Susan opened some cans of green beans and corn to dehydrate them. By dehydrating them we'll save storage space and we won't have to protect them from freezing. When wood is your only heat source you can't leave the cabin empty for very long in the winter. Otherwise it can get cold enoug inside to freeze canned food. The cans don't keep well in the root cellar because of the humidity (they rust) so it works out best just to dehydrate them.

This is an old stump down by the shack. I've been seeing some bear sign lately and this is one example of it. They shred rotten stumps looking for bugs to eat. This stump is about two-feet in diameter. There have been a lot of bear and mountain lion problems in this end of the county this year. One explanatiton by the Fish and Game Dept. is that the wolves have driven the deer and elk down into the lowlands and populated areas so the bears and big cats have followed their food source. Also, it's the time of year when the male Mountain Lions have been kicked out of the clan and are just beginning to exist on their own. They are refining their hunting techniques and roaming in search of a territory of their own at the same time.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

I washed the dishes this morning. When I finished them I started pulling traps to move them to a new area. When I was getting ready to set them up in new areas a neighbor dropped in for about an hour. Afterwards I finished making my sets with the traps and had lunch. After lunch we took a siesta because it was just too hot to do anything outside. Later on I took the goat out for about 90 minutes so he could get something different to eat and we could work on teaching him to lead without fighting the collar. He seems to be learning okay. At this point he’s kind of like an independent child. He doesn’t want you bossing him around but he doesn’t want you to get very far away either.

Susan boiled up a big batch of red beans in the solar cooker. When they were finished she used some of them to make chili for supper tonight. (Again, using the solar cooker.) She also made cornbread using the corn she ground on the 18th. She’ll use the rest of the beans to make a pig pot of chili for canning. Our youngest got home from work and ran his generator so I ran the water pump and pumped water out of the main tank into the two garden tanks to make room in the main water tank for the water in the last barrel in the pickup. Now all the barrels in the truck are empty. And the two garden tanks are full as is the main tank. Susan had watered the fruit trees and berry bushes with buckets this morning so both garden tanks needed to be refilled.

I got one of my articles back with a request to cut it down by 650 words and take more pictures. I think after the modifications they’ll take it. They are interested in it because they paid the postage to send it back. I included a SASE with the submission but they didn’t use it. If there was little interest they’d have just stuffed it into the SASE I included. So, I guess I’ll have something to do tomorrow for sure.

A picture of the potato soup cooking in the solar cooker today.

While the goat was eating I braided three strands of used baling twine together to make a longer leash for the goat.

The goat grazed for about an hour. It's favorite food was wild rose leaves and red clover.

I'm using the treadle sewing machine to sew the lower seam on my jeans. I've had this machine for over 25 years. It works as good as the day it came from the factory. We bought a replacement belt (and a spare) from Lehman's aobut five years ago. It works best if you use both feet to peddle. It only has one stitch in one direction (forward)

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

I hauled water again today. I got this batch from a different neighbor. They have a well so I used their generator to run the pump. While I was there we cut a salt block in half using a skil saw for most of it then a hand saw to finish the job. They kept half for their goat and we kept half for ours. Susan sent some celery from our garden and we returned an empty quart size milk jar. They gave us a quart of goat milk the last time we were there.

I spent part of the afternoon letting the goat eat in old corral. I stayed out there with it so the mosquitos would have someone there to donate blood to them. While I waited I braided three strands of baling twine together to make another leash for the goat. We have miles of the stuff around and whenever I can I use it for practical projects. I made snowshoe harness with it about three years ago. It's still working well.

Susan worked late last night on a story she's writing and finished it up today. She made potato soup using the solar cooker today. Every ingredient except the creme cheese came from things we grew ourselves or got locally (goat milk). She could have made the cream cheese too except we had some that needed to be used up today so she didn't bother.

I still need to drain one more barrel but the tank is full so we'll have to use some up before I can put more in.

Found some pretty purple flowers in the field today. Don't know what kind they are. I just enjoy seeing them.

The goat likes to snack on dandelion flowers (and almost everything else that grows above ground).

Cat and goat meet face-to-face for the first time outside the goat pen.

The dog was very jealous of the attention the goat was getting. The dog weighs about 75 pounds. When the goat is fully grown it should tip the scales at 250 to 300 pounds. It's still a baby yet.

When you have chickens you see a lot of egg "designs" you'll never see on store shelves. This is a new one for me. Despite it's deformity the membrane is intact so the egg is probably good to eat. We've also gotten a few double yolked eggs and the occassional egg with a soft shell. With those the hard outer shell never forms so you have an egg with just the opaque membrane enclosing it. Those too are okay to eat if you can get them from hen-house to skillet without breaking.

Monday, July 19, 2010
We had an unexpected guest this morning when a neighbor showed up on his bicycle. He’d come to claim the last dozen eggs we had for him. A couple of weeks ago we’d traded a couple dozen eggs and some other stuff for a box of 357 magnum ammo he had on hand. He only took one dozen eggs at that time and came back today for the second dozen. He stayed awhile and we solved all the worlds problems and also did some internet searches for info he was looking for. He lives a short distance from us in his hand built log cabin on a private lake. He works at temporary jobs when they’re available and is quite resourceful, often living on whatever he forages, hunts or catches in his lake.

I gave him a lift back home and used the hydrant on the property adjacent to his to fill the water barrels in the truck. The hydrant is gravity flow, fed by a thousand gallon tank up the hill that’s filled by a spring. The water is some of the best you’ll ever find. It took awhile to fill the barrels and it was about 12:30 when I got back home. I siphoned the barrels all afternoon. I get one started then do other things until it’s empty then repeat the process until I have them all emptied. This afternoon I worked with the goat awhile. It wasn’t halter broke when we got it and was scared to death of us. Yesterday I brought some willow branches into the pen with me and sat down on the rock and fed them to the goat one branch at a time. I spent over an hour in the pen doing that. I only gave them to him if he took it out of my hand. At first he’d grab a bite and run. Then he got to where he’d take some and step back. This afternoon I made him get a little closer each time then got him to where I could rub his back or head while he ate. I probably spent 90 minutes or more doing this. I finally got him to trust me enough that I felt confident of taking him on the leash outside the pen. I mainly followed him around with just a little guidance on the leash at times to keep him on one side of a tree or the other. I just kept taking more control a little at a time until he got pretty good at following me. Again, it was probably another two hours of this. I also worked to get him where he didn’t mind me rubbing his back, head or neck. The dog was extremely jealous the whole time this was going on so I had to stop repeatedly and give her a good rub-down. I should be able to catch him easily tomorrow but we’ll have to do some review on the leading lessons. In a few days he should do well without the reviews. We’ll also tie him up and let him graze while we work nearby. We have so many large predators around that, for his own safety, we’ll never be able to leave him unattended.

We plan on using him for a pack goat so he’ll have to be comfortable with us and trust us enough that he comes to us for protection instead of running away from us when something scares him.

We did some yard clean-up this afternoon. Susan had filled more buckets with wheat, corn and beans this morning so we took them out to their temporary storage area. We also moved some fencing we had in the playground area. I fixed one of the lawn chairs that needed minor repairs (a couple of pop rivets). Susan ran the power mower to trim the lawn up a bit there.

We currently have a thunderstorm going outside. It’s one of those with very little rain but with enough lightning to keep the forest fire lookouts watching for smoke. It also keeps them sitting on their insulated chairs in case the lookout tower gets zapped by lightening … which happens quite often. Working in a metal framed building built on metal legs and positioned on top of a mountain during a thunderstorm is not a good way to relax and enjoy the weather.

This is the continuation of the raised bed for the Jerusalem Artichokes. Once they were planted Susan set some PVC pipes to hold the row cover. The pipes are bent into an arch then a ridgepole is taped over the top using duct tape.

Next, a section of floating row cover is placed over the frame and weighted with rocks. The floating row cover is a thin, paper like material that is porous so the rain can fall through it. It also protects the plants from frost on cold nights and shades the plants from the hot sun during the day.

We're working on getting potatoes ready for the dehydrator. The box on Susan's right side held potatoes from our root cellar. They are still firm even though stored since last fall but most have sprouts on them. Susan breaks the sprouts off and peels them then I cut them into little cubes about 1/4 inch square. They go into the silver pot and will be boiled until cooked.

Once they're cooked we drain off the water and rinse them with cold water to stop the cooking process. Now Susan takes three vitamin "C" tablets and crunches them with a spoon in a clean bowl. She adds water then puts the potatoes in the Vit. C water and lets them soak for five minutes. She then drains that water off and spreads them on the dehydrator racks for drying. The Vitamin C keeps them from turning brown when drying. After they dry she'll powder them in the blender and we'll have organic, instant mashed potatoes. The number of tablets she uses varies according to how many spuds we're drying. She also used Vitamin C when drying apples for the same reason.

Susan made flour out of both corn and wheat today. We bought the corn and wheat from an organic food coop. She ground the corn first then cleaned the grinder and ground the wheat into flour. The electric grinder does a superb job but it is very noisy. Everyone in the house wears hearing protectors while we're using it. The picture shows wheat in the grinder.

Our younest son decided to run his generator today so, in addition to using the grinder and dehydrator we also ran the water pump to water the garden. It was late afternoon when Susan went out to get started. She went back in and put on a jacket. A cold front moved in this afternoon and the temprature dropped considerably.

We're going through our leftover garden seeds and vacum packing them for long term storage. These are some left over from this year. The older ones will be labeled with the year they were originally sold.

Sunday, July 18, 2010
On Friday (the 16th) we headed into Eureka for parts for the pickup. We got a wire brush to fix the bead leak on the front tire and a new thermostat and gasket. Before we left we had to push the pickup forward. We needed to get the picnic table out in the sun so we could use the solar oven for cooking. Susan was making venison stew for our afternoon guests. I washed dishes and emptied all the water jugs and filled the reservoir over the sink before we left. We brought the empty jugs to refill them in Fortine on the way home. We made it back about 30 minutes before our guests arrived. They are also “homesteaders” we met about four (maybe???) years ago. They had read some of my articles in Backwoodshome Magazine and tried to contact us when they moved to the area. We had an unlisted number at that time so they asked at the post office. She (the postmaster) wouldn’t give them our number or address but let them leave a note in our mailbox. We called them and got together and have been friends ever since. They are the ones who gave us the goat. Anyway, they had thought about buying a solar cooker but wanted to see one in action so we used it to cook the stew. After eating then looking over the garden we played a couple games of Hearts before they headed back home.

On Saturday we ended up spending most of the day in Kalispell. We took our time and made a stealth trip, not telling anyone in Kalispell that we were in town. We stopped at several yard sales and made a few minor purchases but didn’t spend much. We stopped at the Olney Mall (green box/dumpster site) to look for bed frames and rails but there weren’t any there. I use them for building projects around here and they’re always in short supply! By the time we got home everyone was ready to relax for the evening.

Sunday (today);
I installed the thermostat on the pickup this morning then helped cut up the potatoes for the dehydrator. After that I started on my laundry. Once I got the first load finished and the second load soaking we called up another neighbor to see if I could drop by to fill the barrels at their well. I can pump it out of the lake but the lake is low this time of year and it’s kind of a pain to get the suction pipe far enough out to pull in water instead of mud. No one was home so I left a message. I’d drained all the water jugs for the wash water so I loaded them up into the pickup and took them with me. I got there just before they got home from church and we filled up the six barrels and the five water jugs for the house. I began siphoning water into the main tank. It takes about 45 minutes to siphon one barrel so it was going to take awhile. In the meantime I finished up the wash and got the pump hooked up to the extension cord and primed it. While Susan watered the garden I extended the willow branch to the goat. It’s young and a little on the wild side so it’s taking some time to earn it’s trust. This is the first day I‘ve really had time to work with it. When it’s full grown it should weigh between 250 to 300 pounds. I’d like to have it trained to pull a cart and pack a load long before then. It sounded as if our neighbor was doing a little range time with his Glock this evening. I checked traps and dispatched another gopher before heading into the house. That’s the fourth one today.
I’ve been on the computer since coming back into the house and plan on being in bed as s soon as I get this posted..

The water hole is full and ready to go.

I primed the pump and started the engine. I leave the outlet hose off at first to be sure I have a good stream of water flowing and the pump is fully primed.

I shut the pump off and hook up the outlet hose.

It's about 90 feet to the truck. I know this because a single, 75 foot long hose won't reach. I use two fifty-footers.

When I ran the water through the hose I found a slight problem. The hose (with a new bullet hole in it) was laying about twenty feet in front of my 50 yard target. Last time when I was playing around with the MAK-90 on rapid fire I must have hit a little low. I walked back to the cabin and got another hose. (About 250 yards each way.)

I think this means we're finished. I only got about 230 gallons this time. Usually I get enought to fill all six barrels (330 gallons).

Susan took this opportunity to water the garden with the hose while the generator was running the water pump. She usually does it witha water can by dipping water out of the stock tanks or barrels.

While the compressor was running I decided to check out the leak in my front tire. The bead is leaking on it this time. I put it back on the truck until we can get to town and I can buy a stiff wire brush for my drill to knock the rust off the rim where the bead seats against it. I'll also pick up a thermostat and gasket while we're in town.

The battery charger is on fast charge and set for 90 minutes at a 40 amp charge rate. This is an extra battery we have on hand. We may use it with the electric trolling motor or I might need it at the shack to run my lights and radio there or we may use it to jump start a vehicle. A friend gave us several of these Wal Mart batteries a couple of years ago. They were new batteries that had never been sold but had reached the end of their "shelf life" so WalMart tossed them.

When we run the generator we run everything electrical we can use. This is the new 6,000 watt generator. The two cords on the left go to the battery charger and the air compressor. The one on the top right goes to the water pump. The one on the lower right goes to the cabin where it's running the battery charger in the inverter, the electric dehydrator (with the celery in it) and we also turn the refrigerator to "high" when we have the generator running.

Susan with celery freshly cut from the garden.

Celery, sliced, diced and ready to dehydrate.

I'm building the raised bed for the Jerusalem Artichokes. I made several vertical cuts where the logs will overlap on the corners. Next I'll knock out the "slices" with a wood chisel.

Last, I'll use the chainsaw to smooth the surface. Once I've finished the end logs I'll do the same to the side logs. When finished I'll put the flat sides together and secure them with a large spike. That way the side and end logs will be about the same height.

This is the finished product complete with compost and the newly planted Jerusalem Artichokes.