Cabin Crafted

Author: Cabincrafted1

  • Sunday musings August 17, 2014

    This is the first Sunday in 6 weeks that I could be lazy.  The first Sunday where I didn’t have to arise by 7 a.m. prepare breakfast for Grandson #1 and supervise a math worksheet and a writing assignment then encourage him to practice his guitar and his Kung Fu forms.

    I was tired last night.  I drove for 5 hours and once home alone as Hubby was out on his BBH riding, I turned on the Solar Charger that I installed just before leaving to charge the electric fence.  Reluctantly I touched the fence at the farthest point from the charger and nothing.  It is a 12V impulse charger, so I should have felt a zing every few seconds, nothing.  Again I read the manual.  I had attached everything correctly, but I had tried to run the wire in two directions from the charger to give me a better place to put the gate without having to bury the wire in PVC pipe below the gate.  Assuming that to be my problem, I disconnected everything and determined that the gate was just going to have to be where the charger is mounted on a wooden post and rewired the fence in a continuous two strand loop from charger to gate opening.  When I turned the charger back on, still no zing.  In walking around the perimeter, I realized that the wire was touching the welded wire fence of the auxiliary chicken pen and must be grounding itself.  That corrected and the charger on, I did indeed get shocked on both sides of the gate opening.  Now I need a third gate and a second non conductive post to hang the gate for our convenience.  The garden and chicken pens are within an electric force field.  It won’t keep the bunnies out, but it should keep the neighborhood dogs and coyotes out of the chickens and the deer out of the garden.

    Once that was complete, a walk around just to enjoy the beautiful afternoon, I discovered …

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    The apple and Asian Pear trees are only three years old, so I stripped most of the flowers from them this spring to give them another year to establish.  I left a few flowers on one apple tree and the larger Asian Pear tree and was delighted to find 4 apples (one was badly pecked so I gave it to the chickens) and 8 Asian Pears.  I ate one pear standing right at the unsprayed tree, Tossed the two tiny malformed ones to the chickens.  Our first tree fruit.  The peaches produced small hard peaches that all oozed sap.  I assume they were attacked by something.  I will have to do some research as I won’t use pesticide spray on my fruit, near my vegetable garden and the chickens.

    Once I was finally moving this morning, after dog and chicken chores, and enjoying a bowl of homemade granola with coconut milk and a cup of coffee, I hauled the lawn mower out to cut the area inside the electric fence that is not vegetable garden, compost bins or chicken pen and also the grass inside the auxiliary chicken pen as there are no chickens in it right now and the grass was getting quite tall.

    Later we must make a Tractor Supply run for dog and chick feed and perhaps to purchase the gate.  I can get our neighbor to help me hang it this week.  As I was mowing the area above my garden, I realized how much slope the yard has between the area that Son #1 and wife had established as the upper garden and where my vegetable garden is with the compost bins in between.  As we are going to remove the compost bins and just leave me a compost pile, I think we will have to terrace that area making a 4 tiered garden as we expand the garden and berry patch back up the slope.  It has been nice having the space this year for the pumpkins, winter squash and sweet potatoes.  It will be nice to have more space for summer squash and cucumbers to spread out, a place to again plant potatoes which we haven’t done in a couple of years and more room to spread out the tomatoes and peppers so they aren’t quite so crowded.  Since I have started using the heavy spoiled hay mulch system this year, there has been much less weeding to do.

    Planning continues as our little mountain farm evolves.  Life is an adventure!

     

  • Olio August 16, 2014

    Olio: A miscellaneous collection of things.

    On Thursday, I returned our eldest grandson to his home.  He had been with us since July 3 and it was a wonderful 6 weeks.  He enjoyed playing with our dogs, learned to ride his bike, traveled to Florida with us to visit his Aunt and Uncle and cousins for a week, swam, had outings with Granddad to the batting cage and several movies.  He and Granddad played catch in the yard and had batting practice.  A few times, he cooked with me, learning to make his favorite blueberry muffins and getting some math practice with measuring and calculating which measuring cups would give him the quantity he needed.  It was a relief to his Mom and Dad to not have to try to find summer care for him and figure out how to get him to and from that care when they both left very early for their jobs.

    Yesterday after playing with his neighborhood friends, showing off to his Mom and Dad his new bike riding skills, having Grandmom take him to his guitar lesson, they all left at 9:30 last night on the Metro to Union Station to catch an 11:30 p.m. Greyhound bus to Virginia Beach, where he and his Mom will spend the next week with her parents.  Our son will return home to Northern Virginia on the train tomorrow so he can be at work on Monday.  His Mom’s summer job has ended and her school begins just before Labor Day.  I returned to their house to spend the night before traveling home this morning.  As I was avoiding the interstate and taking a leisurely cruise down the Skyline Drive this morning, I received a text from son saying that they were stuck in Richmond, VA, only a couple hours from their home and a couple hours from their destination almost 12 hours after leaving on the bus.  Their 4 hour trip lasted 14 hours.  There is something truly wrong with Greyhound’s business model that passengers with tickets can not have a seat on a leg of their trip.  If they hadn’t had to disembark at the transfer station in Richmond, they would have been at their destination in the early hours, not the next afternoon.

    After enjoying about an hour and a half of scenic drive, I got back on the interstate, so my 4 hour trip wouldn’t take all day and like Thusday, was again stuck with the semis.

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    I followed these two for miles and miles doing less than 60 mph in a 70 mph zone. Behind me was a line of at least a dozen more.

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    It is amazing how quickly chicks grow.  These little guys and gals are a week and a half old.  They can almost get out of the brooder which is a huge stock watering tank. I guess I am going to have to put a screen over it soon.  They are all darkening and growing wing and tail feathers.  The one center front is the one I named Chipmunk because of the dark stripes on his back when I uncartoned them from the Hatchery.

    Egg production is picking up.  The pullets are getting the hang of the laying bit.  In the past 6 days, we have gotten 7 pullet eggs, so I know that more than one of them is laying.  We also got 5 hen eggs, though Broody Girl is still insisting on empty nest sitting.  This has gone on now for over a month.  Perhaps I should get her some fertile eggs and just let her give it a go.

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    The pullet eggs are so small compared to the hen eggs.  At least we are getting some again.

    The garden loved last week’s rain, the tomatoes are ripening in the sun, peppers are swelling and I am nearly overrun with Tomatillos.  I haven’t looked under the row covers to see how the transplants are doing, but they will have to be watered today or tomorrow.

    My purple thick skinned grapes are ripe.  Perhaps I should attempt some grape jelly.

    The weather feels like fall already.  I shouldn’t get too excited, it will probably get hot again soon.

    This week, we tackle power washing the decks to re-stain.  I’m trying to figure out how we are going to keep the outdoor cats off while they dry and how we will get the dogs in and out.  I guess they will have to go through the garage, but neither of them are used to doing that, so it may require leading them out on a leash til the decks dry.

    Hubby took off early this morning on a ride on his BBH (Big Bad Harley) with the Hog Club from where his bike came.  It is a ride to just get there, over an hour.  They were going to have breakfast then ride into West Virginia.  He texted me that he did go and that he was in West Virginia.  I guess I will see him later this afternoon when he returns.

    When I was in Northern Virginia to pick up grandson in early July, I bought some variegated yarn at a local shop.  The yarn is one that isn’t available around here and I knit a Hitchhiker scarf from it.  I decided that I wanted a cardigan sweater of the same yarn and returned yesterday to the shop to try to purchase it.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have enough of it to make a sweater, but I did get a worsted weight solid that coordinates beautifully with it.  As soon as the weather is cool enough to sit with the bulk of a sweater body in my lap while knitting, I will make myself a sweater to go with my scarf.

    Though it is only mid afternoon, I am tired from my travels and contemplating a short nap.  Life is an adventure!

  • Traveling and Semis

    Yesterday as I was traveling from home to Northern Virginia, I was intimidated more than once by semi trucks. When I was young and interstate highways were just being developed, semi trucks were about 35 feet long.  That was intimidating to a new driver then. I am not a new driver, I’ve had a license for more than 5 decades and I have an excellent driving record. My trip takes me on I81, a major north south route through the western part of Virginia. It intersects and superimposes over I64 a major east west route for about 30 miles. Both of these roads are heavily traveled by trucks. It is rare to see a 35 foot truck now, most have 53 foot trailers or two 35 foot tandem trailers. On this trip I saw a few of the longer tandems.

    I’m sure that for the most part they are safe drivers, but that route experiences a semi accident about 5 times a week, especially in 2 counties it traverses. It is frightening to get boxed in by these behemouths with them in front and too close behind as well as one or more in the left lane.  On 2 occasions yesterday, I had one try to pass me when I was in the right lane doing the posted 70 mph speed limit, then discover he could not get up the hill at the speed he was going and lane change back to my lane with insufficient clearance causing me to have to brake quickly with another semi on my back bumper.

    It is a joy to travel in states where semis are not permitted in the left lane, Virginia is not one of those states.  It would be nice if more funds were invested in the rail infrastructure and send more of our cargo by rail.  Once the train leaves from a city closer than 2 hours from home, I will chose that mode of travel.

  • Fall Gardening

    The sunny day yesterday did not really happen, but it didn’t really rain either. It was only in the mid 60’s most of the day and partly to mostly cloudy, so a perfect day to garden.

    Since eggs are a premium around here still, we went out to breakfast at our local diner. I have gotten 2 pullet eggs in the past couple of days. There are 11 pullets, so we are hoping they will all get the message soon. Their eggs are so cute next to the hens eggs.

    After breakfast, we ventured down to Tractor Supply for pine shavings for the brooder and to replace the solar charger that is supposed to protect my garden and the chickens, but failed right before we left for vacation. When we purchased it, we only got a 6V solar charger. The batteries on them only last about 3 years and it probably needs a new battery, but Tractor Supply had a 12V on sale  for a price I couldn’t pass up. It is mounted and charging to be connected after I return from taking our grandson home today. Our adventure yesterday also took us to our favorite local nursery for fall vegetable starts. Having grandson here, activities with him, and our vacation just got in the way of starting my own. Once home, a bit of grubbing in the soil with my awesome hoe and my hands, cleared two beds, weeded the bean patch where I realized that the gnawed off shoots were growing new leaves. Planted were 4 Rainbow Chard, 8 Broccoli, 4 Kale plants.
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    Once they were safely tucked in the soil and mulched with some spoiled hay, row cover was placed over them and the beans to thwart the bunnies and the cabbage moths. Perhaps we will get some beans this season after all. We have about 60 days until our average first frost date, so I am hopeful.
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    In recent years, I have been reluctant to plant radishes and turnips in our garden as they always seem to be attacked by the little white maggots. Recently I read that if you sprinkle wood ash in your furrow that they won’t be a problem. I hadn’t really saved any wood ash, but found a couple of cups worth in the bottom of the woodstove and added it to about a cup of diatomaceous earth and planted a row of red radishes, a row of white icicle radishes and a row of turnip seed as a test, sprinkling the mix in the row and on top of the covered seed. We will see if that experiment works, if so I will save more wood ash next year. This bed was also covered with a row cover to thwart the bunnies.
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    My son says I should sit out there with my .22 and dispatch them and eat them. Unfortunately, I don’t like rabbit and I couldn’t clean them if I succeeded in shooting one. I will continue to deter them with row cover and maybe once I get the electric fence charged to keep the deer and dogs out, I will string plastic bunny fence around the vegetable garden.

    I couldn’t get cabbage starts at our local nursery, they were all sold out, but Lowes just got theirs in yesterday afternoon and a scored a flat of 9.  This morning they were planted. , Now it’s time to thin the raspberries, harvest and preserve for the winter.

    Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

  • Squirreling away

    Each year I look forward to the time when my forays to the garden are rewarded with baskets of produce to be squirreled away for the cold months.  This year’s garden was generous with the peas and many packages were put away in the freezer after a blanch, chill and seal in vacuum sealed bags.  The first planting of beans turned out to be yellow wax beans, not the green bush beans that were planned.  They remnants of those have been fed to the chickens along with the bean beetles that they have accumulated.  A second planting of green bush beans was done prior to our vacation, but bunnies got to them while we were away.  I covered them with net on our return, but the wily little cotton tails have managed to get under the net.  I guess there won’t be beans in the freezer this year unless I can score a few pounds at the Farmers’ Market.  I will be taking grandson home on Thursday and returning home Saturday, hopefully to arrive in time to get some from the market.

    Today, after the rain finally let up, a venture over to the garden was rewarded with more than a half dozen lemon cucumbers, still of usable size; a large scalloped white squash, hopefully still usable; scores of peppers, my first two slicing tomatoes and half a basket of Tomatillos.  One of the pullets finally laid an egg and one of the hens also provided one.  The pullets look like they may actually be getting the hang of it and egg production should increase.

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    Knowing that produce is best preserved while garden fresh, I set about to chopping and made 3 pint jars of Tomatillo Green Salsa, still having all the Habeneros and a few more Jalapenos that were too large for just pickling for hubby, I also made 2 pints of “Oh, I think I destroyed my tastebuds” sauce.  I didn’t taste the salsa, but after searing the veggies and habeneros for the sauce and finally being able to breathe again, I did taste the habenero tomatillo sauce and I may never be able to taste food again.  My son will love this one.

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    In the peppers, we are beginning to get cayennes and anchos turning red, so strings were started to dry them from the bottom of the loft beams for sauces, chili, and crushing for pizza and pasta this winter.

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    The winter squash, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes look like they will be plentiful.  I had feared that there would be little from the garden this year, but my fears were unfounded.  Tomorrow, I will go to my favorite local nursery and see if the fall greens, brocolli and cabbage starts are for sale yet.  We may not have green beans, but we won’t be without greens.

    Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

     

  • Noah, we need help.

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    Please send Ark plans.  Today is our 5th straight day of rain, often heavy.  This rain allowed only that the scaffolding be erected over the weekend, no caulking done to allow the staining.

    It is the 5th day that harvesting in the garden has been difficult to impossible.

    The chicken pen is so deep in mud that my muck boots sink a couple of inches each time I have to enter the pen.  I would clean out the coop and throw the soiled hay over the mud except that it won’t stop raining long enough for me to uncover the hay to put clean dry hay inside.  The older three of this years chicks are now 24 weeks old and I am hoping for eggs soon.  To encourage them, I put fake eggs (golf balls) in the nesting boxes.  Broody Girl is still being stubborn and has managed to move two of them into her box so she is sitting on 3.  I move them back and she relocates them again.  She is sure being stubborn about being broody.

    The new babies are thriving in their brooder.

    The rain has done nothing to help the lake at Mountain Lake.  It began to leak a few years ago and went totally dry for two summers.  Geologist and soil scientists studied the lake bottom and attempts to repair it were made.  The lake partially refilled last summer after the repairs were made, but mother nature had other ideas and the lake is only partially refilled and lower this summer than last.

  • Book Challenge

    One of my avid passions is reading. My favorites are forensic science fiction, historical fiction and fiction by local authors or authors that set their books in areas or regions that are familiar to me, though I often read books recommended by friends, family, or public reviews..

    Last year I joined a 100 book challenge a bit into the year and succeeded in reading 90+ books. This year, again I joined the challenge and have read almost 50 books so far. The challenge is a group including many of my friends, however, it is on Facebook and I have decided to deactivate my account. I will miss the book suggestions and reviews from this group.

    I have always loved books and have several that I read repeatedly such as Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and the classic To Kill A Mockingbird.

    All of our family are readers and I have been in awe of our 9 year old grandson, who while staying with us this summer has read in excess of 4000 pages of novels.  Though he still picks up some books that would be considered 3rd to 4th grade level, he has read the entire Seven Wonders series, the entire Eragon series (3 of the 4 are over 750 pages each), and reread the first book of the Hunger Games series. He not only can read them, but will sit and discuss them with you. In that sense he reminds me of his Dad at that age. Such a great passion, love of books.

  • Peeps, Rain and a Mess

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    Today’s mail brought a box of 15 Rainbow Ranger chicks to be raised til late fall.  One of the little yellowish peeps has strange markings that from the top makes the little one look like a chipmunk.  They are safely ensconced in the brooder with food, water and a heat lamp.  It would sure be easy if I could just give them to Broody Girl and let her raise them.

    We woke to rain with the task of moving the remainder of the scaffolding from the barn to the house.  We decided that unloading the trailer and reloading it was more trouble than just folding the seats down in the Xterra and loading it down to the house in the back of the SUV which is what we had decided to do.  When we returned from our vacation, we noticed a puddle near one garage door and had seen on the weather reports while we were gone that we had rain, so we didn’t think much of it.  We have had rain blow under the door in the past.  As we were preparing to go down to the Post Office to retrieve the chicks, I noticed that the puddle was larger, much larger and grabbed the garage broom to push it out only to discover that instead of water, it was oil based house stain.  One of the 5 gallon buckets had a small vertical slit in the side and it had slowly been leaking.  Fortunately I had an empty 5 gallon bucket, but no lid and we were out of Oil Dry granules so our adventure out had to include a stop at Lowes for a lid and the Oil Dry.

    Once the chicks were in their new abode, the clean up commenced.  Oil Dry absorbs the oil and there was enough oil that it had to be applied, shoveled up and reapplied.  It will sit for a few days and again be shoveled up and possibly reapplied until the corner is cleaned.

    It looks like our weekend with our son here will involve only erecting scaffolding in the rain, we won’t get any caulking done with it so wet.  I will begin staining the garage doors, the ceiling of the front porch and front porch logs once the rain ends.

    Life is always an adventure on our mountain farm.

  • Maintenance

    When our house was under construction and due to having a heavy timber roof, thus cathedral ceilings, we knew we were going to need scaffolding.  The contractor that did the log erection and rough carpentry used a Skidsteer with a platform that his crew stood on, but our eldest son was doing the finish carpentry, stone mason work, floors, doors and cabinets with his partner and whatever other crew they could pull together. He priced renting scaffolding, but realizing how long this would take, it made economic sense to purchase our own.

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    The 12 sections are stored in our barn when not being loaned out or used by us.  We have had to haul sections down to repair a ceiling fan and a few other repairs.  One of our Farmers Market friends used it to build a washing shed on his farm, but mostly it just leans up against a wall.  We are going to need it for re-caulking the logs and re-staining, so today while hubby and grandson went to a movie, I started hauling it down to the house.  First wrestling with the utility trailer that occupies the same barn bay to get it on my car.  The car won’t fit under the top edge of the bay and the floor slopes downhill slightly and is littered with decades old dried manure chunks.  Somehow I managed to wrestle it to the hitch and pull it out of the bay.

    Then the fun began.  The 24 sides, as many of the cross tie bars, the feet and pins were loaded in the trailer and hauled down to the house.  Unfortunately, there is another load of walk boards and more cross tie bars waiting in the barn, but I am too tired to unload the trailer, much less go refill it, so it will sit until help arrives home.

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    Fortunately, we purchased all the remaining necessary supplies, including a 2″ x 12″ x 16′ board to use as a connector walkboard today, so tomorrow we can unload and reload the trailer.

    Oh, broody hen is still sitting on an empty nest regardless of my efforts.  I wonder if she would sit on and raise the 15 meat chicks due tomorrow?

  • Olio – August 6, 2014

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    Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things.

    As our last week with our grandson this summer is closing and since he was such a good traveler last week we gave him another afternoon at the Frog Pond, the public pool.  He enjoys this outing.  The pool has a large shallow circular pool with an island, an umbrella that showers water down and a small frog shaped slide then an attached deeper pool with two water park type tube slides into it.  He slides and gets out, slides again, then gets into the shallow area and plays splash tag with other kids.  Neither of us got in with him today.

    Broody hen is winning.  Yesterday, I repeatedly removed her from the nest, put bags of ice in the nest (she sat on them), and finally blocked off the nest (she moved over one).  This morning, after I blocked off both of the ones she prefers last night, she had moved over yet another one and was sitting, puffing up and pecking at me when I try to move her.  I have pulled her out of the nest and put her in the pen several times today and just a few minutes ago, I found her again, sitting on an egg.  In the past 11 days, we have gotten only 2 eggs and she broke one of them.

    Yesterday, I brought in several pints of jalapenos and pickled them for Jim, who eats one with nearly every dinner I prepare.  There are dozens of Ancho peppers turning red, a pint of so of red cayenne’s, a handful of Habeneros.  The Tomatillos skins are beginning to dry and split, showing the fruit inside.

    This morning, our neighbor who has been gone for 2 years, having returned a couple of nights ago, came down to visit and say hello.  He tried to help get my solar charger on the electric fence to charge the fence.  The charger will shock you if you touch the connector with a wire, but won’t charge the braided wire that the charger requires.  I sent him home with a grocery sack full of rainbow chard and several jars of various jams.  He will be helping us over the next few weeks to get our porch and deck re-stained before winter.

    Our eldest, father of the visiting grandson, will be here this weekend to begin setting up scaffolding and caulking between the logs of the garage so that we can begin staining again.  Log homes require frequent staining until the logs have absorbed enough of the oil stain, then it can be done with less frequency.  Knowing what we know now, though we love our wood house, we probably would not have built a log home, rather one that was easier to maintain.

    The weather over the next few days is to be cooler and wet, so the final outings with grandson will have to be of the indoor variety.