Cabin Crafted

Category: farm

  • You can smell it in the air

    Spring is coming. Today we delivered the Garden planner and seed to DD and GD. GD was delighted at her binder with a simplified plan, companion planting guide, square foot planting sheet, and when it is safe to plant sheet. After going through DD’s old seed and combining some seed packages, we took a walk out to their 3 boxes from last year to discuss the best arrangement for the new 3 boxes they plan to add. It is a glorious, sunny, mild day, a delight to be outside.

    Yesterday morning, as I was adding water to my hydroponic herb garden and trimming some of the herbs, I took a picture of it for Son2 and his family that gave it to me for Christmas. I am thoroughly enjoying the fresh herbs in cooking and salads and drying dill and mint as I can’t keep up with them.

    As I worked with it, it occurred to me that a large version of it would be the perfect seed starter for the tomatoes and peppers for the garden and could be used to grow lettuce and spinach in winter and when it is too hot outdoors in the summer. DH suggested I put it on my wish list and he could get it for me for next Christmas.

    As I was preparing to lock up the hens last night, one of the Welsummers is almost always the last to go in the coop. She stood there looking up the ramp and as usual, I was amused by the pantaloons that breed wears.

    After thinking that I had turned the corner on chick loss as they all seemed healthy and active yesterday, I found the second Maran this morning, so there will be no chocolate brown eggs. In talking with DH about it, I told him, I could have ordered directly from the hatchery if I wanted a dozen of the same breed, but since everything I have ordered in the past few months has been delayed by the USPS for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks beyond the original tracking delivery date, I feared that chicks would meet the same fate and not survive the trip. That is why I purchased from Rural King, but 9 out of 19 dying is not good. I don’t know whether to go back with my receipts and see if they will replace at least a few of the 5 they haven’t already replaced or accept that I have what I have and just keep some or all of the older hens too. I am hoping that the nights will soon stop dropping into the 20’s and start seeing more feathers on the chicks so they can be moved to the garage. I really don’t like having them in the house, even in the basement.

    I need to get a new bale of straw and do a coop cleaning. In about 6 weeks, I will have to thoroughly clean and sanitize it before I can move the chicks to it. Either they or the older hens will have to use an old style feeder bucket until the two flocks can be on the same feed and in the same coop. I really like the 5 gallon feeder I made with the pvc elbows, but I think the chicks wouldn’t be able to reach the feed in it and they need to stay on starter/grower until they are at least 16 weeks old.

  • A New Month and New Challenges

    March roared in like a lion with strong wind, heavy rain, dark and gloomy. The rain eventually stopped and yesterday instead of feeling like late spring was more seasonal temperatures. The wind calmed only to pick back up last night, rattling screens and disturbing sleep. In the strength of yesterday’s storm, the HVAC technician came to do our semiannual servicing. We always need a new filter, living on a dirt driveway off a dirt road and having two big dogs in the house. The system is now 15 years old and the capacitor was degrading. He said it might be okay for another year, but it might go out at any time and leave us in need of a service call, so we had it replaced. I wanted to joke and ask him how we would get back to 1955 if the flux capacitor failed, but feared he wouldn’t get the joke.

    I finished February with 9 squares from my January and February breed blanket project yarn. All 9 were knit in the last half of the month when I decided I didn’t like the way they looked in mitered squares and all the January and start of February knitting were ripped apart.

    Since the March challenge requires silk in the blend and can’t be used in the blanket, the one I have chosen is nice colors, so my breeds for the blanket are undyed. I am spinning white Dorset Horn and dark brown Coopworth, enough to do 6 more squares I hope by the end of the month.

    This is the BFL/Silk braid I am doing for March. I think it will look lovely woven when it is done.
    My spinning start for the two challenges for March.

    The other challenge has been the chicks. I think they were in transit too long in too changing weather. My initial purchase of 12 had a 1/3 loss in 24 hours. They were replaced and 3 more added for a total of 19 chicks and only 11 of them are still alive. I lost most of the Buff Orpingtons that I wanted to build my flock around this year, and I have lost a Maran, an NH Red, and an Easter egger or Olive egger, I can’t tell them apart at this point. I am almost afraid to say this, but none died last night and all look good this morning. I hope they continue to thrive. Maybe I will keep a couple of the mature hens to round out the flock to a dozen or 14. The coop can handle that many, though the older hens will be 3 years old in December and their production has already begun falling lower than their first two years, they will still provide a few eggs. I still enjoy raising them.

    In a couple of weeks, I need to get the onions and the peas planted, but the garden is so wet right now. The rest of this week looks drier with some sun and moderate days, but nights in the 20’s. Next week looks more promising, so maybe I can get it done before the next round of rain begins. I wonder if the spring rains are going to provide another March challenge as the garden is started, paths re mulched, and new beds created. I need to finish granddaughter’s garden plan and get the binder for it so she can get her onions and peas planted too.

  • It is so fickle

    The weather this time of year is so unpredictable. Mid week it was spring like, just a light sweater needed, then it snowed on Friday, but it is gone already. It rained off and on overnight Friday, most of Saturday, and is still raining, hard at times. It was supposed to reach 58 yesterday and drop only to 52 last night. It didn’t get there, but I think the current temperature is supposed to hold overnight and reach near 70 today. But we have rain in the forecast for days and they still haven’t opened our culvert at the top of the driveway, since my report in December, my call in January, and another report this month. I may have to try to dig it out with the tractor bucket which never produces good results, even if I get the opening in the right place, the pipe itself will be at least partially blocked and I lack the strength to hand dig it out.

    The 5th chick, the one I didn’t think was healthy, did not survive, however the remaining 14 are hale and hearty, active, eating, drinking, and trying to see if they can jump over the sides of the brooder. I suspect that I will have to put a lid on the box sooner than I expected. Two of the little replacements look like little penguins, dark on top, white on the bottom.

    Two are uniformly charcoal gray. The adults are going to be so different from the current flock. Speaking of them, egg production is finally up a bit with the lengthening days. Yesterday, I got 5 eggs, two olive, three brown, so more of the hens are laying again. That is the most I have gotten since before the molt last fall.

    I finished another square for the blanket and have it wet blocked, and another nearly done. One more and I will have used all the yarn spun for it in January and February and will have 9 blocks knit, blocked, and labelled. Tomorrow starts a new month and new breeds to spin. Since the March challenge requires a silk content, it can’t be part of the blanket and is beautiful blues and purples, so I think I will spin white breeds for the blanket challenge. There won’t be a third challenge this month, it was just too complicated to keep up with and I felt like I was not fully participating to skip over all the conversation in the thread and they were a very chatty bunch. If I can’t engage fully, I will just stand away. The Jenkins group I have come to “know” and enjoy the chatter a couple times a day. There will be more time to spin, knowing that soon the garden is going to demand more of my time and spinning will become an evening or passenger in the car activity only with less time indoors to commit to it. Enough will get done to create a square or two for the blanket, but not enough to get the entire blanket done by the end of the year.

  • Rough Night, New Day

    We got home with the dozen new chicks yesterday after lunch, put them in the brooder, and I could tell we would lose a couple. By late afternoon, the reaction to my vaccine was kicking in, but I was still functional and got dinner made, eaten, and cleaned up and a final walk to the basement to check on the chicks. Two had died. Not totally unexpected with any new batch of little birds, but still disheartening.

    Last night was not a comfortable night. The vaccine had produced the expected sore shoulder, but also a royal headache and body aches. I slept fitfully, getting up every few hours to dose on the alternating Tylenol and Ibuprofen, and the last dose allowing me to sleep in until about 8 a.m. By the time I was up, it was mostly just a headache, one that with meds I could deal with. And the trip to the basement showed that two more chicks had died overnight. That brought my dozen down to 8 and half of my Buff Orpingtons were victims.

    The weather app, indicated that we were going to get snow, again, beginning around 2 p.m., eventually overnight, turning to rain. We were low on some grocery store supplies and decided to go back to Rural King to see about replacing the chicks. It turned out to be the same guy was in that area and he stated he was replacing the 4 free, however, there were no more Buff Orpingtons. I asked him what the typical attrition rate was and he said that usually it was very low, but he had lost about 1/3 of the ones that came in yesterday. They had hatched and shipped on Monday and didn’t arrive until Thursday morning. I agreed to taking other breeds for the 4 and add a couple more in case I lost anymore, I would still have a dozen. The coop is going to produce an Easter basket of egg colors. The Buffs and New Hampshire Reds lay light brown eggs and the Americaunas lay blue eggs. I came home with another Americauna as that was one that died, 2 Olive eggers, 2 Easter eggers, and 2 Marans, so dark chocolate eggs, Olive green eggs, and the possibility of pink, green, or blue from the Easter eggers. When I put them in the brooder, I could see that one of them was wobbly and tonight it looks like she won’t last the night, but there will be 14 young hens come mid summer producing a variety of egg colors.

    About the time they were settled in, my energy faded and a long nap followed while it did indeed snow.

    The driveway has stayed clear, so I expect the roadways have also and when I went out just before dinner to check for eggs, food and water for the locked up hens, there was sleet mixed in with the snow.

    The February spinning challenges are winding down, so much of what was spun has been plyed, January and February’s yarns reknit into 6 blanket squares with another on the needles and yarn for two more spun and plied. And some spinning of other fibers begun.

    The nap rejuvenated me enough to put dinner on and work on granddaughter’s garden plan some. I hope to get the plan and some seed to her in time to do the early spring planting in a couple of weeks. As I couldn’t remember what I had done with the copies of what I gave her last year, daughter, who was apparently more organized was able to come up with it and send me a scan back. Granddaughter is going to be given a notebook with the reference pages and the plans from last year and this year so she can keep her garden history. DD and GD are planning to double their garden in size this year and add a few vegetables they didn’t grow last year. I am making a duplicate copy of her plan as the reference pages, I also use and I will have the information I shared with her.

    I think this is going to be an early night, I still have no energy and a bit of a headache. Tomorrow I should be fine, except for the sore shoulder.

  • It’s Done

    First thing this morning, the second vaccine dose was administered. Now I wait to see if I will react and how, but any reaction is better than COVID.

    Since the vaccine site is two towns over, we did a side loop over to Rural King afterward to get chicks. Half a dozen Buff Orpington baby pullets, 3 New Hampshire Reds, and 3 Americaunas. One of the little Americaunas isn’t looking great, but that is why I buy a dozen chicks. I will keep the two Oliver eggers to add back into the flock when these little ones are big enough to fend for themselves. I will have light brown, dark brown, blue, green, and 1 pink egg layers.

    The one that didn’t look good was cold, so I removed one heat table that they were ignoring and added the heat lamp and put the little one under it to warm up. It is no longer cold, but doesn’t have the energy of the others. We will see how she does.

    I finished another square of the blanket last night, washed it and blocked it. I finished plying more of the Targhee for another square while I stood in the ski lift like line for my turn at the vaccine center this morning. On our way home, we picked up some quick soups in case I’m not up to meal prep tomorrow.

    Socially distanced spinning on the go.

  • New beginnings

    The giant rolling storage crate was pulled from the root cellar and filled with pine shavings, two heat tables, a feeder, and water in preparation for the chicks. But the nasty weather last week slowed things down and chicks didn’t arrive at Tractor Supply (either of them within 30 minutes of home) on Monday. On Tuesday, one got 3 breeds, not ones I want. A call to Rural King on Monday put me on hold for more than 5 minutes, answered again by the front end desk and again transferred and another hold until I hung up. We drove over there and they had bunnies, no chicks. But Rural King was supposed to get several hundred chicks in this morning, and they are supposed to be getting what I want. If the CDC is correct, I should be close to 90% protected with my first vaccine given two weeks ago, so I will mask up and go get babies. (Turns out the info I was given was incorrect and they don’t come in until tomorrow, so I guess it will happen tomorrow instead.) When I start a new flock, I always begin with a dozen, though I know that they won’t all survive the native predators and neighborhood domestics (though that hasn’t happened in a few years). The chicks will start in the basement for a couple of weeks. As the winter fades and the chicks begin to feather out, they will be moved to the garage until they are old enough to move outdoors. The 8 old hens will move in a few weeks from the coop to “The Chicken Palace” a huge A frame structure and they will be allowed more free range time as the replacements move to the coop to learn where they live and while they gain enough size to run around outdoors.

    The chicken palace with some of our deer visitors and the ever present stinkbug photo bombing. This is an older shot, we don’t have green grass right now.
    I’m ready for them if anyone every gets any in stock.

    And tomorrow morning, bright and early, I get my second vaccine. I’m prepared for the sore arm, the possible flu like symptoms for a day or so in hopes that it will make me feel safer when I do have to or want to go out in the world for more than a woods walk, drive thru sandwich, or curbside pickup of supplies.

    My breed blanket project continues. There are 6 eight inch blocks completed and enough of some of the already spun yarns to knit a couple more before the next breed comes up next month. Today, a sampler box of fiber arrived, it has 12 breeds, some of which are natural undyed duplicates of some I have dyed and one I have already knit, but they will be used as well to add more squares to make the blanket large enough to be a real wool blanket.

    I am finishing up the last of the official February fiber and a sample I got with my March fiber that because it is blended with silk can’t be part of the blanket. Now to decide which one will go in the blanket next.

  • Soup

    In the winter, I could live entirely on soup. When I got up this morning it was 14f. The sun did finally come out yesterday and began the ice melt. Though the trees are still glistening and glowing, they aren’t totally coated and sagging, but this weekend is cold, bone numbing cold.

    Son 1 sent me a photo a while back, to show off them using the rice bowls we gave them for Christmas, but it was what was in them that caught my eye. He had made an Asian inspired broth and filled it with fancy noodles, vegetables, and a boiled egg. We exchanged messages for me to get the gist of what he had produced. Many nights a week, I prepare Texas born DH the Texas staple foods of red meat and starch, but I don’t care for that, so I started experimenting with Son 1’s soup. Now I make potato soup, lentil soup, and vegetable soup that I can eat on Texas nights, but the broth soup full of healthy goodies really held an appeal and I started playing with it a few times a week. A good chicken or vegetable broth with sauteed onion, garlic, ginger, and a little crushed Szechuan pepper simmered for 10 or 15 minutes to meld the flavors, then the fun begins. I have a bag of super green mix (baby chard, baby spinach, baby kale, and mizuna), various noodles, quinoa, and left over cooked brown rice. A tub of red Miso, a quart jar of Daikon radish kimchee, and the hydroponic garden of fresh herbs all ready for my use. If I use quinoa, I put it in while the broth is simmering so it cooks. Noodles cook in under 5 minutes, and left over brown rice just needs to be warmed. Only one of those is added per batch, but a large handful of the super greens and another of fresh herb clippings are added just long enough to wilt them. A bit of the hot broth is pulled off and mixed with the Miso and added back at the last moment. Sometimes the boiled egg is added to the bowl if I have some made (I generally steam half a dozen or so at a time to add to the pup’s breakfast, so there are often some available for me too). To this can be added some Turmeric, with the ginger and garlic, fighting inflammation. Some kimchee at the last minute so it holds its fermented benefits with the fermented benefits of the Miso and two cups of quick delicious healthy soup is made in only about 15-20 minutes. Sliced mushrooms can be added during the saute phase too.

    And who says soup is only for lunch or dinner. This morning to warm my chilly body, a couple of cups were made, full of antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, and a good warming broth were enjoyed for breakfast.

  • The prettiest, nastiest kind of storm

    Sometime during the night, the winter storm arrived and not with snow as predicted, or if it did snow, it was minimal. I got up at first light to hear the sleet hitting the metal roof. The dogs were not amused, they ran out and right back as quickly as they could relieve themselves.

    As the day dawned lighter, I could see the layer of ice on everything. The deciduous trees glistening like they were lit up, the evergreens sagging under the weight of the ice. Icicles hung from the eaves, the rails, the bird feeders.

    The resident deer family coming close to the house in search of grass or green that wasn’t frozen.

    The sleet stopped around 10 this morning and there is a lull in the storm until late afternoon, but when I got up, the power was flickering so I started fires in the wood stove in the basement and the fireplace in the living room in case it failed. So far it has stayed on, but the temperature isn’t rising enough to melt off the morning ice before the afternoon and overnight ice is due.

    A couple of years ago, daughter brought home a little slip of a pine tree from Arbor Day at work and I planted it in the yard near the larger pines and marked it so it wouldn’t get mowed down. By last summer, it was as tall as I am but thin with all the needles at the top. When I looked out this morning, it was bent to the ground and I feared it would break so I went out to stake it. The first stake wasn’t long enough to protect it.

    I went to the garden and dug one of the 7 foot long fake bamboo poles out of the ice and got it imbedded beside the pine and tied the pine to the pole with some tie loops that are stretchy tshirt material. I hope I have saved it from this storm.

    The walk to the mailbox was slippery so no vehicle will be moved today, but the walk allowed an afternoon photo of one of the larger pines weighted down by the ice.

    I expect if we get more ice added to the coat that is there, we will see broken branches. The creek is roaring, but I didn’t want to risk the slope to look down on it to see how full it is.

    I would rather have snow, but actually, I’m ready for warmer weather and some sunshine.

  • A Calm before …

    We have had a two day calm. Mild yesterday early, with wind picking up, a few snow flurries, and the temperature dropping rapidly from the upper 30s to 17f over night. Today there are actually moments of sunshine and hopefully milder temperatures before the next winter storm descends upon us tonight. Yet again, we are supposed to get snow, turning to freezing rain sometime tomorrow morning, then back to snow later. More ice to break limbs, damage power lines, and send more people into darkness and no heat. If it stays cold long enough, the ice will be minimized.

    The German Shepherd’s vet appointment for tomorrow has already been rescheduled for next week. Our vet lives way out on a rural road as do we and she may or may not be able to get in to the office. She comes to us for the big guy, but Shadow will still jump in the car and we can take her to the office.

    Now that the hay bale that is used in the chicken run is about half its original size, I cover it to protect it from the rain and snow so I can peel off layers to put down in the hen’s run. They will get food and water inside the coop tomorrow, they won’t set foot outside when it is snowing. Once it stops, I can put hay down for them to exit the coop.

    The bird feeders were filled, I will probably fill the wheelbarrow with wood again, the wood cart is still full and there is still enough in the basement for a day or two.

    Last night’s low temperatures froze the ground surface so this morning’s chores weren’t performed in mud, but unless it warms enough to thaw the surface before the storm, it will give it a better surface to stick and accumulate. It will stay cold Friday and Saturday, not warming to above freezing until Sunday, so it will stick around.

    Last weekend, I applied a flex seal along the bottom trim of the windshield, I had already done so along the top edge, and we left the car out of the garage in the rain day before yesterday to see if I had taken care of the leak. I haven’t. I have no idea where the water is coming in, but there was a little water on the dash and the passenger side rug was damp again, not soaked like before, so maybe I improved the situation. I guess the car will live in the garage from now on when we aren’t using it.

    As I was preparing dinner last night, I realized what a sorry lot my kitchen linens have become. I pulled out a dish towel, faded and dingy and remembered it came from a niece with a potholder, apron, and cookbook more than 25 years ago. I snapped a picture of it with the apron and sent them to her as a memory.

    Most of my dish clothes, unpaper towels, kitchen towels, and pot holders are stained, worn thin with holes in them, and dingy. Maybe it is time to warp the loom and make some new ones to replace the old purchased ones. This little towel above is the perfect size and thickness to use on my tray when canning, so it will still be part of my collection.

    Last night I made a big pot of stew, a couple days ago a pot of goulash. If we lose power, they can be reheated on the woodstove or a camp stove and we will stay nourished. For now, other prep must be done. We have been lucky so far this winter with only short outages or flickering power, but ice storms can change that.

  • We Won’t Need April Showers, Thank you

    In ski country, when the snow pack melts, they call it mud season. There are parts of the country that could use rain, snow, or the other YUK we have been receiving.

    Mornings and evenings require donning the thick ugly pink barn coat, a hat or the coat hood, muck boots (sometimes ice cleats would be nice), either leather or thick fleece gloves depending on what task needs to be done. Boldly opening the door to the garage, gathering feed and water bucket, tentatively opening the door to the outside and assessing my safety on the stoop there. Is it wet, coated with ice, or deep in snow. At this point, I actually prefer the snow, at least I can safely walk in it. Some days when looking out, the grass and trees glisten with tiny icicles hanging from the limbs and fences. Those mornings are treacherous, the stoop and other surfaces, including the grass are like stepping on a kitchen floor where cooking oil was spilled, but for the past week or so, even though surfaces resemble the ice palace in Dr. Zhivago, the surface below is mud, thick, goopy, slimy mud. If one surface doesn’t get you, the other one will.

    I keep a good thick layer of hay in the chicken run, which as I have mentioned before, is sloped, highest at the end away from the pop door. After opening, or chipping the ice off the gate to pry it open so I can get to the pop door, the first step is always a challenge. For some reason, the preferred scratching place in the run is right in front of the gate, thus all the hay gets piled deep at the other end in front of the coop. Of course, the rain, freezing rain, snow haven’t helped as they make the hay itself slick once compacted. Every few days, a new layer is put down and every evening when I lock them in for the night, I drag hay back uphill to the gate for my evening and next morning safety.

    Each morning for the past couple of weeks have looked like the above pictures. The top one was this morning with freezing rain forecast, but it is pouring down not frozen rain as I write. We are in full blown mud season.

    The daylilies have sprouted tender green tips which will get burned by the next onslaught of bitter cold, which is sure to come. The mud will freeze again and thaw again before the grass and trees sprout to drink up the spring showers. After two warm winters, my plans to get more cardboard down in the garden and build up a couple of new beds have been foiled by real winter this year. Maybe it is good that I can’t garden year round, this winter is giving my body the needed rest.

    Yesterday, on our Anniversary, we drove into town and got drive thru breakfast, it was too icy on Saturday when we usually do it, so we missed the Farmer’s Market, but so did many of the vendors. We picked up curbside delivery of grocery items and came home, sitting near each other as I spun on my new spindle, a gift from my love, and some on my wheel as one of the fibers I purchased for my blanket, though enough was spun on spindles to fulfill the one block requirement (actually there will be two), I don’t like spinning that particular fiber on spindles, so the remainder of the braid is being done on the wheel.

    Late in the day, we picked up the Valentine’s Day special from the local BBQ restaurant and drove down to the river to eat. We arrived to pick up our 5:15 p.m. order at 5:10 and it was already sitting packed on the counter, so it wasn’t hot. Packed in styrofoam clamshell contains, several each, cutting and eating from them was a challenge in the car. We should have brought it home and put it on real plates, rewarming what could be warmed. It was not the fancy anniversary dinner of the past, but it was shared together, watching the river flow by in the drizzly gloom. It was a very uneventful day, but a day spent with each other. Another tick off on the calendar of our lives together and another to look forward to.