Shop progress and pictures

 Finally I found the pictures and have added our progress from today. This is how it looked as of this morning, all holes dug( all 18 post holes dug by hand) and ready for posts. The materials in the photo plus cement enough for all 18 6x6 posts all paid for, which feels good.

 The holes are approx. 3 ft deep and 1-1/2 ft wide, our soil is sandy so digging wasn't to hard, just time consuming.

 Planting corner posts, all of the 9- 6x6's posts planted today were 16ft long and weighed approx.  200# to 250# each. We have a remainder of 9- 6x6's to plant, of which four are 20ft long. We'll have to use the tractor to lift these four into the holes. 

 This is the back wall of the shop, the wall heights are 12 ft tall.

 All four corners in and back wall done. No wonder I'm tired and Mike did the lion's share of the lifting and Cortney was also a great help, I just helped lift when he needed it, I was in charge of keeping the posts leveled while he tamped them in place and then we all worked the cement in around the each post.

 These following photos have nothing to do with the shop, it was just funny. Two days ago I was baking and hear a "wallop" on the kitchen window, when I turned to see what had happened I see a ring necked dove flopping, dazed on the ground. The bird eventually flew away, seemingly unharmed, but left this image behind. If you click on the photos, you'll see the detail left behind, you can even see the eye and beak print, plus the feathers at the end of the wings. I'm just glad the bird was okay and the window didn't break.  Now a serious window washing will be needed*wink*

Not much else is new, we are just working on getting ready for winter and working on the shop. Once all posts are planted, we'll tie them together with purloins and then add the header beam, over the 16ft. garage door opening, then the trusses will be installed and tied together with purloins. That will be the last things we'll do before winter sets in, unless Mike places the gravel and gets it all in place for the cement floor base. Our plan is to do half of the cement floor in the shop at a time, due to the expense involved in doing the whole 30ftx60ft shop in one shot. This is a build as we can afford it project and when it's all said and done it will be paid for in full, just the way we like it. :o)

Our temperature this morning was only 22F at 5:30 am, we've frosted hard three night in a row and I guess we should expect it, after all it is almost November*wink*  The produce in the greenhouse did suffer some frost damage, even being covered by floating row covers, but the tomatoes have faired well so far and we're still enjoying vine ripened tomatoes. The sweet and hot pepper plants were froze, but peppers still okay. The eggplants are still hanging in there too. Typically without heating the greenhouse we'll be finished about end of Nov., unless it gets extremely cold for days on end before then.

All the animals have on their thick winter coats and all have plenty of weight added in prep for winter too. It appears that Ginger and Angel are bred, so Roger will be going home possibly this weekend. The feeder pigs will be here soon and that will keep us hoping for our winter chores; pigs, turkeys( soon to be downsized, just before Thanksgiving*wink*),chickens( also downsized to a dozen for winter and due to feed costs), a heifer and steer and the two goat girls. If all goes as planned the pigs will be ready for butchering in mid to end of Feb. 2012. 

I'm really looking forward to a winter's rest, this summer and all the playing catch up really whipped me! LOL!!!  Looking forward to making our homemade Christmas gifts( working on some already), baking in prep. for the holidays and just relaxing some.

We have 4 bushels of apples to dehydrate, make into apple butter, can for pies and make cider. Hopefully sometime next week we'll get the cider done, the rest we've been doing in bits and pieces as we find the time. Our apples this year were absolutely beautiful, and very little worm problems, even though we do NOT spray with chemicals.  Our plum crop was beautiful as well. The raspberries are still producing berries, they are like the energizer bunny, they just keep going and going. :o)  Even with the heavy frost, the raspberries behind the garage are doing well.

Enjoy your weekend, we'll hopefully be enjoying the view of all 18 post planted and beginning work of tying them all together this weekend. :o)