Septic System and Orchard

Posted on April 4, 2024 by Kelsey

Today I took care of two things I have been putting off for far too long! I had a meeting at 9AM with the man in charge of the county health department to discuss planning for our septic system. He went over the specifics of what has to be done and how it has to be done. It seems like there is a little tiny bit of wiggle room that will set me up to be able to do this okay as long as I don’t need a pump to get the effluent from the septic tank to the drain field. I will have to do some measurements to see about that. I might make it, but because of the high water table here, I don’t have a lot of wiggle room on that. The rest of it sounds pretty easy apart from collapsing the old tank. That is a pretty strong piece of concrete, and may require renting a jackhammer.

After all that, I came home and helped Missus out with some things, and then went out and pruned back the whole orchard. It is only about a dozen trees, but this is a job I have been needing to do for some time now. Some of the trees have got pretty good sized and have a lot of limbs and branches on them. They all needed some work. Some only a little bit, and others needed a right butchering! I worked on shaping this year and let the consequences follow. I think next year I can work on trying to maximize production. I also have one dead tree out there that needs to be replaced. It is a prune tree right back with the apples. There are two other prune trees that are alive at the front, and they got a trim and hopefully will produce. But that dead one needs to be replaced with a proper apple tree, I think. No other fruit trees we have tried have survived. Just the prunes and apples.

We have an old apple tree sperate from the orchard by a little way. I gave that one the once over too. It has produced the last couple of years, but very poorly. Hopefully this year will see a change! I butchered the living hell out of that tree, too. It had the most prolific collection of stems and such on it. Now it looks like the others. I know I was only supposed to take off about a third of the tree at max. I am sure I exceeded that. But I think it is worth the risk. It is an old tree and very well established. Besides, I have had a couple of trees that have started out small and been completely knocked over and destroyed, then resprouted off the root ball. I am sure this one could do the same if it had to.

Missus needs help in the cottage tomorrow. I also need to remember to pop open the air tank on the compressor. I have been poor at doing that lately. I need to get the trailer up to the dump and empty it out and ready up for another fill. I could do one or two more before I get the bulk of the old compost pile finished and ready to redistribute the soil where it needs to go. I really want to get some flowers in this year and get Missus going on selling some or getting the place looking better at the very least.

Now that I am pretty sure on where the septic is going, I think I can make up my mind on the gourd tunnel and on the woodshed and a couple of large planters. A couple of lean-tos would not hurt. One for the chicken coop, and one for the tractor. Also, the septic guy approved the idea of building a leech field, then putting a coop next to it and fencing in the field and letting chickens roam around on it. Yeah, I’d like that. Then the ground would not be going to waste.

Our male cat is roaming around the house like he is having some sort of anxiety. I figure it is either the onset of the frogs he can hear through the open doors and windows, or he is missing the female cat who is out in a pen by the chicken coop because she keeps crapping in the house. We are going to try to get her used to being outside in a safe place, then letting her run free a bit then come back in to visit. This keeping her in the house business is just not working out. She keeps spewing out both ends, to be honest. It’s too much. The other three cats that either live here or visit are fine. But this one likes to put her mess where it is nearly impossible to clean. Enough is enough.

Well, there’s my report for today. It’s late enough for an early night now. I might give that a go in a few minutes.

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Relaxing on a Sunday Afternoon in March

Posted on March 24, 2024 by Kelsey

It’s Sunday, normally a relaxing day around here. Missus isn’t relaxing, so I have helped her with moving things around and getting things put away. She is trying so hard to get things organized better. She finally went for a nap, and I went and did my chores feeding the animals and recovering the hay from the recent wind, and unfortunately, rain we had. The hay got wet, which is unfortunate. It did not penetrate too deep, so hopefully it will at least be fine for the time I will have it before it is used up on the goats and llamas.

The rain has restored our lovely mud outside, making it miserable and a little unsafe to work out there. I won’t use the sawmill in the mud, for example, till I can get it up on a platform of some sort, and maybe even a roof built over it to keep the platform dry. Last thing I would want to do is slip and fall while pushing the blade through a cut! I have a fair load of logs towards such a project. I need to set me up a cut list and finish it. Then maybe I could get on it.

I am also concerned about the woodshed. I need one of those built, and the sooner the better. It would sure be a bonus to have that built and be able to stack the wood into it to dry up for next winter. To be fair, I have still got a fair amount left from this winter, and that can go in first! Put it all in the south side of the bunk, take out the north side, build a shed there, then transfer the wood in, and clear out the south end and put a second shed there. The problem is that I am only allowed a certain size in our county without a permit, and that size is not big enough for a whole winter’s worth of wood. If I build two at the limit, I should be able to hold enough for more than a winter’s worth. Nothing wrong with too much wood!

This stuff is a change from when I first started this blog, isn’t it? Who would have thought back then that I would have ended up going on like this? Certainly not me. But here we are. Though, there is the threat of getting our bikes out and going for a ride somewhere around here. Probably not too long of one, but the kids are eager to.

On that note, I have got to do something about my photography. I am not feeling inspired. It is mostly what is around me. It could be because of the winter and brown grass all about. It’s been the mildest winter I can remember here, by far. Mud season is pretty much over, apart from the shallow mud outside right now because of the rain. But the deep mud is not affecting us. The place looks bland, and almost colorless in its otherwise drab winter regalia. Not just around the yard, but the whole area we live in.

Well, that’s enough of being boring for now. I would like to stop and have a thought before I write more. Writing this much has me thinking of things I’d be better off doing than writing about.

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Rheumatism

Posted on March 18, 2024 by Kelsey

Honestly, it’s days like this that worry me. I woke up feeling fair to middling, did my morning chores feeding llamas and goats and even giving a shot to one of the llamas who has a swollen leg from some kind of injury he has given himself. Around noon I had finished up and my youngest daughter and I sat on the tractor bucket, and I told her some of the old stories of rounding up cows when I first came to visit Idaho, and how her oldest brother learned to ride from a champion barrel racer in Nevada.

Lunchtime came and I fixed up me some hotdogs and ate them. It was around that time I also started feeling quite poorly. It started like the old rheumatism in the hips and spread throughout my torso and arms. That finally got to the point I could no longer stay awake, so I went up to take a nap for more than an hour and a quarter on my bed. That is not right for me as I normally only nap for some twenty minutes or so. Now it is gone past seven in the evening an I am still feeling like Wile E. Coyote after the fall from the cliff and the huge boulder landing on me. With any luck, I will feel much better after tonight’s sleep and for all of tomorrow. I have an important errand I need to run as soon as I can.

The pain of it is debilitating and were I working a regular job that required reporting into some stuffy manager, I would have been in trouble for a day like today. That is not interesting to me. I don’t want to have to have my security and livelihood threatened over something beyond my control. I will try to report into myself in full health tomorrow.

I have just about finished a stand for Missus’ loom. She has an Ashford rigid heddle loom that is some 18 inches wide. She told me that a stand would cost us $175 or so, so I took some of the wood I milled and made her one for about $15 in parts. I *think* that saved us a few dollars. Perhaps you know the old meme that says “why buy it for $35 when I can make it myself with $97 in craft supplies?” I have spent well over that amount in supplies and tools and the mill and so on. Well, I have got to trim the tops of the legs and tighten a couple of bolts, then it is as done as can be. I more or less followed the specifications of the stand she does have, and replicated it as close as possible, except the type of wood and the thickness of my pieces. I think it came out pretty good, and I understand some of the things they did on their model to help it work better than the methods I might have chosen on my own. I also need only make one spare part, only longer, to make this stand fit a wider loom. Well, I am happy with it.

The ideal situation this year is to make anything like this that we can here on the farm. We’d like to give up on buying things as much as we can, buy quality when we do have to, and make quality when we don’t. I need to get the trailer fixed and start making trips down to get firewood and milling wood. The weather today was perfect for it. We have a bit more to come before it starts getting wet late this week or early next.

Off to an early night to bed tonight. I need to recover from this awful feeling. Best wishes reader.

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Weird Winter Weather

Posted on February 19, 2024 by Kelsey

The winter has been shockingly warm compared to the past winters we have had here in our part of Idaho. I took a photo last week while warming the truck up to take the girls to school that I thought demonstrated just that. It was of the rain on the windshield. It was just after seven in the morning on February 15th. We were only a week or so past the dead middle of winter and it was raining early in the morning! I could not believe it! Any normal winter and we would have had snow instead! But not this year. It snowed this morning though, as a storm blew through! I fed the animals and shot two photos of what it looked like as I did. Those looked far more typical of what Idaho should look like this time of year.

To be honest, the snowfall seems minimal, but it is usually spring when it falls the most, as the weather warms, and the seasons ready for a change. It has fallen a fair amount for the year, but with the warmth and the rain, it has melted more quickly than usual. That is probably a fair assessment and explains the water forming what looks like a lake in the field behind our house. The moisture is there, but it is just not there in its normal fashion.

Rainfall at a little past even in the morning reminds me more of English or even Californian winter weather!

Perhaps we will pick up a lot more snow in the spring this year. and perhaps it will also come in unusual form instead of snow. So long as it is snow when it hits the mountain tops! And that brings up the next concern. It needs to be snow on the mountains so it can last till early July or so. Then it can melt in the summer heat and come down to the river to be pumped into the irrigation canals and eventually onto crops.

This winter has been unsettlingly warm, and I do wonder what the summer temperatures and weather will be like. Will it be much warmer than we are used to in summer too? Warm weather encourages thunderstorms, and thunderstorms encourage wind. What are we in for?

The horse is looking forward to the feed in the tractor bucket as I drive it along and shoot her photo. Hard to believe the field was clear of snow just yesterday. I expect it will be again soon!

All we can do is ride it out. But if it is exceptionally hot, I will still need to create firewood for the following winter, despite that. I will also need to work in the workshop despite it. That may mean nightshifts. So be it. I am not sure how to deal with the mill, but I will work something out. Maybe it requires building a shed with a roof over it for shade? Maybe it requires moving it? That is probably in the cards anyhow.

No matter the case, I need to work through it. My arthritis does not hurt like it has been the past I don’t know how many years. It is feeling much better thanks to some tablets I have been taking to reduce it. But even with them, I am limited. Before the tablets I would wake up sore and hurt all day. I would limp while walking. I would not be able to move much for long. Now I wake up feeling much better. I can work a while. What I cannot do it keep at it for long without it feeling a dull awful feeling that requires me to stop and rest off the pain, to the point of even having a short nap to recover. This year promised to be better, though with these limitations. But I will do what I can. I know for a fact I have passed this on to one child. It may have gone to even more. Time will tell. I just hope not, but if so, there is not much I can do apart from advise them of it and help them to work and will through it.

Looking down the road beyond where I turn to feed the llamas on the back pasture over the road from ours. Visibility was just shy of a mile. It’s not bad, but it landed as a surprise to me, full stop.

It’s not the summer I look forward to. It is the intermediary season of spring. Those in-betweens here are wonderful. I was told many years ago that the summers were nice here. They were not too warm. Even in 2010 the high temperatures for July and August were an occasional 93F with more falling in the 80’s than 90’s. By 2019 we saw the high reach 97F with several more days falling into the mid 90’s. Tree rings I have seen around here suggested to me that the 1980’s and before saw more rainfall, taking into account early wood growing years of a tree, as it does.

In other news, we are living with three cats in the house now. All of them are “fixed” and their attitudes towards each other and everything shows it. They wrestle together. The older one tolerates the younger ones better. He was fixed a while back, but he seems to have improved on the two young ones for them not producing so many hormones. I’d like to see them all shitting outside rather than in the litterbox in the house, and especially just in the house. I found three parcels under my desk upstairs, and they were just starting to go to town under Missus’s big loom in the library. We have a spray that is meant to stop them doing it where we spray, which is where they have gone. I am waiting with bated breath. We’ll see how they do! I have sprayed the entire upstairs carpet for good measure!

Wood is loaded into the fire for the evening. I am tempted to go up to bed early and watch some YouTube videos. There is no school tomorrow, so I can cancel the alarm and just enjoy the evening and the morning. Such rare opportunities should be taken. My wife is good at knowing that. I have been so ingrained with “you should be busy” that it is hard for me to remember it is okay to do such things, even when I am limited by my health. It is likely to snow again tomorrow, and a little bit likely the two days that follow it. High temperatures will hover around 40F throughout the next ten days, according to the forecast. Before long it will be real spring and the temps will begin to rise. It will be time to work hard and get done all the things that need to be around here. I have a long list.

There is much more I could talk about. Everything from politics to why I am not photographing as I should be. But a relaxing evening is calling to me, and I do wish to go and enjoy it thoroughly.

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F*cked Over Rebuilt Dodge

Posted on November 10, 2023 by Kelsey

I went up to town and picked up the car on the trailer today. That cost me $89 to confirm what the service desk manager suspected. The engine was built faulty, and overheats because of the problem with the block. I am not sure of the specifics, but what it results in is Ford recommending that the owner do a long block engine replacement, which is to say the engine block and heads. Amazingly the cost is estimated at $9,000.00. They say the new block is corrected, but come on, the engine was meant to be right when it was new. How am I to know that another new engine is right this time? I think not. I am not buying Ford again after this crap. The car has fewer than 140,000 miles on it. It was okay till the engine started overheating on us when we took that drive to Wyoming. It has been giving us troubles since. Yeah, I am done with Ford.

As whatever car we get after this is going to be driven by my daughter, I am thinking something like a Subaru. I like the 4×4 or AWD that every Subaru has. Looking through the used ones they seem to run for a few hundred-thousand miles. We want economical too. I would like to have something we can do a little travelling with. It’d be nice to get out and see some of the country with the kids.

Anyway, I brought the car home, and we will clean out the personal belongings then send it off to the salvage yard. I think I would like to put a note in it saying what is wrong with it. It would not be good for someone to come along and pick the engine when it is so badly built. I hope we can get it turned in by Monday.

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Today Was Meant to Be…

Posted on October 31, 2023 by Kelsey

Today was meant to be a nice day to go get some firewood home to split and ready up for burning, but it was not meant to be. Today was also meant to be a day to get the car loaded on the trailer to get a diagnostic done to see what kind of repair is required to get it to stop leaking water into the cylinders and causing it to overheat repeatedly. But alas, that was not meant to be. Last night I got a message that one of the boys was having trouble with the back wheel of his car making a grinding sound and it not driving well. So today was meant to be a day to go help him instead. Then the water heater at our house went on the frtiz. That would have to wait. I started off taking our grandson to school with his dad since their car was out of service. Then we got parts and tools and then some penetrating oil and some more tools and got at the job of changing his back brakes, pads, rotors, and all.

That would be a fairly easy task, but his car has wheels on it that don not quite fit right, and they will not let go properly when the lug nuts are undone. Getting the wheels to come off is a hell of a chore. But we got it in the end, and the brake rotor and pad changes were dead easy.

We ran to get the kids in the afternoon and then he took them to my house while I went and got an element for the water heater. I came back and sat down feeling so tired by this point that I wanted to give up, so I got up and got at it instead. I got a hose and drained and flushed the water tank, then changed the element and went out with our son to tighten his lugs again after he has driven it for a while. I came back in to realize I should have shut the pressure release valve on top of the water heater to stop it overfilling and flooding the pantry. Oh well. But since it was full, I cleaned up and put on the power and the water heater is working again just fine! So, happy days.

On top of it all, I was very tired today as I could not sleep last night. I was watching a lot of videos of a singer that YouTube rudely stuffed under my nose about a week ago. I finally gave it and watched a video, and it was plain to see she was an amazing opera singer. Her name was Patricia Janeckova, from the Check Republic. I say was because five weeks ago she got married, and four weeks ago she died of breast cancer. I’ll say this: she was a truly gifted and amazing singer! Sadly, she was only 25 when she died. All death is horrible, especially when someone is so young.

I could have gotten into opera to hear her some more. Instead, I’ll leave it for now. It wasn’t meant to be.

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Mars on the Horizon

Posted on October 29, 2023 by Kelsey

I was up to answer nature’s call this morning about 4AM, and to stoke the fire to keep the chill off the house. I also heard the alarm going off on the weather station to announce that it was 20F outside, the temperature that risks our pipes under the house freezing if we don’t have water running. So, I put the kitchen sink on super low and said goodnight to Missus, who asked me last night to wake her when I am up any time after 4AM. She was up when I found her and is going to bed instead of waking up.

As I came up to my room and looked out the window as I walked in, I could see that Mars was just above the horizon on its rise. Like the Moon when it is just on the horizon, Mars looked bigger. It was an amazing sight to see! It is just a planet rising, which is does daily. But the title of the post sure is ominous! Mars, the God of War is on the horizon, rising to rule the sky.

On a personal note, I have some DVD-ROMs that my step-dad gave me before he died. I ended up with two sets of them in an effort to read the files, but never could. I managed to get a couple of minutes out of the first of each disc, then it would not play anymore. I never did figure it out. But I found a DVD-ROM while cleaning up the house yesterday and plugged it into my computer in a couple of fashions till I was no longer overloading the USB controller and got it to open in software that has been allowing me to rip the discs into playable files on my computer. My daughter sat with me and for me it was like she was looking through a window into my childhood and seeing people I have told her about, and seeing a world that no longer exists.

The first Christmas recorded was 1983. It was the greatest year I had ever experienced for presents on Christmas morning. I remember it as a time the living room was brimming with joy for all of us kids. Then, watching the video, I came out into the space to see what I had got, which was highly embarrassing because I had sneaked out during the night, and was not surprised that morning and was lying through my teeth. Incidentally, that was the last time I ever peaked ahead. It ruined it for me. Anyway, looking at the video, the room was not near as full as I remembered thinking it was. Our gifts were lovely, but few, and the space far more spartan that I remembered it being. But things are relative. I remember a good childhood growing up. Was it less than I remember in material things? Must be. But we always had enough. Have things changed today?

Mars on the Horizon. Venus is sinking.

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A Day in the Life

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Kelsey

Morning

That first cup is a cappuccino, vanilla. It is not a drink that comes with a sensational aroma like coffee. But it is not packed with acid that upsets my tummy, and it does not go right through me, exiting as soon as I pour it in, like coffee. What is the difference? I don’t know. One is from a bean. One is a powder, like a big glass of Nestle Quick. But the hot Quick stays put a minute, and it washes down the vitamin and Glucosamine tablets I take each morning. I enjoy a slow go of waking up, and let the kids do their thing to get ready for their day while I do. Missus and I talk about the current events in the family, and eventually I take the girls to the bus stop where they take off for school each day Mondays through Thursdays.

Today is a typical day. There is a conversation about the size of our youngest child’s shoes in order for me to report that back to our oldest so he can get her a present for her birthday coming up in about two weeks. He’s good that way and puts in the effort. What more could a parent want than to know that if said parent were to disappear off the surface of the Earth, their kids would take care of each other, or at least be able to take care of themselves?

Our second child will be by today to help split firewood again. I moved the log splitter and the big pile of wood yesterday so we can load the bunk as we go. He did not like the trailer loading out back and then having to unload it into the bunk beside the house. I don’t blame him. It all stemmed from the mess I had going out there in the Service Yard last year when the new tractor arrived. I cleaned it all up and had decided that the whole setup would not fit well in there with the tractor in as well trying to do the lifting. Well, we will try it anyhow, and I have tried to set up with the space for it. Splitting wood is the big chore I have to look forward to today. But if we get the pile done that it out there, we will undoubtedly have most of the wood ready for winter, and I can breathe a lot easier knowing that the wood is drying a little before we burn it, and that I can relax and work more wood with an eye to having it ready for next year. Yes, that’s right. We will finish this mad dash through firewood just to keep doing it still, only at a more relaxed pace. I need to get this into my daily schedule.

All this is to say where my mind is in a typical morning like this one. Not that I am working any of this in the morning. That will al come after the cappuccino and taking the kids to school. If our second arrives at his usual time, it will be within twenty minutes or so after I get back from the bus run, and we will get started soon after that. I think these thoughts through so I can eventually get to the point where I remind myself that I need to get tarps to cover the wood this weekend before the rain comes next week. Best keep it dry now, rather than bringing in rain-soaked wood to try to light in the fire as it gets colder with the changes in the weather, and especially with that rainfall.

Time to leave soon. I did not have my usual second cup. There is only so much a man can stand of the stuff each day. Some habits cannot remain consistent, even in habit form.

Lunchtime

We took a break at noon and son left. Then I went back at the wood splitter for a bit before I called it off just after 2:00PM. I ate some ravioli, then caught up on the news. I watched an episode of CSI: NY while eating.

Evening

For me, the evening starts when I go to get the kids from the bus stop. I get a few minutes there to catch up on the news a little more, then after they arrived, the girls and I went to town and got some rabbit food, and some whole corn. We went to the thrift store and picked up a couple of puzzles for our ninth grader’s art class, and we grabbed Subway sandwiches for supper when we got home.

I thought about going out and doing more log splitting, but after all that for a day, I decided not to. So here I am sat down for a spell and enjoying the quiet evening without running myself into the ground.

I want to add too that it is another good day. No bones pain. I am muscle sore, but that does not hurt like bone sore, so I am pretty happy this evening. I just want to rest it all off because I can. There will be plenty to do tomorrow.

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Milling Wood for a Rabbit Hutch

Posted on October 16, 2023 by Kelsey

The morning was busy helping Missus out with arranging some things in the house. When she was done with me, I went out to the tractor and took it around to the mill and parked it. There was a log already on it that I had put up there a couple of weeks ago. It was a short log that has some limited uses, but it was dry and a bit experimental for me. Most of the wood I have cut on the mill so far has been green wood. The one on it yesterday was effectively seasoned. So, I tightened the blade on the mill and started it up. A warmup run cleared the oxidization off the blade and confirmed it was running true.

There was a large crotch in the log, and I started it off by cutting the remaining branch stump off. Then I turned it and flattened it on two more sides, leaving one lived edge, which I could have cut off too, but decided to worry about that at the table saw instead. That allows me to maximize the size of any boards cut from the middle of the remaining log rather than forcing all of them to a single standard from a square cant. I then cut each live edged board to one inch thick. All of my scraps and boards went into the tractor bucket ready to take around to the house and shop. The scraps will be used as firewood in the house.

I cut a straight edge on the boards, then cut the size 1/32nd over five inches in order to allow for a little bit of edge jointing on my final width. At last I ran all through the planer and surfaced the faces. Then I did the same on the posts I made a few weeks back, on all four sides. The final step on the boards was to cut one straight end, ready for their final measurements. The final step on the posts was to do the same, then but a 3/16ths-ish bevel on that end in order to serve as the bottoms of the legs for the hutches I intend to build out of all this wood. Now each board and post is sized in every dimension except for final length which will be finalized when I put them in their places and cut them to fit.

I need to mill a longer log or find some one-inch-thick boards already done to make the longest pieces for the hutches. The pieces I am describing will run the span of the hutch. The hutch is going to be made from wire cages suspended in a wooden frame. The idea is to prevent access to any of the wood by the rabbits, so they cannot chew it. But there is also another important feature. No wood bracing can be allowed under the wire cages, so they cannot pile up droppings anywhere. If it can fall through, the chickens in the run in which the hutches will be kept can pick through the droppings and effectively clean it up. Lastly, I will be building a roof on top to keep the rabbits dry and give them a bit of shade. Walls can be added to a couple of the sides in order to give them a wind break, too.

It’s a challenge. It’s interesting and enjoyable. Taking the boards from a tree in the manner I am able to now is absolutely wonderful! There is something that feels very self-reliant about taking a log from a tree and cutting it to the dimensions required for a specific task.

I could be suing the lumber rough, but I decided on planing it all smooth because it will be in the weather, and I want it to expose a smooth surface that will not trap water in any way other than its normal adhesion to help reduce rot. Another step I will take it to stand the final hutches on cinder blocks to get them off the earth and reduce the time water can stand at the base of the posts. No post can be sealed at the bottom unless its top is capped or sheltered to prevent water running down the wood grain and trapping in the sealed bottom, causing it to rot. I don’t know of you have ever seen a fence whose posts have had some sort of metal nailed to the top, old timers would sometimes use the disk from a bean can, but that actually does serve a purpose. And my intent is to build this hutch to last! Well, I should say these hutches. When I finish the big one, there will be at least one little one and maybe two left to do.

Anyway, as for suspending the cages into the wood frames, I am fixing to build a set of wire brackets that can be screwed to the boards that span the posts, and then hold the wire in a way that does not create any flat surface under the cages. That will require some 1/2-inch-wide metal strips and the vice and hammer for shaping, and a drill for screw holes. Any braces under the cages to help hold up the weight of the rabbits will be fashioned out of the same kind of wire the gages are made of, creating a deep beam but again, no flat surfaces to catch mess on. There is also an interior wall that provides a door that can be close to split the big cage up into apartments when needed, but also will provide a strong support at the center to suspend the floor at that location. Missus’ idea to put that wall in! That was a stroke of brilliance!

I imagine after putting all this explainer in, when I get the hutch set up in situ, I will shoot a photo and post it. Watch this space.

Dylan has promised to come over today and begin a regimen of helping to sort out the final mass of firewood for this winter. We have pieces to cut and split, and if need be we can go get a lot more where we source it from. I really appreciate his help with it. There is a lot left to do!

Time for me to get moving and get ready to take the girls to the bis stop for school. Then there is a long day of work ahead after that!

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A Dedicated Blogging PC

Posted on October 11, 2023 by Kelsey

I sorted out a new computer at last. As much as I wanted the Samsung Tablet to work as a blogging platform, and it did to some degree because of its size and convenience, it would bog down as I got beyond five or six paragraphs of writing because the memory just could not handle it. The keyboard is too small and flimsy for the kind of writing I most likely want to indulge in too, such as sat in my big chair in the library or sat up in bed at night when I cannot sleep, and my mind is overrun with thoughts. At that time, it is either put on YouTube or write, and one is definitely more productive than the other.

So, in comes the new laptop, with its larger and sturdier keyboard, which is backlit to boot! Typing in the dark just got a whole lot easier! With 16GB of RAM and a decent half TB SSD, I think it would serve well as a dedicated blogging platform. I will carry on with the Samsung as before, ex-blogging. Although it is still fine for queueing up a post with a mini draft. Save that online, then come back to it from the Windows platform here, and that will offer better spell-checking and the opportunity to finish out the post in long form with photos as I set up with the SD card reader I have currently on the desktop PC. I may make a carry pouch for this computer and give the reader a pocket. That would be ideal.

A better form factor and a Windows platform are only part of the package to improve my setup. There is also what I don’t want on this computer. I will likely keep things like Messenger off of it as this is meant to be distraction free to help focus. Those things are always right here next to me on another device, such as the tablet, or my phone. But it does not need to be in my face. I also think that keeping such things off this computer will avoid the RAM being bogged down with too many processes and allow the computer serve what I most need it to.

Physically the only change is having to keep this relatively small computer to hand for writing. It is larger than my tablet for sure, but not near as big as my other laptop, this much easier to carry. The battery will last a respectable amount of time so it can be separated from the charger for decent writing periods. The two main places I intend to use it are at that big chair I mentioned and sat in bed upstairs. That could expand to other places, but I see most of the time I use it being in those two places, as that is where I tend to set up to relax for writing. I mean sure, I’d add e-mail to this thing if I could get Outlook to set up rules that only allowed family and friends to come through on it, and I could write to them too. I prefer long form communication to wasting away long periods of time scrolling on Facebook. Ironically, it takes up less time to write a proper letter to someone that shows real appreciation to them and focuses on that individual than it does to mass communicate with hundreds in general form on social media. I stay off social media. It’s not the life I want. It does not foster the friendships I want. If anyone wants to get ahold of me, I am always available via Messenger or e-mail. But I digress.

How would this do in the shop? I have my tablet for that. I am not comfortable with the dust of the shop getting into the keyboard or vents of a laptop. Obviously, there can be exceptions as needed. The shop can be a great place to focus on specific ideas and topics. But I can always queue up the ideas and descriptions and take the photos I need to with the tablet then come and finish out on the computer later, which fits the way I work, I think.

On the topic of battery life, I should mention that things were looking pretty good on the computer till I tried out the performance settings, which extended the estimated battery life from eight to thirteen hours just now. That looks very promising.

All in all, I think this setup holds the potential to allow me to write more, which is my substitute for an extensive social life. I am eager to see how it works out. Will I cave and put Messenger on the laptop, and set up Outlook with rules set up to only keep personal mails in the inbox? I can see it happening since I tend to want to write to people from the same spaces I write blog posts or attempt any kind of manuscript. This very post is a first try, and so far, I think I can say I am able to comfortably do what I wanted this computer to do. My tablet is close by for doing what I normally do with a device, such as web browsing and keeping innumerable tabs open because the thoughts that lead me to open them have not yet been resolved. I have my bedside tablet for YouTube watching. That is a device dedicated to a space. I think I am happy with this device dedicated to an important activity. Writing.

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