Yet another ‘little’ project

Our finished gazebo :)

Summer is flying by!

This project was going to be ‘done in plenty of time’ for Canada Day (July 1) and it was completed 

just in the nick of time. Things like the bin going up and the supposed rush in getting the floor put in (I guess people thought the corn was going to be harvested in the summer *shrug* who knows) and general life on the farm intervened.

Slowly taking off a few rings. Drizzling rain didn't dampen our motivation.

However, we got it done. And I was right there helping take the bin apart, move it home and then begin the re-assembly process. I left the ‘how to’s’ of drilling out the bin base and getting it home to my creative, handy-farmer-ingeniousness hubs. A bit of mother hen came out as I policed the deconstruction area as I insisted on safety first with things like ear and eye protection. Yes, even the stubborn father in-law had to wear ear protection. Common sense and safety work well together, don’t you think?

Getting it loaded for the haul home

Hubs vacillated between an anchor on top of the concrete or jack hammering through and really digging the posts in. The jack hammer won out but I think it’s because he wanted to rent a large tool to play with. I was actually hoping to try my hand at it but a friend dropped in and he and hubs got to have all the fun with the jack hammer. Probably just as well; it was ridiculously noisy even with ear protection on. Plus, who can ignore the joys of bookwork?

Supports are dug in

Yet another farmer friend let us use his bin crane and wow was that handy! Hauling it on the road made for quite the long load and extra wide turns but it lifted the dome of the bin so nicely.

An amazing tool, this bin crane

We took the remaining sheets and made this extension to cover the rest of the old concrete pad. The next morning hubs brought the grinder over and we trimmed off the extra length of the sheets. It made the process of bolting two sheets together and putting them up faster since we didn’t have to stop and trim each time.

Putting the bin on the posts; holding it steady

Sunday mornings or any evening we enjoy so much under our new gazebo. We can gaze upon the flower or veggie garden or watch the antics of the chickens. A light breeze whispers through the corn, gold finches chatter and nosy robins flutter around; it’s our little corner of relaxation.

I will cheerfully admit that this idea stemmed from the creative archives on Pintrest. Hubs adores (not) this platform of chronic inspiration.

Finishing the last section; called it a night at 12:30am & trimmed off the overhang in the morning. The stars were beautiful that night.

We installed heavier support beams because next year the final touch will be a bench swing or two. Honestly, a part of me really wanted to ‘just be done with it’ but our DIY motivation was tapped out. And we’re in the process of switching gears, getting out of the summer mindset and looking towards harvest. Yes, harvest in July. Although it will be more likely the first part of August that we engage the rotor for harvesting fall rye. (Still not used to my summer vacay ending so soon.)

May your week be full of sunshine, light breezes and iced coffee.

Rounding up to summer

New bin up

Somewhere between the bliss of planting and breakdowns, watching grass gro- crops grow I mean and the dive into the “green months’ projects” (the months of April to November where farming supersedes all life, dictating my schedule if you can call it that) life has been grand. Busy but good. And mysteriously almost every weekend has had some event or other going on. My slow day, you would think it’d be Monday, usually finds itself in the middle of the week or not at all. And once again my goal of a weekly post slides into a goal for the next month. It’s almost July, it’s early yet and the weekly posting could happen.

Checking seed depth

Planting was an unhurried affair this season; apparently a startling epiphany to hubs. He actually had time to enjoy the moments of playing in the dirt and crop scouting with his faithful sidekick Scooter. I didn’t go south this spring (shock and awe). Don’t worry there were no bon-bons and couch lounging in sight for me. Parts runs, switching out seed discs and cleaning the planter boxes, greasing machinery, actually planted veggie garden in May, etc.  (I’m all for greasing and keeping the basics of maintenance up but a hand pump grease gun is for the birds, great for the occasional use on the header but…  we invested in a battery-run grease gun and I’m happy (and faster).)

Gopher buddy

We’ve had little rain again this year and by my estimate we’re year three in the dry cycle; hopefully it doesn’t go for seven years. However, we did get a beautiful rain this past weekend with a grand total of eighty hundredths. We even canceled our movie date plans to stay home and watch it rain (we eventually watched Clear and Present Danger, there’s nothing like Harrison Ford). No thunderstorms but good old-fashioned rain drumming on the tin roof and tapping out a staccato on tree leaves.

Steel planks for bin floor

A new bin went up and by appearances it doesn’t seem as big as it is. I traded hubs work on the bin floor for work on a new gazebo (I think he got the better deal). Thankfully it was only 20C/68F that day in the giant tin can. Father in-law slid the steel planks in and hubs and I put the floor down. Thankfully time-sensitive bookwork (yay for bill paying) got me out of the mindless task of clipping the floor supports together.

Thinks the guys did okay with the floor stands

Steel though, it was hard work. And to snap the planks into place you had to do a monster-step-pound walk down the catwalk of steel planks. On each and every one. Hubs made it half way and then used the sledge hammer to tap the planks down. I continued onward and found it’s a great way to work out any angst – good or bad – right of my system.  Till at the halfway point across the bin, I was mid-catwalk (focused on staying on the narrow plank) and FIL sends a plank sliding through the man door and nails me just below the hip bone. It would have been what kids call a paralyzer but the sharp pain of steel cut through that.

Bin floor half done

Normally he pays attention to where we are so we can grab it and take some of the pressure off him. Not this plank. I thought ‘that’ll leave a mark.’  Turns out it left an odd square-shaped nine cut and giant bruise but didn’t cut through my favorite pair of work yoga leggings. (If you’ve ever shoveled out a bin on a hot, humid day or spent a whole hot day sitting in a combine in jeans than you know the joy of flexible, breathable clothing.) I slept great that night after soaking my feet in Epsom salts. And I counted it as my workout for the day.

Hubs didn’t escape quite as unscathed as I did that day. We did half of the flashing that day together before calling it a good day’s work. I was outside putting bolts through and doing the occasional drilling through the flashing (there were holes in the bin wall for it but not always on the flashing pieces). Well Mr. Safety (not always) decided that as I was drilling the second of three holes that he needed to reposition the flashing or some such. It was never clear to me what he thought he needed to be doing.

Finished floor with sweep auger in and sensor cables ready

He comes out of the bin saying he need to use the first aid kit in the house with his index finger dripping blood. Sigh, farm accidents. The drill bit had gone across the side to top of his finger from below the middle join diagonally to the top. Not super deep but it probably could have used stitches. And he refuses to go to a doctor, ever. Well we got his finger cleaned up with soap and water, followed by several dousings of hydrogen peroxide. Then I put helichrysum directly on the wound (it’s like liquid stitches, helps to stop the bleeding, helps with scarring and smells like sunshine and yellow flowers) followed by a couple drops of lavender (supports healing and promotes less chances of infection) and then some correct-x salve. I adore doterra essential oils and products as they’re a great tool for all facets of life, especially when the hubs is stubborn about doctors. He did agree to go to the doctor if the finger looked worse at any time. To his relief that didn’t happen and he cleaned it two to three times a day. We used vet wrap to cover the bandage and pinched the end shut to keep dirt off his finger entirely. Now, two weeks later, the finger is almost completely healed and he’ll have a nice, faint scar. And he willingly uses doterra essential oils with me.

Needless to say, we switched spots after that. 😊 Safety first.

Cool bi-plane stopped in for the event. Photo credit to hubs

In between the planting and spraying, hubs’ pilot group had their annual fly-in breakfast. He helps flip pancakes, pour juice and schmooze with other pilots from the area that flew in. It was a beautiful day for flying with almost four hundred people attending and lots of planes.

A long line of visiting planes. Photo credit to hubs

  May your week be full of sunshine, warm breezes and rain in the forecast (or warm dry weather if you're inundated with rain).

Coming back with a cheep!

Inadvertently, this blog has been napping. Uff da. A lot has been going on since my last post. Harvest 2018 did finish, we survived the craziness of life during the holidays and have finally seen spring. At least the grass is green if the weather isn’t exactly sunny and balmy yet.

There’s something about being exhausted tired from harvest in between rain and then stressed from the holidays that saps my creative spark down to an ember. And we dealt with a few losses in the family, grieving takes its own time.

Now I find with the warmer weather (aka lack of snow and ice-kissed wind) life is perking up with a CHEEP! Just a disclaimer, this was originally all hubs’ idea a couple of years ago and he’s not here to defend himself. 😊 Originally his shock and awe plan was for a couple hundred of chickens. Yes, hundred plus.

Then I said we weren’t doing free range as his last attempt of chicken herding sadly failed and he concluded he didn’t want to build a barn ‘just for chickens’. And I wasn’t thrilled to do an ‘Easter egg hunt’ style of collecting eggs every day. No thank you.

So we talked, okay I did most of the talking and research. Somehow he decided he was too busy to build a coop so while he was online shopping (what I facetiously call his online auction sales and bargain hunting) he came across a guy who built large garden sheds.

A hop and a skip some time later, we were proud owners of two large garden sheds.

‘Do you want to paint them?’ he’d asked.

‘Nope,’ I replied, “red tin with white trim.’

You should have seen his eye roll, I was impressed. But if we do it right, we’re investing for down the road because I really despise painting buildings. Logic for the win. And no paint brushes to clean in my future!

The coop turned out really cute, almost like a mini barn. In between seeding/planting we’ll be working on getting the outdoor run put in and enclosed to keep unwanted critters out. And there’s plans for a little cupola to be put on top for air ventilation.

We’ve had these chicks for almost a month and they’re growing like crazy! Right now, they look like they’re in the awkward chicken teenage stage with baby down molting and real feathers coming in.

Hubs came in one day after working in the shop all disgruntled. To my surprise he was irritated about how the chicks were making the shop office so terribly dirty. We kept the chicks in a DIY brooder – Scooter’s old dog kennel – lined with cardboard borders and wood shavings. I changed the bedding weekly, kept the food and water fresh and a heat lamp kept them toasty warm.

I about fell off my chair laughing over that. It’s an office, in the shop. Hardly used because men tend to congregate around coffee and food or around equipment. To say it was ‘clean’ before the chicks moved in would be untrue. The office holds more of the grain samples, dust, some office supplies and a few small parts.

Like my dad said last fall, ‘it’s just surface mud.’ I told hubs that it was ‘just surface dust’ and easily cleaned. It’s not like there was a cat in there shredding the office chairs or window sills. Oh the disgruntled look I got for my light-hearted mockery.

But now they’re happily living in the coop and they seem to have grown the moment we moved them there. In the mix, we have four Amercaunas, about ten barred rocks and the rest are mixed mutts but they sure are good lookin’ birds.

And hopefully by late fall, middle of harvest, we’ll be swimming in eggs.

But what is the other shed for? 

When you just can't keep your head tucked for a nice long nap...