Last week Ellie and I put a new-to-us tool to work for the first time. Our own wood chipper.
You may recall that two falls ago (2022), I borrowed our farmer’s wood chipper (and one of his giant tractors to run it). A little while after that, I was at our tractor dealership, and our sales guy said, “Hey did you ever get that brush pile cleaned up? We have a used chipper here, and your tractor could probably run it.”
Well, the brush was cleared, but I knew there would be more to come. After thinking about it for a few days (and with some encouragement from my sister), I bought it.
But up until this spring, I still hadn’t used the chipper yet. Though I had been rebuilding the brush piles.
So finally I asked our sales guy to come out, and he helped me hook up the chipper and made sure everything worked properly. And then we blasted through the branches.
The chipper worked so, so well. It handled big stuff, small stuff, green stuff, dry stuff. The chips are nice and small (our farmer’s chipper let a lot of sticks through). And it gives us great mulch to use in the gardens–much better than burning the brush as we’ve done in the past.
For anyone interested in the details, the chipper is a Wallenstein BX42. It can handle branches that are up to 4 inches, though at our farm that’s firewood. I probably chipped a few 3 inch pieces, and they went through just fine. Our Kioti CS2410 (24hp) tractor runs it easily.
The chipper is a useful attachment, and I’m glad that we have it. It’s a good way to clean up branches, which we always have here at the farm.
Do you have any new tools at your house? Do you use mulch in your gardens? Who else buys something, but then takes a while to use it?
Has anyone been around long enough to remember the guess what posts I used to do? In the early days of the blog I would occasionally publish a picture of some part of something and say, “Guess what?”
Blogs have changed so much. This blog recently turned 12. Incredible.
The answer to today’s guess what is that some progress is being made on the finishing details in Ellie’s room.
It’s also that we had a great March Break, so not that much progress was made.
(And if you guessed that I am reweaving a bamboo blind by hand… that answer is also correct.)
How is March going for you? Have you taken any breaks? Are you working on any projects? Do you have any hobbies you’ve been doing for 12 years? Is anyone here who’s been around since the beginning of the blog?
One thing leads to another, as is often the case with home projects. My plan last month to take the old headboard out of our room led to little unintended refresh.
First I bought new pink pillowcases. Then I started thinking about accent pillows. I quickly realized I had some small pillows that I use every night, but I never displayed them on the bed because their covers weren’t coordinated and they didn’t look nice enough. Instead, I piled them on the dresser every morning–which wasn’t a great look either.
So I went fabric shopping. I had planned to buy some pink velvet for one large accent pillow and navy fleece for a pair of smaller pillows. But browsing the velvets, I had a brainwave. What about sage green? I like sage and pink together. I like sage and navy (the colour of our walls). I was already planning on navy and pink. So I mixed in some green for new palette.
I also downsized the king size pillows that didn’t fit properly on my double mattress. I considered modifying my king size shams to make them fit, but then I remembered some simple white pillowcases I had in the linen cupboard. I’m sure one of my relatives knit the lace that edges these cases. A soak in some Oxiclean and a spin in the washer cleaned them up fairly well.
Now I have a fresh, pretty pile of pillows on my bed. They look pretty, and they’re useful too. Every night I construct a cozy nest of pillows all around me. One of the little green pillows even goes on my head (weird, I know, but it helps me sleep).
I feel proud that I put some effort into making my space nice for me. I also enjoy having a home project. This was a small update that felt manageable with the other things that I’m currently juggling. And now, I have a cozy, beautiful space for myself.
What’s a colour combination that you like? Anyone else have a pile of pillows on your bed? Do you sleep in a pillow nest?
Looking ahead to projects for 2024, I feel like I need a bit of a reset. So this year’s home goals list is pretty modest. There are some familiars (vegetable garden), some get back on track (coop), some finish it off (driveway) and some regroup (clean up).
Read on for more details about what I’m hoping to accomplish this year.
Driveway
In 2020 we built the garage and mudroom. In 2023 we built the patio. The last thing to finish off the south side of the house is to pave the driveway. I’m not paving the whole lane, but I would like to have one section with a solid surface. It makes for easier plowing and maintenance. It will also give our girl a smooth spot for biking and scootering, rather than riding circles inside the garage (or testing the limits of training wheels in the snow).
Coop
The coop returns for another year. First up, framing a new wall to close up the side of the barn. This has been on my to-do list for more than a year, and I haven’t done it. I met with one of the contractors who built our garage last week to see how much it will cost to have him build the wall. I expect it will be out of my budget, but talking through the plan with him has made me feel like maybe it is DIYable. And then I can save my budget for other things like eavestrough, electrical and fences.
Vegetable garden
As you saw in my Home Goals 2023 wrap up, the vegetable garden was a bit of a disappointment last year. I’m hoping we can get back on track and make some more progress this year.
Clean-up inside
This goal is probably my biggest reset. I’m currently feeling like every single space in our house needs tweaking, organizing, purging. I’m honestly not sure where to start as I also feel like I’m in the middle of a stack of dominoes. I need to move the old king-size headboard out of my room, but I need a space to put it, which means reorganizing the cold cellar (or stashing it in the barn). Reorganizing the cold cellar means building better lumber storage in the garage. (And I can play this game for pretty much every room in our house.) This goal is a good example of why it’s helpful to “just start,” because anything will be progress.
Clean-up outside
There is always an area to clean up outside. This year I’m focusing on two big brush piles, continuing to maintain the septic bed, and working my way further along the “junk pile.” With 129 acres, narrowing my focus is essential, but I feel like I made good progress on the clean up category last year, and hopefully this year I can build on that.
I’m looking forward to getting back on track, making progress, and crossing some things off my list this year. Stay tuned.
Do you have any home goals for this year? Anyone else feel like they need a reset?
Last year was a different kind of year. I started a new job as a college instructor. We took a big trip to Ireland and had other getaways and day trips. This meant that there wasn’t as much time for working on the farm.
As we start 2024, I feel like I left a lot undone last year. But as I look back at the goals I set for 2023, I feel like maybe I didn’t do too bad.
Here’s a review of some of what we did and last year’s home goals.
Coop
My plan was to have the coop completely finished by the end of the year so that we’re ready to bring home some chicks this spring. That did not happen. Our landscapers cleared the old foundation, Matt’s Dad helped tear apart the roof sections and burned a lot of the old wood. I piled more lumber that I hope to reuse and cleaned up the area inside the barn where I want to build. But we still have a big hole in the side of the barn and no pens inside. I’m not giving up, though. The coop will return this year along with other barn upgrades, like eavestrough, exterior lighting and probably some more electrical.
Patio
The driveway patio was the biggest success of last year. Our contractors were great and the result is fabulous. With a comfortable dedicated dining spot, we ate breakfast outside every day and many other meals as well. The herb garden surprised me with how well it did and we were still clipping herbs into December. The new border of rocks around the garden adds so much to the front of the house. The patio is a small area, but it’s added so much to the house and how we live. I am thrilled with how this project worked out.
Swing set
The swing set was another success–and something I accomplished (mostly) on my own. The swing set is big enough for our girl and strong enough for underdoggies. I think it will also grow with her as she learns to swing more on her own and uses the hanging bar and rings more. I also made a few other playground upgrades at the same time, spreading mulch, attaching a ladder to Ellie’s climbing tree, and adding a flag to her treehouse. It’s become a great play zone for her that will last for years.
Vegetable garden
The vegetable garden ties with the coop for my biggest failure. I started 2023 feeling optimistic and even ambitious, so I think that makes it harder that by fall the garden just… fizzled. The timing of my new job and our trip coincided with clean-up season, and eventually I closed the gate and walked away. The raspberries have not been pruned and dead plants have not been pulled. Never mind new mulch, compost, pathways, or growing beds. The garden is another project that will return though.
Turnaround garden
The turnaround garden saw some progress last year, though it’s still pretty haphazard. We added more transplants from a friend, some garden decor with my Dad’s bike and a memorial for Matt’s Mom with a strawberry hydrangea tree. Every garden is a work in progress and an ongoing project. The turnaround feels all that even more. We will keep working at it.
Ellie’s bedroom
A year ago, I wasn’t sure I could convince Ellie to switch rooms. But once we started the makeover, she was all in and eventually set a deadline for me to finish the project because she was so excited to move in. “Finish” is slightly conditional as there are a few details that I still want to do, but she is fully settled and has added lots of details to make it her own. And we’re both sleeping better with a little more space between us.
Like every year, 2023 was a mix. There is no shortage of work on a farm and a fixer-upper house. Just mowing the grass regularly felt like an accomplishment (and thank goodness my cousin came every other week to help me with that). But we did more than that too.
I used the rotary cutter more than I ever have before and did it on my own. Our septic bed and the upper edge of our front field are now in “maintenance mode,” which is big progress. We also did lots of clean-up: picking up litter, clearing overgrown areas, and cutting trees (Matt’s Dad gets credit for this).
Despite feeling a bit discouraged on the project front, I am proud of the balance we found last year. We did so many things, both on and off the farm, and the year was full of fun, love and joy. For us, that’s what life is about. It’s not what the house looks like or whether the property is perfectly groomed. What matters is the people who are here and the things we do together. Projects are part of that, but there’s a lot more too, and that guided our time in 2023.
Did you do any projects–big or small–at your house last year? Did anything disrupt your plans?
In the centre of the part of the farm we call the meadow, halfway between the pines and the pond, is a big old apple tree. This tree makes me think about the life of this property.
The woman who was born here in 1936 says there wasn’t a pond when she was growing up. It was a stream that they crossed every day on their walk to and from school.
Another former owner that I’ve met called the meadow the orchard. Just two apple trees remain now.
This year was an amazing year for apples. Unfortunately, the weight was too much for this big old tree. Several limbs broke, including one huge section. I feel like half the tree has fallen.
As usual, Matt’s Dad came out with his saws and helped me clean up. The apple tree has grown wild for as long as we’ve been here (and maybe before that). Pruning has been on my list, but I have not done it. There were suckers around the trunk, twigs going in every direction and the aforementioned broken branches.
Matt’s Dad cut most of the suckers. We left one big one, as I hope this could become a new tree if the original tree does not survive. He cut up the fallen limbs and I piled the brush at the edge of the meadow. I loaded the logs into the tractor and brought them up to the woodpile.
The tree could use more pruning. With all the work that Matt’s Dad did, I can now get to it a little more easily. And pruning goes back on the list for next year. Then we can maybe finally do something with all of those apples.
This tree has seen a lot of changes to the farm, the people and the surroundings. I hope that it will stay with us and continue to grow as we grow with the farm.
When I think back to our early years on the farm, I feel like we were always cleaning up. Of course, there was the house itself and all the stuff that we emptied out of it. But outside was the bigger clean up. There were plants and trees and piles of dirt and rubble and rocks. So, so many rocks.
Here we are 11 1/2 years later, and we’re still cleaning up.
This fall I tackled two areas that have been untouched since we moved in.
Beside the barn there was a mysterious mound. I figured it was rocks, but it was so covered in weeds I couldn’t tell. And hacking through well-established weed roots is not a fun job. So last year I tarped it. I love using tarps to clean up weedy sections. This fall I finally pulled the tarp off. The dead weeds easily raked off the mound, and I was able to dig in. The mound turned out to be mostly dirt, with just a few rocks. So I spread the top soil around to fill in some low spots and added the rocks to our rock pile.
The tarp had been weighted with old tires (since we have such a stash). I decided rather than finding somewhere to stack the tires, I was finally going to deal with them (and some others that have been hanging around too long). So I loaded 6 into my car (all I could fit) and took them to the recycling station. I have about 12 more to go, but it feels good to be getting rid of them finally.
I relocated the tarp to another mound near the old coop. I was able to mow some of this section and trim down a stump that Matt’s Dad had cut for me before we demoed the coop. The mound looks like mostly concrete rubble, but again it is overgrown and hard to hack through. So the tarp is going to work again, and hopefully next spring we can level this out and mow through.
(This time the tarp is weighted with lumber from the old coop that I’m going to try to reuse. The lumber had been stacked behind the barn and was well-tangled in grass, so picking it up was another clean-up. Though this time the mess was my own.)
The final clean up goes to our farmer. I’ve continued to pick away at our last junk area every so often this year. We’ve made a lot of progress and tidied things up considerably. But one of the things I uncovered was an old wire fence overgrown with vines. The fence posts were still firmly in the ground. So our farmer came by with his bigger machine and pulled the posts out for us. Now I have another clear section that I can mow through.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe how much we still have to do. How can we have been here 11 years and still be cleaning up? I know some of it is the reality of a farm where things get dumped, piled and stashed. It is also the reality of time, energy and attention. I also know everything we do is a step forward. I have six less tires, one less mound and one less fence to deal with.
Are you doing any clean-up at your house? Do you have an piles on your property? Have you ever used tarps to kill weeds? What is your never-ending project?
Expanding the turnaround garden was one of my goals for 2023. When I started working on the turnaround 10 years ago, my plan was to have a whole circle filled with lush plantings.
We put up the flagpole and a brick pathway (that I envisioned someday overhanging with greenery and flowers). Then I filled half of the circle and realized that the turnaround was so large that it basically swallowed up every plant I put there. So one half became a flower garden (which has filled in decently, though some of the gaps are filled with weeds). The other half we mowed.
Then this spring’s patio project came along. The garden around the well was going to be torn out and reconfigured. So almost exactly a year ago, Ellie and I quickly moved a bunch of plants from the well garden to the unplanted half of the turnaround.
We still have a long way to go with this garden. The turnaround is still big and still eats plants. Our transplanting has been very hasty, so we dig holes wherever and don’t pull up the sod in any methodical or expansive way. But, most of the plants we moved survived, and we’ve since added a few more. It feels like a garden is starting to come together.
We’ve spread some mulch and made a little stepping stone path to the flagpole.
We also added two things this year which changed the significance of this garden.
The first is my Dad’s bike. This is an old bike with no gears, no handbrakes. I remember my Dad riding it (often with one of my siblings in the baby chair behind his seat) when we’d go for family bike rides. It’s rustic, like the farm, and makes a nice sculpture in the garden–and is a happy reminder of my Dad.
The second addition is a memorial tree for Matt’s Mom. Matt’s Dad’s friends wanted to plant a tree in her honour, and Matt’s Dad decided he wanted it to be at the farm. (His friends also planted a tree here for Matt.) So a few weeks ago they brought a strawberry hydrangea tree and added it to the turnaround.
It’s special to me to have these reminders of my Dad and Matt’s Mom, two people who are so precious to us.
The garden is a memorial in another way. Ralph is buried beside the flagpole. I like that they are all together here at the heart of the farm.
Do you have any memorials at your house? Do you have any in-progress gardens?
I’m feeling slightly whelmed right now. Between work, fall at the farm and the rest of my life, I have a lot to do. Fall always comes with a long to-do list… and a looming deadline of the weather. This year the pressure feels a bit more intense.
I am going back to my word of the year, and I am choosing what I focus on (another word of the year for you) right now. That means I have not cleaned the bathroom, but I am afloat with work and gearing up on some other projects and deadlines. (And my cousin is coming this afternoon to help mow the grass.)
I always work best when I break tasks down and give myself a deadline. So I’m putting my most critical fall tasks here for the record. If I can accomplish these three things before the end of the year, I will be happy.
Close out the vegetable garden
The garden did pretty well this year. But spending some time to put it to bed properly will help it do even better next year. Tops on the list are pruning the raspberries, weeding the asparagus, and tidying up our growing beds. If I can get a couple more growing beds set up that would be icing.
Close up the barn wall
The side of the barn where the old coop was is still a large hole covered with paper house wrap. I want to build a new coop inside this corner of the barn. But first I have to build a new exterior wall. I don’t want to spend another winter with the barn open, so this is a high priority task.
Clean out the barn
Matt has a lot of stuff stored in the barn. I started clearing out one section last year, and I’d really like to finish it. This is a big task that would bring me a lot of peace to complete.
There are a bunch of other small things–turning off the water, taking off the window screens, bringing some plants inside, putting away patio furniture–but those will squeeze in where they can. These bigger projects will take a bit more effort (and likely some help), but hopefully I can accomplish them by winter.
How are you doing right now? Anyone else feeling whelmed? What’s on your to-do list? Is fall a busy season for you?
My elementary school had an epic playground. In my memories, it is huge. There was a firepole, multiple monkey bars, an upper level, slide, swings and a tire ladder. As I was building Ellie’s treehouse, I knew I wanted to channel some of that history and build a tire ladder for her.
There are lots of tutorials online of different things you can build with tires and how to work with them. This post is not that detailed, but I wanted to share some of my tips for building a tire ladder.
Strong is beautiful
Make sure your structure is strong enough to support your ladder. Tires are heavy. Several tires connected together are really heavy.
Our ladder is bolted through a beam that’s about 3 inches thick by 13 inches high (a combination of 2x6s and 2x8s stacked on top of each other and sandwiched together). The beam and the tires are all supported by three 4×4 posts, one at each end and another in the middle.
Size matters
Select tires that are (roughly) the same size. Smaller tires make the ladder easier for little legs to climb.
Thanks to previous owners, we have a big stash of old tires. They’re various sizes and are spread all around the farm (including at the edge of the back forest, which meant a post-bedtime trip with the tractor to dig them out by headlight).
I chose ones that were roughly 21 inches in diameter, which seemed like a good fit for Ellie. I used eight tires–two columns of four. The treehouse deck is 5 feet off the ground at this end, so four tires high gives a gentle slope (more on this below).
Gravity is not your friend
As I mentioned above, tires are heavy. Therefore, the easiest option is to build your ladder on the ground. Lay your tires flat, bolt them all together while gravity is on your side and then hoist the finished ladder into place.
However, I was building the ladder by myself (the treehouse was my pandemic project), and I knew I wouldn’t be able to lift eight tires up to the deck and bolt them in place once my ladder was complete.
So I attached one tire at a time to the treehouse. I started at the top and worked my way down. It was a bit of a trick to hold a tire up and slip a bolt through the hole and screw on the nut, but hoisting one tire at a time was a lot easier than lifting eight.
We’re gonna need a bigger drill
I drilled all the tires while they were on the ground. Drilling through tires was surprisingly difficult. The rubber was super thick and tough. And you’ll also run into steel mesh embedded in the rubber.
I ended up using my Dad’s hammer drill. I didn’t need the hammer feature, but I needed the power of the big heavy drill. I also needed a big bit. I had bought 3/8 bolts, but even a 1/2 inch hole was too small. Go big. I think I ended up drilling 1 inch holes. Washers will be your friend.
Each of the top tires is attached to the treehouse in three spots. All of the other tires are attached to one other at 12, 6 and either 3 or 9 o’clock (depending on what side of the ladder the tire is on).
The nuts and bolts of it
I used 3/8 galvanized carriage bolts for all of my fasteners. I put washers on the head and nut end of each bolt to ensure they didn’t get pulled through the tires.
A nut bit for your drill will make fastening your bolts much easier. I don’t have one, so I used my socket wrench.
Also, gloves are a good idea. The rubber is not soft and reaching into the tires can be rough on your hands.
Another hill to climb
Once all the tires were together hanging on the treehouse, I was thrilled. Then Ellie and I each tried to go up the ladder and I was less thrilled. The tires were hanging straight down and they were so hard to climb.
I had to get the ladder to slope so that we were climbing a steep hill rather than a vertical cliff.
The solution that I came up with was to dig a hole where I wanted the bottom of the ladder to be. I set two cement blocks in the hole and wired the bottom tires to the blocks. Then we buried the blocks and the edge of the tires with dirt (and now with mulch).
That slight slope made all the difference. Three-year-old Ellie mastered the tire ladder quickly.
Drip, drip, drip
Tires are very good at holding water. Drilling some drainage holes at the lowest point on each tire will ensure your ladder doesn’t become a mosquito nursery and a mucky, splashy hazard.
I’m really glad that I chose a tire ladder for Ellie’s treehouse. I like that I was able to use up some of the tires we have lying around. I also like that it’s somewhat challenging for kids and different from what they see at most playgrounds.
I hope it is part of her memories when she’s an adult, as my elementary school playground is part of mine.
Do you have any playground memories? What’s your favourite playground feature? Have you ever built anything out of tires?
Home on 129 Acres 