Well, I’m glad my brother has been as dedicated to taking in-progress photos as I have become! After emailing him about what happened to the snow blower, he was able to email me back a photo of exactly where the fuel line was supposed to go (something I could not really see without taking the cover off, but could find by feel). He told me I should be able to push it in, and confirmed that it was solidly in place, when he attached the fuel line to the carburetor. It seems to have vibrated itself out, which really shouldn’t happen.
Continue readingaround the yard
Abandoned
Usually, when I do my morning rounds, I stick to the inner yard and the garage. Every now and then, though, I go farther afield and check on the septic field and the sheds in the outer yard.
Today was one of those days, and it took me past the old Farm Hand tractor that’s still sitting among the collapsing outbuildings.
You know how you walk past things time and again, look at them, but don’t always “see” what’s there, then suddenly something that’s always been there, catches your attention?
I had one of those moments today, when I saw this.
Share this:
Winter(ish) Morning Routine
Things are much, much less active, now that the yard work is done for the year! We’re settling in to an indoor routine, which is pretty domestic.
I am enjoying the relative peace and quiet.
Now… I am NOT a morning person. Never have been.
But we have critters to feed, and I have my morning rounds to do.
Thankfully, there are things that make it worthwhile. :-D Continue reading
Share this:
Trampled access
After a lovely rainfall this morning, I took a walk around the outer yard to take a closer look at the areas the cows got into.
They did a fabulous job of trampling down the grass and burdock.
In fact, their trampling meant I could access places I couldn’t before, including the door to the old chicken coop. It had been blocked off by burdock before.
When my parents bought the property, this log building was the summer kitchen. They eventually converted it to a chicken coop.
Yesterday, while walking around with my sister and our relative from Poland, I tried to open the door, but couldn’t. There is some shifting in the building, which resulted in a board that ran horizontally across the top of the door, now running across the door itself.
Overnight, however, something has managed to pull the bottom of the door out! It was not like this yesterday. The other side of the door is also partially pulled out, but there’s a board in the middle that’s basically jammed into the ground.
I thought I might be able to just pull the door off, but it’s pretty stuck, at top and bottom. I’d need to get some tools to get it done, but there’s no reason to do that right now.
What I was able to do, however, was stick my phone through the opening and use voice command to take some pictures. These made for my first view inside this building since I left the farm, 32 years ago!
It looks like no one mucked it out since before my parents stopped having chickens!
Also, it looks like someone started using it to dump things in. :-(
The openings at the back are the nesting boxes. The roosts are on the right, with stuff stacked on them. On the far right of the photo, you can see what was a ramp for the chickens to use to get up there.
The caged area on the left is where my parents kept new baby chicks until they were big enough to join the adult birds. We were able to set up a heat lamp in there for them. In the wall under the window was a little door near the floor. When we had chickens, there was a fenced area around two sides of the building, enclosing the wall with the main door, and the wall with the window. Outside this little door was a partitioned off area, so we could close off the chicks from the adult chickens outside. When the chicks were grown enough, we would just leave the doors open for all the chickens to access. Most times, spring through fall, we opened the door to the fence during the day, so the chickens could range freely.
After checking out the old chicken coop, I went over to the pump shack to check the power cord to the storage building. From the outside, everything looked fine, so I went in. I’m glad I did, because I found that when they came out of the building yesterday, the light was forgotten on!
I found the problem, too.
The cable coming through the wall cannot reach the outlet, so there is a short power cord in between. It’s one of those power cords that, when it’s plugged in at one end, there is a light that turns on at the other end. When I came in yesterday, I could see the light, but the cable through the wall was gone. I guess, after I left the pump shack to find the cable, my sister unplugged the short power cord, then went outside. When I found the cable the cows and pulled out, I pushed it through the opening in the wall again. My sister went back in, grabbed it and plugged the cable in, but didn’t plug the short power cord back into the outlet!
It was a relief to find that. I still checked for power in the storage building, just to be sure, and it’s working fine. No damaged cables! :-)
So while the cows did get into all sorts of things, they caused very little damage, and have actually made some things easier to get to. :-)
The Re-Farmer
Share this:
A Productive Day
Today turned out to be a nice and productive day, despite the rain this morning.
After driving my younger daughter to work, my older daughter and I went to the city to do the rest of our monthly shopping. An unplanned stop at Walmart, where I got some canning supplies I hope to use to preserve chokecherries, though I have yet to decide what I will be doing with them; a quick trip to Costco – or at least as quick as any trip to Costco can be! – and then to the grocery store we discovered after our last trip. We had lunch before we started that last bit of shopping, going through their kitchen area, for some Chinese food. To be completely honest, it was hardly the best Chinese food we’d ever had, but it’s been so long, it was absolutely amazing! Talk about hitting the spot!
Of all the things to miss about city living. The dizzying variety of ethnic fast food! :-D
We took advantage of the incredible international sections of the store to get a few things we normally wouldn’t – including a couple of ingredients for something I want to try that I will save for its own post. We haven’t been doing a lot of cooking in the heat we’ve been having, and pretty much no baking at all. Our sourdough starters, sadly, did not survive. The Rye of SourOn was the first to go, and even though my daughters were using Sir Sour Alot almost every morning to make hotcakes, in double batches, it basically went black over one hot and muggy night.
When things start to cool down later in the year, and we’re not doing so much yard work, we’ll get another Alaskan sourdough going and start baking again. Until then, we stock up on bread at Costco and freeze most of it. We’ve been going through bread rather quickly, since no one wants to cook in the heat, so we’ve been having lots of sandwiches! :-D
For now, the less time in the kitchen, the better, which means our grocery shopping trips are filled with more things that can be eaten cold, or with minimal cooking.
We finished early enough that we went straight home to unload before heading back into town to pick up my daughter from work. We were able to make a stop at the beach in the process.
It was much windier at the lake, and the water was so choppy!
Some people even braved the waves!
I’m not sure I would have been willing to do that, but then, I’m not a very strong swimmer.
The water gets so murky when it’s like this! Not that it’s ever clear, given how shallow it is, but on days like this, it’s pretty opaque!
The weather had cleared up around our area by then, so after we got home, I went straight to mowing the outer yard. I’m still mowing a drive-able path to the second gate. We have yet to fix the barbed wire gate. I’ve decided not to make another barbed wire gate, and will instead pick up some fencing wire to use instead.
Now that we have power to the barn, and my brother fixed the melted plug end of the line to the storage shed, I should make a point of going around the areas I mow with the weed trimmer. Though I will not be focusing on the outer yard for clean up, other than what’s essential, I also don’t want to give things a chance to get overgrown where we need to access them. Tall grass is one thing. Nettles, burdock, thistles and self-sown trees are something else entirely!
After I finished with the mowing and was coming back to the house, I noticed Butterscotch’s kittens were out. I got some cat kibble for the kittens and refilled the water bowl by where Beep Beep has her babies. Beep Beep’s kittens were out, too, but only the tuxedo stayed out while I was around, and did not like me being there. So I went back to Butterscotch and her babies as they ate. I actually got to pet the teeny tabby! That itty bitty kitty is turning out to be the braver of the lot. Unfortunately, none of my attempts to get photos turned out. Ah, well.
The fridge and cupboards are stocked up, the freezer is full, the outer lawn is mowed, and I got to pet a kitten.
All in all, it’s been a good day. :-)
The Re-Farmer
Share this:
The things we find, and arborist update
The arborist called about coming over today to look around at the work that needs to be done. Since we rather suddenly have to buy a new CPAP, budget demands we have to split the work.
As I went to unlock and open the gate for him, I paused to check out the fence line from the garage to the gate. It is along this fence that there is a power line to the gate that I was able to use to plug in the weed trimmer, not long ago. Some of the fence posts are tipping, and the line itself is sagging, so I wanted to take a closer look.
While I was finding a top wire that was no longer attached to its post and following it along to see what was going on with that, I found something I hadn’t noticed before. Another thing to add to the “why is this here?” list!
Another toilet? Really?
And this time, the tank, too.
This is next to the garage. Where did it get hauled from? Why did it get left in the bush? Why is it there?
The post it’s leaning against is also part of the problem with the fence line. It’s also tipping, and that’s why the wire I had been looking at was no longer attached to its post.
I am really looking forward to when I can move on to this section for clean up.
As for the arborist, after looking around, we worked out the essentials. So for an estimate of $750 (half of the $1500 estimate he gave me for the whole job), this is what we will get done.
At the south end of the yard, clear some of the willow branches away from the power lines.
Just north of the house, clear some of the maple branches in one tree from the power line.
Top off the dead spruce tree so that, if it does fall, it will not hit the power line.
Top off the two maples leaning over the roof so that, if they do fall, they won’t hit the house.
Everything else can wait until spring.
So I’m thinking early October to get this stuff done.
It was funny to walk through the maple grove to look at the area there. I joked that I’ve done quite a bit of work since he was last out. “I noticed!!” he said. LOL No kidding! We could actually walk through the area and not fight our way through a blocked off path, or have to avoid tripping over pieces of tree trunk and dead branches in the tall grass.
After he left, my younger daughter and I headed into town to go to the pharmacy. When we got back, we saw Butterscotch coming out. I’d left some food for her and the kittens earlier, and she was eating.
One of her kittens also came to see us.
No sign of the other three.
I look forward to starting to clean this area up, too, but I do like the idea of leaving some sort of shelter for the cats to use, too!
Just without any grody, moss covered, rotting carpet pieces.
The Re-Farmer
Share this:
I have the power! See; there it is.
You know how you decide to do a thing that should be pretty straightforward? Then you start the thing and it ends up being more complicated than you thought?
Yeah. You know what I’m talking about, I’m sure! :-D
That was how it turned out for the job I just finished.
Since we only have the riding mower, when I do the driveway, I’ve only done the driveway inside the gate and as close to the gate and fence lines as I can. I didn’t go outside the gate at all because I wasn’t sure how clear it was. Plus, I don’t usually carry the gate key with me when I’m doing yard work.
Today, after mowing the areas by the storage shed and to the other driveway that I wasn’t able to do earlier, I decided to grab the weed trimmer and an extension cord and clear by the gate, and the driveway outside the gate. The grass there was starting to encroach into the gravel a fair bit. There is a heavy duty power line running from the side shed of the garage, where I park the mower, to the gate. It’s for some Christmas lights that are on the fence line.
Now, I’ve seen where the cord ends by the gate, and I could see where the Christmas lights started at the gate end, so I figured the plug was somewhere hidden in the bushes there. With that in mind, I grabbed the 30ft extension cord for the weed trimmer, instead of lugging one of the 100ft cords. 30ft should have been enough to do the areas I wanted to. Maybe a bit tight on the south side, though.
Over I go with the weed trimmer and cord, plug the power cord in at the garage, open the gate, then go to where I knew the Christmas lights started to plug it in. I was impressed to see the lights were actually working, too!
That’s when I discovered I wasn’t looking at the start of the Christmas lights.
I was looking at the end.
Hmm. Okay. I’ll just follow the lines. Both the string of Christmas lights and the power cord were woven along the top wire of the fence, wrapped around posts or tree branches along the way, until… there it was! I found the plug in!
This picture was taken after I moved the outlet box, which was carefully set facing downwards, so no moisture could get into the plugins. (Yes, I did remember to put it back that way when I was done!)
What you can’t see is the broken light bulb, right by the plug in. I’m sure there are plenty more of those along the two strings of lights!
This was about 30 feet away from the gate.
Well, now.
Back I go to the house, where I know there’s another extension cord that’s 50ft long. I also grab gloves, saw and pruning shears, because there were things that needed to be cleared before I could start.
First, I cut away some dead stems from a bush by the gate. Then some little trees that had seeded themselves along the driveway that were big enough to mess with the trimmer line. Then I cut away a poplar that was growing outside the fence line and was half blocking access to the power. You can see part of it to the left of the plug ins in the photo. I had to move some just to get the picture.
Then I could finally plug in my extension cords (I used both) and start trimming.
This is the first area I finished.
This is the south side of the gate. The old barbed wire gate was still there and, after finding the loose barbed wire with the weed trimmer, I wrenched it all out and over the fence.
Those orange things? I’m pretty sure they are to mark where the culvert is on either side of the drive way in the winter, but they would fit over pre-existing posts. Which I don’t see anywhere.
Then I started clearing the north side.
When mowing on this side, I don’t try to go all the way to the fence line with the mower at all, because it is very rough and I don’t want to break the mower. So I trimmed by the gate to match the mowing line.
While clearing between the gate post and the wagon wheel, my trimmer found this.
The black pieces are the remains of some kind of bungee cord type thing. It has a hook at only one end; I’m guessing at least half the cord itself is simply gone. Someone just hung it there, rather than throwing it away. The ball of twine was completely hidden by the tall grass. The wire was partly hanging on the bottom wire of the fence, its other end buried in the grass for me to find when it got tangled in the trimmer line. :-/
Finding stuff like this is why I don’t want to use the mower out there until I am sure it’s clear!
Here is how the outer part of the driveway looks now. First on the south side;
And here’s the North side.
The eventual goal is to clear the fence line of trees completely. When I get to working on the spruce grove, I want to open it up enough that we can see the gate from the house, so we know if anyone is there and needing us to open it.
That will probably not be started until next year.
Before then, though, I am think it would be nice to replace the strings of Christmas lights. I’m thinking some LED lights all in one colour, and then using them all year. :-)
Now that we have the power. ;-)
The Re-Farmer
Share this:
Good Moooorning!
So my darling husband (picture me speaking with a rictus grin) cheerfully comes traipsing into the bedroom and wakes me up with a “so, are there supposed to be cows in the yard?”
What a way to be awakened!
No. There are not supposed to be cows in the yard.
He had been hearing the cows mooing and thought to himself, that sounds awfully close.
Then looked out the window.
That’s not good!
By the time I put my glasses on, they were at the opposite end of the yard, by the fire pit. When I got outside, there were no longer any cows in our yard, but there were several just outside the barbed wire gate at the fire pit.
I closed the gate.
I could see from the gate the the electric gate at the cow fence was in place, so before we closed the other gates, I went over by the barn, where the second electric gate is.
Sure enough, the wire was down, looking like something went right through it, dragging it into the tall grass on our side of the fence.
That left us with the task of closing up the vehicle gate, and the people gate.
Problem.
Yeah. The pole was still there.
Moving a 30 ft pole is awkward, to say the least. It wasn’t just getting it clear of the opening, but clearing the swing arc of the gate. So there was a whole lot of rolling and pivoting, but it wasn’t enough. He really shouldn’t have, but my husband was able to pull it a few feet away from the yard (yeah, I helped, but really… I wasn’t doing much) and it got rolled clear.
This is the first time we’ve closed these gates since we’ve moved here.
*sigh*
They’re broken.
On the vehicle gate, one side isn’t too bad, but had to be lifted to close. It shouldn’t need to be lifted. The other was off the top hinge and we weren’t able to put it back at the time (I will need to go back with a tool kit), but we swung it closed.
They are supposed to be able to latch together.
They don’t.
But we could at least sit the parts on top of each other and let gravity to the rest.
*sigh*
Then there’s the people gate. I had been wondering why there was a bungee cord on the chain link fence.
Now I know why.
The latch parts don’t latch anymore. So the bungee is used to keep it from swinging open on its own.
After phoning the renter and leaving a message for him (with apologies for calling so early), I went around the yard, just in case we missed a cow in the bushes or something, then went to see what was going on.
There were 6 altogether; 2 cows and 4 steers. The rest of the cattle were on the other side of the fence near the electric gate.
I decided not to try and get them out. They can graze all they want and, at some point, they may well wander back towards the barn and join the rest of the herd.
Granted, the rest of the herd might end up on the wrong side of the fence, too. But I’m not too worried about it. They can keep our grass down.
Now. I wonder if I can get another hour or two of sleep…
The Re-Farmer
Share this:
Outer yard mowing – a sadness!
Today, I broke out the riding mower to work on the outer yard.
Although I don’t intend to focus on any clean up out there, we do still need to keep parts of it mowed.
I started by “framing” out the areas I wanted to mow, mostly for access. You can see how tall it is, plus there is last year’s grass under it, too. So I was extra slow and careful while going through the thickest parts, and keeping a very sharp eye out for anything I didn’t want to mow over. I did have to get off a couple of times to move away sticks or old wooden shingles.
Next, I started working on sections, beginning with the driveway.
The area to the left of the driveway in the photo had lots of horse droppings. Just that side. The other side didn’t. Which is weird.
My parents didn’t have horses.
The next section I focused on was in front of the shed we’re storing my parents’ stuff in, so we can get in and out of it more easily as we add more to the shed.
I had to go over this section twice.
I had not originally intended to do this, but decided to mow a pathway to the other gate. We still need to fix the barb wire gate, and this way, we can get to it without having to fight our way though tall, tick infested, grass.
I was REALLY careful doing this section, because I remember there were all sorts of random piles of stuff. Basically, I just followed old tire tracks.
Next, I started working on a section between my dad’s old car, and the burn barrel.
I had just got around by the car, when this happened.
Yeah. I broke a belt.
On my new mower.
Sadness.
Woe.
Thankfully, belts are not expensive, but I will have to enlist the help of my older brother to fix it, I think.
I guess I just pushed it too hard. :-(
I wasn’t about to let all that wonderful cut grass go to waste, though. After putting away the mower, I got out the rake and a wheelbarrow, and started hauling grass to the flower garden. Amazingly, I had to actually start scrounging for grass clippings to finish it! I not only raked in front of the storage shed, but also to the barn, then back to the driveway.
Which is when this happened.
It finally gave out.
And this was the good fan rake!
We do have one other one, though I expect that one to break soon, too. I only needed one more load of grass clippings to finish, though. I had to go to the path I mowed to the back get to get enough!
But it is finally gone! The entire flower garden is now covered with a thick later of straw, leaves and grass clippings. I’ve even started adding the contents of our compost bucket.
It is now being thoroughly soaked down.
The next step we plan to take (aside from continuing to add any grass clippings, etc. that we can, over the summer) is to pick up a couple of bales of peat moss and add that as another layer. I really want to build it up, to kill off the invasive plants and cover any little remaining stumps from stuff I’d trimmed away completely. Especially at the old fence line at the end of the garden, where things had gotten pretty wild.
Over by the fire pit, my mother’s lilies are now in full bloom.
They are doing really, really well. I think, once we have the flower garden built up, I’ll transplant these into it.
While I was taking pictures, I felt something rubbing against my leg…
It was a Butterscotch!
She looks ticked off. :-D
She was seen earlier today, carrying a kitten. My daughter barely saw more than little legs and a tail, and couldn’t even tell what colour it was. It seems she had moved her kitten(s?) to the garden shed. I’d gone into it yesterday, looking for something, and she came out from under stuff in the back and began hissing at me. Even though I didn’t go much past the doorway, I guess it was still too much for her, and she found another place for her kitten(s?).
So we are back to not having a mower, until I can replace that belt. I won’t be able to phone the shop my brother got it from until Monday.
*sigh*
Ah, well. It’s not like there isn’t plenty of other work to be done!
The Re-Farmer
Share this:
Little Critter Friends
I thought I got some pictures of how the area near the firepit looks, after my daughters raked, but apparently, I didn’t.
So, instead, I stole a couple of pictures my older daughter took. :-D
While they were raking, they got visited by two wood frogs. This one, and one that jumped right into a downspout. I neglected to steal her pictures of a blurry frog butt in a tunnel. ;-)
She also managed to get a good picture of one of these guys…
They have a distinctively shrimp-like body, and are really big! They are also hard to get pictures of, they move so much. They just LOVE this lilac bush by the house. They are Snowberry Clearwing Moths, also called hummingbird moths. They do sound like hummingbirds, and are almost as big as the one variety of hummingbirds we have in our area.
Meanwhile, I added the bird seed I found to the feeder and stand we’ve put near the living room window. The birds are just starting to discover it, and I hope to get photos, soon. I also saw a deer last night, just quickly passing through our yard. All I managed was one blurry photo before it ran off. Good to know they are still willing to come by, even with all the yard activity these days. :-)
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 