Pulling the ripcord. Major life change

ShawnG said:

 

 

This is Sage, the devil-horse:

I feel this, from page 3, deserves a link, based on the recent story...

My father had a Case 446 back in the 80's when I was kid.

The Onan blew a rod, which took out both pistons. I rebuilt the motor in highschool auto shop.  Case permitted a 0.250" overbore to fit the newer pistons.  Yes, 1/4" overbore.

It ran, it drove, and we sold it....

Mine burns a little oil on startup.

It will probably do that for another 40 years.

Streetwiseguy came to visit at the market yesterday. 

Nice to put a face to the name.

Think I might not keep the quail once these ones pass on. The hens are picking on each other. They pecked one to death a month ago and I had to rescue another last night. 

Maybe chickens next year.

Once they have a taste for blood, I'm not sure you can stop them.

We had chickens when I was a kid - same sort of thing.  We always had a chicken in quarantine. They did peck quite a few to death. Most had no tail feathers.  "Pecking Order" for sure.

ShawnG said:

Streetwiseguy came to visit at the market yesterday. 

Nice to put a face to the name.

Think I might not keep the quail once these ones pass on. The hens are picking on each other. They pecked one to death a month ago and I had to rescue another last night. 

Maybe chickens next year.

Not sure chickens are any different. My wife is constantly rescuing sad beat up chickens. Also one was stupid enough to drown in the water dish.

akylekoz said:

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.

I was mistaken. 

51.7671° N

It seems to vary by breed. Our first batch of chickens was half white leghorns and half ISA browns. We had a lot of problems with the browns picking on the leghorns. This last batch we had a mix of different breeds, brahmans, Rhode island reds and a few others, and we had no problems with bickering. 

In reply to ShawnG :

That outside picture reminds me of my year in the high Arctic.

It was only -10c today. Pretty much a heat wave.

Market was a total bust today no sales and very few shoppers.

The Saskatoon market is juried, very regulated and you have to sign up for a year. They used us for temporary fill-in vendors because a bunch of the regulars bailed out.

This is a good thing because we can see how the market is run without paying for a whole year.

I counted 7 vegetable sellers in a market of about 40 vendors. In winter.

It won't be worth the hour drive in the summer. 

We have one more weekend here in December,  after that, I'm not going to bother with this one.

Walls, ceiling and insulation done, door is on. Trim and paint are next.

In reply to ShawnG :

I’m really enjoying following this thread so please pardon if this is a dumb question: Do you need to be able to ventilate that space to keep it from getting too hot in warmer weather? Or is it that by the time it would be too warm inside you’re moving the sprouts outdoors anyway?   Nice work and please keep on updating! 

I'll probably need to ventilate in the summer but I probably won't be using the propagation room in summer.

I'll just install a fart fan on a thermostat. 

Part of the reason for not glazing the roof is to keep the summer sun out. 

The sun is low enough in winter that a glazed roof doesn't help either since all the light will come through the windows. 

Finished the insulated horse trough today. Should cut the electricity needed to keep it from freezing:

Finished up the inside of the grow house. Seams are all caulked and it's staying warm inside with just a space heater.

Baseboard heater is ordered. Shelving for plant trays is ordered. 

I have to go to town tomorrow so I will be picking up some paint. A nice coat of white should help reflect as much light as possible. 

ShawnG said:

Yes, you need to pull the scapes for the bulbs to form properly. 

We can sell them as well  I've eaten them before but was never a big fan. I need to find some decent recipes that use them. 

Maybe include a recipe when we sell them to help motivate sales.

Grill them up till they turn sweet and carmelized. So good.

Pick up a little aquarium air pump of about 20 lpm and blow the air through a drilled half inch pipe at the bottom of the trough and it will stay thawed with no heat required.

bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) said:

Pick up a little aquarium air pump of about 20 lpm and blow the air through a drilled half inch pipe at the bottom of the trough and it will stay thawed with no heat required.

I wondered if that might work but figured at -30c it would still freeze from the outside in.

So where are you putting the ice rink?

In reply to mtn :

Lol, I'm not.

I'm a lousy Canadian, I can't skate worth a damn and I can barely ski.

In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :

I am not sure what temperature it works to but I sell larger pumps to people who use them to keep ponds and marinas from icing over. Certaintly with your insulation it would help a lot.

I can send you one actually if you want to pay the shipping from BC. I have some test pumps gathering dust. 

I unplugged the heater last night to see how the grow house would fare.

It got to -9c inside overnight but it was -16 outside.

Today at noon it's -14c outside and +16c inside with no supplemental heat.

Going to start painting today.

In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :

Sent you a PM.

In reply to ShawnG :

This could be a really dumb question but where do I see a pm? Never had one.

In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :

The system sends an e-mail to whatever address is on file on the forum.