Haven't had time to post on here in quite awhile. We're still working on the refinishing job on the house, taking alot longer than planned. I'm anxious to finish painting the AfterBlast on the front porch so I can start staining but it's been so cold here the last few days work has had to stop until it warms up a little. It's supposed to rain on Thursday so hopefully will be able to get some done.

One of the Black Silkie hens has decided to set on some eggs, 5 at last count. There are 4 roosters in that area and 3 hens. The roosters seem to get along ok so I haven't done anything about getting rid of any of them. It will be hard to do, I've gotten attached to all of them, even the one rooster who loves to peck me and always has since he was a baby. I think he's the same one who we call the Guard since he seems to decide who is allowed to come into their house. We've seen him sit in the doorway until long after dark while 1 or 2 of the hens are sitting outside. Anyway it will be nice to see the baby chicks and let the mama raise them instead of us bringing them in. That got old last Spring when we had big bins with the chicks in the living room. Their chirping wasn't too bad but as they got bigger the smell got bad unless we cleaned their bin out everyday.

Tim is loving his Tuesday school. Next Tuesday the new class list for the new trimester comes out. He's anxious to see what classes they will offer. On November 17th there's a big field trip to the Science Center in Seattle. We're looking forward to that but not to having to be there by 7:15am. We'll have to leave our house by 6:30 and we're not morning people here!

Here's the back side of the house with the After-Blast painted on. It makes the house look a little darker. Once we get the After-Blast on the whole house then we get to start staining! That will be my favorite part, it'll be like coloring. We're going to put a cedar stain on and then energy seal between the logs that will also be cedar color. We decided against doing the chinking. Can't wait to get the energy seal on, it's been freezing cold in here every night lately. We also got a 5 gallon bucket of EZ Strip last week ($220), Pat left it in the driveway, Stephen was asked by Pat to move one of the cars and he backed over the bucket of EZ Strip! This project has been way more expensive than we ever dreamed. Hopefully running over the bucket taught Stephen to drive more carefully and always check behind him before he backs up. I want to get out there and paint more tomorrow but I have to go to Tacoma for an appt for Tim at the pediatric neurologist. We'll get the results of the MRI Tim had last week. I'm finding an egg about every day in the Silkies area now. Today I walked by and saw an egg in their yard so I got it and put it in my coat pocket and went back to painting. Tonight I was on the computer and remembered the egg and checked my pocket and it was broke! That'll teach me. **This is added on October 15th. You would have thought I would have learned, I did the same thing a few days ago, stuck an egg in my pocket when I was working outside and it broke while I was working on the house!