Cabin Crafted

Category: farm

  • From Fog to Frigid…

    And snow flurries. Nothing extreme, no real accumulation expected, just the lightest dusting on surfaces frozen solid from the temperature fall into the teens. Yesterday morning it was 52 f when I arose, by the time hubby arose a couple hours later is was 43 f and it continued in that direction all day and overnight. It is 20 f and very windy now and not expected to get out of the 20’s today.

    I have to think seriously whether there is anything I need from the Farmer’s Market to go shop in these conditions, but feel I should support the vendors that brave the cold to come out and supply us. There are no fresh veggies this time of year. The vendor that provides them all winter from large tunnels decided to just vend from their farm store until spring. It is too far to drive to the farm store for $20 worth of produce. I have signed up for the “chose your own CSA” again beginning in the spring when they return. The support of the vendors won out over the comfort of home, eggs were delivered, cheese, fresh milled corn meal, potatoes and turnips, maple syrup, and some protein obtained. While in town, we found out that there was a shooting in downtown last night in a Hookah bar that left one person dead, 4 others wounded. This is not the type of incident we see in this small University town and it alarms me. The news reports hint that the shooter was not identified nor caught last night.

    Last night I pruned back all the lettuces in the hydroponic garden and harvested enough for 2 side salads each for us, but three of the plants were too bitter for hubby’s preference, so they were pulled and new ones started. It is nearly time to start tomato and pepper seedlings in that unit.

    The hens were really slackers this week, not even providing what is needed for the three households that get their eggs. Their coop needs cleaning again, but not until a warmer day this week, if there is one. A warmer day is needed to do some midwinter garden clean up as well or it will be over run with a weed that seems to be able to withstand the freeze. I have been saving newspaper and as I pull the weeds in an area, I am going to put down a thick pad of newspaper and anchor it with wood chips. The area that is the worst is above the bed that never got it’s 4th side screwed on last summer so never got cardboard and mulch applied. I guess some bagged wood chips will have to be on the purchase list sometime soon. I wish I could get a truck load dumped up here without paying a fortune for them.

    The second breed blanket is growing. I added a 5th breed and found a skein I had spun after the other was done, so a 6th breed is being knit on now. Some spinning is getting done, but not a lot. My friend in Sweden sent me more Jämtland wool, a lovely dark, soft brown and enough to do a blanket panel and still have enough to knit a hat and or fingerless mitts for myself. Her package arrived so quickly, I was amazed. I mailed one to her the same day, it will be interesting how long it takes to get to her. I think that will be my next fiber to spin after the wine colored batt. In December, one of our spinning group who is a contributor to a local community magazine, did an article on our group and the edition just came out this week. As I had been the topic of another article when I completed the Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em challenge, I was not part of the interview, but when the photographer came a couple weeks later, I was putting my Breed Blanket together and my old hands working with the blanket in my lap was the lead picture. Photographed here with my second breed blanket progress and current spinning project. The spinning is really more wine colored than this photo shows.

    The sun is out, but it is still too cold to want to do any chores outdoors that can wait a few days until we get back into the low 40’s, so knitting, spinning, and reading will occupy my afternoon.

  • Fog

    As I looked out the kitchen window this morning, I was reminded of a poem I have always loved.

    Fog

    BY CARL SANDBURG

    The fog comes
    on little cat feet.

    It sits looking
    over harbor and city
    on silent haunches
    and then moves on.

    It is always beautiful to see as it moves up the valley and through the hollow where we live, the ridge to the south disappearing then re emerging, the woods blurred. It isn’t a freezing fog today, the temperature barely dropped 10 degrees last night and will stay stable today and tonight before dropping back into the teens tomorrow night.

    The February spinning challenge is spinning colors to earn BINGO cards that we are filling out online. Last month, 25 g of spun fiber earned a card and two cards could be earned. Though I have little interest in winning a prize, a pattern download of my choice up to a certain value, it is fun to play along. As hubby gave me a gorgeous double batt of a dark red wine colored gradient wool for Christmas, I spun half last month and am working on the second 55+ g this month. While I am playing along, I decided to use the rest of the breeds that didn’t get spun for my breed blanket last year and spin enough to do a second smaller lap blanket. There was one square last year that ended up too small for the blanket, so I used it as the center of the new one and have been picking up stitches and knitting a log cabin type pattern around it. There are 5 breeds represented so far and a 6th spun but not knit on yet. It is only 12″ square so far.

    There will be no walk today, it is very dismal and wet, a constant rain varying from drizzle to downpour.

    About two years ago, we replaced our mattress. The old one was more than a dozen years old and with aging bodies, was no longer comfortable. We spent entirely too much on the new one to find it no more comfortable. Testing one in the store just isn’t the same as sleeping on it for a full night. Yesterday, we wrestled the queen mattress from the downstairs guest bedroom up to our room, took our mattress off and stashed it against a wall, put the other mattress on to use last night. It isn’t as comfortable as ours and ours is memory foam, that one isn’t, so every movement by either of us was felt by the other. I’m not sure what the solution is, but I guess the guest mattress will move back down and ours placed back on the bed. Maybe a down pillow topper cover.

    Yesterday’s fan/light situation has not been resolved. We drove to the big box hardware store two towns over and purchased a switch. Once home and I had disassembled the light unit to get to the switch, it is a 4 wire switch, the ones they sell are 3 wire switches, the colors on the old switch are green, tan, black, and gray, so I don’t even know which is the “hot” wire. The switch was returned, and the man working in the electrical section tried to help me, but the only option other than replacing the entire fan and light unit was a rewiring using a single switch instead of two switches that operate the two parts of the unit. I am not comfortable attempting that, so it has been put back together unrepaired for now. He wasn’t even able to tell me which of the colors in the fan was the hot wire. So we drove about 90 miles to not fix the problem. Son 1 says he has had this issue before and we will be able to resolve it later. For now we will dine by candle light or early enough that there is still some level of daylight coming in the French doors.

  • Changes

    We have had a couple of “mild” relative to last week, days. I sat on the south facing deck stairs in the sun this morning and had a phone conversation with an old friend. It was only 32 f but the wind was calm, the sun warm and no coat was required. By the time we left for our walk, it was in the low 40’s, but thick cloud cover had taken the sunshine and it felt much colder. Tonight through Friday morning, we will get the rainy edge of the winter storm moving northeast and our temperatures will again return to winter with the chance of ice or snow on Sunday. We still have snow in the woods and in more sheltered areas from the last storm. This is Virginia, not Vermont, Maine, or Colorado, snow never lasts this long. The paved rails to trails path we frequently walk was only about half cleared in the last storm and there are still areas of ice requiring you to leave the trail and walk in the grass on the edge. Much of the path is still only about half width with ice on the edges, making passing others going either direction a challenge, the path is only about 8 feet wide when fully cleared. We always drop into single file when we see a bicycle or approaching walker or jogger, and it amazes me how many people walking two or three abreast don’t both, eliminating any distance between you and them or even requiring us to step off the trail where possible. We don’t want to be aggressive and stand our ground, but the though has occurred to us and we wonder if they are so oblivious that they would walk into us.

    Though it is still cold, definitely winter, when I went in the Natural Foods store today, their spring garden seed rack is up. I’m still trying to decide what I want to plant this year and what seed I still have on hand. After going in Tractor Supply last weekend to get pet supplies, chicken feed, and wild bird seed and seeing how elevated the prices have gone, I may use more of my garden to grow some dent corn for the chickens and sunflowers to save the seed for the wild birds. I often give the dogs an egg in the mornings, provided by the hens, but don’t like the smell of eggs cooking in the morning, so I had become lazy about preparing them until I accepted it was much more economical than the various supplemental feeds we could purchase. To get around the smell issue, I steamed half a dozen last night while preparing dinner and put them in the refrigerator to use for several mornings.

    While sitting on the back steps, my friend was amused that I kept having to chase off chickens that came up on the steps to visit while I was talking. Those birds are really imprinted on me and come running anytime I am outdoors.

    Ooops there goes another … repair. I don’t like messing with electricity and it has been more than 25 years since I installed or replaced a fixture, but as I was setting the table tonight and turned the dining room lights on, they flashed on then off. I replaced a bulb and tried again and nothing, though the fan works just fine. That light doesn’t appear to be on it’s own circuit or even one with the dining room wall outlet, so it must be connected to a kitchen circuit as it is one room. I guess I will have to figure out which one during daylight hours and go buy a new light fixture for the fan and have a go at it. Definitely not something I want to tackle, but better than having to replace the entire fan and light unit. I hope I can match the finish or get a light that doesn’t show it’s trim very well.

    Last night as I was preparing dinner and watching for it to be dark enough to go lock up the hens, the light in the fields was an odd color. Stepping on the back deck, this gorgeous red sky was the reason.

    There was no red sky tonight, just thick clouds signalling the beginning of the upcoming round of wet weather. I guess there will be no walk tomorrow unless we can dance between the raindrops.

  • Hello Monday

    Still cold in these parts, but not as cold as last week and only liquid precipitation expected this week so maybe the rest of the white stuff will wash away until the next winter storm arrives.

    My post yesterday caused my hubby to worry about me. He fears that if the day comes that I am here alone, that I will become a hermit. At this point, I am mentally intact enough to know that I have to have some socialization to stay sane and there are foods that I don’t grow that I will have to go purchase, so some trips to town will still occur to the Farmer’s Market and the Natural foods store at least. My daughter and sons will make sure that I don’t end up needing to be cared for by others.

    As I was walking up to check the mail, all 13 hens fell in behind me like I was the Pied Piper, sure I was going to give them a treat. I wondered how far up the almost quarter mile driveway they would follow.

    They are crazy animals. Though they spend all day free ranging, if they see me they come running for kitchen scraps or scratch. At least they have provided eggs all winter since they are just now turning 1 year old. Next year they will molt in the fall and eggs will be few and far between during the winter. I guess old school farmers had it right by culling out a few each year and allowing new ones to be raised by the hens so there was always a fresh crop of young hens to continue laying. If our barn was more convenient to the house and in better shape, so they could expand their roosting area, we could have that arrangement, but the coop is too small as it is and I don’t want to raise chicks a couple times a year to keep the rotation going. I don’t have a rooster, so there are no hen born and raised chicks here.

    The month’s spinning challenge ends in a few hours, I have finished everything I had on spindles, a total of 97.41 g, the wine colored BFL is singles, the second ply to be spun in February, one of my Christmas gifts from hubby who kindly indulges my love of wood, wool, and tea. The two whites are plied Shropshire and Norwegian both to be added to the second blanket.

    For now, I am going to finish a very disturbing book I wish I hadn’t begun, but now I can’t not finish it.

  • When a home improvement, isn’t

    Quite a number of years ago, we had our basement finished into a rec room with TV, pingpong table, futon, and a small bedroom with a tiny closet that is the preferred bedroom for Son 1 when he visits. At the time we built the house and had the HVAC system installed, we began paying for an annual maintenance contract that provided twice a year maintenance and 10% off parts, free labor if a repair within reason needed to be done.

    Shortly after the basement was finished, one of the HVAC maintenance visits was done and only 2 of the 4 damper motors was left in an accessible location and 1 of them had a door jamb that prevented the open/close lever from moving. The HVAC guy was able to chisel out enough space for the lever to move, but on the last visit, he realized that motor had failed. We didn’t have it repaired that day, but had a tech here today to replace it only to find out that the replacement motors are physically larger and don’t fit in the space and that if that damper or any of the dampers ever need to be replaced, that the contractor that did the basement work did not leave enough room to remove them from the ductwork. While trying to check the other motors, he couldn’t get to one of them, so I guess it hasn’t been checked since the work on the basement was finished. I think some creative carpentry will allow enough space to replace the failed motor, but don’t know what will happen if the inaccessible ones fail. The system is 15 years old now.

    We had left much of the designing to the contractor with only our wishes known. The tech today said this happens often in basement completions as the owner or contractor is trying to get the most finished space possible. Though the basement looks great, this isn’t the first problem that has been revealed, not all the contractor’s fault, but some are. So far, Son 1 has had to tear out the wallboard on a soffit and build a wood siding removable panel that allows access to the space above the wallboard. And most recently when trying to repair ceiling damage from a failed dishwasher, he discovered the drywall ceiling was bowed under a drain pipe so that a new piece of drywall didn’t really fit so another removeable panel has been placed there.

    I’m not sure what we will do, but for now, the damper motor that failed serves the basement, and as three sides of the basement are below grade and the fourth side is south facing, it stays mild down there even when it is cold outside.

  • Hey Guys, it is cold outside

    Awoke this morning to this:

    My photo memory from 3 years ago, it was 9, so it must be the time of year.

    The weekend plan changed some when we realized that, 1) I obviously can’t read a calendar as Son 1 is leaving tomorrow morning early; 2) that Son 2 who lives on the coast of Virginia is getting the storm this weekend instead of us and won’t be coming after all. But Daughter and her two came for homemade pizza lunch yesterday as the icy roads in the more rural parts of the counties caused their school to be closed. I shortened her Taekwondo pants for next week’s National testing and the tournament she is in, fed everyone, we visited, then we all went for a two mile walk in 27 f temps and a cloudy day, so it felt colder than that.

    Today is again very cold, but sunny and Son 1, hubby, and I set out to do a walk at the pond near us, but the road in, the parking lot, and the start of the path down looked like an ice skating rink and ski jump. We altered plans and walked a different section of the Rails to Trails Huckleberry, a 2.5 mile round trip. Part of this section goes through a rock cut where the rail used to run and the icicles dripping from the rocks were fascinating.

    A failed attempt to catch a falling drip.

    Though the temperature when we walked was a few degrees colder than yesterday, with the sun, it didn’t seem quite as cold.

    The vegetable soup and homemade bread will still be made tomorrow, in a smaller quantity and Daughter and her two will come share it with us for Sunday dinner.

    It is always delightful to have one or more of our children here to be with us, to share meals, for family visits. We will try again to get them all together at once the weather cooperates a bit more.

    The ice is finally melting off. I am glad because the trip up hill to the chicken coop and back down to the house has been a threat to my health and safety for the past few days.

    When we got home from our walk, enough had melted off that the hens had finally ventured away from their coop to the relative shelter of the naked Forsythia bushes. I was able to walk over to gather early eggs before they froze, without feeling my safety was at risk.

    The upcoming week is going to be more seasonable with most days above freezing to the low 40’s and nights in the upper teens to low 20’s. I think there is a day of rain chance in there, but not freezing precitipation.

    Hubby looked out the back window and said, “I’m ready for winter to be over.” Usually he doesn’t make that statement for at least 3 or 4 more weeks.

    I am perusing the seed catalogs, making plans for spring and summer when two bee hives will be added and maybe a mushroom bed.

  • The Switch was flipped

    December was so warm and dry, January has been just the opposite and though there isn’t much snow forecast for the next 10 days, there is some bitter cold weather. Yesterday was comparatively mild, getting up into the low 40’s and we got out our driveway for the first time since Sunday, up the gravel state road that had been plowed yesterday morning, and down the mountain to deliver a birthday card and gift to the local grandson who celebrated his 15th birthday yesterday. It seems like I just drove to Florida where he was born to help daughter out in her first week post partum and deliver an Amish made rocking chair and high chair to her. I love that they are now living within 20 miles of us and we see them weekly, not a couple times a year.

    The prissy hens finally came out on the hay mat I threw down for them. When I dug their outdoor water tub out to fill it yesterday, it was buried in a foot of snow that had drifted into the run. Walking on the hay mat, I now sink several inches each time I go over. Taking advantage of it being “warmer” and not windy, I cleared the wet straw from their coop. I need to figure out how to seal the drop down window on the east side for winter. Though moisture rarely comes from that direction, there is no eave overhang on that side of the coop and the weekend snow storm blew in that direction making a small snowdrift inside the coop that melted with the heat they generate and soaked their straw. With fresh dry straw in there, I need to protect it. While tossing the damp straw into their run, a few hens ventured out on the straw surface and out the gate, only to realize that it was cold and white outside the run, so they retreated back onto the straw and hay. Fortunately they are still laying eggs, though now in the quantity they did last summer.

    Overnight, it rained for an hour or two and this morning, the snow pack is thin and brittle, beginning to show grass patches through in some areas. Today is much colder again and snow flurries are the moisture of the morning.

    While we were in town yesterday, we supplied with milk, juice, fruit, and soup veggies as we will have all three of our children and a houseful of grands for Sunday. I am going to make a huge pot of vegetable soup and a couple loaves of bread, a pan of cornbread (because that is the only “homemade” bread on of the grands will eat) and feed a dozen or more folks dinner. Homemade muffins for breakfast, probably pizza for lunch. Daughter and her two will only be here for dinner. This will be the first time in a decade they will all be here and there are many more of us now than there were then. I am beyond myself with excitement to have them all together.

  • Snow, snow and more snow

    The snow continued off and on all day on Sunday and was snowing hard when I got up yesterday. I was determined to not let the wind, gusts up to 40 mph yesterday keep me from snow play. My ski pants are too big, the weight loss since I last skied shows, but they have suspenders and over longjohns they were usable. Ski gloves, jacket, neck warmer, hat and hood, a sled in tow, I hiked to the top of the driveway to try to sled down. We did that a number of years ago after a heavy snow and ice storm. Not so much luck yesterday though. The snow was over my boots in places and my weight on the sled in deep snow did not make for good sliding. A walk back down to below the barn, I did slide down the hill toward the house, then tried to go down the hill on the opposite side of the house, again without much luck. Strong wind on loose snow sent tiny particles like needles at exposed skin, fortunately there wasn’t much of that. I tried, I quit.

    This morning, the wind has died down, it is still only 27f outside. When I took thawed water and scratch grains to the hens, I threw down a thick mat of old hay in part of their run. One look out the pop door and they retreated back into the coop.

    I decided to plow the driveway to thin the snowpack in hopes of encouraging some melt off as the sun has come out and disappeared behind the cloud cover off and on. I did a single pass down, just driving the tractor over the snow then used the blade for a single pass. It did help start some melt off as I discovered after putting all my ski clothes back on to take a walk up the nearly half mile to the paved road to see what the roads look like. I also discovered that my ski pants now fit over jeans, that wasn’t possible a few years ago.

    Between my pass down on the tractor and my walk, the gravel road at the end of our driveway has been lightly plowed, but is very slick.

    It would be perfect for sledding right now. We did that 4 years ago with daughter and grands. It was such fun, but you had to be careful because at the bottom of the hill is a cattle grate over a creek.

    The paved road doesn’t look much better.

    After preparing and eating lunch, I did more work with the tractor and blade, widening the pass down as the blade is only 5′ wide and at an angle doesn’t make a car passable swath. If we had to get out in an emergency at this point we could, but have no plans to go anywhere today. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the mid 40’s and rainy, so we will have a slushy, muddy mess, but will be able to get out to deliver a birthday card and gift to the local grandson who turns 15 tomorrow.

    Thinking that we would have this behind us for a while, they are now calling for either 2 light to mid accumulation snows later in the week or 1 mid to heavy snow depending on how the fronts come together. This is after a late fall forcast of a warmer than normal, wetter than normal winter. As hubby said, they got it half right.

  • How to spend a snow day.

    It started hours later than predicted, but the snow is quickly covering the ground and roads and the “Winterstorm Warning” is still saying at least 8″ maybe changing to sleet later today, with the heaviest bands yet to come.

    The woodstove is burning and will continue throughout the day and tonight if I can drag myself down to the basement to stoke it in the middle of the night.

    Though the house isn’t any cooler than usual, with the wind blowing outside, it seems colder and I am ensconced in my chair, wrapped in the wool shawl that I spun the yarn for a couple years ago for the Shave ’em 2 Save ’em event, then knit into the shawl, and draped in my Breed Blanket that I spun last year on my Jenkins Turkish spindles and knit for the year long challenge. A cup of hot tea, my spindles and wool, and I am set.

    The chili and stew will be saved for rewarming if the power goes out and homemade pizza was on the menu for lunch while there is power to cook it.

    An after lunch quick trip to dump compost and give the hens thawed water and scratch grains in their coop and gather eggs before they freeze, allowed me to see that the cover is now about 3″ and still falling fast, from an easterly direction so drifting into the coop through a drop window that doesn’t close fully.

    The wild birds are flocking to the feeders, Nuthatches, Titmice, Chickadees, Wrens, Finches, a couple of woodpeckers, and a pair of Eastern Bluebirds that should be much farther south by now. I took a short video, but can’t get it to load.

    So far we are warm, hope to stay that way. It is so quiet as it gets when snow mutes the outdoor sounds.

  • Almost a week. . .

    Since I posted the Olio post. It has been a cold one, but we have gotten in our walk each day. We got caught in a sprinkling rain one day that turned into real rain and snow showers after we got back to the car.

    The weather prognosticators are threatening us with a real winter storm starting tonight. The predictions have been all over the place from 8″ to 16″ of snow, maybe some ice, then more snow. We took heed, I brought in several loads of firewood for the wood stove and the fireplace. Our Sunday grocery run was moved up to Friday, a Farmer’s market run this morning with veggies, meats, and sourdough bread purchased, a large pot of chili made last night and stew tonight that can be heated on the wood stove or camp stove if we end up without power, and we will wait and see what it brings. More than about 6 inches and we won’t be going anywhere, our mountain roads aren’t priority for clearing.

    The January spinning challenge has a changing theme every few days, but all encouraging the continuation of the practice. I am working on the batts that hubby gave me for Christmas to make myself a large scarf and simultaneously spinning neutrals for a second blanket that will have some repeat breeds and some I never got to on the first one. I must like these colors.

    The base square is one that was too small for the first blanket and I am doing a log cabin pattern around it. It will be a small lap blanket when finished.

    It is getting dark, the hens are secured with food and water. Regardless of tomorrow’s weather, they will need thawed water once or twice during the day and probably won’t come out of their coop until they can see hay or grass on the ground. The coop will need cleaning again once they do leave the confines of their indoor shelter.

    The fall predictions for this winter were for warmer than average temperatures and wet. Instead it has been colder and white. I have concluded the way to tell the weather is to look outside and see what it is doing.

    I have two paperback books and one ebook, lots of yarn, fiber, spindles, spinning wheels, and knitting needles. There are both a two burner camp stove and an alcohol burner that can be used for heating water or cooking. This won’t be the biggest snow we have had and we have no where to go, so we will just enjoy it. Maybe some Senior Olympics can be had with sled runs.