They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
We recently came across this beautiful print of a pen-and-ink drawing of the three hearts, sold by a family owned company in Steubenville, OH. Thinking it would make a beautiful fixture in our workshop, we ordered it, and I successfully turned a 10 minute project into a several day project, framing and mounting it. First… Continue reading Three Hearts Poster
As sometimes happens, Tuesday afternoon we had a short stretch of down time, about twenty minutes, between doing chores and starting supper. 20 minutes is a lot of time, enough to get a quick job knocked out if you're all set up, or read a story book, but not really enough to get much progress… Continue reading Hand Plane Interlude
We recently bought a grain mill. We bought a Diamant, by all reviews, the Cadillac of grain mills. It can grind beans, large and small grains, corn, even oily things like crushed nuts and sunflower seeds. It's also supposed to last practically forever. We certainly hope it can do all of those things, because it… Continue reading Mounting Bracket for the Grain Mill
Measure twice, cut once. The pump for our rainwater catchment system is an inline RainFlo MHP75A Automatic Booster pump. The idea is that it will pump water from the catchment tank to the water lines that feed the pasture. Obviously, this means that the pump needs to be mounted on a sturdy surface, and additionally,… Continue reading Building the Pump Box
We recently bought a trailer load of lumber from an auction, getting a steal of a deal. We now need a place to put the lumber, so we can empty the trailer, so we can use it to haul trash again, as usual. So we are building a lumber rack, with some of the lumber… Continue reading Building a Lumber Rack
Cleaning things up, continuing to streamline our workspace. Pulled all the canning jars out of the shop and moved them to the basement. Since we are not building a canning kitchen in the shop, it makes more sense to have them in the house. This frees up this shelf, which means that it can be… Continue reading Shop Class
"Daddy, do you need any help?" Little Miss "I'm-Almost-Two-I-Don't-Need-To-Nap!" Of course I do!
The pigs have less than a week remaining before they go off to the butcher, and the meat birds are now four weeks old, halfway through their brief lives. It is time to get them out on grass, but we don't fancy the attrition rate we had last year with the chickshaw only. We would… Continue reading Bird-Mobile
It has been a busy week or two since coming back from National Guard. Busy in good ways, but not necessarily on the farm. Not, at any rate, projects that make good blog posts. A lot of our spare time has been spent doing things as a family as much as possible. But, looking through… Continue reading Catch Up Post
When it does, it's usually not mine. Moving the steers and sheep on Saturday morning I was struck by the how much grass they left standing. It seemed that we should be following them with some other critter that not only ate the grass but also crushed it, rolled it, and squished it into the… Continue reading Love it when a plan comes together…
Little Farm in the Big City 