Hatched 20 new chicks in the incubator.
Replaced three different light switches.
Luna came up lame with a right-front limp for reason(s) unknown.
Made chicken pot pies from scratch (except for store bought pie crusts).
Shout Out! The Holler Homestead
First, a little backstory. For about a year, maybe year and a half, I’ve been learning things about farming and permaculture from a guy named Justin Rhodes on his YouTube channel. He has recently launch a much larger website called Abundant Permaculture (.com).
I recently purchased a Premium Membership to that site, which includes a large library of videos on all sorts of homesteading and permaculture topics. He also includes a lot of videos from others in the local (North Carolina, Mid-Atlantic region) area, including videos from a relative newcomer to the NC area, The Holler Homestead.
This evening I watched the Holler Homestead video above, and REALLY enjoyed their story. You may as well.
They essentially sold everything, including their home in CA, bought an RV, and travelled the entire U.S. for the better part of a year (with their four young sons!) to pick a location to create a new homestead. They ended up not far from where I live, up in the Appalachian Mountains near Asheville, NC, which happens to be where Justin Rhodes and his family live as well.
SUCH a cool story. Couldn’t be happier for them. I’ve watched a few of their videos that cover all their work getting their new homestead “stood up.” Lotsa work.
If you ever find yourself wondering WHY I do the things I do on my little farm, I would encourage you to watch some of Justin’s and/or The Holler Homestead videos on YouTube. THAT is why. 😉
FCL :: Day in the Life :: Tues May 21, 2019 (Camp Chef Deluxe Pellet Smoker > Initial Setup)
Another quick Teeter EP-960 Ltd inversion table demo.
Another quick project: Camp Chef Deluxe Pellet Grill and Smoker. Yeah, quick … NOT! 😉
Now is not the time to do a complete review of the new smoker. Need some time in the saddle before I’m ready to pass any judgement. However, that said, I will report the unboxing and assembly were VERY straight-forward. Their packaging is well thought out. Instructions were very clear. Diagrams are a little too small to see finer details, but workable.
As suggested in this video, I bought the pellet smoker on a whim. Not because I needed it, but more so because I have a vested interest in all things biomass fueled. A few months ago I bought an OONI (alt: UUNI) wood pellet fueled pizza oven. LOVE it. Now I have a wood pellet fueled smoker. What’s not to like.
For some time now, I’ve been researching the viability of picking up my own biomass pellet making machine, but haven’t found a unit yet this is cost effective (read: smaller, non-commercial, non-industrial).
Had to laugh (not really) … when it took WAY LONGER than I expected to smoke a 1.75 pound pork loin roast. At 11P I gave up (waiting) and just went to bed with the bluetooth BBQ thermometer app on my iPhone sitting next to my bed. At 3:30A it went off! Internal temp at 205F target. Rolled out of bed, mumbling the whole way downstairs, and yanked the meat off the smoker. Didn’t even LOOK at it really until I got up for good at 6A.
The final results will be featured in tomorrow’s FCL update video. Suffice to say, the “pulled pork” came out great.
FCL : Day in the Life : Mon May 13, 2019
For those perhaps interested, I filmed my daily “opening” process: feed the dogs, open the barn, feed the ducks, chickens and donkeys. As mentioned in the video, sometimes it feels like I’m in the Groundhog Day movie with Bill Murray.
Demonstrated the use of pallet forks on the front end of the tractor, used to first “stir” (mix) the compost pile, then use a 275 gallon “IBC tote” (THAT’s what the damn things are called …) to water the compost. Chickens everywhere … as usual.
Had a bit of a “snake surprise” in the barn. There are SO many mice running around the barn these days, I’m surprised and a bit disappointed the snake wasn’t twice as big (fat).
FCL : Day in the Life : Wed May 8, 2019 (Working Dog DEUCE)
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.
FCL :: Day in the Life :: Sunday October 7, 2018
The pup (Deuce) is doing well, and Hooey hasn’t torn his face off yet. 😉
I spent most of the day yesterday doing final prep work and then seeding the 1.8 acre ‘park’ with about 150 pounds of lime, 100 pounds of clover seed, and 50 pounds of Austrian winter peas. Winter cover crop that will add nitrogen to the soil, AND feed the local deer. Win/Win.
After I got the seed spread, my tractor wouldn’t start. I find the positive battery lug completely corroded through. Hmmmmm. I wasn’t about to leave all that seed just sitting on the surface to feed all the #$%^ crows, so I hitched up the drag harrow behind my truck, aired down the tires, and got to it. Worked out pretty well. If my truck wasn’t dirty before (it was!), it certainly needs a bath now. Thankfully, rain clouds are forming!
FCL Daily: Worms, Compost, Rabbit Cages, Chicken Nest Boxes … and a Big Frog
L-o-n-g day.
Probably should have stopped after getting the 3 new rabbit cages finished and deployed into the rabbitry. But NOOOOO, I had to go ahead and launch into the next project — new chicken nest boxes. Sort of messed up my upper back getting a 4′ x 8′ sheet of plywood up on the table saw … but pushed through it to just get-R-done!
For those perhaps interested, I’ve included my Chicken Nest Cut Plan graphic below. You basically take a 4’x8′ piece of plywood (1/2″ or 3/4″) and crosscut two 16.5″ sections, two 13.5″ sections, and a 12″ section. Then cut each section down according to the second dimension shown in the plan.
Tomorrow I have a bunch of errands to run, so looking forward to a “down day’ from the farm projects.
Also, I get my DJI Mavic Pro drone back from depot maintenance (military term). Cost about $400 to have the camera gimbal replaced, which broke when the drone came crashing about 80′ to the ground when I cut down the tree it was stuck up in.
Had a HUGE bowl of my ever-popular spicy tuna pasta for dinner, and still lost two pounds, so … yeah … a very long (but active and successful) day. 😉
Wood Chip Kiln Prototype
I need the dumper trailer for another project today (rock harvesting in the gardens), and it was full of wood chips from last week’s wood chipper run … so I got off my duff and built a wood chip kiln prototype.
It’s a rough design (conceptual, proof-of-concept if you will …) but it should get the job done for this load of chips.
As described in the video, I opted to use a survivalist technique to collect the water that evaporates out of the wood. That’s one (of many!) reasons every bug out kit should include a few large trash bags. Water reclamation.
A full day of wood processing …
I want/need to continue thinning the trees in our woodlot, but first I need to process the last load.
Here’s a video from this morning where I describe the permacultural aspects, goals, and steps involved in process each tree I cut down into bio mass fuel (wood chips), mulch, firewood and lump charcoal.
And, to be fair to my Caravaggi Bio 150 chipper/shredder that I was so pissed off at yesterday, when it comes to chipping trees and branches up to 4.5″ in diameter, it does indeed service that function very effectively. No complaints about its chipping capabilities.
In less than an hour, I reduced about 25 to 30 trees/branches to a large trailer full of wood chips, which I’ll now dry and pack into 50 pound feed bags for long term storage.
Tomorrow I’ll shred the bramble pile. Don’t be too surprise if I end up flaming the Caravaggi again tomorrow, because its shredding capabilities are nothing like its chipping capabilities, and the source of many frustrating historical episodes getting clogged or jammed up by seemingly small branches … and even cardboard boxes!
I’m thinking I’ll keep the chips and mulch separate, and use them for different things. The mulch (shred) will likely go into the compost piles and/or garden beds. We’ll see … TBD.  😉