Author: Re-Farmer

A good morning!

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As I write this, I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around how not-late in the day it is. :-D It feels like it should be early evening. Granted, part of that might be the lighting out my window North facing window right now. It’s looking a bit dark out there, even though it’s not that cloudy. We’ve got another storm heading our way. The storm itself looks like it will pass us on the North, but we’ll likely get some rain. There’s another storm that might hit us, during the night, but I suspect that one will pass by us as well.

Anyhow.

After tending to the kitties this morning, I brought both of the windows for the old basement outside. I’m happy to say the Weldbond seems to have a marvelous job of not only adhering the window screen in place, but the metal mesh as well. I was hoping it would hold the metal. That means that all the staples I used to attach the screens, as well as the metal plates, are all now bonded to the frame!

First things first, though: tending to the outside cats.

They were oddly nervous this morning. When I headed into the sunroom, I saw why!

Look who was visiting!

In the sunroom, we have two identical bins; one for the cat kibble, and one for the bird seed. The skunks had been managing to get the cat kibble bin’s lid off, and eating the kibble. The lid had a crack near a handle, so I switched it with the other bin. The skunks have not been able to open it, since.

I guess this guy was getting pretty hungry!

Gosh, he’s so cute!

After feeding the critters, I had an extra job to include during my rounds.

While in town yesterday, I was able to pick up 10 new little flags to put on our fence posts, replacing the old ones that were torn to shreds. There wasn’t enough of a wind to be able to see all of them in this photo, but when they’re all flapping in the breeze, it looks really awesome!

With my rounds done, I headed inside for a bit, to give the cats (and guests) a chance to eat, before testing out the window.

This is the eyesore we’ve had for the last while.

You can see a nail in the wall above the wooden frame, which would have been used to hold the metal mesh frame in place. We just shoved things in to prop it a bit, and the foam insulation made sure nothing got into the basement.

What a mess.

After moving the stuff out of the window well, and pushing the insulation into the basement (there is a platform under the window for it to fall onto), I swept up the dirt a bit.

I need to prioritize getting some puck board to make a new “roof” over this. It served a definite purpose!!

Then it was time to finally check out the new window.

It fit perfectly!

The top kept tipping forward, though, so I had to hold it to take the photo.

Not only did it fit the opening as well as the plastic window, but it is even just as flush!

That is the hole for one of the latches on the plastic frame. We can just get another pair of latches, and use the same holes.

That weather stripping must have been what made the difference, because this frame is easily twice as thick as the plastic frame.

I should probably get some of that self adhesive foam weather stripping for this frame, too. Not to keep the weather out, obviously, but to keep insects from crawling around the frame.

For now, I just propped up some bricks to hold it in place. I will see about getting new latches tomorrow.

I am so happy!

Then it was time to go into the basement and take care of that foam insulation.

Here is how it looks on the inside. The platform the insulation is now lying on was built to hold a box fan, which is among those things that disappeared while the house was empty. It still comes in handy.

The breeze though that window, though! Wow!!!

Now that the screen is in, I unplugged the blower fan, to give the motor a chance to cool down. We’ll get it going again later, though, because it’s really damp down there.

Which had me checking something else out.

When we moved here, there was a dehumidifier in the corner, next to the well pump. When the girls painted the second level, they had to lug it upstairs, because it was so humid, the paint actually sloughed off the walls. So we know it works.

Sometime between when it was returned to the basement, and this spring, the water reservoir for it disappeared.

I don’t know what happened. It was there when the dehumidifier was brought downstairs. The only people besides us who have been down there has been my oldest brother, and the plumber. So what happened to the reservoir? I have no idea.

Today, I took a look at where the water would drain from and realized it was a standard male coupling, like for a hose.

We have spare drain hoses for the hot water tank; these are short hoses with a female coupling at each end.

It fit!

This is what we have now.

I’ve got the hose draining directly into the sump pump reservoir. This area is getting the most water right now, due to the condensation on the well pump and all the cold water pipes.

Since there is no reservoir in the dehumidifier, there is nothing to trigger the float to shut it off automatically. Theoretically, it will just keep on running, non-stop. We will have to check it to make sure it’s working properly, later.

Between the window screen and the dehumidifier, even with the blower off for a while, it should make a big difference in the state of the basements.

Even the new part basement.

Where I had an audience, trying to check me out!

The new part basement has its own fan, but the cement is clearly saturated. This concerns me, since it means the weeping tile is not doing the job as well as it should. After what we discovered when the septic pipes got plugged, I was afraid it would be an issue. *sigh*

Oh! The rain seems to have reaches us now. Time to shut down the computers, just in case!

Another reason we need to get that “roof” over the basement window. The breeze is really nice, but there is nothing to stop rain from getting in.

Dang. I took to long to finish this post. Looks like we lost internet! Here’s hoping we don’t lose power – and this post!

If you’re reading this, that means I managed to save it… :-D

The Re-Farmer

Window, interrupted

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I am happy to say that I got the window for the old basement built – with considerably kitten interruptions!

While I did that, the girls installed the new kitchen faucet set. It turns out there are no shut off valves on the water. They had to shut off the main valve for the entire house.

On the list of things to do: add shut off valves all over. I’m pretty sure the bathroom sink doesn’t have any, and I know the toilet doesn’t. In following the pipes through the basements, the only valves we found where the ones for the outside taps, that just shut off every winter.

Also, the cold water pipes and well pump are all just dripping with condensation!

So we now have a nice, tall faucet on the sink that we can actually fit my big stock pots under. :-)

As for the window, this was my template.

As you can see, I have an enthusiastic helper!

This is the window we leave on throughout the winter, with 3 inch thick foam insulation on the inside. When it warms up, we would take it out and place a wire mesh “window” over the opening to allow air circulation to help keep the basement dry. It is much bigger than the window opening, and the wood framing the metal mesh is old and rotting. It finally broke apart last winter. Right now, we still have it leaning on the wall, but with the broken frame, critters could easily squeeze through, to the insulation is still in the window opening.

I used a piece of some of the wood I’d brought from a shed and used to make the screen door so we can leave the old basement door open. One piece was enough, even after cutting away the water damaged end.

I used the window to size the pieces, then double checked the sizing after cutting. The back of this window has self-adhesive foam weather stripping around the edges, but half of it is missing, so the pieces can’t lay flat, but it’s close enough.

Also, it’s very interesting to use a miter box with kittens trying to climb all over me and my work table! I had some trying to chew on the miter box, while others would take flying leaps at my legs, then climb up onto my shoulders.

The little beasts! :-D

The next step was to ready the right angle plates I got for this.

This was my original plan; I’d use a combination of wood glue and these plates to secure the corners. I thought to put them on the inner edges of the corners, first, but changed my mind and decided to put them on the outer edges. I marked out the screw holes so that I could drill pilot holes, later.

It…

Didn’t work.

I started by using wood glue on a corner, then putting on the plate, only to discover the screws I had were a fraction of an inch longer than the wood was thick! It was juuuuuusssssttt enough that I screwed the corner to the table a bit.

The other problem, however, was my pilot holes. They were shallow holes; I just wanted enough to make getting started, easier. A few of them ended up being ever so slightly off centre, then some of the screws started going off on angles.

The end result was that the angle plate ended up making the corners less squared!

So I took off the couple I’d put on and left it for later. I had already glued the pair of corners, which were supposed to be clamped for 10 minutes. I don’t have right angle clamps. One didn’t really need it, but I did end up using a C clamp on the other.

It was a good thing I had to wait for the glue to set for a while, because at that point, I was being thoroughly loved on and cuddled by Big Rig. Then Leyendecker joined us. Then they fell asleep on me! After a while, Big Rig took off, but Leyendecker stayed. I finally had to move, and discovered David settled in one of their box caves, so I put them together – and Leyendecker stayed!

Until my husband came down, and he ended up with kittens nursing behind his butt. :-D Finally, Beep Beep got tired of that – and she joined David!

David is such a sweetie will all the cats and kittens!

I was, eventually, able to continue with the window. :-D

One of the things I found among the many, many things shoved onto the support beam, between the floor joists above, was a roll of window screen. I dug it out and, after gluing the remaining two corners of the frame, used it to measure off a piece of screen.

I actually ended up throwing away the first piece I’d cut, as it turned out to be damaged.

I don’t know how long that roll had been sitting there, but it was just caked with dust!!! Enough to make unrolling it very… sticky. :-/ I cut the mesh larger than the frame, so that I could fold the edges in, for extra strength.

I also cut some of the wire mesh to size.

After fighting with the window screen for a while, trying to get the edges folded under, it occurred to me that I was working on the “pretty” side of the window frame, and that the screen and wire mesh needed to be on the “ugly” side, that would be facing inside the basement.

No, the wood glue wasn’t dry enough to hold, yet. Which was fine. After I flipped it, I just stuck it back together and kept going.

It took away longer to get those edges to fold under than I expected! Here, I’ve tacked the screen to the frame at the corners with a staple gun.

Once it was tacked in place, I got out some Weldbond adhesive and applied it to the edges, then used a cast off piece of wood to spread the adhesive and push it through the screen.

Then I added the wire mesh.

I was going to say I went overboard with the staple gun, but to be honest, I seriously considered adding even more. Every wire around the edge has a staple, alternating between the outside edge, and the next wire in.

The corners each got at least 4 staples. :-D

I’m hoping that, between the Weldbond and the staples, no critter is going to be able to force their way through.

I wasn’t gone yet, though!

Remember those plates?

It took some hunting, but I did find some shorter wood screws to use. The plates were positioned based on the wood based on where the wire was. As long as the point lined up with the corner joins, I just needed to not have a wire in the way of the screws.

Between the plates and the wire screen, this frame is not moving!

Next, I needed to add handles. I used cast off pieces of wood under the metal plates, to keep the adhesive off the worktable. I’d already accidentally screwed it to the table. I didn’t want to glue it, too! :-D

The weather stripping on the back of the window wouldn’t let it lie flat, but I could at least line up the edges. I then marked the sides of the new window frame at the latches, and at the knobs.

I then added the handles with the bottoms lined up with where I’d marked the placement of the knobs.

The latches on the window fit into holes in the window opening outside. Once in place, the window is flush with the wall around the window opening. The wood is much thicker than the plastic, so I know at the very least, it will stick out from the wall. What we might end up doing is adding another pair of latches, so the outside of that window opening will have the fittings for both windows on them.

We’ll make that decision later, though. It will all depend on how it fits.

For now, the window is finished. I’ll leave the adhesive to dry overnight, and tomorrow, I’ll see if I got it right and it fits – or if I screwed up! :-D

Once I know how it fits, we will be able to see what would work best for fastening it in place.

After that, the only thing left will be to paint it. We have several things that will need painting, so we’ll wait until later in the season and do all of them at the same time.

Happily, we are now able to cross a couple more things off the to-do list. The list isn’t going down as fast as I’d like, but it is going down! :-)

The Re-Farmer

A bit of relief, and catching up

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First up, kittens!

Well. A couple of them. :-D

Going down to tend to the kittens in the morning has become a two person job. The kittens are on the top step when the door is open, so we’ve got one person at the door, trying to pick up kittens so we can use the step, while the other holds a laundry basket to carry them in, and to catch the ones that slip past.

The kittens love that laundry basket! After they get a ride down the stairs, they stay and play in and around it.

Beep Beep loves that thing, too!

Temperatures have been cooling down a bit, lately. The overnight temperatures meant actually being able to sleep at night! We’ve to thunderstorms predicted for today and tomorrow, then we’re supposed to stay in the mid-20’s (77-80F) for the remainder of the long range forecast.

It really says something that “mid 20’s” are now “cooler” temperatures. Even during last year’s drought, those where our hot days. We did break 30 every now and then, but nothing like what we’ve had this year.

It does make the morning rounds outside much more pleasant.

Except for all the mosquitoes and horseflies. The horseflies usually ignore me, but I got bit this morning.

You know why they’re called horseflies?

Because getting bit by one is like being kicked by a horse, compared to mosquitoes!

It took a couple of hours, but the pain and swelling did go down. Now I just have a weird white spot at the bite, surrounded by red, and a bit of residual swelling.

After doing my morning rounds, I headed into town for a few things. One of my stops was at the pharmacy, to see if my husband’s one missing prescription got updated. Still nothing, but they did have the remains of a prescription for 3 days worth of pills on file, so I took that. These are my husband’s main pain killers. It’s not just the increased pain that’s a problem, but it basically has him going cold turkey off of a very powerful drug, and it’s doing all sorts of crazy things to his body.

With the lack of response from the clinic, I might just drive there on Monday.

Another stop in town was at the grocery store, with our water jugs for refilling. There was a line up outside, which gave me time to notice and get pictures of these guys.

Such gorgeous moths! Just hanging out on the wall, along with all the fishflies. :-D

While I was in town, the girls got everything ready for a trip to the dump, so I could unload, reload and take off right away. We’ve been needing a dump run for a while! Normally, when I get there, I unload into the bins by the caretaker’s shed (which then get hauled to the city). This time, I decided to go into the pit. As I checked in with the caretaker and mentioned I was going into the pit this time, he told me they’ve been having problems with bears lately!

The last time I went into the pit, it actually was a pit. Now, it’s so full, there’s just enough space for vehicles to back into it, and add things to the pile. !! I really don’t like going into there, mostly because I’m paranoid about my tires. I don’t want to be driving over nails or broken glass or anything like that. :-(

After unloading the garbage, I went back to the bins to unload the recycling and electronics garbage. I was just getting ready to head out, when I saw a truck pull in, hauling something.

Something large, round and made of steel.

The driver stopped to talk to the caretaker, so I just had to snap a picture, as I was leaving!

Yup! A bear trap!

In our area, we have typically only have black bears. They tend to prefer to stay away from people, but what bear won’t take advantage of free food – and defend it? Much better for the bear, to catch it and release it well away from the dump.

Once home, I had hoped to start on some work outside. Maybe get some mowing done. It started to rain a bit on the ride home, and now I can see dark storm clouds in the distance, through the security camera.

I guess that means it’s a good time to join the kitties in the basement, and finally build that window for the old basement. :-)

The 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