New Stove

Finally got the new stove hooked up. We had ordered the wrong parts from the manufacturer and had to order a different part from a company in Northern Kansas. A 3 week delay due to the manufacturer being on back order for the wrong parts and then waiting a couple days for what we needed to be shipped down we were finally able to put a fire in her last night. Boy is it nice to have a wood stove back and boy is she a nice one! Our last stove was "Thomas", he was the little stove that could. This stove is entirely too purdy to be considered a he so maybe we should call this one "Thomasina".  Jeremiah says it's too powerful to be a girl and he says he's purdy...stalemate, ha ha.

At any rate, burning in it is different, it heats up slower, which isn't a bad thing...the stone takes a while to get hot. Saturday night I put a decent size log in at 8 and there was a good amount of well burned coals in it it this morning to put another good size log in and have it catch this morning. The damper was all the way down, the end of the hall was 72 degrees, living room was neither blazing last night or cold like normal with the other stove at 7 AM. The temp. outside was 44. Not freezing but not warm either.

We're happy!

We went and got a piece of plywood and some tile it for a backer. The stove should be 24" away from the wall. The last stove only needed to be 16" away as it had a deflector. Don't need the timbers in the wall drying out and breaking so the chore this week is to tile the plywood and grout it. We lucked out because as we were pulling the plywood off the shelf an employee was walking by with a piece of 3/8" that he had cut for a customer that was going into the scrap because the guy didn't need it that was the perfect size for or project so it was free!!! Can't beat that. 

Halloween came and went. Last week Saturday we joined some friends at their lot on a local lake for a party/get together. Last week I spent prepping for a craft fair on Saturday for our county 4-H. Thursday I spent the afternoon with the kids at school for their Halloween parties and by Saturday night I was exhausted.

Jeremiah had a student over Saturday morning while Rachel and I were gone to help him clean up the wood pile. They had every intention of splitting all the wood as a surprise for me when I got home but the tractor has been acting up so that was a no go. There was water in the hydraulic lines so Jeremiah drained and refilled 2 times and it's working much better now. The truck has been acting up, the relay on the glow plugs was going out so he changed that and it seems like in this never ending circle of things needing to be done, other chores fall to the wayside.

I have been after Jeremiah for a year to get that shop cleaned up and little by little we make progress and then after all the chores and fixing, it's a disaster again. The garage is cleaned and I appreciate that because it's imperative in the winter not to be falling over things nearly killing ourselves dressing and undressing from barn chores. I cannot tell you the huge load of stuff we took off to the Goodwill! I try to give this stuff away for free and people say they'll come and get it and never do. So much of it is auction "throw in" stuff that follows us home. Meaning, we didn't really want it but to get the item(s) that were being auction we did want, we had to take the throw in stuff. Some of it, you just wouldn't believe...brand new in the box <insert item here> and people just won't come and get it so we've gotten wise and the chore when we get home from the auction is to sort it right then and there and whatever we don't want or need, it goes directly to the give away. 

Oddly enough, the whole auction thing has become a little bit of a side job. We enjoy the auctions very much and bring home some really nice things that we can either use or need. Some of it is by chance we pick it up and re-sell the large items and pay for everything we bought for the day so it works out! The kids HATE the auctions, oh how they hate them.

Snow had her (small) litter of pups 4 weeks ago, a male and a female. The male will be following us to California. A goat friend of mine will be adding him to her farm. The female may stay here locally but I'll start advertising her pretty soon here. They are cute as can be at this age.

November has stayed pretty warm though people are expecting a bad winter. All the weather "experts" are expecting it to be warm this month. We had 2 days of rain last week and got more than an inch of rain between the two. November and Dec. are usually pretty dry.

The colors this fall are simply amazing. I wish we had more orange and red leafed fall trees but the cottonwoods and hedge trees are in full color...though after the wind we had yesterday I am sure all the trees are bare now. Driving to town on 4th is beautiful...all the trees lining the road are so vibrant and as much as I hate poison ivy, it's the only pop of red color so it really does look very beautiful right now.

We're expecting a big storm to roll in tomorrow and temps are dropping into the 50's. I threw out some wheat seed last week into the pastures and the dang turkeys multiplied to about 50 head overnight from the original 20 or so we've had hanging around and I am sure there's probably not a seed left out there! Jer said he's going to thin them one of these days. We need them thinned by about 3 dozen. That would feed the dogs for a while! Stupid turkeys.

The chicken coop is winterized (meaning we replaced the metal roosting poles with wood). The sow is probably bred again for a mid-Feburary littler, most of which I think we'll keep and raise on pasture and goat's milk and sell for those looking to put a half or whole hog in the freezer. I expect to raise another brood of layers in about January from the incubator if our hens will be laying at all. I've learned that fall chicks will molt the following fall where as the spring chicks will go a year and a half so that should ensure eggs more regularly.

This time of year the wind howls almost constantly and it's wearing. I'm still hanging clothes out on the line while it's still nice though tomorrow I'm hoping to process the last of these 3 bushels of apples we bought while it rains outside. I've made some outstanding pie filling and applesauce so far. The garden is kaput. I have some furniture I'd like to refinish that I've bought here and there and I had better get on that before it's too cold in the garage.

It's nearly time to get the kids up for school. I'll end for now. Have a great week.

A fall post

Fall is upon us! Today is overcast and windy and in the 60's, nice fall weather. This past weekend was gorgeous! We took a mini-working vacation up to Lawrence (upper NE corner of the state about half an hour west of Kansas City) to attend the Mother Earth News Fair. Originally we were just going to go up for the day but in the last week the guest speaker line up was finally posted (or that's when I finally saw it!) and both of us wanted to see what was being offered on opposite days so I hurriedly called the neighbors to see if they could feed and we left out early Saturday morning before the break of dawn.

It was a whirlwind weekend, that's for sure! It takes so much just to get ready to go anywhere for an overnight trip and it's difficult to remember that no one knows the inner workings of this place like I do. It's never more apparent than when I have to leave and while I know that there are others perfectly capable, even having to explain which spigot to use for which animal becomes a chore to remember for me. I go out every morning to do chores and it's second nature and writing it all out so that someone else knows to "feed the chickens in the roving coop in the pen closest to the pigs" because there are 2 roving coops with different aged chickens for different purposes along with the free ranging layers!

Anyway, I have complete faith in the few who I leave the farm to while I'm gone and I am so glad we got the opportunity to go! I hadn't started out wanting to go to the bee keeping presentations but oh so glad I did! We met some friends up there who were also staying for the whole weekend and she and I listed to 2 hour-long sessions on bees. Jeremiah and I have talked about bees for a long time, wanted to get them but like everything else, in due time. However, after this weekend, that's our next animal project for next year and I am so super excited! There is a lot to plan for and this winter will be the perfect time to read up here and there so that by spring, the perfect bee-gettin' time, we'll be ready...or as ready as we'll ever be, anyway.

It was pretty amazing, this "fair". It was like Disneyland for me, so much to learn and do and it was nice to get away with the kids and not have to do anything, if we didn't want to!

In other news, the new stove isn't hooked up yet. I have been asked quite a few times if it is. We had to order a couple parts and so for now its just sitting in out living room waiting. We haven't needed it quite yet anyway. We do need to get started on getting wood split here pretty soon.

Three weeks ago I thought I lost my favorite hen to a fox because I didn't see her come out of the coop when I opened it one morning. She hadn't been around all day either. I don't name the chickens but I do have a certain amount of each breed so I keep track of them by how many of each I can count. The next day she showed up and the day after I didn't see her and didn't again for about 4 days. I thought for a while I was crazy in how many of her kind I had counted the day before when I thought I saw her but it sealed the deal when she disappeared and showed back up again and I knew at that point she had a nest she was sitting on, "gone broody" they call it. Last Friday I was picking up some tools that had been left out and finally found her in a stack of tire walls we had piled up (our neighbor takes big tractor tires, cuts off the "walls" and uses the cylinders as raised bed planters). We ended up with the walls for a project. Whether or not we ever get to that project is anyone's guess but she had made herself a nice hidden nest nonetheless.

I didn't expect her to hatch anything out, she's a younger hen, only February born and her first brood. However, this morning at chore time I went out to give her some food so she wouldn't have to get off her nest and she had cheeping coming from underneath her. She hatched out 4-5 of quite a few eggs so I am happy with that! One was dead and one didn't hatch from the egg and there are still a few unhatched eggs so I will leave her be for the time being until she gets up and leaves that nest. I may take the chicks from her too to raise. It's kinda sad but hens don't grieve too much and there are just too many things that can get baby chicks around here, mainly aerial predators and these chicks are all females from what I can tell.

I learned to feather sex chickens earlier this year. Not all breeds can be feather sexed but most can and I am pretty accurate! Rachel wanted some of her own chickens to raise up for 4-H this year and the local farm store gets 2 batches of chicks in the fall to sell so I went down and got her 2 Barred Rocks (black and white sort of speckled chicken) and 3 Buff Orphingtons (big fluffy super docile buff colored chicken). A week later the general manager -who is on a farm site I am on- announced all in stock poultry was half off and so I went back down to pick up some Australorps too (they are an all black bird with a iridescent green sheen to them).

It just so happened they had a whole tub full of "fry pans" -which are generally roosters of the laying breed variety that people raise up for meet. They take a lot longer to raise to butchering age than actual meat bird breeds and there isn't a whole lot of meat but they are cheap so people buy them-. However, these "fry pans" were straight run (meaning not sexed at the hatchery so they could be male or female) and just by looking at wing feathers I cold tell there were an awful lot of pullets in there! So, for 90 cents a piece I picked up another 3 buffs and another 3 barred rocks and which made 9 pullet chicks! Then, I hatched out 13 from the incubator a few days after I picked up the chicks at the farm store and only 3 of them were cockerels (based on feather sexing) and so we've got a lot of pullets and that's never a bad thing!

It's strange that the ratio of males to females that I've gotten out of the 3 good hatches from the incubator have been pullet heavy.  I am not complaining, believe me! With as many as we loose to foxes, I'd just assume be pullet heavy though we do keep several roosters too. Anyway, that's the chick update.

All the piglets have been sold and are off to their new homes. We hadn't planned to breed Snow (the dog) until next spring but I made a slight mistake and let her out of the containment pen too early and there's no such thing as family planning in the dog world so we had new pups a week ago last Friday...just 2 and (fortunately) but unfortunately I have more people wanting them than I have pups! This place never seems to be long without baby animals of some kind!

It rained last night and was fairly windy. Today is clear and cool and it looks like our days of high 70s and 80s are a thing of the past. Time to start remembering morning jackets and no longer are we enjoying warm evenings where it's light until after 9 PM....I'll end this for now. Today is grocery shopping day and there are lots of errands to run. It's not my favorite day by any means but necessary.

Have a great day...


 

Auction bound

Where to begin, kinda hard when I don't even know where I left off last. Things are usually busy around here but it seems the past 4 weeks have been exponentially busy!

I'll work backwards. Yesterday we loaded up and went to an auction outside of town. I don't even recall the reason Jeremiah wanted to go, the auction bill always holds something that catches our eye. The weather was getting a little hot there for a while, well over 90's but we got some rain this week and it has cooled down to the 70's and 80's. Yesterday was a nice day to be outside. It never fails that we come home from auctions with things we need, things we don't need and things we never new we needed and sometimes you don't think you want or need something until the price is too good to pass up =)!

Anyone who knows us knows we LOVE auctions. Not only do we make money selling the stuff we buy, it gets us away from work for a day, its a good family day. The kids hate them but we try to bring stuff along to keep them occupied and we always meet great folks at these things and it becomes a gathering place of sorts for "regulars". 

Yesterday's booty consisted of a brand new breaker box and all new breakers, something Jeremiah paid $90 for but saved us $100 and we need one for both the shop and new milk barn and would have spent well over $200 buying it from Lowes.Then some heavy duty ratchet straps which we can never have too many of. We can always use good sturdy plastic tubs with lids around here for storage and it so happened a $4 box came filled with fabric. Who could pass up that deal? Another tub had a new Kitchaide hand-mixer and there is nothing wrong with mine, I've been using it since Jeremiah and I got married but for $2 you may as well upgrade and it came with a programmable new in the package thermostat, something we've been needing.

I bought an old desk, solid oak, for $10. It needs a little cleaning up but will make a really nice telephone stand and kid work area for the kitchen. They had a lot of nice pieces there, some went for well over $600.

Then came the implements. The owners had over 28 farm gates. Where on earth a person puts so many gates is beyond me or why they didn't go with the property but whatever, those things are pricey at the store and besides being a little faded, they were all in good condition and a lot heavier weight than what we can currently buy at the farm store. We walked away with 4 for $100, $25 a pieces which saved us $100 or more.

The owners also used high tensile wire for their fencing. In fact, early in the day I was talking to the owner asking when they put theirs in and how they liked it and they've been using it 20 years, it all still looks brand new and they LOVE it. Naturally, I had to ask as we put the same thing in 3 springs ago and we LOVE ours so I am glad to hear of someone else who loves theirs just as much. It just so happens that just like us, that had a few extra rolls that they stored in the barn they never used and the rolls that generally cost $100 a piece, we got for $6 (where we'll use it I don't know because each roll is 4,000 feet and we have 4 rolls left from out project as we plan/planned to do a little cross fencing but for $6, you just can't turn that down. Which brings me to my next point. We always try to buy something that we get at a good price and re-sell to pay for all or much of what we buy at these auctions. Cattle panel and hog panels, wood lathes, vehicles, garden tools, etc. We spend the day buying what we need, a few hours selling what we don't and slow but sure we build this place for free, basically.

We often wonder why people have estate and property auctions as sometime the things just go for so cheaply it hardly seems like the owners make anything. But sometimes it's just easier to have it all go at one time, they don't have to worry about it and everything is cleared off their farm in one day, literally! Sometime there have been deaths and the family members need to make it easy.

I will admit, yesterday was an expensive day, but money well spent on things we need/may need and it still saves us in the long run. We had just got to the auction when I noticed from afar a woodstove on the porch that had been pulled out of the house. Looking closer I nearly couldn't contain myself. It was a soapstone stove, something I had wanted from the beginning as they are #1, gorgeous, but #2 exponentially better at holding their heat and getting up at 4 in the morning to reload a stove that Jeremiah only loaded 6 hours prior gets old by the end of winter. This was was in beautiful shape. I never did think I'd walk out of that auction with it. You never can tell what kind of people are there and what they'll be bidding on. I always sort of hate to see a couple of familiar ladies there as they always drive the price of furniture and collectibles up because they have a consignment shop and will pay far more than I am willing to spend on any # of things but such is life.

We ended up getting the stove $350 for it but I knew it was worth well over $2,000. Turns out, the model sells new for $3500 and getting what I've wanted all along for a fraction was well worth the cost. Not to mention we'll sell "Old Thomas" for that and basically just swap out Thomas for what I've wanted, but could ill afford, all along. We paid a little more for Thomas 3 years ago but he's saved us far more than that in heating bills and we always try to pass the savings we get at auctions on to others.

Out with the machinery and farm stuff they had an upright air compressor. Jeremiah ended up buying that and then the chipper shredder. One of those things where it would be nice to have since we have all this crappy brush but not something we intended to go buy! But much like that rototiller we bought in El Paso -the one we ended up buying because it was cheaper than renting, used it, proceeded to rent it out to a few friends and then sold for more than we paid!- it was far too good a deal to pass up! It's got an electric start and gasoline motor and I don't know why a chipper shredder would have an on board air compressor but there it is. We spent $250 on a dumpster this past spring to clear out our front woods - of which we barely made a dent in- wishing all along we had a chipper shredder and here we are, 6 months later, $175 poorer but the owners of one that will save us thousands to keep the woods cleared. Can you guess what we'll be doing today? Playing with our new toy! To say that I am excited really is true! Whether we sell it or hold on to it is anyone's guess, trees will always break and there will always be brush around here. It's resale value is about $600-700.





So that was about the end of our auction buying. We generally don't bring a trailer with us as parking is usually at a premium and we don't go too far from home for thee things (within a 15 mile radius). We drove back home and picked up a few strong helping hands to help with the wood stove and the trailer yesterday afternoon. We had been at the auction about an hour when I got a call from our neighbor saying that their horse had died the night before and wanted to know if we knew anyone who had an excavator. As it turns out, a gal down the road who we know rented one for the weekend to dig some new water lines and wanted to know if we wanted to share the rental. We had planned to bring it here on Sunday to dig out a few stumps but it appeared that we may be digging a grave instead. As it turns out, we were able to get it all dug and the horse buried with the tractor. Never thought I'd be spending the evening burying a horse, but then, I don't imagine most do! With all of that yesterday though, I think we'll just play around with the chipper shredder today and call it a an early weekend!

So ends our auction escapade. Auctions are always the place we go to finds the things we need, the things we don't and the thing we didn't know we needed =). Happy Sunday.

Complaining...about the fair.

I take the kids every year, usually alone in some respect. I put on a happy face and try not to let my disdain for it rub on the kids but I seriously HATE it. It's so hot and zaps all my energy. I took the kids out of school a little early, generally we go in the morning and are home by 2 or so and next year we're going back to that way. I feel visiting the fair is an educational experience and therefore taking them out of school is just as educational as school would be. That aside however, for as much as we did yesterday, 99% of it we do at home every single day. There was a sow in the birthing barn who had just given birth to about 9 piglets. This is thrilling for me because baby pigs are incredibly cute but what's not thrilling is that the kids don't find it thrilling...at all! Why? Because we just watched our sow give birth to 7 baby piglets 3 weeks ago and after about the 4th one was born, legos beckoned. Oh sure, they like to go out and watch them run and jump around and try to pick them up of which their high pitched sequels have the kids nearly throwing them back onto the ground before mama sow gets irritated and wants to know why we are "hurting" her brood.We just picked up new baby chicks and the ones in the incubator are about fully "cooked" and will be hatching soon and aside from the new baby bulls, which we see nearly every day we drive to town, the quilts and crafts, it's just not very exciting for them. Rachel did get a kick out of looking for the types of chickens she will be raising in the poultry barn. She wanted some more barred rocks and buff orpingtons and was quite taken aback at how big they get.

The rides are, of course, the highlights for the kids. By the time we got to the rides it had cooled down a bit at 6 PM but the people, the mass exodus INTO the fair by that time was hell on earth. The loud music and the commotion, it was just too much! I grit my teeth and bared it though but swore never again at that late an hour would I go. I told Jeremiah the next time it would be like "old times" where we are at the fair by 9 AM, go through all the exhibits and see the animals, get on the rides when they open at 11 AM and be out of there by 11:04, ha! Either that or he can take them and I will stay home because I am the "no fun" Mom anyway who puts her foot down and does not allow them to ride certain rides anyway.

We were trying to make the demolition derby at 7:30 but Jeremiah had to work late and we didn't end up meeting and I decided for my sanity, I needed to call it quits and we went home. I don't understand how people in this town can go (and WANT to go) to the fair every.single.day for the 9-10 days it goes on. Now, if I could sit and watch demonstrations like sheep sheering or one of the small concert venues, fine. Especially if it's in the air conditioned buildings but to walk around being asked over and over if I am interested in wood stoves, combines (pshttt yeah, do I look like I need a $100K combine? NO!), any of the # of farming implements, wooden signs or anything else they are trying to sell.

It felt like a week long trip in an afternoon and I am happy to be back to doing chores this morning of which laundry and canning some tomato sauce, green chile sauce & grape jelly will be the highlight...oh, and feeding baby piggies grapes!

 

Saturday Humor

Conversations with kids: Pigs and Little Lambs

 

 

Rachel and I were sitting on the couch looking at photos I had taken of the piglets a few days ago. 

 

She said, "Little piglets are so cute...but they aren't when they get older. It's amazing how that works. Oh well, I am still Great-Grandma's Little Lamb." 

 

 "...and so is that stinky pot, Drew!" 

 

<SIGH>

Wordless Wednesday: Never too early to be milk drunk!