Dispatches From The Farm

Lavender Farm Commences

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

We received the Lavender plants on Thursday, the girls and I laid in the landscape fabric in on Friday, and we all put the plants into the ground today. I still have some mulch to spread, but once that is done, and unless I need to buy and put in more mulch, we are done. It’s just a matter of watering while we still can this season, and letting the plants sit in over winter. Then we will see how they take off next year. So long as they do well, we can then begin to propagate the plants and get the animals ready to move across the street. That will clear up this side for a full-fledged lavender farm over here. We have put about $750 into this project so far, excluding a Domino’s order today. It’s cheap wages for the amount of work we got done!

Some of you will already see what is wrong with this picture. It will get fixed, and not just Photoshopped!

So, what’s the plan? We think there is an opportunity for a decent profit if we manage a lavender farm correctly and work out some good ways of selling it. We will have to see how it does over the next year or two, then see if we can start out selling in the Farmer’s Market ’till we are ready to have guests on the farm to self-harvest. The next goal is to sort out contracts with buyers and sell to oil producers, or to soap makers, or even florists.

Our one strip has 50 plants to begin with. Missus thinks that by next year we should be able to triple that, then triple that again the next. So, I have really got all of next summer to worry about moving the animals. I’d very much like to have water access put in by then as well, even though Lavender plants don’t require much that way. It would be helpful to that whole half of the yard, which will always have much more than just Lavender in it.

For now, my job now includes to mind those plants and make sure they are doing well!

So, I put down some mulch around the plants, then looked up how much there should be, and the answer is “none.” So, I get to clean up! Maybe tomorrow!

Up close, looking down the row. I had not yet added the mulch that is in the bags on the edge. But eventually I did, and now I get to clean it all up!

Finishing Up the First Bent

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

It has been a busy day today, and not we are in the hot part of the day. But among the unloading of the truck from the Farmer’s Market and setting the dehydrator running, I have nearly finished the first bent for the woodshed. I just need to peg it together now, as I have decided that will be required to compensate for messy joints. I am not very good at my joints yet, but as much as I would like to, I also cannot blame the tools. They feel fine in hand. If there were one I could improve, it would be the mallet I made on the lathe some time ago. It has too much mass along the shaft. I could hit lower, but then there would be too much mass beyond the striking point, and that is certainly not good either. In fact, with such a long mallet head, I have found it is better to hit further up the head. The mass is kind of nice, but it hurts the wrist delivering it to the blow. So, I could do with putting a new mallet blank on the lathe and doing that up with a more striking design!

One thing that has surprised me about the mallet is the finish on it. I put boiled linseed oil on it when I made it maybe a little over a year ago, and that has held up. It is distinguished from the wood inside where it has begun to blow apart quite like it was a layer of varnish.

I think the question now is, do I put up a post and connect it to the bent, do I brace the bent stood up, or do I just make a second bent, then put up a whole bay at once? I am so eager to see something on the shed standing, and to get a real idea of the height of it! But to simplify putting it together, I think I should build the next bent at least, maybe even the next two, then put it up by bay(s). Once it is up, it will be joined and difficult to make adjustments. Putting it up all in one day would be a much greater reward! Then I could tune it all at once and start nailing siding on ready for the wood. After that, I could put the rafters on and purlins and roofing. That would give me the pile of wood inside to walk on while doing that roof part! I am putting beams in lower that will hold it together while I fill it.

Oh! There is the flooring to do, too! Ha ha! I almost forgot that! That could be a bit of a challenge! But nothing that cannot be overcome by owning my own sawmill! If need be, I will just cut the flooring an inch and a half or two thick. The real question about flooring then becomes one of spacing. I could do a shiplap or tongue and groove, or I could leave gaps for airflow. Being that the building is for firewood, I think that is the direction I will go. I am thinking the same for the siding. The place really wants airflow for drying wood. Another thing I could do, however, is to really get a year ahead on the wood, then dry it out of the building then load that in the autumn for winter use, and let the building be more waterproof. So the siding would be closed tighter. Keep the gaps in the flooring, and put some ventilation up top under the eaves, and allow any further drying as air moves through the building between the top and the bottom.

Honestly, I will be interested in seeing how long the whole structure lasts as it is sat on cinder blocks for a foundation. The winter should be great, and the summer and autumn, too! It’s that mud season that some anticipate as ‘springtime’ that I worry most about! The whole pace turns into a mud hole then! If there were ever a time a building would sink into the mud, it’s then!

I’d like very much to work out a nice finish on this thing, and some decorative aspects to it. I don’t know how that will go to plan. I am also not sure if I will tear oud some fencing to make the thing accessible or just access it through the existing gates. I think I will move the woodpile into the shed before I work that out once and for all. I don’t really have a plan, no. Just want to build and see how things turn out. Hey, that’s me! Enough for now. I am needed elsewhere at the moment!

Sundy Morning Update

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

It was a quiet day on the farm here in the valley yesterday as far as I know. We were gone by 8:00 AM. We took our daughters and grandson down to Hill Airforce Base to have a look around the museum there. It was amazing to see in person the B-52, the C-130, the Wright Flyer, and the many other aircraft in between. There was so much history there! We walked around two building full of aircraft, including the P-51, which was amazing to be able to see up close. But when we walked into the third building and I pointed out to Missus that the SR-71 was in the back corner, she looked at it, then looked at me and smiled and said, “We can go home now.” That was all she wanted to do. See her favorite plane of all. It’s the lines, the color, and the design that she loves so much. I love that it’s the fastest piloted aircraft ever made, that it is made of Russian titanium from a time when it was a feat to get hold of it, and that the plane changes temperature so much in flight that while it leaks fluid like crazy, it all expands with the temperature and stops leaking in flight.

We got home late in the afternoon and did our chores and kept our feet up for the most part. For me a day of walking around after a day of helping Missus to clean up the granary and shed and other chores would have normally killed me. But since going on a diet, I have been able to keep at it, then go to bed feeling as good as I did when I woke up in the morning. I cannot think of a time in my life when I have been able to do that! Even as a teen, I would do a day at school then a shift at work in the grocery store, and that was more than enough to leave me sore as can be. It’s come as such a surprise to me that a change in diet could accomplish such a massive change in how I have been feeling! I have always suspected that other people have had it much better than me on this score, but not knowing first-hand what “normal” feels like, I could not have ever been sure. I just knew I could not keep up, and that I have been called lazy for it. That hurts. But there is no point in being bitter for it. Best to just keep at work and get things done and make this farm look the way I want it to. It’s a far shot from it now, so there is plenty to do this autumn.

Today Missus has our daughters and I for cleaning up some more around the house. She has more art supplies than anyone I have ever heard of. So we are trying to break the back of some cleaning and get her better organized and set up for success. She has a hard time finding things now, and too much stuff out to be worked on too. It’s difficult to move around, and we need to get some breathing room in the house.

I’d like to get the posts stood up this week on the woodshed. I was wanting to get the posts prepared and dressed for it, but the weekend has had other things in store, and that’s just fine. I figure the week is mine.

It’s Farmer’s Market week this week. It’s been getting darker at the Market with the winter sun on its way. I bought some lights for the stall, and a cord to plug them in with. I put them in an extra aluminum box I had sitting around the shop wasting space. Now the shed is clean, I can store it in there, and clear one more thing out of my shop!

A clean shop has been one of my side goals while working on the shed. I will work on the shed while I can, then if it gets too hot in the sunlight, I go into the shop and clean a bit. I have genuinely made progress at that, and I think this winter will be the best yet, as the shop will be usable, rather than stuffed with junk dumped into it for the season. It’s not much of a shop, especially for show. I don’t even have anything like drywall in the building. Bare studs face into the building. I am pretty sure that if I do cover them, I will do it with shiplap. After all, I can make that all day long.

So, that’s where things are at here on the farm for today, Sunday, September 22nd, 2024. Well wishes to you, dear reader. Thanks for stopping by!

Cleaning Up A Bit, Feeling Good!

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

What a perfect evening out! I was out to close the gates, and the light and temperature were absolutely as I could want it. I am inside now, and Missus is watching Shakespeare and Hathaway on the television. Scenes are filmed around Stratford Upon Avon, including outside the house Shakespeare was born in, and in a pub with deep ambiance of old England. It’s called The Mucky Mallard. The Tudor houses and the bricked roadways sure add to a certain feeling of the beauty of the world.

I was at work with Missus shortly after getting up today, and I have kept busy with her and various projects around the farm for all day till dusk. From cleaning in the shed and granary to cleaning in the yard, feeding animals, and repairing some siding on the barn. In spite of all of it and being on my feet for most of the day, I never got sore or felt tired. A month ago, I would have had a day like this, but it would have taken me four days to do it all, and I would have been sore from all of it. Since my change in diet, I have been feeling so much better. I think this must be what normal feels like, and boy, what a difference it’s making in my life! Today was simply amazing. It will sure be hard to go off my diet. I suspect the thing that I eliminated that eased all the pain was the sugars, or even the bread and grains. Whichever, I don’t want it back at any price for the sake of how much pain I am not feeling now.

The workshop is cleaner today, too. I did a bit of work in there, then I also got some wood out when I patched up the barn. Maybe this coming week while I work on the barn, I can take some time out to put together the wood for the kitchen island and put a flat surface on it. I have got my head around what is required to do this job just well enough I think I can go on and do it. That would clean a huge bit of wood from the shop, and that alone would make it more than worth doing. I suspect the wood is more than dry enough by now, and certainly settled with the humidity.

I am feeling good about the woodshed right now. I have the corners morticed and temporarily pegged together. The permanent pegs will be the tenons on the bottoms of the posts. I have to cut in the mortices for the top beams before I can get the posts stood, and the tenons for the beams to hold them in place, proper. I also need to put in a couple of dovetailed floor joists across the center to keep the long run of the floor from spreading apart as the sills are joined in the middle because none of the wood was near the length required to make them up.

I have also got a signpost in mind to hold up the signs for the farm and or Antiquary Artisan. I think if I put in a fence post set in concrete then build basically the flagpole I saw on New Yankee Workshop, then bolt the metal sign hangers together through it. It doesn’t need to be terribly tall. Ten to 15 feet ought to be more than plenty. It will make the post square in shape rather than round. That suits just fine given the age I am going for in the decorating of the farm. I’d set the whole place up Colonial if possible.

So, it’s been a busy day, yet an easy day. Our grandson is here for the night, and we have been enjoying his company since he arrived this afternoon. A good day is always a little better with him by. He’s just off to bed now, and I need to wrap this up soon and get a shower.

Last thing: while cleaning in the shed today we found a few of the stained-glass tools and made the glass supply accessible. I want to get some practice in with that soon and add a little something to a wood project in the near future.

Goodnight!

Woodshed Progress

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

I have moved on a bit with the woodshed, arriving at a point where I need to cut a few more timbers, and consider the final design that I am going to go with. As much as I would like it to resemble an old English cottage, it has to be open on one side, and it is best if it is breathable on at least one more. Since sunlight will help to dry the wood inside it as well, the south wall needs to expose the interior completely. It is positioned for that, as that is where it will need to be accessible. So it looks like it will look like an animal shelter when it is done. I will be able to just squeeze about eight and a half feet out of the top height of the tall side, the one facing south, and the back, or north side, will probably come in around seven or so. Even though the longest I could do in sills took the length of the shed down to about 17 feet four or so, I think the final shed will still be able to fill completely and hold enough wood for the entire winter, using it as the primary heat source.

So, I am foreseeing a two-bay shed that will stand on a whole bunch of cinder blocks for a foundation. I would love to be able to close that off completely, leaving the bottom as just an empty cavity, but of course there are not enough to finish fully closing it in, so I will have to be able to do with what I have got here. The idea is to build this as cheap as possible. I only anticipate buying a bag of nails to keep the purlins on and the siding on the purlins, and places like that; the flooring and such. The frame is meant to be timber framed. Every bit of wood will come out of logs and off my sawmill. As such, the wood members will be robust. I am cutting the siding at an inch thick, and even though a good deal of it will go on green, I think it will still come in at over three-quarters of an inch thick when it is dried.

When it is finished, I expect I will put up a place to hang a lantern so I can see alright when I go out to get wood. Seems like a good idea, as long as it is secure, and the lantern cannot fall and set the winter’s wood on fire!

As for my work on it today? It is raining, so I am not. Documenting the ideas and progress instead! The rest of the week shows a small chance of rain with the temps falling in at the low seventies, so as long as it is dry, it ought to be great! More progress! I’ll start with some milling tomorrow.

Interesting. There is a tree trimmer on the road cutting back trees that are encroaching upon the power lines. The truck just drove past the tree that arced and set in motion the truck coming out here in the first place. Ain’t that typical?

Mindless Cleaning

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Since seeing the doctor, and him helping me clear up some diet issues, I had a whole week of no pain from my arthritis. But last night, and today, I had a lot of pain in my hips. Did having some peanut butter ruin my diet? This I do not know, but to be fair, it could just be the workload I have put on myself while the pain was cleared up. And with a whole week of no pain. I surprised even myself at how eager I found myself being at all times to get up and do some work.

I started off doing some cleaning in the shop. It was not a lot to begin with, but by today I got after a lot more, and finally put what is left to be done on the workbench along one wall. This means there is just the one wall of stuff to do any hardcore sorting out on. It is the worst part of the shop; don’t doubt it. But with all the rest done, and even some really dramatic cleaning done already, the remainder does not look intimidating at all. In fact, aa fair chunk of what is in front of the bench is just wood that is in for a couple of future projects. I have another pile in front of the kiln, but that one just needs me to get at it. That one is for the kitchen island worktop, and I want to be sure it is as dry and stable as possible before I get to cutting and gluing it. It should be fine by now.

I put in a few magnets to put my gentleman’s saws against in the saw till today, too. It is time to get a few tools put up that don’t yet have a home. I also decided to put some back in drawers rather than keep them out. They are too much laying around on worktops, even though they are absolutely beautiful.

My mind keeps drifting off today and thinking about the kids and my siblings who are spread across three states from Washington to North Carolina. We’re kind of a mess. It also keeps wanting to drift away and think about mom. Mom is buried in far eastern Utah. The thoughts keep wanting to be sad, but then I quickly remember what a spark she was and let that rule my mind. I need to get this cleaning done and get on some projects that will be complex enough to take over my train of thought and keep me from floating away on dreams of togetherness. After all, I know that’s what I am really longing for.

First Frost of 24-25!

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

And Some Problems with Our New Llamas!

I was out today feeding the animals when I went past the gourd plants and noticed there was something amiss with the leaves. They were blackened and shriveled up.

Oh yeah! August 29th, and we have had frost already! This in the place that had its last frost on the 17th of June this year, and the summer temps were quite warm!

The weather station recorded 0.5° F warmer than frost, but it sits nine feet or so above the ground, and around the front of the house. I guess that must have been enough to make a difference.

While I was feeding the animals I noticed a truck slow down in front of the house and honk its horn out of sight around the willow tree. I checked that out and found it was one of the new llamas we received late last night while we were out to the Farmer’s Market! I barely had time to see the new llamas at all yet, and suddenly one is out in front of our house. The llamas are called Kyle and Sheldon. The brown one, Sheldon, was the one in front of the house. Luckily one of the neighbors came up and stopped just in time to help me get Sheldon into the yard and caught. He was easy to lead and seems a very well worked llama. But I needed Missus to come out to help mind him while I set up his pen.

After getting Sheldon sorted out this side for a minute, I went over to see how Kyle is doing and found him in the canal. That required me getting Missus to help me get a rope on him and throw it to the other side of the canal so we could lead him away from the Russian Olive trees that are everywhere on the north side. We ended up walking him all the way down to the East Gate trying to find a place he could climb up, but never found one better than the embankment next to the gate. But that had deep mud under the water there, so it took me finally putting down the embankment ever so slightly with the tractor bucket, then pulling him WITH the tractor to get him up to the top of the embankment. This was about two hours of work, total. We did try not to pull him up with the tractor, after all.

We finished up pulling him out just as the alarm for me to get the girls sounded. Yeah, it was that kind of day!

A Sore Sawyer’s Tale

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

I got the sawmill tuned up a bit this morning, and ready to run. It’s not perfect as the bed could use some flattening, but then, one sets boards down flat to dry and to allow any odd shapes to come out. Why could they not come into the board if one were correcting a very slight malformation caused by a slightly off saw bed? I’ll give it some more work when I am feeling better, but for now it is tuned enough.

I put a new blade on to try to correct some wave in the cuts, too. That worked instantly. I cut a four-and-a-half-foot pine log to test it all out, and once the blade was on, the cuts were immaculate. I put the boards right into the shop to dry out of the sun, though at the moment they are stood on end, and I put AcnchorSeal on one end. I’ll have to flip them and coat the other end soon.

By 11:30AM I was out of order. Arthritis pain got to be too much, and I could not work any longer. A quick lunch, some painkillers and a nap soon followed. It’s coming up to 2PM now, and I am waiting for the time to come when I can take a second round of painkillers to give a try at something different than I have already had. But that’s all by-the-by.

The boards I got from the board were fairly dry at the ends and pretty wet in the middles. I have a selection of one inch thick and a couple of two inch, and even a 1/2 inch thick one. There are also slabs from the outside edges that I may clean up and try to laser etch something into. If not them, there are the natural edge rough cuts first in from them that I may try as well.

The test log went fine, but next I need to cut up some of the big poplar trees I have out back and get a few boards, some beams, and some posts from them. I am not sure how fast I will get through that project if my body is not going to hold up for very long at the work. But I will give it a try and see. I expect to try another log later today. I just need those painkillers to kick in!

Started On the List – Already

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Second to last on the list in the last post was to get winter hay. That may have fallen into my lap this year. One of the neighbors has some hay that has a bit of mold in it. It is not great, but it is not horrible, either. Since I have livestock that is not milking, and have had such hay before, I am happy to take it at the discount he is offering and sort out the good stuff for the animals to eat.

The neighbor suggests the hay bales weight 1,200 pounds. They are six string bales of grass, 4x4x8. I can’t be sure, but I think he may be right, or even underestimating it. My tractor could not lift it off the top of a three-bale stack, but I was able to lift and knock it off, then lift it from the ground, so I was all set to carry. I brought it over and set a pallet next to the goat pen, then set the bale and opened it up there. It is in a place where I can lift the daily feeds without having to go over the dirt drive, which turns into a mud bog in the spring. I’d like to set this up somehow, so I don’t end up stuck in the mud like in previous years. I need an even better location, but this will do for now, and there is a lot of dry and snow and ice till mud season comes.

I got the mill-head on the saw today. It was a challenge to do it alone, but I got it. Now there is more work to do to get it rolling smoothly, but that will be fairly straightforward, though not necessarily easy. We’ll see.

The rest of today is a restful day. There is a couple of hours till I go to bed. I may go up and clean in my den, as it needs it! Or I may sit here. Thanks to the neighbor with the hay, I have already fed the animals!

End of Summer Break

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Summer officially ends three weeks into September, but the end of summer break is already here on this little farmstead. The wind kicked up last night and the temperature dropped, with today and tomorrow’s high expected to reach 76°F before we warm up a little again. All workable temperatures! On top of this, my wife’s sister flew back to the UK yesterday, and we have confirmation that she is landed and home safe now. That’s all good news, apart from her actual leaving. We all really enjoyed her stay! She’ll be missed till next time she can come out for a visit.

So, what does this all mean? I have a few projects I need to get going that I did not want to try to consume Sister’s time with while she was here. Just didn’t seem fair on her while she was only out for a couple of weeks, and I wanted to be sure she got her break from work while she had the chance. There was plenty for her to do here without putting her into a hole in the ground, or under a falling tree!

  • Chop down the poplar tree in the back yard
  • Septic system renewal
  • Chimney cleaning and repair
  • Patch roof in dining room where chimney has leaked
  • Saw all the logs in the yard down
  • Build the woodshed
  • Build fuel storage building
  • Build Market Stand for front of house
  • Organize tractor implements
  • Build yard fence
  • Clean the barn and bring in stuff from in front of it
  • Get the last of the firewood for winter
  • Get more sawlogs
  • Finish resetting the sawmill to new temp location, then start shed/platform for it
  • Clean my shop
  • Clean up the upstairs
  • Restart candlemaking
  • Service the tractor
  • Clean and finish the front porch
  • Make bedside table/cabinet
  • Paint and service the balcony door
  • Get winter hay
  • Wire in Christmas light outlet

I am sure there is a lot more that I am not remembering, or there are many things to do that are too small to bother listing, like cutting the herb garden, or finishing out the gourd growth for the year and drying them properly.

On top of all this, I need to get an income produced here as we are running to the end of our savings, and it is high time we get it figured out.

Our grandson has been with us since Friday afternoon. It was just easier all around if he stayed with us then went to the airport to drop his Aunty off. He is seven, and was perfectly aware of Aunty leaving, and broke down in tears as she was saying goodbye. It was such as sweet little moment that he got the others crying too. Happily, that didn’t affect me, as I was the one assigned with the driving. Anyway, his folks will be over to pick him up today around noon. That usually means a visit, and that is just fine and restful, which we could all use before we let loose the kraken tomorrow.

Finally, I have decided that if I am ever going to put anything up on the YouTube channel again, I need to get filming it very soon. How I will fit that in with actually doing everything on the list above is well beyond me! But for a laugh, I thought I’d mention it.