April

The snow has finally melted! Yesterday the lupines popped out of the mountain side and today the humming birds have returned. We are still at three days of sunshine this year with cloud cover again. The solar panels are not really amused but the plants in the greenhouse have the grow lights on them to help them on these cloudy days.

The days are warm enough now for t-shits and the work outside has picked back up again. Below the dam where the trees were dropped from making room for the greenhouse has become the target of focus. We will be putting in an orchard in the space as well as the chicken coop. (Zone 3 in permaculture) The ladies will be under and among the trees. The final plan for the coop is being worked out with several ideas in mind, including one with a rocket stove inside the wall to give them extra winter heat.

Thor thought he would help with clean up and kept making a bed out of the piles of slash that we needed to burn and sort. A perfect place to chew on a freshly found deer shed I guess. Almost two weeks of picking up the dead fall, chain saw work and nonstop fire, we got through the fiddlestick game of trees and found the rock bank. To my delight gooseberries are coming up and hopefully I can encourage them to thrive there. 

Our top temp today is likely to be in the mid 50’s with chance of rain, but as soon as I step away from the computer I will be outside. Summers in Montana tend to go from cool and grey to too hot and so smokey work outside must stop. Last year we went from smoke to snow with no chance for much fall work, hopefully this year we have fewer fires and more work can get done. The coop, the orchard, and more gardens, as well as a cob oven. Not to mention all the other stuff.

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chickens still in the greenhouse

This year spring has been in a long debate with winter whose turn it was. Just days ago we had six inches of snow. This high up however, while lilacs bloom down along the river we get frost every morning. It drives home, again, how difficult growing a garden in a zone 3 can be.

 

Inside the green house though it is warm enough the cool weather plants have been up for weeks. The unfortunate thing is that the chickens are still using a section as a coop and two in particular are very clever and naught. Julie Chicken and Katie Bird have escaped. Not once, not twice, but a dozen times and proceeded to tear u seeds, devour seedling and teach the others that out is better than in.

Julie has even learned to escape the green house all together and look for better places to be. She is perhaps the most naughty bird I have ever met. At this point every three days or so I let them roam free. Sooner or later this will bring in wildlife from the mountain and Sterling, (lives down the hill) hates noise of all kinds and having Boots the rooster crowing in his driveway is not a good way to keep the peace.

With them free to explore and a constant seeking of escape routes the seedlings have begun to grow with vigor.

Flowers have come up now that the threat of chicken attacks have passed and the other plants have followed.

There are places however that remain sprout-less as I have to plant and replant them. With bird netting and coop, hopefully repaired enough to hold until the long term coop is built, this time they might get to grow.

The gutter gardens are doing very well right now. As I have never used this style of alternative beds I am still experimenting with water and exactly what pants can and can not handle the heat to their roots.

With room in the green house for plants to be kept over winter this year I am playing with warm zone plants. Various pond plants as well as lotus. I put the seeds in water three days ago and when they sprout I will be sure to keep you informed on their progress.  Some of those I ordered have fallen rather sadly into a state of abuse as they had no time to adjust and even int eh green house water barrels they got too cold but now with the weather finally starting to warm they are putting out new leaves and starting to recover. This year will be bursting with life and I will be sure to keep you posted.

Spring 2017, a dozen and more projects.

This winter, while not as cold as some, the cold has lasted. Nightly, falling well below zero neighbors across the state have had frozen water and drains. Not just those in rural areas but towns and cities have had water simply creep to a frozen standstill. Up here on the mountain water has remained the same for us. Off grid certainly has its advantages.

The cold has however, eaten up the wood stack impressively. Last week when the weather gave us a break and we got above freezing it was cause for days outside. A dozen spring projects to began in a flurry of activity not seen since the last few days before the snow arrived. The unsold wreaths came down to start with. The ornaments and now dry boughs were all unwound and put away for next season. Thor decided the big ones made great beds after a day chasing snow balls and helping haul wood.

Large boxes from costso we turned into new indoor nest boxes for the ladies. They loved them at once and eggs started to show up.

The big dead tree by the driveway came down, was bucked up, hauled up the driveway via sled, and split. Shane came up to cut down the old Pondarosa as my chainsaws have deiced to stop running. They are both in need of carburetor, work so they look useful, but for now they do little. James and I saw to the rest of the tree and got it all stacked in one long afternoon. The beetle killed pine split so easy we had to remind ourselves not to chop it too small.

The deck had to be shoveled of snow and ice from almost record breaking snow fall. Of course a sled hill had to be tested… …sticks had to be tested for strength and bonfires had to be built.

We had four glorious sunfilled days before the snow returned last night and buried us under another foot. We will be back inside the rest of the week finishing up the long overdue sheet-rock in the Little Cabin.

Yesterday, however, was stunning. I woke up to a dozen types of birds all greeting spring, chipmunks were chirping, and the squirrels shouting their chatter. Thor hasn’t been so excited to get outside since the snow first arrived. I let him out and sat down to have coffee before James woke up.

After seeing to morning chores it was warm enough out the greenhouse to sit down for projects without even needing to build a fire.

The beadwork my grandma had started before she passed away this fall I finished while the chickens debated if it was truly spring or not.Craft supplies from the last homeschool kid co-op visit were sorted and put back in their drawers, and most of the glitter swept up. (I doubt it will ever be truly all gone. By time that happens I am sure a handful of little girls will be back for another art workshop.)

Thor on guard duty. he likes the snow this year if for no other reason than he can sit up very high and watch the driveway.

Waking up to snow this morning was very pretty but I will be glad for the next day with sunshine and thawing weather. I count the days to get the first seeds into the ground int he greenhouse. The thermometer is in the ground. It will be soon.

 

0 degrees and falling

Outside winter has blown into and made its presence known. The forest is utterly still. The only sound now is the dry snow slipping off of high boughs to settle on the snow below. The forecast warns of -30 with the wind chill. It’s a ‘keep the fires burning’ sort of night.

Being off grid having a heater for the chickens water is not really an option, nor are heat lamps. Chickens are far tougher than most people think with them being fine with the cold and dark make the egg laying come to a halt but not adversely affecting most breeds. Even with the laying stopped warm water and lots of deep warm straw are always in order, but -30 is just too cold. They can get cracked feet, freeze off their combs or suffer fromt he strain of being too cold.

With space open in the greenhouse and the fire keeping it above freezing despite the back wall being unfinished I made the call to move them. James took the task in hand. Shane came up to help him catch The Ladies and Boots and move them across the yard to the Greenhouse.

I got home from helping at the neighbors safe guard his his water from freezing, just in time to see the birds go in.  The change in them was almost instant. It took only a few minutes for the first lady to look around and settle down. She happily set to exploring the new space.  I tossed out a little corn scratch for them on the soil, piled up straw for nesting and brought over food and water while the boys worked together to catch the rest and get them swift from one home to the next.

Tomorrow I will build them in a coop. James has mentioned he might video it for YouTube, so if your interested I guess the we will be posting there soon. For now they are safely inside, they will be warm and have lots of space to move around as well as many options of places to roost safely for the night.

I have a sneaking suspicion with them in the greenhouse with me all day there will soon be many more pic of them.

The little stove

The plan had been to build a rocket stove this past summer, but plans do always go as we might expect. With all the time and effort going to build the greenhouse in time the rocket stove, Jame’s bedroom and several other ‘planned’ tasks were set aside.

The stove int he little cabin had a destiny to be in the greenhouse but that left us in freezing weather with no heat source and no time to build the rocket stove. After a search and with time running short we found a small wood stove within the range we could afford.

It had been outside for god only knows how many years. It was rusted extensively and cracked out from water freezing inside. It did however have all the parts and a glimmer of hope for it. The stove is over a 100 years old and with fingers crossed James and I loaded it up and paid the old man.

On the deck in pouring rain we took the drill gun and wire brush to it, stripping off decades of rust to get down to the metal. Once clean, about 10 hours of sanding, I used JB weld to seal the cracks. Over the body of the stove I used stove black, high temp paint, and we built a fire.

For anyone who has never done this, do it outside or when you can leave every door and window open. The smell if horrific and highly toxic. It took about 5 hours to burn it clean. Once clean of the stink we moved it in the next down.

This style of stove has several issues I should point out. I bought the stove aware of them as I had grown up with a very similar stove in my bedroom. The stove pipe union is oval and it is very difficult to attach a round union to an oval piece. If you have a short chimney this can be an issue. It needs a chimney damper. These stoves are not designed to work without one, and you have to be very careful how to put your logs in and not burn your hands.

The shape of the stove means you need to stand them up on end, but if you do not have them in there touching they will often simply go out. It is a slightly more maintenance fire place than others but once its hot it stays hot. The amount of cast iron allows it to radiate heat for hours after the fire has died.

There are pieces that yet need to be re-chromed, but once those are seen to the stove will truly have been given a new life.

 

Summer

This summer has been crazy. It started all with a seeming utter collapse of health that led to my having to leave a great little job at the small town- family owned store. However, that in turn allowed for several things to happen all at once. The first and most consuming was that Shane had the opportunity to tear down a rather large green house and take it away. So as i was saying I needed to build one and seek to making a living growing herbs and veggies he shrugged and said he could help me make that happen. Tearing it down took us only a few weekends but the design was … shall we say… not well thought out.

After a little reworking and the use of an excavator the work began. Sonnet tubes set to help stabilize it no matter what weather gets thrown at the mountain. All the lumber cleared of nails and soon the posts will go up. I don’t think it will be done before the end of next month this gem will be year round and offer the smell of green and earth even in the long winter months this far north.

The green house hasn’t been the only project. The Little Cabin is getting face lift with wrap around decks (decking from the greenhouse that does not fit into the new plan) and the pond is under way. This week I hope to get the last few touches onto the drain and then the rest of the fill can happen.

James has begun to study for his GED as well as working on designs for his own room. It will be a small space but his. Gabbion walls will support bottle and cob walls, with a sod roof. Its hard work to build the walls but it will stand up to just about anything when we are done.

I also have had time to begin to edit again and pick up art that I have been remiss of in the last few years. Glass paint, pencil sketches (when my hands allow) and even a bit of clay… oh for a kiln and wheel. Today i will be working on the water tanks and securing them for winter so this year I need not haul water when -20 hits.

I haven’t posted for a bit as I hate to do so without pictures and a friend ‘helped’ me set up a google photo account and now I must learn how to access my photos for use anywhere else. If any of you know how to do that, Let Me Know! As soon as I figure it out, my usual number of photos, of work as well as the landscape will return.

 

James (Oz) turned 13

The plan had been for sledding and hot coco, but with sleds in hand we discovered that the 6 inches of new snow was too soft.  We sank in and went nowhere.  Discarding that plan idea for another we wandered off to make a new one.

Oz thought it quite fun to try and knock snow off the trees onto his mother, and if not me then the dog.

After a few near misses we decided maybe we should hike up and see if we could find a better spot to sled, something much steeper where soft snow would be a benefit not a game ender.

We both discovered that we had out cell phones in our coat pockets… bad idea when sledding, shame on us both,… and thought it might be fun to see if we hiked all the way up to the top if we picked up any service.

Oz took the led and we headed straight up a very steep slope.  Knee deep and having to hold onto trees to keep from sliding and crashing backwards we hiked, and hiked and … crawled is a better word… up the mountain.

Soaked and starting to feel the strain in the claves Oz decided it was time to head back down besides, cake was waiting! Of course his method, which I advise against especially if you are alone or not in your own back yard, was straight down!

He learned that there is a lot of hidden ‘treasures’ in the snow, and not all of them feel so great when you slide over them.

If you look real close you can spot the Little Cabin

At the bottom snow angels were attempted but of course Thor thought Pounce a more fun.

and of course more snow had to come down.

A change of clothes, dry socks and a bit of standing near the fireplace and the presents and cake came out.  As we are a board game kid of family I had to fill in a few gaps, Clue and Monopoly had too be added to the basics. The games ensued.

For the first time ever I was the first one out, but Oz and Shane played for hours.  Heading to bed Oz flopped down and before falling asleep… almost at once… he said “thanks, mom, that was a fun day.” What a great way to end the day.

early morning mid december

First light hitting the clouds as they swept off the mountains this morning.

Sun creeping up a bit further.

The drive home

No picture can do the view justice.  There is something magical about driving towards a wall of mountains to run as far north and south as far as you can see.  This time of year with the snow accenting every peak, cut and slope it is utterly breath-taking.