Running Out of Room

Right inside our back door, first room on the left, is our utility room.  That room was the washroom. It is where the washer and dryer resides along with a big sink for mopping.  The room has cabinets to store household cleaning products.  At least that's how the room was designed.  That was before we got cows.  And goats.  And chickens.  And honeybees.  And everything else that goes along with having a little homestead farm.  

Now, that little room is bursting at the seams.  We've tried to start living with a new rule that states that if we purchase something new, then something old has to go - a policy for managing space.  For example, if I buy a new shirt, then an old shirt gets donated to the thrift store or gets converted to the rag bin.  That policy doesn't always work though with items other than clothes.

Had we known that we'd be getting into the homesteading life, our house would have been designed differently with a much larger pantry, room for additional freezers and definitely more storage space.  Let me show you the utility room to give you an idea.  The struggle is real!  Here's the counter when you walk in.  The incubator does hatch eggs, but it is currently being used to liquify jars of honey that has crystallized over the winter.  The washer and dryer is on the left.  Countertop is full of anti-parasite meds for the animals.

To the left when you walk in stands an organizer shelf with tools, battery chargers, and veterinary supplies.  We ran out of space and a bin of beekeeping supplies sits on the floor with frames of drawn comb wrapped in bags and some rendered beeswax sitting on top.  There's also soapmaking supplies and candle-making supplies.  It makes it next to impossible to open the door and move around the room.

Here's the sink on the right when you walk in.  When we're milking cows, this space gets busy as it's where we bring the stainless steel pails in and pour milk into gallon jars and then wash the buckets.  Our unopened seed packets and gardening supplies clutter the countertop.

The cabinets over the washer and dryer are full.  Empty jars for honey production line the windowsill and dirty clothes hampers sit on top of the dryer, along with other items.  Oil lamps for hurricane season are stored above the cabinets, along with kerosene.

Above the sink, we have a shelf for picnic baskets, garden harvest baskets, pressure canner, and ice chests we use for carrying milk when we're milking.  That got some stuff off of the floor.

Just last week I got a 1x12 pine board and some brackets and stained the shelving and put up yet another row of shelving above the entrance door for additional storage capacity for this little room.

To be sure, we are full.  We're planning on making splits and catching swarms to expand the beekeeping operation a little bit, but of course, that means we'll need additional room for storage.  Storage units.  We've never rented storage units.  In fact, that wouldn't work for us since it's off-site and we need access here when we need supplies.  I read that the storage units are a relatively new invention.  The first one was built in the 1960's in Texas.

We've become a people that have a lot of stuff.  I heard a podcast the other day that discussed this, saying that nomadic people don't value material things.  Because they are always on the move, they value items that are portable and quickly discard things that tie them down.  It was the agrarian mindset that changed this.  People became anchored to the land.  As they traveled and saw things, they'd say, "Hmm...  I think I'll take that home.  I can use it."  This mindset became prevalent as people not even in agrarian settings began to accumulate stuff.  Personally, I think it's okay if it is stuff you use.  If not, it's best to get rid of it or give it away.

So that leads us to think about storage, and at some point we'll look at buying some sort of an outdoor shed that we can use as a Honey House for all the beekeeping supplies.  We'd like to find one that is a "repo" building that perhaps we could get for a good deal.  Finding one is on our radar, and we are looking to purchase one - perhaps sometime this spring or summer.  We don't want our utility room to look like we are hoarders!

A New Shed for the Bullpen

I started to tell you last week about our new construction project in the back pasture that we call the "bullpen."  It's where we keep the males of the bovine and goat persuasion segregated from the females in order to control breeding times so that the babies come when we want them to come.  The bullpen has no barn, no enclosure to get out of the rain.  It is bordered by woods that provide overhanging shade.  We can and do run them into the barn through a gate that's adjacent if weather gets too bad.

For Nicky the bull, it's not a big deal.  For Popcorn, the billy, he doesn't like the rain and is prone to getting hoof rot.  Tricia asked that we build a small lean-to or shed to provide protection from the elements to the animals in the bullpen.  That project has been on the list for a couple of months and this week, we decided to begin so that we would have it done before the north wind starts to blow and weather deteriorates.

Four 4x4 posts were set in the corners and cemented in.  Curious onlookers supervised the process and got in the way.  I had to move them out of the bullpen after my patience ran a little thin.

I looked at several plans, but none were exactly what I was looking for.  I ended up having no plans and would just play in by ear, wing it, and see how it comes out.  I took measurements and composed my materials list and drove to Stine Lumber to get necessary supplies - about $300 worth, although I did use some lumber I had stashed away in the barn rafters.  Side supports went up.  These add support but also will anchor the tin sides of the shed.

I'm no carpenter - not even on my best day.  I just kind of throw things together.  I used a level and tried my best to make things square.  Experience has taught me that the animals don't care about quality construction as long as it is functional.  The remainder of the walls go up as well as the boards that will support the sloping roof.

The roof rafters, I guess you'd call them are now on, supported by 3 inch screws.  The roof will open to the south, providing protection from the north winds of winter.

The roof is up and now the walls start going in.

The south side will remain wide open, but the other three sides will be closed off.  I assume later on we could gate off the opening, if the need arises.

Russ came by the house Saturday afternoon and helped me cut the tin into 5 foot sections and begin hanging the walls.  I couldn't have done this part alone.

Here's our completed shed.  It's small, yet it will provide a respite from cold winds and rain in the winter.

Here's a look from the west side.  A west side story, you might call it.

The project is complete.  Now it's time to get in the garden and start working on the fall/winter planting.

A New Project That Must Be Completed Before Winter

So that we can quarantine animals, we have a portion of the pasture fenced off in an area we call "the bull pen."  You see, the quarantining I'm talking about is not due to illness, but due to the wanton desires of the male species.  If you don't keep the males separated from the females, we've found that things get a little dangerous.  Wild hanky-panky notwithstanding, if you don't separate the males from the females, you cannot control the breeding date.

We generally keep the bull in the bull pasture until we see a cow or heifer go in heat and then we'll put her in the bull pen with the pull for a day of courtship and romance.  But it's not just the male of the bovine persuasion.  We keep the billy goat, Popcorn, in the bull pen, too.  For similar reasons, but for another as well.  Billy goats are, well, there's not a nice way to put it.  They're gross.  During their season of lust, they pee on themselves, all over their beard, and it stinks.  We don't want to be anywhere around them.

So here's where the project comes into play.  Goats aren't real fond of rainy weather.  The bull pen is gated into the barn, but the barn has the cows and heifer and also the does there.  We need to build some sort of small lean-to shed so that the billy goat and bull can get in out of the weather.  Nothing too big and nothing fancy and certainly nothing expensive.  So I decided to put up an 8x8 simple shed.  It will be closed on three sides and open to the south side.  In winter, it will provide a respite from the rain and north winds. 

Saturday, I enlisted Russ' help and we used a post-hole digger to place four 8 foot 4x4's into the ground in the bull pen and anchored them in with Quik Crete.  I kept the bull and the billy goat out of the bull pen for 24 hours to give the cement time to cure.  Nicky, the bull, has a propensity for rubbing his head on things, and I didn't want him to push the posts after we had worked hard to level them.  After 24 hours I put the bull and the billy back in the bull pen.

They were curious as to what the project was.  What are these posts in our pasture?  I felt sure they would set out to destroy the work we started, but so far, the posts have held firm.

I'll work on this as time allows, day by day, until we have a shelter for the Nicky and Popcorn.  Everyone needs to be able to get out of the rain, right?

Gathering Materials for the Barn Expansion

We're building an expansion to our barn, adding two "lean-to's" on either side.  Last week we showed how we put the four 4x4's on either side of the barn that will serve as the supports to hold up the roof extension.  Saturday was the day that we circled on the calendar to get things started.  I woke up at first light and drove to the farm in Oberlin to gather the building materials that Dad had offered to me for the project.

I like things with sentimental value and/or things with a story.  Here is a story (or two) about the raw materials we're using for the barn:  The wood we'll be using for framing up the roof is from a very tall and straight pine tree that was struck by lightning many years ago at Mom & Dad's house where I grew up.  The 5 acre property had numerous pine trees.  My brother and I had a Honda Z50 mini bike that we would ride.  We had a game where we'd throw pine cones at each other and try to knock each other off the mini bike.  Crazy, I know.  These weren't the pine cones that are open, but the ones that are tight and hard.  One time I knocked Kristian off the mini bike with a pine cone and he picked up a pine knot and knocked me over the head with it and knocked me out.  Who knows?  This pine lumber could very well be from the same tree!  Now when people ask me what's wrong with me, I can say I've been hit in the head...  At least I have an excuse!

Back to the story: Dad called a gentleman who was our crop duster pilot.  He also had a portable sawmill and cut up logs on the side.  He came and cut the tree into 2x4s and we stacked and dried it.  The lumber sat for years in the shop.  We're now going to use 58 of the 2x4s to construct the barn lean-to.

Now we'll also use corrugated tin for the barn lean-to roof.  At the farm we had an old pole barn that we called the "Combine Shed."  We stored the combines under the shed to keep them out of the weather.  As hot as it ever got during the summer months, for some reason, it always was cool and shady under that barn.  Over the years, hurricanes and thunderstorms ravaged the old shed.  It has fallen and its remaining structure is hidden behind the tall grass below.

Many sheets of tin from that barn, however, were stacked up.  I'll be using that tin for the roof.  The tin has many holes where it was nailed up to the rafters of the combine shed, but I'll patch them with caulk and it'll work just fine.  I worked as fast as I could Saturday morning and loaded the old cattle trailer with lumber and tin and made my way back home to begin the work.  A carpenter was meeting me to begin construction.

We had perfect weather to begin this construction project and I'll tell you about it tomorrow.