We Inch Forward

Phil managed to re-corral Charlemagne with the bulk of the herd this morning, so we no longer have a bull at large around the farm. We're also pretty sure Belle isn't bred, but we'll deal with that later. The two bottle-fed calves are loose, and they were very intent to see what I was doing when I milked. Happily, they didn't butt me, but I think Elle was considering it. When I finished, they followed me down the driveway, like I was Little Bo Peep and they were wagging their tails behind me. It was adorable.

The week of unbelievable heat continues. I finally got smart and cooked hamburgers for breakfast, so the temperature in the RV was not over 100 then. After dark, I cooked a few more for dinner, and we sat in the dark and dripped. Phil was out working at about 4pm, and within a half hour, his shorts were soaked through. He had sealed some seams and pounded one stubborn panel into place, so he hadn't had to do much heavy lifting or anything else. It is just shockingly hot.

I think this photo shows the progress as of Tuesday night. You can see one row of blocking done, and some panels down.

When Phil went in to dry off and cool down this afternoon, the roof looked like this.

Half the panels are in place, all the blocking is done. By nightfall, he had several more panels in place and most of the materials needed hoisted up onto the roof.

Besides the stubborn panel I mentioned before (so stubborn, he sent me a text to ask me to come. The panel was warped and I stood on one side while he pounded it in, then stood on the other side while he pounded it in. The first side popped out, and after going back and forth several times, we got one side solidly in and put in a holding screw. The other side wouldn't go, though, and so we left that seam a bit larger than preferred—after an hour or so of frustrating wrestling, he was done with it) ... besides that panel, he had another frustrating moment. He had put down three panels past halfway and was about to do the fourth when he realized that the seams were lining up. Rather than cutting the first panel to make sure the seams were offset, he had forgotten to do that.

So he unscrewed the three panels and redid them.

In the heat of the day, he's been working inside on various building-related things. Figuring out what to order (today he remembered that gutters are a good idea, for example), figuring out various details (if the house is too tight, we could die, so it's good to design tight and then figure out limited ways to allow air exchange), figuring out what the next few steps are and making sure we have the materials on hand. For example, he was getting low on screws. Did you know that a large box of screws is over $100? I didn't know that.

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I have been unbelievably, disappointingly exhausted this week. I was low in iron last pregnancy, so I've started iron supplements again. Phil thinks it's the heat, and I'm sure that's part of it. Five years since my last pregnancy, I'm five years older, too. But I feel like I just want to sleep, and I wake up not feeling like I've slept well.

The boys play around me, step over me (and sometimes on me). They come up with creative activities. Today Jadon held up a graphic novel version of Romeo and Juliet and Isaiah made up funny captions, while Joe and Abraham listened and laughed.

I came in at one point and Joe said, "Look what I made. What do you think it is?" I couldn't guess what the glass jar with beanie baby inside could be.

It's an underwater submarine!