Annmarie wanted me to make some progress on the field water set up. I always get busy in the spring with hay and seem to run out of time. I purchased a 4×6 pressure treated board a few months ago but never used it. My DeWalt electric grease gun came in on Friday and I loaded it with grease. I still needed fuel then I could “work” with my new mini excavator. It is still sitting on the trailer. Instead I was good and went to work on the irrigation. The first thing that needed done was to stabilize the two supports that go across the concrete weir. I had made these years ago and just screwed them together but over the years they have started to spread apart. They are not pressure treated but hanging out over the concrete they just don’t get wet enough to rot. So I took some 12” all-thread pieces and drilled three holes in each one and installed a bolt the entire width and cranked that down as tight as it would go. Once I had those placed over the concrete and no dirt touching on each side I started in on the pump support. It only needs to be on three sides so I cut each joint off halfway so I could overlap the boards and bolt them together with carriage bolts. I left the carriage bolts sticking up as I may use them to secure the wiring or hang the water pipe from in the spring. I am not sure yet if they will be useful but they are not hurting anything by sticking up now.
I did not have any pressure treated boards to make the upright and roof so I went to Tum-a-Lum and bought the only farmer’s pack of bent, twisted and broken pressure treated 2×8”x12’. I was able to buy 11 boards for $100. Anyone who has bought boards will know that is a great price. I was able to just physically tear one board in half and use it for the roof support. I had some old metal roofing and used that on the tall side and on the roof. This should keep the pump fairly dry at all times. I may install sides if necessary in the spring. The bush needs a trim as it has 1” thorns on it and they are very sharp! The entire thing cost us $130 to install and build. I will use those leftover boards for something else. I did pick up fuel for the mini-excavator!
I think I need to install a 6’ gate down by the apple tree and then make about 40’ of fence movable so that I can get the mini-excavator to both sides of the water retention pond for irrigation. I was looking at the fence and I don’t think it will be that hard. I need to repair my weight box for the tractor so that I can move the big bales. It needs some welding and steel reinforcement. That is on my list along with haying and mini-excavator for my vacation coming up. I am gonna live it up!
It’s been a long week, I have been keeping the Ring camera open at night while we are watching TV so I can spot the predators killing our chickens, cats and eating our eggs. I had a few issues with this as always. I don’t particularly want to get sprayed by a skunk and our back door is right next to the cat feeding area so if I barge out there guns-a-blazing I am gonna get a face full of spray. This makes it imperative that I actually identify my victim prior to opening the door so I know what to expect. I spotted a raccoon right after it got dark on Tuesday night. I crept out to the back porch and silently as possible racked the action on my pistol to not scare the raccoon away. It really had nothing to fear. I dry fired the pistol as I had not cycled the hammer by gently racking the pistol. I cycled it again quickly but the raccoon was no fool and was beating feet as fast as possible and I never got off a good shot again. It was right there! I dropped the magazine and cleared the chamber when I went back inside the house.
Thirty minutes later I spot a smaller cat eating. As I keep looking at it the cat has a funny shape and color. Turns out it was a huge possum! I do the sneak approach and same thing happens. Luckily, they are a lot slower than a raccoon and I was able to dispatch it. It was headed to the berry patch. Thirty minutes later another huge possum shows up and this one tries to get under the old house. Again, damn pistol dry fired first round. At this point I realize I may need to actually clean the pistol. Honestly, I am unsure of the last time I did it.
But I decided that readiness was going to out trump safety and just kept one in the chamber and turned the safety on. It is hidden so it is not easily accessible. An hour later the raccoon came back and I was able to get off two good shots then had to chase it up the dry creek bed before finally putting it down. I had just counted my chickens before it got dark. The predators have killed over a dozen and they killed our two matching pairs of silkie chickens! Both the grey ones and the brown ones, rooster and hen. Those were the coolest of the new chickens. I think I have around 24 chickens now. This is a stupid problem! We know there is at least one skunk and two more raccoons around the place but I have not seen them on the Ring camera this week. So I will keep watching every night. The four new adult fixed cats we got are still hanging out around the back porch. I don’t know if they will be a deterrent to the predators or not.
Annmarie has been getting ready for her new loom. She took her old project off the inside loom so that we could send that loom home with Sarah. I am told that the rest of the industrial loom is coming up next week and then we can start working on getting it assembled. We are going to use the runner to cover our safes in the living room or else to cover the old wooden fridge in the hallway. It is made out of wool. She tells me she can see all of the mistakes but I cannot.
I was able to finally pickup carcasses to take them up onto the hillside for disposal this weekend. They do smell quite a bit after a few days but the important part is that I discovered one of our neighbors had upgraded and replaced about 50% of the fence that is along our adjoining property lines! This is way cool as it was one that was on our sooner than later upgrade but that was five years from now.
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.
It was time to get some chicken eggs and to harden the chicken coop. the Quiet One came out this morning and we spent an hour getting all the tools and supplies over to the chicken coop so we could get it updated. There used to be a fenced off portion down by the window but the steers tore it up in the last couple of years by trying to go through it. They did not get through the fence but they tore it up beyond salvaging and it had some big holes. This time I anticipated the cows trying to go through it again. We put a triangle with alternating H braces and smooth wire fence tighteners to create an anchor that can take a charging animal and bounce it off. We put three 2×4 across the chicken wire so that the cows can see there is an actual fence present. We also slanted the fence so it forces them to turn all in the hope that it won’t get ripped apart again. This also creates a larger chicken yard. Normally, that does not matter as I do not lock them up normally but we are getting zero eggs/day with 30 chickens. I cannot figure out where they are laying eggs. Today we heard the little silkie hen lay an egg behind the sink and snagged it as soon as she left. It is the first egg I have collected in five day!
The plan is to get the fence around the greenhouse and then to put chicken wire over the roof of the chicken yard so they cannot fly out. I want to force them to stay in the chicken yard for 1-2 weeks until they get used to using the laying boxes. Drilling the holes was surprisingly easy! The auger just went right into the ground and I only hit one rock and it just went around it. It was amazing, I have never had it that easy and I only need to drill one more hole and I will be done. It is for the gate into the greenhouse area but I need to go pickup a gate first. I want to make it so that the gate has to be pulled outward and if it is pushed on it will just close it against the chicken enclosure. This way even if the gate is not latched the animals cannot push it open.
Digging out the barn is the next big chore. The new little tractor has a wider bucket than the John Deere so I am unsure how the gate setup is going to work. I may have to move 1-2 of the posts out 18” so the new tractor can make the corner. I have not been brave enough to try it yet! Mostly because I do not have time for another project yet. I need to get the greenhouse and chicken coop finished first. Once they are done then I can move onto the barn. I did take some time and move one of the barn lot piles, the one closest to the barn, so that I can make a new pile of barn poop and straw. Not having to drive to the far end of the barn lot will save me some time, a couple of hours probably overall.
I went to town to get some cow panels and a brand new gate for the greenhouse fence. I am all ready for tomorrow.
Summer is definitely here, all of the fields are dead and the only green is along the creek where patches of water still exist in deep pools or along the spring path. Nothing can kill the blackberries. They grow along the creek and spring in multiple places on the farm. I have managed to pick 181 cups of blackberries so far this year, so just over 11 gallons. I need to pick about another 10 gallons. We will have plums coming on in next 2-3 weeks and we can pit and freeze them for the wife’s breakfast smoothie. I try and collect 2 cups of fruit for 365 days. It takes a lot more than you would think when you are planning for the entire year.
The grandbaby is turning one year old this month. He is all over the place now and getting into everything. Nap time is still my favorite time. I loved it when our daughter was young and I still love it. Annmarie snuck down while I was “babysitting” this weekend one morning before going outside to do something.
It was time to sort off the sheep. I had two lambs to sell and we needed to sort off all the lambs so we could put the rams in with the ewes. We also traded a ewe for a new ram so I needed to chose that ewe and mark her so we can sort her off in December. The final count after multiple sorting passes is 12 wether lambs (#434-447), 17 female lambs, 2 sold so 15 to add to our herd at the end of December (#439-456), ewe #380 is going to Mr Horse Tamer, we also have 25 ewes that are being bred by 3 rams. We will be eating the lazy ram this winter, he will be made into 100% burger. The Quiet One came out and helped me sort everyone. It took a bit to get everyone moved into the correct pasture. The lambs are down below, the ewes and rams are up with the cows and bull. All the boys got turned in with their respective opposing genders.
I am working shifts at work so I am taking days off mid week to account for days worked and I wanted to get the chicken coop hardened and the fence around the greenhouse. So we put the 6” auger on one of the tractors and got the three 50# weights applied via my custom welded jig! There is just not enough weight if the soil is hard someone used to have to try and push down on the arm and that is not very safe. I bypassed the seat pto safety on the older tractor but I have not done that on the new one yet. It is fairly simple I just have not needed it yet. Eventually I will have to do it. The plan is to get this done on Tuesday & Wednesday of next week. I have no idea how hard it will be do dig the holes. The ground has not seen any water for about 2.5 months, the good thing is it is creek bottom so it should be deep soil. There are not any rock bluffs in the area we are digging holes.
