Category: Farm Life & Home

Posted on

Shooting The Breeze

Spent the afternoon talking computers with my brother-in-law, the family computer geek. Although most of what he talks about I really don’t have a clue on, but I usually walk away learning something. Today it was about secure data backup, not something that I really have to worry about but it was interesting non the less.

It felt good not having to ask him over to take care of any of my computer/Internet issues, it was just to basically hang up and catch up, since I haven’t really seen him since the 4th of July. We had a few cold beers, ate some chow and spent a few hours on the front porch enjoying a nice day that only got into the mid 80’s. A nice change from this extremely hot and humid summer that we have had to deal with. As much as I hate the winter I’m almost ready for the cold weather, this heat has been sucking the life out of me.

Posted on

Takes Money To Make Money

So many people have been telling me that I should start using eBay to sell off some of the stuff around here that I don’t have a need for. Either that or have a couple of yard sales, to be honest holding a yard sale would be nothing but a major pain in the rear. I don’t have the time to gather, sort, fix, price and all the other necessities that are needed in order to have a yard sale.

My sister is going to come over in the next couple of days to assist me in getting an eBay account started and show me what all it takes to get a few items put on there to start out with. I really need to buy some sort of scale that I can weigh the items with for shipping and handling purposes. I thought we had one around here but darned if I can put my hands on it, so I’ll just go ahead and purchase one. After all it takes money to make money, right?

Posted on

Leaking Issues in the Basement

Upon making a quick trip down to the basement, trying to make my way to the root cellar, that stores many food items during the year, I noticed that there was some water on the floor in one corner. It appears that I am in need of a new sump pump. I worked on this piece of ancient equipment myself for a while and finally gave up and came back upstairs to my computer to see what I can find about getting this leaking basement and sump pump issue resolved. I haven’t a clue as to who my parents would have called for this type of problem, this wasn’t an issue that was ever talked much about, so I had to start from scratch on this one, so I’m glad that I have Internet access and was able to use it to my advantage for locating a good company to contact for immediate service, which I found at B-Dry.com.

At their website, they gave me an opportunity for a quick and free estimate, but I just skipped through that due to the urgency of this matter and gave the closest office a call, toll free of course, and they are coming up late this afternoon to assist me with this mess. One of their new submersible sump pumps will be the first order of business and then I would like to talk with them about addressing the leakage problem and give me their free estimate at that time.

It is always something is seems, but I guess it all comes with running and maintaining a house and home, and this old home is in need of some hard work along with some love and care.

Posted on

My Grandparents

I miss my grandfather. He passed on several years ago, leaving my grandmother grieving and broken hearted. We do what we can to keep her busy and the whole extended family has pulled together to make what is left of her life one that isn’t full of loneliness and old memories.

My grandfather did manage to leave me a small portion of his massive assortment of weapons that were divided up between several members of our very large and extended family. I have several really nice holsters as well and he made sure that each weapon came with an good amount of bullets and cleaning kits and all kinds of other accessories that one might eventually needed, even a great handy dandy handgun safe that I keep most of the handguns locked away in.

Posted on

Taking Size in Consideration

Thinking hard about installing a whole new bathroom vanity and sink for the master bath here at the farm. The plumbing leaves a lot to be desired and needs updating badly, but that will have to wait until next year some time.

Bathroom vanities are not something that I really have paid much attention to in the past, but now that I have had to look and deal with this prehistoric model that has been here in the house since day one, I have been taking a look around on the Internet to get some ideas to ponder on.

I will forward the links to the Bathroom Vanities that I find and like online by email, to my older sister for her consideration, something that I find myself doing with most major decisions that come around regarding this old house and home. She has a vested interest in the place and I like to keep her in the loop for many reasons, and it’s just a common courtesy in my mind.

So far I have found one such Bathroom Vanity that looks promising, the bathroom is not big at all and I need to take that in consideration and find one on the petite and small side although I would like to be able to have room to install a Double Vanity. Maybe when I redo the bath on the upper level in the place, I can get one then.

 

Posted on

Dad’s Old Recliner Days

My Dad had a very nice recliner that he spend so much time in when not busy around the house and farm and all that goes on day and night. He would usually find the time right after dinner to sit down in his very well broken in and comfortable recliner and smoke a cigar, sometimes a pipe, sipping his after dinner coffee and listening to the radio or the television for the latest news casts with their interesting and entertaining new stories and other broadcastings that caught his interest.

The last few years, his health had been getting worse and he was really having difficulty getting up and down, in and out of that chair and we had to shop around for a while and find an alternative type of seating arrangement for him. We ended up purchasing him a good lift chair, one of my sisters found a site online that sold the perfect chair for him, remote control and all the perks one could want in one of those Lift Chairs that are available now for people in their senior years and with disabilities as well.

It has been over 15 years since we purchased that chair, Dad made good use of it and it will stay right where it sits in the front living room, one day I’ll be needing to use it, that day may come sooner than I originally thought, with all the work that I have to do here at the farm and the house.

Posted on

The Circle of Life

Since I grew up on a farm, I learned at a young age how to hunt, and all about the “circle of life,” as they put it. It was instilled upon us all how important the treatment of animals were, along with the need to use God’s creatures as a way to keep us alive with their meat, as well as their hides and other body parts for many other necessary usages.

We grew up with many fire arms around and learned how to shoot and clean each weapon along the knowledge of which was used for what reasons. I didn’t get to do much hunting this fall, due to all of the work that is now placed on me and me alone around the farm, but I did manage to go twice and I did bring home some nice venison to eat during the winter months. It had been a while since I had gone hunting, but I enjoyed getting away from all the daily duties around the place, and was glad that the time spent away from the place was productive, and not all just entertainment.

Posted on

So Many Tools

I have spent way too much time looking for various tools around here and coming up with nothing which is just crazy considering how many out buildings there are around the property that are pretty much filled with tools. Like yesterday I really needed a wiring loom, now I know darned well that I saw one the other week, but now that I really need one I just can’t seem to put my hands on it. I really hate having to buy something when I know that I all ready have one, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Posted on

Critters Everywhere I Turn

Over the years we have had numerous wild and interesting animals that have found their way into the back yard. Everything from opossums, raccoons, ground hogs, ducks, skunks, and even a wounded dear have ended up spending time in our side and backyard, much to our amusement and entertainment.Last week a neighbor was coming to our back door to return something that she had borrowed from my mother’s kitchen years ago and had to back off because she saw something on the porch that didn’t look like any type of dog or cat that she had ever seen before and she turned around and went back home and immediately called me on the phone to let me know that there was some type of critter that kept her from coming to the door.

Come to find out that it was a porcupine, a good sized one at that, and I spent a good 1/2 hour trying to catch the darn thing so that I could box it up and take it and release it back into a good wooded area. I even called animal control, and being that it was late at night they where closed and I had to leave a message, by the time we got a return call I had already taken care of the situation. The man didn’t believe me that is had been a porcupine and he actually came over to the house to discuss it, and it proved to be good thing that we took a picture of the darned thing before I released it, it was the only way that we could get him to believe that it actually was a porcupine. And the fact that I still had a few of it’s quills that had fallen off of it during all of the activities of the chase and capture.

So I have come to the conclusion that we are in need of a few good animal traps, because I am way too old to be chasing these wild critters around any more. I checked the Internet and found a good company called Havahart that offers a GREEN approach to critter control with a better way for the environment, more “earth friendly” and a more humane way for the animal.

I’ve decided to purchase their Havahart Easy Set Raccoon Trap, which I believe should be suitable for the majority of animals that we have had to deal with these past years. The only other animal that I can think of that hasn’t shown up at our place, beside lions, tigers, and bears, is an armadillo, it could be just a matter of time and this cage would even handle that, if needed.

Posted on

Easter

This Easter I am taking all most the entire day off from the farm to spend time with my family and have our traditional Easter dinner at my sister’s house. After I tend to the milking of the cows and a few other minor chores are done I’ll be off and running. It is supossed to be a great weather day and I’m really looking forward to time away from the drudgery of the farm.

May you and yours have a blessed Easter Holiday.