More Snow in North West Arkansas - This neither normal for the Ozarks nor is it RIGHT!! It has not stopped yet.  The warm weather gave us hop but we awoke this morning at our normal 6:00 AM to a dusting of show on the ground. Currently it is 10:00 AM and it is still falling.  KSPR Weather promises that is should stop soon, though!

Arkansas Snow, January 28, 2010 - One foot of snow, no school, snow forts, good times! Click title to see 8 more pictures Thursday, January 28, 2010 was the one year anniversary of the great 2009 ice storm and we were once again in for a big'un'. Val, at the age of 14, drives himself and Adam to and from the bus stop every day.  It is only a mile and it is good level road.   After school as he drove

Black Walnut Laptop Lap Desk As most of you may know, putting most laptop computers on your lap is a bad idea.  Not because it makes your lap hot, but because it may be blocking the cooling vents on the bottom of the laptop.  This causes over heating and can eventually burn out your pricey laptop. I have been trying to design myself a lap desk for my laptop that

Christmas Tree at our Cabin In 2009, we fulfilled a dream and had our first tree that was over 7 1/2 feet tall. The total height of the tree when decorated is right at 12 feet tall. That is pretty big once you consider that we only live in 900 square feet of home, the four of us. The vaulted ceilings really lent themselves to the tree and we will do it every year.

Timber Rattler - One snake down Click title to see 1 more pictures Okay, So we are installing the septic tank and line for the Earth shelter house.  I asked Adam to run an extension cord down so I could cut the PVC pipe.  The cord, when stretched to the area we were working, went under the corner of a pile of Hardi-Panel that was left over from the siding on the barn and the house. After about four

Video of the footings - It is slow and hard work Click title to see 1 more pictures Today we dug for a couple hours and did not get far.  We keep running in to veins of very hard rock.  This slows my progress a lot! I drive the back hoe, Val takes the removed dirt with Onslo, the smaller tractor.  To keep things cleaner, I dump the back hoe right into the front end loader on the other t

2009 Ice Storm hits North West Arkansas with a VENGENCE!! - We survived the big ice storm of 2009 with our brand new generator! Click title to see 14 more pictures This ice was up to 1 1/2 inches thick. 5 Trees fell on our cabin and countless others everywhere else! The Thaw started Friday with bright sun and a 37 degree high. Ahhhhh... This is one of the largest branches that fell on the cabin... really shook us up a bit. No damage to the roof, but a

PTO Generator installation complete - Now we can be off grid when the power goes down. Click title to see 3 more pictures In preparation for the inevitable power outage we will eventually have, we invested in a PTO generator for the property.  It is a generator that hooks to the back of the tractor.  When researching generators, we discovered that we could easily spend $10,000 on a generator big enough to keep us running if needed. With a little researc

Hurricane Ike Damage in Northwest Arkansas - 800 miles form the coast, Hurricane Ike left hundreds of trees down and thousands without power. Click title to see 4 more pictures it was an incredible site to return to our home where trees had been destroyed left and right.  I was asked to clear road 7 and 8 through the Madison County Wildlife Management area of some fallen trees.  I was excited to be a help! I loaded up the trailer and headed out on my Kubota L3400 tractor ready to work. In all

Log mill work on the Bailey Bear Ridge building project - Old world `fun` is really hard work. Click title to see 2 more pictures After a break of a few months on the log mill to finish the cabin, it was great to get back to the mill and cut at least a few more trees! The supply of logs to mill seems endless and takes quite a bit of work.  Everyone pitches in at one time or another.

More Cabin Progress Photos - Officially it is done, but there are still little things that need to get worked on here and there... Click title to see 3 more pictures Here are more photos of the cabinets I designed.  Much of the wood is milled here on property.  I am getting the hang of using the Timber King log mill we purchased this past summer. Here you can see the boys shelves that they use as a dresser, the cabinet that Jen and I use in the bathroom for storage and laundry and the overhead ca

Our Home in Arkansas - Before and after Exterior Pictures of our Home Click title to see 7 more pictures It is interesting to see how far we have come in 5 months. This photo shows what the exterior looked like when we got here is January. It was basically a Octagon only the clear story windows and a small window in the front door to see out. So what have we been busy doing. * We had added a covered front porch. * A nice b

Arkansas Home - New Cabinet Shelves Click title to see 1 more pictures Tim, Davids nephew stopped by for a few days and helped put together and hang my upper shelves in the kitchen. The kids painted most of them, The one on the right still needs the trim painted but overall they are fantastic. Like I told Dave, it was really nice putting up groceries and not having things fall on your head. We have spac

Interior Cabin Pictures Before and After Click title to see 13 more pictures When we arrived in January, the cabin was dried in and sealed, but it was still, very much a construction zone. It had the basics, electricity, heater/airconditioner, sub floor and bathroom and basic kitchen. We have made much progress. It is going slower than I would like but we work on it as often as possible. Take

Arkansas Home - Slab for Garage Click title to see 5 more pictures David has been working hard to clear out and area for the garage. He has been chopping down trees and clearing the area with his tractor. As you can see from the pictures he has done a fantastic job. We hired a local gentleman and his wife to grind out the tree stumps, they took out 18 stumps in about 2 hours with this heavy duty stu

The Timberking Log Mill - 4-15-08 Click title to see 3 more pictures To build the main house here in Arkansas, we are having to cut down quite a few trees, so instead of just letting them rot on the ground, David decided early on to recycle them and use them in the house and garage. So after much research and discussion he purchased his own log mill. This is the set up.

Milling the first Posts Click title to see 8 more pictures This is the first attempt to mill the posts for the garage.

Kids first Snow Day Click title to see 4 more pictures We got to experience a several snow days this year. This was the heaviest snow, about 3-4 inches. Val and Adam spent most of the Day outside sleding on garbage can lids, and having snowball fights.

The Sanford Mobile - In honor of the junk collection of Sandford and Son Click title to see 4 more pictures We have all bee doing some major cleaning around our house over the past few weeks. One thing that has bugged me for quite some time is that I have no good way to transport my tools from one location to another. After a bit of thinking, I discovered that I had everything I needed to make this cart for the lawn mower to carry my tools

Office Improvements - More Monitors... Better Click title to see 1 more pictures I have been playing with dual monitors on my new Dell 4600.  I even convinged Jennifer to go to a Multi-monitor setup.  She loves it and would not go back.   In fact, we are both trying to figure out how to get more monitors. After extensive research on the capabilities of Windows XP (Up to 9 monitors), I purchased a board on eBay to

Victor - Our New Cat Click title to see 2 more pictures Macavity died in a freek accident one night.  We are not really sure what happened, it appeared he fell behind something and got hurt some how. We now have Victor.  He is named after Victoria from the Play Cats because when we first got him, he was nearly pure white. He is one major ball of personality. He is also very

Six days Later - After the Cold Front Click title to see 2 more pictures Wee Had more storms that caused flooding.  It was much like October of 2002, but the water was not as high. I did get smart this year and put the front wheels of my car up on blocks before the water got into the engine again. Our neighbor also took out the kayak instead of the car to go to work...  That

One Hurricane... - Two Tropical storms... Click title to see 8 more pictures and the seasons first cold fron takes us out. On September 12 at 4:12 AM we experienced strait line winds in excess of 86 miles per hour... that is fast and a serious Category One hurricane if it had come the right direction, but NNooooooo, it had to come from the north.   We watched the winds destroy parts of

New Family Member - Macavity Click title to see 2 more pictures Mac for short, she is a little trouble maker with a pinache for being exactly where you are about to step. She is developing a wonderful personality that we all love!! Obviously, she is fun to photograph, too.

Adams Birthday - At home and at Port A Pizzeria Click title to see 5 more pictures Adam celebrated his bithday this month.  He openned his presents from Mammaw.  thank you for the Soccer ball. Later, we enjoyed a great time at his favorite place, Port A Pizzeria, the home of the chocolate pizza!!!  That was his birthday cake.

New Playfort - Back Yard Click title to see 4 more pictures After 2 1/2 months of work, the new playset is complete.  It is located in our back yard, nestled between a brazilian pepper tree and an ash tree. It features: 5 swinging items 2 slides (one a curly slide) climbing tower with 4 levels 7 foot catwalk 6x10 tree fort with roof table and benches

Adam's Tooth - A painful visit to the dentist Adam had a bump coming out of his gum just above the front baby tooth.  The tooth it self was slightly yellowed and was blocking the grown up tooth from coming in.  It created an absess that showed on the gum. As Adam would say: I left the tooth on the table and she left three peices of money. The tooth

Adam and Val on the Computer Adam and Val are learning how to use both PC and Macintosh computers at home.  They are beginning to get an understanding of how they work and what the internet is and what they can find on it.

Christmas - Home Decor Click title to see 20 more pictures Jennifer loves to decorate for Christmas.  She tries to do something to every room in the house. This year she bribed me to put lights on the roof of the house by buying a nice extension ladder.  It took me three tries to get to the top, but I managed to get all the lights up. Of course, Adam and Va

Christmas - Gift to ourselves We received a large gift of cash for Christmas and bought ourselves this new refrigerator. It is one with the drawer in the bottom that is the freezer. We both strongly recommend that you consider one of these for your next refrigerator

Flying Chess - Photography I enjoy taking pictures. This month, I reached the 8000 picture mark for my 'new' Canon D30. This picture was taken as Jennifer hit the bottom of the card table with a small sledge hammer. We reset the board several times trying to get an interesting picture.

Race car - Hobby Click title to see 1 more pictures One of my customers gave me this remote control fuel powered car in payment for services one day. It didn't work. I spent all night cleaning the engine. I got it running and after 3 days of playing with it, the clutch shattered into a thousand pieces.

Animals - Cats and Dogs Click title to see 3 more pictures Jennifer and I both love animals a lot. We pass this love on to Adam and Val when we can. Currently we have two cocker spaniels named George and Ringo. They are happy puppies. We had two kittens as guests for a few days and the puppies treated them very well, as usual. The bottle brush picture here is

Calendar - Home Office We installed a new board to hold the calendar that we do all our scheduling on. It is designed to slide out for better and more convenient access.

Easter 2002 - Adam and Val Click title to see 2 more pictures We celebrated Easter at Grandma and Grandpa's home. The boys got 2 easter baskets and grandpa put on an easter egg hunt in the back yard. That's Val in the blue shirt and Adam his younger brother.

Val's Friends - Sleep over Click title to see 2 more pictures Val invited several of his friends over for an overnight party in the Spring of 2002. We watched the new Spiderman movie and played games and with every toy in the house. There was also plenty of computer time to be had.

Life at Home - Val and Adam Play Football Click title to see 1 more pictures Oneday, I got these pictures of Adam and Val playing football in the front yard. They play together very well.

Around the House - Redecorating Click title to see 1 more pictures Jennifer and I put down a new floor in the living room, kithen, hallway and bathroom all by ourselves. It only took about a year and it is still not quite finished as of May 2003. I still need to get a couple pieces of trim up in the kitchen.

Around the House - The Boyz Click title to see 3 more pictures Some pictures around the house.   Val lost his first tooth and Adam on the couch.

Christmas - Adam and Val Click title to see 4 more pictures On their first Christmas with us, they made out like bandits.  Everyone wanted to make sure that they had everything they needed.  There were gifts from dozens of people under the tree.

Christmas - Home Decore Click title to see 3 more pictures Jennifer loves to decorate for Christmas.  We didn't get as much up as we would like, but our collection will have to grow over the next several years.  For now, we will make do with what we have. Regardless of the amount, Jennifer has always decorated the house beautifully.  As much as I belly ache about the work, the holidays are j

Holloween - T-rex and Batman Click title to see 2 more pictures Our home was visited by a vicious t-rex and batman this holloween. Grandma let them choose their costumes and ordered them especially for them.

Our Pupies - George and Ringo and Mandy Click title to see 3 more pictures We have had three cocker spaniels.  Mandy was the first and by far the most intelligent.  She disappeared on October 5, 1999.  It was a terrible loss for us both. About two months before she disappeared, we got George and Ringo.  They were just puppies and certainly two bundles of energy.

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