June 2009 – Into the Woods

Done! (Except for…)

The downstairs bedroom, painting and woodwork finish by yours truly. This is the guest room, so, all of you houseguests to be, this is where you’ll stay.

I got the certificate of occupancy on Monday, which means that I passed the final inspection and, as far as the county is concerned, the house is complete. What remains, though, is quite a lot of painting and finishing of woodwork. That’s a lot of work, on which I got started this week. One room, the downstair bedroom, is done. Next: the radio room upstairs.

I’ve been busy and distracted, and I’m reluctant to post a lot of photos until all the painting and interior finish work is done. I’ll post updates each time I come up for air.

Garden

I was too busy to check the garden for a few days, and suddenly the zucchini were a foot long. I hope they’ve not turned to seed. The oversize cucumbers are great, though. Some of the zucchini will go into a curry for supper.

The last ditch

I have often complained that ditches and mud have been the most irritating part of the building process. Today the electric company dug the last ditch to bury my power cable. The house now has power. If it doesn’t rain this evening, I hope to get an exterior photo of the lit-up house at dusk.

Day lilies

The day lilies have burst into bloom in the last week. I planted 300 day lily sets last July. All that work is now paying off.

Busy, busy, busy

I haven’t had much time to post lately. I’ve been busy with a long list of things that need to be done to get the house ready for the final inspection. Plus I had a visitor from California last week. Above: A new chicken feeder ordered from Randall Burkey has made it much easier to keep the chickens’ food clean and cut down on waste. Floor level troughs don’t work very well. This one is suspended from a wire.

The baby squash are coming along.

Basil, a bug, and a squash tendril

The view toward the North Carolina Piedmont from Fox Hunter’s Paradise on the Blue Ridge Parkway. My friend from California and I went for a little road trip to the New River Valley of Virginia.