Don't Leave!

Jess tells me I'm alienating my audience with all the Ohio State posts.  So before I lose anyone QUICK QUICK, look at this picture!  Not close enough?  Not enough detail?  Ok, we can go a little closer:

There.  Everything's all better.  Nobody's alienated...everyone's happy...and Michigan still sucks.

Muck Fichigan!

It's Rivalry Hate Week on the Farm, and everything with feet/hooves/paws/wings is demanding nothing short of the complete ass-whuppification of those winged fairies up north.  Word at the Fort is that some Ohio State fans aren't feeling the hate for the Fighting DickRods as of late.  For those whose ires have cooled as a result of Meatchicken's recent plummet to the Big 10 cellar, let me help fan the flames of seething hatred by offering these still-painful memories:

• 1993, 1995 & 1996: tOSU goes into The Game undefeated, and Missagain comes out with a "W";
• This (*Warning, you may need a bucket to catch the vomit)
• 2-10-1, which represents the Buckeyes' record against the That School Up North during the Cooper era;
• Winningest Program of All Time (* again with the bucket) 
• Ms. Again leads the all-time series 57-42-6
• Charles Woodson?  Born and raised in Ohio, was Mr. Ohio in football;
• Bo Schembechler: Born in Barberton, Ohio, and earned his MA from tOSU;

I will be rooting for my Buckeyes to roll all over these clowns, and would love love love a fourth shut-out on the season.  I want their fans leaving before half time.  I want DickRod fired on the field late in the fourth.

Strike first.  Strike Hard.  No Mercy.  Sweep the Leg, Jimmie T.

Coming Back to Life

Slow, slow process it is restoring an old home.  The boarded up windows have awesome curb appeal.  I think they represent an attractive nexus of haunted old home out of Scooby-Doo and straight up crack house.

"We would have gotten away with it, too, if it wouldn't have been for you meddling kids..."

Some other pics from a beautiful weekend here.

Seriously, I get to sit on my porch and see this

Gives one perspective on multiple levels.

What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath of God type stuff.

And the Buckeyes did send down their wrath upon Happy Valley, and it was good.  As was discussed by those in attendance at Joel's apartment moments after kick-off, I now deliver to world wide web the following prayer for all righteous Buckeyes to recite as needed:

Our Father, who art in heaven,

"Woody" be thy Name.

Thy touchdowns come.

Our defence's will be done,

On earth as it is in the 'Shoe.

Give us this day at least 50 points.

And forgive us our turnovers,

As we punish those who trespass into our redzone.

And lead us not into the Outback Bowl,

But deliver us Roses.

For thine is the Scarlet,

and the Grey, and the golden pants,

for ever and ever.

Amen.

Props to Joel; that's the kind of prayer I can get behind.

Past Pics

Still learning about all the things we can do on this blog, and how to fully take advantage of all the cools thing we can do on the web.  This photo is a collage I made with some pics taken on my iPhone last summer, before we officially moved to the farm.  You can check out some other iPhone pics here.  Already this pic makes me miss the warm summer nights on the farm.

Entry with "holes" in floor

Office with new beam to support upstairs bath floor - closet removed

West pasture w/ geothermal hump

Field between west pasture and house (lilac grove on left) - more geothermal leavings

Geothermal hump where it comes into house (cellar)

Upstairs bath - closet removed

OK - For all of you wonderful and loyal followers of our blog clamoring for pictures, hope this meets the need. Unfortunately, most of what's going on is "behind the scenes": electrical and plumbing under the floor, as well as insulation - new electrical panels, sockets, and some recessed lights (not here yet). The contractors have left for the day, so no pictures of the insulated crawl. I'll try to get some tomorrow. HOWEVER, here's an interesting look at the removed closets. We knew it would make an amazing difference to have those huge dark things gone, but WOW! Really, the rooms are SO MUCH brighter and bigger. If you haven't already been told, the hacks who added the upstairs bathroom actually cut the floor joists in the upstairs bath to accommodate the most horrendous plumbing job known to man. The hideous downstairs closet (which was VERY sturdily built -- thankfully!), has been bearing the weight of the upstairs bathroom floor - YIKES! So, the beam you see in the office has been gouged into the wall's mortar/brick to rectify the situation and the closet has finally been removed :-). The floor tearing up to do all the insulation, electrical and plumbing in the crawl is probably not as dramatic as you might have thought. It's just two spaces in each room, downstairs. I only took a picture of one, the entry, but you get the idea. For you who haven't seen, please note the new paint job in the entry and office. I also included pictures of the previously referenced geothermal...humps. Just dirt mounds, now. I wasn't able to catch them in progress - hectic day of dog escape, Farmer Brown incident, and travel. Then I was gone the next day. So, I'm afraid humps are all we have left.

Hard Time

No real reason for the post, just waiting to wrap things up at work and I was finally able to pull this pic off my iPhone.  This is Grommet just prior to being rescued.  Funny little dog.  She's nimble as all get out, can squirt through a hole half her diameter, and climbs hay bales like a spider monkey.  Pretty sure she's a mouser, too, which is nice.  Helps to counter the million other things she does of which we DON'T approve!

Phase I

Quick run-down of the work going on right now:

• Geothermal heat (more accurately called geoexchange or earth energy)
  Progress: hundreds of feet of coiled flexible piping has been buried roughly 4 feet below ground in the west pasture, and the terminals have been inserted through the house walls of the cellar, waiting to be connected to the heat pump.  I think the heat pump goes in once the duct-work is retrofitted and the boiler removed.
• Crawl space insulation
  The foundation of our house is basically monster-ass wood joists sitting atop stone.  There is a uniform 16 inches of space beneath our floors and the earth, and nothing between us and the cold air other than the tongue in groove hardwood floors.  The sub-flooring insulation will keep cold out in the winter and in during the summer.
• Stall Mucking
  Mmmmmm, this was tasty.  We borrowed a friend's Bobcat and dug out several years' (if not decades') worth of compressed dirt, straw/hay, and manure.  The main animal courtyard was burried in roughly five (5) inches of this stuff, three (3) of those inches hard as wood.  It was all that Bobcat could do to break that stuff up into plates and load it into the pick-up...which I then drove to the field and dumped into 5 big piles that resemble the dinosaur poop from Jurrasic Park.

On the horizon:  new garage, barn restoration; kitchen/master bath remodel; perimeter fencing

Happy Halloween!

Say hello to the first Jack o' Lanterns at F1E! Each one represents a different event here at the farm. From left to right: Jason opening his credit card bill; Jessica talking to Farmer Brown; Jessica and Jason watching Farmer Brown pedal for his life with Luna on his heels; and finally Farmer Brown, himself, pedaling furiously with Luna hot on his heels.

We made our first Halloween at the Fort a productive one. Jessica stained a slew of pickets, and stuffed approximately 14 sacks with hay for insulation in the dog house, while I mended fences (literally, not metaphorically, lest the followers of the Farmer Brown saga get the wrong idea) and gates. After setting the Jack o' Lanterns ablaze, we settled in and watched the best horror flick I've seen in a long time. The flick was "Oregon vs. USC", and it told the story of an evil and arrogant football team which was brutally murdered in the dark, secluded nether regions of the Pacific northwest. If you like hard-core gore, senseless infliction of agonizing pain, long, drawn-out torture scenes, and seeing the bad guy get it in the end, then I highly recommend this flick.