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First cookout!

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Yesterday was a perfect evening for a cookout!

Well… except for the mosquitoes. The bug spray we used is supposed to last for 8 hours. It didn’t!

Unfortunately, my husband wasn’t up to joining us, so it was just the girls and I. One of whom helped me unload the riding mower for the van, while the other tended our first fire in the new set up. :-)

Those blocks turned out to be very handy, in many ways!

With the pit all cleaned out, we were reminded of just how big it really is!

This metal ring is one of several my late brother had acquired. He worked in demolitions, and once had the job of dismantling a coal fired electric generating station. A company in the States had purchased it, so my brother and his team had the job of dismantling the pieces that would go to the train station for shipping. Dismantling them was very dangerous. While the station had not been used for many years, there was still coal dust all over, and coal dust is explosively flammable. What wasn’t shipped to the purchaser was demolished and went to the landfill, so he was able to salvage sections of pipe. This is one of three that I know of, that became fit pit rings. :-)

As for our cookout, we have a terrible habit of starting to cook way too early. We’re just too impatient to wait for proper cooking coals! :-D So we deliberately didn’t being the food out until later. The question was, how to set up the food and fixings? The picnic table is in the process of being prepped for painting. The folding table we’d used before is now being used for something else. Plus there was that whole bug problem.

Solution found!

Yup. The mini greenhouse! We could put everything in, the close it up to keep the bugs out. :-D

The only thing that was a bit of a problem was how wide the mesh is on the shelves. The squeeze bottle kept tipping over. :-D

Ah, perfect!

Did I mention how handy those blocks turned out to be? :-)

After we’d had a bunch of hot dogs, we build the fire up again, then tossed in a packet of stuff to make colourful flames. I’d actually bought them last year, but with the fire bans, we never had a fire to use them in!

I’m sure the colours would have been much more dramatic if we had waited until it was darker. :-D We’re saving the second one for another time.

Unfortunately, no one remembered to read the packet to see how long the stuff lasted. We still had S’mores to do, and a coloured fire is not for cooking over. I was eventually able to find that it could take from 1 – 2 hours, depending on the fire and conditions. So we built the fire up more, until it was all burned up, before letting it get down to cooking coals again.

Then we made S’mores. :-)

The problem with that is, while we all love to toast marshmallows to golden perfection, none of us actually like eating them all that much. :-D I could sit there and toast marshmallows all day, as long as I had someone else to eat them! :-D

It was a wonderful, peaceful evening. While the girls and I were out there, we got visits from Creamsicle and Potato Beetle, with all their loving attention. We also got to see Junk Pile cat’s THREE kittens! Just flashes of them, really, as they’re even more skittish than their mom, but they are now coming to the house – even into the sun room! – with her. We also got charmed by a chipmunk on the stacked wood pile, and even Stinky came by, determined to dig for grubs among the nearby hawthorns.

With our big shop coming up some time next week, the girls and I will have cookouts in mind when we make our list. :-) I can definitely see popping on the racks and cooking supper out there.

Hmmm. As I’ve been working on this post, I’ve noticed some connectivity issues. We had still not received a call from a tech about coming here to check out equipment. The secondary account is still getting no signal at all, while the primary account is also kicking out much more frequently than usual – and no winds or storms to account for it. At least my daughter can still work. That’s the main thing!

Now let’s see if the connection is back, and I can hit “publish”! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Bringing it home

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This afternoon, my daughter and I headed into town, first to pick up the riding mower, then to pick up fixings for a wiener roast.

Since the mower was too far gone to fix everything, it cost less than $45 for the work that was done to put the drive chain back on and tighten things as much as he could.

As I paid for it, I asked for help to load it into the van, then went out to set up the ramps. The woman who processed the payment came out, while a guy from the shop started up the mower and drove it over.

The woman that was helping me expressed surprise that it would fit in the van at all. After the guy drove the mower over and lined it up with the ramps, he came over as I showed them the drop on the inside. The guy asked if I was sure it would fit, and when I said yes, he thanked me for warning about the drop…

Then got back on the mower and started driving up the ramp!

Thankfully, the back wheels got a bit hung up on the bottom edges of the ramp, because he was basically ignoring my hand waving and couldn’t hear me saying not to drive it up until he was right next to me. Once I told him he couldn’t drive it up (how did he expect to fit under the roof???), he complained a bit. Then he and the woman started pushing from the back, while I steered and pushed from the side.

They had a hard time of it. The girls and I have loaded it into the van a few times, and that was before we had the nice new ramps by brother bought for me, and I don’t remember having that much of an issue.

Of course, once it got to the top, the front wheels dropped and the mower could no longer go forward. I told them that this was where I had to go inside, and climbed in through the side door.

In the end, I ended up picking up the front and and hauling it the rest of the way in, because they didn’t seem to have issues with the back end.

The guy did compliment me on the ramps as I was putting them in with the mower, though, so I told him where my brother got them from. :-)

The mower and the ramps fit just fine in there!

As I write this, it’s still sitting in the van. I’m about to go help get set up for the wiener roast, and I’ll snag the girls to help unload it while we’re out.

I am so looking forward to it! We’re just going hot dogs, but it’s been more than a year since we’ve used the fire pit. It’s going to be awesome!

The Re-Farmer

Wired

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Shortly before my husband and I left for town this morning, I happened to glance out the window and saw a couple of the renters cows.

On the wrong side of the fence!

So I quickly went out to close the vehicle and person gates in the chain link fence, then messaged our renter to let him know about it.

Next to the barn is a wide open area in the fence that used to have a barbed wire gate at some point. That has long since disintegrated. There’s no real point of trying to built another gate, since the posts themselves have shifted. We’d never get a straight gate out of it, and it’s really not worth the effort to try and straighten those huge posts.

The only thing stopping the cows from getting through is an electric fence.

Our first summer here, the electricity cut out, and the cows made their way through. The first time it happened, it was just a few of them, with a cow and her calf making their way into the inner yard before we saw them. It happened again in the fall, and this time the herd went on a stampede!

Last spring, I made a simple rope gate across the opening. There’s no way the rope would stop a determined cow, but it would at least be something the cows could see as a possible deterrent.

Well, it didn’t really work. :-D

As I was heading out to prep the van and moving it closer to the gate (normally, I would drive into the yard to pick up or drop off my husband and his walker), I startled the few cows that were in the outer yard, and they went back through the gate by the barn.

When we got back, I went over to check the state of the ropes. The top one was doubled, and both were broken. One, I was able to tie back together, but the other seemed to be missing a few inches, so I just wrapped the ends around the line.

The bottom one had been pulled well into the barn side of the fence. Pulling it up, I found it was pretty tattered and wet. When I tried to pull it towards the other post, it broke again. So I took the broken part and hung it on the post, on the side with the caribiners.

As for the wire for the electric fence, I could see no sign of it in the tall grass. Just the insulated holders were still standing.

When I headed out to go into town again, several hours later, I found that the renter had already come by and fixed the electric fence. We never saw or heard him!

He also changed things up a bit.

He made use of the bottom caribiner! He took off the bit of rope that was still tied to it, and now it’s holding the wire securely. The insulated wire that makes up the end of the fence is now tied around one of the other large posts. It’s looking a lot more secure than it was before.

Not that it would stop a cow, if the electricity stops again. :-D

You can see part of what used to be the bottom rope. It actually looks like a cow had tried to eat it!

The rope itself has been out there for more than a year, and the sun and weather has clearly weakened it. I could probably tear it apart with my hands, at this point. When I get the chance, I will replace it with new rope.

And get another caribiner, so this one can be just for the wire. :-)

The Re-Farmer

More large branch pruning

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While we have been able to determine that the trees in the south yard are NOT the cause of our current internet problems, we did work on some additional pruning of the elm we’d worked on earlier.

This is one of a couple of large branches we took down, that were growing into the lilac bush I’m trying to save, as well as overhanging the haskap bushes and flower bed between the elm and the lilac.

This is my daughter trying to get at one of the dead branches. We added the extra length to the extended pole pruning away, making it about 12 feet long. She could still barely reach it!

Then the pole came apart at the join.

Not where it’s meant to come apart!

So that job got finished from a step ladder – which is not safe at all! – but at this point, there’s not much more we can do about this tree without calling in the pros, with the equipment needed to get high enough.

Here is how it looks now. A bit more open, and a few less branches to worry about.

At the bottom of the photo, just right of centre is a maple tree growing up and into the elm branches that I will likely have to take out, if I want to save the lilac. I’m loathe to do it, as it’s such a healthy tree!

Besides. There are a lot of dead trees and branches that need to be taken out, first, as well as continuing with cleaning out the spruce grove.

Little by little, it’ll get done!

I think that’s going to have to become my new motto. :-D

The Re-Farmer

Greetings from the city

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It seemed our internet woes were solved, late yesterday. Alas, by morning, we had no signal, once again.

My shoes finally blew apart, though, so the girls and I went into the city. Yes, we can find shoes locally, but not anything suitable for my monstrous, deformed feet.

Since we are in the city, anyhow, we are taking advantage of the trip. While the girls are in another store, I stayed in the van to put on my new shoes, and take advantage of having a data signal on my phone, to write this post.

Hopefully, we will have internet again by the time we get home. I have pictures to upload and share! 😊😊

The Re-Farmer

Quick update, while I can

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First up, a big Thank You to City Mouse for making a quick update post for me yesterday.

We are still having internet issues, and it’s not the trees!

For those who are new to visiting this blog, here’s out set up, in a nutshell. Because of the house being surrounded by tall trees, which protect us from severe winds and snow, we cannot get “regular” internet. We can only get satellite. There is only one company that services our area. When we first got a satellite, the highest data plan available was 100 gigs. Our normal usage before moving out here about about 350 gigs, with 4 of us using it. We had to get a second account, with a second satellite, just to get another 100 gigs of data. So we would keep an eye on our data usage, then when we got close to 100%, we’d switch cables on the router to switch accounts.

Some time later, the company got a new satellite, which allowed us to get a better plan, but it required moving the satellite dishes to another location on the house. However, their new system allowed us to add another 100 gigs to the primary account. So we’d use the primary account for 2/3rds of the month, then switch cables when we got close to 100% of our data. The secondary account had some issues due to tree branches, but it wasn’t that bad.

When the lock down started, our internet provider waived overage fees for a limited time, so we didn’t bother switching cables for the last couple of months. This month, my husband got the courtesy email saying we were at 90% of our data. Which is the first I knew of their no longer waiving the fee. We switched cables, but by then, we were already at 103%. The overage fees is double the regular cost per gig.

When we first switched cables, we had intermittent signals, but the next day, we lost our internet in the morning, and it didn’t come back. We actually did get a signal at about midnight, but it only lasted about an hour before we lost it again.

The problem is, my daughter’s business is all online. She has commissions to work on and clients to contact, references to download, etc. She can do up to a certain point offline, but then she has to go online.

She and I just tried going into town, with the plan to go somewhere that has free wifi, sit for a while as she used her laptop to do what she needed over a cuppa or a snack.

Instead, we found all the usual places – restaurants, coffee shops, hotels – have their free wifi disabled.

So we went home.

Right now, we’ve switched the cable back to the primary account. As I write this, we have internet, but we’ve lost it a couple of times already. My husband had tried calling the company, only to get a recording saying they were having technical difficulties, then going into a very long list of the different areas that were affected.

The problem is, if we use the primary account, we’re paying double for the overage, while also paying for a secondary account that isn’t working at all. Even the light on the transceiver is showing there is no signal from the satellite, most of the time, but even when the colour changes, showing that we should have a signal, all of our devices show no internet.

But my daughter needs to get work done. So I am posting this for the time she needs to do what is necessary, and then we’re switching the cables back. At some point, we have to get through to the company to find out wtf is going on. And we had better get a credit of some kind for this!

Until then, I will make quick update posts as I’m able, but using as little data as possible in the process, or make posts when I’m in town and have a signal on my phone.

Many thanks for your patience!

The Re-Farmer

Forget a post, getting one from the City Mouse

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So I am chatting with Re-farmer, old school on 2 landline phones. She has asked me to let you all know that her internet is not connecting with the rest of the world. A healthy, leafy tree is in the way! It will be a day or two to fix, and thought she would let you know she didn’t fall into the outhouse! So she will post as her connection gets fixed or when she goes into town for free wifi! Signing off, The City Mouse

Just a bit of a prune…

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In my last post, I mentioned how we were having connectivity troubles with our satellite internet, due to heave foliage.

It’s very windy today.

Since we switched cables on accounts, we’ve had constant interruptions in service, to the point that my daughter was having difficulties working.

I’d gone outside to use up more of the rain barrel’s water around the yard when the girls came out to take a good hard look at the tree situation.

The satellites are aimed through a gap between two trees. A gap that is mostly filled with leaves right now.

The question was, should we prune?

It came down to a particular branch on one of the elms beside the small gate in the chain link fence.

Now, I’ll be straight about the pair of trees on either side of this gate. I would love for them to be gone. They were planted in a poor location, and their roots are currently pushing up the sidewalk blocks. My ideal plan would be to remove both trees, pull up their stumps, and lay down a new, wider, properly installed sidewalk that would better accommodate my husband’s walker. That is a HUGE job we are in no position to do for many years yet, if at all.

I’m pretty sure that when the current sidewalk was installed, the pavers were just laid down on the grass, and then some dirt was thrown up against the sides so the lawn mower could go over them. I think the paving stones forming a small patio under the kitchen window were install much the same way. Those ones are being lifted and shifted by the roots of the elm tree in front of the kitchen window; another problem tree.

I understand why my mother planted them. They provide excellent shade. The problem is, she didn’t think far enough ahead when she chose the locations. Now, the one by the kitchen is a problem for the roof, as well as the patio blocks and the basement wall. The ones by the small gate in the chain link fence were planted too close together, never mind the sidewalk running between them.

So these are trees that have many issues.

In the end, it was these many issues that had us agreeing to prune away one of the major branches growing towards the house.

That, and they’re elms. We could cut them down to stumps, and they’d grow back. The one in front of the old kitchen had already been cut back significantly, leaving behind a flat top the yard cats now use to hang out on. :-D

I didn’t have my phone with me, so I have no before pictures, but this is how it is now.

As you can see, this is not the first time this branch has been pruned!

This was also our first opportunity to use the pruning paint I found, which is black, so it’s not easy to see in the photo.

The girls had started off using the long handled pruning saw to cut it, but it started to jam. I ended up bringing over the step ladder and a buck saw. Once up there, I could see that where they’d started cutting had a huge knot, out of sight from below! So I started cutting a few inches away. We never did have to cut all the way through; the weight of the branch itself started breaking it, long before. One of my daughters grabbed it with the hook on the long handled pruning saw and was able to pull it the rest of the way down. After that, it was just a matter of cutting it free from the tree, which required one daughter to lift the weight of the main branch while the other did the cutting.

Once it was on the ground, I was able to go at it with the reciprocating saw and cut it into manageable sized pieces for hauling away.

Except for the main body. We set that aside for now.

We were thinking of the possibility of my using parts of it for carving, but I don’t think that will be possible.

It looks like the core of this branch was already rotting away! I think I even see insect damage.

Which means, if we hadn’t taken it down now, it may well have broken in high winds, like branches in the tree in front of the kitchen window already have. Well, that’s a likelihood for any of the trees. The rot just made this one a higher risk.

You can just see the black end of the branch we cut in this photo.

You can also see some of the many dead branches above it.

In this photo, you can see part of the elm tree on the other side of the gate, on the right side of the photo. Lots more dead branches, all out of reach.

Taking this branch down has opened up the yard quite a lot! I remember getting that same feeling of openness when I cut away the broken branches in the elm by the house (on the left edge of the photo, you can see part of a branch from that tree). We still have plenty of shade, too.

In the end, I’m glad we got it done. Whether or not it reduces how often our internet cuts out (which happened again while I was writing this, but only once, rather than the 3 or 4 times when I wrote my last post), we will see. For now, though, we got the one branch done, and will hopefully find a way to get at the dead ones, too. I’d really rather not wait for storms to bring them down, if I can!

The Re-Farmer

A wonderful surprise!

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I know I’ve said this before. I’ll probably say it many more times.

I have the best brother!

He and his wife are just amazing. Yesterday, we had a wonderful surprise from them. I got a message from my SIL that my brother would be coming over with their old dog house, for us to use as a cat shelter!

They have always had large dogs. When their last one passed away, they decided not to get another dog. With a new grand child in another province, and prospects of retirement and selling the property in the future, it just wasn’t something they wanted to do.

This left them with a large dog house in their yard that wasn’t being used.

And they know we’ve been using the sun room to provide shelter for the cats over the winter, leaving the doors propped open slightly.

What they didn’t know is that we were looking into building a larger shelter with a roof that could be lifted up, for easy access and cleaning.

Their dog house not only has such a roof, but it’s wired for electricity!

My brother, saint that he is, ended up taking several hours not only to move the heavy shelter (using tools like a come-along, and good old physics!) onto their trailer – something my SIL could not help with at all, having had surgery not long ago – but to replace part of the roof and paint it, too!

Just look at this thing!

He even brought the pallets that were under it.

With three of us working together, we got it unloaded and set up in only a couple of hours. We had to set up a fence post, at an almost 45 degree angle, to have something to attach a chain for the come-along to. The shelter itself is on top of a skid. Once that reached the edge of the trailer, my brother and I levered up the ends of the skid to go over the lip and clear the board he’d put on the ramps. The ramps were designed for wheels, with recesses in the middle to prevent them from going sideways. The skid would have fallen right into those, but he had boards wide enough to fit right in there.

The chain for the come-along had to be adjusted a couple of times before the shelter was at the end of the ramps, but at that point, the fence post was now in the way. My brother unhitched the truck from the trailer and, while I removed the post, drove the truck around to the other side and used it to pull the shelter off the rest of the way. He then had to move the trailer out, back the truck up to where the trailer was, then haul the shelter to where we had decided it should go.

Which is pretty much where one of the old doghouses, now set up near the outhouse, used to be!

There were three possible places we could put the shelter, and have easy access to an outlet. There’s the outlet on the side of the house, but with the fancy lilacs and cherry trees right there, that wasn’t really an option. We could have put it near the back of the garage, but it gets very wet there when the snow melts. So that brought us to the spot in front of the sun room. We should be able to run a cord through, and still close the doors, in the winter.

Check it out!

You can see an outlet that the light it plugged into. The light has a pool-grade cover over it, so nothing it getting at that bulb. It’s a 100 watt bulb, so it will also provide a bit of warmth. There is a second outlet just on the other side of where the cord goes through the wall. They had had a pet safe warming blanket plugged into there. My brother tested them out before bringing it over, and it all works. We will be able to plug in the heated water bowl in there. It has a long enough cord to be plugged in and still be outside.

The main part of the doghouse turned out to be too small for when they had two dogs, so my brother added the “porch” at the end – which now has a fresh new roof. The flax inside was still clean, so they left that.

Though my brother brought the pallets it was on, I wanted it on bricks. I’ve cleaned up way too many rotten pallets to go with wood directly on the ground again! And we just happened to have a stack of bricks I’d cleaned up from various places that we could use.

We will continue to add bricks for both support, and to level the shelter more. You can see the patch of dirt where the previous doghouse had been sitting. We went further out, where the ground was more level, but it’s still not flat.

Do you see that beam sticking out, with the decorative cut at the end?

The roof of this is very heavy, and my brother had included this with the thought to add a counter weight, or maybe a spring – anything to make it easier to open the roof up. He never got around to adding anything, though. It’s something we might do. Or not. We’ll see.

With the skid under the main body of the doghouse, the “porch” just sort of floats above ground. The top is starting to pull away from the main section, though – despite the many deck screws holding it in place! – so I intend to add bricks to support that, too.

There are two layers of shredded carpet over the opening to keep the weather out, while still letting critters in.

The skid is starting to look kinda rotten, even though it had always been on top of pallets, not directly on the ground, and I find myself looking at it and thinking…

Is that about the same size as the long frames we made for the goat catcher? If I cut the ends at an angle, one of those would make a very strong replacement skid!

Switching those out would be a huge job, but it would be worth it.

Aside from little things like that, and some minor repairs to old wood, we are now set for a winter shelter for the yard cats! One with warmth and light.

I hope the cats enjoy it!

On a completely different note, while going around and deciding where best to put the shelter, I decided to dig out the hose attachments and fertilizer and give our garden beds a good feeding. I was moving the hose at the front of the house, so I could reach the carrots and beets, when I suddenly lost water.

The hose end snapped off, right at the tap!

I hadn’t even pulled on it. The hose was just moving. It’s designed to rotate freely, and you can see the piece that was there to keep it from bending.

I bought this hose last fall. It’s less than a year old, and has seen hardly any use!

The more inconvenient part, though, is that the tap at the front of the house needs a new seal. We can’t turn it off, because it just sprays at the tap. Which meant that, when I discovered what happened, there was water flowing at full pressure right at the house, and while shutting the tap off did slow it a bit, I still had to yell for a daughter to dash into the basement and shut the water off from there. Thankfully, the pipes to the outside taps do have their own shut off valves, unlike the pipes supplying water inside the house.

A couple more things to add to the fix-it list!

For now, however, it’s time to shut down the computer. I’m seeing thunderstorm warnings flashing on my task bar! I expect the storms to miss us again, but we’ll likely loose internet, and possibly get power flickers, too.

That, and my daughters are taking me into town to pick up Chinese food for my birthday. They are so sweet! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Well, that sucks… and why is that there?

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Not too long ago, I wrote about my daughters installing a new kitchen faucet. One of the issues was, we have no shut off valves. There is one main shut off valve that shuts off water to the entire house.

Today, that became a problem.

One of my daughters had gone into the basement to clean out the litter boxes, when she discovered water dripping from the cold water pipe leading to the kitchen sink.

No, the pipe was not leaking. The water was coming from above, and from the damp state of the floorboards above, it had been leaking a while.

My younger daughter started clearing out under the sink to see what was going on, while her sister and I started cleaning up in the basement.

Suddenly, the drip started dripping even faster!

Which is when the water for the house had to be shut off.

My daughter had tried to tighten the flexible pipe between the copper pipe and the tap, and it started spraying all over.

Did I mention there are no shut off valves for the sink?

It ended up falling apart, and try as they might, the girls couldn’t even rig something up to hold overnight, so we could turn the water back on.

While they were fighting with that, I went hunting in the basements. There are so many parts and pieces around, surely there must be something we could use to at least plug the pipe, so we could turn the water back on?

When we were cleaning out the basement, some things never made it to the barn. Including a box I’d shoved under the stairs. It’s full of parts and pieces of taps and faucets and pipes…

… and balls, and parts of shower heads that have never been used, and other unidentifiable things.

I also found this.

Actually, I found the box with an eyedropper and what appears to be the instruction sheet inside. I found the bottle that should have been in it, buried in the bottom of the box.

You’d think, by now, I’d no longer be surprised by the things I find in the strangest of places, but … really. Why? Why was this here??

I’ve since tucked it into a place the cats and kittens can’t get into.

Meanwhile, the girls were able to seal up the top of the cold water pipe in the kitchen, allowing us to turn the water back on to the house.

Tomorrow, I’m off to the hardware store, as soon as it opens!

I figure, we may as well replace both of the flexible hoses, which I’ve seen in kits for both hot and cold water.

And maybe get some shut off valves, too.

The Re-Farmer