Still waiting for first calves - progress on new tiny homestead.
Another rainy week - this is Spring, after all. But our cows seem overdue by some days. Many look ready to drop their calves. Meanwhile, our new home construction is set to start, once it dries out...
Hi,
Thanks again for being here and opening this. For being part of this community.
(Note: this is probably too long for email, and so may cut off. In such case, there’s a link at it’s end to read all the verbosity online…)
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Farming News - Wild apple transplants are surviving well. The cows are still expecting.
Writing News - Writing Cabin is ready now. Just researching marketing and our newsletters.
Fiction News - The Hooman Saga serial continues. Our main characters are crossing into each other’s separate crisis.
Expectancy Factor - This is still in planning to become a newsletter.
Farming News
Roadside fruit also flower. Above are Mayapples, which produce fruit about the size of golfballs. A delicacy — even’t I haven’t sampled — since squirrels seems to harvest them just as they are ready. I’ll probably have to transplant them some day into a protected area of my new garden - perhaps between those wild apples I transplanted last week. (And yesterday, I found some wild strawberries that are growing in between one set of them. Bonus!)
And those seem to be surviving well. We’ll have to see if they make it through this coming summer, their next test.
And almost any flower can be made into jelly, provided that the flower itself isn’t poisonous to humans. Above is violet jelly. Already over half of the jars have gone to other uses. But I have a half pint leftover from this batch to finish off with my breakfast pan bread. Yum.
Fencing is a daily job now. Cows are glad to rotate into better pastures and tell you they are ready when they start finding holes in your existing fences.
Several cows are showing that they are ready to drop any day. Storms are good for this, since the changes in humidity and pressure seem to be an instigator. I’ll start showing pictures of the newborns here — as they arrive and in order.
I’ve begun wearing my sleeveless jacket, with ear tags and their pliers for tagging the new calves. Sleeveless because I’d worn out the sleeves from years of wearing almost daily. And its roomy pockets now always carry two tags of each color - white for bull-calves, yellow for heifers — plus the pliers to install them with. It’s easier to tag them the first day. By the third day, they can run faster than me and wrestle out of any one-handed and two-kneed grip.
Tiny Homesteading News & Notes
The Writing Cabin is all back together, dry as can be. Some fine-tuning on the computers there, but no major problems to deal with (just tweaking.)
I got my foundation and trenching guy up here over the weekend. And we found out how he would like to proceed. The water line goes in first, followed by graveling the driveway. That’s so no gravel gets into the ditch to cause later leaks in that water line. That water line will go in with an external hydrant.
Then he’ll dig the lagoon, bringing the extra dirt up to the foundation area. Back from that, he’ll install the septic tank and bring the line back up to the foundation, stubbing up with a cleanout.
Next, he’ll level out and roll the foundation pad so it’s ready to receive the steel mobile home frame, which will be blocked on concrete footings and anchored. About that time, we talk the rural electric cooperative to install the power, and hire an electrician to set up a temporary box with outlets we can use for our construction power tools.
Around then, I can haul up our tiny-home cottage and connect it to both water and electrical. The writer’s cabin also comes up, tucked out of the way.
I’ll install the needed floor joists followed by the subfloor - and we’ll be ready for the Amish to build the shell, and maybe the interior framing.
Here’s the floor plan as it exists right now:
Two bedroom, one bath, kitchen with a large pantry/storage area. And a nice-sized closet off the master bedroom. (The north is on the bottom in this layout.) Just 16’x48’ — about four times the square footage of our cottage - all on one level.)
The outer door to the south opens right into the utility room, so you can ditch the muddy clothes into the washer as needed. My wife is most happy with a good-sized kitchen - the floor plan actually built itself around that. She loves to cook. So as long as she’s happy, the world stays happy.
You’ll also note the wood-burning stove next to the front door and the deck outside for a rick of split-wood fuel. We’re looking at a stove that can be actually used to cook with in an emergency (or to entertain visiting grandkids with s’mores in the middle of winter.)
Solar power - off-grid
I dug out my cheapo solar panel to test. Needs a lithium battery to work.
Once I get this in testing for my Writing Cabin, then we’ll scale up a big version and do a project with that pickup camper so it becomes a backup off-grid power supply for the house. If we get it going well, then that can become our main power.
That pickup camper has its own A/C, so can be an emergency cooling unit on extremely hot weather. Some homework needs to be done on the interface with the grid proper. Not that we need to feed the grid, but so we don’t fry anything. (I have heard of some systems actually running the grid-meter backwards…)
Up-cycling Continues
We were able to snag some “bent and curly” lumber from a local lumber company who were cleaning out their irregulars.
That was some great timing — I saw two of these piles when picking up other supplies, asked about them, and came back to pay the next day. And they delivered it for free. All for about $550, I got all this wood for less than their cost. Some warped, some chipped, but a lot of it was treated against weather, and we also got a great load of decking planks, most were 20 feet long. Of the regular wood, most were 2x4’s in different lengths, some 2x6’s and even a few 2x8’s and one 2x10. In the treated wood, I got a 4x4, which (even though it twists) will come in useful as it lasts indefinitely. (That one is on the bottom right - about 14 feet long.)
All that took about a day to store it inside our barn, categorized by size and length (longer on the bottom, since you want to keep it “as long as you can for as long as you can.” Use up the shorter pieces on top first. And the 8-foot 2x4’s are stored at a convenient height, since those are common in construction.
All that adds up with similar purchases I’ve made over the years for the farm. We won’t have to buy our floor joists, and will be able to make all sorts of sheds with this for our tiny homestead. Maybe even frame up our greenhouse and chicken coops from these. (And a couple of insulated dog houses are being planned…)
I bought a nice little shed kit - it has just metal angles and instructions, so you can cut 2x4’s to fit. And I was taking a rough inventory of our salvaged wood and figure I can piece one together that will help us build that cottage while keeping our spare tools and supplies out of the weather and available. I have two trailer which will accept 6’x10’ sheds. Metal roof and paint should do the trick… Along with caulking seems to keep the weather out — although small vents at the eave tops will be vital to keep condensation inside at bay.
Writing News
Still needing to get proofs for that pentalogy of books (my five Writerpreneur books). I keep this sentence here to remind myself.
Newsletter News
The planning for the newsletter expansion continues. I’m still going to transition this main newsletter over onto Tiny Homesteading, with my “day job” of tending the cattle also getting mention. I’ve got some weekly downloads planned for subscribers - excerpts from classic textbooks on farming and gardening.
The Expectancy Factor is still planned for Tuesdays. Again, I have to review the book I’ve assembled for this.
But meanwhile, I’m still researching in all my spare time on how to effectively market all this data - newsletters being a key part of everything.
Look for great things in the future.
Comment if you like. Your input is useful.
Also published this week (ICYMI):
Writerpreneur Lessons
COPYWRITING HITS YOUR POTENTIAL BUYER WHERE THEY LIVE. It's two things: how aware is the individual buyer, and how over-saturated is the market they are buying in. Again, it's all about them, not you.
Fiction Posts
The Hooman Saga - XXXI - Serial Fiction
SOO-SHE WAS SMILING and went over to give Teacher a hug. "It worked! We did it!"
SO FAR: Sue and Teacher helped Tig escape Snarl's crippling trap. But is there a greater menace from the ferals who have meanwhile infiltrated the sentient wolves valley?
Expectancy Post
Thoughts of Value — Earl Nightingale
it takes imagination with action to create initiative. With these, any amount of hope and happiness is possible...
Thanks for being there, opening this.
Sharing is caring. You’re who I do this all for. I value your input.
Leave a comment if something strikes your fancy.
I hope your life is not too interesting to be overwhelming, but sufficiently engaging to keep you amused. (Like some of us here...)
Robert
PS. Again, you can always email me about anything.
PPS. And you can always buy me a coffee…
Bonus:
Here’s the nearly-final version of a book-in-progress the beta Expectancy Factor.
2 1/2 decades of research compiled into one massive book and a supplement.
Currently available as ebook (epub and pdf).
Audio lessons available soon.
As it’s updated, you’ll be able to download the most recent version, as well as the course lessons for no extra cost. (I have to set it at a $1 minimum so Gumroad will host the audio files. As usual, it’s pay what you want, so you can come back to contribute more at any time.)
And a bonus supplement: the Magic of Believing Field Guide (isn’t pictured - yet.)
