Farm

Greenhouse project started

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Friday was a solid day on the farm. Mr Rainman came out to help this weekend and we were able to work on the base of the greenhouse. This took about three hours to level and set. We filled the middle with gravel and there are four earth anchors screwed into the ground almost three feet. I tried to find bolts anywhere on the farm that were long enough to go through the anchor and into the frame. No go, I had to run to town to get four eight inch 1/2” bolts with washer and nut cost $6/each! We were going to turn the greenhouse more toward the South but due to trying to protect the door from wind we went with this orientation. The greenhouse door will be on the old house side of this foundation. It was time to get the greenhouse up as we have had it in a box for several years.

Once we had that base done, we started to haul dirt to cover the culvert crossing. The dirt has been flushed away several years ago and I had not corrected it yet. So we hauled over a few yards of dirt and flattened it out with the tractors. This should make the crossing much easier now.

Mr Rainman drove out a large bale of hay out to the momma cows. We still have the last calves in the orchard. They still hide as far from us as they can in the orchard. They do walk around even if we are outside but they are still crazy.

I decided to work on the tractor gun mount. Mr Rainman pointed out that the tractor had two bolts on the roll bar and I could just bolt the support up instead of welding it to the bucket arms. It was going to be in the way visually if I mounted it to bucket arms. It was a great idea so I went with it. I cut the channel iron to the correct length, then proceeded to clean up the metal with a grinder.

As I was grinding on the rifle rack my wire wheel kicked back and sucked up my pants! I let off the trigger as soon as I realized it but the damage was done to my pants. I ended up with a couple of small superficial scratches from the wheel. Pretty good.

I painted it, then mounted eyebolts on the ends. I figured I am always trying to hang more stuff off the tractor since I don’t have a tool box that is very big and the eye hooks will let me hang a bag or just clip stuff onto the rack. I mounted the locking arms and then tried to bolt it onto the tractor. I was off by 1/4” on one of my holes and had to scoot the hole over. This is much harder in a piece of steel than it is in wood! I got it all done and now just need to use a piece of closed cell foam cut to the barrel shape to keep the front of the rifle from bouncing around. I ordered non lubricated condoms so I can cover the barrel opening with a condom and a rubber band. I am ready for predators now! I might have to put in some practice since I only get one shot! I wanted minimal parts and movement that could get mucked up from all of the dust, dirt and rain.

We had some friends bring out 16 laying hens. They are getting out of the chicken raising gig. I had to go out after dark, find them and toss them all into the chicken coop. They were all roosting outside the coop on the fence by the old house. Chickens are not that bright. The nice thing is their chickens are used to people and being handled so they are super tame compared to mine. I hope this does not make them easier food for the predators. We now have 24 hens.

Daylight savings time is the worst

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Another weekend has passed and I did actually work on the bathroom. I had to get the two movable shelves ready. I needed to put 1/4” trim on the front edge. Of course, the boards I had already cut and sanded were too big. I had to remeasure and recut to get them to fit. I no longer trust a tape measure, after I cut them they go inside the house to get a dry fit to ensure they are the correct size. Somewhere in the old house I had some oak trim. It took a bit of digging around to find it. I had ordered some new 24” wood clamps so I was able to glue the trim in place without any difficulty. Once it has dried I will unclamp it and sand it all again until it is shiny and pretty.

The butcher came through and now everyone has all of their meat cut, wrapped and in their freezers. We don’t have to go to any sale or sort animals for a few more months. We are still feeding the sheep and cows but the grass is turning pretty green and all of the animals are consuming about 75% of their nutrients from the fresh grass. I will need to feed the momma cows again this upcoming weekend. They are supposed to have calves in April so they need to eat as much as they want.

The chickens are slacking off again. We are only getting three eggs per day. I think I have too many roosters and they are stressing the hens. I may have to thin them out again.

I have been pretty diligent about putting in at least 30 minutes of rock wall time in the evenings after work. The new wall is large enough now to see the difference. Shoveling is way better than Yoga. Plus, I get exercise and something productive happens. Annmarie tells me that once I finish the rock wall out front I have two more in the back of the house that need to be finished. I really need to get the back bridge blocks laid down. This will involve more shoveling and then laying four inch thick concrete blocks down.

I really want to get the greenhouse up this upcoming weekend but the forecast is calling for rain. We need the rain but I am unsure why it cannot come during the week so I can work outside on the weekends. If the rain is not bad we need to trim the raspberries and blackberries still. Once those are done then we can work on the greenhouse. At least that is the plan. If the rain is heavy we will work on repairing the cultivator for the little tractor. It needs some teeth replaced and the bolts are very hard to reach. Mr Rainman is coming out to help me over the weekend.

We did some adulting and got rid of our mismatched futon from the living room and now have a recliner that matches the couch and loveseat. We should have done it years ago! I love the recliner and surprisingly I sleep less in the recliner than I did in the loveseat. I am unsure why as the recliner is much more comfortable.

Annmarie had me go out and check on the bees. I had plans on opening up the hive but there were bees everywhere! I had not dressed up in a bee suit and it is the first of the year. I need to get comfortable around the bees again before I brave them without any protection. They are bringing in pollen but we are unsure where they are collecting it. There have been no bees on the flowers blooming in our front yard.

Getting ready for spring

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Well it finally quit raining for a bit last week and I was able to get outside. Our bulbs we planted in the fall are finally starting to emerge. Now I just gotta work on keeping the grass down in the flower bed. We have not seen any honeybees out this spring so Annmarie has plans to open up the bee hive this weekend to see if they are still alive.

I was able to go out and fill the barn with food for the sheep and since I was out in the barn lot I decided to fix the new gate that the cows bent over. I ended up rolling the gate on one end about eight inches in an attempt to tighten it. The problem was once I did that I could not get the bottom of the gate to stretch into the bottom wire. So I ended up installing a second ratcheting tightener on the bottom also so that I can just tighten the bottom and top at the same time. I got the fence pretty tight but when I went to the middle and hit the top, like a cow, it bent over again. I ended up having to install some triangles to stiffen the fence. Now, the cows cannot just push it over and we can still open the gate if needed without too much difficulty.

I was able to use some Tried & True finish on the oak trim in the bathroom. I needed to finish the trim before I can install the rest of the crown molding that I had to take down to install the cabinet. I even found the correct crown molding, after my third attempt but then I could not find the correct white nails so I had to order some more. Hopefully, I can install the crown molding this weekend.

Annmarie has decided that since I have had pneumonia twice this last winter that I need to workout to stay in shape. My version of working out and hers are not identical. I want something productive to come out of physical exertion. So now as long as it is not raining I am changing clothes when I get home and going out to work on the rock wall. I need to redo about 60% of the completed and then finish the rest. For some reason I kept scooting the wall outward and did not keep it in a straight line. I started digging it back in the middle and once I got it deep enough I found the original base. I still don’t know why I did not do this the first time. It will take a while to get it done but I am starting to make some visible progress.

It has not frozen in two weeks and everything is stating to turn green. I am going to plant peas this next week in the garden and maybe even spinach. The beets we planted in the fall have all snapped back from winter and are starting to grow again. I am going to have to get the two used horse troughs out into the garden and start getting them filled with gravel and dirt. I really want to grow some blueberries but am unsure where to plant them in the garden. I am thinking I may plant them out in the orchard proper along the fence. I still think I want to grow them in elevated bins. This will really help with the deer, sheep and bunny rabbit issues that we have out here.

Cows are not my friend

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Annmarie sent me a picture of the lamb who managed to get out of the barn lot. This happens every year, they squeeze through the fence in various locations and every year I try and figure out where they are doing it so I can stop it. We have only had one lamb manage to do it this year so Annmarie just chased it back in through the open gate and it has not occurred since.

I really did not want to mess with the three calves in the barn lot so I continued to just feed them alongside the horse. It was our daughter’s birthday this weekend and a party was being thrown for her at our house. So I spent three days cleaning house. Mind you since our housekeeper had broken her ankle and has not been to our house in a while it really needed the deep cleaning. So this was not a bad thing. I spent a lot of time “round filing” items that I found throughout the house. If I did not know what it was or we had not touched it in six months it went away. I filled up three large trash bags of junk. I did find some time to go up and clean off the breeze porch. I put all of the items into the attic. I needed more space for my plants. I have been transplanting 4-8 plants per week for the last few weeks. Some are starting to establish themselves in the new planters and others are just staying alive. Some of them take a few months to settle down into their new homes. I separated a Lily Orchard into several plants which I had never done before, I am hoping they survive. I would like to see them actually bloom again. I have four plants alive that I started from seeds. I have no clue what they are, other than houseplants. My record keeping is less than absent when it comes to the plants.

Saturday afternoon I was stacking pop in the mud room for party on Sunday and noticed that I still had a gallon of paint sitting on the floor. I am storing the paint in the mud room above the door. The shelf is about 8.5’ above the floor. I knew I could not reach it but I was too lazy to walk four feet and grab the ladder. Instead I grabbed the can by the bottom and side and tossed it in the air onto the shelf. It landed on the shelf, tipped onto its side and the lid popped off. The gallon of paint was almost full. I had paint on both doors, the tile floor and the concrete floor. I feel blessed that 90% of the paint went onto one of those super absorbent pet rugs! This kept it from spreading all over the concrete. It took another hour to get all of the paint off the tile floor and both doors. I smeared it around on the concrete floor and will need to scrub it off this summer with a bunch of water and a wire brush. I will need to wait until I can unload everything out onto the back walkway before that can happen.

I went out this afternoon to get the three calves moved over into the orchard pasture. After multiple attempts, the Gingerman, came over to help. The calves proceeded to tear down the removable fence going down to the spring (it will need to be retightened). They jumped over three dividing fences and got caught in one of them but managed to get loose before I had to cut the fence. It took us about 30 minutes to get them moved and had he not helped I probably would have been at it for another hours. I really want to keep the brown cow’s hide and get it tanned next year when it gets slaughtered.

A couple of years ago I started to keep a list of things that needed done on the farm. Annmarie wanted to make sure I had the appropriate items at the top of the list for this year. These are in addition to the spraying and haying that have to happen.

  • Priority 1
  • Install new field water pump and get it working
  • Fix water pump retaining wall, install membrane and concrete
  • Finish installing brick on gazebo floor
  • Finish the downstairs bathroom and get punch list from wife done
  • Tear down and complete left side of front yard rock wall
  • Rock in gazebo downhill side with large rocks
  • Get diesel pickup repairs completed by shop
  • Install decorative metal fence onto top of completed rock wall in front yard.
  • Priority 2
  • Assemble greenhouse
  • Install fence around greenhouse to keep sheep and stupid cows away
  • Fix four corners fence
  • Clear caulk around both new windows installed upstairs.
  • Install hardware cloth over chicken coop windows to keep tweety birds out
  • Priority 3
  • Purchase and install ice breakers on roof above front stairs
  • Once done fix front porch hand rail that was broken by ice
  • Replace door window seals on Little Dumper 57’ pickup
  • Make wooden 18” racks for tilt bed for Little Dumper
  • Fill in yard holes again, dog thinks she should be able to hide in yard
  • Install fence alongside schoolhouse ditch, making it much easier to sort cows
  • Priority 4
  • Remove rose bushes in drainage runoff path
  • Install wooden stays in fence alongside field 2 & 3
  • Priority 5
  • Paint front yard driveway fence
  • Finish baseboards inside house
  • Move dirt for the wildflower garden in the orchard
  • Fence in new wildflower garden so the sheep don’t eat them. We will just toss random seeds in and rake them in
  • Finish path near back bridge
  • Clean up alleyway of all trash, string and scrap metal
  • Priority 6
  • Make owl boxes and install all over farm
  • Fix fence behind chicken coop
  • Fix round retractable 2’ sprinkler
  • Finish wiring lights in the machine shed
  • Fix barn end gutter
  • Fix weed eater
  • Priority 7
  • Install French drain in back of machine shed
  • Priority 8
  • Paint and install bell in top of machine shed.

Working cows is fun…

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Well, our second batch of cows needed to be sorted off so they could go to butcher. The plan was for me to sort them out Tuesday after work so they could be picked up first thing Wednesday morning. I was busy at work and did not get back to the house until 1600, still plenty of time to get the calves in and sorted before it got dark. As an added bonus all seven cows were in the pasture directly above the house. I just went up and shut the gate and locked them into the pasture. I then went and opened up the gate in the middle of the fence by the creek so they could run through the creek into the next pasture and then I could just push them around to the corral, simple.

Having chased the cows around on the upper hillside before with Mr Rainman I decided I needed to bring the border collie, Chance with me so I did not have to walk up and down the hill. Within 30 minutes I had no voice, I was screaming, not relaxed, tired and pissed off at the psychotic cows who kept running past the open gate. Annmarie was supposed to go to a Shrove Tuesday (Fat Tuesday) celebration but instead had to come out and help me with the cows. After hollering at the wife, apologizing and going to open the gate I had calmed down enough. The next plan was to allow the cows to go out the gate they wanted and then push them into the orchard field. By this time it is starting to get dark. The cows knew this is what we wanted to so they ran all the way down to the schoolhouse and then proceeded to keep running in circles from the bottom of the field to the top, over and over again! We only had one headlamp and all of the gates going down into the creek were shut so after running around in circles for a while Annmarie had me go check on the “open” gate. It was wired shut. I opened it and then we had the dog chase the cows down into the creek. We could hear them but not see them. So we walked up each side of the creek and sent the dog ahead to push the cows into the corral. On the way to the corral Annmarie asked me if we had all of the cows. Of course we did, even though we could not see them. By the time I got them locked up in the corral and counted them there were only three cows! It was dark and already 1900 so Annmarie went and got chicken strips for dinner while I finished with the cows in the corral.

We ate dinner, we were cold and tired and Annmarie wanted me to call the butcher and tell them there were two cows in the corral. I finished dinner and then proceeded to get the tractor and drive down to the schoolhouse. I was done chasing the cows around on foot. I did find the four cows, all the way down by the schoolhouse, three went the correct way and four went the wrong way in the dark and we could not see them.

I proceeded to spend an hour chasing them with the tractor until they went into the corral. Once in the corral I sorted them by headlamp. It was slow but I was making good progress until three decided to just run around the pen and not go down the chute. I went into the corner as they had “trapped” themselves into the corner and I had to push them out. The pretty dark brown calf from last year jumped sideways and caught me just above the knee in the leg. I spotted a 2×4 in the corner from the last time we sorted cows and I used it to persuade the calf to go into the chute. I was not brutal but I was limping as I persuaded the calf to go in the correct direction. I ended up with the four for slaughter in the corral and the three 8 month olds in the side pen. I was done chasing them. I let them out into the barn lot with the horse and tossed out hay for them in multiple places so the horse could not guard them all. I was done chasing cows.

I did warn the people coming the next day to be careful and vigilant as they did not want any of those cows getting away from them or they would not be able to catch them. We will be keeping the three young calves in the barn lot this year! I am done with crazy and wild cows. They are now hanging in an industrial fridge aging.