I’m missing my front-end loader gene

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

You know when you see those large machines working away, effortlessly moving large piles of dirt, easily scooping massive rocks, bopping along over the roughest terrain? I’ve discovered there’s a lot of skill that goes into this mechanical ballet.

Skills I apparently don’t have.

Wiley’s been getting a workout over the last little while, cutting, hauling, scooping and carrying. He’s a great partner when it comes to managing the property. Me, however? I’m not such a good teammate.

My specific issue is with the front-end loader.

I just do not find the front-end loader intuitive.

I raise when I want to scoop, I dump when I want to raise. It’s all kinds of awkward.

Please ignore the long grass and the basketball net. Landscaping is next year’s project.

The front end loader is controlled by a joystick. Move it up to raise the bucket, down to lower the bucket. Move it to the left and the bucket curls up. Move it right and the bucket tips to dump.

Maybe it’s because I never played video games growing up, but I just can’t master the joystick. I’m forever moving it the wrong way and end up digging the blade into the ground or prematurely dumping my bucket.

We finally got the new waterline trenched into the driveshed last week, and I decided to backfill the trench. While the job did go quicker with Wiley than it would have with a shovel, I was not efficient by any means. Poor Wiley must have been so confused. “Why is she dumping the dirt here when the hole is over there?”

Yeah. It wasn’t pretty.

Every so often I’d hop off the tractor and grab the shovel or the rake to deal with a random pile by hand.

Matt, Mr. I-love-video-games, has no such issues with the loader. Allow him to demonstrate.

This is how you position the bucket to carry a load. This one happens to be one of the many piles of rocks that exist around the property.

This is how you dump a load out of the bucket.

So is my lack of front-end loader ability an actual genetic deficiency? Or do you think front-end loader manipulation can be learned? Should I hook up Matt’s old Jump Man game for some joystick practice?

I live in a gated community

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

It’s a very exclusive enclave we have here in the country.

Population: 2 (plus 1 cat and 1 kitten)

With our new gate in place at the bottom of the driveway, farm living has become quite chi-chi.

Open sesame

Actually, setting aside my new pretensions, we installed the gate for security. We’re far enough from civilization that neighbours or police really wouldn’t be much help to us in the event of a break in. If we’re home we can keep an eye on things, but when we’re not the gate may just be enough of a deterrent to people who are thinking about trespassing.

I’ll admit that I was initially pretty resistant to having a gate. I don’t like the way they look, and I didn’t want the inconvenience of opening and closing it when I was coming and going.

However, I actually like the way our gate ended up looking. It’s still a bit of a pain to stop, open the gate, drive through, park and close the gate when you’re leaving or arriving, but it’s a small price to pay for feeling secure about our house.

It’s a simple set up: just a chain and a padlock

If you want in, you have to have the key

My Dad and Matt made some metal hooks to support the gate when it’s closed and when it’s propped open.

The hook supports the gate to ease the weight on the hinges and also secures the gate in place.

We do like having visitors at the farm–at least from people we know. So if you’re planning on dropping by, let us know, and we’ll open the gate for you!

Welcome to the farm

Anyone out there live in an actual gated community? How do you deal with security at your house?

See my earlier post for the story of setting the posts for the gate.

This is not taking it easy

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Remember on Friday when I said that I was hoping Matt and I would do nothing this weekend? Yeah, well, that plan didn’t work out at all.

Instead of sleeping in and sitting outside in lawn chairs for two days straight, we went and rented an auger.

We’ve had a number of people turn in the driveway and come all the way up to the house. Once they get to the top and realize our cars are parked there (i.e. we’re home), they make their way around the turnaround and go back down the driveway. Usually by this point I’ve come out of the front door to glare at them as they drive away.

We have a long driveway, so if people are lost and need to just turn around, we wouldn’t even know they were there. For people to end up at the house, they’re trespassing.

We decided we need a gate at the bottom of the driveway.

A gate needs posts, and posts need holes, so we needed an auger.

Matt and my Dad drill a post hole with the auger

Matt and my Dad ran the auger while I came behind and cleaned out the holes.

Why does the person with the shortest arms have to clean out the hole?

We do own shovels, but a hands-on approach worked better for me sometimes given what we found in the holes.

Lots and lots of stones

The auger did not like the stones.

It particularly disliked this stone.

This boulder became the bane of my existence for about an hour. We all took our turns working around it with the shovel, the prybar, even a pick. It was massive, and it wasn’t moving.

The post that was to go in this hole was supposed to be our hinge, so we needed it to be really solid. But with the rock in the way, we couldn’t get the hole deep enough. So, we decided to swing the gate the other way and drilled a new nice and deep hole on the other side of the driveway.

Then, it was a matter of mixing up our concrete and setting our posts in place.

I take a turn mixing while Matt adds the water

By the end of the day, we had four new posts in place: two at either end of the gate, one to hook the gate to when it’s open and a new post for the mailbox.

We braced the posts to hold them plumb while the concrete sets

Oh, and we also had more sore muscles and a few new calluses.

Have we reached the end of the to-do list yet? Has anyone spotted the end? Can you please tell me is it far away?

And please tell me someone out there got to sleep in and sit in a lawn chair this weekend.

Retraction

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Continuing with this week’s theme of manpower, Matt would like for me to formally retract the statement I made last week that trenching the satellite line was “no sweat.”

As the person who spent six hours burying the wire, Matt would like it made known that this job was no small task.

The distance from the satellite dish to the house was about 150 feet. Given that length, it didn’t matter that the trench was only six inches deep; this was a tough job.

The satellite wire is to the left of the trench

In addition to the length of the trench, the other challenge was the trench’s position through and alongside a stand of trees. Matt had to contend with a lot of roots while he was digging.

A particularly large root that Matt encountered on his excavation

Once he had the trench done, it was a simple matter (hope I don’t get in trouble for downplaying this part of the job) of laying the wire in the bottom.

The wire in the trench

As I mentioned last week, the wire runs under our patio for a short distance. While we’d already worked together to trench this section, once the wire was in place Matt had to backfill, level and reset the patio slabs.

Patio slabs back in place

He also had to cut an extra few inches of plastic conduit and slit it to go around the wire. This protects the wire where it comes out of the ground so that it doesn’t get pinched or cut.

He used just a basic plastic pipe for the conduit and slit it to go around the wire

When Matt was digging, he kept sod on one side of the trench and top soil on the other, so that everything could be neatly put back in place. This made for a very tidy lawn at the end of the day.

You can’t even tell Matt was there

And what does manpower look like after six hours of sweaty work? Matt documented that for me as well:

Note the staging with the feet on the table, the shovel in the shot and the satellite in the distance. Note as well the angle of the setting sun showing how long Matt was working at this job.

There you go, Matt. I hope that this post makes up for any downplaying of your efforts and skills. Thank you for all of your work on this job and all of the others you take on to make our home all that we want it to be.

Roses among the thorns

Posted on June 17, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

In a true blend of the rustic and the fine, a big hedge of bright red roses has grown up at the front of the barn.

The big bushes edge the whole side of the bank, spilling over the old timbers stacked on the ramp.

Anyone have any tips on caring for roses? These seem to be doing just fine on their own, but I’d like to make sure their gorgeousness continues.

Wiley goes to work

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Up until this past weekend, we hadn’t really cut the grass at the farm yet this year.

Yes, we are those neighbours.

A few weeks ago, Matt ran around the house a few times with our push mower until it ran out of gas, but that was it.

Things were starting to look a bit unkempt.

And then last week, Wiley arrived.

Sunday, we fired him up and got busy.

First up, Matt and Wiley moved a pile of lumber up to the barn.

Matt and I have done a couple of walk-abouts recently picking up wood and sticks and rocks so that Wiley doesn’t hit anything and damage his blades. We still kept his mower really high, and I did all of the edging with our old push mower so that Wiley didn’t have to get too close to anything that might hurt him.

Yes, the grass was a little long–so long that we can probably bale the clippings on the driveway and Matt had to raise the bucket to see where he was cutting.

I’ve learned that the term “lawn” doesn’t really apply on such a large property. Grass cutting is more of a question of “Where do I stop?”

Matt and Wiley mowing the meadow down by the road.

Wiley is a good little worker. He cut grass, moved stumps and logs and even gave me a ride in the bucket.

Of course, his driver pretended he was going to tip me out of the bucket, but that wasn’t Wiley’s fault.

Once Wiley was done his work, Matt and his Dad went to work with their matching weed whackers and continued the battle to beat back the invading horde. There’s a manifest destiny thing going on in the fields, and the hay is definitely looking to expand its territory.

The property looks a little more groomed, and I feel like we’re making headway in tidying up the outdoors. Well done, Wiley and Matt.

This weekend it’s my turn to drive. Wiley better get ready.

What’s your mode of mowing? Anyone out there muscling along with a reel mower? Or are you a weed-whacking wizard?

Farm flora

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I’ve been having fun watching all of the flowers coming up around the farm this spring. It’s been a process of discovery as I figure out what that green shoot is and what’s planted over there.

I believe this is Solomon’s Seal

Orange lilies behind the house

Snow on the mountain. This plant grows like crazy at my in-laws’ place, but I couldn’t get it to take at our old house. It turns out that the farm is home to a very robust crop.

Red Japanese maple and bright green ferns at the corner of the house

Beautiful lily of the valley. Another plant that I couldn’t get to grow at the old house.

Forget me nots (and maybe a some strawberry blossoms at the top)

Purple iris at the south side of the house

Our most common flower at the farm: the dandelion

What’s your favourite spring flower? Anyone else have a successful dandelion plantation?

Putting down roots

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

We inherited many, many things from previous owners when we took possession of the farm (I haven’t shown you pictures of our personal Hoarders episode yet, but I may some day).

A number of those things were plants. Sometime last year, the people we bought the farm from went out and got many, many plants, but they never planted them! Bushes, flowers, trees, shrubs, all of them were still in their plastic pots sitting on the ground in and around the areas where the front flower gardens would be if they weren’t completely overgrown with weeds.

The stockpile included 5 trees.

Our inherited trees

I have no idea how long they’d been there, but when we saw the property for the first time at the beginning of January, they were all laying on their sides, frozen into a kiddie pool (I guess an attempt to keep them alive?), and they were still there, just like that, when we took possession in March.

When the ice in the pool melted enough, Matt and I stood them upright, but they were so curvy and bent from laying down that they easily tipped over again. We propped them up with concrete blocks and checked them frequently searching for any signs of life.

A few weeks ago, we noticed buds. Finally on Sunday (fittingly, Earth Day), we made some time to plant them.

I love a tree-lined driveway, and we’re already in pretty good shape, but there are a few blank spots, so that’s where we focused our plantings.

One of our new trees. He's a little spindly right now, but the inspiration of what he can become is right behind him.

According to the tags that were tied to the trees, we have an Autumn Radiance Maple, two Unique Littleleaf Lindens, and an Autumn Blaze Maple. The fifth tree wasn’t labelled, but it looks like some kind of maple.