House of Horrors part 1

February 24, 2023February 24, 2023 Lazer Creek ApiaryLeave a comment

If you’ve been following our blog – apologies for the long absence – you know that we finalized our building plans a while ago but had to delay construction during the building boom. It wasn’t just the cost of materials – contractors kept putting us on the back burner as they could make more money on the huge houses many people wanted. Quite a few people are choosing to commute rather than live in the metro Atlanta area, and that drove demand up for a couple of years.

So, then came my cancer diagnosis (incurable lymphoma)….. I no longer wanted to wait for a usable kitchen (or get jerked around by any more contractors), so I convinced Hubby to go look at mobile homes. We found one that felt (feels) like home and looks like a real house. The dealership was selling the lot model, so we could get moved in very quickly.

We closed on the house before Thanksgiving and had high hopes of being in our new home by Christmas or at least over Christmas break. Now some of the delays that followed were due to heavy rain, but not all. There were unnecessary delays in getting the foundation in, and then further delays getting the house here. The house was finally delivered at the end of December. Meanwhile, Georgia Power was also dragging their heels, which didn’t help matters.

Eventually we had electricity and lo and behold – we had no power to the laundry room or the master bathroom. In addition, when the water pressure test was done, water started pouring out of the bottom of the home. The factory (Live Oak Homes) sent out a maintenance guy who showed up after dark with a flashlight and no tools after driving 5 hours. He said the electricity issue was probably a GFI outlet somewhere and he couldn’t look at the water problem in the dark, and promptly headed back home. On Monday, he discovered that the installation crew contracted by Wayne Frier Homes of Byron had not hooked the shower up to the sewer lines, so any water running into the shower ran straight into the insulation below the house and stayed there until he cut the protective membrane. His plan was to plumb that and let the insulation just dry out on its own over time — a plan we said “Heck no” to — or words to that effect. There was an additional water leak in the line going to the shower valve and the shower valve would not turn off. That required cutting a hole in the master bedroom wall.

A week later, we had multiple holes in walls, ceiling vents hanging down, a rats’ nest of electrical wires hanging down outside from the frame of the house, a huge (insert profanity here) mess throughout the house, but still no electricity in those rooms. At that point we insisted that a licensed electrician come inspect the house and diagnose the problem. The electrician came on Tuesday, took 40 minutes to find it, and two hours to fix it. (He installed a new three wire Romex from the breaker panel, under the house, and back up to the light switch). The factory could have saved themselves a lot of money by sending the right person from the start, especially as the maintenance guy never seemed to actually be onsite for more than 3 hours at a time. Oh – and the problem ended up being a missing neutral wire going from the breaker to the light switch in the laundry room. I’m not sure how you end up with a run of wire without a neutral, but the factory managed it!

Now the second crew that came in to do regular maintenance stuff was fantastic (more about them in a future blog), and they fixed the holes in the wall from the above fiasco, but they ran out of paint. Here’s an example of what has frustrated us in the extreme over the past three months – the dealership and the factory couldn’t agree on who should pay for the darn paint. Meanwhile, we had patched walls and were already close to paying our second mortgage payment. We ended up buying a gallon of paint — for $14.95 and I painted! The last time we heard “That’s a factory problem” was two hours ago — no, the house is still not fixed.

The first crew that came in to do the initial sheet rock patching etc. did a fairly good job of the walls, but when they left we had a speed bump going through the kitchen. Eventually this turned out to be a problem with the front half of the double wide being half an inch higher at that point that the back half — or so we thought. This is an installation issue, and after many, many, many phone calls, the leveling was resolved a couple of weeks ago (6 weeks after delivery, or thereabouts). The first crew tried to mask this by piling what looks like sheet rock mud over the join to create the speed bump and then gluing the floor tile to that. Surprise, the surprise, the floor tile popped off on both sides. Never mind, that we don’t really need a speed bump (trip hazard) going into the kitchen. The installation supervisor FINALLY came out today, and in addition to the floor leveling problem, a board the factory installed along the marriage line sits above the subfloor. Now there are hammer marks along the way where crew one tried to beat this board into submission, but the misalignment increased toward the pantry end of the kitchen. This is when the supervisor announced “That’s a factory problem” this morning. We are waiting to find out who will fix it and when. We know it’s going to require sanding at a minimum, and that will require cleaning….. I can’t tell you how many hours we’ve spent wiping shelves, blinds, ceiling fans, walls, etc. down after multiple rounds of repairs.

We’re also still waiting on the installation of the underpinning….

Other smaller construction issues include at bathroom water faucet without a drain plug, another with a drain plug that wouldn’t close, doors that wouldn’t close, a bathtub valve that didn’t let any warm water through, vinyl tiles with gaps between them leaving subfloor exposed, missing sheet rock in a closet, misaligned sheetrock behind the fridge, and a dryer vent that is jammed up against the washing machine instead of being behind the dryer space making it inaccessible. If you’re interested, here’s a link to Hubby’s blog with pictures.

To close — will this house be worth it eventually? Yes, we still think so. It overlooks the creek and that is where I go when I need to calm my mind as I deal with my diagnosis. I am doing well enough post-treatment to have a positive mindset 95% of the time, and when I do have to repeat treatment, I’ll be able to look out the window at the beautiful place with which we have been blessed. What would we do differently if we could go back in time? First and foremost, check the Better Business Bureau rating of any home builder, whether it be a modular home or stick built. Do a quick Google Search. Doing either of those would have sent us in a different direction. I let my emotional turmoil get in the way of good sense while I was still weak from treatment, and Hubby let his concern for me and big heart get in the way of asking me to be patient. I met this wonderful, wonderful, man 21 years ago today. So while the house has brought a lot of stress into our lives, as long as I can look at the creek with Hubby by my side, life is good here on the farm.

Finally, I have a new goal!

September 11, 2022 Lazer Creek ApiaryLeave a comment

I am going to make an Adirondack chair! Finding this new goal has been a journey with lots of ups and downs, but I am excited to have finally picked something well over a year after having completed my last one.

The plastic chairs we have overlooking the creek are so comfortable, and years ago a friend of mine made one from shipping pallets. I thought about trying to make one then, but the move to the farm and all the work getting to the point we are made me put it on a back burner. But I did feel lost without working toward something for myself that wasn’t work related.

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t have a goal that I was working toward until after I took my Beekeeper Certification Exam last year. I was just so tired and keeping up with work around the farm was all I could handle. I just knew I would feel rested before school started again. But I didn’t.

By the end of May, I was so exhausted, I did nothing other than go to work and collect eggs from the chickens. And that didn’t get any better as summer went on. In July doctors finally figured out what was going on and my 18 month decline finally had a name. Now I am halfway through treatment and starting to feel more like myself again.

Now, after diagnosis, I came up with a rather superficial goal of defeating a bully who plays on an opposing team of my current video game! That was a goal, but not a satisfying one. And this goal is creative and not vindictive. This new goal includes learning more than just basic woodworking skills and sticking with it until we have a chair that we can sit on. After that, I’d like to make at least one more. We have lumber that my brother-in-law milled from trees we took down to clear a space for the house, so I won’t be using shipping pallets, and the chair(s) will be even more special because they are a product of the farm.

What a difference having a goal in life makes! We all need something in our lives besides work and chores, and this is my new “something”. Watch out for more updates. I’m back, and plan to blog frequently again!

Life is good, especially when we are sitting in our plastic chairs overlooking the creek and discussing the steps toward my new project.

Chickens · Construction · Lazer Creek Apiary

The chicks move in to their new quarters

June 9, 2021 Lazer Creek ApiaryLeave a comment

We love the variety in our Ameraucana chickens. The white one with brown wings likes to crow like a rooster, although she hasn’t done that since she got all this extra space to roam around in. She’s pretty bossy and there’s a 10% chance that she’s actually male according to what I’ve read about sexing baby chicks. I guess we’ll figure that out over the next couple of months and then we’ll have a decision to make. Roosters can be pretty hard on chickens and I really don’t want any more chicks for a couple of years. Twelve chickens will provide more eggs than we’ll need, but we’ll also be happy to share with friends.

So the chicken run gate finally came in and we were able to move the small coop into its new position. We first partitioned off the run about halfway down and I caught and moved 6 of the pullets. The other four went into the coop, so they took a ride as Hubby and I maneuvered the small house into place as gently as we could. The ones I was able to catch made the transition very quickly and went to work eating the oregano. The ones that traveled took about 30 minutes to exit the coop. One cautiously stepped down down (and back up, and back down) for a while, but the others shot out like they had been fired from a t-shirt cannon once that first one moved into the run and joined their sisters.

All of them took to the roosting bars very quickly and by day two became quite adept at flying from one to the other. Meanwhile, the two older girls were very vocal from their side of the chicken wire for the first hour, but they have settled down now. We’ll let the pullets get a little bigger and then frame a doorway between the two runs and let them share the space.

We did not predator-proof the extension to the extent that we did the original run, but we do have chicken wire in the ground and I will complete the rock garden around all of the fencing soon. We may need to add another nesting box to the original coop, but we planned for that when we did the original framing so it will be a relatively easy addition. We will see if the three nesting boxes on the big coop and the three new ones on the small coop will suffice first. I know the original girls are picky about which nesting box they use and typically share the same one, so I’m not going to try to predict what any of them are going to prefer.

The two old girls have either found some motivation from seeing their replacements or they have recovered from the trauma of seeing their sister snatched away from them by a predator and they are back to each producing a daily egg. I am still feeding them yogurt-covered greens and adding apple cider vinegar to their water. I add apple cider vinegar or Hydro Hen more frequently this time of year anyway as they have to drink so much more when the weather turns hot. Hydro Hen also acidifies their water and helps them fight off yeast infections according to what I’ve read over the past few weeks.

I’ll be back soon to blog about the pallets full of wood-ware parts that Hubby just picked up from Yellow Freight. We’ll have plenty to keep us busy all winter, and we’re not even officially in summer yet. Life is never boring on the farm, and it is, as always, good.

Chickens · Construction · Lazer Creek Apiary · Pests - General · Products and Vendors

The Great Escape!

April 12, 2020April 12, 2020 Lazer Creek ApiaryLeave a comment

When I walked into the RV to check on the chicks yesterday morning, all three were perched on the wire mesh that is supposed to keep them inside the cattle trough until they are big enough to move outside. Surrounding the trough was “evidence” that they had been exploring for quite a while, and they appeared to be smirking at me! Their new home was almost ready, so we moved up their move-in date, set about completing the final necessary construction, added a brooder lamp to the coop just in case we have some more cool nights, and and moved them over. I had one more RV chicken wrangling rodeo and then they were in their new home.

We’d expected them to be nervous, but they immediately started exploring and searching for motivational meal-worms. Within half an hour, they were climbing on their ladder and by the end of the day they had become quite adept at walking up and down the rungs. The high point of the day was when Hubby found an earthworm in the soil he brought up for the planters and we got to watch two very determined chicks chase one highly motivated chick around while she gobbled up her treat! They looked remarkably like a picture I remember from one of my daughter’s story books many years ago.

20200411 Grayson Chicks — Curious Cat Checks Chickens

Grayson, one of the twin cats, has been sniffing around the empty dog crate where the chicks have been vacationing for some time, and it didn’t take him long to show up and see what we were all up to. He did a very good tiger imitation as he walked around the coop and chicken run many times while checking out the measures we’ve taken to keep him, coyotes, raccoons, and other critters out.

Coop protection

Chicken run protection

We have field wire extending out about 2 feet from the coop and run to keep predators from digging under the fence. On the sides of the run, we have chicken wire going all the way to the top. Along the bottom, we have hardware cloth covering the ends of the field wire and chicken wire. On top of all that, we have cinder-blocks that I will use as planters, and the remaining field-wire is covered with gravel on the high traffic areas and soil where a future wildflower garden will be. After my sister-in-law’s surprises last summer, we hope the hardware cloth will provide a challenge for any snakes that want eggs for breakfast, but we know that snakes and mice can be pretty determined critters.

20200411 coop inside — Inside the coop. We’ll add the nesting boxes later.

The two The two Red Sex Links went right into the coop last night once they realized I was throwing meal worms into it. The baby, which I’d name Speedy if I were going to name chicks, was reluctant to enter, to say the least. Trying to get Speedy in while stopping the other two leaving was getting everyone hot and bothered, so we closed the chicken door. After a while, the inside chicks and Speedy started calling back and forth to each other. Speedy walked up to the door, kept chirping, and then walked right through when I opened the door up for her. It took them a little while and a few meal worms to come out this morning, but now we have a routine started. The chicken door is automatic, and my brother-in-law says that their chickens very quickly got used to going in when they knew the door was about the close. We have a storm coming through tonight, so we’ll probably herd them again this evening, but as quickly as these girls figured out how to escape the brooder pen after their first accidental escape, I’m sure they’ll figure out where it’s warm at night very soon.

Maggie with chicks — Maggie guards the chicks

Okay – Now it’s time to stop calling the youngest chick Speedy as I am determined to not name the chickens, especially not that one as there’s a possibility that she may not be a she! At some point, I will need to wrap my head around having a chicken in the crock pot! Maybe.

We still need to add the nesting boxes and paint the trim, but today has just turned into another rainy day. Our bodies are telling us that it’s time to take a day off from heavy lifting, and we need to mentally make the shift to our return from spring break!

Stay healthy, everyone, and we will try to do the same because life is just too good to miss on the farm.

Bees · Chickens · Construction · Lazer Creek Apiary

Rain break

April 7, 2020April 7, 2020 Lazer Creek ApiaryLeave a comment

The chicks are rapidly outgrowing their space, and moving them outside to the dog kennel so that I can clean their indoor home is becoming more of adventure with every passing day. The baby can now fly out of the cattle trough, and the bigger girls can fly out of the plastic crate I use for transport. Moving them is no longer a one-man job! Luckily Maggie is just fascinated with them and wants to herd them like she herds everything else and she’s smart enough to realize they are not new dog toys! The chicks are becoming accustomed to being handled and one is eager to be picked up when she hears dried meals worms in a Dixie cup. That’s a trick I learned from my sister-in-law; she has her chickens trained to follow the sound of worms in a plastic Dixie cup, which they love even more than my gifts of chickweed and tender dandelion leaves.

20200401_chicks larva — Chicks April 1, 2020

Wax moths had moved into one of our swarm capture hives, so the chicks got a treat of larvae in a bowl followed by a couple of bee frames to clean up. They enjoyed chasing small hive beetles and I enjoyed watching! I kept an eye on them to make sure they weren’t eating anything besides the wiggly invaders. After three minutes, I had clean frames to put in the freezer and maybe reuse later this week.

This week is spring break, so Hubby has been able to make good progress on the coop and chicken run. We’ll move the girls into the coop once we have the door on and then we’ll finish up the run. It started raining today while Hubby was adding rafters to the run and I was painting the screen door, so we ended up with a non-construction day. We both have indoor chores to catch up on, and it’s probably good to give our bodies a break too.

While we currently plan to have a maximum of five chickens, Hubby is building the coop large enough to house more because we’ve learned that our plans are always changing here on the farm. We may eventually have enough honey and wax products for sale that we’d have a market for eggs too. I made my first batch of glycerin-honey soap last week and plan to attempt my first batch of soap using lye later this week. When we harvest honey this year, I need to weigh the wax we refine from cappings to get an idea of how much beeswax soap etc. I can make. So far, I’ve been using wax from previous years for my experiments, and I don’t plan to make any products with purchased wax.

Hubby just arrived home and announced that the only self-rising flour he could find came in a 25 pound bag, so I guess that I’ll be spending more time than usual baking over the next few weeks! Even if I bake a cake every day until it’s safe to socialize again, we’ll be eating healthier than we have been doing. It’s amazing how far we’ve slipped back into our “city” eating habits since the start of the school year. It takes very little time to make a pitcher of red rooibos tea, but we’ve been drinking sodas for the past few months. Likewise, I used to eat scrambled eggs for breakfast and they take no longer that Toaster Strudels, but we slipped into a Toaster Strudel routine. I didn’t realize how many convenience meals we were eating until I noticed how often I was running the dishwasher now that I’m cooking from scratch again! I hate that it took a pandemic to get us to rethink our eating habits, but that’s also a very small piece of silver lining in the huge cloud that is hanging across the world right now.

Life remains good here on the farm, and our thoughts and prayers are with all our friends, family, and blog-readers in this scary time.

Chickens · Construction · Gardening · Lazer Creek Apiary

All Cooped Up

March 27, 2020March 27, 2020 Lazer Creek Apiary

Like the rest of the world, we are self-isolating but lucky to be living less cooped up than our friends who live in apartments. We both continue to teach, but from a distance. I’m finally getting into a routine and after a round of parent emails, students have been busy making up work today!

But tomorrow is Saturday. Tomorrow we start building the chicken coop. But first, a greenhouse update from Hubby:

Greenhouse is back up and running after a year with improvements that should extend its life and usability. Tried to go cheap last year and used standard 6 mil poly plastic. Found it worked great for about 120 days. Then it totally disintegrated due to UV. This year I used real greenhouse poly which is UV protected and suppose to last 5 years. I also added a solar powered vent opener and “wiggle wire” fasteners around the bottom to keep the poly tight. ‘Maters already growing.

Even though the plastic turned brittle and tore easily by summer, the cattle panel greenhouse ended up being more energy efficient than our old pre-fab greenhouse. The gravel floor seems to help retain heat. We didn’t have many plants to overwinter this year as we got them all in the ground, so we didn’t need the greenhouse until spring planting time. I was going to plant fewer tomatoes and peppers this year, but with the way things are going right now have decided that more is better. We’d already planned to add more raised beds and we had the cinder-blocks delivered last week. The delivery man from Taylor-Foster Hardware and Hubby found it odd to not shake hands, but we are all practicing safe distancing.

Hubby also added an automatic window to the greenhouse. We may add one to the front next time around, but this year it’s easy enough to open the door when it’s hot and close it in the evenings, especially as we go up to the RV to visit our chicks in their temporary home whenever we need a computer break.

Because we have so much going on, we’d decided to wait until next year to get chickens. Then schools closed for a week, then two weeks, then…… So, we now have 3 chicks in the RV and a friend has offered up 2 laying hens as soon as we have the coop built. Maggie is fascinated by the chicks and they are now used to having big brown doggie eyes staring at them. Just like the house site, we’ve changed our minds more times than we can count as to where to place the coop but have decided to place it close to the greenhouse with the two plastic compost bins between the two.

Meanwhile, a string of too warm days and 23 degree nights took its toll on our bees, but they are recovering. We hope we won’t have another hard freeze. Even if we do, the queens are laying like crazy and every hive is crowded now, so they’d survive. Very few bees are visiting syrup feeders this week, so they must be finding real nectar out there somewhere. We have the first blackberry and clover blossoms, but I haven’t seen bees on either yet.

We sincerely hope that all our readers remain healthy. These are worrying times, and I feel so blessed to have 20 acres of stress relief right outside our door. Stay safe. Stay healthy. Our thoughts are with you.

Bees · Construction · Lazer Creek Apiary · Nature

Missed (photo) opportunities

November 23, 2019November 23, 2019 Lazer Creek Apiary1 Comment

I have the most amazing commute and wanted to take a picture of the fall colors, but on the perfect days to take a picture, I was running late. When I was on time, the light just wasn’t quite right. Then we had that night with below freezing temperatures….

A couple of blocks before my school, there were two brilliant yellow trees with a scarlet tree between them. One night of cold, windy weather dealt with that pretty picture. Still, there’s a permanently beautiful view across the valley from the crest of a hill by a cattle ranch. Clouds roll across the creeks and the sky is often a brilliant blue, even right after sunrise. Even though I don’t have pictures to share with you, I see the views clearly in my mind and they bring me great joy. Those views also inspired me to buy a 2020 calendar featuring the Cotswolds in England — one of my favorite places that has similar terrain to where we now live. (Talking to high school friends on Facebook has been making me homesick!)

The commute home is almost as beautiful, but the long-range views are missing. Then I pull into our driveway and see our land. Between the two commutes, I spend the day enjoying teaching and being with my students and all the wonderful people with whom I work. True, I get overwhelmed with grading and lesson planning sometimes, but 90% of the time, I’m smiling (on the inside at least)!

When I get home, I’m often surprised at the changes that have taken place while I was gone. Our neighbor’s son is clearing undergrowth for us when he has time. As our views open up, we’ve changed our minds about where to build the house, and then changed them back again, only to change again a day later.

20191110 Woods — Possible view from the back of the future house

We know that we want the back of the house to look out toward the woods and possibly with a view of the creek, which is to the right of the above scene. We’ll be right at the transition from planted pines to hardwoods within hearing of the creek, regardless of quite where the house ends up.

Just like the ever-changing location, we’ve changed our minds about the house more times than we can count. However, we keep coming back to Whisper Creek from Southern Homes. We’ve talked about changes to all of the house plans we’ve looked at, including that one, but now that we’ve decided to replace the second bathroom with a tornado shelter, we’re content to leave everything else alone! The kitchen provides all the room I need to can veggies and make jam, and the porches are just the right size. We don’t like the mixed siding on the outside, but using the same siding everywhere is not a structural change. I found myself mentally planning paint colors and countertops this morning, and that hasn’t happened with any other plan in the four years we’ve owned the land!

Yes, it’s been four years. I’m glad I have old blogs to look back as we thought it had been five years. We have so much to be thankful for going into another wonderful Thanksgiving. The move here has done wonders for our mental and physical health, and we are overall healthy. We have friends and family who are worth their weight in gold, and may start building our forever home before Thanksgiving 2020 rolls around. We are going into winter with more hives than before, and I have an “Early Bird” chicken catalog to peruse. Life is good!