View of the garden with the new raised beds.

Yukon gold potatoes.

Pickled beets - first time I ever made them.  Mom helped.

Jim, Mike and Mom split wood while I was at work.

Sweet corn patch - the best ever!

Flowers are looking good along the steps.

The new retaining walls are finished.  Big job!  We all helped.

Sunflowers by the garage - very tall!

Aggie Bonnets

The new chickens started laying eggs at 17 weeks old.  Their eggs are the small ones.

The wood pile is looking good.

We are adding to the terraces near the walk out basement.

Starting the retaining wall......

Laying the blocks is easy once you have the first layer set.

The sweet corn patch is looking good thanks to mom.

The garden is looking good.....thanks to mom.

31 rows of sweet corn planted in 5 phases each a week apart.

We are now generating power from the sun!

 

The meter is registering the power we are producing.

100 Tulips!

The On/Off Switches on the outside of the barn, for the solar panels.

Two SMA inverters are installed for the solar panel system.

The poles are painted and ready for panels in mid to late May.

Lettuce, radishes, and spinach are up.

The posts are now concreted in place.  4-5 weeks for panels.  :(

The three little chicks are really growing!

We managed to pour a slab of concrete to support our water tank.

 

The wall around the pellet stove is finished - looks good!

Four poles are set in place for the solar array.

The chicks are growing well.  Much feather development during the first week.

Running conduit to the barn.

The trench running out to where the panels will be installed.

The panels will be installed just in front of where the plywood.

Raised beds ready for planting.

Welcoming our three little bundles of joy to the flock.

We got this large cabinet from Jim's friend John.

Jim had it stripped of paint.

And he replaced the center panels in the doors with glass and added lighting.

What a transformation - filled with Jim's stein collection.

 

 

More steins.....

The last bathroom is finished!!

Shower.....

Even pictures on the wall.

We had a big black walnut tree cut down and found this elaborate bee hive inside.

Finally finished the floor sink in the mud room.

Ziva found a new place to sleep under a rug in the entryway.

The first snowstorm of 2014.

It was a heavy wet snow.

Jim is using the tractor to clear snow.

This was about 3/4 of the way through the storm.  We think we will get about 12" of snow total.

So pretty!