#stewartcreeksomethings

Life can be rough on the farm

Steve Hardin1 Comment

It can be rough on everyone living on a farm sometimes. It has its benefits, which far out weigh the retractions but it is definitely not for everyone. This week was a prime example of everyone taking their lumps.

Gizmo our little Brussels Griffin dog keeps getting out of the yard. I have yet to find his new hole but it is starting to get annoying. He is usually out in the pasture eating sheep poop, back on the compost pile eating trash or standing by the gate waiting to be let back in. He won’t use his escape hole to get back into the yard. The alpaca do not like dogs. He survived.

Annmarie and I had not seen one of our two back door outdoor cats for a week or better. Luna was missing. We calculated her age and it came out to 14 years which has been spent outside on the farm so her going off and dying is a reasonable assumption. I even went out and looked in the dog igloo that the cats sleep in to make sure there was not a dead cat in it. No cat, so we assumed she was a goner. Early this week Annmarie calls me at work and asks if I knew that Luna was trapped in the root cellar! The answer is of course not but I had been feeding the cats and I dump our compost out for the chickens near the root cellar door. The cat was a victim of my bad hearing! I could not hear her yowling. Annmarie said the cat could hardly meow when she let her out but Annmarie has owl hearing which saved the cat! We figure the cat has been in there over a week. There are two windows that are screened over and it has been raining most of the week so she was able to get to water. She is quite a bit skinnier, she was nice and chunky, not any more. She is also fairly grateful and the first to eat now. She survived.

We have been under a windstorm warning for most of the week. We had to put off delivery of three new cows due to the advisory. Annmarie discovered a hole in our house siding. We got to looking hard and found at least six damaged spots from the wind hurtling things at our house. I will be calling our homeowners insurance company on Monday. The house will survive with some repairs.

I was out feeding the sheep yesterday and the mommas are getting ready to lamb soon. We are now locking them up at night and letting them out in the morning. This makes it a lot easier to find babies. We now have to go feed the ram and his boy friends separately as they are in Alcatraz. I fed them and looked over and spotted one of the young whethers laying on the ground. He was weak and unable to stand. I drug him out of the pasture, went in and got a 22 and ended his misery. Disease is bad for any group of animals, especially if you don’t know why. My solution is always permanent and quick. He did not survive.

I was up getting large hay bales for the cows after dispatching the sheep when I came upon a very large possum running around the bales, it is probably living in them. I of course did not have a weapon because I left it at the house. It survived.

I was feeding the cows in the orchard, had the large square bale set out and then used the forks on the tractor to lift up the feeder guard. It consists of four curved pieces of metal that are pinned together so they are movable at each joint. When laid out correctly they form a circle, but will also form an ovoid like shape that goes around the square bales. The trouble with this is once it is up in the air on the forks it does not just drop down over the bale. So I set it on top of the bale with the tractor near the bale so the back half doesn’t fall until I move the tractor. Then I get off the tractor and went around to the far side and started tugging on the two panels on my side. It can get pinched due to the four articulated joints but usually I can get it with a little elbow grease and swearing. I got it all right, but I usually have time to jump back before it crashes down. I ended up 12 feet away on the ground on my back with my hearing protection somewhere on the ground and aching all over. Damn thing slammed into me and tossed me like a paper doll. The bruises are already starting to show up the next day. I survived.

Office floor closing in kinda

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Well, there is hope and maybe even a light at the end of the tunnel. I am now working on the office floor. Mr Professional came out and I finished wiring all of the outlets in the office while he started cleaning up. We took out two huge 50 gallon trash bags full of trash that had accumulated while doing this job. I started wiring the outlets in the other part of the house also. The freezer room needs to get done next so we can move the freezers which will create a space for the tool box and cabinets that are currently in my future room. Once we empty out my room then we can tear off two walls and get the walls insulated. I need to lift the outer wall up by one inch before we can install the inner door, and I need to widen the door opening both ways by two inches, all minor things! I was not able to get to the main light. I maybe could have fixed it but Annmarie already ordered a new one so I will wait until it shows up and then get some help installing it so there is no using the wires as hangers while installing it. We still have to finish the insulation in the attic. I did get the trim boards ordered and will need to pick those up in the next week or so. We got the entire office emptied so I could start in on the floor.

I was hoping the floor would go smoother than I remembered the upstairs floor in our house that I did twelve years ago. Nope, it was just as miserable as I remembered. I tried the palm sander first with 40 grit paper. The first picture is two hours with the palm sander. The second picture is two more hours with the belt sander. The best luck I had was the combination of the two. I could tear into it with the belt sander and then when it was about 75% done use the palm sander. This combination seemed to be the fastest with getting the old paint off. I had to use a mask and eye protection and the dang eye protection kept fogging up! The area in front of the main entrance is the worst, it has multiple coats of paint and they do not want to come off. I wait until the sandpaper is just about used up then I hit this area and clog up the sand paper with paint. I suspect just getting the floor sanded is going to take me at least 40-60 hours. The boards appear to be tilted slightly. The sanders are peeling off the left edge of every board first. I am unsure how this happened but the sanders will solve this problem. I will use the stain we already have and just wipe it on and quickly off. We want the color to stay lighter than we have inside the house. After it is stained I will use some polyurethane over the top to seal everything.

I almost threw out my chicken scratch drawing with all the stud measurements on the equipment room. I need to drill a 6” hole through the wall to vent the laser cutter but I wanted to miss all of the studs so I made a diagram before I sheeted the wall. Mr Professional tossed it in the trash after I said it all goes. Luckily, by the end of the day I remembered and we were able to dig it out of the trash. It is now in a window sill safe until the next cleanup.

Our back creek is running. We have had enough moisture that it is up and going. The chickens appreciate this as their coop is near it and they don’t have to go to the front spring to get a drink. Speaking of chickens I am still getting my one egg a day. Today I was able to collect two eggs! This does not let us sale any eggs, we are consuming what we produce. We were going to get three new heifers delivered but there is a wind advisory in place so they will be delivered at a separate time. We are going to thin out our oldest cows, they are 13 years old. I am loving the large bales when it comes to feeding the cows. I just grab a bale with the tractor, feed it and I am done. I don’t have to feed 16 small bales every day. I think I am going to bale our grass hay and sell it so I can get big bales for the cows. Still looking into this whole process.

New Years resolution, finish the office

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We are trying to get ready for lambing season, it should start this month. We sorted off four weathers into Alcatraz and sorted the ram off of the ewes. He was starting to get fat and pushy. He wanted to sneak up on you and try and ram you. I had come to an understanding with him but the few times Annmarie went out in the evening to feed he kept trying to sneak up on her and head butt her. This is both annoying and dangerous. If he knocks you to the ground you can get stepped on if the sheep panic and start to bolt. They do not care what is in their way, they just jump over or on it as they run away. So we are hoping that a few months isolated in Alcatraz with a few like minded folks will mellow him out. We still have all the rest of the feeder lambs down with the three bulls. They all share the alfalfa bales.

The weather is all screwy, on Saturday the temperature got to 50F. Since it was a holiday weekend I ran to town to get more insulation and a belt sander. They did not have the precut insulation so I got two full rolls. We can cut our own sections. While I was there I priced CDX 1/2” plywood, it was $30/sheet, not cheap but the second room only needs 20 sheets to redo all the walls. This will be the fastest way to finish off the room and economical. This room is going to be a reloading and jewelry making room for me. I am going to use the old outer door from the new office to be my inner door to the old freezer room. I will still need a new back door but I want one with a window in it to let in more natural light. I still need to stiffen the outer wall in that room before a new door gets installed. I did buy a new 18” belt sander, it was cheap! I was amazed at the price on corded power tools, most were under $100. Everyone wants battery operated tools nowadays. I know I do but after looking at the prices I went with a corded belt sander as I am only doing one room.

I came home and started working on installing the overhead lights, this did not go well for me. I want to preface this discussion by saying I have never installed track lighting before. There are definitely a few learning curve points. I had to tear off the decorative cover three times and keep adjusting the power supply connector to the track. It was off center and this was stopping the decorative cover from sitting flush. I also installed 12 feet of track. Holding up an eight foot section while on a ladder from one end is not a realistic prospect. Luckily, the track comes in a cardboard tube. I cut it shorter and then jammed it under the track at one end and the floor and used it as a third hand to hold the track up while I adjusted and screwed in the opposite end. After many tries I got the track installed and lights on the track. One of the lights is missing a bulb so I ordered spares on Amazon. I then went to the center light. This also did not go smoothly. The light is heavy, the box is retracted about a half an inch up into the ceiling. I was trying to wire the light and hold it up at the same time. I finally just wired in the ground wire and hung the light from the ground while I tried to get the other wires together. This was not easy and in the end I ripped out the grounding wire. I fought with it some more, and gave up. Today I added extenders to make the holder sit lower and got the light installed. Now that I had two lights installed I went out and flipped the breaker to see how the lights looked! Nope, I forgot that I had daisy chained the power to all three lights and the beginning of the chain was the light I had not yet installed. So I flipped the breaker back off and went and installed the last section of track lighting. This time I only had to remove the cover one time to get everything in alignment. I went and flipped the breaker to see if the lights work and viola, two of three work! Big surprise the main one in the middle of the room does not work. I also had to adjust two of the track lights to get them to fit into the track correctly. The track lighting is dimmer than I expected. So Annmarie ordered a new light and I will get it installed this week.

Saturday, Annmarie wanted me to burn the boxes and Christmas wrapping paper, she was tired of it living in the hallway. This was valid and the wind was no longer blowing so I moved it all out onto the front porch and grabbed the only fire stick I could find. Mind you, I only needed to make two trips out of the yard to take all the boxes out to burn. The smart move was to latch the gate as soon as I went through but that would require me to unlatch the gate again. I thought I could just fake it and make the gate appear to be closed therefore fooling the puppy, Chance to not run out and play with the animals. She ran along the fence away from the gate, I kept trying to light the damn fire stick! It would not make a flame, after about 75 tries I hear chickens squawking. I look up from my failed task and the border collie puppy is running after chickens! She is having a great time and feathers are flying everywhere. I run over screaming and throw the failed fire stick in her direction, it misses and she then spots the lone sheep in the field and makes a bee line for it. I have now given up on screaming or running after her and just start heading toward the barn. She has the sheep all balled up outside the barn then pushes them all into the barn before I can get up to the barn. When I enter the barn she has them all balled up against one wall and is laying in the hay trying to decide if she should move them some more. I chased the sheep out of the barn and shut the door. Eventually, I manage to catch the puppy, there was a lead rope on the wall so I attach that to her and we go out and actually work the sheep for five minutes on the run. She did manage to realize that “easy” did not mean hit the end of the lead rope at a dead run. It took a bit but she is teachable. She was glad to go back in the yard and did not look abashed at all.

Windstorm

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Crazy winters seem to be the new normal. We had the temperature in single digits and this week we got a warm chinook wind that hurdled in and pounded us. The wind gusts got over 50 mph and ended up blowing branches out of trees, blowing the she shed over and the bee hive got blown over! The stuff on the front porch also piled up in front of the door and I could not get out one morning.

Annmarie went out to see if the bees survived. They were all still alive but very mad. She had to put the two halves on separate boards and let them sit for 24 hours then went back out to put the hive back together. The sugar water we had given them had crystallized so she diluted it out a bit and put the feeder back on top. I strapped them all together and added a second strap. So now the hive is attached to the fence at three spots and should not blow over again. I think I can fix this in the spring by pounding in three pecker poles around the hive so it cannot blow over. I need to leave about two inches clearance on each side and make space for a second hive to be installed. She ended up getting stung three times over the course of 24 hours getting them upright and fed even with bee suit on.

The she shed will need to be moved and attached to the old clothesline pole. I need to bring over some more gravel and then attach it to the crossbar.

We have been getting virtually no eggs, I collect one egg a day if we are lucky. There are no more raccoons but there is a possum wandering around. The light keeps going out in their coop and that will make a difference. I have fixed the light twice this winter already and on Friday I spotted what I think is the main culprit for stealing the eggs. One of our outside cats was coming out of the nest box when I went in to put away the new feed bags. I think she is the egg thief! So I will go back to collecting eggs every day and I will get rid of the old rooster and let the young one take over. This will hopefully bring the two different groups together.

Friday I managed to get out to the new office and got Mr Professional came out. We crawled up into the attic and started to install insulation. We used all that I had and we still need a single bat to finish it up. It’s about 3/4 complete now. He worked on finishing the wall while I worked on getting the door secured some more and getting the door handle and deadbolt installed. Once I had the handle on the door I moved on to wiring in the overhead lights. I am still on the first light and have never installed trac lighting before. I recognize the need for the trac to be parallel to the wall. We will see how it turns out but some light would be nice.

Door install in office got done eventually

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I had plans to go out and install the door in the office but it was cold outside, like 1 F when we woke up this morning. I kept thinking it would warm up so I kept delaying going outside. Finally when it got to 5 F I decided that it was good enough. My thought process was I could plug in the little electric heater that is out there and I even went up into the attic and got another one to take out with me.

The plan was simple, cut out the old 2×4 on one side and the top and just install a new one on the inside of them to widen the hole. I attempted this but the first battery gave up after 10 minutes and the second lasted 10 minutes and when I went to get the first one off the charger I realized that the first one was not charging. The battery was too cold and the charger would not send electricity into it. I ended up putting both chargers on the ground in front of the heaters and then going out to feed the animals. I started the tractor, it was a little rough but it started, then left it an an idle to go feed the sheep and horse. I needed the tractor to feed a big bale to the upper cows and the alpaca need another big bale. The tractor needs to warm up a lot before I change out the snow blade and go move big bales. I let it run for about 40 minutes before I took it out. It ran like a champ and I didn’t kill it trying to power into the bale pile to get one out. The alpaca were happy.

I went back out to the office and both batteries were now charged! I cut out the rest of the 2×4 and installed the new boards. Well, I tried to install the door and realized that the opening is no longer too small, it is too big. Sometimes you just cannot win. I ended up cutting two four inch boards on the table saw that were 3/4” thick and installing them on each side of the door frame. I tried only one board but the opening was still too large. After much fussing around I was able to get the door level and square and the door opens and closes relatively easily. I got four screws into it to hold it up and then shut the door. I left both electric heaters running but did turn down their temperatures. When it is this cold the heat pump was only able to keep it 20 degrees warmer than the outside temperature. By the time I got inside after installing the door the temperature was already 48 F. Two hours later the temperature in the office is now 63 degrees! I cannot wait to see what happens when I get the attic insulated.

The only real problem was I never bothered to put a level on the wall. It never occurred to me that the wall would have that much lean to it. To get the door level I had to mess with the door quite a bit and lean out the top pretty severely. This is going to necessitate another custom trim job to cover up the difference from the floor to the top of the door. Hopefully, tomorrow I can get the door anchored the rest of the way and insulation stuffed in around the door. Maybe even some insulation in the attic? I don’t want to be too ambitious.