Friday 13 June 2014

More mouths to feed

This week heralds the arrival of an animal we have not had on the farm for the better part of a year.

Pigs!



We have ordered another batch of bacon on legs and will be setting them up in their new home this week. Look forward to some pictures of our cute little bacon factories. Don't get too attached though. We all know they are destined for your breakfast plate!

Their arrival further cements the importance of my rain-water project. The project is in a holding pattern until the fall when we can get the excavator in to dig a hole for the tank that all of our market and blueberry efforts will help fund.

Exciting!

EDIT: It turns out our pig order got shorted so we never did receive any. We are still working on obtaining about a half dozen pigs, but nothing has arrived yet.

Thursday 12 June 2014

A real fixer-upper

Farm work takes a bit of a back seat this weekend as we do some reno work on our rental here on the property. We recently had our long-time tenants decide to downsize and move into the suite owned by the former owners next door. This has provided a great opportunity to get a few new faces here on the farm.

Some old friends of ours from church jumped at the chance and will be moving in next month.

The boys left the place in fine condition for what it is. They did and amazing job of cleaning up all of the clutter and stuff left behind by their family (one of them is the son of the former owners). That being said, the place definitely could use some love and attention.

So this weekend will be all about removing a few odds and ends and doing a massive sweep of the place to paint and make minor repairs in preparation for our new tenants.

For all the interesting and potentially dirty jobs involved, I'm kind of excited for it.

Wednesday 11 June 2014

Canada Day Parade

The much-anticipated Canada Day parade is just around the corner. Last year I made the suggestion that we should put ourselves in it. Well, we did the homework and looked at what would need to happen and unfortunately it will not be happening this year.

We are excited to do it, but we have a few too many weekend work battles to take on and would not have time to adequately prepare for this event.

I'm still excited about the idea and I am definitely looking forward to next year's parade.

Happy Cow Happy Pond: Half time

Sunday was not a day for work. The normal routine of church was preempted by the stomach bug. All but two of us stayed home for the day. I was still unaffected but I opted to stay with the kids as Laura had been a good sport and let me out for most of the day before to work on the barn, as well as put the kids to bed so I could assist at a conference Saturday night.

Where I left off on Saturday.
I would need to steal time if I was to wrap up what I wanted to get done this weekend. My goal was to get the diverter put together and installed, finish the pipe run and leave a dry-fit pipe pointing to the eventual tank location.

Tuesday 10 June 2014

Happy Cow Happy Pond Project: Game Day

I woke up Saturday morning surrounded by sick kids and adults. Josh had just gotten the bug the day before and so did Laura. Most of the kids were sick or recovering. Josh said he would try to get out and help. Marc, unfortunately was out for the day.

So I went about my usual duties, cleaning up after the horses. Then I headed down to the shop to load up on every possible supply I could need. Ladders, hacksaw, hammer, drills, screws, brackets, chain, wire, and so on...

The ever-growing pile of supplies for my project.

Monday 9 June 2014

Happy Cow Happy Pond Project: Cram Session

This weekend I started on what was to be the most daunting stage of my rain-water harvesting project...

Getting the water to the tank.

Now I do not have my tank yet. The decision was made to save that purchase until later in the season for cash flow reasons. I have the specs and a rough idea of what I am going to do with it.

This is my "rough" design (blue boxes are filters, diverters, and the tank).
I drew up the above diagram last week and sent it off to the folks at Watertiger to get confirmation that this was the intended layout when they came out initially. Now I just needed to get the pieces I would need.