Picked up a used Vermont Castings Resolute off of Craigslist. The Fisher Baby Bear perfect for our old Charlotte house, but was just a little too small for Morganton. Soon after getting it home the power company took down a 40 inch red oak at the neighbor's house. He was kind enough to give us all the wood in exchange for getting it out of his front yard! The main trunk section was split with a little help from a black powder charge. We figure we got close to 8 cords out of this massive 80 year old oak, but that will be for a winter several years down the road. This years and next years supply is already put up in the wood shed (it holds 8 cords)

In the Kitchen

We've gotten lots of different things off the farm this year. Here is just a few examples of the more interesting things we've done.

Garden produce

Pickles

Bacon!

Bamboo shoots

Goat curry with bamboo shoots

Home Brew

Siphoning into the bottling bucket

This was a Pilsner. Pretty good. Some were more carbonated than others because I failed to mix the priming sugar in well. Otherwise a big success. At about 70c a bottle it was a pretty good deal too.

'Mater sandwiches!

Nothing like the first tomato sandwich of the year!

Peru with Heifer International

K- We had an amazing opportunity to visit Peru with Heifer International on one of their Study Tours. Two of our new friends, Noland and Bryan blogged extensively here and I would love for everyone to visit their site.

Heifer's cornerstone principle of "Passing on the Gift" is alive and well in Peru. I was completely awe struck by the welcome and the treatment we received. We were outsiders in the communities we visited but we were treated as honored guests and smothered with hugs and food. The scenery and culture was amazing but the real treasures we discovered in Peru were the people.

While in Peru, we attended two Passing on the Gife Ceremonies. Here, sheep were shared in Acopia.

We later attended perhaps the highest Pass on Ceremony ever in the "hills" of Pacchant, 15,500 feet above sea level. More than the elevation left us breathless at this event.

As I peruse my photographs, words are failing me. It was an amazing experience. Perhaps I will be more eloquent after a little time has passed.

Until then, please view a the promotional video that Heifer made from some of the footage from our trip. It is here.

Homestead Haircuts

Getting a trim!

The New Chicken Coop

First it was the foxes, so we got electroplastic netting, then it was the hawks, so we built "THE GEODESIC CHICKEN DOME" (inspired by Buckminster Fuller, of course). Introducing the (somewhat) portable chicken containment and protection system. The outer mesh is charged with 8,000 volts of predator (and feed stealing goats) repellent. We have not lost a chicken since. Sure beats coming out to a half eaten chicken everyday! Soon after finishing it we sold the flock down to 6 birds which has worked out great. Just enough eggs for us and a few friends and family.

Tractor Mod

Winter seemed long this years, so yet another tractor project was spawned. The idea was to stretch the tractor and add a bed for hauling things around the homestead. Things were going well until a chain broke, and unfortunately with this design, if a chain breaks, you lose your breaks! Not too cool, thankfully I was still testing, aware of this fault and no damage was done. Oh well, another project shelved until next winter...

Wheel Weights and Chains

We have had a lot of rain and snow this winter which has made it a little tough to haul wood around with the garden tractors, so I went to work building wheel weights and chains. The weights are made out of recast tire weights and added 170 lbs to the tractor. Between the weights and chains, it made a HUGE difference. I was even able to pull our 4x8 utility trailer (300 lbs+-)up the steep part of our hill with 6 inches of snow on it.

New Trailer for Garden Tractors

With some help from our friend, Josh, we converted a pallet tote into an additional trailer for the garden tractors, it holds much more than the wagon and the kids got a big kick out of the "train". Sure is a lot of fun to weld up something useful!

New Tractors

After siezing up the motor on my old Roper (did you know you have to check the oil?) Went to a mower guy to buy a salvage engine and a c. 1970 Sears 8XL followed me home. Had so much fun with it, a Sears Suburban 12 (complete with mowing deck, 3 pt hitch, and scrape blade) soon joined the fold. The 8XL runs like a champ, the 12 needed some work, however during the repairs it managed to throw the pully off the flywheel. So back to the salvage man...looks like plowing snow will have to wait until next winter...

Snow

Got the biggest snow in 6 years this winter, around 10 inches. The kids loved it and did plently of sledding here at the farm. The animals on the other hand didn't really care for it!

The Year in Pictures - Kids of all sorts

I seam to have fallen off the blogger bandwagon for a while. It has been over a year, and, boy, what a year. Here are just some of the goings-on around the homestead.

The boys are growing as fast as the thistles.


Nate turned 3

Then Brandon turned 7


Andean hats from Peru


Mulch for the garden

Putting Rock Veneer on Hearth

This was loads of work involving about 1500lbs of rock and 500lbs of mortar. Not to mention that finding a rock for each space required lifting many rocks to find the right fit. We're thrilled with the result... just hope the foundation is up for it.