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.
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!!!!
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!
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
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!
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!
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.
Jeff and I were married in 2001. In 2005, we bought 10 acres in Northwest Illinois, near Galena. Since then we've planted 120 apple trees and tend to them almost every weekend. Did I mention it's a 3 hour drive from our house to the farm? The picture in the background is taken from the pasture area where the tiny creek hides. This blog is continuous rambling of our experiences in starting a farm and retiring on our land to escape the hustle and bustle of city life.
