July 15, 2014 Home Again

We arrived home from our book trip on July 3rd.  Total mileage for the trip was over 7,630 miles.  A lot happened on it but I don't have a summary organized yet so it will have to wait.  This posting will be some of the things that have happened since we arrived home on the third.

We purchased fireworks on the way home.  We decided to have our celebration the 5th instead of the fourth to give us more time to get the place ready for company.  We were gone during the monsoon season so we expected the yard to be severely overgrown.  We were not disappointed!  The grass had all gone to seed and was waist high and thick.  We purchased a good power mower on the way through Kalispell just for cutting through the tall grass.  After a couple of long days working with the weed eater and mower we got the yard in good shape.  We had most of the kids over to begin the evening with a barbecue and games then shot off about $500.00 worth of fireworks in the evening.

It was a good show.  We plan on doubling our fireworks expenditures for next year.  We'll buy more things for the kids to shoot in the afternoon while waiting for it to get dark to light up the big stuff.

 

We use game cameras for security cams.  This one caught some good photos of a whitetail deer and her fawn.  Most of what I've seen has been deer and rabbits.  There are reports of a grizzly bear roaming the area so I may have photos of it on another camera.  Nothing is missing so I didn't expect to find much in the way of illegal activity.

 

I used the weed eater and mower to clear some of the grass that had grown up on the garden paths while we were gone.  I tilled up the planting sections before we left but there wasn't anything I could to stop the grass from growing on the pathways.  You can see a sample of the tall grass we are dealing with on the far side of the photo.

The gophers moved in while we were gone so I set out a bunch of traps.  I caught four of the little buggers one day and average two per day for the other days.  The tall grass gives them good cover and about the only way to get them now is by trapping them.

 

We used all the water in the main tank so I loaded up the barrels and we made a couple of water runs. I have seven, fifty-gallon barrels here so I can get about 350 gallons per trip.  We filled these up in Fortine since we were going there anyway.  Normally I either pump it out of the lake or go to a neighbor's house to fill them.

 

We purchased 84 meat chickens.  I called up the local feed supply store to see if they had any chicks left and he said they had about 60 Cornish Cross chicks to sell.  We told him we'd take them all and when the final count was made we had 84.  He was selling them for $1.00 each and they were two-weeks old so he'd already been feeding them awhile so we got a really good deal!  These little guys are eating machines.  We take the food away after 12 hours to keep them from overeating.  We'll be getting a lot of meals out of this batch and canning a bunch of them too.

 

The "run" outside the henhouse was overgrown with grass and raspberry vines.  Susan got inside and cut it all out with hand clippers so the chicks could get outside.  Note the grass outside the pen and how tall and thick it is.  It was the same inside the pen.

 

Another view of the chicken run.  This is too small for 84 chickens so we'll split them up into other pens as they get bigger to keep their stress levels down.

 

We've also done some brush clearing.  I cut this out with the brush blade on the weed-eater (used the chainsaw for the big stuff) to make it easier to get into and out of the driveway.  I also took out a small tree near the road.  I used the winch on the truck to remove the tree stump.  I used a snatch block to double the pulling power of the (12,000 lb.) winch.  The winch barely grunted in exertion but we had to put the tires of the truck up against another stump to hold the truck back.  It was sliding all four tires.  It's a good way to remove smallish sized stumps as long as you can chain the truck to a good anchor.

 

The water tank needed cleaned so after draining it to water the garden I let it dry for a day then scooped the gunk out of it.  There were also left-over fireworks in the tank.  The kids liked seeing stuff blow up underwater.

 

We've been reading grocery store labels more and have been shocked at the amounts of salt and sugar used in processed food.  We had a hankering for turkey and finally found some that weren't injected with astronomical amounts of salt and other seasonings.  They were pricey but we'll get a lot of meals out of this one.  We have neighbors raising turkeys this year so we'll probably do some trading of chickens for a turkey or two this fall.  I can also shoot one during hunting season.  They don't have as much meat as a domestic turkey but they're still good, organic meat. 

 

Here Susan is picking the meat from the bones for use later.  Nothing is wasted.

 

After the first meal Susan boiled down the leftovers for broth and meat.  We'll use it all eventually.  We're also going to grind some for canning in addition to the regular small chunks for stews, casseroles, etc.

 

When we got back from our second water run Susan heard air escaping from one of the tires.  It had a large screw in it.  The good thing is that it's in a place I can fix without removing the tire and rim from the truck.

 

I marked it well with a tire crayon.

 

I then unscrewed it from the tire.

 

Scott is holding it in his hand.  It's fairly large.

 

I'll use a plug to repair it.  The first step is to ream the hole out good.

 

Next you put a plug on the installation tool and generously lube the plug with rubber cement. (Use lots of rubber cement!)

 

Now you just shove the plug through the hole leaving a little of the plug showing above the hole.

 

Pull back on the installation tool and the plug stays in the tire.  Leak fixed!  I then fired up the compressor and pumped the tire up to 80 PSI.

 

Susan has been busy in the garden.  Even though we got a late start we still planted some potatoes, carrots and onions.  Scott is big enough to help some although his attention span is still pretty short.  At least he knows to not step on the new plants and how to distinguish the weeds from the plants.

 

There's a lot more going on that's not on here.  Susan has put in hours cleaning out outbuildings and sorting things in piles to give away and throw away.  We've done laundry and moved our tubs back outside.  Most meals are prepared from raw ingredients which takes extra time.  We finally took one hot afternoon off to paddle around Murphy Lake in the canoe and kayak.  The temperatures have been in the upper 80's and low 90's so we do most of our outside work early in the mornings before it gets too hot and before the mosquitoes awake.

5-15 June, 2013 - Greenhouses, car repairs, pruning raspberries, solar power, and more.

It's been an expensive month.

Susan is painting the porch in preparation of putting the screen on it.  I have most of the framing done but still have some minor things to finish up (like trim).  The mosquitoes have been out in force the last week so we need to finish this project up.

 

The garden is a never-ending project.  Susan is pruning some of the raspberry bushed we have.  She cuts out the old, dead stalks to make way for the new (and productive) growth. 

 

The chickens must have heard us talking because they've boosted egg production this week.  We mentioned to them that one egg per day from five hens wasn't going to be tolerated.  We've been a little concerned about them since some of the hens are approaching eight-years-old.  Anyway, they've boosted production a bit so we're now getting three or four per day.  Some of the slack may have been due to moving them.

 

In any case, we splurged and bought some real "layer" food for the hens so they'd best keep production up!

 

We've been working on the greenhouse.  This one will be a small one (6 X 8 feet) in practice for the larger one we plan on building next.  I can adjust the radial arm saw to make angle cuts but then I have to replace the back-stop more often.

 

 

What I prefer to do is clamp a guide board to the table at the proper angle for the cut.  It's easier than replacing the back-stop and easier to get the precise angle I want.

 

 

 

The argument goes on forever whether a radial arm saw or table saw is best.  As usual it depends on what you're going to do with them.  When I bought my RAS it was a choice between a radial arm saw, miter saw or table saw.  I chose the RAS because it was the most versatile and easier to work with on construction projects.  I now have a table saw too which is nice but on construction jobs it can be difficult to cut the rafters and other long pieces of wood.  The table saw is really nice for finer work such as making furniture.   My next purchase will be a miter saw.

 

Here I'm ripping down a 2X4 into two - 2X2's.  I can buy the smaller lumber but a 2X2 costs more than a 2X4 so I make my own 2X2's for about half the price.  The table saw does a better job ripping but it's in another building.  I was only doing a couple of them so it was faster to just use the RAS.

 

I had to replace the blade on this one. That was another $20.00 expense.

 

We are just going to put the roof and end walls up for now.  The clear roofing was left over from a project two years ago but we forked over real cash (around $30.00) for the rafter boards.  The rest of the lumber was scrounged or left over from other projects.  It's still been a pretty cheap project though.  We're going to replace the roof on the cabin in July or August and I'll have some more clear plastic panels from the old roof.  We'll use them for the sides.

 

One thing saving us money is our solar power.  I run an extension cord from the cabin's electric system (solar powered) to the greenhouse project in the garden.  The extension cord was expensive ($1.50 per foot - it's a heavy gauge cord) but we've had it for several years.

 

Scott loves playing with my stuff.  He grabbed the cordless drill from another project and ran (to escape with his contraband goods) out to the greenhouse and began "drilling" into this stump.  I have the screwdriver bit on the drill but he managed to drill into the stump (it's old and partially rotted out) using it.  The grimace is from how hard he has to work to hold the trigger and make the drill run.  His hands aren't big enough to go completely around the grip.  He told me to "go away" (he didn't want to give up the drill yet!), so I snapped the picture and did some other projects until he tired of the drill. 

 

 

More parts for the car and lawn mowers.  I hit a rock and destroyed the blade mount on one of our power mowers so I had to buy another one.  I also bought a blade for the other power mower we have along with an oil filter for the Cherokee and another for the small generator. 

 

 

I did some judicious blade straightening on the rock casualty then re-sharpened and balanced it.  I was afraid I'd bent the crankshaft but then saw that the blade was bent rather than the CS.

 

I installed the new blade in the spare mower.  We normally use our reel mowers but we've had so much to do that we got out the power mowers to keep up with the grass.  (We've had lots of rain this month.)

 

 

More flat tires.  I finally took this one to the water tank and submerged it to find the leak.  It took  about three weeks to deflate so it was a very small hole.  It was punctured in the sidewall by something very small (probably wire).  I tried patching it but the patch didn't hold (didn't think it would but it was a Sunday and the parts store was closed so it was worth a try).  We bought a radial tube for it on Monday and that did the job.  The tube was about $13.00. 

 

It's also been making some growling sounds so I ordered a wheel bearing assembly while we were in town.  That was another $80.00 and another trip to town.  They had one of the more expensive bearing sets in stock but they wanted $130.00 my cost for it.  We decide to wait the extra day for the $50.00 savings.

 

We also put air shocks on the rear.  The springs on Cherokees are designed for ride rather than work and ours is often heavily loaded.  We got tired of hitting the axle stops and decided to install air shocks.  Those were another $75.00.  When I went to put them on the top mount bolts for the shocks were rusted in and broke off when I tried to remove them, so ... I had to drill them out (all four) and cut new threads.  I've always enjoyed having hot bits of metal falling onto my face while drilling out the broken bolts (NOT!) so it took a lot longer than planned.

 

I'm going to change the oil and filter on it today.  When I bought the filters, the parts store tried to sell me the top-line they have.  It would have been $17.00. I asked for the "econo-line"  (AKA - cheap), which brought the price down to $7.00 for the pair.

 

Our daughter loves her old Land Cruiser but the radiator's core is rotten.  I've tried fixing it but to no avail so we ordered a new one online for abut half the price the local part store wanted (we paid $230.00).  I put it in during the week so she is back on the road ... sort of.  She wanted me to check the tail pipe which was rattling on the rear axle.  I checked it out and found out that the top leaf of the driver's side rear spring was broken and letting that corner sag.  They're looking for some used springs.

 

 

Another of our kids hit a deer with his car so we had some minor repair work for it as well.  It wasn't a lot of damage but it will still need a grill and radiator.  We took it apart and the parts should be here next week.

 

 

Susan took Scott on a bike ride outside of Eureka.  It's an old railroad right-of-way that follows the river and ends at Lake Koocanusa that's been opened to walking and bicycling.  This is just one of the photos she took.  Last year they had a grizzly bear hanging out on this trail so she took her bear spray along just-in-case.  It's about 14 miles round trip.

 

14 - 25 September, 2012 - Silverwood, Harvest Time, Trip Preps

My book is in the computer at Paladin Press now.  For an overview and ordering information use the link below.  Thanks.

Creating the Low-Budget Homestead

We're 1500 miles from home today.  We left on Saturday (a week ago) to see people in Colorado, Kansas, Texas and then back to Colorado.  You'll note that this is being posted a few days after the last day of the blog coverage.  The only excuse is that we've been a little busy!

The 15th we went to Silverwood with some of the kids.  This is Scott on his first horse ride at Silverwood with his grandma beside him and his mother and aunt behind.  He was making motor sounds as he rode.

Now he's on the children's roller coaster.  We spent the entire day there and he was one tired little boy when we left for home.  The parents, aunt and uncle left for Kalispell in one car and Susan and I and Scott drove home in our Cherokee.  It was a long day but fun.  Of course us big kids did some riding too.

We had to do some work on the trailer before we left on our trip.  I needed to make a better tailgate for it so I got the welder and bed rails out and went to work.  The last time we had it on the highway the bar across the back fell off with our license plate attached.  We never did find it so we had to buy a replacement.  That cost us $20.00.  This time I bolted it to the left fender on the trailer and made a stronger tailgate for the trailer.  Susan painted it black after I finished.

The temperature gauge on the U-Haul keeps showing hotter and hotter the longer we drive it.  I've pulled over and tested the temperature with a thermometer and never found a problem so we finally just bought an aftermarket, mechanical gauge and I installed it.  I installed it in the thermostat housing just under the thermostats (it has two).  So far it looks like there is no overheating problem.  Most likely the sender for the factory gauge is malfunctioning. 

When it was time to refill the radiator I couldn't find my funnel so I made one out of the top of a two liter pop bottle.   It worked okay.

I also changed the oil and filter and greased it.  I added 3 pints of gear oil to the transmission to top it off but the rear differential was okay.  Getting the lights all working was a bit of a chore.  We had three clearance lights out and the right front turn signal/park light wasn't working right.  I had to replace the entire light assemblies on the clearance lights (I keep spares on hand).  I thought I had a bad ground on the park/turn signal light because when you turned on the headlights the right turn indicator light glowed dimly (a classic indicator of a bad ground wire).  I ended up being a bad ground on the light socket.  Those I don't keep on hand so I scrounged around on one of our "retired" vehicles and found a socket I could wire in.  That got the truck lights fixed.

Now the trailer lights needed attention.  None of them worked!  To make a long story shorter, the connectors in the trailer harness plug were loose and I had one bad bulb.  Susan already had the U-Haul packed and the trailer loaded so we were finally ready to hit the road the next morning.

I bought some blades for a disk at an estate sale awhile back.  I'd planned on using them for targets (gongs) and finally got the first one ready.  I hung it between a couple of trees and proceeded to give it a beating.  It's at 25 yards from the firing line and we use only 22's and handguns on it.   We wear safety glasses at all times (everyone on the line including spectators) in case of ricochets.  It's a lot more fun shooting when you don't have to stop and replace targets.

The garden is ready for harvest.  We've already dug some of the potatoes but hadn't gotten to the peas yet.  We let most of them dry on the vine.  Susan calls it the lazy man's way to get seed for next year and she's right!  The pods and seeds are dried so all you have to do is put the pods in a bucket and shell them when  you have time (probably during the winter while we're watching a movie on television).  We were a little late this year.  Some of the pods had burst open already.  We'll be seeing some volunteer peas in that area next year!  We should have several pounds of dried peas when we get them shelled.  That's plenty for planting next year even after eating our share.

It's nice that Scott is getting old enough to entertain himself for short times while we work in the garden.  He played on the tiller for quite awhile, making motor sounds as his imagination took him on trips across the garden.  He helps when we dig potatoes too.  We put them in a bucket then dump the bucket in the wheel barrow then he takes them out of the wheel barrow and puts them in our buckets.  We still have some training to do when it comes to potato harvesting.

Susan did her laundry just before we left (I did mine the day before) and Scott helped take the clean clothes off the line.  Getting in the basket and covering himself up was his idea.

On the way south we stopped at Paladin Press in Boulder, Colorado to meet the people who published my book. They gave us a tour of their facilities.  It was cool to meet the people who actually put my book together.

I have more pictures taken on the road but we're working with a jet pack and are limited to four gigs per month.  Since this is the first month using it we're being cautious about how fast we use up or allotment.  When we get home I may do one post of just travel pictures.

5-13 September, 2012, Skunks in the henhouse, camper painting, wood cutting, new grandchildren

Right in the middle of catching up on the blog the dog began making a ruckus outside.  She'd been barking at something off to the south of the cabin last night and today but this time whatever it was was in the yard.  I grabbed the shotgun and went to investigate and found a skunk under the chicken house.  The chickens were gone (I hadn't shut them up for the night yet) so I hope they're roosting somewhere else.  I didn't see any excessive feathers strewn about so I don't think the skunk got them.  Anyway, I shot the skunk and have the bruised arm to prove it.  The shot was taken with me laying on the ground holding a flashlight in one hand and the shotgun in the other.  I lined the (12 gauge) shotgun up on the skunk and pulled the trigger.  The butt plate was resting against my biceps just above the elbow and I can sure feel it now!  I'll extract his smelly, mutilated body tomorrow when it's light out.  Hopefully the chickens are safe.  I put the dog in the house while this as going on so I wouldn't have to worry about the skunk spraying her.

It's just one more reason why you don't wander around in the dark here without a gun of some kind and a flashlight with you.  It also shows why a dog is an asset on the homestead.

Now, about the rest of the week...

I dug some of the rocks up out of the yard.  The ground seems to grow them naturally.  Those that stick their heads above the surface get dug up. 

But then you have to fill the holes in with more dirt so we go to our dirt pile and fill the wheel barrow with dirt to fill in the holes where the rocks used to live.

We (Susan) are repainting the camper.  Here Susan is spraying the brown that goes on the cab and along the bottom of the  box.  We're using an airless paint gun which is having issues.  There's a lot of "orange peel" in the finished product.

The final look after we're done!

Okay, Susan is finished.  I still need to clean the paint gun up (with Scott's help).

Scott is helping change the memory card in the game camera.  I went three days with no critters at this site so I moved it to another location the next day.  At least I know where to not put a tree stand.

Scott and I went to the shack to get a few things and on the way back he wanted to play on the snowmobiles.  I uncovered one of them and he spent a little time in the land of imagination where two-year-olds like to go.

Scott's dad and mom were up so his dad and I did a little shooting with 22's. 

Susan, Scott and I took a break on the work one afternoon to play a game of horseshoes.  I won but only by one point.  Scott had a pair of plastic shoes he used.

We still wash dishes.  One of the problems with doing a blog like this is that there's only so much "new" stuff you can put on it after awhile, so ... you get some re-runs!  We had plenty of rain water so I used that for the wash water and "town" water for the rinse.  We had the kettle heating on the wood stove so I had some hot water to mix with it.

The mornings and some evenings have been cold enough to need some heat so we've fired up the wood stove  several times.  The side benefit of this is having hot water. (We keep a kettle of water on the wood stove.)  So ... I used hot water when I washed the dishes and laundry.  It was nice to have hot water instead of the cold water we normally use.

We also got the sourdough out of the refrigerator and began using it again.  These are sourdough pancakes and we love eating them.

Susan made cookies and we caught Scott in the act of helping himself to a few.  He's like a bird and eats a bite out of each one.  We caught him before he got too many though.

Scott has a new cousin.  This little guy's name is Tommy.  His mom had some complications so they induced labor.  She was in labor almost two days before she had him.  Mom and baby are both home again and doing well.

Of course Scott loved the hospital.  Tommy was born in the same room as Scott used a couple of years ago.  They moved mom and baby to a recovery room while we were visiting and Scott discovered the running water in the bathroom.  We stripped him down to his diaper and let him have some fun.  (With grandpa staying very close.)

Here Scott is helping grandma put the dried mint in jars for storage.

Susan has been harvesting garden crops this week beginning with the onions.  Next will be the potatoes and carrots.

There were two large trees blown down that I was cutting up for firewood.  This is the last of the second one.  I couldn't get them all in two loads so I had to make another trip for this batch.  It's green so it will go to the back of the wood shed to cure until spring.

The wood shed is almost half full now.  I was getting too tired to throw the large rounds of green logs up on the top tiers so I split some of them into quarters.

Scott got the idea to re-arrange his cabinets and decided that the oven would be a great place to store what had been in them.  Unfortunately grandma needed that space for cooking dinner tonight so they all went back into their original home.