First counter tiled.

Tiles stuck to counter

I have been working on the kitchen.  I have to keep posting pictures so it shows progress!  Yesterday, I went to town to get a paint mixer for my drill so I could mix the mastic.  I did the first batch by hand and it was very painful.  This mixer batch was much easier to do and it was far more consistent.

I will work on the window surround now.  I need the new kitchen sink to arrive so I can install the other counter hardiboard.  It has not showed up yet.  I expect it tomorrow or Friday.  If it shows up tomorrow then I can get the hardiboard installed on Friday and maybe lay out the tiles.  It is getting there.  I want to grout the finished counter on Friday.  We will have a working counter top in the kitchen then.  I will get all the countertops 100% done then I will move onto the downdraft vent fan.  I have to custom build a cabinet and cut out a hole in the end of the house.  I am not really looking forward to that project. 

 We got our annual call from the USDA yesterday about our sheep herd.  They always want an update on how many animals and what kind you have at the first of the year.  We did not get the online survey done so I did it on the phone.  The phone was way easier.  One of the questions he asked was what form of nonlethal predator control do we do.  The list is surprising to me because we do a lot.  We fence, lock the sheep up at night in a barn, have a dog, clean out the bedding in the barn annually, and rotate pastures.  He asked me my expenses for lethal control of predators, $50 for .243 ammo!  He did say on an anecdotal note that he has noticed most lambs are killed by coyotes from the surveys he has been doing.  We lost two lambs last year to coyotes. 

On a plus note, I saw the quail covey on Monday in the barn lot.  I had not seen them all winter long.  I saw the barn owl last week in the machine shop.  I tried to get a picture but it would not hold still.  It looks like our red tailed hawks might be moving back in to the upper pasture.  The tall tree blew down but the next tallest tree (now the tallest tree around!) has had them perching in its upper branches for over a week.  Maybe in a few years I will be able to find time to make some bat houses and bird houses.  The bats now live out in the 100 year old poplar trees or the cedar trees, not sure which one. 
 

Backsplash now stuck to walls.