Category: Weather Talk

Summary of Yesterday

It is Thursday morning, and it is raining a little. It has been all night, apparently. I went out last night to get firewood in just before bed, and it was 45F. Really lovely for the time of year it is, and for nighttime. But I went up to bed and just as I settled in, the wind started kicking up and rain began to fall.

Yesterday I got one of the short poplar logs up on the mill and cut into bolsters and stickers. Then I put up an Aspen log and milled it into boards. Most of the output was 6 inch by 8 foot boards, but there are also four sort of 16-inch ones as well. All of them were milled to 1 inch thick. They should come out at 3/4 finished thickness. Then I put them up to dry on the bolsters and with the stickers I had milled.

I helped Missus out with some of her work after the milling, then went to get the girls from their bus stop after school. It was a busy day, and I got a lot done. So my reward was to spend a couple of hours playing a VR game in the evening. It was good and relaxing, and a nice change of pace. I don’t play games much. But I will play one or two once in a while.

This morning is still wet, but as soon as it dries, I should get down and pick up some hay and maybe get that log milled that I put on the mill last night just before changing from the forks to the bucket on the tractor to bring the firewood in. I have some work to do with Missus this evening taking photos of products to put on her website. Meanwhile I will be figuring out this farm and fixing the broken joint on one of the kids’ bed.

Off to get my day started!

Still No Snow

Thought I was anticipating snow in late October, we are well into November now, and there is still no snow at all, and that is fine with me. The weather is colder, for sure, and the smells and feel of Autumn is in the air, but the snow has crept down the mountainsides and only that. It has not yet come to the valley floor. I have not seen a single flake yet this autumn. Well, not falling from the sky, anyhow.

It is early morning as I write this, and I am still feeling the effects of all the sugar I ate during last night’s meal out with the kids. No, not just the kids who live at home. All of them were by so we could take them out to have our family Thanksgiving get-together. Our oldest is scheduled to work up there in North Dakota, so we had to find a day this month that would work for all. Last night was it. Happy Thanksgiving. I know lots of folks like to sit around the table and say what they are Thankful for, but that is not a tradition in our family. We are more relaxed, and just enjoy the together time. We don’t have an angry political uncle that ruins the event for most people. We just have each other and enjoy it. I cannot think of a better time of the year than when we are together. And it seems that because of the holiday schedule, that is always in the mid to late Autumn.

Then comes the long slog through winter. That has traditionally been the time when we bundle up and forget there is much of an outdoors and sunshine. That is January till April, roughly. I’d like to see the year go a bit differently this year. I have stocked up my beeswax to keep some candle making going, and I have the workshop sorted out for a little bit of heat and a sufficient supply of tools to keep me working more than ever before. Let’s see what I can come up with to keep me busy this year. But more on that in another post.

First Snow Anticipated This Week

The weather looms low this morning with an autumn breeze carrying leaves round like butterflies, and the sun reflecting off the bottoms of the clouds giving off a bright light that seems to come from every direction. To the west there is a mountain that is aglow, and in the near distance, a small portion of a rain bow is blasting its color over the view of it as if it were not enough magnificence on its own.

The forecast for today calls for rain this morning, very little. The high is expected to reach 67F. Tomorrow and the next day are going to be cooler, reaching only 62, but the lows climb down to the bottom of the thirties. By Thursday, it’s worse. Yes, we are expected to see snow by then. The Weather Bureau does not anticipate much more than that on Thursday, with it drying up and staying cooler after that, then the possibility of more snow is raised next weekend.

I noticed this morning that the heat did not kick up in the truck, and that the temperature on the engine was a little high. Means it is running low on coolant. I’ll have to pick some up when I go up to town to get tarps to cover the firewood with.

The firewood needs covering before the snow comes. It should be covered now, but the rain that has been falling this morning is miniscule, so it’s really no worry. But I don’t want snow settling onto it then melting away slowly into the wood for a longer stay. No, I will be covering it before Wednesday evening.

I put a small fire win the woodstove just a few minutes ago. It’s just meant to push the slight chill out of the house. I may be tossing in a small fire in the shop stove shortly, then working out there on the rabbit hutch I am making for Missus.

The hutch is nearly framed to hold the cage. I just need to figure out how I intend to hold it in place. I am considering some metal bracket arrangement that will not rot as I am trying to keep any kind of wood out from under the cage, and far away from the sides enough that they cannot chew at it. Seems like a better plan, to me. We’ll see how it all pans out.

I anticipate my new snow pusher to ship in about two weeks. I look forward to using that this winter to prevent too much digging in the dirt along the side of the road where the mail carrier pulls up, and in the dirt driveway to the house and behind. Will it work? I hope so. If not, then I can always hire out to do other people’s driveway either way and make back the money spent. I also suspect I will be up to see the kids in town at their house and clear their drive from time to time. When I do, and the year has pressed on, I will no doubt be putting the bucket on the trailer too, so I can clear the mailbox for them. The snow ploughs push all the snow to the side of the road and block the boxes up there, then the postal service complains and finally stops delivering the mail because of the conflict of these two services. Wouldn’t it be nice if they could figure something out? Especially for the sakes of the elderly who have not got a hope for clearing the mailbox access! It seems silly. Maybe something will come to me. Meanwhile, I half expect that while I go up there, there will be job offers to clear people’s drives for them.

Looks like the flames in the woodstove have gone down. I never did close the door, so it is no surprise. I’ll go put a couple more pieces of wood on, and close the door this time, to control it and keep the fire burning much longer. What a pleasure it has been to enjoy a peaceful morning and write!

A Lovely October Day Working

It has been a day of work and family down on the farm today. Our second son came by and helped out with the wood again, and it was very welcome help, for sure! There was a distraction from getting started, and I should have seen to it before we walked out to the log pile and started the splitter.

First things first, I sent the kids off to school. After coming back from meeting the bus I back dragged the driveway where there is a bit of mud in a couple of places. Always good to have a flat drive, and the weather promises to be in the 60’s and 70’s this week.

The distraction was the cardboard in the trailer. I suggested we could either throw it out on the ground temporarily, or we could go up to his place and get all his cardboard, take it all to the recycling bin, then come back with an empty trailer and get started on the wood. He took that option. When we got to the bin with all the cardboard a whole heap of wasps started circling one of the big boxes from his house and confused us because he has kept is cardboard inside, and it has not been there that long. Made no sense that wasps would build a house so quickly this late in the year. I grabbed the box and tossed it in the bin, nonetheless. It was only then that I realized we would be stopping into the salvage yard next door to drop off the broken microwave that I had dumped in the trailer at the very beginning of loading it a week or so ago.

At the salvage yard the guys there were friendly and helpful as always. When asked if we wanted it weighed, I passed as it was not going to net enough to walk in and collect on. There is only so much worth actually dealing with.

We came back to the house, and I took the trailer with the tractor to the back and set it down next to the end of the log splitter. Then I began the job of picking up the wood with the tractor to set it on the log splitter, rather than lifting it all by hand and back. Most importantly by back! I lift it all in the bucket and then use the bottom of the bucket as a table even to the table height of the splitter.

Son kept his self busy splitting as fast as he could, and tossing the readied logs into the trailer to carry around to the log bunk all in one go.

When it got close to time for him to want to leave to get ready to pick his son up from school I suggested we stop a little early so he could go visit with his mom a bit first, rather than run in, run out, and go. He wanted to do that rather than get in trouble with her.

After it all, I rested a spell as I was still tired from all the work. Happily, I was muscle tired, and the bones are well today. I Am thrilled about that! I got the girls from the bus stop, ate supper, then took a nap.

The evening found me putting water out for some animals that had run low, and getting a couple of huge logs from the front of the service yard, as I might was well get them processed and burned so I can clear up the service yard. It is getting to be a mess in there, and it really doesn’t need to be. Far from!

It’s 8:00PM now, and about time to start looking forward to bed. I need to get ready to do more wood processing tomorrow, and hopefully even get some boards sorted out for the long ends of the rabbit hutches. I have the water carrier ready out front so I can go fill up some more animal troughs. I suspect there are a couple who could use a top up. I am also informed that we are down to one gallon of milk in the house, and that the whole corn in the feed bin is about gone. There are two more jobs to get at as soon as I can.

So that’s it for today. Time for this old man to go wind up his day before bed.

Kids and Firewood

Today was a fantastic day on the farm. Two of the kids were down to the house with their wives. It was great to see them all! It was well timed too, in the sense that it was rainy today, and there was no working outside. We also had a delivery today that required us to take the front-most door off the house, and it was good to have help with that from our second, even though he was hopping along on a bad ankle.

So did I do anything sensible and go out to the shop to work, as it has a roof on it, and rain is no excuse? No. I did not. It was a restful day instead. We put a fire in the woodstove, and I worked on an “About Us” for Missus’ website. It is hard to get the text together to tell a story about us when one must decide what to include, what to exclude, and what to emphasize and what to only mention. There is a lot to our story, but not all of it is relevant to the business or the ethos behind it. I think what we need people to do is come to the “About Us” section in order to ‘get it’ on what we are all about. I will try a draft later with that in the front of my mind and see what I can come up with.

With the rain coming down yesterday and today, I have been off from the firewood work. I have got the trailer empty of it, and once I take out some garbage in that, I will be ready to go out back and fill it again for more stacking. It is important I get that pile of wood out by the sawmill cut down and split so I can see how much we actually have, and how much more I need to go get. The bunk is still less than halfway full, and that is a concern. But I will say this of it; the wood is mostly up to length, about 19 inches. The lengths are consistent, and because they are, the stacking has gone better this year than any gone by. I have several rows stacked up to just more than 6 feet high, and none of it wobbles like it is going to tip over. I think when the wood out back is split up and stacked, the bunk for winter will be about 3/4 of the way full, not necessarily including the middle aisle, which I normally don’t fill, but this year plan to because we always seem to come up just a little short.

I am trying a new burn in the stove this year. I am putting in two cookie cut pieces at the bottom, then stacking some split logs on top and doing a top-down burn. I tried it today. It went on for maybe eight hours before I put in more wood on top of some of the charcoals. It lit right up and burned on nicely. The point of it is to get a longer burn time out of the wood, especially for those overnight fires that keep the chill off the house and keep the pipes from freezing. It was promising today. I have seen a few people on YouTube lately that recommend a top-down burn for longevity, though they don’t agree on the way the wood is stacked for it. The primary difference being if the split logs are packed front to back or side to side in on top of the cookie pieces. I went front to back, perpendicular to the air inlet pipes because that direction fits the long logs better, and I am not going to recut the whole pile I have outside this year. I could cut shorter one’s going forward though. But then I would have to take long ones for hot burns and shorter ones from elsewhere in the bunk for long, fast burns.

The weather is clear tomorrow and beyond. It is time to get the work done I owe Missus in her shop, then get this wood done!

1 October, 2023

Last week there was very little firewood in the bunk to begin with. I now have it a quarter full and have a little saga to tell about. The logsplitter was doing pretty good handling the wood I had out there, it’s little Honda motor whirring away, giving me confidence in the machine. But somehow the little lever that stops the hydraulic system in lieu of a detent got caught up, and bent. When I noticed it, I tried to straighten it back out, but while I could get it horizontal, it was still bent latterally, and caught on the end of the hydraulic cylendar on the next return, and apparently caught the seal on it. I did not see it do that specifically, but on the next run it popped the cylendar, and dropped hydraulic fluid all on the ground.

Well, needless to say, this was very unexpected, and it is a repair that is above my pay grade. I might be able to pull it off by replacing the clip/seal, or even the whole cylendar, but it is not something I felt I had time to learn how to do. So I got a new logsplitter whithin two hours or so, and had it up and running right away.

The new logsplitter is rated at 37 tons, the highest I have owned yet, though none of mine have ever been below 32 tons. It has features that I am not super happy with, especially the track the maul rides in. I was loving the fact the now broken one clasped the rail and did not collect debris. I am back to cleaning out debris, and especially watching that the logs don’t get caught between the track and the sides of the maul. That is a great way to slowly break apart the welds on the beam and caust the thing to fail.

Today is Sunday, and that is different. I am taking it off to relax. My muscles have gotten sore this week, but that is because for the first time in such a long time, my bones are not in pain! I have felt what I think most people feel as normal. My muscles can’t keep up because the work I have done has always been limited by the tolerance I have had in my bones. I could only ever do so much before it hurt too much to continue. I have felt well for the last couple of weeks, and before that I cannot remember the last time I was not in pain. I mean, I think there was a time back in 2005.

It’s a bit rainy today with tomorrow and the next day forecast for more. The temperatures will be dropping to just above fire lighting cold. I tell you, I could do with this being our year-round affair. Some rain, some sun, and temps that are okay to work in. Suites me right down to the ground.

It’s the first day of October. By the end we will undoubtedly have snow visiting on the ground readying for a winter-long home. That’s how it goes around here. It turns white by December, and it stays so till mud season… I mean, “spring.”

Snow on the Mountains! Peachick!

I am sat down with a hot cappucino at hand and lip, and am reflecting on the day I had today. It was a good one! I have nothing to complain about. But there are comments.

First, I managed to keep the snooze button on any anxieties pressed till 6:00AM, then got up and got a good start after getting well rested. That made a nice change from the normal routine I follow! Then I took the girls to their school bust stop. After I came back, I got ready to face the day in the firewood yard down at the dump in the city. It was sprinkling a bit before I left, and on the way down that picked up to a decent rain. Breakfast at McDonald’s did not give it enough time to clear, and before I knew it, I had my snacks and drinks picked up and was sat in the woodyard, dreaming of those sunny summer days. Well, let’s be fair! I hate those sunny summer days for their heat, so I got out and got to it.

The first two logs I picked up were of a yellowish wood with white bark, and a decent smell of honey. I cannot identify it for sure, so I won’t try to say. I also got some willow, I think. It had the right type of bark and white wood, but there were no sprouts of any kind, so it may have been different. After loading some 3,000 pounds of wood I decided that was enough for the day and took off. I was not too sure of the weight till I hit the scales on the way out, so I decided to leave before I overloaded the trailer. Turned out I had a bit of room to spare. Not much, but some!

While loading wood I tried out the little device I made to fit over the top of the trailer’s front, top rail, and has a hook under it to hold the snatch block that the winch rope goes through. I built it because the chain never stays in the right position. This device worked perfectly, and made the whole job a lot easier because I was nto spending so much time preventing the rope from dragging through the second rail. That wears the rope severely. I have already broke one.

Happy with my device, and with my wood haul for today, I came home to help Missus with several things she had going on, then unloaded the trailer. That is a process that does not go perfectly, and I am still working out some kinks, especially to do with getting the log tongs to grab hold and let go when I want them to, as they are not mechanically driven.

I helped with a couple of short jobs while Missus was making a shepherd’s pie for supper, then went and got the girls from their bus stop. It was on the way there that I noticed that there was snow on the mountains! This is the first I have seen any for this year, and it sure made me want to go get more wood and get it all cut and split!

After a lovely meal, I went out to feed the chickens that I remembered were out of food. That’s when I found that another peachick has hatched, and the poor bird was getting tumbled by the chickens. I grabbed it up right away, and brought it in to Missus, as the peafowl are her project. It is now sat across the room from me under a heat lamp in a wash tub with a bit of wire mesh over top of it. It sure is noisey, and I think, quite healthy. We did not have luck with the lest couple that had hatched, so we are really hoping and trying to get this one off to a good start.

Now it is about an hour till bedtime, and I still have to get the rubbish out to the curb for pick-up tomorrow. Apart from that, I would like to relax a spell. It has been a busy, and really quite exciting day!

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.

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.

Water Levels Going Down!

It is snowing as I type this. The forcast calls for less than 2 inches total. What’s more, the water in every pond, puddle, and place water can sit on our property has gone down by maybe three inches or so since yesterday. Then, apart from a splash of rain forecast for Monday it is at worst partly cloudy skies for the coming week or more. So I am not going to let myself feel as though we are getting any consequential setbakcs with what will fall. Not to compare this to a glass is half full situation as in our case, the glass is finally half empty, and things are improving as it goes down!

What’s more, I recieved the hydraulic toplink for the tractor this morning. There is some prep work to do to it before I put it on the tractor. It is a simple installation, so it should be easy. That will allow me to change the angle of attack on the boxblade, allwing me to either dig into, or smooth out the mud. I would prefer to smooth it. It shoudl also improve the angle when using the scarifiers to pull rock up on roadbase or gravel drives. Not that I have any, or anywhere near enough.

The winter storm advisory is now replaced with a precipitation alert that goes till 1:00PM, so there’s no telling that will really come of it, but I don’t think much.