Pulling the ripcord. Major life change

Been busy all week doing other farm stuff.

Installed a couple outlets in the barn for power to heat the feed shed and run the heated water tub for the horses. I'll be building an insulated box for the water trough to help keep the heating bills down.

Also been busy getting ready for a market tomorrow. Hopefully lots of people want quail eggs, fresh herbs and crochet toques and scarves.

Well, that sucked.

Lots of lookers but few buyers.

Made $100 so we covered our table fee and the fuel to get there and back.

Hopefully next weekend goes better.

More work on the grow house today.

Got the original 2x4 walls insulated and built the new 2x4 walls inside of them. Will have 7" of insulation when I'm done.

Next is building the dividing wall between the propagation room and the cold storage, then put up the ceiling. 

Been a bit of an adventure since nothing in this old building is square or plumb.

Did some tractoring as well, needed to move the muck pile today.

Should have plenty of great fertilizer next spring.

It also looks like I'm going to be signing on with the volunteer fire department. 

My neighbor asked me because he's on the fire department and my family has a long history of being firefighters. Looks like it's time for me to step up too.

Today was a day...

Last week the wife unit started complaining about a lack of hot water so down to the basement with my multimeter I go.

Lower thermostat in the hot water tank is bad. Do some digging and it turns out that a lower thermostat is about $25 but a kit with two new elements, upper and lower thermostat is $50. Might as well change out everything. 

Looking at my tank, it's got 3000 watt elements and the kit has 4500 watt elements. Hmmm...

It's one of those "energy saver" tanks that they sell to people who can't math. Tag on the side says I can put 4500 watt elements in so that's what I'll do. 

Better check the wiring and panel first. I found 12/2 aluminum conductor armored cable that's so old it doesn't have a ground wired to a 2 pole 15a breaker. Barely enough for the 3000 watt elements and not enough for the 4500 watt ones.

Kit arrived today so off to the hardware store I go.

New 2 pole 30 amp breaker, new 10/2 romex, drain tank, swap guts and refill.

Lots of hot water, very quickly. Wife unit is very happy.

Me? Mostly happy, now the safety valve is dripping. Didn't even think to buy one at the store.

Cycled it a couple times to clean it out and got the drip down to 1 drip every 5 minutes or so. Put a towel under it and I'll grab a new one next time we're at the store.

Glad it's done, we're due to be snowed in tomorrow.

More construction today. 

Exterior walls finished and insulated.  Partition wall built. This divides the building into the propagation room on the south side and the walk-in cooler on the north side.

Ceiling joists are in, tied to the rafters and walls. 

I feel much better now that the roof is held up by more than just the collar ties. I can't believe this building held up to 50 winters like that.

The walls were pushed out by about an inch at the top and the roof sagged a little in the middle. I pulled it back in as much as I could before the ceiling joists went in. It didn't make much difference but at least the building is solid now.

I also finished the wall that separates the walk in cooler and the wash/pack area.

We're off to another market tomorrow, this one looks very promising. 

Good luck!

In reply to Toyman! :

Thanks!

Did better at the market today. Made $170 

Even better, had some good conversations with some locals who are very interested in what we're doing.

We're home now and there's a snowstorm blowing through. Blizzard conditions outside and the power keeps cutting out. I tested my generator, we're good to go if we lose power.

I'm drying some extra basil and oregano in the kitchen right now. The house smells like an Italian restaurant.

My kitchen window:

It's  10pm, still a blizzard with winds up to 80kmh

I went out to check on the horses, everyone is fine.

Snow has drifted so deep in places that it's up to my knees.

I went up in the loft in our 100 year old barn and watched the back wall move in a couple inches every time the wind blew. Looks like shoring up the barn will be a project down the road.

We're on quite the adventure out here.

You're gonna need a guide rope between the house and barn! You don't want to get lost out there. 

Tractoring this morning. Had to clear snow so we could take care of the horses and get our vehicles out.

We don't have running water at the barn because the previous owners didn't bother to connect it when they had the new well dug.

For the summer we ran about 300' of garden hose between the house and the barn but at -12c the water freezes before it gets to the end on the hose, even if you start with warm, dry hose that was stored in the house.

We hauled 5 gallon buckets to the barn in the tractor bucket for a couple hours this morning. Glad we have a heated water trough.

Everyone should have a tractor with a  loader bucket and a heated cab.

Got another dump of snow last night so I plugged all the vehicles in for an easy start this morning. 

Everything fired up except Leo D Truck who was very angry about having an engine bay full of snow. Lots of glow plug later, he rattled to life.

Cleared snow and watered horses. Heading to town shortly to get the mail.

In reply to ShawnG :

You are not small town Saskatchewan unless you go to town to get the mail but also spend 3 hours in the coffee shop talking farming. 

In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :

I usually end up chatting with the postmaster for a bit. Then I head over to the Co-op to pick up some fuel for the tractor and end up chatting with the manager who is also my neighbor for a half hour or so.

Almost finished building the insulated box for the heated horse trough today.

Just need to build the lid. Should make it a little more efficient. 

Looks like I will be moving my wood shop into the quonset come springtime. It's that or turn the money hose on the barn.

Sitting down with Google calendar, a seed catalog and some hot chocolate to plan the garden for next summer.

ShawnG said:

It's  10pm, still a blizzard with winds up to 80kmh

I went out to check on the horses, everyone is fine.

Snow has drifted so deep in places that it's up to my knees.

I went up in the loft in our 100 year old barn and watched the back wall move in a couple inches every time the wind blew. Looks like shoring up the barn will be a project down the road.

We're on quite the adventure out here.

There's nothing like a blizzard to bring out the kid in me. I love a good snow storm. Being snowed in with something good cooking in the oven and a good fire in the furnace. Takes me right back to being a kid. 

In reply to 1SlowVW :

That's how I  feel.

We're doing what my parents tried doing when I was a kid. They didn't manage it but We're going to.

It sounds silly but I feel very Canadian right now.

Fun and games today.

Went to Saskatoon to set up for the farmer's market this Saturday and Sunday (it's inside). If anyone feels like stopping by our booth, we're at the market on Saturday and Sunday. I may be away for fire department training on Saturday though: https://www.saskatoonfarmersmarket.com/

We got home in the evening and started to feed and water the horses. We usually do it in the morning but our schedule got mixed up today.

I opened the gate and stepped through to grab a couple water jugs and our stealth pony snuck out behind me.

She's a mini horse, a chestnut mare and can be a handful even though she's only waist high. 

I turned to see her wandering off into the field so I yelled for my wife to help, then ran and grabbed the horse by the mane. Instead of standing there politely like our other two would, she decided to try to run off with me attached to her.

It's hard to hang on with gloves on and try as I might, she started to slip out as I ran along with her. 

She pulled away from me and I managed to grab her tail as she went by. Thankfully we don't keep their mane and tail short so I had something to grab. I wrapped her tail around my hand and tried to slow her down.

She's bloody strong, I weigh 235 and she was dragging me no matter how hard I tried to stop her. Eventually she pulled me over and dragged me, face down in the snow.

After about 20 feet she stopped and stood there while my wife came over and tossed a rope around her neck while we put the halter on her.

Back in the house now and warming up.

Horses are fun. 

They're like having a bicycle that has a mind of it's own and makes bad decisions.

ShawnG said:

In reply to 1SlowVW :

That's how I  feel.

We're doing what my parents tried doing when I was a kid. They didn't manage it but We're going to.

It sounds silly but I feel very Canadian right now.

 

How far north are you, looks like about high noon.

In reply to akylekoz :

50th parallel or so.

In reply to ShawnG :

How much hp does that animal have?

This might be one of those times where the real issue is tq. 

In reply to John Welsh :

Torque, ballast and traction are her strengths. 

Horsepower is a function of speed, she doesn't have a lot of speed.

More fun today. 

Got the idler pulley replaced on the snowblower. 

Snowblower works great but turf tires on snow do not. I've ordered chains for the mighty CASE.

Ceiling and walls are coming together in the prop house.

Fire dept training is canceled tomorrow so I'll be at the farmers market all day.