I finally installed all of the windows and was ready to start sheet metaling the rest of the structure. It was slow going as I could not work in the wind and yet again, I was pregnant.
On a nice day I recruited my child slave labor to clean the windows. It was a messy job, cleaning the kids up afterward was just as much work.
Still. my children did a good job cleaning all the years of grime off of those windows and the greenhouse looks very nice clean.
Now is the tricky part, sheet metal. Wyoming is WINDY. I was only able to do this in bits and pieces as I waited for periods without wind. I felt like it took forever, but in reality it was probably just a few weeks.
Fully enclosed in metal I only had the finish work to do. I debated the molding portion of this project for awhile before deciding I would use fence pickets. They were the perfect size, required no cutting width wise, just length.
I should probably stain/paint or somehow otherwise seal the wood pickets to prevent damage. I may get around to that eventually, or I may not and regret it years later. Who knows.
I must admit, as wonderful as having our own honey is, that was a heck of a lot of work. It wasn’t even the spinning that was bad but the clean up. Of course, we did harvest in our house, next to the wood stove (so the honey would be warm and easier to spin).
We had the fire roaring and took turns spinning frames as it was still a lot of work and required holding the spinner still so it didn’t rock all over.
Daughter is happily taking her turn
I had experimented with the hive by having some frames with foundation and some without. Of course, the frames without foundation did not have the comb aligned so that it would fit in the spinner. Thus, I removed it and stuck it in some cheesecloth to be squished and drip out with gravity.
Bottling honey
I wanted to have little, adorable jars of honey to give as Christmas gifts. These turned out so well and were so well received that I may get more bees just to do this again.
As the bees died I scraped all of the wax off of the frames and began melting it down, over and over and over and over and you get the idea. This is the final product. One candle jar full of clean bees wax. No idea what we are going to do with it.
All in all it was an experience. Again, I was pregnant, so the workload was really hard on me. We are enjoying the honey, we estimate 2 gallons worth, but I don’t know if it was worth it.
I have been collecting windows for some time with the intention of building a greenhouse out of them. I have all the old wood windows from my office, all the windows from our house and the stray window that was given to me by this person or that person. They have all been sitting in our lean-to being broken upon occasion by activity around them. I really needed to get this greenhouse going.
Last year I was given metal roofing and that was the final piece in my greenhouse puzzle. I had always intended to build the greenhouse in a lean-to style. One wall full windows while the opposite wall was solid. Now I had all the supplies I needed (- the wood for framing it all in).
We had a lot of debate about location. I needed it to be close to a water source which led to problems as all the water sources are close to large buildings which would block the sun. I also needed to access the greenhouse fairly easily.
Building things is messy!
So, the greenhouse is in the yard. 8 feet wide, 24 feet long and 8 feet tall. The greenhouse comes in 4 feet under the county requirement for a permit. Wohoo!
Our wonderful family supplied me with gift cards to Home Depot. I calculated how much wood I needed and off we went to purchase it. Thankfully husband was with me as I had left out the need for cement to keep the entire thing from blowing over.
I could only work on the greenhouse nights and weekends so a lot of digging and planning was done in the dark.
Husband dug all the holes for the posts. Then I realized we miscalculated them and all of them had to be re-dug. We did them one hole at a time, erecting the walls in between to make sure the greenhouse was square and the posts were in the proper place. I am terrible at measuring things so it was important to do one wall at a time for this.
The back walls are simple frames. Nothing fancy. Then I made boxes out of 4 2×4’s for the sides and front walls. I laid them on the ground and began placing the windows and doors in them and framing around them. Some of the windows needed screwed in before the walls could be erected and put in place. Others could easily be stapled in after putting the walls in place. Husband had to help me a lot. Building a heavy window greenhouse while halfway through pregnancy is quite a strain.
laying windows out int he square framea wall ready to get lifted into place.
We kept the stairs from the front of our house. I always intended to use them as greenhouse shelving. I think they are perfect!
Roofing and siding is going to take quite awhile. It’s been windy here lately and moving metal sheeting in the wind is just a really bad/dangerous idea.
Son loved using the staple gun
The kids bopped in and out to help here and there through the process. They enjoyed digging for about 5 mins. They like using the tape measure. Daughter likes acting as building foreman and informing me how disappointed she is in the size. Son loved using the staple gun.
I’ll be sure to post again when the entire thing is completed.
Every year we eagerly await our sainfoin bloom. Acres of pink flowers blowing in the breeze. The sound of bees buzzing and watching butterflies flit from flower to flower fills me with joy. The sainfoin, it’s a success.
This year the pigs set out every morning to much their way through the field of growing sainfoin plants. I find how the pigs graze on the sainfoin quite interesting. They’ll take a bite of the top of a plant and then move on to bite a different one, leaving tracks through the fields as they explore all the plants with their mouths. It is also a very sustainable way of grazing. As they never eat an entire plant there are always flowers left to bloom and go to seed.
The field in it’s beginning growth this spring being grazed by our boar.
I don’t believe the sainfoin is as tall this year as it was last. It was a weird spring though, with snows into June and warmer weather in between. It killed many a plant and tree with the instability of the weather. Still, the field was tall enough that I lost the pigs in it entirely several times and freaked out thinking they’d wandered away or been taken.
We wandered through the fields many an evening trying to determine if the field was thickening and spreading or not. It has been determined that it is indeed spreading by seed beyond the original planting area. We can tell because we planted right up to the fence line and there are many plants on the other sides of the fences now.
We also have new critter activity in the area. We’ve had a badger going crazy digging holes everywhere, even in the sainfoin field. I’m interested to see what impact that has on the sainfoin around it next year.
Also, if you are wondering if it’s nutritious, enjoy this picture of Tu-Tu who clearly isn’t missing anything in her diet.
Surprise, baby #3 is on the way. Due in Nov/Dec with another girl. If how much she moves right now is any indication, we’re in for it! This pregnancy has been very hard on my physically. I feel generally unwell a lot. My veins in my leg are really swollen and painful. It’s really prevented me from living fully as I had been.
So with another baby expected I’ve been looking at our pigs. I believe I only want to carry one female and our boar into the winter. Our boar has had a wonderful pen built for him so we will not have any more surprise winter farrowings.
As weird as it sounds I believe I’m going to keep our older female Tu-tu and slaughter the younger, smaller females that have farrowed. This would seem like a really odd decision except…these two smaller sows have had horrible problems free ranging. Grass seeds get into their eyes and I’ve been battling a lot of eye infections in them. I’ve had to lock them up 24/7 as a result. I decided I really didn’t want to breed pigs susceptible to eye problems so we are selling all of the young and eating the sows. I don’t believe other people will have the same problem with the eyes as I have had as I’m fairly certain I’m the only person ever to free range their pigs here.
So Ads are up for the piglets and we are excited to see them go to their new homes. Wish us luck!
The weather here has been crazy! I thought for sure that storm would hit us but it missed us, thank goodness. Still lost power for about 30 minutes.
I have been determined to grow pawpaws. So determined that I think this might be my 4th attempt in a new location. I’ve had some success in the kraters but they get eaten back every year and eventually die. Near the pond was nice but they were squished and eaten by farm animals.
So, onward to location 4. The newly transformed orchard garden. The barn shades a portion of the area for quite a bit of the day. That is where i planted these pawpaws.
I had some troubles with this order. The delivery was a rough on a couple of the trees. Branch breaking rough. I planted them anyway but thought they would die. At the very least they look pathetic. Enjoy my children holding the damaged trees for documentation.
I received my trees from One Green World. I generally love all the things I order from them. In fact most of the living orchard trees are from them. I ordered the pawpaw tree bundle which was a sale of 4 different trees. I should have written down what the tags say because at the computer right now I can’t remember what they are to save my life. I know they didn’t have 2 of the varieties in the bundle and I told them to just send me whatever they had.
I have really long grass in this area as I haven’t planted anything else here because of the shade. The grass has been fantastic actually. It insulates the pawpaws from the mornings scorching sun and has kept them all looking well. There is some insect damage, more on some than others, but they’re looking good so far.
Vegetation in general is very tall this year. Can you see my daughters head walking back to the house?
