July 4th weekend

Another Work Weekend

Yes, we were at it again. It was a beautiful weekend with blue skies and a wonderful breeze. Uncle Jack had gotten the auger working, so the boys worked on getting more fence posts in the ground. Leah sealed grout and stained a mirror and I painted more of the outside trim. Mom organized the new closet and other items, but the best part was showing Mom all the progress we made at the last work weekend. I will admit it was difficult to get back in the work groove after working so hard just a few weeks ago. And our "To Do" list is honestly a little intimidating. It's pretty long.

But the kids were with us and it was a beautiful weekend, so we did take a little time to enjoy just being at the ranch. There were lots and lots of ATV and Mule rides, even a little fishing trip for Alexander.

The Ranch had gotten a lot of rain over the last week, I'm not sure exactly how much, but it was probably around 9 inches. All the tanks were full and the field was green. We were a little worried the front yard would be a mud pit since the guys had left the new sprinkler timer on to water everyday. Not to worry, it was beautiful and dry.

We made lots of decisions and possible future plans (again, our "to do" list is huge already!), like adding another bathroom, maybe another bedroom and David's grand idea of enlarging the kitchen! Not sure that last one will happen, but its nice to dream. One major decision was made to leave the playroom as the playroom and make the carpet living room the newest bedroom. Don't ask. Just know that it significantly cuts down on the labor and we can get the new rooms moved around and set up sooner rather than later.

Oops, forgot to mention in my previous post that the guys put down the insecticide for our little friends who like to sting with their tails. Its coming up on scorpion season at the ranch. Here's hoping all the chemicals do their job and keep them out of the house this year.

Here are a few pictures of the guys at work.

I'm sure there's another work weekend planned in the near future. There's a fence to finish and a deck to build. Not to mention lots of painting. If you've got a free weekend, give us a call. I'm sure we can rustle up a beer or tropical coconut and stick some jalapenos on the smoker for you.

Work Weekend

This last weekend, we had a no kids work weekend at SBR. David brought his friend Matt, and was joined by Leah, Dad, Brian and Me. It was a crazy work a thon for 2 days. The boys started on Friday evening by power washing the house while Leah and I got some of the inside ready to paint. Then a planning session over dinner & drinks.

Saturday morning the boys left early to start cutting trees for fence posts and the new deck. Leah and I got started painting the hallway & kitchen, while Dad did some work in the new room finishing the trim. After a while, Matt got Leah and I started painting the outside of the house with his power sprayer. It was amazingly fast. Though, Leah and I were no where near as fast as Matt at painting, which is probably why he took over after a few hours and finished up the outside paint for us.

Once we realied we were going to run out of paint, Dad ran off to Gonzalez to buy more along with a few more necessary items for our projects. While he was gone, Leah and I finished the hallway, finished painting the kitchen, sealed some grout, painted the closet in the new room and did some other general projects. Those included going through the kitchen & bedrooms to purge.

During the day, the boys smoked meat and jalapenos. I got to try my hand at coring about 50 jalapenos while Leah stuffed and wrapped them for smoking. They were wonderful.

Brian got there for lunch, and went to work with the boys cutting and hauling trees. It was cool watching Dad get the tractor out with the auger to dig the holes for the stumps. They got them all lined up, placed, and started digging. At the 6th hole something went wrong. Really not good. At first they were sure if the auger or the tractor broke, but eventually decided it was the auger. That put a stop to the holes for the new fence.

That's ok, we still had so many other projects to work on - like regrouting some of the new room and setting up a sprinkler system for the yard.

We've decided it's going to take many more work weekends to get things where we want them and a new deck and fence built. But it was exciting to see so many changes happening at one time. Below are a few pictures of our progress.

Hallway with a fresh coat of white paint and

missing a bookcase and coat rack.

We moved the coat rack into the bathroom to hang towels, replacing a

previous rack. This one goes nicely with our Texas Flag theme.

We cleaned out a few things from the bunk room.

Hung denim curtains and cleaned off this coat/hat rack.

The new room now only needs the grout sealed

and to be cleaned up before we move furniture in. Oops, forgot to include

the necessary new electrical wiring and air conditioning.

Our favorite new thing - The CLOSET!

There are no other closets in the house.

And this one is HUGE!

One end has hanging clothes

And the other end has hanging clothes

with plenty of room for the shelves of linens, baskets of

hats & gloves, the heaters and random boots

The repainted and reorganized shelves in the kitchen
Yes, we "reorganized" the liquor. You wouldn't believe what we found

up there. Stuff that Dad tells us is older than David!

The hallway bookcase is now in Mom & Dad's room

where the shelves of linens were before the move.

The outside of house before we started painting.

Notice the lovely 2 tone color. Actually, the

house was 3 different colors all the way around.

Now, its a "lovely" gray color. No one is sure who picked out the gray,

but none of us are volunteering to repaint it! I'm sure once we have the

trim & front door painted it will all look less boring.

We started painting the trim dark gray on the rafters, but didn't get very far.

That is on the list for the next work weekend.

Here is the row of fence posts that got in the ground.

We call it Yard Art.

Want us to call you for the next Work Weekend? It's lots of fun!

Christmas thru New Years Vacation

Mom & Dad, David & Leah w/kids, and Brian & I w/kids spent the week after Christmas till New years at SBR together once again. The guys spent the week ...

working on the new room...


...building a new hog blind...



...and bought a mule.

They did receive some help from the kids.


...measuring...



...and dragging things to the burn pile.

Birdie rode the ATVs

Ashley tended the fire

While the boys were working, we girls were painting. Leah and I repainted the white in the dining room & playroom, including the ceilings, and added a dose of red to the kitchen.


We also painted a wall in the new room a nice light shade of champange.

Mom was wonder woman through it all by keeping an eye on all 5 kids.

Don't worry, it wasn't all work. The family was introduced to Rock Band 2 for Wii! There are many many fun stories to tell. Let's just say that Mom scored the only 100%, on a heavy metal song no less & Ashley loves to sing the Smashing Pumpkins.

Plan to join us next year for our week vacation!

We work hard, but play hard too!

Habitat for (SBR) Humanity

Over the past year it has come to our attention that the Ranch house is too small to comfortably sleep all fifteen of us. It's okay for a quick weekend, but anything longer than 48 hours is not always pleasant. "The Guys" decided that an add-on is necessary and this weekend they began the first of a several step project.

The project is to enclose the front porch, creating a new living space. Once complete, the original "enclosed porch" (aka playroom) will become a bedroom and the "newer enclosed screened in porch" (aka the carpeted living area) will become a playroom. They'll have to cut a door where the window (between rooms) exists and eventually put up doors that have long since been removed.

Day One:
When the girls and I arrived, the guys had already taken out all of the porch posts and railing. They had two fires going (three if you count the smoker) and it was chilly and damp outside.

David cutting the support post from the existing roof. The rest of the day was spent getting the foundation level and straight around the porch.
Then they started building some of the framing.
Meanwhile, the girls and I went for a short hike around the back pond.

We saw many animal tracks heading to the back tank. Raccoon, Armadillo, something that looked like it could be a small cat or a large rabbit (it was very sandy).

In honor of Thanksgiving, here Cameron points out the easily recognizable turkey tracks. By far the most interesting thing we saw on the hike were the ants. Great, big, huge, red ants carrying leaves or pieces of leaves. The kind of ants you would watch in documentaries in elementary school.

The day ended with watching the OU-Tech game on the big screen. (Well, the OU game.. was Tech there?)

Day Two:

Day two dawned with rain and though it stopped soon enough it threatened much of the day. Still, the guys spent the day burning the tree and framing the room.

Brian decided the tree stump just had to come out - this poor tree had been struck by lightning and died. The guys cut it down on Labor Day weekend 2004. This time they tried to cut the stump down with a chain saw, but only made a three-inch dent after ten minutes of sawing. Brian (the Pyro) came up with the idea to burn the stump out. This was a common sight all weekend, though I'm told it's still there tonight, still smoldering. While visible progress has been made, it will take additional attention before it comes down.

Day two ended with the framing up and several ideas for the next day. They might have finished more, but we realized too late that it was Sunday and one hardware store was closed, and the other closed before we could get to town. Another huge factor was the fact that it was Sunday and there were football games playing. Naturally, the guys had a television plugged into the corner under the remaining roof and it was common to see them pause to watch the Cowboys make a play.

Leah and the kids drove in mid-afternoon from Austin. Cameron and Brenna had a ball playing with their cousins.




Day Three
We left mid-day on Monday and the guys were busy putting in the rafters.

After we left they finished setting in the windows, with a few adjustments required, ran the electrical (Romex) and put on about half of the roofing.

Day Four
Today they finished the roofing, installed the moisture barrier, and put on the exterior siding.

Bryan took these with his cell phone camera.

Bryan says they still need to add insulation, put down hardiplank flooring, frame the closet, put up the interior wall and ceiling paneling, tile and carpet, and paint.

I know we all can't wait for this to be done! What amazing progress in just four days.