October 20, 2016
Though somewhat slower than we’d hoped, work is progressing nicely
at the farm. During the past couple of
weeks, my brother (Andy) and Charming put up the new cinderblock chimney. Charming has never had to do this own his
own, so we thought it best to bring in someone who had the skills to get the
job done right. After Charming’s prep
work (as shown in my last blog post), they were able to get the chimney up in
just three days. After that, Charming did
the “porridging” (or podgin’ as we holler people say it) and laid the brick backing
in the wall behind the stove.
During the times when the mortar was drying, Charming continued to
work on the shed. He has installed a
drip edge on the roof of the shed so that rain will drip off the roof instead of
running back under the shingles…at least I think that’s what it does. He has also gotten about half of the shingles
put on the roof. We’re hoping the fall
weather will stay nice until he can put the remaining shingles on along with
the big front door.
When Charming’s on the shed roof, I sit close by in a lawn chair
and knit. I’m currently working on a
knitted purse that will have three compartments and a cross-over strap. I’m about half finished this project and hope
to show you the finished purse in my next blog post.
After Charming gets the shed finished, we hope to get the wood
stove installed (or at least moved into the house) and then cut a load or two
of firewood so that can be drying out until next fall. In my opinion, cutting firewood is a job best
done in late October or early November when the temperature is cool enough that
I won’t be sweatin’ my buns off and all but the bravest snakes have already found
a hidey-hole in which to hibernate.
To re-cap what we’ve accomplished so far: We’ve taken down a big ol’ pine tree and cut
it up for firewood; added doors to the tractor shed; cleaned out the old
chicken shed so Charming could have a place to keep his work tools; bought a
used tractor and several farm implements; planted a “test” garden of tomatoes, potatoes, and pumpkins (all did
well, especially considering how much I neglected the garden); added a new masonry
chimney to the house; and built a big shed from the ground up. In between this work, we’ve removed about half
of the twenty-some tree stumps in our lower field. All in all, we feel that this was a great way
to spend our summer vacation!
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| Charming podgin' the chimney. |
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| The finished chimney. (Top part is almost dry, bottom part is still wet.) |
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| The thimble for the stove pipe. |
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| Brick installed in the wall for fire protection. (Doesn't need to be pretty.) |
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| Podgin' over the brick, which will be framed in and painted. |
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| Fall colors at an overlook just a few miles from our house. |
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| The "state road" that leads to our place. |
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| In a lot of places, the road isn't wide enough for two cars to pass by each other. |
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| When Jax isn't hunting, he's gathering stuff like this long tree limb. |
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| The purse I'm working on...picture doesn't show it, but it's really a pretty green. |
