MIT Test

We were contacted and asked to participate in a study that MIT is doing on ICF homes. Today was the day that Derek from Pro Energy Consultants came out to do the blower door test. We have already had one of these done for our green certification (which we are still waiting to hear the results).

To do a blower door test they basically turn off all the A/C (geo thermal in our case) close all the air duct vents, tape off our HRV system, open all interior doors, and make sure all windows and exterior doors are closed. The blower door is a powerful fan that mounts into the frame of an exterior door. The fan pulls air out of the house, lowering the air pressure inside. The higher outside air pressure then flows in through all unsealed cracks and openings. These tests determine the air infiltration rate of a building. This guy has already done approx. 11 ICF homes in the last week or two and he said that ours was the best reading he had ever done!

Another new toy at the house

We now have another new toy at the land.... a used 4wheeler. Tina is in heaven and LOVES it.

Monday's

Why does everyone dread Mondays? Well here is what happened on my Monday last week and this might be the answer to that question...

The day started when we were down at the horse barn at 6:45 a.m. feeding them and one of the horses caught her foot in the fence. So here I am in my work clothes trying to get her foot out of the fence. Next I had a really bad day at work to the point of having to keep myself from getting emotionally upset (I HATE when I get so mad that I get teary eyed!!!). Next I leave work to pick the kids up from school and there is horrible traffic because of them paving the highway. Because I was late, Tori called and asked if she could go to Sonic with someone, but it took them longer than it took me to get there so I had trouble finding her and of course she didn't have her cell phone. Day is not over yet..... Then we get home and Tina is feeding the animals and all of the sudden I hear crying. I go outside to see Tina carrying our rooster, Mixie, and she is screaming that he is dying. The dogs had cornored him and drug him off into the woods and Tina went after them and got him out of their mouth. At this point I am hitting the dogs to keep them from continuing to try to get him. All of this drama now had me late to pick Tori up from basketball practice and I didn't even realize it until she called and said "where are you?". I had to finish tending to the rooster by putting him up where he could try to live and the dogs would not get him. Now at this point I am dripping sweat from chasing dogs and tying them up. Lastly I had to go to the school for book fair!

So now I know why I was glad Monday was over.....

Camping, Again

If there was ever any question, sure enough we are crazy. After 215 days living in a camper and only 3 months in the house we were off on a family camping trip :-) Montgomery Bell here we come. We camped with our good friends Shelli, Zac, and Hayley. Friday night was spent with getting tents setup, eating smores, and waiting on Shelli to get there (she didn't make it until late).

Saturday we got up and had my famous blueberry pancakes and polish sausage. Charles, Heather, Austin, and Brooke showed up in time to eat breakfast and head to the Narrows of the Harpeth with us. We did not realize that there was still flood damage to the put in location, so we had to add a few more miles to the trip. The float was now going to be over 7 miles. We were set to go with a picnic lunch, coolers of drinks, and kids.

The biggest excitement came when a bad thunder storm with lightening came up fairly quick. It lasted for over 20 minutes. All three canoes and Tina's kayak all huddles on side of the river under some trees. We had some kids who were crying and some who were praying. Another man came over to us and huddled with us with his two daughters as well. Luckily as soon as it was over, the sun came back out and we just carried on and continued to have fun. We certainly did not let it ruin the trip in any way.

There was a lot of fishing and Rod started out strong, catching the first fish. He fished the entire way and caught a whopping 4 fish. Would have been good enough except that about 2/3rds of the way, Tina decided she wanted to fish as well... On her 3rd cast she caught her 1st of 3 bass. In the end it was tied 4 to 4 between Rod and Tina!

Later that evening we sat around the fire and just enjoyed each others company.

Tina and Hayley at the campsite
Tori setting up the Tent

The first fish of the trip

The Weavers - including AJ the dog

Tina's first time on the river in her Kayak

Stopping to eat lunch and play in the water
Zac hanging out
Austin is giving Tina a lift upstream

Playing in the current. This is a fun spot because the current will sweep you down, but it is shallow and not too dangerous

After the downpour...



There was so much water that we had pull over and dump 4 or more inches of water out of the canoes.



After the rain is when Tina started fishing. Her she is with her first catch.


We all posed for a picture at the bell tunnel.

TIMBER

Rod and Zac worked on the land on Memorial Day. There were two tasks that Rod wanted to get done - the first was move all the culvert that we bought when we bought the backhoe. The second task was to push over a tree that was partially dead up here near the house. They took the culvert to two different spots - one was at the horse area to make a larger place to pull a car over the creek and the other was down one of the trails so that 4wheelers could cross between the ravine easier. Both Rod and Zac got to play on the machinery - Rod on the big dog and Zac on the tractor.

Zac hauling the culvert down into the woods


And the tree falling down - TIMBER

New Mini Bike

Rod has been selling everything trying to get some of the junk cleaned up - camper #2, the girls mini bikes, Tori's truck topper, and finally the ambulance was sold. The guy didn't want to quite give us the money we wanted so he threw in a mini bike to sweeten the deal. This one is shorter than the ones we had so Tina can ride it by herself. She has been on it everyday since it got it home!

Madam President

Tori finally has the title Class President! Her school does it a little different and they don't really "run" for office. Basically they just get nominated and then the entire class votes. She was very excited about it.

Whew - all caught up

If you have been following the blog you know that I went 5 weeks without posting anything... as of right now... I am Caught up!!!! I will make an effort to do a little better over the next few months. :-)

20 years......

I seem to see a theme in my posts lately, they all see to say the same thing.. where did the time go? Well her goes again. Last Friday was my 20 year high school reunion. I graduated in 1990 from Beech High School. Some days it seems like yesterday and other days it seems like a life time ago. I look back on those years with many fond memories and many good friends. I am very fortunate that there are actually several people that I am still extremely close to.

Here are some of the pics from the night.

Cheatham County Fair

The county fair is in town! Normally the kids enter a lot of crafts and the chickens. This year due to the move, we just couldn't get the crafts together. But never fear we were able to get the chickens together. Tina entered 5 chickens and Tori entered 2. When it was done, we had 1 Best of Show; 3 1st place ribbons and 2 2nd place. Of all the birds that were entered, only 1 chicken didn't place!

Catching the chickens was certainly a site to see. I really hate that I didn't get it on video.

Camper # 2 is out of here

Camper # 1 was sold real quick once we moved into the house. Camper # 2 took me longer to get ready to sell. It was hard to make myself go out there and clean it up. I was really just over the campers. I finally made time to do that about 2 weeks ago and then Rod got around to putting it on craigslist. It was sold the first day it was on there. We took more of a loss on this one because we were desperate when we bought it and over paid. Regardless we were grateful to have it for a home while we needed it and I feel for the man that bought it... he was doing the same thing - living in it while building a house!

The Sound of Music - cover your ears!

School has started. Tori is now in the 10th grade and Tina is in the 6th. There are not any pictures of the first week of school because I had to go out of town for work that week. Rod picked up the slack in the morning taking the kids and my Dad helped pick the kids up from school. Tori took care of the laundry and Tina took care of the cleaning. All in all they got by ok without me.... but were very ready for me to get back home....

In 6th grade you can join band.... Tina has decided that she is going to join band and play the sax. Did you know that the sax is the most expensive instrument that this age can play... :-)

Tina and her friend Paige have been over practicing. Practice makes perfect, but I really thought maybe some of you could hear them from miles and miles away!

Hanging Bed Finally

Tori saw a hanging bed in at a parade of homes a year or so ago. Since then that is all she wants. We have been telling her that Rod would build her one but it just had not make it to the top of the list. They finally started working on the bed in July. Tori did a lot of the work and was there as Rod's helper every step of the way. Now she has a bed that truly hangs from the rafters!

The Big Double 1

So Tina's official birthday was August 7th and she turned the big double 1... We had her birthday party the week earlier and it was just a small get together on her actual birthday. However, Rod and I did not give her any presents at her party and waited until her actual birthday. We took her outside and she had to find her presents. The first one she found was a red life jacket. After that, she knew she was looking for something to do with the water. Finally she found the red kayak that we bought her.





Then they test drove it in the pond!

Tina's Birthday Party

Hard to believe... Tina turned 11. Where has the time went? Seems like just the other day she was at my work banging her head on the floor. (When she was young she wanted to be like her father at a young age - a head banger)

We had her birthday party the week before her birthday at the old skating rink that I went to when I was in elementary school - Hendersonville Skate Center. Tina worked all day on Friday to make her own cake - a huge Dolly cake. She made the body out of cake and drew the legs on - notice the tail it is a curly tail that says "Dolly"!



Everyone doing the Cha-Cha-Slide - obviously some took their skates off...



Rod still has it... skating (in line skates) and still able to talk on that stupid phone :-)



And here are a few other random pictures from the party