Reunion

Several of us went down to Grass Creek, IN this past weekend for a family reunion.

Listening to the stories told by my aunts and uncles was priceless. When I came back I found this on the Practical Farmer's of Iowa blog and wanted to share it here. There are some parallels between his history and our family's.

We shall not cease from exploration,
and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started
and know the place for the first time.
–T.S. Eliot

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My cousin Tristan took a lot of great pics (link). Here's one of my Dad, on the right, and his brother Roger and sisters Sandra and Shirley.

My aunt Shirley gave me this high school graduation photo of her brother, my uncle, John. He died around 2002.

 All the kids of the generation in the top photo who made it to the reunion.

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I took the farm trailer down to Indiana so I could bring back a six row cultivator - pulled behind a tractor, it digs up all the weeds in between the rows of crops - that my uncle Roger hadn't used in decades, ever since herbicides became popular. While spraying sure is a lot easier it's not allowed under the organic production rules so I needed a cultivator up here in Turtle Lake.

My cousin Darrell used Roger's loader to put the cultivator on the trailer.

Then we strapped it down with chains for the 500+ miles back to Turtle Lake.

To get it off the trailer Dad and I took it up to the nearby John Deere dealer where they picked it up with a big fork lift and set it on the ground. There was still a bit more to do as two of the connecting pins needed to attach it to the back of the tractor were rusted in place. After a mechanic used a torch to break the rusted parts free, we hooked it up to the tractor and brought it back to the farm.

It has a place of honor on the old barn foundation. Prime location!

Next year Darrell and I, along with anyone else who wants to help, will be coordinating the Reunion. Hope to see you there!

Black Raspberries

There's a big patch in the yard. We've been eating them for the last ten days or so. On pancakes, oatmeal and ice cream. Or just straight off the vine.

Chicken Killing Time

I guess the preferred euphemism is "processing".

The 15 Cornish X hens came to the end of their lives this past week. I'd been keeping them in a mobile pasture pen, also known as a chicken tractor.

My nephew Calvin came to the farm with my parents and we processed the first two -- then ate them at our 4th of July bar-b-que.

Take it away Calvin -

Three days ago, another nephew, Max was here with my dad and we killed/cleaned the rest.

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Look out below! Blood and guts to follow ---

Meat Birds Are Moved into the Chicken "Tractor"

My dad and nephew came over today to move the Cornish X chickens from the brooder into the Joel Salatin inspired "chicken tractor".  I made the tractor, which I think of more as a mobile pen, over the past several days.

 

Now it's time to work on turning the two old corn cribs into a coop for the guineas, ducks, geeses, turkeys and laying chickens.

In other news, I got a new (to me anyway) farm truck!

George and Calvin Visit the Chicks (and Other Baby Birds)

My sister Heather shot some video of my nephews checking out the chicks.

Keets!

Replacing rotted rim joist/sill plate in farmhouse

When I started to frame the fireplace opening in the floor I found some fairly significant rot.

I built a series of temporary walls inside the house to support the weight that would normally rest on the sill and today started demolition. I’ll pour a concrete cap on the old foundation and put new floor joists on top of that cap. Then take out the temporary walls.

(Click on any picture to make it bigger.)

I did the west wall, roughly 30 ft long, today. Tomorrow I'll start on the north and south walls, at 20 ft each. A total of 70 ft.

I've worked on a number of old houses and never seen the masonry piled up in between the joists like it is here. That accounts for part of the rot; all that masonry wicking moisture right next to wood.  On the other hand the building has lasted for 100 years.