Category Archives: Firewood

Happy Thanksgiving

Chickens, Fall, Firewood, Reflections, Splitting Wood, ,

As far as weather goes, Monday was our best day of the week leading up to our Thanksgiving holiday. I took this opportunity to get out to the farm and work with my husband.

The sky was gray and the wind was brisk. I appreciated my winter coat.

Most of the trees are bare now and the pond level is still very low indicating that we are still in a drought. According to the US Drought Monitor we have moderate drought conditions.

The sun unsuccessfully tried to break through the clouds.

The chickens spent the day out and about. They don’t mind the wind and cold so much but when the snow comes they will spend most of their time in the coop.

They have been going through their molt and most have stopped laying eggs. I always feel sorry for them when I see them molting. They look so disheveled.

Many of them have gotten their new feathers in but won’t start laying again until the days become longer. For now we are still getting one or two eggs every other day. I’m thankful that my daughter and son-in-law have a new flock this year who won’t molt and should continue to lay through the winter. Hopefully I can get my eggs from them.

There isn’t a lot of work to be done at the farm this time of year but my husband has been working on cutting and splitting firewood. The large maple logs have been seasoning for two years so are ready to be split and burned. He had a stack cut and ready to be split.

We worked together – he placing the log on the splitter, me operating the lever, both of us removing the split logs and tossing them on the pile.

We also worked together to stack the wood once we had it split. We are so thankful for the gas-powered log splitter we purchased two years ago. It makes short and easy work of the task of splitting firewood.

Now as my husband and I prepare to watch the Detroit Lions Thanksgiving Day Game, I wish you all many blessings and a Happy Thanksgiving for those of you who are celebrating today.

GO LIONS!

September 2023 – Farewell Summer

Apples, Autumn, Fall, Firewood, Flowers, Reflections, Sunflowers, The Farm

Hello and Welcome!

When I last wrote, back on September 13, my husband and I were working on splitting and storing firewood also preserving our apple harvest. This post will pick up there.

Apple Harvest

We had a great apple harvest this year so I was able to can about 16 pints of apple sauce and freeze enough pie filling for six pies. We also gave our neighbor a couple crates of apples as she was canning sauce and making pie filling as well.

Firewood

We continued to work on cutting, splitting and stacking firewood for the next couple of weeks.

Since we use firewood in our fireplace to supplement heat from our gas furnace (trying to keep the gas bill down) this supply would likely last us at least two years.

In addition to moving all of the firewood from our proposed building site my husband spent a lot of time sorting and moving other equipment that we had stored in that area. Much of it was relocated as you see in the photo above.

House Planning

We have spent a lot of time this month planning our “dream home”. Picking the location on our property was something that didn’t take a lot of thought as we both agreed that it would be overlooking the pond.

In the above picture the house will be directly across the driveway. The large maple tree in the center of the picture will have to be cut down, as will two small oak trees behind it. We have also decided to take down the maple in the right-hand side of the picture so it doesn’t cause problems with the house as it gets bigger.

I expect my husband will begin cutting these trees within the next week. This is a big job and is going to take a while.

When I took the above picture I was standing in the area where our kitchen will be. There will be a window above the kitchen sink so I will never hate washing dishes. 🙂 The house will set up a bit higher so the view will be a bit different but at least this gives you an idea of what it will look like.

The above picture was taken from the opposite end of the pond. I zoomed in to try to capture the 4 orange flags marking the footprint of the house. If you look really close, you might be able to make them out. There are two just to the right of the maple tree on the left and two more to the right of the maple that is to the right.

Selecting the location was the easy part. We have also been working on designing the home. Our first thought was to buy a modular home (a home that is premade in a factory then transported to the site in sections and attached to the foundation) but after looking at countless floor plans, we were unable to identify one that we loved. It seems we are not very easy to please.

We are now exploring the possibilities of a stick-built house. It is supposedly more expensive to build this way but by designing our own home we may be able to cut out some of the unnecessary (for us) things that would come with a modular along with wasted space, thus bringing the costs more in line.

I did find this website https://archiplain.com/ that has been a great help in putting our design thoughts on paper. (It was free, and I didn’t have to download anything. 🙂 ) After about two weeks of designing, measuring, discussing, revising, measuring, revising, discussing, revising and so on, we met with our potential builder earlier this week to give him the rough plans. We did meet at the farm so he could see the proposed building site as well. We hope to hear back from him in the next few days on what it would cost to build the basic shell.

We also met with an excavator who would build the septic field and prepare the area for the home foundation. We are looking forward to getting an estimate from him soon as well.

Meet Taffy

In August my dad lost his companion dog, Baby, to cancer. Dad lives alone and doesn’t get out much. He has close neighbors, but Baby was his best friend – the reason he got up each day. So, when he called me a couple weeks ago and said he needed another dog I wasn’t surprised. I was a bit nervous because I knew it would have to be the right dog – an older dog who was content to spend a lot of time lounging around. I began looking at the website of our local shelter but also began praying about finding the right dog.

When I read the description of the dog named Taffy, a 7-year-old, lab/boxer mix who is a couch potato and loves to give kisses, I knew she was worth considering. I didn’t want to jump into anything so I decided to wait until the following Monday to see if she was still available. I talked with my sisters and my husband about the situation and we all talked to God about the need to find the right dog for dad.

On Monday I contacted the shelter and made an appointment to meet Taffy. Since I didn’t see any reason that it wouldn’t be a good match, I called dad and asked if he wanted to meet her. That afternoon I picked him up and returned to the shelter. It didn’t take dad long to decide that she was going home with him. Since she was scheduled to be spayed on Tuesday, we couldn’t pick her up until Wednesday.

On Wednesday afternoon my husband and I went to the shelter to pick up Taffy and take her to her new home. I was glad that he offered to go along since A) I wasn’t sure how Taffy would do riding in a vehicle (she did fine) and B) I wanted him to meet (and like) her. (If it ever comes to the point where dad can’t take care of her I’d like to be able to give her a home.)

She been at dad’s for just over two weeks now and they seem to be doing well. In talking with dad over the last couple of weeks I found out that he had seen Taffy’s picture and profile online around the same time I did. He had also been praying about whether she was the right dog for him.

I do think that this dog, who had been at the shelter for at least a month, and was grossly underweight, needed dad as much as he needed her and with all those prayers going up, I can only believe this is a match made in heaven.

A Few Fall Pics

We discovered a new wildflower on the farm.

There were several plants tucked away in a corner that we don’t visit too often. I took some pictures and showed my husband. The next day he went to see them and found a tree frog sitting on a leaf of the plant. 🙂 He came home and got a wildflower identification book off the shelf and discovered that this flower is called closed gentian, bottle gentian or closed bottle gentian. It’s a good thing we didn’t wait for the blossoms to open to try to identify it because they don’t, hence the name closed gentian.

It wasn’t our best year for sunflowers. The mammoth sunflowers that I planted didn’t have a chance. They first battled against too much rain then the ones that looked like they might make it got eaten by deer. The variety pictured above were in a fenced area and managed to survive the overabundance of rain. It was lovely patch which the bees and the birds appreciated.

The weather remained warm throughout September and most of this first week of October, but we’ve been seeing fall colors for several weeks now.

The rain that came two days ago ushered in cooler, more fall-like, temperatures that will hopefully bring an end to our mosquito plague. I expect leaf cleanup will begin soon.

Recommended Reading

Last month I mentioned that I would possibly do some posts about books that I have read. Since I normally read when I go to bed at night, I read several books in September. They included The Carousel and The Looking Glass both by Richard Paul Evans, an author whose books I have come to enjoy. Both are books that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a heartwarming love story.

A third book which I really enjoyed was Bad Ground by W. Dale Cramer. It’s more than just a love story and I think it would appeal to a wide range of readers.

The Synopsis reads:

Poignant and thought provoking, this is a down-to-earth, sometimes humorous novel filled with suspense, action, redemption, and even romance. Seventeen-year-old Jeremy Prine decides to honor his mother’s dying wish and seek out his estranged uncle who was badly burned in the accident that killed Jeremy’s father. He finds the man working as a hard-rock miner in the south, an extremely dangerous occupation. His uncle seems a bitter and lonely man, but Jeremy senses more beneath the surface. Against his uncle’s wishes, Jeremy takes a job as a miner and soon his young faith is tested by his rough and gritty co-workers, the threat of danger…and the possibility of love.

It has a 4-star rating on good reads, and I would give it 4 stars out of 5 as well.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/184446.Bad_Ground#CommunityReviews

Thanks for visiting. Has autumn brought cooler temperatures and colorful or falling leaves to your part of the world?

Teamwork-Firewood and Apple Pie

Apple Chips, Apple Pie, Apple Sauce, Firewood, Reflections

My husband and I have always worked well as a team, so I’m not surprised that when we worked on splitting firewood this morning we exceeded his expectations. His plan was to get one rack of firewood split and loaded on the trailer, to be moved to another location, before we stopped for lunch. I think we got about double that amount done.

We are splitting the firewood to get it ready for winter when we will use it in our fireplace to help heat our home. We are moving the firewood to a new location because the area of the farm where it is being stored is the area that we have identified as the location for the new house. A lot of things need to be moved from this area before things can proceed.

Before we went to the farm this morning my husband peeled a dish full of apples.

My plan was to make an apple pie and his was to dehydrate some into apple chips.

After lunch (and a short nap) I began slicing apples and proceeded to make apple pie and apple chips, while he returned to the farm (with the dogs) to stack firewood and cut up logs that we will split tomorrow.

When he brought the dogs back home I realized that Ranger had been rolling around in something that smelled rotten, so I put the apples that I had yet to slice in a saucepan with a bit of water, and turned it on low, while I took Ranger and Ruby to give them baths. My husband is now enjoying some of the applesauce I cooked up. I guess we will wait until tomorrow to cut the pie.

Thanks for visiting.

Sweet Summer Time

Bees, Berries, Birds, Blueberry Pie, Firewood, Grapes, Nature, Reflections, Summer,

I can’t believe July is nearly over. I certainly have been enjoying the summer weather we have had this past week, but I fear that summer will  be gone before I know it. I am trying to make a conscious effort to take at least a little time each day just appreciating what the season has to offer. Sometimes that involves taking a dip in the pond or kicking off my shoes and going barefoot in the lush green grass. Other times it involves observing nature in all of it’s glory. Last week it also involved a homemade blueberry pie. ☺

Below are some of my observations from the past week.

 That’s Just Ducky!

One day last week, when I was working in the prayer garden, I noticed we had a visitor in the pond.

In the past when we have had ducks visit they have not stayed long. This one doesn’t want to leave.

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I can’t say that I blame her as it is a very lovely environment. I am not sure what kind of duck she is so if you know please leave me a comment at the end of this post.

We don’t want ducks or other water foul living in our pond so we have made many attempts at letting her know she needs to leave.IMG_5415

At first I thought it would be as easy as letting Trooper chase her off, but as he entered the pond she swam quickly to the other end of the pond. Trooper lost sight of her and interest. As I walked around the outside of the pond to the area where she was swimming she again just swam to a different spot. My husband attempts at throwing small stones in the water near her didn’t seem to deter her either. She certainly is persistent!

Finally on Friday when I had family over for a picnic lunch I told my niece, as she and my cousin set out in the paddle boat, that their job was to chase the duck away. A while later my niece announced that the duck had flown away. Good Job Ashley and Abbey! It was maybe a couple of hours later, after we had finished our pond activities, that we saw her land in the pond again. Good Grief!!!

I do think that she has since gotten the message that we don’t want her there because now when she sees my husband or I approaching the pond she flies away – only to return when we are not around. Perhaps she figures “what we don’t know won’t hurt us – or her”.

Unapproved Housing!

So far this year I have written about robins building a nest in a flat of pansies and the sparrow who was raising her young in the middle of our strawberry patch but this is the oddest nest yet.

This past winter my husband noticed that what we assume was a confused woodpecker had made a hole in our U.S. Coast Guard approved floatation devise that our township requires be kept near the pond. It is not made out of wood!

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Last week he told me that he looked in that hole and saw what he thought was a sparrow inside.

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I decided to try to get a photo. As I approached a small bird flew out. It was similar in size and color to a sparrow but I noticed that it had a long pointy beak. After doing a little research I have decided it is probably a house wren. While it seems to have found a cozy home I am not sure that the U.S. Coast Guard would approve.

Birdseye View

Hawks soaring high above our farm is not an unusual sight; it’s just one that I have difficulty photographing. It does get concerning when their search area comes close the area where our chickens are foraging as we have had several chickens fall prey to hawks in the past. Such is the nature of allowing chickens to free range.

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As I watch the hawk gracefully circling I envy its view from above.

A Berry Good Year

While our garlic crop was disappointing this year, all of our berries performed beyond our expectations. As I have mentioned in previous posts it has been a wonderful year for strawberries, currants, cherries, and blueberries. Grapes seem to be following suit.

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One day last week I noticed that the grape vines were sagging. Upon further inspection we discovered that the top wire that supports the grape vines had broken.

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The vines are so heavy laden with fruit that the wire could not support their weight. My husband was able to place a couple of wooden stakes under the vines to keep them off the ground, but repairing the wire will have to wait until after the harvest.

If A Tree Falls and Nobody Is Around To Hear It Does It Really Make A Sound?

As of this writing that question will go unanswered.

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My husband was standing in the garden, perhaps 100 feet from this tree last Sunday when the storm came through. He estimated the wind gust at about sixty miles per hour. As he felt the gust, he heard a loud crack and watched the tree fall.

The dead ash tree has been standing dead in the wood line for several years and we have been waiting for the right winds to come along and bring it down. We can now cut it up to use for firewood this winter.

The Garden Was Busy This Morning

Perhaps I should say buzzy. The squash and pumpkins are blossoming heavily right now,

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and bees and other pollinators love squash blossoms.

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It is not unusual to see two or more pollinators in the same flower.

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The bees were also foraging in the buckwheat.  They moved quickly from flower to flower and I was not able to capture a photo of one.

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We don’t harvest buckwheat but it does serve a dual purpose. It acts as a cover crop, enriching the soil in areas where we are not growing food. It also helps feed the bees.

Thanks for spending a little time with me. What are you doing to make the most of summer?

Getting Ready For Winter

Firewood, Maintaining Equipment, Reflections, Splitting Wood, The Farm, Tractor, Winter Prep, ,

Fall is a transitional period and much of our time recently has been spent getting ready for winter. Today I’m going to share just quick overview of some of the things we have been up to.

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The driveway needed more gravel so my husband had 30 tons of 21 AA, also known as road gravel, delivered. 30 tons or 60,000 pounds doesn’t really look like a lot. It certainly didn’t cover our whole driveway but we were able to fix the bad spots.

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This job meant I got some tractor time as we worked together to get the stone spread.

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I LOVE Tractor Time!

Another thing that my husband put a lot of time into is getting all of the equipment winterized and stored. Over the last few years we have acquired quite a collection of motorized equipment. The tractor, lawn mowers, rototillers, chainsaw, power washer and more, all requiring maintenance in various forms.

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My husband had mentioned several times that he needed to put together a Preventative Maintenance Schedule, he also referred to it as a PMS, and I laughed. When I saw him winterizing the equipment I decided to make him a preventative maintenance schedule. Even though my computer skills are not that good I was able to make him a chart that can be used as both a reference document and working document for all of the equipment. As a reference document we can record the name and #’s of each piece of equipment, as well as fuel requirements, spark plug numbers, and numbers of other parts that need to get replaced on a regular basis. With all of this information in one place he doesn’t have to pull out the manual for each piece of equipment to find this information. As a working document he can record the dates that any maintenance is preformed on the equipment.

Here is a link for the PMS document that I made pms feel free to save it, print it, or change it, if you think it would be useful.

 

Stocking firewood for the winter is another task that we, but mostly my husband, have been putting a lot of time and effort into. For us this involves cutting down trees, mostly dead ash, then removing the limbs from the tree, cutting it into approximately 18 inch logs that will fit into our fireplace, then splitting and stacking the logs. Since the trees that we are cutting are dead we have found that they don’t need to be seasoned. They are already dry enough to split and burn.

One of the things that has always concerned me is watching my husband cut up logs with a chainsaw. First of all the bending is not good for his back, but mostly my concern is the way the logs tend to slip while they are in contact with the chainsaw. It just seems so dangerous. A while back I was reading an article in Countryside Magazine that talked about a sawbuck for holding the logs while they were being sawed. I had never heard of this before, so I did an internet search to see what I was missing. I came across this site http://www.firewood-for-life.com/sawbuck-plans.html that had complete plans, including a list of materials and detailed instructions, for making a sawbuck. It looked easy enough and quite affordable so I decided we were going to make one. I showed the plans to my husband and he agreed it was a good idea. He had a better idea. A few days later he showed up with a sawbuck. It was a different design from the one above, and it has definitely been used, but it meets his needs. Apparently when visiting a neighbor earlier this year he had noticed this piece of equipment. At my mention of his needing one he decided to inquire about the one he had spotted. When he asked the neighbor if he could rent or buy the sawbuck from him, the neighbor told him he could have it. 🙂 Sometimes all you have to do is ask.

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When I talk about firewood I always like to mention our log splitter. https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200640136_200640136 I bought this log splitter several years ago when I wanted to be less dependent on my husband for splitting firewood. My husband had always used a maul to split the wood and had pretty much mastered the art. I, on the other hand, found using a maul a struggle. It took a lot of searching to find a log splitter that was not electric or gas powered and this is the only one that I came across. That’s why I like to tell people about it. Although it’s capabilities are limited to logs with a 6 1/2 inch diameter, it works for most of the logs we are trying to split.

Cutting fire wood is something we will continue to do throughout the fall and probably into the winter. If you burn wood for heat, you can never have too much firewood.

While tomorrow we will take the day off to celebrate our Thanksgiving Holiday with family, I wish all of my readers a Happy Thanksgiving, and if you are reading this but not celebrating the Thanksgiving Holiday I hope that you, too, have blessings to celebrate. 🙂