December 26th, 2020 The last week of 2020

 For the World, if not for us, 2020 was a horrible year. Fire, Flood, Protest, Pandemic, and a political system being stretched to the limits. But we made it through with little trouble. Our only New Years resolution for 2020 was to build a house and this actually happened. 

We began 2020 with the wooden forms for the concrete foundations in place. In January we poured concrete, stripped to forms off, and bolted down the "mud plate". By May we had the first floor nailed down and the underfloor plumbing installed. By September the walls and roof were all framed in and sometime in October we had the sheathing and roof paper installed. October and November were spent roughing in the plumbing and electrical, including building the new utility shed to house the water and electrical services. In December we got the house "dried in" by adding windows, doors, and Tyvek sheeting to the outside. The final framing, electrical, and plumbing rough in inspections done in late December and so begins the comparatively easier process of finishing the house in 2021.

The finishing projects are much easier simply because we have done all of it before at a professional level. In our last business we spent quite a bit of time doing insulation and drywall, put in copious electrical components and lighting as well. We also did weeks and weeks of painting, so this isn't a problem. Finishing the house should go pretty fast when compared to the hard job of putting the basic house up from the dirt to  ridge. We began buying and installing electrical components right away, once we got the inspections done, but finding the necessary parts might prove a slight problem. 

Wood prices have gone up significantly in the past few months, owing to the pandemic, unnecessary trade wars, and increased local building activity. Insulation products are also getting hard to find and prices are rising there as well. I ordered insulation from one source who said he couldn't find much of my list but the next guy I talked to sounded a bit more optimistic. We haven't received the stuff yet but we are hopeful to start insulating next week.  

Our main power wire installation is running a bit behind too. We were supposed to have PGE power to the new house on the 23rd of December. Now we are looking at mid-January, before they come, providing there isn't any major storm to deal with.

But the house is up, dry, and the wind doesn't run through it anymore, so we're pretty sure we'll have a house to live in in 2021.

We decided to restart our Basset breeding program in the Spring of 2021. This is a good idea as our bank account has begun to become a minor worry and we want to get ahead of it. We have  much to do and not a whole lot of money laying around to get it done, so we are considering whelping pups in our new bedroom while we do the finishing. Whelping takes about twelve weeks from start to finish and we will do much of the finishing in the bedroom before we get pups. Eventually we will move into the house and repurpose half of our tiny house into kennel space, but this won't happen soon enough  so we'll use the new house temporarily since it will be safe, warm, and dry. We have two females available for breeding this coming Spring, and four girls of breeding age by late Fall, so there's a good chance we'll do at least two litters in 2021. We're also hoping for some COVID relief bucks to come in sometime in late Winter, but every dollar not spent or dollars coming in will help insure we get where we are going in 2021. 

Our land is pretty well prepared for farming in the coming year. We spent quite a bit of time clearing and tilling, fertilizing and tending, and we have some good experience in planting and sowing seed in the past few years, so we are looking forward to a good year for growing and selling crops. Our chicken flock is producing very well and we will add some hens to the mix in late Spring. Most of our farming practices are all well known to us now, and we have sold enough of it to know how to do this too. We have our produce stand ready for when the crops show up and 2021 looks to be a great strawberry year this Spring and we are well prepared and ready for.

All things considered we did pretty well last year. And as the New Year arrives we have vaccines on the way. The World is looking forward to shaking off the virus and the strange politics of the last few years. So we are hoping for a substantial bounce in the worldwide happiness quotient in the coming year and hope everyone reading this is as hopeful and ready to smile as we are. The past year has been one big nasty surprise after another, few of them we would wish to see again, so let's not.