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FCL :: Day in the Life :: 18-27 Aug 2019 (BCS Tractor, Chickshaw 2.0, IBC Tote Fish Tanks)

First, the PTO control lever on my BCS 853 diesel “walk behind” tractor got corroded and seized (remember that word), and I couldn’t break it free following the numerous YouTube suggestions re: deep penetrating oil, torque and even a propane torch. So, I took it to my “local” BCS service department, about 35 miles south of here in Pittsboro, NC.

It took them about a week to get it fixed, and do a full service tune-up. When the dogs and I drove down the other day to pick it up, upon arrival I noticed a plume of smoke billowing out of the left-rear brakes on my truck. Looked to me like my brake caliper had seized (yes, that word again) and grossly overheated the whole brake assembly. It was SO bad, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to make the drive home.

I asked the BCS mechanic if he could recommend someone in town to take a look at my brake. He gave me two names and numbers. Thankfully, the first (Doug’s Automotive & Tire, Pittsboro, NC) was just down the street. So, we limped the truck over to Dougs.

To make a rather LONG (but boring) story short … Deuce, Hooey and I had to sit under a tree for between 4 and 5 hours while they ordered the parts, then completed a brake job on all four corners (might as well update ALL of them). Doug and his “team” of two mechanics bent over backwards to help us and make us comfortable during the protracted wait.

A couple of days ago I started building my first Justin Rhodes Chickshaw v2.0 mobile chicken coop. Today, I start the assembly process. Should take a day or two. The “Chickshaw” is a really cool concept. It provides up to 40 chickens with … essentially … a mobile home. The Chichshaw gets surrounded by an electric poultry fence to keep the birds contained, and predators out. After awhile (maybe a few weeks), the fence and chickshaw get relocated to a new plot, so the chickens get a new source of food (pasture grass) and the prior plot is ready to be planted with new garden crops.

Lastly, while waiting for the Chickshaw lumber waterproofing treatment to dry and cure, I converted the first two of eight 250-gallon IBC totes into aquaponic gardening fish tanks. Each tank will hold about 80 pounds of fish (e.g. Nile Tilapia). I’ll go into aquaponic gardening in more detail later in the year. For now, let’s just say the method allows fish to be raised, and plants to be grown, without any soil, using only about 10% of the water normally needed. Why? Because the water recirculates between the fish tank and the growing beds. Fish waste fertilizes the plants, and the plants clean and filter the water, which then returns to the fish tank. The only “input” to the system is daily fish food.

We had our first few cooler days this past week. Saturday’s high was only 70F. LOVE IT!!!!

I got the big pasture seeded with ~35# of horse pasture mix yesterday, and we have rain forecast for the next two days, so fingers crossed the seeds can be established before the chicken flock eats it all. 😉

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FCL :: Day in the Life :: Aug 11, 2019 (Big Pasture Seed Prep, Caterpillar Tunnels Coming)

Spent some time this week tilling, grading, raking and drag harrowing the big pasture, readying it for seeding in a few weeks.

Second bucket gardening pallet is coming along well. Seedlings in the soil blocks are also doing well, especially the Okra.

Deuce get’s a lot of face time, as usual.

Received and tested our first (of many) Premier 1 electric poultry fence. Works like a charm. Poor Deuce got volunteered to test the fences ability to repel an aggressive predator, and the fence turned his ass around VERY effectively. Thanks Deuce … for taking one for the team.

Caught DJ (male duck) trying to mount the chicken hens again. He damn near drowned one hen. In his defense … I suppose … if you’ve ever seen ducks mate, they often do so floating in a pond, where the drake (male) holds the duck (female) mostly underwater while doing his business. What DJ doesn’t realize is hens are less prone to float. Oh, and that HE’S A DAMN DUCK NOT A CHICKEN!!!

I’ve decided to procure two or three 100′ x 14′ caterpillar tunnels between now and the end of the year. One of them will be used for aquaponic gardening (e.g. eight tilapia fish tanks an twenty-four veggie grow beds). The other tunnels will be used as greenhouses to grow crops year around.

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FCL :: Day in the Life :: 28 Jul – 04 Aug 2019 (Soil Blocks, K9 Play Date, Kamikaze Dragonflies)

Another HOT week with limited outside project work. Can’t WAIT for September!

Created 640 soil blocks and planted some broccoli, cauliflower, beets, kale, cabbage and okra … all to be transplanted into garden rows by the end of the month.

Moved bucket-based cucumbers and basil into raised bed frames, and added a set of new cattle panel trellis’ to support cucumbers, beans, peas and other viney plants.

I know … I know … too much footage of Deuce and his damn tractor tire. I think I need to dig a big ass hole with the front loader and just bury the damn thing about 3 feet below grade. The tire, not Deuce!

Picked up a new Glock 19X and TLR-1 LR for evaluation. More to come (review wise) in the future.

My neighbors adopted a 10 year old male GSD/Labrador mix about a week ago, so we scheduled a doggie play date to introduce Miko to Deuce and Hunter. They got along GREAT. Miko and Deuce pretty much ignored each other, which was a pleasant surprise. Never know WHAT Sir Shitzalot (Deuce) will do around others. In this case, he was more interested in playing with the kids.

Just for grins, I do a little frame-by-frame analysis of two dragonflies that dive bombed Deuce while he was in the duck pond. At full speed, you can barely see the dragonflies buzz through. But, in slow motion, you can see how amazingly agile those damn things are. If you watch the second dragonfly that comes in from the lower-left, it executes a “turn on a dime” maneuver that … as a pilot … just freaks me out. I can’t imagine how many G’s that thing pulled in that maneuver. Try doing that in a Cessna 172 and it will shed its wings and become a lawn dart. I doubt even the F-22 Raptor can do that!

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FCL :: Day in the Life :: 18-21 July 2019 (Hot, Soil Test Results, Ducklings Released to Big Pond)

I got my soil sample tests back from the County, and the ‘numbers’ were interesting. I sampled my garden (6,000 sq.ft.), big pasture (43,000 sq. ft.) and barn pasture (14,000 sq. ft). The garden plot came back with a significantly higher pH, and phosphorus and potassium indexes well above optimum, likely due to all the compost and manure I’ve tilled into the soil over the last year and a half.

Added 360 pounds of lime and 30 pounds of Group D fertilizer, and that should be enough soil amendments for 2 or 3 years.

Just WAY too hot this weekend to get much else done outside.

When I fed the “puppy ducks” in their small pond enclosure this morning, I noticed the small pond was almost dry again. So, I left the enclosure open to see if they might come out themselves this time. I shoo’d them out the other day, and they didn’t respond well (panic).

Just as I was assembling this video, I looked out and saw all of them playing in the big pond. Before I could get a camera up, our resident deer that seems to be a permanent fixture around the house pretty much every evening, popped her head up from the weeds next to the pond and scared the baby ducks out. But, less than 10 minutes later, they were back in the big pond, so I put the drone up to get some close ups, and more importantly get a good headcount. I’m happy to report that all 15 ducklings are still accounted for.

They have feathered up quite a bit in the last week. I’m surprised by their black and grey coloring. Since Bianca is (statistically) the mother of half the ducklings, I’m guessing that her ‘pure blonde’ coloring is some sort of fluke, a gene expression not exhibited by any of her offspring. I don’t care so much if they get her coloring, but I hope a few of them get her personality, which is just AMAZING for a duck.

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FCL :: Day in the Life :: 10-17 July, 2019

Too hot to do much work outside.

Recent up-tic in predator attacks, so I built a new Coyote Interdiction Platform (CIP) and got it ready to go. Daniel Defense DDM4V7, Vortex Razor HD II 1-6×24, Steiner DBAL-D2, Surefire M600DF. I’ve been really impressed with the DBAL. Solid construction, easy to mount, zero the visible laser and the IR laser is automatically zero’d. LOVE IT.

Deuce seems to get a lot of face time. Go figure.

Baby ducks are getting big, but I think I may have lost a few already. Coyotes can’t get in their fenced enclosure, but a fox can, and I saw the fox prowling around at 4A the other day. Took two shots, but missed. The NV gear I was using was in need of an upgrade, thus the DDM4 above. 😉

Bucket gardening project moving along.

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FCL :: Day in the Life :: Fri May 17, 2019 (Donkey Escape & Capture)

Lesse … shot my workshop with a 12 gauge shotgun (accident, oops).

Luna the d.Bag donkey opportunistically broke out of her pasture when I bumped the fence with the front of the tractor and knocked one of the horizontal cross-members off. Put the ‘sheps to work chasing her down and herding her into a pasture for capture.

After about 4 hours of livin la vida loca by herself in the “big” pasture, she was clearly ready to return to be with Soleil. I ran to the local store to buy donkey bait (carrots and peanuts) and lured her into custody with a few carrots. Probably the easiest capture and return to date. She normally fights me like a ISIS noob and ends up choking herself out. Not this time! Easy Breezy.

I think I need to buy Deuce a hockey helmet, cuz he’s too damn dumb around the donkeys, and as much shit as I talk on camera … I’d actually HATE to see him get his front teeth knocked out, or his cranium vacated. Luna has it in her to kill with those kicks of hers.

Oh, yeah. And my rooster thinks he’s hen apparently. In this day of “gender fluidity” … no surprise I guess.

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FCL :: Day in the Life :: Tuesday 04/30/2019 :: Clover Mulch Spreading

Spent some time today finishing the sweeping up of all the crimson clover mulch from the “clover patch” (aka: park) in the neighboring field, and transporting it to the “donkey pasture” that I’m in the process of renovating.

A lot of trial and error involved in figuring out how to spread the mulch evenly around the pasture, before eventually tilling it in.

My biggest lesson learned was I should have let the freshly cut mulch sit idle in the sun for a few days to shed up to 50% of its inherent “green” moisture, which makes it much easier to sweep up and spread.  Had a HELLUVA time trying to spread huge, wet piles of mulch … and eventually cried “UNCLE” and just gave up.  I’ll till everything in today or tomorrow.

Feels good to have at least finished harvesting the winter cover crop of clover.  I figure about 80% (by volume) of the above ground clover (which was between 2 and 3 feet tall!) was mulched and moved to the donkey pasture.

The remaining 20%, and all underground structure (e.g. roots) will be tilled under in the “park” lot.  So, one cover crop will benefit two pastures, or roughly 2.5 acres.

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FCL :: Day in the Life :: Crimson Cover Patch Mulching

Hello … world?  😉

I haven’t posted a FCL DITL video in some months.  Not sure why … just didn’t.

For awhile now, I’ve had the itch to start blogging again.

Here’s my first foray back into video composition and publication.  It’s a bit clunky, because my post-processing “saw” got a little rusty over the last few months of non-use.

In any event, I spent the weekend mulching about an acre and a half of crimson clover with a pair of Husqvarna mowers, a 54″ zero-turn for the first pass down to 3.5 inches, then a regular 54″ ride-on mower to take it down to 2″.

We’re now in the process of sweeping up all the mulch to move most of it into the large donkey pasture that I’m renovating, which desperately needs the  additional nutrients and nitrogen from the clover “green manure.”

It’s a lot of work, but thankfully the mowers and tractor do most of the heavy lifting … I’m just along for the ride.

Deuce and Hooey did their part too … keeping the bees off me and fending off any snakes (zero observed).  I was actually amazed that I didn’t get stung by a bee (or three).  When I started mowing, there were 1000’s of bees out there.  The smaller the patch got, the higher the bee density.  Spooky near the end.

And there you have it!

 

DEF

 

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FCL :: Day in the Life :: Thursday October 11, 2018 (Tropical Storm Michael)

Welp … we survived Tropical Storm (Hurricane) Michael.

Rained pretty heavy most of the morning and into the afternoon. I was watching the center of the storm (the ‘eye’) heading right at us on the weather app on my phone. The NWS posted severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings for my county.

At just before 4PM, the ‘back side’ of the eye hit us with heavy rains and VERY strong and gusty winds. A tree of about 14+ inches in diameter, just off our front porch, snapped in half about 10 feet off the ground and fell onto our barn. Thankfully, it looks like it fell at a sufficiently oblique angle to glance off the barn without doing too much damage.

We (and about 23,000 other households) lost commercial power. I have a whole-home propane generator that automatically started with power dropped. We’ve been running on backup power for almost 30 hours now. The power utility company estimates having power back up sometime over the weekend.

The backup generator powers all of our critical infrastructure (well pumps, septic systems, hot water heater, refrigerators and freezers, etc.) and about 30% of the wall plugs. Interestingly enough, no lights. So, we have kerosene hurricane lamps, battery powered lanterns, and tactical flashlights to get around at night.

When the winds were at their highest, for about 5 minutes there, I thought *maybe* a tornado was in the vicinity. Pretty scary there for a few min. Poor Hunter short-circuited for a bit … making crazy eyes and looking like she was going to crawl into my back pocket or something.

When the sun came up this morning (next day), we had blue skies, very cool weather, a few trees down, quite a bit of water runoff, but everyone (animals) was okay.

From my perspective, the Michael storm was more intimidating than the Florence storm a few weeks ago. Less water dropped, but the Michael winds were pretty fierce.

All is well … that ends well. 😉