What farm would be complete without chickens? Kris is all excited by the idea and has chicken pamphlets from the grain stores. The one from Tractor Supply has color pictures of each breed and gives you a blurb on their high points. The big high point for all of them is the price. $2.49 to $2.99 for chickens, $3.99 for Guinea hens, $4.99 for ducks, Turkeys are $8.99 and you can get a goose for the same price. (Lets all just leave the "goose" price alone. Proves my theory that our humor develepment stops when we reach fourteen.)
So based on the prices for chicks, it makes absolutely no economic sense to own chickens and therefore, they are a must have for our farm. By the time I build a chicken coup and get feeders and waterers etc., we will have the price per pound of chicken on the hoof up near $10. Well, at least we will know what they ate. So what will they eat?
We have decided that we want them to be "free range" chickens and guinea hens (at $3.99 how can you pass guinea hens up?) Free range is all the rage in organic markets and higher end meat markets. Ours will have a cornucopia of things to munch on. Bugs will probably be one of the staples for sure, probably seeds and grasses, leaves and- always a chicken favorite- stuff they scratch out of the horse poop. This should give them a flavor you just can't get from commercial chicken feed. As poop goes, horse poop is not wet enough to support maggots from flies. Fly maggots are desirable for chicken protein in the more serious "free range" operations.
Cows on the other hand put out a wet manure ideal for maggots. If we are to progress past the "mom and pop" stage of free range chicken production, we will have to get a cow or two get our maggot production up to snuff. Sure, there will be the flies that make it past larvael stage, but once you start looking at flies as part of your feed program, you become more appreciative of them. "Wow, look at the meat on that sucker."
So, today, I will start the chicken coop and Kris will probably start looking at cows on line after she makes her pick of the chicks from the "final four." I'll be glad when March madness is over.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Sugar House
Somehow I have managed to live in Maine most of my adult life and never visit a sugar house in the spring. Years ago, we actually made a pint of maple syrup, but for one reason or another, I just never got around to examining a real sugaring operation. When the kids were at an age when they might have found it interesting, there were greenhouses to contend with and once they were running and filled with plants you didn't go anywhere as a family group. Someone had to stay there just in case the furnace decided to have a bad day.
So, when Kris suggested a trip to visit a sugar house, I thought it sounded like fun. It would round out my education in an area that had been lacking for years. Plus, we would end up with real maple syrup for my sourdough pancakes. Normally, we would be way too cheap to buy real syrup, but since it would be the culmination of an educational trip, I suspected we would succumb to temptation.
The closest sugaring operation that appeared interesting was in Dover Foxcroft, "Bob's Sugar House". "Bob" had quite a good website and we would have to drive by the new Tractor Supply store on outer Broadway in Bangor (always a fun stop) and go through Corinth, a nice farmy area, to get to "Bob's". It's too bad Bob didn't have a more interesting name. Something a little more unique to Maine- like Lyman or something. Well, you can't really fault him for that so, we piled into the Ford Ranger and headed off. The money we saved in gas from taking the ranger instead of the GMC would, we reasoned, help pay for the syrup. (very sound financial planning).
It had been in the upper teens over night and it was still chilly with bright sunshine, heading for the mid-thirties, great sugaring weather. It was a nice drive and Tractor Supply still had the side by side four wheeler with a dump body for $5995(for some reason that's comforting, although I have no intentions of buying it.)
Anyway, after a very pleasant drive we arrived at "Bob's" sugar house, in downtown Dover Foxcroft.
In my mind's eye, sugar houses were located in the woods at the base of hills which were covered in sugar maples and tubes ran down the hill to the sugar house where wood smoke and steam filled the air. After a short walk into the woods, you would arrive at a rustic building that smelled sweetly of maple. It just hadn't occurred to me that E. Main street in Dover was a suitable sugar house location, so I was surprised to find that "Bob's" was an urban operation.
Steam was pouring forth, but Bob had switched from wood to oil and no smell of wood smoke at Bob's. I am sure the neighbors appreciate that, but I am guessing that Bob may be wishing he had stuck with wood at these oil prices. Inside the building, Bob had a rustic decor and, as advertised, a large evaporator making syrup. The evaporator was an all stainless box with a hood. Except for the steam, there was no evidence to indicate what was going on. I am sure the state health inspector gets warm fuzzy feelings when he sees such a sterile operation, but I thought sugaring may be losing some of its charm.
Bob did have good free snacks, always a hit with us retirees, and in addition to syrup, we bought a couple of maple walnut truffles that were really good. I am guessing "Bob's" decision to locate in town was a good financial decision since there is more impulse traffic around during the season than there is in the woods.
Still, to us destination sugar house customers, a hillside and a wood fired evaporator that had a lot less stainless parts would have been nice.
Well, I gotta run, we're having sourdough pancakes with real maple syrup. (Not the light colored stuff with no flavor, but the dark amber syrup that is loaded with it.)
So, when Kris suggested a trip to visit a sugar house, I thought it sounded like fun. It would round out my education in an area that had been lacking for years. Plus, we would end up with real maple syrup for my sourdough pancakes. Normally, we would be way too cheap to buy real syrup, but since it would be the culmination of an educational trip, I suspected we would succumb to temptation.
The closest sugaring operation that appeared interesting was in Dover Foxcroft, "Bob's Sugar House". "Bob" had quite a good website and we would have to drive by the new Tractor Supply store on outer Broadway in Bangor (always a fun stop) and go through Corinth, a nice farmy area, to get to "Bob's". It's too bad Bob didn't have a more interesting name. Something a little more unique to Maine- like Lyman or something. Well, you can't really fault him for that so, we piled into the Ford Ranger and headed off. The money we saved in gas from taking the ranger instead of the GMC would, we reasoned, help pay for the syrup. (very sound financial planning).
It had been in the upper teens over night and it was still chilly with bright sunshine, heading for the mid-thirties, great sugaring weather. It was a nice drive and Tractor Supply still had the side by side four wheeler with a dump body for $5995(for some reason that's comforting, although I have no intentions of buying it.)
Anyway, after a very pleasant drive we arrived at "Bob's" sugar house, in downtown Dover Foxcroft.
In my mind's eye, sugar houses were located in the woods at the base of hills which were covered in sugar maples and tubes ran down the hill to the sugar house where wood smoke and steam filled the air. After a short walk into the woods, you would arrive at a rustic building that smelled sweetly of maple. It just hadn't occurred to me that E. Main street in Dover was a suitable sugar house location, so I was surprised to find that "Bob's" was an urban operation.
Steam was pouring forth, but Bob had switched from wood to oil and no smell of wood smoke at Bob's. I am sure the neighbors appreciate that, but I am guessing that Bob may be wishing he had stuck with wood at these oil prices. Inside the building, Bob had a rustic decor and, as advertised, a large evaporator making syrup. The evaporator was an all stainless box with a hood. Except for the steam, there was no evidence to indicate what was going on. I am sure the state health inspector gets warm fuzzy feelings when he sees such a sterile operation, but I thought sugaring may be losing some of its charm.
Bob did have good free snacks, always a hit with us retirees, and in addition to syrup, we bought a couple of maple walnut truffles that were really good. I am guessing "Bob's" decision to locate in town was a good financial decision since there is more impulse traffic around during the season than there is in the woods.
Still, to us destination sugar house customers, a hillside and a wood fired evaporator that had a lot less stainless parts would have been nice.
Well, I gotta run, we're having sourdough pancakes with real maple syrup. (Not the light colored stuff with no flavor, but the dark amber syrup that is loaded with it.)
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Sourdough Pancakes
During the Alaskan gold rush, sourdough pancakes are mentioned often and seem to be inseparable from the story. Seeing if the flavor deserved the elevation from breakfast possibility for hungry prospecters to a legend would be fun. So, we looked up a recipe for sourdough pancakes and made some. Well, they are wonderul.
They are not like conventional baking powder pancakes, anymore than a yeast raised dinner roll is like a baking powder biscuit or a cake doughnut is like a yeast raised doughnut. They are simply a different animal.
The simple recipe is this:
Take a couple of cups of sourdough starter and put in a large mixing bowl
Add about the same amount of milk.
Stir in a couple of tablespoons of sugar and maybe a squirt of honey
Put in a scant tablespoon of salt
Add a quarter cup of cooking oil
Add a half teaspoon to a teaspoon of baking soda. (this is to mitigate some of the sourness of your sourdough. It is optional and a matter of taste.)
Now, add flour (whole wheat or white) until it makes a batter you like the consistency of. Thin batter-thin pancakes. Thick batter thick pancakes.
Be careful with the flour, it will take very little since your starter is already filled with flour.
Now just cook like a normal pancake. If you opted for the thicker pancakes, you will have to cook them longer than a baking powder pancake. Flip them a couple of times if you need to to keep them cooking without burning.
Depending on your ratio of milk to starter, the pancakes will have a bit of beer flavor. Straight starter will taste very beer like. The consistency of the pancakes wiil be more pliable and breadlike. They make great wraps later in the day. We let them cool and put them in a baggy in the fridge. Peanut butter and jelly wraps are a favorite, but any sandwich filling is great.
If you are going to eat all the pancakes for breakfast, I like a shake of cinnamin in the pancakes. As wraps, the cinnamon works for peanut butter but not so good for chicken salad.
When making these do not bother to measure anything. It is just a waste of time. These are worth the effort and even if you never make bread with your sourdough starter are a good reason to have one in your fridge.
Starter if you don't have one: A cup of flour, cup of milk or water, and package of yeast. Leave out for a couple of days, and feed it with a mix of equal parts of flour and milk with teaspoon of sugar. Put into fridge. Feed once a week (same mix). Pull out the day before you want to use it for bread. Temperature is what makes the yeast active. Good Luck
DO NOT seal the jar or container you keep your starter in. It will EXPLODE!
They are not like conventional baking powder pancakes, anymore than a yeast raised dinner roll is like a baking powder biscuit or a cake doughnut is like a yeast raised doughnut. They are simply a different animal.
The simple recipe is this:
Take a couple of cups of sourdough starter and put in a large mixing bowl
Add about the same amount of milk.
Stir in a couple of tablespoons of sugar and maybe a squirt of honey
Put in a scant tablespoon of salt
Add a quarter cup of cooking oil
Add a half teaspoon to a teaspoon of baking soda. (this is to mitigate some of the sourness of your sourdough. It is optional and a matter of taste.)
Now, add flour (whole wheat or white) until it makes a batter you like the consistency of. Thin batter-thin pancakes. Thick batter thick pancakes.
Be careful with the flour, it will take very little since your starter is already filled with flour.
Now just cook like a normal pancake. If you opted for the thicker pancakes, you will have to cook them longer than a baking powder pancake. Flip them a couple of times if you need to to keep them cooking without burning.
Depending on your ratio of milk to starter, the pancakes will have a bit of beer flavor. Straight starter will taste very beer like. The consistency of the pancakes wiil be more pliable and breadlike. They make great wraps later in the day. We let them cool and put them in a baggy in the fridge. Peanut butter and jelly wraps are a favorite, but any sandwich filling is great.
If you are going to eat all the pancakes for breakfast, I like a shake of cinnamin in the pancakes. As wraps, the cinnamon works for peanut butter but not so good for chicken salad.
When making these do not bother to measure anything. It is just a waste of time. These are worth the effort and even if you never make bread with your sourdough starter are a good reason to have one in your fridge.
Starter if you don't have one: A cup of flour, cup of milk or water, and package of yeast. Leave out for a couple of days, and feed it with a mix of equal parts of flour and milk with teaspoon of sugar. Put into fridge. Feed once a week (same mix). Pull out the day before you want to use it for bread. Temperature is what makes the yeast active. Good Luck
DO NOT seal the jar or container you keep your starter in. It will EXPLODE!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Spring Snow
It's 4:00AM and I am waiting to see if the road is impassable. The trucks are parked out in Virgils driveway at the end of the road because of mud season, so we walk in and out anyway. Still, if there is enough snow, I am thinking a snow day may be in order if I can declare the road impassable. The frost has started to go out at the very beginning of our road where the town plow truck turns around. He should be stuck out there now. He went through the blacktop last year and made a big mud hole which the town filled with gravel for us. This year, there are already places where the crust is breaking and mud is oozing- waiting for a late snow to hide it from the unsuspecting plow truck man.
We don't get a lot of excitement on Jellison Ridge Road so I am tempted to walk out and see if there is a dump truck buried out at our end this morning. If I walk out I will have proved the road to be passable and have no real reason to stay home and make bread and finish this blog. There is probably four inches of snow on the road and if it weren't for the hidden soft spots, that wouldn't be enough to garner an impassable rating.
I am reaching here because I have a couple of things I really need to take care of and staying home would give me the time. Both horses need to have their feet rasped and the tack that has been unused all winter is covered in dust and maybe some mold. It needs cleaning and a good coat of neatsfoot oil so, when we can finally go riding, everything will be ready. The snow base has retreated at an amazing rate before this latest snow storm and I want to get some good rides in before I have to go over and help Walter support the other half of his barn. In another week the floors I am working on will be done and the weather will have turned noticeably warmer with highs in the fifties--nice riding weather.
I mentioned the ride last weekend in the last post. Kris has been pestering me to add what she considers the high point of that ride. (Yes, this is the ride where we just sat on the horses and didn't go anywhere.) Since this was the first ride since last fall and I was expecting a bit of a rodeo from Belle, so I was surprised when she didn't walk off at first sight of the saddle and bridle. We don't tie them up when we saddle them. If they are going to protest going for a ride, it is easier if they just walk off, than if they get tied up for saddling and their protest starts after you have mounted. I've tried both ways and I prefer not tying them up.
Anyway after saddling Belle, I took her outside and flexed her from side to side and grabbed my foot and began guiding it into the stirrup. She stood patiently and watched me struggle to get my foot way up there. It is always a near thing if my foot will reach the stirrup or I will just fall over backwards as I teeter on one leg. It takes one hand to steady the stirrup and one to pull my foot up in the clouds beyond where it wants to go. I have to let go of the reins to do this so Belle is on her own. Fortunately, she is captivated by my struggles and probably as amazed as I am when I finally get my foot in the stirrup. So I gathered up the reins and with a big grunt lurched into the saddle. When I did, Belle squealed in surprise. Kris started laughing which took some of the satisfaction out of proving once again I could still get my horse.
"Ha, ha, ha, your horse squealed when you got on her. Ha, ha, ha, what do you think that means? Ha, ha, ha.
"I think she's just happy we are going riding again."
"Yeah, right. Ha, ha, ha."
We don't get a lot of excitement on Jellison Ridge Road so I am tempted to walk out and see if there is a dump truck buried out at our end this morning. If I walk out I will have proved the road to be passable and have no real reason to stay home and make bread and finish this blog. There is probably four inches of snow on the road and if it weren't for the hidden soft spots, that wouldn't be enough to garner an impassable rating.
I am reaching here because I have a couple of things I really need to take care of and staying home would give me the time. Both horses need to have their feet rasped and the tack that has been unused all winter is covered in dust and maybe some mold. It needs cleaning and a good coat of neatsfoot oil so, when we can finally go riding, everything will be ready. The snow base has retreated at an amazing rate before this latest snow storm and I want to get some good rides in before I have to go over and help Walter support the other half of his barn. In another week the floors I am working on will be done and the weather will have turned noticeably warmer with highs in the fifties--nice riding weather.
I mentioned the ride last weekend in the last post. Kris has been pestering me to add what she considers the high point of that ride. (Yes, this is the ride where we just sat on the horses and didn't go anywhere.) Since this was the first ride since last fall and I was expecting a bit of a rodeo from Belle, so I was surprised when she didn't walk off at first sight of the saddle and bridle. We don't tie them up when we saddle them. If they are going to protest going for a ride, it is easier if they just walk off, than if they get tied up for saddling and their protest starts after you have mounted. I've tried both ways and I prefer not tying them up.
Anyway after saddling Belle, I took her outside and flexed her from side to side and grabbed my foot and began guiding it into the stirrup. She stood patiently and watched me struggle to get my foot way up there. It is always a near thing if my foot will reach the stirrup or I will just fall over backwards as I teeter on one leg. It takes one hand to steady the stirrup and one to pull my foot up in the clouds beyond where it wants to go. I have to let go of the reins to do this so Belle is on her own. Fortunately, she is captivated by my struggles and probably as amazed as I am when I finally get my foot in the stirrup. So I gathered up the reins and with a big grunt lurched into the saddle. When I did, Belle squealed in surprise. Kris started laughing which took some of the satisfaction out of proving once again I could still get my horse.
"Ha, ha, ha, your horse squealed when you got on her. Ha, ha, ha, what do you think that means? Ha, ha, ha.
"I think she's just happy we are going riding again."
"Yeah, right. Ha, ha, ha."
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Mud Season
Does it seem fair that mud season follows winter? Well, the world is full examples of one trial following another. Child birth follows pregnancy, that seems like piling on to me. In a better balanced universe, after a woman's nine months of pregnancy, the man responsible would undergo child birth. Birth control would pretty much take care of itself.
So, mud season follows winter and is our version of spring. That doesn't seem quite right either. Mild southern winters should get followed by a mud season. We should go instantly to green grass, flowers and cookouts. The much ballyhooed "balance of nature" seems to be romantic fiction. Nature is much more prone to imbalances that test your endurance.
With certain reservations, mud season is one of our favorites at Missed Skeet Farm. It cuts way down on the traffic on our road since we block it off. Without that blockade, we would have to pull hapless sightseers out of the mud several times a week. With the blockade, we will only have to help a few people get out. I have mixed emotions about pulling these people out. Most are four wheel drive owners with an attitude. They rut up the road that I'll have to fix. The ruts allow water to run down the road instead of off the road, so they cause erosian and since the water stays in the road, mud season lasts longer.
This causes another imbalance in nature. No, not the erosian, this one: I get to pay for the repairs and do the work of fixing the road after a brilliant four wheel drive owner moves the barricade and heads on in for some "fun in the mud". Perhaps natural selection needs to do a bit more work in this area.
Anyway, we walk in for about 6 weeks and it is kind of fun. You feel intrepid when you overcome this bit of inconvenience. Most people walk for recreation and physical benefit. We walk out of necessity, but the recreation and physical benefits are still there, along with the satisfaction from overcoming adversity.
Mud makes wonderful adversity. It is transient, not particularly dangerous and can be shaped and molded into bricks. (We haven't tried the bricks, but it is tempting.)
One shortcoming of mud season I haven't solved yet is riding the horsses while it's going on. These ultimate four wheelers will go anywhere, but they dig up the road and make pockets in the mud that fill with water. This prolongs mud season and really damages the road. So yesterday, we saddled up the horses, mounted up and just sat on them. Riding without motion- safe, environmentally friendly, relaxing (for you and the horse) and the best part, our road is no worse for wear.
Another week or two will empty the woods of snow and our trails out back will be passable. We may be able to add motion to our riding skills.
Today, while the ground is still frosty, I will move horse manure with the tractor. This is another activity that mud season makes interesting. Winter piles up loads of manure. 13poops/day x 160days x 2horses= two trillion poops. As it thaws, you try to scrape it off the paddock before the animal welfare people arrive and take your horses. This means that every few days you need to get out there and scrape. This makes a mountain of future fertilizer that next years garden will appreciate.
So while mud season oozes with ooze, Kris and I will make the best of it by cooking and eating our way through it. Today, I am making sourdough pancakes. If you haven't tried these, they are delicious and not at all like regular pancakes. They have a beer bread flavor. The texture is different too. They are our new favorite weekend treat.
So, mud season follows winter and is our version of spring. That doesn't seem quite right either. Mild southern winters should get followed by a mud season. We should go instantly to green grass, flowers and cookouts. The much ballyhooed "balance of nature" seems to be romantic fiction. Nature is much more prone to imbalances that test your endurance.
With certain reservations, mud season is one of our favorites at Missed Skeet Farm. It cuts way down on the traffic on our road since we block it off. Without that blockade, we would have to pull hapless sightseers out of the mud several times a week. With the blockade, we will only have to help a few people get out. I have mixed emotions about pulling these people out. Most are four wheel drive owners with an attitude. They rut up the road that I'll have to fix. The ruts allow water to run down the road instead of off the road, so they cause erosian and since the water stays in the road, mud season lasts longer.
This causes another imbalance in nature. No, not the erosian, this one: I get to pay for the repairs and do the work of fixing the road after a brilliant four wheel drive owner moves the barricade and heads on in for some "fun in the mud". Perhaps natural selection needs to do a bit more work in this area.
Anyway, we walk in for about 6 weeks and it is kind of fun. You feel intrepid when you overcome this bit of inconvenience. Most people walk for recreation and physical benefit. We walk out of necessity, but the recreation and physical benefits are still there, along with the satisfaction from overcoming adversity.
Mud makes wonderful adversity. It is transient, not particularly dangerous and can be shaped and molded into bricks. (We haven't tried the bricks, but it is tempting.)
One shortcoming of mud season I haven't solved yet is riding the horsses while it's going on. These ultimate four wheelers will go anywhere, but they dig up the road and make pockets in the mud that fill with water. This prolongs mud season and really damages the road. So yesterday, we saddled up the horses, mounted up and just sat on them. Riding without motion- safe, environmentally friendly, relaxing (for you and the horse) and the best part, our road is no worse for wear.
Another week or two will empty the woods of snow and our trails out back will be passable. We may be able to add motion to our riding skills.
Today, while the ground is still frosty, I will move horse manure with the tractor. This is another activity that mud season makes interesting. Winter piles up loads of manure. 13poops/day x 160days x 2horses= two trillion poops. As it thaws, you try to scrape it off the paddock before the animal welfare people arrive and take your horses. This means that every few days you need to get out there and scrape. This makes a mountain of future fertilizer that next years garden will appreciate.
So while mud season oozes with ooze, Kris and I will make the best of it by cooking and eating our way through it. Today, I am making sourdough pancakes. If you haven't tried these, they are delicious and not at all like regular pancakes. They have a beer bread flavor. The texture is different too. They are our new favorite weekend treat.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Firewood 101
This should be an interesting day. We are running out of dry firewood before we run out of winter. Oh, I know it is a rookie mistake. We have been burning wood covered in snow and ice for a couple of weeks. Once the ice and snow melt it burns pretty well. We have plenty of firewood, it's just buried under several feet of snow. Not light fluffy snow, but something heavier, with a more glacial quality. Digging in it is done by breaking it up in chunks and throwing the chunks out of the way. It is making the wood shed move up on my list of construction projects. I had hoped by covering the wood piles with metal roofing, they would stay accessable and mostly dry.
I suppose I am unimaginative, but I didn't forsee the snow being deeper than the wood stack was tall. The possibility that I would have to dig down to reach a four foot stack of wood just whizzed right by me. It's March and we should see some melting and eventually, perhaps in Aril, I should be able to reach some of the tons of wood we have out in piles. In the mean time, I will dig out my chainsaw and cut some standing dead wood to get us by. I am hoping that I can stand on the snow crust, cut the trees down and buck them up. This will have to be near enough to our drive way or road that I can toss the pieces into the cleared area and haul them to the barn. I know of one good sized birch tree right beside the driveway that the horses girdled and has been dead for a year. At the time I was irritated because they chose such a nice big tree and one I thought quite showy. Now I wish they had girdled a couple more.
I haven't used the chainsaw for a couple of months and of course the chainsaw gas is buried under four feet of snow beneath the job trailer. So, first, I need to run to town and get a new gas can and put some gas in it. Then, if I am lucky, I will be able to get one of the chainsaws started. Then, if the snow crust holds me, I shall cut down and cut up a few trees-- I hope enough to keep the fires burning until next weekend, and then, I can repeat the process every week end until the sun melts enough snow to expose the wood piles and dries the top layer.
I imagine this expedition will go pretty well, right?
I suppose I am unimaginative, but I didn't forsee the snow being deeper than the wood stack was tall. The possibility that I would have to dig down to reach a four foot stack of wood just whizzed right by me. It's March and we should see some melting and eventually, perhaps in Aril, I should be able to reach some of the tons of wood we have out in piles. In the mean time, I will dig out my chainsaw and cut some standing dead wood to get us by. I am hoping that I can stand on the snow crust, cut the trees down and buck them up. This will have to be near enough to our drive way or road that I can toss the pieces into the cleared area and haul them to the barn. I know of one good sized birch tree right beside the driveway that the horses girdled and has been dead for a year. At the time I was irritated because they chose such a nice big tree and one I thought quite showy. Now I wish they had girdled a couple more.
I haven't used the chainsaw for a couple of months and of course the chainsaw gas is buried under four feet of snow beneath the job trailer. So, first, I need to run to town and get a new gas can and put some gas in it. Then, if I am lucky, I will be able to get one of the chainsaws started. Then, if the snow crust holds me, I shall cut down and cut up a few trees-- I hope enough to keep the fires burning until next weekend, and then, I can repeat the process every week end until the sun melts enough snow to expose the wood piles and dries the top layer.
I imagine this expedition will go pretty well, right?
Friday, March 4, 2011
I ache, therefore I am
Floors are a test of endurance and determination. All your equipement is heavy and awkward. The cords to run the machines are heavy and awkward. Noise and dust block out the rest of the world. Pain from sore body parts is a constant companion. Yesterday the equipment had had enough and refused to work. My vaccuum was the first to refuse to start. It just wouldn't turn on. I checked the cord to make sure it was plugged in and I checked the outlet to make sure it was working. After a lot of running around I narrowed it down to the vaccuum itself was just refusing to go. I pounded on it and poked the switch over and over-- nothing.
Well, vaccuuming isn't much fun anyway so I skipped that and went straight to edging. The edger has a bag holder to keep the dust collection bag out of the way. With the bag holder in place the edger was to big to get into the closet I wanted to use it in. Well, I would just take it apart and hold the bag while I edged. It needed a phillips screw driver. No phillips in the box, so I wandered around and found one of the painters and borrowed one. I removed the bag holder and edged the closet and put the bag holder back on. I wandered around and found the painter and gave him back the screwdriver.
My back ached from edging the closet so I decided to switch to using the floor machine. The really coarse paper is a struggle to get on evenly, since the coarse grit makes it stiff and brittle. The paper has to be tight and even or it will blow appart. Blowouts are heartstopping affairs that will give you some indication of how you will do under enemy fire in a surprise ambush. The floor machine comes a live and seems bent on thrashing itself and you to death. You yank up on the handle that raises the drum, but the thrashing continues and may get worse. Finally, you find the off switch and it stops. If there is a puddle under you, you are not going to do well under surprise attack nor should you be a floor person since puddles will ruin the floor. So I'm fussy when I put the paper on and this particular sheet was being stubborn. Finally, I got it on evenly and hooked the cord on the machine, got behind it, put my ear muffus on, grabbed the handles, and hit the switch. Nothing.
So, I check to make sure all the plugs are connected good and hit the switch again. Still nothing. I go to the basement and reset all the 220 breakers. I climb back up to the second floor room that I am trying do the floor in and hit the switch. Nothing. Well, yesterday the electricians were at the house working, but today they are gone and I am on my own. I need a tester and I know who has one so I jump in my truck and go to Tracy's paint shop. I borrow a tester and return to the house. Up the stairs again. I check the 220 outlet and it's live. I plug the floor machine cord in and go check the other end of the cord. Nothing. It's the cord. I can't tell which end, one of the ends is pulled apart. I get lucky (if you can consider yourself lucky when you are doing floors) and the first end I take apart is the problem. I fix the cord, plug in the floor machine and hit the switch. Deafening noise and dust. All right, it's working.
I started at 7:30 and it's now 11:00 and finally something is working. I am pretty tickled about that. As floors go, that's pretty good.
Well, vaccuuming isn't much fun anyway so I skipped that and went straight to edging. The edger has a bag holder to keep the dust collection bag out of the way. With the bag holder in place the edger was to big to get into the closet I wanted to use it in. Well, I would just take it apart and hold the bag while I edged. It needed a phillips screw driver. No phillips in the box, so I wandered around and found one of the painters and borrowed one. I removed the bag holder and edged the closet and put the bag holder back on. I wandered around and found the painter and gave him back the screwdriver.
My back ached from edging the closet so I decided to switch to using the floor machine. The really coarse paper is a struggle to get on evenly, since the coarse grit makes it stiff and brittle. The paper has to be tight and even or it will blow appart. Blowouts are heartstopping affairs that will give you some indication of how you will do under enemy fire in a surprise ambush. The floor machine comes a live and seems bent on thrashing itself and you to death. You yank up on the handle that raises the drum, but the thrashing continues and may get worse. Finally, you find the off switch and it stops. If there is a puddle under you, you are not going to do well under surprise attack nor should you be a floor person since puddles will ruin the floor. So I'm fussy when I put the paper on and this particular sheet was being stubborn. Finally, I got it on evenly and hooked the cord on the machine, got behind it, put my ear muffus on, grabbed the handles, and hit the switch. Nothing.
So, I check to make sure all the plugs are connected good and hit the switch again. Still nothing. I go to the basement and reset all the 220 breakers. I climb back up to the second floor room that I am trying do the floor in and hit the switch. Nothing. Well, yesterday the electricians were at the house working, but today they are gone and I am on my own. I need a tester and I know who has one so I jump in my truck and go to Tracy's paint shop. I borrow a tester and return to the house. Up the stairs again. I check the 220 outlet and it's live. I plug the floor machine cord in and go check the other end of the cord. Nothing. It's the cord. I can't tell which end, one of the ends is pulled apart. I get lucky (if you can consider yourself lucky when you are doing floors) and the first end I take apart is the problem. I fix the cord, plug in the floor machine and hit the switch. Deafening noise and dust. All right, it's working.
I started at 7:30 and it's now 11:00 and finally something is working. I am pretty tickled about that. As floors go, that's pretty good.
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