Homestead News, Volume 3

Even with historic rainfall, it seems we have managed to stay busy on our homestead. There are a number of projects that are either ongoing, getting started or waiting in the wings for next week to arrive. Here is a rundown of some of our recent events.

 







Frank has wanted to put another layer of gravel on the road going up to the barn. We had this road constructed when we bought our place, but it was time to increase the gravel depth and width. This should do for this road for years to come.

 

We also wanted a load of gravel placed in the backyard so Frank could spread it out in our parking areas and in a number of other places. Unfortunately, the dump truck got stuck before it could make it down the hill. This necessitated dumping the gravel by the chicken house, which means Frank will have to make many, many trips up and down this hill to place the gravel in the desired place.

The dewberries are ripening, so my friend Grace came over today and between rain showers, we picked a few berries. I hope to pick many more in the next few days. By the way, yesterday and last night we got another 1.4" of rain, and then today we got another 0.4". But! This is supposed to be the end of it. There is no rain in the near forecast. Hallelujah!

We have had some issues with the egg turner in our incubator this year and were afraid we would have a very poor hatch rate. Today, the day before our actual hatch date, we already have eleven, no make that sixteen, new baby chicks. We were surprised and pleased with this development. Frank will fill you in on the details in an upcoming chicken story.

Our house was built in 1983 on a stem wall with floor joists. Over time it has settled in the middle and needed to be jacked up and leveled. It was hard to find someone to do this kind of work, but today two of our friends arrived and began this project. After this job is completed, they will be helping us replace some of our 30 year old carpet with new flooring. We are really looking forward to that.

Next week the window company will be here to replace our windows. Many of them are clouded over on the inside, and one on the north side lets the cold air in if it is very windy. This is another project that has been on the drawing board for awhile.

The pigs are growing, and will be given more room sometime in the coming week when we let them out into the larger pig pen. First we need to add a few stock panels up against the barn. The last set of pigs really rooted out a lot of dirt under the edge of the slab the barn is sitting on. We don't want to allow any more of this dirt to be removed. All of the pigs are becoming tame enough to pat and scratch while they are eating, and occasionally when they are not. They greet me each time they see me, especially if I have a bucket in my hand. 

Easter on top, Bo in the house

Tomorrow our last two kids will be separated from their mothers for weaning. Easter, our Easter Sunday doe, and Bo, our little bowlegged wether will be joining the adult wethers, the teenage wethers, and the billy goat. The teenage wethers and Patch, another young doe, have been separated from their mothers for eight weeks now. One Stripe is Patch's mom, and she is no longer being milked, so Patch will be rejoining the doe herd tomorrow. I will be glad to have her back with the 'girls' so I can give her more attention. She is already a very sweet, tame doe and I look forward to adding her to the milking line up next year.
 

Patch

Tomorrow morning Faith, our friend that bought Penny to milk, is coming over for a cheese making lesson. We will be discussing how to make soft cheese and making a batch of mozzarella. Faith has been reading a lot, but learns best by watching and taking notes. She is just beginning to put together a list of needed equipment and ingredients. We will have a fun time talking goats, milk and cheese.

The garden is growing despite all of the rain. The zinnias we planted in and around some of the vegetables are starting to bloom. And they are beautiful. 

It seems we are busier than ever, with much to do on our plates. Once the few projects I mentioned are complete there are about a half dozen more waiting to be started right behind them. We'll let you know what they are and how they go. Life on a homestead always gives you many things to do. Some planned. Some not. Either way, you learn, you work, you live. It's a good life.

Until next time - Fern

The Tin Whistle Review

When we moved here we were glad there is a little branch (not enough to be called a creek or a crik) that runs through the backyard. It does not have running water in it all the time and sometimes is just a rather muddy place. We found out pretty quickly that we wanted to be able to drive across it without leaving a big muddy mess, so we had a culvert, or tin whistle put in. But it wasn't tin, it was rubber type plastic.

There are occasions, about once a year, that we get a really hard rain and the yard floods. You can just barely see the tip of the culvert in this picture. During one of these floods when the water was up over or around the culvert, we went outside to check things out. Just about that time, the culvert came floating up out of it's place and started heading toward the yard fence. We were able to 'catch' it and steer it up into the yard where we hoped it wouldn't move anymore. We put it back in place, but after another heavy rain, it came out again. That's when we decided we needed a heavier metal culvert.

The one we got was too long for us to haul on our trailer, so we had it delivered. Meanwhile, we added another small section of fencing across the yard to separate the chickens' side of the yard from the garden. Because of this change in the traffic pattern through the yard, we also decided to change the location of the culvert by about 10 feet. This change in location was possible because we had removed a scrubby tree that had grown up not far from the grape vine.

Is this starting to sound like one of those country stories? Turn left on the road next to where the old barn burnt down.......

Well, after we got the new culvert in it's chosen location, we piled up the gravel that had been on the previous culvert on top of it because we were expecting another big rain storm. This time, the culvert stayed in place. The diameter of this culvert is larger, so it will be able to handle a larger volume of water before it goes up and around or over, causing the gravel to wash away. We decided to leave the gravel piled up on top of the culvert until we could deal with the small stump left from removing the tree because it is now in the middle of the driving area when you cross the culvert. That was a while back.

We tried several different ways to deal with this small stump, but none of them worked. In the meantime, it quickly grows a tremendous clump of little sucker trees from the roots. They come up everywhere. Well, today we decided we had waited long enough to be able to use the culvert to cross the branch and we would just deal with the stump later.  So, Frank got the tractor and went to work.

Before

 

During

 

 

And after

Well, now that we finished that chore, it is time to mow again. We do the fine work around the house with a standard push mower and the rest with the brush hog. We haven't ever talked ourselves into a riding lawnmower. We always think, why? we have the tractor.

Before

 

During



After

With all of the rain this summer, for which we are truly grateful, we have had to mow more often. It always looks nice when we are finished. 

The kittens are enjoying the short grass and we are enjoying using the tin whistle instead of hopping over the branch (which right now is more of a twig without water). Now it's back to canning and working the garden.

Until next time - Fern