It was a very windy, blustery day here. Nothing like what is going on up north, but still cold. I installed the fan and vent in the greenhouse, but I think it is going to be disappointing in operation. I was envisioning a real exhaust fan something like the one in the forge, but what we got is barely enough to create a breeze, and certainly not enough to create sufficient back-pressure to open the vent. Well, cooling wasn’t a problem today, at least.
Starting seeds looks to be a mixed success. Too soon to tell what we’ll actually get, but regulating the greenhouse temp is difficult. Too hot during the day, too cold at night.
We’ve had lambs born, and we’re keeping them in the upper pasture away from Mae.
akgreen Farm Journal
Great day of blacksmithing at the farm. The Triangle chapter of ABANA met her today, and it was a good meeting with a lot of interesting work getting done. The main project was making nail-headers, i.e., a tool for making nails. Now, to be sure, hand-forged nails are not in great demand for construction these days, but the tools and techniques were important in the history of the craft. We had several men working at the main forge creating the tools, and I set up my portable forge outside with an anvil for actually making nails. It was a good setup for both learning and doing. Chris served a wonderful lunch, and everybody went home happy, I think.
akgreen Farm Journal
It has been raining all day, making life on the farm a test of mud endurance. Thank God for a dry (mostly) barn. It was not an exciting day, but we did accomplish a few things. Chris spent most of the day working on upholstery for her daughter in law. I spent most of the day in the forge with Steve Watson making the milk bottle carrier I designed. I also supervised Christopher while he installed lights in the kennel area. We now have a lighted kennel and equipment shed. The only tragedy of the day was my BBQ roast for tomorrow’s ABANA meeting. Knowing I would not have enough time on Saturday to do it, I started today around 11:00 AM with 5 picnic hams in our standard grill. Things were going great, and about 5:00 the were pretty tender but I thought maybe another hour would finish them off nicely. Big mistake. I came inside, got preoccupied, and when I remembered and went back out to the barn around 6:30 I found the grill in flames and the meat burned to a crisp. It cannot be salvaged, so if the meeting is not cancelled I will have to buy the BBQ at Allen and Son’s. Besides being a monetary loss, I hate screwing up like that. Well, live and learn.
akgreen Farm Journal
Most of the last week has been getting ready for, and then dealing with, a NC crisis: snow. Thursday and Friday we stocked up on food and fuel, fed up the animals, and tested our backup systems. The snow started Friday night and by Saturday morning the roads were impassable without 4WD. Katherine was unable to get over to milk Elderberry so Chris and I went out. Whatever magic Katherine uses to get EB to stand for milking, I don’t have. She danced, she kept her weight on the wrong side so I couldn’t reach in, she pooped and peed and I finally gave up and got out the milking machine. It did the trick in about 10 minutes. The rest of the day we worked in the barn cleaning up, starting the truck (which had evidently been left with the ignition on), and other chores. At about 7:00pm I was in the barn and when Christopher called me to come help – get Pete and Patti unstuck! Unknown to us, they had driven down from Michigan’s UP in the snow, 600 miles, only to get stuck in our driveway. Well, they were quickly extricated and inside getting warm. They stayed the night and left for Tim and Jaimie’s Sunday morning.
No church on Sunday because of the 4″ drifts and unplowed roads. We didn’t do much except milk again. I took milk over to Katherine, and roads weren’t too bad. Today was a lot warmer, and we were able to do outside chores. Worst problem was the stock well quit. Turned out to be the pressure switch, which is dicky, but seems to have recovered after being sanded. I picked up another one in town, in case I have to change it out.
Tracy and Travis came over today for some mentoring. Chris did most of the talking.
Well, that’s it for the big snow-storm. I’m glad we were prepared.
akgreen Farm Journal
How much wood can a farmer chuck if the farmer doesn’t get stuck? Well, we’ll never know. Today after wrapping up W2’s I set out with Dewey around 11:30 to cut wood. We quickly got about 1/2 truck load and with about an hour left before Dewey needed to go to class, I thought we might as well tackle a large tree that would certainly fill the truck. Cutting it down was no problem – it fell just where I wanted and – hung up at about a 45º angle. No problem – I’ll just hook a chain to it and drag it down with my 4WD Ram 2500, which I did. Except that when it was all over, the truck was axle-deep in Carolina gray clay. I called Christopher to bring me the come-along and when he arrived we set to work dragging the truck out of the mire. We were making decent progress (with this old man just about at my limit) when I broke the come-along. Incredible! but there it was. I had to either find a tougher come-along or drive our tractor all the way down to the woodlot. Dewey had left for class in Christopher’s truck, so Chris (the pretty one) had to come get us, which she did. Christopher and I set out to locate an industrial-strength come-along, which we found at CarQuest, a 2-ton model this time. If I break this I’m going on TV. Incidentally, while we were at it, we stopped at the DMV and Christopher’s driving status was promoted so he can now drive after 9:00pm. After picking up Dewey, we got back to the woodlot about 5:00 and sure enough, with the new come-along pretty much yanked the truck out of its sink-hole and headed home. Needless to say, I am sore and tired, but relieved that the truck is no longer stuck.
akgreen Farm Journal
Catching up for the last few days – rainy, cold weather discouraged much outside work on Thursday. Friday was spent grand-baby sitting, which brings us to today when, after men’s breakfast at the church the boys and I made some real progress. Chris and Dewey raked leaves, then cleaned up the Bryant’s wood and brought it home. Noah and I fabricated new bed rails for his bed, and I then started making a stand for my swage block. Christopher and Dewey also dug up the water leak in the front yard and we fixed that. Meanwhile, Chris has been starting seeds. The greenhouse is in business!
akgreen Farm Journal
Chris and I were in PA and NY from Friday-Monday. Yesterday she taught sewing classes at the Carrboro Art Center all day, while I began trying to restock our woodpile. I have permission to cut wood at a tree farm just a few miles away, and working by myself I managed to fill the truck with hardwood in about 3 hours.
Today Chris began planting – lots of little peat pots, and we have ordered plug trays to do many more. I started to send Christopher out to dig up the hydrant out by the stock tank, but in the process thought maybe it might be worth trying to change the head one more time. Amazingly, we got a good grip with my big pipe wrenches and using pipes for leverage, I managed to hold the hydrant rigid while Christopher got the handle loose. From there it was pretty much all downhill and we no longer have a leaking pasture hydrant. We may have other leaks, but that’s not one of them anymore. I also made progress on fabricating a new PTO shaft for the tiller – that should be finished in the next day or so and I can get to tilling.
Sometime in the last few days I mocked up a design for a chicken – rabbit coop. It will be a spring-summer project using the mobile home frame I bought last year.
akgreen Farm Journal
Today was a travel day for us, so the farm is in the (hopefully) responsible hands of the boys, with occasional look-ins by Diane, Katherine, and maybe Steve. Yesterday was a tax and errand day – getting 4th quarter taxes paid in the morning, then down to Pittsboro with Noah and Carl to represent the PLANT apprentices with our grant application. While there, I went to see Pat V, scouted the Southern States outlet there, and then back to Hillsborough to the gym hoping to regain enough fitness to last another year at the farm.
We will be up north through Monday, visiting Chris’ mother, and I will go on up to our former stamping grounds to see some good friends whose visiting is long overdue.
akgreen Farm Journal
This evening Chris and I presented our little talk on being apprentices at the Breeze farm. The file can be downloaded from Farmer’s Apprentice. Other than that, I have probably lined up a good source for firewood – will start cutting that next week. As for farm activities – we need to get started on our planting. We will probably do that next week as well. One of the other speakers at tonight’s class session is an expert at that.
Not much else to report.
akgreen Farm Journal
Today after coffee I marshalled the boys for the morning’s projects: finishing the fence for Christopher and getting the wood sawn up and stacked for Dewey and Noah. I did the chain saw work while they stacked. Once that was done, I wrapped up Cyril’s gift with a card. A picture of the finished product is below. The cross was forged from a railroad spike, wire brushed, and brassed to give it gold finish.
Chris and I quit early to celebrate Cyril’s birthday with a wine tasting at the Benjamin Winery, followed by dinner at the Saxapahaw General Store. It was excellent.
akgreen Farm Journal