Thanksgiving work and turkey

Kyla and Chris - good sports that they are - agreed to come up for Thanksgiving Weekend, even tho' we almost froze to death last year when we were up to do all the chipping.  This year was much warmer.  On Saturday the roofers were up and made some progress, although it was too windy to go up on the roof in the afternoon. 

Chris was put to work in the basement cutting and placing blocks under the timbers.  Ask him about spending the whole day hammering above his head!

cutting the blocks

placing the blocks

scaffolding in place

 Everyone got into the act when it came to getting some more windows in.  The only ones that didn't get done were the ones where the scaffolding was still in place.  The roofers want to continue to use the scaffold, so the last of the windows will have to wait until next weekend.

Kyla up a ladder to put the tuck tape around the window

Once we figured out how to take off the heavy glass doors, mounting the french doors was easy

Len putting up the house wrap around the window openings

Chris nailing the window into place

Kyla was the official door handle expert installer

Len spent a lot of time leaning out to attach the windows

On Sunday we really got busy with the windows.  We had a great system and pretty soon had many in place. 

windows in place

The upper window doesn't open so we couldn't take out the glass.  It weighs about 400 lbs and there was no way to get it up in place.  So it will wait until next spring when the deck goes up and we figure out a good way to get it up there.

the big window in it's packing case

Here is how the loft small windows were put up

Kyla and Len prepare the windows

Chris and Len working together

the second one was easier with a roof to stand on

The upper level openings were covered with plywood to keep out the snow and rain.

covering up one of the upper window openings

The basement windows were easy except that they needed framing to be constructed.  That was a Chris job - and well done.

Kyla helping Chris place the framing

Meanwhile, the dogs discovered Doggy Jail wasn't all that bad

Asia, Banjo and Deuce

During the afternoon, Cath went to work making a turkey dinner in the RV.  It turned out quite well - turkey, stuffing, corn, carrots, beans, potatoes, buns, greek salad, apple pie, and wine.  So much to be thankful for this year.    We are especially thankful for family who support us in so many ways.  

The roofers came back on Monday but we were so busy cleaning up, running to the dump, and finishing up some last things that I didn't take any more pictures.  We were a bit disappointed that Len will need to come up for another weekend to finish the windows and put in a door so that we are officially "Locked up".  At least he will be able to take some pictures of the roof (finished, we hope).  The drive home was lovely; fall has arrived in a big way.  Many of the trees are now bare, thanks to a big wind that blew through the area on Saturday.  We always see wildlife on the drive - we saw 4 deer on the way home, smart enough to stay put on the side of the road.  (On the way up we also saw deer and a young moose.)

That's it for now!  

Cath