the beginnings

 Sheetrocking has started!!  YEAH! We have the green board up in the ceilings of both bathrooms. Denseshield in the tub and shower enclosure. Soon the bathrooms will be completely sheetrocked and then we move on to the rest of the house. 

 Sheetrocking the rest of the house is probably going to happen in chunks. Martin bartered work hours with a friend. We have scheduled the friend to come and help hang the larger boards with Martin, since I just don't have enough umpff to manage it.

plans to stay warm come winter

 Martin insulated behind where the wood stove will be located with mineral wool. He also but angle iron in along the back of the two walls. It will support the brick wall.

Lastly, he sheet rocked the wall with hardibacker.
Once the house is sheetrocked, he will build the half (height) brick walls and hearth.

Home for the propane tanks

No more concrete making for me!! I was thrilled when I arrived at an tigin to see that Martin had done the last concrete job by himself. What a relief. Our propane tanks will be making their home on this lovely pad that Martin put in.

Another milestone to celebrate. The insulation is done.

Martin and I spent several itchy days putting in insulation. Martin had already insulated between the studs with hard insulation. Then the rafter vents went in.

 He then foamed in insulation where ever there was a gap or seam.

Then the rafter vents went in.

 After that he and I spent several long days putting in the fiberglass batts.

That is one job I am thankful that it is done. It isn't a difficult job, just uncomfortable.

Even after having washed our work clothes and vacuumed the entire house, I still get itchy after spending a short amount of time working in an tigin or as soon as I put my work clothes on.

Seems like a good reason not to work. If only........

stove pipe through the roof

 Martin has finished putting in the stove pipe for the wood stove and has put it through the roof along with the vent stacks for the plumbing.

Now all we need to do is insulate, build a brick wall and a hearth and hook up the wood stove.

Thank goodness we won't need heat for several months!

more gardening and landscaping

 I dragged Martin to greenhouse/nursery/garden shop because I wanted to start an herb garden at an tigin. We ended up getting some bushes (a spirea, a cypress, heather, etc.)

Some we planted in the hedgerow between our house and the neighbor to the east.

 The herbs (below) I put next to the front perennial bed.

 The heather I planted in the hedgerow between our house and the neighbor to the west. I needed to put heather near holly since I have two nieces, Heather and Holly. Here's to you!

 In the west hedgerow I added 5 elderberry and 5 hawthorn (above) and one of the rhododendrons that was given to me wasn't happy in that hedgerow. I replaced it with a larger one from the nursery and moved the original to the east hedgerow.

I also planted some green bush beans in this hedgerow in hopes of getting something edible. 

Except for weeding and prepping the beds for asparagus and rhubarb, my major gardening is done for this year.