Author: The Lord of The Manor

Gathering Firewood & Back Pain

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

I went to get firewood today. Our oldest could not come with because she had a lot of schoolwork do catch up on, already, and she does not want to get behind. Well, I cannot argue with her on that. So, I left her behind, and our youngest came along with. I was hooking the trailer up to the truck and as I stood up, the middle of my back produced a sharp pain, and this just about put an end to the whole trip. I decided to go anyhow, and the pain persisted even after we got to where the wood comes from, and I started working. That was more than 45 minutes at least.

Pain notwithstanding, I did get maybe almost a cord of wood sawn down to length and loaded into the trailer. The pain carried on through the whole time I was there. Rather than struggle with picking up the logs, which were heavy with water, I used the dolly to roll them up the ramp and into the trailer. My daughter helped roll the logs onto the tongue of the dolly, and I levered them up from there. Then it was an easy roll into the trailer. I have found that if I set the dolly horizontal in the trailer, that has given the log a lift to the right height to put it onto the first row of logs, saving me the lift, again. This makes all the difference when preserving self from strain.

It was a good haul, even though I was only able to get about a cord of wood. My daughter’s little helps made a big difference, and I was able to work through back pain, the worst, and get firewood despite it. It has turned out to be the smallest load I have ever picked up, but a cord of wood is a cord of wood, and that can last as much as five or six weeks in winter when it is cold out!

The Season’s Change

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Nothing marks the end of summer for the children quite like the start of the school year. The school year starts in the morning though, and we have got to get things going for the home education program. Our oldest is going to be taught via teachers online, and our youngest will have a school provided curriculum with e as her lead. Despite these, we have no idea what to do tomorrow, or who to log in with or whatever. If the year starts a little slow, so be it; it has happened before. We’ll get it figured out.

Summer does not end till the third week of September. Even as an adult I still have a time getting my head around the difference between when the school year starts and closes a hard curtain on summer, and when the actual season changes according to the Earth’s orbit around the sun and its reflection on the calendar.

The firewood collection is coming along well enough. I have almost half of it split and stacked, though there we need more to fill the bunk, and more to stack away for use in the fireplace and in the shop. I do intend to go get more wood still, and there is time to do it. We need to get the last of it gathered and split by Thanksgiving at the latest. We are limited to Friday’s now, though, because of school.

The new log splitter seems to be working out pretty good so far. It does not allow the carburetor to fill with water the way the Champion did. That makes it easy to start after wet weather. Not that we have had much wet weather!

The drought is still on here in Southeast Idaho. With the change in the climate, it is probably time to stop calling it a drought and accept it as the new way of things here, unless of course we are still in the course of change. Probably so. I think we will need to change how we do our thing here. Let’s see what comes this winter with the winds of change.

The weather station is working pretty good so far. I bought that new computer about a month ago, and it seems to be doing what it needs to in order to track the weather station and keep the database, and publish the weather online. I added a second monitor to it as it is powerful enough to run a lot more than just a weather station.

That’s what’s new here on the Peasant’s Manor Farm.

Summer Scything

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

I was awake at 5AM this morning, and it only took one YouTube video about medieval scything to get me up and send me out the door chasing g the tall grass along the side of the road before the sun rose. I only cut one tenth of an acre before the sun peaked up over the eastern mountains. It is enough grass for a couple of days of feeding, and puts off the purchase of hay for a little bit longer.

While cutting it was easy to imagine parents of the past scolding their children for leaving strips of grass uncut as they passed. On second thought, I wonder if they said it was okay, as those would drop some seed soon, helping to prepare the field for next year? It is hard to know exactly what the conversations would have been in the practical sense, so the chore has to be done time and again to really master it, and get into the mindset. People were not just stupid dolts then, and the chore would have been, much like all aspects of life, mastered.

Knowing that the people of the time tended towards piety, or were at least led to guilt, it is easy to see how the metaphors of death and God were woven into the daily chores.

Back in for breakfast and two cups of coffee as I was joined soon by the rest of the family to start our day off together. Missus began with working in the herb garden while I lent her a hand at moving some potted bushes to the back border of the space, gathering some fallen grass up, and bringing out the box with solar lights in it.

After finishing up the day’s work in the herb garden I went out back and started watering the trees, and I removed the fire ring that had grass growing up all around it, which made it impossible to see. I used a pitchfork to find all the stone, and pull them up, but once I found the perimeter of the ring, I ran down the grass around it with the riding mower, to make it easier to see where I was working, and less intimidating. Once everything was loaded, I took it to separate it out to a stone pile next to the granary and a compost pile next to the llama pen. Some things went to the bins for collection. The whole fire ring removal was a fair amount of work by itself. Time was, it would have been about half of my day’s work, but today it was less than a quarter, and I never got bone sore like I used to. I got tired. But that was fine. I had to sit and soak that in, because for once, I was able to get a lot of work done, and I was not sore for it.

There were various other chores that I got to today, too. But those are the highlights. We are expecting company tomorrow when our oldest comes to visit. That will be a highlight all in itself.

Summer Stuff

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

My daughters and I went down to the city dump yesterday to pick up some firewood for winter. We got a pretty good amount already cut down to length, and I cut some more to size also, so it’s out of trailer and right onto the log splitter. There were some birch pieces at the dump too, so we picked up a bit for me to try on the lathe.

I think we got a cord and a half or so . I need to get everything split and stacked and see if we have got enough to last all winter or not. Hopefully we do. We’re certainly a bit closer!

This morning I could not sleep from 3AM, and finally at 6AM I gave up and got up and went out to the roadside with my scythe and cut down a good two or three days’ worth of feed for the goats and the llama. My process is to cut a bit then pull it up in a couple of days to feed. At the moment it goes right from the ground and into the feeder. I am not storing any in a pile anywhere.

This afternoon I worked in the herb garden, putting down mulch and finishing beds, boarders and all. I cut the grassy paths, too. I hope that the work in there will help Missus catch up on what she wants to get done there and make the garden into what she is dreaming it to be.

This evening would be a great time to top up the water troths while I feed the animals, as well as get some of that firewood split and stacked. The herb garden is not finished, but the progress on it has been substantial enough that I won’t feel guilty for doing something else for a spell.

Father’s Day

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Tough Father’s Day today. My stepdad passed away yesterday due to complications surrounding heart surgery he had back in March. Nevertheless, I spent the day with my wife and kids, and enjoyed it as I could. I got a lovely Mappa Mundi etched in wood with Romanesque surrounds. On the back was a sweet poem written by my daughter and also etched in wood. I am framing it with a homemade frame that is open on both sides so I can display either. I could not have asked for a better day with them.

I have found my limitations with my joint pains, and though it seems I can leave a relatively pain free life, I think I cannot do a whole lot more than I was able to before without my pain starting back up again. I will try working my way up a bit still and find a higher threshold. If nothing else, to be pain free is a suitable condition.

We are in a cool spell right now, and have a nice day promised tomorrow. It will be lovely if the wind settles down and we can have a day free of dusty haze. It’s been like that here the past few days, and really unpleasant where the views go, and where the air quality is concerned. At least it has not wreaked of smoke yet, as it has done in previous years.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. I know it is bittersweet for my brothers above all, and hope so much they find their way through this moment of pain and to a place of peace.

Recovering From A Life of Pain

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

The trouble with manual labor is that it requires someone who is fit enough to do it. If you are thinking of taking on a homestead, you will be able to put a lot more into it, and get a lot more out of it, if you are fully able bodied, and capable of keeping up with all of the chores. I never could admit to myself over the past decade or more that I was never fully capable. I am 51 years old and have been suffering severe joint pains since my teens. Admitting that to myself, and accepting it, has never been a part of who I am, because doing so would be accepting that I will never have as much out of life as I want, or that I will never be able to provide that my family needs.

Then comes this time last week. I decided to try out some tablets that are available over the counter at Sam’s Club for joint pain. To me, my pain has always just been ‘in my bones,’ and I have never been sure of what needed to be done to properly correct it. It has been worse the past decade or so, though I have experienced it almost all my life. So sure, one bottle of glucosamine, please.

On the first day, the joint pains were gone, but I still hurt. It was not hard to figure it out though, as I have been limping and walking a little hunched over for some time now, and I have been adapting to the pains. I was finally able to use my body normally. Also, I was tired the first day, but that’s to be expected when recovering from immense pain. New muscle movement, new posture and position, of course it would be exhausting. I kept going like that for two more days. Then the tensions started to ease off. I am now six days into it, and today I have been fully active, and able. I have finally confirmed the feeling I held for many years that other people were more capable in their daily lives simply because they were not going through what I have been going through. It was a revelation, and it was a relief beyond words!

Now all I can do is hope I can retain access to the tablets, and that they keep working. One thing’s for sure. They have given me a life I never expected to have.

The point of all this is to acknowledge a massive change in my life, and to address the hope I have that it will mean I am more capable than ever to accomplish my goals on our little farmette. It is also, of course, to advise that one not necessarily take on more than they can handle, and to be realistic of their ambitions, or to at least be ready to come up short when injury and pain get in the way. It’s all just part of it.

Wood

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

It’s a cool morning here on the farm.  The storms that flooded Yellowstone north of us barely brushed by and touched our little home on the valley floor.  The greatest effect here was cooler weather with a dash of wind.  Cooler weather is good for splitting firewood ready for winter, and so I did yesterday, with the help of the girls, stacking it while I gathered a new piece, and hefted it to the splitter, then ran it through.  We did a little more than half a cord yesterday, before being distracted by anything that was not work. 

The wood is still wet this morning, as is easily seen by the flies gathering on it to drink where the fresh splits were placed yesterday.  There was a little water around the top of the aircleaner colver on the log splitter, which reminded me that I needed to cover it before leaving it overnight, which I obviously had already done.  It is a a splitter we bought a couple of years ago, before the company that makes it redesigned it and put on a new cover that does not drink all the rainfall if can, and fill the carburator, and then the cylendar.  When I started it yesterday morning, the piston barely would move as I pulled the starter cord, but move it did, and I could hear the water squeezing out the exhaust valve.  I dabbed up any remaining water in the carb with a paper towel, then pulled the cord till the pison moved freely, and finally dumped some gas into the carb, and pulled again and again till it finally started. 

It is not an ideal situation.  The solution is not great, either.  But it solves it, and with much less effort that pulling things apart.  So I’ll take it. 

I took a log from in the way in the shop yesterday and mounted it to the lathe and made it into a scepter for my daughter for when she is ruling her “army of darkness,” also known as the barn cats. It is not a particularly useful project, but it is practice, and the log was not what I would have wanted to build something from, and it was just in the way. There is another one out there, so I may do one more.

Writing is done on the front parch these days. I have put on a tab with YouTube open, and Debussy playing. Debussy and the sounds of the birds chirping outside; could anything be lovelier? Maybe the same situation with hand tools on a bench in the shop, working a piece of wood into a chair? That’s the goal.

I have a reading date with my youngest daughter in a few minutes. We are working her through Rascal, about a boy in Wisconsin a century ago, who took in a raccoon. She is having troubles reading, so we are working on getting her some daily practice.

Spring 2022

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Times are tough these days, with inflation high, and everything else that is going on withing the United States, and without. One of the biggest bug bears on our farm is the price of animal feed, and especially hay. Two years or so ago I was able to secure some grassy alfalfa mixed bales of hay from a neighbor for a mere $60 a 1,200# bale. This year he’s not growing hay, and I have had to go looking elsewhere. What I have found is the same bales, only more pure alfalfa, selling for anywhere from $200 to $360 a bale! I got my scythe out and sharpened it on the same wheel I use for my lathe tools and got a great edge on it! Now I am cutting grass from the roadsides and anywhere I can grow it without it being required as pasture by another animal, such as the horse or any of the pastured llamas.

It is still a lot of work considering the condition I am in at my age, but I think of the money it is saving us right now and keep on cutting till I have enough for a day or two. Once I have that, I try to leave it for three days till it dries and is time to feed, but I have had to put green grass in for the goats and llamas, which I sort of regret as I remember it is not that great for the ruminants.

I have a load of firewood that needs to be cut and split. I need to get off my lazy backside and do it! It’s honestly the other labors that slows me down, along with my bad hips and legs. I’ll push through it, but I may need to get a new log splitter soon as ours has pushed the maul right out of the track enough times it has now broken the rather industrial welds on the side of the track. I am hesitant to work too hard with it right now as I may break it and have to repair or worse, replace it, and cannot budget that just yet. To pick up an equivalent splitter with a better design looks to be just shy of $2K. Yardmax looks good to me. It doesn’t look like it would have the issue of water getting in the carb, nor the channel that broke on my Champion splitter. Without the channel, there should be less clogging, too. There are other features, too, but the biggies are the inherent weaknesses of the channel, and that leaky carb cover. Yardmax looks like the push pieces that separate a stuck log from the maul are replaceable, rather than just breakable like on the Champion. That entices me! All it is missing is a lift arm to put the heavy logs on the table for me! Maybe I should hunt one of those splitters down!

I am raising meat chickens this year, for the first time. I need to pick up a second batch. I bought 15 originally, but the brooder was too cold on the last chilly days of spring, and 9 of them died due to lack of oxygen while huddling too close together. I do need to fix the brooder, or just plan on raising such birds in the summer only. Since the weather has warmed up, the birds have been fine, even out in the cage next to the egg coop. They are larger now, but they still have a little way to go till they are full size.

I have been practicing a few things in the woodshop. I finally got a jig to use on the sharpening wheel and accurately sharpen my lathe tools. That is going to take a little working out as far as how to do it correctly and consistently each time, especially based on my preferred cutting edges, which have yet to be determined. But I have used firewood to make a couple of little stools, each a little more refined than the last. I only added glue to the stool I made yesterday, as the previous have been assembled without. All are holding together just fine, by the way! Yesterday’s stool can either be a garden stool for Missus, or a little seat for our grandson. I’ll leave that up to Missus! As I get better at this, I want to lead up to building a chair, then another and another, till I have a few for around the house! Maybe then it will be time to try a table! Whatever the case, the little stools are a good way to get started on an easy project with some of the required skills.

So that’s a summary of the things here that require my attention now. There are many more things, both house related, and family related, but those are for another space besides this blog. The best to you for now!

18th Century Beeswax Candles

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Over the past few weeks I bought a candle mold from Townsends, on of my favorite online shops. I used some beeswax I bought before, and some wick we had in the candle making box, and made some candles when the mold arrived. Quite happy with the results, and aware of the size of the candles, I then turned a stand on the lathe from a piece of firewood. Again, I was thrilled with the results. I had a period-like piece that I could proudly display. Better yet, I could burn it with the satisfaction of knowing that I could recycle the wax, and I could make more candles.

That whole process was fairly simple and straight forward to me. I showed it to Missus, and she thinks I should try selling them on Etsy. Only seems logical. I might as well make some more for practice on the lathe and sell the results after I have a supply of sundries to keep me happy.

This weekend I ordered 25 pounds of beeswax, and two molds for short colonial candles, again from Townsends. I may get one more tall mold, if I need it, or if I worry about the one I have breaking and putting me out of business for a few days. I got some firewood on Friday, and hopefully have a couple of pieces I can work with in the next few evenings when I want to pass the time away.

So, with that, I can explore some online selling to help support the farm or my woodworking habits or whatnot. There’s no harm in trying, and certainly no harm in seeing what comes of it! Missus provided me an old crockpot to warm the wax in, and I have a space out in the shop to work happily in. I have got to pile on the firewood this spring, and while I am out, I can find as much wood as possible to turn.

The best bit about turning candle bases is that they are easy, short projects, that give opportunity to try different shapes and yet I have a completed item that is useful, and maybe even sellable when I am done with it. The next best thing is that even if none of them sell, I will have a lot of candles and stands, which I love, and since the candles are all made of beeswax, the house will smell lovely!

The Cast Iron Cauldron

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Over the past ten years I have collected a fair amount of cast iron. Today’s acquisition is spectacular, however!

The cauldron arrived unseasonably and was the silver grey color of bare metal. I seasoned it with three coats of olive oil, then messed about with a lid too small and one too big from my Lodge collection. Then I remembered I had a 9 inch lid on my small wok! What a beauty! It seems like a wonderful time to get the tripod over a fire and get a nice soup going!