Newsletter #308 2025 May 20 Tuesday
A day late, and a dollar short ... that's part of the story. And a lot of changes in the past week and a day, including the arrival of Timothy, our 3rd intern from Hillsdale College.
Primal Woods
A big storm rolled through this past Thursday night, pushing over an old Maple, onto and across 46th Ave.
I spent about 2-1/2 hours Friday limbing the monster, so what traffic there is could get by; the main trunk still extended across half the width of the road. It stayed that way until Monday, when Timothy and I went to work getting as much firewood as we could.
Other trees came down, two in sight from the driveway; by the look of the root balls both had been standing dead. No doubt there are more to the west of the house, and at least a couple came down in the Oxen pasture. Timothy and I have our work cut out for us, and the firewood supply is literally on the ground all around. Ten cords is our target, and I have no doubt we will get it done.
As a result of this storm we were without power for 40 hours; because of the solar system's performance the only way we knew was by a notification Geri recieved on her phone from the power company. Resilience in the face of damaged systems small and large, that is what Being Prepared is all about. Geri was favorably impressed, which is gratifying.
Besides all that, it was a big week, which included a lot of work on our house in preparation for Timothy’s arrival; the pullets made the move to the coop; the coop was breached by a coon or possum; and too much more to remember!
Sawmill Services
It was all about the Solar Kilns this week, and looking in on the first loads for Rob.
You can read the legend, but the bottom line is the dashed-line; that is the 3-day moving average of the Equilibrium Moisture Content (EMC), we want that between 6 and 8% for “kiln dried.” You can see that we are just at the top of that range in Kiln 1.
Ditto in Kiln 2, though we have not quite touch 8% just yet.
In the chart above you see the ambient temperature in blue, and below in yellow/orange you can see the “delta-T,” temperature difference, inside the kilns (K1 and K2) versus outside. The max delta-T to be expected of a solar kiln is +50︒F; I’m satisfied with the almost +40︒F we are seeing at this time of year. This week we will be ready to put another load either on an air drying stack, or into one of the kilns, if available.
On top of that, we do have one on-site milling job to be done yet this week, and a bigger job off-site, near Stevensville as I recall.
Homestead Rebel
Animals
The Pigs and Oxen are doing doing what they do, rooting and grazing, otherwise known as eating. Nothing to report, other than that all is well; we have rains today and tomorrow, but we plan to move the Oxen Thursday at the latest.
Layers
We had a possum, or more likely a ‘coon, get into the coop and kill three layers this week. The penalty for killing food animals is death by a firing squad of one, that’d be me. So. One trapped possum (pictured) and one coon are no longer with us; the layers are again secure, though the window screen is still in need of repair.
The ‘coon, I’m guessing, came down off the roof, tore through the screen, and made his way through an open window; the windows have since been shut.
The pullets today were moved from the crate (upper left) and into the general population of layers; no issues with the older birds, which is the plan. Probably Friday, the birds will be let loose to free range, which is the norm, and their preference.
News and Notes
Time being in short supply, I’ve posted just one Note, and consumed almost zero “news,” or what passes for news these days. This infographic however, caught my attention; it’s worth a click.
Books & Such
Ike’s Bluff: President Eisenhower’s Secret Battle to Save the World. Still in this one, and making good progress, now the end is in sight.
And I started and finished an Audible book this week; something I can do while spending a lot of time on the tractor and in the truck: The Roots of the Federal Reserve: Tracing the Nephilim from Noah to the US Dollar. Of course I took the red pill (see the movie, The Matrix) over a decade ago, and I have traveled pretty far down the rabbit hole; had I not I probably could not have found this book believable. But from where I am now sitting, anything seems possible. Regardless of its roots however, the Federal Reserve system is evil and needs to be obliterated.
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All the best, and may God bless you and yours,
John & Geri
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We are so blessed to have Timothy with us for the summer. This is all God in our life