Do satanists pay more for goats?

I met Freddie coming down the dirt road this morning on my way out.  We loaded up his trash and headed towards the dump.  After the dump, we went in search of 2in x 2in galvanized metal, possibly aluminum, square stock to mount another exhaust fan in the greenhouse.

First we checked out Lowe's, there was nothing there.  I approached the Lowe's attendant who was talking to his friend.  I see this man twice days a week usually.  With a smile he said, "Hey guy.  What you bothering me for?  I was talking having a good time carrying on."  I apologized and said I needed some band saw blades.  He pointed me to the rack.  Pointing to the one in my hand he noted that I just needed some way to measure it and that the tape measures were over my shoulder.

The attendant walked off.  He knew what was about to occur.

If you know Lowe's like I know Lowe's you know that toolworld is home to shears of all kinds.  As if the gods knew my intentions, one shear was rubber banded back to its original packaging.  Without compromising the integrity of the repackaging I bent the shears outward and cut the bandsaw blade using my leg as a brace for extra force.

59.5 inches was the measurement and seconds later we had selected the right blades and were out the door.

After stopping by the flea market and Dixie Pig's BBQ, Freddie and I were ready to go, and our focus resumed on the greenhouse where we left off yesterday.  When my sister and I first covered the greenhouse with the shade cloth, we secured it to the ground with a great many Wal-mart yellow tent stakes.  I guess it held alright.  Today we removed these stakes and put ten shed tie down pegs into the ground, four on each side and two in the back.  Freddie made a tool out of an old fence hanger, but it still wasn't easy going screwing them into the ground.  I elected for a large wrench.  We affixed four cables to hold it down.  I need to get larger chain link attachments tomorrow to finish the job, but the four corners are secure with cable to the ground.

Freddie a while ago mentioned that there was a cross in the woods with a alter in front of it.  We were discussing a location for small shooting lane.  We decided to go check out a few options and in doing so we walked up on it.  It is relatively large and there is a nice wood bench that somebody made big enough for one to sit on.  It is on a ridge looking across a valley to another ridge that is slightly larger.  Large oak trees block most of the sun.  It is a very cool and shady spot.

Freddie voted to keep it there.  I'm indifferent.  So I guess it stays.  It is pretty cool after all.  I should make a star of David somewhere on the ground for the Jewish contingent of people.  Then the satanists would start showing up.  They probably would pay a lot for goats though.

Cleaning the butterfly deathtrap and I'm blue

If you couldn't tell, I really lost motivation to write things on the blog without my camera.  Josh and myself have spent several days getting up all the wood around the farm into one central location.  In moving it we cleared out a really nice area where the sweat lodge will go in the future.  I showed Freddie a picture of the one I helped to build several weeks ago and he approved and seemed to be interested in building one with me.

Freddie was off work today so much of the day he spent down here helping to clean the greenhouse.  We started off by cleaning off the tables.  The greenhouse wasn't completely done construction until recently when extra fans were installed.  I guess it still isn't done construction as I am going to add another exhaust fan tomorrow.

We then moved the tables and started sweeping.  The drains were cleaned and reinstalled.  

Maybe 20% of the way into the cleaning

Freddie slaving away.

All the equipment in boxes or designated for a trash bag.

Just one of the corners.

While Freddie was using the shop vacuum.  I dumped some die in the pond to better pinpoint the seepage.  My hands are still blue though much of it washed off. 

Mullien stalks harvested for hand drills to be taken to seminar in two weeks.

Freddie and I moved a fence and irrigation pipe to the basement we cleaned last week.

I picked up some blocks to better stabilize the greenhouse tables.

Wiping sweat from my brow leads to color run.  Weatherman hair is starting to emerge.

 

Swept, hosed down, tables back in and supported.  Freddie is happy.

Check out the porta-potty blue water.

The water level is rising.

This die is supposed to kill algae in normal use.  I'm trying to find a leak.

Stacking wood and egg count update

I misplaced my camera so I won't have pictures until I find it.

Before lunch I knocked out another 4 nesting boxes for the chicken coop.  The collection of eggs has grown to 34 as of this evening.  66 more and I will fire up the incubator and see about having some babies running around in less than a month.  peep peep

For the past two days myself and a friend have finished processing the downed tree pictured in an earlier post.  We chunked up at least a dump truck load's worth of oak.  Some of the pieces were huge.  Tomorrow we will clean up some old stacks of wood and process it down into burnable pieces.  

I started stacking the Holtz again this time with a smaller diameter.  It is coming along but I definitely became dizzy several times.  What is it called when ballerinas turn their head to look at a point on the wall?  I should have done that.

We pushed the remains of the tree off the hill and precariously parked three wheels on the ledge.  Josh chained the back of the tractor to the Toyota truck's frame and pulled it off the ledge as I hit it in reverse.  The tractor came out nicely with a little assistance.

The patch that was covered in straw after seeding has started to show signs of clover, it might have been radish, but I don't think I put that many in the bucket and they are everywhere.

I got to pay my property tax.  It is like twice as much as last year.

Its a TRAP!

Last night I was sitting on the sofa covered up in a blanket half asleep when I heard the lid of the stainless steel garbage can rattling outside.  I had seen it on the ground several mornings ago and assumed it was Ash Monster.

I moved towards the window.  There was a really nice sized raccoon there.  I put my gun away; just because it wasn't fair.  I'm reaching for my camera.  No memory.  I see a card on the table.  Before a picture was able,  I said, "how could this be? A very mean raccoon has been steeling dog food from me!"  From inside my trashcan, I though security was legit, but to my amazement that bandit had grabbed and had split.  I blinked and the raccoon was so far gone, I guess that I stared at his pirate prowess for too long.  (This paragraph would be better if you sang it like R Kelly trapped in the closet.)

I set up a live trap on the porch with peanut butter rolled in dog food.  It is the smallest model haveaheart trap, and this was a rather large raccoon so I don't think that it will be successful.  I caught a possum with it one time.  I am hopeful.  Next time I am out I will get a larger trap.  I wonder if this is what got several of the guineas.  Some returned to the coop so I am unsure of how many are still out there.  I saw a torn apart one in the high grass yesterday so there is at least one that didn't make it.

It is a little farther back than it should be.

Bandit's eye view

The trashcan to the lower left hand corner and a cleverly disguised trap.

I hate them, and they stink.

Today was the first day the stink bugs really wanted into the house.  In the evenings they have wanted to come in, but not during the days.

My friend suggested last year the best solution to the stink bug problem.  Cut the top off a bottle, flip it upside down, put it in the bottom, and tape the lip together  - you now have a crab trap stink bug funnel they will fall into with ease.  Poor alcohol into the bottom of your trap.  The alcohol and the trap together keep the stink off your hands.

I tried a plastic back lit sticky trap last season.  It worked initially, but the alcohol trap is by far the best thing on the market.  Ten points because it is almost free.

I was discussing the return of the shield bugs earlier today.  After carrying on for a minute and calling all the stink bugs to my house, I accidentally declared holy war on the shield bugs.  So that is happening now....

meh

It has rained off and on all day.  I went to a birthday party.

The well water looked dingy after the rain.  I dug out a trench and reset the fake rock into the ground thinking that because the well is in a low point water would stand around the casing.  It shouldn't be seeping through, but sealing it again makes me feel good especially when winter is coming.  I will reevaluate tomorrow if the weather clears up.  At least the rain water won't stagnate around the well casing.  If it clears up I will add another layer of gravel just in case.

I need to scrape up some fill dirt, and I am going to put another exhaust fan in the greenhouse.  I want to do that asap.

Equilibrium in the shed

Much of today was spent finishing little jobs that really aren't so little; consolidating, moving, and finding homes for things.  After a little time in the greenhouse, I started in with the chickens.  Almost immediately the rooster started to get cocky.  He came at me several times before strutting off.

Guess what?

Freddie and I left off yesterday with a hole in the floor with a wide bit of fence stapled as a covering.  I came back to cut off the excess and trim around the edges.  After a little adjustment, getting water on the floor or a predator coming in would be really difficult.  

I continued to hang tools making sure that each has its own place.

Freddie came back over this evening and we continued with the cleaning frenzy that I had already been on.  We moved a bunch of fencing and T posts to a more permanent location, moved some block, and collected a bunch more wood for the next bonfire.  There were three really nice cedar posts that I salvaged in the pile we cleaned out.  This pile has been there awhile because I have never seen most of the pieces.  There were short pieces of chain, a lot of trash, fencing attachments, a piece of tin that was mine, and some cinderblocks.  The rotten wood railings went into the truck and the rest went inside the building.

1 former stack of bricks

1 current stack of bricks.  I am going to write on the wall,

"Unless this wall is full of shit,

There is treasure in that load of bricks."

The blocks on the right were in the pile too.  I am almost certain they are fire bricks, which is excellent for creating the rocket stove for the shop or for use in the pizza oven, both projects in the works.  They will be used.

The haunted basement.

Less scary.

Freddie found these stepping stones in the pile of block.  They really add a lot to the front door of the chicken coop, while keeping your feet out of the mud.

  

Poop slurry troubleshoot and then some

I got back home before 10:30 from the hardware store and Woody's grocery because Tammy called me shortly after 11:00, and I was already eating a steak for breakfast after doing a few other things.  Tammy is the wonderful lady that cleans up my messes once a week while providing regular chit chat and general therapy.  Jodi says that Tammy and I are going to get married because my spirits are visibly lifted after she comes and I frequently count down the days until she comes again.

Tammy isn't coming this week.  I don't know if she wants this up on the internet, but anyway she had a cyst on her leg that had to be removed.  I have told her many times she needed to be taking a video of the surgery, but she laughed it off like I was joking.

This morning into the early afternoon I spent cleaning out the greenhouse from last season's mess.  I need a larger container for dirt and a planting station, but I haven't completely got that figured out.  Right now I am using a 20 gallon bucket for watering cattle to hold the dirt.  That is placed on top of a dolly and it rolls around the greenhouse relatively easily.  A taller brute trashcan may be the best bet.  I still want to take the tables out, wash everything, get the butterflies out of the fans, better organize everything, and install another exhaust fan to keep the temperatures down.  If I can find some more IBC totes in the mean time I will have a small aguaponics system growing tomatoes, lettuce, and broccoli for personal consumption year round.  It would be a good time to put it in there with all the tables out.  I need to move the small refrigerator to the greenhouse to keep salad dressing in.

The chicken coop has taken a long time to build and has gotten increasingly better in phases.  Today a lot of the final phase was completed.  I hog ringed where the fences overlap to ensure that things can't get through.  This evening Freddie and I rehung the automated waterers away from the wall as well as cutting a patching with hardware cloth a hole in the floor for the water to drip through.  In between cleanings, the floor around the waterers gets wet and everything slowly becomes saturated in a poopie slurry regardless of how much bedding is applied.  The final step is filling in with dirt any patches that look uneven for added security around the base of the fencing.

I am incredibly tired.

You Down with IBC, Composting?

I slept off and on for most of the morning watching Phillip run his rabbit dogs through the window.

Checking on the pond the water level had changed.  I put a shovel in at the waterline to better monitor the level.  Just a stick in the ground wasn't really cutting it.  I took a five gallon bucket to see how much water was flowing from the hose left overnight.  A five gallon bucket and a pressure gage are essential to planning irrigation of crops.  Start your timer as you start filling up the bucket.  Do the math when the bucket fills up, and you have your number.  I'm getting about 7 gallons a minute delivered to the spring a little distance up the hill from the pond.

A pressure gage available most hardware stores for about $10 and easily shows the pressure after being attached to the end of a hose.  There are pumps that vary pressure between a range.  For example a pump will pump up to 60psi when the level hits 40psi.  This is show in the model designation of a 40/60 pump or something similar.  The other type of pump is more efficient and newer in design.  A constant pressure pump will pump the determined pressure regardless of how much usage there is.  The pressure does not fluctuate.

A while ago the neighbors, Freddie and Laurie gave me an ibc tote that originally contained wood glue.  At the time their factory had a list that people could sign up for them.

I planned to use it to move water to different points with the use of the tractor.  Having approximately 300 gallons of water anywhere is definitely a benefit.  I hosed out much of the glue and put a little bleach in hopes that would sterilize it.  The next morning I came out and let out the water.  I don't know if it was the bleach or that I forgot to remove the top as the water flew out.  I came back later and the plastic part had compressed to half of the original size.  I will get pictures of that tomorrow.

After much thinking about what to do with the container two options remained.  Use the basket to move split firewood or use it to hold compost.  After starting construction on the holz the other day, it pretty much narrowed it down.

This idea works well with an idea I had several years ago.  A mountain house rests on the ridge and uses compost in the flatter parts down the mountain where row crops are easily planted.  The plan was for a compost fall where through the use of pulleys or hydraulics the compost would be transported down the hill through a series of boxes.  The top box would dump into the lower box with a little help from a pitchfork and the pattern would continue down to the fields.  Four or six boxes would be minimal I think.

I loaded up the metal frame with the rabbit and chicken bedding.  A lot of care can be taken in balancing Carbon and Nitrogen ratios.  This is not an example of this.  You can see the darker under layers that have been decomposing for about three months.  Ideally I should have put them on top of the new stuff but the old stuff was in the way of where I wanted to put the metal frame.  I hope I can get some more of these.

Holz Hauzen Day 2

I started off this morning chunking some more wood in the splitter and continuing where I left off yesterday.  I got half a load split mainly of cedar, which I stacked in a separate pile from the round house.

About 12 o'clock, a contractor that was hired to fix a pond for me came back over.  It has been a year and a half roughly and with the amount of rain we have gotten should have been full several times over.  There are two springs that feed a gallon or two per minute into the pond.  I had an engineer over several days ago who said that there may be seepage through the core of the dam.  He took a core sample up to maybe 4 feet and there was moisture.  It wasn't soupy but one could tell the ground was wet.

A little seepage is to be expected.  The ground can hold a lot of moisture and the sun evaporates water from the surface of the pond; so a pond's water level fluctuates.  However I have a hard time believing that the water fluctuates that much.

The neighbor, Freddie and myself hooked up a hose from the greenhouse to the mouth of the spring.  I am currently pumping 7-10 gallons a minute though that is just a guess.  I did note that water was flowing through the stand pipe making me think it is cracked or wasn't sealed correctly from the beginning.

There are several ways to seal a leaky pond.  One way is through a water expanding natural mineral that is worked in with equipment to the pond bottom.  When it gets wet it expands and lets through very little water.  It is a natural material so it does not hurt fish.

I am still weighing options on the pond and how to fix it.  Tomorrow should reveal more.  Freddy busted my dam I built the other day with the sexy butt tracks.  Now it is awash in well water.

If you didn't notice by now the Honda EU2000 did not supply enough power to the log splitter.  After bringing out a 8000W generator there has not been an issue.  

Holz Hausen - day 1

The idea of building one of these has been a little seed in the back of my mind since I first saw one.  Recently I stumbled into some more.  They are incredibly beautiful.  It is time to make one.

I spent the morning gathering notes on what to do.  I still don't know where to put it, but I have a couple ideas.  In writing that sentence, now I know.

Once a mighty oak, this tree fell down not to long ago.

The first load.

The processing station out back

This is the bottom ring on the Holz Hausen.  Supposedly using this band to slant the wood inward will give it stability over time.

It was well before this that I accepted that I have know idea what I'm doing.

With a new blade, the pace quickened.  It was like Hylander, but with trees.

I'm all done for today and a cedar stack emerges.  Structural confidence has grown slightly.  I'm still trying to imagine it taller

I came across this really smart product today.  I have chopped myself in the leg with an ax before.  It was small and didn't really hurt, but it took some time to heal.  It did allow me to see how painful one could be.  Be careful and wear safety gear.

Logmatic Log Splitter

A note on safety:  This awesome chainsaw safety video is brought to you by the 70s, but is the reason why I wear chaps; and they highlight my tractor, which is sexy.  Part 2

A contractor friend of mine and I were talking the day after the original posting.  He said it took 40 years of practice for him to cut off two of his fingers with a chainsaw.  They sewed the tips back on, but it serves as a reminder, you can never be to careful.

Buppert

I want to tell you about Buppert.  He is the Boer goat stud who resides on the hill to the southwest of the cabin.  I talked a little bit about how he got his name, but I didn't talk about how he got his yellow beard.

Buppert typically doesn't want anything to do with his ladies.  For the longest time Buppert would jump the fence, stroll around eating some crape myrtles and busting up pear trees with his horns.  Apparently they like the soft bark because it feels good.

The only time Buppert has anything to do with his girls is when they are in heat.  He checks this through ECHO ANNOUNCER VOICE"the testing of the urine".  As the girl pees, Buppert sticks his nose in the stream.  He then opens his mouth and with a quiver separates his lips.  His eyes are closed at this point.  As expected the stream drips down his beard.  Like a habitual smoker, Buppert's once brown goat tee is stained yellow.

On a hot day Buppert would come chill under the porch.  Sometimes he would get caught outside the fence by a rainstorm and couldn't make it back to his little building in the field in time.  He would post up with the dog under the porch.  I went away for a week or so and had a friend watch the place for me.  They apparently didn't watch it too hard because all of the goats got out.  They had enough time to make it up the driveway to the neighbors house where they would play with the kids and drink water from the baby pool before they were herded back down the road at night time.  I will see about getting pictures of that.

I let "Bupe" into the house one time.  He walked around the kitchen and the den.  He seemed to approve.  I was worried that he would poop and I didn't want that to happen so he went back outside.  Bupe is the man.

Mending the fence around the goat pasture took way too long.  Every day "Bupe" was out in the AM, home in the PM.  Several hundred T posts later, new clips, electric top line, and a good stretching Buppert hasn't come to visit.  I can tell he is resentful sometimes.  I think he enjoyed his time to himself away from his girls.

A Day of Rest

Today my parents stopped in for lunch.  I am going to meet them later in Danville for dinner with my aunt and grandmother.  They were excited to see the guineas and for the quick tour.  My mom said she needed a nap after driving all morning so they went to my grandmother's to relax before I meet them later.

In the mean time I had the opportunity to put together the log splitter.  I opted for an electric splitter over a gasoline splitter after lusting after one for a while now.  I did not want to maintain another motor.  Two years + ago I bought a Honda EU2000 generator at the recommendation of my friend Sky who had used one on a sailboat extensively.  It is extremely quiet.  Paired with the log splitter, it is the same as having a self contained gas motor but I still can split wood inside if need be, which would be poor planning.

New partially in box

Wheels are too big for the axel, easily fixable but still.

All together now,

We don't need no pallets,

let those big boxes burn.

log splitter in action

I put some cardboard on the still smoking log.  By the time I got back with the rest of the pallets the fire was raging again.

The start of the egg wash.

Making something to take to the relatives.

Hey Hey Hey and Making Wood Go Away

I woke up to four Turkeys in the yard doing their thing.  

Three days ago, I got stung at least 6  times.  Two days ago, I got stung twice more.  When the one got me on the temple, I thought I was going to be made a spectacle on 100 ways to die or something.

This week's forecast is completely sunny and nice.  Though a small thunderstorm came through as I was hooking up, it was not long before it passed and I was up and running again.  I hope to have this up in rolls by the start of next week.  

The pin drops through the shackle on the mower and the hitch on the tractor.

The mower's color clips to the spline on the PTO.  Then you are good to go!

Looking back after the second pass.

Action Shot

Check our Youtube channel for additional videos from today

Late night Freddie and Phillip helped me clean up the barn and burn some excess wood.  A great plan was hatched for the location of two raised beds during the brainstorm.

Starting the fire

Mcklayne's World

We don't need no water

Let the pallets / long time empty and infested beehives burn