Busy week last week, in a flu-like sort of way. That’s right, the dreaded influenza A ripped through the house like a bull in a Chinese shop who just learned that ox-tail soup was the special of the week.
Despite not feeling good on Monday, Farmer Seppi started bok choi, swiss chard, celery (way overdue) and tomatoes.
Winnie is still sore that we have no faith in her counting abilities, but she did find a useful Winnie job, and that made her feel better.
Such concentration.
We are only starting paste tomatoes this year. We don’t need more than one or two plants of slicing or snacking tomatoes. For that it makes more sense to buy starts from the local farm store, rather than two packets of seeds.
Now we have plants on the top as well as the bottom shelf!
The three remaining Georgia Candy roasters have started spoiling so we peeled and cleaned them and salvaged what we could.
The steers absolutely love anything squash or pumpkin related.
Maybe we’ll grow some extra squash next year just for the cows.
Not these steers, naturally, as we are planning on sending them to the freezer in July after when the dry weather starts.
Look who just turned 10 years old! Practically a grown-up now.
We love you Evie, it has been an amazing first ten years. You continue to teach us how to be mother and father, even if we are slow learners. Your siblings owe you a beer (after your next ten years) for being the Guinea pig.
Wednesday night was the day Mommy and Daddy both got hit. By Thursday Mommy had a fever over 102, and Daddy was so week he could barely lift a piece of plywood. The kids were still almost completely unaffected. This is a rookie parenting mistake, by the way. Good parents struggle heroically through, being their for their kids even when they feel awful. Great parents time their illness so that:
- Only one parent is down at a time.
- At least half the kids are down at the same time as half the parents.
As it was, Seppi and Daddy had a woodworking project to do.
Once the sheet was cut in half it was a lot easier to move. It is Baltic birch, which is quite expensive, so I made sure to mark the other half clearly so it doesn’t get used to build a goose nesting box or something.
Then we needed a jig to make sure our holes were exactly perpendicular.
When you don’t have a drill press handy you have to get creative. First cut a 90 degree corner in a 2×4, use that as the guide to start the hole in the jig, then leave the bit in the hole and check it for squareness.
Then clamp the pieces flat to the jig and drill through all of them at once.
Note to self, wood glue does not flow at 28 degrees Fahrenheit.
But it will spread like butter if you scrape it out with a stick.
Squish plenty into the hole, then bring it inside to cure in the warmth.
My very helpful dust collection system (Mommy doesn’t like sawdust in her carpet).
Clamps to hold it in place so we can drill up through, using the existing holes as guides.
Finished. The quilting frame is now (also) a drawing table. The top comes off simply by removing the four wooden pins you can see protruding from the surface.
Little Farm in the Big City 