Merry Christmas from Murmur Creek Farm!

Christmas Tree

 Thank you Bob and Cheri for another beautiful Christmas tree, and a good time of catching-up, and yummy Christmas goodies.

Last Sunday we went as a family to find a Christmas tree. After searching high and low we all agreed on a tree, and worked together to cut it down. Micaiah and I pulled it back to the truck, and after a nice time with the Kelly's we returned home to set it up.

Our thoughtful dog Asher contemplating how life will be when the goats and chickens arrive...

...or just wondering why I'm putting glasses on him

Mic & Sam unloading hay into the barn! 

(Jessie also helped, but took a break to take these photos)

 The first hay bale!! 

Feels good having hay in the barn.

 We needed enough hay to build forts... (and feed goats)

A New Experience

A new experience from a few days back:  After a good day of working together as a family installing new fence posts (future pasture for goats), I got the excavator quite stuck in the mud.  

The stuck part wasn’t the new experience (I’ve managed that a few times).  The new experience came after getting out of the mud (for which I am very thankful).  I was driving out of the mud when my track came off.  I managed to limp the excavator along using the scoop, remaining track, and blade.  I got it to a slightly less muddy area.  Jessie and Micaiah helped me clean all the mud out of all the crevices and track, then we let it sit for the night.  The next day I put the track back on.

After watching a video on YouTube on how to replace a rubber track, I learned that it can be done in about 1/2 hour with the right tools, help, and knowledge.  Well I didn’t really know what I was doing, didn’t have any help, and according to the video one of the right tools was a forklift!  The tracks are actually surprisingly heavy, I can hardly move one across the ground even going little by little.  I don’t know what my time was to completion, but I managed to get the track back on and spinning around perfect again.  Now at least I know what I’m doing for next time.  Now if I just had a forklift....

-Ken

Cleaning / More Progress

Today we moved everything out of our living room so we could clean the carpet. It was a big job, and now our guest room and dining room are full of stuff! 

Also on Saturday we did some outdoor work...

We (my family) put up some fence posts for the pasture. 

Here Micaiah is filling in the dirt around a post.

Here is a picture of a line of fence posts on the farthest side of the pasture from the barn and house.

                                      

Here you can get a perspective of how big the pasture is the farthest side from the barn.

I took this picture when we were walking to lunch after a good mornings work.

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These pictures are of all the doors my dad built for the barn, only one door left to build but they all need some finishing touches! 

This one is very temporary and will probably be replaced at some point!

This is the left front door ...

In this picture you can see the latch on the inside.

This is a sliding door to the basement of the barn where the animals will come out of  into the pasture.

This is the people door to the basement of the barn. 

The Old Steiner Mill

The Old Steiner Mill

The above photo is what is left of the old Steiner Mill on the North West end of of our property (sometime during the summer).  Over the years we've managed to salvage some lumber out of it and a few other interesting objects.  We finally decided it was time to clean up what was left of the mess, so the Croghan Fire Department was contacted and they were willing to do a controlled burn.  We planned to do this during the summer, but then a Fire Ban came into effect over all of NY State.

The Fire Ban ended and the controlled burn was scheduled for October 11th at 6:30PM.

Then a UFO landed in our woods....

Actually the Fire Department showed up with all sorts of lights, trucks, ATVs and a crew of people ready for the job of keeping the burn safe.  We had our grill ready and a load of hot-dogs, cupcakes, and soda for everyone to eat once the fire was underway.

The crew of firemen tried and tried to start the very wet wood. And below the audience of friends and neighbors watched with anticipation of the big burn.

 Then just as I was about to throw the hotdogs on the grill, the firemen decided to put out what they started because it just wasn't really getting started.  So they sprayed the smoldering wet wood and packed up.  Our friends stayed around to visit and have some hotdogs and yummies together.  And eventually it was time for story time and bed for our boys and bed.  I went up to change into some cleaner clothes to read stories and looked out our bedroom window only to discover the Mill was burning!  Back downstairs and a few phone calls later, the fire was growing.  The chief and two helpers came over, drained on truck and hooked up to a tanker (I believe around 2,800gal), and tried to put the fire out.  But now the fire was rather determined.  When the crew was here it didn't want to start, now it didn't want to stop.  Eventually I even had my excavator down there pulling out smuldering wood and spreading it out so they could get water on it better, and get water down deeper into the pile.  Below are a few photos of the fire that wasn't suppose to be.

I think it was around 10:30PM when I finally came inside and the firemen went home.  Rosetta and I stayed up late to keep watch (or watch White Collar, after discussing the vise-presidential debate).  We set an alarm to wake us during the night so we could check on the mill.

Morning came and all was good.  Then the kids went to school, Rosetta to work, and I went off to work on an MDS project.  I came home around 2pm and ate my lunch and was about to head out again when I noticed smoke billowing up from the Mill again.

The fire chief and I met back there, and I ran my garden hose there, and brought the excavtor back to the job.  With some more work we had it all soaked and out.

The good part of all of this (other than the excitement), I managed to find a few more things buried in the Mill I didn't even know were in there.  Some wooden wheels, and even the saw for the Mill.  It was buried so deep and so well I wasn't able to get to it until now.  

Well thats the Old Steiner Mill excitement for now....

-Ken

Fall

It's fall! 

This is the crazy time of year when we are hurry hurry hurrying to try to get everything done before winter, but it is (at least I think) the most beautiful time also!

p.s. I took this picture

Three sides of the barn are complete with siding now, it is so exciting!!

It is kind of hard to see the back side of the barn in this picture but it is done!

This is the only side that isn't complete!

Here my dad is working on the back side of the barn... this is before it was finished.

Thank you Bruce W. and Scott for all the help that you have gave towards the barn!

I don't think I have posted a picture of the new steps that my dad built so here they are!

Harvesting the Honey!

Tuesday we started  the process of harvesting honey from our bees. The first step was to bring the honey super into the garage. Then my dad uncapped the honey with a special knife. 

When my dad had uncapped 4 frames we put them in the extractor and started spinning it...

This is capped honey comb and below is uncapped comb.

 The first few drops are coming out! Yes!!!

The process of straining and jarring took more than a whole day to complete but it was worth it. 

 Here Samuel is trying some of the honey comb (it is a mixture of actual comb and some honey).

Here is our finishing product! We ended up with about 35-40 pounds ( which is a little over 3 gallons)! 

This was the first year for our bees and we only collected from the stronger colony.

Hopefully they can survive the winter and next year will be even better.

Thanks bees for you yummy work!!!!