Archive for the ‘homestead’ Category

Out of re-tire-ment

Friday, June 25th, 2010

I’m sure the gardening books are right when they advise us to test the pH and plant this plant early and that plant later and rotate the crops and don’t put these plants together etc. etc. But I’m impatient. If I’m in charge of the garden I put the seeds in the ground on one …

The Great Wall of Firewood, part II

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

Here’s half of next year’s heat. It’s 60 feet long, 4.5 feet high (average), and 15″ deep or so, and that pencils out to 2.5 cord, or about half of what I’ll need next winter. It looks like a lot of wood, but last year we started burning in September and we burned a long …

The chipmunk war

Friday, June 4th, 2010

Here’s our greenhouse with the surviving warm-weather plants that will remain there all season—peppers, watermelon, anything that can’t live outside. At the bottom center you can just make out the chipmunk trap.
chipmunk (chip’ munk) n. Any of several small striped terrestrial squirrels of the genera Tamias and Eutamias; has cheek pouches and a light and …

High-speed internet in the woods! the sequel

Friday, May 21st, 2010

By the way, for all those I may have offended with my unflattering portait of television, I am sorry only that I didn’t show more tact. Some of you may actually like television. But my true opinion of the medium is that it’s offensive, unclean, obnoxious, contemptible, odious, invidious, revolting, distasteful, low, foul, corrupt, bad, …

Chicken NEWS at 10!

Friday, May 14th, 2010

Read the following out loud. An overly dramatic voice is helpful, and your imagination can supply the frenetic video footage:
FOLLOW the HARROWING SAGA of the FLUKINGIJIGiGJER’S CHICKENS as they RAISE SEVEN CHICKS to ADULTHOOD. WILL THEY SURVIVE? WHAT about the FLOCK of BIZARRE DUCKS SPOTTED among PEACEFUL NEIGHBORHOOD HENS? WHY did the HENS SUDDENLY START …

Growing food

Friday, May 7th, 2010

I went down with Jess this morning to take some pictures with our camera which is just begging to be put out of its misery. Jess let out all 23 poultry, fed and watered them, and gathered eggs, while I wandered around taking pictures. Usually I’m upstairs studying scriptures at this time in the morning, …

Fiaaaaah!

Monday, April 19th, 2010

Natalie used to do this dramatic thing where she’d hiss the word “Fiaaaaah!” (“Fire!”) while scrunching up her face and framing it with hands (which were formed into claws). Well, the effect is lost in transcription. You had to be there, especially when she was a cute little 4-year-old towhead with blue eyes.
I like Fiaaaaah. …

Peeps

Friday, April 16th, 2010

Well, here are some of the newest crop: seven Buff Orpington chicks purchased the other day at the local co-op. (Wait, there’s a pun in there somewhere …) Are they hens? Roosters? We don’t know, and probably won’t until fall, when they’re mostly grown up. Then, may the best rooster win. The rest will end …

Transmission fluid ≠ oil

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

I think Ford is not terribly excited about consumers working on their (our) vehicles. They hide the oil filter between the front driver’s tire and the bumper, and don’t tell you where it is. (Don’t you think the oil filter belongs, oh, I don’t know, somewhere near the oil pan?) They scramble the engine layout, …

The grass seed compound

Monday, April 5th, 2010

Our dogs will stop at nothing!!!! to destroy Jessica’s plantings. Flowerbed? Dig it up. New lawn? Dig it up. Newer lawn? Refuse to play anywhere else; chase each other relentlessly for eight hours a day until the grass seed is ground to powder. Fence? What fence? Doggie repellent? That’s for city dogs. Flowerbeds strewn …

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  • TheNaturalStore.com (drugstore.com)