February 24-26, 2012

Wow, three days at the farm -- what a treat -- and superlative weather for February: 50s Friday, low 20s overnight, and then hitting 60 both Saturday and Sunday. I must say, however, that the wind on Sunday was very annoying since I could not keep my hat on.

Water Onions/Grass Seed

We received a light rain Monday, but you could not tell it. The ground was really dry and I watered the onions (and the grass seed I had spread around the house) each day. We need some spring rains, just not too much.

Tear Down Dog House

Sally has been after me for years to tear down this eye soar, and since I want the metal roof for the Loveable Loo House this was the weekend to do it. The metal roof is in good shape and came off without a problem. It was decked with half inch plywood -- 3 pieces 16 inches wide each. These had roof edge flashing on the sides and top. Only the sheet on the end was deteriorating toward the middle.

I think I will be able to reuse the decking, though I want to add about 5 inches to the depth. (I have a plan to use some metal sheeting to extend the roof -- sheeting that has blown off the barn over the two south facing door rails.)

Whoever built the dog house planned for it staying, because they used lots of nails. There were at least 4 different types/sizes. One had rings along the shaft and they held tight. I either couldn't get them out, or they gave all at once and went flying. I am afraid many are left in the yard/drive. I hope I don't find them in my tires. I pulled out over 100 nails -- they are piled up on the tail gate in the picture. There were even a few screws. Last thing Friday I burned the rotten pieces.

Spray Pond Algae

The spraying I did last week didn't seem to have much effect. I hit the spring and the pond again with the Cutrine Plus, but also another light dose. The water is very clear, which is part of the problem because it allows the sun to reach the bottom. I need to fertilize it.

Loveable Loo House

I'm still just working on the foundation. (You'll see that I'm really just floundering around with the foundation.) I thought I had it laid out like I wanted, with the largest rocks in place. I then scored one of the extra rocks with a chisel and driver, so that I would get a piece to fit in between the others. This actually went very well. After scoring both sides I hit it twice with the sledge hammer and it split right where I wanted. How sweet is that.

I then tried the same thing with a another rock. In the process of scoring it I noticed a rotten chunk of aggregate underneath on one side. Sure enough, this one broke in wild, odd directions. I still was able to get pieces to fill in the gaps and was feeling pretty good about the progress.

To accommodate the rocks, the North/South sides were going to be wider than desired. I was thinking I would lay one sheet of 4x8 siding in between the posts. But out in the wind Sunday I grew very concerned about how I was going to keep the darn thing from blowing over. Plus with the siding not nailed to the posts, it wouldn't provide the stability I wanted. So its back to the drawing board (or scrap paper where I'm doing my sketching).

It looks like I will drop the middle pieces of rock and flip the whole thing around so that it will come out to 48 inches deep and and about 54 inches wide (to accommodate the rocks and roof). I will have to lay that out next trip. I'm also fairly certain I will cement in 4x4 posts to hopefully anchor the house.

Build up Drive to Spring

This is where I am using some of my cedar posts before I give the rest away. I don't know if it will work, but in other places where I have stabilized the erosion process, the rocks and dirt have packed down to a hard surface. I think I took 12 wheel borrow loads from the road to the spring (eroded from the hill above) and dumped them over the posts. Of course eventually the cedars will rot, but I hope they stay in place for several years.

Pull/Cut Trees/Briars below Barn

There are some monster briars growing up into the oak just below the barn. If people are going to be passing through here and admiring the view, I don't want them looking at a briar patch. With my new loppers I cut out most of the trash in one of the pins below the barn. I used the Puller-Bear on some of the trees (the oaks just broke off and it was really only the cedars that came up by the roots), but had to just lop others I couldn't pull up/break off. This is also where I think the field line for the septic system is, so I need to keep the trees cleared out. The areas to the right and left of this pin also need to be addressed in the same manner.

Cut/Haul Downed Pines

There were more downed pine logs (from the ice storm) up the hill from the road in, and they were just laying there. So I cut them up and used them to arrest the hill side road erosion just below the house. (I'd already done this with some other pines, just adding to the effort.)

Wilson Sleek Cell Phone Amplifier

Sally got a new cell phone, and none of the new ones have a jack for an external antennae. So I bought this Wilson Sleek cradle for the phone. You plug an external antennae into it plus 110 or 12 volt power. The deal is though, you have to have blue tooth because you are not suppose to hold it up to your head when you use it. I first tried it with the window suction cup holder for the antennae -- no go. I then ran the new antennae through the window sill and up onto the roof. I got two bars and was able to make a call using my speaker phone. It was good enough. (Now I won't have to take my SIM card out, put in one of Sally's old phones, and use it with the old external antennae.)

Miscellaneous

Cracked some walnuts, made some banana-bran-walnut bread, cleaned the glass on the back door, swept up the dirt Tender and I had been tracking in, and swapped out the shower head (but I am not sure Sally will approve of this one).

February 18-19, 2012

Sally was off early to Chicago to meet Alice Mae and help Dave and Sarah out, so Tender is my sole companion for the next two weeks. We had good weather -- cloudy and in the low 50s Saturday and clear Sunday with the temperature hitting 60.

Plant Onions

Sally mail ordered two bunches of Walla Wallas and they had come in, so I had to get them in the ground. I worked in some more ashes and some slow release fertilizer and planted the first bunch (over 60) in one mound. I did the same with the other bunch along the fence on the far side. We grew some Walla Wallas a few years back and they were great. These came from Norway I believe.

Grass Seed

I brought out more annual rye and a small bag of a sun/shade mixture. The rye I put on the road in the fall is sort of growing. I'm hoping it will all thicken up and protect the road during the rainy spring. The other seed I am hoping will take hold in those barren spots around the house and behind the barn -- though I now need another bag.

Rocks for Outhouse Base

I had these huge rocks at the house and decided to use them for the floor of the outhouse I am going to build. It won't be a traditional outhouse in that there will be no pit, but instead an outhouse for a composting toilet -- a Loveable Loo. Two of the rocks were dug up when I had our sewer line replaced in 2001. I had to split the largest just to roll it behind the Snowball Bush by the chimney (you can see the creosote that dripped on it). The other the city dug up when they replaced the sewer line in the street a year ago. Chris had to help me load them into the truck. He guessed the largest weighed in at 250lbs.

Move Wood

I started cleaning up the fire wood in the back of the barn by moving it all to the bluff side. Since the ground gets muddy there, I laid down some of my numerous cedar posts to stack the wood on top of. I've got much more of the shorter (Denver/Chicago) wood than I realized, so much that I decided to make that stack two deep. I just got the ends going for the larger (24 inch) logs. They will have to come all the way across the barn since they are currently on the south side, but I need to get all the shorter stuff re-stacked first so its out of the way.

Vacuum Leaves

I brought my leaf blower/vacuum out and sucked up and chopped all the oak leaves that blow down the hill and accumulate in the garage and along the North side of the house and garden. I then spread the chopped leaves in the lanes of the garden and over the freshly planted onions.

Spray Pond Algae

The pond algae is bad, and I can already see the weeds growing. I sprayed a diluted dose of Cutrine Plus along the dam and South side. I'll check next week to see what it did.

Prune Apples/Pears

I'd already pruned the peach, black berries, and nectarine. Finally got to the two apples and two pears. I'm really hoping we have some pairs this year. The trees look healthy, and are to tall for me to get into the tops to do additional pruning.

Split Cedars

I am going to try and use as much on hand building materials as possible for the outhouse (like the rocks from the house). For corner posts I figure I can use a few of the many cedars I need to get rid of anyway. I took a large one and split it hoping I would end up with two square sides, but as you can see in the picture it twisted. These will definitely not work (although I love the smell of that cedar heart and would love to get some of that into the outhouse). Now I am considering just using the round posts -- nice straight ones of course.
Although, today I did order a froe and will try my hand at splitting them with it. Perhaps I can keep the split straight, but I doubt it with these large cedars. Another use of the posts would be as rails for a cedar rail fence (for me of for someone else). I'll have other uses for the froe though, like splitting the pine kindling I use at home. I may even try making shakes for the outhouse roof, although my current plan is to use the metal roof from the dilapidated dog house (which Sally has been after me to tare down anyway).

Started Cleaning up the Barn

I got a small start at cleaning out the barn. I took the short posts I'd salvaged from some sort of livestock contraption (left down by the creek) up to the house. The good ones I stored in the chicken coop. The broken ones and ones with bolts that I could not remove I plan to burn. I also filled a feed bag with trash, which I took home and put out for the city to pickup.
All of the short and curved cedar posts I took over to the road leading to the spring -- the spot I backed the truck off nearly rolling it. I've started stacking them there and will fill in with loose gravel and dirt. I hope to build it up and widen the road at that corner. Maybe some day I will get up the nerve to drive back down there, although I don't believe I will every try backing out again.

Crack Walnuts

Last thing before leaving I cracked a pan of walnuts. I've started in on my second bag (I only have three). But with the weather warming up, I've get to get cracking (and picking).

February 10-11, 2012

This post is late because blogger gave me fits last week -- "An error occurred while saving". I finally changed the template I have been using, and that seemed to fix it. So welcome to the new look.

Friday was a cloudy, cold and dreary day with snow flurries in the late afternoon. It dropped into the teens overnight and Saturday was our first (and maybe only) sub-freezing day of the winter. Sally says you need three in a row to kill back the ticks and fleas. I believe it, because I had 2 ticks on me the weekend before and Tender has had a few.

Compost

I brought a load of city compost out to work into the garden. I got started on it Friday, unloading about a fourth of the truck. It was so cold I built a fire so I could periodically warm my hands. I would work in some wood ash as I turned the compost in -- to provide some alkaline affect.

Sally says I should just spread the compost on top and leave it, but I believe it provides some moisture holding capability down where the roots are. (Since we are only out on week-ends in the summer.)

When I went to continue the job Saturday morning, guess what. Yep, the surface area and parts around the edges were frozen. It was quite a bit more difficult to get it broken up and worked in. It took me practically all day. Sally asked Saturday night if I was sore, and I said no. Sunday I was sore, and Monday I was really sore.

Wedding Planners

Gloria and Judy came out Friday to check out the farm as a wedding venue for Amanda and John. Looking at the area West of the house, they were wanting me to dig up some of my trees to have room and a big tent. They were about to leave and they hadn't seen the barn. So we went down there, and both agreed that the best view was had from behind the barn -- and they both loved the barn if it could be cleaned up. The limited electricity there would be an issue, as well as the fact that the house and bathroom are up the hill. And speaking of bathrooms, I committed to building an outhouse with a composting toilet for the men. I'll be busy.

Judy's was freezing by the time they left. And even though I had understood that Gloria was in a 4WD vehicle, it turns out that she was not (some 2WD SUV) and they spun their tires a bunch getting up the hill. This caused Judy more reservation than anything else.

Scrap Metal

Sally has been on me to haul off a lot of the scrap metal around the place. And since we are embarking on a major clean up anyway, I loaded up the truck. I got $29 for all this junk.

Cracked Walnuts

Before leaving I made Sally give me 40 minutes to crack some walnuts, so I would have them on hand to pick during the week.

February 3-4, 2012

We spent the afternoon touring around Eureka, so did not arrive until after 5 (in a light drizzle). There was a good chance of rain all day, but the heavy stuff was forecast for 9pm - 2am. Sure enough, right at 9 there was lightening and heavy rain. It didn't last all that long, but later heard Eureka had recorded 1.25 inches (only 1 inch in Fayetteville).

Burn

With the ground good and wet I decided to burn the ice storm cedars (plus a few others I had trimmed) in the two large groves down past the pond. It was a perfect day for it, cool and wet.

I found these funny looking insets over-wintering in the crack of this large cedar limb. No idea what they were.

I surprised myself by getting all the piles taken care of within 3.5 hours. I am so pleased to get these eye sores out of the way, though there are still some standing trees that are so broken that they should be cut. Many if the limbs had to be drug a ways -- all in all a very good workout. It was easy sleeping Saturday night.

There are scads of little cedars coming up in the groves. While waiting for the pile to burn down I sat and hand pulled about 150. I'll be back.

Water Everywhere

With the over night rain, the creeks were really runing and the pond was full.

Walnuts

Before heading out I cracked some more walnuts, to be picked during the week. Sally has me now leaving them in a jar on the counter for snacking.

January 20-21, 2012

This was another very pleasant mild winter weekend where we saw the mid 40s Friday and on up into the 50s Saturday (though it was a chilly 22 degrees Saturday morning). We also got to see a few eagles circling up above.

Transplanted Trees

I flagged all the volunteer trees coming up in the yard in town, and Sally is anxious for me to remove them. So I dug up 10 before coming out and planted a couple out back and the rest in the row next to the drive coming up to the house. They were all hickory and various oaks. I put this water oak (I believe) next to the oak Sally got free two years ago, but which has not done well -- I will be surprised if it survives. I filled in the row out front, but we'll have to see how many survive. The orange tags are the ones I planted this trip.

Lopped Cedars

With my little loppers, I finished Friday afternoon snipping 500+ cedars below and beyond the spring. Saturday morning I got another 1000+ above the spring. It was so cold I had to get my insulated gloves.

ODS Pilot

Friday evening the pilot on the main propane heater started misbehaving -- it was loud and the flame was standing far off the pilot itself. I tried cleaning it with compressed air Friday night, but that did not work and I left the heater off over night. In the morning I cleaned it with a cue tip and nail polish remover. Then it lit right up and was burning fine. Last year my pre-season cleaning lasted the whole winter. I'm not sure why this problem started so suddenly, but suspect something contaminated it.

Cut Ice Damaged Pines

I grew tired of looking at the dead and leaning pines to the left of the road coming in, so I took the Stihl to them. I also found a couple of larger cedars to cut.

Walk to Pond

We took Tender for an afternoon walk to the pond. The algae is looking awful. What to do, what to do.

We cut across the field on the way back so I could lop cedars along the way. I found this poor unfortunate bunny filleted and stuffed into this set of three little cedars. Coyote I presume. But it was a very clean job, and what would hide the carcass like this?

January 6-7, 2012

Oh what a beautiful weekend -- early January and it was clear and 65 Friday and 60 Saturday. Unbelievable! It was 55 in the house, normal for winter, so we needed to open the windows to warm it up.

Cracked Walnuts

I did about half a box, my second cracking of the season. There were a lot more bad nuts this time around, nothing like the ratio last year but many more than the 2 or 3 I found in the first cracking.

Puller Bear

I took this tree puller up to the top of the hill to see what it would do with all the hardwood stumps left after years of brush hogging. Not so good. Most just broke off where it clamped onto them. With just a few I was able to get the roots. And then there were those that I couldn't get up and wouldn't break. It did well with the cedars (but its easier to lop them) and the pines. The pines just keep coming back with wide low spreading limbs, so its nice to get the roots and all. Next I'll try this tool on the buck brush. If it doesn't get those by the roots I've likely wasted my money.

Cedars

I pulled lots of the cedars in front of the spring tank. They are small on top because they have been getting mowed, but under the ground they have been growing deep roots. This one I could only get up by twisting it about 30 times, and then this huge tap root came up.

Rake Tank

I took the rake to the tank to rake out some of the leaves and debris – and algae that is already growing. I haven't given up on the bacteria to eat the muck, but figure I will need to help it out. We will need much warmer weather before I can put out more of the bacteria.

Front Gate

This gate was never hung correctly (2.5 inch screws were used but couldn't be driven all the way in) and one side was hanging by one screw. I had to hack saw off some of the screws, raised both sides, and got it where it opened and latched nicely.

While I had the tools out I fixed the swing, tightened the screws in the adirondacks, and got the two gate closures in the back to nest nicely (they had been bugging me).

Trim Hollies

The holly inside the fence was really out of control, so I removed quit a bit of it. The other 2 had gotten eaten by the deer last winter when we had lots of snow, so they didn't need too much. I also clipped the rest of the obedience (some of it was still green) and the peonies.

Walk to Pond

With Tender's tender feet (recent yeast infection), we weren't comfortable walking him all the way to the pond, so we locked him in the house as we took an afternoon hike. I was really on the look out for antler sheds, but found none (we walked some pasture on the way down and a different section back). We did find a patch of about 20 thistles growing flush to the ground. I kicked them out, but need to watch this area in the summer. The algae is already growing and it looks like it will be another challenging year of pond management. Also found an armadillo shell -- belly up just like along the road.

December 16-17, 2011

Sally was in Harrison, so she met me at the farm. I came the shortcut, and for the first time since Spring the Warm Fork was running -- crystal clear as usual. (We'd gotten more heavy rain mid-week.) I wasn't in 4WD when I entered, got stuck and stalled the engine. I was a little concerned, but once I got 4WD engaged it pulled on out of all that loose gravel.

Puller Bear

I bought this tool back in the summer and pulled up some trees around the house in town with it before bringing it out. Not wanting to struggle with it in any heat or dry weather, this was the first time I used it at the farm. This is the largest version this Canadian firm makes, and it is suppose to handle trees up to 2.5 inches in diameter. The claw/clamp on it can get around that size tree, but after using it I am sure there is no way I could pull up anything that big.

I took it out back to tackle the scrubs along the top of the bluff. Most had been lopped (or cut) before and had just grown back. I bought this thing so I could get the roots and not have this problem, and because I didn't want to use herbicide. But with these re-growths and the bigger stuff, cutting and herbicide will have to be the solution. The ones I was able to pull up had some extensive root systems. Some were longer than the tree above ground and larger in diameter below ground than above. Others just broke off where it clamped on to them. I got about 50 or so along the bluff and just up the hill. It was quite a workout, and I was glad to quit once Sally showed up around 5pm.

Frost Flowers

It was in the mid 20s Saturday morning and there was a heavy frost in the valley. With all the rain we had received during the week I figured there would be some frost flowers out. Sure enough I found them down by the spring and in front and behind the barn – all below the bluff the house sits on.

Weed Garden

Saturday morning Sally was kicking herself for not picking the bock chow and chard she had seen the evening before, because now looked frozen. Later in the day though, it seemed okay.

I pulled up most of the dead spinach and then turned the soil in that bed with the shovel. The weeds are really really bad now. I suspect because we have had so much fall rain. I filled up a bucket back in the SW corner, and took the shovel to the bermuda grass and mint in the SE corner. Those roots are so deep. Sally also let me pull up some huge wild flowers that have survived in her wild flower mound. Still lots of weeding needed.

Crack Walnuts

I got out the cracker and started in on some of this years black walnuts. They are very dirty, me just using my boots to hull them. But, I cracked over half a box and only had 3 bad nuts. Last year I there were so many I would count them and keep the ratio of bad ones to good -- sometimes running 20 to almost 40%. And the flavor was good! This is the first year that my entire haul has been off our place.

Lop Cedars

I got out my loppers and tackled the cedars back of the barn -- at least those that were small enough for me to lop. I had gotten almost 300 when I broke the loppers on the tree pictured. I guess I'm a pretty strong dude to snap steel like that. I was disappointed that this Corona heavy duty lopper let me down this way -- after all, it did run me close to $45. I need to find out if the company will make right by me.

Sharpen McCulloch

Before leaving, I got out the McCulloch and tightened and sharpened the chain so that it will be ready to go next outing. It is hard to start, but it has been quite a work horse for me. Bought it in 1982.