11/6 Night

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A warm beautiful fall day today. The next two days are forecast to be even warmer. Rain and cooler weather starting Wednesday.

We got up about 2 AM last night and put wood in the stove. When we woke around 7 or so the fire was out as we'd only filled it half way with the small wood we had laying around. We started a new fire and the cabin warmed quickly. Rachel made oatmeal on the top of it. This evening she's going to try sourdough biscuits in the oven.

We'd intended on keeping the birds locked up a full week to give the predator a chance to move on, but while letting out the ducks through the front door [they're reluctant to go out the new run door as birds hate anything new] two guineas flew out over her head. So after keeping the hens up long enough to lay we let everybody out. No mishaps. Rosy came into the house to eat barley from our hands. She'll jump up into the air to get it if you hold a grain in the air and it's funny to watch. 2 eggs today.

We fired up the new 18" Homelite chainsaw today and spent a few hours cutting and splitting dead wood for the stove. It took a while to get the saw adjusted to the right idle speed and chain tension, but once we did it cut through everything very easily and we piled up nearly half a rick. Rachel and I worked together which makes chainsaw use safer, as well as more efficient, as she can move small logs along a prop for each cut and all I do is cut. Most of the pieces split easily [especially when struck right] with the 6# splitting maul. We do need a good stump to split on - the 2x12 board got split to pieces, and splitting on the ground is not very efficient and too low for a good precise whack.

Vic and Jo stopped by to see the new stove installed. We had a salad from the garden for lunch - lettuce and radishes with grated cheese and hard-boiled eggs and homemade blue cheese dressing.

Tomorrow we're insulating the ceiling of the girls' room so their room will better retain heat - it's the coolest room in the house. If that doesn't solve the problem, we'll install a series of wall vents in the lower loft wall which we share with the upper wall of the girls' room. This will help air better circulate through the cabin, instead of heat coming up from the stove and getting trapped in the loft.
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11/6

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WE HAVE HEAT!

We worked all day yesterday to get the chimney and wood cook stove installed. There was heavy fog up until 11:00 AM, so we had to wait till then for the metal roof to dry to get out on it.

For the roof cut-out, I marked it from below and drilled out the corners so it could be marked from above. I then cut out the metal with tin snips, the roofing felt with a utility knife, and the sheathing with a circular saw. The tin snips left a very jagged uneven cut, and took nearly a half hour to do. If I had to do it over again, I'd use a circular saw with either a demolition or diamond-tipped blade to cut through the entire roof from above. I'd also cut the square out a little bigger than necessary to we wouldn't have to wrestle with the support box to get it into position.

The support box was not that difficult to install perfectly level, and was mounted to a box framed around it using headers and mini-sections of rafter to support where I'd cut out a rafter to center the chimney.

The 5' chimney locked into place reasonably plumb, but has a wobble to it as the bottom of the support box is not a very heavy-gauge sheet metal. Installation guidelines say only a chimney over 5' needs supported with brackets to the roof - but the chimney has such a wobble we worry a good gust would tear it off so we'll have to order the support brackets [another $100].

The rubber boot gasket was not fun to put in. We cut it so it slid tightly down over the chimney so there would be a good seal. But because of the angle of the chimney versus the roof, the 17" boot hardly covered the 13" roof hole for the support box. And when we sealed it down with polyurethane and rubber-gasketed metal screws every inch or two around the perimeter after molding it to the ribbed roof, the boot pulled the chimney out of plumb. Next time for sure we'd order a larger boot. But the boot itself has some manufacturing errors. For one the flat base of the boot should extend longer on the down slope side like conventional flashing. The other is that though the gasket part of the boot is labelled for where to cut according to your chimney diameter, it should also have marked how to cut for the chimney-roof angle. An oval cut would keep the boot-gasket from pulling the chimney out of plumb. If we'd cut a little deeper on the up-slope side the chimney would not have been pulled up-slope.

Anyway we got it in and also got covered in sticky polyurethane [supposedly longer-lasting than silicone]. We also sealed the top of the boot against the chimney with a fireproof Metacaulk - a red non-toxic putty, than when moistened with spit smooths out nicely. The chimney cap just took a moment to lock on to the top of the chimney. The support brackets with not only support the chimney but pull it back to exactly plumb [it's not really visibly out of plumb from below, so it's not that bad].

The girls gathered firewood, I positioned the sheet of Durock we got from Vic and screwed it to the floor marking the exact stove position so the flue outlet-chimney position would be exactly plumb. We'd researched all kinds of different insulated hearth ideas till we talked to a retailer who dealt mostly in these types of cook stoves. He said it doesn't get hot underneath the stove at all - his cat sleeps under it. He had a balloon at a party get stuck under it and it didn't even pop. So we opted for a temporary sheet of 1/2" Durock and 4 tiles 1/4" thick to get the right stove height [the entire lower story when it is floored will have some type of tile].

Putting the pipe together didn't take long, the gaps in the oval flue outlet were caulked with Metacaulk which requires no curing time so we immediately fired up the stove. It works like a dream. No smoke, the cook surface got very hot very fast, the water in the reservoir started heating up, and the loft part of the cabin went up to 75 degrees [35 outside]. The girls room did not get nearly that hot though as heat rises from the stove and tends to get trapped in the loft.

We're going to try several ways of fixing this. First we're going to insulate their ceiling to hold the heat they do get in. Keep the french doors wide open to see if over time their room gets warm. If this doesn't work we'll install vents in the lower loft wall that we share with the girls' room. This way heat can move through here to them. Ultimately the entire wall needs removed between the main part of the cabin and the addition, which of course would help tremendously. We'll take it one step at a time.

Rachel got the stove going this morning. A light frost outside, and already sixties inside. Very nice. The stove burns the wood very efficiently - nothing like a campfire.

Today we're going to straighten up the kitchen after yesterday's construction, stockpile wood in a corner of the cabin, cut more, and start insulating the ceiling of the girls' room.

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Wild Guineas

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The wild guinea family hung around most of the day. Above is a picture of them up at the coop. I had to zoom in all the way from the cabin - otherwise they might have run off.

The parents are a dark slate gray, the three immatures are a much lighter gray. We've seen them on and off all year.

This was the first time they were bold enough to come all the way up to the coop to snack on spilled grain. Bergak [the white male we brought with us from Atlanta] has fought on several occasions with the wild guinea male and driven him off. But now that his mate Chi Chi is gone [taken by the bobcat], he's mellowed some. Our birds have been locked up for a couple of days due to predation so this was an opportunity for the wild guineas to come closer.

We're down to 12 guineas now. The males fluffed themselves up at the approach of the wild male, who ran a few times at the run in a little guinea charge. The females stuck in the run meanwhile called desperately for him.

We wish we could get the wild ones to join our flock. But Bergak may continue to drive the male off. If only we could get our young and their young to interbreed we'd have a much bigger future flock and some genetic diversity. Our 11 immatures are all from the same parents - Chi Chi and Bergak.

These wild guineas abandoned Brian and Leslie's homestead [where we got the ducks] about 2 miles up the road and have been hanging around here ever since.

Yesterday we ran a few errands and I started on the roof - removing a section of rafter to put the support box and chimney through. I started the cuts with a circular saw, then jigsaw, then camp saw, and finally hand saw to finish as I ran out of room up against the roof sheathing. Nothing quite like cutting wood upside down by hand in a tight space while standing 12' up on top of a shaky ladder. Today I'm waiting for the metal roof to dry so I can get out on it and cut through it to install the chimney. It may be a while. Right now we're socked in with heavy fog.

The ducks, I guess from watching the guineas so much, are constantly trying to fly. They run around on tiptoe beating their wings. Occasionally they'll get a few feet off the ground. When we went to put them up for the evening yesterday one of the female rouens was standing up on top of the nest box.

Three eggs yesterday, from Claudia, Rosy, and Goldie. Little Bit almost never lays so for the chickens we have left it was 3 for 3, a good egg day. It's interesting how egg production always seems to rise when the birds are locked up. The only conclusion is that when free-ranging they don't necessarily lay where they're supposed to.

The 4' piece of HeatFab stovepipe should be delivered today, and Vic has a sheet of cement board and 4 tiles for the stove to temporarily be positioned on so we can get the right connection height. If all goes well, we could possibly get the stove installed and fired up this evening.

But the fog needs to burn off before we can get started.
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11/4

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Rain all day yesterday. Much cooler.

The UPS guy delivered the rubber boot flashing two nights ago. Rachel explained exactly where to turn around, but in the morning we saw he'd run over the artichokes. One mature plant and two seedlings were killed. We let UPS know. The driver returned yesterday to look at the damage and was apologetic. He said he'd prefer to pay for replacing the plants out of pocket than file an accident report which would go on his record. We tried to calculate the price of replacing the plants online with shipping and came up with $40. We let the driver know. He was abject at the cost, but said he'd bring the money by early next week. We feel bad for him, but at the same time, these guys need to fix the damage they do when they rush these deliveries. I'd had a sumac run over by a dumptruck delivering gravel a few years ago in the exact same spot. The spot is cursed. We'll have to fence it off. So much for next year's artichokes. After dying off over the summer they'd recovered nicely with cooler weather and heavy fertilization [full buckets of straight duckwater].

We set the stove in position yesterday and marked it on the floor. We dropped a plumb bob from the ceiling to mark exactly where the support box and chimney needs to go. I also put in a few braces to support the rafter temporarily that must be cut in order to center the chimney in the cabin.

I organized the tools in the shed yesterday, and built another run door on the coop, the south side, that leads to outside instead of into the run. This way in the morning we have an easy way to release the ducks while keeping the other birds in. We may eventually use this door as the only entry to the coop for the birds once they go back to free-ranging, and leave the front door shut.

I think we'll wait and install the chimney tomorrow. Today would have to be rushed. We've got to take a trip to Wartburg for silicone, screws, get caught up on cleaning, dishes, and fertigation after yesterday's rain, and have a get-together dinner at Vic's tonight at 5:30 with a few neighbors.

No eggs yesterday. I went to check for eggs a little before noon yesterday and found Rosy pecking and eating the blue egg Goldie had laid. This is very bad chicken behavior - Rosy has always been a pig, maybe she's not getting enough protein, it might be because Goldie laid in the duck box on the floor and an egg on the ground is more vulnerable to being eaten. Maybe Rosy has been doing this kind of thing for a while and that explains the missing eggs when we know the girls are laying. The bottom line is the last of our donated chickens are doing next to nothing productivity-wise . . . we soon need to get a whole flock together of birds we want to raise and breed. Probably Welsummers.

The ducks have not yet started to lay and are about 5 to 6 months old now. The two mixed runners have gotten their upcurled drake feather - so they're obviously not laying. We think the bobcat got the only girl. The mixed rouen drake still has major neurological problems, with a crippled walk and a nervous tic that makes him constantly throw his head down and to the side. The four female mixed rouens are filling out more like meat birds than layers but we'll see what happens. All the ducks are sort of 'rescue' birds we got for free from a nearby homesteader who's moving soon. It's more been for the experience and learning than anything else. When we start raising ducks in earnest it will probably be Harlequins or Khaki Cambells - good layers.
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11/3

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Very sunny and warm yesterday, 71 degrees - a beautiful fall day.

All 5 windows on the west side of the cabin are now insulated and boarded up. There was a 1/2 off sale on lamps at the Habitat and we picked up 2 floor lamps and a table lamp for under $20. We also found a lot of cheap white cotton material for facing the insulated curtains. Rachel will start on that once she's finished the wool gloves she's knitting me.

The chickens and guineas were locked up all day to keep them safe. Claudia laid a strangely-shaped pale egg. She might have just started laying again - or has been laying elsewhere for quite some time. Rosy also laid.

We herded the ducks down to their pen at the north end of the garden and put back up their orange mesh fencing with step-in posts. Herding them out of the coop in the morning is a production. Today I'll install another run door on the coop for easy release of them without going in and stressing all the birds trying to herd them out the front door without any chickens or guineas escaping.

Our rubber chimney flashing boot came yesterday evening. All we need now is silicone caulk to install the chimney. Rain is forecast for today, so we'll cut the hole in the roof and put in the chimney tomorrow.

We drove over to visit some neighbors whose yard I mowed. They want me to start mowing on a monthly basis beginning in the spring. There's a tree they need taken down also - but it's tall, leaning, rotten, and beside a power pole . . . it would have to be winched down rather than cut - a risky, labor-intensive process.

Rachel made sourdough biscuits last night. The first batch that went directly into the oven after cut-out turned out perfect. The ones allowed to sit for a bit turned out almost like rolls. It's amazing how fast the sourdough starts acting on the dough.

It's windy this morning, building up to rain. Rachel drove down to the bus stop to meet the driver to pick up a 25# sack of whole wheat. The bus driver's a Mormon and had picked up an extra bag for us since she knew we were interested in finding sacks of whole wheat berries. The cost was a little over $12. We ultimately want to get a good manual grain mill for grinding our own flour for bread. They're around $300.
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11/2

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35 degrees outside this morning, and 50 inside. The insulation has made a huge difference.

Yesterday I insulated and boarded up 2 more windows on the west side. I cleaned out the stovepipe sections that came with the stove with a 7" chimney brush. We're still waiting on one last section of 4' HeatFab stovepipe from Selkirk. The rubber boot flashing for the roof should come today. Thursday when it rains we'll need to get 2 sheets of cement board to put under the stove and high-temp silicone caulk.

We lost another guinea yesterday. We heard the chickens and guineas hollering. I looked out the window and saw three of our chickens in front of the house looking up towards the coop. There was a chicken squawking up the hillside out of sight. I wondered if it could be Buffy. I saw the guineas panicked and scattered up by the coop. I hurried outside.

The squawking was coming from Little Bit up behind the shed. Up at the coop I found a pile of guinea feathers beside one of the white oaks. Guineas were slowly flying down from the trees. They usually only take to the trees when something really scares them.

I spotted a couple of small guinea feathers at the edge of the woods behind the coop. Rachel and I followed the trail of feathers through the woods. Eventually it led to the kill site. There was a great pile of feathers and fresh blood. We followed the trail of feathers from there but eventually lost it and never found either the killer or the guinea.

We think it's a coyote. A bobcat would have abandoned the kill with us coming after him. It also could have never completely ripped the guinea apart that fast. It had to be something big enough to make a fast thorough kill, able to flee through the woods with it in its mouth, and wolf it down almost completely even though we were after it. We hear plenty of coyotes around here, but never seemed to have any predation from them for some inexplicable reason. While wandering the woods beyond the coop we also encountered two old remains of guinea kills.

Well it's clear now what happened to Buffy. Maybe she wandered off to the woods to set and got eaten. Then the predator decided to get bold and go after more birds. That's 2 in 4 days, which means something that will stick around for easy meals.

We tried to herd all the guineas into the coop at evening but most took to the oak over the coop. The birds must be locked up in the coop and run for at least a week. If anything bothers them in the run we'll set out the trap. Today we'll have to find a way to herd the rest of the guineas into the coop while temporarily locking the other birds out in the run.

The ducks must be let out though. They make way too big a mess in the coop with water and drilling. Usually I go in and herd them out the door while Rachel quickly opens and shuts it so no other birds can get out. It works but is a lot of stress for them. What I need to do is install another run door that leads to outside. The ducks would be the first ones out then we could simply shut the door.

We'll set back up the ducks' pen with orange mesh fencing by the garden. This particular predator is sticking to the woods, so the ducks should be fine down in the open not far from the cabin.

Eventually we'll fence the entire perimeter of the property and this should alleviate some predation. We've thought of raising Pyrenees dogs with the chickens to protect them, but they're large dogs requiring a costly upkeep and only a large flock with good egg sales would offset it. We're not there yet. We've haven't even got enough eggs for ourselves.

It's always discouraging to lose another bird. But this is sort of inevitable with free-ranging.
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More Garden Pics

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These pics of the garden are from 2 to 3 weeks ago as I had such a hard time loading them to Blogger.

Here is the compost bin. We're filling the left chamber now. The center chamber will be ready to use next spring, and the right chamber will be ready next fall. The bin itself is now 4 years old and falling apart. I wish I could think of some non-degradable nontoxic material to rebuild it with:


Lettuce, Brussel sprouts, and what was left of the tomatoes after devasted by blister beetles and frost. The tomatoes have since been removed:


A patch of luxurious turnips. Some are now ready to pick:


Mustard greens. Have always been mild for us throughout the year, though rather holey from flea beetles in the spring:


Chard. Once established, very durable and able to be picked over and over. Wonderful raw in a salad, and one of the best boiled greens with a little salt, pepper and butter. A perfect winter greenhouse plant. Hit hard and almost totally defoliated by blister beetles in late summer, but rebounded well. Doesn't like much frost though:


Cherry belle radishes. Have done very well for us here. Got very spicy when big over early summer. But this time of year, mild even when huge. The yellow frisbee marks where I am in my fertigation rotation:

Brassicas, with peppers in the background before dead and removed. The Brassicas are much larger now and growing fast with almost no predation from bugs. They get heavy fertigation with a deep grass mulch:

The plant stakes are made from cut-up Venetian blinds and labelled with permanent marker:

More Brassicas, mostly broccoli and cauliflower. One of the broccoli's is now heading up nicely, about 3-4 inches across, very dark:

The last of the highly productive peppers before removed after the killing frosts:

Lettuce, with some young chard and kale behind them. Lettuce has grown fabulously for us here, never a blemish on it and very mild. We fought it going to seed in early summer due to the heat, but this time of year it fills out nicely. It's astonishing what perfect lettuce we can grow here in the midst of so many destructive bugs - they never touch it:

Beds 8 and 9, the summer beans and corn beds. Now full of seedlings. Will be covered in low tunnels soon. Everything is planted in deep furrows between high mulch rows. This allows water retention during the typically dry fall, and shelter out of the wind. There are red and golden beets, spinach, turnips, mustard greens, lettuce, etc:

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