Home Made Log Skidder

After four birches on the property of his Skootamatta Lake island met their natural demise, Andy Tamas decided “they were too good to let go for firewood.” Instead of sending them up in smoke, he’d make some of the old fellas part of an addition he’d been building on his Blake Island abode.

He cut the felled trees into three-metre lengths, hoping to skid them down to the water for transport to the mainland and on to the local mill. But when he wrapped a chain around one log and used a come-along affixed to a tree to move it, “it got stuck on every root and rock that the island could manifest,” laughs Tamas.

Rather than admit defeat, he adapted one of six metre-long barrels he’d hoarded for a floating dock that was never realized. “Those barrels were just collecting dust,” says Tamas. “And insults. Putting at least one of them to use could very well have extended the longevity of my marriage.” Using a reciprocating saw, he cut off two-thirds of the barrel, keeping the long end, which he slipped over the rough end of the log as an improvised skidding cone. Then he affixed the chain around the birch as before, passed it through a hole in the barrel’s bottom, and rigged up the come-along. “It worked like a dream the first time I tried it,” says Tamas, who, rather than lugging more logs out this summer, will be nailing down the old ones as freshly milled tongue-and-groove flooring in his cottage addition.

-Pat Lynch

Originally published in the July 2005 issue of Cottage Life magazine.

The Ultimate Root Cellar

There are root cellars and then there are root cellars. This web page covers an underground storage container made from culvert. This concept is extremely bold in every way. When it comes to underground storage, this may very well be the granddaddy of them all. I am convinced this is one of the finest underground storage ideas you will find anywhere. This page features one of these storage areas, which should help you understand their possibilities and perhaps even get you thinking about what you would like if you designed one for yourself.

Jump within page to…

• A bold new concept
• Easily and quickly constructed
• Quickly set into place
• Inexpensive for the size
• Plenty of room
• Easily adaptable as an underground shelter
• Easily hidden from view - no one even needs to know it’s there.
• Where to learn more

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A bold new concept: Whoever thought of this ranks as a genius of the simple. Basically, this underground storage area is made in a culvert that was designed for bridging creeks. Culverts are thin steel pipes that are very strong, light for their size, inexpensive when compared to other types of construction, galvanized and therefore rustproof. They come in a wide variety of sizes, from as small as one foot in diameter to 20 feet in diameter and bigger. Because of the huge size possibilities, culverts can fit into just about anyone’s underground storage needs. Our showcase structure was built into an eight foot culvert, however, many people building this type of shelter are now using ten foot culverts. Easily and quickly constructed: This photo shows the culvert as it was near the end of construction. It is made from an eight foot culvert 50 feet long. Steel plates were welded onto each end to enclose the culvert. A one foot in diameter vent tube, again made from culvert, was placed in the top of the culvert on each end (not shown). The culvert coming off the top side of the main culvert at one end in the photo is a four foot culvert. Before the shelter was set into place, the culvert was rotated down so the small attached culvert was on the side of the main culvert. Then a length of four foot diameter culvert was welded on which became the entrance way. Before it was set into place, the entire outside surface, especially the welded portions, were sprayed with tar to prevent rusting. The floor inside the culvert was constructed from 2X4s and 1 inch plywood. This was placed in the culvert at the five foot wide point, being about 10 inches above the bottom of the culvert. With the floor at this point, there is slightly over seven feet of head room when standing. Next came the door on the front of the entrance way. Our featured shelter has a small six by six foot porch built around the culvert entrance which has a wooden door to the outside. There is also a second inner door constructed from steel, enclosing the four foot diameter entrance culvert. All that remains to be done is to put in the walls and shelves.Quickly set into place: The hole for this shelter was dug in one day. The shelter was brought in and set into place with the vents and entrance pipe welded into place the next day, then it was buried the third day.Inexpensive for the size: The owner of our featured shelter spent $5,000 in 1990 on all aspects of constructing and burying this shelter. (It would cost about $10K now (1998) with the proper blast doors.) He did say that a lot of the wood for the floor and shelves was scrounged.

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Plenty of room: Our featured shelter’s 5 foot wide floor has 250 square feet of surface. Total storage area volume comes out to about 2,400 cubic feet.

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Easily adaptable as an underground shelter: Our featured shelter has a bed, dresser, small living area, library, and a large storage area.

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This photo shows the end of the shelter next to the entrance. Note the 4 foot diameter culvert coming off the left just before the bed. The entrance pipe wasn’t put on the very end of the 50 foot long culvert for a very good reason - so the bed would fit. Note also the vent pipe in the ceiling. The owner said he would cut it off close to flush with the ceiling if he had to do it over again.

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We show you the first photo again to explain the two rock towers on top of the shelter. These enclose the vents, and was done this way so kids couldn’t shoot holes through them. Your underground shelter can easily be hidden from view - no one even needs to know it’s there: With a tiny bit of forethought and planning, the vents could be easily hidden by terrain, in shrubbery, a rock garden, or in carefully placed outbuildings. The same could be done with the entrance way.Where to learn more: Sharon Packer, a nuclear engineer and the head of the Civil Defense Volunteers of Utah has written a 150 page 8 1/2 by 11 inch book called Nuclear Defence Issues. You should get one if you are contemplating building one of these shelters. This book sells for $25.00 and includes:

• National Security Affairs
• Weapons Effects
• Building the Shelter
• Post War Survival

Article Originates From Walton Feed.comMrs. Packer has a new web site. You can get the book from there.

Life On A Farm Blog

Wow what a difference just a few days makes. The chickenhouses are dang near done. The guys have been busy daylight to dark hanging curtains and installing equipment. I still have a long list of things that need to be done before the chickens come, but I’m much closer than I was. The 6000 is still a muddy mess. I can’t count the buckets of mud, muck, gravel, and trash I’ve hauled. Just as soon as the weather warms up enough so I won’t catch pneumonia I’m going to give it a bath and a good greasing. I’d hoped to use the skid steer the contractors have rented for more of the cleanup, but with all the mud I kept finding myself sitting there spinning. The concrete trucks had left some huge ruts where we had’nt put down gravel yet. One peice of equipment I’ve been glad to have around is the trackhoe the excavating crew left behind. I was hesitant to use it even though they told me to, but after waiting almost 2 weeks on them to come back to clean up and get things ready for the feed bin pads I had to get things ready. The concrete crew was due back in town around noon so I arranged for a truck and my buddy Kenny and I got the feed bin pads ready for concrete. While we were at it we got all the culverts ready to pour headwalls on. Read more here

Razor’s Blog An Adventure in Farming

We are not ready for spring. Very simply put: this is crunch time. We have seeds to order, potting soil to mix, bird netting to find, row covers to locate, and kitchen windows to clear for a landing. Of course, the prep work for the garden is great fun! A seemingly simple question like, “What sort of tomatoes do we want to plant?” sparks a passionate discussion about the mistakes we made in the garden last year, articles in Grit, Victory Gardens, salsa ingredients, and the joys of yellow tomatoes. By the time we tire of talking, we may not have even made a decision. Ahh… but it is fun to think about. Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out soon and then flood this blog with pictures of seedlings. Until then, here is some money-saving advice on starting seeds that needs no debate:

1. Pick varieties of plants/seeds that will actually succeed in your area.
2. Find a sunny spot (or use artificial light) where your new babies will not be disturbed and where the temperature stays between 65 and 70 degrees.
3. You can start seeds in all sorts of containers (yogurt cups, etc). Simply disinfect them, poke a few little holes in the bottom, and fill them with potting soil.
4. Make your own potting soil by mixing one part perlite, four parts vermiculite, and four parts peat moss.

While I’m chatting away about excitement… you just haven’t seen excitement until you’ve greeted chickens with a plate of homemade suet. Our Gabor sisters crowd the doorway to the coop (they are still cooped up because we only just got them and we want them to know that the coop is where they bed down at night once we let them free-range). The girls gracefully walk the edge of the nesting boxes like runway models and then dive for the suet. Here’s how I make my suet:

• 1 cup chunky peanut butter (could use smooth)
• 1/4 cup lard or bacon grease
• 1 cup wild game bird feed or chicken feed
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
• a few tablespoons of corn meal

Mix all the ingredients together, scoop the mixture into a container, and then freeze it until I want to give the birds a treat. I use old store-bought suet containers but you could use muffin tins lined with wax paper. Serve suet to your birds once it is nice and firm.
Read more here

Going To The Country

As it turns out, everything Amy and I plan to do has already been done by various members or our family. It also turns out that sustainable small scale agriculture and low-energy living has been done by people all over the world for a very long time.

My Dad’s Father, Harvey Jones lived for part of his childhood in the canvas tent pictured above in New Mexico. He was a shepherd. He even told stories of a beast, a “chupacabra” if you will, that from time to time would descend upon their ranch for feedings. Both sides of our families raised chickens (my father actually won awards in FFA chicken judging), other animals and produced “organic” vegetables. Our parents all grew up in rural areas. I can recall my Mom’s tales of their farm house. When they moved in it didn’t even have a bathroom. Her father went on to sell John Deer farm implements. Amy’s Grandmother still lives in the town she was born in, Praha, TX. Still in the house her and her husband lived in, on the farm that supported her family, a portion of which we will begin to use again.

We eat up all of their stories and wisdom like candy.

Who are you going to trust? We can get wisdom from people we love, or we could listen to the advice of the very companies that manufactured weaponry and explosives (which begot synthetic nitrogen fertilizers), companies that created nerve gas (which begot agricultural pesticides) and the makers of “Agent Orange” (which begot agricultural herbicides). Don’t get me started on the banks, either.

We don’t plan on being at war with our crops and animals, we plan on loving them, like our families have done for ages.
Read more here

Thane’s Neck Farm

Last night I started a batch of sourdough bread and set it by the wood stove to proof over night. So today, while at home, I punched it down and shaped it into two loaves and set them back by the fire to proof a second time. The second proof took about 3 hours and then into the oven they went. I made these loaves with 50% Organic White Whole Wheat Flour and %50 Organic AP Flour both from King Arthur Flour and they came out as a very tasty but dense loaf. The dense nature had more to do with my neglected sourdough starter then the flour I am sure. I should have fed my starter for a few more days before trying to use it. Still the loaves are very tasty, at least to the adults in the house, the kids don’t care for the flavor of sourdough yet.

For those not familiar with sourdough I have found that the Storey Country Wisdom Bulletin “Baking with Sourdough” by Sara Pitzer a wonderful resource to begin your adventure in sourdough. On the most basic level a sourdough starter is created by catching “wild” yeasts in a mixture of flour and water. These living yeasts feed on the flour and in doing so produce gases that cause a dough to rise. Like any living thing your starter must be cared for and fed regularly or risk killing it off. The more you use your starter the healthier it will become.

The chickens gave 17 eggs today. Read more here

Raising The Tribe

So it is 10:40 here in VA and we have been busy. Kids are fed (pumpkin muffins homemade with love), laundry is switched, coffee has been roasting all morning, and the fire is made. I have worked on a paper and done some work work as well. i am about to get started on the bread, and then I will stack some more wood. I also promised the kiddos some granola bars today, so those need to be ready for snack time. After the bread is set to rise and the wood is stacked, I will switch the clothes again, vacuum the house and start dinner. Tonight it will be chili with rice, I am thinking of making some cornbread as I have cornmeal just waiting to be cooked up, and we will have an apple cobbler for dessert. I love the hum of a busy house, chores getting done, kids playing, and the warmth of good food cooking. I am off to get covered in flour and to bundle up to stack the wood. I am hoping that all of the cooking and cleaning will make us warm and happy today. Read more here

The Future House

Today was the day for rotating the leaves in our chicken composter. With the aid of our feathered friends we were able to collect all of the scratched and shat upon leaves into an impressive mountain of rich compost. As we said in the last update, we’re guessing that the first string of warm weather to roll through will roast this stuff into black gold.

We thought that we may have lost a lot of mass from the months the leaves spent in the pen, but the material we gathered today was able to heap over four yard cart loads. Once it was all out, the pen looked a bit barren. I can’t wait until we plant rye in there; it should grow like crazy. In the mean time, we have about twenty bags of salvaged leaves to fill the pen at least two more times. We’ll probably post on the refill tomorrow. With the weather warming, we shouldn’t have to keep them in the pen as long as the first go around.

I must say that the cache of compost from this first haul was impressive. We have five compost bins and all of them were filled to where it was running out the front. I’m sure we’ll use it all once the garden gets going this spring. The compost we get from rounds two and three will serve as a refresher for the garden in the summer and fall. Read more here

Life At Dogfight Cove

 

II woke up early this morning, around six. It was dark and foggy, and very warm out. Sitting in the yard with the dogs for a few moments listening to the roosters crow, my birthday wind chime sounded like the bell buoy that I used to be able to hear lying in my childhood bed on the island. Such a soothing, solitary sound. An old truck chugging by out on the main road could have been a lobster boat heading out of the harbor. What lovely memories to have first thing in the morning!

It’s a school day for me, but I think they are going to bring some gravel in today to deal with the mud pit. This is something we have been wanting to do anyway so I am excited to see if it makes a difference, we’ve been dealing with this mud pit for years. Visit Dogfight Cove

Tips For Assembling A First Aid Kit

The American College of Emergency Physicians recommends including the following items in your Home First Aid Kit, all of which are available from your local pharmacy. For the kit itself, ACEP suggests choosing a container that is clean, roomy, durable, easy to carry and simple to open-for instance, a tote bag. Medicines should be stored in their proper containers and properly marked with dosage and instructions on how and when to take them.

Read more here

 

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