Home on the Hill

No need to carry water.  The water line to the animal shed is thawed and flowing freely.  It had frozen in the un insulated wall and thawed when I cut the wall open and added  heat tape to the plastic piping.  And of course the warmer weather is really helping.  It's now hovering around zero and that's practically balmy after this winter. The increased temperatures mean that we are heating the joint solely with the small living room heater.  No need to fire up the huge wood furnace and feed it hefty log parts.  The upstairs heater takes smaller split wood. We have a system.  As the heaters in the animal shed and green house take the same type of wood. We can go through quite a lot.  Right now we don't have to burn wood in the green house or animal shed.  They both have small electric heaters.  The green house also has insulating curtains and this morning it was a toasty 26c. When it gets below -20 we o...

Made out of  five Quilts we bought at a second hand store in Prince George.  Just plopped some grommets in them and hung them off of double headed three inch nails. Let's let the light in: Heres the other way, I.E. towards the front door: And Open: Astounding what a difference they make.  My only regret was not doing it earlier - like in the depths of January and early February when the temperatures plummeted.  With only a small electric heater going last night it was 21.7C this morning when we checked.  Outside was only hovering just below zero. I think the increase in daylight has got everything sprouting like crazy.  The tomatoes have a bunch of new blooms and ripening  Roma tomatoes.  Small but tasty. This time of year fresh tomatoes and table greens are very much appreciated.  On the task list for this week is to trim back the tomato bushes. The Chinese cabbage has sprouted and will soon be out of the plastic lids....

Now that I have an exhaust fan working in the green house, coupled with the advent of warmer weather  growth has perked right up. The green house is heated with a wood heater and small electric heater during the coldest days and over night. A 1000 watts of HID lighting provides not only light but considerable heat also.  The problem is regulation. If the sun comes out, even briefly, the temperatures can soar.  And I thought the problem would be heating!  Adding a temperature regulated exhaust fan keeps the temperature at what ever I set it at.  Right now it's 32C. But it averages lower than that. The inside is approximately 16 degrees above ambient, without heating, and no sun. I've logged a 56 degree difference with heating.  I will augment the exhaust fan with an intake one to increase ventilation efficiency.  Six 45 gallon drums painted black, filled with water gather the heat and release it during colder periods. ...

Back to the Basics .With a bit of a break in the cold we went down to Brother Tom's to get a few more loads of wood.  This is the easy way to get wood.  The four in one bucket holds the logs up to make waist high cutting possible and then scoops up the blocks so I can stack them in the back of the truck.  Way faster and easier on the saw blade.  This is our new method for next winters wood, which we will get this summer, God willing, that it ever comes. I figure we go through about 12 cords of wood per season. The water in the Blue shed has frozen up. The only reason I can think of is that without the pigs sipping on the water the short span of pipe that goes through the wall has frozen.  The pigs got processed last week and we are awaiting some hams, bacon, chops and Mennonite sausage.  Hopefully I can get it unfrozen today after I get another load of wood.  Or it's back to carrying water in a bucket. Chop wood, carry water . I do believ...

You wake up to find five cats and a dog snuggled up in your bed.  Must be the down comforter.. The hairs inside your nose freeze up. Smoke from the fires goes straight up. The dogs are not real interested in going outside to chase rabbits. I'm blinded  by frost on my glasses the moment I step inside the house The cliffs to the East. Needless to say, it's been getting pretty cold around here.  It hit -30 this morning which means I have four fires to feed.  It's like watching the wood pile melt.  Hopefully it's supposed to warm up to -single digits next week so that will help. A large part of the daily chores is just walking from building to building keeping the fires burning so the water lines don't freeze up. Where's that Global warming.  Bring it on.. In the meantime I was glad to get all the snow pushed back, when (if) it does melt I want the water in the ditches - not the road. But that has to be the optimist in me talking! Hope y...

Just when we thought it was time to start sorting out the seed catalogues and think about revamping the irrigation system the temperatures plummeted.  The driveways are skating rinks.  I've taken to using the studded snow tire equipped truck to make the rounds.  Feeding the fires.  It's safer - even using studded soles and ski poles I find my feet slipping on the hard fractured ice. Spent a couple of days doing some electrical trouble shooting on a friends logging equipment.  A buncher that has had a lot of re-wiring by people in a hurry.  I find equipment is like that. Electrical entropy sets in.  A relay is temporarily wired in place.  A wire replaced with one not quite the right size. Relay's cut out and wires left bare.  Makes trouble shooting a nightmare.  Of course nothing is exactly like the wiring diagram ( if I am lucky enough to have one..)  Wiring changes and additions and d...

 We've had a sudden elevation in temperature.  In one day it rose over 20 degrees.   No need to dress like this for a sojourn to the animal sheds:  It is now hovering just above freezing.  In January.  That means that our driveway and local parking lots  have turned into curling rinks.  Time to take measures.  Like putting on crampons to walk around the yard.  Normal boots, no matter how good the soles are won't ensure a vertical stance.  Not on Ice lubricated with melt water. We got these several years ago and the are the cat's meow for this weather.  They are vibram soles studded with replaceable screw in studs that mount on the soles of our boots with velcro straps.  We got them from Lee Valley a Canadian supplier of high quality woodworking and gardening tools, with a no questions asked return policy. The increase in temperature means no more wood fires required in the green house.  A day of sun, even parti...

This January seems to be making up for last January's lack of snow.   The tire garden is covered . The dogs enjoy playing in the snow.  But don't seem to be chasing mice as much as last year. The boler sits, comfy, but a bit forlorn, wistfully hoping for another trip. The abandoned root celler is quietly waiting for spring and maybe a rebirth. The path to Grandmas, and the woodlot took a lot f plowing to clear it.  Chains on all skidsteer tires too! Honest it doesn't feel like we've been incarcerated. It would be a lot of shoveling to clear all the paths .  And more on the way.  A friend gifted us a bag of purple spuds.  Taste delicious.  But they are purple.  Just sitting around waiting for the snow to stop so we can start clearing it.  According to the weather channel that will be around the end of next week.  Just may have to do one before just to keep the place clear.

It's not that they don't have plenty of fresh water, they just seem to like the crunchy coolness of snow.  We first noticed it when we went into the pen to collect eggs.  The would gather around and peck the snow off of our snow boots.  Now they raise a fuss when we come through the door.  They insist that job one is to give them a handful of snow.  Particularly the hard top crust.  And we thought the piggies could get vocal around meal time.. Jo-Ann smoked a beef brisket  and made baked beans for new years day supper. The Before The After  We used my son in laws rub recipe. Perhaps a tad too much  Cayenne for some but I think it's just right.  A fairly long process - like twelve or thirteen hours at  225C or so.  It was cold enough that I had to put insulation around the smoker to keep the temperature up.  We also smoked a bone for the doggies.   They know somethin...

I like snowplowing. I don't know if it's a guy thing - the equipment part, or the almost meditative quality of the task. It's more productive than meditating via T.V. My skidsteer is still undergoing some maintenance so I've been using Brother Tom's modern cat.  All in all by the time I get the machine back to Tom's it's a four hour job.  I probably have to do it at least ten or twelve times a winter. Tom's machine has more power than my old girl and I can actually plow our driveway, a kilometer of it, while going uphill. Plowing the place makes it easier to get around. Getting the paths clear to the various outbuildings makes getting to the animals and plants a whole lot easier. And of course without plowing it is pretty hard to get to town. I can sometimes get out without plowing when the snow is over two feet high, but unable to get back up. I don't have chains for the truck I am using now, and while studded winter tires will get me pretty...

I love popcorn.  I have a bunch of boxes of #10 cans filled with popcorn.  I have a hot air popcorn machine but it is a real pain picking up the kernels that end up flying everywhere.  Ah, when the student is ready the teacher will appear. Here's a method I picked up from Wendy at her Surviving the Suburbs Blog: Now she used a wood stove which I can do out in the green house or Barn but I tried it on our electric range and it worked perfectly.  All popped, no oil, no mess and the sieve didn't even get hot. If you're in the mood for some hot air popcorn with no fuss or muss give it a try!

We're starting to go into a bit of a cold snap.  Yesterday when I was bidding the Barn animals good morning I was admiring the frost painting on Boose's window. Now don't worry she's plenty warm.  That's a folded up electric blanket that she sleeps on. It keeps her butt warm and toasty.  It's good to have her in the Barn.  Haven't seen a spec of mouse crap around since she declared it her territory.  Despite lot's of feed scattered around the place. We got a couple of more loads of wood yesterday while the sun was shining. And our nose hairs weren't frozen. This was a bug killed pine that was very branchy.  When I cut it down it lay eight feet off the ground on the branches and that took some cutting to bring it safely down to the ground.  We had to cut the tree into half so that Jo-Ann could skid them out to the path side to facilitate cutting them up.  The stump is always the heaviest part of the tree and I was dragging parts of my...