Happy Mother's Day

I know it's been a few weeks since I've posted anything here.  

In that time we've integrated the bay chicks into the chicken flock.  They are getting big and are all doing fine.

Some of the new pullets

Our oldest hens and also the 2 roosters are now 3 years and 7 months old.  

Except for Freckles, she's even older, we got her as a hen and have no idea how old she is.  

Freckles

We have a few hens that are a few years younger that we raised and adopted through the past 3 years.  

Bonnie, a former shelter hen

Our egg production has diminished greatly, that's why we got 10 new pullet chicks this year.  It was time for some new life in the coop.  This time we purposely purchased all pullets, so we wouldn't have to deal with a bunch of them turning into roosters.  

I'm hoping the new babies start laying this summer - got got them real early to get a good early start.

Also since I've posted we got a new roof.  Yeah to no more leaks in the back hallway when it rains!

We haven't lost any guineas lately - that's always awesome.  We've seen lots of fox and hawks and heard lots of great horned owls, but the predators have not killed, just come and looked and backed off.  Because I'm such a girl I can't actually kill a fox, but I'll shoot at it's feet and give it a good scare.  Maybe I've scared them away?  Often I see a pair of red-tailed hawks scoping out the baby chickens, they circle above the chicken pen.  But the pen has a roof and they know it, so they just watch the chicks and then fly away.  In their hawk minds they probably dream of a chick escaping from the chicken pen, and they swoop down and get their own young-un's a nice dinner.  But not in real life.  

The guineas love the warm weather.  I'm happy they all survived the winter.

The guineas have been laying eggs in the woods.  Sometimes we find their nests and enjoy a month worth of guinea eggs.  I usually have 1 chicken egg and 1 guinea egg for breakfast.  I don't want the guineas to attempt to raise their own keets, it's certain suicide, so I take their eggs.  Most of the time the eggs disappear before I find them, probably taken by fox or coons overnight.

Benjamin and Brindle kept me company as I walked through the woods this morning.

Also since I've last posted our lawn mower broke.  We need to do something and soon!  The grass is taking over!

Lots more is going on, but I'll save it for the next post. 

Don't want to give you too much information (TMI) in one sitting!

Happy Mother's Day!  Hope you enjoyed these pictures of my Sunday morning.

Hope everyone has a great Sunday today.

Shadow and Jack

The case of the new washer and the lost septic tank

A little while ago I got a new washing machine.  Yeah!  Life is good.  However, when it drained, it drained all over the floor!  Not so good.  It was installed properly.  Hmmm.  A plumber was contacted and came out.  His diagnosis was that the septic tank must be full.  It was just a coincidence that this happened at the same time that we got a new washer.  Bazaar.

And so Randy rigged the washer to drain outside.  A long pipe now runs from the washer out a window to the backyard.  You must be a redneck if your washing machine drains into your backyard...  At least I was able to wash clothes.  Thank goodness I have no neighbors.  There were no other plumbing issues other than the drainage of the washing machine. Toilets all flush fine, showers don't back up, dishwasher doesn't back up. 

Our house is a few hundred years old.  Who knows when the septic tank and plumbing was installed; it wasn't built with the house but installed "aftermarket".  All we know is that it has probably never been cleaned and now it was due for a good cleaning.  We looked all around the house for the septic tank, of course there were no drains, no nothing symbolizing a tank was there.  We heard many stories - people told us we'd see the outline of the tank in the grass, the grass wouldn't grow well overtop the tank, or the grass would grow very well in the area.  So we looked for areas with lots of green grass or little green grass, for an outline of the tank in the grass.  There was nothing like that- the grass was even in the entire yard.

So we called a septic tank specialist - he advertised that he specialized in locating lost septic tanks.  He looked in the basement where the plumbing pipes run underground.  We determined they run directly underneath the back porch, then, who knows where they go.  He walked around the backyard with a drill with a very long, very big drill bit, and drilled all around.  An hour later he gave up on locating the lost septic tank.  He explained it could be anywhere in the backyard, even in the woods.  He said the septic tank was probably installed by the homeowners and neighbors at the time.  He recommended we start digging up the backyard with a tractor to find it.  Great. 

So, we started digging in our spare time after our work was done at our jobs.  Now that the sun sets so early this meant digging in the yard in the dark.  We didn't use the tractor, just a shovel.  We started digging small holes all around the back porch, looking for pipes or the tank itself.  Eventually we found a plumbing pipe about 2 feet down.  Then we had to follow the pipe, and it led to the discovery of the missing septic tank!  Yeah!!  The tank is made of concrete, and luckily it has a small lid that can removed for cleaning out the tank.  We didn't unearth the entire septic tank, just enough to expose the lid.  We called the septic tank specialist back; he was excited to hear about the discovery of the missing tank and is coming out tomorrow to clean it.  I guess we'll have to mark the area where the lid is located for future cleaning.  

And tomorrow I will hook up my washing machine again.  Who knew that getting a new washing machine would lead to such work.  Such is life in an old house.  Next I'll have to tell you about how the well ran out of water one day a few weeks ago...

Roof Repair

We live in an old historic home from the 1850's which sits on a lot of beautiful pristine land.  We bought the property for the land, certainly not for the old tired house.  The house still needs a lot of work to be done to bring it up to my standards (i.e., no leaks when it rains, insulated interior walls that don't freeze in winter, AC and heat throughout house, grounded 3 prong electric plugs in house, floors without weak spots, etc, etc.)  This work is going much slower than I had hoped when we bought the place, but I guess I thought I could just snap my fingers and have it all done for me.  Darn, I was wrong!  But we are making do with the house, making repairs and renovations as possible. 

The main portion of our old home was built in the 1850's, but the kitchen and a downstairs bath was added on in the 1950's.  Not only does this add-on not match the rest of the house's style, but it isn't connected to the house's air conditioning/heating ducts, and therefore, isn't cooled or heated.  In addition, the roof in the kitchen leaked very bad, sending a deluge of water onto the refrigerator below every time it rained.  The kitchen roof was shingled, but the rest of the house has the original silver tin roof.

Since the kitchen has a large fireplace, last winter we put in a wood stove with a blower, and it keeps the kitchen and bath pretty cozy in the winter.  The next step was to fix the roof leak.  Upon inspection, it was noted the roof had a change in slope pitch which was shingled over with tar paper and plain black shingles.  In the past 60+ years since the roof was built, the tar paper crumbled and the rain water started pooling at the change in slope, running through the shingles, through the roof boards, and into the kitchen.

Old shingles removed, rotten boards at end of roof removed



Change in roof slope/pitch can be seen here
now that the old roofing is removed

Last weekend we tackled the roof repair project.
Once all the old shingles and tar paper were removed we could see the change in pitch of the roof. We also could see some boards at the end of the roof were rotten and needed replaced.  We put down metal flashing over the change in roof slope and replaced the rotten boards.  Then we put down fresh tar paper and new shingles.  It sounds like a simple project, but it took all day.  Now that it's done, it's so nice to have a dry kitchen!  It rained the day after we finished, and there were no leaks in the kitchen!

One more project has been checked off the list.  Many more to come in the future.

Change in roof slope from different angle



Roof repair in process can be seen in bottom left, old tin roof is above. 
You can see some of the fireplaces with lightning rods, and the front
weather vane lightning rod in this picture, too. 

New shingles

New roof shingles over flashing on change of roof pitch

Kitchen Woodstove Forces Us to Put Food in Fridge

Randy installed his new woodstove in the kitchen last night.  Today it kept us toasty warm.  It has a blower which forces the warm air into the room, making it nice and warm.

Previously, our kitchen was almost freezing.  We could see our breath.  Outside the temps have been in the teens this week (thanks to the wind!).  Our kitchen isn't heated with the rest of the house; we've kept a small electric heater running in there, but it just couldn't keep the room even remotely warm.  We even joked that we could leave the milk sitting out on the kitchen table & it would be fine.

We didn't want a super fancy (read, expensive) woodstove, as we plan on tearing down the kitchen and rebuilding it in the next couple years.  When we rebuild that part of the house, the kitchen will be larger, and the attached bath (right now the only bath) will be much larger, and an upstairs master bedroom, walk-in closet and bath will be built.  A girl can dream, can't she?  And, when we redo the kitchen, we plan on heating and air conditioning it properly.  And we probably will not have a fireplace in the new kitchen.  So the new woodstove will have to be moved into one of the other 6 fireplaces in the house then.

But for now, we are toasty warm in the kitchen, and the place has that slight woodsy-smell (probably from the firewood that we have sitting beside the stove), which reminds me of happiness, and warmth, and everything pleasant. 

 

Around the house, part II

As I said in the last post, not alot is happening here right this moment.  So I'm just posting more pictures of things we see every day in and around our historic home.  We're slowly renovating the house & the grounds, and will continue to post as the work progresses.

All the inside doors of the house have old keyholes with these swinging keyhole covers.  The previous owners of the house painted the doors white, but didn't paint under the keyhole covers - sloppy work!  It appears this door used to be light blue before.

There's only one closet in this house, and it's under the back steps going upstairs.  This old BLW lock is on the inside of the closet door.  It appears to have been installed upside down!  I've researched BLW locks, but couldn't find this exact one.  I wonder why the people in the 1800's needed so many locks?

We have several gated entries, complete with old stone columns.  This is one of the stone columns beside the path that leads to our house.  I can picture the men on horses riding up to the house right past this column.

Yes, our home comes complete with it's own graveyard!  A historic house wouldn't be right without a graveyard!

This gravestone is for Susan, who passed away July 25, 1830, at only 25 years old.

Around the house

There's not alot going on around the farm right now - we've been keeping busy with the daily chores, and I've been spending alot of time at my job.  So I thought I'd just post some pictures of our home.  We live in a historic home, it's about 200 years old.  We plan on renovating it & making it more comfortable, but everything takes time. 

These pictures show our daily view on life from the front door, into the foyer & the living room.

Here's the old banister going up our front stairs.  It's solid wood, very sturdy.  I wonder exactly how old this banister is.

Historic ornamental plaster trim is set around the house.  This picture was taken in the foyer.

Ornamental plaster around a ceiling light in the foyer.

Our new storm door on the front door, taken looking out.  Jack the inside cat loves the storm door more than any of us - he's always posted there.  You can see the food & water bowls for Jerry, the outside cat, on the front porch. 

Stained glass above the front door.  In the evenings, the light from the outside porch lights shine through this & makes beautiful reflections in the foyer.

Ornamental plaster trim around a ceiling chandelier in the living room.

One of the fireplaces in the living room.  This old house has seven fireplaces!  Two are in the living room.  These two are very small fireplaces, very shallow.  Others in the house are very large.  When we first moved in the metal covers were not tight against the living room fireplaces, allowing a curious Jack to investigate.  He went up one of the chimneys by putting his back against one side & scooting up.  I quickly realized he disappeared, figured out where he was, threw the heavy metal cover aside, & scooted myself inside the little fireplace, too.  I was only able to grab the tip of his tail & yank, and he came sliding down.  We both were covered in soot.  Silly cat...

New front storm door

Today we got a new storm door/screen door.  Randy surprised me & had it installed when I came home from work.  The picture above is not of our house, but is from the storm door website.  It's a Larson, America's #1 selling storm door.  It comes with an interchangeable screen.  Our previous screen door was approximately 200 years old & was literally in pieces.

Bring on the winter ~ I am ready!   

New Windows

Last Monday we got new windows installed in our house.  We wanted to keep them looking like the original historic windows, but needed something better to keep the winter wind & cold out.  We got energy efficient low-e argon vinyl windows with muntins inside the double panes to keep the historic look. 

They have a .30 U-factor, which determines the rate of heat loss  (here in our climate .35 or less is recommended)  They have a .19 solar heat gain coefficient (the fraction of solar radiation admitted through a window, expressed as a number between 0 and 1. The lower a window's solar heat gain coefficient, the less solar heat it transmits.). 

Here are some pictures:

The same window - the first picture is the old, the second is the new.  This one's in our dining room.

Here's one of the windows in our living room.  First is old, second is new.  Notice the old window was covered in plastic to keep the wind out, and it had a piece of cardboard covering a broken pane.

I'm very pleased with the windows - they look just like the old ones to keep up with the historic nature of the house.  They'll reduce our AC bills in the summer & our gas bills in the winter (hopefully).  They can actually open (the old ones didn't open too well, and if they did open they were missing screens, which let every bug inside when they were open).  And if I get really bored, the windows easily swing in to be cleaned!

Coming soon - windows!!!

Goodbye old windows...

Hello new, draft-free, energy-effecient, tilt-in, vinyl, muntin grid (which still look-like-the old-to-preserve-the-old-look) windows!

Today we got new windows in the house! 

I also got a root canal tooth procedure, so the blog will be short.

Stay tuned for all the window details!!