Today

Outline of the day: Emptied car. Menard's for pipe to be used as curtain rod for pantry. Saw CJ and  Chris Foley. Went to grandma's where mom was working on dealing with estate. Kind if sad and missed grandma. Got pitchfork. Looked at garden cart. Worked at Holland. Saw CJ again as he drove by. Dealt with anger over the deal falling through because buyers were assholes and inspection seemed fraudulent. Also angry of having to waste my time working on that place when so much needs doing here. Came home. Read a bit. Went to Kroger's with Jette. Sushi and boneless wings. Read more. Another night in.

Return of the BLOG?

The blog died when my computer did but I downloaded an app to my smartphone. Will this be the triumphant return? I miss blogging and even mote so on a real keyboard. Perhaps I will try voice to text.

My latest thing is that I've gotten back to baking bread and had the idea to make some extra money selling it. Profits will go toward the expense of this garden barn I decided to purchase. The existing big barn is in very poor shape and may collapse anytime. I need a secure place to store my agricultural tools and lawn mower. The long term plan is to repair the big barn so it can be used to help support livestock. Also, I decided that a percentage will be donated to my Aunt's cancer fund to help with mounting medical expenses.

The issues I am working on are how best to distribute the bread, what to charge, and which types of bread to offer. This is not intended as a full time job and delivering sounds impractical. I am experimenting on how long it will keep as it never lasts long before being eaten! I would like to have people come pick it up but I want to make sure I have it when they get here so taking orders may be the best way. I am open to suggestions.

In other news we have put in orders to both the Fulton County and the Lucas County Soil and Water Conservation Districts for many trees and shrubs. Most if them are food bearing but I am too tired to type them all out.

It is good to be back. Wish me luck and come buy my bread!

Happy Beef Day

Hi there.  It has been a few days.  I had a long stretch of blogging every day even when I did not want to.  It is a good time to slow things down and only write when there are good, positive things that I did or when I feel like writing about a more serious topic.

We had our first measurable snow last night.

The guy who was going to help with the attic worked a double shift yesterday and was not feeling up to it.  I can understand that and would rather not have exhausted help.  We rescheduled for next Sunday.

The big thing yesterday was that we split a side of beef with the Clingo family.  It is grass fed Dexter and it always is good to have a supply of quality beef in the freezer. I feel very blessed.  The farmer who raised it, Brian Stout, delivered it to my friend Bryan's house.  Bryan is splitting a half too so there was a small crowd. There was a good energy there as both Brian and Bryan are great guys and everyone was very excited about the beef.  Events like this evoke a sense of community.  Nothing builds bridges from people to people like food can.  It transcends borders and cultures because everybody eats.  Go break bread with people!

Other things I did include getting the broken lawn mower into the barn.  It was undersized for my needs but got the job done until a better one came along.   I was able to get it started but a tire is flat.  Jim still has my air compressor; this is why you should never loan out tools.  The drive chain on the flat side seems jammed up too.  All of this led me to hooking on a tow chain and dragging the thing into the barn by hand.  Good thing I am strong.  For dinner I cooked some sausage patties that were bought as a fund raiser for a cousins teeball team.  They did not make a lot of smoke but it reminded me that I have failed to install smoke alarms even though they have been purchased.  This was corrected after dinner.  I also added a hook on the outside of my wooden gun cabinet.  I hung a boot puller from it.

Jim came over to watch football and the Packers won.  He ate way more Chexmix than I anticipated so I had to make more.  This annoyed me more than it should have but I should take it as a compliment and a sign that it is good. It is our contribution to Thanksgiving along with apples and cider from Johnstons Fruit Farm.  We actually made four different varieties including traditional, muddy buddy/puppy chow, salty honey nut, and buffalo ranch.  

This may be my last blog for a while but I am not abandoning it.  Soon enough I will be writing more about farm ideas.  This winter I am going to build a beehive!

Have a great holiday!

Attic

Now that the electric work is done I am moving forward with the final insulation.  Many of the wires are ran through the attic and I did not want to bury them in insulation. I found someone to help me with installing the insulation.  I have enough material to do behind the knee wall.  That is where I need the help as I am too large to get behind the knee wall and crawl around there.  When we tore out the ceiling a mountain of blow in cellulose insulation fell down.  It was a terrible mess; animals had been living and dying in it when the house was abandoned.  There were signs of racoons and by signs I mean pile of racoon poop.  The previous owners put mouse poison up there which led to many mouse skeletons.  We have cats so hopefully they will control the mouse population.  It is much cleaner up there now as I removed as much of the old mess as I could.  Jim worked with me for a day on that where we swept and shoveled it into bags.  Between that and what Paul helped me clean up off the floor we must have had enough to fill a 20 yard dumpster.  Recently I have been cleaning up the finer dust and the nooks and crannies with a shopvac.  The new insulation is r19 fiberglass between the ceiling joists with unfaced r30 laid across the top.  According to the United States Department of Energy, which creates no energy, recommends r38 to r60 for my region.  My attic will have around r49 with both layers.  I am looking forward to having a more energy efficient house.

I've been slacking

Since the time change I have been going to bed so early and updating this thing is usually one of the last things I do before sleep.  It has been very hard for me to organize my thoughts as I've struggled to come to terms with all the evil in this word. There is so much hate and I do not want to be a part of it.  The events around the world do scare me but I don't think more killing is ever going to stop terrorism.  I just don't have the answers so I don't know WHAT to write. One thing I have noticed on Facebook is that the people talking the loudest about letting Syrian refugees in are also those who are strictly anti gun.  There have been a few exceptions to this.  I am not writing this in judgement; it is an observation.  The past few nights I have had little good to say and decided it is just better to go to bed.  Even on days where I got a lot done I have not been adding pictures.  I think I need to stick with it if for no other reason that to keep a log of what I have done.  However, I am planning to take a break from writing around Thanksgiving.

The electrical work is all done now so I can move on to projects that were waiting on that.  This place is really starting to look good!

Jette and I met friends for dinner at Tandoor tonight.  It was excellent as usual.

One of those days

Sorry, nothing to report today.  No one is reading anyway.

I don't really feel like typing what I am thinking about because I just don't understand what is going on in this world.

Another make up post

I went to bed really early last night and didn't post anything before.

Jim had two flat tires yesterday and I went over with an air compressor and truck jack and stands to fix it.  We were able to locate the holes and plug them.

We cooked a turkey in the oven but it was a late dinner because of the tire ordeal.  I burned most of the Bittersweet I tore out while waiting for food.