"Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity." - Thor Heyerdahl

Miscellany

This morning I made the base for our chicken coop. We won't get the chicks until late Feb. or early March, but I felt like starting and I'm retired, so I get to do what I want. The floor will be about 16" off the ground so that the critters I'm told like to chew through the floor to get to the chickens can't reach. One guy called them ground rats, or mud rats, or.... But I'll also staple chicken wire to the bottom side of the OSB decking.

This afternoon I worked inside Fred and got two walls down to the studs. (Pics in the next day or two.) The good news: the walls are insulated. The bad news: it's R7, and should be at least R14. I also decided I need to redo the wiring, so that insulation is all coming out. At some point Fred had electric, complete with meter and box, but the supply lines have all been removed. When I started pulling the insulation I could see the wiring was done...creatively. Instead of running wires for the various circuits through the studs he/she took them down under the floor, across the joists, and up the other side. Why?? Because I don't feel like crawling under there to inspect the wiring (have rats chewed through it?) I'll start from scratch with new Romex run through the walls as it should be and then put in some R15 batting.

Speaking of studs, Josh's CrossFit gym had a competition last Saturday that brought in competitors
from all over AZ. They have divisions for males, females, and teams, and each of them go through a series of 6 or 8 activities. This is the eighth year for the event and involved prize money for the first time. Josh is the one who heads it all up, coming up with the events, recruiting and training judges, overseeing scoring, and handling logistics on the day of the event.

In the not-stud department, Pam and I joined a gym in Veneta, about 6 or 7 miles from our house. They have classes Pam likes and I can do the CrossFit cards Josh made up for me. It's not a big gym but it's pretty nice, especially for a town the size of Veneta, pop. 1700. Today was my second day and the card called for burpees.
I haven't done burpees in over two months. Pain.

We've decided to make Emmaus Life our home church. It aligns with our theological convictions and is primarily young couples. I think now that they've seen us there a few weeks they are more comfortable coming up to us to talk, and they seem like nice people.
I'm glad we've got that important part of our relocation figured out.

We overloaded the stove. It's 77 in here and warmer where I sit, 3' from the stove.
The front door is open.