Feeling Like Christmas!

Chilly this morning.  I say a little thank you every day lately to my 10 year old pair of deerskin gloves and Carhartt jacket.  The animals are all doing great.  The goats have a lot of straw bedding in the barn, barn cats have heated pads in a cat tree and the chickens get their heat lamp on in the coop when it dips below 30.

I'm building a small 24' x 12' implement pole barn to keep my tractor implements out of the weather including bush hog, tiller, plow, auger and blade.

Start of implement pole barn

It should be framed this weekend. That's probably the last build I'll need to do for a while since I'll have the cabin, barn, pole barn and garden completed.  A root cellar is something I really want but that's quite an endevor and I haven't figured out the best approach for it yet.

Garden area

Hard to believe the garden area will be bringing forth food in a matter of months.  There's something so hopeful and motivating knowing that everything surrounding me which now appears so still and absent will be coming alive with the change that just a little bit of time brings about.  It's a metaphor to live by when we find ourselves in those unexpected valleys in life.  Luckily, I'm not in one of those valleys right now.  I have a warm tiny cabin, great health, good friends and lots of hope and motivation.  I love the cold.  Feels like Christmas!  Hope you all are looking forward to it.

Theodoshia (Doshie) & Benecia

Garden corner & rising sun

Welcome, Nugget!

There is another addition to Lazy Dog Ranch.  A small one-eyed Pug was found wandering the woods by some distant neighbors across the creek.  They ended up tracking down her former owner who didn't care enough to drive and retrieve her and are either hoarders or breeders who apparently have dogs in kennels stacked on top of one another outdoors.  The woman said she "must have left the kennel door open" and this tiny little dog found her way through some woods to a meal and friendly hands but these neighbors couldn't keep her.  I said I would get her back to health and "find her a home" and after joining efforts with another neighbor about a half mile away including a few 45 minute drives to the nearest vet Nugget isn't going anywhere.  She is about half the size of CJ and they are good buds.  She is quite young, had clearly never been in a house before and didn't even know to use a dog bed till after about a week.  I worked with her hard at potty training and she is rockin' it now!  Her gait is a little awkward and this is likely due to being in a kennel for so long but she gets around just fine and is clearly happy.  No more cold and hungry nights for this girl.

Things are good on the ranch.  I'm enjoying Winter.  Time to reflect, deeply appreciate my tiny cabin on these cold nights with the wood buring stove burning hot and have gratitude for my health, strength, abilities and the people in my life.  There is so much to be thankful for.  The cold mornings which lead to stinging hands while gathering firewood and feeding the animals contrast perfectly with the wave of heat I feel while entering my cabin after the work is done.  The short days lend themselves to many evenings spent envisioning and planning what projects I'll start come Spring.  There is the occasional loneliness I feel but it's short lived since gratitude, hope and excitement for what could be next dominates.

Tractor Tiller Restoration - Part 1

One thing I love about living in a small town is when you put the word out that you're looking for something, everyone knows what every has and word gets around fast.  (Note to self: Keep my nose clean and this won't be something to scorn!).  I had been talking about wanting a tiller for behind my tractor because my 4000 SF garden soil is going to be daunting and nearly impossible to prepare otherwise.  Soon enough, my friend from church said he knew a guy about 45 minutes away who had an old Yanmar RS 1200 5' tiller with many broken tines and a good gear box for $100.  Considering tillers that size start at around $1500, my ears perked up considerably and away we went on Friday with trailer in tow.  Looking at it, one of the U Joints on the shaft had a missing bearing and I ended up scoring it for $50.  I had looked into purchasing a new set of tines which would run about $300, so total with a new bearing and tiller, I was going to have a nice working tiller for right under $400.  Sweet.

Daisy Mae inspecting

Unloading with my tractor.  Hey, colors match!

Resting till I get tines replaced.  

Now... since it's a small town and people talk, a Facebook friend said he had an old 4' Chinese made tiller that wasn't a 3 point but had tines he believed were the same as the ones on my Yanmar.  I removed one of the few remaining tines, brought it to his daughter who works at the one grocery store in town and she took it home to him where he confirmed they and the bolt sizes were identical!  With that said, he said I could buy his tiller for $50.  He will be delivering it to me this week plus a cultivator I can borrow to remove the rocks from the garden plot before I till.  All said and done, I should have about $150 into a working tiller.  Can't wait to get the tines bolted on, the gearbox filled and hooked up to the tractor.  This will make life much easier.  I'll put a post up of the outcome in the next week or two when I get it hooked up and running.

The two pictures below is the shaft when I got it.  I had to grind off a couple burrs and some rust before I could even connect the two pieces, but with a lot of grease it slides in and out like new!

Following is the shaft connected, greased and with the new bearing installed in the U joint.  It's ready to rock!

From Tree to Fence Post - Part 1

Yesterday I took my Scout out to visit a woman who has lived alone here for over 30 years.  45 minutes of dirt road and 4 wheel drive crossing water and driving on some icy hairpin turns.  She has amazing skills and inspired me to prepare and set cedar trees for fencing. The weather finally got a bit warmer today and I was able to get outside and start a big project.  I'm preparing my garden fence and need to have it completed by Spring for planting.  My garden will be 100' X 50' and that's a lot of work and I'll need 12 corner posts - 3 for each corner.  T-posts will be run down the sides and I'll have a tractor gate and also man gate.

Garden spot

The 30 acres I'm on has 12 acres of pasture and the rest is wooded with a lot of pine, cedar, walnut, oak and more.  Wherever you have pine, you'll likely have cedar and they make great fence posts.  The resins in the "heart" prevent the wood from rotting and the posts should last for many years as long as the bark is removed before being set.  So, today I set out to make my first fence post from one of my cedar trees.

 While visiting yesterday, my friend also told me I needed a draw knife.  I couldn't believe it when today after church my pastor gave me a box of "old sh*t" as Miranda Lambert would call it (and which I LOVE) and there was a vintage draw knife looking up at me.  I was like a kid at Christmas.  I cleaned it up and sharpened it and its purpose was ready to be actualized again after what has probably been a long time.

Draw knife before cleaning and sharpening

So, I came right back home, and after digging a 3 foot post hole I gathered what I needed and went to find my first cedar tree.

Dug a 3' post hole.  Recent rains and snow helped

Cedar flagged

The chainsaw gave me some trouble and I broke a blood vessel in my right middle finger pulling so much, but after switching hands and then using a shop rag to wrap around the handle, I got it going till I shut it off and then it would give me trouble again but each time my persistence paid off.  May be time for a new spark plug.  The tree was about 9" in diameter at the base where I cut it and about 20-something feet tall.  Beautiful tree and the heart is amazing.

After I got it down, I cut off some limbs, cut it in two (I'll go back and use the top portion for something else... I have some ideas) and then pulled it out with my tractor.  Once in a clearing, I put the log in the bucket and took it back to the garden spot where I removed the bark with the draw knife.  The bark will rot in the ground so that's why it has to be removed but the rest of the wood won't.  This tree is perfect for the post because it has a huge red heart and the red is full of the resins which will prevent rot.  Once I got the bark removed, the base was about 8" in diameter and that's perfect for the post.

My New Holland 40HP Diesel - Couldn't do much around here w/out it

Draw knife working well

Bark removed & limbs cut very close to the trunk

A fantastic heart w/ a base diameter of about 8"

My next step is to cut the post to length, drop it and key it.  I'll have another blog post on that.  One down and 11 to go!  A lot of work to do, but it's rewarding beyond belief.  

Wolf-Fart Puffballs, Bee Nucs & RoHo

This week I've spent my mornings searching for edible mushrooms. There is an Arkansas specific page on Facebook for mushroom hunters and they are a wealth of geeky information.  While they prefer the Latin names to converse with, I much pref saying wolf-fart puffballs (insert adolescent giggle here) instead of Lycoperdon pyriforme.  Lyco in Latin means "wolf" and perdon means "to break wind" which brings about the nickname. I haven't found any edible eats during my hunts yet, but am told they are definitely out here... in particular oyster mushrooms, lion's mane and hedgehog mushrooms.  Crossing fingers for a mushroom kill soon.  In early Fall I'll definitely be searching for the coveted Morel and I'm in a prime location for it.

Wolf-fart Puffballs (actually, a fungi and not a mushroom)

I ordered my bee nuc!!!  A bee nuc is a small bee colony centered around a queen and has five frames for the colony to expand and grow.  My neighbor up the way keeps bees and she is going to drive with me when I go to pick it up in May and show me how to get started.  Bees do best in direct sun and there's a place where my garden plot will be that is perfect and will hopefully bring great pollination to my corn and everything else planted.  I'm very excited as I've wanted bees for a long time but previously couldn't keep them because there were horses too close by which is a no-no.

Poor RoHo!

Finally, I added a rooster to the family this week.  He is a young roo named RoHo and is named after a fun old song sung by Archie Campbell in the late 60's about the top cock fighting rooster named RoHo that all the other roosters were afraid to fight.  Well, my RoHo isn't living up to his name.  My dog Artie chased him off about an acre the first night he was let out from the coop and he spent that night somewhere in the woods in pouring rain.  The next morning I found him with the help of Artie, but boy was he a mess.  Artie had pulled out some of his down and his tail feathers were already missing due to being pecked off from other more dominant roos in his previous home.  I'm working with Artie not to chase him and she is getting much better.  We'll work it out... if he would just stop running Artie wouldn't be interested in chasing!  She doesn't want to hurt him thank goodness... she just thinks he is the best toy ever.


Overall, it's been a great week.  Lots of work getting done but wanted to focus on the more fun aspects of the week.  It's 26 degrees right now and gonna be cold going up to that barn!  Be well, everyone.

Every Day Counts

Each day is an untouched canvas and nothing is promised to me but its passing.

I swear one minute it can be 5:30 AM and I'm sitting all happy sipping coffee perusing Facebook and forums and the next minute it's 9:00 AM and nothing has been done.  I've found I can get overwhelmed and lost in my cerebral to-do list and in turn engage in a mental and behavioral freeze and distraction.  Consequently, I've adopted with gratitude the discipline of intentionality.  I'm

deliberate with my time because I no longer take it for granted after my loss and because time is important when you homestead alone on 30 acres.  I keep focused on the many chores to be done while being mindful of the creeping vampire of overwhelm that can slither in and trick me like the primordial snake.  I try hard to be faithful to my daily responsibilities while loosely flirting with the many dreams dancing in my head .  When I keep this balance, I run at my best.  I've found that every night before I go to sleep I write down what I need and want to accomplish the next day that I know will give meaning and purpose.  I make sure it's a reasonable list.  I make a commitment to myself and to tomorrow.  I know that an average day filled with average chores will bring significance to me and the time given.  I seek to honor myself, my life and the day by being responsible to it.  This also keeps me humble and provides the simplicity I think will produce rich contentment in life.  Well, I'm banking on it at least... and, it's worked so far.  I have faith that if I stay focused on today that tomorrow will hold what I need.  The simple will give way to the complex.  This might not be the solution for everyone, but it's my rhythm.  So, I'm delighted to hold the tension between the freedom in life and the burden of responsibility.  I'll gladly embrace the opportunity to live independently at the expense of the emotional and practical weight it sometimes carries.  I love this crazy life!  I'm not sure what this winter is going to hold or what all I'm going to accomplish on these 30 acres, but I know what I'm doing tomorrow.  Cheers!

Not Now, but Back When

I suppose instead of speaking of my current experiences and challenges, it would make more sense to give the background of how I got here.  My name is Sylvia, I'm 52 and currently live solo on 30 acres in the Ozarks of Arkansas in a small community of around 80 people outside a larger town of about 450 people.  How I found my way here is a bit of a long story, but it didn't come without price.  I stumbled upon this area with my life partner almost 10 years ago who subsequently passed away from melanoma at the young age of 46.  I didn't give up on our dream and bought this land 3 years ago, worked like mad and moved from California 6 months ago walking away from a thriving business and comfortable home in the rural part of San Diego county.  I brought with me my two goats named Queenie Bell and Benecia (not nice and nice respectively), my barn cat James and two dogs CJ (lazy) and Artie (short for Artemis).  Added to the menagerie 4 months ago have been some chickens and two barn kittens named Screech and Dasie Mae.

My goals?  So many and they've been a lifetime in the making.  I can only hope to be blessed with enough time to fulfill them.  I've learned as much to know plans can be altered in a moment of time but I hope to grow a prolific garden and sell at the farmer's market, build a sauna, get more animals and build needed shelters, have a root cellar, build a community and generally learn to live off and from the land. The list is too extensive to really try and put down in writing because it's always growing and retracting as i learn more or of what is possible and not possible.  But, with me, not much is not possible.  I welcome this challenge of living independently off this beautiful piece of land! I've learned that life is more like a spiral and not a line.  I hope I can roll with the challenges and create meaning and purpose through adversity.  It's difficult doing life alone but also a blessing. Life is good and life is hard.  I'm an outsider, but accepted by many.  I have the good fortune of working from my home but isolation can be an issue.  I do well, but I've just started and haven't yet hit the mid point of winter... and not much has broken that needs to be fixed.  I live in a 575 sf cabin and have a well and wood burning stove.  I have a garden plot of about 4000 sf plowed but I still need to disc and fence it... not to mention plant and grow it!  I get lonely.  I am grateful.  I smile and I cry.  I dance in the cabin and curse.  I remember my soul mate and move forward each day growing from what we had and who I am because of our relationship and because I don't have it.  Grief lets you know what you're made of and every day I wake up and try to bring meaning and purpose to a blank slate.  It's up to me.  God gave me the blessing and burden of choice and I'll gladly take it over the absence of life.

Tractor & New Bush Hog

Queenie Bell & Benecia

James

Shop & Scout

View from My Deck

CJ the Pug & Daisy Mae the Barn Cat

Artie the Ranch Boss

My Barn