Home on the Hill

Tuesday, April 15 Green House progress: The layout.    The thermal batteries. Easy lift and moving. But how to get it off the dolley? The barrels are full of water and I don’t want to empty them because filling them back up could empty the well.  As it turns out,  quite doable by me and my lonesome. Just put it back down on a couple of two by fours and lower it onto a piece of Styrofoam so it didn’t go through the floor. Of course one of the barrels had a hole in the bottom third so that one gets tossed. Enough for one day. Spuds up!

 Outside the green house, that is.  And a bit of sojourning in the Ghaus often gives me some insight into several things that are not specifically Green House related.   . . Test planting of some potatoes in a large pot.  Seems to be pretty happy.   The deteriorated  non UV protected corrugated plastic , All the deteriorated corrugated plastic is now replaced with House wrap plastic. Also a vent door installed at the top.  Will add a heat activated window opener to it.  Huge difference in heat retention in the Ghaus. I was going to replace the glass but that is an onerous task so leaving them in and covering them on the inside with clear plastic so I still have a view.  I will do that before I move the barrels to within a foot of the window. All the internal PEX runs are in and the vent window.  I still need to bring in reclaimed water from the barrels in the back of the green house. I want to have two water sources, from the well, and f...

To get to this stage, took more than a few hours. All the barrels on the right hand side underneath the bench will be placed horizontally directly in front of the windows to maximize the winter light. They will be placed about a foot back from the windows and on top of them will be the growing bench. The bench where the barrels are now is going to get turned into a six chicken coop. Plants love that chicken breath, and of course, the manure goes into the compost pile just behind the greenhouse. The other chicken nuggets are going into my tummy. Or maybe I can sell them in the US market and become a bazillionair and get to be a presidential advisor! There is enough ventilation to keep the Musk out! . The non UV rated corrugated plastic along the top and the west side has turned brown. Little light is making it through that. I will be replacing it with greenhouse fabric that will help put a little more light onto the hanging baskets.   So the project gets real with the addition of a ...

  Mar 9, 2025 at 15:41:51 25° in Ghaus, last night it never fell below 11°. Mind you there was a ceramic heater on. It’s now on a thermostat that will come on at 10°.  Todays task is to start removing the existing grow beds.  The overal project is to bring the four season greenhouse back into operation. Replace the sun degraded corrugated plastic and single pane windows with green house fabric. The list, not definitive: • remove existing grow beds • Remove potting area • Re route water runs • Remove potting bench • remove windows • Install plastic • Move 45 gallon drums to the front windows • install grow shelves • reinstall potting surface • Build chicken area under potting bench • Build outside Chicken run • build Chicken access hatch.  • Install ceiling fans • Install grow lighting • Plant stuff • Install interior The soil hasn’t had any water for two years. Dry as the proverbial bone. The soil in bottom tire has turned to concrete  Two down, four to go. The ...

 One of those mornings. After going to bed at 2:30 in the morning, I am up at 9:30 AM and proceeded to stare at my phone for an hour and then coffee, a simple thing, coffee. But alas, not enough in the day old automatic coffee pot to get the day going. And the coffee pot was looking a little grimy. So proceeded into degrime mode. which escalates. So many crooks and crannies- it ends up in the sink filled with a combination of vinegar and dish soap. Gotta let that sit and soak the wonderful cleanliness in. In the meantime, I remember I was on my way to the washroom to do the morning ablutions, where I spotted my water pick flossing machine. Works wonderfully, cleaning out all those hard to reach crooks and crannies in my coffee machine. I now have the cleanest coffee pot on the planet, but it is due for a vinegar soak. Lime and calcium buildup is real!  Where’s my French press? After a furtive search in all the usual hiding spots, it remains hidden. Now I find myself scrubbing ...

 So I'm back after a long hiatus.  I was surprised that people still read blogs.  I was reminded at a recent event that a surprising number of people are abanonding Social media.  Some of the asked me for blog updates.  Go figure.   The Melt Has Started I have pretty much given up on running the farm. Due to some health concerns I just am unable to keep up with the work of running a full-time farm however, given the current state of affairs, I will be doing some gardening this year. The way the orange face menace has been threatening my country is going to make it imperative that me and my fellow Canadians support Canadian products and producers. I will be growing my own root veggies. We’re now into the first mud season of the year. Unusually warm temperatures going up to +8°C so travel up and down the driveway to grandma’s where I now live is problematical and will soon become impossible. It will mean leaving the car down at the big log house and walking u...

I had heard rumours that some long ago residents of grandma’s where I’m residing now had a grow-op in the basement. I never believed that for one,  there is no basement-  just the crawlspace, but crawling down the crawlspace hatch to do some needed plumbing modifications i.e. winterizing, proved the rumours correct. Someone had made it grow up in the crawlspace by digging out the dirt and piling it up against odd corners of the foundation. Unfortunately, their mining operation also caused part of the foundation to be undermined. An understatement to say it wasn’t good news.  My current sojourn into the nether regions was to do some electrical work. I needed to add some outlets and find a circuit to break into. 

I'm late with the annual wood cutting chore.  Certainly I am earlier than last year when I was tunnelling through a kilometre of four foot deep snow to find the cut up wood that was somewhere under a white expanse.  This wood shed and three more like it need to be filled to see us comfortably through the next six months of winter.  Due to some cardiac issues it isn't an option for me to lug heavy rounds of wood around.  The skid-steer helps with that option.  I've tried loading it with the pallet forks and then dropping it into a saw buck but have found that it makes it just as easy to cut it on the forks.  Being careful, of course, to avoid saw parts and metal forks!   I have the green house growing. But need to make some weather proofing amendments to see us through the white times.  The Swiss Chard, Basil and Tomatoes are doing great:     All the leaves are gone.  We've even had a couple of inches of snow....

The snow is melting like, well, snow in spring time.  The top of the tire garden is starting to show through the snow.  Those are three logging truck tires on top of each other filled with soil.  So still a bit of snow to go before I have to weed whack the grass.  I will plant some spinach and spring onions before the snow is all gone.  I will put some plastic over the tires to speed up the process.  It's going to be a late spring. Melt water has turned road ruts into impromptu ditches. Fortunately all the water here is diverted onto our Southern fields. Attempting to get to the wood pile.  Not gong to happen until the road gets a bit more solid.  Like in a couple of weeks.  The piggies are partly to blame.  This part of the road is South facing and the snow melted off it first leaving bare ground.  Ideal for rootevators who have just walked on the snow over the fences!  Four sows in stalls, three of which ...

Late winter snows have certainly made for some challenges.  The Diesel bill is through the roof and were running out of places to put plowed snow.  I go to several meetings a week in this wonderful old church in Fraser Lake.  Not this day.  The Township plowed the road after a particularly heavy snow fall and the results were impassible.  No place to park on the street as it was narrowed by the snow banks.  There is a parking lot to the left of the church but no entry way.  Ah well, a couple of weeks and were into the spring melt.  Hopefully, good news for the rapidly diminishing water table.  The forest for the trees.  the sharper eyed among us may be able to pick out the Mama Moose hunkered down watching us pass by.  The heavy snow has brought the moose down to the roads as it is too deep for them to run in the forests.  They have even been spotted in town. We were just returning from town when Jo said she had just ...

Sometimes I really can't see the forest for the trees. I get wrapped up in the details of keeping a farm running that the big picture can escape me.  What are we doing this for?  Ah, well it is the season for navel gazing - after I get the water trucked in from town.  Low well.  Hopefully the amount of snow we have this year will have a positive impact on the water table.  An accidental photo. Something the Google fixed up from one of my photos in its collection.    If ever I needed a reminder that wood gathering is best done in the non snow months. Some times, when it's all said and done, we just need to put another log on the fire and snuggle up with someone!

The black dot in the center of the picture below is Mabel the Moose chowing down on some willow branches.  She wasn't concerned with me in the skidsteer making all the noise.  I think she could tell that at the rate I was going at I could never get to her before she could use one of her carefully prepared escape routes. I don't know if this video will play.  It's the top pasture  area. Skid-steer purring in the comfort of the shop!  Five hours of clean up and I could get it into the warmth and not have to rely on tarps and electric heaters to make it possible to start in the -20 weather.