Dispatches From The Farm

A Holiday Weekend

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Today is the final day of Labor Day weekend. Summer as a school holiday is over. Next comes the real end of summer later this month, and autumn. It is time to start thinking about getting all that firewood chopped and any extra I might need for this year or next.

As for holiday time away, that is not something we do here on our farm. We don’t wish to burden any of our neighbors with watching our animals, nor our kid up in town. It is probably just a personal responsibility thing for us. But when we set up our next farm, I think we will be aiming to allow for a few days away at a time by setting up animals with water and feed access that we won’t have to worry about running out. The first step to that is reducing animals to ones that can be set out on pasture.

This weekend we did take a rest. We did very little in the way of any hard work, though I did get a honey-do list from Missus and am ready to tackle some new chores this coming week to further our readiness to move, should the land sell. I did mow the lawn, too. There were other various tasks I go to, but most of my weekend was spent with my feet up.

Blending Birds

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

The chicken flock is back in with the Peafowl, in the proper egg coop, rather than the pen to the side of it. They have been where everyone could see one another, and be used to each other. Putting them back together was a decision based on the water that would hit the chickens during watering, and the size of the Peachicks, which are getting fairly big. Also, the disposition of the birds, and how protective the larger Peas are of the little ones.

I have checked on them repeatedly today, and happily, have found quite a few eggs in the coop, to the tune of half a dozen. The chickens are adapting well, and getting along fine in the coop, despite the Peafowl pecking at them and keeping them at a distance. Apart from one egg, the chickens have laid all their eggs in the nesting boxes.

Missus nor I have been feeling well today. She got some wrapping done, and I helped along with packing. She also worked on fiber and her art. I have rested mostly, apart from my runs out to the chicken coop to check the state of the birds, and a couple of other runs to get air and see how things are outside.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring, but hopefully we will both feel better!

Missus just reminded me she picked half a crate of llama fiber, and reminded me that she wove her first basket today, which she did really good at!

Smoke: Many Summer Mornings

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor
Smoke in the air over our place at 8:30 this morning, August 31, 2021

It is heartbreaking to know that the smoke that hangs over us is from places where forests and towns and homes are being destroyed. I know what it is like to see the glow on the horizon in the night skies, to see the smoke billowing up in the day, making the sunlight look red at midday. I know what it is like to wait, and hope that it does not burn towards town, but to not know if it is going to be safe. But I don’t know beyond that. I don’t know what it is like to lose everything, or to run from hell.

We awoke this morning to this in the sky. It is a pall overhead that only hangs there, menacing if you are old enough to remember clear skies in summer, and days that shone bright, hot, and happy. Things are changing in this world, and not necessarily for the good.

We are looking to move the farm somewhere away from our lovely little mountain valley. But West has not got a lot of appeal when these mornings are blown our way from it. Plus the earthquakes, floods, mudslides, population, and everything else that is there, kind of push me along. I have seen them all first hand, and while it is amazingly beautiful out west from here, it I have been there, and done that. I’d like a change.

One of the kids is starting school right at the moment I am typing this, and I everyone has had breakfast but me. Everyone has their day started, but me. I need to go get something to eat, then get my animal chores done, preferably, before the second child starts class, too. I just wanted to jot down some thoughts, and show this image above.

The First Day of School

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

The girls officially started school today, which interprets as, the younger one had an hour long class, and the older one helped me get her logged in on time and in the right place, and get her papers printed off for her to have ready for class. The older one will begin classes tomorrow, but as of yet, I don’t see either of her electives working out, and we have to get that sorted out as quickly as possible!

I let the work on the homestead go for today, apart from regular chores, in order to focus on the girls and their preparedness.

It is worth noting though, that the chickens are laying about four eggs a day among the new egg flock, the Buff Orpingtons. They are still in the appendage cage next to the egg coop as the pea-chicks are still too small to risk them in the same coop together. They are too valuable to lose to hens that are prone to pecking as a means of keeping order, then pecking an injured bird clean to death once they have ordered it.

All the other animals on the farm appeared to be fine today. Nothing was out of order.

The weather is lovely right now. It is a strange late August! Today’s high was 84°F. That was the high recorded on my weather station. It was reached in the evening, making today a very bearable day for most of it, and the forecast calls for cooling temperatures over the next ten days. Show me where I can live like this year round, and I will show you my new home. When I was a kid, I think we called that California.

I expect this week will remain not busy, apart from maybe when we go get our glasses, or when I go get groceries. I plan to keep week one of school available for the kids as they get rolling in their online classes. Then it is probably out to the woodpile for me. I also have a few animals to try to sell. But most important is making sure they are set for success and we all know their schedules. They also have homework and chores to keep up on.

Sunday of Rest

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Today was an easy day. I did not do any work at all. Nothing happened. Not one thing. I mean, I did my chores. I cannot leave the animals to starve, can I? Also, I freshened up the water around most of the farm today, too. After all, I cannot let the animals go thirsty, can I? I drove Missus down to Franklin for a personal errand, too. We picked up milk while we were there. After all, we need milk if all the milk we have is set to expire tomorrow. After we got home, I did some miscellany, such as taking the rubbish from the kitchen bin, and the like. It’s no good being piled over with rubbish, is it?

I did do some work today, after all. I worked in the workshop. I found a nice piece of cherry, 2 x 3/4 inch stock. I used planes and a spokeshave to bring the size of it down to fit into the pipe that we set up yesterday for water monitoring. Then I put markings on it on one side to measure depth from the top down, and on the other side to measure from the bottom up. It should be useful for more than one application that way. For now, I need to measure once a week from the surface of the ground to the level of the water under us. Sadly, that can easily be measured with an eight foot stick, and a foot of pipe sticking out of the ground.

Oh well, the fun for me was working with the planes and shaves and getting a feel for them in a nice hardwood. I set the stick to have a thin flat for the lowest three feet or so, then it transitions to a more rounded shape, before topping off much more rounded. As the pipe is only two and a half inches in diameter, I did not want a huge stick plunging into the water, and displacing it up the pipe and making the measurement apparently deeper. I also didn’t want it to break off in the pipe, so the top is quite a bit thicker, and more robust. Anyway, it work a treat!

Okay! I have a kid in school tomorrow! I better get to sleep and be ready to help her with it in time for class log-in.

Saturday Fun and Work

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Today was somewhat restful. Our grandson was over last night, and had me awake at 5AM. That’s not an ideal Saturday morning wake up! But we hung out a bit and talked, which is great as he is not yet talking fully. Interesting stuff comes out of that kid. When his parents came at noon to pick him up, we took them and their friend who came with them all down to Casper’s to get ice cream and then go play at the park next door. Casper’s is where Red Button ice cream is made, and they have a shop at the factory where we were able to get eight ice cream treats including banana splits and the like for only $22.

Playing at the park was good fun with the kids. I knew grandson was not going to chase me around in the soccer pitch, so I picked him up, and carried him to the middle where he would have to chase me back. It was all good times from there as everyone got involved in running about and racing each other. Only thing was, I made the mistake of running a race against my two daughters. Everyone in the family assumed I never run, till I did, then they found out I do. Or at least, I can, just fine. I just hope they don’t come to expect that from me more often!

We came home and packed up all the stuff that had been piled onto the dining room table, and got it boxed for an eventual move. When the time comes, we don’t want to be swamped with it. We would rather just have a few personal items and the furniture to pack, and the rest of the decorative and less often used stuff already boxed and set aside. That said, still no nibbles on the property over the road. I don’t know if that is because the agent handles them, and only forwards the serious offers, or because there is no serious lookers at all.

My farmer friend came by with his backhoe and dug the hole for me to put in the water monitoring spout, which is just a 2 1/2 inch black drain pipe. I have to test and measure the water below the surface much the same as one would check the fuel on an old Farmall tractor. Only it has to be surface down measure rather than bottom up.

I split a bit of firewood on the log splitter today, too. The wood I split was all for next year’s pile. It is still wet. I need to cut down to length the wood intended to finish off this year’s pile. More than half of this year’s wood is cut and split and stacked, with only a bit to go to hopefully have enough. If not, no worries! There is always that pile I have been setting aside for next year, in a pinch!

Tomorrow we plan on a quick clean up in the library and the panty, which should go easy. I have some water to top up for animals. Then I think it will be an easy day. We’ll just see what takes us along.

We Are Out Of Eggs

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

We are out of eggs, but we have chickens. Can’t beat that!

Remember the other day when I said I would take the deck off the mower and cut the weeds in the vacant llama pen? I did that today. Now I just need to take the deck off again to get the mower out again. I finished the empty pen, then opened the fence between the pens and cleared all the weeds from the pen Mystique is in. With both pens nice and clean, they look a lot better from the road, and from my point of view! Also, they are ready to take in llamas should the land over the road sell soon.

Our farmer friend forgot to come by yesterday to help me put in the water monitoring pipe I need for keeping the records on our water level under our place for the septic system. It was my fault for forgetting to put in in when we filled the test hole the other day. I will have to see if he can come by this weekend or early next week to help out, at his convenience, of course.

Walking the yard and having the stumps removed has been amazing! The yard looks so much better now! Especially where Old Blue was out front. That was a 65 foot Colorado Blue Spruce that left a large stump out front. Now it is just a bad memory. It was too big a tree to have that close to the house!

The young peacocks are growing just fine so far. They are about seven or eight inches long, and learning to do a little flying now. I cannot tell the gender yet, but they both have crest feathers sticking up on their heads. They are still too small for me to put the chickens back in with them. Who knows, maybe the chicks would leave them alone just as they do the partridge, but I cannot risk it. I don’t want to end up with one being pecked to death! When they are about the size of the chickens, I will probably give it a go. I want the chickens back in their coop by Autumn, or mid Autumn, well before winter. It’d be nice to have the new flock laying in their laying boxes, rather than on the ground.

That’s about all for now. See you again real soon!

We Slowed It Down Today

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

I got up and made breakfast for Missus; beans on toast, topped with fried eggs. It is a long way from her favorite Full Cooked English Breakfast, but it is a part of it, and it sure is good! After feeding the goats and the llama, I sat out back on the granary step with the girls and talked with them a bit, till our son and grandson came by. We sat a bit longer, enjoying the young cats popping up out of the grass like popcorn along the back fence! They would go one and two at a time in a pounce, then out of nowhere, three at once a couple of times. It sure was a sight!

We took the soda cans to town to recycle, then over to our son’s house to check out is dodgy stairs, which I accidentally broke while trying to realign one of the risers. The runner on top fell through! Decided that needed to be fixed right away, so we wet to the hardware and he bought some nails. I got me a new Fiskars hammer to replace the old Estwing I have not been able to find for months now. I am sure not happy about the missing hammer, but this new one is a 20oz. roofing hammer, and I quite like it. It would not hurt to have a few different types of hammers, so that is something I should consider looking into getting. But there are so many tools I need still… so many!

After we fixed the stair, and checked out a few of the other ‘features’ of his house, we came back down to ours, and took some boxes out to storage, then rested and talked a bit.

The sun is setting outside right now, and I have not seen the farmer with his backhoe today. No worries! I am kind of glad! Seems like a nice day to finish off with a restful evening! I think I detect an early night coming!

No nibbles on the field yet, though we have had lookers drive by slowly. It sure would be useful to sell it. We could get a couple of things done on the house, then list it. Meanwhile, just a day at a time, and a bite at a time.

Backhoe

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

My anonymous farmer buddy came by today with his backhoe and did a little digging for me. It was great to see him with that tool! I watched him work and realized just how impossible the tasks I had him doing would have been for me to do with a shovel or something.

He started out right in the back, digging a test hole for a septic system replacement. That started caving in just as soon as he finished it, and by the time I last saw it before coming in for the evening, it was in pretty bad shape. I think I may need him over to re open the bottom of the hole when the inspector comes.

Next thing he dug was an short aspen stump from a tree that died and I had to cut down several months ago. I crisscrossed the top with the chainsaw so it would catch water, and it definitely began to soften up quite a bit, but it was nowhere near the damage Mr. Farmer did with his backhoe! He soon had it torn out of the ground, and I was free of that old mower hazard!

Lastly, Mr. Farmer took out the big stump from the blue spruce tree that we had removed several years ago. It had come loose in a windstorm, and the ground around the base showed cracks, so we had it cut down as it was twice as high as our two story house, and too close to risk a fall! That old stump was pretty rotten, but even with all the force of the backhoe, it would not come easily! Mr. Farmer finally dug around it and broke up some roots before pulling it out.

I have cleaned up most of the debris, and levelled out the yard for the most part where the stumps were. I need a bit more soil from the hole in the back, and I ought to be able to make the yard relatively scar free. Before long, the grass ought to grow back, but hopefully, we won’t be here to see it! Only time will tell. But at least those are a couple of jobs done so that we will have a better looking house to put on the market when the time comes.

I tried to lift the propane tank with the high-lift jack today, and as it turned out, it was easy! I think I will be able to get it up on cement blocks when they are delivered. I sent a message asking for them today. I don’t see this being too big of a problem. When it is done, I will ask for a refill on the tank, then see where our account sits with the propane company.

Next up, I ought to get the downstairs furnace fixed, and running. That should also be a plus for selling the house. We have been heating the downstairs with the wood stove for so long, I cannot even image what it would be like to have that old furnace up and running. I don’t want to heat with the furnace. It is expensive as can be. BUt I need to have it running in case we do actually sell and move.

So that is a bit of an update for today. Tomorrow it is eye exams, the county health inspector, and maybe Mr. Farmer by. I get to have lunch out with my daughters, so that will be a wonderful day for me!

To Done!

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

As per the things I said yesterday that I needed to do today, I got some of them done. Not everything, but a number of things are finished for now, or at least in progress.

I spoke with the propane company about getting the concrete blocks they have to put under the propane tank and lift it up out of the dirt. I’d like to at least do that, if not paint it before we move off, eventually. I was going to put a new one in, till the price skyrocketed for one. We have a little over $900 in credit with them, and that is about how much the cost of a new tank went up by in the last month, and I am not wasting it all just on a price increase. Blocks under the old tank! That’s enough for me!

I cleaned and seasoned several pieces of cast iron today, then wrapped them and put them in the moving box. Seasoning stinks, and I really should look at moving our countertop oven to the garage or something to do the rest of it. Our stovetop sets at the right temperature to season the inside of a pan on it, if I let the pan warm up for about five minutes. I season with olive oil, so that smokes nicely about 550 degrees or so, which is just about where the pans get to on the medium setting.

I set an appointment for the girls and I to get our eyes checked and prescriptions up to date. We will order new glasses at that time, too. It is at Sam’s Club, so maybe we will get a rotisserie chicken also! I will be investing in scratch resistance when I get the new glasses! My goodness, these that I am wearing went terrible pretty fast!

The girls tried to join their meet and greets for school today. The younger was set for 8:45AM, and the teacher had sent a bum link, then never said what went wrong, but she did send an e-mail an hour or more later that didn’t even acknowledge the missed meeting. What a class act! I can’t wait to see what this one is like! The older girl had an evening meet and greet, which turned out to be for the parents of students, not the students themselves, which could have been mentioned in the e-mail invitation, but it wasn’t. Well, the school has a week to get their act together. Maybe next week will be better. I thought today was the first day of school till yesterday. Just one more thing they have not been clear about. Yes, a week to get things together! It ought to do them some good.

My farmer friend delivered two bales of hay this evening. They are 4x4x8 foot bales. Right now that would have cost us $300 for the two, but he gave them to me in trade for the work I did the other day helping him clear hay off 250 acres of his fields before the rain came the next day. He’s a good man. I am really glad to know him. He will be coming back tomorrow to dig a 8-10 foot hole in the back of the house for a new septic system test. He will also help get up a stump in the front, which means I can finally have a level yard up there! I should bring up the little aspen stump next to the side of the house, too. It is a pain to avoid with the mower. It is rotting pretty good, so I could probably knock it down with my chainsaw. But if the guy is here with a backhoe… We talked about plenty of other things too. The world would be a better place if everyone had a farmer friend like this guy. We’ll see if he can get his old backhoe running!

If Mr. Farmer gets his backhoe running, then tomorrow is digging day. I should start out with getting the paperwork filled in for the county inspector. Then we can get the digging done, and I need to try to lift the end of my propane tank with the high lift jack, and see if that is enough to get it sorted for the new concrete blocks under it. If not, I will need to call Mr. Farmer back another day after I get the blocks delivered.

The next day is eye appointments. After that, it is probably good to call packing time.

I did find out from the President of the local water board, who also happens to be my farmer friend, that if anyone wants to buy our field and hook up to the local water, it is going to be a month or so before they expect to issue new water connections, as they are flow testing the current supply source. Someone can always put a well on, or buy now and connect to municipal water later when their house is built. I need to let the realtor know the situation.