Sunday, November 10, 2019

another post

I have been working on a project for our neighbor.  He has asked for a neck gaiter in blaze orange.  I have the yarn, but designing the gaiter on my Circular Sock Machine has been interesting.

 This is my machine


This picture was taken about 5 yrs ago, I no longer use the digital row counter.  

This past friday was bread baking day, I make nearly all my bread with Sourdough starter.  It was chilly in the house, so while I started just after breakfast, I didn't take it out of the oven till after 11.  

Farmguy likes his bread in easy to slice loaves, so my sourdough is baked in pans, not in rounds.

The house was/is chilly due to the fact we have had so much rain this year, our wood supply is at best dsamp and at worst, soaked.  So we are not getting as much heat out of the wood pile this year.


Farmguy is still eating fresh tomatoes, they are ripening nicely after I picked them green.  There are about 8 left.


I managed to actually get some painting done this fall. I painted most of the wood on the chicken house which hadn't been painting for 40-50 yrs.  Boy did it soak up paint.  I used a primer/paint combo.  

I forgot to take my phone out earlier in the day yesterday, so took these at dusk when I went out.  It may not be noticable but I have lined the outside pen wire walls with plastic canvas recycled from bulk seed bags  The bags are about 4' cubed.  I remove the tops and bottoms which aren't flat, and have a strip of plastic that is 4' tall and about 16' long.  The chickens appreciate the wind breaks, they are not happy when their feathers are blowing in the wind.  I don't cover the top, there is no support for a heavy load of snow on top of a tarp as it is just bird netting.  the walls are double chicken wire and yard fencing. 
I also got the inside of the chicken house whitewashed. 

I took this at dusk after they had gone to roost for the night.  I use the flash on my phone which gave them shiny eyes.   I prefer whitewash inside over paint.  The bugs and spiders do not like the lime in the whitewash, I can add canning salt when I mix it up and that helps to reflect light, so it is brighter without using a large lumen light bulb.  And the lime, water, and salt will not harm the birds if they happen to peck at it and eat a bit. 

I managed to get the area under the roosts shoveled out friday when it was in the upper 30's and lay new straw, as it started snowing today.  It was to cold and windy to let the chickens out so they had to be kept in all day.  

on a farming note, we have been able to get the soybeans all combined.  nearly 2 months late.  And have gotten about half the corn combined.  We have dealt with water in the fields, normally the guys will combine all day and into the night to get done, but there was so much water in places, they had to only combine during the day so they could see the ponds.  Running water into the combine is not good.  Things get wet and when corners and places are full of chaff and dust, getting things wet and muddy gums up the works. 

well, enough for tonight. 




4 comments:

  1. Doubt I've ever seen a sock machine! Is it a kind of mechanised or computerised loom?
    Enjoyed reading about farmlife. 💗🌹

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    Replies
    1. it works by turning the crank. If you have ever used or seen a flat bed knitter, it works on the same principle, just in the round. You can knit anything tube shaped. socks, or hats or anything you can imagine. There are many videos on youtube or vimeo. if you are interested.

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    2. Thanks for the explanation ... makes sense 🌹

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  2. This weather is foul. I hope you cope okay with this early cold streak. Crops came out very late here, too. The weather has not been a farmer's friend this year.

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