Well, I spent this last weekend working on a bunch of projects all over the farm, so here is the list...
1. Cleaned out both gardens, picked up the tomato stands, put all my pvc rings away, and cut off the cornstalks and sunflower stocks, piled them outside of the fence for deer to pick at. Then I mowed the trash left in the garden...more of a mulching process. Then I worked up both plots with the tiller and cultivator section that I pull behind the garden tractor. That concluded all the garden chores.
2. Tarped the corn crib gazebo, every year I put 4 small tarps around the outside of the gazebo, I fasten them with zip ties, and a few tarp straps across the doorway part. But not before I fill it up with all the yard furniture, and anything else I can squeeze in to protect from the snow and ice...the back deck looks really bare right now.
3. Finished the insulated water tank project and filled it. Their is a previous post on the construction of this.
4. Finished stacking and cleaning up the 10 yard pile of post scraps, brother-in-law Mitch brought over for the Backbarn Studio firewood supply. This involved a number of other nights of sorting and stacking and filling the little leanto full to the rafters. I then pushed the sawdust and dirt all into the horse lot for some fill by the feed bunk.
5. I then proceeded to move all the items outside around the shop. To more permanent storage for the winter, this includes all the old shovels and items that were leaning against the wall, and old step ladders, all Wooden Nichols items and put them out of the way of the snowplowing process.
6. I pulled in the swimming raft and put the boats in their place for the winter.
7. I also cut about a cord of firewood, and will be doing much more of that now that all the things above are done.
Needless to say I was busy and pretty tired out by Sunday night, I did get to enjoy some of the Vikings Football game, and also I listened to most of the Gophers big win on Saturday. Plus of course entertaining Smarkle and Tootsie all weekend!
The other project
I mentioned the other day I was working on a couple of projects, and this was the other one.
I insulated my water tank the animals use in their lot, it is starting to cold again, and I will soon
have to plug in the tanks heater, which uses a lot of electricity.
So I used a bunch of the extra lumber scraps I hauled home from the pool deck project I completed earlier this year. I made a large wood box frame, about 6 inches bigger than the tank...
about 52 by 33 inches and 24 inches deep.
After that I lined it with 2 inch thick I density foam board all the sides and the bottom,
its pretty tough stuff and it isn't hurt by water.
After I set the tank in I used smaller pieces and filled in the corners and then
I used foam spray in a can, to fill in the gaps.
I cut the top pieces to conform to the shape of the tank and screwed them in place and
filled in the caps with more spray foam. It definitely added more weight to the tank, but it should
hopefully make it much easier to heat the water and keep it from freezing.
After this I moved it back to its spot, and filled it up, and I will not plug the heater
in till we get some much colder weather. I may add a partial sheet of the foam board later in the winter that will float on top of the water to help hold some heat in the tank.
I had about $50.00 in expense to do the project, which was the spray foam and the foam board.
But I am sure it will pay for itself in a year or so.
Technology that saves firewood!
Well below you see a new feature in our home, I finally found a line voltage thermostat
that is programmable and hopefully will save us some firewood and still keep us
very nice and warm!
I installed this little box where my old dial thermostat was, which involved hooking up
some wires and then setting it. It has 4 periods a day that you can set your temps.
So at 6:15 am it will take our temperature up to 73 degrees till around 8:30 am.
At 8:30 am it will let the house cool down to 65 degrees and then at 5:15 pm or so it will bring the
temp up to 73 degrees and keep it there till 11:15 pm. Which is about the time I turn in and it will then maintain the heat till 6:15am at about 65 degrees. That is how the weekday settings are set, I also changed the weekend settings to something similar, just a little longer morning settings.
I am hoping with the cooler temp at night and the day temp being controlled at a lower temp it will help save some of my wood pile, plus reduce my electric bill some with the fan running less. If you don't have one, get one! Mine is a more expensive model because it is the type for a baseboard heat system, which is similar to how our woodstove system works.
This was a $45.00 investment and which I am sure will pay for itself within a month or so.
New Dog Beds!
Well, I took some time tonight after work, to work on a couple of projects and
here is one of them. Remember when I replaced the carpet in our guest bedroom?
If so I saved some of the carpet and also some of the pad, and I cut my pieces to size and
placed 5 layers of the carpet pad in between the folded over carpet piece.
I then tried pop riveting the open edges but it didn't work well so I changed the plan
and I had some wood scraps and used some screws and vised the ends between the two boards.
Tootsie took to hers right away but Smarkle is not to sure yet, but I am sure later they will be all
curled up on their new dog beds!
Grandma's Cookies!
Above you see lots of delicious work, by Mom (Grandma Joyce) and my Dad, mom's assistant.
These are the famous Christmas Cookies that since we were children, my mom
has made during the Christmas Holiday!
These now are gaining some new found fame because they are the featured treat
at the Wooden Nichol's Christmas Open House the last 3 years!
There are still some left, from the Open House, so please feel free to show up next
Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday...they will probably be gone by then!
Until the Coit Family Christmas Party!
Busy Fall Weekend!
Yes, it is a busy weekend!
We have the Wooden Nichols Christmas Open House going on, which started Thursday and goes through Sunday.
Crystalie and her consignors have tons of great holiday items for people to see and buy hopefully...so far it has gone really well! Plus she has extra help with family and friends helping her take care of all of her great customers!
I am busy at Ruttger's tonight and tomorrow, where they have their huge Octoberfest going on! About 160 craft and artisans displaying their wares all over the resort grounds! I will be selling food and drink tickets, at one of a few different spots to pick them up!
What makes it great is we are going to have nice weather pretty much all weekend! So if you aren't doing anything, come and visit Wooden Nichols and Ruttgers!
Visitors over the weekend!
We had some more company this last weekend, and I had a request for a horse ride!
So Sunday morning, we saddled Bucky up again and took some trips up and down the yard, these two pictures of Addy and I on Bucky.
Then it was Livia's turn and we did the same up and back in the bigger part of the yard, Bucky was even a little feisty. And lived up to her namesake a little bid. The nice thing about having an older horse, is there is not as much spring in her legs. Especially with us on her back!
