Spring Projects....

So the spring weather has really opened up the opportunity to get more things done around the farmstead. Our biggest priority right now is getting the garden ready for planting. Before we can even contemplate doing that we needed to put up a deer fence. This took about two weekends to erect the posts and then get up the actual fencing. Although the post hole auger was a help we still had to drive the metal posts(13 of them) almost two feet into the ground by hand and sledge hammer. Hard labor pretty much sums up that job! Thanks to Ross "the deer hunter" we got them all in in the ground in a few hours. Ethan was the inspector.

The only reason we are smiling is because we are done!

The following weekend we were on our own to erect the actual 7.5 foot high fencing. The garden space is 78 x 78 feet. It will take me two to three years to use all the space as planned.

This past weekend I had a couple friends from work come over to help do some barn restoration. Primarily replacing some dry rot and post termite ridden framing. I had the place carbon dated and it dates back to the early 1900's...just kidding, but probably close.

Hard to appreciate from the photo but this pole was dry rotted pretty much from bottom to top.




Look at this picture slowly as we were very proud of our work... and it took the good part of the day for three of us to complete. You can't appreciate some of the inside work we had to do at the top of that corner post. I was a bit worried thebarn would cave in when I cut out the bottom section, but it did not budge. The rest of the framing is decent, a few more 2x 4 to replace inside the front and it will be ready for the siding to go up.

This a view of the garden from by the front of the barn. You can see a few of my garden beds...almost a weeks worth of work there..but that is another story.

Warmer weather, more projects...

We had a beautiful weekend of weather here in NC. This is just a look at the chickens and guinnias waiting to get outside in the morning to start hunting for bugs.

This was my new "toy" for the weekend. A trencher. I spent most of Saturday digging (not diggin') 300 feet of 24 inch deep trenches from the house to the garage to the barn. The electrician laid the conduit to run the wire next weekend. We figure it will be a nice family project to put all of the dirt back !

This is one of five bluebird boxes Ethan and I made from salvaged barnwood. Our yard seems to be some kind of bird haven with a lot of bluebirds, bluejays, robins, finches, cardinals(state bird), woodpeckers,... and occasionally a dead bird from the cats.


Sunday Aki and I spent some time in the sun together on the front porch starting some of our garden plants. These are our peppers, herbs, and some flowers. Next weekend we will start the tomatos.

And this would be Jacob, the bird hunter...after an exhausting day of doing next to nothing.

Snow!, a couple weeks ago...

Hi Folks it has been a dry spell here again. Pretty much we have been holed up waiting for spring. I wanted to share a couple pictures of the only snowfall we really had this year to amount to anything. But this is actually from a couple weeks ago already. The house has performed amazingly over the winter from an energy efficiency standpoint. Our only utility bill is electricity and our monthly bills over the winter have averaged about $85,... a far cry from our $500+ natural gas bills last winter in the rental house!

We actually are having much more mild weather now with temps often reaching the 60-70's. Trees are starting to bud out and bloom. With that comes a spring list of things to do, so I'll keep you updated on current happenings this spring

Merry Christmas, etc.

Sorry for the lack of activity here. Things have been a little slow with the cooler weather and darker days. But I finally took some new pictures to catch up on things, so this is rather long!

Our friend and deer hunter Ross has had a successful fall hunting season. He bagged two good sized bucks from his perch up in the barn loft, the door of which overlooks our field. We have a group of about 15 deer that stll arrive nightly. He and our family are now well stocked with venison for a while. There are still plenty left, including another good size buck which he is "saving" for next year. This might be him below?(from our bedroom window)

I have been busy the last couple weekends building some good sized compost bins. I was able to build the bulk of them from re-used lumber from the section of the barn we tore down this summer. It took about half a day to scrounge enough to use. A lot of it was split and rotten. I hope I get a few years out of them.

Unfortunately the current compost pile had to be hand moved so I could place the new double bin where it will stay until it falls apart. There is never a lack of physical activity around here. The bin in the foreground is a beehive style, you can break it down layer by layer. I think we have a good supply of compost material to get the garden started. That is our old guinna hen cage in the far ground, they moved in with the layers so I re-purposed it to hold our shredded leaves for mulch in the garden this summer. Beyond that is a pile of leaves yet to be shredded.

This is our rock garden that Karen and the kids cleared out of weeds. The rocks accumulated around these trees during our land clearing and the building process over the past year. We planted a lot of wild flower seeds in between the rocks. We will see how it does this coming summer. I hope the chickens did not eat all the seeds we planted. I likely will need to fence it off if things grow until established, or the chickens will have a good time eating all the seedlings.

And now some more random pictures....

This was our first turkey we roasted for Thanksgiving...it was AWESOME!, as was the one we just had for Christmas... still not sure we will take them on this summer or not though.

Speaking of birds, the laying hens have stepped things up lately in the egg production. The last few days 9-10 eggs a day for 14 birds. Pretty good for the winter! I think Ethan had a talk with them when I kept threatening they would be chicken soup if they did not start producing more than 4-5 a day!

Speaking of Ethan, ...we feel quite lucky he still has his head attached! This is the aftermath of him trying to duck under a fence at the last minute while riding his bike at full speed!! That mark goes around to the other side as well. Fortunately the fence was just a taunt cord with some give in it, and his guardian angel was looking after him!

Speaking of angels, ...

O.K., angels might be a little strong, but they sure are cute! Speaking of cute....

Ha ! Just kidding, ... speaking of just kidding....

Our version of American Gothic! ... Karen preferred the more traditional family picture...

Still trying to get used to that green house! Speaking of green...

This might just look like an ugly green bowl to you. Actually, it was a Christmas gift from the kids that makes me smile every time I see or use it for my breakfast cereal. When I unwrapped it, Shalo promptly and proudly told me "We got it from the dump! " ... that's my girl !... As many of you know we can be on the frugal side. We are well known at the dump for checking out the recycle building. You never know what you are going to find! This was actually a Veitri brand bowl from Italy. And these are the crazy shoppers ...

I will accept an ugly bowl from them anytime!

So that should catch you all up with us down here. It has been a busy, yet rewarding year for our family. We have a busy, year ahead with many more projects to go. We feel blessed in many ways and are thankful for them them all. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night...and upcoming year!

Fall Harvest and Shed update

Just a quick update. The shed is nearly completed, ... other than getting the front window in. It blew over one day and broke during the construction process. I just got it back from the glass shop yesterday. But otherwise I am quite pleased with how it turned out. That stack of lumber in front of the barn is the siding for the front of the barn and north side of barn. Yet another big project, but after building the shed, I think that will be pretty easy. The hardest part will be replacing any "rotten" framing underneath, which overall is rather minimal. It may wait until spring. I will dry stack the lumber in the barn for the time being.

This Saturday is out fall harvest of the meaties. This is Ethan starting to say good bye, he really will be glad when they are gone I think, as he did not particularly enjoy cleaning out their three waterers every night. We have 45 left out of an initial 56. Neighbors dog got about six, hawk one, one gimpy one that had to go (despite our initial efforts to nurse her along) and one of unknown causes.

From Barn to Beach...

Things have been pretty busy down here the past few weeks. Karen and I have been continuing to plug away at the barn addition/coop, the kids have just finished up their fall break. The coop is turning out nicely. Below is a shot of the walls framed up. I divided the area up into a garden tool storage area, a chick brooder area, and the far section is a 12 foot chicken coop area. It should allow us to easily have up to 30 -40 layers should we choose to be that crazy. Currently we have 14 hens. I don't think they are all laying yet, as on a good day we are getting only 8 eggs. Some days only 3-4! I suspect they are hiding some where we are not finding them.


Karen patiently spent an afternoon helping me heft the rafters into place and listening to me curse how different the birds beak notches were for each one, mistakenly I cut them all at once after the first one fit perfectly... if I ever do anything like this again I will know better. But all in all the roof framed up quite nicely.
Aki is a good helper if you keep a close eye on him!
Putting up the metal roofing went pretty well, again I had to have Karen help heft and hold each panel until I could secure it in place. There was a brief learing curve with the screws, but overall it turned out nicely. The hardest thing was keeping from sliding off! The roof is actually finished, and I have the front of the addition sided and windows up. Hope to finish siding the ends this coming weekend. It is a slow process with the batten board siding. Lots of cutting and nailing. But it is looking good. More pictures soon.

Towards the end of the day the turkeys dropped by to check things out!

Actually, I think they were trying to stake their claim on the new digs for a new roosting site!

We took a day off to take a day trip to the beach in Wilmington, NC... it was about a three hour drive. Nice weather, relaxing,.. but a long drive for a day trip. I think worth it as the kids had a great time...

Finally... Cooler Weather!

Not a lot of news down here this past week. The weather has certainly been more pleasant. And the last tropical storm blew in some very nice rain early last week. We also just got grazed by a tornado, and only lost a few big tree limbs. We are anticipating temps in the seventies this weekend, and fifties at night. Looking forward to that. This past weekend the kids wanted to camp out in the field. We pitched the tents, we could not get to sleep, and all came in by midnight to the comfort of our beds. I am getting too old to sleep on the ground, especially after a long day of hard labor preparing slab area for new shed/coop. It may not look like much , but that was hours of hard labor, digging footings with pick ax, spreading gravel. .

The turkeys are in the freezer except for the left over three Bourbon Reds(above, wondering where their conrads are...) Which we were hoping to breed in the spring. The turkeys were not fun too harvest, I had to wrestle them down to the ground to catch them. They were BIG, the biggest tom dressed out at 30+ pounds ! Not sure if we will do again next year or not. Will have to see what we think after we try one or two of them.

We got the new metal roof on the barn, they did a good job. I have the sight prepared to pour the slab for the lean-too shed off the side. This will serve primarily as out chicken coop, which needs to be done like yesterday! I will also section off some for a garden tool storage area, and a chicken brooder area. Hoping to get that started this weekend, if slab gets poured this week. I found a local saw mill to cut some rough sawn lumber to match current batten board siding pattern at a reasonable cost. One week later... slab is poured, foundation blocks laid. I got the end walls framed up, and hope to finish framing this weekend(09/24/2011)

And this is Ethan tending to our "9-11" fire which kept burning the whole weekend in memory of that horrible event...it also allowed us to get rid of piles of junk wood from when we tore down the rotten half of the barn. Surely undoing a years worth of effort to decrease our carbon foot print!

And just an update on the colored rangers, to date they are 7 weeks old, about six to go...this picture is two weeks old now. Unfortunately I heard some of the young cocks trying to crow this morning! That could be a lot of crowing as they continue to grow for 6 more weeks!