House Construction- Sept 10

BIG things happening here!  The House modules were supposed to arrive at 10 am  yesterday morning.

The construction crew was out early, getting it all set up. Then the waiting began.

The crane arrived around 9am.  Then lots of other trucks and machinery began to arrive. We pulled the kids out of school so they could watch.  10 am came and went, contractor was on the phone, but still no house.  Apparently, there was a mix up with scheduling at the Nationwide office, and the house was not scheduled to be delivered until next week. Ack! Eventually they got things straightened out and found a driver and the new delivery time was moved to 4-5pm. So the kids went back to school. and the entire construction crew sat around and waited, and waited, and waited.

Kids returned home from school, and not long after we heard the crane start up. So we looked outside and saw a huge truck in the road that was carrying half of our house! 

They hooked it to the crane and lifted it way up in the air over the electric lines.  It was so crazy!

 Then lined it up with the foundation and set it down. What a crazy thing to see.

Kenan even took time off of work to watch. 

Once the first half was in place, another big truck arrived with the second half.

They lined them up.  See those triangles hanging down on the walls? They are sections of the roof. They are hinged to the main structure and literally fold up. i had no idea. 

Once the main sections were lined up and set, they began unfolding the roof. The entire thing was sitting on top of the modules. It is all hinged and just unfolds. It was so neat to watch.

There are ropes attached to these pieces and they just pull them up and then nail them into place. 

Then they brought in the window sections.

Once the window sections were secured in the both ends of the house, they pulled up the rest of the roof

The front view. i didn't take a lot of pictures of the front, because i was standing on the other end with the kids. There were a bunch of people and bunch of equipment in the yard, so we were staying far out of the way.  There will be a wrap around deck that will be built around the house.

Unfolding the rest of the roof! 

This as far as they got yesterday. The entire process, once the house actually arrived took around 3 hours!  Incredible!   Before they left they put plastic over the window and dormer holes.

There is a still a lot that has to be done before we move in. It will still be many weeks before it's completed, but watching this come together so quickly was just amazing.  

As we watch the rebuilding process we can not help but become filled again with intense gratitude to all those that have helped us along the way, and helped us to get to this point. Friends, family, neighbors, customers and even many folks we have never even met. The amount of love and support we have felt through out this has been so overwhelming and life changing. i love being able to share this rebuilding (and healing) process with all of you. Thank you again for your continued support.  

Mock Apple Crisp- Zucchini recipe

This is a such a simple recipe and a great way to use up extra zucchini. This recipe takes 3-4 medium size zucchini.  

Mock Apple Crisp recipe
Filling
5 cups zucchini
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
dash nutmeg

Topping
1 stick softened butter
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar ( i like using 1/ cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup white sugar, but either or is fine.)
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats

Bake 375 35-40 minutes

Preheat oven to 375.  Cut the zucchini into quarters the long way, then peel and scoop out the seeds. Now slice each spear to look like apple slices.

Place 5 cups of sliced zucchini into a sauce pan, and add 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup lemon juice, a teaspoon of cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg.

Stir it all together so all the zucchini is coated, and cook  15-20 minutes until zucchini is tender, stirring occasionally. 

Remove from heat, and pour the zucchini mixture into a glass pie pan or 8 x 8 casserole dish.  Set aside while you prepare the topping.  

In a separate bowl, mix together the butter, flour, sugar and rolled oats.

Gently mix the ingredients and sprinkle on top of the zucchini mixture.

Bake for 35-45 minutes. Until the top is golden brown.  It's great served hot with a scoop of ice cream on the side.  It tastes almost exactly like an apple crisp. Enjoy!

Quick and Easy Meals- Garden Veggie Crustless Quiche

i've been making a lot of quick and easy garden meals lately, but i have a terrible time remembering to take pictures or write down the recipe. i rarely use recipes and when i do,  tend to use them loosely. We have just started getting eggs again. i only have 4 birds that lay right now, and they are not laying regularly. So some days i have quite a few eggs, and some days i don't.  i started getting 2 eggs a day this last week, so i have a few to use up and decided to make a crustless quiche.

Ingredients:
6 eggs
1/2 cup milk
assorted garden veggies
1/2 cup shredded cheese (cheddar, american, mexican blend)
salt & pepper
oil

The lighting in the camper is really bad, so i apologize ahead of time for the bad pictures.  Except for the eggs, the ingredients were all from the garden. i used zucchini, summer squash, green and yellow peppers, onion, garlic, swiss chard, fresh basil, eggplant and a handful of cherry tomatoes. i took this picture after i had already completed the quiche, so not all the ingredients are pictured.

Preheat oven to 350.  You can really add what ever veggies you want. i chop/dice them all and saute in olive oil until tender. Set them aside and let them cool. 

Then beat 6 eggs with 1/2 cup milk, add the cooked vegetables and gently mix them together.

Pour half of the egg/veggie mix into a greased pie pan.  Sprinkles with cheese, then dump remaining egg mix on top.

Bake at 350 for around 35-45 min. Until golden brown on edges, and tooth pick inserted in center comes out clean.

This is a really simple meal that goes great with veggie hash and fresh fruit. 

Garden Update- Sept 1st

September first and the garden is still producing well.  The garden itself is not looking that great, Downy mildew spread all through my cucurbits. Mexican bean beetles devoured my bean plants, and almost all my tomatoes were pulled do to blight, but somehow the garden is still hanging on. i'm finally beginning to get some cucumbers. i planted a couple different varieties, the white ones are supposed to be lemon cucs, but all of the ones that grew in that garden are white.  i grew some in a different garden and they have all been yellow, so i'm not sure what's up with that.After looking around online for an answer i was begining to wonder if i had accidentally planted dragon eggs, instead of lemon cucumbers.

i have lots of volunteer sunflowers coming up all over the yard and garden. Most of these were planted by the birds.  i have a couple that were planted from last years sunflowers, but the ones i actually planted, the red variety, never came up.

My peppers are finally beginning to change color.i planted red, yellow and green this year.  

My October beans were just beginning to get streaks, but i picked them all because the bean beetles had stripped all the foliage off the plants.  Since i had to pick them a bit early, i shelled them and froze them instead of allowing them to dry in the pods. They'll be a nice addition to soups this winter. 

i plant squash every three weeks during the summer, so as plants are  dying back new pants are just beginning to produce. Most of my squash is done and have been pulled, but i have new zucchini and pattypan plants just starting to produce.  My zucchini has been extremely productive this year, even with the challenges of vine borers, squash bugs, mosaic virus, downy mildew and powdery mildew. Somehow, i am still picking zucchinis. 

Sweet potatoes are beginning to bloom. They are in the morning glory family, and so the flowers are so the flowers look very similar to morning glories. i have grown sweet potatoes every year without ever having a problem. This year, when i went to check my potatoes i found holes in the soil and the base of many of he plants. Something, a vole or possibly chipmunk had dug under the ground and eaten the sweet potatoes. i dug a few plants early, but the potatoes are quite small since they typically are not dug until right before the first frost.  i couldn't bring myself to dig them all, so i left some in the ground and have been checking them daily hoping that they don't get eaten.

As the summer garden begins to die back, my fall garden is starting to come in. i have newly planted lettuce, swiss chard, beets, broccoli, radishes,kale and snow peas.

This is the first year in a long time that i didn't do any canning. i was able freeze beans, a few bags of tomatoes, and lots of squash. i still have some potatoes in storage and hope to have sweet potatoes as well. It feels a bit strange though entering the winter without my usual stores of food.

The new house will be done before the winter, and i'll actually have a pantry and a cold storage area for the first time, but nothing to put it in it. :)  i suppose i should start planning for next years garden. :)

New House Construction- Week Two

Week Two of construction and we have a basement! 

The construction crew was back this week, and they really worked quickly to get things done!  They spent the first part of the week setting up the wall forms.

There were 3-4 guys working and it took them several days to get it all sent up.

Once they got the wall forms secured, they added vertical and horizontal re-bar to reinforce the back fill.  Then they placed support beams to hold the forms in place. 

On thursday they brought in the cement trucks, and began pouring! It took a lot longer than i expected, and they brought in many trucks to get it all done.

Once the concrete had been poured the crew began smoothing it and adding anchors.

On Friday the crew came back and began removing the forms.  It took them several hours to get it all removed and cleaned up.  It was pretty neat to see a basement now standing where a last week there was only a hole.  There are 2 windows, a large french door and main entrance doors that have been framed in.  We were unable to see them until the forms came down.

A square hole was cut in the front wall  where the downstairs chimney thimble will be placed.  They will be leveling off the driveway so that we will have a walk in basement.   The basement is very similar to what we had before, but it will be a full basement rather than a half basement.  We will have a space for cellar type/cold storage,  a family room, a utility room and enough space for Kenan to move his glass shop back home. 

The french doors will walk out towards the woods, and as you come out the doors our chicken coop is to the right. Above this will be the wrap around deck, providing a nice shady hang out with a view of the woods and chicken yard.  i think it going to be a really nice space. It is very much what we had envisioned for our old house.

The concrete needs to cure for a week or two, and the house is scheduled to be delivered on Sept. 10th. Once the house is set on the basement there is still a lot of work that needs to be done before we can move in. We were originally told we would be in by Thanksgiving, but the house was constructed earlier than originally anticipated, so i'm not sure what that means for our estimated move in date. This entire year has been such a whirlwind of crazy. It's hard to even comprehend the amount of change we have experienced this year, and i honestly do not know how we are still sane.

We are really looking forward for all of this to be over, so we can just go back to normal life again.