Days 41, 42, 43 and 44

We spent Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and today alternating between work in the house and in the garden. The walls, ceilings and trim in the dining room, living room,  kitchen, and both bedrooms are all painted. The entry way ceiling and walls are also painted, but the trim needs to be done. All the blue painters tape has been removed and the rooms look fabulous!  Saturday had just one disaster.  I was preparing to paint the baseboards of the upstairs bedroom.  Sitting on the floor, I lifted the can of paint and lost my grip and spilled the whole can all over me and the floor.  Heather came to my rescue while Mike took a picture of the whole mess!

The shoe sitting on the floor was full of paint!

Still to paint are the downstairs hallway, the laundry room, the downstairs bathroom, the stairway, the upstairs hall and the upstairs bathroom.

Mike finished putting in the posts for the entire garden area, made and mounted the gate for the turkey enclosure, and cut the bracing for the gates for the orchard.  

Sunday, Mike was arranging the kitchen components and was going to start wiring for the double oven when he noticed there was a small stream of water coming down the wall in the kitchen.  After extensive investigation he has determined that the drain of the upstairs shower is leaking.  He had done some work upstairs and had washed his hands in the shower (there is not sink in that bathroom yet).  Shortly after that he saw the leak. The plumber was called, but he hasn't come out to fix it yet.

Heather and I planted two hills of potatoes which the chickens immediately got into and unearthed several of the potatoes.  Heather and Mike fashioned an enclosure out of an old green house frame, so now those are protected.  We also planted seven pumpkin plants and so far the chicks have left them alone.  Tomorrow we plan to enclose the entire garden area with chicken wire and then start building the additional raised garden boxes.  We've given up on the stone walls for the enclosures for now.  They're just too time consuming to build.  But we may come back to them at a later date.

Mike has his own business, In the Styx, and does jobs on the side.  Currently he is working on two jobs.  One is base plates for mounted photographs.  He cuts the wood, sands them to a glassy finish, then spray paints them black.  Here are some in the garage drying.

Another job he is working on now is lasering the print on control panels for HD cameras mounted on helicopters.  He let me photograph the process.

Here is the laser before he starts the job.

Here is the control panel before the print is lasered on it.

The laser beam slides back and forth creating the print, similar to an ink jet printer.  Here Mike is lasering the top edge of the panel.

This is the printing on the top edge of the panel.

And here is the printing on the face of the panel.

All the printing and positioning of the laser is controlled by Mike via computer connected to the laser.  It's really in impressive operation!

Bromley is at day 26 sitting on her eggs.   Two more days to go and we should have some baby turkeys!

Pamela sent me these pictures of Julian and Dash in their Halloween costumes.

Dash the Lion

Julian the Vampire