Hidden Creek Farm

Such a Dirt Bag!

2011-03-02T07:52:00.000-08:00

So I got an e-mail this morning from a Tiny House blogger and he was talking about Earth Bag houses! You tamp earth (the clayish type) into poly bags (kind' like sand bags) and stack them for your walls. You put barbed wire between the courses to keep them from sliding and when you're done, you plaster them to seal it all and smooth it out! It's a LITTLE more complicated than that, BUT......... It costs about $11 a square foot to build one of these as opposed to $100 a square foot to build a "stick built" house! It's a pretty awsome house when it's done. Quiet, solid and insulated! Now to talk the hubby into considering such a thing. I could see myself living in a cluster of connected round rooms. I could soooooo see this! I'm hyped!

Here's a link to an instructable if you want to see what I'm talking about: click here

Back at it!

2011-02-28T19:56:00.000-08:00

Wow! It's been a long time since I posted last. A lot has happened! We finished the shed. It's closed up nice and tight and the last few times we went out to the farm there were no mice in the traps!!!! We'll see what spring shows. I'm getting the itch and am gearing up to plant seeds for the garden. Still trying new things and this year will be no different. I haven't quite got the gardening thing down yet. It's hard when you can only weed once a week, so you have to outsmart the weeds instead of out muscle them! Lots of newspaper going to be used as mulch this year. Yet another experiment.
We have to get out there for the first time this spring and prune the hundred and some apple trees. That makes for a rough day. By the end of the orchard, my cutting hand is pretty tired! Pruning marks the opening of farming season and I'm looking forward to it again!
Did you notice a new look to my blog? My daughter is getting into graphic design and web design and she did some work on it yesterday. I think it turned out pretty nice! Thank you, Rhyah!

Jeff 2 Mice 2

2010-09-14T06:08:00.000-07:00

Well, it's a slow hunt, but Jeff has gotten two mice now. Amazing how when he tells the story, his chest seems bigger!!! Last weekend, when he closed the hood of the tractor to pull it out of the shed, a mouse dropped to the floor from the engine compartment. Jeff gave it a kick as it ran and it ducked under the plywood ramp at the doorway. Jeff pulled the tractor out of the shed and went about hooking things up. During this time, one of the dogs was sniffing and digging at the ramp. Duh! The mouse ran under there! The insistent digging continued for so long, I pulled the ramp aside to find.......a flat mouse! He ran for cover, only to be squished by the tractor's weight!!!! Jeff 1 Mice 2.
This weekend Jeff went to the farm alone. He had his traps loaded and set and when he checked, one was sprung but no mouse was in it! But there was a dead mouse under the tractor! Jeff 2 Mice 2. I don't know what happens in that shed when we're not there, but it's weird. I'll be glad when all the holes are closed up and we don't have to worry about this anymore!
Some farmer I'm gonna be when I don't even like killing mice! What will I do when my hens quit laying and Jeff wants to cook them? I'll be buying eggs at the store and putting them under the hens!!!! I hate to see things die. Why am I not a vegetarian???????

Mouse Hunt

2010-08-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

For the last two weeks, Jeff has set four mouse traps in the shed baited with peanut butter. For two weeks, we opened the shed to find four traps un-sprung minus the peanut butter!!!! Mouse 2. Jeff 0.
I'm afraid the score is going to even out this week though. Jeff bought a heavier, more sensitive trap. I won't enter the shed until the evidence is gone. I can't stand the idea of their cute little bodies crushed in the traps. I know it has to be done.......but I can't be the one to do it! Yes, I'm a softy.

Found in the Hidden Creek

2010-08-21T06:27:00.000-07:00

The Butterfly Effect

2010-08-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

Something happens each year in early August that is so neat. After a good rain, when there's still moisture in the gravel on the road, the Sulpher Butterflies congregate in SWARMS. If you walk or drive down the road you do so amidst a yellow cloud of fluttering wings. I've not seen it anywhere else. That's not saying it doesn't happen, but I've not seen it before. It's just so cool!

Future Monarchs of America!

2010-08-13T07:35:00.000-07:00

We leave a stand of Milkweed just for this purpose.

There's a Mouse in the House (or how to drive a man crazy!)

2010-08-11T19:46:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, when arriving at the farm, we opened the shed to get tools and look things over. Under the front end of the tractor was a pile of gray fuzzy stuff. I reached down to feel it and determined it was chewed up foam rubber......like the stuff lining the inside of the engine compartment of our new tractor!!!!! I mentioned it to Jeff.......going ballistic doesn't quite describe his reaction. There was a LOT or stomping and ranting and words I won't print here. We decided we should look under the hood......but how to open it was a mystery. While Jeff went to look at the "tractor instruction manual", I opened the door to the gas tank. Staring back at me was "the mouse"!!!!! I don't know who was more startled....me or him! I shut the lid, then opened it again and he was GONE.....poof!
Jeff came back and opened the hood and right on top next to the filler tube was a little nest, all nice and cozy. Now came the threats of 1000 mouse traps, 10 cats and rat snakes. I say, just leave the hood open so it's not so cozy! Gotta admit, they are very cute!

And Now for Something Completely Different!

2010-08-08T11:55:00.000-07:00

Finally, the weeds around the peppers are under control and I can do something else for a change! We decided to change the color of the shed from Fire Engine Red to a more earthy brown. The old color made the shed shine like an emergency light from the road! It screamed "LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME!!!!" Not what we wanted! The temperature and humidity were down yesterday and painting was therapeutic. Jeff was trimming around the trees in the orchard so that left me and two lazy dogs to hang around the shed and paint. Alone with my thoughts, the rhythm of a paint brush and the warm sun on my bare shoulders felt like cheesecake for my soul. Every now and then I backed away to check my progress and sigh happily with a sense of accomplishment. One and one half sides to go and it's done with its chameleon change. I like it!

It happened so fast!

2010-08-02T10:01:00.000-07:00

I slept until 10 this morning and was jarred awake by the knowledge of not having paid my Visa bill on time!!!! I've been at my computer for over an hour paying the monthly bills and such.....ugh! The weekend went by far too fast. Off to the farm straight from work on Saturday evening. Just enough daylight left to make the bed and start a fire. Jeff made delicious pork chops in a cast iron skillet and corn on the cob in the wet husks over the fire. Mmmmmm! While we ate, the light show started with fireflies and stars. The bats came out and flew silently overhead. The fire died down to glowing embers and we decided to get an early start on our dreams. While JUST dozing off, there was a fluttering sound in the peak of the shed. Flashlight on and we discovered a little bat had let himself in through the still open soffits. We opened the door and he swooped out.
Somewhere in the middle of the night, one of "the girls" (our name for the pregnant cows next door) was making a lot of noise. I half expected to see a new calf in the morning, but the ladies didn't show up under the tree like they usually do. Maybe there WAS a calf and that's why they stayed under cover away from the dogs.
We slept until 8:45 and quickly realized that was a mistake when the sun finally burned off the early morning fog.

Damn! It got HOT quick!!!! Jeff sprayed while I made a final pass at the weeds around the peppers. Finally, I've got them all. Production is down this year and we have decided the soil needs some amendments. We learn more each year. While he finished spraying, I whacked weeds along the fence and around trees while the dogs lounged under their umbrella!
We went back down by the shed for Jeff to get the tractor for a quick mowing while I put a coat of stain on the shaded side of the shed. When he was done......miraculously, so was I!!!! We washed up, put on clean, dry clothes and took a nap in the hammocks before packing up to leave. Three hours til we arrived home to a pizza in the oven, courtesy of my stepson, Ryan! What a sweetheart!

I LOVE this place!!!!

2010-07-17T06:58:00.000-07:00

It was a magical weekend having guests at the farm again. My daughter, her husband and their two small children met us at the farm on Friday afternoon. Nadija, who is a textbook 3 1/2 arrived hugging her 3 "Pretty Ponies" with a big smile. Kainen, who is JUST starting to walk was a bit less excited because he wasn't being allowed on the ground as much as he would have liked.

The very first things that we discovered upon our own arrival were a nest of baby mice in the bag that originally housed the toilet paper! And a nest of baby wrens tucked into a roll of fencing in the attic of the shed! And when Jeff moved one of the stones around the fire pit, he found a slithery inhabitant! A young Fox Snake. I love this place!

The evenings were the most awesome part of the weekend. As the sun went down, the entire landscape changed. First the fireflies woke up and started to twinkle like tiny flash photographers everywhere we looked. Of course we had to chase them and catch a few to hold in wonder and awe. Then the stars poked through the dark blue velvet sky. One by one they flicked on their lights until there were a bazillion over our heads. After we were blanketed by stars, the bats joined us in the field, silently feeding on bugs in the night. With a small fire burning, we sat, with big grins, watching the night show. Much better than TV!!! I love this place.

The morning brought breakfast by Nick. Sausage, peppers and eggs over the fire. A yummy way to start our day! The guys went and did guy things and Rhyah and I "relaxed" around camp keeping two little ones out of trouble!! The hammocks were a big hit and made great nesting places for napping children. (The adults nap there, too!)

While the kids slept, I found a perfect, leftover board under the shed, and some leftover rope from the hammocks. Four holes drilled in the board and a few simple knots and all we needed was a perfect branch. Imagine the smile on a little girl's face finding she has her very own swing in a tree! "More, Grandma! Higher!" It's the stuff good memories are made of! Have I said "I love this place"?

When the guys got back from doing guy things, we all sat in chairs under the "swing tree" and rested in the shade. That's when I brought out the old wash basin and filled it with water pouring from the field tile. I can't believe how much fun those two kids had in such a small pool with no toys! Why do we feel we need to bombard our children with so many colorful toys when the fun is really in the water and the company!

After his swim, baby Kainen got held up for a blessing by the "farm Gods". Luckily his bladder wasn't full or there would have been a Christening, too!

Later in the evening, tractor rides were in order. Kainen got his sitting still with Mama. Amazing how little boys are drawn to machinery. The minute he saw the tractor he started pointing and making "brrrum brrrrum" sounds.

Nadija got a full tour of the pasture with Grandpa. "Faster, Grandpa, faster!"

The next morning, after the tent got packed up, kisses blown and they left, the place got very quiet again. The peace was nice, but I missed them terribly. So I went to pull weeds around my peppers. I'll say it again........"I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!!!" It seems to satisfy a hunger in all of us in a different way.

Refreshment

2010-07-14T16:08:00.000-07:00

I gotta tell ya, this weekend was a blast. But more about that later......
Jeff and I were winding up the 3 day weekend working in the garden and the orchard in the hot sun. The weeds had taken over the garden in the 3 weeks since I'd been there and the effort to pull them made a sweat ball out of me. Off to the west were some full bellied, black clouds grumbling. The wind started to offer some relief with the approaching storm. We called it quits and headed down to the shed to get our supplies out of the weather......just in time. The clouds cracked like morning eggs and dumped their contents in a desperate attempt to relieve their heaviness. Opportunity knocked. A bar of soap and a basin of water in pouring rain. What could be better to clean up a "sweat ball"????? I stripped down and took a "shower" under the watchful eyes of neighboring cows!!!! Dried with a fluffy towel and dressed in clean shorts and tee shirt, it was time to swing in the hammock to the tune of the pouring rain on the steel roof. No sweeter lullaby has ever been played. I never wanted to come back to civilization!!!!

A White Shirt Makes a Difference!

2010-05-31T20:16:00.000-07:00

This was a very productive weekend!.....Finally! Jeff got the new adapter for the power take-off to run the tiller from the old tractor. He went over the remaining part of the garden and really tilled it up good. While he was tilling the garden, I was back at the shed getting things ready for the evening. It was pretty hot out and I figured we would probably sleep with the windows open this time and screens would be nice. We had brought along screen fabric a couple weeks ago, but there was nothing to make a frame with. I thought we might just tack the material around the window frame as a temporary measure, but then I started using my brain. We had some old lath laying around that was used to stake the locations of the piers when we first started the shed. Each one was 1 1/2" wide and about 4' long. I measured the inside of the window frame and cut and mitered the lath to fit inside the frame.

I pushed screen into the opening in pushed the "frame" in piece by piece on top of it. The miters kept the corners snug without any nails or fasteners. They worked like a charm!!!!

   We retired early after stargazing and slept bug-free all night. It was nice going to bed that night with a little bit of light. I had purchased 2 cheap solar garden lights at K-Mart and brought them with. They made a nice soft light in the shed while we got ready for bed.
   One thing that made this trip more comfortable was being able to wash up before bed. We had an old enameled wash basin at home. It was sitting, unused, under a table. It now, proudly hangs on a nail on the back wall of the shed (in fact, you can see it in the picture where I'm sawing). We keep a 7 gallon jug of water sitting on the picnic table in the sun. By bedtime, it's nice and warm. I never knew how good it felt to wash the dirt and sweat away with water heated by the sun. I think the things that make me the happiest out at the farm are the ones that come about by using our heads and figuring out a way to do something with what we have available. Something as simple as making a working broom out of twigs just makes me proud in my soul. It's a good feeling. One that keeps me going.
   The next morning we got up early and headed to the orchard for spraying and planting. I brought a white tank top this time as the sky was cloudless and the temperature and humidity were both high at 8 am. Jeff sprayed the apple trees while I planted the rest of the garden. He had 120 trees to spray and I had 50 more jalapenos, 7 watermelons, 13 pumpkins and 3 rows of corn to plant! We finished about the same time. Jeff had bailed about 60 gallons of water into a tank to bring to the plants, so we gave everything a good drink and after 5 hours working in the hot sun, we could hear the hammocks screaming for us!!!!

We had some lunch, took a nap in swinging hammocks, packed and headed home, smiling, after another working weekend.

It was a HOT one!

2010-05-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

I was dirty, sweaty and melting! And I only had 26 of the 60 Jalapenos in the ground before I called it quits. Stupidity got me into this fix. I only brought a BLACK tank top and BLACK shorts to work in. And I was planting the peppers in BLACK landscape fabric!!!!! OUCH!

I thought it might be age-related fatigue until I thought about what I was wearing and where I was standing! No, I'm not THAT old, but I think I've lost my mind! What makes me want to spend my weekends sweating my ass off in the hot sun instead of sitting on my porch in the suburbs sipping an ice cold Pepsi? Dayle has truly gone bonkers, me thinks! No......I'm just working hard at making a place where we can grow old and have good home grown food and quiet times. After reminding myself that I could plant more next weekend, I joined Jeff down by the shed and we had a couple sandwiches and decided to take a nap in the hammocks I made.

They were made for sleeping in the shed at night, but they didn't have specific instructions that said you couldn't nap in them!!!! So nap, we did! We were inside the shed with all the windows and doors open, listening to nothing but bird songs and swinging in the shady breeze. Slumber came easily and dreams were good. What a great way to end a weekend of hard work!!!!

A Very Good Day

2010-05-18T11:26:00.000-07:00

We finally picked up the new tractor 2 weekends ago. Had to rent a trailer to get it out to the farm. Our trailer wasn't rated for the extra weight. This thing has more knobs and switches than any car I've ever driven. And starting it is a whole new experience. It's a diesel engine, so you have to start the glow plug for 5 seconds before you turn the key to start it! We read all the instructions and got it started, off the trailer and hooked up to the cultivator and Jeff played with his new toy!

When we got the new garden expansion done, we headed to the shed to finish screwing the floor down. As you recall, we beefed up the floor with concrete piers. After the piers were in, Jeff put extra 2x6 joists between the piers. These fall directly under the wheels of the tractor. Obviously it worked!! The folded roll bar cleared the top of the door by 1/2"!!!! Whew!

Things forgotten and Accomplishment

2010-04-19T08:42:00.000-07:00

This farm trip was a good one. We left here about 2:30 in the afternoon and got to the farm just before 5:30. Enough daylight was left to set up camp. We started "unloading" the shed. We had stored a pile of 2x4's and a bunch of other stuff over the winter. Most of it had to come out. THEN.....the very first thing we discovered we had forgotten was the broom!!!! The floor was filthy and we had to put our bed there!

I grabbed my pruners and cut a bunch of little twig "weed trees" that were popping up all over. They were straight and small and had little leaves on them. I bundled them together with string and swept the floor with my new broom!!!! It worked really good.....not "Swiffer" good, but it got it clean enough to camp on!!!!

While I set up the "bedroom", Jeff cut firewood for cooking and warmth. Jaeger got into the act and helped carry wood. Jeff would put a small log in Jaeger's mouth and he would run over to me and drop it by the fire pit. Then Jeff would call him back and repeat the process. I think the boy carried 4 or 5 logs before he tired of this new game.

We took an old grill out of the shed and Dakota was giving it extra attention. We took the cover off and discovered what had happened to most of the little rug we left there in the fall! Some little mouse had a cozy home for the winter! We covered it back up and left it alone.

We got the fire blazing in the fire pit and then discovered the second thing we had forgotten......the brats for dinner! ugh! BUT.....I had made a BIG batch of ground baloney with Miracle Whip and pickle relish for lunches. Enough that we could have this for dinner, too! So it was sandwiches and cole slaw for dinner. The ambiance at this "restaurant" was much better than the food. The moon came out in a clear twilight sky and then as it darkened more, a gazillion stars!!!! It was a beautiful evening.

When it came time to retire, we went about filling the Kerosun heater we brought along and discovered the THIRD thing we forgot!!!! The funnel....argh! We always bring the tool bag, and in that bag is a nice pair of tin snips. One empty Pepsi can and a pair of snips and, VOILA......a funnel!! Heater filled and fired up, we had a pretty cozy night in the shed. It was down around 30 outside and we had to be a toasty 45 or 50 inside. We slept well.

After a breakfast of bacon and eggs, we had to take everything out of the shed......including the floor. The reason for this trip was to reinforce the floor to accommodate the new tractor weighing in about 1000 pounds more than the old one. We dug 42" deep holes and filled them with concrete up to the bottom of the floor joists. How do you mix concrete where there's no running water, you ask? Well, you take buckets to the creek and carry them back full of water!!!! And since the floor was gone, we had to carry the concrete in buckets to the holes. Jeff mixed the concrete in the wheel barrow and filled buckets for me to pour into the holes. Yes, we did it the old fashioned way. Hopefully this will keep the floor from caving in under the weight of the new tractor!!!!!

All in all it was a good trip. We accomplished all we set out to do. We even made a list of things to remember next trip!!!!! LOL

Today......we are sore!

New Tractor

2010-04-16T08:07:00.000-07:00

The new tractor and mower deck are in!!! I can't wait to use it.....like I'll have a chance with Jeff having his new toy! We have to put a couple concrete piers under the floor of the new shed since this tractor is about 1000 pounds heavier than the old one. Can you imagine us pulling it in for the first time and having it fall through the floor, taking the walls and roof with it???? Hence the concrete! We need to pick it up soon so we can enlarge the garden and mow the orchard. Are we nuts doing this???? Sometime I wonder!

Pruning Time

2010-03-29T06:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the first trip out to the farm (for me) since November. Jeff went out in December and put windows in the shed. What a difference that makes. And they open on hinges, too! Next is doors.

In two weeks we get our brand new, Massey Ferguson tractor. Our old International was on its last legs all summer and finally died the day we tried to put it in the shed for the winter! So it is still sitting under a tarp in the pasture. Poor baby will be sold off for parts, I'm thinkin'.

Yesterday's trip was made so we could get the apple trees pruned and fertilized before they blossom. I think we've got about 110 trees right now. It took about three and a half hours, but I got them all pruned while Jeff dug around each tree and applied fertilizer. Here's a before and after shot of one tree. I didn't pick a very good photo subject, but you can get the idea. You basically take out any vertical growth. Then train new growth by choosing where to make cuts to force new branches to grow horizontally. This particular tree will take a couple years to get growing in the right shape. I'm still no expert, but I'm getting a LOT of practice!
Most of the trees look like bare skeletons now. JUST the way an apple tree should look in the spring!

Visitors at the Farm (continued)

2009-11-07T08:14:00.001-08:00

I've been so busy with work lately and too tired when I get home to finish telling about our visitors!!!!

When my daughter and her family arrived, I changed hats from carpenter to Grandma! I started the fire back up and got it ready to roast hot dogs. Nick immediately took over my job as carpenter assistant and he and Jeff got the roof up rather quickly. After a quick lunch I uncovered the tractor and took Nadija for her first tractor ride. She's a natural and all smiles.

We took our little entourage on a tour of the corn field and we picked an ear as a souvenir. While we were out having our fun on the tractor, Kainen was comfortably snuggled to his mama's chest keeping warm.

All in all, it was a day filled with work, fun and play and as the sun started getting low in the sky, there was evidence of a good time had by all.

Visitors at the Farm

2009-10-31T21:02:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning we forced our way out from under layers of sleeping bags and comforters. And nothing.....I mean NOTHING is worse on a cold morning than putting your feet in icy-cold shoes!!!!! I take that back. There's one thing that equals it and possibly exceeds it! That's dropping "trou" to take a pee when the grass that tickles your butt is white with frost!!!!!

The sun was shining and Jeff got the fire going and cooked breakfast while I got some stuff put away in our "bedroom". While the bacon sizzled in the crisp morning air, a hot air balloon floated over the ridge to the south. That should be me up there! Jeff has promised to put me on a hot air balloon. All I have to do is set up the appointment. Seeing this was a great incentive!!!!

After breakfast we started right in on the roof. Mostly to get it done, but working also warmed us up. Soon we were down to sweatshirts and making good progress. We got 2 sheets of the metal roofing up when our guests arrived. My daughter and her husband and their two kids came to see the farm for the first time. And what fun we had. More about that in my next post.

Stars and Shivers

2009-10-21T07:29:00.000-07:00

So we get to the farm after visiting the potters and set up camp. I'm thinkin' "This is gonna be really nice having 4 solid walls around me while I sleep. We will be MUCH warmer than we were in the tent two weeks ago!!!" Man, I couldn't have been more wrong! We built a fire under a cloudy sky and Jeff cooked up dinner while I got our "home" ready in the shed. (Note the open gable under the roof peak.)

After dinner we just sat around the fire for a couple hours and listened to the coyotes come out of their dens and talked and ate roasted marshmallows. Around 10 pm we looked up at the sky and the clouds had moved out. We could see the Milky Way!!! It looked like a mist across the sky, but when we looked at it with the binoculars, it was a gazillion little stars!!!!

With everyone falling asleep sitting up, I think we crawled into bed around 11 pm. We had four sleeping bags. We were each inside one, with another one over the top of us. The dogs were on the bed with us for additional warmth. I threw my coat over my feet and Dakota. Jaeger was snuggled up between Jeff and me. We could lay in bed and look at the stars through the open gable......which also let cold air in!!!!!
Around 2:30am I felt the bed vibrating!!!!! Jaeger, who has a very light coat, was shivering next to me!!!! I climbed out of my bag and grabbed a big comforter that we had thrown on the floor for the dogs (ha!) and threw it over the entire pile of us. He settled down and we got some shut-eye. Sleeping wasn't as sound as it was out there 2 weeks ago when it only got down to 39 degrees. We bottomed out at 28 degrees this time and it was a fitful slumber with trying to keep warm and all!!!

Saturday's Pottery Stop

2009-10-19T09:45:00.000-07:00

I didn't post last week after going to the farm on Sunday because.......Sunday was my only day off from work. Long drive out, long drive back and lots of work in between. Then work the following morning! ugh! And we had an employee quit and "guess who" gets to cover all his evening hours!!!! double ugh! So enough of my pity party.....
Last weekend we got the trusses up and the OSB board on the roof. Getting those big 4'x8' sheets on the roof with just the two of us was quite the undertaking. Jeff boosted one up onto the edge of the roof while I was inside the shed on a ladder. I grabbed and held on while he got a 2x4 to push it further up to me. When I got a good hold on it, I pulled it up the back side of the roof, balanced it over the peak and down the front side of the roof. We had to bring it all up from the back side since the shed is built on a slope and the front side is too tall to reach from the ground. When I got the piece onto the front side, Jeff ran around to the ladder and nailed the leading edge so it would stay put. Then, with both hands free, we finished nailing it the rest of the way together. When all the pieces were nailed in place, we tacked a tarp over the top of it all and called it a day.

THIS weekend was another story. We opted to drive out Saturday afternoon and visit some local potters that hold an annual tour of their studios. Right before we left, Jeff discovered one wheel on the trailer was loose. Looks like we might have a worn bearing, so everything in the bed of the truck got crunched in Tetrus fashion to make room for the stuff on the trailer! Everything but the ladder fit and it went on the roof. We got there later than originally planned and only got to stop at the potters that set up around the outdoor, wood fired kiln. A bit about this kiln, cuz I think it's soooooo cool.

The opening is big enough for me to stand inside and it takes them an entire day to load the thing correctly. When it's all loaded, it takes another day to brick up the doorway and cover it with adobe. Here's a picture of the back of the kiln so you can get an idea of what it would look like closed up.

When it's sealed tight, they build a fire in the firebox on the chimney side and burn that fire for 12 hours just to heat up the chimney and cause draft. Then they fire up the box on the side opposite the chimney. This is the real thing. When it gets going, the temperature in the kiln gets up to 2350 degrees!!! The fire has to go from the firebox, over a baffle, around all the pottery and down through vents on the floor of the chamber THEN up the chimney. Even then, a 6' flame shoots out the chimney. Someone has to be present the entire 48 hours it's firing. When it's done, they let it cool for four days, then open it up and take the pottery out!!! It's certainly not a simple thing to fire a few pots, so a co-op of potters all use it and tend it together. Here's the side of the kiln where they heat up the chimney.

And here's where they add the wood to the main firebox.

And here are two pieces we bought that were fired in this kiln.

The one on the left is a platter that will be perfect for Christmas cookies. The one on the right will hold the first pumpkin pie made from my own pumpkins!!!!
More about our first night sleeping in the shed in my next post!

Extreme Emotions

2009-10-05T08:22:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago (yes, I've been busy and I'll explain with what), we started building the shed walls. Things went well, and in a few short hours, Jeff and I had four walls and a roof framed in.

While Jeff was tacking things down tight, I decided to take the tarp off the tractor and mow the "pasture area" where the shed is located. The tarp was literally covered completely with Box Elder bugs. Not being a bug lover, I used a broom and swept them off as best I could. It probably took me 10 minutes before I was comfortable enough to get close enough to grab one side of the tarp and pull it off. When I did, I discovered a pile of grass packed neatly on the center of the tractor hood. I lifted it and it contained one naked baby mouse. The mama mouse must have grabbed as many of her babies as she could while I was sweeping the bugs. I took the baby and the nest and laid it under the nearest bush in hopes that Mama would smell it and take the last baby to safety. That didn't happen and I became the adoptive parent of Winthrop, the baby mouse!

This little palm sized guy is why I didn't update the blog last week. He consumed all my free time. Every 2 hours he was fed puppy formula with a syringe with a tiny tube attached. Then his bottom was wiped to stimulate him to pee and poop. He was thriving and growing hair. He was becoming the most adorable little guy and I loved holding him in my palm and beholding the wonder of something so perfect yet so tiny. On his fifth day with us, I noticed that he wasn't pooping when I wiped him. I was hoping he was doing it on his own when he was in the shredded papers of his house.......but I was wrong. And with any animal, if it can't eliminate its own waste, toxins build up and it dies. This is what, I think happened to Winthrop. I fed him around midnight on Friday night and put him to bed. He appeared to be fine......but I found him dead early Saturday morning.

Here's the last picture I took of him Friday night. His passing ripped a tiny, mouse sized hole in my heart. I buried him this weekend in a satin lined box in a corner near where he was born.

Now, on to happier things..........

This last weekend, we returned to the farm with more building supplies hoping to get walls and a roof on the shed. We arrived at 6 pm on Saturday and set up camp. By the time we got everything in place, it was getting pretty dark. Jeff got wood ready to start a fire. All the wood we had piled out there was wet from the rain that day, but Jeff had brought charcoal lighter with us, so we should have been okay.........until we discovered that the lighter was empty and the matches were too damp to light. Luckily, with the help of the cigarette lighter in the truck, we got the matches to light and built a beautiful fire.

Jeff cooked up some brats while I laid out the condiments on the shed floor behind us. We dined on brats, macaroni salad and a bottle of wine. There we sat under a full moon listening to the night sounds.

Fresh air and hard work sent us scurrying off to the warmth of the sleeping bags by 9:00. Right about then the night sounds changed as the coyotes emerged from their dens. We lay in the tent listening to them talk until we fell asleep. The temperature dropped to 39 degrees over night and the coyotes woke us several times. It was then we discovered the only parts of us that were cold were our noses!!!! I slept like a baby and woke to a crisp autumn morning with the sun filtering through the trees across the meadow.

Jeff started the fire and cooked up coffee and bacon and eggs for breakfast while I fed the pups.

Then it was on to shed building!

While putting up the last 2 roof rafters, Jeff decided they weren't sitting properly and decided to take the roof down and replace the rafters with trusses. It wasn't a happy decision, but he made it and tore the rafters down. While he did this, I busied myself with trimming some of the brush along the perimeter behind the shed and took out a few of the branches of a fallen tree. A small chain saw would have been nice then ...... as my shoulders are telling me this morning!!!!

We got the siding up all the way around the shed except for one gap on the back wall. The gap will be closed next weekend......and hopefully we'll get the trusses up. It's taking longer than we thought.

It sure felt good to get a shower when we got home!!!!

A Buggy Day

2009-09-13T19:33:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful day it was today. Not a cloud in the sky and the temperature was a perfect 80 degrees with a slight breeze. We got to the farm knowing we didn't have much to do. We probably wouldn't have even made the trip today, except I read that if you leave the bug bags up too long, the dead bugs in the bottom start to rot and stink and chase away any new bugs drawn in by the lure. Jeff gave me a choice before I looked at the bags. Did I want to change the bags or whack weeds around 120 trees? I opted for the bug bags.......is it too late to change my mind????? They weren't lying about the smell!!!!!! OMG! The aroma was that of rotten meat! The bags were full to capacity with roiling, live bugs on top!

This was one of the most disgusting things I've done for a long while! As I'm loosening this moving mass of bugs from the hangers, I'm being buzzed by incoming beetles. Brings whole new meaning to Beetlemania!!!! They were landing on my shirt and buzzing in my hair as I was trying to get the smelly bag of boiling bugs into a big, black garbage bag. Ugh! One down and three to go! At the second location, after getting the bag off the hanger, I had images of the bugs in the garbage bag, escaping their prison in a massive cloud in my face. I opened the bag cautiously, and, thank God, they were still in the little bag inside the big bag!!!! I was now a bug bagging expert and proceeded to put new bags on the remaining two traps. Then I dragged about 2 pounds of dead and dying Japanese Beetles back to the truck. I left them on the ground in the sun to bake them dead before we took them home to put them in the garbage.

While Jeff finished trimming around the trees, I checked in on the new pumpkins. There's one that's basketball size and getting orange!!!!! Another one is a little smaller and elongated. They hold promise of being pretty big before the first frost!!!!

We had five Bluebird houses up this year and all were occupied. We had Bluebirds in one, wrens in two and Sparrows and Swallows in the other two. One Wren's nest had an abandoned egg in it.

While I was cleaning out the bird houses, a Bald Faced Hornet landed on the side of one and was munching the cedar wood off the side of the house. I didn't think to get my camera out until he was gone. Here's a couple of paths he chewed in the wood!!!! Fascinating to watch, but I kept my distance. They are a very big, heavy bodied, aggressive hornet and can sting repeatedly. Not something I wanted to experience!!!!

We relaxed a bit down by the creek before packing up to head home. That's when I discovered that my decision to leave the bag of bugs in the sun was a bad one!!!!! I thought they smelled bad EARLIER!!!! The stench was sooooooooo bad, we left them in a garbage can at a gas station!!!!
All in all, it was an easy day compared to the past few weekends. We are taking the week of September 21 as a "vacation" and plan to camp there for a couple days and build the shed. I will "shed" light on that week after it unfolds!!! Have a great week!

Pumpkin Harvest

2009-09-07T07:07:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a good trip to the farm. The pumpkins were ready and we picked them all.........but much to my surprise, there were a couple NEW big jack-o-lanterns forming on the vines. The vines had recovered amazingly well from the hail and put out new shoots and blossoms and the new "babies" were about soccer ball size already!!!!! We may get a few more!

As you can see there's evidence of the hail damage......but that should just give a face another creepy dimension for Halloween!

We finally brought some Japanese Beetle traps with us. These critters do MORE damage to the trees in July and August than anything out there! Spraying really helps, but we decided to try these traps as an added control method. As we assembled them on the tailgate of the truck, we started getting buzzed by a few of the bugs. By the time we got the first two traps ready to hang, we had swarms of them flying around us. One even dropped into the trap before we hung it! When we hung the second set on the opposite side of the orchard, as I walked back toward Jeff hanging his, I could see a cloud of beetles in the corn taking flight to find the scent! The bags look like they will hold about a quart of beetles. I will bet they are full when we go back next weekend.

So, I wonder, what happens inside the bag on the trap? You've lured these bugs to the trap with a powerful pheromone. They drop into the bag below, still smelling this pheromone making them as amorous as can be. Now you have a bag FULL of horny bugs. Do they just screw each other to death? We'll find out!

A Day of "Rest"

2009-08-31T06:52:00.000-07:00

A day of rest isn't really such. It's just a Sunday we don't go to the farm. We both needed to stay home today for our own reasons and it was nice not to have to make that 3 hour drive each way! Jeff got the windows ready for the shed and I made labels for the applesauce and jalapenos that came from the hail harvest.

I also made some terrariums from old jars and moss from behind our garage. Has nothing to do with the farm, but they turned our pretty cool, so I thought I'd include it here! They will eventually have their lids back on, but I watered the moss and it would be too wet in there with the lid on right now.

A Summery Summary

2009-08-30T15:44:00.000-07:00

Ah, if it weren't for this day of rest, this blog wouldn't be starting. We've got several people following our, sometimes comical, antics at the farm, so we decided to start a blog to make it easier on everyone......especially us!
We've been tending the farm pretty much every weekend all summer. It's been a rough one, to say the least. In the spring, the orchard was gorgeous. Absolutely loaded with blossoms.

The very first downside was finding that little voles had eaten around the trunks of some of the trees. We lost a few and made a mental note to install trunk guards before the next winter. After the blossoms fell and we started seeing apples, we started to spray. Things were looking good until we noticed black spots on some of the apples. A bit of research on Jeff's part revealed we had a fungal infection called (of all things) "black spot".....duh! Another mental note to spray for THAT next spring! Things were going along pretty well. We made trips every weekend to spray and fertilize and mow and trim and...and......

We also planted a garden out there. We put in 36 jalapeno plants, 2 pie pumpkin plants and 15 jack-o-lantern plants.

Then came the golf ball size hail. That damaged all the apples. We picked them all and made 6 gallons of apple sauce. All but 2 of the big jack-o-lantern pumpkins were damaged so bad they rotted on the vine.

The pie pumpkins have thicker skins and survived the pummeling and will make great Thanksgiving pies!

The vines are still alive and blossoming and trying to grow some more giant pumpkins......but I don't think they will have time before frost.
It's been a rough summer so far, but nothing that we couldn't handle and learn from.
The shed is started in the pasture area and has a floor now, but no walls.

Jeff is in his workshop working on the windows as I write. Walls may be coming next weekend. We'll keep you posted!!!!