February - A short month and a short entry.

 The weather continues to be ridiculously dry.  A much anticipated snow storm passed to our South, robbing us of any snow.  The next week promised another snow storm, which passed to our South. Again, we stayed dry. The next storm was less promising, but still heading our way, but passed to our North. The last storm promised a track that would gift us with snow, ice, or rain, we had none of it.  Always the bridesmaid, never the bride, eh?

We did however get cold with that storm. Previously we had spent February in the mild 40s and 50s, and even a couple 60s during the day, and below freezing at night.  But the last storm brought arctic air with it and we spent a week of not even making it to the freezing mark during the day, all the while, the winds HOWLED. The windchills were brutal, sometimes down to -20F.

But the pendulum has swung the other way, and we're back in the 60s and low 70s for the end of February and beginning of March.

As always nice weather means working outside.  This month's project - a HOOP HOUSE for things earlier and later in the growing season.  It will also allow me to put plants too tall for the Greenhouse into the ground and get growing before the soil in the full garden is ready.

As always, after the first swing of the hammer, I wonder what on earth possessed me to start another project. But once it's started, it has to be finished.  I ripped out the lower production end of the garden, taking out cattle panels and pulling up the irrigation lines and putting them aside.  The T-posts that went 2 feet into the ground, which was still quite cold, were another challenge. I found a T-post lever at the tractor store, which helped greatly with that end of the project.

I plotted out the location of the main supports and got to work pounding in new T-posts.  The plan was to use electrical conduit arches with painted PVC post slides and angles. The problems were many and frequent and frustrating, requiring trips into town for replacements.  My PVC didn't fit over all my T-posts, which caused me to replace some.  I got a batch of a poorly molded PVC reducers, some were from one box, they were fine;the ones from another case, were not. The PVC glue and primer I had on hand was not working between the 45' PVC and the electrical conduit (PVC), but it should have, so a new set was purchased. Conduit that had failed at the fittings and needed new ones, had to be outright replaced. 

 I finally got all the arched made and up.  Now for the connecting pole that runs down the ridge to keep the spacing between all the ribs.  I followed the directions and pre-drilled the holes for the bolt that would connect the ridge pole to to the arch.  Arch one went fine. Arch two, in the middle of drilling, SNAP. right in two.  Arch three, SNAP. Arch four, SNAP.  That was NOT supposed to happen.

Annoyed beyond belief, I ripped all the arches off the posts and tossed them over the garden wall.  Obviously I was going to have to manage a complete redesign, which of course, would require yet ANOTHER trip to the hardware store. Which, if you haven't been recently, is a voyage to Sticker Shock Land.

Luckily the next few days were cold enough to be forced to stay inside and come up with a new plan and a shopping list. I came across a plan using cattle panels and various frame setups. The whole thing was kind of a build to suit, wing-it as you go, situation.  It's been an adventure that's for sure.  Sixteen foot cattle panels are an adventure to haul and even more to carry and install alone.  Trips to Habitat are always hit or miss.  Lumber quality at the moment is HORRIBLE. Material shortages mean getting creative as you're standing in the isles at Home Depot, a now defunct hoop house plan on a napkin, fluttering to the floor.

I still have some work to complete this week before the weather swings the other way.  I should be able to mange at least painting the lumber before the rain/snow/cold arrives.  The plastic requires a windless day to put up, and I'm not sure when that's going to happen.

So there's the outdoor project.

For the cold, chilly, frigid days I turned to the looms, and briefly the sewing machine.

A quick, necessary project was to complete some new, re-usable shopping bags from old T-shirts.  These are a crazy quick project.  The shirts are heavier quality shirts, in children's large, and adult small and medium, that I picked up at the local charity shop for a dime each.  I washed and sanitized them, as well as sun drying, and now I have two dozen new beefy bags.

Fergus and I managed 14 rugs before the warp run came to an end.  Those were all measured and labeled, rolled and tied, and displayed in a wicker market basket.  Four have already sold at a local B&B/Antique Store.

Fergus is now loaded with a blue and white striped warp, which when woven with white or cream rag, will give the illusion of a striped ticking type of rug.

I then turned my attention to the long ignored Nessie, my four harness Tweed and Tartan loom.  Her warp was measured and cut in 2020 right before attention was turned to emergency sewing.  Her warp was finally wrapped in Spring of 2021, when I got busy with just about everything else. Now that she was in her new home, the very fact that the light was amazing, and it was in the heart of the house, I was ready to jump at the chance and finally finishing her thread-up.

She is now fully loaded, and I am almost done with the DunRovin Station Tartan, which will be turned into a dress sash for me, and then the sample for the Scotland Registry.  I have 6 more tartans lined up behind this one already.

So here's to the short month, as we look forward to March-more weaving, and the opening of the Seeding Shed.

January, The Quietest Month of the Year (NOT)

 

The month of January, the darkest, coldest, snowiest month of the year.  It's a month were snuggling up on the sofa with a soft blanket, a pair of woolly socks, a warm drink, and a good book is expected, nay, required.  By the end of January, a firm and familiar bond has been formed with your snow shovel. Each time you use it you wonder if this will be it's last season, or if you should treat yourself to a new one at the hardware store. After all, they're on clearance now next to the flower seeds.  Your woolen mittens are stiff and now perfectly formed and felted to the shape of your hand. You've completely given up on not having hat hair, and your chore coat, and your very pores perpetually smell of ode to diesel from tractor exhaust. You've developed milk maid's shoulders from hauling warm water to the livestock, and have mastered the art of 'going to your happy place' while preforming them 3 times a day, while being serenaded by the howling, biting winds.

But not this year, not this year.

We have been utterly blessed with fantastic weather this year. We are drastically low on precipitation, which is going to be a problem come Spring if we don't make it up soon. But the temperatures have been very, very nice.  We've been frigid, but then we bounce up into the 50s.  We drop again to have one or two days that never break freezing, but then we pop back into the 40s, or even 60s for a couple of days.  It's made it impossible to fall into the annual Winter funk.  How can you possibly waste a sunny 55 degree day INSIDE?  You can't.  You spend the little cold days inside planning and plotting projects for the nice days.  On the nice days, you work yourself silly before the cold sets in again.

The first couple of days of January were ridiculously cold. Our high temperatures were 9'F(-13'C) and 16'F(-9'C), respectively. Add the wind to that and it was a classic inside pair of days.  I used to to work in the sewing room.  A lot of odds and ends in the repair basket were tackled, but most importantly, I finished the Sewing double!  I have put this off for months.  The original pique knit, which was recommended, was far too stretchy. As you stuffed it, it overstuffed to beyond your measurements and was still too soft for its intended purpose.  To counter that, I changed to a heavy duty cotton duck and added a little to the seam allowances to make up for the total lack of stretch. Once that was complete, I glued heavy cardboard disks to the neck and arms ends to give it structure, slipped it over the base and stuffed it as tightly as I could while still matching the form and measurements.  It came out spot on!  Then I adjusted it to the correct standing height. It is now ready to help drape bodices, and hem skirts.  I'm glad I tackled this project, but I'm VERY glad it's DONE.

I knew I then had two days in the upper 40s and mid 50s.  Laundry was hung outside on the line, one day of clothing and the second 100 ft of sheets to be stripped for rugs on Fergus. It was during one of these hanging sessions that I got a bee in my bonnet.  Fergus was currently, temporarily, inhabiting the space under the window in the upstairs (main floor/ground floor) library due to the weather when we moved him from the garage and into the house, and due to his hulking size and considerable weight. Where on earth was I going to put him on the lower level where his sister, Nessie was residing.  I wasn't happy with her location to start with, I couldn't shove Fergus down there too and be happy. So now where am I going to put the two of them where I would be happy?

There was room on the lower level, large windows, but it always feels apart from the house to me and oppressive, even with the brightest daylight lamps blazing.  I live and work on the main floor. But where to put them both where they could both be used AND out of the way?  As I stood and worked on a rug on Fergus, it came to me.  I would relocate the library and make the library the weaving studio, or as Doc calls it, The Loomy Bin. 

I dropped what I was doing on Fergus, and grabbed my tape measure and ran it across the top of one of the bookcases, and then down the stairs I went to measure the wall behind Nessie and under the windows.  THEY'D FIT!  Then I measured Nessie and went back upstairs to measure under the window. Nessie was lower and would go under the window, while Fergus would go into a corner.  SHE WOULD FIT TOO!

I put the rug supplies to the side and immediately started taking things off the walls and carrying them downstairs. The walls would need painting.  I was shocked at how faded the paint was after only 7 years and protected by UV windows. I cleaned and moved stack after stack of books, then slid the heavy wood shelves to the basement and set the whole library up downstairs.  There were only hours before a cold front was coming through and there was no way I could move Nessie alone, she was far too heavy and bulky.  I folded her up, and made her as skinny as possible and I built an extension for a dolly to hold her.  Doc helped me load her up and get her to the trailer where we drove her up and around the house to the main level, then wheeled her to the front door where she had to be lifted up the stairs and into the house. She was officially in the Loomy Bin.  

It could get cold and miserable now. And it did.

I actually had a spare gallon of paint I loved from another project and spent a whole day painting the studio. The second day I put the room back together and decorated.  Yes, it was that fast.  It's set up exactly right. It's comfortable. It's soothing. It's functional, and lets me be accessible to the whole level of the house I use. And all of my weaving items are in the same room, not spread all over the house, hither and yon. I can close the door and turn up my podcasts or youtube videos and the dog can still see me (glass door), but I don't disturb the rest of the house with 'slide, klunk, swish, klunk'.

I can now keep an eye on dinner (or cookies) and work on a few rows.  I can work and the dog doesn't feel abandoned.  It's lovely. (There are still a couple of empty spots on the walls for certificates still in the mail. I am making a rail to hold my shuttles within reach, and an adjustable work lamp would be a great idea.)

As long as I had the roller, pan, and ladder out, I decided I may as well paint the dinged wall in the kitchen, which turned out to also be horribly faded despite having NO direct sunlight on it EVER.  Sad testimony for this brand of paint. (Suzie helped me paint the kitchen. Yes, my brilliant beagle turned headfirst into a wall.)

The weather warmed again and I put into motion the next outdoor project, as long as the laundry was flapping away on the line again.  I wanted a hoop house for the garden.  I had it slated for later in the Spring, but why waste those warm days, eh?  This would be a place to keep plants earlier and later in the growing season, once they out grew the proper greenhouse.  Irrigation lines needed pulled and cattle panels and T-posts needed removed to make room for the new structure.  I knew what I wanted, but only a little about HOW I wanted to do it.  There were some bumps in the road over a two week span, including some snow, some misfitting pipes, a dead can of paint, poorly manufactured parts, PVC cement failure and not being able to find the right size T-posts. But so far I have a bare frame.  She won't be DONE in January, but she's on her way.

Of course some things had to give way for the hoop house.  The up-cycled bean arch I just put up this fall felt in the way, so down it came.  And with those two rows gone, I could expand the blackberry row another 20 feet, deal.  As long as I was building longer rows in that direction I could add 10 feet to the hyperactive grape vine row, deal.  Oh, and as long as I was out there, the horseradish was not only too close to the hoop house now, but would also be too shaded.  It needed moved.  

Have you ever had to move a 5 year old mother horseradish plant? She was HUGE, 24 inches across and I dug down another 15 inches before I started cutting off the rhizomes, which were almost 2 inches across in some instances.  I broke off some larger ones and tossed them aside and moved mother to a new spot, then dug up two of her daughters and put them in the same row.  I know full well that each broken rhizome left in the ground is a potential new plant this spring. I will be overwhelmed with the spicy condiment, but it is welcome.

I brought in the pungent stick 2 inches across and 20 inches long.  I diced it into manageable pieces, and slipped them into a quart jar along with 1/4t of salt, 6 T water, and 3T of white vinegar and then carried it and my immersion blender to the front porch.  This is NOT a job for INSIDE the house. Holding the jar away from my face and pointed away from me I let the stick blender do its job.  I shook off the blender and capped the jar for 15 minutes before transferring it to a pint jar.  Not a bad haul.  Nothing like a fresh batch of the good stuff for February.

I installed a set of shelves in the sewing room to hold materials for the rug loom, since that's where they'll be cut .  I just took the first warp winding worth of rugs of Fergus.  I actually ran out of room on the take-up beam before I ran out of warm. I manage 12 rugs, with probably two left on the loom. When this warp runs out I'll order new heddles for Fergus, install them, and thread him up again.  It's nice to have a project that doesn't require a great deal of brain power for break times.  (Unlike the projects on Nessie, which require so much attention, the radio can't even be on.)

The hens and alpaca are happy and very much enjoying the warmer winter. Days are spent lounging in the warm sunshine and searching the poo piles for bugs and wayward seeds in the straw and dropped hay.

In closing, the only thing special that came out of the kitchen during this month long work-a-thon was a triple twisted cinnamon flake roll from scratch, 100% whole wheat.  I think it made up for the couple of night's that dinner was soup and cold sandwiches.

The Greenhouse - The One Week Project

 I have wanted a greenhouse for years. With last years difficulty with finding plant starts after a late freeze, and pandemic spending adding more first time gardeners to the shops, this seemed like the perfect year to actually put one up. I'd been mulling it in earnest for over a month, do I build one from scratch or purchase a kit?

I started looking at sourcing materials to build one. The price of lumber this Spring was insane. The cost of that alone was prohibitive. Then I'd have to source all the old windows, which for once, were completely missing on craigslist. I'd have to go with a kit.

The number and type of kits to choose from is ridiculous. I was loosing time quickly as it was the end of March and our date for planting is May 15th to June 1st, depending on the crop. Tick, tick, tick.

Once I settled on the size, and type, I needed to FIND one. It seemed the whole world was trying to go self-sustainable. Everything I found was back-ordered.

I finally found one locally at Harbor Freight. It didn't have the best reviews, but reading across the internet and what the problems were, I could easily mitigate them, I hoped.

I ordered this one and picked it up the next day.

I decided to build a real deck flooring for it, as no where on this property was level, it needed a strong base to attach to, and if it DID fail, I could use the good base as an investment to build a wood frame hot house.

I stopped by the lumber yard on the way home and got to work immediately. This was the day after the great hen house massacre, so the work and activity gave me an outlet for my guilt and frustration. The holes were dug and awaiting concrete, which had been picked up with the lumber. Under supervision of the remaining hens, I set the posts in concrete and called it a day. 

The next day was framing it out, trimming the posts, and building the decking. In true me form, it measured square, but sure wasn't. It's a trapezoid. But I did center all the deck boards and had Doc rip a couple of my boards to finish the two ends.

Day 4 found me sealing the gaps in the decking to stop airflow up through the floor, and then painting the whole thing 'go-away green'.

Day 5 was a second coat of paint.

Day 6 was a Saturday and the weather was going to be dry, rain free, and gorgeous. Doc agreed to help me put the whole thing up, which was a good thing, as I didn't think I had the brains left to do it alone. We sorted the parts out on the lawn and set to work.  It wasn't too horrible but did take the entire day. The instructions were not the best, but at least the parts were well marked. Had I followed the instructions from the start I would have found out an important thing, we were missing a critical piece. I had the panels up and clipped in place, but we were missing the upper frame of the door slide. Strong storms were coming in that night, and without that door assembled and shut tightly the open end of the greenhouse would blow out the whole building.

I called Harbor Freight to see if they would pop open another box to get my missing piece for me. They said they would gladly, if they HAD another one. NO! I called three other HF stores, the third one, an hour and 20 minutes away did and would open a box for me. I dropped everything, and left Doc on his own for lunch, and to assemble all the windows and the door while I was gone. 

I was there and back in 3 hours. 

Doc finished assembling the door frame and installed the door and upper vents, while I secured panels further with steel paneling screws. We put the last screw in and closed the door as the last of the daylight faded. The storms came in the early hours of the morning. The winds howled to 63 mph. I dreamt of going out in the morning to blown out panels all over. Nope. There she stood glistening in the sunshine.

Day 7 was Sunday. I let Doc get back to work on his grading as the semester was wrapping up. I spent the morning sketching out the shelving and storage for the greenhouse, and figured out what I needed to accomplish them. Then it was back to the lumber yard, and back with 2x4s that cost me an arm and a leg. 

I spent the afternoon painting them so they would dry and cure over night for cutting and assembly the next day.

Day 8 - Monday again. I walked the dog and then left her napping on the sofa. 
I let the hens out, opened the workshop high-bay door, cranked up the radio and set to work. 

I had the design all worked out on scrap paper, but double checked my measurements on the floor of the greenhouse, as there was no room for error, no second trips to the lumberyard without painting involved, and no scrap 2x4s in the shop to be had. While they were an easy design, I took my time in building the pair of them, and they took up most of my day.  I was able to install one of them alone with the help of furniture sliders. The second one, however, while the same weight and size as the first, couldn't be managed alone as the space in the greenhouse was now limited due the the first being installed. Someone had to balance the second while another crawled through and around in order to wiggle it from the open walk way into its final position. 

They look great, hold an incredible amount of flats, and weight, and make the most of the space. Spoiler Alert Photo from later in the season.  At one point we had over 1000 seedlings, and held a couple of plant sales locally. 

As Hard And Fast As It Came, It Left

 Spring has sprung. 

The alpaca coats fresh from the laundry, airing on the deck.

The Cold snap lasted 22, long, hard, miserable days. It was physically demanding, and draining on the soul. The alpacas were tired of hunkering down in the barn, fully unwilling to go out into the chill. They preferred to sit and chew their cud, toes tucked under their warm and toasty bellies, their warm winter coats helping with the chill, on a deep bed of straw.  

The hens, we didn't loose anyone, seemed to ride it out just fine. There was little moisture in the air and they were safely out of the wind. We had no cases of frostbite in the coop this year. By the end of day 22, they were more than ready to get out of that coop and into a lovely 32 degree, sunny day.  When I finally open the door, a great tidal wave of feathers poured from the chicken run. They didn't seem the least bit disappointed that their was no green grass to eat, or bugs to chase. They were just happy for the change of scenery and to be able to stretch their legs. With great leaps and bounds, with flapping of wings and singing of song, they bounded across the snow covered barnyard before finally settling down and looking for things to eat.

The temperature slowly crept above the freezing mark, and before we knew it we were in the 40s, the 50s, the 60s, OH MY the 70s!  Even the people went from being unrecognizable masses, bundled under layers upon layers, to being half naked, soaking up every photon from the great orb in the sky and letting it soak deeply, and warmly in to pale skin.  We all broke out shorts and shirt sleeves at about 50 degrees.

This increased, and much needed warmth, was rejuvenating.  If you looked ever so closely in the matted, flattened, straw colored thatch, you could spot the tiniest speck of green. Baby clover leaves reaching out to see if it was safe to come out.   The increases warmth causing rivers of water which had been previously trapped in the snow pack. You could actually hear it running under the thatch, finding it's way downhill. The large 4 foot drifts and plowed piles that framed every road and every driveway, didn't stand a chance.   

The winds then came, as they do in March. In Nebraska, and especially on this hilltop, they aren't subtle either. They begin as a whisper, then a yell, their howling becomes screams and while it did a wonderful job melting the snow and drying the sod, the winds made it nearly impossible to enjoy time outside. Tree limbs snapped, causing power to go out. Luckily we keep water banked for the animals if we loose power (no power=no well pump=no water). We also keep water banked for us, coffee and tea must be available.

Then came the deluge. I was joking with a fellow meteorologist last week, that since we've moved here, the records have fallen left and right. I'm starting to take it personally- record snows, drought, hail, cold snaps, low temperatures, high temperatures, dew points, air pressures, moisture in a day or for a single storm. It's becoming ridiculous. 

I've been keeping my eyes open for a couple of days of slow rain so that I could apply some nitrogen fertilizer on the hay field.  I saw it coming and drove out to pick up 500 pounds of nitrogen and 500 pounds of moisture retainer product to spread in the problem drought areas of the hay field. I hooked the rake to the tractor and thatched the whole field, keeping an eye out for invasive cedar as I went. Then I spread the products with the new broadcast spreader. Six hours later and the hay field was clean and fed, and just waiting for the rain. I managed it 5 days before the storm. Then the track changed. Our models increased the totals with each and every run. But the time the rains ended, we had managed 7.47 inches over less than two days. I'm hoping it came down slow enough the first 4 hours to dissolve the nitrogen in the soil. Time will tell. I'll either have a lush hay field, or the greenest drainage ditch in the county.

I have the fertilizer for around the house proper, but besides the ground being a bit too soggy for the tractor, the rain coming up with be another 3 inch fall in 24 hours. So I'll wait for another day on that project.

Also in the land of pleading for Spring, the potting shed is open and sprouting seeds. So far I've started the marigolds, horse radish, onions, and one variety of tomato, a new variety, cloudy day.  Now that those have sprouted, I will start the San Marzano tomatoes.

Which leads me to the next major project ~A greenhouse~

I purchased a hoop type greenhouse that a man down the road has. He has 4 of them and used to own a commercial nursery. Now in his spare time he starts plants, and gives them away for donation, and also has the most amazing tomato patch. I swear it's the annual planting process that is keeping him going. He's a dear soul and has the touch for sure. His greenhouses are in the village and between the garage and house and have never budged from their spot. He said he's never had a lick of trouble with them. So I purchased the same one. 

I actually bought it last June, and put it away for this Spring. I picked a lovely 75 degree WINDLESS day to put it up. It snapped together in the blink of an eye, with heavy steel tubes with push-pin to lock, male and female ends. The cover looked heavy enough and slid right on. Following online suggestions, I did make a large, heavy, wooden frame to sit around the outside edge to hold down the apron. I used their supplied tie down cords, which were little more than poly baling twine and cheap, short tent stakes. First thing the next morning I went out and purchased 18 inch long industrial stakes and used paracord with taught-line knots to secure their covering. That was on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday the wind picked up, just a little. Saturday, the winds really picked up. At 30 mph, which is nothing for here, she was just fine. Sunday morning we were gusting to 37. On a walk with the dog, Doc noticed that the cover was ripped, the green house cover was floating above the frame like a kite. All of my tie downs and cord were secure, but their seams had ripped. I packed it up and returned it. 

I've wanted a real one for years, but other projects came up. We fell in love with one from Kansas at a garden show. But they're backed up in ordered for MONTHS. I could design my own and build it, but quite frankly boards and sacks of concrete are getting heavier and heavier as time goes by. I could have the shed company that has done other work for me design and build one for me, but they're backed up as well.

So I opted for a you assemble it kit from a local hardware store. As nowhere on this property is level, I'll be building a platform frame for the base and then install and secure it to that. I have high hopes and yet none at all. 

We shall see.