Author: Steve Hardin

Freezers moved, winterizing begins

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This has been a very productive last couple of days. Mr Rainman and the Apprentice came out on Sunday. The Apprentice is coming down with something and slugged through the weekend but it wasn’t easy. She managed to get the dirt shoveled mostly into one end of the new bridge. We think that there was a blacksmith shop right outside the old house next to the creek. There would have been water in the creek then and we are finding layers of coal scraps and a whole lot of iron scraps and horseshoes. They were storing coal in the old woodshed on the right hand side. The space is about 11×4 feet and has a side door on one end so you could really toss in the coal. There is a high hole cut into the wall at the far end to allow you to unload coal into the storage area.

We emptied the big freezer into coolers, unplugged it and hooked up a heater to blow into it while we went out and worked on the coal side of the wood shed. I had “borrowed” the wife’s really good (expensive) hair dryer in case I needed to get the ice out of the freezer, but the heater was the bomb and had it all melted out in a few hours. We kept wringing out towels, finally used a plastic tray to catch the melting ice.

I sprayed foam insulation into the cracks of the walls in the woodshed. Unfortunately, the can top was leaking and spraying foam all over my hands. I refused to quit using it and ended coating both hands with foam. I have only ever done this one other time and it was years ago. Thirty minutes later I realized why I had only ever done it once, its miserable. The only way to get the stuff off your hands once its dry is to peel the skin off your hands. This does not work out well until day 2-3.

We unwrapped the old billboard vinyl sign I purchased and attempted to get it on the walls and floor of the space. We got it about 80% installed before we needed to go get the freezer moved and filled again. The vinyl is 6 mil and was not very expensive, a 14×44’ sign was only $125. The idea is to line the entire inside of the room with vinyl and with the new metal screen over the window opening I think we can get to a fairly bug free storage area for all of the bee hive extras. We are going to use the metal hanging shelve holders as a way to put our frames up on the wall and hanging free. I think Mr Rainman and I can finish the room in one more day and then we can fill it up with all of the supplies.

We were amazed at how easy it was to move the large freezer! It’s the only one we actually emptied prior to moving. We got to the freezer room entrance and could not get the handle portion of the front door through the opening. Nope, we could not just take off the door handle. We had to move it back out and take the entire door off the freezer and then put it back on once the freezer was through the doorway. Hamburger is in the small chest freezer, fruit and vegetables have a couple of shelves in the small upright along with lamb and the tall freezer has beef and a little pork. We have another pig coming soon. One can never have too much bacon as evidenced that there is no bacon left in the freezer.

Mr Rainman and I got the stock trailer hooked up to the pickup and backed right up to the corral. In the morning we needed to sort sheep and load them up so I could drop them off. Afterwards, I spent about an hour shoveling dirt into the low spot by the gate in front of the bridge. It won’t get filled in by itself.

Monday started at 0600 by attempting to chase the sheep into the barn. They were down in the barn lot area and went to the back of the barn easily, but we could not get them to go into the barn. Mr Rainman and I were not effective. I went and got the puppy, Chance , put her on a lead rope and she had them in the barn in about three minutes. She is doing great! Stays when I want, lays down on command. She broke once but went back down within three feet of the original spot. I really think that by next spring we will have the “off” command (down) drilled in well enough that we can stop her even when she cannot stop herself. She is almost there. Mouse pouted as he had to stay in the yard. Mr Rainman took one of the best pictures of a sunrise we have seen on the farm.

It was still dark outside so we did a light check in the barn, our first one when it was actually dark! The lights are amazing and are going to make things very easy this winter. We tried to just push all the sheep to one end of the barn then I wade in and snag all of the boys. I did this four times and we could not find the fifth boy. The stupid rams kept trying to mount the pregnant ewes so we decided to pull them off, it was time anyways. We have two rams and 40 pregnant ewes and four whethers, not five. The coyotes ate our lamb, we had the other four sold. I dropped off the lambs without any difficulties and Mr Rainman spent the day winterizing the watering system and trimmed the lavender.

Field #1 ready for animals, still not completed

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Monday was spent fencing some more in field #1. A new fence around seven acres is no small feat. Not to mention the new section is curved like a C so it makes it painful to stretch. I really wanted to get the fence up so we could let the animals in to eat grass. The road side and wheat field side have an old fence that needs repaired. Unfortunately, sometimes the repair is more painful than just stringing up new wire.

The Apprentice and I got the last 500’ of fence up and even got it all clipped onto the T posts with a single strand of smooth wire on top. I used a four foot piece of pipe as a cheater bar to really crank down on the fence tighteners until the fence started to sing when I ratcheted up the tightener a notch. I opted to not install the wooden stays yet. I wanted to get all of the fence up and without the stays the fence will hold the livestock. Mr Rainman and the Apprentice can get all of the wooden stays on three sides of the field installed on Wednesday while I am at the paying job.

So we went to the far end and worked on the ditch crossing and did battle with the downed black walnut tree. It landed right where we needed to install a railroad tie and put the ditch crossing in place. We managed to get it installed and the paneling cut and in place. The last thing was to install the gate and we had it done enough. Which was a good thing as both of us needed a day off and no fencing. The Apprentice has collected an astounding amount of bruises and scratches in the last two weeks.

Annmarie is inspecting our hives and deciding whether we are going to get any honey this year. The bees split and they have not managed to make as much honey as last year so far. So I don’t know if we are going to get to harvest any.

The quail are everywhere! It is amazing to see how many we have this year. They are really calm and just run around everywhere.

We did have one of the brown alpaca just keel over dead Sunday night. The nephews found it on Monday. It was one of the old ones and was mighty skinny. I had been giving it the side eye every time I saw it when I was headed down the driveway. We now have 10 alpaca. It’s plenty and at least five of them will just come right over to the cars for a treat. If you open the trunk on the wife’s car they will just push up to the hatch opening and expect something. They are so insistent at that point that they will even let you touch on them until they get said treat.

Freezer room closing in

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I had a plan on Sunday to get the freezer room almost done. I knew I would not be able to install the insulation in the ceiling as I need it purchase one more roll first. I figured if I could get the last section of the wall covered and then I could use something on the ceiling to hold the insulation up. I wasn’t sure what but I have two full sheets of wood paneling and 1/2 sheet of 3/16” plywood. I think it’s enough to cover the ceiling. After I got the siding up, four separate pieces of varying types and sizes of siding, I figured I could use the scraps of 1×4 boards I had used for trim in the office. I had just enough to cover the ceiling liberally and make it easy to install the paneling. Paneling is not designed to be hung upside down and it will need a lot of wide headed screws to hold it up. This took a lot longer than I had anticipated. Piecing things together may not cost much in materials but it does cause you to use a lot more screws and a lot more time.

I cut off a little piece of the thick bathroom future countertop, after sanding two edges I glued them together. I need to cut a triangle shape and was missing about two inches of the tip of one triangle to complete the top. I will leave it glued and clamped for a few days as I will not be able to work on it until then. I will need to put a new blade on my skill saw before I cut the triangle. I plan on sanding it all down first up to 80 grit, cut the proper shape and then finish sanding it. I was hoping I could crawl underneath the counter and screw up from the bottom to hold it in place, but I don’t believe I will be able to do that. I don’t really want to just use glue. I may have to drill four holes in it, about 1/2’ deep and then attach it directly from the top then fill it with a walnut dowel glued in and sanded down. I am going to have to use a polyurethane coating to seal the top. I need something that can get dusty and will be easy to wipe off when its cleaned. This is still an idea that is incubating, hopefully by the time its sanded down I will have finalize my attachment and finishing plans.

I have two very nice pieces of three foot by 20” chunks of two inch thick black walnut. I am unsure where I am going to use them. Once the freezer room is done and the freezers are moved I will start working on my office area. I have the inner door (old wooden exterior door), it just needs a new opening created that will hold it. My current door opening is not square and about an inch too short and too narrow. I will have to reframe the top and one side to make it fit correctly. I keep fluctuating on what I will setup in the man room. I believe I am going to setup the reloading equipment on one side and then start working on a jewelry bench on the other side. I will need to keep an eye out for a scrap kitchen hood to use as a soldering exhaust hood. Annmarie is so happy with her indoor “grow” super quiet vent fan that I think I will use that as the suction source for the ventilation.

This will get the room closed up but I will still need to buy a new back door and a new window. I need to fix the back porch as one corner is trying to fall apart. I will also need to line the entire inside of the room with boards. Needless to say it may take me a while to get this done!

Annmarie spotted our barn owl! Their used to be a pair of them but in the last few years we have only spotted one. Their was a mated pair on the farm for over 30 years. Maybe the pair is just hiding so well that we only ever spot one at a time?

Wood bridge part completed

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I wanted to get the wooden part of the woodshed bridge put up today. I had the wood in the back of the pickup. I went to get it out and had the 2×8 boards sticking out either side of the pickup with the 2×10 over the cab. I damn near knocked myself out again by hitting my head on a 2×8, I jerked back after smacking my forehead and smashed the back of my head into the other side 2×8 boards. I ended up with an abrasion and small goose egg on my forehead. The only real problem I have with not having hair is that there is no longer a cushion to protect my head from trauma.

I laid out the five 16’ boards and then screwed 10” pieces of 2×8 between them. I used 2×8 boards because I am cheap. I saved about $40by using the 2×8 boards and strength wise I just needed them to keep the boards from warping. I altered the height at which I screwed them in and alternated each board so I could get to both sides with the impact driver and tighten down the screws easily.

I used old 2×10 boards that used to be a concrete form for the decking. They were free so they make excellent decking! I only had one ten foot piece left by the time I was done. The bridge decking is five feet wide and the support underneath is four feet wide. I hung approximately six inches of the decking over the support frame. The decking will be easy to replace if needed and free was a wonderful price.

So far the supplies have cost $360 each for a pallet of Quickcrete. $300 for pressure treated lumber and a box of three inch decking screws. So at this point in supplies we have just over $1000 in the bridge. I may be able to salvage some of the concrete forms to use in the wood shed to line the walls. I need to look at it first before I attempt to reuse them for the fourth time.

There is a little kitten in the wood shed that keeps meowing all of the time. Annmarie is working on taming it down. She wants to have a permanent resident in the barn shed. I am hoping it keeps the raccoons out of the buildings. I have two huge piles of raccoon poop again in the upper parts of the barn. They like to poop up high and they make huge piles over time, so annoying.

I did move some rocks around and attempt to get the rock wall on the wood shed side to meet the bridge. The next big part of the bridge build is to fill up the backside with dirt. Get that all compacted down then I can put in a little gravel and install the large concrete pavers. I am currently leaving that for now to work on the freezer room and the wooden piece for the upstairs bathroom.

Freezer room completed

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It has been a very productive last couple of days. Mr Rainman has been out for two days and we have been working on getting things completed. I love the stages of a project where you can just keep checking things off and then moving onto the next thing and checking it off! Mr Rainman worked on getting the coal side of the old wood shed cleaned out. This ties into us completing the back bridge as that is the only way to get to the wood shed. We have managed to make quite a mess back there with lots of scrap wood and junk from the shed added onto the pile. We knew that a day of cleanup was coming but The Apprentice reached out last week and said she was coming home this weekend and wanted to know if there was work. We just kept making a mess as we knew the Apprentice was coming and it would cleaned up.

I worked on getting the rest of the freezer room wired. I always have to break out an electrical wiring book when I do three way and four way switches. I just don’t do it enough to be able to do it without writing it down. I am happy to report that the three way switch worked on the first try. I got the light wired and the rest of the outlets tested today. Mr Rainman and I moved the deep freezer and the very first small upright Annmarie and I ever purchased, it is 29 years old! We just jockeyed them back and forth and slid them into place. They both had to be leveled and then we spent the time to organize and clean out both of those freezers. This allowed us to empty a large portion of the big freezer. The little fridge got cleaned out and up and is now going to be our water and gatorade fridge. I will keep it stocked year round. Tomorrow we will unload the big freezer and defrost it with the wife’s hair dryer. Once that is moved we will pull out the ancient radial arm saw and see if someone wants it. This will let me move most of the tools out of my soon to be space in the old house.

The Apprentice started a wood burn pile and lit it on fire after the first hour. They just kept throwing scrap wood on it. She did take some plum tree rounds that were cut on a diagonal and looked like horse hooves to use for nailing practice at farrier school. She did lament that on top of grip strength she worked on this summer she needed to work on thigh strength, its hard to hold the horse hooves between her legs. I didn’t think of that when we were working. Once all of the burnables were picked up she started filling in the dirt on both ends of the wood shed bridge. Tomorrow that will be her primary job.

Mr Rainman and I worked on getting the coal side of the wood shed lined with wood and sealed up. The goal is to get the walls lined then take the 6 mil vinyl sheet, used to be a road sign, and mount it 360 degrees in the room. Once that is done and stickers hold it in place we will bring in pallets for the floor and then close up the door. The goal is to keep the dust and bugs down to almost zero. I need to get all of the bee stuff into one location and get the frames hung up.

We had some people come out to hunt coyotes and they killed zero, did not even see any. They did thin out the pigeons some.