A Case of the Flue…

October 1, 2016

Chimney flue, that is.  With most of the shed complete and the weather turning cooler by the day, Charming is in the process of building a new chimney on the house at the farm.  This past week, he cut out a section of drywall where the stove pipe will be located.  Because he will need to put a section of brick inside the wall to insulate the thimble (flue pass-through) that is required by Code, he also had to add 2”x4”s to reinforce the area that will hold the bricks.  Luckily, the previous owner had left enough bricks to use for this renovation project.  Charming cleaned the bricks with the garden hose and after they dried, I carried and stacked them in the work area so they’ll be close at hand when he’s ready to use them.

In addition to the inside prep work, Charming had to cut off a section of the deck in order to make room for the chimney.  I had thought this would be a difficult task for him, but he breezed right through it in just half a day.  He cut off the outside railing of the deck as well as three joists.  Good fortune was with us as his cuts fell perfectly at a joist and the supporting post at the front of the deck.  Although he did need to add a temporary support at the back of the deck, which he’ll make permanent after the chimney is completed.  We were able to save the boards from the part of the deck that was removed.  I helped Charming remove the nails from the boards and stacked them beside one of the sheds.  I’m sure Charming will find a way to recycle these into another project later.

Last week, we purchased a new 7’ mower for the tractor.  The mower that had come with the tractor was old and falling apart.  We were unable to the make or model of it.  Charming had posted a photograph of the mower on an on-line farm forum to see if anyone knew what type of mower it was.  No luck there either.  Although he had searched the internet farm supply stores as well as local and some not-so-local farm stores, he was unable to find another tire that fit the mower.  After mowing the field in about half the time it took with the old mower, we both knew he’d made the right move in buying the new one.  Time is precious and every minute we can save will allow us to get other things accomplished on the farm.

In between helping Charming with the mowing and chimney project, I found time to finish the sweater I had been working on for the past few weeks.  All of the loose ends have been woven in and it has been washed and blocked.  Since it was so easy to knit, I plan to knit at least one more in either a variegated color or solid.  I can just envision myself after we move to the farm, sitting beside the warm stove on a cold and snowy winter night while knitting up one of these sweaters and…the dad-gum electricity goes out!

Cutting a hole to accommodate the new chimney flue.

Removing the "Air Stone" that the previous owners installed.

Adding 2"x4"s to support the brick.

All supports installed.

The bricks will go in the blank space above the supports.

Charming decides where cuts need to be made to shorten the deck.

Railings removed and the cuts are being made.

Deck has been shortened w/temporary supports in place.

Digging for the chimney footer starts.

Footer needed to be at least 24" deep; Charming dug down 26".

The first load of cement goes into the hole.

Seventeen bags of cement later, the hole is full.

Siding is removed from the area where the chimney will be built.

Front view (not my best side) of my version of the "Round Trip" sweater.

Back view (not my best side either). The sweater turned out well, though.

The Walls Are Closing In…

September 13, 2016

Our shed at the farm finally has walls!  Charming has finished adding all of the T1-11 siding.  He still has several items that need to be completed like installing the side door and windows, putting shingles on the roof, adding outside trim to make it pretty, and painting.  Although this list still seems long, the major work is done.  Because I’m sure you’re getting tired of reading about the shed, I won’t showing any more pictures of that until it’s completed. 

We have many other jobs to focus on that will bore you almost as much as our incremental progress on the shed.  We are hoping to build a simple cinderblock chimney on the house before winter.  We also need to cut and stockpile some firewood so that it can dry out and be available for use next winter.  After those two things are done, we hope to start renovation on the house.  I’m all for taking the winter off and hibernating in our current home, but Charming is gung-ho to move to the farm.  Although it is inconvenient to be moving back and forth between the two houses, I definitely recommend doing this versus renovating a house while living in it.  Having gone through the kitchen renovation a while back, I can tell you that it’s really difficult to have to jump over construction materials to fix meals and live a normal life. 

Recently, I decided to start a new knitting project to fill my spare time while Charming was working on the shed.  Since the winters at the farm will be colder than it is at our current house, Charming and I will need plenty of warm socks, hats, and sweaters.  It will be important to have layers of warm woolies for our farm winter wardrobes.  Several years ago, a friend of mine gave me some older knitting magazines.  One of them was the Fall 2003 edition of Knitters’ Magazine.  In it, there was a lovely sweater called, “Round Trip” designed by Kay Dahlquist.  I have been moonin’ over this jacket since I first saw the pattern.  I especially loved the back panel of the sweater, which has a sort of hour-glass shape to it.  The magazine shows the sweater in a variegated yarn, which is beautiful, but I wanted the sweater to wear with dress pants.  Because I tend to wear black, grey, or brown dress pants I wanted a sweater that would go with these colors. 

I am close to finishing the sweater and I really like the way it’s turning out.  The back of the sweater, as well as the border, is off-white.  The right sleeve is tan and the left sleeve is dark grey.  Although these colors are definitely not for everyone, they will work perfectly with any of my dress pants.  The sweater has ¾ length sleeves and the front sections are rounded.  I may add some kind of a closure, if needed, after I finish it just to dress it up a bit more.  Because I like this sweater so much and it knits up quickly, I may make another one (or two) to wear on those no-so-dressy occasions.  I’ll share pictures of the finished sweater in my next post.  

Charming uses a rope to pull the upper level T1-11 into place.

Still need to cut out the window at the top as well as windows beside the door.

All T1-11 siding is now in place.

 

Charming designed and made vents to the top point of the shed.

He'll add screen to the holes and then paint before being put into place.

                                 Sweater shown in the 2003 Fall issue of Knitter's Magazine.

My version of the sweater.  I love it!

Back view of the sweater.  I love the hour-glass shape of the back panel.

Powder appears to like the sweater as well.

What A Sap…

August 31, 2016

All in all, our most recent visit to the farm went really well.  The weather was nice and dry, which translated to good working weather.  Charming was able to get the entire plywood layer on the shed’s roof, attach 2x4 extensions for the eaves, and covered the roof with a moisture barrier material.  He spent quite a bit of time walking on the tip-top of the roof with a rope tied to him, which means I spent quite a bit of time on the ground watching him and feeling sick to my stomach.  (He thought it was funny that I put my purse and keys in the truck before he climbed up on the roof in case we had to make an emergency visit to the nearest hospital.)  I breathed a huge sigh of relief when this phase was finished.

On the days when Charming wasn’t walking the ridgepole of the shed, I sat in the shade making dishcloths.  My store-bought dish sponge/cloth that I have been using on the farm was falling apart, so I figured I could probably make one that worked as well or better than the store-bought ones.  So I cut some nylon netting that I already had (the kind you might use to make wedding flowers/decorations) into a long continuous strip about 1-inch wide.  Then, using the strip of netting, I knit two squares that measured about 6 ½” x 6 ½” each.  I also had some micro-fiber cloths that I had purchased a while ago at Harbor Freight.  I folded one cloth in half and then cut that in half, making a double-layered base for the dishcloths.  From there, I simply stitched, by hand, each micro-fiber square to a knitted square.  The result is the best dishcloth I have ever used.  The micro-fiber side is soft enough to wash dishes and wipe down counter tops, without scratching, while the knitted nylon side is perfect for scrubbing pots and pans.  After I got home, I made more of these using my sewing machine to sew the parts together.  With very little effort to make them, these dishcloths will last much longer and do a better job than the store-bought kind.

An unfortunate result of sitting my luxury butt in the shade of the pines trees while the husband is hard at work on a building project is that pine sap can sometimes fall from the places on the tree where limbs have been cut.  And that is just what happened!  The ooey-gooey stuff could have fallen anywhere…on the ground or on my shoulder or leg or arm or even on the project I was working on and I really wouldn’t have been put out, but of course the pine sap landed just about two inches over my right ear IN MY HAIR really close to the scalp!!!  The worst part about it was that I didn’t find out about it until the next day.  (I have long hair that reaches just about to my waist.  When we’re at the farm, I brush it out in the morning, put it in a pony tail and wind it into a ball at the nape of my neck where it is secured with a claw-clip.  It stays like this until I take it down before going to bed at night.) So I was absolutely panicked at the thought of having to cut out a chunk of hair that would leave an obvious blank/empty/BALD spot.  That might not look out of the ordinary for a teenager, but for a fifty-something like me…oh, no!  Charming assured me that his trusty bottle of “Goo Gone” would take it out and that he would spray it on for me as soon as we got home.  Now, I’m not sure what the ingredients are in “Goo Gone,” but I was sure I didn’t want to end up with pink, purple, or green hair.  That would be almost as bad as a bald spot.  So as soon as we got home, Charming went to get the “Goo Gone” while I dashed to my computer.  I did a quick search on “removing pine sap from hair” and, wonder of wonders, there was a remedy that didn’t include “Goo Gone”.  Peanut butter!  The advice said to rub the peanut butter into the affected area then let it sit for 5 – 10 minutes.  I rushed to the kitchen and snatched the peanut butter from the cabinet just as Charming was coming towards me with the “Goo Gone” poised in the air.  Backing away from him, I said “Ummmm…let’s try this first, honey.  Nothing beats a try but a failure…and my hair might possibly stay the same lovely shade of orangey-brown-dishwater blonde that it has always been.”  Although he looked a bit disappointed about not getting to use the “Goo Gone,” he painstakingly plastered my sap-coated hair lightly with the creamy JIF (thank goodness, I don’t like the crunchy kind of peanut butter because that would’ve created an additional problem of trying to remove peanut bits from my hair).  He then suggested we watch a TV show while the peanut butter “worked”.  As soon as the TV program was over, I took a warm shower and the pine sap washed right out with the peanut butter.  As I grow older, I’m constantly amazed that you really do learn something new every day!

On our next visit to the farm, Charming is hoping to get the rest of the T1-11 on the sides of the building and some of the shingles put on the roof.  After that, he’ll just need to finish off the eaves, complete the trim work and paint.  Somewhere in the middle of all of that, we are going to build a new chimney for the house.  It will be just a simple cinderblock-type, but because we can only set a few blocks each day due to the required drying time, that’ll take a while to complete as well.  So stay tuned…I’m finding that there is always more work to be done on a farm!

  

The ball of netting, micro-fiber cloth, and knitting needles to make the dishcloth.

The dishcloth measures about 6 1/2" x 6 1/2"...not too big, not too small!

I stitched the knitted netting piece to the micro-fiber piece, by hand, using crochet thread.

Two dishcloths...one side has a nylon "scrubber" side & the other a soft micro-fiber side.

On the 1st side, Charming nails plywood over the trusses.

From a ladder inside the 2nd level, he pulled plywood up the outside wall with a rope & nailed them into place.

Next, he installed short pieces of 2"x4" for the eaves, to help shed water.

Finally, moisture barrier was nailed into place.  The tip-top of the roof was the scary part.

Ready for remaining T1-11 siding & shingles to be done during our next visit.

Rafters and Swatters…

August 19, 2016

The trusses on the shed are finally in place, so now it’s really beginning to look like a real farm building.  Although building the shed seems to be taking a long time to complete, we are saving a ton of money by building it with our own “sweat equity” (as they call it on the home renovation shows).  Actually, to give credit where credit is due, Charming’s sweat equity is what is getting the shed completed.  I fill the “go getter” role…as in, “go get me the drill” or “go get me more nails”.  I willingly do whatever I can to help out as Charming is definitely the brains and brawn part of this particular task.  I’m certain this shed will last for the rest of our lifetime and probably a lot longer than that as Charming would rather over-engineer than take any short cuts.  He really impresses me with his work ethic and talent.

While Charming has been putting up the trusses, I’ve tried to find projects that keep me busy and still allow me to stay close by in case he needs me for anything or to provide Band-Aids when he gets injured (so far one smashed thumb and one whack on the forehead by a C-clamp that was attached to a truss…Owwwweee!)  Except for quick trips to the camper to fix a meal or fetch Charming a snack or something to drink, I stay as close as possible.  Being the fair-skinned Irish lass that I am, I try to find the coolest and shadiest spot possible where I spend my time reading, knitting or killing flies.  Due to my enthusiastic attempts to rid the entire farm of any type of flying or crawling insect, my fly swatter had gotten to the point where it was almost torn in half.  Because I found myself falling asleep while reading and I had brought the wrong size of knitting needles with me to start a new knitting project, I decided that it was time to repair my sad-looking fly swatter.  You might think that repairing a forty-seven-cent fly swatter is ridiculous, but keep in mind that the farm is at least forty-five minutes and one big, curvy mountain from the nearest Wal-Mart.  So I decided to repair the old raggedy one.  I used about four yards of a plastic-type twine that came from a huge ball of the stuff that charming had bought at a yard sale for $4.00.  Although it did take me about an hour to repair the swatter, it works better than ever.  The bugs now live in fear of me and my funky fly swatter!!!

A few weeks ago, I noticed some jewel weed growing under the back deck of the house at the farm.  I decided to pick some to make jewel weed soap.  Finding a patch of it right under my nose is much better than having to get in the car and scout out the area for jewel weed as I do at our current house (or grow my own in a flower pot as I’ve also done).  Anyhow, I pulled some of the jewel weed and brought it home to make soap.  The soap is now ready for use and it turned out wonderfully well.  I changed my soap recipe to include a bit of coconut oil, which makes the soap lather up much better and the color of the soap is a rich tan color.  I’m not sure if it will work as well or better than my original recipe, but all that lather makes me think that it will work better…and that’s what counts.

To give you a quick update on our diets.  As you may recall, Charming is on a vegan (almost no fat) diet and I’m on a vegetarian diet (Mountain Girl can’t seem to let go of her butter, eggs, and cheese).  Earlier this week, Charming had a routine appointment with his doctor.  We got lab results yesterday and they were excellent.  Total cholesterol level was 119, triglycerides were 73, and glucose was 84.  Six months ago, his total cholesterol level was 164, triglycerides were 338, and glucose was 96.  So that’s quite a change considering he has only been on the diet for less than three months.  The doctor was also impressed that Charming had lost 29 pounds since his last appointment.  These lab results are the lowest he’s had in years…possibly ever.  The best part is that we are eating plenty of food that is actually good for us.  I guess Charming’s lab results are proof that when we eat the food that God intended us to eat, then our lives (and labs) improve!

One final thing that I think is cute.  Our dog, Jax, loves being able to roam freely at the farm.  First thing in the morning, he goes for a walk by himself around the property…down the road to visit the neighbor dogs, into the woods to chase anything that moves, and up the hillside across from the farm.  He does all of this in about 10 or 15 minutes.  Afterwards, he always comes trotting up the driveway with his tail bouncing in the air.  It reminds me of a small child who has just gotten off of the school bus after a good day at school.  Unfortunately, at our current home, we have to confine him within our small town lot.  A while back, Charming installed an “invisible fence” type of system and Jax has to wear a special collar that “reminds” him to stay inside the fence.  We remove this collar whenever we leave to go to the farm, but we keep it in the truck so that we can put it back on him when we return home.  Otherwise, we risk his getting loose and being hit by a car.  Well, at some point during our trip to the farm, the collar must have fallen out of the truck and onto the ground because we couldn’t find it anywhere in the truck.  So we had to use his regular leash to take him from the truck into the house.  We also had to take him out several more times on the leash before bedtime.  The following morning, we were shocked when Jax picked up the leash in his mouth and brought it to us.  What a smart dog…not to mention absolutely adorable!  

Front side of the shed with finished trusses.  Yay!

Side view.  We've also added more of the T1-11 siding to make it stronger.

Opposite side and back of shed.  Doors & windows will be cut out later.

Hmmm...looks like Charming left blocks of wood scattered on the floor.

Then I realized...He attached the blocks to the floor on purpose...

to hold each truss in place so they would all be the same...such a smart man!

.

My poor raggedy fly swatter prior to my repair.

The string I used...handy to tie up tomato plants, repair fly swatters & other stuff.

So attractive the flies don't even mind being swatted...at least I've had no complaints.

Our intelligent boy, bringing his leash and asking to go outside.

My latest batch of jewel weed soap.  Silicone molds provide cute shapes.

Our home-grown tomatoes.  Grown from heirloom seeds.  No pesticides, no Miracle-Gro.

Even though I've not taken care of the garden, the tomatoes are heavy on the vines.

Seedling markers got displaced on the drive to the farm, but I think this is a "Mortgage Lifter".

A Fungus Among Us (Well, More Like A Virus)…

August 9, 2016

Since my last post, Charming and I have both suffered (and I do mean suffered) with a bout of some kind of flu virus…or, as we have come to call it, “The Crud”.  I’m blaming this virus on Wal-Mart as that seems to have been the likely place that I picked it up.  While we were at the farm, Charming needed to make a thunder run to Lowe’s to buy more lumber and, since Wal-Mart was in the same shopping center, I ran in Wal-Mart to pick up a few food items that we needed.  Because we no other contact with any other humans in the six days we were at the farm, I’m assuming someone with this bugaboo passed it on to me and hundreds of other unsuspecting folks.  I will never again laugh at my sister (who just happens to be a nurse) for her fixation with wiping shopping carts with Clorox wipes.

I laid around for about a week moaning and whining about how sick/tired/awful I felt.  As I started to feel a bit better, Charming started the same moaning and whining about how sick/tired/awful he felt.  Luckily, I could walk him through all the stages of the virus like on the second day after he realized he was sick…”Don’t plan anything for tomorrow because all you’re going to be able to do is sprawl your poor self on the couch.”  And on the third day, “You need to take some Ibuprofen right now to head off the inflammation that’s going to clog up your head.”  Then on the fourth, fifth, and sixth days, “Be sure to sleep with the cough drops on your nightstand because you’re going to need them during the night.”  I must say that I was right in every instance and Charming was dutifully amazed at how well I walked him through the illness.  I just love being the bossy wife!

Due to the Crud, we haven’t gotten much done at the farm.  Charming got two more trusses put on the shed and he got the field mowed with the tractor.  I managed to dig potatoes in between bouts of residual coughing.  (Luckily, though, the exercise of digging the potatoes made my nose run so it actually helped to clear my head congestion.) 

We are both steadily getting better so I hope to have more pictures for my next post.

End trusses & two inside trussed, plus two sheets of T1-11 siding in place.

 

Not a bad haul considering how few potatoes we planted.