Author: Steve Hardin

Holy countertop.

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Not quite completed…

I marked all the tiles, numbered them and drew up a schematic so I knew where every piece went.  I then laid the tiles out all over the floor in some semblance of order and mixed up a large bucket of mastic.  I started on the right side of the countertop.  Laying in the first six tiles then working my way around the front all the way over in front of the sink.  I started to try and fit in a couple of triangle cut pieces.  The large missing triangle was the first casualty.  I needed to pick it back up and add some more mastic to get the tile the correct height.  I used my suction cup lifter and got the tile six inches off the countertop when it let go and broke a 2 inch piece off the tile!  I stuck the extra mastic on anyways and attempted to piece the tile back together in place!  I could still see the break.  I had to dig it out with my pocket knife. 

I mixed up another batch of mastic and stuck all the tiles down.  The back missing smaller triangle had a couple of gaps as it was not a smooth straight cut.  I said good enough and when the wife got home she looked at the countertop.  I dug it out with my pocket knife also.  I then scraped all the mastic up and now need to sharpen my pocket knife and cut two more custom tiles.  I am thinking about making a paper template for both holes so I get them right.  I only have five tiles left to get it right.  Luckily, I think I can cut both triangles from one tile so I have at least five more tries.  I will cut the backsplash in a couple of days.  Luckily, the backsplash is far more forgiving and once it is up and stuck on then I can grout everything.  I still need to crawl under the counter top on the other side and cut off the screws so the cutting board will slide back into its compartment. 

Second counter cut

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Countertop that needs to be cut.

I have finally found some more time to get back at the kitchen.  We are getting tired of eating out of our laps in the living room.  My daughter’s suggestion is to just buy some TV trays.  The problem with this is I don’t like eating in the living room.  I like eating at a table the way families should.  So the TV tray idea is out the door.  I just need to work faster so the kitchen tiling is done quicker.  The new countertops and backsplash are going to necessitate a new paint job in the kitchen.  Painting is the worse job I can think of but it doesn’t look like I am going to get out of it.  But that problem is for another day.  I slaved away and had half the kitchen countertops cut when Annmarie came home and we started discussing my cut job.  I did mention that it was not going well?  After near marital collapse we discussed my cutting job rationally.  I scrapped three pieces and went with a spoke pattern suggested by the lovely wife.  It follows my straight line rule and maximizes the tile size on the edges.  I spent the next day cutting all the pieces and fitting them together.  It was ready for mastic and some permanent bonding. 

Our free standing gas stove in the dining room had a fan go out two weeks ago.  On Friday, it made this explosion and ball of flames.  Annmarie had to go turn off the gas supply valve to get the fire to go out.  She is now spearheading the research for a new stove. 

Cut countertop, still needs to be stuck down.

Is spring really coming?

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I have started in on the second countertop.  There was lots of dust as. I trimmed with the sawzall, mutitool and sander.  I zipped my plastic door shut, turned on vacuum cleaner and opened a window. This minimized the amount of dust I had to breathe.  After everything was cleaned up I went outside and cut a couple of pieces of hardiboard. I am going to try and use three large pieces of hardiboard. 
I am hoping this will minimize the flex in the countertop. Tomorrow, I will tear out the kitchen sink and finish installing all of the hardiboard.  I will put the sink in place and cut the hole. My hope is it will drop right into the preexisting cutout. I am not holding out for that as remodel reality will surely rear it’s ugly head.  My goal, ambitious I admit, is to have all the tile work done by Sunday night. I may not have it grouted as I want the mastic to dry for two days before applying grout. 
It is good to have a goal!  You can see our paint chip cards taped to the cupboard doors. We are starting to zero in on our favorite colors. My new idea is to paint the entire kitchen. I think it needs to happen, if not now, then when we paint the cupboards. 
The weather is amazing!  It feels like spring. I stepped outside and saw 15 pheasants all down by the creek and flying around. I saw our red tailed hawk fly by the house and the grass is starting to green up  .  I could plant the upper four acre pasture but the weather is so screwy I don’t want the grass seed to sprout then get a hard freeze. Soi am going to hold off.  We had another baby lamb.  We have had three single births out of the last four.  Not sure why the sheep are not getting the, twins are needed, memo. 
I cleaned out the shoe closet downstairs and found an old .22 LR.  It has a little rust on the barrel and neds a new butt plate. It is amazing to me that after all these years we still find stuff hidden throughout the house!  I will clean up the gun and get the barrel reblued. So weird 
other counter to be tiled. 

trim job done, hardiboard getting installed.

Window casing in place.

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I put all the pieces up around the window today.  I mixed too much mastic.  I had been doing so good and just mixing a little bit more than I needed.  I think the real key was I was mixing the same amount every time and this time the job was too small.  I need to tear into the countertop now.  Unfortunately, I need to break out the sawzall and multitool and I don’t want the walls to vibrate until those tiles are dry!  Tomorrow will be soon enough to tear out the sink, cut the countertop and install all the hardiboard.  If I can get all that done tomorrow then I can even start laying out the granite tile.  Unfortunately, my paying jobs are interfering with the remodel.  But, I am going to throw down this prediction, I will be done with the tiling by next week.  I had given a work estimate of three weeks but the downdraft fan is going to be hard.  Lots of measuring and calculating.  I have the rough design in my head.  I pickup the exhaust fan on Wednesday.  Once I can open the box and lay my hands on the fan it will be easier to picture what needs to be done. 

2014 Annual Chicken financial summary.

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I know everyone has been dying to know how my chickens did financially in 2014 so here is the long awaited summary.  I made $762, the most money ever, raising the prices helped dramatically ($378 more than last year).  My annual expenses were $394 ($86 less than last year, buying feed on sale in 500# increments paid off).  I purchased 1500# of chicken feed an increase of 150# over last year.  My average laying hens for the year were 18.5 hens (a drop of 0.1 hens).  I attribute the increase in feed to raising babies in the spring and in the fall.  I currently have 9 chickens in the pipeline to start laying eggs in March.  I will get another dozen this spring also.  I am going to add another raised perch in the coop to add space.  We keep turning customers away.  I collected on average 9 eggs/day (an increase of 3.1 eggs/day over last year) for a hen productivity of 49% for the year (an 18% increase!).  This is where buying chicks in the spring and previous fall paid off.  If I can keep my productivity around 50% it is perfect for the breeds and free ranging.  The hens consumed 0.45 lbs of feed/egg produced (0.18 lb/egg less than last year).  It cost me $0.09/egg in feed expenses for a total feed cost of $1.08/doz ($1.32/doz less than last year).  My actual cost per dozen with all expenses added is $1.43/doz ($1.87 less than last year).  I was charging $3/doz until April when I raised the price to $4/dozen, that price increase made a big difference.  2014 was definitely the year of the chicken.  I need to keep my chicken numbers up.  I cannot let the predators or old age bring my production numbers down.  It takes me 6-8 months to raise the chickens to a productive age and it can drastically change my outcome.  I will start keeping upwards of 35 birds all the time.  That way if I get 15 killed I can keep that 20 average going for the year. 

I had a few issues with my chicken door but now have lots of spare parts and can repair it myself.  We talked about adding a solar panel to the old chicken coop and running 100 birds.  I am unwilling at this point to do that.  I would need a small fridge that could hold 25 dozen eggs and they would have to be collected every day.  I would need to add a subdivision in the building, clean out the feed room, add another electric chicken door running off of a car battery and solar panel.  Plus, I would need an enclosed yard with a top!  The coop  is 100 yards from the house and if we are going to be gone I would need the birds to be safe.  I would have an external gate that would be open most of the time to allow free ranging.  I figure around $500-1000 to install.  I would then move all my chickens out to that coop.  I would use the close up coop for raising babies as it has electricity.  If the price continues to rise on eggs I may consider it.  I will watch out for those feed sales and jump on them.  I know I will need at least 1500# for the year so It will be much easier to figure out how much to buy.  I did find a calculation issue in my chicken spreadsheet.  We had one month were we did not use any chicken feed.  The spreadsheet didn’t use that month when calculating its averages.  I will have to get Annmarie to make it smarter!  I do data entry only on any spreadsheet and if I could figure out how to get out of it I would!  She maintains the sheep and cow spreadsheets.  I messed it up a few times too many.