Trusses and more winter work.

WELL The trusses are DONE!! So far in the last 2 years Papa and I have made a total of 41 trusses!! Crazy people I know!! LOL. The 1st 36 were for the house and are up and covered and done! The last 5 are for our new cow/pig/chicken barn and are leaning up against the side of the house waiting for another weekend off so we can put them up. The longest part of this second truss building was getting everything in one place!! It seemed every time we set out to do it we didn't have enough time to get all the 'stuff' together to do it. FINALLY we managed to get it all together and banged out (with a rented nail gun. Very LOUD.) 5 more 2x4 trusses. We used 2x6's for the top 4 pieces of the house trusses but decided to just use 2x4's for the barn trusses. It's seriously amazing how much lighter these new ones are. Papa and I felt like we could carry them anywhere. The first few anyway. After all that gluing and bending over to put plywood pieces on and nailing our backs protested a little with the last few! The boys helped a lot. They brought us plywood pieces (that go over the joints of wood) and glue from inside and were generally helpful. When the girls were awake and the boys cold we sent them inside to tell the girls they could get up and J helped R get out of her crib and got her her treat and put her in her high chair with a bib on to eat it. It was a lolly pop from Grandma and after seeing how much of a help they were I let them all have theirs (normally treats are only for after naps and only if a "good" nap was had. But that day the boys didn't nap and helped instead). Papa and I finished the last 2 trusses alone and the kids watched our headlamps through the living room window. It was full on dark when we were done but that doesn't mean much as it is darker earlier every day. I think it was 7pm when I got inside.

We also got the last of the spruce trees in the 'orchard area' cut down. Papa has a couple of hours of cutting up to do before we can take a walk through it and see how many of the poplar trees we want down. We are trying to get it ready to plant in the spring and so far have a list of 8 trees that we want. 2 honey crisp apple trees, 2 Cherry's (I'm not sure which one), 2 hardy Mac apple trees and 2 plum trees. We are also hoping to get blueberries, but we don't know where to put them just yet.

We also got 2 more loads of firewood to the firewood area and only have 2 more to go. One load is already on the trailer waiting to be moved so it can be stacked and the other load will be pine from 2 of the dead bug kill pine in the back piece.

I went out to the pond to check on the pig fence the other day and found 3 large goldfish frozen in the ice of the pond. They had obviously spawned as there was also 16 silver fish of 3 different sizes also frozen in the ice. I hemmed and hawed over what to do with them and have decided to leave them and see what happens. Yesterday Papa and I went for a walk down there and there were at least 2 more goldfish frozen in but only a few of the fish on the edge of the pond were in the same place!! The others in the middle had moved!! It had snowed that morning so the silver fish were very hard to see. When Papa stepped into the pond we realized that it was deeper then we thought and I'm still hoping some survive!

We also butchered our 1st steer last weekend and he's now hanging in the covered area beside the house, where the floor is. He looked great, and is bigger then we thought which is wonderful!! We will hang him for about 14 days and cut and wrap him up on Papa's next long weekend. We'll probably do the moose then too as we've not gotten to it yet.

We also want to bring the bobcat home that weekend and get the trusses up on the bales for the barn. We have been getting lots of ideas and one was to put a layer of plastic on the trusses (greenhouse cheap plastic this year.) then put strapping on top of that and put another layer of plastic on top of the strapping giving it a better insulated value. We have to price this out yet but we're thinking about doing it. It would help the animals stay warmer but would make it a real pain to move the roof! We are also putting plastic over the top of the bales to keep the inside moisture from soaking them when it runs down the inside of the plastic. Thanks Dad!!

Chip is settling in nicely. He has stopped nipping the kids which is great as even the girls are starting to enjoy him now. The boys play with him for hours outside and they have a lot of fun. He is limping a little after a accident with a piece of wood. I was throwing poplar chunks of firewood on to the pickup bed trailer and he was on the other side (I didn't even know he was there!) and a piece of wood bounced out of the trailer and got him on his toes. They are not broken but very sore and he limps when he 1st gets up. Today is day 3 after he got hit and he only limped 1st thing this morning. Poor guy!!

We had a bit of fun too in the last little bit. I went through all my crafty stuff and found some neat stuff for the kids. L got to paint a neat little sun catcher and J has been enjoying pencil crayons and 'staying in the lines better.' Now that winter is almost on us we are finding more to do inside and getting into some stuff that was put aside this spring and also getting into some new stuff. We also helped surprise Mr. B of B&B and had a great birthday party for him with lots of young couples most of them family. We really are enjoying getting to know some of the new marrieds in the family. We seemed to be out most of the weekend and managed to bring home 5 of the 12 bales we need for winter for the cows, Bindy and Maggie.

The children's colds are pretty much gone. E still has a little bit of a runny nose. She is almost always the 1st one sick and the last to get better. Both Papa and I seem to be having a longer recovery time then the kids. But thankfully we only got one sickness. My sister was telling me that her kids have had 3 in the last few weeks!! Hopefully we can avoid any more!!

Sheep steaks and Lamb chops.

We've been eating really well lately. Ha. Like we don't always. Friday night B&B brought us supper!! Sheep steaks from their mountain sheep they got on their hunt this year, salad, baked potatoes, garlic bread and Papa threw some scallops and shrimp together and BBQ'd them. When B&B left this summer they told us that they would bring us back a feast and boy did they. They've been gone for almost 3 months and addition to the food we enjoyed being with them and catching up on our lives from the last 3 months. We saw pictures of their hunts and cabins and mountain views and they saw pictures of our trip. It was a fun and relaxing night! None of us Griggs had ever had sheep before and it was a great experience but it kind of wrecked us for anything else. Sheep MELTS in your mouth!! Seriously!! You chew once or twice and it is GONE!! It does have a bit of a liver type texture which the youngest 3 didn't like but the rest of us sure loved it. They left us the leftovers and we snacked on them for lunch several days. Papa even took some to work! It was what they called the 'hind' and they said it wasn't as good as the tenderloin which was buried deep in their freezer in a pile of other stuff all frozen together. We didn't care it was wonderful!! The meat was wonderful and the fellowship of missed friendship was WONDERFUL!!! They are gone again until the end of November and we miss them more then ever.

The next night we helped throw Mr. B and surprise Birthday Party and did we surprise him!! He didn't think it was for him!! He kept looking around to see who the party was for. There was TONS of great food there as well and something neither the kids or I had eaten before. Lamb chops done on the BBQ!!! WOW!!! I'm not sure if Papa had eaten them like that before but boy did we love them!! Taste great. Nothing like the lamb I remember... though I liked that too. Next year maybe we'll try a sheep again.... YUM!!!