Update: 6/26/15

We’re going to be teaching…

It is official we took teaching/assistant positions at a school district a little less than 1.5 hours south of us. We will be staying in our friends studio building behind their home for three nights a week and home Thursday-Monday morning. I will be assisting in the preschool room with a few blind children and look forward to learning curve that will bring. Casey will be teaching alternative education; helping students with behavioral issues get back on track. He also plans to try to do the Fire Science program on the side (fire fighting) and I will continue with my last seven classes for my BA degree. 

We will be looking for a nanny over the next month and getting ready for the transition into this new job; but nonetheless we are excited for the new adventure and working along side some great people! 

We’re adding another to our family…

 When pregnant with Jack we had it to be a very personal thing but we wanted to extend the news to our friends and family; we are indeed expecting another little this coming January. So far everything is good and Jack seems to be adjusting to the idea well; but we will soon soon. I will be in Wisconsin mid-August and plan to have baby BBQ! 

We are going to be expanding the patio into usable living space, adding a wood stove, more solar, manual washer and hopefully a propane fridge.

We’ve added lambs & female pigs to the farm…

    We will update more on this later with pictures but we did get    two female KuneKune pigs and built quite the pen; the boys and      girls are refusing to be separated even though Casey has tried           diligently to for safety/breeding purposes. They seem to be          doing great together so for now they shall be. The whole    transporting experience was of course insane getting them from        Phoenix in the middle of the night to avoid the instense heat with a horse trailer and the jeep; my husband was literally up almost 48 hours over Father's day to make this happen!So thank you.
We are in the process of moving the dorper lambs over to our place this weekend; we bought three females. I am about to launch         the website with all the information so stay tuned.

      

Miscellaneous Homestead Update

My final blog for the day recaps on a few little projects we've done in the last month or so!

Inside storage solutions!

Inside storage solutions!

Inside storage solutions! 

Last months reading material! 

Inside storage solutions! (New cabinet far left)

Outdoor bath times still a hit! 

He's been working with dad a lot outside and on Bronco!

I can't get enough! 

CHEESE!

Transplanted five trees from another part of the 10 acres

Jack checking out the hammock! 

Which he loves! 

Hooking up controller for solar panel!

We have solar!!

We still need another panel and some better batteries but it's a start and now Casey knows how to hook it up so adding to the system shouldn't be hard. Eventually we plan to get the solar panel on top of the covered patio.

Casey hooking up our solar panel!

Bruce&King Update

I wanted to try and get a few blogs out today and one of them is the piglet pen expansion and just a general update of how they are doing since being home!

It was hard to capture how big their pen truly is and eventually when we get females (I currently have two in my sights just need to get the details figured out) we will probably expand a bit more and create a "run" for them to be more "free range". I going to start growing grass for them so they won't need as much hay. Currently, their favorite snacks cucumber, carrots, heads of lettuce, grapefruit, half of cantaloupe and apples! I'm going to give them watermelon tomorrow which I'm sure they will just devour! Planning on capturing that with the camera! 

Back right side

Front left side

Back left side

Side capture

Caseys hay holder he built

Jack is obsessed with them!

We had to get a hay rack because they would drag it ALL over their pen

Hard to tell but Jack is throwing a complete fit since we were leaving the pig pen!

Throwing a fit is a bit clearer here haha

A boy and his pigs!

Grape fruit day!

Grape fruit day!

Oh my! Their cute little piglet tails!

Big thank you to Rhonda and Stan for the kennel! 

Stay tuned for the update on female KuneKunes coming to the homestead!

The Thompsons-

We Doubled Our Living Space!

Yes you read that right! We have doubled our living space by building a 12x20 covered/fenced patio. This project has been in the works for quite sometime and we still need to do a few minor things like adding 2x4 bracing off the posts but I figured it was time to get it up on the blog for everyone to see! There have been some major changes on the homestead over the last four months but this has been the biggest and the most exciting! If you'd like to give it a try here is how we did it:

Material List:

15-20 bags cement (we used a quick set type)

4: 4x4x12 (posts)

4: 4x4x10 (posts) one which we cut for wood lattice support

20: 2x4x12 roofing support

4: 2x6x12 for bracing the posts together

40 brackets for the the 2x4x12

10 plastic corrugated roofing sheets (see below why we went this route)

If you want to fence or "deck" it in there are many options we choose a slightly more expensive route with the wooden lattice but I plan to grow berries galore on it this summer! 

8 wood lattices (ours came 8 feet long)

20 1x2x8 to frame the lattice in 

Screws for the roofing

3in wood screws

1.5in wood screws

lag bolts for attaching posts to 2x6x12

Finishing nails

Helpful Things To Have

Post level

Regular level

Shovel and wheel barrel

Impact drill or high powered drill

Hammer

Saw of some kind

Here is the progress via pictures with descriptions:

Supplies! 

Jack helps dig 2 ft holes

First posts are set

Added 4 more feet to width so more posts were added and Casey is installing the 2x6x12 boards to brace the posts together

Casey adding the brackets for the 2x4x12 boards (20 on each side)

Brackets up for one side

Brackets up for second side plus the start of 2x4x12 going in!
View never gets old! 

Another supply run

All brackets and 2x4x12ft boards in place

Side view

Next up the wooden lattice to contain the dogs and Jack so roofing would be easier!

Plastic corrugated roofing being installed
We choose this so we could get some shade but still have sun and also to collect snow run off and rain water

Roofing up! (more on the lights later)

FINISHED PRODUCT
Casey had set up my hammock a week or two prior!

Jacks play area (that now has pallets under it)

The hardest worker you've ever seen....


So thats how we doubled our living space and so far it has been much enjoyed and appreciated I'm currently typing while the dogs bask in the sun and Jack plays with his toys!

A huge thank you to the great people at Home Depot that saw my vision off a scribbled drawing on the back of an envelope, our great neighbors Bill and William and lastly my wonderful husband who dealt with my endless requests and changes!

Please comment with any questions you may have about the process.

The Thompsons-