BIG Work Day!

 Yesterday, we had a big workday at the farm!  Some friends of ours came up and we all worked hard.  My Sister-in-law is here for the week.  Here she is cleaning up a bunch of spilled water.  Using the 'skating' method.

There was a lot of work done at the shop.  The office was given a lot of preparation.  The walls were scrubbed.

The tiles removed.

Then it became a wallpaper kind of day.  We were just going to wash the wallpaper in the family room.  But, when we started washing it, it had a fiber in it, and it simply turned a yucky gray.  Plan B time!  We needed to remove the wallpaper, but alas the the backing stuck to the wall.  So the three ladies went to town wetting and scraping the backing off the wall.  So much fun! NOT!!  The fellowship was good though.

The back wall of the family room is 11 ft. so we got to spend a lot of time on ladders.  

The girl's room had to have the wallpaper stripped also.

It was a team effort!

Meanwhile,  the office was getting the walls up.

My DH had a good helper.

The other guys were busy cutting down trees

and hauling brush.

The walls were all put up in the office.

The boys stripped the wallpaper from their walls also.   They decided they wanted something different than little pink flowers.

T-Bob went at it "like a boss"!

DH got a window put in the office also.  Earl, our neighbor, even found matching siding for the office in his barn and he gave it to us!  God is so good!

We ended the day burning brush and having a bonfire out by the pond.  I was so pleased to get so much work done!  Now onto the painting and other projects!

Work Day at the Farm

 I am really tired tonight.  I feel like the guy who's face is on this tree!  The four youngest children and I went to spend the day at the farm working.  We had quite a list.  We got a lot done, but there sure is a lot left to do.

 Our first project was to carry all the boxes we had brought over the other night up to the third floor.  We formed an assembly line and the things were moved along pretty quickly.  The next job was to carry out the rolls of carpeting.  This carpeting was so tough that the boss had to use a saw to cut it up. It took all five of us to move the rolls into the family room.

The boys and I then began the arduous job of prying up tack strips and removing the padding.  The padding was stapled down into the oak flooring.  Trying to pull old fragile staples out of oak planking is a real chore.  The staples kept breaking as we pried and then you have to pull the little edge pieces out separately.  There was a certain satisfaction in getting each one out, but it was not easy.

Here is a picture of what it looks like after the carpeting is up and the staples are pulled.  One of my DH clients is a floor finisher, and he is coming this weekend to sand and finish it for us. Yippee!  That's why this job was a high priority.

 While the boys and I worked in the house, the girls cleaned up a big mess of broken glass in the top of the barn, and started to work on more cleaning in the office to be.

They swept and vacuumed it out again and then finished it up with some more pressure washing.

T-Bob took a little break to work on his frisbee skills.

They then pressure washed the sidewalk in front of the office and cleaned some rugs.  Thomas was being his usual 'helpful' self.

The girls then proceeded to clean out all the junk in the old milk house.  They found all kinds of buckets and animal paraphernalia.  It is an old fashioned milk house.  There is a deep tank to the right where they would have cooled the milk cans.  Not sure what we will do with this space.

The children got their air rifle out and did a little target shooting. They had a blast (LOL) doing it.  Even Elizabeth shot a pretty tight cluster. We ended the day with homemade GF chicken pesto pizza and pepperoni pizza.  Very yummy!

This is the king of the farm.  He is the Tomcat! We now own four cats.  They came with the farm.  3 live in the barn and one in the shop.  The one in the shop needs to go!  The others can stay around and keep the mouse population down.  They are excellent at it.

It was a good day.  There was lots we didn't get to, that was on the list, but it feels good when you can see what you have accomplished.

Falling Behind

Every year we try and put up some produce in the summer to have on hand for the winter. This year, we are slacking. We haven't gotten any tomatoes canned or much produce frozen. We did do some corn, but about 10% of last year's amount. We didn't have any excess zucchini or cukes. We have been able to keep up with what we planted in the garden, but not any extra.

I did get my order in to the organic farmer who grows my beets for me. The children put up the two plus bushels for me. Joan directed the project and cooked all the beets. Elizabeth and the neighbor girl popped off the skins. They thought it was great fun.

Michelle cut up the beets.

(There was obviously some tasting going on, too)

Mr. Boots filled the containers.
T-Bob and Thomas did help a little too.
The parents were busy with other projects.
Thanks children!
Incidentally, Tuesday night is beet night at the Mango household. Whether you try to wrangle an invitation or avoid one is up to you.

~Mom

Wood Working

If you thought this post was going to be about fancy cabinet making or show a beautiful workshop you must be sadly disappointed. This post is about the work involved in keeping a house warm in the winter if you burn with woodstoves. (We have two.)

The wood pile that we worked so hard to split and stack must now be taken to the stove to burn. That is a challenge when the woodstove is in the family room, up over the garage, and you DON'T want to haul wood through the house. It makes too much mess. We have a balcony outside the back of the family room and that is where we stack it in preparation to coming in the house. The project is getting it up there.

One person climbs up the woodpile and hands it up to the person stacking on the balcony. Here JoAn is handing it up to Thomas. You want to have a good supply so that you are not looking for wood at 10 O'Clock at night when you want to get a fire ready to go for the night. (Not that that has ever happened in this house.) You want it as close to the door as possible so you don't have to stand in the snow for too long in your bare feet when you want the wood. (Not that we've ever done that either. :-) ) We would never sacrifice the beauty of our balcony by knocking out some spindles in the railing just to make getting the firewood up easier. That would be tacky and make us look lazy. Plus, it wouldn't be safe for the children in the summer.

-this picture is blurry because the camera was distracted by the falling snow.

Once the wood is hauled up and stacked then the pile is covered by a lovely brown tarp again to keep the snow off it for the next round of restacking and hauling. This is not the children's favorite chore, but we all like to be warm so we do it.

We also hope that whoever stacked the woodpile did a good job and that it is stable as we climb all over it. This job definitely gets harder the further we go into winter and the piles get shorter and further from the house. Then the fun begins as one person tries to toss it to the next one without it dropping to the ground or hitting something and breaking it. Winter is so much fun.

~Mom

Manly Man Work- Widening the Driveway

The fight for premium space in the front yard continues. We really need another parking space that can be used and still allows cars to pull through the driveway circle. We have been using the grass over beside the garage, but it was slowly becoming more mud than grass. The Boss determined that if the grass and dirt was dug out and the space filled with gravel, that it would work much better. The week that The Boss was away at his Aunt's funeral, the boys went to work.

Dallas was highly excited to have the boys working on the other side of his fence. They let him out and gave him the role of Official Supervisor.

T-Bob and Mr. Boots did most of the digging. They got it down about 12 inches and a little deeper along the driveway where they put in a trench.

It was a lot of work and, the fact that it was already very muddy didn't make it easier. I think they enjoyed playing in all that mud. They then refilled it with gravel. We still need to get more gravel. Eventually, the plan is to put bricks over the top once everything is settled and the vehicles have pushed down the gravel.

Good Work Gentlemen!!

~Mom

Manly Men Prepare for Winter

The old white farm house is heated by TWO hungry woodstoves. This requires us to have about six or seven full cords of wood ready to burn. It is NO fun to run out. We had that happen two years ago. Burning fresh cut wood is painful. First, it is too wet too burn and then it doesn't seem to yield much heat. This year we aim to be prepared. Mr. Boots is the project director. He has the biggest muscles and is able to move the big unsplit pieces over to the splitter that we borrowed.

Michelle put some time in on the splitter as well. We all know that wood heats you twice. The day you cut and split it and the day you burn it. It was a comfortable day for splitting. Not too hot and a little breeze. Note all the big logs in the background. We didn't just split 'girly' wood. (That's wood that is less than two feet in diameter). They split Manly logs!

Thomas also preferred the splitting to the stacking. He likes working in solitude.

Mr. Boots and T-Bob did the majority of the wood moving and stacking. The wood has to be transported to the other side of the yard. The boys delighted in seeing how full they could make it and still be able to move it. Mr. Boots is a lot stronger this year. It came close to being a 'fool's load' a couple times. ( Do you know what that is?)

This is the woodpile about 2/3 through the process of stacking. The little white play house is where we store our kindling. IT was stacked to the full height all the way to the back of the little house. It is now covered and drying. We are fortunate that we still had about two cords left from last winter. That wood is dry and ready to burn. The wood we have for this year has been cut for awhile and should be seasoned by the time we need it. Another big job done.

~Mom