Tryggvason Home Sweet Homestead: September 2016

We finally have a tractor! Ever since the tractor was delivered Kenny Chesney's "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" played through my head the whole time we were working. I don't know why but it played through my head and I enjoyed it. I have now learned how to drive the tractor and enjoyed driving it all over the property! We used the tractor to take out branches we cut from trees. In weeks previous, removing the branches cut from trees was very difficult to do. Vines and other growth held on to the branches and put up real resistance, making it time consuming when trying to remove. The tractor made quick work of it! It was mostly easy and very satisfying to watch the branches be torn away and dragged into a pile without me losing my breath!

Branches going out!

We lost our sheep again. This time I really feel like someone let them out. Maybe they were just looking around the property to see what we've been doing and the gate was left open and the sheep wondered out. We've only been able to get our ram back and because sheep can't live alone we purchased two more ewes to keep him company. The last we heard someone saw our other ewe running down the highway so for now we will continue to believe she is alive and pray that she is returned to us soon. We also are aware of the coyotes in the area and decided to buy a guard animal. You only really have three options when it comes to guard animals, a dog, a donkey, or a llama. We went with the donkey and named him Ranger. He is very kind and is trying to make friends with the sheep.

Next trip I hope to find our missing sheep (we really miss her), see Ranger has done his job, and pull tree stumps out with the tractor. If we manage to take out another tree or two great!

Until next time...

Due to privacy concerns I will no longer be posting what days we have been or will be working.

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted but with school being back and all that goes in to getting ready for that I just have been too busy or too tired to blog.

As I thought we weren't lucky enough to escape the rain anymore. We've had rain every day we wanted to work for about three weeks. Sometimes it was heavy, with lighting and thunder, other times it was soft with an hour or two of break in-between. We found that sometimes it can be difficult to be motivated when it's raining, but overall we got some work done and feel like we are still moving in the right direction.

We've closed! Papers signed, last visit to the title company, just waiting for the deed to arrive, but it's all ours!

Our Title Company

Our Closing Documents

For now I have given up cooking in the cast iron pot in the fire. I just can't control the heat, although I am doing research and will try again soon. Thanks to solar panels, a battery, a converter, and the small crockpot I once used in a dorm room, we have real meals after working hard all day trying to bring this property back to life. Olaf of course came up with the idea and had everything planned, I just had to follow through.

Converter hooked to the Battery

Solar Panels

Dinner that isn't hot dogs!

My college Crockpot finds new life

I was determined to get all the drywall out of the living room so I went to work one morning while Olaf was in the back cleaning up the shed. I really enjoyed working alone that morning but that may have been because I didn't want to clean out the back shed. It was full of junk but I knew it was something that really needed to be done, but I wasn't ready to tackle that just yet. Thankfully Olaf was just fine doing it on his own and leaving me to take down drywall. As I was removing drywall I finally found the termite damage I was sure would be there at some point. Fortunately the damage wasn't much and Olaf thinks we can replace or repair what we need without much issue.

Time to get after more drywall!

More 1940's Wallpaper

Wall with the damage

Damage up-close

One whole room without drywall!

Back shed area with the junk gone

Junk from the back shed

One of the great things about all the rain is that we were able to see that we really needed gutters. Some mornings we would wake up to puddles in the living room which helped to explain why the subfloor was in such terrible condition. This led to a trip to McCoy's building supply and Olaf and I out in the rain installing gutters.

Gutters going in

Gutters are up!

We work in the rain!

We have a mailbox!

A few other things done recently...subfloor in the dining room removed, Olaf rehabbed a wheelbarrow we found on the property (saving us over $100), Olaf planted butternut and acorn squash and it's already started to sprout, we found an old Whataburger, discovered Lacy is a mouser, and Olaf ended a week with a surprise for me!