No winter, yet, so we’re keeping right at it. Yesterday, we got the rest of the pig pen and pig house finished, except for the flap on the door. To make it nice and cozy, we stuffed the pallets with straw, packing it down with a piece of scrap lumber. Soon, we’ll trailer the pigs down to their new home. I know they’ll like that!

Meanwhile, I’ve been tying screen around our fruit trees in the orchard to prevent damage to the trunks from voles. Voles tunnel under the snow and eat all the bark around the trunks, which kills the trees. You don’t know about it until spring, when the snow goes away and all your beautiful baby trees are dead, dead, dead. We sure don’t want that to happen! It also protects them from chewing rabbits. Even though our orchard and garden are totally fenced by 2×4-inch welded wire fencing, I’ve seen cottontails go right through it! Sorry bunnies, we need our trees. I’ll give you some scrap apples when the trees get big.

Will is taking a few hours a day to work on the bridge over the creek. It is now in place, and he’s hauled big boulders down there for rip-rap, to prevent the creek from washing the bridge out when spring break-up comes or we get hit with a big rain. Slowly, it’s becoming a real bridge; he’s got a few temporary planks on it now so he can run the four wheeler and wheelbarrow over it to dump rock on the other side. Big projects like this and the barn take quite awhile to finish but if you don’t give up and keep on working, it gets done. — Jackie

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Will is still working on the floor joists of the new barn, trying to get them all done before winter closes in. (There were more than 90 of them in all! All had to be fit into the support beams to give a flat, level base for the floorboards of the hayloft to be nailed to.)

But, our pigs are getting HUGE and their pen seems smaller every day, so we screwed up a whole bunch of free wood pallets to make a much larger pen. We just have to put a pig hutch together next to the calf barn and we’ll be ready to trailer our piggies down to their new quarters. I’ll be so glad; their old pen is getting pretty yucky with mud and the weather’s getting colder. They’ll like their new, much roomier pen better. Or at least WE will!

Our old chainsaw just got back from the shop. It had been gradually losing power and Will feared for the worst, thinking it was dying. We had saved for a new saw and when we took the old saw in, we picked up a new saw. There is scarcely a day goes by that we don’t use a chainsaw and our old one saw plenty of daily use with the 40 acres of fence posts to be cut to length and pointed, the storage barn being built, four years worth of firewood being cut, the new barn’s timber framing, the calf shed, clearing fence lines, brushing out pasture, etc. It sure didn’t owe us anything! BUT the happy news is that our good old saw wasn’t dying. It only had a carbon-plugged spark arrestor on the muffler, which choked it out. The shop bill was only $27 and we now have two running, dependable saws. We should be good to go for years and years now. It doesn’t take much to make homesteaders happy! — Jackie

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We spent another (luckily very nice) fall day down at Bill’s, helping sheet his garage addition. One of Bill’s friends, Andy Gunderson, volunteered to help and came for the day, too. So Bill, David, Will, Andy, and I set to work and got nearly all the roof sheeted on Saturday. The framing of the valleys where the new addition met the old garage took quite a bit of extra time and work, which slowed things down quite a bit. But we got past that, just as darkness fell. The rest will be easy for Bill to finish a little at a time.

Like us, he’s going to tarp the roof for winter, just as we did our house the first year, instead of going into debt for the sheet metal roofing. And the sides will also be covered with house wrap to protect the OSB. In the spring, Bill plans on using sheet metal on both the new addition and the old garage that was his — and later his and Kelly Jo’s — home for several years while they built their gorgeous log home. The new addition will also be sided on the front to match the cedar siding on the old garage and board and batten siding, cut from trees in the woods.

Bill showed Will the half-log siding that he cut from logs, which he used to enclose the gable end of the interior of his house. It looks so nice that Bill wishes he’d have done that on the outside instead of using (expensive!) milled logs from the lumberyard. It does look much nicer. Will’s now planning to cut log siding for our south-facing greenhouse/porch front, as well as the storage building. It’s great to exchange ideas with others!

I’ve been working at tucking the garden away for winter, removing all the tomato cages, stakes, row markers, and hoses. When I get finished, we’ll plow the garden to turn under the thick straw mulch, then hopefully get the manure from the indoor cow pen and goat pen hauled down to spread on it to rot over winter.

This past spring, Will scraped the horse yard, outside the horse barn, and piled the manure up in “mountains.” It composted all summer and fall, and now it’s good rich, black dirt. He’s hauling it up in dump truck loads to our very rough backyard. When it’s spread out, it’ll not only cover the tons of large rocks, but will also fill in the steep grade of the hill here and there, to make a much nicer, more fertile yard. Last week it looked like a weedy gravel pit hill. Now it’s got distinct possibilities! If winter will just hold off a few more weeks! — Jackie

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We went down another day to help out my oldest son, Bill, frame in his new garage addition. The old garage is a two-car garage he built on a heated slab, several years ago. He used one half for a workshop and lived in the other half, built into an efficiency apartment. When he started building his log home, he was a single man. Then he met Kelly Jo and later they were married. They shared that little apartment as well as the work finishing up the new house. Now the house is gorgeous, inside and out, and they are expecting their newest child in February. My, how time flies!

Sunday was a gorgeous day, unlike last Saturday when it was cold and a 40 mile wind was blowing. We had fun and worked hard, getting both gable ends framed in and extensions on the rafter tails to allow for a good 2 feet of overhang on the roof. There’s still lots to do, but it’s getting there. And Bill is not going into debt for this big addition.

When finished, he can repair smaller motor homes, travel trailers, tractors, and other things he buys, fixes up, and re-sells to make a little extra cash to supplement his job as a technician at Oak Lake RV and Campground. Bill is like us; he designates a certain profit for a chosen purchase. For instance, he bought, repaired and sold a large RV and used the profit to buy new appliances for their new home when they moved into it. No debt and they have nice things. Way to go, Bill and Kelly! — Jackie

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My oldest son, Bill, built his own fabulous log home — right from trees in the woods, over a period of about five years. We were living far away then, and couldn’t help out. But now, we’re only a hundred and some miles away and when he started work on a garage addition, we happily contributed. About a month ago, we went down and helped pour cement. That went well, although it wanted to set up way too quick, so everyone worked like crazy to get a decent finish on it.

Bill’s been busy since, building a short block wall, framing and sheeting the three sides. He set yesterday for “the” day of raising the pre-bought trusses. Slowly, over the last four years, he’s been accumulating material for the large addition: the trusses, on-sale OSB, rough sawn lumber, etc. Finally, he was ready and had cash enough to pour the concrete and get the addition up!

So early Saturday, Will and I drove down to help set the trusses. David had gone down the day before and is staying today to give extra help. Darn if the wind didn’t blow like sin! Thirty some mile an hour gusts hit us as we fought to get the trusses in place and nailed down. AND braced! Luckily, Bill has a Bobcat and borrowed a large boom from the place where he works. That simplified things and made it a whole lot safer than horsing those heavy trusses into place manually. It took awhile, but pretty soon we developed a strategy.

We were one truss short, so it took quite a while to build another, but Bill’s father-in-law, uncle-in-law, and Will went back and forth from that project to measuring and setting the rafters for the back of the addition and finally it all got done. (The back of the addition is a big open bay so Bill can pull an engine or run a motor home or trailer in to work on it. So it needed an open ceiling and rafters, rather than trusses.)

We worked hard, had fun, and ate plenty of good food made by Bill’s wife, Kelly. It was after dark when we finally had to quit, but the rafters and all but two of the trusses were up. Bill and David will be doing that today, as well as starting to sheet the roof with OSB.

All in all, I’d say our garage raising was a great success. Check out the smile on Bill’s face! Nobody got hurt, nothing was broken, and the job got done quickly. — Jackie

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It seems like Will’s been busy all summer peeling logs. That’s because he has! Any structures built from scratch (as in logs) DO take a long time, not just because of the intricate fitting, but also the basic peeling that is needed so your logs won’t become hiding and dwelling places for damaging insects such as carpenter ants and borers. No, we won’t have the barn done for this winter. But it’s coming along steadily and hasn’t cost us much, so far. In fact, the biggest expense has been the log screws and lag bolts. So, as before, we just keep plugging away. As long as we make some progress every day, we’re satisfied.

Meanwhile, I’ve been finishing up the fall canning. All of the tomatoes are finished. I did my last batch of pizza sauce yesterday, as well as a big batch of sweet red peppers. I’m nearing the last of my peppers too, and today I’ll finish them off by making sweet/hot red pepper jelly with the last of our sweet peppers and jalapeños. That’ll be so tasty! And pretty too, as the red peppers shine like jewels in the jars. The jelly will too, without added food coloring.

I’ve been making cheeses right along and yesterday I made a nice quick mozzarella and soft white cheese that’s a dynamite exchange for store-bought cream cheese. And I’ve been making butter about twice a week. Boy, is that better than store butter! (I do cheat and use a hand mixer to whip the cream, then dump it in my hand cranked butter churn to save time and my poor wrists.) It’s just so great to have all those dairy products from our own milk! And I know how sanitary I am with my milking and milk care. At every meal Will says, “Did you kiss that cow today?” — Jackie

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After spending a couple of weeks on the new calf stable, we moved the weaned calves in yesterday. I bedded down the 12′x20′ building with straw and the calves followed Will and David, who were luring them with bottles while I brought up the rear. The move went smoothly and now the calves are happily grazing on the clover that’s in the training ring and munching on the big round bale in the center. They have plenty of room and a nice new house with a view of our woods, horse pasture, and new barn. How good is that? Will’s tired, but we are so happy with our new structure. I’m hoping to get a couple of gallons of barn paint Friday to seal the sides. The paint makes the OSB last so much longer. One day we’ll put home-sawn siding over the OSB, but that’s down the road a few dozen projects!

Today I canned some Amish coleslaw, ham (from an on-sale, $1 a pound ham), and several quarts of boiled dinner (ham, ham broth, carrots, potatoes, onions, and cabbage). Boy does the house smell great! I’m getting hungry. I sure want to get a couple more of those hams. I got a good yield from the one I did today, making it well worth the $7 I spent. Besides the 4 quarts of boiled dinner, I canned five pints and four half pints of ham dices in broth, plus one quart of plain ham broth to use in bean soup. That’s 14 meals for $7. Not bad. — Jackie

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Because of the terrific results from our 12-foot hoop house, for the very first time I’ve been able to can up lots and lots of sweet red peppers. We’re so tickled! I’ll use them in stir-fries, sweet and sour dishes, on pizzas, and in tons of other recipes. The color stays so very red and they have NO chemicals or preservatives. They look like bright jewels up on the pantry shelves…and I have another big batch to can up tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Will is finishing up sawing and framing up the lumber for our calf stable. Today it poured rain, a cold fall rain, so we went to town and bought 22 sheets of OSB to enclose the little building. We’d hoped to use sheet metal on the roof but the cash wasn’t available, so we’re using OSB with a tarp on it, instead, for over winter. Then we’ll add the sheet metal roofing. (I remember using tarps on the roof of our HOUSE the first winter for the very same reason!)

Tomorrow, in addition to the peppers, I’ll be sieving tomatoes with my Victorio strainer to make the first big batch of Smoked Honey Barbecue sauce. I think I’ll do Chipotle next. Yumm.

And so many people ask me what the heck I could possibly do with all those tomatoes! — Jackie

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