Hurricane Farm

So it appears that the one-wire alternator on my Farmall Cub works.

This afternoon found me tinkering with the tractor for an hour or so.  Removing the tire chains so we can drive on the roads again, greasing up all the fittings, adding a much needed gauge to indicate the voltage, and also trying to hook up the abandoned alternator.

It seems to work.  I also tweaked the ignition switch so that it is now in the standard Up/On--Down/Off position that logical folks worldwide understand.  I think that the switch was always spinning around so no one was really sure if it was switched on or off at any given time.  I don't need the points burning out, so we've standardized that little issue.

We cruised up and down the road in 3rd gear.  Man, 13 miles per hour seems REALLY fast when you're in an open tractor.

Sweet!

We still have not uploaded the photos from the weekend, but here are some to hold us all over for a little while.

Here we have some hogs--snouts sullied--after a hard afternoon's rooting session.

They have cleared all of the land for our orchard and have also just about finished our bramble and briar patch.  We'll be moving them behind my log pile along the west end of the farm this coming weekend. 

Here is Erica hard at work planting what will hopefully one day be a wonderously prosperous apple tree.  All of the trees we set in have started to bud and are full of leaves.  The bees are starting to leave their hive and gather nectar and I saw several of them already buzzing by the apple trees.  We have set up the hive right amongst the apple trees for maximum pollenization.

Speaking of bees:  When they arrived, they were looking rather piqued.  So much so that they seemed to be--and were--mostly dead.  After a quick couple of calls and some photos sent via email, the supplier has agreed to send us a second shipment as a replacement.  Our queen, however, looked healthy and quickly worked her way onto the honey frame foundations to start her egg laying work, but the colony is off to a rocky start with so many dead bees during shipping.

We'll be adding the new bees as soon as they come.  Below is a shot of the bees that we received in the mail.  An acceptable amount of dead bees would be no more than 1/2 an inch on the bottom.  You can see how something must have happened during shipment to cause over two inches of dead bees.  All the bees amassed on the bottom are dead.  There are still several thousand living bees clinging together at the top end of the cage, but this may not be enough to establish a heatlhy colony.  Also of note is the can in the center of the shipping cage.  This is filled with sugar solution to feed the bees during their voyage through the mail.  Just to the right of the can, nearer the top, is a small cage which houses the queen and five of her royal servants.  Their job is to feed her.  She apparantly cannot be bothered with such menial tasks.  Anyhow, only one servant was left when the cage arrived, so that might explain why the queen was so eager to leave her little cage...She might have been a little hungry.

Stay tuned...More to come!

There was an "old-timey" Farm Day here in Scotland today and we decided a couple of weeks ago to participate in the fun.  So last night and this morning found us loading up the trucks with some fencing, some posts, our farm goods, and (of course) some 5 gallon buckets.

The festivities took place at the Waldo Farm in Scotland, CT, one of the earlier homesteads in town.  Many acres of fields and stone walls welcomed us as we pulled up with:

2 pigs
3 bunnies
1 calf
2 lambs
2 children
2 goslings
1 chicken coop
and a whole lot of eggs, maple syrup, and flavored vinegar.

We were lucky enough to be set up next to the stone wall (re)builder, who spent the whole day working on tightening and squaring up the old stone wall that bordered the front field.  He has been working on it every Farm Day for several years--about 12 feet a year--and his work is amazing!  Pictures to follow.

There were fiddlers, old tractors, hit-and-miss engines, and a buzz saw.  Liev and I determined that we will be acquiring a buzz saw to attach to my Farmall Cub later this summer.  The day also included some bee-keeping displays, a smelter, open-hearth cooking, and lots of Colonial hobbies to see and experience.  We had a great time and met tons of new folks.  Many of our friends and neighbors came out and it was fun to see everyone.

Our piglets were quite popular throughout the day.  They tilled up the area that we penned them up in and we could probably go into business as an "Eco-friendly Tilling Company" based on all the inquiries about their rooting!

We'll post some photos of all this soon.

Also, as if we were not busy enough getting ready for the Farm Day Fest, we received a call from the U.S. Government (Postal Division) this morning informing us that our bees were in.

"The sooner the better," was when the good folks at the post office wanted us to pick them up. 

We also have some great shots of us trying to put the bees from their shipping crate into their new hive.  It is a little like Keystone Cops, and I'm sure you'll love the photos...Check back soon to see them.

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there! 

From their protection to their nurturing to their unconditional love, it is our Mothers who help us to become who we are today.  Thanks to all of you!

Here are some shots of a wonderful mother doing her best with her little ones.

Whether your teaching us how to eat, keeping us warm and draft-free, or protecting us from predation, you Mothers are the best!

Erica and the kids found this flower in our wetlands last week.  This flower is for all the Mom's out there!  Happy Mother's Day!

The "little" pigs have finished tilling up our orchard area and we have planted four apple trees so far.  The trees are already starting to form buds!

So it was time to move the piglets to a new area in which they can put their concerted efforts into what they do best:  tilling up the ground.

The grass has been coming up fairly quickly and thickly with all the cold, wet days peppered with warm days over the past two weeks.  The pigs really enjoy being on this lush grass.  They not only can root around and look for grubs, worms, and other tasty morsels, but the love the grass itself along with the roots!

Yummy!

These photos were taken just after we released them into their new penned in area.  We will be turning this area, which is just to the side of our front garden, into a briar and bramble patch.  Blackberry.  Raspberry.  Black Raspberry.  And so on.

Hmm...Do I want to eat that Dandelion?  Maybe I'll just take a little bite and see how it tastes...
The way this little guy is staring it down, you'd think it was giving him a bad attitude or something.  I guess it did not taste as great as he had hoped.

Oh, OK...Maybe I'll try another bite of this one...

In no time at all the pigs will clear this patch and we will move them again.  I have a nice spot that is rife with poison ivy behind my log pile.  We'll get them clearing that out and exposing a nice stone wall that runs most of the way down one side of our property line.  Not only do they clear the land, but they fertilize it at the same time!  It's a win-win for all involved!

Nope.

Not baseball.

Trout!

I've always been into fishing and spent hours at local ponds and "lakes" catching sunfish, bass, and catfish as a kid.  I never really experienced trout fishing, though, as I grew up close to the ocean.  The brackish salt marsh was always great for catching bait fish and eels (yuck!), but there were not really any fresh-water streams nearby.

Luckily, we have a stream running through our farm...So I experienced my first opening day!

Trusty pole in hand, Liev takes his first step out into the water to take control of the fish in the stream.  (Isn't that the coolest fishing rod?  My brother and I--the expert fishermen that we are--love using our kids' rods when we go camping.  It makes catching sunfish and bluegill feel like we're angling for swordfish.)

It seems that there are more interesting and fun things to do than fish on opening day, however...

Violet poses for her best "A River Runs Through It" moment.

The kids found a great spot out on an old dead tree.  There were some small pools on either side where there may or may not have been fish.

They did have fun "racing" their bobbers down the stream, though!

Violet and Liev make their way back, safely avoiding the grasp of the raging waters...for the time being.  The water has been pretty high for the past few weeks...

We had a good time.  Maybe next time we'll catch something other than the shubbery on the other side of the stream!

P.S.  We found more bones.  Smaller ones this time, with an interesting pile of feathers nearby.  At Violet's behest, we are starting a small "bone museum" in the barn. 

Here are some updated photos of our new calf, Aloysius, running in the field.  These were from about two weeks ago.  By now, the grass is really starting to take off in the field.  We over-seeded the pasture with a nice mix of grasses just before we had about a week of rain, so hopefully we will be able to improve on the quality of our grass. 

The lower portion of the field was all overgrown with golden rod and brambles, which were of little interest to the cattle and sheep.  I ended up cutting it all down with a field mower last fall.  I was sort of shocked at how bare it looked afterwards, and nervous that I ruined the field, but it looks like the grasses below the golden rod are now able to have a fighting chance. 

With a few years of work, we should be able to have this old pasture brought back...

It never ceases to amaze me that all of our animals instinctively know when to throw on the brakes when approaching a fence.  They will come at you at top speed and stop just before pummeling you or the fence.

Though he is still only about a month and a half old, he is starting--emphasis on starting--to learn to follow me around and to respond to our voices.  He knows his name when called and perks up when he hears it.  Always a good thing just in case they happen to "escape."

Above Aloysius (or Monster Truck, as my son Liev just reminded me over my shoulder as I type) romps about.

There he goes, trotting back to his stall after a hard afternoon's play.  We feed our cattle only grass/hay, but we do have them trained to grain as a treat.  When returning from the field, they (the big ones, too) have to cross through an unfenced area to gain access to the barn.  All I have to do is hollar for them to come and they come running.  They receive a small handful of sweet grain as a reward. 

A poem explaining the ongoing (non)runnings of my farm tractor.

Magneto defunt;
Enter the distributor.
Purrs like a kitten.

Recently we decided to rehang our trusty tire swing (I call him "roundy") on a higher branch in the massive spruce tree which adorns our front lawn.

The branch that it was on prior to this adventure had to be lopped off to make room for a swingset, but this new branch was very high in the tree.

Not a good thing when one is not particularly fond of "big" ladders.

Luckily, my trusty 4 year old son loves all big tools, ladders being no exception.  So, with his trusy helmet upon his head, a smiling Liev made his triumphant ascent.

He really seems to enjoy it up there.  Ok, time to come down.  No, really, come on down now...Just like a cat.  Thoughts of a rescue entered my mind.  But in the end it turned out that Liev is much more agile than a cat and he attacked the descent with chipper exuberance.

He even stopped to pose halfway down.  I know who will be re-shingling the roof of the house when he's of working age...

Here is our newly painted hive awaiting arrival of Her Royal Highness, along with 10,000 or so faithful servants.

They actually come in the mail, believe it or not!

That's right, I used a lopped off black cherry tree trunk for the front foundation.  Yes, I strive to do something different in all that I do.  It's sort of like a personal moral code or something.

I'm sure there will be photos and stories a-plenty regarding our exploits with the bee queendom to share as soon as they make their grand entrance to our farm.

At last!  Click, click, click.  Tap, tap, tap.  Peep, peep, peep!

Hey, what's that sound in there?

Hey look!  That one is trying to escape!  Quick, catch it!

Here is our nice, clean, and organized brooding area.  It stays nice, clean, and organized for about 36 hours once its new tenants arrive.

We ended up adding another section to keep the goslings from wetting everyone else as they splash around in the water.  The dividers worked great--for three days--until everyone thought it would be great to mingle with their neighbors.  I've been finding countless uses for what little excess sawmill cut-offs we have left from sugarin' season.  They make great "poultry dividers."

Believe it or not, those little guys number somewhere near 200 birds--I think!

They grow fast, too.  We have spaces already established elsewhere around the farm for the geese, turkeys, and egg layers, but I'm hard at work completing a new outbuilding to house the meat birds. 

Here the kids and I have set out the sill to see how big this thing will be when it's done.

The next step was to do a little excavating...

...and leveling.

I can tell you, the first block is a piece of cake.  The next three...not so much.  But we managed to get it all leveled out eventually.

I think that I bought way too many blocks.  But we used them to make a much needed (and curiously missing) step for the workshop doorway.

Next we added some floor joists and cross braces and finally put on the floor.

And here is where our construction stops for the time being.  Next we'll put up some walls...but, as mentioned before, it was a busy week.  Did I mention that the silo came, the bees are just about set up, and loads of firewood have arrived?

It has been a busy several days here.  With school vacation last week, there were lots of projects to finish up, continue, and start.

Erica and the kids were able to get all the seeds started in a small indoor greenhouse, we tilled the garden and rolled over all the manure we spread in there, an herb garden took shape, bulbs were transplanted all around the yard, and of course the chicken coops rolled off the "assembly line."

I have found that four is the number to build at a time.  Any more than four at a time and the hardware store runs out of hinges and latches.  But if I get enough for four, somehow the store is all restocked the following week waiting for my next batch of coops.

So far I've finished four and moved them out to their new homes, and have four more 1/2 way finished.  I will build another four, as well as a 4 x 7 foot goat barn that we have a deposit on, and hopefully finish up my own 10 x 8 shed/meat chicken house (pics on that to follow later).

Here are four coops just past the halfway point.  I find that cutting each section in fours also speeds up the construction, but allows me to vary my tasks at a rapid enough pace to keep me interested in what I'm doing.

After the rough framing and the nesting boxes, I add some walls, a "pop-hole" for the hens complete with a door, and some roof trusses.

I also add two windows.  I make them diamond shape just to add some character and to make them different from any other building out there.

The 4 foot by 4 foot construction allows for enough space for a small backyard flock and also allows me to move it around with my hand truck and fit it into just about any size truck.  (I add the side door just before we load them up.)

Here is the coop in even the smallest of trucks.  This one is about to be taken to its new owners a few towns away.

We also offer a coop "package," for which customers receive some feed, a waterer, a feeder, some nesting box hay, and 6 baby chicks.  Long live the backyard chicken!  We started our farm with this exact same coop that I designed while building it many years ago.  We had four chickens and two rabbits.  We've grown quite a bit since then!

With the end of the maple sugarin' season come and gone, it is time to start cleaning up the pails and buckets and taps.  There is lots of equipment to dismantle, carry in from the woods, and clean.

Yesterday, Erica spent 6 hours at least scrubbing, washing, and rinsing the buckets, pails, spouts, tubing, and holding tanks.  We'll have some photos of that later.  For now, here are some shots taken by Liev and Violet of Mom out in the woods gathering all the maple gear.

Not bad shots for a four and five year old!

Yuck!  Look at those critters in that bucket.  Always a sign that the spring is really here and the winter is gone.

It sure looks different out in the woods without the snow and ice.  I almost forgot what it looked like out there.  Actually, we moved in here last May, so we never experience the "naked" spring woods without all the growth of the late spring...

Check out the size of that oak tree! 

We finally cleared out the space for the orchard and the bee hive!  We pulled out some great firewood for next year and have cleared out a nice sloping area for our fruit and bees.  Unfortunately, there are still tons of roots from grape vines and remnants of prickly bushes all over the area.

Solution:  Bring in the rotor-tiller.  But this is not your average gas powered machine.  This one (four of them, actually) runs on weeds, grubs, and whatever else you put in the path of its powerful snout.

We purchased four more piglets and they are busy at work in a movable pen that will eventually clear out the leftover mess in the soon-to-be-orchard.

They are hard at work tilling up the soil, eating the roots, and also composting the soil with their manure!

We picked up an old calf hutch that was for sale on the side of the road and it will be a perfect movable home for these little guys.  We can also use it later when we start letting the lambs and their mothers out into the pasture.

Here are our little ones trying out the hutch.

Here I am admiring the fine work that the pigs are about to do.  We used 4 livestock panels, some old metal posts, and a handful of zip-ties. 

Now, along with the 5 gallon pail--as our readers already know of--the zip-tie is an indespensible item on the farm.

See how handily they fit into one's upper pocket?  And oh, the colors!  They can't be missed when dropped into the muddy ground (like screws, nuts, and bolts always are).

Even a four year old can master the zip-tie.  Above we can see Liev attaching one of the livestock panels to a post.

Fine work was done by all.  Including the pigs (eh hem...tillers) who have just about cleared out that area.  We are planning to move them over today or tomorrow.  The bees arrive in a week or so and the plan is to have the pigs finished in this area and moved over to the garden by then.

We usually buy our hay from a neighboring farm here in town.  I am not sure if it is common knowledge or not, but hay, like most any other commodity in the world, comes in a variety of qualities.  There is good hay.  There is bad hay.  And all sorts in between.  We've been lucky to get our hay from our neighbors at Twin Hill Farm as they "make" exceptionally high quality hay.  Not being a hay farmer myself, I don't really know what goes into "making" good hay, but I suspect that much of it has to do with timing:  when to cut, when to fluff, when to bale.  Of course, the rain never helps matters.

Anyhow, we bought the last few bales from our supplier back at the end of the winter, and we've been trying hard to locate a secondary source to hold us over until the first cutting at the end of May.  We tried a couple of places and ended up with "bad" hay.  Yuck. 

Sometimes, it takes going without to realize how lucky one is to have it in the first place.  I can assure you that we will be buying more hay from our neighbors at cutting time and trying to store it up so as to avoid scratching around in the late winter of next year.

I am happy to report, though, that finally we found some decent hay.  Our friends at Terrabyte Farm in neighboring Canterbury, CT put us in contact with some hay farmers a couple of towns over.  They were some nice folks at that hay farm.  It turns out that they bale somewhere about 12,000 bales per season on an old farm that they are allowed to use virtually free of charge.  Barns and all!  They worked out a deal where they pay the taxes for the elderly woman who owns the farmland, keep her cable TV piping in, and keep her warm.  In exchange they have access to her 100's of acres and huge barns.  What a deal!  It sure is nice to see situations like this in what seems to be an increasingly complex world.  Some things are still pretty darn simple.

Truckload of hay and one dancing boy!

Add one dancing girl.

End result:  one itchy cat!  There is something affirming about the itch on your arms after loading bales of hay on a warm Spring day.

After several long and stressful months of changing spark plugs, ignition wires, and magneto caps, my Farmall Cub is up and running again!  I was able to get Leon, owner of Reliable Tractor Repair in Lebanon, CT, to come over and correct the incorrect timing on my magneto.  He also checked over the tractor generally and told us we have a great little tractor on our hands.  Who hoo!  If you need any tractor work, I would highly recommend Leon.  We can put you in touch with him if you live here in CT.

Aside from the rebuild on the magneto and the timing, I did a little tinkering myself and the tractor is looking sharp and running strong.  What follows are some photos and some commentary.

First of all, here is my helper, Liev, ready with his tools at hand.  Notice his tractor all ready to be worked on in the background.  We'll get to that after we work on mine.

So I set out to replace the entire exhaust system.  You can see the old one below after removal.  It is supposed to be six distinct parts; however, the old one has been fused together over time into one long and rusty maze.  Just thinking about the new muffler was exciting.  It sure would be a step up from the old one to which I referred to as the "exhaust-redirecting-hole-filled-tube."  Sure, it looked nice, and the rust matched the earthtones so prevalent here on the farm, but it was LOUD!

This is the engine's intake and exhaust ports after removal of the manifold.  Note my shiny new plugs and wires along with the new fuel line and in-line filter. 

I had to be very careful scraping off the old gasket.  If any pieces worked their way into the intake, it would be bad news for the pistons.

Speaking of gaskets...Check out how much was missing on the old set.  No wonder the tractor was having a hard time running.  It may have been sucking in air through a gasket leak.  Or, it may have been leaking exhaust.  At any rate, old ones=bad.  The new ones are quite a step up in the gasket department.

Below on my tool box are some additional parts that I had recently installed.  Lucky for me I got to practice putting them on again after having taken them off to work on the exhaust.  You can see the new carburetor and air intake pipe below along with a pile of tools.  I should really get those organized, but it does give the kids something to do while we work.  "Hey guys, I need a socket that is a little smaller than this one!"

I have found, while working on my tractor, that I need to acquire some new, larger tools.  I never seem to have a wrench large enough for the bolts and nuts on the tractor.  Just today I needed something around the 1" size.  Luckily, I found an old wrench that happened to come with an old table saw that a friend gave us (thanks Bruce!).  It came in handy in removing the oil drain plug this afternoon.  For, as you know, "hand tight" is only good in some applications...

Ah.  The new parts all nestled snuggly in their packages.  These Farmall Cub tractors are so popular that even though they are decades old, many parts are still newly manufactured for them.  That's nice.

Here is the manifold installed on the tractor.  I had to fit the nipple and the elbow onto the manifold and then sneak the whole thing up and under the hood WHILE AT THE SAME TIME sliding it all onto the four bolts that attach it to the engine.  Whew...That took some patience.   But, it was easier than taking off the hood, which is also the gas tank, which is filled with gas.

I had to pull out "Old Cranky" to align the fittings so that the underslung exhause pipe would point down and to the rear as it should.  I think Galileo was indeed onto something.  It's amazing how much torque you can get with a tool like "Old Cranky."  And to think, he was only $4.00 at the livestock auction. 

Check out how little clearance they provide one in accessing the bolts that hold on the manifold.  Luckily, I had the foresight to shoot lots of PB Blaster onto those bolts for a couple of weeks to free up the rust.  They came off and went back on like new (with lots of tiny, short wrench strokes...thanks to that clearance).

I do have a shop manual for the tractor.  It is a genuine International Harvester publication.  But, for some reason, they like to write confusing things like:  "adjustment and alignment will be evident upon removal and inspection of..." 

Huh?

Well, I suppose that these manuals are written for people actually trained in tractor repair.  If the prose is obscure to me, at least the expanded diagrams--with all their arrows and numbers--are somewhat useful to my untrained understanding of what is going on inside these parts.  These annotations and arrows and letters and numbers are probably just like those on the back of the 8 x 10 color glossy photographs from Alice's Restaurant.

Someone out there put a more understandable and usable tractor manual on my Christmas present list...

Well, the tractor is working great now.  We plan to use it tomorrow to plow the manure in the garden and then later on in the day to pull out some trees that I cut down to make room for our new orchard and bee hives.  Yes, bees are indeed on the way to the farm.  Photos on that later!

But wait, oh no!  I'll have to first use the tractor to reclaim Liev's loader from its precarious perch atop a pile of cedar logs.  How did he get it up there?!

We have just completed Phase 2 of our SILO ACQUISITION.

Phase 1, the most tedious of all phases, included posting several ads on Craigslist throughout the greater New England and Pennsylvania area in the hopes of locating an unwated silo (a.k.a. Grain Bin).  After culling through dozens of responses offering us "less-than-ideal" (read rusted, warped, three-legged, bottom-less!) silos, we decided to call around to find out about new silos. 

New silos, however, are not very cost-effective--especially from the perspective of those who always purchase things second, third, and fourth-hand.

We did, though, find a slightly used silo through one of owners of what I guess should be called the "Silo Store."  He informed us that one of his clients was interested in selling her silo, and that he would be willing to remove it from her farm and erect it on our property.  Around the same time, I stumbled upon another used silo at a farm in a neighboring town.  This one was slightly more "used," but worth while checking out.

Phase 2, then, involved looking at and inspecting both silos.  We decided, ultimately, on the newer of the two in the hopes that it will be a longer-lasting investment.  Below, find some photos taken at the conclusion of Phase 2.

(BBQ grill not included)

Phase 3, which involves the delivery and installation of said silo, will hopefully commence (and resume) sometime this week or next.  Phase 4, involving filling it will feed from the mill will, logically, follow Phase 3 forthwith.

I came home yesterday to find a bale of wood shavings ripped open and spilled across the barn floor.  Hmm, I thought, I wonder how that happened? 

Then I saw some ripped paper in the stall with the cattle...Apparantly, they enjoy brown paper almost as much as they enjoy grass and hay.

I'll have to make a point of not stacking the bales of shavings so close to them in the future.

Moo!

We are always trying to find out the history of our farm.  Who lived here years ago?  Who built the stone walls?  What were they keeping in or out?  Where did that bone we found in the woods come from?

Well, we stumbled upon a couple of answers...

1.  The previous farmers clearly had a passion for their crop, given that their crop was--and still is--quite plentiful.  They must have been stone farmers.  That's where all these stones keep coming from!  I guess that field stone is a "perrenial."  One can't dig more than five inches without laboring with a 40 pound rock.  What started out as a small hole for a post soon becomes a yawning chasm due to rock removal.

Notice how our kids have made some lovely "Stone and Dirt Soup."

2.  The bone that we found in the woods must have come from a dinosaur, think my kids.  And the stone walls must have been put up to keep them out!  It makes sense, since we found the bone on the other side of the stone wall! 

Here are some of the much anticipated photos of our baby farm animals.  We've been quite busy getting things prepared for their births and arrivals, as well as with sugaring, but here are some shots of the recent additions to our farm.

Moments after birth--and still wet--the baby lambs hang with their mom.

Later in the day, all nestled into their own private stall.  They are twins, though it does not look like it!

Here are the hogs, still quite young, but not looking like babies any longer!  Looks quite comfortable.  Perhaps I'll join them for an afternoon snooze...

We also acquired a new calf this past week.  He is a week and half old and already he towers above our kids.  His name is Aloysius (but our son calls him "Monster Truck") and he is an Ayershire bull calf.  This breed is larger than the Jerseys and is sort of neat for us to have as they originated in southern Scotland. 

He has two bottles a day, and is already starting to eat some hay and a little grain.

We've spent most of this rainy day rebuilding, cleaning, and repainting the bee hives that I had picked up last summer.  We ordered a 3 lb. package of bees and will be getting them into their hive in about three weeks or so.  There will be several updates on that project, I'm sure.