Something new

Often when we need something, we breathe new life into someone else's castoff, and that has served us well over the years. When we do buy something new, it is a demo from the dealer, as when we got the yellow Subaru. Last weekend, we went to Leisure Equipment to look for a used snowmobile because we put our old one in the metal dumpster. It was over 30 years old, and had totally run its course. Well, we discovered that they don't make plain old farm snowmobiles any more. Nowadays they are all performance machines designed for racing and hard core recreational use. They run around $10,000 and up, and they are definitely more machine than what we need. Besides, as Eric asked us, why did we want to buy a piece of equipment for the farm that we could use for maybe 5-10 days a year at most, since we barely get any winter weather any more? He suggested this instead:


It gets around as well as a snowmobile in up to a foot of snow, and we can attach a plow. In addition, it can be used for towing. In fact, the first job we have lined up for it is to pull the big logs out of the back yard after Rich cuts down the trees. It can be used every day of the year, and we got a leftover that cost way less than the most basic snowmobile. And an ATV is one thing we probably would not want to buy used, since most people really hammer them.

This pretty much completes our equipment assessment for now. Once we determine what crops we're going to grow, we can figure out what implements we'll need for the tractor, but with some TLC, many of the ones in the barn will be adequate. If we see a really good deal on a used hydraulic lift, that would come in handy to work on the barn.

We saw David briefly today. He was coming back from archery hunting. No deer, but there is one less groundhog to torment us next spring.

Equipment assessment

Keith and Aaron removed some of the washline poles and got a lot of the concrete sidewalk away from the tree roots so Rich will have free access to them when he takes down the trees in the next week or two. The poles were in concrete footings about 3 feet deep!

















We also cut down a couple of the bushes in the back yard.

Mother had trouble pushing her walker on the grass. Luckily a willing helper was standing by:

On the pavement, she returned the favor by giving free rides!

David stopped over to visit. I always love talking to him--he's the proverbial neighbor across the back fence who knows all the goings-on, and I learn something every time I see him. He shot another groundhog, this time near the outhouse, but neither he nor his dad has gotten a deer yet. Speaking of groundhogs, a couple months ago Keith and I put a hose from the truck exhaust down the holes in the tractor shed, then shoveled dirt into them, and none of them have been re-opened. We did the same thing with the holes outside the garage, but they have been re-dug, so apparently it didn't work there.

I asked David--he knows the property better than we do-- if there's an easy path down to the river because I'd like to be able to go boating. He said he knows several ways to get down there, and I think I talked him into giving a guided tour. So Fabian, Gretchen, Stephanie, and anyone else who might like a look, get out your hiking boots and let's set a date!

The problem with taking boats to the river is that you have to lug them down a steep ravine (or build a shed down there to store them) and then cross an active double railroad track--it seems a little risky. But David told me about a public access dock with parking that is just about a mile away. This is even better than trying to launch from the back of our land, because now we don't have to build a shed down there and carry the boats across the tracks. We can throw them onto the truck and back right up to the water. We have two sculls and an Old Towne Canoe, but we'd love to get a used kayak or two for friends to use when they visit, because they're more portable and easier to use. Soon I'm going to put a list of used stuff we're looking for on the side of the blog. Please let us know if you if you ever see any of it available!

We're starting to assess the state of our equipment and figure out what we need. Over the years, we've accumulated most of the small stuff for our place in Boyertown, like a weed eater, leaf blower, hand mower, chain saw, hedge trimmer, snow blower, big and small rototillers, and a thing that looks like a weed eater but has a circular saw blade on the end for clearing brush:

We can't get the two John Deere riding mowers to run, so they went off to Passmore for servicing, and then we'll sell them.

They're not that useful at the farm because you have to make lots of 3-point turns around all the obstacles, so we'll just use our zero-turn mower. Although from the looks of it, there will be lots of competition for that job--we might not have to do any mowing ourselves!



Keith and Aaron tried to get this old Briggs and Stratton walk-behind weed eater working, but it needs more help than they have time to devote right now. It's at Passmore too.


We haven't worked on our old rototiller yet, so we don't know if we'll be able to use it:


We can't start the 1940's Farmall, but last summer Keith was able to crank-start it, so we know we can make it work. Since it's not worth anything to sell, we might as well fix it up and use it. I don't think the picture shows how cool it is, but it'll be great for pulling a hay wagon.



The 1950's Harvester International should run, it just doesn't. Keith and Aaron can't get it going, so Erb and Henry will take it to their shop and work on it. Again, this tractor's not worth anything to sell, but it does have a 3-point hitch and could operate any implements we will be using, so it will be our main tractor.



There's one more piece of equipment I'll write about tomorrow. It's a surprise, and guess what? It doesn't involve cleaning off years of dirt or spending untold hours trying to coax it to start!

Field Trip!

A few weeks ago we drove to upstate New York to look at dogs, sheep and goats. We stopped overnight in Ithaca to give Mother a break from driving and to see the falls,



then drove on up to see Jackie and Tom at Windance Farm in Gouverneur, NY.

http://www.windancefarms.com/

They breed Maremmas, an Italian guardian dog. These are extraordinary animals and Jackie's are carefully bred and trained for farm work.

She is very warm and friendly--she spent about 2 hours showing us her dogs and explaining what to expect from them. They are expensive, but your dog is 18-24 months old and fully trained for your individual situation when you buy from her. She is planning a litter for February, 2010, which means those puppies will be "finished" in fall to winter of 2011. An adult that has been helping train puppies may be offered for sale in fall of 2010.

The thing is, these dogs are not pets, and they need to have a job to do when you get them. So we have to coordinate the timing of purchasing a dog with buying our livestock, which at this point I think will include chickens and other poultry, sheep and goats. If we get the livestock first, we'll have to protect them from foxes and other predators until the dog arrives, but Jackie said we should definitely not bring the dog to the farm before there is work for it to do. So I have to think this through.

Right now I'm inclined to think we may get chickens soon after we move in because the hen house is already in good shape, and I think chickens will be relatively easy to raise, making them a logical first step in raising livestock. After we're living there, we can plot out pastures and place fencing for grazing animals, probably starting with goats. So maybe we would need a dog next fall, and if Jackie's training dog is available, we would probably be interested in buying it.

The other farm we visited was Buckwheat Bridge Angoras in Elizaville, NY.

http://www.bwbagoats.com/events.htm

Their angora goats and cormo sheep are indeed beautiful. The goats were being shorn when we were there, and Dan seemed preoccupied with that, although we had made an appointment.

The thing about fiber animals is that fiber sells for a very low price right now, and unless you're going to really focus on and invest in that aspect of farming, I'm not sure it makes much sense to establish a flock for that purpose. I'm considering getting just a spinner's flock for myself and my friends who spin, and then using other goats for clearing out brushy areas.

Maybe at some point I would get dairy goats to make cheese, but that is an extremely high commitment move that requires milking every 12 hours every day without exception. I certainly won't rush into that. The other possiblilty is to raise meat goats and sheep. Now here's the thing about that: while I love both lamb and goat, I'm not sure I could eat an animal I've personally known and raised.

This issue will come up with beef and hogs as well, so I simply have to face this aspect of farming. Eggs, dairy, and fiber are not murderous enterprises, but neither are they very profitable. Crops, even hay, might go further towards paying the bills. Or maybe we'll end up putting our efforts into developing a bakery. I'm just brainstorming here. As we make decisions about the farm I know I'll have to sort out my feelings about these things, while balancing them against practical matters such as cost, income potential, and the amount of labor required.

Groundhog report

David, the neighbor boy stopped by to reset his groundhog trap and to visit a bit. Besides Dale, David and his father are the only people we've given permission to hunt at the farm. David is just the greatest kid--I'll be sad to see him go off to college next fall. He posted our whole perimeter for us--a hundred signs--and he's been helping us with groundhog extermination. We have underground cities of groundhogs. There are elaborate networks of holes that provide entry into every outbuilding and are actually compromising the foundation of the barn. Dale came up last spring with his father and shot some for us, and Keith and Aaron have shot maybe 5 or so. David brought his trap over and has caught 3 so far, but that's hardly made a dent in the problem. And now they are not as active since it's colder out and they're preparing for hibernation. Still, each one we get is one less that can procreate over the winter. Next year we're going to have to get serious about eliminating this menace.

David mentioned that the fence along the back woods has been cut in two places. This is a different location from where Aaron and Arden repaired the cut fence a couple months ago. At that time, one of the neighbors who was using the field as though it's a public park for ATVs challenged Keith about closing it off, but Keith made it clear we don't want them riding on our farm. We don't want to alienate our neighbors, but it does take a lot of nerve for them to use our property without permission. Most of the neighbors we've met are really nice, but I think we have to establish boundaries with the interlopers. It seems that the vast expanse of open space is too inviting when the rest of the neighborhood is densely populated and provides no accommodation for motorized recreation. So I guess this weekend we'll be repairing fences again!

Odds and ends

I put a link in the sidebar to my Picasa album which has a lot of the pictures that relate to the work so far. Now you can go straight to the picture album for a quick look without scrolling through all the text.
Yesterday I made lots of phone calls about details that have to be addressed before any real work can begin. I also spent about 5 hours scraping wall paper off the last 2 walls in the LR. That stuff was pasted on like it was going to hold the house up in a tornado! Geeze! I could just kick the person who put that up. Actually, I know who it is, because they signed their work--I guess they were proud of it.



It says "Papered and painted by Joe & Horace Clemmer 2/5-9/90 Very warm weather 50-60 degrees." Now here I am almost exactly 20 years later undoing all their lovely handiwork. In 50-60 degree weather.

I called Accurate Radon Control to ask about how to approach the radon mitigation. After getting 3 bids, we chose him to install the system in our house several years ago, and we were very happy with his work. In the existing basement there is a level of 9.7 (the cut-off is 4), and in the first floor it is 2.6. I wanted to know if there was anything we should do in the addition while it's being built that would make the system easier to install. He said we could either have the builders insert a 4" pipe or he could do it after the fact--it really doesn't make any difference. But, interestingly, he said that any construction with a crawl space rather than a basement is likely to have high levels of radon because the code requires a deep bed of stone under the structure, and granite is known to have uranium that emits radon gas. I think we'll just have him address the radon issue after the house is done.

I talked to John about the 2 pinoaks in the back yard. His tree person's bid was the same as Mark's, so I think we'll go with Rich's Tree Service. That extra money can be used later for landscaping. Keith, John and Charlie really hate to see the trees go, especially the one near the egg house. But the 2 tree experts both advise doing it now. As Mark said, we can plant the right trees in the right place and not have to worry about limbs falling on the new house. Also, it will be much easier now when they don't have to worry about the equipment marring the landscape and there's a more open space to work in. It's just a practical matter, although it's hard not to get emotional about these 2 beauties leaving this earth:

Andy, from the Penn State Extension in Creamery, and I had a nice discussion about how to proceed with the business end of the farm. He really likes the idea of a bakery, and maybe even growing our bread grains like wheat, rye, spelt and barley organically and having them milled locally. We could raise our own eggs, a hog for sausages (that then get smoked in that cute little round smokehouse we don't have yet), dairy goats for cheese. . . Of course we're not going to do all of these things, but the point is, the possibilities are limitless. It's just a matter of deciding what we want to do. I told him about the opportunity to apprentice with Nitya, and he of course encouraged me to pursue that. Obviously we can't just jump into a complicated enterprise like farming without any preparation or experience. He also said we should definitely go to the PASA conference in State College in February, and he is planning a 7-week introduction to farming course in Creamery next March.

The Big Clean Up

Yesterday we finished most of the demolition that we'll be doing in the old house. John's people will do bigger jobs like taking down the LR ceiling, tearing down the enclosed side porch, taking out the tile walls and fixtures in the upstairs bathroom, tearing out the old kitchen, removing walls and making openings in walls for new doorways.

Keith pulled out all the electrical wires in the LR wall scheduled for demolition, except for one switch that operates the ceiling light. It's connected to breaker 19, and can be quickly taken out at the last minute. He mounted the thermostat on a makeshift portable stand to get the wire out of the wall and allow it to operate, yet be moved out of the way until the heater is shut down.

As we hauled the wood out to the barn with the skid loader to await the arrival of dumpster #4, Mother raked up all the wallpaper in the whole house. The rake was actually her idea, which we sort of laughed at initially, but we must give credit where it is due--it was ingenious. It was very efficient, and it gave her something to do. She's always asking how she can help, but most of the work is too strenuous for her. This made her feel really useful, which she was, and helped her feel more invested in the whole project. We ended up with 7 garbage bags full of wallpaper!

After all that, there was enough sunlight left on the first day of standard time for some fun. Keith took Mother for an inspection tour of the farm on the four-wheeler. Altogether, we worked about 8 hours each day this weekend, and much was accomplished.

Sweat equity

For about the last 2 months we've been clearing trash (and some good stuff!) out of the house from basement to attic, and from the milk house, the hen house, the barn, the tractor shed, the hay shed, the wood shed and the garage. Even from the field! We carted off the old corn crib that blew over in a storm and lay in shambles. So now all the stuff we're keeping is in storage and the rest is gone.

Now we're accumulating piles of demo trash to be loaded in what will be the fourth dumpster from Mike at DiBussolo Container Service. They are really great, and I would recommend them to anyone who has a big cleaning-out job.






The old furnace found a home with the excavator and John wants some of the baseboard radiators.












Gene took the 500-gallon gas tank--with the 30-year old gas--that was tucked in a corner of the hay shed.





After hauling away 90 cubic yards of trash














(and likely at least another 30), I'm surely happy whenever we can match up some of the old stuff with new owners instead of adding it to a landfill somewhere!

This has been a productive week. Almost all the wallpaper is gone.












Although some of the walls are in good shape, many of them have issues. But I think we're not going to go to great lengths to repair them--just fill in the nail holes and cracks, but not smooth out the rough spots. As John says, that's all part of the character of an old house. Nicole said she'll show me some neat painting techniques that will mask the flaws, yet are beautiful in their own right.
We took down wall cabinets in the back bedroom and the laundry room, the huge green closet in the bedroom, the ugly paneled closet with the pocket door in the upstairs hall, and the china cabinet in the LR.









I exposed an old window frame underneath that china cabinet which I left intact for John's demolition crew, because I don't know if it's embedded into the stone wall. We removed the window in the bedroom to load all the wood from the closet onto the skid loader.
I removed the carpet on the stairs and started scraping and sanding the stairwell. The wood on the stair treads is really worn, but except for the green paint which does not sand off, they look pretty good.

Meanwhile, Keith's been tracing and labeling all the electrical circuits, removing all the old knob and tube wiring, and locating the plumbing lines for the domestic water and the radiators.




We're digging up the cement walkways, breaking them into pieces and using them as fill in the milking troughs in the barn. That saves on hauling fees, and will cut down on the amount of modified we'll need to level them up to the rest of the barn floor.

We met Jules the plumber yesterday. He stopped by to get permission to take photographs of the farm because he's also an artist who paints watercolor landscapes. I mentioned to him that I had just discovered a leak in the upstairs bathroom sink. He took a peek and showed me that it was a massive hole in the drain pipe that empties all the water right onto the floor of the vanity. The wood is saturated and I think that leak has been there for a long time, which may explain the water stain and bumpy plaster on the living room ceiling:



John had Tim, a tree surgeon, evaluate the 2 big oaks in the back yard. He and Charlie were really advocating keeping them, although Mark had recommended taking them down. Mark's reasons were potential damage to the roots from excavation, leading to future damage to the building, in addition to the fact that they were on their downward trend in their life cycle with significant amounts of dead wood already. Also, they will obscure the view from our bedroom window--instead of seeing the open vista of meadows and woods in the distance, we'd be looking into tree branches. Well, Tim independently came to exactly the same conclusion, so we've decided to take them down.

Charlie finished the drawings this week, and they are a work of art. We can't stop looking at them and imagining the reality of what they represent.

John is finishing the application for the building permit and is anxious to get started. His goal is to have the addition under roof before the deep of winter. Good luck, John!

I called Gary back this week about his painting bid. It was acceptable, and we will probably contract with him next spring to paint the hay shed and the tractor shed. We're going to do some major work on the barn--the windows andsome of the wood siding need to be replaced, so there's no point in painting it until that work is done.




Also, I don't want to do exterior painting this fall. It's so wet, and I'd rather do it when the temperature is getting warmer, not colder. And I still haven't decided on a color scheme for the farm.

Bernie from Pella came this week to measure the windows for the replacements. We went to the showroom a couple weeks ago and decided on the top end windows: their Architect series. They use low-e glass and are argon-filled between the 2 panes, and they're aluminum clad, so no painting!

John took us on a little house tour to get some ideas for our project. We loved the random yellow pine flooring, and guess what? For once, the thing we like best is also the least expensive! As for the exterior siding, the Hardie board is okay. Cedar looks nicer, but it's more expensive and it requires much more maintenance, so we'll use Hardie board on the addition. The random shingles look fine. John is really trying to get a raised seam roof in our price range, but if it ends up being too much money, we'll be okay with the shingles. We also saw a cute little round smokehouse made from field stone by the Hoffmans.



Well, we just happen to have a nice pile of field stones sitting on the silo pads, old slab doors and a bundle or so of cedar shakes in the barn, and we love smoking, so we may have a little talk with the Hoffmans as time goes on.

We ran into Will the other day and I mentioned how I liked the way he embedded objects into his cement sidewalks. I told him we were planning to make a concrete countertop

http://www.concreteexchange.com/

and were interested in using some of his glass as inclusions. He's been experimenting lately with glass and concrete, and told me to stop into his shop to see some things and talk more about our project. John told us he would build the mold for the counters, so it's beginning to feel more doable for us. The molds are what require the most skill. According to Jaap, the rest of the process is just a matter of plodding through step-by-step, and of course, brute force!