Year 3 - 2012

March/April 2012

Well another trip gone by and more things accomplished at the farm.

The major project was having a rain gutter system installed.  With the type of foundation the house is sitting on, it was important to get a good rain gutter system in place.  I got that completed on the first Monday at the farm, and it was tested on Tuesday when it rained all day.  Everything is working just fine.

Tuesday the heat pump was serviced for another year.  While the technician was in the attic I followed along.  I wanted to see if I could find any water pipes in the attic.The heat pump technician mentioned that there was a light in the attic but the bulb was burnt out. I retrieved a bulb and a spare and once installed the whole attic lit up. I located one water pipe wrapped in newspaper just below the insulation. Later I returned to the attic to locate the other pipes. Now I know where the water pipes are for the bathroom.

I wanted to get the kitchen bedroom (the little room) cleaned out and returned to bedroom use.  One of the old 8mm movies I had converted to digital showed a bed in the room so it must have been a bedroom at one time.  I took every book off the bookshelves and wiped them down and thumbed through them.  I didn’t find much, but in one book there were a bunch of old pictures.  One was of my mother in a band uniform when she was around 10 years old.  She told me that the town she grew up in was so small; the high school band recruited anyone they could so they would have enough players in the band.

 I got everything cleaned up and the room put back together.I ended up moving one of the twin beds from Grandpa’s bedroom to the little room. I now have a room to call my own and two spare bedrooms (Grandma’s and Grandpa’s) for the kids when they come to visit. Here's a picture of the room when I was finished.

The plastic covering the bathroom window was brittle and cracking so I removed that. I replaced it with a fake stained glass covering and took the old brittle plastic curtain off and replaced that with a simple valance. It really brightened up the room, especially when the sun is shining outdoors.

I worked outdoors a lot on this trip. I painted the boards white that we installed last October, to match the house a little better (see the pictures above).  The outdoor faucets were leaking so I made repairs to those. I sanded the top of the front door so it doesn’t stick anymore.I put a couple of coats of clear on the front door. I got all of the power tools maintained.  The riding lawn mower needed a battery and after I got it running I had a rear tire blowout, so I got a new tire for the back. Got the gas weed eater cleaned, oiled and gassed up.  Also, got the muffler back on the chainsaw and got it cleaned, oiled, and gassed up. They all worked great on this trip.

I got all of the leaning trees taken down and hauled out. I think there were about 10 trees leaning on other trees. Dave found someone advertising in the Nickel for locust wood.  They would cut and haul using their tools and fuel, for the wood.  I called the guy up and he worked a few days with his son and got most of the leaning trees down, cut up, and hauled off.

I was glad to get the leaning trees on the ground and hauled off, and he had already sold the wood, so he was happy too.

Seems like there is a "gold mine" of locust wood on the property.

I cut back the tree in the back left hand corner so we can see the corner of the fence line once again.  The fence was down in that spot so I got it repaired and back up. Now I just need to tackle the big branches on another trip.

There are 6 large fox holes, in and beyond the drainage ditch. I purchased a trail camera and after a couple of nights I found out there was a fox living out there. I decided to just leave it alone for now. It is probably keeping some of the other animal population on the property down, for now. If it bother’s the neighbor’s, they can take it on their property.

October 2012

Well another trip has gone by and more things were accomplished at the farm. Becky and I put the little farm to bed for the winter on this last trip for 2012.

Becky surprised Grandma (Mom) and flew in with me for the first weekend of the trip. She had to get back to school at Arizona State University on Wednesday of the following week. The airline we travel on only have flights on Monday’s and Friday’s to our destination, so she arrived with me on Friday, and then left to go back home on Monday. 
I didn’t get any major projects done this time around. The wires running overhead to from the garage to the chicken coop needed replacing. The insulation was falling off and they were sagging really bad. When the electrician arrived he said there was no ground on the circuit and the type of wire that was installed couldn’t be installed anymore. After a quote of $750 to $1,000 to rewire, I decided to just shut the circuit down and remove the overhead wires. I’m not really using any power in the chicken coop or trailer parking and will figure out something different for the future.I did a lot of tree trimming on this trip which seems to be the norm. There were only a couple of burn days so I did get a lot burned, but left two huge piles to dry out over the winter and to burn in the spring. 

I ordered a screened chimney cap for the wood stove chimney. I think it was once covered with a screen, but that was no longer there. This past summer some birds flew in and couldn’t get out. Mom heard them in the wood stove. Needless to say a cap is needed. It arrived the day after I left but Dave said he would put it on for me, so I don’t think we’ll have any more critters in the stove. 
Speaking of critters, I checked all of the den holes out back and couldn’t really tell if the den was being used. I usually fill them up and if any critters are using the den, they spend some time at the holes trying to get in and I can usually get some pictures with my trail camera. Well the first night I filled in all of the holes, only to get the following critters trying to get in the den, or passing by.

Yup a skunk. He or she didn't get into the den, so hopefully moved on or maybe came back on another day to try again?

The next morning there was a cat passing by, and then Cowboy. The neighbor's dog who won't come close to me, but doesn't have any problem standing in the road facing the farm, and barking.

Every day after the first day I checked the holes to see if any were open again. Not until a week later did I find one of the holes, the furthest one from the house, was open again. I filled it in and posted the trail camera to see what would come by. Here’s what I got that night, and in the morning.

All in all it was another great trip to the farm. Everything's been put to bed for the winter. Now it's time to start planning the spring trip. Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year  :)