Happenings From this Hillbilly Hill....

Well - it has only been a month since I posted last! It got pretty busy around here for a bit, THEN both of us came down with the FLU.....never fun, but better then the last time I got a flu shot - those things will KILL you!

We started out things with a 2 and a half day affair of butchering Stew the Steer. We named him "Stew" because that is what he is gonna be....(along with steak, roast, burger, etc, etc). We had help from a good friend from Nebraska, and Deb's mom and dad. It STILL took what seemed like forever to get him in the freezer. One of the problems we had was our grinder decided to die - right in the middle of the first batch. We had to run to the Amish store, and buy another one.

It finished the job, and survived to grind another day. The other had been through about 20 deer and another cow. It was probably GLAD to die. We figured it was just a cheap thing when we bought it, so were impressed by it's longevity.

After all the rush-rush-rush with the meat, then we had a round of fast and furious getting things ready for the shop I need to build this spring. I have been slowly rounding up the pieces I need - most of the wood so far, has come from the local Amish sawmill. They cut some 6x6 poles, 2x6's, 2x4's, and other stuff. I have quite a stack of materials in place, now! A couple weeks ago, we ordered the new tin for the roof  (used would have worked, but this is less likely to leak), and the trusses.

The trusses were rapidly assembled (a LOT quicker then we figured), and shipped to us on 6 Feb 2013. We ended up not being able to be home, but they put them on some pallets I had handy, and got them out of the way.

That was Wednesday. Friday morning, Deb wok up feeling ok, but a couple hours later, she was feeling the effects of the flu coming on.

On Saturday, the 9th, I FINALLY got in touch with a man who has some used tin of the same style as the new tin we bought. He has a big stack of it that he does not need. We met, talked it over, then settled on a price, shook hands (I probably gave him the flu....), and agreed on the deal. That was NOON, and I felt fine. By 1:30, I was feeling sick, too. I was HOPING to be over it enough so I could go get some of the tin and 2x4's, but NOOOOOO. That will need to wait until at least, this next week.

On Wednesday (13 Feb), the truck came to deliver the new tin, screws, treated lumber, and trim pieces. Deb's brother, Mark had come over to feed a couple round bales to the cows, since I couldn't be outside to do it. He got done with the bales, fed the starving cats (it had been a couple days since I had fed them....you'd THINK they'd catch mice.....), feed Yani, and opened the chicken house. He was JUST about done, when the truck rolled in the driveway.

For some UNKNOWN reason, they stuff was loaded in a BOX van. This meant that it had to unloaded by hand. Poor Mark, got more then he bargained for when he came over to help! It couldn't have been fun, but we watched - from the warmth of our house - Mark and the two guys from Lowe's unload the materials. It looked like Mark was doing about 3/4 of the work, too. One of the guys was in the truck, and just slid stuff forward, The other didn't look too energetic, either.

At any rate, they got the stuff unloaded, then left. Mark, brought us the ticket, then bugged out before he got our germs, or got snagged for anything else! LOL! It's nice to have relation close by who will actually HELP when the need arises, for a change.....We're very grateful, and hope to return to favor someday.

That was about the extent of our past three-four weeks. There was one other thing in between, but I have been sworn to secrecy, so I can't tell you! It took place - on again, off again, for a few weeks, and is FINALLY settled last Thursday (7 Feb), so we can relax....Nothing serious, and was actually kinda fun, except it took time we could have used doing other things. We were together, doing it with each other, and that was enough.

I have a (slightly) funny story to tell, that happened on our trip to Des Monies, the other day, but that will wait for next time!