An update... Wow, it's been a while!

At this point is really hard to tell where I left off.  So I guess I'll start with the most recent activities an work my way backwards.

  

Any guess what I've been up to?

 ...Or maybe I'll jump around a little bit.

Dehydrator Blues

What you see above is the back panel to my Excalibur 9-tray dehydrator.  This thing has been a champ and I'm still quite pleased with it... but like all things electrical, sometimes they don't work right.

My wife and I had gone to the grocery store recently.  Being the type of person I am, we both always make a point to swing by the discount shelf to see if there is anything we like to eat on sale.  Well this time there were banana's on sale.  I bought a bunch!  When we got home and the kids were napping, I sat down and started slicing.  Before loading them into the dehydrator, I spray both sides with lemon juice to keep them from turning brown... they also dry better if I do.  I loaded them up, turned on the dehydrator and went about my life as normal.  The next day I came home and guess what... no heat (that means no dehydrating)!

So what you see above is the guts with the thermostat removed.  I contacted Excalibur (www.drying123.com) and they promptly (sort of) sent me a new thermostat and a new diode after I paid for shipping.   Then I put the banana's in the freezer and waited for the parts to come in.  I didn't do anything with the diode, so now it's sitting on a shelf by the old thermostat... which I played with and think it might work again... maybe I have a backup now?  More testing for sure!

The thermostat - the diode bridges the gap between the two screws on the right, between the fan blades.

Well I replaced the thermostat and now it works... and the banana's are still in the freezer.  I'll have to get to that soon!

SWALES

What a rototiller can do to a backyard...

 
So a bunch of weeks back my neighbor graciously accepted payment to help me roto-till my garden and also helped me by tilling up some contour lines in my backyard.   Then it became my job to turn those paths into swales.  The idea is that it is perfectly level and catches all the water run-off, holding it until it evaporates or soaks into the soil.  This helps reduce the need for watering things on the downhill side... which in my case means fruit trees and other food producers... like green beans :)  (We ran out of space in our garden this year.)

But anyway, this weekend my parents came up to help me celebrate my birthday and we, in general, had a great time.  One thing that I particularly enjoyed was my father's help digging the top swale.  Not only did we get it all dug and built, but I have found over the years that the best way to have a conversation with my dad is to take away the distractions, provide work (that doesn't require a lot of thought) to occupy one side of the brain and let the conversation occupy the other side of the brain.  This was one of those times when we were able to have a good conversation... the topic wasn't
too meaningful, but I still enjoyed working with my dad.

A swale

I don't know if you can see it, but basically I made a level ditch in my backyard... a fairly big one too!  This has taken a lot of work with a rake, pulling the dirt from the roto-tilled section towards the downhill side to create a berm of dirt... shallow enough that I can drive the mower over it without scabbing the lawn and ruining the blades.  But dad, being the very intelligent person he is, or maybe it's because it's the tool he had on hand, picked up a shovel and started digging it out.  Needless to say, it would have taken me a long time to finish up the first one without him.

CHICKENS

Those birds are getting big!  However, they are not immune to harm.  This was evidenced on Monday night while I was moving the chicken tractor back up towards the house.  Real quick - they have learned to move to the front when I move the tractor, as that's where the fresh grass is... but since the made it to the back of the yard, I had to reverse directions.  Well I ran over one of them while moving it and it died (I've run over a couple that made it just fine).  Well I fired up the turkey fryer, scalded it at 148°F (Thank you Herrick Kemball).  Anyway, I got to the step in Herrick's instructional where you remove the intestines where I ran into a problem.  Step 7 goes over opening up the back end and states the following:

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"Please Note: When you cut into the bird’s body cavity, no liquid should come out. If liquid (i.e. yellow-colored water) does come pouring out of the opening, the bird is sick. Throw it away. I have had this happen on two birds in ten years."

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Well guess what I found?

It died prematurely... and ended up in the compost... bummer!

When I cut it open, not only did the yellow liquid come out, but there were two very full sack's of it (see arrows in picture above).  I weighed it after plucking and it came out at 2-1/2 lbs... I guess it wasn't too much of a loss, but now I can't help but be afraid the rest of them are sick!  Still no word on what this sickness is, but I'm hoping I don't ever see it again!

Well here's an older picture (3 weeks ago) if anybody is curious what the inside of the chicken tractor looks like.  I'll have to get more pictures on my pen drive... blogging is hard when you are away from your home computer and camera!

Not quite old enough to use the big feeder!

 

UPDATE!

I got in contact with a nearby butcher who informed me this is called "Water Belly" and is quite common among fast growing meat birds.  My research says there's not way to cure it as it is a result of the cardiovascular system not being able to keep up with high blood pressure forcing liquid out into the body through the liver.  Can anybody verify this?

BIRTHDAY!

As I said, we celebrated my birthday recently.  My wonderful wife got me a new wooden handled, assembled in America (that's the best it comes these days, and she had to look hard to get even that!) digging shovel for fathers day and a 5 gallon crock for my birthday.  We can now make pickles 5 gallons at a time!  Yea... that's something I can get excited about!

Also, yesterday I went over to www.Starkbros.com and took advantage of their end of season sale.  I spent a good bit of money with the hope that I won't need to take them up on their 1 year promise of satisfaction, but feel good knowing its there if the plants die!  So yea, that was a good chunk of birthday money (thank you parents / in-laws / grandparents!)... but I got the following:

Two Peach Trees
Two Pear Trees
Two Sweet Cherry Trees
A Reliance grape vine (seedless) - great for making raisins or eating
Rhubarb
Asperagus
Red Rasberries

I highly recommend you guys get over there as they have some AWESOME prices right now!  I know a few of my buddies who are moving soon or have just moved... I can't think of a better investment than some fruit trees!

Okay, I'm late getting back to work.  Take care!

This weekend... an update from the Johnson property.

Well this weekend was quite a stir... there was a to do and not so much time to get it done... so where should I start?

The house: 

About 6 weeks back, or so, it seems God (or was it Satan tempting me?) didn't appreciate the siding on the south end of my house and used the wind to help me remove it.  One thing I discovered through all of this is that my house didn't have any Tyvek on the South wall (I don't believe my house got any when it was built).  Tyvek, or house wrap, is something of a Gore-tex lining that goes underneath the siding to keep the water and wind from infiltrating and rotting out the wood, and generally making your house less warm or cool, depending on the season.  As a result of the wind damage, we had insurance come out and give us an estimate... it was $1300 for a house with a $1000 deductible... grrr.  

Narrator: Mr Super Hadyman Husband enters stage left and gets quotes from contractors.  He finds the company that made the original siding and contacts them, only to find out they only sell to contractors.  Mr Super Handyman Husband discovers that one of the contractors will allow him to purchase the siding directly from the manufacturer through his company!  

So in the end, my father came up over Easter weekend to help me put up Tyvek and 1/2" extruded foam insulation board.  Then this week I got started putting up the siding.  Saturday morning I got up early to completed putting up 2 boxes (400 square ft), plus a little more, of siding only to be stopped short of the goal by some little boys who needed to be taken care of while mom was out shopping.  
After fixing them lunch, General mom returned to the home base and I was once again set free to attach the ever growing list of things that need to be taken care of. 

Planting the garden!

I planted two rows of green beans, only to discover I severely didn't order enough bean seeds.  I also planted some squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers.

Then on Sunday I went to Lowes for reinforcements... I purchased some T-posts, electrical conduit, and a flower for General Mom for Mothers day, although Alpha (my first son) determined that he should get all the credit for that one!  All that said and done, my next plan is to build some Tomato Grow-Up Trellis's.

Courtesy Herrick Kimball

I'm sure I'll make some changes to it... in fact, I know I will.  I went to Lowes to look for the concrete re-mesh.  In Herrick's blog, he said that it comes in 5'x10' sections... well not at the Lowes I visited!  It came as an $8, 3-1/2' tall by 8' wide panel... not optimal for growing tomato's!  So my plan is to cut up a 16'x5' cattle panel to make three of these things... I'll let you know how that works out!

Chickens

Well this week we lost a chicken... so now we are down to 60 total.  They were pecking at each other and doing all sorts of mischief.  We did some research, spoke with some people and came to a few conclusions...  1) It was too hot.  This causes stress and often times leads to cannibalism.  2) I tried to quarantine some of the birds getting pecked on... it didn't work too well, but served its purpose enough.  3) We got some anti-pecking soln. from TSC (tractor supply).  It's a purple goo that comes in a glue bottle like container that smells like grape flavor, in my opinion.  I caught each of the wounded chicks and smeared this stuff on their wounds... it's supposed to help them heal and keep the others from pecking on them.  4) I reduced the heat lams from two down to one... they seem to be happier this way. 

Fruit Trees

I had ordered fruit tree's from Gurneys, but they screwed up.  I ordered them back in February, and two or three weeks back I called to ask them when they would get here.  They cancelled my order because my credit card didn't go through... and never told me!    Angry is one way to describe how I felt when they told me that... but now it gets worse.  I planted all the trees in a mixture of peat moss and horse manure, aged and mixed in well, and my two peach tree's are dead.  Why?  Well they are supposed to be in the ground by a certain time... about a month before I found out they cancelled my order.  I didn't want to do any more business with them, but now I have to... I can get store credit for the dead tree's, but have to pay shipping.... next spring.  So I basically won't have peach tree's for at least another year if I depend on them... yeap, I'm frustrated!

Neighbors

 I recently met one of my neighbors, a good ways down the road, who happened to be pruning his apple tree's.  I stopped in and simply asked if I could have some branches to try to start new tree's from cuttings.  I came home with over 40 cuttings and shortly put them in rooting compound and then in the ground... the longer branches I put into the ground in a low spot in the back yard while the shorter ones are in pots.  Weirdly enough, the longer branches seem to be doing better... but we'll see with time.  As a side note, I'm going to go back and try some air-layering to see if that works better.  Oh yea, this guy also makes wine and sent me home with two bottles... wow, thanks! 

It seems God got him ready for me moving in too, as he recently stuck grape vine cuttings in the ground in case anybody wanted some grape vines!  He said I can take all I want...  too cool!