Things are starting to look real!

And somehow the goat barn got framed first!

Jon has been busy learning how to weld so that the 1200 lb steel beam that will hold up the living roof on the garage is ready to get installed, and I have spent the last week at the farm all day preparing all of our new soil for seeding and then watering as summer weather seems to have finally struck Seattle.

Here is a view down into the bedroom level of the house. Concrete slab will be poured on top of the sand, with radiant heating embedded as well as rebar, and then the framing will start.

No more vistas of plastic!

It's been a busy week here but we finally got the concrete walls coated in the waterproofing tar and then the drain mat up so the excavators can fill the dirt in around the buildings to bring everything thing up to elevation. The concrete walls that you see will all be at about floor level, of the garage, the goat shed, and then the downstairs bedrooms.

It's pretty great to finally get to walk around the house without being stuck in muddy trenches, and great fun to visualize the actual elevations of things. Here are some pics of the goat shed concrete footings, the garage and shop, and the downstairs elevations of the house.

Also, here is a before shot of the guys pouring the concrete slab floors of the garage, basement and root cellar.

Marathon #1 done... and boy am I glad it is...

 Well, it was the first over 70 degree weekend we've had in Washington, with the coldest March - May period since the 50's, what better time to go run for five hours? I've been doing some training though mostly on trail, and wanted to try a marathon. My friend Becca and I spent the night at my dad's house on Lopez and then raced to the ferry this morning for the San Juan Island marathon.

In all I feel pretty good now but made all of the rookie mistakes of running too fast the first half, not eating enough, and then dying in the sun, heat and hills for the second half. I did a lot of walking and averaged an 11 minute mile but in all nothing hurts and now that I am rehydrated and fed, am feeling more like myself.

The recovery took a while though, I almost fainted a couple of times waiting for the ferry home and ate too soon, it's amazing that a half-day run can be harder than multi-day climbs. I don't do very well in the heat though, so I'm looking forward to fine tuning some things and running in normal Seattle weather if there is a 'next time'.