Shed Platform is complete For those of you that have been following this saga, you might notice the lack of water tanks. As Sarah and I began to plot the platform design, we thought how great it would be to have the entire shed space for working and storing. She recomended that we add another section in the future when we are ready to farm fish. More building is always a good idea and more covered space is as well. There is also the difficulty in my initial plan to work around the tanks. The final nail in that coffin is that one of our two tanks is way too delapidated which I did not realize until I began the crack repair. Rough measurements for shed walls Above is my rough measurements for the walls. Yesterday I spent the day milling wood and today I managed to erect three walls almost entirely on my own. The third wall is 76 1/4in of White Oak. I managed to get it standing up, but as I wiggled it into position, I could not control it. I managed to get it jammed up against wall 2 and then called Colt to run to the rescue. Colt is under the weather and I was attempting to let him rest today. Here is our first wall erected and pinned. This is at the sliding door and measures 7 feet tall. Once the building is framed, we will plot out where we will add windows. I expect this wall will remain solid as we do not want sunlight beating on the electrical equipment. Wall 2 (below), at 49 inches, was easy to get into place and secured. Wall 2 in place The initial plan, in my head was to make these first two walls 7ft 4in to accommodate the platform resting on the outer boards of the hallway platform. I did not do this. I cut them at 7 foot, which is going to work out better for the roof. We do not want the two rooves at the same height. If we had the walls at 7'4", with the top plate, we would be starting the roof too tall for the greenhouse. With these first two walls having 7ft studs, the rest of the walls will measure 4 inches shorter. The platform joists are 12 inches on center. The walls are standard 16in on center. Given that our lumber is rough sawn, their actual measurements are 2" x 4" instead of 1 1/2 x 3 1/2. This does lessen the distance between studs and add Wall 3 in place and secure quite a bit of load bearing capacity. I expect to have the last two walls up at the beginning of the week. I am certain I will need to mill more 2x4's. I believe we had made thirty yesterday and I used 18 today. I estimate 22 2x4's to build the last two walls. I imagine next build day I will get one wall done then go back to the mill. After the studs, we need to make siding.

Water barrel heat sink Progress is great! We have gotten a great deal done since our last post. Here is the to-do list from our last post: Cut chimney pipe hole Build 55 gallon barrel stove and run chimney pipe out back wall or through roof Build back shed Install vent fan Wire in a few outlets and lights Cut hole for wind turbine mounting pipe Install wind turbine and all its components turbine control board inverter batteries/charge control We have completed only the barrel stove on this list. But I did say we made progress. Unfortunately I knew that list was incomplete and it seemed that most of what we have completed is not in the list. Lets create a new list. The water barrel wall is the first task we have completed. As you see in the picture above, we have built the barrel wall, filled the barrels, and painted them black (mostly) to collect sun heat. Harper's favorite color is purple and we had a quarter can of purple so I thought the stripe would look good and make her happy. I was correct on both points. They have been painted and filled for about a week now and they are not warm. I fear they will require the super heat of summer to get warm and carry that heat through the winter. The other possibility is that the whole wall of water is just a stupid idea that will not effect temperatures at all. Time will tell. Vapor locked tanks We had discussed the rain collection system in depth in the last post. If you look closely at the picture to the right, you will see the bottom tank is within 8 inches of being full. The top tank has about 6 inches of water hanging out there. At first I thought that the pipe was clogged. I took it apart and found it clear. Initially I was concerned about sealing the system water tight. It would appear I have sealed it air tight. What is happening is there is nowhere for the air to be displaced. I hypothesized that air would bubble through the pipe from the lower tank to the upper tank as the water flows in. This is not the case. Out of curiosity, after reattaching the pipe, I cracked the union and air began to flow out and the water began to flow again. This could not stay cracked as it leaks water as well as air. Still this did solve the problem of vapor lock. Now how can we get the air to flow without water leaking out. The answer is a snorkel. A snorkel is just a long hose extending from a spot in the system and it terminates above the top tank. Snorkel rendition In the photo here, you can see the snorkel hose running from the 2 inch PVC pipe heading up to the ceiling. I have the hose going up to one of the king beam supports where it is held by a u-clamp pipe clamp. There is a hose clamp on the bare end of the tube so it will not slip out of the u-clamp when it fills partially with water. To connect the snorkel to the PVC, I tapped a 3/8in pipe thread into the pipe and used a 3/8in barb fitting. Our rain storm today proves our system is working well with no leaks. One of the items not on the list from the last post that we discussed, is auto filling paddock water troughs. We have completed two water troughs with mechanical float valves. Once again, I did not get a picture of the trough so I have created a rendition of the setup. For our trough to the west of the greenhouse, we dug a trench from the greenhouse to the trough and buried the hose. At this time, it is not turning off. I have the valve running over the top of the tank and into the water. We need to get it about 2 inches lower. At this time, when the trough is full, it continues trickling because the float cannot seal completely. At some point I will drill a hole to accept the hose about 1.5in below the rim so the float will be lower in the tank. We are turning off the hose valve at the IBC tank for now, and openning it whenever we need to fill the trough. The trough to the south has the hose running through the 4 inch drain pipe we have for greenhouse drainage at the Southwest corner. Water distribution Above we have our outflow valve. The green hose exits just below the west door. The black hose runs out the drainage pipe to the south paddock. Hanging over it, also running out the west wall is a 2inch pump suction hose. During garden season, we water the garden off of the IBC tank through a generac water pump. Without the pump, there is not enough pressure to activate the sprinkler. With the pump humming we get full garden coverage. I have mixed feelings about the generac pump. Ultimately this is our second. The first one had a terrible throttle control that failed and there are no replacement parts available. The carburetor also failed with no replacements available. They updated the pump from 1 inch to 1.5 inches and no throttle control at all. Now it is all or nothing. We added a swing valve to the outflow port to regulate how much water goes to the sprinkler. Weatherstripping: Here is one example of Sarah's work. Every gap, every joint now has foam filling it or weatherstripping covering it. Future hallway to the back shed We have also began the back shed. Eventually the back shed will hold two 500 gallon tanks and they will be filled with fish. For now, we are going to get the tanks in the ground and backfill around them. We will then build the shed around it. We are also going to make a false floor and use the shed as tool storage for the time being. At least until I can build the Barn. The girls need some space. This winter we are going to build Harper a separate playroom in the basement. She doesn't sleep much and keeps her sister and grandmother awake. She will have a small space to be loud and awake at night. That means we need a place for my tools . What we have pictured above is the floor for the back hall. We will have the electrical components mounted on the walls in the hallway. I made the platform 5 feet wide to ensure we have enough room for walking and the equipment. We have also completed the site work. I filled in around the greenhouse and graded the ground around the east, west, and south sides. I have also graded the driveway and the path up to the greenhouse. The path needs gravel. Today I drove my truck up with pig food in a rainstorm, and I was sliding all over the trail in 4 low. When I graded to crown, I pushed detritus into the tire tracks. The rain saturated it and made a slick mess. The driveway however is fantastic. Last year we had a nightmare clearing snow and ice from the deep ruts. Initially we planned to bring in a couple triaxles of pavement millings or a 3/4 in riprap. Given I can make anything but money, purchasing delivered material is out of reach. I started at the bottom and scraped off the crown. I then went back and forth with the box tines ripping it up and moving the material. I then back bladed it to get it nice and smooth and pitched it by five-ish degrees with hopes water will travel along the edge instead of down the tire tracks. I also filled in the pothole at the end of the driveway. That pothole has been a constant and painful annoyance. Back to the greenhouse. East door latch We had mounted the east door several weeks back. We kept the glass out and left it for the colder days when the door was needed. Now the glass is in and the door is reinforced with L-brackets at all four corners. When I went back to finish the door, I realized that the inside door handle was broken. The action still worked so I welded a piece of scrap metal onto the action and chiseled a slot out of the framing at the door. Since taking this photo, I have added a handle to this catch. We are pleased with our progress and have a good chance of getting the back shed completed before christmas. Once the shed is dried in, we will get all my toolboxes up there. Two days ago, we took a break from the greenhouse and went out to the knife shed. We had all the toolboxes and footlockers of knives stacked on top of each other with all of the display cases Grandpa Chris had purchased for his flea market knife sales. He only went to two flea markets. I have moved all the empty display cases out to the lifetime shed and stacked them up out of the way. We then made shelves the full width of the back wall. During this cleanout, I realized there are still about ten cases of knives I have not touched. They were buried under the empty cases and hunting gear. On the door side of the shed, we built more shelves but terminated them 2 feet from the door so we can, you know, use the door. All of the camping gear is now out of the basement and in plastic storage boxes. Everyone has their own tote with their camping gear inside. This has cleared up two storage racks in the basement. We will begin room construction once we have cleared out enough stuff to actually put up walls. The other greenhouse related task that we have completed was back at the mill. We have milled 20 2x4's out of white oak for the studs, and 2x6 white pine for the shed rafters. I am fairly confidant that we have enough rafters, however we will need tons more 2x4's. Super Intelligence ( I don't want to be the enemy) says a rough estimate is 72 2x4's to frame the walls and floor. Another 52 studs will be needed to frame the playroom in the basement. At this time we will also need 425 board feet of planks for the walls of the playroom and another 300 board feet for the three exposed sides of the shed. We will be spending many hours pushing the mill back and forth.

Pallet Firewood shed built into a hill Last summer, we built a pallet firewood shed in the backyard. It is 8ft x 8ft x 8ft. This holds about 4 cord of wood. I believe we have it stocked with about 3.5 cord. Given we burned close to five last year, we had to go and get wood from the Abby of Regina Laudis or beg acquaintances to deliver wood mid winter. This led to hastle and stress during the winter. One minor example was having about a day's worth of dry wood remaining on the farm, we had to get more and the Abby was the only place that had some...remember last winter we had several weeks straight of sub-zero temperatures. So their plow truck was broke and my truck was sporting all american notreads. What a nightmare it was to get into their wood field. The most painful part was we had logs and limbs ready to burn spread all over the farm. With three feet of snow on all of it, there was no hope of finding and geting that wood cut up...we just had to buy it. This year will be different. Colt spent a great deal of time filling the old shed and the new shed. He has also centralized the uncut wood so we can get to it during the winter. The north side of our house is a hill; about a 20 degree grade. We wanted to create a wood shed close to the house but not noticeable. Given there was nothing else we can do with this space, we decided to make a stepped pallet shed for our firewood. This shed is 16 feet long and about 6.5 ft tall. With these dimentions, we can house another 3 cord of wood which should see us through the winter. The one caveat to this is that we have a wood stove going into the greenhouse that will consume an unknown amount of wood this winter. Scrap wood keeps the chickens out. As we built the structure, our chickens were flocking under it. Egg laying is a constant concern with freerange hens. Every once-in-a-while, they find some nice new laying spot and we have to go searching and often cannot get to them. We had to add lattice to block the crawlspace under the back porch for instance. Here we took the scrap wood and filled every space they were able to get through. Colt has filled this shed. A large part of the wood in here are mill and building scraps 2 inches thick. We also have about a cord of one inch slab cuts that we have cut down to the 28in length of our wood stove. I expect these will burn fairly fast, but they will burn hot. Given this is a large part of what fills this new shed, we aren't certain that it will be enough for the winter, however, we will have a very large pile of wood ready to get hacked into burnable sized logs. We also have 20 logs stacked out back for the mill. This year I will start cutting up the less desireable logs in the mill pile if we need more than the two sheds and current cut pile can provide...wish us luck! One more observation on the topic of firewood: All the wood we purchased last year was rather small. I can only assume they are using multi-split wood splitters. With our Allnighter stove accepting 30 inch logs, the average size of the log at 12 inches does not fill the stove and burns much faster than a giant log. Also, we would have to load in about a dozen logs to fill the stove for the night. With the large logs colt split this summer, we should be able to add three and have it burn into mid-morning instead of 6am. And just one more: Chimney cleaning. Clean your chimney monthly. Ok maybe you buy your wood from a great vendor. He has all hard wood and it seasons, covered for three years before they will even consider selling it. You also have an appropriate, new, and efficient stove. In this case, feel free to go 6 weeks to 2 months at the most. In general, the hardest part of cleaning the chimney is getting up on the roof. Many wood burners take this into account and have some sort of scaffolding/platform atop the roof to provide a safe spot to scrub from. Our ranch has a very gentle roof so I have not had issues. We keep the ladder in place on the back porch. We also have other considerations: For one, our stove is too big for our house. It is rated for a 3500 square foot house. We were originally planning to add a second story which would have hit that footage, however, we have now decided against the addition. Most days, we do not need to get the stove raging, which creates more creosote...some days alot more. If you were not aware, keeping your chimney at 300-475 degrees. We often run ours closer to 250 when the ambient temperature is above 35 degrees. A few times last year we burned wet wood (that was purchased in desperation. The vendor had warned me) and I had to clean the chimney twice a month. How do I know it is time? Draft. When the chimney is clear, a small initial fire will begin to draft immediately. As it narrows, we get more smoke rolling out of the stove into the house. When it hits a precipace of creosote, the stove pipe joints will begin to weep smoke. There were signs prior, but "it will be fine one more day." Many chimney fires have been based on the at thought. One time, years ago, we (as part of the fire department with two firetrucks monitoring the burn) were burning a brush pile for a member of our community. As the pile was raging. You know there is no bigger pyro than a firefighter. Well, as the pile was ragining, the neighbor from three doors down b-lined for us and began sharing his extreme distaste for how big a fire we had going. My Captain kurtly advised this man of our care for his concerns sending this concerned citizen storming off. A few weeks later, that man had to call 911 for the chimney fire that had extended into the wall. Of course we saved the house and most of that wall. That same captain was on that scene and he was sure to point out that cleaning his chimney that day three weeks ago would have been a much more valuable use of that time.

Porky naps at the end of move-in day Our Boar outgrew his old hut. The old hut was a shanty at best. Two pallets for the walls and one for the roof, covered in old metal roofing and open on both ends as he could not turn inside. Our kuni boar would then climb over porky and lay on top of him when it was cold. This past summer, they dug out around their pathetic hut and it turned into a pool. About a month ago, High Meadow camp gave me about forty pallets. We used some of these to frame the hut. Two pallets make the back wall creating an eight foot wall. The side walls are two pallets, but the first is 90 degrees to the back wall and the front pallet is angled at about 35 degrees to form the front door. We added 2x4 supports from the mill and anchored it to the ground with 10 in lag bolts. The roof is overlapped live-edge mill scraps. We did build up the left side of the roof about twelve inches to ensure the runoff goes away from the hut and into the stream.

Farm Life Farm Greenhouse nears completion Welcome back to the Farm Life Farm Blog. We have been documenting our build and have many accomplishments to share. Last post had a list of things to do. I am happy to report we are making our way through that list. Lets look at them in order of the list. Trim outside of windows and doors. Windows and doors have been trimmed and foam insulated. These are the first two Sarah trimmed. All air gaps are sealed with spray foam. I will have pics of that for the next post. We used scraps for all the trim. Build the back door. We created a sliding barn door. This is a simple 2x2 pine frame with scrap 1 inch first cut boards covering it. In the side-by- side you can see the inside of the door insulated with 2 in foam board. The outside picture shows the door hanging in place. We mounted the track on a 5 degree angle so the door slides shut without assistance. A french door might have been the better option. I do plan to mount the power system controller on the hallway wall. The sliding door occupies 3 feet of wall space that I cannot use for control panels. I do believe there will be enough wall space for the equipment. If by chance there is not, then we will cut the door in half and transform it into a french door. Snow load straps Sarah began adding the hurricane straps but found the angles disagreeing with her wrist, so that remains on the list. Snow specific strapping is done however. We have blocked the back wall half way up and ran 2-2x6's along the length of the back wall, at the bottom, covering the first 12 inches of the studs. We have another 2x6 running the length along the top. Front steps remain on the list. We are currently using milk crates for steps. I might just zip tie them together and call it a day. Or we will build some steps out of something. Insulate Imagine every seem lined with orange or yellow lines of spray foam. Again, pics will be in the next post. We only have the east side of the metal roof remaining to spray foam. Everything else is complete. Weatherstripping has been ordered. The side-wall doors and east-wall door need weatherstripping. I don't think I will weatherstrip the back doors. We might want a bit of heat to leak for the electrical components in the winter. Though I suppose I could just block the door open a bit when we need heat to escape. It may be more beneficial to seal it so we retain more heat during the extreme cold. The plastic will be the last thing we do inside. I do not want to rip the plastic sheeting while we complete the build and move in shelving and other incidentals. When we get there, from the top roof foam boards down to the front pony wall will be covered with 5 mil polyethylene sheeting. This will create an air cushion in the rafters while allowing the light to shine in. This simple addition. O.k., that's a lie. Installing the plastic, wrinkle free, is a nightmare of a job. Get the plastic laid out. Get it squared to the not square building. Attach it with furring strips. It is not complicated, but it is difficult. Why bother? 30-40% additional heat retention. Barrel Platform The barrel platform was simple. An 18 inch wide plank that was 2 inches thick and just the right length was laying out back. The pavers were just outside the greenhouse. We blocked the plank every 12 inches to ensure it can hold the weight. We also have the water tanks in place. That is coming up. The barrel stove is going in next to the IBC tanks. I have a 4x8 sheet of metal. We will mount this to the IBC tote with some spacers and then place the metal 55 gallon drums behind the stove. For the past few years, we have been filling a 65 gallon transfer tank from the hose at the house and hauling it up the hill. We would then either hook up the gas powered pump and transfer the water to the IBC tote, or we would raise the transfer tank above the IBC tote and let the water gravity feed. Both involve 10 minutes of filling while the well pump is working. Then diesel and engine wear on the tractor, then the time to transfer the fluid from one tank to another. I envisioned a self-contained, auto-filling rain catchment system. With a roof surface area of 252 feet sq., we will collect about 75 gallons of water for every 1/2 inch of rain that falls. If we can collect this water, we wont need to haul water anymore. It all starts with a gutter which runs into the flexible downspout extender. Two of these extenders were screwed together to make the run from gutter, around the corner, and into the barrel. I then took a 2in MIP to 2in Slip fitting and attached a 2-4in adapter and hose clamped some screen in there. You can see above that there is a plastic screen in the gutter to keep the big stuff out, however the little bits get through. Hopefully the screen will keep the little bits out as well. Below you can see the pump does have a mesh screen on it. I purchased a small float valve but missed the "normally closed" bit and I decided I had no other choice but to use the big float switch pictured below. I had to cut a squared notch out of the barrel fitting. I then ran a piece of flat stock steel down to the side of the pump and secured the pump to the stainless steel with stainless zip ties. The water hose was zip tied every 6 inches for the length of the steel. The float was zip tied to the shaft about 6 inches above the pump with enough cord to drop but not touch the bottom. With about 6 inches of cord, the barrel fills about one third before the pump kicks on. After completing this project, I had a realization about the normally closed switch: I had a 5 pin relay! So, the little float switch had a max amperage of 0.7. The pump has an amperage of 8.0. I had to use a relay due to the amperage overage. Well it was a 5 pin, meaning I had the option of having the relay activate when the switch opens or closes. Having the 4 pin wiring diagram in my hand, I failed to realize the additional pin would allow me to use the little float. The IBC totes are nestled nicely into the corner. We built a wooden support structure for the upper IBC. There are support legs for the structure that were installed after the photo. The PVC tote connector will be explained below. The IBC totes are for watering plants and animals. Next summer, we will insulate the totes so they do not get hot like the barrels. We discussed in the past that the barrels will become a giant thermal heatsink. The blue barrels will be painted black to collect as much heat as possible. We placed two of the blue barrels behind the lower IBC. They will stay blue and will be separated from the other barrels and insulated with the totes. My theory is that the two barrels behind the totes will help stabilize temperature overall. Maybe this is silly; either way, they will stay. The point of this system is to gravity feed the animal water troughs in the two upper fields. We will need some pressure for the float valves to operate properly. We will also need the tank water level to be higher than anywhere we want the water. The Greenhouse is built on the highest spot on the farm, but then we dug down below the surrounding area. Given the lower tank is lower than the paddock troughs, it will never work. I am hopeful that with the top tank tied in, that height will make everything work. Lets take a moment to run through the system. Water flows off the roof into the gutter. The gutter flows to the rain barrel. Water is pumped out of the barrel into the top IBC tote The picture to the right is a recreation of the entry tube into the top tote. I did not take a picture of it but here are all the pieces: The fill tube enters the top of a T. The right side of the T has hose with an off valve at the end of it. The bottom of the T is fitted to a mechanical float valve which is threaded into the tote lid. The goal was to have the water flow past the overflow into the the tote. Once the tote is full and the float closes, the additional water will flow out of the building. For now, we will use this overflow to fill all the 55 gallon barrels. During testing, we found that there was less resistance in the overflow hose so I added the off valve. We will keep it closed until I can find a way to restrict the flow. It might be as simple as elevating the hose a few inches to add an elbow elevated a few inches above the T-fitting. The final part of this project was to connect the two tanks. I used a camlock fitting and adapted to 2in sch40 PVC. There are two unions in this in case we need to remove it for any reason. With the camlock, I probably only needed one at the tote lid, but I had two. I wont know how water tight this is until the top tote is full. The goal here is to have the weight of the water in the top tank to force water through the garden hoses to their respective locations. I have never wanted rain so badly. Cut down rafters: All done and covered with flashing. mount gutters: done run water lines out to paddocks and gardens. This will be the beginning of the next post. I will wait to complete them and take pictures. I just added build back shed to the to-do list. Pretty much the remaining list is all electricity related. We need the back hall built so we can mount the electrical components. I mentioned this during the back door section. The back shed will have a four foot wide walkway to a ten by ten shed. We have two fiberglass tanks that we will be converting to fish farm tanks. The two tanks will be in the back shed. The hallway will be sealed off with a door on the shed side so we can protect the electrical components and keep them cool and dry. I have attached the ledger board and built three 46in sections of walkway. I used Oak for the lumber so they are super heavy. The next step will be to get supports in place so we can begin building the walkway. Here is our updated to-do list. Cut chimney pipe hole Build 55 gallon barrel stove and run chimney pipe out back wall or through roof Build back shed Install vent fan Wire in a few outlets and lights Cut hole for wind turbine mounting pipe Install wind turbine and all its components turbine control board inverter batteries/charge control

West wall and doors The greenhouse build continues. We have made some serious progress since our last post. We have created a door of windows and a door of door. We wanted a way to get the bulk water tanks in and out as well as a way to have tractor bucket access when we need to clean out or add soil, etc. I imagined two swinging barn doors that followed the roof angle. I also needed a regular entry door on this side of the greenhouse as the opposite side will be fenced in. This is the southwest wall, so blocking the sun is a terrible concern. We needed access for the tractor and we also needed a wall of windows to let the light in. I believe in the end we have designed something unique and functional. I must admit that I am not in love with the window up top on an angle, but it fit so well on the table I felt compelled. I suppose it will remain assuming there are no major leaks around it. Side doors open giving us an 8 foot openning which will allow for the moving of dirt and water tanks. Below We have a side by side photo of the West wall before and after. The first photo is the west wall from the outside when we were initially building. Given I planned to do windows later in the project, we needed a support wall to get both sections of roof built. The right side is this West wall rebuilt with a window. Two of the rafters were moved to the outside and run the entire height to support the wall ends. The center two were cut out and put aside. The window was framed, then the carrier beams were set atop to measure the space above. We cut the old rafters down and toenailed them into place. I snapped the picture and then left for the overnight shift. Sarah has since covered the top half of the west wall with roofing plastic. I was initially planning another window above this one, but Sarah was concerned with the extra framing blocking out even more winter sun, so we opted to simply place the studs and cover in plastic. As we looked at the design of the window-door, I was concerned about the first foot of the side wall. The front pony wall is four feet. With the far end of the door reaching a height of 8 feet, I had some concern about having enough hinges spaced out correctly. we moved the door out enough to add the window in the above picture. The hole under it will eventually have the gutter collection pipe and garden/animal water lines. Moving the door 18 inches to the left gave the right side of the door an additional foot and one more hinge. Sarah has also begun the window trim. Next post should have trim and siding. We are excited to get this build completed prior to frost setting in. Exciting stages to be completed: Trim outside of windows and doors. Build the back door possibly a french door, one big door, or a sliding barn door...tbd. Add snow load straps to back wall 2x4's that run horizontally accross the legnth of the back wall to keep studs from bowing due to heavy snow. wood side the exterior back Front steps for west door. Probably rocks Insulate roof line roofing windows doors cover interior walls with plastic sheeting Build platform for heatsink barrels 8-12, 55-gal black drums will be filled with water and stacked two or three high to cover the back wall Move the IBC totes inside and build a frame to support two stacked containers. Pipe the gutters into the totes Cut front rafters down to accept gutter Mount gutter and downspout Run waterlines out to paddock water troughs. Cut chimney pipe hole Build 55 gallon barrel stove and run chimney pipe out back wall or through roof Install vent fan Wire in a few outlets and lights Cut hole for wind turbine mounting pipe Install wind turbine and all its components turbine control board inverter batteries/charge control As you can see, we are almost done. Just a small list of incidental missions to complete. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, once the greenhouse is complete, we will begin an 8x10 shed on the back with a walkway. I believe I have explained in a previous post that the turbine components will be mounted in the hallway to protect them from the high moisture levels in the greenhouse and fish shed.

Homemade oil drum BBQ Welcome back to the Farm Life Farm Blog. It has been a while. Well I did just publish a greenhouse post, but prior to that I took a month-long hyatis. From the blog, not from the work. I have a friend and she has two boys; well men now. Ten years ago, her eldest took a welding class. We see our children grow and know that it will be hard to find quality time as they develop their independance. You cannot read your 19 year old son a bed time story. So she happened across half an oil tank, found a way to get it in an SUV, and brought it home so they could build a grill together. As the years past, it became more of a family joke than project. They could not devise a lid or find time to get together and work on it. Then one day she asked me if I had a welder and could help get the project done. We set a date and got together. I must admit that I have no technical training and did not aprentice or go to trade school. I have just tried things and read a lot. Youtube has helped a bit too. Her eldest son is an engineer. As we began the grill project, the eldest was writing things down and measuring other things and asking me technical questions. Unfortunately my answers remained a constant, "I dunno, we will see what works", which was met with mild consternation. I might have made it 20 minutes before asking, "are you an engineer?" I slowly backed away and took care of ancillary duties like cutting and grinding to get the pieces ready for welding. The brothers tackled the actual welding and designing. About 6 hours in, the boys were frustrated and I was tired. The welder overheated and we called it a day. I left all the gear there and they attacked it again a few days later. They had the back and sides on the day I was there and focused on the lid. Aparently they had a good day until they thought it was done: the lid did not close correctly. It was later relayed to me that the engineer commented that there might be legitamicy to the way I work. My next free day I returned and showed the younger son what they had done wrong and we got everything lined up nice and secured all the pieces with welds. What were we working with? A 40 year old Lincoln Mig Weld-pac 120v Half an oil tank Two 55 gallon maple syrup drums One tailgate from an 2004ish Chevy truck Inside the box I had cut the grate from a rock sorting machine to hold the charcoal or wood with two levels in there to choose how close to your food the heat is. We cut 2 inch flat steel to support the grill grates whch are stainless steel fish net. The flat top is a great addition. We added enough supports that all the grates and the flattop can be moved around based on heat or convenience. The lid handle is a piece of Maple tree that had a perfect natural curve.Sanding and painting has happened since I have been there. The vision has been realized and the family is happy with the results and mom is slowly seasoning the new paint with small fires in the grill.

Nothing exciting to report. Sarah remains at Scout camp. Phoebe and Harper are there with her. I continue through my busy work summer, and Colt is home caring for the farm.

2002 Gator 6x4 Gas It does not look like much, but it she is a beast! Three years ago, Sarah's father showed up with a wheeled horse ride on lawnmower and this gator. They came from the Abby where he has served as their mechanic for the last 45 years. At the time, we were not in a good place. We had recently moved to the farm but still owned our house and were desperate for a sale to happen. I had recently been relieved of the misery I called a career at Trinity EMS. Sarah had more recently walked off the job at Trinity. Living off savings and cashed-in retirement plans, two more projects were not needed, wanted, or tolerable. We had also recently been refused by dad when we asked for money. Now I was resentful that not only could he not help with our mortgage, he was bringing me other peoples problems. I only mention this to explain the next sentence: The two items would sit on the side of the drive for a year while I resented their presence. (that would not have made any sense without the preceding paragraph) With time, I did begin to imagine how useful the gator would be and finally asked dad to get it running or at least guide me on what needs to be done. Let me throw in that over the twenty years the abby had it, he continually cut out "unnecessary" components that were causing electrical issues. He did find time to help on a day we were knee deep in another project. He did get it running and then informed me that it runs fine. The issue is the batery will not stay charged and then stormed off. The next day it would not start of course, but I now had it in my mind to be grateful for the gift and get the damn thing in service or get rid of it. I started with the basic tune up, a new battery, and fresh fuel. I cleaned the grime off and lubed every nipple, adjusted the drive chains and belts. That was it. We began driving it and hauling muck and dirt and rocks and firewood and tools for projects and drove to the bus stop and so on. The only issue was that nobody drove it often enough to keep the battery charged. He had convinced them that there was a catastrophic electrical problem so he would not have to continually maintain this old machine. Firetrucks are kept in service 20-30yrs. A gator should not be in service longer. I did the absolute least amount of maintenance possible. Annual oil changes and semi-annual air filter cleaning. One day I turned the key and it made a weird noise. A gear in the engine stripped. The engine was dead, no compression, no nothing but a spinning sound when you turned the key. After a year and a half of using this thing daily, it became a necessity. I had spent a few weeks of diagnosing and trying different things, not wanting to admit the blown engine. I finally pulled out the compression tester and found not enough in cylinder 1. This led me to the long search for a replacement. Let me tell you almost nothing is made the way it used to be. The gator was designed to handle more than anything in its class of mini truck. Golf carts looked the same but would be crushed by the weight the gator 6x4 can carry. The Club car would be buried and stuck in the mud and terrain the 6x4 can traverse. Everything that is currently produced that meet the same weight abilities, like the Toro Workman or the Bobcat Utility Vehicle start at $20,000.00. That is a lot of zeros. With maintenance, that works out to $1200ish a year for 20 years. There is myriad additional reasons why new is not better. Computer controls is the biggest one. I found only a handful of 6x4's nationwide and all were more than a 6 hour drive. Those that did not run were all around $5k. If it ran, they were $8-15k. None of which was feasible at the time. Then the dream. The ultimate in off road capability. The most payload carrying and the most wheels. A full roll bar/brush guard/wall-knocker-downer. The Military John Deer Gator 6x4 diesel. For only $12, 500, I'd consider it a deal at twice the price. Still at half the price, I could not afford it. Also, there appears to be only one guy in CA that gets them from the military to resell. The only option remaining was to rebuild the engine we had. I did also look at rebuilt engines that were $2500 plus a $1k core deposit. We could send our engine in and have it rebuilt which would have eliminated the core charge but increased the turn around time by triple. The final option was to find someone local to rebuild it. That is what I did for $2k. Lucky Red's Mobile Mechanic is a young man now in Simsbury. He fled CA and somehow ended up in CT. Not the first time I have seen this. I suppose going any further would be detrimental to one's overall health. Well he was willing and able to rebuild the engine. A couple weeks later it was done. Back in service. This gator came with the full cab, doors, cabin heater, and windshield wiper. 25 years later, the doors are gone, Dad had bypassed the cabin heater, and most of the cab mounting brackets had rotted. After we got it, Phoebe had crashed and knocked the front windshield out which I replaced "temporarily" with a sheet of plexiglass. The brake foot pedal cable snapped and I removed the hood to attempt repair...we use the parking brake handle to this very day. The hood went on and off over the course of several months and eventually broke. Least of my concerns. The bed had also rotted over the last few years. Now that the machine was running, I figured it was time to reattach the cab to the gator. About a week earlier, Red had used our welder to fix Nana's truck bumper. I had been terrified of this machine. I thought it was 240v and had no idea how to weld. One of the things I had asked Red to repair was the fender on our 12 foot trailer. Having watched him weld the truck and how to set our little welder, and a few youtube welding videos later, I felt capable to do the welding. I also was realizing I did not have the money to pay for his services so I was going to have to weld the fenders. Prepping Trailer for new fenders From what I have learned, clean surfaces are the most important step. Everything was rotty and rusty. You can see the wire cone on the angle grinder. I used this the most but did need to use a cutting wheel to cut off the rotten edges and the grinding wheel for the really rusty spots. The next step is to clamp everything together which I did not do. Holding the fender in place does not guarantee a close fit. It also leads to fingers getting burned which is not an enjoyable experience. I do wish I had taken more pictures during the process; before I painted them. I would like to showcase how terrible my welds look. They hold, but not pretty at all. Still it holds and did boost my confidence. Many people that know me might claim additional confidence is completely unnecessary...possibly detrimental to the world's safety. Given I am now a master welder, tackling the gator cab would be easy. It actually was not all that hard however time consuming. The cab connected at 6 points. Arrows show where cab connects to Gator In the picture, I added arrows showing where the cab originally connected. Brackets were welded to the gator frame and the cab bolted onto the brackets. There are two additional attachment points under the windshield which screwed through the dashboard. As I type and think, I realize that I never really looked at the rear attachment points. There might be more work to do. The two brackets under the windshield are in tact but the screws have rattled out from the dancing the disconnected cab had been doing over the previous several months. Meanwhile the connections at the footwell and in the corners above the dash were completely gone. I wanted to keep the corner attachments as far to the outside as possible. Some day I will get better at taking pictures for the blog. The original corner points were on the inside and connected to a bracket welded onto the outside of the frame I have the arrow connotating. The best spot I could find was the outside right where the arrow is pointing. It did sadden me to grind off original paint that was actually in tact. Just below to the left is a close up of the weld and piece of angle iron I used. Again, sorry I did not get a picture prior to painting. Still you can see that the weld is not terrible and it deffinately holds. I did this on both sides. In an effort to keep the work from rusting, I did spray everything right away with primer. Next was the footwell mounting points. I had some 1.5in slotted angle iron that would reach, so I cut two lengths of the metal to weld onto the footwell and then welded the cab corner to the new bracket. The driver side worked but the right side rattled free. Given there were holes in both, I threw a bolt in it and called it a day. There really wasn't enough metal on the cab corner to weld to. It was actually just burning through, hence the hole. The Picture below is of the right side before it broke free. The weld held for a couple days, but when it gave way, it was apparent that there was not enough metal. The welding was done during the engine break in period, which was explained to Harper whom took it on as her personal mission to get the gator through the break in period. She did not quite understand the decimal point in the engine hour counter and thought she had achieved mission success at 50.3 instead of 53.0. Only one or two full throttle rides before I caught her error. Anyway, she achieved her goal and had shifted from mission-oriented plan-of-action to Joyriding. She had made several trips up and down the driveway when it stopped. Harper ran the gator dry. After screaming at her for not checking the machine before she went joy driving, I made her find gas, carry it down, and fill the gator up. It then ran like crap and was bogging down and shutting off. after a hole lot of diagnosing and trying, I finally came to the realization that the fuel pump was probably cooked. Most likely, after 25 years, running dry was the final nail. Replacement china made pumps were $21-$57 on ebay and amazon with a 2-3 day delivery time. Unfortunately for our checkbook, I really needed to know if this was the issue. After so much time and money to get it motoring again, I really did not want to deal with some new major issue. Time was pressing and driving all the way to Torrington was not enticing. I bit the bullet and went to Litchfield NAPA. They had a universal pump for $115.00 and 3/8 low pressure fuel line for $8.50/foot They did not have any low pressure 5/16. So it was 3 feet of injection hose for $16/foot. So $125 later, I had what I needed to get it going. I replaced all the fuel lines from the tank to the carb. The old line was terrible; all dry rotted. There is a chance that it had hairline cracks and was sucking air into the fuel system. The new pump matched the mounting holes from the old and I replaced all the spring clamps with worm drive hose clamps. After getting the two auxiliary fuel filters filled with fuel, it ran well. I let it idle till it was hot, drove it around with some bogging, shut it down for five minutes, fired it up and drove around another five minutes with a bit of bogging but no shut down. I asked Colt to drive it today and report back to me how it is doing...I hope for a positive review.

Colt Having children is like shooting craps. So much of it is pure chance. Will they turn into useful, respectable humans? Will they be total shit bags or druggies? We don't know looking forward. There may be signs, but you cannot know for sure until you know for sure. This summer has turned into a lonely one. Sarah has taken on a role at the Scout Camp Workoeman. With all three kids active in scouts, we had to find a way to pay their way through all the summer camps and merit badge days. We simply cannot afford to pay for it with money. The camp needed a health director and Sarah stepped up to take on the arduous job. Working at the camp allows all three kids to attend all the camps they want and she also receives a small stipend. Having taken over, she gutted their health lodge and turned it into an actual health lodge complete with exam chairs and hospital beds. The one thing she could not fully get a handle on is other healthcare professionals to share in the actual on duty work. With little help, she has committed to staffing the health lodge herself. This has pulled her away from the farm entirely. Though I type "we" in the greenhouse posts, it is really me. Other maintenance duties have fallen on me as well as housework and food prep. All while working actual full time hours. I am not complaining; merely explaining. Sarah is doing a great thing for our children and the thousands of kids that attend the camp. I fully supported her commitment when it was presented in the early spring, and I remain fully behind it, however, I am tired and soar. Meanwhile, these first few weeks, Colt has been home. Though he does not get everything right or choose the most efficient methods for completing the task, he gets things done. He does not complain at all about having to help, and I can count on him. Yesterday, Colt handled all the chores so I could do oil changes on the gator and Tacoma. Of course there were complications and the gator turned into a much bigger job. Still, Colt did the garden, the horses, all the other animals, and helped his sister with some stuff. I really am impressed with how hard working Colt is. On the topic of the Gator, hopefully Colt will find it runs well. He is actually home alone today. This is such a rare thing...Nana went on a vacation.

Back Door Framing Yesterday, I had a few hours to work on the greenhouse. I focused on the back door hole framing. This will be a wood door seperating the greenhouse from the fish shed. There will be a hallway running along the back wall going to the shed. So walk out the back door, hard left turn, 3-5ft of hallway openning to the fish shed. I intend to build the west side wall and then start the framing for the shed. We will get there. That giant openning had to get smaller. Not only because I did not want to do french doors, but to support the back wall. That space is three studs worth of support. I had added two 2x10's as the initial carrier beam. That still left the space over 8 feet tall and we do not need a door that big. Also, the more carrier beam, the more solid a structure we will have. Thinking about the door we are going to make, I imagined a standard door that swings into the hallway to the east. Right hand pushes door open and then you turn left. Now, as I type, I wonder if a sliding barn door would be a better option. Maybe I will build the walkway and shed frame before the door. I did consider a french door, keeping the doorway wide, but then we would need to either fold the left door flat against the wall so we can walk by. This is possible but wont be perfect. In the end, I framed the doorway to accept a door that would fit the width of the hallway. Now the more I consider this, I think a sliding barn style door will work the best. The doorway is now 38 inches wide and 6ft 6inches tall. The point of the hallway is not just to walk to the shed. I intend to mount all the wind turbine equipment in the hallway. The electronics will not do well in a hot, moist environment. Once we do get fish, the shed will be cool, but also be a high moisture environment. With a door at each end of the hallway, and well insulated with foam, it should stay cool and dry. We will leave the doors open during the coldest parts of the winter to ensure nothing freezes. The wood for the carrier and jack beams are white oak. I did not intend to use such a hard wood for this, however the log on top of all the pine with the punky side up was not pine, but it was easy to grab with the forks. I suppose extra strength is not a bad thing. Being oak, I had to predrill every hole. That was tiring but rewarding. With the additional shoring, the last bit of wiggle in the back wall is gone. It is probably going to be a while until I get back to the greenhouse. On ambulance duty today, teaching tomorrow through Friday, helping a friend build a bbq grill on Saturday, and a safesitter class on Sunday. Monday Scrap-Metal-Frank asked that I bring our tractor to his house and level out wood chip piles. Tuesday I am on ambulance duty again and then teach wed-friday. Long story short, its gonna be a while.

East side wall, doorway platform, and stairs I have never made stairs before. Phoebe hadn't either. Together we got them done. Sturdy and almost level. the step height is a bit narrow for my liking, but they do work and have even spacing. It is a nice flow going from the door, turning, and decending the stairs. We had a stack of planks out back. I cut them for the barn I thought we were building first. Going back to the mill, as I looked for a good log, I noticed the stack of planks, loaded the forks. Strong Oak planks should outlast the white pine frame. We also had to figure out which windows would fit. The window on the far right is one of the leftovers from the front wall. I do have a slight concern about mounting a vertical window horizontally, however this is our build, it will be a super moist environment, and a bit of leakage is probably going to be ok. If we find it is leaking into the sash in the future, we will remove it and find a better option. At this time, it was the only window that would fit in the space and it looks good so, fingers crossed. The framing process for the windows was a repeat of the front wall. We do not need as much support framing on the side walls as they are not weight bearing. Sure the side wall framing will help tie the front and rear together and add overall structural support, still they are not carrying the weight of the roof like the front wall is. The next step will be back to the mill. I am teaching a CPR class as I type. I have really begun to like the videos...I did use the last of our 2x6's yesterday framing the windows. On the left side of the above picture, you can see the back section of the side wall (far left). We do have two 65 in tall windows that I intend to add to the tall wall. Given that that is a load bearing wall, a great deal of framing will be required. We have a couple of big white pines out back that will be the next batch of 2x6 for the east wall, 2x4's for the west wall, and 1 inch thick planks for the siding and trim. Given we will be making two large doors that swing out on the west side, I will be using 2x4 to reduce overall weight. I am imagining each door will be 4 feet wide and 5 feet tall. The left door will have a walk through door in it. I am excited to create the west wall doors. I can see the end of this project. Yesterday Sarah commented how it is really coming together. How she can see the finished product, and put herself in there, picking oranges while the snow is flying sideways. Our next post will hopefully show the beginning of the tractor door we will be building into the west wall.