The Tale of the "Husky Rider"

A recent encounter...

Much of my time on the farm, evenings and weekends, is spent cutting grass.  Much of Terrell's time on the farm is also spent cutting grass.  Okay, that last statement isn't really true.  He spends a lot of time tossing fish food to the fish in the ponds and watching them voraciously feed, but he does cut his share of grass.  However, as it pertains to the ponds, they are his personal aquariums.  But back to all the grass cutting...

Along with the area surrounding the house, I also cut most of the fields.  I had bush-hogged them, but now that they are somewhat under control (term used loosely), I am cutting them with the riding mower, your run of the mill Husqvarna from Home Depot.  Pretty standard stuff.

One thing I've quickly learned is that the mowers you buy at the big box stores are made more for cutting a few acres of smooth lawn.  The fields that I'm cutting have ruts, fire ant hills, cypress roots, pine roots, holes from armadillos, large tire tracks from the lumber equipment and lots of other things that a consumer grade lawnmower shouldn't have to deal with.  So, as you can imagine, I've had to make some repairs or replace things, especially the blades...4 times since we bought it in February of last year.

Recently, I took it to a local repair shop to have the deck fixed.  Terrell dropped it off for me at 7am and they called at noon and said it was ready.  That was impressive!  We went to pick it up the next morning.  I walked up to the counter and the lady asked for my name.  I told her.  She grabs the phone and calls out over the very loud intercom to the shop and throughout the entire place, "I NEED A HUSKY RIDER FOR BOZMAN!"

I didn't flinch or say anything, but I was shocked.  Did she just call me fat?!!!  I'm thinking, "Hey Lady...I know I'm big, but you don't need to announce it to the world!  I'm just here for a lawnmower. You're not too slim yourself, ya know!"  But being in the south, I just smiled sweetly as I paid the bill.

With a straight face and holding my head high I started outside, expecting strange looks and snickers from the guys in the shop.  As the man in line behind me, who was your average sized man, gave her his name, I heard her voice again, "I NEED A HUSKY RIDER FOR LEE!"

Okay...I get it now.  He owned a Husqvarna too.  Mystery solved.  Now...on to the latest progress on the houses.

The cabin has been sitting idle for a bit while we waited for the flooring and cabinet folks to clear their schedules.  As for the main house, the framers have been busy. We have a second floor, and roof rafters, and dormers!

It's starting to look like a house

View from the carport side of the house.

A view from a few days ago.  Picture this view without the dumpster, POD, car and lawnmower.

That's not all that's growing though.  Along with the house and grass getting taller, the vegetable garden continues to grow and produce.

There are tons of tomatoes on those vines.

Especially the cherry tomatoes.

And some Roma tomatoes.

We've got peppers too!

And in this monstrosity...

The watermelon patch.

We have several of these...

A little bigger than a softball right now.

The cantaloupes are thriving as well.

Though dwarfed by the watermelon patch, the cantaloupes won't back down.

It's sorta in the teenager stage.

A few Indigo Apple tomatoes are starting to ripen.

And finally, I'll leave you with a final reference to my "Husky Rider" in case you'd forgotten about it.  As I was riding it (proudly) this evening, out on the island (not really, but we call it that) in the little pond, this view caught my eye and I had to snap a pic.

The view from my "Husky Rider" from the island.

UPDATE!  UPDATE! UPDATE! - I started this blog entry on Wednesday (June 8th), but didn't get it posted.  Today we had some new updates to the cabin and the house.  First...the cabin.

The kitchen(ette) cabinets are in!

We'd told Tracy that we were just looking for basic cabinets.  He had a new guy who has been bugging him for the chance to make some cabinets for him, so he told him to do these.  The workmanship is very good, especially for only asking for basic cabinets.  We were impressed with the job he did.  There is a large roll of flooring (not pictured) in the cabin that will go in on Friday.  After that, the trim guy does his work (Friday afternoon) and the plumber puts in the final fixtures...maybe Friday, maybe Saturday.  We'll see.  We're getting close.  Soon our roomie, Terrell, will be moving out on his own.

They grow up so fast... Now on to the main house...

I want to tell some sort of roof joke, but I feel it would go over your head.

This is the view from the backyard (master bed/bath on left).  This is the view the dog will see when she goes outside.  Hopefully she always goes outside.  

Side view.  MBR on back (right) corner.

The roof looks YUUGE from this angle!

The view from what will be Robert's upstairs bedroom dormer.

I've climbed up the ladder to the second floor a few times to see the view, as you can plainly see.  Both kids will have nice views from their windows and plenty of light (south-facing).

One more gratuitous roof picture.  This time from inside.

So that's all the progress up to the evening of June 9th.  It's coming along.  Each day we go over to either work, check the progress or both.  It's amazing to watch it take shape, and despite the sometimes overwhelming amount of decisions we have to make, and sometimes change, it's quite the adventure.

Have a great weekend!!!