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Hello everyone and thank you for writing in. We are back from NY and working Time to get back to some of your comments.
Yeah Niki's a keeper but she is getting older or lazier and doesn't follow as closely anymore.
The shipping container is not air tight. It has a wood floor over steel beams. The building gets very warm in the summer so Mike thought if he put the holes in the floor it would draw the cool air in and the hot air would rise up and out the vents in the top. We also installed an extra fan on the inverter last year. It is better but the container still gets hot. Ideas ayone...without much electric
I'm not sure what happened to the water pump. The pump was inside the house and the seal started leaking. Either way I am happy that the company is sending us a new one.
JEANNE61- Your gardening sounds wonderful. Peas...hmm...maybe I'll tr those next year.
Good idea. Thank you.
Thanks. Those little bridges are cute. Can you imagine one of the cows trying to use it
Thank you for writing in. Composting is definitely on my list. After all I have plenty of free manure to add to the food scraps and grass clippings
So....how long after you put scraps and stuff into your compost pile do you have to wait before using it in the garden? What about manure?
Thanks
For air circulation in the HOT shipping container...WallyWorld has some 12volt Fans
With your Compost Pile, Don't throw anything in the pile that will attract Predators.
There isn't garbage service where i live so i burn whatever i can in a 55 gallon metal barrel. On top i put a heavy duty fine mesh metal grill so sparks don't get into the tree branch's & sech. I don't burn trash during 'Fire Season'.
Woo hoo glad you're back safely! Thanks for the update and of course Princess Niki pictures I want to come back as your next dog OK?
Grass fed beef usually have better flavor, if they are supplemented with grain, but the key is how much grass area does the beef walk around in as far as toughness. The bigger the area the tougher the beef can be because they are building up muscle. The cows on your place would probably be tough eating as well in steak form just from walking the hills. Flavor wise they would be better than chain grocery store's beef.
We always grass fed, supplemented with alfalfa hay as needed then 30-45 days before slaughter bring them up to the barn. Strictly grain fed with a bit of hay for the boredom but kept them in the stalls or a small pen out back. That way they got a little pudgy for more tender meat. Think humans that are couch potatoes compared to what Mike & you do in a day.
Try marinating the other steak before you cook it to see if Mike notices a difference in texture. How was the flavor for him? Still and yet I'd rather buy local grown meat but we ask our farmers to pen up the cow we are buying the last 30 days & we supply the grain. Might see how your farmers do with their beef maybe they would pen one up for ya if you got another family or 2 to go in to buy the whole beef.
Lisa try LL bean for a wood stove i think they might have some . Your place looks so great and yeah I agree the big city can keep to itself . I now live in Ohio I finally got out of florida and I am so glad you have your piece of heaven are you going to fair well in winter dear ? when it snows i sure hope so . have a great one but yeah try LL bean for that stove . I just saw one the other day somewhere but cant remember where now for the life of me well you know old age is setting in LOL !!!
Good morning everyone. I hope you all had a very nice 2 weeks and a Happy Mother's Day. Mike and I are back from NY and we had a wonderful time visiting with Mike's family. I'll pass on the traffic but the company and food was great.
BTW, this is one of the reasons Mike and I originally left NY. It took us more than an hour to cross the George Washington Bridge and it wasn't even rush hour. Heck I think there are more people on this bridge than are in our town, lol.
OK, time to tell you about our week since we've been home.
Monday 5-10
We left NY at 8pm Sunday night and drove through the night. We hit some freezing temps Monday morning in VA. This made me worry about the tomato plants I planted in the garden.
We got home Monday morning and we are exhausted. I checked my garden and sure enough some of my plants looked frozen..not good. But on a good note the plants that I took special care of inside the house did great. I'll tell you what I did.
I read about making a temporary type of terrarium to keep my plants alive while we were gone...and it actually worked. First I got a plastic container and I put my pepper plants and 1 zucchini plant inside the container. Then I got bamboo skewers, taped 2 together to make them longer, and taped 4 of them to the corners of the box. Next I watered the plants. Then I laid plastic out on the table, put the box and plants on top, and wrapped the plastic around the skewers and taped it closed without the plastic touching the plants. I know it sounds crazy but it really worked. A week later my plants were healthy, moist, and green. Here is what it looked like.
We really didn't do much today except get rest and try to come back to life. It was a busy week and a very long night.
Tuesday 5-11
Today I went into town to go to the High School for new tomato plants and also to do some grocery shopping. While I was gone, Mike worked on our gate. Over the winter it started to sag as gates will sometimes do. Mike got it straightened out and no more sagging.
Wednesday 5-12
Since we have been gone for a week, Mike is determined for us to get started and finish the ditch. He would like to do 3 buckets of rock per day which should be really easy. We still have a pile of rock from last year to start with. It's down by the spring/bathtub area so it's going to take a lot of trips back and forth to get the rock up top. We can't have rock dumped into the ditch by Jimmy's guys because their trucks will damage our pavement. So we will start at the top and work our way down one tractor bucketful at a time.
While Mike starts working on the ditch I work on my garden. First I pull out any of the plants that look like they froze. Some of them seem OK so I will leave them and see what happens. Then I re-plant my whole garden.
Here is Mike dumping the white rock into the ditch.
Next he works on placing the rock neatly in the ditch.
This top part will be our easiest section. Each day we will work our way down. By the time we get to the curve in the driveway the ditch will start to get deep and it will take us much longer to fill it.
Mike did 3 buckets today.
He also painted an extra satellite dish we had. Just cleaning things up.
Thursday 5-13
Today I am in the ditch helping Mike. He goes down to the rock pile, loads up and then brings the rock to me. He dumps it in the ditch while I place the rock. He keeps running back and forth while I work in the ditch.
Working my way down.
and
Another 3 loads are done.
Friday 5-14
We are waiting for Brian, one of Jimmy's guys, today. Mike wants to start working on the pond. First we need to clean up the mess from our spring by making a ditch for all of the water to run into and eventually it will go into the pond. Mike also wants to make some more flat land and turn around areas on our property. We have many many knolls that can be cut down and laid over to make flat spots for driving, turning, or parking. We also need some of the extra dirt to use on our pond wall.
While we wait for Brian, Mike and I start working on the ditch. We are up to an area that has a lot of gray rock from last year. Since we are using the big white rock we need to take out any of the gray rock that might be visible. We are going with the white rock instead because we think it looks cleaner and it's also less expensive...and we are going to need a lot of rock by the time we are done. We will take out the gray rock by hand, put it into the bucket, and Mike will dump it in the deepest part of or ditch. Then it will be covered with the white rock.
Mike picks up gray rock and puts it into the tractor bucket.
After the bucket is full he takes the rock down and dumps it into the deep part of the ditch.
We continue working our way down the driveway. After 6 loads we are still waiting for Brian but the ditch is looking good.
Woo hoo, Brian is here. Mike tells him to start digging a ditch for the spring first. Here he is digging.
He is doing good on the new ditch.
While he does that Mike and I take a ride around the property. We go up to the back top of our property to ride the fence line.
Here is the view from the back part.
As we ride along the fence we come across a lot of downed trees. We are losing so many this year. The Locusts in our area are in trouble and they are dying. I'm not sure what's causing it but it's bad.
Mike checks the tree damage.
Trees down and they are big ones.
I hate seeing all of this but we can't fight Mother Nature. It's just really sad to see so much life die. Another big job we will have is cutting up all of the trees to use for firewood. We have enough wood to last us years. Now we just have to find the wood stove which we are still looking for.
We ride back down to check on Brain. He is buried in the muck with the backhoe and tearing p the land. We knew this would happen. Springs are not dry. So we will have a mess before it gets better. We need to give it some time to dry out. Brian gets out and Mike has him work on the area by the fire pit. He starts to dig it out to make it bigger for a turn around. Then he takes the excess dirt and dumps it on the side of the pond wall. We need a lot of dirt for the pond.
Here is the old fire pit getting bigger and bigger for a turn around area.
While we are talking to Brian we hear a loud crash. we all turn just in time to see a huge tree come down...and it's a live tree. Mike and I take the 4-wheeler to check it out. It came down way behind the barn. The tree looks massive and we can't drive around it.
Then Brian has trouble with the backhoe so he has to leave to fix it. After he is gone Mike works on changing our chain for our gate.
And then he paints the chain because it was rusty. Yup, that's my man...everting has to be neat and clean
It poured later on. We are going to have a huge mess where Brian dug out. Sure, we needed it to dry out and we get clobbered with rain.
Saturday 5-15
It's strawberry season. I asked Mike's daughter if she wants to go strawberry picking with me. She said her and her daughter will go. The boys have no interest in strawberry picking, lol. I found a farm that is about 45 minutes from us so we will go when she is available. I can't wait. It's time to make some strawberry jam.
Mike took me into tow to go to the small flea market and also the Farmer's Market. I am looking for local honey because it helps with allergies and also local beef. I am so tired of buying beef that tastes bad from the grocery store. It's my day, there is a couple from a local farm who sell their beef. They sell by the piece...which is more expensive but they also sell by the 1/4, 1/2, or whole steer. I would be interested in the 1/4 of the steer and that is $3.25 per pound. There beef is grass fed, with no hormones, no antibiotics, and no steroids. I buy a couple of steaks for Mike to try. I hope they are really good.
When we get home I work a little on my garden. I plant some cucumbers and then I put powdered jello around my plants. I have no idea if this is any good but I just read that the plants will like the nutrients. Who knows? I'll let you know if I see a difference, lol.
The rain last night made a mess of our spring. We now have a big puddle.
And lots of muck.
We also get some washout on our driveway where the pavement ends and the gravel begins. That will all get fixed when we finish paving. The paving keeps everything so much nicer and cleaner. For now Mike will just scrape our gravel as any washout happens. It's still a huge improvement over the washouts we used to get.
Oh yuck...more rain tonight. Here is our misty view.
Sunday 5-16
It looks like we are having May showers instead of April showers. I am a little worried about my garden especially the tomatoes. Last year everyone's tomatoes got blight because we were too wet...well it's not looking good so far this year.
We hook up the trailer and go to Lowe's to look at plants. We need to get some for the back of the house. We found some Dwarf Burford Hollies and some Arborvitae. Both kinds of plants were half price...woo hoo and we got 10% off of that. That's my kind of sale. We bought 11 different plants. Now we just have to wait for the rain to stop so we can plant.
You guessed it. It rained the rest of the day and night with some brief, very brief, dry periods. We did get to crank up the grill and made Mike a fresh T-bone steak. He was very disappointed because it was very tough. OK guys help me out. Does fresh grass fed beef equal tough meat? I really don't know anything about this. I was expecting Mike to have one of the best steaks of his life. Well I was very wrong about that. So please if anyone knows cattle....tell me about it and what to look for. If the healthy beef is all this tough then it's not worth the money. I can live without beef but Mike loves a good steak once in awhile.
Well, we have had a pretty good week since we've been home. We are ready to work but it looks like the rain is going to slow us down. I hope you all enjoyed our story. Have a great week and I will write again next Monday.
Lisa
You used to live up here and moved down there? Wow thats quiet a move. What kind of herbs & plants do you have in your garden?
Lisa,
Did you marinate the steak at all before grilling and how well done did he cook it? Sometimes a "homegrown" steak is a little more solid than a "storebought". Not usually tougher though. When grilling, any more done than midrare the meat starts getting tougher the more done it gets. (Or they butchered that old bull that's been chasing the cows for the last 5 years )
Once again, thank you for the fabulous update! I love reading about your life in the beautiful TN hills!
Regarding the beef... I am truly surprised that the steaks were tough. The above poster who mentioned how large the area they had to feed on was probably right. Good luck on finding good range/grain fed beef!
Thank you for writing in. Composting is definitely on my list. After all I have plenty of free manure to add to the food scraps and grass clippings
So....how long after you put scraps and stuff into your compost pile do you have to wait before using it in the garden? What about manure?
Thanks
My compost piles are 'only' about 2 wheelbarrow's full so they are usually ready in about 4 to 6 months from start to finish. There might still be a bit of eggshell or corncob in there, but the plants don't care. If I turned them more and kept them moist it would probably be even faster. The bigger the pile the longer it takes, and the more 'brown' material (like wood chips, straw, or other harder-to-break-down stuff) you have the longer it takes. Manure, I think, really helps speed up the process. It doesn't take long to be ready to use. When it all 'looks good', like rich earth, it's ready, even if there's a few bits and pieces left. I'm not real scientific about it as you can see. Luckily the plants aren't too picky!
I have to share some cow stories too. My hubby, son and I rented a small house for 4 years; the landlord (Bill) ran a small registered black Angus cow/calf herd on the pasture around us. They were so much fun to watch. They had their routine, they'd travel a certain loop around the property at the same time every day. We loved seeing the 'tiny' calves when they were new, and actually got to watch two being born!
Bill was raising a couple of steers, and my husband and son got them addicted to the apples from the trees that grew at the corner of our property. Some apples would land on the cows' side of the fence, but most were on our side, so they would feed these steers apples. They would stand and moo every evening, waiting for their apples!
My fondest memory was of one first-time mama cow. She was so upset when her calf entered its frolicsome rambunctious stage! It was so small but had figured out how to use those legs to dance away from mama. She would trot as fast as she could after it, mooing desperately, and that naughty calf would just bounce away, kicking up its heels. It was so cute. There's just something funny about a cow in a hurry. And she was just so worried about her baby. I guess after having a few they calm down! A lot like people!
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Time to get back to some of your comments.
. First I got a plastic container and I put my pepper plants and 1 zucchini plant inside the container. Then I got bamboo skewers, taped 2 together to make them longer, and taped 4 of them to the corners of the box. Next I watered the plants. Then I laid plastic out on the table, put the box and plants on top, and wrapped the plastic around the skewers and taped it closed without the plastic touching the plants. I know it sounds crazy but it really worked. A week later my plants were healthy, moist, and green. Here is what it looked like.
.
