But...

We found the flooring on the internet for 6.30 per square foot. And when Tom ordered it, they gave us a 5% discount, which just about paid for shipping.

Ahhh, the magic of the internet.

Too Good To Be True

Despite the fact that when I called the insurance company the first time about our water damaged wood floors, they told me that it was covered under our policy, they are now telling me that it isn't.

Since Direct Buy no longer carries our flooring, I'll have to pay 10.00 per square foot for the flooring alone. That doesn't include the tearing out and the installation.

"So, it doesn't cover it...OK, I get it, but don't sit there and tell me that you didn't tell me that it was or that I didn't clearly explain the water damage. You did and I did."

Bad day.

Sold!

The buyers signed the closing papers on our house today. They are supposed to take possession Thursday. Let's hope they don't die before then.

We spent the day finishing up packing and cleaning.

It is done. It is finished.

Wheee!

The fish are still alive.

Meagan gave her hermit crabs to the neighbor's little boys. They are enthralled. Go figure.

Moving Day...Again

Tom and I spent the day at our other house packing up. Mom helped us. We worked 7 1/2 hours, packed up the pick-up truck and the back of Tom's car and we still have more to get. Of course, things couldn't go smoothly...where's the fun in that? One of the bathroom sinks backed up so Tom had to deal with that for a good part of the afternoon. He couldn't get it unclogged, so he poured Drano in it and left it for the night. If it isn't unclogged by tomorrow when we go back, we'll have to call a plumber.

I think the house is punishing us for leaving it.

Crazy Daze

On October 13th we had four inches of rain in one day. Walking through the living room, I discovered water squishing up through the wood floor boards. Bad news. Water was rushing to the outside corner where the dining room meets the living room and got so deep that it was above the foundation, so it came in (probably a weep hole) between the concrete foundation and the wood floor, soaking the plywood underneath and ruining the finished wood.

I thought about a third of the room would have to be replaced, but the wood floor guy that came to give us an estimate said the whole room would probably have to be replaced. We won't know until he starts pulling it up. And I've waited this long for him to get back with me with an estimate. He's having trouble getting the supplier to call him back.

In the meantime, we've been haggling with the buyers for our other house. Finally we agreed upon the contract and everyone signed. Then their inspector found several little things that needed to be fixed and said that the heaters were old and might need to be replaced. The buyers latched onto that and said they were going to terminate the contract if we didn't replace the heaters and several windows. We had the heaters inspected and cleaned and they are perfectly fine. We told them that we would not replace them or the windows. After haggling some more, we told our realtor to just terminate the contract because we're sick of dealing with them. As soon as we did that, all of the sudden they decided that everything was OK and they wanted to close right away.

So, we went from "we're going to terminate the contract" to "we want to close in less than a week". So now we are scrambling to find the kids a place to live and getting the house emptied. Tom spent the day with Jim and a friend packing up all the big stuff. I'm going back as many days this week as it takes to get everything else packed up. Hopefully, it will take just one day and Tom can come back with the truck and trailer to clear it all out.

It will be really great not to have to worry about the other house when it's finally sold, but this week is going to be crazy busy.

The Big Stink

Just when the last odor had worn off, Harry has gotten himself skunked for the THIRD time.

Pearlie is right. He is a big dope.

My Fish Experiment

I read somewhere to put goldfish in livestock waterers (tanks, buckets, automatic waterers, etc.) to keep the mosquito population down. The theory is that they will eat the mosquito larvae and live just fine in the tanks. So while I was in Dallas yesterday I dropped by the pet store and discovered that I could buy "feeder fish" for 13-24 cents a piece depending on how big the fish was. I guess I never knew that some people had pets that required feeding them live fish.

So I bought six of them, figuring that if they all died from my experiment, I wouldn't be losing more than a buck fifty and they were destined to die anyway. I put them in three different waterers yesterday, checked them today and they are all still living as far as I can tell. A couple of the buckets have an overhang that the fish can hide in and I couldn't see them in one of those buckets, but in the other two, they were swimming around. So far so good.

Finished Woodshed

The woodshed is finished enough to store wood. Tom will decide later if it will be necessary to put a front on it.

P U

Harry got himself skunked last night. He is stinking up the place. We're trying to live life without touching or being touched by the Abominable Harry Snowman. He's probably enjoying his newfound cologne.

Beautiful Weeds

Who wouldn't love this view?

Woodshed

Tom decided that we needed a woodshed, because what farm is complete without a woodshed? And besides, it's kinda hard to burn wet wood.

So a woodshed has taken root out beside the house and construction passes the time of day. I helped a bit today, but thank goodness Charlie is coming tomorrow to help. Mostly my job consists of standing idly by while Tom builds and I hand up screws and blocks of wood and look for things that he has lost or forgotten...basically, a gopher (go-fer?).

Butchering Day

We had too many roosters, so we had to butcher some. I desperately looked for a place to take them and have it done, but I couldn't find any meat processing place around here. Surely there is one somewhere. Tom decided to do it himself. He read the How To in our chicken book and Larry came over to help him (in the picture, they're setting up a makeshift table to work on out in the field. I told him I didn't want to see or hear anything about it. Meagan and I went to the flea market. It took Tom and Larry from about 8:30 to 11:30 to process two of the roosters. They had to take a break for lunch and to help a hay buyer load 90 bales of hay, then they went back to the rooster processing and finished up around 4:00.

Six roosters in all. We have three left, with ten hens. I think we need to get an incubator and hatch a few. Last week something got one of the hens and ate it's head off. The chickens are starting to range further and further from the house and coop. I think the hen got to close to the woods and something in there darted out and got it.