Polar Vortex

We've been in our new house for almost a year and we're still getting to know each other.  The historic "polar vortex" recently came through and we experienced temperatures of at least -22 WITHOUT windchill.  As you can imagine, this tested our home and our wood cook stove and I'm happy to report that both did well and we were able to keep the house comfortably in the 70s despite the bitter cold.

One thing we did deal with though, when the temps plunged so low, is we had terrible condensation on our doors and windows, which then turned to ice or frost.  We found ourselves researching proper humidity levels and came to the conclusion that this was because the humidity level was to high, often approaching 40% humidity.  This moisture then condensed on the cold window panes.

The challenge for us in a log home is going to find the right balance.  With a house made of logs, and wooden beams, floors, and trim, having the air to dry can cause the wood to shrink considerably in the winter.  Ideally, you attempt to minimize expansion in the summer by keeping humidity from getting too high and from getting too low in winter.

In an effort to reduce the humidity, we removed the water jacket from the wood stove, which means we don't have hit water on demand any longer.  Instead, we heat it up when ready in the stainless pot we use during the summer.  This made a huge difference.  Note that there are other things that add humidity to the air, such as bringing in firewood from outside and hanging laundry up to dry on drying racks.  For now, when it is particularly cold out, we like humidity levels inside the house to be around 25-30% and and around 35% when the temperatures are above 10 degrees.

Life is hard enough; don't make it harder

Anyone that has attempted to homestead in any degree or capacity knows it is hard work.  For reasons based in principle and necessity, we're often left to accomplish certain tasks with great difficulty that might otherwise be very easy with the right help or equipment.

We live in an age of convenience.  Just look at cars.  You have voice activated controls for radio because somehow it is too difficult to take our hands out of our lap to change the dial.  Likewise, modern houses are designed around convenience.  From dishwashers to clothes dryers, modern life revolves around freeing us from tasks we'd otherwise only be able to accomplish with greater time or effort, or both.

At our homestead, we've escewed some of these conveniences.  We wash dishes by hand, we line dry all of our clothes.  We haul our water in and waste water out.  Some of this is by choice, some by necessity, and others for a combination of these reasons.  

That being said, I don't purposely set out to do things the hard way (although my wife often likes to claim that I do).  One must still use brains before braun, if for no other reason than it permits you to simply get more work done in the day.

Here are a few examples of things (often times little) that can make a big difference.

Location: much of my examples will have to do with location.  Our clothesline was purposely located close to the back door of our cabin, which is also where the laundry room is located.

We located our cattle shed close enough to the house to be accessible, but far enough to not be a source of smell.  It's also within range of the rear spotlight on the house, so you can just turn on the back light when going out to do chores at night.

I also placed the hay stack and straw pike right next to the shed so I can simply fork things over the fence.

Our firewood piles are UPHILL from the house.  This is key.  There is no comparison between rolling a wheelbarrow full of wood down a snowy hill than up a hill.

We designed both entrances to our house with ramps rather than steps.  Wow does that make life easier whine bringing firewood to the house.  Just roll te wheelbarrow up the ramp and next to the door.  I could even roll the wheelbarrow inside the house if I really wanted.

Our compost pile is right in the center if the garden, and it's simply a pile on one of the garden beds.  No need to haul te material to some far corner of the garden, and then haul it all back when done.  Once we're done with a compost pile, the soil under the pile is rich and ready for growing.

Winter is here

What a difference a few weeks makes.  In my last post I discussed our efforts to store potatoes and carrots in our riot cellar.

Well, it wasn't a week later and we got a heavy rain and suddenly I found the cellar flooded.  Most of our buckets were full of water and half of them had floated and tipped over, dumping potatoes in the water.  The barrel with carrots is completely swamped.  So, in the dark one Saturday night, I lifted the whole works back out if the cistern and spread them out in a shed to dry.  A couple days later we took them to an old house my parents own that is kept just above freezing.   Fortunately I think I caught them in time that they'll store properly over the winter.

It was shortly after that that we got our first snowfall and severe cold snap, which prevented me from getting the balance of the carrots covered with mulch in the garden.  I also was unable to get my onions out of the garden and the garlic has not sprouted.

Because of the early onset of very cold weather, I decided I needed to cut more firewood.  I've heard reports that the almanacs are calling for a long, cold winter.  Judging from the past few weeks, this might not be far off.

We have about 8-9 acres if woods.  Most of it is mixed hardwoods of oak, cherry, maple, and elm.  Because we're dealing with Dutch elm disease, most of our elm trees ultimately die at some point, so they are an obvious candidate for firewood.  

We also scour the woods for blow downs  and other limbs that have broken or fallen.  It's also a great way to clean up the forest floor.

On the edges of the woods, where the land was once farmed or grazed, we have box elder trees, which are a nuisance in many ways.  When you cut one down, the stumps sprout hundreds of suckers and it is almost impossible to kill them.

Because I'm attempting to reclaim our tillable ground, I've been cutting back a lot of the box elders.  Surprisingly, it makes pretty decent firewood.  It splits easily and while not particularly dense or having a lot of BTUs, it is perfect for the spring and fall when you need just a little heat and don't want to burn your hardwood.

In addition to cutting our own wood, we've been bringing in slabs from the Amish sawmills.  When they cut logs--generally red oak--they square up the sides.  They then cut the waste (slabs) into chunks from 12-24 inches.  They once simply burned these on a pile.  I can buy these for $25 per wagon load.  I don't think cutting wood on my own timber is any more cost effective when you factor in time, has and oil, and wear and tear on your equipment.

Here are some recent pics.

Trying out the cellar

Our homestead was once part of a larger farm with standard house, barn, and outbuildings.  Though most of the buildings have long since been torn down, one remnant of days gone by is the old cement cistern.  It was placed up hill of the rest of the farm, and water was pumped in to it from the windmill, and then it was a gravity flow from there.

We've decided to use it for a root cellar for our vegetables.  It's about 10 feet in diameter and about 9 feet deep.  The bottom should keep an even temperature in the 50s.  We'll be adding sawdust to the cement roof for added insulation.  We'll also he adding a wooden door with hinges, and a vent pipe to curb condensation.

Inside the cellar, we will store our potatoes and carrots.  For the potatoes, we dug the potatoes and then spread them out in a shed for a couple days to dry and harden.  It's important to keep potatoes out if direct sunlight for extended periods of time.  We then lowered them in plastic 5 gallon pails, where they'll remain until use.  In the past, we've usually stored potatoes in large wooden bins.  We'll see if buckets makes it easier to keep track of bad potatoes, and it should make it easier to get then in and out for actual use.

For carrots, we're trying two methods.  I dug about half the carrots and trimmed the green tops to about an inch and a half.  We then spread them out in a half plastic barrel in between layers of moist sand.  The other half if the carrots will be left in the garden and covered with a heavy mulch of hay--hay that we had on the potatoes this summer.

We also planted a small patch of garlic.  They will sprout and get some growth this winter, and then go dormant until the spring.  They should be ready for harvest next summer.

Finally, in addition to the slab wood we've been getting from the Amish saw mills, we cut and drug up a good amount of dead trees  for firewood.  We like to drag the logs out of the woods with the tractor and then cut them up in the pasture.

Planting garlic (6 inches deep, about 1 foot apart)

husking the garlic in to individual cloves for planting

placing carrots in barrel with moist sand

potatoes stored in plastic buckets

finished carrot barrel

firewood bone yard

new hay/pasture seeding

Fall rush

It's that time if year that tends to be very hectic on a homestead.  You're busy trying to get summer projects finished, like garden produce preserved and stored away.  There's plenty of things to do to get ready for winter, such as cutting and stacking firewood.  Couple that with shorter days and it's a rush to squeeze everything in.

I'm happy to report that the pasture/hay I seeded down a month ago looks beautiful.  Hopefully it gets another month to grow and establish roots before snow and winter set in.  The main advantage as I see it to fall planting of hay is that all the annual weed seeds will germinate and sprout in the fall, and then die over winter.  I expect this will greatly reduce the number of weeds we end up with in the spring.  Plus, there is now a patch of lush green grass to draw deer to my treestand?

I continue to make whatever hay I can.  It's particularly hard to make hay this time of year because hay just doesn't dry out.  I was fortunate to have 5 days of dry, relatively warm weather to make a final patch of hay.  This was piled on the top of the hay stack and left uncovered, to further cure in the sun and wind, until just before it rained, when I put the tarp on the pile.  I believe this is one advantage to outdoor haystacks as opposed to making bales: because the hay is not packed tightly in bales and stacked in a barn, it continues to have an opportunity to breathe and cure out.  

In addition to hay, I will need some bedding for our steer through the winter.  I'll likely buy some straw or cornstalk bales, but I do want to try and begin making use of what I have.  I've considered a few options.  First, I have some old farm found that is overgrown with tall grass and small trees.  I cut some with my sickle mower and if it ever dries out, I'll stack it and use it for bedding.  An added bonus is that by getting the old hay off now, the fired will have a chance to grow back with lush green grass next spring that I can graze and/or make hay.  Second, I still have the patch of dried out sweet corn stalks.  I'm going to cut them down and lay them in the cow pen.  At a minimum I'll use them to create the base, which will encourage drainage.  Third, as we dug potatoes today, we raked back all the hay we had piled on as compost this summer.  I might use some of it as bedding as well.  Finally, I'm going to try using fall leaves for bedding.  They come nice and dry and are free for the taking.  Regardless, in the spring the whole works will go on the compost pile.

I still have a few fall garden crops, such as broccoli and cauliflower, and will be planting a patch of garlic this fall.  We even had some fresh watermelon today while we were digging potatoes.  Delicious.

We've recently started using the wood cook stove in the mornings to warm the cabin up.  It's a great opportunity to heat our water and cook some eggs for breakfast.

Here are some pictures from the last month or so.



Slab wood from Amish sawmill



The one carrot had wrapped its "arms" around its neighbor

"Frank", our Holstein steer

New hay seeding



New open front shed for storing tractor and steer this winter

Planting hay

We have 3 acres of crop ground that, until last year, had been rented by a local farmer and farmed conventionally (i.e. not organic).  I knew I wanted to get it back to organic status, so last year I rented to a different neighbor who attempted organic corn without a lot of success.  It was a dry year and the weeds took control and seeded out.  This year I had arrangements to rent to a different organic farmer to have to the acreage seeded back to hay, but due to the wet spring, he as unable to get it done and I decide to try and farm it myself.

Because the ground was corn the last few years, it grew up in to weeds this summer, so I had to use a brush hog to mow off the fields a couple of times.  It's important to keep the weeds from going to seed, or your problems will multiply exponentially.  My plan had been to plow and plant the field with a grass based pasture/hay mix in August, but my tractor, a 1940s vintage 9N Ford, broke down. It took a number of weeks to identify the problem and get the tractor running.  After replacing the spark plugs, condenser, and points, we had it running.  By then it was nearly the end of August, and I wondered if I had missed my window of opportunity, but the tractor breaking down probably turned out to be a blessing, since the recent drought would have ensure that nothing germinated anyway.  While spring is when hay is normally planted, fall is actually a good time to seed hay, particularly grass-based hay mixes, as opposed to alfalfa.  The idea is that the hay will germinate and get some growth, establishing its roots, and then go dormant over winter. 

By early September, I had the tractor running again and was ready to farm 2 if the 3 acres.  I began by using the brush mower to again now off the weeds.  I then used a 2 bottom moldboard plow to plow the field.  A moldboard plow flips the soil, in hopes if burying most of the weed seeds and keeping them from sprouting and competing with the new seeding.  For much of the last 100 years, moldboard planting was the standard method of American tillage.  It has only been in the last 20-30 years that it has given way in large part to minimal tillage methods, such as chisel plows, or no-til methods, which can only be done through use of chemicals.  I'm not an advocate of moldboard plowing as a regular practice, as I believe it disrupts the important layers in the soil and microorganisms that grow within those layers, but for purposes of preparing the seedbed for hay or pasture, where the crop will remain for a number of years, I believe it's good to get the ground prepared right the first time, and do what you can to thwart the weeds so the hay can get established.

After the field had been plowed, I used a small 3-point disk to help knock down the clumps, and begin smoothing the field.  Because the ground is so dry, I found that there was still a lot of dirt clumps that were passing through the disc, so I borrowed a neighbor's cultipacker to break up some of the clumps, and went over the field with a harrow that I had created out of an old heavy chain link gate, pulled behind the tractor with a chain.  Finally, we borrowed a neighbor's grain drill, which I pulled with the 9N to seed the hay, mixed with oats.  Now we just need some rain to make it germinate.  Hopefully, it will then have some time to grow this fall, the. Go dormant over the window, and then resume growing in the spring.

 



Moldboard plow flipping the soil

 

 

Finished plowing--now starting to disc

Ford 9N pulling 3 point disc

Soil after two passes with disc

Using cultipacker and makeshift harrow to further break up dirt clumps

Field after seeding

Field after seeding

Making hay

Looking back on my childhood on and around the farm, undoubtedly my favorite activity was making hay in the summer.  It was hard work at a fast pace to stay a step ahead of the weather.  As a dreaming homesteader, I have to say that making hay for winter feeding is one step I've long looked forward to making.  Finally this summer we took that step.

The acreage we bought had about 2-3 acres of old standing alfalfa, meaning its been a number of years since it was last planted.  Typically, alfalfa only lasts for a few years before it is plowed up and replaced with corn.  Since I don't care about getting maximum yields, and don't need corn, I'm content to farm the hay as it is, even if it is getting thinner and with more grass establishing itself in the field.  Our hay field has about 30% alfalfa, with the rest being orchard grass and a type of brome grass.  It makes nice feed for homestead animals, and is more forgiving when it comes to making hay, unlike alfalfa, which needs to be cut at the right time, raked at the right time, and baled at the right time.

I'm still limited in the equipment I have, with a baler being the most obvious missing piece to this ensemble, so I've been left with trying to make do with what I have.  I don't have a barn either, so my only real option was to make an outdoor haystack and cover it as best I can.

Hay making began with my BCS tractor and 30" sickle mower.  It does a pretty decent job, but certainly not of the quality of a modern haybine.  Unlike haybines, which have crimping rollers, the sickle mower cuts the hay off at the ground and lays it over.  Crimping rollers bend the stalks of hay at various places to encourage even and quicker drying.  This is less important when making hay of grasses, versus alfalfa.  Once I had mowed the hay, I borrowed the neighbor's side delivery rake to flip the hay over for further drying.  Because I made the hay during a stretch of 90 degree weather, this probably wasn't necessary, but having a side delivery rake flips the hay over, so the part that had been on the ground gets an opportunity to dry in the sun and air.  This also puts the hay in thicker windrows, making it easier to pick up.  The dump rake I use for gathering hay mulch in the spring doesn't flip the hay--it only gathers it, so if you're trying to make hay for feed, particularly if the hay is thick or you have less than ideal drying conditions, it's important to flip the hay over, either with a rake, or by hand with a fork.

Once the hay had been raked and dried, we made the haystack.  We began by pitting down a layer of wood pallets to get the hay off the ground.  This is important to create a moisture break with the ground.  You don't have to do this, but it will minimize the amount of spoilage on the bottom of the pile.

Once the pallets were arranged, we connected four sections of corn crib rings together to form the outside if the stack, with one section containing a doorway.  Once this was done, we used the 9N tractor and trailer to collect the loose hay, which we gathered with pitch forks, and then piled inside the ring.  The hay was packed and spread until we reached the top.  We ran out of hay before we were able to form a nice crown, which we will finish when I cut the next half of the hayfield.  Finally, we covered the stack with a tarp to protect it from the elements.  Again, you don't have to cover the stack, if you put a good crown on the top of the pile, but you do minimize the spoilage.  Now we have hay to feed our steer through the winter.

BCS tractor with 30" sickle mower

Even my 6 year old son can run the sickle mower. 

 

 

hay cut with sickle mower

raking hay with side delivery rake

 

hay all raked in to windrows

packing hay in to ring made with corn crib sections

nearly completed hay stack.