Scott's secret woodshed project

Scott has been wanting a woodshed.  I thought the project could wait, so he built it in the shop one day while I was distracted by baby pigs.  It was a great use of the last bits and bobs of scrap metal now that all our serious projects are done.  Much of the structural steel had to be spliced from two- and three foot pieces, but it is certainly adequate for the job of keeping our wood dry without storing it underfoot in the metal shop. 

At 11 and a half feet wide the trick was to get it out of a 12 foot door.  Not to fear- grasshopper to the rescue!  Scott rigged the building to the frame of the grasshopper like a turtle and inched it out the door,

through the yard, up the hill, and

into place.  He poured concrete around the footings and loaded in our wood before nightfall and the next day it rained.  Way to go Scott!

Solar oven confessions

Now I remember why the solar oven lives in the attic.  We fired up the house oven after all to finish baking our brownies.  I think to give solar cooking a real chance I need to restrict my experiments to between 11am and 3pm (daylight savings time which is 10am-2pm solar time).  If I have successes in the future you'll hear them here.  Failures may or may not be reported...

Heat-wave baking

Katherine wanted to make brownies today, but we are in the middle of a two or three week heat wave with temperatures over 100.  We're finicky about using the indoor oven even in an average summer, so it was time to retrieve this little box from the attic.  The is my much-upgraded second solar oven.  (The first was cardboard.)  This one was meant to be built from plywood, but about that time I met Scott (and his sheet-metal leaf-brake) and the rest is history...

Grasshopper uses

Scott put a larger engine in the Grasshopper since we are finding it to be so useful.  He'll be finishing up the man-lift (Karen lift) basket soon so I can paint the eave trim on the house, but for lower heights sitting on the forks works, too!  Here is the family out placing the purple martin house on the newly repaired post.  Birds moved in that very afternoon.

Grasshopper

I usually praise Scott as my farm genius when he's reading over my shoulder, but just so you know, I'm not so far off...  This little beauty, that we've been calling the Grasshopper, is a conglomeration of used parts and junkyard steel reconfigured as the ultimate handy farm machine.  It will lift 28 feet (enough to paint the house), fit any standard skid-steer attachment (bucket, forks, grapple, etc.), and do it all without marring my grass!  With 4 wheel drive, 4 wheel steer, and low ground pressure it can get to the places on our farm that are perennially soggy.  Since it's maiden voyage in the snow a few weeks ago, we've been using it to feed hay with good results.

Trailer triage

In preparation for my big trip tomorrow, I picked up the neighbor's trailer and brought it back to Santa's workshop.  Last year I made a few ill-advised inter-state trips without reliable lights.  This time Scott is fixing me up right. 









Every farmer needs to be a mechanic and welder as well as knowing animal, soil, and forage health.  In this case Scott and I are a great team.