Catch up post

This has been a very busy week and a lot has gone on, so buckle up. It’s time for a catch-up post.

Literally.

Mommy took Evie and Ellie to the fair last Wednesday.

No, the other last Wednesday, the 6th of August. That’s how far behind we are.

They immediately started winning prizes. Ellie got a blue, and a people’s choice award for her quilt that she made earlier this year.

Evie took a blue and got Grand Champion for one of her photos.

Ellie is too little to get Grand Champion or Reserve Grand Champion (this is a very sore subject with her), but she did also get a rosette “Award of Merit for her photography as well.

Meanwhile, Daddy was in fine form on the farm. This motley conglomeration of scrap wood is what is referred to as a “jig.”

It’s purpose is to align the bit and brace so that the hole goes in one corner of the post and out the opposite corner.

This is a challenging alignment to get free handing, but as you can see, it worked quite well.

See it poking through right there? Just the tip.

The jig was so thick that the bit wouldn’t reach all the way through in one pass, so I had to take it off and do another pass.

It worked so well for the bottom hole, I used it again to make the top hole.

One might even say, were one so inclined, that the jig was up.

Unlike the girls, Daddy is not going to win any awards for his photography.

Now we have a gate that can guide the chickens into the south half of the south pasture…

Or the north half of the south pasture.

Or it can swing all the way open and sit out of the way against the fence. This will become important when we move the sheep onto the south pasture a few days ago.

Check on the kimchi. In “cold fermentation setting” the temperature holds stead at 48 degrees. This was colder than I wanted so I set it to “hot fermentation setting.”

Meanwhile, ambient basement temperature holds at a balmy 68 degrees, and the kraut here is fermenting merrily. You can see the silicone burp lid bulging just slightly as the CO2 develops.

Unfortunately, the next day when Uncle Adam checked on the kimchi fridge, the temperature had dropped to 31 degrees F. This is too cold for kraut, so Daddy checked on it Friday morning. A hasty translation of more of the instructions reveals that the fridge is designed to hold “hot fermentation setting” for only 1-2 days, and then it automatically drops to “storage mode” which is 34 degrees.

Meanwhile, ambient basement temperature is still 68 degrees.

After letting the ferments from the kimchi fridge warm up a bit we put it back on “hot fermentation setting” and put them back in the fridge.

Subsequent research reveals that Koreans often make kimchi by letting it ferment on the counter top for a day or two, and then putting it in cold fermentation for several weeks to months. This gives it a fuller, more complex flavor profile. The kimchi fridge is designed to hold it at 31 degrees which is cold enough to stop the fermentation process and keep the kimchi for weeks or months until it is eaten.

So we still have a lot to learn about how to use this thing.

Last few days in the pen before the pigs go out on pasture.

Turns out the rats are also enjoying having the pigs nearby.

That’s okay, you rotten rodents, I have something for you, it’s called a trap. Try it, you’ll like it for a second.

It is now officially time to play “let’s try to keep up with the garden in the midst of everything else going on. It’s a fun game.

Look at these beauties!

The heirloom marriage are definitely more prolific than cuore di bella, but not as sweet.

The purple elderberries are ripe! Hopefully I can get to harvesting them today before the rain hits.

Meanwhile, at Deedee and Papa’s house…

Life is always fun and games.

More shenanigans were going on at the fair. Evie won Grand Champion for her fashion review, and her creative consumer.

Here she is with one of her sewing teachers. She is modelling the skirt she made out of thrifted duvet covers.

Ellie got an award of merit for her oral reasoning presentation. Surprise, Ellie is good at talking to people and explaining her reasons. (She gets lots of practice around here, let me tell you.)

Evie’s table setting got a blue as well.

And Winnie got to make a stuffed piggy.

Saturday and Sunday closed out the fair in a flurry of activity. Daddy missed most of it because he was working in the clinic.

All the chicken stuff, put away until next year.

Monday and Tuesday were also quite busy. We have a rainstorm coming up on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of this week, and while the rain is certainly welcome, there is some work that needs to be done to prep for it.

The sheep and the pigs are now doing the merry-go-round on the south pasture. As you can see, it can definitely use some rain. The cow is not on the pasture right now, she is in the barn for two reasons: one to build up a manure pack to put on the garden for next year’s potato, tomato and squash row. Although we might do the potatoes a bit differently, but that’s another story.

The other reason is to keep her off the pasture while it is currently in its dry and fragile state, since her impact is higher than all the sheep put together.

We need a shaded, woodland summer pasture.

Monday we planted all kinds of winter crops.

Evie planted all the carrots and turnips.

The other kids picked tomatoes.

It’s a fun, quick job for people who have short attention spans.

The irrigation system in the garden has been a pain in the royal behind since we built it. We are not sure which royal behind, but we are quite sure that somewhere in the world, some king or queen is sitting assymetrically (get it?) because of that irrigation system.

This means that it is very difficult to keep these seeds well watered after we plant them. Especially when planting seeds in the hot dry weather, it is absolutely critical to keep them wet during their germination period.

Ellie and Evie pulling weeds, preparing this bed for wheat planting. Ellie made a hat out of a chamomile plant.

She has great taste in hats.

Ellie also picked a pint of blackberries to sell to the neighbor.

And the money kept rolling in, on every side.

After work on Monday we shredded and vacuum packed zucchini to freeze for winter baking.

Iris enjoys reaping the benefits of all the garden weeding. One person’s weeds are another cow’s snacks.

You know what else makes a good snack? Beans that were let to sit too long on the vine because of fair weekend, and got too old and tough.

We think she is pregnant! We might have a new calf come January, God willing.

The sheep get willow branches as their afternoon snack. This is why we need a woodland summer pasture. Then they could harvest their own willow leaves.

This looks so much nicer than it did before. Soon I will get around to adding the door, and if I ever find a timer that is designed to splice into 3/4 pex, it will be a very easy job to insert it.

We installed the overflow on the rain tank on Tuesday as well. This is so that when the tank is full, it will drain into the rain tank underground, and eventually make its way to the leach field in the pasture.

The best part of this job was that it turned out we had all the parts, and only had to make two cuts and stick it together, and voila! done in less than 15 minutes.

With some help from the big girls, we glued in this first flow diverter (it has been detaching when it gets full of water) and installed a ball valve on the bottom. The drainage nipple gets so plugged it never drains, and has to be manually taken off, so this will allow us to drain it far more easily.

Seppi has been working on this cut in this board for days, off and on. Why?

Because he can.

On Tuesday he helped set up a float valve on the 4th stock tank.

And added an extension with a quick release.

We installed this stock tank and set it filling.

I asked him why he thought this one patch of grass was still green. He answered, “Because I have been watering it.”

No, he has not been making his way out there and peeing in the pasture. That’s where the stock tank was sitting and water spilled there when we moved it. The difference between it and the surrounding area is incredible. That inch of rain tonight and tomorrow is going to be just the ticket for our thirsty pasture.

Doing man work together.