Videos and such

I remember when cell phones first came out with cameras and then video cameras.  I thought it was such a ridiculous notion.  Now I find I use them all the time to catch life's moments, for use at work, and as a quick and easy way to document some of the things we do around the homestead.  The quality of the camera and the cameraman are not great, but it's something, and sometimes it's easier to explain things in video than photo.

I have tried uploading videos directly to the blog, but find it to be slow and only practical if the clips are quite short.  So, I've created a Youtube page to upload things and invite you to subscribe.  My channel is named "Homestead2Emmaus".  Here are a few videos I recently uploaded.

Here's a link to a video on how our blackberries are doing with the new trellis system.

Here's a link to a video showing the outside of the cabin and here's one of the inside, still under construction.

Here's a link to a video about our grape arbor and here's one about our strawberries.  I hope you enjoy.

A roof over our heads

The guys started working on the roof of the cabin this week.  Seeing the logs go up was certainly exhilarating, but I think seeing the roof go up was the most dramatic change in one day.  It also makes things start to look complete, but is likely one of the last phase of the project that will seem dramatic.  Everything else, with the possible exception of adding the steel and windows, will happen more slowly and less noticeably.  With that in mind, here's some updates.  I'm going to shop a local Amish store this Saturday for windows and will need to finally get ready for electric, insulation, sheetrock, and flooring.

View of gardens from loft window

Overhangs done and roof sheathing going up

Loft beams

Rear side with loft dormer

Loft

Blackberries: be fruitful and multiply

I finally finished the trellises for the blackberries, other than a few steel posts I need to add. I still have to tie up the thornless vines, as they are starting to get long enough. Only time will tell whether the posts remain sufficiently tight under the weight of the berries, particularly the thornless, which are entirely non supporting. If that happens, I may have to add a brace or a deadman.  I'm including links to two videos I created of the process.  BEFORE and AFTER.

Before: tangled mess

After

Blackberry trellis

Today I finally got started on the blackberry trellis.  As I've indicated in prior posts, I've been dissatisfied with the cages we had first tried to hold up the blackberries.  The canes are simply too tall, and as a result, they bend over under the weight of berries and get tangled at a minimum, and break off at worst.  Plus, it's almost impossible to watch them enough to feed the new canes up through the cages, and once they grow out one of the holes on the cages, you cannot feed them back through, as the canes are brittle and will crack and break.

Earlier this week I grabbed two railroad ties I had laying around and set them at the ends of one row.  I then purchased the wire.  I had thought about using barbed wire, since I have plenty laying around, and it's not as if the barbs will be even close to as bad as the thorns on the canes, but I was afraid the barbs might damage the canes if they moved back and forth in the wind.  I needed some smooth wire.

In the past, I've used #9 wire for fencing--mostly for brace wire on long fences--but thought it would do the trick.  Unfortunately, it's very expensive and I didn't even see any at the farm store I visited this morning, so I decided to try high tinsel wire, a new for me.  After reading the instructions, I decided it was the most economic alternative and would also allow me to tighten the wires as needed.

We started by removing the existing cages--a process that could only be done with bolt cutters to cut the cages apart because the canes were so intertwined.  Once that was done, I strung some rope along both sides of the row and hand tightened it so as to get the canes off the ground.  I then strung out and installed two strands of wire.  The bottom strand is approximately 30 inches off the ground and the top strand is approximately 5 feet high.  This week I'll set the posts for the other two rows of berries and then put up trellises for both.  Here's some photos and video of the process.

Corn and Logs

Like much of the country, this was an unusually dry year for us.  We had to water much of the garden, although the long row crows, like corn, didn't get watered because we lack the means to run a sprinkler.  Everything gets hand watered.  As a result, the corn suffered, although not as bad as we had predicted.  Because corn needs a certain amount of rain during the pollination process (i.e. tasseling), the lack of rain prevents the corn from getting nice full ears of corn.  Accordingly, we ended up with a fair number of ears that were underdeveloped, particularly on the first batch.  Nonetheless, we were able to pick enough to make about 120 quarts of sweet corn, plus quite a few meals in between.  On a good year, the yield would have doubled, at least.

Now that the drought is essentially over for us, we're having trouble keeping things dry enough to keep the cabin builders moving.  But, they continue to plug along and all the walls are up. Today they are supposed to start cutting in the timbers that make up the loft floor.  Next week should entail substantial progress on the roof.  We can't wait for that to take shape.

In the next few days, I plan to start work on a more permanent trellis for our blackberry patch, which has become entirely unruly.  We have both thorned and thornless.  The thornless are more like a grape vine, in that they tend to grow long and are generally nonsupporting.  The thorned, besides being more hardy for zone 4, are generally more upright like raspberries.  But, they grow tall (some are over 7 feet tall) and the cages we attempted to use simply are not going to work because it's difficult to get the canes to grow up through them, and they tend to droop over under the weight of berries and can break off.  So, I'm going to anchor posts on each end of each row and string multiple courses of wire on which to tie up the berries (both the thorned and thornless).  It's not going to be a very pleasant process with the thorned berries, but will be well worth it once it's done.

Here are some recent pictures of the gardens and the cabin.

Walls and windows

This week the guys had finished cutting all the logs of our cabin to size, so they began installing them, much like legos.  The logs we've chosen are 6" wide by 8" tall and they have a tongue-and-groove system to help hold them together and seal our air.  Each log joint is filled with a "butyl" tape and screwed together with long lags.  As they go up, they drill holes for wiring to be snaked up from the deck to the outlets and switches.  

The inside surface of the logs is smoothly finished, meaning it is planed after milling.  The outside surface we decided to leave "as is", which is still fairly smooth, but has a slightly rougher surface after coming out of the milling machine.  The main reason I went with the rougher surface over the smooth for the outside is that it tends to hold and soak up a lot more of the sealer that is applied to the outside to protect it from the elements.  The choice was entirely functional and not aesthetic, although I think it will look good as well.

When deciding on a log construction, there were many factors that went in to consideration.  Personally, I'm not entirely sold on log, and won't use log if/when we are able to build a larger family home.  Logs tend to be high maintenance and are not particularly energy efficient.  But, for our purposes, where we view the cabin as a family home for 3-5 years before we build our more permanent dwelling, at which point the cabin will become a host of other possibilities, such as guest house, home office, rental, or something I sell, the logs will do well.  I also concluded that logs would go up quicker than other types of construction, have a nice rustic feel, and, more importantly, are fairly natural in that they don't entail so many of the harmful dyes, adhesives, and other chemicals that are part of the mainstream building process.  

Only time will tell whether our decision was well-informed, but we're content with our decision and excited to see it come together.  Here are a few pics of the updated progress.

Anniversary musings, etc.

Yesterday my wife and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary.  It was anything but glamorous, partially by necessity but mostly by choice.  We've never been especially enamored by expensive or remotely-exotic enjoyments, whether in possessions, vacations, or get togethers.  Again, partially by necessity, but mostly by choice.

I remember before we were married we began discussions about a future dream (mostly my dream, at the time) of living in the country, raising a large garden, and maybe having a few animals.  I also remember the indignation my bride-to-be first shared at the thought of eating an animal we might raise ourselves and, gasp, she might have to feed.  As time as passed, she's largely come to grips with these realities, although she continues to insist she couldn't eat domestic rabbits--just wait until I offer to cook "chicken" one night.

Our anniversary day, like most of our anniversaries, was spent like most other days of our life--working in the garden, doing laundry, going to work, feeding children, etc.  We did, however, get a little "time to ourselves", which in our house simply means mom, dad, and just the nursing baby, when we went to  retirement party for one of the members of my firm, followed by some great local ice cream.  We capped off the night by stopping by our land, looking over the progress of our gardens, and walking through our partially-completed cabin, envisioning the location of shelves, cupboards, and furniture.  All in all, I'd say it was a perfect day