Project Greenhouse

After a long winter of mediocre, but expensive, grocery story produce, and a few 80-degree days in March (really...80 degrees!) my thoughts have already turned to my garden.  I didn't enjoy this winter as much as usual.  For one thing, we didn't have much snow.  Not much snow means not much cross-country skiing or snowshoeing, which means we didn't get out to play nearly as much as we would have liked to.  For another thing, this was an unusually warm winter for us, so the ice fishing season was a lot shorter than usual too because the ponds defrosted a little sooner than usual.  Our winter weather has just been plain weird around here this year.

At this point, I have to add a footnote of sorts.  My daughter recently married a guy who is an avid ice fisherman.  (He's so cool, he took my grandson smelt fishing very late one night.  My grandson won't forget that fun soon.)  Anyway, my son-in-law had a rather dilapidated, disintegrated ice shack, so for Christmas, she thought the perfect gift for him would be a new ice shack, built by herself (because this is MacGyver's daughter, after all.)  She started in November and worked on it when she had free time, and it turned out really nifty.  However, the poor guy never got it out on the ice.  That's how weird this winter has been!  But here's a picture of her ice shack.  She did a really nice job, and I'm very proud of her. 

 Here they are in front of the ice house.  Cute, huh?

Back to my greenhouse...

No snow also means it didn't take until May to melt the piles of snow around the house, so I was able to get out and do a little raking when we had those really warm March days.  In the course of conversation with a neighbor, I learned about a guy here in Maine who grows produce in his greenhouse all year 'round.  Even when it's really cold.  My neighbor loaned me the book about him.  

I don't think the economy is going to improve very soon, and I definitely don't think groceries are going to get any cheaper, so the idea of building a greenhouse where I could try my hand at growing greens all winter was very appealing.  Fortunately for me, MacGyver thought it was a good idea too and got on board with my project. 

It still needs the rest of the pvc support frames, the plastic, and some doors, but this is as far as we got this weekend.  If all goes according to plan (and I have to read some more about when to plant the winter crops) we'll use the two beds in the middle all winter to grow some nice salad greens in cold frames.

Charlie, our steer in the background there, kept us company most of the day.  He likes to be near the action.  After we finish putting it together and get some crops in, I'll update this.  For now, it's very exciting to have this much done before black fly season.  Even though winter has been off, I can't imagine the black flies will be off too.  With my luck, they'll be worse than usual. 

Chanticleer and Houdini Horse

I was up at 4 o'clock this morning catching roosters with Whit.  Time for the freezer.  Now that he's gone with them, I'm just realizing how much racket they made with their crowing.  Ah, coffee and sweet silence.  Sort of.  The rest of the bird population is noisy enough around here that they wake the toddler by 6:30 every morning if I don't shut her window, which I don't.  That's part of summer in Maine that I don't want her to forget anyway.

As I enjoyed my coffee and the early morning sun, while I finished reading Kafka's The Metamorphosis in preparation for school this fall, I happened to notice Scooby leaning way out over the not-so-electric fence to get the fresh, green grass on this side of it.  One can hardly blame him; the grass is always greener on the other side of any fence, isn't it?  I really didn't want TBear or Whit to have to fix another fence today, however, so I put my shoes back on and wandered out to give both Scooby and Pat some lovies, and gently push Scooby back to where he belonged.  After straightening out and retightening the fence, I went back in to finish my book.  (That's a really strange story, by the way.  Lots of existentialist symbolism in it.)

As I was reading, I looked up again to make sure there were three horses on the other side of the fence and noticed that the fence was completely down now, and I only counted two horses out my window.  Hmm.  This is the common theme of my early mornings here.  Straining to look out the windows without hauling myself up from my comfortable spot on the couch, I finally spotted Scooby grazing peacefully behind the tractor parked in the yard, looking as though he might actually be hiding from me.  Perhaps I give him too much credit.  Then again, seeing how he works with Whit, how he reads Whit's voice, and how he seems to know what Whit is saying, I'm pretty sure Scooby's grazing method is premeditated.  Especially since he grazes farther out into the lawn, as I notice him noticing me with my camera.  He knows that I am intentionally ignoring the fact that he's on the wrong side of the fence.  Again.  We play this game a lot, he and I.

Patrick, on the other hand, doesn't like white electrical tape.  He doesn't like white lines on the ground or on the road either.  He doesn't distinguish between white lines that zap and white lines that don't, so he just avoids all white lines, which can get pretty amusing when we're trying to drive the wagon down the road and Dig Safe has painted a white line across the road.  Scooby keeps Pat going in the right direction (forward), but Patrick will sort of leap over the white line without touching it.  Needless to say, Pat won't cross the wire tape Scooby has knocked down when he leans too far out over it to get to the verdant grass on my side.  So Pat paces and pretends he likes it better where he is, while Scooby comtemptuously grazes a few tantalizing feet away from him.

Continuing to ignore my errant horse, I know that Whit is due to drive back in any time now, and that he will put Scooby back in where he belongs.  I also know that poor Scooby is in for a shock again soon.  When Whit gets tired of standing up fence posts and reattaching the wire tape, he'll turn the fence back on again for awhile to remind Scooby why white isn't his favorite color.  It's almost annoying to think of how smug Pat will look.  Then again, I might be giving him too much credit.  They are, after all, just horses...though they do have Belgian draft-size personalities.

Oh look, here comes Whit now with a nice bag of chicken for my freezer.  Sorry, Scooby, old man, time's up.

Bear's Blacksmithy

I don't recall what got TBear interested in blacksmithing, but I have to say he is one tenacious teen.  I'm pretty sure he started reading everything he could find in the library about it at least a year ago.  Then he got a book on blacksmithing for Christmas and has been very anxious to try his hand at it since then.  Whit, my dauntless bartering husband, managed to trade or barter for some very cool items which we also gave to TBear for Christmas, namely one anvil, a tire rim from a truck, I think, that they fabricated into a forge, and some tongs donated by a fabulous friend whose daughter plays hockey with Thayer (and who I'm pretty sure supplied Whit with the tire rim.)  TBear bought himself a hammer.  (We had to let him shop for something.)

After much discussion about where we could set TBear up to practice this fine art - without burning the barn down or setting the woods on fire - Whit finally decided to build him his own shelter/workshop out behind the barn.  They created it from wood and PVC piping then put plastic over it.  Unfortunately, the workshop is also located in the steers'/rams' field.  Charles, who is now in the freezer, proceeded to tear the plastic off the shelter scratching his head against it.  So poor TBear had to wait until the snow melted in order to staple more plastic up and finish it.  Finally - FINALLY - the snow melted enough by the time the maple sugaring was done and the project could move forward.  (The boy has been so patient, bless him!)

That's the other Charles in the background.  He's not as dimwitted as the last one and doesn't seem to bother TBear's workshop.

 Getting the plastic stapled back on again. 

 Then Whit brought a log he'd saved for TBear's anvil to sit on.

 The floor of the workshop is gravel, most of which Whit brought in with the loader; however, Sunny is helping to bring more gravel in with his little red wagon.  Um, can somebody open the gate?

 That sure would be a lot of gravel to fill in by hand, huh.

A few days later, after Easter, Whit got a door made for him...just in time to protect him from the rain.

So, here's his forge....

 and his anvil...

and his cool antique tongs, holding his first attempt at bending metal.

Fortunately this is our school vacation week, because I haven't been able to get him back in the house since the first bag of charcoal came home.  Unfortunately, he's gone through a lot of charcoal already.  Whit found him some coal today, but I guess the next lesson is in how to get the coal burning.  Apparently it's tougher than he thought.  (I heard reference made to a blow torch today...)

Notice the legs under the forge.  TBear got a lesson in welding and welded the legs on himself.  The bellows for the fire is actually a small shop vac on reverse, blowing the air through a pipe to the bottom of his fire.  (These guys seem like pretty clever beans to me.)  My only issue is that I'm pretty sure I heard the electric meter whizzing 'round when he spent the whole day working out there.  I can't seem to find a foot pump anywhere.

Of course we all had to go out and inspect TBear's workshop when it was done.  : )

Oh yeah... Nobody thought about the quenching bucket until TBear used the boys' trough.  Whit took care of that next.

There's a lot of happy, hands-on learning happening around here this week.  Another neat thing happened in March.  Thayer and a few other home schooled friends had a fiddle gig to do on St. Patrick's day at an assisted living facility.  The director asked each of the four kids what their interests and ambitions were to introduce them, so TBear mentioned his blacksmithing.  It turns out that one of the residents is not only a retired blacksmith, but was the treasurer of the local blacksmith society.  He talked to TBear afterwards and sent him a newsletter.  Then he called a friend who actually lives near us, and who is still working as a blacksmith, and that friend has offered to have TBear come watch and learn from him.  TBear has been practicing and reading so he has good questions ready for when he calls this very generous gentleman.

Tuesday is Art Day

I'm really starting to look forward to Tuesdays.  I had TBear signed up for professional art lessons for the first two school quarters, but he wasn't having as much fun as it was costing me money, so I decided to can the art lessons.  Don't get me wrong, the teacher was lovely and very knowledgeable, but she just didn't mesh with what TBear and I were hoping for or expecting to get out of it.  Who knows why.

It occurred to me that I had paid for many art lessons for Riss, who is actually a very talented artist.  So I asked if she would be willing to come share some of her knowledge with her brother (and me!) and continue our Tuesday afternoon art classes at home.  I wish I'd thought of this sooner!  We have had the best time for the past month or so painting and visiting with Riss.  The best part is that I get to "do" art too!  (I think I was a deprived child in that subject.)

We're studying the 1800's in history this year, and one of the books we're reading is Monet and the Impressionists for Kids, so it made sense to me to try out some 19th century artists' styles.  Rissie's assignments don't always stick to that century in artists or art styles - she tends to flit around in the subject, rather like a butterfly - but we did do one fun project on pointillism that I'll share, primarily because we've finally finished it!  The pictures we painted are copies of works we liked by Georges Seurat.   Riss took hers home before I could photograph it, but if she brings it back, I'll add it to the post.

Pointillism takes patience.  And practice.  We're not ready to quit our day jobs yet, but it was fun, and we have a new appreciation for gifted artists.

Catching Up

Life since mid-January has been a little busier than usual here for us, as we've taken on a darling, new, little challenge.  Consequently, I haven't been as good at blogging as I imagined I might be when I started this.  That, and so many things that occur here occur seasonally.  Which means that a lot of what I would post about seems like a re-run; however, at the risk of boring you with the same old, same old, here goes.

Our 19-month-old grandniece is staying with us for a little while, while her mom goes through Basic Training in the Army, and her dad finds a place to live and gets settled in his new job in Missouri.  Meanwhile, our 3-year-old grand-Sonny also hangs out with us most afternoons while his mom works the 3-midnight shift.  (You're starting to understand why I'm not blogging more, huh.)

I was leafing through some of the pictures I've taken this winter/spring and thought I'd share a snapshot of life here at Whit's End Farm.

I copied some music for TBear one day and went to find the tape so I could tape the pages together.

Apparently, Sonny got to the tape first.  Scotch tape makes a good tow truck.

TBear frequently finds himself with more help than he thought he needed, but she's cute! 

I won't bore you with pictures of our snow again, though the ice storm was pretty, if somewhat damaging to the trees around us.  About mid-March, the weather finally turned warm enough during the day that we were able to tap the maple trees on March 14th this year.  We still had at least 2 feet of snow in places, but the days were above freezing while the night temps were still below...perfect weather to make the sap run.  The twist on the tapping procedure this year involved two helpers in the sled.

One of our helpers really preferred to be in the snow, not the sled, where she could sample the icy stuff.  This kid has a thing about ice...  

We still needed snowshoes to get around.  Some friends loaned us a pair of kids' snowshoes that fit Sonny.  Miss T really wanted to try them out, but her little boots just weren't big enough to fit them.  Maybe next year. 

For the next three weeks or so, TBear took the sled around and emptied all the buckets until boiling day. 

At one point I walked out of a snowshoe and realized just how deep the snow still was.

The kids stuck by the sled where they could help with emptying the buckets of sap into the storage containers.

Finally on Saturday afternoons, Whit spent the day boiling the sap down into syrup.  By the end of this short season, I think we managed to make about 3 gallons of syrup.  Not a lot, but enough to get us through until next year.  As you can see below, by April 9th when TBear pulled all the taps because the trees were starting to bud and the sap was turning yellow - signs that the syrup-making season was at an end - most of the snow has melted.  It's always amazing to me how quickly it goes in some places and how slowly in others, like in the shadows behind our house.

 Miss T and Whit enjoy a sunny, warm afternoon by the evaporator.

 The wagon is loaded with the taps and buckets and TBear (and Miss T) are taking it back to store in the barn again until next spring.

I was happy with the amount of syrup we got this year.

I was also happy with my good helper.

Once the sap was done, we had to find something else to entertain us in the afternoons.  Dusting off the old rocking horse turned out to be a really good idea.

That pretty much brings us up to date.  School is rolling right along, though starting Wednesday, we'll be taking a week off for spring break and Easter.  We recently did some fun art projects with Riss, which I may try to show you next time.  Until then, no tomatoes please, I'm doing the best I can to keep everyone entertained. : P

Apple Festivals

The hay is in, the weather is turning cooler, the leaves are changing colors, and fall is upon us once again.  As part of a fundraiser for TBear's hockey team, Whit and the horses spent last Saturday offering wagon rides around a local orchard to visitors who'd come to pick their own apples.  It was a beautiful, sunny day.  

Everyone took a break for some lunch.  

Look closely and you can see Sunny helping his Papa take the horses back to the wagon after lunch.

And, of course, we snacked on apples.

Today, we went to the Apple Festival in Manchester where TBear performed both with his violin school and his fiddle group.  It had rained for the past three or four days, so we were really happy to see the bright sunshine this morning!  Sunny and Riss came to watch too.  It was chilly in the morning breeze.

My fine fiddler.  Notice the short sleeved shirt while everyone else is in long sleeves, and he wasn't cold.

The stage is new this year, and the sound system is run by solar power.  How cool is that?

One of the advanced kids' favorite fiddle tunes is called "Wizards Walk" by Jay Unger.  It was a fine end to a fun performance today!  On the way home, however, TBear asked if we could just visit a fair this fall without having to work or perform.  I laughed and told him his dad and I were actually talking about that very thing this morning over coffee.  Perhaps we'll get to the Fryeburg Fair this week.

A New Wood Furnace

We finally decided to install a wood furnace this year.  We have enough wood available to us that it just didn't make sense to keep paying for oil if we didn't have to.  So about two weeks ago Whit prepared an area and we poured a concrete pad for it.

The next project was to dig the trench and install the plumbing and wiring for it.

It was a dirty job, as you can see.  The trench was about 5 feet deep.  Those first few steps out the door to hang my laundry were a real toughie.  I had to jump over the trench near the house, where  it was narrowest, and walk around behind the dirt pile to get to my clothesline.  Well, yes, I did have to do the laundry this particular day for the same reason he was digging trenches across my backyard.  It was the only sunny one in the near future.  And yes, I did get in the trench (and in the basement, and I even stood on my head to reach piping from inside the wood furnace as Whit stuffed it up from the trench.)  I was more helpful than just taking pictures.

The day before this, TBear, Sunny, and I went apple-picking in the rain with my sister; well, it wasn't raining when we went, but it had been raining all day.  Anyway, I made an apple pie after I helped play work in the dirt, but nobody ate it after I left that evening because they didn't pay attention when I told them it was for them.  Just sayin'.  The local apple festival was last weekend, in between the wood furnace jobs.  I'll share some pictures about that next time.