Monday, June 29, 2009

Fruits of Our Labor

Here are some new pics! Sorry they are so few and far between, but I don't get out to The Hollow much these days (too busy illustrating and gestating!). So poor Brian has been left to his own devices with no one to take his picture! But I did make it out there about a month ago, and we took these pictures of his progress on the house...and my progress in the belly department. We also planted a fig tree and a grape vine down in the field. Yummy!



Look! The wall is a good foot above "fro height!"















Check out our zippy yellow scaffolding! We got a bargain on these babies!


Lookin' good--the walls, that is!















Not quite as big as a house yet--more like an efficiency apartment. I guess I was about 14 weeks here. I'm about 18 weeks along now, so stay tuned for more pics!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

New Pics and What-Not

So here are some some-what current pictures of the cottage! Being pregnant is a pretty good excuse to avoid heavy lifting, over-exertion, precarious balancing acts, rusty nails, over-heating, and ticks [sorry, Tiffany] ...or pretty much everything that goes along with building a cob cottage.
Unfortunately for Brian, this means that he is all on his own out there, and has the monumental task of building a house out of mud by Thanksgiving for his wife and baby. Not so easy. But he's been doing great, and now needs scaffolding in order to make his way around the house!

See!







Renting scaffolding costs a whopping $175 a month...so after doing some math, we realized that we ought to just suck it up and buy our own. We may have found a good deal on line, but scaffolding is wicked expensive! Who knew! I can think of a lot of other things I would rather buy with that money. This is one of those sneaky hidden costs that you don't necessarily think about when you set out to make a mud house. But who knows, maybe we can go into our own scaffold renting business when all is said and done! But I digress...
I think Brian is doing a fantastic job, and I'm really proud of him. Building with cob isn't difficult, but it's a lot of work, and I sure do appreciate him going out there and giving it his all. It's hard not to get discouraged when we think about how much is left to do...but when we step back and realize just how far we've come (with pretty much just two people working on it--and now one) it's actually quite something. And when everything is said and done, we'll be able to tell our baby that Mom and Dad built this house with their own bare hands, and that's something.
Speaking of houses for babies, check out who's moved in!!! Can you see the sweet little baby bird? Our house has become a veritable wild-life refuge! This little guy lives in our bathroom wall, and Mama Bird comes flying out at us whenever we get close...I scream and flail every time, but it's kind of fun.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Reason # 3 I've Been a Bad Blogger


3.) We're having a baby!!!!!!








That's right--my egg-o is preg-o!!!! We can hardly believe it ourselves, and are very excited and happy! These pictures were taken at about 4 weeks, and the ultrasound is of Baby Harrison at about 6 weeks. The baby is about 14 weeks old now (they grow up so fast!), and about the size of a fist, which makes our due date November 29th! Coincidentally, that's also the date our house needs to be finished by! Go figure!
So why does this make me a bad blogger? Well, it's a fun little thing I like to call morning sickness--or in my case, night sickness. Don't really feel much like typing when all you want to do is gag and sleep. But, fortunately for me, that little chapter seems to be coming to a close, which means that I am officially back on the blog-wagon! So there you have it--my final and best excuse for being a bad blogger!