I think this hole in the ice is a sign that someone had a bad day.
But someone else didn’t take the warning.
“What do you mean the ice isn’t safe?”
“My foot’s cold… and wet.”
(And just in case you’re worried, the pond is pretty shallow here, so when Bax did actually break through, he was able to climb out without any trouble. Although he was a little miffed that the ground cracked and he ended up wet. I also had him on his long lead so he couldn’t wander too far.)
I’ve held off posting about the garden until February.
Yes, today is the very first day of February. But I held off.
You see, I’ve been thinking about this garden since before the end of last season.
You’re impressed with my restraint, aren’t you?
You know who’s not impressed or excited? Baxter. Dude does not share my enthusiasm for the garden at all. In fact, he drooled on my garden plan as I was writing this post.
But never mind him. I will carry on.
There are a few things feeding my obsession:
You saw some of my to-do list in my Home Goals 2016 post. Today I want to focus less on what has to be done and more on what could be done.
As in, what could be grown.
Here’s my initial idea for the upcoming season (minus the drool).
The big news for this year is that we’re using the whole garden. Last year, we only cleared half.
So that means we can plant more of certain things (potatoes, beans) and more new things (broccoli, watermelon, eggplant, asparagus, sunflowers). You’ll see there are still a few blanks in the plan above. I’m open to suggestions.
I also feel like this is the year to sort out the best layout. I’m still wrapping my head around gardening in the round. The layout of two central axes crossing at right angles, and then shorter rows running perpendicularly (does that description make any sense?) is something I started last year. I found it’s a helpful way to divide this huge garden into manageable sections.
A couple of points to keep in mind:
As always, though, I would appreciate your input.
What plants would you suggest? How would you lay things out? What summer projects are you planning? What are you going to grow in your garden this year?
We’re two weeks away from New Year’s Day. Every year that we’ve been at the farm, I’ve been able to go skating on the pond on New Year’s.
Unless we get a serious cold snap for Christmas, I don’t think skating’s going to be on the activity list.
The surface of the pond is more about reflections these days than it is about ice.
The water is trickling in the creek.
The deer paths around the shore are very, very squishy–not even close to frozen–mud.
The reeds are still green.
A thirsty puppy even has a place to get a drink.
2016 is coming no matter what. Skating? I’m not so sure.
What’s the weather like where you are? How are you planning to celebrate New Year’s? Do you have any traditions you’re looking forward to?
You’ve read my perspective on mucking out the barn. Now Baxter shares his point of view.
Being a farm dog is a lot of work. The last few weeks, we’ve been cleaning out the barn.
Usually, Matt and Julia don’t let me in the barn.
They say it’s Ralph’s home, and she’s allowed to have her own space no dogs allowed. I don’t know what the big deal is. I don’t chase her too much. And I’m her brother. Aren’t I supposed to bug her?
The first time I came into the barn, it was very interesting. There were so many sniffs. Ralph was there too. And I didn’t bug her at all.
By the third weekend in the barn, I was exhausted.
Ralph was guarding her food dish, so I climbed into her bed. It’s a big pile of straw, but all of the nests are cat-sized. I turned and turned and turned, but I did not fit. I dug around and was able to make a dog-sized nest.
I gotta say. I’m a farm dog. But I’m not a barn dog. That straw was prickly. This is my not impressed face.
Ralph seems to like it for some reason though. She left her food dish and came over to give me dirty looks from the stairs.
Apparently I was still bugging her. My work as a farm dog and as a brother is never done.
Oh, Baxter. You have such a hard life.
Want more Baxter? Check out That Mutt tomorrow where I’m writing about his favourite toy. There’s even a give-away for your own furry friends.
You’ve been hearing about me spreading manure on the garden pretty much all fall. However, this post has been an even longer time coming. In fact, it’s been sitting in my drafts folder since June 2012. Way back then, Matt and I mucked out our first stall.
I was responsible for raking up the old straw.
And Matt was responsible for getting the straw out of the stall and into the field behind the barn.
We just used rakes, rather than bothering to find the pitchforks, and then we piled the old straw behind the barn. This stall became Wiley’s garage.
The previous owners of our property had boarded horses. When they left, they didn’t bother to clean out the stalls.
And this fall, three years later, we still had 14 stalls full of straw and manure.
We also had a brand new vegetable garden that had been super productive. If I wanted to keep it productive, I needed to replenish the soil.
That meant it was finally time to tackle the barn.
It took me about 9 hours spread over three weekends. There were more than a dozen trailer loads of manure, and I don’t even know how many wheelbarrow loads. There were two assistants, Ms. Scratches and Mr. Sunbather, neither of whom gave very much assistance.
There was no way to get the tractor or the trailer into the barn, so I wheeled all of the straw through the barn, up a plank and into the trailer. When the trailer was full, I towed it out to the garden.
I got very proficient at backing up the trailer through this project. It just fit through the gate on the garden.
I usually laugh when people ask me what my workout routine is. I own a farm. That means I work. No need for a gym membership. Here’s my version of a workout video. Repeat that about a 100 more times.
So it only took me three years (or really three weekends once I got started), but finally the stalls are clean.
Now to find a new workout…
Have you ever had to muck out stalls? Any tips to make it easier? (Not that I’m planning on doing it again). What’s a project that you’ve had hanging around for awhile?
I’m a little bit geeky when it comes to my birdfeeder. When I first built it, I was super disappointed that it took a whole month for the birds to find the feeder. But when they finally did, I spent a lot of time watching them through the dining room window. And the novelty hasn’t worn off yet. It’s become a winter tradition for me.
This year, I wanted to make installing the birdfeeder just a little bit easier. Unscrewing the feeder from its base and hammering the pole into the ground was a bit too much effort–and we ended up breaking one of the brackets off the post last year.
Not the best approach. So the post went to my cousin’s for repair, and I went to work.
I found a length of pipe–because we just happen to have things like that lying around here–and cut a 16 inch section.
Then, I used a very narrow shovel–since we don’t have a posthole digger lying around–to dig a 16 inch deep hole.
The object of the game was to have the top of the pipe level with the ground so that the lawnmower can drive right over it.
I carefully backfilled around the pipe (not in the pipe), and then my sidekick inspected to make sure everything was as it should be.
When the repaired birdfeeder post returned to the farm, I slid it into the sleeve–perfect fit.
I screwed the feeder into place, stocked it up with seed and waited for customers.
This year, it took just a couple of days for the birds to find the feeder. The chickadees were first as usual. I’ve also seen juncos, a woodpecker and a pair of blue jays (small consolation for not seeing the other Jays now that they’ve been knocked out of the baseball playoffs 😦 ).
Who else enjoys bird watching? Do you have a feeder at your house? What birds do you see in your neighbourhood?
Every year, twice a year, Matt and I get up close and personal with our little tractor, Wiley. Attaching the mower deck in the spring and detaching it in the fall are pretty intimate operations.
Just a refresher, Wiley is a Kioti CS2410. His mower deck is a Kioti SM2410. It’s a belly mower, meaning it rides under Wiley’s middle (as opposed to the mowers that are towed behind a tractor).
I thought this year that I’d finally properly document the process. I’ve tried to do this for the past few years, but attaching and detaching is always a bit stressful. See how concerned Baxter is when we did this two years ago?
I usually feel like it’s better for my marriage if I don’t try to prep a blog post at the same time as we’re installing or removing the deck.
That’s not to say this is an overly complicated undertaking. It’s just an undertaking that is a bit tricky in spots.
Here are the steps to remove the mower deck from the tractor:
1. This whole operation will be dramatically aided by level ground (which does not exist at the farm). So, step 1: park the tractor on level ground… or at least the levelest ground you can find.
2. Start with the mower raised but set at the shortest cutting setting.
3. Turn the wheels that support the deck so that they’re perpendicular (90 degrees) to the tractor’s wheels. Pop out the pins and rotate the wheels.
Repin them in the highest position–meaning the mower is as high off the ground as you can get it, i.e. the pins are in the bottom hole on the sleeve.
4. Disconnect the PTO. Push the shiny gold collar towards the mower deck (forwards), and pull it off the shaft. The person with the longest arms should do this (i.e. Matt), as the PTO is right in the middle under the tractor, and you have to reach over the deck and around the back wheel to reach it.
5. Lower the deck–use the three-point lever, not the cutting height lever. Give the deck a good shake to make sure it’s all the way down. You do not want this thing falling on you. It will crush you. (Not quite the same, but I have this line in my head now and I can’t resist. Plus, it’s one of Matt’s favourite movies.)
6. Pull the pins that attach the deck to the tractor. There are three on each side. The quick connect pins at the front and back are on springs. Just pull them out and turn them out of the way. The other pins at the very front have split rings that you have to remove first.
The pins are when things get stressful for us. The deck is super heavy. And if you’re not on level ground, there’s invariably some weight still resting on the pins. So sometimes they just don’t want to come out, no matter how hard we yank on them.
There are two techniques we’ve found to help: one, slide some blocks under the deck to help support the weight. Use trial and error to find out where you need them–front or back, starboard or port.
The second solution is tried and true: the hammer. Tap (as gently as you can given your current frustration levels and your limited maneuverability under the tractor).
It’s a wonderful feeling when the pins pop free. You will end up with two metal arms that hold the deck to the front of the tractor. Those arms should stay with the deck. Don’t lose them. You’ll need them if you ever want to cut grass again. (And just a note for when it comes time to reattach them, the springs point in).
7. Raise the mower using the three-point lever to fully detach the deck. At this point the deck should not be connected to the tractor, but still sitting under the tractor. Use the front end loader to lift the tractor up a little bit–just enough to give you clearance to slide out the deck. (Put the parking brake on–safety first!)
8. Push, push, push and pull, pull, pull the deck out from under the tractor, and you’re good!
Well, you’ll probably want to tip up the deck, scrape the dried up crusty grass from the underside, hit it with the hose, inspect the blades and grease all of the fittings.
Just to be safe, we also tuck the PTO into a plastic bag to keep dirt out of it.
But do all that, and you’re done. And you don’t have to cut grass for another few months. (Don’t mention attaching the snowblower).
Time for a victory dance! (Wow, Bax was skinny that first year).
What type of mower do you use at your house? Have you tucked your mower away for the season yet? Do you have any jobs that put your relationship to the test? Do you have a sidekick who helps (and celebrates) the tough jobs?
I completely love that we have a property where we can go for a hike. However, I have two issues with our trails.
1. Our trails are slightly extremely overgrown. Because we’re not riding horses over them, because we don’t have a mower that we can take on them, because in the spring the trails are mostly underwater, because the mosquitoes were so bad this year that we haven’t been on them in months, hiking requires a fair bit of bushwhacking.
2. Our trails do not loop. They are all out-and-backs. Despite knowing this, I persist in trying to find a way around. The result is predictable: I end up either in water that is higher than the tops of my boots, or I end up in impassable brush. Sometimes both.
This was the situation Baxter and I found ourselves in recently. Deep in a marsh, tangled in grass so thick that at one point we actually lost each other, and we were right beside each other.
Completely true. I had a panic attack that I’d lost the dog, looked to my left and saw him sitting there staring at me.
Baxter’s reaction was, “I don’t know where we are, but it smells delicious.” Helpful, dude. Very helpful.
The bright side was that since it’s fall, the marsh had dried up a bit, so the water didn’t quite reach the top of my boots.
Here is a completely accurate fully to scale rough map of our trails. (For context, the trails go through the forest that covers roughly the back half of the property. This post has a full overview of the entire property in case you want to see how it all fits together).
The west trails are our best ones, but they’re also our wettest ones. We could probably get Wiley in the first 10 feet or so, but then things get squishy. And see that blue line above? There’s a creek that never completely dries up. I don’t think Wiley can swim. And I have no idea how we’d get him out if he ever got stuck.
The east trail is on higher ground and has much less grass, so it really doesn’t need mowing. It does however need a battalion of forest rangers with chainsaws. There is so much deadfall that this is less of a trail and more of an obstacle course. The dotted lines show how you can make this trail loop–if you’re willing to risk being poked in the eye with a stick (also completely true–I thought I’d done serious damage).
My looooooong term goal (seriously, this is so far in the future I have no idea when it might happen) is to one day have nice clear looping trails and boardwalks through the marsh. I’ve been saving any skids that we come across in the hopes that they might work as boardwalks. Now just to find my battalion of forest rangers to move them into place…
Do you like to hike? What’s your favourite trail like? Has anyone else gotten lost recently?
Happy first day of fall!
I had a different post planned for today, but this is too timely not to share.
I had a great day yesterday. I had booked it off work, and set everything up so that I wouldn’t have to look at my phone or open my computer all day. The result of a random Tuesday off is a very relaxing day.
Bax and I started the day with a long walk. On our way home, we saw our farmer. He shouted out the window of his truck that he’d be on our fields in a couple of days.
At least that’s what I heard.
When B and I drove past the farm on our way back from the dump (where they stock doggie treats at the gatehouse) and headed for the charity scrap metal bin at the local therapeutic riding centre, we saw a combine circling around the east field.
Apparently the farmer had said he’d be on our fields today.
Harvest is such a special time. I love that I was home to see it.
B and I walked out to the “four corners” (the crossroads where four of our fields meet) to watch.
We timed it perfectly to see the combine coming up the hill to the truck.
I missed seeing the combine unload the beans last year, so I was glad we were able to watch the transfer this year. In just a matter of minutes, the beans had slid through the chute into the truck.
It turned out that the truck was full after this transfer, so we got out of the way so that it could hit the road. Can I just say how cool it is to have such a large property that a dump truck driving across it looks small? And this is far from our biggest field.
Bax and I decided to stay out of the way of the combine and investigate the freshly cut east field. We sat at the crest of the hill (just above the dump truck path) and watched the combine through the gap between the fields.
What a great way to spend the last afternoon of summer.
Baxter turned 5 on Saturday.
We gave him our best helicopter tail. (This video isn’t quite the best example, but it gives you an idea of his very special wiggles and wags).
We went for a hike with his furry friends.
He got lots of scratches from cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas.
And we didn’t laugh at him too much when he got ice cream in his eyebrows.
Happy birthday to our best dude.
Home on 129 Acres 