Dispatches From The Farm

Feeling Better, Planning More

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Where do I belong in the economy? I am no good at marketing, but I am trying to figure it out. I am no good at relentless work, but that’s due to lifelong health issues that I am working on overcoming, but which has to be done at a practical pace, or I risk going right back into it again. I don’t want to do that. It was inflammation that I did not realize was not just normal felt for people, and now that I know the difference, I do not want to go back. But I want to get the most out of me now, because I can. If that makes sense. So I have applied to jobs around and about. I don’t need a fulltime, work overtime and get underpaid job that is out to use me to death. I just need enough to pay the bills and keep the cupboard full and give a little for hobbies and fuel for the tractor and sawmill. I would be good earning a few hundred a week till I can get on my feet with this marketing thing and get some things sold, I think. I need to keep looking this week. There is the transit district, which will put a fella through the training to get a Class B license with a P endorsement, which is to say, licensed to drive more than 16 people on a bus. Just having the class B would be good if it helps to drive the tractor around on a trailer responsibly. That would be worth doing to get that. Then there could be other driving options available if I need it. But the goal still would be to work from home on our own businesses.

I don’t think all the money is in candle making. I enjoy it. I want to make things in the woodshop, too. That is my primary goal. I keep learning where I can, even when it is too cold or too hot to work out there. I would like to get that sorted out. I can work overnight in the summers. I need a better heat source in the winters. Hell, even a good place to pile firewood would make a difference. I really should get that worked out here. Especially since there is no snow piled up and interfering with doing it. Still getting into the idea that I can do things that I am in the habit of not doing thanks to a lifetime of inflammation. I am still not in the habit of just getting at it like the people I envy are. I’ll work on that this week.

Seriously! One of the kids just reminded me that the inflammation has been such that I could not even pile blankets over me in bed without waking up sore from it. I am sleeping warm this winter, which is a change for me! But that’s an example of one of the ways in which life has changed for me, and how stupid it is.

I’ll keep job hunting this week. Building off the firewood cutting I have done this past week, I will see what projects I can keep busy at this week, too. I need to clean up in the shop. I have those classes posted up, and though I don’t think my website gets the traffic required to fill them, you never know! I’d hate to be caught with my shop a mess.

This winter being so generally warm and dry, things here are sure different to what normal is in my mind. I should be taking better advantage of it! I have tried to do a little digging with the tractor, but that spot where I needed to go down a little in the yard if frozen and the tractor cannot get through it. It is a hole I need to dig. But it looks like there is no luck in getting it done right now, even with the weather better than normal. Hey, at least I know for sure there are seasons to the work I can do.

Oh, I want to set up a schedule for tractor work for this year. I need to be able to till gardens to earn some money. I also need arborists to drop logs off at my place at no cost to them, and to help me procure firewood and sawlogs. It’d be all good stuff.

Courses and an Open House

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Today I put together two classes in this website and set them up to sell two tickets each for them. One is a beeswax candle making class and the other is a is class on hand planes. The candle class is $30 for an hour, and the plane class is $60 for two hours. I have them set up for the coming week with room for two pupils per class. I doubt anyone will sign up, but I wanted to see how it is done so I can install the plug-in on Missus Bacon’s site and do the same kind of thing there. It allows me to set her up classes, too, but I need to get the payment portal set up for her to sell classes. So for now, I set up two open house days. Those are free. Then I shared it via Facebook and have managed to drum up a little interest. It is more than I had before, anyway. I have put up posts before and got no interest at all. So this is a great thing! Before bed, I have two listed as going, one of which I think is just me. There are three interested, too. So let’s see how it goes. There seems to be people who are not on my friends list that are interested and going, too. But I am not clear on it, and the numbers match the number of people listed as coming or interested. Really, I am just trying to get around the marketing costs Facebook wants because hey, they make billions, and we have got next to no money at all, and we still need to eat. So, it behooves me to try to get business drummed up on the cheap.

So, if you would like to learn to make beeswax candles, I will be doing a class this coming week on how to make 3/4 inch wide, six to nine inch molded or hand dipped candles. I have room for two. I also have a class on how to tune and use a hand plane for woodworking. We will prepare a board for use on a project. The student can keep the board. We’ll pick it from the woodpile and help them make it useable. The classes both work out to $30 an hour per student. Materials and tool usage is included.

So, this is where we are beginning 2025. Finger crossed we can get some interest and get together some more courses to help others along! I am trying!

This is a test post

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Upcoming Events

Preparing to Publish the Roadside Shopping

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Today’s projects here include some time on the computer and some working with tools. It is a cloudy day and we are not getting any heat on the front porch, so whatever I do, with the bitterness of the cold outside, I’d prefer to work in the house. The next three days will be warm enough to get out and cut and split some firewood. Missus is fixing the warp on one of her larger inkle looms.

I am putting together an outline for a sort of ad to put up on the farm channel on YouTube. I need to know what I am planning on filming, and what I need to voiceover. I want to put together an ad for Antiquary Artisan that I can set up a QR code to lead people to it. Then I can put the QR code on some posters and fliers to put up around town and get people who are interested to come visit the video and see what we have got going. I then can update the video, I think, and change it when things change here, or when there is a new season upon us.

I’ve also put together a page for the website here that will explain the roadside offerings we will be getting fully into by springtime. We want to sell firewood, a bit of lumber, and do some milling on my end of it, and on her end, we have the shop, a share of the farm stand, and a little free library. Anything to encourage people to stop. Missus is a big believer in diversification.

Also today, I have a bit of work to finish up on my wooden candlelit chandelier. I need to put a small, short dado in the backs of all the stars, or maybe I can notch the end of each stick that will hold the stars even easier! Then I can just screw through from the bottom and into the stars to hold them on, along with some glue. That would be much easier. See? This is why I take my time and think. Come up with better ideas! And alas, it has just hit me!

So, now that that just got easier, I need to go get to work!

Chandelier Making

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

I have made progress on this today. I also put a decent cut into my finger on my left had using it as a chisel stop. Not something I did on purpose. It was purely accidental. But making this chandelier is not an accident. It is a prototype. I was intending to paint it black, but the piece of wood that came up was too pretty to do that. I may paint the arms, which are made from cherry wood. They may just get an oil finish. I think it would look good either way. I need to put an eyelet on the top to hang it by, and I need to attach the arms and bottom cap to the spindle. Then I need to put some stars on the ends of the arms, and candle cups to hold the candles from. Then it is done. I am looking for a bright light source to illuminate a space, particularly during a power outage. I’d like to find a nice place to hang it, but as we have electrical lighting installed, that may prove to be difficult. I think the next trick will be to work out component parts that I can make several of at once. Then I can put several of them together at once. Doing this one has shown me some concerns that I would like to resolve prior to going full production. But I look forward to putting some up for sale at the Farmer’s Markets and maybe I can have some ready to ship and put together by the buyer. I don’t think that would be too hard to do. I am currently thinking that the price for one will come in around $250. I was looking at $100 or $150 originally, but the labor required is a lot, and I would have to work something out in my mass production schedule to do that. Some of the parts will have to have specific sizes to do that, then use something like a router to put some of the notches and channels in. That would greatly simplify the project and could cut the cost. But using a hand chisel and doing this kind of work is labor intensive.

We will be opening the art shop tomorrow. I will also be looking for a job of some sort. We’ll see how that goes. I could do with preselling a couple of thousand of the chandeliers, though. I would get right to work on them! They would look great at a wedding!

The weather on the farm is still kind of strange. We still don’t have snow sitting on the ground. Not in any serious amounts anyway. It has reached down below 20F already at bedtime. It will be cold by morning. Well, colder than it is now! The high temps over the next week will be running in the high twenties and low thirties till next weekend, according to the current ten-day forecast. Then it is suggesting that the temps will drop, but we will see, as that is a way out still for the computers to model accurately. Hard to believe it is almost mid-January, and there is not snow on the ground here.

Happy New Year 2025!

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

From my little farm to you, no matter who or where you are, I wish to extend the hopes of the New Year, and the wishes for good health and joy and growth all the year long. May you and yours find happiness and success in this year. And may its seasons offer you the beauty and change that brings opportunity and variety to keep it interesting and beneficial.

We are in a state of flux right now, and while we sort some health issues, we are in limbo. But when we get through and the doctor’s visits are done and the thing is settled, we plan on coming back, because coming back is all there is to do, isn’t it? Onward, always onward. We both will have to work, and hope to have jobs soon, and then once the bills are covered, come back to the businesses that we hope to lift us out of this low point once and for all.

The farm is a little weird this winter, and for reasons I am sure you have noticed where you are if things are the same there. This winter is exceptionally warm. We do not have snow on the ground here. Usually by now the snow that has fallen has begun to stick and will stay till April at least. But it’s not yet. And the forecasts on the ten day show it getting to warm for snow to stay. Today’s Wednesday, and we are expecting 40 for the high on Friday. After that, the highs will skirt highs around freezing, landing each day plus or minus say three four degrees. Will what snow that does fall stick? Or will it be too little? Will it melt in the sunlight?

I have said in past years that this place would have alright winters if they were like Denver was when I was growing up and living there. I’d say that this year, that’s about how we appear to be, though I think I remember some winter days got warmer than this in Denver. But snow definitely melted off and then came back with new storms. Here, we traditionally get snow in the autumn, or by the start of winter that sticks and stays, and we don’t see color till come mid or late April, even May. This year it’s brown outside all the way into the first of January. We are meant to get two inches of snow tonight, but with the high temp set for Friday, I am sure that two inches will be gone by then. So that is what I mean by the place being more like Denver.

What are the consequences of such a change? I have heard people tell me the river is high. I cross the river every school day, and I have not seen it. To me, there seems to be a foot or so between the water level and the top of the mudline along the side. The river runs low, as far as I can see. What’s more, I have places on the farm that always show the level of the water table, and they are showing nothing at the moment. More so, the swale at the bottom of the pasture shows itself several inches lower than I have ever seen it. There is a place where the bottom is showing, and while that is in part due to me putting some sand there a while back, that little pile has never been visible before. So, our water table is down, for sure. I don’t know why someone has given me the anecdote that it is high. But I just don’t see it at all. I watch these water levels because they are indicators to me of what to expect of the year. Last summer was hot and dry. It was very dry. It was dust bowl dry. I could not drive the tractor along slowly without kicking up a tremendous cloud of dust. It didn’t take doing much work before I could not see fifteen feet from the cab. And growing plants in such is just about comedic. The grass around the house did not thrive at all.

When the weather is behaving so, I am not fond of trying to do more than I should with growing. That is one of the reasons we grow our pretty and useful plants in buckets and the like. There is no point putting plants into the ground and trying to make them go where we have to pour massive amounts of water over them to do it, and most of it just runs into the earth and vanishes. Last year we put in a good long row of Lavendar plants, in the hopes of expanding them out over the next few years and making a profit off them. Obviously, they first have to survive the winter, which I think is more likely since we are unusually warm. So, we might get lucky there. Shall we hope? Do, let’s.

We are feeling more inclined than ever to sell out of animals now. The work and the expense for them is not worth it to us. I can see one or two goats staying if we can rehouse them. Their current home stands where the future Lavendar plants are intended to go. We would also like to keep some llamas. Maybe not as many, but some. If I had to choose between the llamas and the goat, though, give me the llamas. Two, at least. But we need to see how we turn up after paying some medical bills. That’s where we really stand to lose the most.

I’d like to put my little display at the Farmer’s Markets up as furnishings and household items from locally grown and harvested wood, then hand made. That is my dream, especially since it would allow me to invest in the ability to make whatever items I want for my house. Imagine a home with custom made furniture, where everything fits where it is. That really appeals to me. I know, that is supposed to be the lifestyle of the uber rich only, but I think that where you create ability, you create possibility. I have tried the local furniture stores, and even when a person spends money, they can only get so much. Now, Maybe I will have a bench too occupied with things that need to sell, but with any luck, I will be able to fit in a few things for us, or even start things off for us before turning them loose for sale. But my skills will improve, and I will get to the point of making faster, and if I am fortunate, I will fit in more than just the quest for cash. I’d like that.

I want to blast through the firewood business, too, since it is a decent byproduct of the process I use to get wood for the shop, and since it also is an effective method of heating our house, too. It’s sensible. Or so it seems. I think I need to list down what I can make right now, then make it and put it up for sale. I will need to caliber for speed for certain tasks in the shop. Accuracy is a given.

So, that’s where we are, and the point from which we begin this year. Let’s carry on!

Will any of it come onto YouTube? I keep trying to do that. I film things, I practice talking to the camera. But the settling down to edit and the idea of making things public just is not settling well with me. But desperate times do call for desperate measures. Should something like that come down to desperation though? Is it even worth it? Will I be able to reap more than I put into it, time being a consideration? I am just not sure of it at all. I am also very unhappy with how my place looks on camera. So, I need to sort that out. Maybe streamlining what we do will make things outside better organized.

So, with all this, Happy New Year to you and yours. I hope the year coming is good, and it is profitable and most of all it brings you good health and happiness.

Lost Hope

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

We got four of the ten chickens out of the coop today. All of the chickens have been living solely off what is put in their feed bowl up till now, and the cost of it for animals that are no longer producing eggs for the winter, and unlikely to in the spring due to their age, is too much for this old farmer to pay. The coop was muddy as can be, and very slippery, so we gave up after four, and will get the rest out another time. We also want to see what habits these four start, and maybe it will be easier to guild them than try to deal with all ten at once. Perhaps we can get them into good habits that will guide the rest when they come out. I’ve no idea. I am not a chicken pro! Just someone who has been raising them over a decade now.

Sending these birds outside is cutting them out of the feed budget, and making them to fend for themselves, which is something they are naturally capable of doing, so I have seen. We can supplement them if need be. It is also putting them at risk of being hunted, especially by owls around here. I hope that with fewer trees in the backyard this year, we will have fewer owl visits. Again, this is on a wait and see basis. I think it is a good thing for them to live outside if they can. It frees them to fend for themselves, which means they get to discriminate what they eat, and look for a healthier diet. They are old by egg laying standards, but they are not according to chicken aging norms. They are all fit and young enough to run and to fight as need be.

I am reducing costs here on the farm, kind of desperately. We are going to have to be very budget minded going forward. We have just come to that point now. We have massive medical bills coming in, and so far, the business has not gone as we had hoped it would. It is honestly very depressing. I have cancelled my standing wax order. I’d love to start that up again but won’t till I get through the stockpile I have at hand. I am looking for a job now and will try to keep the business end of the farm open and try to build it up still. I’ll have to take it more seriously than ever, too. I am honestly at a loss here. It’s no lie to say that. It is no lie to say I am not sure how to move forward. But that does not matter. Just keep moving. Move harder than ever. Make it mean something. Surely it can be done.

The Online Farm Shop Updated and Open

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Most of the products re listed and have photos on the shop now. I have a couple of more to do, but I can easily and happily call the shop open right now. There are candles and tool wax in it. There are candles mad in molds, six and nine inches tall. There are candles that are hand dipped. Some I dip with no weight at the bottom, and those come out rather primitive looking. The weighted wicks are candles that are hand dipped, but come out straighter than the unweighted ones. In neither case am I working to create a very straight and neat candle, as I am looking for primitive appearing options. As I continue to develop my own skills as a candlemaker, I will try for nicer finishes, and maybe even larger candles.

The second option in the shop is tool wax. Tool wax is for applying to the surfaces of various shop tools, or even thread at the sewing table. Applying the wax will lubricate the tool against the wood and allow it to glide more easily over the surface, easing the effort the woodworker puts into the work. This is a practice done in traditional woodworking and has been done for centuries.

Tool wax applied gently to the sole of a Lie Neilsen 60 1/2 block plane.

Weights are approximate and sizes, too. Nothing is mechanically made, and at best are the result of wax poured in molds, and at worst, are the result of dipping until a candle is made and it looks right. Candles sizes may vary due to this, and because the process is done by eye and is a human process. That is what I believe lends authenticity to the candles as a primitive piece.

My goal as a candlemaker is to help you to provide for your colonial recreation, scene, or house. Maybe you just prefer the look of handmade, or it contributes to your hand made birthday cake to have hand dipped candles on top. I sell the candles in pairs, however, I am not sure who would want to put more than one candle on their cake once they have reached a certain age. And believe you me, I have reached and surpassed that age! But to each their own, and buy as many as you need. Once you need more than ten pairs of birthday candles, contact me for a bulk discount. You certainly deserve one. I can apply a Senior Citizen’s discount again for thirty pairs or more!

I have to do a flat rate for shipping right now. I know this is not ideal. But I will be happy to consider shipping for free once a total has reached $100 or more in candle and wax sales. Simply add a few items to your cart, and then add the $10 flat shipping fee. If the total of the items in your cart totals more than $100, then just don’t add the shipping fee. It’s that simple. If the total is $99.99 or below, and the shipping fee is not added, I will be forced to cancel the order and refund the total. I cannot make exceptions, and I do hope you understand! Meanwhile, I will work on getting the shipping sorted out and make this easier! You are ordering from a very small business, and this kind of thing comes with the territory.

Thank you for having a look and looking at my shop!

www.thepeasantsmanorfarm.com/shop/

Fixing Up the Back Yard

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

The other day I had some time around the house by myself, so I fired up the tractor and roamed around the back yard with the box blade hanging down to the ground, pulling along sticks that were left from the felling of the tree, and leveling down the high spots in the area around the stump of the old tree. I’d have that stump down to the ground level, and out of the way, but it is massive, and my saw has not been keeping sharp. It is as though they are making it to dull out after one use. I cannot keep an edge on it, and I don’t know why.

Levelling the yard out is of course part of my master plan to make a space little ones can run freely in without us having to worry about them, and to consolidate where we have to mow, to make it easy to care for and keep looking good. Ever since the riding lawn mower up and died, and the price of those things went out of control, I don’t have the option to do anything for the lawn but a small push mower or even scythe it. I need a clear, easy path for either. Scything can work just fine, but the space is best open and with long, straight walking paths, rather than twists, turns, and worst of all, metal fences to keep getting the blade tangled up in.

The sky still has not laid our winter blanket over us, to cover till spring, of snow and frozen whiteness. As I type this at nearly six in the morning, it is 11F outside, equal to yesterday’s low. These are snow holding temperatures on the low end. The highs are just popping over freezing at the moment. Definitely still snow holding. But it just has not fallen! It’s Wednesday today, and the forecast shows that we should be picking something up over the weekend. It’s dry this year.

Speaking of dry, the water table remains low. I have not seen increase in the level where it is exposed, particularly the canal bottom, or the swale. The canal bottom is dry, no puddles in it. The swale, which is lover in elevation than the canal, is showing the high spot I created when I experimentally dumped the dirt into one spot to see how it formed. Of course, that failed as any kind of bridging base. But now it is fully exposed and could be walked over as far as it was dropped originally. I could get half-way across the swale! I’d like to bridge it once and for all, but to do it without timber or the like, I would need broken old concrete or something like that to build a stout base, then pour dirt over that. I’d be perfectly happy to reach part way with the dirt and concrete, then make a short wooden bridge for the difference.

Well, the clock is ticking, and the time to get up and get the kids out to school will arrive very shortly. Then it is time to figure out the day, and what’s next. Hopefully Missus will join me today and has had enough of her medical break away from home. That’s been a whole different issue, and one that has been difficult. But it’s personal. So, it need not be spoken of more. Suffice it to say, we’d like her home from hospital and on the mend now.

Missed Markets, and Why

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

We have had a tumble and missed the market on Monday and will miss Saturday’s as well. Missus has had a nice little visit to the ER, then the ICU and is at the moment I am typing this working on getting downgraded to a regular ward in the hospital, then sent home. But that will take a moment more, and then we will be back on our feet and fighting again. For now, we get to take our breath and be where we are at.

We may be reassessing the business, and how we are getting at it. But we will be getting at it. Just give us this minute. We look forward to getting up to it at another market soon, and we will let you know where and when.