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.