Sunday, May 27, 2012
Green Houses and Wooden Eaves-troughs
Planting isn't the only thing happening. An extension for the green house is taking shape, 8' X 15' in size. This makes the green house look like an Ontario house. Same basic pattern as our home. Main frame is mostly done and the door is rough framed. That leaves the roof tree and rafters, windows for walls, plastic for the roof and sand on the floor. Shelves, dirt tub and water barrel inside, fed from the eaves-trough (Margaret's brilliant idea).
I made the base out of rail road ties and half lapped the joints which were tarred to protect against the rain and damp.
The eaves-trough will be made of wood and sealed against leaks, down-spouts are old metal ones. There is already one on the old part of the green house and I watched it today during our downpour. Water was coming out of the spout in a three finger wide stream at one point. The rain barrel was 80 - 90% full after wards. I was amazed at the collection rate. This bodes well for the rest of the green house roof. We'll need more barrels to catch it in.
I want to experiment with wooden down-spouts as well, something I have yet to do to my satisfaction. I have made two different eaves-troughs, one with a square cross section and one with a triangular cross section. The triangular one uses less material and has just one seam to seal whilst the square one has two seams and uses 33% more material.
I like the triangular one better, mostly because I can vary the size I need more readily that the square type. I was just thinking aloud and asked Margaret what she thought of the idea of making our own eaves-troughs for the house as well. That's my girl, she's game if I am. Love her to bits I do.
That's all for now, until next time take care
Margaret and Ken
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Victoria's Holiday weekend
What a beautiful weekend this will be, well at least according to the weather forecasters. And the excitement that seems to be in the air. 1st long weekend of the summer season. Cottages will be opened , gardens will be planted with the assurance that frost will not be visiting until the fall..
We here have been busy planting and planning.
We have news to tell you. We have bought(almost) 2 lovely cutters. I say almost because we still have to pay for them.
The small cutter is done in black material and has a child's seat that folds down. The larger cutter is beautifully decorated with trilliums , this one even has boot scrapers on each side.
We have almost finished putting in all of our vegetables. We seem to have been planting for a while now ,but we have spinach,lettuce,peas,carrots,peppers,turnip,potatoes,onions,garlic,sweet potato squash, butter nut squash, hubbards and other squashes,cauliflower,broccoli,brussel sprouts, water melon, cantelope , zucchini, pumpkins, leeks,egg plant. So not too bad this far.
So now we watch, water and hope for good growth.
We wish all of you a wonderful long weekend , in celebration of Queen Victoria's birth.
Until next time
Margaret & Ken
Sunday, May 6, 2012
It is no wonder May has always been a celebrated month
One hears of spring celebrations.; But nothing says spring/summer like the month of May. It is really no wonder there were/are so many celebrations in May. The birds are happily celebrating the birth of their young and everywhere you look new life is forming
The gardens are full of new life , especially the vegetable gardens,I cannot believe how everything seems to have sprung up. We have had a bit of rain and wow . To date I have peas that are starting to flower, I have garlic that is at least 4 inches tall.Lettuce that we will start to eat this week,spinach that is also ready to start to appear on the table. My onions are showing nicely as our my potatoes. We have had treats made of rhubarb twice now and I think rhubarb jam is in order.I have extra maple syrup to sweeten with.My greenhouse is full of tomatoes,squash,turnip,cauliflower,broccoli, brussel sprouts and other goodies just waiting to be planted outside.
I watched a raccoon moving her babies this morning ,one at a time she scampered past with a little one in her mouth. Hope they are happy with their new home .I am sure in no time they will be driving us crazy.As cute as raccoons are they surely can be a pain .
Out front the area we have designated for our future horse is growing nicely and will look rather wild soon I am sure.I went today to have a look at a pair of absolutely beautiful cutters.Wow they are lovely.The family that owns them were very friendly and has much information for me about what is available in this area. So I kind of gave them a wish list . Sounds like with their connections they can point us in the best direction for livestock and such . Very lovely family.
The more I meet people and describe what we are doing the more I am encouraged .People no longer stare at us with odd expressions.Or offer us a free tv. I think people are beginning to realise the importance of real food , and less corporate dependence and this make me for one very encouraged.While I know that not many will adopt our lifestyle I do know many people are relearning to do small things such as preserving and growing at least some of their own food.
So this is my thoughts for today at least,I will get back to you soon. For now I am enjoying the magic that is May and loving the beautiful sound of all of the birds ..they seem so very happy.
Talk to you soon
Margaret
The gardens are full of new life , especially the vegetable gardens,I cannot believe how everything seems to have sprung up. We have had a bit of rain and wow . To date I have peas that are starting to flower, I have garlic that is at least 4 inches tall.Lettuce that we will start to eat this week,spinach that is also ready to start to appear on the table. My onions are showing nicely as our my potatoes. We have had treats made of rhubarb twice now and I think rhubarb jam is in order.I have extra maple syrup to sweeten with.My greenhouse is full of tomatoes,squash,turnip,cauliflower,broccoli, brussel sprouts and other goodies just waiting to be planted outside.
I watched a raccoon moving her babies this morning ,one at a time she scampered past with a little one in her mouth. Hope they are happy with their new home .I am sure in no time they will be driving us crazy.As cute as raccoons are they surely can be a pain .
Out front the area we have designated for our future horse is growing nicely and will look rather wild soon I am sure.I went today to have a look at a pair of absolutely beautiful cutters.Wow they are lovely.The family that owns them were very friendly and has much information for me about what is available in this area. So I kind of gave them a wish list . Sounds like with their connections they can point us in the best direction for livestock and such . Very lovely family.
The more I meet people and describe what we are doing the more I am encouraged .People no longer stare at us with odd expressions.Or offer us a free tv. I think people are beginning to realise the importance of real food , and less corporate dependence and this make me for one very encouraged.While I know that not many will adopt our lifestyle I do know many people are relearning to do small things such as preserving and growing at least some of their own food.
So this is my thoughts for today at least,I will get back to you soon. For now I am enjoying the magic that is May and loving the beautiful sound of all of the birds ..they seem so very happy.
Talk to you soon
Margaret
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Wow ...and before you know it ,it is May
I/we must apologise for not posting much this month. I/we have been swamped preparing for spring and summer. In addition I am incoming President of the London North Rotary Club so have been very busy learning all of my duties.
Unfortunately I did miss speaking at FIPT this year to tell you how our year has gone so far. I had to attend a Rotary meeting instead that weekend. I hope Ken was able to answer all of your questions.
The weather has been kind to us indeed and we have much coming up in the gardens already. We have peas, garlic,lettuce, spinach,onions,potatoes,leeks,turnip, the cantelope and tomatoes ,cauliflower,and other veggies are growing happily in the greenhouse.. We have also planted carrots,watermelon and squashes that have not appeared yet
So we have a really good start so far. We are hoping this years gardens actually sustain us through the next winter . So we will be working diligently in our garden beds this summer.
We are also concentrating on water preservation in a big way this summer, according to many in the know, there may be drought this summer. Now we will know this for sure in the fall , but to be on the safe side we are not taking any chances. So we have added many new rain barrels. Water or lack of water will be what makes or breaks your food production capabilities.So it is most important . We are not taking any chances this year.
We had a great loss last week. I arrived home from a meeting to find 8 of our beautiful chickens had been killed in the yard. As you know we allow our birds to run free range.Makes for happier chickens and much nicer eggs. We have never had a problem before especially in the daytime. So to arrive home to find such a horror was awful. My beautiful white leghorn rooster who was a favourite or mine died in my arms . I can only assume this was the work of a dog ,because this appeared to be a thrill kill. A thrill kill is when something (generally a small dog)chases the birds until they literally drop dead. They do not eat the kill , they just move on to the next bird to chase.
So we lost our beautiful birds and the guilt was overwhelming.
We have a wonderful friend who has a farm near Orangeville Ontario.She is an expert on chickens . We were fortunate enough that she had extra newly hatched chickens ,so we travelled to her home and picked up more chickens to add to our flock. They are absolutely lovely and Ken finally has his Chanticlairs(sp)
We hope to pick up some ducks and other birds from her in the next couple of weeks. If you either want to learn about chickens or want to buy please ask and I will pass your information on.I have rarely met anyone who knows more about chickens and the breeds ,or is more passionate.Wow .
We found a lovely multi candle mold at an antique shop in our travels . It will make 12 taper candles . Our candle wax pot stays on the wood cook stove all the time so we have wax at the ready to make candles any time .Well I will write more some time this afternoon.I would like to tell you my summary of how this year has gone and what I would like to accomplish this next year. Until then thank you for reading and supporting our little project
Margaret
Unfortunately I did miss speaking at FIPT this year to tell you how our year has gone so far. I had to attend a Rotary meeting instead that weekend. I hope Ken was able to answer all of your questions.
The weather has been kind to us indeed and we have much coming up in the gardens already. We have peas, garlic,lettuce, spinach,onions,potatoes,leeks,turnip, the cantelope and tomatoes ,cauliflower,and other veggies are growing happily in the greenhouse.. We have also planted carrots,watermelon and squashes that have not appeared yet
So we have a really good start so far. We are hoping this years gardens actually sustain us through the next winter . So we will be working diligently in our garden beds this summer.
We are also concentrating on water preservation in a big way this summer, according to many in the know, there may be drought this summer. Now we will know this for sure in the fall , but to be on the safe side we are not taking any chances. So we have added many new rain barrels. Water or lack of water will be what makes or breaks your food production capabilities.So it is most important . We are not taking any chances this year.
We had a great loss last week. I arrived home from a meeting to find 8 of our beautiful chickens had been killed in the yard. As you know we allow our birds to run free range.Makes for happier chickens and much nicer eggs. We have never had a problem before especially in the daytime. So to arrive home to find such a horror was awful. My beautiful white leghorn rooster who was a favourite or mine died in my arms . I can only assume this was the work of a dog ,because this appeared to be a thrill kill. A thrill kill is when something (generally a small dog)chases the birds until they literally drop dead. They do not eat the kill , they just move on to the next bird to chase.
So we lost our beautiful birds and the guilt was overwhelming.
We have a wonderful friend who has a farm near Orangeville Ontario.She is an expert on chickens . We were fortunate enough that she had extra newly hatched chickens ,so we travelled to her home and picked up more chickens to add to our flock. They are absolutely lovely and Ken finally has his Chanticlairs(sp)
We hope to pick up some ducks and other birds from her in the next couple of weeks. If you either want to learn about chickens or want to buy please ask and I will pass your information on.I have rarely met anyone who knows more about chickens and the breeds ,or is more passionate.Wow .
We found a lovely multi candle mold at an antique shop in our travels . It will make 12 taper candles . Our candle wax pot stays on the wood cook stove all the time so we have wax at the ready to make candles any time .Well I will write more some time this afternoon.I would like to tell you my summary of how this year has gone and what I would like to accomplish this next year. Until then thank you for reading and supporting our little project
Margaret
Saturday, April 7, 2012
The Weather and Water
Greetings all, Ken here. I've been watching the weather all winter or rather, our extended fall and on into the spring and wondering what the rest of the year has in store for us. I have a feeling that this will be a dry spring and summer.
What does that mean for us? It means taking very good care of the water we have on hand in cisterns and water barrels and collecting every bit of water we can, trying to keep the evaporation down and being good stewards of the aforementioned water.
This is, in fact, another facet of the experiment we are engaged in and I'm brimming with ideas to try for the collection of water, storage and distribution of any water we use using only the technology which was available in Upper Canada in 1865.
My research and experience shows cisterns, water barrels, watering cans, pipes, wind and water driven pumps as well as hand pumps were the level of technology available in rural Upper Canada at this time.
Water barrels were made of wood, cisterns of lime cement (all that was available at the time) pipes of wood and some metal, pumps of wood and cast iron and hoses of rubberized cloth (much like a primitive fire hose) were the means of collecting, storing and distributing water. Eavestroughing was made of wood, usually with a downspout leading to a barrel or cistern, also made of wood.
I have constructed an eavestrough of wood and made a downspout to direct the water to a barrel. I can honestly say the wooden eavestrough works quite well. It seals up during the rain and is at last as efficient in gathering the runoff from the roof as metal eavestrough. This test of wooden eavestrough is in place on the chicken coop. The downspout on the other hand, leaves a bit to be desired. If it's windy, the water has a tendency to miss the barrel and is lost to our use. I have a better design in mind and will let you know how well it works.
I also have to adjust the eavetroughing on the main house to get better usage of the water runoff from the roof. We have several barrels to collect the runoff as well as the cisterns, one on the north side and a second one on the south side. They are usually full all year so this year will be a test for them as well I think.
All in all, water and it's usage is yet another aspect of our experiment, and I hope to have some numbers (Imperial gallons used, where it was used and how it was collected) for posting at the end of the year. It will form a baseline for comparison to future years.
That's all for now, thanks.
Ken amd Margaret
What does that mean for us? It means taking very good care of the water we have on hand in cisterns and water barrels and collecting every bit of water we can, trying to keep the evaporation down and being good stewards of the aforementioned water.
This is, in fact, another facet of the experiment we are engaged in and I'm brimming with ideas to try for the collection of water, storage and distribution of any water we use using only the technology which was available in Upper Canada in 1865.
My research and experience shows cisterns, water barrels, watering cans, pipes, wind and water driven pumps as well as hand pumps were the level of technology available in rural Upper Canada at this time.
Water barrels were made of wood, cisterns of lime cement (all that was available at the time) pipes of wood and some metal, pumps of wood and cast iron and hoses of rubberized cloth (much like a primitive fire hose) were the means of collecting, storing and distributing water. Eavestroughing was made of wood, usually with a downspout leading to a barrel or cistern, also made of wood.
I have constructed an eavestrough of wood and made a downspout to direct the water to a barrel. I can honestly say the wooden eavestrough works quite well. It seals up during the rain and is at last as efficient in gathering the runoff from the roof as metal eavestrough. This test of wooden eavestrough is in place on the chicken coop. The downspout on the other hand, leaves a bit to be desired. If it's windy, the water has a tendency to miss the barrel and is lost to our use. I have a better design in mind and will let you know how well it works.
I also have to adjust the eavetroughing on the main house to get better usage of the water runoff from the roof. We have several barrels to collect the runoff as well as the cisterns, one on the north side and a second one on the south side. They are usually full all year so this year will be a test for them as well I think.
All in all, water and it's usage is yet another aspect of our experiment, and I hope to have some numbers (Imperial gallons used, where it was used and how it was collected) for posting at the end of the year. It will form a baseline for comparison to future years.
That's all for now, thanks.
Ken amd Margaret
Sunday, April 1, 2012
In Gueph for earth day
I am in Guelph today , arrived yesterday after a Rotary conference in Sarnia. Last evenng was "Earth day" . I hope all of you participated .
The kid's were funny and while they lit the candles were complaining that they did not have any "travellers"here ...They are used to our house and all of the travellers.For those of you that do not know "travellers" are those candle holders with the handles that you use to travel from room to room.Not sure if that is the correct name but it is in our house.
Zoe exclaimed ...ths is just like Grandma's house ...no lights
This morning she regailed me about Earth day and why we do it . Zoe is our Hippie child and that makes this Grandma very happy..
She told me that her next project in the spring is to go to the walking trail behind her house and they will be picking up garbage that people have left on the trail..Zoe is 7 so we can all take a lesson from her huh?
Earth day is a wonderful reminder that we can "all" shut off
our lights and use candles once in a while . Saves electricity andreminds us that this was the norm not that long ago. People ask me all of the time if living without electrical lighting is weird or bothersome...my answer is no it is calming on the eyes and we can do almost everything that we could do in artificial light . Although I cannot do fine sewing ...but I can't do that sometimes in full daylight...I will have to do a post on eye glasses soon
Until next time ,I have Grandchildren to play with
M
The kid's were funny and while they lit the candles were complaining that they did not have any "travellers"here ...They are used to our house and all of the travellers.For those of you that do not know "travellers" are those candle holders with the handles that you use to travel from room to room.Not sure if that is the correct name but it is in our house.
Zoe exclaimed ...ths is just like Grandma's house ...no lights
This morning she regailed me about Earth day and why we do it . Zoe is our Hippie child and that makes this Grandma very happy..
She told me that her next project in the spring is to go to the walking trail behind her house and they will be picking up garbage that people have left on the trail..Zoe is 7 so we can all take a lesson from her huh?
Earth day is a wonderful reminder that we can "all" shut off
our lights and use candles once in a while . Saves electricity and
Until next time ,I have Grandchildren to play with
M
Friday, March 23, 2012
Gardens, Chickens and Fences
Greetings all, Ken here. Margaret is not the only to spend a lot of time in the gardens. I have been making garden fences all day. What's that you say? A fence around a garden? Silly idea I should think! You would be correct in thinking that garden fence might be silly, that is until you throw chickens into the mix. Chickens love scratching, it is in fact one of their best means of getting food. Our chickens are experts and quite fearless in their choice of locations to scratch about in.
They are equal oportunity scratchers, lawns, flower and vegetable gardens, wood piles and just about any other place they can get their claws into. They are quite efficient at making holes in the dirt which is where the garden fences come in. Seeds are fair game and vegetable seeds are best of all because they are usually planted in freshly turned soil and so are easy to scratch up.
The garden fences keep all but the most enterprising chickens out of the vegetable gardens. I have found a cheap and easy way to make garden fences that keep the chickens out, protect the gardens from the wind, tend to make the temperature inside the fenced area a little higher (reflected heat and light) and provide extra space for climbing vegetables such as peas and beans. With a little enginuity, you can make frames along the fence to hang tomato pots from, affix chicken wire for peas and beans to grow up and more. The only limiting factors are your budget, time available a materials to hand.
This cheap and easy method of fence building involves skids. We get them from a building supply store in London called Herman's Building Supplies. They have hundreds of skids left over from shingles, bricks and other building supplies. The best part of this equation is that they are free for the taking, it costs you time and gas to get them.
The method of construction I use calls for skids that have overhanging boards on both ends of the skid. I use all the same type of skid and just overlap them, make sure they are vertical and level and nail them to either scavenged 4X4 posts or 2X4's. I dig the 4X4's into the ground 2 ft deep, make them as vertical as I can, fill and tamp the dirt around them. Before I put the 4X4's up, I coat the bottom 2 1/2 ft with roofing tar to help preserve them. The 2X4's I cut to 4 ft lengths, cut points on them and pound them into ground.
I intend to make planting boxes for the top of the skids for the peas and beans. These will be 1X4 rough pine or spruce boards, probably lined with landscape fabric and filled with earth. (Duh!) The skids I use also have slats on the bottoms of them and you could hang pots or make up smaller planting boxes for climbing plants as well.
We have built two of these fences so far, one for the West Garden and one for the Kitchen Garden. I will be building one around the East (or BIG) Garden as soon as possible. Our grand children have expressed an interest in having a garden, so we'll be making gardens for the three of them as well.
I'm hoping this year's garden season will be more successful than last year. I guess we'll know in October how it went. We'll also know how well the fences worked in keeping the chickens out of the gardens as well.
Until next time, take care and thanks
Ken
They are equal oportunity scratchers, lawns, flower and vegetable gardens, wood piles and just about any other place they can get their claws into. They are quite efficient at making holes in the dirt which is where the garden fences come in. Seeds are fair game and vegetable seeds are best of all because they are usually planted in freshly turned soil and so are easy to scratch up.
The garden fences keep all but the most enterprising chickens out of the vegetable gardens. I have found a cheap and easy way to make garden fences that keep the chickens out, protect the gardens from the wind, tend to make the temperature inside the fenced area a little higher (reflected heat and light) and provide extra space for climbing vegetables such as peas and beans. With a little enginuity, you can make frames along the fence to hang tomato pots from, affix chicken wire for peas and beans to grow up and more. The only limiting factors are your budget, time available a materials to hand.
This cheap and easy method of fence building involves skids. We get them from a building supply store in London called Herman's Building Supplies. They have hundreds of skids left over from shingles, bricks and other building supplies. The best part of this equation is that they are free for the taking, it costs you time and gas to get them.
The method of construction I use calls for skids that have overhanging boards on both ends of the skid. I use all the same type of skid and just overlap them, make sure they are vertical and level and nail them to either scavenged 4X4 posts or 2X4's. I dig the 4X4's into the ground 2 ft deep, make them as vertical as I can, fill and tamp the dirt around them. Before I put the 4X4's up, I coat the bottom 2 1/2 ft with roofing tar to help preserve them. The 2X4's I cut to 4 ft lengths, cut points on them and pound them into ground.
I intend to make planting boxes for the top of the skids for the peas and beans. These will be 1X4 rough pine or spruce boards, probably lined with landscape fabric and filled with earth. (Duh!) The skids I use also have slats on the bottoms of them and you could hang pots or make up smaller planting boxes for climbing plants as well.
We have built two of these fences so far, one for the West Garden and one for the Kitchen Garden. I will be building one around the East (or BIG) Garden as soon as possible. Our grand children have expressed an interest in having a garden, so we'll be making gardens for the three of them as well.
I'm hoping this year's garden season will be more successful than last year. I guess we'll know in October how it went. We'll also know how well the fences worked in keeping the chickens out of the gardens as well.
Until next time, take care and thanks
Ken
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