Monday, June 4, 2012

Our Stove and Bees are Here!

It's been a very busy and stressful week. Trying to get things done as a family is tricky when Dad lives away from home during the week. Yes there's skype, but it's just not the same.

Having said that though, the weekend, while also crazy busy, was lovely from many viewpoints. The weather was good on Saturday. I had a great time and learned lots at my meetings in Dartmouth and back at home Steve got the tiller running and Jordan started digging. There's now a 25 foot 'L' dug along one corner :) It means I can get my corn into the ground and maybe some peas and beans too! Hooray! First I've got to dig in some manure and give it a good raking over. Then seeding before the rain comes. Sounds like fun doesn't it?

We also were able to pick up the cookstove from Huntington Point. And that was a real adventure! We learned an important lesson...don't follow google maps directions. The first road it told us to take looked like a 2 wheel cart track into the forest so we decided to go round on paved and gravel roads instead. The second road we had trouble with was Huntington Point Rd. It goes from a gravel road to a washed out stream bed with loads of rocks and deep ruts from other unsuspecting drivers for 5km before it connects to a lovely paved road that approaches from another direction. At the bottom end of Huntington Point Rd there's a sign that says the road is not drivable, but no sign at the top end. Very frustrating. And it made us really late after driving the van and trailer along the goat track at 5 km/h. But the people we got the stove from were very gracious and even helped us load it. We had a fast and uneventful drive home (due to taking the paved road) and now Steve's now got it all inside the garage for me to clean, scrub, weld and polish. I'll leave the actual welding up to my friend Danny and maybe some braising for Steve. The enamel looks to be in good shape but some of the firebox grates and internal pieces could use some help and the top plate rim is cracked near the flue. There's a gap around the oven that I suggested we could close off with regular woodstove gasket, you know, the flexible rope kind. Still, all the parts are there, it's not nearly as rusty as we'd thought it would be, and it'll be a good project for rainy days. I'll upload pics later today, I left my phone in the van with the pics on it so I'll go get it it a while. Gardening first.

This week should see the beginning of plowing at the new place and maybe some hay cutting if the weather dries up. I'll keep you posted.

Hope your weekend was interesting. Did you do anything homestead-ish?

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