Home on the Hill

We've come out of  two week stretch of -20.  Today it's sun and just below freezing.  A good day for unthawing the skid steer.  I have some drive problems with it and want to get it into the heated garage to work on it.  When I tried to move it the left hand side was frozen solid.  Time to bundle it up, stick on a magnet block heater, plug in a circulating block heater, battery charger and ceramic heater. Today it's very warm.  If I can't move it I will have to resort to an old cold weather trick.  Placing a stove pipe under the oil pan and using  a tiger torch to help thaw it out.  A tiger torch for those who don't know is basically a propane blow torch.  If that doesn't work it will sit until spring - which will make plowing out the driveway dependent on Brother Tom's skid-steer availability. We've been enjoying tomatoes and cucumbers from the green house.  What a delicious thrill!  On a  sad note o...

 The green house makes a nice hang out in the winter storms.  Looks down right cozy at times.  We're harvesting cucumbers and tomatoes now.  Complete with herbs, like Savory and Basil. Winter brings some wonderful sunrises. Hope your having a fun, warm week.

It's winter.  It takes some adjusting.  Time to get the long johns out, find all the missing mittens, snow boots and scarfs.  Get the equipment up to winter requirements.  Oh wait, isn't that last part supposed to happen before winter really sets in. Last night I did something so stupid I can't believe I did it.  Denial being my first form of defense.  Our Trusty 4X4 Toyota is down for an engine replacement.  We had to pick up some freezer stock from a butcher yesterday.  Of course it was -20C and over a foot of snow.  He warned us that he wasn't plowed out yet so we had better bring a 4 wheel drive.  Our 16 year old Ford Aero Star van is AWD and has great studded snow tires - but it only has a summer thermostat.  Useless in this cold.  Of course the first thing was to charge the batteries, and then we were off to Pick up the meat - the sun was out so it wasn't too bad.  But we were running late so we turned ar...

It was -17℃ this morning.  We're in a white out snow storm and it's starting to build.  Of course I don't have the skid-steer running or plow attached.  I've put that off a day or so too long.  Ah Winter! I am busy right now painting a friends house in the valley and refinishing the kitchen cabinets, so that they can move in.  Brother Tom is drywalling and mudding part of the place so I have to paint around that which tends to slow the process up a bit. Hopefully I will finish that up in a couple of three days and get back to doing some work around here.  Like get the skid-steer in the garage. Time to update the blog pics.  There's nothing green around here anymore.  I do enjoy the winter as much as I like to complain about it.  Even this snowstorm is peaceful, quiet. It gives me some time for reflection.  Remind me of that come February when I've had enough will you.  My secret weapon for this winter is ha...

I got home yesterday from a quick visit down to the Coast to hold my new granddaughter.  One of the jobs on the before it snows list was  ☑ Change to Winter Tires.  Seems like there's always one job at least I didn't get done. As we were doubtful about the reliability of any of our vehicles my Sister in Law lent me her newer snow studded tire equipped front wheel drive car for the trip.  I had swapped her mine while I was away.  The one with out the snow tires.. Today I dropped her car off and picked up mine.  Having to travel through six inches of snow on Savory road to get it to her should have got me thinking... but no.  Nary a thought as we swapped vehicles. With Jo-Ann in the car being very quiet we managed to negotiate the place where the sun doesn't shine on Savory road up our driveway - until the right angled bend.  After a few attempts including trying to back up I had to admit defeat and we ended up wa...

Brother Tom came up this morning and dug a trench to take a large electrical cable to the greenhouse.  This means that I can have 240 volt power in the green house. Right now it's running on a 110 volt extension cord, not the most electrically efficient method.  A small baseboard heater on a thermostat will prevent any freezing disasters.  I have a conduit run to the green house from the main house but the armored and waterproof Teck cable was too big to pull down the 50 meters of  1 1/2"  poly.  Instead we direct buried the cable and will reserve the conduit for some Cat V cable to take data and internet out to the green house.  What would a green house be without WWW and control signals? Doesn't matter how much earth moving machinery is used, you still need someone wielding a shovel. I kinda look like one of the Sand People on Tatooine  The after picture.  Thanks to the excavator, skid-steer and...

Our first  discussion this morning was concerning when to  light the "Big Kahuna",  our large wood furnace waiting in the basement.  Soon we will need to feed it large rounds of pine, but this morning we'll see if the upstairs heater can banish the chill.  Outside our world is  a  white painting .  The morning fog retreated up the Eastern Cliffs revealing  a thick frost, turning  the tall grass in our yard to white feathers.  The Poplars are resplendent in their new garb, a fashionable white and grey.  Everyone is wearing it this season.  Cleo returned, somewhat quickly, from her morning walk with a tiara of snow crystals on her head   and a firm vociferous conviction that now, right this minute, it was  time to come in the house and check in with the cats.  And perhaps the state of her bed  from which she can lounge and watch the warming flames  in  the living room heater. Some ...

Closer inspection reveals that our 1994 Ford Aerostar AWD van was suffering from a Constant Velocity joint failure.  It is our second vehicle and has taken the place of our Toyota pick up while we save some money to get it fixed.  So spent yesterday with brother Tom and a friend replacing the joint assembly. We were outside in 5c weather and I was glad for my heavy insulated work coat, gloves,vest and thermal pants.  And very grateful for friends that are better mechanics than me.  And had the right assortment of tork, allen, impact drivers, jack stands and sundry other general hand tools it took to make the repairs.  It was quite a job and provided plenty of opportunity to wonder about the designers of vehicles.  Why they would use so many different fasteners in such ridiculously difficult places to get to. I am starting to believe the reason for that was indeed the automotive designers revenge on mechanics after coming ho...

So somebody in China has figured out how to get past word verification to dump a whole pile of crap on my blog.  So you don't have to read this junk mail I have implemented the review before posting option.  Hope that cuts down on the crap.  I am not sure of how it was done.  Maybe a simple cut and paste.  Hard to believe somewhere on this planet there is someone who is making money by pasting spam to Blog posts. Where will it end.    Sometimes I just hate the WWW.   Spent the last couple of days making two trips to Prince George to pick up a free freezer in order to store  dog food ( variety cow. ) On the try yesterday our Van crapped out - possible CV Joint- and we had to limp home sans freezer.  Today the truck we borrowed lost its turn and brake lights- fortunately simply a blown fuse.  This has been a tough year on us vehicle wise that's for sure.  And as it turned out the "free" freezer w...

They piggies are slurping up goodies like cheese, mashed potatoes, apples and Cream that come in number 10 cans.  The dogs favorite is the Cheese.  Cleo demonstrates the proper method of getting that last tender morsel from the can. Oh, Man! This is Goooood! While checking in with the piggies and chicks this morning I noticed that the window Boose, the cat looks out of was broken in and her cat box and flowers had been overturned.  she was sitting on a chair looking most disgruntled and couldn't wait to get back to her luxury, electrically heated, catnap pad. Come on Dad!  The draft ruffles my coat! This was a very old window that was broken.  I just fixed it up with some caulk and a piece of plastic.  I couldn't help but admire how the window was built.  The craftsmanship of the putty holding the glass in place.  The little diamond metal points that secured the glass while the putty set up.   I don't know how old this...

Well, up and sideways.  We got the barnwood trim done on the front windows of the Green Haus.  Looks nice and makes it more weather and water proof.  If I get a couple of warm days I may even be able to do some caulking.  I also managed to gravel the path to the G'haus and a camper parking pad.  Complete with geo-textile that a  friend dropped off. The next action is to finish insulating the skirting around the Front and sides ( the backs done) and then move inside for window covers and thermal shades.  O.K.  Those would be second hand quilts from Value Village in Prince George - but they all match - and the price was right.  Just need to invent some kind of pulley system to get them out of the way to let the Sun in. A friend let us use his dumping trailer so we spent three days dumping our pit gravel on the soft spots on our driveway.  After thirty five loads and a day of grading with Tom's skid steer we have an all weather, mud f...

Or siding.  Blessesd with three days of warm sunny weather and the arrival of a willing friend we managed to complete the outside framing, add insulation and siding.  Of course we had to have a few coffee breaks to discuss job progress. The siding and two by fours and insulation was salvaged from a house that we tore down this summer.  Diverted from a landfill or burn pile. The insulation is now up to R50 and the way the wall is framed there are thermal breaks between the insulation inside and outside.  It has made a huge difference in temperature.  With the HPS lights burning it was -2 outside and 18c inside.  And that's with out having the 45 gallon drums all full. Now we are trimming the windows and doors with one by Barnwood.  Mostly 6 1/2 inches but some of it 13 inch planks.  It will probably have to wait until a warm spring day before it gets stained. To celebrate we took a day off and went on an Agate hunting trip.  The Vol...

Not.  We got lot's of dirt. Sand and Gravel.  The sand is a seven minute round trip from a pit in our upper pasture. Yesterday after getting Xena's wing patched up with six stitches, I started to back fill the trench we dug to get water to the Blue Shed.  First we put bout 300 cubic feet of sand on top of the 3/4 inch poly pipe.  That keeps the rocks in the clay soil backfill from crushing it.  Then I started to put the back fill clay soil in the trench. Funny thing with trenches.  I just can never get the same amount of fill back in that I took out.  I suppose if I had  compacter it could be done. What I do is just keep driving the skid steer over the trench and mounding the clay soil up and they repeating as the bump disappears. My skid-steer isn't up to this kind of heavy lifting so I was using Brother Tom's.  It is so fast, compared to mine,  that I get motion sickness when I use if for any amount of time.  ...

Today brother Tom and a couple of friends came up and we dug the trench to bring water to the blue shed. What an improvement that will be.  The two piggies really go through the water and the chickens require a daily supply of fresh water. Something about digging trenches with heavy equipment just brings out the kid in men.  Of course my friend just retired from Municipal service, and I've been retired for five years so we were experienced trench watchers! We had prepared for the worst.  Pipes breaking, threads missing, frozen couplings but the disassembly of  an existing standpipe to connect to the run was surprisingly easy.  No plan "B's" required. Now to get a few more fittings and start the PEX connections into and around the blue shed.  My friend Vic suggested a tap near the stove to make mash for the pigs.  A great idea and one the pigs will be sure to appreciate.  Now I didn't want to take this last shot but the photogr...

It was raining so hard yesterday that the outside work of studding the wall for R30 insulation had to come to a halt. So instead a friend and I  moved inside the Green house and  finished installing some heavy duty shelves in the Green House.  And that gave me room to spread out four HID fixtures and wire them up.  A 400 and two 150 watt High pressure sodiums and one 250 watt metal halide.  Sure puts a lot of light in a small green house.  It will be an interesting experiment to see how the plants grow under the lights.  I am hoping to get enough blue light through the windows that the HPS fixtures will be sufficient for growth. The wood stove is ready to go, a small electric heater, and thermal mass from the tires and barrels are keeping the temperature to 21C over night, and of course the fixtures add some heat but it won't be long before we have to start feeding some wood into the heater.  Adding another plastic layer to the windows inside ...

O.K. it's still a bit warm but soon it will get colder.  When It gets really cold I will probably need some additional heat in the Green House. I had salvaged an old Valley Comfort heater from a house that a friend of mine and I demolished.  At first look it was in pretty good shape.  After cutting the proper hole size, we installed some tin and hoisted  the stove into place.  By the time we finished it was getting a tad late.. The next day I  discovered that It had been run without fire brick and If I had of looked towards the back I would have noticed that the fire box was all but destroyed.  I was able to salvage the mechanical draft control from it to use in another heater we have in the Blue shed.  That will make it run a whole lot more efficiently. Fortunatly I also had another heater as backup a veritable Ashley C60-D.  It had been left outside in the elements uncovered.  It was sound but rusted. Nothing that a coat of hi...