As I sit in the SImsbury Ambulance Training room suffering through our Annual training, I thought how long its been since I wrote an update. It has been a challenging winter. We have had more snow and cold this year. Farming is hard. Farming in the cold is harder. Morning chores normally takes 20 minutes. With the added difficulty of the weather, it is taking almost an hour right now. Water has been the biggest challenge. Our hydrant froze a couple of weeks ago. We wrapped it with heat tape, but it is apparent that the freeze is down at the plug. We have been forced to carry buckets of water out from the house. Our Boar Porky enjoys dumping his water as soon as I fill it. He drinks his fill, then tips it with his nose. I swear he does it so the little boar wont get any. We have tried all kinds of containers for the Boars water. Porky has eaten all the rubber tubs we have tried. The issue we have is the Kuni Kuni boar. He is soo short that very few tubs will work. I cut down a steel garbage can and glued a heating element to the bottom. This worked well for a few weeks, but eventually he bent the side and broke the weld along the bottom. Then we found the pictured steel feeder and purchased a small heater element . (a $200 expense for both) First we set it on the ground and attached it to the fence. The first week he pulled out the heater and used it for a chew toy. Luckily the armor on the cord kept the wires from breaking. So I attached the heater to the pan with wire clips and self tapping screws. He could no longer drag the trough away or remove the heater. Still he drinks and then lifts it with his snout and dumps it all out. Yesterday I used two 8 in screws to anchor the front to the ground. We will find out if this works. So much snow: We have mountains of snow everywhere. We don't have anywhere to put it at this point. Under the snow is ice making removal even more difficult. All of our gates were built to keep babies in, not allow for a foot of snow. The runoff and ice build up is an even bigger challenge. Our horse paddock has the hill draining at the gate. The water gets stopped at the gate and builds into an ice dam. At this time, we can only open the gate enough to squeeze through. We have chipped the ice a few times, but it keeps building up. The sheep pen is having the same issue. Specifically the boar pen gate is getting locked up by ice. A lot of chipping. Meanwhile, one of our Ewes gave birth to her first baby. The lamb is doing well and we anxiously await our second ewe to birth. Firewood became an issue this year. Last spring I had asked my son and eldest daughter to work on cutting and splitting firewood 15 minutes a day. As you can imagine, this did not happen. I also continued to place other projects in front of firewood. Suddenly it was October and it was time to start burning. December covered our wood with snow and has remained covered. We ordered two cord from a friend and one from the nuns at the Abby. The first loads were good dry wood that burned hot. With two months of sub zero temps, we burned through the pile twice as fast as last year. We then were unable to get more from our friends because their processing machine froze. We went back to the Abby and did not notice how heavy the logs were. We burnt wet wood through the coldest part of our winter. Misery....getting the fire to start and getting any heat out of it was difficult and required continual attention. Normally we let it burn down to a thin layer of coals and then refill the stove. With the wet wood, we had to continually add one or two logs. The fire below needed time to dry the new additions before they will begin to burn. If we let the fire die down, we would have to start from scratch. Sarah put out the call on facebook and found one of our firefighter friends had wood and he was able to bring it over the day we asked for it. This was a godsend as we got another 24 inches of snow that night. We have another two cord ordered from one of the boy scout parents but his main line is plowing so we have not seen that order yet. We will continue the fight and keep our animals well.

We live in a ranch and Sarah and my bedroom is in the basement. The "garage' section is open to the rest of the basement and currently serves as our project room and workshop. Given how many projects we have going, it is common to not clean up one before beginning the other. With this situation, the walkways constantly get narrower. There comes a point where I feel so anxious and claustrophobic causing a compulsion to clean. We hit that point a few days ago. For the soon-to-be-mentioned reason, I could not just straighten up; we needed real cleaning. In a moment of desperation I had dumped hot ashes in the driveway to melt some ice and offer some traction. This led the rest of our crew to believe I wanted all ashes dumped in the driveway. Our three kids and our three dogs and Sarah and I have tracked most of that ash back into the house on our shoes. It would then dry and turn to dust blanketing everything in fine ash dust. We also had returned to disorganized chaos with stuff. Tools, winter clothing, gloves and hats, scrap wood and metal, cloths that no longer fit, etc. Every surface covered. Both basement table and the workbench were pretty well useless. Just a pile of stuff. The state of the floor was bothering me. We had to wash the ash off the floor so I had ordered a commercial service mop and squeeze bucket. Once the supplies had arrived, I began clearing the floor. We had items stored under everything and all kinds of stuff on the floor. I started at the front door and began picking things up and finding better homes for them. Off the floor, onto the table, and cleaned off. I began to choose shelved items that are not weather/temperature sensitive to move out to the sheds. I then had room on the shelves for the sensitive items that were on the floor. All the buckets of screws, hardware from completed projects, two boxes of plumbing supplies, and scraps of dimensional lumber all went out to the sheds. Initially I was going to clean and mop one section at a time. I did not want to keep emptying and refilling the bucket, so I got all the floor cleaned, one section at a time. Eventually I rounded the corner into the bedroom. More clutter and mess. Boxes of old electronics and radios were moved to the garage and all the necessary items were organized and tidied. I then mopped everything twice until all the dirt was up and went out to do chores while it dried. Now I had the cleaning bug and figured I should keep going. Ammo cans organized and back on the shelves, bags of old clothing moved into Sarah's truck for her to deal with, and three bags of garbage brought out to the bins. Still, it did not feel complete. Next I attacked the workbench. All the tools had already been stowed, but cleaning had accumulated three cans of screws and bits. One of my favorite organizational activities is to sort screws. I dumped out one can at a time and sorted all the bits, then the next, and the last. Then I get to bring each sorted pile to its rightful storage bin. Now the workbench looked great, but the far corner where the tool boxes are was still not flowing. I pulled everything down and began to organized the contents of cardboard boxes and committed them to the toolboxes while sorting the toolbox contents. Doing so removed 3 boxes and made room for Sarah's apothecary supplies. I still did not feel complete and satisfied. One side of the front door has our shoe rack and coat rack and oil tank. The other side has a utility shelf in the corner with all our spray cans and spray bottles...the chemical corner. There were half empty bottles of resin epoxy to the side of the shelf wedged in between the workbench and shelf, fallen spray bottles wedged in the corner, and a stack of empty boxes to the ceiling for our knife orders. The bottom shelf is all paint and has not been touched so that was left alone with other found spray paint cans tossed on top. All the chemicals were removed and organized on the workbench. The empty and broken cans were thrown out and everything else was returned to the shelf but organized with the most common items in front of the middle shelves. Then I broke down all the boxes which allowed them to fit nicely next to the shelf. With that last section done, we now have an organized workshop that is pleasant to look at and a joy to work in.

There are a few little leaks and one big one. Our biggest issue is the easiest to fix. Neither of us paid any attention to the overall slope of the building. The center skylight (ridgecap) has a long length overlapping a short piece. We need to move the short piece above the long and that leak will be fixed. As I had mentioned in the previous post, I was fairly certain that the trusses I made would leak and they both do a little bit I will get up there with a tube of caulk. The third area is along the sides of the side door. A little bit of flashing will fix this issue. Below is a short video of the leaking. The problems have been solved with some flashing and a whole lot of caulk. The Troy-made rafters did leak quite a bit. Given that the rafters were not grooved to act as gutters like the metal rafters that came with it. We filled the gaps between the roof panels with caulk and the leaks are dry. The next challenge was around the side door. At the top corners, we had a gap between the roof panels and the door. Flashing was cut into puzzle pieces to fit the gaps, screwed, and caulked. One window went up with success A ring of caulk and a couple corner screws. The other one was glued with the caulk but only one screw. The plexiglass cracked around the screw and slid down the wall. The skylight was more of an issue. The building is not level, or square. We removed the short section and slid it under the longer piece. Though it did appear that gravity was now in our favor, however we did not want to have to do it again, so we filled the overlap with construction adhesive and screwed it together. We caulked the skylight down in a few loose spots and called it a day. Now we have moved some of our stuff and have a new dry storage shed!

Welcome to Farm Life Farm. Find handmade signs and soaps here. Eggs, Lamb, Pork, Poultry, and rabbits. Let us feed you and teach you to feed yourself! With our sawmill, we can mill your timber and build your outbuildings together HOME Phoebe's Page Shop Farm Education & Training Medical Education & Training Woodwork Tractor Work Saw Mill Rabbits Sheep Pigs & Lard-based Soaps Birds Horses About Blog Search our Site WELCOME Welcome to Farm Life Farm Established 2024 We are a family owned and operated livestock farm in Connecticut's Northwest corner. Address 91 Prospect Mountain Rd Bantam CT 06750-1410 Phone 860-209-1590 Email farmlifefarmllc@gmail.com Connect

Signs, tables, and outbuildings. Allow Farm Life Farm to work with you to design and build your chicken coop, shed, or treehouse with you. We work with fresh milled lumber and upcycled materials. Farm Life Farm also creates wood signs and tables. HOME Phoebe's Page Shop Farm Education & Training Medical Education & Training Woodwork Tractor Work Saw Mill Rabbits Sheep Pigs & Lard-based Soaps Birds Horses About Blog Search our Site Woodworking We create many items with our mill. Burned and carved signs, cutting boards, and tables are some examples. We also build sheds, root cellars, and outbuildings with native woods and upcycled materials. To play, press and hold the enter key. To stop, release the enter key. Inquiries Coops Hutches Sheds Root Cellars Gates Burning Contact us now There may be no better way to communicate what we do than through images. As you browse our site, take a few moments to let your eyes linger here, and see if you can get a feel for our signature touch. Below is our Sawmill shelter. We had a vision of a structure built off of the tree limb at the front left. This led to a truly unique build with plenty of technical challenges to overcome. The roof rafters were custom built to allow more clearance for loading logs while providing cover for the operator

HOME Phoebe's Page Shop Farm Education & Training Medical Education & Training Woodwork Tractor Work Saw Mill Rabbits Sheep Pigs & Lard-based Soaps Birds Horses About Blog Search our Site Phoebe Curulla Child care My Story Hello My name is Phoebe Curulla and I am 13 years old. I live in Bantam on our family farm. I have an older brother and a younger sister. I love to draw and read. I go to Plumb Hill Middle School. I am active in the FFA and hope to care for animals when I grow up. For now, I take care of our chickens and ducks and horses and my sister at home. Hopefully, in the near future, I can add your children to this list. Why should you trust me to care for your children? Dad says I act like a twenty-five year-old I have a strong eye for detail I am fun and love to play games I can follow your direction ensuring your children are cared for in the manner you like best. CPR/Choking First Aid Certified AHA Heartsaver CPR Certification for adults, children, and infants. First Aid Certified I hold a current AHA Heartsaver First Aid Certification Safesitter Certified I hold a current Safesitter Babysitting Certification I do not subscribe to the "electronic babysitter" I will limit the amount of screentime and occupy their time with activities and play. I understand nutrition I will guide snack decisions toward healthful snacks instead of empty calories, processed foods, and candy. I am competent and capable, reliable and independant Logistics My mom and dad fully support my child care activities. They have committed to bringing me to your house and picking me up. If you do not have a house phone for emergencies, I can bring my mom or dad's phone Cost $15.00 per hour up to three children Contact I'm always looking for new and exciting opportunities. Let's connect. phoebecurulla@gmail.com 860-209-1589 My mom Sarah's number