The Work of Our Hands

First I must report the sad news that Adam's roof repairs did not eliminate of our ceiling leak. This is very discouraging. He did such a thorough job on the eaves that he's now wondering if somehow (inexplicably) the leak is coming from elsewhere in the attic.

I finished the red bird. It's a cardinal, obviously, but this is Red Robin Farm. He looks pretty cute up on his post!

Adam was gifted, amazingly, with a gorgeous, nearly-new lawn tractor (riding mower). We are so grateful and excited, and overwhelmed to have this new machine! He's now building a little trailer to pull behind it. He ordered wheels first.

Philip and Kara are here for Thanksgiving and the weather's been grand.

Adam planned to use pallets for the side walls, but all our old pallets are termite-eaten. For now, it only has a bottom.

I mentioned on my other blog that I scored some lovely alpaca fleece in a swap. I'm now looking for inexpensive ways to process it. I tried some fine-tooth nit combs for combing it.

 


I had fun combing away with them, but in the end their tines are too close together. I need a larger comb. So I went to WalMart and found the comb (above) for 98 cents.
I also need a hackle. It looks like this google image:
 
Hackles, like all devices connected with spinning, are expensive. However, it's possible to make your own. I bought a handful of 3.5" finish nails at the hardware store.

 We'll drill holes into a long board and embed the nails in them, and seal them with epoxy. This should work fine.
I also need a diz -- a small hand-held device for pulling the fiber through, forming it into a long piece of roving. I enjoyed strolling through the hardware store, searching for something that might suffice. I found this pipe clamp. The holes are 3/16", which is just about right.

I'll get Adam to pound it flat for me.

In the end, I'll get there -- the spinning process. Oh, I forgot to show you what else Adam made me today -- a spindle!

 I wanted a bottom whorl drop spindle. The disc is the "whorl." He did a fine job shaping and sanding that whorl from a block of wood.

Spindles are fun for spinning a small amount of fiber, but in the end it's good to have a spinning wheel. A friend in Massachusetts has offered me her antique spinning wheel ... if we can find a way to get it from there to here. Someday I'll have all the things I need to turn alpaca fleece into yarn. (Sigh) It looks like so much fun on youtube!

That's it from the farm -- roof leaks, hand-built trailer, and spinning wishes.

Good-night, Farm

It always feels to me as if the farm goes to sleep in winter. We tidy the garden beds, bring the potted plants inside, and say good-night until spring. The pecan leaves cover the grass. The geese this morning flew right over my head, honking south. I brought three volunteer tomato plants in from the garden in pots, plus a pepper plant, several mints, a basil that I hope will survive, and a lemon and a lime tree that we just bought at the nearby garden center. All are snug on the front porch, now wrapped in heavy plastic.

Adam wants to make concrete leaves year-round. Since the elephant ear leaves and hosta leaves are nearly dead for winter, he's making plaster "positives" -- a plaster cast from which he will make a clay mold. Then he will use the mold to make many leaves this winter. Here are some of the plaster positives he made yesterday:

 

Aren't they delicate? The veiling is very fine. I'm eager to see how the actual concrete leaves turn out from these impressions. Here is a much larger elephant ear plaster he made:

 A lovely, large mushroom popped up just outside the chicken coop:

I finished writing my little children's book, "Punkin and the Littlest Mouse" into one of Adam's handmade books. I left room for lots of little illustrations. Now I'm beginning to sketch them in. Here are a few examples:

It's a simple book, and I'm no illustrator, but I do think books for small children should have lots of pictures. I'm not up to complicated images, but I will add as much as I can. Punkin is my crazy Ameracauna hen. She's not nearly so sweet in real life as she is in this story, haha!

Adam continues to attempt repairs on our roof (really the eave) and after that, the ceiling. It's rough going. He succeeded in stopping the leaking along the very edge of the ceiling, but not entirely in stopping the leak in the middle. So up he went again on the tall ladder to rip off the repair he'd done, and pull down the gutter (gulp - yes), and go at it again. He's out there now. 

I went out to check on him. He showed me the roof's edge -- the metal is rusted and crumbling off. It's quite discouraging. A new roof is not something we can afford, so he will try to use metal pieces slipped underneath to reinforce the edge. It's something that must be attempted and done if at all possible. In my mind, this damage to the living room ceiling is the only thing that might still make the house not viable, and not able to be sold, if we ever wanted to sell it. Plus -- of course -- I don't really want even the smallest of drips from my living room ceiling. He is wonderful to keep after all the many projects that call on him, on this farm, small as it is. It's cold and windy out there today, but he's willing. We're both getting to an age when outdoor work in the cold and damp is hard on our bodies.

Well! On a happier note, Thanksgiving is coming, with a beautiful community service and three of our kids coming home! Philip, Kara, and Julia will be here next week. I'm so excited! They get to meet Trixie!

Trixie says, "Happy Thanksgiving!" She is learning how to be a good dog just as fast as she can.

Monday Morning Doings

I told Adam a minute ago that we accomplished a lot for a Monday morning! It helps that the new puppy, Trixie, gets up at a bodaciously early hour. Today that was 4:30 a.m.
Adam started by putting a trellis on the front of the house porch.

 I know, I know -- it's not very "fancy." But we're not fancy folk! It's a trellis for a particular plant to grow on, so I'm hoping it will eventually be covered in lovely green foliage. This will give privacy, and I can remove the shower curtain that's presently hanging there. See? That trellis is an improvement over a shower curtain! :)  
You see, I've had this silly plant for ages - I posted about it before -- a creeping fig. I planted half of the plant I divided at the base of the trellis:

 Creeping Fig is hearty in zones 8 and warmer. We are zone 7B. But I did see it growing in a warm, protected spot at the doctor's office, remember? The trellis is on the south side of the house, facing into sun, protected from north winds. We will hope. If it dies, I still have the other half of the plant.

Two purple coneflower plants will keep it company.
Well, half-way through the trellis project, the puppy woke up again (It's like having a baby, I kid you not.), so Adam switched to a project where he can tie up Trixie nearby. He made more cement leaves. This batch, he's using concrete (instead of masonry mix) with fiberglass in it. Plus he's putting a sealant on the leaves. And he's also etching the leaves, and we love the softened look it's giving them. Here's one he etched and painted:

Here are some with the sealant. These he will be able to sell before Christmas.

While he was doing that, I started processing our sweet potatoes. They've been curing on the front porch for about 2 weeks. So here are some photos that show the shocking transformation from ugly tubers to luscious, creamy mashed sweet potatoes.

 The outside is scary ... until you peel them.

 

Who would think that, under that ugly exterior, is this perfect, peach-colored potato?

 

I cubed them roughly and steamed them on the stove top. Then I mashed them in the mixer and put them into quart ziploc bags, and then into the deep freezer.

Adam also dug the last white potatoes in the garden. They were planted from old potato ends. Not a very big harvest. Here are about half of them:

Oh - I forgot to add that on Saturday he caulked the eaves on the side of the house where we've been having a leak.

Now we're off to do "church work" for the afternoon. Rain is coming tonight (at last). We will hope the repair job is what was needed. One never knows with mysterious leaks - stay dry and warm wherever you are!

November on the Farm

 Only a few leaves remain on the grapevines in the orchard. That golden one caught my eye.

 Only the weeds are in bloom now. Our roses are about spent. The camellia buds are full and near bursting. We will see them ruby red in January.

 Most mornings are frosty now on the farm.

Adam has very nearly finished the red metal roof on the little building. He has a bit of caulking to do, that's all. He put some new fencing around my chickens ... again. Escape artists that those hens are! He's growing his compost pile, of course, gathering the cut grasses from the big field. In the photo above, you can see the scythed part of the field, and then in the distance the beige color of the taller grass, not cut yet.
This month he also ripped out and rebuilt the pantry cupboard in the kitchen. We're discussing the continuing project of the house floors -- what to fill the weak parts with, and how to finish them. Simply, I hope. I like simple wood floors.
The pecans that fell after Hurricane Matthew may be the only ones we get this year. I gathered two mesh bags full.
Adam plans to plant little slips of Christmas trees on the property, hoping to cut and sell them down the road. It's cheapest to buy them 1000 at a time. We barely missed the deadline to order them this fall, so it will wait until next fall. They will go in the damper area of the field that isn't suited to farm crops. Pine trees grow here like weeds, and I do not joke!
We are busy, busy with work and the Christmas season, and the farm is quiet. The chickens are producing. The worms are doing very well. The bees are quiet. Ned the guard dog is barking and chasing squirrels, doing his job. And in my mind I'm thinking of the quiet hours I love, fiddling in the spring greenhouse, mere months away.

Up on a Roof!

 The past two days Adam has been on top of the "little building" (as we call it), putting on a new roof.

 He drove to Jacksonville to pick up the new roof materials. Thankfully the weather has turned decidedly cooler.

 He pulled off the old junky metal roof.

 And you know how we are on this farm -- we will definitely repurpose all that metal in some way!
This exposed the wooden roof beneath, which had some rotten spots. You can see one area on the right hand side, near the ridge line.

 He's my hero. I made him pose.

 Then he ripped into the other side that faces the road. You see that the vines have kept encroaching on this structure in spite of Adam's valiant efforts.

 He ordered a nice deep barn red color. I love it!

 He put on the black tar paper yesterday. Then it rained lightly last night, but all is well. Today he got one-half of the new roofing on.

Through an order mix-up, the other half of the materials won't be here for almost two weeks, unfortunately :( But doesn't it look good so far!
 This was supposed to be Adam's "practice run" so he could also put a new roof on the main house later. But this roofing experience has shown him that he is a bit too old and wobbly to attempt the steeper pitch of the main house. So we will buy the same materials over time and find someone to do the labor. This wife is now breathing easier for that decision. I was not eager for the nervous days I'd spend with Adam overhead, skittering around. That's the latest from the farm.