08-15-2005, 12:31 PM
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WORKING WORKING WORKING... wow. There are now half framed 18 foot walls for the great room on the house. This is just TOO MUCH!! You are all invited to come see the progress. It's really something now. Although not exactly the look I planned due to excavation problems, this is surely the most exciting project I have undertaken.
Dogs are doing well. A couple recent emergency visits to the Vet have taught me how very lucky we are to jave Dr. Seska at the Kilauea Veterinary center in Keauu. She is just wonderful, and her prices are totally reasonable.
We made great progress on the pig pen today. Corner posts are in cement, the first wing of the house is built and we have begun trenching the fenceline. The plan is to put the fence a full foot into the ground and staple it to wood, then bury the ffence line in 2inch minus rock. This should discourage the pigs from digging under the fence. We did place the 18 x 9 foot enclosure under the edge of the tree line with one large hapu'u within the enclosure. Piggie Paradise!! We'll give it 36 hours or so to cure, then start stretching fence. We used ohia for the corner posts so it looks rather bohemian, but we did put in 4x4 posts for the gate. We wll pour a two foot deep concrete threshhold so the pigs can't dig under the gate either. Lastly, the mesh of our hogwire fencing is too large so we will reinforce it with smaller mesh for the lower 2 1/2 feet. Being a lazyish city kid, we put a mini pig house... elevated 12 inches to keep them out of the ran... with a roof and gutters. The gutters drain to what will be the water trough so I won't hav to worry about watering them quite so often. Anyone try t build a concrete trough? I have an idea how to do it but welcome information or... help!! Oh, the things you have to think of to get baby pigs.
I took one of my many falls a couple days ago. Falling isn't really a big problem, and landin is getting to be less of a problem as I gain practice but levitating lumber and such out of the way is yet to be accomplished, so y curremnt bruises have given new meaning to the phrase DEEP PURPLE. Despite my extreme clumsiness these days, I continue to work hard and it gives me great satisfaction to be a very real part of this mighty project.
A nice walk demonstrated to me that the children's playhouse is a huge success... the local kids love it and the roof feeding the water tank is very efficient, keeping us with a good water supply. The fruit orchard is really faring well. Alex, my gardner, has just loosened the soil around each tree and fed with well cured manure. The vegetable garden is less than successful. though we have harvested, it has been meager. I will ave to continue to work on technique as well as crop choice and build more trellising. Still, it's good overall.
That's about it for now. I am beat, so off to bed for me. As always thanks for your interest, your support and your good thoughts. Aloha!
Just another day in P A R A D I S E !!