Cabin Crafted

Category: Farm Life

  • Easter Sunday on the Farm

    Today is beautiful, no Easter snow, thank goodness.  Bright sun, azure blue sky, calm wind, and grass, oh my it has grown in a week.  It must be at least a foot high in the back.  It will have to be mowed this week or we will start bringing ticks indoors and I don’t want that.  I started the tractor and used it to move some compost and some old wood a few weeks ago, so I know it is running.  The lawnmower for right around the house hasn’t been started yet, but it was only used a few times after it was purchased late last summer, so hopefully, it also will run.  Fuel is needed for both and since it is Easter Sunday, that purchase will have to wait until tomorrow or the next day, though the little general store/gas station in the town is open today.

    The chicks are now more than 6 weeks old and did fine in the coop while I was away, in spite of several below freezing nights.  Last night they were all on the perches in the coop, lined up like big girls instead of huddled in a corner.  Today they are getting outdoor time.

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    Though they still sound like chicks, they look like small chickens.  They poked their head from the temporary pen into the permanent pen and promptly got pecked.  Now the hens and Cogburn have lost interest and the chicks are foraging the long grass for new treasures.

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    Shadow and the chicks being desensitized to each other.  She would lie down quietly by the pen until I moved and then she bolted away.  Since the electric fence is now only around two sides of the vegetable garden, the dogs can get right up to the chicken pens and they weren’t used to being able to do that.  At first the chickens are alarmed, but I am trying to get the dogs so they don’t activate prey instinct when the chicken flap and run, I would like for the chickens to have some free range time without being chased by the dogs.  She did really well and the chicks quickly ignored her.  The dogs need to learn that they are farm dogs and can’t chase everything that moves or flies.

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    And of course there is time for tug-o-war with the big ball on a rope.  Ranger was working on drop it and leave it, then I would throw it out into the yard for a chase and tug session.

    Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

  • Here we go again!

    Yesterday was in the low 70’s and sunny, today in the mid 60’s, but a front is roaring through, house shaking wind, torrential rain this afternoon, and plunging temperatures.  We took a day trip today to two Harley Davidson shops, each more than an hour from here for Jim to check out new and used motorcycles with a bit of size to replace his Honda Rebel starter bike.  We got back just in time to pick up our generator and take it to the repair shop and drive home in the worst of the rain.  The generator that we bought 7 years ago was used during construction of the house prior to the electric service being brought down to the house site.  Since that time, it has sat unused in the barn.  It is a sizeable unit and was unfortunately stored with some fuel in it.  We have had several times when having it functional would have at least provided us with some light and ability to keep the freezer working.  It seemed like we should deal with it, so it has gone to the shop to be cleaned and tuned and hopefully made fully functional again.  We would like to have it tonight.  The thermometer plunged 20º in the hour after we got home.  It is falling into the teens tonight and staying near freezing tomorrow daytime and back into the 20’s tomorrow night.

    With the strong wind, we again face the threat of loss of power.  Though we and the dogs would be uncomfortable, we would survive it well, the 5 day old chicks would not.  I moved their set up into the basement as the basement having 3 walls underground hold its temperature better than the rest of the house.  I also turned the thermostat up to warm the space more and have brought in wood, paper and kindling to start a fire in the wood stove if the power fails.  The chicks will be placed as close as safe to that stove in hopes that they make it.  At less than a week old, they need 90+ºf temperature and that will not be able to happen for the next 36 hours if the power fails.

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    The other preparations for storms have also been handled.  The guest bath tub has been filled.  Extra straw placed in the chicken coop.  Wood brought into the garage, fires laid in the fireplace and the wood stove, just awaiting a match.  Oil lamps filled, batteries in flashlights and lanterns checked.  I keep hoping that the prep will ensure that the power stays on.  I would rather be ready and not need it.  

    Next time we are threatened, hopefully we will have our generator back and will fret a bit less, but we still will have no heat and no water if the power fails.  And tonight I will not sleep well, I never do when the wind howls even though there are no trees near the house.  There is a shed roof over the heat pump to protect it from snow slide off the roof, but I always fret about it’s stability in high wind.

    As the temperatures were falling and the winds rising, the dogs again decided it was time to wade in the muddy creeks in the sinkhole.  I am not amused with this behavior.

    Winter will end, I have confidence, but as it darkens, it has dropped 30º already and it is sleeting.  After much coaxing, the chickens have been closed up for the night.

  • Critters

    Another beautiful day, a ride for Jim, some free range time for the flock, a trip to town for me to deliver a few items I sold on Craigslist and to purchase a 50 gal plastic (Christmas Tree) storage tub for the 4 day old chicks.  When we brought them home on Sunday, I took the bottom half of a large plastic dog crate and cable tied the door in place.  That was set inside a large dog wire kennel cage set up in the garage and the heat lamp hung over it.  I realized that was too drafty and we are expecting another temperature plunge tomorrow night, down into the teens and the garage will be too cold even with the heat lamp.

    The new set up can be brought into the house if necessary without getting pine shavings and chick poop on everything.  I don’t like them in the house, but if it is below freezing while they are this young, they will come inside.  The large storage tub having sides keeps the pine shaving contained and helps retain the heat.  An old clothes drying rack with the lower bars removed gives me a structure with metal bars that sits astride the tub and the heat lamp can be dangled over one end of the brooder, giving the chicks a warm spot to go when they are cold and enough space to get away from the heat if they are too warm.

    They will stay in the garage tonight and during the day tomorrow, but they will then be brought in for two nights and a day until we have another bout of milder weather.  I will be glad when my hens can start raising their own chicks without my help.

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    Once Jim was home from his ride, we turned the pups out to roam and romp our farm for a while and they disappeared.  It is rare for them to leave the property, but since there has been very little leash time this winter, both are more stubborn about coming when called, especially if they are well away from the house in one of the fields.  After they had been outside for at least an hour and had disappeared from view I started calling, walked the long uphill driveway to check mail, still calling, walked over to look down into the sinkhole area still calling.  No response.  After getting in the car and driving up to the nearest main road, back down and around the perimeter of the two large fields calling and not seeing them, I walked back to the sinkhole.  Both creeks are flowing strongly into the sinkhole and it is wet and muddy.  The dogs finally wandered up, wet and muddy and quite content with themselves.  No way I was letting either of them back in the house I had been cleaning all afternoon, so both got hosed off at the yard hydrant and that water was cold.  Then both tied to heavy furniture on the front porch until they partially dried.

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    At least it was 73ºf outside.  I finally dried them off with beach towels and let them back inside.  So far we haven’t figured out how to keep them out of that part of the farm and as soon as it is consistently warm, we need to get back on leash work to remind them who is in charge.

    Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

  • Easter Egg Hunt

    The cold winter has taken a toll on egg production and on the cleanliness of the coop.  I use the deep litter method.   For you non chicken raisers, that involves starting with a very clean coop, putting down a few inches of pine shavings or fine straw, then piling dry straw, leaves, etc on top and stirring it up every day or so like compost, adding more straw or leaves as necessary.  If this is done correctly, there is no odor and in the spring, you have a coop full of hot compost to add to your pile for further decomposing.  Because we have hay fields and they are mowed and baled each year, I squirrel away 2 round bales that are stored near my coop and covered with a tarp for use in the coop.  I know, you aren’t supposed to use hay, but so far I haven’t had any problems.  Because hay generally isn’t as dry as straw, I do have to fluff and turn it daily and keep all ventilation holes open whenever the temperature is above freezing, but because of the cold and snow this year, the birds are spending more time indoors than I would like.  As a result, it has been harder to stay on top of the turning and fluffing.

    It isn’t spring yet, but I was beginning to detect odor and knew that something needed to be done.  Leaving the compost part in place, I removed most of the hay from the coop and threw it in their run.  Pulled out the last of one of the big bales that had gotten very dry and added a new thick layer in the coop.

    The chickens are very curious whenever I am doing anything inside their coop and they always come to supervise.  They lean out the open doorway, peck around in the corners, and get just where I need to be.  As soon as I put an armload of hay down, one would push it around and make a bowl shaped nest in it.  I would shoo one away to put hay down and another would be there.  By the time I finished layering new hay in the floor of the coop and under their perches.  Removed and replaced the old hay from their nesting boxes, I had about half of them in the coop making “nests” in the floor of the coop and trampling down the fluffy new hay.

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    I’m betting that today’s egg collection will be an Easter Egg Hunt throughout the floor of their coop.  Funny birds.  I just wish spring would come so that the egg production picks up.  At least I have gotten eggs all winter.

    Live is an adventure on our mountain farm.

  • Spring time? We wish!

    A week ago it started to snow and snow it did for 30 hours, a record breaking snow, more than a foot and a half.  Last night it rained and this morning, the remaining snow was spotty.

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    We loaded the dogs in the Xterra and drove an hour southwest of here to the Harley Davidson shop to get more body armor for Jim’s jacket.  He wants desperately to ride, but the roads are still too wet and muddy.  Ranger was allowed to go into the shop with us and as usual, his 200 pound bulk attracts attention and everyone wants to have their picture taken with him, to give him love which he reciprocates with kisses and smiles.  Shadow was leashed and made it as far as the foyer before her shyness kicked in and she began to tremble.  One clerk came out and gave her some loving too and she finally came in too, but hid behind me.  The dogs love the rides and the plain hamburgers that they get as a treat.

    Today is 60ºf outside, very springlike.  While we were gone, it melted most of the remaining snow.

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    We have one more day of this then it rains and cools down again with another snow storm due early to mid week next week.  We will take what we can get.

    Yesterday afternoon, I went over to the coop and pen to spread scratch grain for the chickens and there was one head too many.  A small 5ish pound opossum was in with the chickens scratching for food.  He showed no fear of me, hissing and growling at me as I tried to encourage him out of the pen with a garden stake.  He just hunkered down in the farthest corner under the pen.  With a pitchfork, I dragged him out and penned him down, then grabbed his tail and hurled him as far from the pen as possible.  He landed in the snow, got up and shook off and waddled away.  This afternoon when we got home, I went over to see if he had returned and to collect eggs.  In taking the above photo, I managed to drop the basket with the 3 eggs and broke them all.  Three more hens were in the coop, so there may yet be a few more today.

    Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

  • Beauty and Hazards

    The snow pack is thinning.  Our neighbor that hays our fields for the bulk of the hay came down after dark Saturday night with his behemoth tractor with climate control cab and plowed out our driveway.  As he was the one who constructed it for us a couple of summers ago, he knows generally where it is under the snow.  This allowed us to bring both vehicles back down to the house.  To change things up a bit, this morning we drove into the university town to a little local diner for breakfast.  The nearest parking is across Main Street and slightly uphill and though the access was cleared, the parking spaces have been trod by many feet in the past half week and between each parking space is an ice slick.  Both of us had slides, fortunately with no fall just trying to get out of the car and to the cleared walkway.

    Yesterday as the roads seem to be mostly cleared, we took a jaunt 2000 more feet up our mountain to see more snow.

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    If you ever watched “Dirty Dancing,” this is the “lodge” in the movie, also know as Mountain Lake Lodge, a hotel with adjacent cabins.  Though it is closed this time of year, except for special weekend events, it is still beautiful.

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    The elevation there is about 4400 feet and the ridge has trees frosted generally from frozen fog that forms.

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    The property on the near edge of this valley belonged to my grandfather’s family, though when we bought our farm, I had no idea that it was literally walking distance away.  My hubby teases that I did know, but I had never even been to this county or seen that area at the time.

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    As we were going up to see the lake and the hotel in the snow, we saw this.  It is not our car, there was no one in it, but this is a lesson on why you don’t drive a 2 wheel drive vehicle on snowy, icy mountain roads.  The only thing keeping this car from tumbling on down the mountain side is the tree behind it that it hit as it slid over the embankment.  Hopefully, no one was hurt.  It will take a thaw and a creative, daredevil tow truck driver to get that one out.

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    That is the mountain on which the red car, the hotel, and our home are located.

    Fortunately, this snow did not take out our power, so all of the prep we did for it does not have to be done again for the ice storm due tonight that more than likely will steal all of the conveniences from us for at least a day or two.

    Life is good on our mountain farm.

  • Almost Heaven SW Virginia

    My apologies to John Denver, but this is a beautiful area.  For reference, this county abuts West Virginia and we live only a short handful of miles from the border.  The county is rural, agricultural; raising mostly beef cattle and Christmas trees with a few horse farms in the mix.  I have often posted about our homestead farm, but today I am taking you on a photo tour of our “town.”

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    The county boasts 3 standing covered bridges all crossing the same creek that runs about 2 more miles beyond this bridge owned by the town and then it disappears into the earth to resurface in the New River that traverses 45 miles through the county.  Two of the bridges are privately owned, this one and one private one are closed to driving across them.

    The town once had a population of about 5000 people, complete with hotels, taverns, businesses and homes.  In 1902 there was a tremendous fire that destroyed all but three buildings of the town, which was  never reconstructed as it was before.  The actual town now has a hardware store, a small restaurant, a general store/gas station, a post office, about 3 dozen houses, a heating contractor and several churches.  On the fringes, there is the old school, now a community center, the rescue squad, volunteer fire house, a plumbing contractor and the Ruritan Park.  The entire county only has about 15000 residents.

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    The farms are mostly old family homes, many built several generations ago and remodeled to add modern kitchens and indoor plumbing.  The variety of barns is a source of beauty to the area.

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    This gravel road leads through a pass and at the top of the pass, the Appalachian trail crosses the road.

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    This is the remains of a Civil War era house that though abandoned and having no windows remaining, was still standing when we moved here 7 years ago.  Time and weather have taken it’s toll and this last foot and a half of snow two days ago brought it almost to the ground.

    The top of our mountain has one of only two natural lakes in the state.  This one is surrounded by a conservancy that owns the grand stone hotel featured in the movie “Dirty Dancing” that was filmed mostly at that location.  There are many hiking trails in this conservancy and the Appalachian trail crosses again only a couple of miles from the hotel.

    The area is beautiful at all seasons, but especially now covered in snow.

     

  • And the Day After

    The snow finally ended around 5:30 p.m. but the wind picked up and the dry snow is being blown into drifts deeper than knee high.  Our total was around 17-18″ (44+ cm), deep enough that a walk uphill to take pictures of the road and the house from the barn was very tiring.  One of the deepest areas is a shallow rounded cut between the garage and the chicken coop that is there to drain water from the driveway away from the house and on downhill.  I get a bootful every time I go over to make sure the chickens have food and water and to collect eggs, even with my Squall pants Velcroed over the outside of the barn boots which are taller than my snow boots.

    Today is clear and bright with a very brisk wind blowing, but the temperature is above freezing.

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    Several weeks ago, we watched a news item about a snow phenomenon that I had never seen before, or at least not notices.  It occurs when the wind blows across the surface of the snow, rolling it like you would a snowman, sometimes creating solid balls, sometimes a donut or pipe shape.  Much to my amazement when I went over to do morning chicken chores, much more difficult in deep snow, I spotted them in the yard.

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    The dogs continue to romp and leap through the snow, rolling and playfully attacking each other until they are exhausted.  I haven’t figured out how to get them to “plow” me a path over to the coop yet.  After nearly an hour of moving snow, packing snow down and digging out one of the hay bales, I got enough hay on the snow to coax 6 of the fuzzy butts out to eat and drink.  While busy adding more hay in the run to give them a bit more space to be outdoors, I heard a racket inside the coop and found two hens trying to occupy one of the six nesting boxes together to lay their morning egg.   That was rather amusing but after checking under the one who had claimed it first there was only 1 cold egg, so I guess I interrupted them.  The hay is re-covered as we may get up to 3 more inches tonight.  That chore will have to be repeated again tomorrow.  I don’t want to keep food and water in the coop.  All of the cold weather and snow we have had has taken a toll on the coop’s cleanliness and even the deep litter method struggling to keep up.

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  • The Calm Before . . .

    Again we are being threatened with a winter storm.  How many times has that happened this winter and it fizzled?  But this time they seem to be serious and instead of adjusting the storm away from us at the last minute, they are giving us more and more intensity.  It is to be a snow event in this part of the state.  I love snow and snow sports, so I’m fine with it, however, it always requires more effort on our part as we do live rurally in the mountains and heavy snowfall often means loss of power.  Loss of power means loss of heat, water and all other conveniences of life, so today, the cold, calm day of azure skies will be filled with the preparations for such occurrence.

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    The downstairs bathtub must be filled with water for necessary flushing and so the dogs will have water.  All of the emergency and camping jugs also filled as to get water when we have no power, we must trek downhill a few hundred yards to the gravity fed yard hydrant from our cistern that is there to water horses and cattle next year after our fencing is done.  Trekking down is not difficult, but toting one or more 5 gallon jugs of water back uphill is tough.  With enough snow, they can be loaded onto one of the toboggan sleds that we bought for our grands and us to play on in the snow, and dragged back uphill.

    A supply of firewood will be brought over and stored in the garage to keep the woodstove and fireplace stoked for heat.  The wood is stacked against the end of the huge compost bins by the garden, but who wants to carry wood over in the wet snow when we can just grab it in the garage.

    The hay used in the chicken pen and coop needs to be covered as they won’t come outside their coop if snow is on the ground and I don’t want to have to dig the large round bale out and deal with wet hay to get a layer down on the ground for them.

    A pot of stew beef that can be finished on the wood stove or the propane camp stove will be started, or a pot of chili made that we can heat on the wood stove or camp stove will be prepped.

    The freezer will be rearranged to make sure that there are few air spaces and jugs of ice that I keep in the basement refrigerator freezer when not needed, will be packed on top to keep the remainder of last summer’s bounty frozen.

    Some day we might finally get a decent generator, maybe a whole house generator so these preparations will become unnecessary.  Until then, time is wasting, I’d better get to work.

  • Winter morn

    A light dusting of snow settled between the blades of brown grass.
    Gray sky, cold and bleak.
    A flock of Robins, harbingers of spring, feeding along side of snow juncos, a winter resident.
    The chickens showing little enthusiasm for their morning release from the night’s captivity.
    A head cold, compliments of grandson last week.
    If we aren’t going to get real snow, I wish winter would go on and exit.

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