Okay, I pronounce the cabin fixed.  Yesterday it rained nearly all day.  Not a drop of water came in from outside!  Thanks Trent and Dustin of Derksen Buildings!

On the other hand, I have had a visitor who is mowing the upper pasture for free...until her owner comes and takes her pack to their pasture..  There is a cow that is in the upper pasture who wandered across the dirt road from Spring Creek Farms.  I told him this morning on the way in and mentioned I was enjoying the free mowing service.  However, she needs to go home as my back field does not currently have a fence and I would hate for her to get hit going back across the road to where they have now fixed their fence.

Thank you Lord!  Thunderstorms boomed through my area after midnight with a gentle rain falling after until nearly lunchtime!  I may never complain about the rain, after many years in the southwestern Texas desert where it just never remembers to rain!  I love having everything around me green!
  While waiting on the repair guy from Derksen Buildings to arrive, I began installing mini blinds.  Then the power went out!  It got hot, so I called in and soon the power was back on.    So I got to try out my new cordless drill. Gals, you gotta know how much fun power tools are...especially cordless!
The Derksen Building new repair guy Trent and his lovely girlfriend Cassie came out about 2 pm to do repairs.  For the gap in the floor, it has been thoroughly calked, and he put a 2x4 under the floor to further seal it.  For the gap in the upper eave, he put a 2x4 section then calked around it, and also calked around the window below.  Maybe my days of wet feet on rainy days are over.  While it took 2 weeks to get them out, to be fair, they have apparently had a repair fella that was not too reliable for going where he was supposed to be, or calling customers.

This summer is HOT HOT HOT!  As a newcomer I am struggling with the humidity.  I had hoped to finish insulating and electric in the cabin by now, but Derksen Buildings has been slow in sending the repair man.  I was notified today that tomorrow, Wed.  July 9th I should expect someone to arrive.  I initiated this repair back in June (24th), and was even told at one point I had been forgotten about.  I always follow up, and that is what eventually got me to this repair scheduled for tomorrow.  Some of the cracks and gaps have gotten so big that I have had scorpions climbing in through the floor gap in the evening. It is sad, but I was ready to give back my cute little cabinnette. It would have meant searching for a new type/company, but thankfully it appears Derkesen is willing to step up to the plate.  We shall see what tomorrow brings.  This is the floor that Mr Scorpion crawled up through.....thankfully I was there and was able to tend to him quickly.  

Once repairs are completed, I will gladly pull wires, and insulate walls so I can be ready to work on plumbing. 

Happy Independence Day to all my friends and family.  I have resolved to have a day in town and total relaxation.  Very surprised to find there is no Independence Day parade in either Paden or Prague.  Fireworks tonite however!

I mentioned in a previous post that I was looking for a rain barrel.  Well the neighbor offered the use of his that he no longer uses.   I know have a huge rain barrel in the yard, and thanks to the recent rains, it is pretty full!  It makes watering the garden, and having water for dishes, etc so much easier.  I am exploring submersible pumps, and pressure tanks.  My well tested fairly clean, so now I can put the plumbing to the house.  Electrical work begins Saturday.  So much to do...so little time, even less free capital!

The grasshoppers are beginning to leave some of the garden alone...only some.....they don't seem to like my pumpkins and watermelons....yet!  They still happily munch on the peppers, and the squash....yes I would love to munch too...  I have found a helper or two...one not necessarily where I would like to find him-my water bucket!

I would like to mention I bought a Wonder Washer. It is the size of a diaper pail, but does a great job getting my clothes clean.  I still have to wring the water out by hand for the clothes line, but it is a great money saver.  I can do 3 loads (4-5 shirts per load/2 pr jeans per load) with less than 5 gallons of water.  Got mine at Amazon.com.  Plenty of sunny days for drying clothes on the line.  By winter, I want to get the companion centrifugal dryer.  I had one several years ago and it spins clothes nearly dry.

Mushrooms galore have been sprouting on my place.  Several different types, colors, and shapes.  I admired, but did not eat as I don't know what is edible or not.  The underside of the biggest looked like a sponge, no gills...and another had a huge root....not sure it is a true mushroom.

I am loving the weather here in Oklahoma.  Since my arrival on June 6th it has rained 12 days or a portion of those 12 days.  I have been here nearly a month, and have recorded a total of 11 inches of rain! Everything is so green!  Quite the change for this transplant from the western desert areas of Texas.  It has rained more here, and accumulated three times the rain I ever say living in Kermit for 2 and 1/2 years!  Today is very overcast and I am all for some more rain! 

When I bought my little cabin from Derksen Buildings back in March, I was very pleased.  I knew it came with a warranty, but had no idea how good they were about it.  After a very hard rain the other morning, I woke to find a puddle of water on the floor next to my bed.   Yes, the cabin has developed a couple small leaks, BUT one call to Dustin with Derksen Buildings, and I have a repair man scheduled to come fix that and a few other things they need to fix (small cracks developing in the sidewalls). 

I have put out 5 gallon buckets to catch rainfall ( captured 35 gallons so far!) I am wanting to get a rain barrel.  I am looking for one that has the spigot on the front where I can attach a hose and use it to water the garden.  Currently I trek up to the pond with buckets tied to rope, throw it in, and pull to shore.  Slightly messy, but still gets the job done.  Still a trip to Lowes is in order....Shawnee here I come!

 

Grasshoppers are eating my garden nearly as fast as I plant!  I started 12 squash from seed, the grasshoppers waited patiently for the first true leaves before eating all but two of my plants! I know it is illegal to murder, but I surely wish for the grasshoppers demise! 

Wet feet and gardening

What a return trip from Michigan!  Apparently while I was away, the middle Midwest was inundated with rain.  I plotted my trip, and set off towards home...normally only a 17 hour trip (ex truck driver-17 hours is a short trip).  The rain had flooded areas, and it had closed major parts of my route.  The problem with enjoying XM radio, and a GPS is they don't tell you ahead of time that parts of your road are closed.  In the old days of FM radio, yes you had to keep searching for a new station, but you always had the local stations which gave you local information-road closures and weather.  The trip home ended up being a 20 hour ordeal.  The rain also caused havoc with my internet signal, the last two hours I had none, which meant no GPS!  I found several back roads in Oklahoma I did not know existed.  ;-)  Even with a slightly flooded road in front of the house, and a slip and slide up the drive, I was never so glad to see home! 

Gardening is my life at this point.  Every morning before it gets too hot, I am up and out digging up long overgrown parts to become more garden space.  I had worried that I was not seeing earthworms I dug. Earthworms tell me my soil is not totally dead. Finally I hit a section today that was chock full of earthworms.  I scooped up a handful, and placed them in the middle of the garden where I had earlier cultivated so the soil is nice and loose.  They quickly disappeared into the soil, and I hope they are happy there. 

 

While I was gone there was some bug damage.  One of the old-timers in my area tells me I waited too long to get a good garden this year and will be fighting bugs and bug damage all summer now.  That may be true, but those bugs don't know I am a quality opponent!