Just thought i'd try to do some catching up this a.m. and wow have I missed alot.
Some of you will probably remember me. The pond forum was part of my daily routine until earlier this year when we made the huge decision to move. We began work on our new homesite back in March and i've been extremely busy. I had posted a few times about moving my fish, but that was really it. My original plan was to move the fishies this year, but that is being put off until Spring.

We cleared trees and excavated about a billion tons of soil. Then we built a garage, and now we're finally working on the house. We are just starting the framing today and don't expect to be moving in until probably next summer. We are doing this entire project ourselves, with some help from our employees (we have a masonry business). The house is completely our own design. DH and I drew the blueprints and that project alone took many weeks. We found a picture of an imaginary house that we liked and decided to make it come to life. This is our vision:

I have lots of room and plan on building a nice sized pond. I'm still undecided on the location, but I want it to be close enough to enjoy from inside.

In other news.....we have a babybirrd on the way. I am 14 weeks along and due May 16th. Should make for a VERY interesting year.

I told Semper i'd fill him in on the names we picked. If you don't already know, DH and I are parents to 3 parrots. They have been our babies and we are just in love with birds. With that in mind, here are our names:
GIRL: Avy Ann
BOY: Talon James
We really wanted to come up with something personal and different, but would not make our children hate us. I hope we did a good job. : )

Speaking of Semper, I just love that King & Queen bench! It is the most beautiful, creative thing i've seen in a long time. My DH is a semi-professional chess player and i've always wanted to make him a chess themed garden. I've been collecting plants for it for a long time. That is just the coolest! Do you play, Semper? Or is it the Queen, lol?

Welp, that's about it for now. I hope to be more in touch with the ponding forum, now that i'm getting large and not allowed to do all the work i'm so used to doing. It's been fun reading all the posts i've missed.

~Dawn (mamabirrd)

Also, that house is going to be gorgeous! I love how it's built around a hill, and the gazebo looks like a great place to spend a quiet morning (or evening) drinking coffee and enjoying nature.

I can't wait to see the finished product...well, all of them (the house, pond & baby, not necessarily in that order). LOL

Brenda

Avy and Talon are cool unique names. Granted, it's not "The Bus" or "Polamalu" but since you stated that you didn't want your children hating you, I guess those names would be out fer sure!!!

Yep, I am indeed a pro chess player. PRO-fessed BAD chess player that is!!! But I still enjoy playing once in a while. Here's the spot where usually I get rooked by chick mate or guests.

We hope you do stay more in touch... :-)

That's some of the view out the front windows. My dad had just cut down the tree that marked the very center of the house. I saved some chunks from that tree and plan to make a table for pondside.
Our view out the back is even better with panoramic views of the ridge. I don't have any pics of it yet 'cause we still have some trees to clear.

Hello Sandy! I'm sorry I made you homesick. You're more than welcome to come over anytime and reminisce. : )
I think i'll have enough energy for all that lies ahead, just not sure about money, LOL. That could become a problem.

And Semper, I don't know how you could be envious when you live in the place of MY dreams, lol. How could you leave all that behind?? But I know, having neighbors isn't for everyone. That is the main reason we are leaving. We bought our 100+ yr. old home in 1991 and poured our hearts into remodeling, building the greenhouse, ponds, etc. I just love it all and wish we could just pick it up and take it. I will really miss it. But my neighbors are dreadful and I have no privacy here. We didn't get the best of deals on the property, but it was better than the going rate. Hopefully you'll find your dream spot. Glad you like the house. It's definately not your typical home, be we are not your typical folks, lol. I'd much rather be outdoors than in, so the porch/balcony space across the front was a must. And the windows, while eating up most of our money, will allow us to take full advantage of the views. I think the birdies will like it very much. : )

When I was thinking of boy names I had football in the back of my mind. Now doesn't T.J. Schoedel sound like a QB?? ; )

I cannot wait to show DH your chess garden pics! I am speechless! Did you carve all the pieces, lol??? It is just phenomenal. After all the hard work my "king" is doing for me, I sure would love to give him a spot like that to sit and play.
Do you play on the ICC?

I'm planning to stay in touch and would love to fill you in on the progress of everything up to and including my new pond. We have all kinds of strange and unusual things planned during the construction including our underground "tunnel" which will connect the house to the detached garage as well as DH's beer cellar and a dumbwaiter (my request!).

~Dawn (mamabirrd)

I've always had a fascination with all aspects of architecture, so I canNOT wait to hear more about the tunnel, beer cellar, dumbwaiter, etc., Dawn! Strange and unusual is even better! :D

Brenda

"Typical" typically sucks! The houses that all these mass developers are building REALLY stink because they all look EXACTLY the same minus some slight variations in color, siding, etc. So one subdivision ends up looking like all the rest. No thanks! Give me atypical any day of the week (that goes for people too). :-)

I'm wit' you Dawn. That name does have QB written all over it!

Yeah, I did carve those pieces by hand with my survival knife! LOL! OK, not really!! I use molds and make them out of concrete and then use acid stain to give them color and heavy duty sealer to make them weatherproof.

Me? ICC? Heck no! I tried that once and got a spanking in a big way. I've had sneezes that lasted longer. I swear I think I was playing Bobby Fischer himself! LOL! The way the chick mate and I play these days is that I make a single move in the morning as I'm leaving for work and she makes one a little later. The following morning I examine her last move and make my next move. It takes a LOT longer to play a game so we give ourselves the false illusion that we are really good!

Mmmmmmm..... BEEEEEEER C E L L A R !!!

Brenda

Hopefully our beloved Steelers are back in the big game for your next B-day!

*~*~*May all your dreams come true!*~*~*

C3D

What a surprise to come here and find my post resurrected. I was just stoppin' in to see what Semper had to say about the big game. : )

I'd love to give you an update.....

Well, first of all....it's a boy! Things are going pretty well with the pregnancy. I only have 3 more mos. to go! I see the doc today for a check up and will start to go every 2 weeks from now on. I'm bustin' at the seams, lol.

Been driving DH crazy....the frigid temps. have had me on "pond watch" and I walk up to check on things several times a day. He always tells me to come right back in the house but I end up fiddling around with one of my de-icer contraptions or something and disappear for a while. He is now making me take the walkie talkie with me, lol. Guess he's afraid my large belly might throw me off balance and into the water.

The new house is coming along but the bad weather and a death in the family has slowed us down. Our fingers are crossed that it will warm back up into the 20's or 30's this weekend so we can get back to work. Right now our biggest fear is the cold temps. causing the footers to heave and that would be BAD. DH is pretty much throwing up right now he's so worried. It's the coldest weather we've had in over 10 years.
The deck (floor) is complete and we are currently in the middle of framing. We've built most of the walls but haven't stood them up yet. We decided to construct our 22' tall see-through fireplace first. Mainly because it is also structural and our ridge boards will run in to it.
So basically we look like the crazy people with the smokestack on the hill.
We are ready to start standing up walls and hopefully start on the roof trusses as soon as the weather allows. And as long as nothing heaved. Keep your fingers crossed.
I'll post a pic of the giant smokestack as soon as I go over and take a new one. The pics I have now were taken in bad weather and you can't see real good.
Poor DH keeps saying that this project is going to kill him. All the worrying is causing him a "slow death" he says. I'm trying to keep him positive.

It's definitely an adventure and I have faith that someday we'll be happy we made this decision.

Semper, yes, let's hope they are back in there next year. Really looking forward to seeing how things go with our new coach. I may have to go up to training camp and spy.

Comet, no herons at the new place would be wonderful! I'm still trying to figure out how to heron-proof the new pond in an aesthetically pleasing kinda' way. ; )

Hope you are all doing well and getting through this cold weather with no troubles.

Thanks again! I had a great day...what could be better than football and birthday cake?

~Dawn (mamabirrd)

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... let me think about that one. I'll get back with you!