canning

Greenhouse getting closer to completion

Steve HardinLeave a comment

Summer is definitely here. We are getting fire and lightning weather advisory messages every few days and have not had rain for a few weeks until yesterday. Mind you I am not sure that 2/100” counts as rain but it came quickly and just dumped on us. I had to run out and put all of the tools for the greenhouse assembly into the greenhouse so they would stay dry.

I have been focused on getting the greenhouse completed. I do know that the water piece won’t happen until next year but I needed to get the fence up around the greenhouse so the sheep or cows don’t damage it when they come into the ram pasture. To make sure that it is safe I used all wooden posts so the animals could not bend them and I used three cattle panels. I had these twist on joint anchors we had purchases for the barn and I used them to connect the panels together, even if the panels ended up on a post and both ends are stapled. The fence is one contiguous piece of fencing. I always have trouble with the gates spreading when they animals start pushing on the fence so I left the post tall and connected a piece over the top of the gate so it does not spread open or close up. The gate is set so that outside pressure closes it more and it cannot be pushed through the gap. The chicken coop serves as a stopping point for it. I did not put horizontal braces in as I did not want to limit light. I feel like we are going to get super lucky on our placement. In the afternoon when it gets super hot the sun is blocked from the greenhouse by our large trees in the front yard. I don’t think we will have to use a heat screen cloth to keep the temperature down in the greenhouse.

Gingerman came out while I was working on greenhouse with grandson. We walked out to the old chicken coop to look for the tables and automatic vent openers I thought we had already purchased for the greenhouse. I was able to find both tables, some construction glue and a bunch of brand new gaskets for aluminum irrigation sprinklers. I did not find any automatic vent openers. We did find a new driveway light and post for the kids. I also found a few more boxes that I had not dug into in the old grain room. This might be where I stashed the progressive reloader I have not been able to find! I have a shotgun, a single reloader setup and a progressive but I am still digging around for the progressive. When I set up my man cave room one half will be for a jewelry bench with all of its associated tools and storage while the other half will be the three reloaders with all the accouterments and storage. I really want a tall safe for the room but I want an old one, plus the thing will weigh a ton, actually so I will have to reinforce the floor underneath the building with some more concrete blocks and piers. I may even have to build a new frame underneath the building and support that frame separately. It’s just a dream at this point. I want the jewelry setup far more.

I started assembling the work tables but after getting one finished I realize that I will need to buy several more. Luckily, we are headed towards the time when all the stores want to get rid of containers and soil at discounted prices. So I will be on the lookout for good deals. I have an idea to use pond liner and some 2”x8” boards, form up four to make the sides and then use the pond liner. I could use 1/4” drip line hose to create a drain that would go all the way to the floor to minimize water just running around everywhere and this would allow me to stack the planters onto a multi shelf rack and regulate the water for each unit. I am going to have to think about this some more.

I am of course missing one piece of the greenhouse. I did read the warranty from Harbor Freight. I had 90 days from the date of purchase to notify them of any issues. Since I purchased it years ago and had it stored in the machine shed, new in the box, that is not going to work for me. Luckily, it is just a panel for the door and I can order the material and cut one to fit. Those supplies have been ordered and are on their way. We got a remote thermometer and humidity detector that we are going to store in the greenhouse so we can start tracking and trending the temperatures. This will let us know how it is going to perform as winter approaches.

I had to stop and move some items out of the yard as our younger border collie has figured out how to get out of the yard. I moved the blocks that have been in the yard hoping that was how she was getting out of the yard. By the next day she had found a different way to get out of the yard. I had purchased eyelets in the past to mount on top of the posts on the side yard fence near the lavender in the past but had never had to use them. I had to use them. Of course I had run out of wire so this necessitated a trip to town. So far she has not gotten out but that doesn’t mean I fixed the problem. She could be getting out over the fence on the front hillside. Who knows she is a border collie and the smart ones are about impossible to keep inside once they figure out a way out.

Annmarie has been canning, we have over 24 pints of green beans already processed. They are going gangbusters and hopefully we can get another 24 before the plants give up. We picked three times this last week to get enough for that many pints. We are trying reusable lids but so far 1/8 on two test batches have failed. So the verdict is still out on whether we are going to keep using them. We will try them for the rest of the season and see if we continue to have issues with them. This is our first year trying them.

Winter is coming

Steve HardinLeave a comment

Winter is definitely coming, it probably should have been here already but it is time to get ready. Thinking about all the things that need to be done before it freezes. I am also trying to get the fields ready to be planted also. It’s a tough balancing act and I am hoping winter holds off just a little longer, maybe another six weeks!

My mother picked her apple trees so we now have over a 100# of apples. I loved the apple butter Annmarie made last year, I ate all of it! So I wanted lots more this time, unfortunately we thought we had purchased an apple peeler/corer/slicer for our KitchenAid. We had not and had even tossed out our old hand crank one. So while she was in Walla Walla both of us went to various stores until I got lucky and found one. This made processing the apples much easier. We ran them through food processor afterwords and then used an immersion blender in the hot pan. The single biggest takeaway from this was do NOT start apple butter cooking at 1900. This process involved many steps and cannot be rushed. I finished it at 0100. We did a triple batch and got 11 pints, one I ate the next day and two I talked Annmarie into over filling which caused the lids to crease. They are now in the fridge waiting for new homes. I have two people that are willing to eat them right up and not store them. We now have a plan and first thing in the morning I will help Annmarie with the corer/peeler/slicer and once it is cooking I can go outside and do farm work, Annmarie will finish canning them.

I had Mr DirtyClean come out on Wednesday and do four hours of discing. He had a few open hours and I needed the help. Thursday, I went out and disced for a little over five hours. I am averaging about 1.5 hours per acre to get them torn up. After I am done with the disc I will run the arena groomer over it again and knock up the clots and smooth it out. I also want to put the manure forks on the bucket so I can scoop up any weed piles while I am smoothing it out. I think I need about another 6-7 hours to finish field #1. The kestrel is definitely living up there somewhere. I see it every time I go to that end of the farm.

We had to load up two more cows for the butcher Thursday evening. I used the tractor to push the cows into the ram pasture. I was able to drive the new cow/calf pair but once she got into the ram pasture she got in a corner of the pasture and would not move. She kept trying to get at the tractor. This is of course the cow we wanted to turn into hamburger for this exact reason!! So now she gets to keep the calf and we have to keep her away from the bull for another 9-12 months.

Annmarie had to come out and get the cows to go through the gate into the back barn lot. I was having zero luck with my stick and with the newborn calf we could not use the dogs. After she got tire of me waving a stick around in the air and the cows just going around me she jumped off the tractor, started hollering and waving the stick and she had them through the gate and into the corral in about five minutes. I just told her they all knew she was pissed and wanted to avoid it. She does not appreciate my ineptitude at times. It’s a learning process and 13 years later I am still learning!! It seems so natural for some but definitely not me.

The next morning she had to come out and help me get the two cows into the trailer. I had a hard time getting the steer in through the chute. His horns were so wide he could not walk down the chute. His lolly gagging caused the heifer to jump back out of the trailer and now they were head to head in the chute. I kept running them out of the chute and trying to get them back into the trailer. After the third attempt I brought the dogs into the corral and used them on the steer. He did not like the dogs and kept going for them instead of going into the chute. Zeke likes to bite between the horns or on the nose, Mouse likes to bite the back heels or tail. So when the steer went for one dog the other got him. I had been at this a few minutes when Annmarie came out. I managed to get the steer into the trailer by using the dogs to push him down the chute unfortunately the heifer decided to go crazy and jump out. We got them into the trailer and when I delivered them they just calmly walked out. The attendant was surprised at how placid they were. I told him they were just tired.