Shop Update - Return of the Squirrels

I have been busy, not just moving a house. I've redesigned my Cheeky Squirrel Bookends to be a bit bigger so they will hold books better.

I"m excited to have these back in stock. I love critters in clothes. More fantasy than wildlife, but fun.

I love these for little boys.

I confess, I did dress up the barn kitties in doll clothes when I was young. I'd still be at it but I don't think our little squirrels would stand for it.

Money No Object Monday - Band Geek Edition

I guess I'm guilty of being a Band Geek/Nerd/Whatever. I was in band years ago (oboe and percussion). We didn't march much but we were a mean pep band at Basketball games. Four of the six BLKids were Band Geeks. We did put an instrument in the hands of the other two but it didn't stick as well. When we moved to Arkansas with the two last band members we learned what it really meant to be part of a Marching Band. The Yellowjacket Marching Band won awards for their field show. Maybe it's a small town thing, or we were special, but the whole town loved the band. In Southern California, where our oldest girls were in band, at the half time of a football game there was a set amount of minutes that the band could be on filed. If they weren't completely clear of the field by the given time the team would be penalized, severely. In Arkansas, the band did it's complete show, and then the opposing team's band would perform. If the other team failed to bring their band the crowd would be disappointed. The BLMiddleboykid even carried on with band in college. (Our school loved to say that a student would be 50 times more likely to get a scholarship for band than for any sport.)  We continued our tradition of going to a football game to watch the band. There must be someone else that loves the band, maybe more than the team.  The Etsy Shop, Little Band Man, makes tiny marching bands.

LSU Miniature Marching Band $395

This little band set is made in the same tradition as the little metal or "tin" soldiers that were popular toys for boys a century of more ago and are now fine collectibles.  They are 1:32 scale, which makes the figures about 2 1/2 inches tall. He only sells them as sets, not individually. You get a Drum Major, two "Golden Girls" (LSU's dance team), two Flag Line girls and 12 musicians, each molded and painted in detail.  Not a LSU fan?

He has NotreDame's band and Texas A&M, all for the same price.

Each rendered to be true to the uniforms and type of Drum Major and instruments used.  I wonder if he would make other college bands?  I'd love to have the "Power of the Wasatch" in miniature. I can see how soldiers wouldn't be as popular now but a little band, genius. OK, so this may be more for grownups than kids, but it shouldn't be.

Moving Day

On Monday, the stars finally were in alignment so the Can Do Cottage could be delivered. This house moving company moved it in the daylight. When we moved the first house we did this with they moved in the wee hours of the morning and rolled in about 5am.  We were told it would come before noon but they wouldn't get on the road until the morning traffic was cleared out. Right on time, we saw it coming down the road.

There was one little branch that blocked the way.

But it was removed and the real work of turning the corner began. There is only about 30 feet between the electrical pole and a tree on the adjacent property. The house is a little over 28 feet wide.

They did pull a fence post out to make a little more room. Where the truck's front tires are going has been filled up with wood beams.

They inched their way through the turn. The moving company is a multi-generational family and the father and son and helpers are shouting directions back and forth.

They cleared the turn, but have to keep the truck's wheels on the road because the area in front of the truck wheels is a mud hole. (Remember the cement truck?)

It straightened out perfectly! That's some truck driving. I have trouble backing out of my driveway. After a few more yards our house leaves the road for the last bit of it's journey home.

As it travels a bit south of the footings and over a bit of a rise, the truck gets a bit of assist from a winch on one of the other trucks that came along.

The house is facing backwards, so they need to do a bit of a pirouette.

There was some back and forth and jogging around but they pull it in over our footings.

They then went to Lunch! So did we. They returned and spent about 2 hours fine tuning the placement so that the house was exactly centered over the footings. They have it balanced on four stacks of timbers that hold up the two huge iron beams that have supported the house since it left it's original home. Using jacks, the winch and pushing with a truck they fine tuned the placement.

And there she is! We've ordered the foundation blocks, vents, mortar and sand and the contractor will start to work on the foundation next week (as long as we don't get any bad weather). When it's done, the house movers will return and set the house down on the foundation and level it so it will be as if it was built there.

Money No Object Monday - Tree House Edition

It's been a while since I posted objects that I would love to own, or give, but would need to win the lottery to do so. There are a bunch of wonderful playhouses out on the great wide web but look at this.

Tree House/Play Structure by Tiny Town Studios $4650

A tree house where the tree is crafted of sculpted concrete. You don't need a real tree. It's hollow and the entry to the tree house is through the base. You climb to the shack through a stair inside. This makes me think I'm in a movie set.

Made by Tiny Town Studios who've been active on Etsy since just before Christmas. They are Houston based and will set these up anywhere within 150 miles of Houston without extra shipping charges. Beyond that area they will deliver for fuel charges only.

They have Pintrest Boards showing some highly imaginative home and commercial installations.  Their tag line is "the goal is to capture the imagination and ignite the heart".  I love the shaped and carved concrete.

Clearing! And The Countdown To Delivery

The mess of tree tops on our lot had a solution. Meet the chipper.

 I became way too involved with this bad boy. It will handle any tree limbs up to six inches in diameter.  That's pretty big.

 We also had the Three Amigos. Well, two cousins and their friend. BLBaby Boy, our nephew and their friend were persuaded (and paid $10/hr plus meals) to provide the labor. (Bad picture of them, but ladies, they're all cuties and two are unattached!) Of course, we needed some obstacles to straightforward work. The chipper was rented for 24 hours, BLHubby took off two days from work and after about three hours the belt broke. It was hauled back to the rental yard where they replaced the belt but some other little cog needed to be fixed and the part wouldn't be there until the next day. The boys worked the chainsaw and stacked stuff up but we quit early. Next day, chipper is ready but BLBabyBoy and BLNephew have to work at their "real" jobs. Their sweet friend came and we all chipped wood until dark. I don't think I've been so tired and sore ever. We had the chipper until noon the next day (the rental company was great about making up the time) so we came out and finished most the next morning. The Three Amigos arrived to help, too.  With their help we had several piles like this:

 And a lot of these:

 On Saturday, BLHubbs and I started burning the bigger logs. We had hoped that the house  mover would be able to bring the house in on the Monday (it was Presidents Day) so we had to get at least the front area cleared of obstacles so the house could move on in. A darling enterprising man approached BLHubby with a proposal for him to clean up the area with his tractor. Deals were made:

 Buddy the Tractor Driver was heaven sent. $40 per hour was a bargain. He piled most of the wood onto the existing fire and made another big pile at the opposite end of the property that we will burn at our leisure. Buddy is a prodigy with a tractor. Remember I said that many of the trees were hollow? One of them had a wild bee hive!

There were only a few bees. (Thankfully) I'm not convinced they were domesticated bees. The few critters I saw looked less round than the honey bees I've seen. The comb that fell out didn't feel like bees wax but was  "papery". I didn't put my hand inside the hive to check out all of it but I don't think there was honey in it. Sadly, it's a goner. So are those stumps. We hired another local boy who came with a huge machine on the back of his truck and ground those huge stumps into dust. The stumps now look like this.

I didn't get out there with my camera for the process but when all were ground it looked like we had been invaded by R.O.U.S.'s

Never fear, Buddy the Tractor Driver spent two more hours yesterday smoothing things out and we have a clear lot!

He really is a tractor driving genius. Just in time. The house mover has inspected the site and thinks we can move the house on this Sunday or Monday. It will be in the wee hours of the morning but hopefully I can get some pictures of the trip.

Where are we cost wise? We had labor (the Amigos), Chipper rental, a new chainsaw and chainsaw blades and sharpening (we sharpened several blades a couple of times at our local True Value), stump grinding and Buddy the Tractor Man - grand total was $1679.  Not bad for removing over 25 trees. Only problem, it wasn't budgeted, so I'm looking for some savings elsewhere. I think BLHubby and I will be hanging our own siding.  So far we've spent $11,674 plus land. We still don't have a house but we're ready!

Move On Cottage - One Step Forward, One Step Back

When we laid out the house foundation we knew we would have to remove one tree so that the house could be maneuvered into place. BestLoved Hubby spent two hours cleaning and tuning up his chainsaw and headed out to the property to chop down the offending tree. We also considered a couple more trees might be candidates for removal.  Easy, yeah? BLHubby came back home within twenty minutes.  Wow, quick huh? No. The offending tree was MUCH bigger on closer inspection. Hubbs is six foot eight with gorilla arms and he could barely reach around it. The others we were considering removing were much bigger. On reflection (and fear for his life), he decided this was a job for the experts.  A job that we hadn't budgeted for. What might it cost?  BLHubbs just contracted for some tree limb removal and clean-up at his work.  Limb removal on 15 trees cost $3600. Complete removal of bigger trees would cost a lot more. But, he's not an international purchasing agent for nothing.  One of his suppliers is a sawmill and they recommended their best log contractor.  When we met with him he pointed out that most of the hardwood trees on our site were old and diseased or lightning struck.  On a closer look, there was one big one that you could see through!

Peek-a-boo tree! A good wind storm or ice storm and all our work renovating the cottage would be smashed. BLHubby's sawmill friends also coached him in what the business side of getting the trees removed should be. The tree contractor told us the trees were not worth anything except to sell for pulp. (Just what the sawmill said they would.) BLHubby then asked them if they would remove the trees and take the logs for free. They agreed. This was the desired result. The log contractor would get a couple of loads of logs worth about $1000 and we would get the trees safely removed without blocking the road, smashing the storage building or killing anyone. The only "catch" is that the tops and smaller branches as well as the stumps will be our problem.  Here it is, trees removed

Most of the lot covered with a tangle of tree limbs - some of them huge. But, no damage to the shed, foundation, road, or any people (that we know of). Those trees you see are not on our lot. We are about to put some sweat into sweat equity. Stay tuned.

Three Little Pigs Edition Seven and How Not to Shoot

I've had another Three Little Pigs play set ready to list in the Etsy shop.  I still struggle with photos. You would think that I would know by now what works, and what doesn't.

I was in a hurry (it was getting late in the day) and didn't pull the photos up on the computer right away. I've listed it with the three best photos I got, but. . I'll be retaking the pictures when we finally get some sun.

This set is a bit brighter in color. The stick house is a lighter brown, but my favorite part of this set is that each little pig has the same portrait of their piggy mom.

 If you have to leave home, at least take family pictures with you.