Newsletter #257 2024 May 03 Friday
A great week; bandsaw milling, chainsaw milling, Geri doing some homesteading kitchen work, and more
Primal Woods
Sawmill Services
I was out near Jackson, MI milling with Paul this week. Two full days, the first was at the Wood-Mizer. After 12 logs Paul reckoned he had enough lumber for years of projects, that amounted to almost exactly 1,000 board feet by my calculations.
Paul had perfectly leveled a foundation for the air drying stack; the longest boards were 12 feet, the last log was 4 feet long. I took this picture well before Paul and Tina were done stacking lumber.
Day two we took on a huge soft maple, that had been taken down to protect the house. I had my doubts about getting much from this log, but as it turned out we got a lot.
We started by cutting some “cookies” off of the big end, we ended up with six between 4 and 6 inches thick.
This was a very healthy tree; until we got up to where it branched out we saw nothing but perfection.
It was work, hard work, getting that branch off of the top to make ready for the chainsaw mill, but we got ‘er done. This is Paul having a go at running the Husqvarna 3120xp/Granberg Mk III chainsaw mill. We ended up with six live edge slabs, 2-1/2 inches thick, close to 42” wide and the base, and just over 9 feet long.
It was a great outing, and I have no doubt that Paul was as sore as I was after it was all over. A lot of heavy lifting was involved, and just wielding a 8.6 hp chainsaw for several hours is serious work; no gym membership required.
Homestead Rebel Farm
Layers
On Tuesday the Golden Laced Wyandotte pullets were “freed” from the dog crate into the larger confines of the Chicken Coop. All layers were then confined to the coop until this morning; this time in the coop allows the new pullets to “imprint” the coop as home.
Above is a short 14 second video of chickens doing what chickens do; scratch and peck.
Pigs
I’m just waiting to have the path to the lake behind the Farmhouse cleared tomorrow, then I’ll put in a call to Ervin, and plan for pig pickup early next week.
Oxen
I brought in five more round bales today, that brings the total for the year to 25 round bales, and something over 20,000 lbs of hay since last fall. They’ve been doing a great job of “mowing” the grass, and I wanted to give the pasture grass some additional time to grow, and to give me some time to complete the fencing.
Garden
Back to the Dandelions:
I have to admit, the Dandelion tea was quite good! Very refreshing cold, as you might imagine.
Geri’s hand at work in the Garden.
Food Preservation
We had bought a freeze dryer last year, but Geri just began experimenting with it. This first trial was freeze drying whole milk. #whodathunkit, make your own powdered milk.
I apologize for my lack of sufficient volume in my narration of the video; I’ll try not to let that happen again.
Just add 32 oz of water and you are back to whole milk! And, shelf stable for 25 years.
Farmhouse
The plan for restoring lake access from the Farmhouse is still on for tomorrow, May 4th. It should be a great morning of breaking bread, fellowship, and work! That’s what you call church.
News
No time for news this week; it’s a beautiful thing!
Books
My book for this week was Federal Husband; it was about time I must say. Did you know that the etymology of the word “federal” connects it to “covenant?” We are a long way now from that link to be sure. I’ll have more to say on Federal Husband at some point no doubt.
All the best, and may God bless you and yours,
John & Geri
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Hey, enjoy hearing a second commentator! Way to go Geri!