Homestead Happenings, Feb. 2017

Keswick Dam dumping max water from reservoir

February was an interesting month at the place. Record rains and lots of flooding have been the norm this winter. Fortunately, we're mostly high and dry here but we've still had some weather related issues.

A tree snag came down onto one of our Toyota pickups. Evil bleeping knobcone pine are falling out of the sky at an alarming rate this year. The pine beetles are everywhere.

We've had to cut quite a few trees out of our driveway, will continue with the driveway woes below.

We've been cutting all these fallen trees up for firewood and burning it in the woodstove. Missy doesn't seem the least bit concerned by the chainsaw...

The driveway is an absolute mudpit right now, and every time it dries out enough to drive over it starts raining all over again. We've been hauling big chunks of rock from a borrow pit over to the worst mudholes and throwing them in so the vehicles don't get totally lost in mud. After several yards of rock ilthe situation is improved, but the water runoff going straight down the road in places and the washouts continue.

These pictures are from a tiny mud hole up toward the top of the driveway. This is a doable chore for me right now, because Colton can ride with me and watch from his carseat as I load up rocks and then drive to the mud and toss them in. I'm just now slowly getting more productive around the place again, I am having to figure out a new way of doing everything with a baby to consider.

Laetiporus Gilbertsonii, as far as I can tell

I found sulphur shelf mushrooms while putting rocks in the driveway!! These are far too old to be of any culinary interest, but from the substrate and what I can see of these molded over fruitbodies this is Laetiporus Gilbertsonii. This is a Western specific chicken of the wood species. They tend to grow on oak, and are a lighter color than other sulphur shelf varieties. You can learn more about these from the Bay Area Mycological Society here: http://www.bayareamushrooms.org/mushroommonth/sulphur_shelf.html

Water Heater Upgrade

The winter storms and freeze cycles have done in the old on demand water heater. The poor little appliance ended its life with a rather impressive popping noise, and the inside of it is damaged beyond repair now. Thankfully nobody was hurt, as basic safety precautions were taken when installing,and using it.

The old water heater was for outdoor use only, and was a smaller model. It worked for a couple of years without issue, and was well worth the money paid for it despite its short life.

Instead of replacing the heater, we opted to upgrade to something that will hopefully be easier to plumb inside and will provide water for more than one use at a time. It had to run on propane, and have battery powered ignition.

We chose a Marey heater, as it seemed to have all the options the old water had, and some extra settings for summer vs winter water heater needs. This heater has a vent stack on it, and can be installed inside. Very cool!

We built an insulated box right off the porch for the new heater, and installed the vent. The box has a hinged door on it and the whole thing was coated in a rubber seal product. It was made mostly from scrap materials that were around the place.

The heater performs well from the showering use it has gotten so far, but we still need to plumb the hot water back inside. It's a simple matter of moving an existing line from the old heater and finding a fitting to bring a T off the heater's output line. For now though, the woodstove is burning constantly and I've been bringing rainwater inside and heating it on the stove. This helps keep the water tanks full, no sense in refilling them a bunch of times during the winter when the toolshed has such a nice water catchment gutter on it.

Homestead Happenings -- January 2017

It's still wintery at the farm, but everything seems to be holding up okay. I haven't had the opportunity to be home a whole lot this month, but am spending my time there well. A few new 2017 developments are in the works.

More snow. Both the shed and trailer roofs have no issues withstanding 6 inches of wet snow on them. Good to know!

Since the buck is 'home' I bred hims back to my milking doe Opal. She should be due around may 19th if she took the first breeding.

The buck and the white cull doe are part time farm residents, usually. They formally belong to a friend, but I borrow the buck for breeding and we don't mind housing him and the white doe here for however long is convenient for everybody involved.

This buck and Opal threw a nice single buckling last year, he was a very pretty little goat! The buckling was sold as a bottle baby, and I imagine he is a spoiled little mini goat these days.

This little washing machine is very cool!! It came to me via my mom, and is very handy for washing small stuff. Here it's cleaning a load of... you guessed it... baby clothes! Very handy for me, as I usually do laundry in town just once a week. Who knew babies dirty so much laundry?!

Here are my last pair of Ganoi gamefowl. They have been turned loose because of mud and maintenance issues in their pen, and also to encourage breeding. I didn't breed these birds last year, but maybe I should have.

This rooster is very mean and I had some real reservations turning him loose... he bites and is very aggressive during feeding. The first sign of bad attitude from him on the yard is going to be grounds for execution. I don't mistreat the animals here and I won't tolerate being mistreated by them, either.

I have finally come up with a suitable name for the shed/sleeping structure I built myself. It's called the Shedroom! It still needs siding, but I enclosed a small area of the porch for storage. I do plan on making this look better when I have the time and funds for finish work.

Missy is doing well and putting on weight again. I'm still heartbroken over the stillborn 2016 calf, but have high hopes for breeding her back later this year for a spring 2018 calf. I think she needs more weight on her before breeding her, that pasture she was on really didn't do her so well. I won't breed for a winter calf EVER again, that is for sure!!

So there it is, farm progress for January 2017 in a nutshell.

Mama Love

Who is Mama Love, you ask? She's awesome, simply put. But that doesn't answer the question, so I'll provide a little bit of background.

Mama Love, or Mrs. Love as I grew up knowing her as, was my elementary school librarian once upon a time. She has spent countless hours influencing countless children in her amazing way. The selflessness and patience her job required was far exceeded by Mama Love.

I must have at one point read at least half of the total literature in the school library as it was at the time, and Mama Love was one of the few staff who never said very much about it. My nose was always in a book back in those young days of mine, and as difficult as it may be for people to understand I was always in trouble for reading. I would read at lunch breaks, before school, at home after school, in class... my reading was a problem I guess. It was all I ever wanted to do!

These days I will still spend far too much of my life reading if somebody hands me a decent book. The reality of life has lessened the intensity of my reading quite a bit, but I still enjoy it just as much ad I did as a young kid.

Today I have a whole lot more than the wonderful job Mama Love filled as a teacher and librarian to thank her for, I owe her my thanks for her generosity as well. When she found out I was having a baby, she went and found special fabric (with tow trucks on it!) and made an amazing baby blanket for him. She also sent along a handmade paw print receiving blanket and some toys, all natural wipes, and.....BOOKS!!

Thank you Mama Love, from the bottom of our hearts! I wanted to let the world know that I truly appreciate your thoughtfulness and I appreciate the lasting positive influence you have had on my life. It's such a beautiful thing that you extend your love to our next generation and I think that everyone should know just how wonderful you are!

Thank you for all of your love, Mama Love!

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!