The big February snow

The Big February Snow

 

Seems like every storm is the storm of the century now, everything is blown so out of proportion on the "News" it's maddening!  Ever since they took to naming all of the storms each one blows up my phone, internet articles, news, (Hah, "news", that's a good one).  This Winter Storm Orlena looks to be a fair sized storm. We're supposed to get 12-18" of the white stuff and some 30-40 mph winds, I hope the power stays on, wish us luck.  I just shut down the pellet stove in case we do lose power. Back onto the oil furnace we go $$.

All's good here on the farm, everyone is doing well, the dogs are going stir crazy it's hard to have them outside when it's 15 below with the wind chill. Sunday morning it was 2 below zero without the wind.  We make sure to keep a good eye on them once it really gets cold, Zeb is fine, he's getting big and his fur coat is so thick the fur explosion blow-out this spring will be brutal. Hanna the Black lab on the other hand has her own coat, she just doesn't have much fur on her and her belly is pretty much bald.

Rose is on the phone with our Credit Union, she paid off the Tucson back on Jan 5th and was told we'd have the title within 10 days.   You guessed it they screwed it up and were told today Feb 1st that we still owe .03.  Three cents, are you kidding me?

Sheila said that Rick was digging through some old boxes and came up with this old pic WOW!

Took a walkabout around the farm just to make sure all was well, other than relocating a couple shovels all is good.  Fed the deer while I was out, Rosie said there were 4-5 out there last night, I don't see them any more, they only come in after dark now.  Hopefully the beat the snow that is supposed to start at 3pm this afternoon.

 The Eastern Bluebirds are coming in almost every morning, Rose is putting out meal-worms, we don't know if they're eating them.

There are a ton of critters coming into the deer yard picking through the remains from the deer.  It's hard to tell there are so many out there at this point.  I'll have to take a good look once this snow comes in, a couple weeks ago the boys and I were out cutting some poles for the deer feeder and saw Bear prints, I'm kinda curious to see if he/she is still poking around.

Got the two cars inspected, my Tuscon passed no problem, Roses Sonata got a 2 month retest sticker, we'll have to retest in 60 days and see if a check engine light comes on. 

Our grow lights came in last week, we're going to start seeds this year, plants are getting too expensive.  All I need to do is figure out what we'll use for a cart to suspend the lights from. I picked up a seed heat mat with a thermostat so we should be good to go in March most likely.  All of our seed orders arrived from Burpee, and Baker Creek with no issues. We picked up a couple additional packets from Ace Hardware and Home Depot has a few as well. 

I have one more order to place for a Golden Nugget squash that is unbelievably good! The Golden Nugget has been tough to find as there were a couple years the squashed crossed with something else so they were in short supply. It's a softball sized winter squash.

Stay Safe out there!

Eastern Bluebirds

 Eastern Bluebirds are back

It's 3.6 degrees F this morning Jan 29. These 3 Eastern Bluebirds flew into the Apple tree looking for berries from the Pokeweed plants below.

 Stay Warm

Another day older

 

 Another Day Older

 

Yup hit the big 61 today!  Who'd a thought... Brother Joe is 50! Wow!

We're getting some fresh slow fluffy snow that'll amount to an inch or so and then melt in a day.  Kinda liking that.

The new Deer feeder we hung up with the boys a couple weeks ago is doing great, we fill it up with 2-3 Folgers coffee cans a couple times a week.  Jarrod got us some High protein feed, good stuff, seeds, peas, lentils, lot of variety in it.   We're looking at Oat blends now too as we can't feed "Wildlife grains" in an automatic feeder that everything around here loves due to the molasses in it, it's too sticky.

Have to get the two cars inspected this week. PITA.

Bluebirds are here Rose went down to the barn to retrieve the bag of meal-worms, they are interested in the poke-weed berries right now though.

1st Robin of the year today in the Apple tree out back this morning.

Cold last night 14 degrees. Brr

A small downy woodpecker is attacking the back corner of the house, he/she already has a few holes through the corner trim board, I offered to get out the pellet gun...

 

 

Stay Safe out there...

2020 is over!

2020 is over!

Welcome to 2021

2020 is so over!

I went for a walk on New Years Eve last night, fairly quiet outside fireworks could be heard in the distance making the dogs growl.

The full cold moon was still out on the last evening of 2020, I took a pic with my cell.

WTH?  According to U.S. Senator Rand Paul, the federal government has spent 6.9 million dollars to develop a “smart toilet” which uses a very small camera to identify your “analprint”.

So there's that...
 

 

I've got to go shovel the walk before this 1 1/2" of slushy crap freezes up

 

2021 should be packed with fun... Let's hope it's the good kind...

 Happy New Year!

 

It's almost here, 2021...  

The Full Cold Moon is tonight 12/29, it was cold, there was a full moon...

We have water!  Rose and I noticed the water level at the pond is now back to normal!  Water emergency is officially over!

Cautiously waiting for what's next!

 

Stay safe...

 

 

Yearend Vacation

That Time Of Year

Yearend Vacation, Mandatory time off, call it what you want...

Saturday 12/19 it's damned cold this morning -1 Degrees F opened the back door to let the dogs out, Zebulon went out on his own he's got thick fur, Hannah wouldn't go out until Rosie went out with her. Pellet stove and furnace are both running this morning desperately trying to keep up.  Once the sun came out this morning it did warm up to 26 degrees.

Rose made Banana bread today, yum!

Deer are still coming in nightly, they just plow right through the 20" of light stuff we got on Thursday.

First Day of Winter 12/21/2020

The 2020, winter solstice falls on December 21. The Farmer’s Almanac explains that the date is always December 21 or 22.

We had a kitty visit here on the farm, this cat, Bobcat or domestic though we're thinking domestic because this cat walked all over the farm literally,  there were paw prints everywhere, up and down the pathways, out in the deeryard, over to the barn and down to the workshop.  Bobcats do come through, but they stick to the margins of the property usually.

We're off to get grain today, deer barrels are nearly empty.  We'll pick up a deer block for the day or so each winter we just can't get to the yard.

Interesting Story if you have a few minutes read this about Honest Abe stopping a murder.

Rosie saw some big prints over by the shed I need to go take a look and get a few pics.

We went out to see if we could see the planet alignment, it was cloudy in that direction.  Maybe in another 800 years, lol.

Dec 24th It's here, dog bath day... Hannah will get a bath finally today.

 

 May the Christmas season fill your home with joy, your heart with love and your life with laughter. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas, and we look forward to seeing you in 2021.

Halfway through December

Halfway through December

 

Has anyone else’s gardening skills improved during this quarantine like mine have?

I planted myself on the sofa at the start of April, and I’ve grown bigger ever since.

Our 2021 garden catalogs should start arriving momentarily. Always good reading and dreaming on a cold winter night. Our first 2021 seed order was placed last weekend and I just got an email saying the order is on its way! Yay!  Our seed order has arrived!  More seed catalogs on the way always on the hunt for the perfect tomato.

Snow yesterday 12/17 they were saying 6-10" then upped it to 8-12" then 12-16" and we finally ended up with a whopping 20" of snow.  We spent a good couple hours cleaning up the snow, we snow blow the front yard so that we can pull the cars up, and of course we clear the deer yard too.  We were a little worried, our plow guy usually shows up early then at the end of the storm, he did come right as the snow was stopping around 3pm so all's good.

The deer yard is surprisingly bust with the deer coming in from 2-3 directions.  

The deer trails, all lead to the Deer Yard, you can see the trails in the PIC this morning. The older I get, the smaller the Deer Yard gets...  I had just started the pellet stove that's the puff of bluish smoke you see in the top right of this pic.

The dogs are having a blast in the snow

We have some clean-up to finish up today, the cars still need to be cleared off, and some shoveling at the workshop too.

Have to start thinking about vehicle inspections this month we can get inspected up to a month early...

 

Stay warm...

Later!

 

 

Is it over yet? The November Nightmare!

Is it over yet? 

 The November Nightmare!

We still don't know who'll be president here in the US, Biden and Trump have both claimed the presidency... The news is giving it to Biden before it is certified/verified or whatever we are calling it... Trump is suing several states for mismanaging the votes.   Oh what fun...

Last of the never ending Fall chores, we put the boat away on Saturday, bungieing a tarp on it and putting it in the Carport we use in summer for equipment, then we were off to vacuum the remaining leaves from the yard using the mower with the bagger attached creating huge clouds of dust. If you don't mow them up they'll kill the grass.

Crazy Bat

We were taking a break from tarping the camper looking up I saw this bat at around noontime flying around, and around the house swooping crazily diving for bugs I assume. "He must be one of ours" I said, made Rose laugh. It probably was though... probably out and about for a few last bugs before a long winters nap.

Two BIG lab males a Chocolate and a Yellow strolled into the yard, of course no License tags, one of the dogs has a valid 2020 rabies tag though, I took a pic of it and we're going to call the vet listed there on the tag. Hannah wasn't impressed and barked the entire time, we managed to corral them along with our neighbor Gary into our enclosed garden, just then the dogs owners drove by in a pickup, they jumped out grabbed the two dogs, and were off...  That never happens, we usually end up with a few strays every year...  normally having to hold the dogs in a pen or barn until animal control, or the police can get here, or we end up taking them to the town shelter until their owners arrive. 

Hannah & Zebulon

We were sitting admiring our raking and mowing job on Saturday when I saw a cat walking across the neighbors yard, "Look a cat" I said to Rose, "Bobcat she said, no tail..."  I took a quick pic with my phone and yeah its a crappy cell phone pic... You can just barely make out the Bobcat kitten in the pic (just above center in the opening between the gazebo and garden fence in the pic below).

We put a tarp cover on the Camper today, Rose coated the roof in the spring but we don't want to take a chance, the tarp is cheap insurance.

While we were looking at the Bat I couldn't help noticing the huge load of pine cones in our pines.  Lets hope this isn't a forewarning of the winter we're going to have.

 

VETERAN'S DAY

Thank you Veterans. Thank you to all those who served!  Thank you to those who died protecting our freedoms.

 

 

That's all for now!

All Hallows Eve

 HALLOWEEN

Was a cool night around 32 degrees when we left the house.  We walked the downtown area, there were far fewer Halloween revelers and folks giving out candy as well.  We kept away from folks walking along, wore our masks etc.  The boys got a bunch of candy, we had a good walk.

The Well Saga of 2020

The Well Saga of 2020

The water well saga, continues here on the homestead

I heard the pump kick on a couple times the other night, we only hear it when we're running something and we weren't,  so I went down cellar and I hear a hissing sound over by the well pump. I assumed we were sucking air as the water levels in the state are bad with this drought, I found there was a hole in the housing where it had rusted out.  (too much sand being sucked up?).  I shut it down for the night and powered it off, we went to Home Depot the next morning and purchased a new one. $300 later I had the new pump and expansion tank.

The newly installed pump

As this was out 4th pump in 20+ years I was determined to make the change out process faster and easier.  Off to Ace hardware to pick up some new pieces, mainly a union and a reducer, the union will allow me to disconnect the pump from the inlet pipe from the  The reducer will allow me to install a Shark Bite connector to the outlet side of the pump from the PEX piping we installed last year in a few seconds too. I am assuming that I'll be able to disconnect the power in about 5 minutes so all told it should be a 20 minute job to completely replace the entire system next time, let's hope there isn't a next time though...

So I primed the new pump and is started drawing water Yay!  Our hopes were dashed though as it was pulling up mud and sand... then stopped working.

Saturday was overcast and humid as hell, we were off to the well to have a look to see why we were getting sand and silt.  Eversource called, our power would be out for 4 hours to make a repair somewhere, great, no water, and no power...

 

The wild roses had completely overtaken the well, I'd brought my Machete assuming the worst and I was right, I went and got a couple snow shovels so we could take al the leaves and debris off the partially collapsed well cover. Rose walked back and got a couple loppers even then it took us an hour or so and numerous ouch, ouch, ouch from the damned thorns to get the wild roses all hacked back and away from the well so we could begin work.

You could see where a couple of the 2"x6" boards that made up the well cover had rotted and fell into the well as there was a small puddle of water in the tarp cover with a frog in it on top.

We slow pulled back the cover revealing more rotted boards that had to be carefully extricated so they too didn't fall into the well.  Rose saw the yellow rope used to keep the foot valve down towards the bottom of the well and noticed the rope was cut, I could see saw the rope against the left side of the well heading down the side of the well and into the water, somehow the rope though severed didn't fall in the water, that would have made the job a lot harder.  I grabbed the end and tied it back to the other end, whew!

The Well

 

Looking down into the well we could see the water level was way down but it appeared there was still 4 feet of water at the bottom, there was a good 12' or so to the top of the water.  

It appears that a board fell on that rope causing it to pull the water line and one way foot valve down to the bottom of the well and into the mud. The foot valve at the end of the water pipe keeps the pipe full of water so we're not pulling water al the way from the well each time we ask for water.  I was able to temporarily relocate the water line and foot valve a foot or so off the bottom where it belongs. 

Tired and sore, we finished up covering the well with some leftover metal roofing panels for the night. Back to the house, still no power, changed out of our dirty, wet, and sweat drenched clothes, no power and no water meant no shower,  we were both exhausted.  Power came back on at 4pm I started up the pellet stove to take the chill off the house and decided to take a quick nap, two hours later it was time to see if I could get the pump to go.  

The priming process is simple really, you need to fill the pump housing and completely fill the water line all the way from the house to the well by pouring water into a priming tee at the pump inlet, luckily we had 6 or so 4 gallon jugs of water ready for when we lose power in the basement.  Priming the line took all 6 of the 4 gallon jugs, several hours pouring water down the water line and 8 or so frustrating tries of turning the pump on only to have the pressure fall back to zero again time after time.  FINALLY it took apparently we finally got enough water into the line and water poured out of the bathroom sink upstairs YAY!

 

The well cover on, we'll come back and trim the excess from around the cover later.

The Birds, sparrows are playing house this morning.

 

A Busy Weekend

 

A Busy Weekend

Been a busy couple of days

Septic tank was pumped out Friday, Zebulon was less than impressed...

 

We picked up the boys Saturday morning.

• Tires on the trailer were flat, Jason & James pumped them back up quick. I took a .22 caliber brass cleaning brush in a drill to the trailer connector to clean off the contacts. Lights lit up!  Trailer was filled this spring but due to Covid-19 our dump stopped taking all construction debris so they sent us home with the trailer full back in March so it sat in the field all summer.
• I got the award for the sketchiest trailer they had seen in a while at the dump! Yay me!
• Two trips to the dump were made today!  Old greenhouse parts, an old propane tank, a dead A/C and 8 or so car/tractor batteries. Paid $15 each for the A/C and the Propane tank... Yikes.
  
• House was inspected for town taxes, guy came and ran thru the house.
• While down by the dump made sense to take a quick trip over to Hayward's Ice Cream in Milford for a hotdog and a Chocolate Frappe.
• Picked up two new trailer tires at Tractor Supply the ones on the trailer were downright scary with cracks all over the sidewalls.
• Cut up some low hanging Poplar branches that threatened to close the driveway every time it snowed.

 

Tuesday 10/13 Amazon Prime Day we got some MUCH NEEDED RAIN!   Probably not enough, I'll go check the pond level later today.

 

Goffstown is having Halloween this year, should be cool, it's on a Friday, and it's a full moon too.  All I got to do is wear my mask right? Instant Costume!

We'll get a load of loam to start filling the holes the dogs dug for us this summer.

 

Stay Safe out there...