Here are a few photos of what's been going on with the barn/house remodeling this week. 
Franklin and Russ put on the trusses and then dried it in today. 
It's looking kind of "housy". 
Here's a shot this morning before dry in. Whenever we've gotten to this stage I always have a desire to keep the building as an open-air house with no walls. It helps that it was a warm, breezy day today with no mosquitos or rain or snow.
A True Friend Shares Her Secret Cherry Picking Spot: At knitting last Wednesday, Anne Tansey, whose house is the setting for our Knitty-Bitty gatherings, put out a bowl of fresh-picked cherries. We were all being polite and not gorging our selves. Finally I asked her if this was all she had or if she had more (so I'd know whether to keep helping myself or not.) She said she had two neighbor's trees down the road that were loaded and that she was allowed to pick all she wanted. In that case, I said, I'll help finish this bowl. She then invited us to pick with her Thursday morning early - which I did. I got about four gallons that day. Went back this morning too and got maybe 3.5 more. A relative of the woman in the house where we were picking pointed us to a yellow cherry tree out back and I got some of those as well. Some are going into the freezer as is for frozen winter treats and I'm borrowing a cherry pitter for the rest of them. At the price of cherries (organic ones at that), I figure I made about $40/hr picking these beauties.
This first photo shows us getting ready to pour the foundation for the kitchen addition. Jake & Tucker shoveled gravel onto this and Thursday the cement truck comes.
Second photo is of our new miniature donkey, Dusty, eyeing the goats. This is just after he got out of the trailer.
Third photo is a good side shot of our newest lawnmower.
Fourth photo: Isn't he cute? And he eats grass AND weeds. He's as affectionate as a dog. We're waiting for the goats to warm up to him (he wants to play but they're afraid) and then we'll introduce him to the dogs.
This is the mama cow in the story about Franklin and the calf. 
Here is Jake (left), Tucker (middle), and Mark (right) at Susie & Will's pool. 
This is one of the large remodeling windows from the inside view. 
The third photo down show the new window opening we've put into the old 'barn' that we're remodeling. You know, the 600 sq./ft. building we used to live in with two ranbuntious boys. The 'barn' that I named 'barn' so my husband wouldn't forget that it wasn't our permenant dwelling place. The 'barn' that I finally put my foot down and said, "No more. We're building a real house."
Anyway, there's now a skylight in the bathroom, four of these large window openings with incredible views and more windows to come in the kitchen addtion. We've hired a guy named Russ who also happened to be one of the two men who build the house we're currently in. Franklin works with him when he can and we're hoping things should go somewhat quickly. 
The Franklin & the calf photo is a story in itself. I was driving to knitting night last Wednesday when I saw a cow down in a friend's field. She looked dead so I called Franklin so he could call Jamie. It turns out Jamie was out of town. Franklin went down to check and found a mama cow trying to give birth to a too-large calf. He called Jake and another friend who was in town to celebrate her graduation from large-animal vet school showed up and they all worked to pull out the calf - not an easy job for mom, baby or humans. It was touch and go for a few days but now the calf is nursing on the mom and we hope all continues to go well. 
The first two photos of the hairy beast must have been self-portraits taken by Jake the night he took the fat cornrow braids out of his hair. That's all the news from Fairview and the Sides that's fit to print -- for now
This is the beautiful glass heart Walker got me for Mother's day from Fearington where he used to work. It reminds me of him because he's so kindhearted. 
The chicken pen.
The garden in spring
The porch. I took this photos so I'd know where to put the things back onto the wall once we took them down to stain the house siding. 
