Update on building - January

The water well was hooked up and tanked inside the building. I have no idea what this is really called, I like saying tanked! A fun word - reminds me of my younger days - partin' at The Coach. There were a lot of tanked people in there, but that is different from my water tank.
We now have water inside the building, but no plumbing yet.
The electrician and plumber will start next week I hope. I am currently working with the electric company, and a contractor to put in the underground electric from the permanent pole to the building. I need to have this in time so it will be ready for the electrician to tie it all together so I can have lights. The plumber should be starting next week as well. I get lights and one bathroom - I can spend weekends out there and start working on the sheet rock.
The house part is all framed out and I have the coolest Texas basement ever! For those of you not familiar with this term. We can't have basements in Texas because of the high water table here. So, we build them on the second story. Mine is accessed via a staircase in the shop to the second level. The basement is over the living quarters.
We should be ready for the Annual Olds Crawfish Boil and it will be the first one at the new location at The Ranch.
The planning and building continues!
On a side note, my builder did a fabulous job with this project. I highly recommend him! You can email me for his contact info.
No new pictures this post. The outside hasn't changed much - except we are finally drying out from all the rain. My puddles are dissipating.
Another side note - 2010 is here and has the coolest roman numeral ever: MMX. Just how cool is that. This needs to be on a T-shirt!

Barn has Doors and they are RED!

The barn has now been dried in.

The doors are installed and the barn is locked.

I will get some better pictures when I am there on a sunny day.

We are starting the framing of the living quarters inside now. Septic is in, well is drilled, we have temporary pole electric. It won't be long now. We are going to be doing alot of the finish work inside the living quarters. Our builder is just getting one bathroom ready for us that way we can spend weekends there to get the inside livable and we can start improving the pastures for our future herd.

Puzzle and Shooting Clays - We are a multi-talented family!

My sister Whitni and nephew Parker came to visit after Christmas.
We had started our Christmas Eve Puzzle (that we decided was designed by the devil because of the level of difficulty), and we were still working this puzzle during their visit. They joined in on fun. We had good times working together to complete it. We were determined to get it done before they left to return to West Virginia.

We played tourist while they were here. We went to an Aeros hockey game (their first). We also went to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert. It was good.. the younger crowd liked the laser light show and fireworks. We went shopping and caught some great sales. But the last day of their visit we went to a Moody Ranch Outfitters for a sporting clay course. We had a ball. It was chilly and started to rain at the end of our outing, but we had a great time. This ranch is about 4 miles from The Olds Ranch. We will definitely go back. The course was challenging and for those of us not shooting - very scenic.

A family friend - Michael joined in on the fun as well. He was home visiting from his Navy flight school in Florida. Of course, he won! Curt followed suit and then Parker and Kendyl. Tasha brought up the rear - this was her first time to ever shoot a shotgun. Her excitement when shooting her first clay was priceless!

Happy New Year 2010!

I just wanted to take a moment and wish everyone a Happy New Year 2010.

Just in case you were ever wondering what happens to your Christmas Card and picture at The Olds household. Just check out the picture below. I proudly display these until just before Valentines Day. This window is beside our kitchen table - so we enjoy them everyday.

Thanks to all of you who sent a card, picture, and/or letter.

Fun family stuff

Mid December, 2009:

Dan celebrated his birthday - Kendyl hosted his party - she cooked a wonderful meal for us and family friends. As a surprise for him; I had a custom made quilt hanging made for his birthday. The little squares are from his mother's childhood clothes. My cousin, Cathy Hunt put it together for me. This will hang proudly at the Ranch.

Also, I completed my CERT classes (Community Emergency Response Training.) I am now a registered volunteer for our county and will be called upon during emergencies - like search and rescue, disasters, etc.

We have a buidling

I know I am very far behind with posting status of our building.

Here is what it looked like on 12.22.2009

The roof was just going on.