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