Dispatches From The Farm

Masks: A Cautionary Tale

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

I have always been the one who has not masked up for a bit of sanding, cleaning with bleach, or running the leaf blower. Who can be bothered? Besides, it does not bother me that much. But now, I actually do own a decent quality mask, and when I went to clean out the chicken coop two days ago, I brought it along with, and I put it on. Then I went crazy with the leaf blower and cleared out loads of loose feathers and lots of dust and debris. After a session of that, I took off my mask when everything had settled and cleaned up some of the larger things in the adjacent tool shed. More dust! I ran the leaf blower again for a short bit and did not bother to put on the mask.

I was barely out of that end of the barn before I knew I had given myself a sinus infection. I could feel it on the right side, and soon my eye felt that corresponding irritation that comes along with. I gave it that night and the next day to see if it would feel any better, and it did. But now that the overlying sinus infection pain has settled a day on from that, I feel pain that resembles that sharp hurt one gets with a sore throat. Only it is above my throat, and below the sinuses.

Lesson learned; wear the mask! Always wear the mask! I watched my stepdad nearly die when I was younger because of a sinus infection that exploded into his brain cavity. It is not something I want to replicate. And now, with kids of my own, I don’t want them to have to see their father go through something like that, either.

It’s early in the morning on that third day from the cleaning. It is abundantly clear I could have avoided this situation. It is also abundantly clear to me that I am not young and impervious to the things I once was. I also have little people looking up to me to set them a good example, and to treat things like masks as though they are serious, not silly.

Beef Cows

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Yesterday I went just up the canyon and bought off a guy four Holstien beef steers that he had listed on the local online classifieds. They turned out to be on average three weeks old, so they should wean around the first day of autumn. We have fed them once now, and I think it is fair to say which one I think is going to die before we get to raise it. He is a brown and white cow, and he has as much interest in his feed as a Jersey. He fell over a couple of times while trying to eat, too. It could be that he was not interested in the change of feed, as the dairyman I bought them from said he has been feeding the cows milk every day from his herd. I have milk replacer, and I don’t think it would be near as good, from what I can tell of it.

The next real trick is going to be getting enough hay to last them the winter. Along with the llamas and goats, there is going to be a real need for it around here. Lucky enough, the llamas and goats are all grown up and won’t require more than they eat now. But the cows will grow and will want more in the early spring than they do at Thanksgiving. On the other hand, come late spring they will be able to go on the back pasture, and hopefully finish out on that, which will be good for both the cows and the pasture.

On another note, my hand is itching where it was stung by a wasp the other day. The swelling was not near as bad as it could have been, based on previous stings. I sure don’t blame the wasp for it, as it had me dead to rights when I went to move that log and put my hand right on it. I think I’d have done the same.

I need to pick up some animal feed today and work out how I am going ot get the hay I need over winter. It’s going to be an expensive year with the extra mouths to feed, and the high cost of hay. I think though that those costs will be passed on to consumers come next year, when they are being absorbed into meat prices. So, I don’t think it is a bad move to have these little guys starting to get ready for the freezer this year. I expect some of their cost to get picked up by others in the family that have expressed an interest in having meat, too. Maybe they will help with the cost or the work in bringing home hay?

Sharpen The Saw

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

The wasp was just minding its own business while getting a drink from the wood in the log I had on the log-splitter. I put my hand on top of it, so it had me dead to rights. It had not gone looking for trouble. Neither had I, to be fair, but I was the one that seemed to be on the attack. So, it stung me on the wedding ring finger. It was not hard to quickly tell what I had done wrong. I grabbed my finger and tried to cut of the circulation to the rest of my hand, because after all, I did not want a swollen hand. I thought that if I could stop the venom from spreading, I might not swell up all over my hand and arm, as I am prone to doing when these things happen. I don’t know if that is what helped, or if it was just a little sting, but I put on some Campho Phenique and it turned out pretty good in the end, for a wasp sting.

I managed to split most of what we brought home from our last trip to get firewood. I also cleaned up the logs hidden in the tall grass on the south side of the Service Yard, yesterday. I still have a good-sized pile on the north side to work through.

I have not been working hard in the Service Yard for reasons. The main one is that a saw gets dull slowly. Like a frog boiling, it takes too long to realize what is going wrong. So I got out the little electric grinder for the first time yesterday and sharpened the teeth. Then I cut the rakes down a little deeper than I usually would. That saw now eats its way through the wood! It is a lot more dangerous on the end of the bar as far as kickback goes, so care must be taken. But the cuts are much quicker now. I think it will not be hard to finish the woodpile now. Just got to find all the wood in the tall grass! I think when I do, I will have enough for this winter, and anything we go get now will be a start to next. Although, there is the fireplace use to account for if Missus is going to burn extra. And I need to account for how much of our wood this year is poplar and might burn quicker than other woods usually do.

Lastly to consider is that with the saw cutting so much faster now, the trips to go get wood ought to be a lot more profitable, and the cooling weather will certainly also help.

Lastly also to consider is that I still have permits to go into the mountains and take maple wood. I really need to go get the maple wood!

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.