Author: Re-Farmer

New stove is in!

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Okay, I am beyond excited right now!

The new stove is in, and it’s absolutely fabulous!!

Yes, it did also take a couple of hours to get it done, but not for why you might think.

First off, moving the counter turned out to be a lot easier than I feared. Once I moved the dining table as far into the corner as I could, I had enough space that I would not have to move any other shelves.

Once the drawers, which held most of the weight (especially the cutlery drawer!) were removed, I also found I didn’t need to empty the cupboards, either. Once I got the counter unstuck from where it has been sitting for so many years, there were no issues.

I admit, it was a lot less disgusting back there than I feared.

Also, yes. That’s a piece of toast on the floor.

Oh, dear God. I just realized.

There’s another piece of toast stuck to the back of the counter.

I have just returned from pulling the counter away from the wall and cleaning it out.

Those would predate our moving here. In fact, they probably go back to before my dad had to move to the nursing home. Which means they’ve been there for probably more than 5 years.

And yeah… it’s still actually less disgusting than I feared.

There were a couple of things I expected to find, since I was there when they fell behind the counter. I did not expect to find a new jelly bag.

I was wondering what happened to the second one from the package…

Then there was this.

This would go back to before my mom moved to the senior’s apartment she lives in now, so it’s probably been there for more than 6 years.

The counter itself turned out to be remarkably easy to move. It didn’t even catch on anything in the process.

Then it was time to shut off the breaker and move the old stove.

What the flash in the photo picks up, that I couldn’t see when I went to move the power cord, is that grease had dripped behind the stove, onto the cord.

That was really gross to handle. I couldn’t even put on the disposable gloves we would normally use. It’s so hot and sticky, I wouldn’t be able to pull them on. So I used paper towel to handle things.

Things were so sticky back there, it took more effort than it should have, to unplug the old stove.

*shudder*

Once the stove was clear, I peeled off the self-adhesive shelf liner that was used as a backsplash.

Then I was done. It may not have been a lot of actual physical labor to most things around – I easily did it by myself – but by this point, I was absolutely dripping with sweat.

The girls then took over and did the hard part.

Cleaning.

Those two are absolute saints.

That floor is just … wow. The difference between the part worn out from decades of feet, and the part under the counter, could not be more dramatic!

Clean up done, the girls got to use the time needed for everything to dry, to cool down and stop sweating. Then they put up the self-adhesive backsplash.

Then we finally unpacked the new stove from it’s box. After measuring the other counter, we found we did not need to adjust the legs – at least not before we put it in place. The daughter that was trapped in the kitchen used a level on the floor, and it definitely sloped downwards, away from the wall.

The height of the stove, without adjusting the legs, was exactly the same as the height of the counter, but a sloping floor would have to be accounted for. First, we had to plug it in and get it in place.

Here, you can see how the 4 pieces of self-adhesive tiles were placed for the backsplash. We will get a couple more and fill in the gaps, later.

Then one of my daughters was an angel and sprawled on the floor while her sister and I tipped the stove flat against the wall.

Which made it perfectly level!

I guess it’s good to know our walls are straight, if not our floors… :-D

That made it a lot easier for my daughter to adjust the leveling legs.

No more food sloshing to one side of the pot or pan when we cook, now!

Once everything was in place, back went the counter.

The new stove is the same width as the old one, but deeper, so it sticks out further than the other one did.

It also has a much larger oven, so we’re very good with this!

It’s going to take some getting used to having the controls in front.

Once the breaker was turned back on, the girls figured out how to set the time, using the 24 hour clock setting. Then they tested out the cooktop.

We are just entranced. I don’t think we’ve ever had anything so nice and new before. It heats up so quickly, it’s mind blowing! The larger front cook surfaces have two sides to their controllers. Use one side, it heats the full circle. Us the other, and it heats a smaller circle.

It also has no element in the oven, and the self-cleaning function is a safer, less power consuming, technological upgrade. We’ve had self cleaning ovens before, and never used them. This one, I actually will!

Best of all – no more sparks!

I am so glad this is finally done, and so thrilled with the stove itself.

Next thing on the list: replacing the taps and faucet in the kitchen sink. :-)

I’m really, really hoping someone installed shut off valves under the sink at some point. I’d really prefer not to have to shut off water to the entire house, just to work on the kitchen sink! :-D Not that I’ll have anything to do with replacing that. A much more able-bodied daughter is going to have to crawl under the sink. :-D I actually went back to pictures I took from the last time we had to go under there, when the drain on one of the sinks broke apart. None of them show enough that I can actually say for sure, and we can’t remember. We don’t really use the cupboards under the counter the sink is in. Only one drawer and one cupboard at the end is actually positioned in a usable space.

Well, we’ll find out soon enough.

Until then, we’re just going to try not to melt away.

The Re-Farmer

After a wild and crazy night!

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It was shortly after 1 am and, as I was lying awake in bed, something I was seeing finally soaked through my heat-numbed brain.

Lights.

Flashing lights, out my north facing window.

The sky was lighting up, over and over, hardly a break in between! Constant flashes of lightning.

My West facing window was open, but I heard nothing. No thunder. No rain. Hardly even wind.

But the flashes kept going.

After a while, I went to the main entry and watched the storm coming in through the outer door, before finally moving to the sun room.

Creamsicle and Potato Beetle were very thrilled to see me, and just begging for pets and cuddles!

While standing at the mostly-closed outer door, I heard a distinct crunching noise. Using the flashlight on my phone, I took a peak through the gap behind the garbage can, and could just see the tip of a skunk’s nose!

He waddled away, pausing to scream for a while, soon after.

Skunks make the strangest noise!

One of my daughters came down after hearing me go through the old kitchen, but with Creamsicle and Potato Beetle at the door into the sun room, she decided to go out through the main entrance.

After making sure we were clear of skunk.

We stood outside for a while, watching the sky.

Time and again, the entire yard was lit up bright as day!

Then it started to rain, so we went into the sun room. After a while, my daughter went back into the house, through the main entry, making sure to prop a sawhorse in front of the outer door (we still haven’t been able to finish fixing the frame on that!), to keep it from blowing open, while still being open enough for the cats to come in for shelter.

I remained in the sun room, watching the storm through the outer door, when my other daughter came to join me. She was just telling me about how she had checked the weather radar, and the main part of the storm looked like it was passing us by, but we were still getting warnings for hail… when the hail started!

Then the wind pulled open the outer door, sending the saw horse flying. Even though I was inside, I immediately started getting hit with rain, so I quickly closed up the inner door, and continued watching through the window on that.

The video is much MUCH darker than it actually was outside.

Creamsicle was very happy to be inside the sun room, with me! He kept trying to get my attention while I took photos and video so, after a while, I put the phone away and just cuddled him. He was in heaven, giving me all kinds of hugs and kisses!

Then Potato Beetle got in on the action, and soon I was holding both of them, and watching the storm!

The storm passed by rather quickly, and I was soon able to get the outer door set up with the saw horse to keep it from blowing open again, then went inside. Once inside, a quick check on Facebook found I was not the only one up at almost 2am, posting about the storm!

One of the pages I follow is a local weather group, and they posted an image showing the hundreds of places lightning was detected on the weather radar. The storm itself, amazingly, split just before reaching us. Most of it passed by to the North, and a tiny bit passed us by to the South. What we got was the less severe gap in the middle.

Wow.

So when I headed out to do my morning rounds today, I did a more thorough check for fallen branches and see what other storm damage there might be. There was quite a lot branches to pick up. Only two were live branches, though. The rest were already dead. The elm tree in front of our kitchen window lost so many tiny dead twigs, I didn’t even try to pick them up. I’d need a rake to get them all.

I was happy to note that there was no substantial hail damage to any of the garden plots. I did, however, have a wonderful surprise in the squash.

Two of them have suddenly bloomed! These were not there yesterday, and I really was not expecting to see flowers while the plants are still so small.

These are in the second, larger bed that was transplanted later, and they are doing much much better than the others. The long row in the back that was planted at the same time is doing all right, but not as well as the wider bed. The first bed I’d planted, that got frost damage in spite of our covering them first, is still struggling.

Of the three pumpkin mounds, one of the ones that had a packet of 3 seeds planted in it, now has a second seedling sprouting. The mound that had the packet of 5 seeds planted it in has a first seedling just starting to break ground now.

This late in the season, the only way we’ll get ripe pumpkins, I think, is if we have a late and long, mild fall.

Which could happen. We’ll see.

The surviving first planting of sunflowers have also made a very noticeable increase in growth.

No hail damage on anything planted in the old garden area. No deer damage, either.

It wasn’t until I was almost done my rounds that I found the one tree that fell during the storm.

It’s one of the dead trees I need to clean out, anyway, so this actually saves me some work! :-D

With the heat wave, our weekly checking of the root cellar has provided useful information already. With the possibility of building a cheese cave in there, a few years from now, we are looking for a temperature range of between 7C – 12C (45F – 55F) and a humidity level in the 85-95% range, though some types of cheese require different temperatures. As of this morning, the root cellar was at 17C/62F, and the humidity was at 88%. It was the same last week, too. So for most types of cheeses, it would be too warm. It also is not as consistent as it should be. There is an air vent that goes straight outside, with nothing but window screen mesh to keep the bugs out, at the end. I’d tried partially blocking it, but enough of a wind gets through that it blows out whatever is used. It might be worthwhile to add some sort of vent covering that can be opened and closed to help keep the temperatures from fluctuating too much.

Meanwhile, the heat wave continues. We’re already at 29C/84F (“feels like” 33C/91F), with a predicted high of 31C/87F (humidex: 36C/96F). Heat alerts remain. At least the high water and flood alerts have stopped for now, though we have more thunderstorms predicted overnight, so that might change.

Heat or no heat, we have really got to get the counter moved out, so we can put in the new stove. With the old stove, we’d already stopped using one of the elements, due to sparking when it was turned on or off. The girls, who have taken to cooking and eating at night rather than during the day, have noticed other elements have started to spark, too.

It’s going to be dreadful, and take hours to accomplish, but it has to be done.

Installing the stove itself will be the easy part. Juggling the dining table, chairs, shelves, the contents of the counter, and the counter itself, while still leaving room for the old stove to be pulled out, and the new stove to be moved in, is the hard part.

The Re-Farmer

What a surprise!

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This time of year, we pretty much never see deer at the feeding station. If they’re coming by, it’s typically when we’re all in bed.

Except tonight.

My daughter happened to be in the living room, with the lights out, escaping the heat of the second floor when she glanced out the window to see this.

The other surprise is actually getting a half decent photo. We didn’t even try to use the DSLR; moving to adjust the settings for a night shot would have spooked the deer away, so this is just using auto on my phone’s camera!

You’ll notice the antlers look very thick and fuzzy. That’s because they are! I have actually never seen a buck with the velvet still on his antlers like this, before! (not counting photographs, of course)

I’m glad he was able to enjoy the seeds I’m still putting on the ground for the birds. Right now, I’m just using black oilseeds – a type of sunflower seed. The grass covers most of the seed on the ground. Not just grass, though. With the rain we’ve been having, there are quite a few sprouted sunflowers in the area, and I can see quite a few other things growing from the mixed bird seed I’d used before. I’m pretty sure a lot of the grass in that area is actually oat grass, too. The birds can get through it to reach the seeds well enough, but it would take more effort for a deer!

Of course, the deer can graze on the seedlings, too, and I’m much rather he eats the sunflower seedlings here, than the ones we deliberately planted in the garden! :-D

What a majestic animal! I’m so happy he came by!

The Re-Farmer

A little bit of progress

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Yesterday, things cooled down enough it was actually worth opening up my window.

There is still a problem with that.

The three amigos and their stuffed companion!

For some reason, the cats really, really like to attack the bugs through this window screen. I try to keep on top of it, but they’ve managed to cause some minor damage already, and I’m often forced to close the window to keep them from clawing their way through the screen!

With the window closed, they prefer the spaces I’ve left for them on my utility shelf. As crack-eyed Two-Face is demonstrating! :-D

The cool of the evening was a welcome respite.

It didn’t last long, unfortunately.

By about 5pm, we reached our high of 32C/89F, with the humidex at 38C/100F. The low of 21C/70F we’re supposed to reach tonight is going to welcome, along with any rain we might get.

We have yet to try and move the counter today. I’m hoping to try this evening, but I don’t have high hopes for that.

This afternoon, I headed into town and made another deposit to the garage, against the work on my mother’s car. Sometime in the next couple of weeks, he’ll order the part and shoot to have it done at the end of July, when I can pay off the balance. I am really appreciating how patient he’s been about my mother’s car!

The down side it, almost our discretionary funds in our budget has been doing to get my mother’s car fixed, rather than towards things like what we’ll need to buy to build the cordwood outhouse, or the plywood to make a base on the trailer frame, or a cover for the old basement window to replace the one that fell off, or… the list goes on. Between that and the heat making it downright dangerous to work outside, I already feel like spring was almost completely wasted, and summer doesn’t look like it’ll be much better. :-(

Still, we do what we can, and try not to stress about what we can’t.

Once I was done at the garage, I went to the pharmacy to pick up prescription refills. We’d called them in yesterday, but one of my husband’s meds that was renewed last month, was only renewed for 30 days. They had sent a fax to the doctor’s office, but there had been no reply yet. So they filled my husband’s bubble packs without it, and when I talked to them today, the pharmacist said he would send the fax again.

Along with mine. It turns out mine was renewed for a short time, too, and there was only 15 days worth, left. I decided to wait on those. Hopefully, I’ll be able to pick up both at the same time, in a few days. Unfortunately, the missing medication for my husband is one of his pain killers. That is NOT going to go well for him. His pain is barely controlled as it is. Being down one of his painkillers is going to make life decidedly more unpleasant for him. :-(

My next stop was at the hardware store, where I wanted to look at different types of fasteners to use on the wire screen door I made for the basement. I ended up going with the old standby: hook and eye closures. I also found some angle plates that will solve a problem for me, in making a new screen window for the old part basement to replace the one that finally broke apart over the winter. On that, I plan to use both the 1 inch wire that I used on the door, to keep the critters out, and window screen mesh (I found rolls of it when cleaning out the basement!) to keep the bugs out. The air circulation from outside is needed to help keep the old basement dry, together with the blower fan. With the materials I have, I knew I’d have a problem making strong corners on the frame, and these right-angle plates are just what I need to solve that problem!

Once I got home, I put the hook and eye closures on the screen in the door. There are now 4 of them, and there is no way the cats will be able to push their way through anymore!

We had talked about possibly removing the basement door, but decided against it. When it is fully open, it blocks my bedroom door. So I’ll just leave my own door open, and the basement door will provide me with privacy. :-D

With the heat, just putting on those hook and eye closures was enough to leave me dripping. I’d hate to think how much hotter it would be if we didn’t have that door open! It’s like poor man’s geothermal. :-D

One of the other things I did while in town was swing by the grocery store to get more things that don’t need to be cooked. It’s been too hot to eat; none of us have appetites, and no one has the energy to cook. So fruits, vegetables, and sandwiches are the order of the day! I have been telling myself to go eat something since before I started writing this post, because I’m absolutely famished, but I have zero appetite. It’s the sort of thing where we have to make ourselves eat, just so we don’t end up getting dizzy spells or something. We have no problem making sure to stay hydrated, though, that’s for sure.

*sigh*

Well, I guess I should go make myself a food of some kind.

The Re-Farmer

Recommended: Kris Harbour Natural Building

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Welcome to my “Recommended” series of posts. These will be weekly – for now – posts about resources and sites I have found over the past while that I found so excellent, I want to share them with you, my dear readers. 🙂 Whether or not I continue to post these, and how often they are posted, will depend on feedback. Please feel free to comment below, and if you have a favorite resource of your own, do share, and I will review them for possible future posts.

I hope you find these recommendations as useful and enjoyable as I have!

Okay, so I totally forgot to make a Recommended post last week! I also forgot yesterday was Wednesday. :-D My apologies!

Today’s post, however, is the last one I’ve got in my queue! If you have a resource site or video channel you would like to see a Recommended post for, please let me know in the comments with a link, and I’ll check it out.

In today’s post, I present to you a guy who is going all out with off grid self sufficiency! Kris Harbour Natural Building.

This channel has been around since 2015, and wow! He’s got so much going on here! This is someone who left behind life in London to live off a plot of the land in Wales, and has accomplished some pretty amazing things in the process!

I first found the YouTube channel while doing searches for ideas on what to do with the wood from the trees we had cut away from the roof and power lines. With the sizes of some of the pieces, I had started to think of carving wooden bowls. I was specifically looking for videos on how to do it without power tools. I found this.

At about 2 minutes in, you can see him start to mark out an oval shape using a string. That’s actually where I got the idea on how to mark out the curved, overlapping rows we planted the sunflowers in. I thought it was an ingenious way to mark out a smooth curve.

Then I discovered he lives in a cordwood round house. You can see a tour of it, here, as well as some typical morning chores!

Yes, he’s got running hot and cold water, electricity (wind, hydro and solar!) and internet.

He’s also got a playlist of 41 videos, showing how it was built.

Literally from the ground up.

He’s also built an earth bag workshop.

There are 52 videos in total, spanning 2 years, documenting the build for that!

Want to know how to build a hydroelectric system? He’s got you covered.

Solar shower?

You bet.

How about musical instruments?

Wanna see how to build a harp?

Maybe you’re more into the fibre arts. How about a battery powered carding machine?

Do you live near the ocean? Feeling hungry? How about some coastal foraging?

How about making cider and apple juice?

Build a primitive lime kiln?

Refurbish antique chisels?

Hatching chicks?

Gardening?

It’s all there.

Granted, most of the videos are about the big stuff; the building projects, water, electricity, and infrastructure. As those get done and he works towards increased self sufficiency, the scope of the videos will naturally change. I really appreciate that he’s making all these videos, so anyone can follow along with what he is doing, and perhaps adapt things for their own uses.

I highly recommend checking out his videos, and subscribing to the channel. It’s awesome!

Thank you for checking out my Recommended series of posts. I hope you enjoyed these resources as much as I have! While I will no longer be posting weekly, I will still be keeping an eye out for great resources to recommend in the future, and do feel free to pass on your own favorites in the comments!

The Re-Farmer

An interesting night!

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The predicted thunderstorms did pass over us last night. Not the severest part of the system, but enough that we had quite the light show. More are expected today, though I think we will, once again, just get hit by the edges of the system.

I had intended to actually *gasp* go to bed before midnight last night, but I noticed something odd in the live feed from the garage security camera.

One of the side doors was open, and swinging in the wind.

Which is when I remembered: I had intended to do a dump run yesterday, so I prepped garbage bags in the garage, then left the main door open, for when I came back for the van.

I built a screen for the basement door, instead. By the time I remembered, the dump was closed. I completely forgot I’d left the main door open.

So one of my daughters and I went out in the storm; me in my nightgown, rubber boots and an umbrella. :-D My daughter didn’t bother with an umbrella.

We had already lost internet for a while by then. It was up and running again, but then the power flickered out long enough that everything re-set. The router took a while to get going again, and the security camera put itself in default position, rather than facing down the driveway. The power flickered off again later, but not long enough that we had to fuss with things all over again.

It did, at least, cool down! As I write this, we are at what now feels like a fairly cool 22C/71F (“real feel” 25C/77F). The humidity is at 73%. When I did my rounds this morning, it was actually raining, every so slightly.

The rain we’ve been having has been awesome, though. I’ll put up with the overgrown weeds and lawn for things like this.

This is part of a Saskatoon bush we’ve got next to where we are planning to build the cordwood outhouse (though at this rate, I’ll be amazed if we can manage to remove the sod and create a base for it by fall!). Just look at all those berries! This tree isn’t even particularly healthy, either!

These unripe berries are already larger and plumper than the fully ripe berries it had last year – and I watered this one that year! You see the one dark, dried up berry? That’s more like what they looked like last year, fully ripe.

Hhhmm… I wonder what Saskatoon berry mead would be like? :-)

I really need to go visit my cousin and pick up a couple of his big buckets of honey.

One down side of all the rain is, the mosquito population has exploded. It meant rushing through checking on things, and I never did go through the areas I normally do after a storm, so see what branches have come down. I did check the gardens and the sunflowers, though.

The sunflowers are really starting to grow fast! The one in the middle is the taller variety, and it already shows.

Unfortunately, another top got chomped, which you can see on the bottom. I believe I saw our culprit in the trail cams, too. The one deer that still visits regularly. It has a very distinctively long face and leggy body that makes it recognizable.

I really hope we don’t lose too many more of these. I should pick up some chicken wire or something to protect them.

Which reminds me; my intended trip into town today will be delayed until tomorrow. I completely forgot that yesterday was the last day of June.

Happy Canada Day!

Not that anyone’s allowed to celebrate it this year. :-/ Why anyone bothers with restrictions on crowds right now, after allowing all those protests without consequences, I have no idea. Not only has Canada Day celebrations all been canceled, but warnings had gone out over “rumors” that people intended to have their own celebrations.

At times like this, I really appreciate living here, away from everyone. I’ll take dealing with deer eating my sunflowers over people, any day!

What can I say. I’m a hermit at heart! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Coping with the heat: building a screen “door”

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Our current heat wave continues.

At 5pm, we reached 28C/82F with a humidex of 34C/93F, and we continue to get warnings for heat, flash floods and high water. Looking at the weather radar, however, it doesn’t look like the storms will hit us. We’ll be lucky to get rain. Usually, these systems come in from the North West, dip to the South of us, then get pushed back north to the East of us. Sometimes, they pass to the West of us. This time, there seems to be strong enough winds coming from the Southeast to actually push the system back to the Northwest of us!

The long range forecasts are not showing much relief, either. We’re looking to stay in the mid to high 20’s for the next two weeks. The only relief is that the lows are finally dropping to the mid to high teens, instead of staying in the 20’s, as they have been lately.

With this house, typically the basements stay cool, the main floor gets warm, while the second floor gets insanely hot. With the temperatures being so consistently hot, even the basements are starting to get warmer, though they are still significantly better than the rest of the house. The upstairs is getting unbearable. My daughter just had to stop working and shut down her computer, because it was over heating.

Normally, to help keep the house cool, the basement doors would be left open. With needing to keep the cats out of the old part basement completely, and keep the kittens in the new part basement, we have not been able to do this.

Last year, we used my daughter’s grid wall to act as a barrier in front of the old part basement door. The doorway is wider than a panel of grid wall, so we had two of them hooked together, at an angle. It did the job, but was very much in the way.

Today, I decided to do something about that.

After finishing my rounds this morning, I went into a shed not far from the barn, where I’d found some wood that was still in good shape. Some of them had 3″ deck screws in them, so I left those behind (though I did end up with a couple that had a screw at one end that I’d missed). The little wagon was great for bringing the pile over. :-)

Earlier, I’d also cleared away and hosed down the patio blocks in front of our kitchen window.

One of the things we need to do is build some sort of bin for our garbage bags, because the skunks are tearing them apart when we put them outside. Normally, there is a bench against the wall, and some other stuff, but when I cleaned up the mess and saw the gunk from however many times this has happened, left behind, I just had to hose it all down.

This meant we had access to the basement window.

It was much easier to pass the wood through the window, rather than trying to get it in through the main doors, then the basement door, then down the stairs.

All while dodging cats and kittens.

So this worked out very well.

I had enough of the wire mesh we’d used to make a divider between the basements, to make wire mesh door.

The kittens were very … helpful. Yeah. That’s it. :-D

I measured the basement door and sized it to match that. We were considering taking the door off its hinges and putting in the screen instead.

Of course, it didn’t quite work out that way.

I had also considered putting it on hinges on the inside of the door frame, but it turns out the frame is narrower on the basement side of the door jam than on the door side.

Which makes no sense, but at this point, we’re pretty used to things not making sense in this house! :-D

For now, we’ve got it rigged up with hooks and Bungee cords. I will be going into town tomorrow, and am thinking of stopping at a hardware store and seeing what they’ve got that would work.

Personally, standing in front of it, I felt nothing. We have the big blower fan going constantly in this basement, trying to keep the floor relatively dry, but I felt no air movement at all. Later, my husband went by and said he could feel a cool breeze, so I’m hoping it was just me.

If we can work out how to secure this, so that cats can’t push their way through, I have enough of the wire mesh left to make another one for the other basement door. We could even hinge it to open into the entryway, instead of over the basement stairs. Which would be so much better!

It isn’t much, but every little bit helps to cope with this heat!

One of these years, I hope to get an actual air conditioner installed.

The Re-Farmer

Wood carving: lilac wood hair pin

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I am actually not sure I would even call making this hair pin “carving”! I used the natural shape of the piece of wood, and just sort of whittled away a bit. The wood was already very close to the size needed.

I didn’t take a “before” picture, but you can see what the branch I’d cut the piece from in this photo.

It’s being grasped by Nicco. :-)

Though the wood is from a branch that broke off in a storm more than 6 months ago, the bark was surprisingly green as I whittled it off. I think the humidity in the basement might actually have something to do with that.

Here is the finished hair pin, before oiling.

I cut the piece above where it branched off, to take advantage of the angled shape. You can see near the point, where there had been another bit of twig growing out.

I used the Dremel and the engraving tip to create the holes, so my daughter can use them to hang dangle-y bits. The natural hole at the end was where another twig had been growing out, and I included it, without trying to sand out the roughness, just for interest.

The tiny knots from the twigs where the only thing that made it more difficult to work on.

After general shaping with a carving knife, I used the tiny engraving tip on the Dremel to make the holes, and a small drum sander tip to get into the bends, where it was more difficult to safely get into with a knife. After that, it was must a matter of sanding it smooth.

Here is how it looked after oiling.

I love how the oil brings out the details in the rings.

The whole thing, including time spent playing with kittens instead, took about 2 hours.

My daughter loves it!

I’m really happy with how this turned out, and how quick it was to make! I hadn’t thought of making hair pins (which can also be used as shawl pins), but they are prefect for some of the smaller pieces of branches. I think I’ll be making more of these!

The Re-Farmer

Better than I expected

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Today, I finally got the riding mower in to the shop for some TLC. We finally got to use the new ramps my brother bought me. <3 The girls and I had to take the middle seats out of the van (one of the first things we did after buying the van was take out the bench seat in the back; we never put it back and left it behind when we moved) to fit it, but we got it in, with room to spare.

It was rather funny when I got to the shop. After talking to the lady at the counter and getting the work order form filled in, I asked about getting it unloaded out of my van.

She did a double take and looked at me. “It’s in your van?” Yes. I can fit a lot in that thing!

She got someone to come out to unload it with me. As we were walking out, he asked me where it was, and I told him it was in the van. My van was the only one in the parking lot at the time.

He did a double take.

“You got it in a van??”

:-D

Yes. Yes, we did!

So that is now delivered, and I will get a call with an estimate before they work on it. I made sure to mention the drive chain had come off, and that I didn’t bother putting it back on, since I can’t reach under to tighten what needs tightening. I also mentioned the tire I think may need replacing, as well as mentioning that it’s had a hard two years, so if they see anything else, let me know!

Thankfully, we have the new push mower, so there is no rush to get it done.

Once that was done, I called up my mother to see if she was home for the next while. My timing was perfect, as she did have something booked later. The building she lives is has started to hold social events again, organized by a social worker. I had just enough time to pop over. I told her I had something for her; a mushroom!

“Oh! I hope it’s okay,” she says.

It took me a moment to realize she thought I meant mushrooms I’d picked at the farm. :-D I cleared that up with her!

Now, I wasn’t sure how she would respond to the spoon. My mother is not exactly gracious with gifts. In fact, she is often very cruel, and I would not have been surprised if she refused it. As it was, when she finally saw it, she immediately started talking about what kind of mushroom it was that she wanted me to carve for her, and doodled it on the back of an envelope. I explained to her (again) that I got a spoon blank in my carving kit, and when she asked for a mushroom, I decided to include on in the spoon, and a morel was basically what fit. I would need wood in a different size and shape to carve what she wanted – and now I have her sketch to go by. She just laughed and said there was no hurry.

I had to ask specifically if she wanted to keep the spoon or not, since she had dismissed it immediately to do the sketch. I told her it was my first carving, and that I was offering it to her, if she wanted it. She said she would keep it.

Getting that straight was a bit like pulling teeth! I think she might actually like it, but I’m not sure.

Then she asked me if she’d ever shown me her Russian spoon. No, she hadn’t! So she brought it out for me to see.

While the spoon is from Russia, she got it from her late aunt, who was born in Canada. My mother said that it was spoons like this that they used for eating, when she grew up in Poland. (What a large size for an eating spoon!) She mentioned that the spoons they used were painted, too, and commented on how they must have been eating the paint, as it came off over time. Who knows what was used to make the paint; it’s unlikely to have been something commercially prepared, in that region and time period. Home made or purchased, any paint still could have been potentially toxic!

I’m really glad she showed it to me.

Once at home, I decided to spend some time in the basement to work on a hair pin my daughter requested. I’ll post about that separately. Before I do, though, I just had to share my company!

Of course, as soon as I sat down at the work table, I had kittens all over me. They did eventually move on, except Big Rig.

Who decided to give my arm kisses.

My goodness, she looks like Susan (who would be her big sister!).

Then she heard a kerfuffle and ran off to join her siblings.

Beep Beep is so patient! :-D

Later, I looked up from my work and found this face, staring at me.

Nicco looks ready for a nap! :-D

The lilac wood she has a paw on is the branch from which I’d cut off a piece for the hair pin.

Unfortunately, at the point I was at when I took that picture, I was needing to use the Dremel, and the noise chased her away.

I was actually able to start and finish the project, even with the kittens crawling all over me, so that worked out much better than expected!

I’ll have photos of the finished hair pin in my next post.

The Re-Farmer

Heat wave continues

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I missed my daily post yesterday. The day was pretty much a total write off!

This is largely why…

This screencap was taken shortly before 1pm. We were at 30C/86F with a humidex of 37C/98F, but we easily reached the expected high of 33C/91F and humidex of 39C/102F by the end of the afternoon. The hottest time of day is typically about 4:30-5pm.

I realize you folks living in the south are probably getting a giggle out of our thinking this is really hot, but my goodness, how do you guys put up with it??? :-D It’s a lot cooler in the house, thankfully. Well, on the main floor, at least, but we were all just melting. The girls have it the worst, on the second floor, though.

We ended up with three weather warnings at the same time, too – for the heat, high water levels and potential flash floods! Several towns and cities in the South West of our province did get hit with flash floods and severe thunderstorms. Some areas even had tornado warnings! I was keeping a close eye on the weather radar, watching the storms.

They went right past us!

The most severe parts of the system got pushed up to the North of us, and while some towns to the West certainly got hit, we got the edges of the system. Just some rain!

I am increasingly fascinated by our little local climate bubble. What is it about our geographical location that causes these weather systems to be pushed away or around? There are a lot of lakes in the area, including one huge one, so that certainly would have an effect. We’re kinda in the middle, East to West, between the biggest ones, but well to the South of the middle, from North to South.

Whatever the reason, I’m thankful that it means we aren’t getting hit by the worst of the storm systems. I really feel for some of the small towns and cities in the South-west, though. They get hit by every one!!

Today is going to be another hot one; we’re expected to hit 32C/89F with a humidex of 39C/102F again, by about 5 and 6pm. We still have the three alerts for heat, high water and flooding, throughout the South of our province. Right now, however, we’re sunny and clear. It’s insanely humid. Yesterday, I made a quick trip into town to get a couple of our 18L water jugs refilled. Even though the water was not at all cold, the jugs were covered with condensation by the time I got home! This morning, everything was still wet, as if we’d just had a rainfall.

We did, but at about 3am!

In the old kitchen garden, one of my mother’s roses has been blooming, for the first time since we moved out here.

This rose was little more than a scraggly stick for the past couple of summers. It’s overshadowed by one of the ornamental apple trees, and I really wasn’t sure if it would make it. We still worked around it, when cleaning out and mulching the garden, just to give it a chance, and it seems to have paid off! All the other roses around the house are the white Cherokee roses. I’m glad the one different type of rose is managing to survive.

When checking the sunflowers, I found another loss.

This pretty much confirms it’s a deer. The other critters it might have been would have clipped it much lower down.

It’s like a deer decided to have a quick snack while passing through!

This one will likely survive, but I doubt it will produce a seed head.

Thankfully, lots more seedlings are popping up. The replacement variety I’d picked up had lots of smaller seeds in the package than the ones I got before, so my daughter was able to plant two or three in each spot. We’ll actually have some to thin out, as they get bigger.

Assuming nothing eats them, first!

The Re-Farmer