November 24-25, 2012

We went by Academy in Rogers so that we could get Savannah a bike for Christmas. That meant we came into Eureka via Hwy 62, so we had to stop at Bubba's for some barbeque. (The meat just fell off those ribs.) There was great weather all weekend with clear skies, cold nights, and warm days. The sunset really lit up the thin clouds to the south, unfortunately my phone camera could not capture it.

Garden

We've yet to receive any decent rain, and so the garden soil is like powder. The paper quoted George Stowe-Rains with the Forest Service saying we are now 15 inches below normal (he said we were in an extreme extreme drought) and the fire danger throughout the winter will be very high. There is nothing left growing in the garden save one spindly kale plant. Sally pointed out all the others had been cut off at the base, and that this one had a close knit wire cage around it (keeping it safe from the rats). Sally is worried that the garlic she planted won't come up because it is so dry. I say give it time. I did some weeding, mostly pulling up the larger dandelions and then tackling the deep rooted bermuda invading the east end.

I decided to take a different approach to weeding on Sunday. Since it was so dry and most of what was left was small spreading weeds, I used the hoe to scrap the surface -- pulling them up or cutting them off. It took awhile (Sally says not to bother), but looks much better.

Lop Cedars

Late Saturday afternoon I took my loppers down the hill below the barn, cutting 500+ cedars. There are always cedars to lop, and two more pens to clear below the barn.

Walk to Pond

Sunday morning we walked to the pond with Tender. He did fine, other than wandering a bit. It was nice and dry at the house, but there was a heavy frost in the valley. The pond remains extremely low, and I haven't seen any fish in months.

Front Gate

Sunday I took down the right half of the front gate, nailed it back together, and re-hung it. It has never worked that well, but at least it opens, closes, and latches again.

McCulloch

Next I looked at why this chain saw wouldn't crank. I found no problem on the chain side and could see that cylinder was moving freely. I then disassembled the crank side and found the pull cord off the pulley and wrapped around the axle (so to speak). I put it back and would it a bit tighter, cleaned out some of the oily sawdust, and put it back together. I went ahead and cleaned the air filter, so hopefully this machine is good to go.

Honeysuckle

I like the honeysuckle growing up the side of the garage next to the house, but it knows no bounds. This is the second time I've taken some snips to it. I'm sure next spring it will once again be reaching almost over to the roof of the house. I've bought some perennial rye grass I would like to get to grow in there, but we need rain first.

Walk Upper Pasture

Sunday afternoon I got Sally to take a walk with me – up the trail through the woods to the west to the upper pasture, across the top back to the east, and down the old 4 wheeler track back to the house. It was nice and I was very glad she joined me.

Haul Amanda's Dresser Home

With clear weather we thought it would be wise to go ahead and bring Amanda's dresser home since she is scheduled to take it back to Colorado at Christmas. She bought it while antiquing with Sally well over 5 years ago, and it has staid at the farm all this time. We'll miss it.

November 9-10, 2012

Sally and Tender staid back in town, which is beginning to look like a trend. I saw my first Eagle of season on my way out, just south of Eureka along Hwy 23. It was yet another mild, dry and windy week and weekend. (Actually a front came through Sunday and we received some rain!) There were still some nice fall colors, though they were fading and leaves were beginning to fall. (Lots of pine needles have already fallen, as you can see in the next pic.)

Clear Wood Finish

Being a warm day in November and the south side of the house showing signs of needing another coat of Flood Clear Wood Finish, I decided that would be my project for the afternoon. It went pretty quick and I used only about a half gallon of the finish. I had also brought a new (new for the farm, but used) 4" brush out for the task. That made it much nicer since I had been using the same brush for this task for the past 9 years. I never cleaned it, just bag it and store it in the freezer. The problem was that it had gotten loose where the bristles joined the handle, and it would wobble around on me and actually pinch my hand. After doing the house, I had just enough light to put a coat on the picnic table.

Paint Touch Up

Since we painted the living room last summer, I had noticed many places where I had failed to get a thorough coat on (the lighter previous paint showed through), or just did not get all the way up to the trim or outlets. Using a bright light I hit 40 or 50 spots Friday evening. I'll have to check again in the daylight. This didn't bother Sally, but it had been bugging me.

Bran Muffins/Multi-Grain Pancakes

I had some buttermilk to use up, so made bran, coconut, walnut, raisin muffins Friday night. And then for Saturday morning I had multi-grain pancakes with cranberries, butter and maple syrup. I don't get to eat like this when Sally is along.

Pickup Walnuts

First thing Saturday I drove down to the big Walnut below the pond to hull (by foot) and pickup another bucket of nuts. Back at the house I spread them out to dry in the sun and wind. End of the day I bagged them and stored them in the rabbit hutch. This made 4 buckets and probably all I will bother with.

Field Pine

I took the sharpened Stihl back down to the pasture to finish off the big field pine that died, and that I have been working on for 3 weeks now. I also took my wedges, sledge, and splitting maul so I could split the big logs in half so that I could lift them into the bed of the truck. (It took all of these tools to get the logs to split – small wedge, large wedge, followed by the maul pounded through with the sledge hammer.)

The slices with big limbs I left, rolling them down to the low area where the pasture drains. All others I hauled back to the barn, along with all the pine bark that had come loose. I'm not sure what I will do with the bark, but it can be nice in a flower bed or maybe even in the garden lanes. There were little worms under much of the bark, probably what really killed the tree after the drought weakened it.

Froe Use

Using my froe, I first split up all the pine pieces I had created from my attempts to create shakes from the pine logs I've had in the barn for about 4 years. These, shown in the bed of the truck, I will use as kendling for the stove and fireplace. (Our gas line leading to the fireplace starter developed a leak and had to be cut off and capped.) Then I tried to slice shakes from one of the green pine logs. Green was right as they are still full of moisture and would bend but only split reluctantly. I did not realize how hard I worked at this until the next day when the sore muscles spoke to me. Needless to say, this effort was only marginally more successful than my previous attempt. I will let the logs dry out a bit more and try again. If it doesn't work I will be stuck with some big pine logs and a ton of kindling.

Garden

Since it is still bone dry, I watered the few things growing Friday. Saturday I picked more jalapenos (and then pulled up the plants), a little chard and kale (still worms on it), and bag of spinach. Without rain, the fall crops (kale, chard and beats) will not amount to much.

Sharpen Saws

Last I sharpened the Stihl so that it would be read to go. Then I thought I would do the McCulloch. Wow, about half the teeth were missing from the chain. They were so worn down they had broken off in its last use (cutting some of the field pine). I then found another old chain, but after getting it own I realized it had stretched so much that it now requires a link to be removed. I decided to chunk both of those and found two more chains I had stored in a can of oil. I got one on and sharpened, and then realized that the saw was locked up and wouldn't crank. Its happened before, but I can't remember exactly why. A job for my next outing.

November 2-3, 2012

This was another great fall weekend in the Ozarks. The oaks were in full blaze so I took lots of pictures. It was warm Friday getting up to 80, but only reached 70 Saturday. Unfortunately it was another dry week. I had to hook up the hose so Sally could water what was left in the garden.

Lop Cedars

After filling the bird feeders, I decided my Friday afternoon project would be to lop some cedars and check out the upper pasture after it was brush hogged. I looped around the top of the bluff back of the house, and then worked my way up to the top of the hill. I had lopped almost 200 cedars by the time I got up top. The pasture itself was clean, I did not find any cedars there. I then skirted through the area we are letting grow up, cutting any cedars I found and some of the pines. (I think I actually should thin the oaks and hickories coming up here to give others more of a chance.) I then started working along the line between the pasture and wooded hillside, heading back east. There were lots of cedars along here, some tiny and some larger than I could lop. This is where I stumbled upon this stash of fence posts, hearing something clink under foot. There are 30 to 40 here, and I bet there are others along this line. I did later find a big role of field fence, also mostly buried. I'm surprised I'd never run across these before, but they were under a lot of debris. By the time I got back to the house I had lopped 800 trees and felt like I had accomplished something.

Garden

With Sally along, she pretty much took care of the garden (nice). There was not much to harvest, but she did pick more jalapenos (because they were there!), chard, and just a little kale. Then she started pulling up plants, which I got to haul off. I did do a little weeding. We're still hopeful that the kale will grow, but we need rain! She planted a few garlic cloves now that it is November.

Walnuts

Saturday morning I drove into the back pasture with hopes of finding some large walnuts. I looked under at least a dozen trees and only found 4 nuts total. I guess this north facing hillside was too dry? The trees were gorgeous though, and I enjoyed walking below the bluff and coming back along the track I use to drive back there. The trees in this area are the tallest on the place, mostly white oaks and hickories. I then drove back to the big tree below the pond and filled my bucket there, hardly needing to move (but small nuts).

Field Pine

I sharpened the Stihl, and in the afternoon I drove down to the field pine. I got 4 cuts on the base of it and could tell the chain was dulled by that point. (It was workout for me as well.) I then took the 4th slice, the smallest, and rolled it to the truck. Using my knee I was just able to hoist it up into the bed. I took it back to the barn and split it in two. (Visible in the next pic.) It was very wet and bit difficult to split. I made these cuts 18 inches and hope to be able to use my froe to slice off shakes. We'll see. (I tried this with the previous large pine I had cut years back and saved, but they would not split straight. I'm hoping the green wood will do better.)

Firewood

Since I had the truck and was in the barn, I loaded it with firewood to haul back to town. I'd taken another load the weekend before. Two loads is just right to store on one side at the back of the carport. We're ready for winter now. (I cleaned the stove pipe and flu the previous Sunday.)