This morning, I woke to the sound of a light rain. I was so excited! I honestly didn’t expect the predicted rain to hit us.
Of course, by the time I went out to do my morning rounds, it had pretty much stopped. Which I suppose was good, since switching out memory cards on the trail cams in the rain isn’t really a good thing. :-D
While checking on the garden beds, I was quite thrilled to see this.
The baby luffa gourd’s blossom is opening!
So far, it’s still the only gourd I’m seeing developing.
Check out that orange colour in the background. The Red Kuri squash is ripening up nicely!
While I was out and about, it did start to rain a bit, and I decided to do a quick check of the gravel pit dugout.
There is so little water left in there, form the last time it rained. No doubt, the renter is still needing to bring water to his cattle here.
The rain has continued, and even gotten heavier, throughout the day. If the forecasts are accurate, it will continue to rain all through tomorrow, too, with a 100% chance of thunderstorms overnight. I’m even getting a weather warning on my desktop app I’ve never seen before. “Overland Flow Flood.” It’s for our region, but at rivers that are not anywhere near us. We have no rivers near us. Not even creeks.
The rain is still desperately needed, and it looks like even the areas where the most wildfires are will finally get some rain.
That feeder was almost completely full, as of last night.
I’m actually surprised it took until now for the hinged lid to break apart, considering how many times it’s landed upside down and open.
At least I can say the base finally held!
The screws tore right through the old wood of the feeder’s platform.
I don’t see any point in repairing it at this time, but I’ll be keeping some of the parts and pieces, should we find ourselves with the materials to build a new one.
As for the base still on the post, it’s so secure, I’m leaving it for now. Who knows. I might just make a quick platform to put on there for a simple feeder.
Frustrating, but considering the condition the feeder was in when we moved here, it really is amazing it didn’t happen earlier.
Okay, so the area in front of the outhouse is now safe to walk on.
What about the inside?
The very… colourful… inside.
I’d asked my mother about all the paper in there. She told me she put them there to make it pretty.
…
I… just don’t know what to say about that.
Like pretty much everything else around here, the outhouse was being used for storage.
The first thing I had to do, though, was check out the floor. Much to my surprise, it’s solid. I still plan to reinforce it, but there is nothing wrong with the floor boards.
Other than being really, really disgusting.
And that toilet seat…
*shudder*
This outhouse has actually been used a couple of times since we’ve moved here. Once or twice by my brother, who insisted on using it rather than going inside. Once by a poor guy who came out to service our internet that suddenly needed to go to the bathroom, but my daughter had just gone into the shower. He couldn’t wait for the bathroom to be available, and was actually willing to use this outhouse.
I still feel so bad about that. The poor guy!
The first order of business was to take everything out that was leaning in the corners.
Which included a folding closet door (minus one hinge), a length of copper pipe, a fluorescent light fixture, which I think still have bulbs in it, and several pieces of wood.
I might be able to use the bigger ones to reinforce the floor.
Oh, and more of that colourful paper that is all over the walls.
Then it was time to move the toilet paper.
Yes. I’m serious. That’s the toilet paper.
Well, not the rolled up paper with the tape on it. That was with the stuff stored in the corners.
When I was a kid, before we had an indoor bathroom, we used old catalogs, fliers, phone books, etc. as toilet paper. I didn’t think it was strange, since I knew nothing else. We didn’t buy toilet paper until we got an indoor bathroom, because this stuff couldn’t be flushed down the toilet.
While clearing things out, I emptied the medicine cabinet on the wall, too.
A 30 year old calendar page isn’t quite so strange when compared to a 46 year old Eaton’s Christmas catalog.
After moving the catalogs and whatnot away, I found this in the corner.
A pile of pine cones!
Also, my mother even covered the top of the toilet seat box with colourful paper!
When I saw the pine cones, my first through was that squirrels had got in and were starting to make a winter stash. Which was a surprise, since this outhouse is actually pretty animal proof. I don’t know where squirrels would have got in.
There was something I missed, however.
Do you see that tiny little something in the corner, a different colour from the pine cones?
When I started sweeping the cones away, I found this.
A mermaid!
I now think that perhaps my late brother’s kids may have played in here and left the pile of cones and mermaid behind, forgotten. If true, then this may have been here for more than 10 years. Probably quite a bit more! However it got here, when we are done with cleaning up and setting up the outhouse, this is going to get a place of honour for display! :-D More “found object” art… ;-)
Once everything was cleared out, it was time to take all the paper off the walls.
At that point, I was starting to really wish I could wear a mask. I tried to be careful not to kick up much dust, but there was no way to completely avoid it.
The outhouse might have been critter proof, but it was not moth proof! As I pulled sheets of paper off, I kept finding moths hiding behind them. Dozens of them.
They did not appreciate being woken up!
Moths were not the only surprise I found behind the paper.
I suspect this was the first attempt at “beautifying” the outhouse. This was right in the middle of the back wall, and would have been the first thing a person saw on opening the door. Then it got covered over with the colourful paper.
I … don’t know what to say. :-D
Yay!! It’s all done! All the paper is gone!
I was going to say, it already looks a lot better, but… no. It still looks disgusting.
Time to break out the big guns.
It’s power washing time!
I hosed down the entire inside, trying to get into every crevice. Which is not easy to do when trying to get the front, on either side of the doorway, while standing outside.
I sure as heck wasn’t going to be hosing it down while standing inside!!
That part took a while.
Okay, NOW I can say, it looks a lot better!
Also, that toilet seat is actually white. It’s been painted brown.
I… don’t know what to say.
Now that it’s have it’s initial cleaning done, I’m actually impressed with how sound this is. Ideally, we would jack it up higher and put it on blocks, rather than leave it on the beams that it’s on, but this is not meant to stay.
The next thing that needs to be done is to scrub the inside. That will be the time to get rid of all the bits of paper and packing tape stuck to the tacks and staples used to tack them to the walls. I forgot to hose down the inside of the medicine cabinet, but that’s okay. We will likely take that down for a while.
While the whole thing needs a paint job, the plan is to use a highly durable paint on the inside, that can handle scrubbing.
In a LIGHT colour! My daughter was suggesting a robin’s egg blue, but I’d be happy with anything that makes it brighter in there. Also, a new toilet seat. There’s nothing “wrong” with this one, except… ew.
I checked the pit, of course. It does need to be emptied. It’s also completely composted and level – being flooded out with melted snow for years did have a plus side. The cat litter compost is behind the outhouse, so it can be added to that. There are those that recommend using human waste as garden compost, but that is something we will never do. Who knows what medications a person might have been on when they left their “deposits”. While it is not urgent to empty the pit, it is definitely something I want to do before anyone actually uses it again.
Oh, we also have to do a bit of work on the door. It needs new hingles, as the current ones are sagging. It would probably be a good idea to calk around some areas, so no more moths will get in. Particularly around the screen covered opening at the top. I actually saw a moth squeezing through the wood around there!
The biggest job that needs to be done is the roof. The shingles have moss growing on them. Given the small size of the roof, however, I think we have options to modify. There are some scrap pieces of plywood in the barn that should be big enough. After removing the old shingles, I am thinking of adding some plywood that is longer than the current roof size, to make an overhang above the door. We also have lots of leftover pieces of metal roofing material that can be cut to size and used instead of using shingles.
The final touch I’d like to add is a solar powered light. I’ve been eyeballing some solar powered hanging light fixtures, thinking of the cordwood building we plan to make, and that can be used here just as well. That would be a huge improvement over using candles or flashlights, like we did when I was a child! :-D
If we do this right, this outhouse should not only last for years, but actually be pleasant to use.
Today turned out to be a very pleasant day, weather wise, so I used it to do a job that I’ve been avoiding for a long time.
I started cleaning up our “second bathroom.”
Yup.
The outhouse.
Now, we do have plans to build an outdoor bathroom that can be used should we ever lose power or water. We are wanting to build a cordwood practice building, with the intention that it will have a composting toilet in it, and no pit under it. That way, in the future, it could be converted to something else without too much difficulty. We were supposed to at least start preparing the base last year, but that didn’t work out, and now I’m glad it didn’t. We have a whole lot of dead trees to cut down not far from the location we chose for it. A location that is the most open space that we would want to fell the trees towards.
Meanwhile, we have this old thing.
This post will be about working on the outside. Part two will be about working on the inside.
This right here is the main issue with the outhouse. I placed the metal (I can never remember what those area called!) in front of the door because it would sometimes open in severe winds, but also because of that hole.
Our first two springs after we moved here, we discovered that when the snow melted, it would pool in front of the outhouse. I was able to see through that hole that the pit would fill with water. Another reason why we want to have an outdoor bathroom elsewhere, and no pit!
One of the delays in getting this done was trying to figure out what to replace this with! I didn’t want it to be an issue again in the future, so not wood, for starters. But what could I use that would be big enough to cover the front, solid enough to walk on, yet thin enough not to block the door from opening?
Barn salvage to the rescue.
There were several large sheets of steel in the barn and, tucked in between, was this smaller piece.
Yeah. That’s the smaller piece.
Now, when I was looking at the sheets, all I saw was rust. They’re heavy, so I hadn’t moved them enough to see their other sides. It wasn’t until I was bringing this over, turning it end over end, that I realized the other side had no rust on it.
Also, it had writing on it.
What a curious thing!
Once the steel sheet was brought over, I removed the top piece that was in front of the door.
So… that’s disgusting. !!!
The outhouse is sitting on top of two large beams, which extend in front. The piece I’d removed was nailed to those beams, but everything was so rotted, there was nothing holding anything anymore.
Also, that sawdust is from ants.
Time to clean up and assess what’s underneath.
The boards I uncovered felt surprisingly solid. They were also quite thick.
And very rotten. They only felt solid because they were supported by the soil beneath.
Also, that’s a very large opening under the door! It seems the edge of the pit had started to collapse. No surprise, since the pit was filling with water in the spring.
The first order of business, then, was to block that opening.
The garage is nearby, and there were some pieces of metal roofing leaning against the side. There was also a strip of what I think was the top cap for the metal roof. I’m not 100% sure, only because I’ve never seen one up close. I just see them at the top of the outbuildings we have with metal roofs.
Thankfully, we have some really heavy duty metal cutting sheers. I used them to cut the piece to fit under the door, between the two beams. The metal was already bent slightly in the middle, which made it easy to bend it to a 90 degree angle. It turned out to be the perfect width, as the top of the metal is flush with the floor of the outhouse. It will not get in the way of the door, nor be a tripping hazard.
It is also supported by that rock, so it’s not going anywhere.
There is, however, still a gap under it. Which is where the rest of the metal piece got used.
After bending it to a 90 degree angle, it also fit perfectly flush with the floor, and covered the largest part of the gap. The little bit of space under the door hinge is mostly filled with that big rock.
Now it’s time to fill the space.
This is where I got to take advantage of the hard work the groundhogs have been doing, building their den under the junk pile, leaving some beautiful rocks and gravel for me to use!
First, I collected the biggest rocks that were visible. I also grabbed one of the flat rocks I’d found under the old half wine barrel planter I’d cleaned up from near the junk pile. That was used to cover the small gap near the big rock under the metal pieces. Then the rocks were added to keep everything in place.
Then I brought over a load of sand and gravel – and a few more larger rocks – from the groundhog den.
Most of it went to filling in the space left behind from removing the rotted wood and tamping it down.
The rest was spread out to go under the metal sheet. At this point, the sheet was laid down and removed a few times, until I got it fully supported by gravel and rocks, and level. I did end up having to get a bit more sand and gravel before I was done.
And there we have it! We can now to into the outhouse, and not worry about anything collapsing under our feet and getting hurt.
I just had to make sure the text on the metal sheet was facing so that it could be easily seen and read. I am curious as to why it says “one more” car, and why the words “one more” are in quotes, but the word “car” is not. :-D
Now that it’s safe on the outside, time to see if it’s safe on the inside!
Starting today (Sunday), we’re supposed to get hit with high temperatures again, and the thunderstorms that were predicted for Tuesday are now forecast for Wednesday or Thursday, depending on which app I check.
Yesterday evening, I decided to check on the gravel pit and see if there was still water from our last rainfalls.
The water level is definitely lower. Between the cows drinking from it, and the return to hot and dry conditions, I’m almost surprised there’s water left at all. There may even be groundwater seeping into it by now, too.
I found the big feeder on the ground again, the screws yet again ripped right out of the base. This, even after adding newer, stronger wood to the bottom, and using more and longer screws!
Then I found the other feeder.
Well, parts of it, anyhow.
Thankfully, this feeder is actually designed to come apart, so this is not broken. Just in pieces.
But one piece was missing! The part with the cable it hangs from.
I finally found it, some distance away, under a lilac bush.
The parts and pieces were all wet and splashed with mud and dirt, so it got a cleaning and is now sitting to dry before I refill it and hang it back up.
Then I turned my attention to the big feeder.
Part of the problem with it is how much it wobbles on the top of the post. I’d added foam covered wire, wrapped around the top of the post, to reduce the wobbling. This reduced the wobble, but it was still there. The raccoons are rather large, weighty critters, so if they’re climbing the post to get onto the bird feeder, they would be causing it to tip quite a bit. That is likely what is putting so much stress on the screws and the wood. Of the six screws holding the base, which had slid to the bottom of the post again, to the underside of the feeder, pieces of wood were still stuck to a couple of them, while one of the screws was gone completely. I found half of it in the ground. It had snapped right off!
So along with putting the base back on using even longer screws, which are now long enough to be going right through the added wood and into the bottom of the feeder itself, I had to do something about that wobble. Something that wouldn’t slide out of position, thicker and with less give than what I used before.
I found a solution.
I use twine, and some of my husband’s navy rope work that he taught me, years ago, that secures the ends in a way that they cannot come loose and unravel.
It took wrapping three layers of twine to get the thickness needed. The base is now solid on the post, with no wiggle, and I can still slide it on and off the post as needed.
This, together with the even longer screws, should prevent the base from being torn off the feeder again.
Of course, that leaves us with the problem of the raccoons getting into the feeders in the first place.
We got more rain yesterday evening and during the night, so I wanted to check out the old gravel pit, to see how the water levels were.
I don’t know that the water level had gotten any higher, but the renter’s cows are using it! Which s really awesome. I didn’t want to spook the cows away, so I made my way through the trees to check on it.
I’m even noticing, as I walked around, that the crunchy grass is starting to show new green growth. Just barely, but enough to see.
I did check out the old pond, to see if there was any water there, too. There was no standing water, but from the new, muddy holes at the bottom, the cows have been walking through it. It’s got pretty much the only green grass around in there.
In an average year, that pond would be full enough to use the small boat we found the remains of nearby, and even more in the gravel pit. In the photo, you can see the lower area that’s greener. That area would also have had water in it, and there would be at least mud in a marshy area that stretches from the gravel pit to towards the pond. For now, I’m just excited over the big puddle!
Yesterday, it started to rain. Off and on, all day, we got real, solid rain.
During a break in the rain, I went out to check the newly dug out old gravel pit.
I had heard the sound of heavy equipment earlier, and found that the pit had been dug a bit deeper.
Some of the big rocks in there were definitely not helping! One I’d noticed earlier was completely shattered, while others had big scrapes on them, or were shifted slightly, but would not move. That’s the sort of thing that will damage equipment, so I don’t imagine it’ll be dug any deeper. At least, not with a front end loader. While everything was damp from the rain, of course, there was no accumulation of moisture at the bottom at all.
The rain continued overnight, sometimes with heavy downpours, and continued through this morning. While we also heard/saw thunder and lightning during the night, we didn’t get an all-out storm over us. In other parts of the province, particularly in the far south, there were hail warnings, too.
This morning, after doing my rounds, I just had to go back and see.
We have water!!!
It’s barely more than a puddle at the bottom, but that doesn’t matter.
We have water!!
Given the clay layer at the bottom, it should actually stay, rather than drain away. We’re supposed to continue to get a bit of rain, off and on, over the next few days, though whether that will continue to reach us, I don’t know. Every little drop we get, however, will be a blessing, and with the pit dug deeper, a boon for the renter’s cows and the wildlife.
We meant to bottle these months ago, but time and space and other priorities kept delaying things.
Today, I finally broke down and did it.
Well. Half of it.
We didn’t want to use corked wine bottles for this, so we’ve been saving up our screw top bottles for a while now. Only recently did we get enough to bottle the hard cider, anyhow. We just don’t buy wine-bottle sized things very often. I suppose that’s a downside of our buying habits. Not a lot of materials left over to reuse.
I only did one of the two carboys we had fermenting. They are 3L each, so I needed at least four 750ml sized bottles. After sterilizing them, I didn’t siphon the cider into them. I have problems with using the siphon. We don’t have an auto siphon, and have not been able to find one that will fit in anything smaller than the large carboy that came with our wine making kit, so it’s gotta be done old school. I always end up disturbing the sediment, and splashing all over when moving from bottle to bottle, so today I just gently poured it from the carboy through a sterilized funnel.
For the last bottle, I added a coffee filter to the funnel, just in case.
It actually worked out MUCH better than fighting with a siphon. Not only did I barely disturb the sediment at all, but there was no mess. I’m sure I committed some major faux pax by not using a siphon to fill from the bottom up, and getting all that air in there, but… it is what it is. I still wiped the bottles with vinegar water, but there really wasn’t anything to clean up.
Of course, I then had to do a taste test!
This was poured from the partially filled bottle, so if there was any sediment that got through, this would be the bottle that has it.
As you can see, it is very clear.
There is a very strong smell of alcohol from this, but you can also really smell “crab apple” as well.
I just love that colour! Sadly, it doesn’t look like we’ll have many crab apples at all this year, never mind from this particular tree with it’s very red little apples, so we won’t be making more hard cider, nor cider vinegar, with our crab apples this year.
We still have the second carboy to bottle, though, and that will leave us with hard cider to last us a while.
Ah, but how does it taste?
The first thing that hits is SOUR! This is a remarkably sour cider! Not a bitter kind of sour, though. It really wakes up the taste buds. I think this would be good with game. Or with a really strong flavored dessert.
For all that it smells of strong alcohol, there isn’t a strong alcohol flavour. I don’t actually enjoy the taste of alcohol, but I can drink this. And yes, there is a light, fruity apple taste, too.
I find myself thinking this would be nice with a spot of sugar or honey added to it. Perhaps I’ll try some with a bit of our vanilla sugar added. Or to include it in a fruit punch.
I did not take a hydrometer reading. I wasn’t up to digging it out this time. Based on previous readings, it was just under 11% alcohol. After tasting it, I would not be surprised for that to have remained unchanged. This is strong stuff, even if it does take a while to feel it!
This is definitely a “sip it slowly” kind of drink.
It should be interesting to see if the flavour changes after they’ve had a few days to rest after being bottled without a siphon.
This evening, I just had to go out and see how things were in the old gravel pit. It looks like the dugout is done!
The first thing I saw, coming through the trees, was our new mountain.
I’m guessing, at its peak, it’s getting close to 20 feet high.
Check out those rocks!!
And there it is. The deepened dugout.
The guy said he’d seen a bit of moisture as he was moving the gravel, but if there was any, it’s completely dried up, now.
My hopes that water may seep in have gotten lower.
There were quite a few large rocks, loosened, scraped or, like this one, shattered.
Once there is water in here, the cows and any wildlife in the area will have an easy time getting to it.
What amazed me is that, for all that this was a marshy area and sediment had collected, making the original dugout shallower, the top soil is still amazingly thin. Barely six inches, from what I could see.
Of course, I had to check out the patch of fine sand that was uncovered. Just look at that! So soft!
Just a couple of feet away, the sand was much coarser, but still most definitely sand, not gravel.
Here’s the view from the top of the new hill.
Do you see those divots in the gravel, between the tread marks?
Yup. The cows have already been up here! Silly things!
The treads left behind some compacted clumps, and when I first saw this, it made me think of petrified wood.
It’s just clay and sand and a bit of soil. I think how the outside was compacted to such a smooth surface is really neat.
So here we now have access to such beautiful sand and gravel, and I’m at a loss of how to get it. Even if we were able to get a floor on the trailer frame and hook it up to the riding mower, which does have a tow hitch, we could never get it into the pit to where the fine and coarse sand is. The riding mower just couldn’t handle it. The trailer would be too big to maneuver in there, anyhow, but even if we had a small trailer, it would be too much for the riding mower to handle in there.
The only thing I can think of, based on what we actually have, is to bring our folding wagon (lined with plastic) over.
Man, wouldn’t it be nice if we had access to something like a Bobcat, with a front end loader?
:-/
Must. Not. Be. Bitter!
Now, we just need this pit to fill with water. Even just a little! For the cows and all the other critters around.
The Re-Farmer 