I think that I am going to try a different format for a while, posting mostly pictures on a more regular basis.  Then if I have a real juicy DIY project or other fun things I'll do something more in depth.  This should work better for these months when all work and no play(farm related fun) has made me a dull boy.

"Oink, I'm hungry"

the poplars have regrown fast, some are over 6ft tall

The only place in the garden I've been able to keep weeded

Future grape and hardy kiwi trellis

A bald face wasps nest, hanging over the garden and frighteningly large

The first yields from my forest garden: Mullberries

Volunteer Tomato patch: one more gift from last years pigs

Diy Water tower

I forgot the pictures of the new bees last time.  I got two more boxes of bees this spring, though because of a cold snap the weekend that they arrived one swarm died.  so here are a couple of pictures of the new hive (with the windows facing the right way).

This is about 3 weeks after they have been installed

This seems like the right place for a picture of the robin's nest in my wood shed.  I had planned to take a couple of progression pictures of the robins as they grew... but in about two weeks they went from this size to flying around and have now totally left the nest.  So you'll have to settle for another picture of the pigs.

And now to the subject of today's post, my water tower.  Because of poor planning I have a well that isn't connected to my house in any meaningful way.  so to get water I need to turn on a breaker in the house, immediately after water comes shooting out.  Not hugely problematic, but a little bit of a pain if I just want to do a water a corner of the garden.  So I developed a cheap diy water tower.  It consists of 4 50gallon barrels sitting about 200ft up the hill from the house all connected with this spidery looking thing...

This contraption makes the individual barrels act as if they were one giant 200 gal barrel, because it draws from or fills all four simultaneously

testing with three barrels

Done and Done

I've finally finished with the clearing, had just barely enough time to do rent a chipper for a weekend and then over the past two weekends have planted over 85 trees. I am weary. But, I've got no time for that complaining crap. The pigs also showed up a couple of weeks ago, along with a new friend who I am still trying to decided whether to call Rex, Zeke, or Soup. I've also been trying to whip my garden into shape, between the weather and the water I haven't been able to set foot in the greenhouse so it got overrun with grass. Drastic measures were necessary, sheet mulching was in order and the dirt guy was called. luckily I had a bunch of wood chips from clearing to make everything look sharp. Now on to the pictures!

The finished cleared almost acre

The pigs digs, high on the hill

The chipper team hard at work

Lesson of that day: no use in crying over a tipped chipper

The second brush pile

My tree order from Fedco, a good 38 trees or so.  All went into the ground in an afternoon.

All the trees are planted!  hard to tell though mostly they look like sticks sticking out of the ground.  This one front and center is a plum.

This one is a pear

The view that I got from the top of my clearing.  It's also the view that the pigs get.

My grass problem

Wet cardboard and compost can fix this.

And a little mulch makes it pleasant to be in, hopefully encouraging me to weed a bit more

My little friend, he came free with the pigs.  I was going to call him Rex or maybe Zeke, because for the first few days he followed me around.  Then started crowing all the time and picking fights with me. He needs some chickens to occupy his time, but that's not going to happen anytime soon, so his name is slowly turning to Soup...

And now, a video of the pigs!

Their names are: Southern Pacific Railroad, Adam Smith, and the "Invisible Hand"

if you can't tell this years theme is Capitalist Pigs.

43,500 square feet

My brain has this problem where in the depths of winter I forget what is a reasonable amount of work for a person accomplish in a set amount of time.  Clear an acre of land? no problem.  Set up a similarly sized pig pen and plant 60 trees? you got it.  And do it all before the end of April? at least I'll sleep good.  Actually I caught a a bit of luck in that the snow has been gone for almost a month.  At this point I'm 2/3rds through with clearing and on schedule to finish just in time for my fruit trees to arrive.  On the way are plums, pears, peaches, persimmons, quinces, Paw paws, walnuts, buartnuts, etc, etc... basically anything in a medium to large tree that will grow in this zone.  Time for the pictures... more when I finish clearing.

on being a Cobbler

My Chucks of two years finally died.  Being a rather crappily made shoes of rubber and canvas, I was proud of them for lasting as long as they did.  Since winter was in fully swing and there is all that much else to do around the farmstead, I figured I'd try my luck at making a pair of DIY Chucks.  There is much of anything helpful on the internet about making shoes and this is probably more exciting than a bunch of pictures of snow.  So I present to you my DIY Chuck Picventure:

Starting with a used tire, cut both sidewalls off.  if you find a big enough tire you can use the sidewalls as the soles and save your self a lot of trouble dealing with the steal in radial tires.  Another option is to find a pre-radial tire.

I found that the easiest way to cut through the tread is to use a good pair of tin snips.  Power tools tend to make a lot of toxic smoke.  after you have foot length pieces trace your sole on to the inside.  you want it only slightly bigger than your feet.  Use the tin snips again to cut out the shape, it help if you have a sturdy spot to clamp the tire to.  clean up the cut sides with a dremel or a metal blade on a circular saw as there are a lot of little point wire sticking out, or leave them if self defence is a concern.

On to the Uppers:

I basically just took one of my chucks apart and used that as a guide.  but there's a lot of room to be creative here... if you've got more than one pair of shoes to wear.

Traced on paper and added 3/4" to all sides so that there is material to sew on the the sole and for the grommets to grip.

Canvas, just like chucks!

Basically just a case of folding and sewing and matching it up to see if its the same size...

This is a good illustration of just how much of the old chick had worn away.

Sew the three pieces together and then the back and you have a completed upper....

This is a good time to see if is its going to fit and make any changes.

between bad lighting and getting wrapped up in project completion I don't have too many more pictures...

So, using a fairly large gauge needle, a pair of pliers, and some good quality string (I used a thick linen string) coated in beeswax, start sewing the upper to the sole.  make sure you sew all of the toe on first because it's hard to get in there if everything else is done.  I sewed from the top at a 45 angle so that the thread exited the side of the sole, and then up and through the canvas.

I glued a piece of canvas down to the sole to make everything look clean.

and added grommets from the fabric store

and finished with the requisite old school "ladder" lacing...

Pigs in need of a blanket

At the request of some of my readers I've made it so that if you click the link below it will take you to the slaughter-day pictures,  for those of you not interested in that here is a picture of three pigs cuddling.

Home Slaughtering Pictures