Dispatches From The Farm

Do I Need to Tell You?

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

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.

Making Paper

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

I woke up this morning and strolled through the house unable to locate my recently liberated corporate slave. I tried out in her craft cottage, and found her making paper. She is learning at the moment, but is determined to eventually sell home gown and spun llama fiber yarns wrapped with a home made label.

Paper drying on rack. Missus has included some leaves in her slurry to add interest to the finished product, and to gain confidence working with contents other than just plain pulp.

The paper she is working on this morning is practice, and the color and thickness may not quite be right, but as she progresses and works on what to put into the slurry, we hope to have a lovely finish that will take a label stamp.

The slurry is made by blending material then setting it aside to add to water where it loosens up to be collected with the deckle and mold to form individual sheets.

We have plenty of options for future paper to make, including essential oil scented, or with added mint leaves from the garden. She is also interested in commondeering wood from my shop to incorporate starting with sawdust or shavings from the hand plane.

The slurry is collected from the water with the deckle and mold, causing it to form into a useful sheet of paper, and forming it into a uniform shape.

If I do turn out to produce a useful waste that can be used in papermaking, then I hope to produce a lot of it for her! Of course, there is a lot to do with excess sawdust too, but that is a different story!

A finished piece lies next to the one currently being released from the deckle and mold by sponging away excess water.

The paper was then left to dry for the day. Future efforts will resolve a better color and texture as Missus refines her skill in the medium.

Transitioning to a New Life

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Two weeks now since the last day Missus reported into The Man. We are cut loose and flapping free in the wind. It is kind of nice. At the same time, it is scary, and it is a lot of work. We are trying to sort out some things in the house to clean it up and sort out livability. There are also workspaces to sort. Overall, it is not the worst situation we have been in.

Missus left the corporate world two weeks ago today. Since her volunteer departure we found out there have been layoffs. She feels it has been a good thing for her to go free on her own. The first benefit has been the extra time to work on the house and try to get things in order that have been put off due to lack of time while she was mentally and physically focused on her job. Despite the time, there is still a lot to do even two weeks later, thanks to there being so much to do! But we are keeping at it, and hopefully we will have things under control before too long. The heat is picking up, and that is not helping, but maybe we will switch over to a night shift to do things when it is cooler and sleep in the day, since now we can!

The scary part is of course keeping up with income. We have an egg to live off for a bit, but that won’t last forever, and who wants to give it up for an extended vacation when we could get earning and keep the egg? There are things here than need fixing, and the expenses with those also need to be taken from that egg, so it does add pressure to get earning before too long!

We have most of what we think we need to get the farm and business going. There are a couple of things left to get, such as a fridge for the eggs to sell in, and some other things along with them, should we choose to. The places we need to do the work we need to are pretty good. I have my shop, and it is almost ready to go up and running as it is. I would like to sort out a bit of an air system to remove the rubbish from the machines. Missus has her craft cottage, and the worktables in there to do what she wants to accomplish.

We moved to the US from the UK back in late 2010. We were dirt poor back then. We are better off this year than ever. That has come through our work and through some losses. It has all come at costs to us. We hope to be soon providing goods and services that will be a benefit to others, and at a fair price to keep us going too. As I said, this is not the worst situation we have been in, and now we hope we are well footed to move forward.

Waving Goodbye to ‘The Man’

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

It’s already Thursday of the first week of since Missus left her posting working for QuickBase. Missus and I have been working to catch up on things that have not been gotten to due to time constraints on her calendar. With both of us free, we hope to be able to catch up some things around the house, then get into this whole self-employment thing.

Ordering the house means getting things out that we don’t use, and putting things in the new shed that we will still use. It also means organizing the spaces where the old outbuildings are. There is a lot to do! We got a good start on the upstairs, and now the biggest obstacle up there is my den.

Yesterday we took a day to go into town and sort some things out and visit the salvage yard. Wouldn’t you know that before we could go, we had to deal with escaped goats? Could it have been the male? Could it have been the girls? No! It had to be goats gotten out of both pens! Did he have time to have his wicked way with any of them? I hope not! The escapees from the girl’s pen were his daughters! I guess will know for sure come December! Anyway, we got them rounded up and back in and pounded away at the fencing till it was in good enough order hold them for a bit again. Then we left for town.

FedEx is due to empty a truck out on our doorstep today. After that, I will have the packaging to take up to town for recycling and other things to take to the dump. The trailer is already full and waiting!

The house and workshops need a bit more work before we can get fully into this new life we are attempting.

So, what is this new life we are going to try out?

Missus wants to take her artistic skills off and make a bit of money with them. But mostly she wants to share in them with others, such as weaving and spinning, painting, wire weaving, and millions of old-time crafts she has learned over the years. I will be putting the farmland to work and giving a try at chandlery, as a sawyer, and hopefully getting my skills up at some furniture making. That’s a basic summary. I’ll get a proper post up announcing when I have things in order and am getting started properly.

She is now a registered business with Antiquary Artisan LLC, and I am registered too, as The Peasant’s Manor Farm LLC. More to come on that later, too.

Gardens and Goat Pens

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

It was a very wet spring here. The grass is off to a roaring start as it grows up almost to my knees already. I have put the tiller on the tractor, and got to work on the garden beds, tilling the soil clear of grass and weeds, and hopefully any hope they have had of settling into the space. I have also started clearing animal pens, and moving the hay and other natural contents into the garden bed, and tilling it in.

Our garden space is fair sized, though I would not think of it as large, considering the space our property has. I have animal pens in front of it, relative to the street. And behind it I am squeezing in an orchard, and will soon be setting up a sawmill. The sawmill requires the space to work, keep logs, and put wood that has cut to the side till it can be stacked and dried properly. So that’s a fair amount of space on its own.

I got to work on the pen next to our dog, Bandit. There was a pen in this space, but the goat destroyed the fencing, and it all required replacing with a stronger type of fence. We had originally put in a welded wire fence, but now I am putting up horse fence, which is far more resilient to the efforts the goat puts into its destruction. Welded wire is not worth putting in for any animal larger than a chicken, as far as I am concerned. But we were on a tight budget then, and had to go with what we could afford. I will likely finish the pen today, then I will be moving the buck into it, and letting him live in there. Then all the girls will come out of the pen in the back yard, and move into the pen the buck is in now with the sterile doe. That will give them more room than where they are at, and I will take out their current pen, and make that into a back yard, again. We need an open space in the back for our grandson to run around in. It will also be a step towards just making a lovely space for humans to hang out and give the animals a more defined space of their own in one part of the property. We will likely be removing part of the chicken run, putting in a storage shed there, and I think the rabbits will likely get a space between the sheds where they can have the freedom to run around a bit. But all of that is a mile away, still.

I am not sure if we will garden this year or not, which is a little late in deciding. We need to have a new septic installed, and we don’t yet know for sure where that will go. If it ends up under the garden beds, then it will ruin whatever gets planted. I am sure of being able to use part of the beds, though, so I can see putting in some gourde tunnels. Once the farm is esteblished as a business, which should be today or Monday, the biggest client I have wnats gourdes. That’ll be Antiquary Artisan, my wife.

The Mud is Gone!

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

The mud has gone from all parts of the yard. Some patches had to be buried to vanish them, but after I did that with the tractor, I let things sit a couple of days and then gave it a go in the garden with the tiller. I was able to till without striking mud or sinking down too mauch anywhere. This morning I tilled the whole garden space again with the back flap on the tiller dropped all the way down, and it levelled the garden pretty good!

We had a gopher digging back in the orchard next to an apple tree. Yesterday I dug down and found the opening to his den and stuffed a pipe into that. Then I closed everything off again around the pipe and stuck the other end of it into the tractor exhaust pipe. I let that run till it was too hot to hold anymore, and then shut it off, pulled the pipe, and sealed the den. No more fresh tailings in front of the den this morning. I suppose that instead of eating the tree’s roots, the tree is going to be fertilized off the gopher.

I worked in the shop a bit today. The workbench by the south wall is finished for the time being. I only need to get a couple of fixtures and some bulbs to put some lights above it. I am happy with how it came out. I am happy that I got it pretty much the same height of the main workbench across from it, so i can span larger items from one to the other. I do need to get some electric power to it. I’ll be setting up my beeswax melters over there, and an oven to reseason my cast iron, too. That will get the stench of that chore out of the house, and make it easier if I find myself stripping old seasoning off the iron first.

I just have a lot of stuff that could use a home out of the workspace.

Missus is setting up to run an at home business with quite a few possible products. We have got a 60 inch loom set up now, and there are a lot of thigns she wants to make on that. We also have a potter’s wheel and a kiln set up, ready to start throwing. We both have lathes, and plenty of other tools for making all manner of things. I still need to get the sawmill set up. But that will come soon. It is getting time to get firewood going, and some wood to saw. It is also getting time to get the llamas shorn. We have busy days ahead of us!

The kids are finished up with their homeschooling. They will both be going to public school in the autumn. One is accepted to the school we wanted, and we are still waiting for a reply for the other.

This summer brings a whole change of pace for us here on the farm. It ought to be an advanture! With us both trying to earn here at home, nothing will be the same again.

Hydraulic Toplink

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Well, that’s one hydraulic toplink installed on the tractor. I did not make a video of it as I wanted it done. Besides, there are loads of videos on the internet already that show how to do it on the same or similar tractors. Any of those is sufficient. I watched quite a few and anticipated troubles before I started mine, so I had a goodd idea of what to expect, and it went on quite easily.

As you can see, I put the check valve on the bottom, and have not yet done anything about the wire to hang it from when not in use. That is not a huge concerne as I have so far never had the tractor without an impliment on the three point. It doesn’t make sense to if constantly or even unexpectedly using the loader is benefited by the extra weight on the rear of the machine.

When fully lifted, the hoses will bump into the fuel tank, which is not satisfying. The curve of th hoses bumps into the angled arm of the box blade, too, which is also not satisfying. So there may be a change when I work out how it needs to be directed for that not to happen.

The ability to just flip a lever in the cab to lengthen and shorten the toplink sure is a lot easier than getting out and turning a huge turnbuckle to do the same. That’s better in the weather, and it is much quicker and easier when an angle would highly benefit the drag of the box blade.

I founf that tilting the blade fully back is relatively non-destructive for the grass, and cutting down mole hills. Tilting it fully forward digs right in! That is very destructive. Perhaps I will fine the tile back much better for snow removal next winter, since there is obviously not going to be any more measurable snowfall this year. Obviously. Which, by the way, today’s snow did not amoung to much, so that is a relief. I think tilting back is good for simple smoothing. That ought to come in very handy while doing further driveway repairs after this hellish mud season! Tilting back should hopefully be less destructive while clearing snow off any of our grass driveways, so they hopefully won’t turn into mud in the first place!

Finally, I can think of the scarifiers digging in deeper when the box blade is tilted forward during use. Handy or not, now the angle is up to me, and easily achieved.

Water Levels Going Down!

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

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.

The Mud Situation

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

The weather relaxed this evening, though we are meant to wake up to snow again tomorrow morning. I got out a bit this afternoon and hada go at the start of the driveway towards the backyard with the tractor. I was able to smooth some of it down and make it almost passable. But the quicksand bed is still there, lingering half way back towards the backyard.

The middle of this photo is a bed of quicksand. As soon as I drive the tractor past where my footprints lead up to, in it goes. I suspect that it is deep enough to bury even my back wheels if I get into it.

So the drive is much smoother and more stable now leading up to the patch where I get that sinking feeling. I was able to scrape some of the earth that had been pushed out to the side of the drive back into it with the box blade. I then smoothed with a backdrag. I was even able to get back to another pit at the entry of the Service Yard, but that is only a place where I have to drive past, and quite close to the pit, I might add. I don’t think I will be going into the Service Yard for some time yet, as there are a couple of quicksand pits in it.

The water here is the first place I lost my tractor into the mud.

The water inbetween the gates is the spot that brushes so close to the main driveway, and also threatens to swallow my tractor whole.

Here is the water from the previous picture and the driveway area that I was able to smooth out. It is a close call as some of the drive had been collapsing into the water, but a bit of fresh, relatively dry dirt was able to shore it up some.

Finally, once I can get the tractor to the back of the property, this is what awaits me where the animal feed has been kept. There is no good way into it till the water recedes from the farm behind our house. Every approach to the hay has been waterlogged and the tractor has sunken into it. All I can do is get close enough, then hand carry the bales to the loader on the tractor and carry it from there.

This is all a mental note to self not to put the hay back on the garden spot again. I need to gravel the drives, and the spots I intend to park and move about with the tractor, and I need to gravel a spot to rest the hay on. This place has clearly not worked!

And Tomorrow It Really Sets Off!

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

We woke up to a bit of snowfall on the farm today. I did my usual wake up, check the news and the weather, but even after seeing there was a chance of snow this morning it didn’t really hit me. I stumbled out of bed and over to the full-length window on the balcony door, and there it was. Large snowflakes falling with a decent amount of force. No messing around, this was snow! It was coming down! I caught the photo above after I came downstairs, and the snow had almost stopped. But that weather forecast said that the real snow would be falling this time tomorrow. So, there’s that to look forward to.

The mud still lingers under this mess of snow. It was starting to harden up a bit yesterday, and there were beginning to be places where the tips of the muddy mess were starting to turn dry and earthlike in appearance. Despite all that, the drive up the side of the house is still possessed with a spot of basically quicksand that wants to swallow the tractor right up. I can’t get past it. The car is dead next to it and needs to be pulled out to even try. It’s just not been that important that I want to do that yet. But soon. We have been getting to the point where we can walk the muddy yard and not lose our balance on slippery mud at the surface, but it was more a cake of mud that was traversable. At least before this very recent event.

Lucky there’s things to do out of the house today. I can go on, and not worry about it. A few parcels due for delivery will take up my afternoon as I explore the new things I have coming. I also have a daughter who has a report we are working on for school. So there is plenty of diversion from what is essentially depression at this point. More than half of the yard near the house is inaccessible. That makes some chores quite a lot harder to do, and who wants that when there is a tool that is supposed to make them easier sitting out front? There are also so many spring chores I am very eager to get started! But those are constantly being pushed back by this mud hold. Snow today. Snow tomorrow. I keep my eye on the large pond that has covered most of the field behind and to the side of our house, hoping it will sink into the ground and go down. If it stays, it puts a serious impediment on getting a new septic system put in. While I am so glad we have water again here in the west, I needed it to be dry like it has been in order to get that done early in the season.

I got external mics for the GoPro setup yesterday. I should now be charged up and ready to make videos where I can actually walk away from the camera, and still be heard. Basically, there is no excuse. We are set to make halfway decent videos for YouTube. Just need to invent content, now. Oh, and have something to so.