Thursday, October 18, 2018

Post-Florence Farm

Our farm fared pretty well through Hurricane Florence. We had no flooding in the house at all, but still, a hurricane levels your garden and blows all the pecans from the trees. 
Only one cedar tree fell during the hurricane.
We had tentative plans for a fall/winter garden of greens and such, but no longer. Adam still has potatoes in the ground, but otherwise our garden is asleep for the winter. He stripped down the greenhouse before the storm. My gourds are drying nicely, and I'm harvesting loofahs now.

Our HVAC system was wrecked by the flooding, and Adam pulled it all out - the unit and all the duct work. Like everyone else, now we wait until a crew comes and removes it from the side of the road. 

where the old central unit sat, at ground level
We were thankful to have a window AC unit! However,  two days ago it also bit the dust -- just when the weather turned cool!

 This was a nice unit, $350, made by Electrolux. It had already paid for itself with lower electric bills this summer.
In order to get a replacement unit from the company, among other things Adam had to cut the power cord and send them a photo of it:
We bought it in April, and the company is sending us a new one. However, the big central unit must be replaced by another comparable system (for the mortgage company, and for selling of the house whenever that might happen), so Adam will be installing a multi-split system, a very quiet, energy-efficient system that's becoming more popular and doesn't place any duct work under the house. That will happen when the insurance check arrives. It looks like this:
Image result for multi-split air conditioner
They're placed higher on the wall and can be zoned in the house.

All the chickens survived the hurricane too, and egg production is just fine!

 The large black hens are my "teenagers," only 24 weeks, and not quite laying yet.
Below is my mama silkie and her "baby," who is now about 12 weeks old.
I noticed some panels missing from our soffit above the front porch. The pieces had blown into the yard and Adam put them back ... carefully.
I've been cooped up in the house all summer because I absolutely loathe working outdoors in the heat. But this morning I felt the cool air and asked myself, "Why can't you go outside and work now?" So I did. I cleaned out parts of the barn, organizing my gardening/potting stuff on some shelves that I moved from the greenhouse. 
It's not the most clean or impressive barn on the planet, but it's better than it was ... a little. Maybe that'll be my autumn project: to tidy up the barn one bit at a time. It's pretty frightful out there!

Thanks for stopping by. Not much happening on the farm right now, so I appreciate your visit!