Yes, we haven't experienced much winter, meaning extreme cold, or lots of snow and ice.
We have had mild temperatures and January is ending tonight. That all means, that we may not see much for extreme cold this winter...Yeah!
The woodpile is holding up really well, and it will easily last through the remainder of this winter. I will be trying to cut some more wood in the next few weeks, as we also have hardly any snow meaning it will be easy to work cutting and hauling some wood.
We have passed the early evenings with a live Scrabble game almost nightly, before we have supper. Which I have just broke a 7 game losing streak! Yeah...
We enjoy the games and they are played in 45 minutes or less typically, and our accompanied by a beverage and a snack if needed. All in all pretty quiet here at Coffee Lake.
Our biggest excitement last weekend was watching Joya, for a couple of days and also medicating the Llamas with their worming medicine! The hardest part was getting the boys rounded up in to the pen, and of course catching each one for a squirt of worming paste in their mouths!
But after about 45 minutes we finished that task! So if you are up to anything special leave me a note!
Plowable Snowfall!
Elvira gets her first snowplow run at Coffee Lake Farm.
We got about 2-3 inches of snow last night and this morning, and it gave me the chance to fire Elvira up and get used to run the snowplow on the front of it.
I was able to clear out the yard and driveway with it in about 30 minutes or less, and then I got
the John Deere Tractor out to finish up some of the smaller area's I needed to plow.
It was great to sit in the heated cab and Smarkle rode along with me as we buzzed up the driveway and back and then cleaned out the large area in the yard with it. It is geared really low so when you are in reverse she crawls along pretty slow, but it works great!
Thanks, Grant for bringing it down to Coffee Lake Farm!
Cold Saturday Morning
Yes, another cold Saturday morning--14 BELOW Zero..this morning.
Not that we are suffering or anything the house is nice and warm, and every one is fed and watered, and of course have a pile of hay to lay around in.
We also have received a little more snow this last week, so things are nice and white, and it has been a pretty cold week. Therefore the woodstove has required a bunch of wood and the woodpile is reducing a little faster now.
I have been busy inside, cleaning up our stove and also putting a crockpot full of Chili for supper together. Yes I do cook, and enjoy making stews and Chili every so often. Between browning up hamburger and softening up some dry beans, pinto and kidney beans, it takes about 90 minutes to prep it all into the crockpot.
This afternoon, I will be putting together some bread dough for a fresh batch of buns or maybe breadsticks!
Their are always some projects to work on around here small and large, but it is usually nicer to work outside when it is a little warmer mid teens and higher. Other than that not much going on around here at Coffee Lake Farm!
Happy Llamas!
Saturday morning chores are done!
We have been getting some light snow and things are turning white again, and I ran to town with the trailer of garbage, and then stopped to get my bales of hay.
Above it the bale of hay that filled up the hay feeder and the boy llamas are out enjoying the fresh bale of hay. Below you can see the girl llama's shed area, and the nice deep pile of hay I am using for bedding and you can see that Lily, already is enjoying it's comfort.
The boys side is filled nicely with the hay bed also and I am sure later today, they will be in it also.
I also worked on my truck and tore apart the airflow manifold system to the throttle, and I found what the Internet forum told me I would find a bunch of soot build up where the throttle functions to allow more air into the engine. So I cleaned it all up, nice and shiny again and then reassembled it all, cleaning up the air filter also before reinstalling it.
Started the truck up and listened to it purr like a kitten, and the idle speed is much better and also much quieter. I also did a few other odd jobs, as the temps are around 20 degrees already today!
Winter Weekend!
Well, we have experienced some more normal winter temperatures this last week!
We saw our 50's on Tuesday dive to about 0 degrees the last couple of nights, and daytime temps around 10-15 degrees above 0. This weekend looks to be a little chilly, but it may warm up some on Sunday.
This weekend I have a couple of small projects, I have my trailer loaded with a pile of garbage, that we have accumulated over the late summer and fall and a pile of stuff form the basement of stuff from the basement of Wooden Nichols. So some winter cleaning in my shop, which freed up some more floor space.
After my run to Garrison Disposal's collection yard, and unloading, I plan to pick up a round bale or two at Jeff's for the animals. I am getting one bale for feed and maybe a less desirable bale for some bedding for their sheds, which they will probably eat also, but it will give them something to lay on when they want to get out of the wind. Which for the llamas and Bucky is probably the thing they dislike the most during the winter, is a cold sub zero wind.
After that it is time to watch NFL football playoffs, which has some great matchups for the second round of the playoffs. We also will probably play some live games of Scrabble, and of course make multiple plays in our online games!
Sunday includes some pickup tuneup work and maybe cleaning the inside a little bit, and also watching the Green Bay Packers losing to the Giants!
Reuseable parts!
Last week, I heard some grinding and clunking close to the drivers side front wheel, and I crawled under it and found that the CV Shaft...for the 4 wheel drive for that wheel... was loose, and the joint protection cap was split in two. Which has allowed all the dust and dirt and whatever into the joint that gives it flexibility.
It would run down the road in 2 wheel drive fine, but when I turned you would hear this grinding and clunking sound. Anyhow not good!
I went to one of my favorite auto supply stores...Shipman Auto Parts...they deal in used parts that they and other similar businesses take off of junked out vehicles or vehicles involved in accidents and strip them down for parts that are undamaged but have some wear of course.
The CV shaft for my drivers side front wheel cost me $129.00 complete with rubber boots that protect the shaft joints, normally new this part listed at $420.00. Big difference, everything I have purchased from Shipman has been about 30-40% of the new price.
I got it installed at a local garage close to us, that works on cars, not a fancy dealer shop, but they do good work, and was recommended to me by Brother-in-law Mitch. That came to $121.00 which was about 2 hours of time, they bill by what the repair book says the time it should take someone to replace it.
All in all, it is fixed for much less than the new part, and I know can head out on the road for work, with out worrying about an eminent breakdown.
Meet Elvira!
Meet Elvira! that is the name Ricki and Crystalie came up with for the newest arrival to Coffee
Lake Farm. Grant (Ricki's husband) brought this down from his parents home at Silver Bay, his Dad has reached an age, where it is not practical for him to being trying to do anything with it.
Grant, basically rebuilt this truck as a plow truck for their place when he lived at home many years ago.
He rebuilt the motor and also put all the front end hardware on it for the plow. It is a 1980 Ford 3/4 ton truck, with an 8 bolt wheel pattern and some pretty heavy duty tires on it.
You can see the body is rusting away on it but it runs good and the plow controls all work really well, so now all I need is some snow to play with it a little bit. Grant and I plan to remove the pickup box from the frame and just put a wood flatbed on it. Then I can use it for hauling some wood or even round bales from my hay supplier. It has a hitch on it also so I can use it to pull my trailer behind it, which will make sure it gets run every so often!
Above is my woodpile, which is hardly being used this winter so far as we have experienced some very mild weather lately. We had like 55 degrees here on Thursday, Jan 5th! That is fine with me, and I will be working on adding on to it yet this winter as there are some trees that will need to be removed.
Coffee Lake Farm Waffles
When, I get the chance to have some company for breakfast, we will fire up the waffle iron and fry up some bacon. This morning Rebekah helped me with mixing up the waffle recipe and setting the table.
While I fried up the bacon, and as you can see I have a happy waffle eater, enjoying her
warm waffle!
It is always fun having the extra help and some hungry mouths to feed some warm waffles fresh out of the griddle!
And of course nice crunchy baco to go with it!
Happy New Year!
Well so I am a little late, wishing my readers a Happy New Year, if you were like us there was plenty going on the last few days.
We enjoyed the Tin Can Alley New Years Eve Party, hosted by sister-in-law Montina and sister-in-law Coralie, held at the Sjolund home just SE of Aitkin. Games, puzzles and food, lots of it, and of course lots of Fun! They provide a very fun family NYE Party, and it is fun to have our Coffee Lake Farm visitors join us at the party!
New Years Day, we celebrated the New Year and also Christmas with our immediate family, we enjoyed sometime outside on the ice rink skating and riding the tube pulled by the tractor, even though the wind was howling and temps were in the teens. The we sat down to a wonderful meal prepared by Crystalie, homemade Chicken Kiev, cooked wild rice with mushrooms and onion, ginger glazed cooked carrots and brussel sprouts freshly made dinner rolls and a veggie tray of some raw vegetables, it was amazing.
We sat down and opened gifts and enjoyed the joy of giving and receiving, from everyone. After that we had dessert, homemade dark chocolate cups with homemade coconut ice cream! Needless to say everyone found it to be sweet and refreshing!