Shake Shake Shake!

The windows and door are in!  Originally we were going to reuse some windows from the old house we tore down, but when we went to where they were being stored we discovered that someone else had already claimed them.  Termites.  I think these look better anyway.

As I mentioned before, the siding is cedar shakes.  The real thing, not the fake kind that comes in sheets.  These come in all sorts of sizes and are installed one shake at a time. They take longer to install, but you don't have to paint them!

 

It is looking less like a Well House and more like a beach cottage my Grandparents had on the Jersey shore.

Well Staged

Staging was put up around the well house so the roof sheathing could be installed.  Now I'm not sure the staging was quite up to OSHA standards.  Granted I'm not skilled in such matters, but it seems to me that staging shouldn't act like a teeter-totter as you walk across it.  So be it, it was what it was and it got the job done without causing too much harm (I'll heal).

Sheathing almost done. 

While we were in the framing stage we thought it would be nice to have an area with a sink and potting station that was covered, so we decided to extend the roof beyond the well house walls and create an overhang. 

Before we could continue we needed to pour footings for the posts to hold the roof up.

Frame the overhang roof.

And now finish the roof sheathing and trim it out.

 

The next step, the shingles.  We chose to use leftover shingles from when we built our house. Partly because they were paid for,  but mostly because they would match the main house.  

We had stored the shingles in a stack next to the woods.  They had to be picked up and moved to the area of the well house.  The shingles were no longer wrapped in neat little bundles and they were dirty and had lot's of bugs and spiders mixed in, but no snakes.   

Another fun task for me. 

I started to load them into the little Farm Vehicle (remember the xB?) but thought I had better not after I saw the bugs crawling all over them.  After all, I didn't need to discover some misplaced bugs on my drive to my day job.  I got them over to the well house using the truck, bugs and all (yes, the farm does have a truck.  So why do we always use the xB?).

It took a couple of days to finish the shingles. It might not have taken as long had we not ended up spending a good part of a morning at the Orthopedic Doctor's office getting a large chunk of wood removed from my hand.  Remember that staging? I swear it had it out for me.   

Roof is now done, next task: windows, door and siding.

The Well House

Here on the farm we have two older wells, one for the home, one for the fields.  The wells were dug long ago, but still function just fine.  Problem is the buildings they reside in.  Both wells are in the backyard area of the house.  Long ago someone built cinder-block buildings around them, complete with metal roofs and plywood doors.

There is absolutely no insulation in either well house.  Not that it would do any good, because the doors are thin and they don't shut very well.  It is not uncommon for the water pipes in them to freeze during the cold weather. Thawing frozen well pipes in the early morning hours when it is 10 degrees out is not an enjoyable task.

This past year as the GeoThermal heating system was being put in one of the little well houses got damaged.   It went up against a rather large excavator and lost.  Part of the metal roof was ripped off and a couple of the walls sustained serious damage.  Now I guess most folks would see this as an unfortunate accident, but I knew better.  I think the excavator driver (a.k.a.my husband) had a deep seated hatred for these well houses.  They were ugly, dysfunctional and right in the middle of the backyard.  We have over 60 acres here and they put them 20 feet from the back door...maybe that is so you don't have to go far when you need to thaw the pipes?  Anyway, I think the accident was more of an act of hatred.

Regardless of the reason we were now tasked with rebuilding the well house.  As is the case with all projects around here a simple rebuild was not in the cards.  If we had to go thru the pain and expense of building a new well house, we might as well build one large well house to take care of both wells, then we could eliminate both ugly block buildings.    The next day when I came home from my day job that second well house was completely gone.  I'm not sure, but I think that he used his deep seated hatred for the little building to rip it apart with his bare hands.

And so we began the creation of a new well house.  No real plans, just a general idea.  The location was going to be where the second building was.  The size was going to be roughly twice as long and twice as wide as the old building.  The siding was NOT going to be block.

We created concrete forms out of scrap wood from another demo project (what a painful task that was) and poured a foundation for the walls.  Then we poured the floor.  The original pad of the old well house is in the front left corner, the large rusty bullet is the well tank.

Our budget for this project was $400. LOL.  I think that was just the first drop.  We chose to use pressure treated 2x4s for the framing.   We didn't have to use this for everything.  They are a LOT harder to work with, very very heavy, and they will twist if you let them dry before you use them.  But the PT 2x4s were less than half the cost of regular 2x4s and we had a budget.

OSB for the sheathing.  The siding will eventually be cedar shakes, we have a lot of them left over from the house we built and they don't require painting.

We decided to put in 3 windows and a real door with a glass upper half.  This will give us plenty of light.  No windows on the back or far side because we plan to have shelving on those walls.  The size of the windows was based upon what the local discount store had on clearance (many of our design choices go this route).

The roof pitch was tricky.  I said not too steep but not so shallow it looks like a manufactured building. He figured it out :)

Next task, build the staging so the roof sheathing can be put on.

We are o-fish-ally a fish farm

A Catfish farm to be precise.   Our Pond Management Consultant had told us once we should try raising catfish in some of the side ponds, they are the perfect size for such an operation.  So just before Thanksgiving we drove to the hatchery and picked up about 550+ baby catfish, well junior catfish.  They are all around 6 inches long and look like real catfish, complete with whiskers.  There was also about 3 albino catfish thrown in.  Freebies.  I guess albino catfish are undesirable because those that hunt catfish find them easy to hunt.  But since the hatchery was going to just toss them away we said we would take them.  At least give them a chance at living, at least until we eat them.


So, how does one transport so many fish? Box them up and toss them into the back of the farm vehicle, for us that would be a Scion xB.

The fish are actually in large plastic bags, which in turn are placed into a box, one bag per box.  This is more to keep them stable, wouldn't want the bags of fish to roll around while we drive.


Once back home on the farm the bags are placed into the pond to allow them to acclimate, just like one does with a home aquarium.

After a short period of time we cut them loose.

You can see one of the albino fish in this bag:

So how does one farm fish?  Well we can just leave them alone for a couple of years and then fish them out.  Or we can feed them which will cause them to grow faster and fatter, and then we can fish them out.  We will probably feed them. We will also place breeding containers in the pond for them so they can mix it up a bit and make kittens.   The breeding containers consist of 5 gallon plastic containers (like you get at Home Depot) submerged into bottom such that there is a 5 inch opening for the fish.

We have other catfish already in the pond, but not the same variety.  The new ones are Channel Catfish.  Here is one of the old ones, from the lake area.

A new edition to the farm!

Today the farm got it's first piece of new equipment, a brand new tractor.  Well, as good as brand new. It's a 2009 that the factory bought back when a dealership went out of business, only has a couple of hours on it.  Close enough to new considering our other tractor is a 1957 with who knows how many hours. The most amazing thing about the tractor is it actually starts when you turn the key.  No need to pull out jumper cables and a can of ether    I think the first job for the new tractor will be bush hogging some of the areas that have become overgrown.  The old tractor had too much horsepower for the bush hog and the pines grow fast around here.  I actually made the mistake of suggesting we sell the old tractor to help offset some of the cost of the new.  After all, the old tractor is supposedly rare, might get some $$ for it.  I was quickly put in my place.   A farm does not sell it's first tractor.  Apparently it's in the handbook. 

Someone is watching

We noticed a large flock of crows watching us pick berries a couple of weeks ago.  In order to save the berries from the impending attack a fake owl was purchased and placed in the middle of the field.  It scared the crows away, but we started to notice a lot of bushes with broken branches and no obvious signs of deer or other animal in there, nor were any of the berries on the broken bushes eaten. A mystery.  Until today.  The husband visited the field this morning and found a hawk tangled in one of the bushes.  Now hawks don't really care much for blueberries, but they care even less for Owls, fake or real.  The feathery fella, in attempt to scare off the fake Owl, was smashing into the bushes.  Mr  Owl is now located in the backseat of the truck.  Maybe he can hang out in the backyard and keep the geese from eating the new grass we just planted.

It started with an idea

Actually, it started with trying to find a home we could afford in an area that was safe to live.  All we could find was a scruffy piece of land, about 23 acres, that was undesirable to builders due to a variety of reasons. 

And so began our adventure.

The plan, build a home and then clear 5 acres that we could use to grow something.  After consulting with the State Ag guy (not official title) and doing some soil tests, the decision was to grow blueberries. 

First task, clearing an area big enough to build a home.  A husband, a wife, and a couple of chainsaws.   It's not that we were filled with that pioneer spirit of old, wanting to tame the land with our bare hands.  No, it was more of a budgetary decision, as are most of the decisions that rule our life.

We had managed to finish the house, clear the land, and even ordered 500 blueberry plants, when disaster struck, or so we thought.  We were told we had to relocate, far far away, or risk unemployment.  At this point in time the two was now three, so we followed the path that put food on the table and diapers on the the little one.  

So we sold our newly finished home, with it's freshly cleared pastures, and moved with the company that paid our wage.  Once again we found ourselves trying to find a house we could afford, in an area that was safe to live...but now it also had to be acceptable to our recently purchased 500 blueberry plants....yes,  we brought the blueberry plants with us.  Actually, the supplier held them for us until we got settled in the new location.

We found a new place, 70 acres with a small lake and a set of ponds stocked with fish!  The land needed some clearing (been there before).  There was a small 1950s vintage ranch that had seen better days, so we would need to build a house (done that before).  There was also a tiny lake side cottage and a couple of broken down single wide trailers.  Overall the place had more potential for farming than the last place.  And did I mention the lake? Small, more of a pond really, but all ours, and as the sun rose or set over it it would fill with magnificent colors. The area was really quite pretty if you looked past the mess the previous owners left behind.  

So, we moved into the small ranch, got rid of the trailers, stored most of our "stuff" in the cottage and started back on our path towards creating a home for us and the blueberry bushes.  The trauma of having to move from our other home melted away like the snow we left behind.

This was almost 8 years ago.

The second house has been built, took us about 6 years, but budget kept dictating we do the work ourselves (darn that pesky budget!).  Our 450-500 blueberry plants were planted a few years ago and have finally begun to produce the little blue berries that they are known for.  We lost a few, some due to the drought a couple years back, some to an infestation of moles (who were after the infestation of grubs), some just because. Since we came from a northern climate the berry plants were of a northern variety, so we expected some casualties. 

Since we have more land at this place we have expanded our little farm with vegetables, grapes, and some fruit trees.   The goal is to be somewhat diverse, yet manageable by just us.  We are also toying with adding catfish to the list.  A couple of the smaller ponds are perfectly situated for catfish farming.  We hear prawns do well in our area, but from what I have read they require a lot of work to harvest and can be a bit tough on the existing residents of the pond, pretty much turning the ponds into prawn pools.  That wouldn't be fair to the fish.  Of course, I could be wrong on that, but catfish exist in the ponds already and the ponds can handle quite a few more without disrupting things.

Anyway, as we move forward we will be evolving the farm into other areas and I will write about our success and failures on this little blog.  I expect quite a few failures, that's how we learn.