Dispatches From The Farm

Listing Animals

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

We are listing animals for sale. I have the pot belly pigs listed, and someone has already said they would like to come pay for them tomorrow and pick them up on Saturday. I will be listing some of the goats soo too. We have a couple of llamas that will need to find new homes as well. Though they are old, or one that is young and needs to breed elsewhere because he is related to the girls we are keeping.

If the pigs do go, then we will lower our feed bill substantially, which is great! I welcome that. It is an expensive hobby to keep animals around for fun. Having some money free should allow us to focus in on other hobbies, too. We plan to get back into this animal business on the other side of a move.

This weekend we relaxed again. Missus has a lot of stress at work right now, and needs these weekends to come down from it a bit, and get her head back to Earth. We had our grandson by, too. That is always fun! We did comb the rabbits, and picked and carded some llama fiber.

This week coming will likely see us putting the new oven in, and hopefully getting that trailer in the front yard cleaned out and moved empty into the back. The weather should be cooler, so I really should get the chainsaws sorted and ready to cut some firewood down to size ready for splitting. I keep putting it off for cooler weather, so I won’t overheat doing it.

My spare time is spent looking for hand tools for woodworking. There are a few I want to get so I can get going on specific projects. There are a few specific tasks I would like to be able to do, and while some could be done with power tools, there is just no need for all the noise and danger of power tools for what I have in mind. It is getting time to order a new tool as soon as it is available from the tool maker, so I am getting excited, if you could not already tell. There is in fact one that I am getting when it is available no matter, even if I have to pay it on credit. It looks that useful. It is a tongue and groove router, and in my thinking, it is going to do a lot more than just allow lapping of wood panels. I see it for inserting backs, making drawers, and even making cabinet drawers with. We’ll see if I am right in only a few days after one comes available!

Missus has shown me a bobbin lace pillow that she likes, and I would love to be able to frame the wood pieces of it for her ready for her to put together the padding and cover. I think we can do this. I’ll need to get her some good wood, rather than doing it in pine and having it causing her troubles to do it being a softer, inferior wood to something like oak, which I think would hold pins for the cover much better.

So that’s where we are at on a Sunday night. The school week is about to start up again, and I have more than a few things to do this week, though none as stressful as helping little one through a meeting with her teacher, or getting her set up for testing, as we did last week!

We Sold A Goat

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

We sold one of our male goats this evening! I am glad to have one out the door and only one more male to go. The one remaining is the mostly all black goat, and the one sold was a black and white one. The buyer wanted to use a payment app that I have never used before, so I got that set up while he was on the way over and accepted payment in the prescribed method. Based on what I see on the classified ads, it is a common method, so I am glad that is set up and I can work with it now.

With that all done, and my confidence up on how to do these things, I am eager to get the rest of the animals sold that we need to sell prior to moving. Maybe tomorrow I will get them listed.

In other news, I was out in the shop today messing about with scraps of wood and the hand tools I have. It was good to work with my hands, and it was good to get a feel for the tools, especially the new scrub plane. I also refreshed a really bad rake handle and put some fresh boiled linseed oil on it. I should probably do that to all the tools this autumn.

Today Is A School Day

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

We are not busy today. But we are! Our youngest is in class this morning, then I have a meeting with her teacher this afternoon right after lunch, then youngling has a test that she has to do to see where her reading level is at the moment. Happily, I think she is doing better than she will admit to herself. Her trouble is, I think she realizes that when she admits to what she can do, and she tries a little harder to do it, she thinks she will have to work harder than she does right now. So today we are going to put in place some ideas to help move her along.

There are no plans for our older boy to come by with his son today. He might turn up on his own, but we don’t know and have no formal plan. Grandson will be over this weekend though, and that ought to be fun!

I have decided to commit to my hand tool workshop, and have a new scrub plane coming in the post today. Despite the status through package tracking indicating that it has been in the local city for the last three days, it looks like it is going to show up on the planned time, unless they drop it off with the post office to have them do the originally planned last mile delivery. Package delivery being the highest anxiety I have today, life is not bad.

The scrub plane is a roughing plane that helps get a piece of wood worked down to shape and size fast, as it removes a lot of material. I have had hits too that it can make a lovely rough finish, but I will have to see that when it comes.

Each payday, I plan on ordering one or two tools (depending on the combined price) and building up the workshop with tools needed to make some furniture. I want to be able in the end to cut down a tree and make a dressing table or chair from it with a relatively decent finish to it. All excess wood will go to the heating arrangement on the house. That’s the goal, anyhow. It is a motivator in moving, too, since I would greatly benefit by having a woodlot of several acres.

Well, I don’t like to talk specifically about my goals because that seems like a temptation for things to go wrong, but there we go. Braving the commitment and the possibility to failing and having to admit it is a lesson I need in my school today.

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!