Larsen Poultry Ranch - homesteading journey

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Took Liberty in for an x-ray to see if she was actually pregnant and she didn't have any puppies. It's kinda what I thought, as she didn't look pregnant at all to me.

We gave her a bath before she went in and now she smells good instead of gross. Plus her fur is soft again. Had to cut out a chunk of her ear hair as she gave herself a big mat, now her ears look odd because one is fuller than the other.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Hubby rented a stump grinder and has been grinding away all day. The oak stumps went quickly even though they were over a foot in diameter, but the huge pine stumps took a very long time. The outside was rotting away but the middle was still full of sap and difficult to grind despite being cut for probably close to a decade.

The machine came with a full tank of gas, I put 4 gallons in the spare gas can, and he went through all of that. We just went and got another 8-10 gallons in the two spare gas cans, hopefully he can finish the last of the stumps and not have to buy more. I think it was worth the amount, it certainly cost less to rent this machine than the quote we got for two hours to have a stump grinder guy come over. I think his machine was bigger though, so might have gone through the stumps faster.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

I always forget the "before" pictures, so here's an "in progress" one.

You can kinda see the chip pile from the biggest stump in between the left and middle tree trunks.

 

[farmerjan]

Gonna cost me about $500 to get the guy here to stump grind the boxwood stumps in the back and the big old stump in front of the maple tree... But I am not up to it with these knees.... and I asked to leave the chip/sawdust piles too. Going to get on his list, just haven't had the time, and with paying for the house cleaning, it will be another couple weeks to have the extra cash to do it....
Then see about getting the friend to look at and get the plans in the works for the base to set the outdoor wood furnace on....I want it where the boxwoods were behind the house.....he said that one thing he wished he had done, was put it on a concrete pad rather than stone base... so that is what I am going to do... get the pipes and all trenched in... shouldn't need it much before late Nov or Dec... but want to get all the preliminary work done, before I go get the knees done... Another reason to not give up testing yet....

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

The estimate we got for two hours was $200/hour. The unit hubby rented was $325 ish for 24 hours, but you have to bring it back clean and full tank of gas or they charge you fees. I think it was worth it, he took maybe 4 hours with a break to do the big pine stump. The oak stumps maybe 10+ minutes each. Some almost seemed more time moving the machine over and positioning it than grinding.

It'll be worth it to get the guy out to grind that for you, unless you can get your DS's girlfriend to sweet talk him into renting a stump grinder and doing it for you. The unit hubby used has like a little joystick controller on the back and you just walk behind it. It didn't buck him around like the trencher did cause that one had a step on the back you were supposed to stand on.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Hubby ripped up the carpet in the den a few days ago, and we discovered someone cut through the particleboard. Can't quite tell why, but we are assuming they were cutting something else on top of it and didn't bother to change the height/depth of the blade. Picture with cat to show scale, lol. Hubby is going to have to rip out a large section where the cuts are and replace with OSB.

Plus, at the far end of the hallway, where the two edges of the different sections come together, they are off by almost an inch in height.

The cat in the picture is Abby, who is generally the scaredey cat. She does run from the dogs, but she can leap the 3' tall play pen while the other cat, Penny, refuses to try to jump, even when the dogs attempt to chase.

 

[Bruce]

So they just put a carpet down on top of the sliced up subfloor? You bought from idiots. Oh wait, you already knew that.

I HOPE that the person charging $200/hour for stump grinding has a tractor 3 point grinder that can eat stumps fast.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

So they just put a carpet down on top of the sliced up subfloor? You bought from idiots. Oh wait, you already knew that.

I HOPE that the person charging $200/hour for stump grinding has a tractor 3 point grinder that can eat stumps fast.

Yup, just the carpet and pad on top of the sliced up mess. The deep cut right next to the cat's front paws is supported on one side but on the other; if you step close to the cut the floor goes down a good inch or so, enough you could slide your toes into the gap if you were silly enough. You can see where they had to install additional backing near the triangle looking cut, I think because that piece came out. These people were definitely morons.

It sounded like the guy had a huge monster of a machine, and he was confident he could get through the pine stumps and most of the oaks stumps within two hours. Sounded like his machine was brand new.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Garden was rearranged in the last week or so. Found a bunch of plants who need bigger pots, and several of the figs are growing through their pots. I wish the orchard was more finalized so I could get them in the ground even though I know it would be better to wait until fall. They seem to be trying to plant themselves though. Spotted several lizards but no snakes while garden was rearranged. Still may rearrange a few more to make more aisle ways.

I actually have TWO cayenne peppers! Can I dehydrate them to make cayenne powder? I'll probably get less than a teaspoon off of these two peppers..

My brother gave me strawberries, two are cloning themselves. I might actually get a strawberry this year!

This is the avocado I'm trying to air layer. It has two trunks which grew from one avocado pit. There's an air layering thread on SS that has more details if anyone is interested.

Little baby avocado, this seed sat outside in the pot since last summer. I kept watering it and less than a month ago it decided it was time to grow. The small pot is a thyme that kept getting lost or not watered enough, so it got a booster seat to get more sunshine and water. Seems to be working well.

 

[Margali]

Set up a box fan, going to add a second one tonight if I can get another power cord. Dunno if I should try to make an impromptu swamp cooler with the fan or just leave as is. I can buy a swamp cooler pad for less than $10, but would have to figure out a way to keep water running onto it. Maybe PVC with holes attached to a 5 gallon bucket with a float to refill as it empties?

I know I'm a month behind but here's our cooler for our RV. Technically a fin fan / radiator not a swamp cooler.
Pump $10
Copper coil $10
MIP x compression fitting $5
Fan
Cooler/ 5gal bucket

You freeze gallon jugs of water and put them in water in cooler. The cold water circulates in tubing and cools air going across. It actually lowers humidty by condensing water vapor than increasing it like a swamp cooler.