The Farmhouse – The Peasant's Manor Farm

March Has Arrived, Spring Comes Soon!

It is snowing lightly today, and too cold to be outside for just about anything unless it is urgent or necessary. This morning one of the kids messaged and asked if he could come down and use our driveway to change his oil. He said the car was running funny and he thought it might have to do with him neglecting it. I asked how long it was since he last changed it, and he said 8,000 miles. Well, I don’t know if that is why his car lost some power coming up the hill, but I am pretty sure it will be much happier about its life in general for him changing it! Okay, he went way too long, but it was good to see him do the job all on his own, as it was the kind of work he never took interest in when he was younger and still living at home. Better late than never. It was especially good to see him at it rather than me! Oh sure, I handed him the ratchet, and helped him find a few tools, but he was the one on the ground, in the snow and cold.

It struck me as funny that it was only this morning that I checked our truck for its due date for the next oil change, and I was excited to find out it was not today! I have got some 800 miles left, which I’ll bet I can stretch till spring, and warmer weather! Suits me right down to the ground!

Missus asked me to go get her drum carder out of the craft cottage this morning. I don’t know what she has planned for it, but while I was out doing my chores, and helping the offspring keep on eye on his oil as it dripped out during the oil change, she cleaned it up and made it look nearly new.

I was also assigned the job of making a few more of the wire coilers she needs to wrap wire on to make chain male loops. They consist of a rod with a small hole at the far end, and a handle that helps her grip and avoid pain in her hands. I drill a hole in the rod and give it any finish work required. Then I make the wooden handle on the lathe, and drill a hole in the end of it for the rod to fit down into, tightly. Done right, it does the trick and when I am done, she will be able to make different sized loops in her wire. Good enough! I made a handle two weeks ago, and can put it to task on this job, and it will be fun to make some more.

This week is fairly free for me to work on the business. Where it is too cold to do anything outside, I can do some computer work, and things in the house. A nerve is pinched in my shoulder and hurting all the way down my left arm, so it will likely be computer work for today, though even that hurts. Painkillers first!

It is coming up time for the clocks to spring ahead. 2A.M. on Sunday morning, March 10th is when to set the clocks ahead one hour. I guess that means that where I have been noticing light in the mornings when I wake up to take the kids to school, we will not have that anymore till the days get longer still.

Late in the ten-day forecast the temperature guess is 50F! That’s short sleeve weather here in Cache Valley. I am hoping this year it will also mean I want to mess around with the cameras and make some YouTube videos. Maybe watch out for that. Meanwhile, I will surely be enjoying the warmer weather, as I have looked forward to it because of how low our firewood started out this year. This house does not really need a daytime fire going when it is sunny, and the temperatures go above 35F. Open the front door to the porch, and enough heat comes in from there to take care of everything for the day. 50 will certainly exceed that and make the whole experience more pleasant. I can switch off the wall heaters, and that will cut the electric bill. No more worrying about if the pipes under the house will freeze. Shop days and milling days will be unrestricted if the rain and especially the lightning stays at bay. But even on a rainy day, that does not slow the shop work down! None of this is to show any sort of enthusiasm on my part, at all. No. None. Not at all.

My tractor is already approaching 500 hours. Seems high. I wonder if the meter reads correctly. It seems crazy that it has gone that high. I should dig out the old stopwatch and give it a test. It probably is correct though, as I have always held to the idea that if I was going to spend the money to buy such a tractor, I best use it. I can’t imagine how high the hours would be if I could plough with it!

Before I call this post done, I thought I better mention that the chickens have started laying again. I think it looks like about two of the birds that have got going. I will have to collect all of the eggs then set up a reminder to do it each day to get them fresh. I’d like to make some serious changes to how we raise chickens here on the farm, and really get selling the eggs. What we do with these old birds is just the beginning of figuring it all out. I need some more time out in the coop to come up with some ideas, and to figure out how to set up for a free-range flock to keep the costs down and the health up.

Nearly Done with the Rounds

I got out today kind of mid-morning and started splitting the rounds in the Service Yard. Got a break when the kids came over to pick up our grandson from us where he had spent the night. That was good times as always. After they left, I got in a short nap and went out later in the evening to get at it again. I think I could fill the bucket on the tractor three more times, maybe four and that would be it.

When I finish the rounds I am on about, I will be picking up all the little pieces that are from branches and from mill slabs and sorting them out in the woodstove bunk or in the fireplace bunk, as I keep two separate collections of wood because each appliance can take a different length of wood. I also prefer to budget what goes into the fireplace as it does not produce as much heat, and us used more for ambiance than for heating with. Who’d want to burn up their firewood on a fireplace and not have enough to get through the winter and stay warm with the woodstove, which definitely produces more heat?

I am fixing to get the wood covered soon and get milling the logs out back, too. I still need a couple of cords of firewood, but it is not a complete disaster now that our son helped us split up as much wood as he did. I think I could get to it before the snow starts falling as long as I put my effort and mind into it. I might get the splitting done tomorrow, but there is another chore to get at then.

I need to finish that rabbit hutch, which will require planing a board down tomorrow. I want to do it in the electric planer and get the thickness just so. I’d like a nice finish on this hutch, with the hope it will last many years to come.

I have wood set aside in the shop to make a butcherblock style top of our kitchen island. I admit it is poplar, but that is what I was able to find for free down at the dump where I get my firewood. I have heard of people finding black walnut down there, but I have yet to actually see a log. So, the poplar will do. I am still trying to figure out if I will do a smooth finish on it or give it the scooped plane finish with a scrub plane. It would make it interesting and fairly easy to repair cuts and scratches on. I’d plane everything down to a consistent thickness with the power planer and then glue up and add the scrub plane finish, then top it with some Odie’s oil. That’s what I am thinking at the moment, anyhow. I think I would aim for a two-inch-thick top. I am pretty sure I have nine-quarter heavy. If memory serves me. Or I could walk out and measure it. Nah. I’d get sucked in when I would rather go to bed soon.

Maybe I’ll just do a smooth finish. Who knows?

I finished most of what I needed to do in the trailer for Missis to use as her little shop. I’ll have to make her some more quarter round, I am sure. I also need to frame in a pegboard that is next to her register desk. But those are easy and won’t inhibit her from getting the thing done and open. Hooray!

Troubles Getting Things

Does nothing work right now? I have tried to order a set of mower spindles for the mower deck on the riding lawnmower. I ordered a pair from Walmart because I could get three pairs of them for the cost of one pair off the manufacturer’s website. Walmart’s website is still showing it as not delivered, but the tracking button leads me to the USPS website, and that shows it as delivered and left on the front porch in Boise, Idaho, which is not where I live.

I got hold of the obviously foriegn chat to secure a refund, then I went to Amazon and ordered two more spindles for about the same price. I hope since Amazon has a track-record of delivring correctly to out house, they will show up soon.

The parts are so cheap compared to the manufacturer that I don’t know if I am getting weak knock-off’s, or if the manufacturer is way over inflating their prices. I am going to have to find that out the hard way, infortunately.

Meanwhile, while all this is going on, I am watching the economic summaries of what is going on with other countries, and where the US is decoupling with China, and China has a severely crashing housing market, and there is Russia and its sanctions, and the German economy is not growing, there is a severe economic forecast on the horizon. While the US stands to do well over-all, I think we should expect a serious influx of immigrants as many other countries will be affected by the recession this will kick off. So, however wrong it feels to try to order parts now, I think things are not going to get better anytime soon. It’s the best time ever to be settled on our little farm.

Oh, and as a final, weird little side note; Hurrican Hilary is meant to make landfall in southern California Sunday night. One of the most densly populated parts of the country it about to get hit with torrential rain, howling wind, and everything its dirt-made mountains need to really raise havoc. It’s like the train is approaching the site of the broken rails on the track, and there is nothing that can be done to stop it before a crash. This stands to be not a pretty sight.

Today might be a free to work day for me. I really only have one thing left to get done to move major repairs along on the farm. Yes, I am still having troubles getting someone to show up and replace our septic. I need to get in touch with the company that currently holds a copy of our permit and has promised to get back to us. Other than that, I have been milling boards to repair the barn, and need to finish getting those set up. I may also start milling some boards to put around the front windows of the house where the old ones were taken down when siding was put up. We took the siding off the front porch, and now have to replace those.

Well, this has been a pretty Doom & Gloom post. Not to be a worried old man, but just to chronical what is going on that will undoubtedly affect everyone, and our little homestead here, too. Next we muster up our way forward.

Long Awaited Lighting

Little things such as proper light in the yard make a world of difference! It has been some eleven years that I have winted a light over the concrete driveway. Now, with proper electrics in the shop, I finally have done it. I got a farm style light, and put it up just under the peak of the gable on the front of the shop. I put in a 100W equivelant LED that throws light all the way over the driveway, and some more. The best bit, to me, is that it accomidates my desire to comply with the Dark Sky Initiative. I can see plenty in the drive, but the light doesn’t spoil my view of the stars above. Plus the fixture is a red, farm style. So we accomplished the ligth with a little bit of class. The only thing left to wire to the switch panel is an outlet for under the eaves to produce power for Christmas lights.

The light over the door has been a pleasant addition, but the light out on the driveway at the other end of the shop really illuminates one of the darkest and most vulnerable parts of the yard.

I know there are big problems in the world, but the little joys make little differences. And those add up!

Do I Need to Tell You?

It is hot! Summer weather gets a bit unbearable at this time of year. I think there are places where the temperatures have exceeded their normal range by a bit, and records have been set. Our highs have been a bit more in line with the norms of the past decade, though I have not looked in the records to compare. It seems like fairly normal hot weather. So why would I be moaning about it then? I suspect that it is because summers in say, southern Nevada, get hotter, but winters stay much warmer. If the lows barely break into the freezing range, compare that to our winter low of -21F this year. Our total range has been closer to 120 degrees F in total. I am not speaking for anywhere else, so much as just saying that the reason I am feeling overheated may be because of the severity of our temperature swings throughout the year.

This coming week we have a lot of work to get done! The weather will give us a break, and it should be much more bearable for a bit, so we will be taking advantage. We have really got to get a few last pushes through in order to get our home-based businesses started. We have things to organize, and we have some cleaning to do. IT is time to see about things like windows on the house, too. I have a bit of work to do around the old chimney to try to prevent a leak where it meets the roof. I hope to see a man come by to offer a price on getting our septic redone, so we can get the yard into a state we can live with. There are many projects to get done!

My personal push needs to be to get the shop in a working state, with all the workbenches cleared off, and the tools organized and put in places. I have the likely last of any major purchases on order now. It is a set of blades for my plough plane. I’d like to do more than just build, though some of the blades will help with that, but also be a bit decorative, which some of the other blades will accomplish.

About that firewood…

I have a happy setup established with the trailer, a winch, and the tools required to bring home logs just shy of ten feet long. Those are great for the mill, and produce some scraps for the firewood pile. I also need to get some proper splitting rounds to add to the firewood pile. It has taken longer than I hoped to get the collection tools gathered and working properly, and while I can work in the mornings when it is still cool, it heats up quick and puts a damper on getting the job done in a day from collection to putting everything where it belongs here ready to process. It is best for me if I can do that. Hopefully a little break in the temperatures will turn into a long break, and I can get down to get more wood soon. It is always one of the things that is hard to get my head around; going out in such heat to get firewood! One has to keep in mind just how cold it really gets here in the winter!

It is getting pretty close to time to eat! I am off to have a lovely Friday evening and enjoy the company of family before we spend our last weekend as people who are not in a hurry running our own businesses.

The Forecast Improves!

This week we have snowfall coming till Thursday. After that, things stand to improve, and if the computer is to be believed, and is predicting it right, things will seriously improve!

As can be seen for the following week, we should see temperatures in the fifties! I think that with that, and a lack of precipitation, we could see the end of mud season!

The current temperature is kind of wintery, but for here, that is not true. This is early spring weather! Our records show what this place can really be like in the summers and winters, though those records are nowhere near normal cold temperatures. In fact, we are normally around 0F in the dead of winters. The recent years have brought us exceptional extremes. But whatever the case, at least for now, there is a tolerable improvement in the weather coming!

Our temperatures have been pretty insane over the last few years. Prior to July 2021, I would seldom see the mercury rise over the high 90’s. By seldom, I mean I don’t remember it ever having happened at all. I am pretty sure I saw the first time our area hit the 100’s since moving here a little over ten years ago. I cannot be so sure about those lows. But I can say that I have had this weather station installed since October 2018, and it has been keeping an eye on the weather every minute since. The only gaps have been where the computer failed, and I had some of the data saved in a separate database by the time I put a new computer in. There were no record setting extremes during that period that would have come down to what can be seen on our current records.

So, as the week progresses, I’ll be keeping an eye on the weather forecast, and hopefully we will see the prediction ring true, bringing us an end to mud season first and foremast, then an end to burning firewood, too!

And that’s the last thing I want to talk about here. Our house has only fair insulation and bad windows. Nonetheless, the forecasted weather for this week requires only a small fire burning in the stove. By Sunday we may not need to burn anything at all. So long as the sun shines in the day, and the house gets warmed by solar radiation in the days where the overnight low stays about 35F or above, we tend to not need to burn a fire. Given the wood remaining in the pile, I think we will be quite adequate for the year of the temps are taking a turn they intend to keep. Of course, there will likely be a drop here and there, but even those could keep us in snow and warm enough temps to be tolerable. Either way, it is certainly workshop weather!

End of February Update.

It is definitely still winter here at the farm. We have good chances of snow for most of the coming week. Looks from the weather radar that whatever does come will likely have to form, as nothing closer to the west coast seems to be heading our way. It was warm today, though! We got up to 38F according to our weather station.

The SDR Radio I got the other day worked as expected. I got it running that day and played around with it, then delivered the second one to the desktop computer upstairs but did not yet set that one up. It’s fascinating how it can read or see the whole spectrum, and portions of it visible at once to tell where different signals are and have a hint to what kind they are. FM Radio signals are amazing, especially where they have digital encoding on both sides of the frequency. Even stations without that digital encoding are amazingly powerful compared to the rest of the spectrum. I will have to work on reception and an improved arial.

The tractor reached 200 hours yesterday. That’s just shy of five months! I cannot believe we are coming up to five months of ownership already! It still seems new to me. Most of its work here has bene snow clearing, but as soon as the weather breaks to spring, I think it will see a total shift! I may move big snow piles into the orchard just to get the trees started for the year. I may have to move a lot of hay off the garden and start it for tilling. I want that space tilled four or more times prior to planting in May and June. There will be post holes to dig, too. I am going to have to reset some fencing and clear some old areas out. Then there is the firewood. I don’t expect to muck about with that this year, since I want to be two years stored by autumn, and since I want to have a load of wood to work with. I hope to see this whole area of my chores severely altered to what it has been in previous years.

I got the second GoPro camera that I have been thinking about. If I am going to do a YouTube channel, then this setup I have is good enough to do it with. I would benefit from a lavalier mic, but I have a separate sound recorder that can also do the trick for now. I’ll have to give it a try. I am having a card reader delivered so I can put one on my laptop and one on my desktop to unload videos and edit. I have tried out the GoPro cloud, and I am not terribly thrilled with any of it, apart from the discount they offer to users while shopping. I’d rather keep the filed local, I think. Then I’ll only upload final cuts to the Internet. I have yet to see any real advantage apart from having apparently all the space I need to keep every crap video file I make. That may turn out to be the seeds of a problem. But who knows? Maybe in the next few weeks I’ll get a video created and uploaded to the channel again.

Mondy is anticipated to be the day we have our deli slicer delivered. I have been wanting a proper one for many years now, and we have what appears to be a decent one on the way. It is a Berkel 300 Redline. I am a little worried about it after seeing the shipping details. For whatever reason, it is listed with a shipping weight of 122 pounds. I am having trouble believing that, but I worry that I believe wrong. I guess we’ll see what it is like when it gets here. But honesty, how can a home line slicer weight so much? Maybe they packed it in a wooden crate?

I have very few hand tools left in my wish list now. A shipment arrives also on Monday. It is just a few things, and while there are a couple more planes to be desired, I think I have enough to get a real start in my workshop. Spring will give us access to the barn for cleanup, and to rearrange our storage. I have a permanent wall to fix into the old garage door of my shop. That wall wants a window built into it for some heat and light. Missus has a kiln on order that also wants a home in the shop.

So, a lot is going on this year. I think we will be able to reach closer than ever to self-sufficiency. I have always said that it is a very expensive state to reach. On the upside, I am where I can start building some of the remaining tools I need. I am even considering building my own travishers. I’ll still have to buy the blades, but the handles and bodies will save me around $100 each. That’s not small potatoes. Small potatoes come from my garden.

There you have it! An end of February summary. That’s what’s going on, and where we are at, and where we are going for the moment. I am excited to be at the point in life where I feel like I finally have a life, and all the things that that entails. Having moved country twice and other events that have left me with next to nothing, it is a hard thing to recover from. But I feel quite like I have arrived. Everything else is just improving things up and building equity. For me, that’s a good place to be. Oh, and I am about two weeks short of my 52nd birthday.

Wednesday Morning by the Fire.

It is snowing again this morning. Nothing like yesterday though. Just a little flurry. I see California is having rain again, so give that 24 hours and it will be here. It was warm overnight, and this morning I did not started a fire early this morning and am only getting around to it right now as I write this. It is coming up to 10AM. It’s not cold in here, but it is cool, and I figure one good blaze ought to take that chill off for a while. Plus, having a fire going in the stove is good for drying off those cast iron pans from breakfast, or softening the bacon grease enough to pour into the bin. I am doing both now. It’s much better to bring the grease up to a temperature warm enough to pour and put it all into the rubbish bin than to pour any of it into the sink, and down into the septic system.

I got a chance to get out to the shop for a few minutes this morning, and just a little cleaning put it into a place where I know what to do for my next steps that will make a big difference in cleaning it up ready for the new workbench. I will get to those steps this afternoon when I get a chance to get some things to the barn. When that is done, a few things need to get sorted off the foosball table before I am ready to be able to push it aside for the workbench to come through and set up. I am excited, but the tracking info still shows it has not moved yet. Do they ship stuff once a week, or does the shipper not actually have any tracking system? Who knows? When it gets here, it gets here.

The fire is not burning hot this morning. It really could be doing better. I just put a couple more logs on to see if that will help. I am thinking that closing up space in the stove will concentrate the heat better, and maybe those new logs will burn better. I think the wood got wet in the recent weather, even under the tarp, and not I am paying for that. I would really like to build some woodsheds out there to keep the wood in without messing about with the tarps that blow off in the wind. A good hard roof and sides would do a lot for keeping the wood ready to burn. Add that to the summer chores list. Add that to the current cost of doing anything! A fella wouldn’t complain about having a sawmill right now.

The extra logs helped the fire catch. I helped one of our daughters with her Social Studies. Missus has walked back and forth a few times with her computer in hand, and her headphones on while she works. I am back to a moment of peace now and can worry about that fire and some cleaning up around the house. Best way will be to put down the blog for the time being and get at it.

Late Autumn, 2022

It’s the busy season again! Time to shop and buy things for the family and get them the things we think they would enjoy. It’s time to receive cards and be embarrassed that once again we are too busy with our little immediate flock to get cards out to those who live far away, both friend and family. It’s time to wrap things and hide things and plan and prepare for the things we repeat year after year, but put a different spin on each time, to maintain tradition, and to keep it interesting. We are setting the traditions of our family with the things we do and hope they will grow older with ideas for what to do with their own young ones.

The kids are down to one week of school left. Winter starts in a week and a half. The worst of winter is usually January and February, getting too cold to bear outside for very long. Those are the months that are the hardest to keep the house warm, and sometimes ice forms on the insides of the windows, so we leave the window coverings closed, and although it means the house is darker inside, it is much warmer, too. One day we will get new windows, and hopefully solve that problem once and for all. But the old house needs so many things. Flooring, windows, a couple of doors, carpets, a new septic system, and a couple of jacks in the basement, to name but a few. We’d also like to change the fireplace insert to a woodstove style one to help heat the house a little more efficiently. And then there are the outside things to do with fencing, landscaping, a bit of electricity to a few necessary places, finish the driveway, sort new pens out for the goats and such, and a decent dog run. There is a lot to do! Once the place is up to scruff, then we could work on the improvements!

So close to the end of Autumn. I am very excited for this Spring. Things will be a changing!

Autumn Proper

The first week of November is already by, and I am already starting to lament the thought of that long period between Christmas and spring planting, when the seed catalogues come, and the season never seems to go. Everyone who lives with plants knows just what I mean. As for those with animals, unless they can afford plenty of hay, they will understand the anxieties I have right now about the amount of hay we have on hand, and how well the tarp is staying on it, or not. Anyone who survives the cold with only wood heat and limited access to the wood knows the other anxiety I am suffering right now. I know we could be a lot worse off in so many ways. It is just a part of the agrarian life that one lives with when each year one gets just enough to get by. I hope that during the coming year I will better this situation and get truly ahead.

I have got so much done in the past month since the tractor arrived that I am amazed. I am half done with the land bridge from the main property across the street to the other side of the swale at the bottom of the place. Once that is done, I will be able to wither carry on with the idea of planting trees along there and calling it Willow Bank, or I could let the livestock over to graze at their leisure and have about 4/10ths of an acre more land to feed from. It’s no small thing as that would support a cow for a while. Every little helps. But if we do the Willow Bank idea, it would be best to leave it as an untouched natural space for animals and picnics. Willow trees would just finish it over there, providing shade and play.

I went out to do some work in the shop yesterday but noticed the llamas giving attention to something at the bottom of the property. I could not see what it was, so I went over instead, and found three hounds had trapped a raccoon and were biting and barking at it. The raccoon was in a struggle, but I could not do much to interfere with frenzied dogs who would only ignore my pleas for them to stop and let it be. I checked with some people who I saw on the next property, but the dogs were not theirs. I went back and the raccoon was still alive, but had no fight left in it. I thought the dogs were being fairly inefficient at killing it, then realized what was going on. They had worn it down, then one bit on its throat till it choked to death. It was a maneuver that they could not have pulled off with the raccoon fighting back. It was a sad thing to see, but they were not my dogs and I could not stop them, and I did not want to get tangled up with a raccoon. If there are rabies, then I’d be the final victim. No thank you. I now know who’s dogs they are, but there is not much I can do about them, as they live close enough that unless they are going to keep their dogs permanently locked up, they will always end up over on ours. Also, we have had horses break lose and end up in their pasture before, too, so it is probably best to keep an understanding with these particular people. It was a raccoon. It was not one of my animals. But it does mean that I have limits to what animals I can keep over there, as small ones and waterfowl are probably out of the question. It is best as a grazing pasture.

I am nearly done setting up for a welder in the shop. I need to clean up in there, so I don’t set a fire or cause an explosion. I just need to install some gear I have got in order to plug the welder in, then I need to get some practice in. I have got me some learning to do. I put in all the electrics into the cottage for Missus, and now I am doing a bit of work on the shop. Much of it is done already, and things are working much better in there. For example, the air compressor is kicking on at full power now and runs without tripping a breaker. It sure feels a lot safer without worrying about all the power coming into the shop down a single extension cord from the house! That has also relieved a circuit in the house, too! The kitchen ought to run better, and we have finally closed that window on the front porch all the way. There is the door out there that could do with being replaced, and I think it will keep much warmer in there going forward from that.