After a lovely surprise, finding my dear friend had sent us a heated water bowl for the outside cats, we later opened my husband’s packages to see if the one he had ordered was in.
It was.
But it was not quite what I expected.
Continue readinggetting ready for winter
I have the best friends!
My husband had some packages to pick up in today’s mail, so I made a quick trip in to pick them up.
I was expecting 2, maybe 3, boxes.
There was 5! LOL The clerk helped me carry them to my van. :-D
When I got home, I was surprised to find my name on one of them.
A dear friend had sent me a surprise!
No more trying to keep the cats’ water from freezing with a light bulb! :-D
Of course, I had to set it up right away.
The cats were quick to show their appreciation.
It took Doom Guy a minute to realize there was water in the new bowl. The warm water I had put out this morning was already starting to freeze!
My husband had actually ordered one, too – in fact, it might be in one of the other boxes I picked up! So we’ll have two. :-)
I have the best friends!
The Re-Farmer
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Winterizing: wood for the fire pit
I had some daylight left, so I decided to see how far I could get on another thing on my to-do list before winter.
Some clean up of the pile of larger wood, by the fire pit.
We may not have been able to use the fire pit over the summer, due to fire bans and unsafe conditions, but we should be able to use it in the winter. :-)
Among the dead trees I cut down, leaving tall stumps until I can come back with a chain saw, there are three spruce stumps that form a triangle.
I decided to take advantage of that.
My reciprocating saw got quite a workout today! I was able to cut to fire pit size, and move the enter pile of larger wood, and even get some larger pieces in the “kindling” pile!
The disturbed area by the tree with the tire around its base is where the pile was.
The tall stumps worked well to keep the stacked wood in place. We can also use them when we put a tarp over the wood. We can even nail it in place, so the wind won’t blow it away.
Yeah, we plan to get cheap tarps. Actually, there is at least one I saw in the barn that we can dig out and see if it is still usable.
Another job I can mark off the to-do list! :-)
The Re-Farmer
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Winterizing progress: moving the trailer
We got a slightly warmer day today – a whole 8C – that I took advantage of to work outside. I was able to rake up some grass clippings in front of the barn – the grass there gets so dense, it’s hard for the mower to handle, and if the clippings get left behind, I find they make it even harder – and add it to the old kitchen garden.
Since I was out there, anyhow, I decided to see if I could move the trailer frame into the barn for the winter.
How to get it there was the question.
The trailer is too wide to go through the side door of the barn, that accesses the old hay yard. To get to the back door, it needed to be pulled through the remains of an old corral.
There were only two possible places I could get it through, on the north side of the old corral.
You see that big, collapsed fence post in the picture on the left? I figured I could just move that aside, and I could roll it over the rails – including what appears to be metal balcony or stair rails (I am finding these absolutely everywhere!). When I tried to pick it up, however, everything started to lift with it. It’s all still attached to the post!
On the edge of the photo, you can see a fence post that is still standing. The photo on the right is the other side of the post.
There is a “floating” fence rail, and the ground is incredibly rutted. Plus, there are a bunch of big rocks.
Neither opening was very good, but the one closer to the barn was slightly better – if I could get around that big post.
Once I got through there, it would be smooth sailing. I had an open space on the opposite side of the old corral.
After that, it was just a matter of getting it into the barn.
For some strange reason, I forgot that there were double doors in the back of the barn. I don’t remember ever, in my entire life, seeing both sides open before.
The cats were very interested in me clearing space for the trailer, and making sure there was no glass or nails on the floor.
The next thing was, how to pull it. There is a security chain at the hitch end, but it is short. Since its got only 2 wheels, if I lifted the front too high, the back hit the ground. If I didn’t lift it that high, however, I found myself hunched over, and at risk of injuring my back.
Into the barn I went and looked around. I found a couple of lengths of chain, one of which had a hook on it.
It was perfect!
The trailer also just made it through the space, with a bit of shifting around.
That tire by the fence post that’s still standing is actually in a deep rut.
It was awkward, but it worked!
The cats really like this thing.
It’s in!
It can now safely stay here, out of the elements, until we are in a position to put some plywood on it as a base.
Who knows. We might even *gasp* put some walls on it, too! :-D
Another thing off the to-do list for before winter!
Oh, and while I was clearing the space it would go in, I found something for the “strange things we find” list.
I’d found a couple at the start, and by the time I dragged the trailer in, I disturbed things enough that 3 more were uncovered.
Yeah. Those are .22 shell casings.
No, we don’t have a .22 My dad’s guns are among the things that went away when the place was empty, though I’m 99.9% sure I know who has them.
My guess is, someone was shooting through the open top of the split door, then just didn’t pick up after themselves. What they would be shooting at from here with just a .22, I have no idea.
Well, now that we’re here to take care of the place, we don’t have to worry about anyone doing stuff like that anymore.
The Re-Farmer
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More winterizing
We got one more area done for the winter today.
The old basement window.
We take advantage of the shelter over this window as a place to put the outside cat food containers, out of the rain. It isn’t much shelter, but it at least keeps their food mostly dry.
One of my plans for this summer was to dig up the dirt under the overhang and line it with bricks.
I noticed, however, there was thick plastic at the window, so I took advantage of having a daughter to hold the “roof” up and dug out the dirt to see just how far the plastic extended.
It turns out, there is no need to brick the area.
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Clean up: no more pile of stuff!
We were able to use all the chimney inserts that were piled behind the house, and even the last chimney block, while winterizing around the house. That meant I could finally clean up that area once and for all!
This area has taken me two years to clean up.
Here is what it was like when I first started working on it, back in May of last year.
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Winterizing – and a blast from the past
Today, things warmed up and got rather pleasant out there, so I took advantage of it to do the annual winterization around the house.
The situation was quite different, last year!
I was amused to look back at old posts and find we put the insulation around the house exactly a year ago today!
Just in time for the weather to turn. Raining ice pellets? I’d forgotten about that!
By the end of the day, we had tree damage and the power had gone out, and I was going around knocking ice off what I could reach, to prevent more damage.
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Prepping the old dog houses
Yesterday, after picking the crab apples, I had time to start working on the old dog houses, as part of our winterization plans for them. We were getting severe thunderstorm alerts and, looking at the weather radar, it looked like these ones were not going to miss us, so we rushed to get a bunch of things done outside. The girls put the sheets of metal roofing back on the old garden shed that had blown off from the last storm, but there was no way to nail them in place, so they strapped them down, instead. Then they helped me move aside the dog houses, so I could work on the space under them.
The main issue was that the ground is not level, resulting in one of the dog houses tending to rock back and forth.
This was part of why that was happening.
Nothing like a big ol’ tree root to mess things up!
To try and level it, I first used a garden fork to dig things up and loosen the soil. After that, I used a garden rake to try and level the area as much as I could.
Which the kittens absolutely loved.
I then put the sheets of Styrofoam insulation back, but lay them out differently this time, after noting some issues from how we had it before.
I happened to have a sheet of dollar store tarp in the garage, so I used it to basically hold the 4 sheets of insulation together – and I hope it will serve to protect it a bit from the cats, who like to use the foam to sharpen their claws! LOL
Then I snagged a daughter to help me move the dog houses back again.
The kittens love it!
I have a couple more sheets of insulation that I plan to slide under the dog houses, so the kittens aren’t going to be able to play under there for much longer. :-D Later, when we get a straw bale to cover our septic tank, I plan to add start around the dog houses. We are also looking at ways to use the sheets of black tarp that I cleared from the old wood pile to further shelter and winterize these for the cats.
Not long after this was done, we did get hit with a pretty wild thunderstorm. We promptly lost our internet, and even the power flickered off and on several times, though we never lost it completely. I later saw photos taken in town, where there was some flooding in the streets.
Looking at the long range forecasts, we might get storms throughout tomorrow and into early the next morning, before things clear up. We’ve had enough rain that I might actually have to mow the lawn one more time before putting the mower away for the winter!
The Re-Farmer
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Baby, it’s cold outside!
While doing the rounds this morning, it was -25C (-13F), with a windchill of -32C! (-25F) out there!
When I went into the sun room to give the cats their food and water, I found this.
I thought, for a moment, that the light bulb might have burnt out, but nope. Continue reading
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Off the to-do list
So this has been a productive day! Most of my to-do list for outside is now complete. The last thing is to do a dump run, which will be taken care of soon.
Beep Beep made things a little more difficult. :-D As I was getting my supplies out of the sun room, I paused to respond to a message on my phone.
Beep Beep climbed me like a tree!
She did it again, while I was working in the garage, too.
What a girl! LOL
The first thing on my list was to use some metal rods I found while cleaning up at the garage recently, to set up markers at our driveway.
I don’t know how well they will hold out over the winter. We shall see. The main thing is, once the ditches are filled with snow, we’ll be able to see the outer extremes of the driveway. One of them has some reflective tape on it. I’ll have to remember to pick up more. There are a few places where we want to add reflective tape.
Once that was done, I reclaimed our wheelbarrow from the junk pile; an old, cracked rain barrel is now being used to hold things like broke glass and other small things that we didn’t want to just throw on the pile. Then I took the plastic I’d used to put water in an old bathtub for the cows to cover the whole thing (and added the bathtub to the pile, too). I tossed some stuff to weigh down the plastic, but I rather doubt it will stay. We shall see.
The next thing I wanted to do was cover the post pounder. First, however, I wanted to try pumping up the tires, to see if I could move it. In order to access the compressor, however, I had to finish cleaning up and putting away stuff we had to clear so we could rescue Doom Guy.
Beep Beep “helped” by jumping up onto the counter, then onto me!
I found a little hand broom and swept off the counter, then had to figure out how to put the shelves, back, without a second person. In the end, I took the drawers out of the top one, to lighten it.
This is why it was so heavy.
The one drawer with the long bolts probably weighed about 15 pounds, all on its own… and it got stuck. I managed to get it out, though, which made moving that shelf easy enough.
Then I went to clean off the second shelf before trying to remove the drawers.
I don’t know how I failed to notice this, when we first took it off. Probably because we were too distracted by the need to free Doom Guy from behind the counter.
Yeah. That’s shedded snake skin.
With this shelf, I wasn’t able to take any of the drawers out, but it was light enough I could just pick it up and put it on top of the other one.
Then I set up the compressor which, thankfully, has a hose long enough to reach both tires on the post pounder.
The first one, much to my surprise, pumped up rather well, and seems to be holding air.
Cool! Now, if the other one would hold air, it might be possible to move the post pounder into a shed or something.
What a hoot.
It pumped up, all right, but as soon as I turned the air off, it quickly deflated. I could even feel a breeze on my hand!
From this.
A big ole crack in the tire!
Ah, well. It was worth a shot.
I had noticed a tarp in the side of the garage my mother’s car is stored in and was happy to confirm it was big enough to cover the whole thing.
I don’t know what was used to fasten the old tarp – if anything – but I’m hoping that this one will stay. Between the bale twin at the top (which is what had been tied around the folded up tarp, and the zip ties, it’s pretty secure. I just wish I didn’t have to poke little holes into the tarp to thread the zip ties through.
It should hold for a while, though. It would take some pretty major winds to tear it off, at this point.
That done, I moved the toilet “art”. I decided to leave it near the outhouse for now. I think I really will put dirt in it and plant flowers next year. Just for a joke!
Then I took the oil drum that was along the garage and set it up as a temporary burn barrel.
Here it is, next to the remains of the old one. It’s not in very good shape, but until we can chisel off the top of the other barrel we found by a collapsing log building, it will do. I didn’t have to make drainage holes in the bottom. It already had holes.
And now it’s time to move on to the other things on the to-do list. :-)
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 