You want the random? You can't handle the random!

I have started 50 tomato seeds

Plus over 200 other seeds. Set up on top of the 2 refrigerators in the kitchen. Always at least 75°, usually over 80° here. I've added another grow light since this pic was taken.

79°, followed by frost and 30° the next night.

Crazy windy a few days ago. Gusts to 40 mph I think.

Nick decided Saturday was Dusty's birthday. I guess it could be. She got a can of fancy cat food.

Some progress made on the logs. I cut one of the monsters. Ridiculous. It was like cutting 3 regular logs. The 20" chainsaw bar would barely go halfway through. I had to roll the log back and forth to finish the cuts. I'm guessing it weighs at least 1000 pounds.

The segments are too heavy to lift. I can lift them to ankle height and waddle around like a duck. It is not useful. I have to split these into 3 or 4 pieces before I can lift them onto the hydraulic splitter.

My friend is in town visiting. Spent several hours hanging out today. It was great catching up. We opened the firing range (not true, the firing range is open 24/7) and made loud noises. His sister is also in town and baked some cookies for us. Ben said they were the best cookies he ever had. Nick and Ben fought over the crumbs I heard. All cookies gone by the time I got back into the house.

Billy was released back into the wild today.

I'm buying chainsaw bar oil by the gallon now. I feel like this means something bad...

This is for you, you know who I mean.

Not pictured:

The Ford truck has finally been repaired after 5 weeks in the shop. Reman tranny installed.

Climbed on the roof and poured a gallon of sulfuric acid into the plumbing vent to try to clear the clog in the NW corner of the house. The roto-rooter guy I called arrived at the house w/o a small snake. He told me his small snake was broken. He suggested acid and drove away. I think this is his sideline; his main deal is fishing guide. The acid didn't work. Back to the phone book.

I got on the barn roof and nailed down sheets of tin that nearly blew off in the high winds.

It seems like there was more, but I'm to tired to remember it all now.

Getting ready

I really want to start planting a garden, but it's still too early and still a lot of prep work to do. This huge grassy area behind the house was a garden back when I was a teenager, but no more.

I had the idea that I would burn all my brush here instead of the random piles I've made all over the property. Should kill the grass and roots.

That would be a huge ass brush pile, so in this area I'm using plastic to kill the grass. Google tells me always use clear, black doesn't work very well. Google also tells me black works much better, clear not as good. Thanks Google. I've found one big roll of black and many rolls of clear, so I guess I'll know which works better in several weeks.

This area has been smothered with leaves since fall.

Garlic is looking good

I decided to make a bed for the onions we will grow. Have 160 sets plus a crapload of seeds started.

Onions prefer well drained, sandy soil. So I will plant them here in this wet, sticky, heavy, red clay.

Water standing in every shovel hole as I turned the dirt.

I turned a 3' x 15' area, added a thick layer of crumbly, half-rotted leaves, and topped off with several mules loads of forest dirt. Maybe the onions won't have wet feet.

Bonus pictures

This tree looks funny to me.

Proof it is too early to plant

Last week

Hail

Nick is upset. He went to feed Rick and Billy (the tree frogs), and found that Rick had passed away. We buried him in the yard.

"Here lies Rick, my frog"

Some background pictures. I'll tie it together in a later post.

This is the north side of the north barn. We are going to enclose this to make a chicken coop. I know, there are already 2 structures called "chicken coops", but one is too small and both are too far from the big house.

Overgrown with shrubs and packed full of heavy junk we will keep, but need to move.

rope and wire

more wire

tractor implements. about 10,000 pounds I'm guessing. Not really, but after I had moved it...

slow progress

F

C

Ben had his 15th birthday

wireless bridge from the big house to the "Manor" (little house being renovated).

Receiver at the Manor

pointed at the big house. good signal now, wondering what will happen when the trees leaf out

Nick's spelling test

Mopsy tries out a new look

the return of "Sunday-Gunday-Funday"

Sometimes I wish the bed of the Mule was bigger. It's under there.

from the front. I do love the dump bed though

inside the scary storage room

i found a stack of plywood. I was going to buy some soon.

I found a table saw. I was going to buy one soon.

New in the box propane heater. Damn, I bought one last month and just found this.

Mopsy and Grandpa on the way to Ft. Towsen.

Still getting cold here.

Will explain this later. It is stored in the coop-to-be-area.

I'll explain this later

I built a lumber storage rack

This relates to the above pictures, later

I don't even remember this structure.

Hammered my thumb. I said, "What an unpleasant feeling", or something like that.