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How time flys when your having fun.  Could not be more true this summer.  The first summer in Arkansas has been Awesome.  The weather has been superb.  With average highs of 90 and average lows of 68, I thought I was living in southern California.  The lake water temperature was in the low 80’s for most of the summer.

I picked up a little fishing boat a couple months ago, and Melissa and I have embarked on learning fresh water and trout fishing.  Growing up on the coast of Mississippi, I spent my entire life fishing salt water.  Fishing the Arkansas lakes and rivers is a completely different animal.  But with the tutoriage from my avid fishing buddy Mike, we have had some moderate success.

Cabin Update

The deck is finally finished.  I am pleased with the outcome.

Next, kitchen cabinets…. UUUGGG… what a beating.  After a month of debating what color stain we were going to use, we finally jumped on it with the help of my nephew John.  We sanded, pre-treated, stained, and varnished, varnished and varnished.  So after a couple week the cabinets went from this

To this: with the convection oven and dishwasher.

We have also had a double circular drive and a parking area put in.  Now it does not feel like you off-roading just to get home. So, So much nicer!

Next, our attention has turned to the dog yard.  We have decided to go with reclaimed astroturf for the dog run area.  We bought 1800 sq feet of turf removed from Western Missouri State’s football field.  The first delivery contained half of the turf in GOLD.  Really?  Did I really have to request that the turf be predominantly green?  Really?

So after some spirited negotiation, and 3 round trips to Kansas City to get suitable pieces for the project.  The next week was spent wrestling with a 16 foot 1500 lb anaconda…. There goes the back!  But with the help of my friends tractor and another friend who drove the tractor, we managed to get the turf down.  We spent the next 2 days with a rented 8″ auger attachment for the tractor to drill 10 post holes.  This is the current progress.

We will finish off the fence using 50 inch by 16 foot cow panels which Melissa is painting black to match the finish of the deck.

We will be finishing the fence, adding a doggie door  and a ramp for the dogs.  Then, the last major task.  Clean, Stain and Seal the exterior of the yurt and deck.  Stay tuned the ride is just beginning….

Spring is in the air and the Dogwoods, Palumbos and Locust Trees are putting on a show.

The Deck is complete.  Here are some of the pictures.

I also installed the Sconces in the living room.

Next big projects, Yard for the dogs and Fishing!

Realization: “It is fun to move to a much bigger house.  It is the opposite of fun to move to a smaller house.”

Well currently, our yurt looks like you opened the roof like a stein, poured 1.5 box trucks full of our possessions inside and closed the lid.

But this is the Payoff.

Over the last week there has been a lot of organization, spring cleaning, and of course Spring!  And with the glorious emergence of spring, comes focus of a Big Deck!  Our original order was for 1080 sq ft of decking.  But, that did not cut it.  Looks, like the deck will finish out about 1150 sq ft.  This is essentially going to be our back yard due to our goal of No/Low maintenance.

We are currently researching and need to buy the following.  If anyone has any input or recommendations please respond to this post.

Mini Split Ductless AC / Heater / Heat Pump (Yurt is approx. 930 sq ft with 17 ft ceiling)

The day has come.  After acquiring bids, meeting with salesmen, comparing schedules, waiting on the arctic cold front to back off.  The Insulator is coming.  We have decided to do the insulation in 2 phases.  First, we will spray the insulation directly on the outside of the ceiling.  This required caulking all the edge joints in each piece of tongue and groove and putting metal air conditioning tape over the knots to prevent bleeding of the insulation through the ceiling.  We went over the ceiling twice to try to make sure there were no leaks.  But, In the end the foam show us where we missed…   We had about 6 or 7 bleeds.  But overall, the guy doing the spraying said it was remarkably prep-ed.

One teensy weensy over site on my part was the fact that the beautiful ceilings on most of the yurts in the gallery on smiling woods yurts is not included.  On further inspection, it is stated on the website and in the manual… I have no idea how I could have missed that.  As a result, we were scrambling to come up with suitable wood for the ceiling.  After about 2 days we found a hardware store that had enough supply and would deliver.  Once the wood is delivered, we have the joy of making about 5000 cuts and painstakingly fitting, tacking and caulking each piece.