Happy Holidays

Our Highland cow, Missy, would like for everyone to have a happy holiday. She doesn't care which holidays you celebrate, she just wants you to enjoy them.

Homestead Happenings- December 2016

Lots of projects around the place this month. Here's a quick update, it's mostly pictures and kind of short on words this time.
Busy busy busy.

Wiring the shed for lights, this was a headache project.

I have low wattage cool white LED lights now!

Brought the other two goats back. Lots of fence fixing, set up their paddock for electric fence too.

I need a new electric fence battery (but don't tell my dog the power of her own mind is the only thing keeping her home, please!)... all in good time.

Propane line for shed, it runs just a heater. Would like to set up a hardline here.

My new fencing job got tacoed by a dead tree. Busted up the paddock fence on both ends.

Crushed fence, overly adventurous goats, fun times. Lots of chainsawing to fix this little mess.
Got this problem mostly under control now, except for that electric fencing I had all set up. Sigh.....

Setting up and stocking the (nicely finished) studio shed for new family member. He'll be here soon!

The only thing missing is some loft bedding for myself, but I will make do with a camping pad and blankets for now.

Happy Holidays, and may you thoroughly enjoy whichever one(s) you celebrate!

First Snow

We had the first snow of the season this week. Actually, this is the first time it's snowed since we moved to the Homestead! This will be our third winter here.

I'm sure the drought hasn't helped with the lack of snow, but I really am surprised to see any of the fluffy white stuff so early in the season. Generally we would see snow in Jan-feb, if any.

The storm started around 4:30 in the afternoon. At 6:00, my deck ramp looked like this. By this time, it was dark and good pictures were out of the question.

My little Charlie Brown christmas tree out on the porch, is self-decorating. Good thing too, because my tree decorations are buried deep in our storage unit somewhere and these lights were all I could find around the place!

I haven't set up a Christmas tree in forever, this is the first one in at least 5 years. I'm not exactly sure why I bothered trying to be festive out here in the woods, it isn't like I have neighbors or anyone around to see my decorating. The colored lights do work well for porch lighting, at least. I can only have them on a few hours per night (because solar power+rain, that's why) but they're very pretty while they are on.

Snow sliding off the porch roofing.

We had a couple or maybe three inches of snow total. Unfortunately, it started raining at a steady 33 degrees and melted the bulk of it before I could get very great pictures in the morning.

Here's my little studio shed with the solar panels coated in snow. Beautiful, right? Certainly an improvement on my roofing job!

Shed progress (part 9)

Lots of things going on with the shed build right now. It's starting to really come together. The rain has slowed progress a little bit, but I can still work inside. When it isn't raining, I've been doing outside stuff like working on the porch.

Got the exterior all wrapped in Tyvek! Just in time too, it has been storm after storm lately. Now I don't have to worry about wet walls...

Here is the cordwood wall all finished with the linseed oil. I would like to trade in an extra gallon of white masonry sealer I got in for a gallon of clear sealer and protect this wall a little more. Honestly though, it isn't too high on my current priority list.

This little wall makes a great conversation piece, if nothing else.

A porch, finally! Using leftover roll roofing instead of my metal scraps, the metal just wasn't going to work for this porch's roofing.

The patchwork porch roofing is really substandard and I'm going to have to tear off and properly re-do this when it is dry. Vertical seams in the roll roofing aren't really ideal or acceptable to me, but it was just the porch section and it's what I had around for the job. It got done real quick-like during a couple of mostly dry days.

Door hardware all installed, it's got a proper handle and lock now. And, the interior now has insulation! I went with fiberglass batts for the walls and foamboard for the ceiling. It heats up quickly inside with the heater, and holds the heat reasonably well.

I insalled flashing over the sill plate and tacked the Tyvek back over the top. No more leaky leaky inside the shed now!!

This flashing goes from the bottom of the slab, over the sill plate and up onto the sheathing. I even made sure to cover the door jamb section.

A third porch pole ready to be notched and buried. I wanted the porch edge to have more support in the middle. Will install it ASAP!

Patchwork porch roof was completed between rainstorms, there are still a few wood blocks up there to help secure the roofing while the adhesive sets.

Solar panels all set up on the roof now, and hooked to the battery. My little shed officially has solar power now! I do have a small inverter I could install if I want to do that later.

1X12 pine boards for the inside walls. So far I only have a small section installed but I really like the look of this wood! I may even buy more of this and do board and batten siding on the exterior.

So that's what has been done so far...the most important stuff is almost all finished now. I will add some finishing touches such as lighting before using it, but I'll be glad to be finished with this part of the project.

I'm looking forward to using this little building, and looking forward to the addition I have planned for it. I will be able to take my time and do the addition more thoughtfully and hopefully with better quality work. Running hot and cold water inside is in the works for the addition, and possibly even a potty. I do want a little wood burning stove installed if I have space for that, too!

Shed Progress (part 8)

I'm still plugging away at my studio shed project. I've made some real progress the last couple of weeks! This is good, but it still needs more work done to it, and very soon. Working on ths project has become pretty difficult for me physically, I'm pretty pregnant these days. So, I have been getting help wherever I can and doing whatever else I can for myself.

The wall framing is complete now. The white paint below is masonry sealer...

The cordwood section is completed!!! Finally, yay! I fitted a 2x4 plate above the wall for the plywood sheathing to be nailed onto.

The door, we had a lot of trouble with this but Dad finally got it wedged into its framing. I'm really happy about this because it keeps the bugs out. I still need to put a doorknob on, but the hard part is all finished.

The plywood sheathing is complete now! The shed is now officially an enclosed structure.

Here's the next step I did, taping up the seams between the plywood pieces with hurricane tape. The tape was just laying around in storage. This should add an extra layer of wind and weather protection. And because bugs, that's why.

Here is the cordwood wall, being treated with liseed oil to preserve the ends. The oil really makes a difference in the look of the wall!

So there's the current status of the studio shed. The next step is to wrap it in Tyvek vapor barrier, then I will either put the porch on it or insulate it after that.

This hay shed project is turning out to be very complicated and interesting. I do think the end result will be worth it though.

Mushroom Foraging- Oyster Mushrooms

I have the good fortune of living in an area with quite a diverse mycological array. I find bright purple mushrooms, pink mushrooms, orange jelly fungus, lots of beautiful and diverse specimens.

But what I really like, are my prized Boletes and Oysters.

The fall 2016 season is getting well underway, the early rains have really helped. Usually I don't find any boletes until it is close to freezing in temperature, but there are some other fall goodies that I've seen popping up.

The Agrocybe praecox are doing well this year, I personally don't eat this species but it can be done.

The Oysters are popping, which is what I really like to see. I have a special spot on our property across the creek, where I have been gathering oyster mushrooms off the same hardwood stump for a few years now. Its location and details are top secret, known only to those in my household!

Today, I kind of just had an urge to go look in my spot and see what I could see. I'm glad I did!! Maybe I could hear the mushrooms calling out to me, I don't know how else to try and explain this. I just HAD to go look, immediately.

I found a nice haul of Oyster mushrooms in the expected spot. Oysters are easy enough to identify of you pay very close attention to detail, and as a bonus I have actually cultivated oyster mushrooms before so feel very comfortable with IDing them.
Oyster mushrooms are one of my foolproof foraging species, something I am never afraid to bring home with me and cook up for dinner.

Here's what I got today. These were chilled until evening in the refrigerator then carefully cleaned up, sliced and thrown into the soup pot with some beef and vegetables. They are delicious!

Shed Progress (part 7)

The shed is coming together well. Working between rainstorms has made the progress kind of slow, also I'm getting a little bit too big and awkward to want to climb a ladder or do too much of anything at once.

Here's the latest progress.

The morning after the initial concrete pour, we laid rebar and poured more on top of that. Ideally it should have been done in one pour, but I'm doing the best I can here! Levelled to the best of my ability. In truth, I'm beyond caring about this being totally level or square. It isn't, and I'm over it.

I put bolts in for the baseplate that had to go in the front. Cutting the baseplate to fit around that loft support post and the holes for the bolts was quite the chore.

Framing the walls in. 2X6 framing, yada yada. 16" on center. This is happening a lot faster than the cordwood wall, let me tell you!

I painted the floor with Drylok concrete sealant, also the baseplates and insides of the cinder blocks. I want to keep the damp out! I haven't quite achieved this yet but now when it rains almost no water gets inside. So, almost... we're workin on it.

Plywood undersheathing. It's starting to look like a real building now!!

We purchased a roll of homewrap for the vapor barrier. There is still one more wall to finish before I wrap three walls of this shed in plastic like a burrito.

Remember the porch poles I was peeling and lopping? All finished, I could have done a better job but these poles are going to live outside anyway... pole prep is more time consuming than you might imagine!

In these pictures I've covered the bottom of the poles in tar. This is supposed to slow the poles from rotting off in the ground. They are all ready to plant now.

So that's the latest and greatest with the shed. If progress keeps up this fast, it may actually get rough finished by the time it gets really cold. We'll see...