The kitchen is almost done.

I'm really happy with how the kitchen work is ending up, despite not being happy with the time it's taking. We were going to get a pre built counter top and have it brought in, and install it. Then we realized that counter tops cost a lot. To get a pre built counter top we didn't like would have cost over $900 for us to install. To get one we liked with having to install it would have been over $1,500. So I built a counter top myself. As you can see, this was a bit of a process.

Tutorial: Home yogurt making walk-through

The Lady of the House and I haven't made yogurt recently but we decided to go ahead and make a tutorial of it this time since it went well.  Above is the starting point, and below the cut I'll do a pictorial walk through.

Cute Animals, and Learning to Buck Firewood

 It's always good to start a post with a cute goat. Well, as cute as a creature that looks like it is trying to see through your soul and or time can look. Disturbingly enough, the answer is very cute.

Delight's Arrival, Rabbit Reproduction, and Carpet!

 Meet Delight, tattooed as and originality named Teak from Michelle Chandler's Blessed Acres Rabbitry. She is a Cinnamon doe with an initially shy temperament.

Tomatoes and New Hutch

 A lovely morning, and a very pleasant change from the rain and grossness of the past few days gave me an opportunity to get some photos of our rapidly expanding tomato plants. As you can see, this Cherokee Purple is thriving. In fact I had to re stake it because it was sprawling all over the place on us.

Splitting Wood

It's that time of year again. You know, the time of year when there's things you should have done over the summer but it was so hot, and winter was so far away, and so many other things to do. Remember those times when winter was far away? Well, now it's not, and I still have a vast pile of trees to buck and split.

That's about half of the pile of trees that has been sitting behind the studio long enough to show up on Google Maps. The Lady of the House's father was kind enough to come up and buck some of the trees for us a bit back, and will be coming up to show me how to properly and safely use a chainsaw to buck trees in the next month or so.

So, on Friday and Saturday I took a few hours and decided to see if I'd lost my skills at splitting firewood. Turns out, as one of my co workers said, it's a lot like riding a bike. You never quite forget, but you definitely aren't as good as you once were, or at least thought you were.

Stacking Firewood

So in the list of learning experiences I've had since moving into the house this one is the one that could have most seriously injured me. While I was stacking firewood this weekend, the entire pile fell.

Making the Growing Out Hutch, and HEAT!

Work continues on the hutch, and despite my desires it isn't quite done yet due to some in process design changes to account for reality. The other part of it not being done is just how hot it was yesterday. Temperatures in the mid to upper 90s with near 100% humidity doesn't mean you can't work. It just means you should do so slowly and with awareness of your body. Between that and needing some new materials to do this properly, we are currently 2 doors short of a hutch.

Work Progressing, and Babies Growing

Things have been fairly busy this week, as I got a new job mid last week, and yesterday was my first day. The Lady of the House is also preparing to go to Anime Next. That said, even with the rain we've managed to get a fair amount done around the house. Most of it normal cleaning and general house care, some of it though has been more exciting, like the work progressing on the studio.  We've also continued to see rapid growth in the babies. I was also excited this morning to be able to get a picture of a baby sitting on Sunny's head to eat.

DIY vs. Hiring a Pro: The Studio

Obviously, as we are attempting homesteading the lady of the house and I are comfortable, and indeed actively tend to do things ourselves rather than getting a professional to do so. That said, I'd like to examine some of the pros and cons of each. One of the big attractions to us about our house is the big garage with a second floor on it, but it did need finishing. Given our rather slim financial situation, one might assume that we did the whole thing ourselves, and you'd be wrong. The why I think is the important part.