rainy days and tuesdays

I Write and Never Finish

    I write and never finish on here lately finding what I write either a little too personal to share or just me babbling again. So instead of just going on I intend to just update you on what I have going on.

     The natural gas hasn’t returned and it is day to day, as to whether I will have enough gas to heat my water.  As for cooking it is an occasional meal that is prepared on the stove. Instead my sister Sherry bought an induction cooktop single burner which works like a hot plate, only better. The heat is more controllable and at the lowest setting will gently braise most anything as well as boil water. Most of my meals are prepared in one pan and occasionally if I need a second burner I usually have gas to make that happen. Anyhow I have adjusted and seem to be getting by. Doubt if it will be this way forever but I have enough going on now that I am able to get by with what I have now.

      The gas water heater is a problem but that too is being worked around. I am able to have enough gas to heat the water in the morn for a shower and do dishes, and then I turn the water heater off to avoid heating water for no real reason. The washer will draw down the rest of the hot water, but if I don’t use too much gas drying clothes then I can usually keep the pilot on in the hot water heater, and this will keep the water warm.

    To this end I plan on installing a loop of water line into the back room where I have the wood stove and put a loop on the ceiling of the room above the wood stove to absorb the heat as well run a loop into the greenhouse in back and by making a grid will be able to use solar heat also to heat the water, then the water line will continue back to the original line where I intercept the line and then to the water heater. If I can achieve temperature rise of 80 degrees then the water heater would only have to raise the temperature 45 degrees. This will reduce the amount of gas I will need to heat water and hopefully I will be able to get by with that.

     For safety sake I still intend to add a pressure relief valve in the water line to add protection against a line blowout from increased pressure due to heat buildup in the line. You already have one installed in all water heaters but it won’t hurt to have an additional one for safety sake. Also during the winter I plan on trickling water to prevent freezing of water lines.

     The wood burner is doing a pretty good job of keeping the house warm and some modification of the house trailer as I have it will be needed to make all parts of the trailer comfortable. As well I have a pretty good size pile of wood I need to process to keep me going through the hard winter times so I don’t have to go out and mess with it in the winter. 

 footer excavation

      The footers are coming along on the addition and I am almost to grade against the back wall of the room adjacent to the house and will begin pouring footers soon. I am also planning on installing an extra drain inside as added protection to assure my inside floor stays dry. I will have protection both outside and inside. Again a lot of this doesn’t make sense without some kind of illustration as to what is going on. Sorry I am just spending time doing things I shouldn’t and need to spend more time concentrating on what I should. Still daily I have progress and like yesterday and the day before I dug almost twice the amount out that I had originally set myself to task daily. Not all bad but always could be better.

      The chickens are producing daily and are still kicking out 3 eggs a day and are the most productive and humorous animals I have on the farm. One must make sure you don’t leave a car door open or a door open to the house as the chickens suddenly see it as an opportunity to go in and make themselves at home, whether it be the trunk of a car or an open car door, or it could be inside your house as they head straight for the dog dish to free range babes dog food. The shorter days are forcing them to become more aggressive at eating all they can. Whitey, my oldest chicken is still going, and has all her feathers but has quit laying eggs all together.  She is first to head for the roost at night, and seems to be the first out in the morning.  Daily they come around where I am digging to see if there is something being dug up in the soil. I am down five feet in places and it is a hard shale , not real bad digging but you need a pick to break apart, unfortunately not much for the chickens to pick over like there is in the topsoil where they find bugs, grubs, and night crawlers.

         I now have all the female cats spayed and will start working on the males. Any of my females except momma cat lily will be available for adoption. I should be getting flea medicine for all in mail shortly that has the same active ingredient as Advantage and Frontline. And will have enough to treat them all. All in all they are doing great and are source of entertainment and daily all will come by for a pet or just to say hello. To walk around the farm and see my cat posse following along is fun as if they could be a force to reckon with but still they love to walk round the farm with me exploring new areas and try to look bad.  Trying to get them all out of the greenhouse is a chore as they just want to stay there.  But I am sure they will eventually get hungry and will want something to eat and I am not making a trip out there to just feed them.  Although I have a cat pan in the house where they sleep they hardly use it instead choose to go outside daily. This is a major help to me.

      It is nothing to look outside my window and see 10-12 animals, be it birds, chickens and deer, and the occasional neighbor dog. It is neat to know that they find comfort in being here or maybe it’s the food? Anyhow I like seeing them and enjoy the company as it may be.