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...

Those Aren't My Turkeys!!

Two new turkeys are wandering around the pasture by where the breeding toms are penned this morning. There are wild turkey here, they will on occasion fight with my birds or try to steal my hens' poults. Generally, I try to keep the wild ones away,

But these two wild turkeys I believe have 'adopted' one of our neighbors. I think this is the mom and (now grown) baby that have been hanging out in the horse paddock down the road. They spent quite a bit of time here last summer, too.

My dogs won't do anything about this mess, turkeys aren't part of their job description and uness specifically asked to herd one they will leave even wild turkeys completely alone. Apparently the dogs do not differientiate between my turkeys or wild turkeys.

I have no desire for mutt turkeys or for dealing with the diseases the wild turkeys may bring, so I never try to shoo them in with my birds or feed them so they stick around. They just do this sometimes. I did chase them away once, but as you can see it didn't do me very much good...

Enjoy the pics!

Pine Tree Removal

We recently took out a pine tree, another bug-killed knobcone pine. It had been dead since spring and was leaning over the trailer pretty far.

As the fall rain and wind commenced, the tree started leaning more and more. It was getting to where I was losing sleep worrying about the thing falling, so finally decided to take it out.

The felling job was a bit of a surgical procedure. Because it was leaning over the trailer, we couldn't just cut it down the way it stood. So we used a come along and winched the tree away from the trailer as it was being cut and while falling over, and also wedged the cut to get the tree to not fall on any of our stuff.

It fell perfectly alongside the trailer and missed the solar equipment, the new pier foundation, and our generator that were in the vicinity.

The bad part: the old dead pine fell onto an oak I had marked as a KEEP tree. The tree will live probably, but the pine split it kind of in half and knocked some branches out. Perhaps when next spring comes that opened canopy will encourage new growth?

Cordwood Shed Build: Floor Pour (part 6)

The shed project has been seeing some seriously slow progress, but is still coming along. The last rainstorm dumped water into the bottom, and I had to do some drainage above the shed in the driveway area to keep the inside from being soaked.

Rain gutters will help with the remaining part of the problem. I think I have decided to build a small covered front porch, too.

Rain pouring into shed. This was before the driveway drainage project.

Everything inside the shed is wet!

Draining water off behind the shed into the pasture.

Water bars in the driveway, have needed to do this for a long time anyway. Before this, the water ran straight down the driveway...and into the shed.

Plugged the holes between the rafters and caulking the cracks. Had to do this before putting a rain gutter on.

Peeling poles for the porch.

Cement mixer. For the floor, finally!! It's taken me awhile but yes, I am pouring a slab. Hand mixing fourty something bags of cement didn't sound too fun to me.

Pouring the first couple inches of floor. Using the first half of the concrete to level out everything inside the shed, to the best of my ability.

The cement mixer and a helper are a total lifesaver here! I can't even lift an 80lb bag of cement right now, have gotten a little bit too pregnant for that.

The end result is a little too watery, we made a mistake by washing out the cement mixer before moving it out of the way... the result was a fair bit of excess water in the mix. I am really hoping this doesn't crack the slab. Rebar on top of this portion and another layer of concrete are in the works.

Because of the extra layer of concrete going in, I didn't worry over much about total perfection. In truth I probably won't have a coronary if the end result isn't totally level, I'm doing my best though.

Fall Home and Farm Projects

Fall is here, and it's beautiful! The first rain came early for this area, there is much less dust around this week. The weather is cool enough to work throughout the day again, and there are lots of things to get done around the place.

Here's a partial rundown of the fall happenings. I say partial because there are finished projects without pictures, ones not worth mentioning, that sort of thing.

I stuffed everything for the shed inside the shed last week before the rain storm. I threw temporary plywood walls on, not enough plywood to cover it all but it helps keep the weather out of the shed. The walls will have to come back off anyhow, the whole shed needs Tyvek before any siding or sheathing are put on.

Working on the 16' x16' pier foundation out behind the trailer. Getting the stash of concrete used up before the rain. Almost halfway done with the piers now.

Feeding out the meat turkeys, they are getting big! I also locked up the wandering breeding toms, and they get to live in a covered pen for the winter. I was sick of them chasing the dogs and pooping on everything and fighting with the roosters. When the meat turkeys are gone, the horde of breeding hens will go in that pen. They're running loose around the cow paddock at present.

I'm going to need the cow pen back soon, it's almost time to bring the heifer home for calving. I anticipate quite a bit of trouble moving her this time, those Highland horns of hers don't mesh so well with our ancient straight load horse trailer...

Trying to fix the one remaining leak in the trailer roof. Roof repair is an annual event with this stupid thing, but the situaton is vastly improved since I bought this thing.

Here's a skylight I made out of the hole in the roof where the old swamp cooler was torn out. No leaks anywhere near it after a year and a half, surprisingly!!

The back of the trailer where the wood stove is. The cement backer board and tiles have been here since the stove was put in, but they were unsecured for a couple of winters.

I replaced three broken tiles (but left the busted one directly under the stove in place) and put mortar (not grout) between all the spaces and around where the stove install is. I am not sure how well mortar will work out in place of grout, but anything is better than the previously unsecured tiles. I was sick of breaking tiles, and not being able to get the dirt out from under and around the tiles and backer board spaces. It was a dusty, gross mess so I tried to fix that problem.

There are still some more things to do, like finish fixing the ruts in the immediate driveway area and recovering the firewood hoop house with new tarp. The wind blew off the old covering, and I want to keep the firewood relatively dry.

Firewood has been getting split up slowly, and is getting stacked as I go. No shortage of firewood around here, that's for sure.