Foul Weather

As I write this there are multiple tornadoes on the ground in Oklahoma and Kansas. We are forecast to get severe weather this evening into the overnight hours.  It was only last Sunday that Joplin Missouri was struck by a devastating EF5 tornado causing loss of life of over 100 people.

St Johns Mercy Hospital - Med Flight Helicopter

We become complacent when the tornado sirens go off and nothing happens.  How many times have you gone to your basement or shelter only to emerge with nothing worse than a little rain or wind has come through?  As this tornado proves we cannot become complacent.  If you live in a city or town with tornado sirens heed their warning.  Those of us in more rural areas should without a doubt invest in a weather radio.  There are multiple models available for a relatively modest price.  There are alternatives such as Notify through the Weather Channel.  The cost is small and they will call you when severe weather is in your area or approaching your area.  Many local television stations offer this same service.

We never know when or if a life threatening situation is going to occur. That is why it is important to always be prepared.  Have several flashlights with rechargeable batteries.  Keep some leather gloves and other supplies in a location you can reach quickly when you need to seek shelter.  We keep a large, well stocked first aid bag, flash lights, an axe, and sledge hammer in the basement in our designated spot for tornadoes.

Talk with your extended family before disaster strikes.  Where is your rally point?  How are you going to know one another is okay?  Does everyone in your extended family have a basement or tornado shelter?  Find out.  Ask them where they would go so that if something did happen you would have a starting point as to where to look for them.

Nearly everyone has cell phones now.  Do you know your family members numbers?  We do not have to remember phone numbers anymore because we have contact lists on our phones.  Maybe it would be a good idea to write down everyones phone number and keep it with your "disaster kit". 

Tornadoes will continue to occur.  They may be as small as EF0 up to the dreaded killer EF5.  We know they are going to happen.  Just because it has never happened in your town does not mean it is not going to happen.  Ask the people who used to live in Picher Oklahoma, Joplin Missouri, Reading Kansas, Parsons Kansas, Frontenac Kansas.  I imagine there where people in each of those towns who thought it would never happen to them.

Something to think about.  Stay safe.

A Forced Break From the Homestead

There has been little progress since my last posting.  Jenn and the girls went out and mowed and watered the berry bushes.  Jenn managed to get some trails cut through the woods from the front to back of our property.  We have a wet weather spring that cuts our property in half which is going to require a culvert and some gravel so that we can access the back of our property without having to use the four wheel drive.  I plan on building some foot bridges over the springs and creeks that flow throughout the woods but that will be at a later time.

Our current method of watering the plants

 

 

As you can see from the picture our current method of watering is inefficient and costly.  We have to pay sewer charges for every gallon of water we use not matter if we are using it to water or irrigate and it costs more in fuel to pull a trailer with 400 gallons of water.  I am designing a gravity fed drip irrigation system which should reduce the burden of watering in periods of dry weather.  When we have our basement dug we are going to put in a pond just below the berry patch to use as a water source for irrigation but that will be sometime down the road.

This picture above shows the pass from the front to the back of our property.  The wet weather spring flows from the left (north) side of the picture to the south and eventually ends up in a decent sized creek.  While I do enjoy the four wheeling to get from one side to the other it is rather inconvenient and a pain when I get something stuck.  My property line is actually in the middle of the picture.  The people who own the property to our south purchased it so they could access their property to the east of us.  I would love to own that section of property as it would allow us to expand our berry patches, give us access to the creek to use as a source of irrigation, and give us a little more land to use as pasture. 

Hopefully I recover from this pneumonia soon.  I would like to place a public awareness ad here in regards to burning of brush.  The type of pneumonia I acquired cultured out as staph and an unknown as yet type of fungus which I more than likely acquired while burning brush.  When burning brush take care to stay out of the smoke and be aware of what you are burning.

There will be no more progress for at least the next week while I recover.  I am using my time to review to plans to the cabin and options for our house when we eventually build. 

Untill next time....Michael

 

Finishing the floor at the cabin

Well we thought we would wait a few days until we went back out to finish the final details on the floor joists and lay the sub floor.  I had a little mishap after leaving the farm the last time we were out. I was about 10 miles outside of town when the tread decided to separate from the top of the tire. For some stupid reason  I had thrown the spare trailer tire and jack into the back of the Jeep which Jenn had. Problem was, I could not get a call thru to her.  I noticed the tire was still holding air so Race and I made a very slow trip home at about 5 mph.  As soon as I backed into the yard the tire blew.  Talk about someone being on my side that day.

My shift Tuesday was busy but I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep so my impatience got the better of me so I made a date with my wife to meet me in town to pick up some more materials and head out . We met up at the local big box construction store and here is what we picked up.

It's hard to tell be there are 2x4"'s in the back of the truck as well as all the flooring.  We had some load on there and with the way the wind was blowing we had to make a few stops along the way to retie the tie down straps.

We made it out to the site without any major problems.  I had a few loose ends to tie up before I could start lying the floor. We had decided to build the cabin so that it could be moved at sometime if the need arose.  This required building the cabin on "runners" or beams that are 4x6.  I placed three beams the full 16 foot length and upgraded the floor joists to 2x6's.  For all the piers we dug down below frost level, removed any organic material and tamped gravel until it was level. we then used patio blocks and on top of those the prefabricated pier blocks which the beams ride on.  In order to move it in the future or in the off chance it settles we can jack the cabin up or down and remove or add blocks, whatever the case be.  A good sized tractor should be able to pull it anywhere I wish to place it.

notice the use of the jack to get the joist level

This photo show the pier blocks I am speaking of. There are a total of 9 just for the cabin itself. The porch will require 3 more.  Prior to getting started I wanted to check and ensure we remained square and level as we had a lot of rain recently.  Lucky me we were.  We finished added the three remaining pier blocks with 4x4 blocks.  I checked everything over and found that we had missed nailing a few of the blocking boards so that was completed and we were ready to begin the flooring.

More interested in the water

Another of my apprentices assisting in securing the rim joists and blocking.

Getting the first piece straight and square was the hardest part of the day.  After that it was a simple matter of laying a bead of adhesive down and then nailing down the floor.

 Moving right along.  At the point I am on the second row of sub flooring.

Who me?  I made a mistake of letting Race have a drink from my Pepsi so now he thinks that when I have a drink it is his and he "allows" me to have drinks.

 Laying down the construction adhesive.  This floor should not come up!

Getting closer to being done for the day.

laying the last piece!  And yes I will and braces at the piers with posts

 Now that the floor has been installed it is time to review the plans for the framing. I was planning on starting framing but my unexpected hospital stay ruined those plans.
 

Race gave me his sign of approval

Jenn and I completed placing all of the wood for framing and the completed sub-floor under a tarp to keep the water off of it.  Lets hope it holds up with the wind we have been having.

This will be the view from the front porch of the cabin, except for all the butts of course.  It does not take long for raspberry plants to grow.














So we are at the end of this phase and at the beginning of a new one.  Our priorities are getting the cabin framed in and a roof over it's head.  We also have to work on an irrigation system to water all of the plants.  I had originally planned on starting the framing this week but with this nasty bug I have I can't walk ten feet and get short of breath .  After spending four days in the hospital I can act as armchair foreman however and let the girls bang some nails!

Thanks for stopping by, recommend my site to your friends, add a link to your blog in the comments and I will do the same for you.  Until next time..

Michael

The Mother Day Workout

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Mothers Day Workout

Mothers day.  A day to honor mothers for all of the hard work, dedication, and sacrifices they make.  My wonderful wife gave up her day to rest and relax and instead spent the day hard working at the homestead.  As soon as I got off duty I headed to Wal-Mart to pick up another tape measure as mine has finally given up the ghost.  I'll admit I also picked up her card for Mothers Day, and no I wasn't the only daddy to wait until the last minute. The girls and I met up at the land.  Jenn and the girls had packed all the equipment we needed and loaded the trailer.  We managed to make it out with everything we needed which was a first.

The plan was to mow, clear and burn more brush, water all the berries, add mulch around the berries, work on the cabin, and have a cookout with hot dogs and then roast some marsh mellows.

I started off by cutting some brush, trees, and low hanging limbs from around the cabin site.  We then pulled all the brush onto our burn area and stacked all the wood I cut into firewood.

I was worn out as we had a busy shift and had not gotten much sleep so I decided to start mowing since that takes the least amount of energy.  The girls began loading mulch and water onto the trailer so they could begin watering and mulching.  We realized we need to get the irrigation system designed and in place. It takes way too much time and effort hauling water.  Last fall we had to use a large tank to haul water to the site to water the plants. We have had so much rain our "wet weather" spring has been flowing non-stop.  The only problem is getting the water from the spring to where we need it so the girls have to load bottles, buckets, bins, and everything in between to water all of the berry plants we have. 

Race watering the berries

Race decided he wanted to ride on the mower with me.  Up until now it had scared him and he stayed well away from it.  He seemed to enjoy his couple of laps around the back lot and that was enough.
Disclaimer: it is dangerous to allow a child to ride on a mower.  They could fall off, be run over, or multiple other horrible things could happen.  Now that I got that out of the way every father enjoys that first time his boy wants to ride on a mower or tractor with him.

teaching Lacie how to operate the lawn tractor

Jenn and Lacie also wanted to mow so I just mowed for a little while and gave it up to them.  I was a bit nervous as they had never used this lawn tractor but they quickly got the hang of it and finished the mowing.

My apprentice carpenter

My carpenter apprentices, my girls but mainly Lacie, are learning.  The biggest hurdle we've had is with reading the tape measure but she will get better with practice.

 After I got off the mower Lacie and I got to work on the cabin.  The remaining floor joists were installed, the rim joists installed, and even though the plans didn't call for it we placed 2x6 blocking between every floor joist at the front, middle, and back support beam.  This stiffened the floor joists and will prevent any twisting or racking.  Of note the plans I purchased called for 2x4 floor joists, I did not feel that was adequate and after consulting span charts decided to use 2x6's instead.  This floor will not have any sag and after my upgrading it is nice and stiff.









We broke for our cookout and had a nice lunch.  We finally ended up leaving around six pm.  After not having much sleep the night before and putting in a full days work I was exhausted and ready to get home.  Everything was loaded and we headed out.

Preparing lunch

After lunch relaxation

And of course some reading

 The cabin is nearly ready for flooring.  After we complete some minor details the floor will be laid and we can start framingl

A full days work

The Cabin is more than a dream

After putting in a twenty four hour shift with many calls and little sleep I had little motivation to get started. However since we had a plan to get out there and get our needed work done I pushed ahead and put my weariness behind me.

The truck and trailer had been loaded prior to my leaving for work.  Jennifer headed over after she dropped off the kids at school.  After getting off duty I headed to Sutherlands.  I had to purchase the 4x6 beams, concrete block, and precast pier blocks.  I was in luck because they were just preparing to leave on a delivery near my land and they delivered my load for free.
I headed out to the land to await my wife and materials.  The delivery showed up first and my wife pulled up just as we unloaded the last of the 30 concrete blocks. 

The plan for the day was for Jenn to mow, burn a couple of our larger brush piles, water the blueberries, raspberries, and of course start on the cabin.  We managed to get to the land with everything we needed except the weed trimmer, my tool belt, and a few more 2x6 boards I needed for floor and rim joists.  Not to bad considering all we took.

After Jenn arrived we unloaded my trailer and reloaded the beams, piers, concrete blocks, and generator.  The pass from the front to back of our land is still swampy.  We had no problems with getting through it with the 4x4.

It was too windy to burn the large brush piles but we had another pile we were able to burn without fear of igniting a forest fire.  If we ever have a fire in our woods it will be a major problem.  Our current practice of immediately extinguishing fires leads to worse fires with the build up of dead leaves and materials on the forest floor.
Once we prepared our equipment and unloaded the supplies we got to work.  Jenn multitasked by tending the fire, assisting me when I needed it, and mowing.

I had already prepared several of the holes for the pier foundation.  We dug down three feet and removed all organic materials.  The dirt was tamped and we added several inches of gravel.  We then used 4x8 solid concrete blocks and set the precast concrete piers.  I did not want to use posts because we may want to move the cabin in the future.

The first beam was set and leveled and ten the fun began.  It took longer to get it all square than anything.  We managed to get the beams set and began setting the 2x6 floor joists.  I got all but three set.  If  I would've had the forgotten ones I would've finished.

The cabin is 12x16 with an additional four foot porch along the entire front.  It is sitting just in the woods on the north side of the property on the high side and faces south overlooking the berry field.
I didn't finish everything I wanted, I had also wanted to get the deer fence up around the garden I am happy with what progress was made considering the amount of hours I've been working.  The plan for the next few weeks is to get the floor on and the walls framed.  I'm attaching pictures but considering I'm updating this on my phone I may need to get on the computer later to resize them.

This will be the view from our front porch

Lacie is a very hard worker as long as she did not spy any nearby reptiles needing captured

Race needing some love

I am hard at it getting on the floor joists

Lacie marking out locations for floor joists

My lovely wife multitasking

Raspberries Added to the farm

Yesterday was a very productive day at the homestead. The girls got all the raspberry plants in the ground.  We started with two forty foot rows. They are a red ever bearing plant called Polka.  I mentioned in a previous post that we are using a no till method for the raspberry plants. It is a very easy method so we will see how it works out.

The plan for this week is to plant two more forty foot rows of raspberries which will be the Heritage variety which is also a highly rated plant.  This will give us a total of close to fifty raspberry plants, a pretty good start for our first year.

The blueberries are looking good as well.  Needless to say I am praying for rain over the next few weeks to minimize the need to haul water.  We are also planning on getting the cabin started at least the foundation, beams, and floor joists set.  Wish us luck as it is a lot on the list.  I failed to mention we are also doing sheet rock work and painting at the house.

Polka raspberry plants

Work Day at the Homestead

We began our day early. I got off work on time and headed straight home. The trailer was loaded with the mower, gas can, shovel, and peat moss. I learned my lesson last time we planted blueberries and brought along a two wheel dolly. Compressed bales of peat are not light and I didn't feel like lugging them around.
Once we finished loading the berries and Race's toys we were good to go.  I didn't let in to the fact that I was worried about the condition of the pass from the front of our property to the rear. As you may recall we have a wet weather spring and it just so happens to run across this pass.

Once we arrived at the land it was quickly apparent it was no longer just a stream but a full on marsh. I was not about to give in and park in the front of our property and have to carry everything to the back half of our five acres.  I switched on the four wheel drive, my wife hid her eyes with her hands and away we went.  With just a little slipping and sliding we made it across the marsh.

I had already prepared the rows for the blueberries by tilling so it was a simple matter of making the mounds and mixing in the peat.  It took awhile but we got all the plants in the ground and watered.

We decided on the location for the raspberry patch. We are using a no till method which involves spraying the  intended row with roundup.  The plants can be planted the day after spraying but it will be a few days until we make it back out there.  We are starting off with two forty foot rows of raspberry plants which should be a pretty good start. I managed to burn off two brush piles and mowed the back part of the property so we had a fairly productive day.

Jenn preparing the hole

Race inspecting the results