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Old 07-11-2010, 01:18 AM
 
Location: Somewhere out there
18,287 posts, read 23,151,319 times
Reputation: 41179

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Quote:
Originally Posted by younglisa7 View Post
Jaxson- Thank you for writing in. Glad to see you back. How well did your beans do?
The first picking was great but they always are aren't when so young and tender. Canned 14 quart last evening for winter.

Thank you for allowing all of us to have front row seats. To share Mike, Niki and yourself with us is priceless in my book. I'll email ya later.

 
Old 07-12-2010, 05:59 PM
 
501 posts, read 1,294,157 times
Reputation: 890
Mike is right about doing a book next. You've effectively written the bulk of it already, all that is left is to decide how to pull it together in whatever direction you decide to take it. You can pitch it to a publisher, or self publish (which seems to have come a long ways from the old days), depending on what your goal is (money and fame, or the satisfaction of seeing your work product between 2 covers, with some sales along the way

For the last 3 years, I've participated in Nanowrimo - a loose "contest" online where the only goal is to churn out 50,000 words in one month (November). For me, it cleared out the writer's block I'd had for years. The "prize" for completing your "novel" is a free proof copy or "for sale" copy. You get 6 months to edit or add to it, and then upload it to a site called Create Space, which gives you an ISBN number and either 1) a proof copy for yourself or 2) you can sell it online.

I'd planned just to get a proof copy (I hadn't changed names in the story to protect the not so innocent, lol), but never could get my dialup to upload it. But it seems like an interesting way to self-publish, and I plan to either keep fleshing out my current novel, or write another one and see how the new internet self publishing goes. I actually came across a book that a friend of mine had been writing during horse shows we all attended, for sale on Amazon, and I am guessing that this is how he did it.

Anyway, just some ideas and encouragement - it seemed like it would be a fun thing to try!
 
Old 07-13-2010, 03:36 PM
 
Location: Somewhere in America
15,479 posts, read 15,564,516 times
Reputation: 28462
I'm soooo bummed! I just spent a week or so reading all 207 pages and the story is over! How sad!

Lisa - I was wondering if you and Mike have thought about using rain barrels to collect the rain from your gutters. You could use that water when it isn't raining much and your garden is thirsty. Your garden looks gorgeous!
 
Old 07-16-2010, 08:34 AM
 
Location: Gringolandia
293 posts, read 907,887 times
Reputation: 670
Quote:
Originally Posted by ss20ts View Post
I'm soooo bummed! I just spent a week or so reading all 207 pages and the story is over! How sad!

Lisa - I was wondering if you and Mike have thought about using rain barrels to collect the rain from your gutters. You could use that water when it isn't raining much and your garden is thirsty. Your garden looks gorgeous!
I think somebody already mentioned that, but it was about 2,000 comments ago. This is an amazing thread.
 
Old 07-19-2010, 08:07 AM
 
Location: Where the sun likes to shine!!
20,549 posts, read 30,332,386 times
Reputation: 88950
Default The second section of paving and road clean up

Hello everyone. Well we were supposed to take some time off but I should have known that wouldn't work, lol. Mike and I worked like two lunatics last week. Let me tell you all about it.


On Friday June 9th we rescheduled our paving contractors and to or surprise they said they could start on Monday. The next call was to Eric, Howard the cow man's son. We decided to call for reinforcements to keep the cows off the pavement this year. Eric said the would be here on Saturday and put an electric fence around the part of the driveway that is getting paved. Yay. Last year Mike and I put up a temporary 3 strand fence to keep the cows out but that didn't work.


Saturday-
Howard, Eric, Ivalee, and their granddaughter showed up to install the electric fence. Mike and Howard pounded in the T-posts while Eric did some weedeating...which I really appreciated. Ivalee, her granddaughter and I ran the T-posts and tools back and forth to Howard and Mike. Once the T-posts were installed Mike gave them electric wire instead of them using barbed wire. It is so much easier to work with. Eric got the solar panel hooked up and he made Mike test the electric fence, lol. Nothing happened until we all realized that Mike's rubber soles were grounding him so he wasn't getting shocked. Next we had to test it on the cows. Howard and Eric called the cows and got the feed buckets out. They tried to feed the cows just under the wire. A couple of them got small zaps but it was enough that they didn't like it. It didn't hurt them and it had to be done. One job done.


The electric fence is installed.







Sunday-
It's time...again...for Mike and I to work on the rock in the ditch line. BTW, the ditch line is over 500 feet long. That's why it is taking us forever to finish it. Anyway, now that the paving is scheduled we have to get as much done as we can. Once the paving is in Mike and I can't bring the tractor on it until next year. The tractor tires will tear it up in the summer heat.

First we have to finish removing the gray rock from the ditch. Last year we put gray rock in not realizing it was much more expensive than the lighter rock.

The gray rock...yuck!!!







I get in the ditch and start throwing the gray rock on the side of the driveway.






While I throw the gray rock on the side of the road and pull weeds, Mike loads the gray rock into the bucket and drops it off at the pond. We will use the gray rock around the pond. On his way back up, Mike loads up with the lighter rock and dumps it into the ditch.






After about 7 loads back and forth we finally have the gray rock out of the ditch. I hop on the tractor with Mike and help him load rock into he tractor.


Mike loading up rock from the pile.





Me hand loading rock....and where is Mike while I do this, lol?







The gray rock by the pond ready for us to hand place.







Mr. Bull cooling down by the barn. Too bad we couldn't train him to help.







Mike and I are both tired and sore. It has been a heck of a day. We still have a lot of hand placement to do but right now we just have to get the rock transferred to the ditch.





Monday-
The paving crew and their trucks are here and it's raining.






They start out by scraping down our road. The excess gravel is dropped off by our barn for another turn around area. It will be a three day process for the pavers. First they scrape the road. Then they will bring in fresh gravel and regrade our road with a pitch, for the water to run off. After that the asphalt goes down and then it is rolled out. Since it was raining the crew only got as far as scraping our road.


Our driveway is scraped.






Until they do the final grade, Mike and I continue to run rock up to the ditch.


Later that day we get another delivery of rock. I am so excited...not.






Because it rained and the ground is wet the driver got stuck. Oh joy.
Mike gets out of the car in the rain and gets on the tractor. He picks up 2 buckets of gravel to put in front of the truck's tires. Hopefully this will give the driver enough traction so he can get out.






Unfortunately that didn't work. The driver asks Mike to pull him out with our tractor. Yeah right....do you see how small our tractor is? I hope this works and it doesn't tear up our tractor. They hook up the truck to our tractor and Mike tries to pull. He can't pull straight across because that will tear up our freshly seeded area. Finally after a few attempts Mike gets the driver back on the gravel.





Now we have more rock. At least we will be stocked for next year. Mike cleans up the road from the ruts that were left behind while getting the truck out.







LOL, just another day in the Mike and Lisa world.




Tuesday-
The paving crew is here bright and early. While they work on the road, Mike and I put the gray rock around the pond.


Mike putting gray rock around the pond.







We are out of gray rock....wow that was fast.







The driveway is clear. We are going to haul some more rock. Here is Mike hauling rock as fast as he can.








The driveway has had the final scrape and the first truck of fresh gravel is in.






Dumping the first load.







Now that the gravel is down, Mike and I can't use the tractor up top anymore. Thankfully we got almost enough rock to the first culvert. Since we can't work inside anymore, we load up the tractor to work on the clean up from the electric installation on the right-of-way and by the new electric pole.


We start out by the electric pole. We tore up the county road down the middle of it and to the new electric pole. This is the mess that we made during the installation.







Mike and I start off by picking up all of the big rocks.






We get 2 full buckets of rock.






You know it's kind of funny. I think it was MB who, way back in the begining, asked about rock on our land. At the time, I said we didn't have much, lol. That turned out to be an understatement. Now I think we grow rock.




Next we rake out that area.







Mike seeds it.






While I put straw on it.






And that area is finished.







Next we have to clean the sides of the right-of-way which is almost 350 feet long.







This is where we start.






We have a system.


We take an old piece of plywood and lay it on top of our gravel. This way when we rake down the side of the hill all of the debris will end up o the board. Then we can easily shovel it into the tractor bucket. Once the bucket is full, Mike dumps it onto a bank that has been run over by trucks in the past.


Mike rakes debris onto the board.






We finished about 200 feet for the day. We will complete it all tomorrow.





Wednesday-
The pavers are in and waiting for the first truck of asphalt. While they do that, Mike and I work on the right-of-way.


We continue raking down and cleaning up the rocky debris.






Here I am raking gravel back onto the road.






Mike shovels more debris onto our board.







Yay, we are finished cleaning it. Now it's time to seed it and put straw on.







Mike and I both put the seed on all 350 feet and the we put the straw on.







It looks much better than it did.






Back inside we check on the paving. Looking good.







The paver is at the bottom and the roller is at the top.








The man on the roller has to wait for the asphalt to cool before he can roll it.




Here is our new rock pile by the pond.







Mike putting those rocks out around the pond.








Woo hoo. The second section of paving is done. Our 2 steepest areas are now paved. They have to wait a few weeks before they can come back and do the curbing. Now we just have to hook the electric fence back up and keep the cows out for a couple of days.







That afternoon, Eric calls to see if the cows have been staying off the driveway. So far, so good.





Thursday-
Oh no....it looks like one of the calves got through the fence at the top and walked all the way down the fresh pavement. Yup...we have small hoof prints all the way down one side of the driveway. Well at least it wasn't the bull....he would have left huge hoof prints.


Now that our hectic week is over Mike and I take it easy.



Friday-
Nothing crazy today. We made a new mailbox post with an arrow that we need to install o the county road. We have a lot of trouble receiving packages here because no one knows there is a house where we are. We decided to make a new mailbox with an arrow to make it very easy for drivers to find us. First we have to take out the old mailbox.


Mike cuts the actual mailbox off the pole. Then he hooks a chain to the pole and pulls it out with the tractor.






Next we pick a spot closer to our entrance and start digging. This turned out to be much harder than anticipated. It was pure road bed and rock. We only got two feet down but that should be okay since we are putting concrete in the hole. I mix the concrete while Mike cuts down our new post. Then we install the new pole and put the concrete around it.


Our new mailbox and arrow. Now drivers should be able to find us.







The rest of the weekend we had a lot of rain. During one of the downpours Mike and I went out and spread 100 more pounds of grass seed. Yeah we really want things to grow in this year.



That's our update for this week. We don't have anything big planned for the immediate future...but that can always change, lol. I hope all of you enjoyed our update. I will write again when we do something big.

I also posted some updated pictures of my garden. Here is the link:
http://www.city-data.com/forum/15089047-post263.html




Have a great week and I will see you soon. Niki is great but she couldn't help us this week. Too many trucks around.


Lisa
 
Old 07-19-2010, 10:13 AM
 
82 posts, read 416,302 times
Reputation: 186


I was so excited to click on the thread and find out that you had written another story! It is looking GREAT ! Once again, I'm amazed at the work that y'all do!

Thanks for taking the time to update us ! I loved it!
 
Old 07-19-2010, 06:26 PM
 
Location: Milky Way Galaxy,Earth,Northern Hemisphere,North America,USA,Pennsyltucky
795 posts, read 2,799,960 times
Reputation: 316
I was surprised to see this thread still going! Amazing work and good going! My hubby used to own a paving company, now works (without the hassles of the business owner) on someone elses paving crew. I'll have to show him your pictures of your newly paved road. Did they say how long to stay off of it before you could drive on it? I just shake my head when I see a tape across driveways after being newly paved. They pave highways and don't block them off for days while the blacktop cools. You can drive on it after an hour or so, just don't park on it while it's hot.
How many inches thick did they do?

blessings, Shen
 
Old 07-19-2010, 06:32 PM
 
Location: NJ, but my heart & soul are in Hawaii
3,273 posts, read 2,964,504 times
Reputation: 8294
The driveway is looking good. Moo bad about the hoof marks...I mean too bad.

This certainly was a treat today. Thanks!
 
Old 07-19-2010, 06:52 PM
 
227 posts, read 854,308 times
Reputation: 178
Just checking in and glad to see your thread still going. You all have a wonderful place and wear me out just reading all your latest work. Keep up the great work Mike & Lisa.

Where's supervisor Niki?
 
Old 07-19-2010, 08:53 PM
 
Location: In the Pearl of the Purchase, Ky
11,060 posts, read 17,461,624 times
Reputation: 44291
Glad I'm getting all this by email now. That blacktopping is a hot job. I helped put several thousand tons down working for the highway dept. Think of how humid it is and that blacktop is around 350 degrees when dumped in the truck.
Everything is looking good! You might have said this before but what are you stocking the pond with?
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