Update on latest projects

Between football in high gear and other obligations for the last couple months ,  it's been tough to get time set aside to do my project work down at the prop.  It's probably a good thing though.  As Socrates said, moderation in all things.

The bee project continues on.  We're heading into fall, so with the reduced bee traffic, I thought it would be a good time to put the entrance reducer on, to prevent robber bees and/or mice from getting in.

From 2013-10-20

By making the entrance smaller, it gives the bees better odds of defending the hive against intruders.

From 2013-10-20

We were able to make a lot of honey this summer, in fact the top super is so heavy with honey I can barely lift it.

But with this being the first year, I thought I'd err on the side of leaving the honey in place.  I want to keep them alive through the winter and make sure they have enough food so I ended up not harvesting any.  There'll be plenty of time for that after the spring honey flow

From 2013-10-20

Fall is also time to move the animals from the summer pen to the winter pen.  It's also time to buy hay for the winter.  After having done this for going on three winters, I've come to find that I really like the 5x5 rolls alot better than the smaller sizes. They don't cost much more, but they seem to last a lot longer.

From 2013-10-20

The problem is that they weigh about 1000 pounds a piece.  It's tough to work with them without special equipment.  However, if you don't have a nice tractor, there are other ways, like chaining off to an old oak tree and pulling.  Thankfully it worked exactly as planned and I had big bale of hay sitting in the middle of the pen.

With just Sadie and Chocolate Rain eating this winter, it should last them a long time.

From 2013-10-20

I usually line the others up so they're easy to roll into the pen, but these were so heavy, I just let them lay where they lie.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get the hay spear rig I'm inventing ready by the time it's time to move the next one.

From 2013-10-20

Securing the winter pen is my other project.  I've been going around the pen, post by post, lowering the high spots, raising the low spots, and putting in extra posts wherever things are saggy.  I'm also putting an electric wire around it about 4 inches high, to deter dogs from digging under.  I figure if a dog is small enough to get under a 4 inch high wire without getting shocked, then it's not big enough to hurt a goat.

From 2013-10-20

I'm also going to set up some traps at spots the dogs went in last year.  I'm debating on whether to bait them or not.  On the one hand, I don't want to any predators drawn in if they're not already interested, so I might just leave them unbaited so I don't encourage them.

Sadie seems pretty happy about the new arrangement.  She has clean water, endless hay, and a nice shelter.  What more could a donkey want.

From 2013-10-20

My other project has been putting up a fence where the poachers like to come in.  It won't keep anyone out, but it will eliminate the excuse that they didn't know they weren't supposed to be there.

I used to be a lot more live-and-let-live about the whole trespassing thing, but then I started thinking, if I went on one of these guys' property, they'd be out there in a flash, with a shotgun in my face, so I figured I'd be at least as welcoming.

It was a lot of work to get in, but I think it turned out pretty good for doing it with very minimal help.

From 2013-10-20

My final project is starting to bear fruit (inside mushroom joke).  The first trial on growing commercial style mushrooms is working exactly as planned.  They're taking off and should be ready to eat in a few days.  More to come.....

From 2013-10-20

Bee update & Rebuilding the parking area

I think all the work we've been doing making clearings and trails has started to pay off as we're seeing more and more deer and turkey.  I scared this hen out right next to my sons tent when he was camping out.  She got pretty flustered by all the humans hanging out around her meadow.

From 2013-06-11

The bee project is also coming along quite well.  The bees seem happy and healthy and are multiplying like crazy.  I was glad we were able to catch a bit of the spring bloom season before things started tailing off.  Hopefully they were able to put away a little honey.

From 2013-06-11

I've been hesitant to do too much monkeying around with the hive.  I'm worried about doing damage and at this point don't see much need to take things apart other than curiosity and that hasn't been enough of a motivator yet.

From 2013-06-11

However,  I'm going to have to do some re-architecture to the hive and replace my two shallow supers as the hive body with one deep super.  It's going to interesting to swap these out and should add greatly to my experience level.  I hope the bees survive my learning curve.

From 2013-06-11

The plan at this point is to put the deep super on top and let the bees start building some comb.  Once they build it out, I'll put it on the bottom and put the two shallow supers on top.  This will better allow me to manage honey collection next season.  A shallow super weighs about 50 pounds and is tough to manage in a full bee suit, so I'm thinking a deep, weighing around 100 pounds, would be a literal pain to handle.

Things are early enough on in development that I don't think it will be too traumatic for the hive.  I might take the opportunity to move the hive as well,  and try to put down some beetle protection under it.

From 2013-06-11

Our other project has been to make the trailer area look more attractive.  We'd originally used it for camping and equipment storage and although it was very functional, it wasn't very pretty.

To make it nicer looking, I bulldozed up some of the gravel and made gentle arcs on both sides, and then used the old cabin's chimney rocks as a retaining wall.  It's still looking pretty raw but I think it'll be real nice once the grass starts growing back and I put a finishing layer over the gravel.

From 2013-06-11

Beehive, New pond

We've actually had a few free weekends which has allowed us to get some projects done.  As I was getting ready to work and getting my tools together on the tailgate, I noticed how all items made a perfect Still Life encompassed so many aspects of my work at the property.  Traps, sledgehammers  chainsaws, oil, camo, bullets, axes.  I should try and do a painting of this.

From 2013-03-31

We're getting excited for the bees to arrive.  The hive is all ready and waiting for it's new occupants.  I'm getting really excited to see if we can pull it off and keep them alive for a season or two and actually get some honey.

From 2013-03-31

Here are the components that make up the hive.  This will probably be the cleanest they'll ever be since the bees will soon start putting down their wax and propolis.

From 2013-03-31

With the growing amounts of manure coming from two donkeys, we've decided that it might be good to bring some home to fertilize our garden box and to start piling up the rest in a compost heap.

From 2013-03-31

Over the winter we were able to identify another good water collection point to turn into a pond.  I was able to get the bulldozer in and start deepening it a bit.  It always looks kind of rough when I first start, but after the dry season comes, we should be able to get it there and clean it up and get it looking real nice.

A little shaping, a little burning, a little cutting and a lot of grass planting and it'll be looking awesome.

From 2013-03-31

After all that work, I need a tree to hold me up.

From 2013-03-31

Seth and Sawyer helped me start a burn pile to get rid of some of the  cedars I'd recently bulldozed.  Judging by Saywer's pose, all that hard work must've made him a little goofy.

From 2013-03-31

A long view of the pond.  Hopefully we'll get a couple big storms this spring to fill it up!

From 2013-03-31

Trapping Coyotes and New Trails

We finally were able to make a dent in enemy forces in the Dog Wars.  The initial panic, as they killed my goats, finally passed and I was able to start thinking more strategically.

The first step in our comeback strategy was to set more traps.  Trying to sneak up on them was turning out to be too unproductive because the dogs came at such random times.  Here's a pic of getting the traps ready by boiling them to take the oil and scent off.

From 2013-03-12

The next step was to walk the fence line and find all the places the dogs were getting in and proceed to close all of them up except two.  The idea was to channel the dogs/coyotes to two easy entrances where I had placed the traps.

It worked better than I could've hoped for.  In a matter of days we were able to finish them off and I haven't seen a dog on the game cams for several weeks.  Below is where one of the traps is set.  Hopefully it's as invisible to the dogs and coyotes as it is to humans.

From 2013-03-12

I've also been working on a new trail idea I had a while back.  The idea was to create a meadow trail that connected all the meadows that are scattered through the thick brush.  Some of them are quite pretty but impossible to get to in the summer without a chainsaw or a machete.

Here's a pic of the bottomless sinkhole which is along the trail.  It actually does a have a bottom, but it's so deep that it's tough to see.  We like to see how daring we are and jump across it from time to time.

From 2013-03-12

The trail doesn't look like much at this point, but as we cut and clear, it'll start taking shape.

From 2013-03-12

New Donkey

Ever since all our goats got wiped out by a pack of feral dogs, poor Sadie, our guard donkey, has been very lonely.  I was starting to get worried about her so I jumped at deal I found on craiglist, to get her a buddy.

Sethie and I went out to Murphressboro on a cold winter morning to pick her up.  She was pretty wily and didn't want to leave her home

From 2013-03-12

After a few false starts, we were finally able to coax, push, bribe, and drag her into the trailer.

From 2013-03-12

It was a really rough ride from Murphreesboro to the prop and the poor donkey got pretty shook up.  One of tires on the trailer was bad and it caused it to bounce around all over the place.

Here Sethie is, getting ready to turn her loose.

From 2013-03-12

All systems are go.  Get ready to open the gates!

From 2013-03-12

And here she is.  I want to name her Honey Boo Boo, but Suz and Sammy are pushing for Coco.  I'm thinking whoever feeds and takes care of her the most should get naming rights.  Hello Honey Boo Boo.

From 2013-03-12

She was a little disoriented at first, after the bumpy ride.

From 2013-03-12

Sadie was kind of skeptical about the whole thing and got very aggressive when food was involved.  After a week together they seem to be getting along a lot better though.

From 2013-03-12

Finally, a burn pile

Despite the almost non-stop rain throughout December and January and now February, I managed to get a couple burn piles going.  Winter is such a perfect time for a bonfire.  I hadn't done one for several months and was surprised at how much I missed the smell and the satisfaction of cleaning up and making things look nicer.

From 2013-01-31

Last Saturday was the first full Saturday I've been able to spend at the prop in quite a while.  I made sure to take full advantage and worked all day on a field I've been wanting clear for a long time.  I had the presence of mind this time to take a good "before" picture, to show how much I as able to get done.  Note the two cedars in right foreground as a reference point.

From 2013-03-12

After a lot of cutting and dragging, I was able to get the bulldozer in and really get things going.  To give an idea of how hot the fire got, after two days and huge several hour rainstorm, I came back Tuesday and found  several spots still smoldering and burning.  Good thing I had a large firebreak all around it.

From 2013-03-12

The next step will be to clean up the rest, level it, disc it, and plant some kind of seed that deer would love to eat.  This will make and awesome hunting plot and will look beautiful as well.

Mud Farm

January has been an extremely rainy month.  As such, it's pretty much brought all projects to a halt.  However, it's been interesting to have this much rain because it's allowed me to monitor how well the new pond is working.

After several days of soaking rain, I was able to get a picture of what is probably going to be the ultimate high water mark.  I was also able to see where the leaks are.  Luckily there are only two.  One is a small trickle where the natural drainage used to be and the other is a low spot by a tree where the picture below was taken from.  I'll have to see how things look in the summer when the water is down enough to get the bulldozer in to fix it.

I was pleased to see how long the water levels stayed up as well. There are a couple of sites, that I drive past on the way down, that have dug out ponds recently and theirs drain much more quickly.  I take that as a sign that I have a really good pond.

The next step will be to get grass growing on the hillside that feeds into it, to make the water more clear as it runs off.

From 2013-01-09

One problem with all the rain is that it soaks the hay as I set it out.  It also soaks the animals as they stand out there and eat it.  The donkey doesn't mind, but wet, cold goats have a tendency to get sick and die.

To remedy this problem, I put up a hay tent to keep the water off.  It works better for square bales since I can just set them in the middle.  The big round rolls are much tougher to line up, so we were happy to roll this one under the tent at all.

From 2013-01-09

I finally got a chance to whip out the chainsaw.  With all the rain, it seems like forever since I've been able to cut and burn.  I'm surprised at how much I missed it.  We still didn't get to burn, but at least I got a little cutting done.

From 2013-01-09

Here are the animals enjoying the hay tent.  Note the sloppy, muddy mess on the left and the dry goats under the tent.

On a sad note, this was Stinky's last day.  The day after this pic was taken, the feral dogs got into the pen and killed him.  RIP Stinky.

From 2013-01-21

The low spot by the football field turned into a lake.

From 2013-01-21

It's amazing how much water collects and how quickly it disperses.  A day or two after this, there was little evidence that this had formerly been a lake.

From 2013-01-21

This stretch of the perimeter trail was especially sloppy.  With this much standing water, I need to look for a place to make another pond.

From 2013-01-21

WARNING if your're squeamish, don't scroll down further.  WARNING









The feral dogs totally destroyed poor Little Momma.  She always kept her distance from the other goats, so it's not surprising that she was the first one that the dogs targeted.  I was very disheartened to see that they'd totally destroyed her.

I think we've held the dogs off for now, but there are still about 4-5 of thems running around the area.  RIP Little Momma

From 2013-01-09

Moving the Car Port - The Finale

I finally got some nice weather as well as a day off and so, of course, it was time to head to the property and finish up my latest project of moving the carport.  I knew it would be tough project and it turned out that I predicted correctly.  I was totally exhausted after climbing the ladder so many times.

I spent a lot of time measuring and leveling, trying to get the thing right.  It turned out pretty well, but there's a spot just down from where I'm standing that was just out of whack and ended up being out of whack and is still out of whack.

There's a place down the road from the prop that sells these carports that I like go check when I have questions about how to build it.  Unfortunately, after all the work of leveling, I saw from the model an incredibly easy way to level that never even crossed my mind. Oh well, hard work is good for the soul, or so they say.

From 2013-01-02

I found that a key step is making sure the center piece is even.  It's quite difficult because of all the different measurements that need to be made, from side-to-side, top-to-bottom, etc.

From 2013-01-02

The boys were helpful at certain points and it was nice for them to get some experience with building.  I hope  it was a good learning experience for them.

From 2013-01-02

The roof is starting to come together.  Once the center piece is set, the rest comes together quickly.

From 2013-01-02

While I was working on the carport, the boys continued to work on their nest.  Seth got some rope and continued to tighten up his net.  It was surprising how much rope it ended up taking.

From 2013-01-02

It'll be interesting to see if they try doing a sleep out in it.

From 2013-01-02

The carport is almost finished.  Just putting on the finishing touches.

From 2013-01-02

The final product.  It was totally worth the work to get this away from the camping area and the main road.  Once the mud starts drying out, we should be able to gravel it in better and make it more accessible.  The way the weathers been, it might be March.

From 2013-01-02

And here's where the carport used to stand.  There's no trace of it anymore.  Now I need to bulldoze up the extra gravel once things dry out.  I want to use it to thicken up the main area then plant some grass where it used to be.  Slowly but surely, the camping area is starting to take shape.

From 2013-01-02