2013: Year in review

Look, a Year in Review post that's only a month and a half late!

First, let's look at what we accomplished:

January
(Posts)

- We discovered how much our roof leaked.  We collected lots of water, and we couldn't even get it all.  And that was pretty much all we did in January, because it was so stressful.

February
(Posts)
- We talked to a tin roof guy, who told us why our roof was leaking.  We also talked to a log home guy who encouraged us to fix this house instead of building a new one.
- I bought a serger!  Yay! {I use it quite frequently, and hope to start some larger projects with it soon!}
- We attended our first Seedy Saturday, where we attended a few workshops and picked up seeds for both us and Tessa and Matt.

March
(Posts)
- I posted our plans for 2013. {We'll review those in just a minute.}

April
(Posts)
- I discovered water leaking between the logs due to the amount of ice on the deck, so we took a day or two to try and fix it.
- I made my first trip down to visit Kim's family. {I've been back a few times since then - they're truly wonderful people!}
- I set up our seed starting station, and the cats only managed to attack a few seedlings.
- Tessa, Ellie and I attended our first farm auction! I am still kicking myself for not bidding on the trailer full of buckets and wooden crates.

May
(Posts)

- We released the forum Jordan and I set up for BC farmers. {We've since terribly neglected it - oops!}
- We put screening in the roof in hopes to exclude the bats.  It kind of worked - they hung out on top of the screens under the peak caps instead of in the roof itself.
- I started building a bat house for our insect-eating friends.
- The tree swallows returned!!
- We hired someone to locate the power and phone lines on the property. As the water lines aren't metal, we couldn't find those without cutting them and sliding a metal thingy (that's the technical term) for the locator to track, so that will wait for another day.
- I planted over 100 raspberry canes from Hal and Cathy, and 20+ strawberry plants from my coworker Flossie.  {All but three of the raspberries died, but the strawberries did awesome! I'm looking forward to this year now that they are established.}
- We cut sod for a new garden!

June
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- We tilled and planted the new garden.
- We fostered Diamond, a lovely older lab. {She got adopted by a wonderful family and the last I heard, she was doing great!}
- We bought a new lawn tractor!
- We re-skinned the greenhouse.
- I finished the bat house, and Jordan hung it for me.
- I modified a stall in the barn to make a brooder because...
- Our baby chicks arrived!!!!!!!!
- Kim and I took the boys (Zim and Doodle) to the local Dog Expo, where a great time was had by all.

July
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- One of our chicks, Chirpy, got sick and died.
- The rest of the chicks grew big enough to be called chickens!
- I had a minor fail when trying to hook up the water in the longhouse.  {This is still incomplete - Dad glanced at it while he was here, but we had bigger fish to fry.}
- The tree swallow chicks hatched - they are ugly!
- I cleaned up the greenhouse in an effort to hang curtains in the office.

August
(Posts)

- We coop-ified an outbuilding and built a run for it.
- Jordan and I enjoyed a day at the local Exhibition with Kim and David, where we watched the draft horse pulls, a pig race, and an agility trial {which planted a seed which has since sprouted}.
- Jordan bought an old car to restore.
- My family came up for a visit and helped us fix and prep the roof.

September
(Posts)
- The chickens started crowing.
- We harvested the garden.
- We went back to Alberta to visit our families.
- The roofing company put the tiles on the roof.

October
(Posts)
- We installed pot lights in the soffits - they look great!
- I posted a video of a crowing cockerel.
- I picked up 20 small bales of hay for the chickens' winter bedding.

November
(Posting fail - my bad!)
- We harvested 11 chickens in two separate sessions.
- I coop-ified a stall in the barn, and moved the chickens into their winter abode.
- We sold 5 chickens to Tessa and Matt.

December
(Posts)

- The hens started laying!
- I started clicker training Zim.
- We got TONS OF SNOW.
- We bought a newer truck!
- Kim and I made a chicken delivery to her grandparents.

With that in mind, how did we do for our goals for 2013?

- Fix the roof: Yes, more or less.  This was a huge project that made it impossible to complete some other things we had planned.  We are incredibly lucky and extremely thankful that my family came up to help with money, time, and effort - we couldn't have completed this without them!  We are finished most of the soffit, and can start the fascia as soon as the soffit is done.
- Fix the bathroom wall: Nope.  But the new roof has stopped the leak behind the wall, so the logs in the bedroom and the office are drying out.
- Chink the house: Also no.
- Replace the root cellar: Nope.  Though I got some good ideas from Hal about retrofitting it for now.
- Grow food: Well, we did cut and plant a new garden.  And we 'grew' chickens.  So I'll count this as a moderate success.
- Move the greenhouse: Nope, but we got it reskinned.
- Green manure the hay field: Ha! Not a chance.  This is so far down the priority list right now, we'll be lucky to get to it in the next 5 years.
- Harvest rainwater: The roof took waaaaaaay longer than expected, so the soffit isn't done, which means the fascia isn't done, which means the eavestroughs aren't up.  We'll work on this in 2014.
- Get chickens: Yup, more or less!  We had hoped to slaughter them all, but alas, we only did 11.  We sold 9, and we have 6 left for eggs and to hatch a new batch of "Dinners" in the spring.
- Fix the vehicles: Well, sorta.  We fixed the oil leak in the car, but now it has a transmission leak.  And we ended up buying a newer truck, as Gertrude (the diesel truck) is getting quite old and is not really worth fixing.
- Replace the well pump and pressure tank: Nope.  We don't know when the well pump was put in - we suspect it may not be the original pump - so we'll focus on replacing the pressure tank and try to keep some cash on hand if the pump goes.  So far, she's going strong!

I think our goals were WAY too ambitious.  We really had no idea how much money and time everything would take.  I was lucky to get every Friday off last summer, which really helped with completing projects, but the roof still ate the whole summer.

Next up: goals for 2014!