several times a day. The kids and the dogs have been having lots of fun playing on the wall and all the piles of dirt that are all over the place. We had to leave a hole in the wall for the plumbing out to the septic tank. Izzy could make it in and out, no problem, Jez and Chloe not so much. Too fat. Next step is to pour the floor in the crawlspace. We'll do that next week and then we'll start framing.

Footing Formed and Poored....

Foundation guys were here yesterday and got the foundation formed. You'll notice from the picture that the footing sits pretty close to the original grade. We only dug down 4 inches. The footing is 10" so it's 6" above grade. The wall will be 3' 6" so if my math is right the top of the foundation wall will be 4' above grade. Add another 10" for the sub-floor and you might be thinking that our front door will be 4' 10" above the original grade. You be right! We will be bringing in lots of dirt. They poured the footing today and will be back on Monday to form and poor the wall.

As a side note to those of you who may be interested. Leslie's truck is back and it looks brand new. Better than when we loaned to Leslie's sister. They fixed stuff we forgot was broken. One of these days I'll post the before and after, but for now it's still too painful for Leslie to see.

We drove up to salt lake today to pick up a door from an old bungalow some guy remodeled. Leslie wants it for her laundry room door. We have totally become classified add hounds. I check the online classified, two, sometimes three, times a day. We've found some pretty good deals. Of course we had to walk through IKEA on the way home. I can do without that store, there are no windows in that place.

The fun begins....

We have the permit from the county, only after handing over a large check. Our favorite fee was the $50 we had to pay so we could continue living in our house while we built. As you can see from the photo excavation is done and ready for the footings to be formed. We've already been faced with decisions that we never really thought much about. Like how deep to dig the footing and how tall the foundation wall is going to be. Which apparently is pretty important around here. A family in our ward just moved into thier house in time for the spring runnoff. They've had to dig trenches to keep the water out of their house. Good thing our neighbor is an excavation guy or we might have ended up with the house looking like it was in a hole. We're getting most of our bids back and things are looking pretty positive. Most people we talk to tell us that our timing was perfect. We sold at the right time and are building at the right time. There are warehouses full of lumber and nobody is buying it. Hopefully the trend will continue for just a little while longer.