luvinlife offthegrid- will winter ever arrive?

[luvinlife offthegrid]

Had a great weekend. Now I have settled in to enjoy summer at home, for the most part. We got a new eureka tent, the 4-man. Love this tent. We slept out in it all weekend- all 3 of us! Squriming kid in the middle makes for groggy wake-ups, but we just make more coffee.

Had relatives over friday evening, and that was fun. Getting ready for in-laws, I noticed that half the grill wouldn't light on one side. I'd have had hubby mess with the gas grill, but he was out of town. We talked about getting a charcoal grill anyway, so I picked one up and put it together. Sweet little grill with a warming rack. Put it together in no time, and we were ready for BBQ! Cooked every meal except breakfast on the charcoal. I love summer in the woods.

Yesterday we worked on getting the boat ready for the season. It's nothing special, but it was what we could afford. It's an aluminum boat with an open bow- bench seats up front still look really nice. I swept out the leaves, how they got in there with the tarp over it, I'll never know. The ^%$#@(&* rodents ate holes in the canopy. The thing looks like swiss cheese, so we'll have to order a new one. I vacuumed and detailed the inside of the entire boat and washed and checked the PFD's for wear.

"Ok hubby, boat's all clean, let's test out the motor!" Hose was all hooked up.

No spark. New spark plug, so that's not the problem. Did the mice and chipmucnks chew any wires? Nope. Could be something with the coil, or who knows what else. I'll let him mess with it. Maybe we'll just drop it off at the marina and get it fixed while we wait on the new canopy. We spent time at the lake beach and made sand sculptures for a few hours, grabbed an icecream cone, and went home.

We let the chickens out of the run to free range a bit. Saturday they were out for about 2 hours while I did yard work. They had a good time investigating and tasting new plants. Sunday we had a scare. I was sitting in the chair taking a break from weeding, watching the chickens. 20 minutes into free range time, we hear an eagle shriek, but saw no sign of said eagle. 5 minutes later, a HUGE barred owl flew down from one of the tall trees, about 15 feet above my head and flew to the opposite side of the property. The chickens FREAKED OUT and all scrambled under trailer that we built the coop on. The didn't come out for an hour, heheh. As I was trying to round them up to go back into the run, I saw a red tailed hawk. I guess there'll be no free ranging while I'm at work.

So glad summer is here. I'll enjoy a few weeks of down time before we have to start thinking about firewood.

 

[luvinlife offthegrid]

Wow, I can't believe it's been since July 11th that I last posted here. Summer was busy. We spent a lot of time outside- in the garden, in the woods, and in the boat. Most of the time spent in the boat was me trying not to act frustrated/nervous/annoyed that it wouldn't start while we were quite a way from shore. I succeeded part of the time. Looks like we'll be taking apart the motor before season next year.

I have only lost one chicken to a predator, which is MUCH better than I thought. Had to send the rooster to camp. He hated my son even more than he hated me. I don't miss him. Neighbor down the road says he was tasty. I am already anticipating my next chick order for the spring. I want dark brown egg layers and some easter eggers.

I turned 39.

My son started first grade and is doing really well. His teacher says he might not need an aide next year. He is doing very well academically, and we're so proud of him. He also played soccer this year. He has a hard time paying attention, so they made him goalie so he only has to focus for small increments. The coach yells, "here comes the ball!" and he stops it. He's a really good goalie for a six year old.

The batteries have just been replaced. We woke up one October morning and there was no power (an oddity for us.) Hubby checked the batteries and they were bone dry. Really? Ugh. Oh, well. We needed a larger battery bank bc we increased our solar output. I set up a monthly email reminder, and a monthly honking "nuclear meltdown" sounding alarm on his phone. Apparently my monthly nagging wasn't enough. We got 2 volt cells, big industrial sized ones. 1530 amp hours, I think hubby said. We have a 24 volt system. I will have to make sure he checks them. I might start a poll with the question, "How many sets of batteries have you fried?" This makes 3 for us.



I was too busy to make applesauce this year. I am going to miss that all winter. I usually make 4 cases. *sigh*. The firewood chores have been very rewarding. I don't know why I love splitting and stacking wood, but it's such a relaxing task for me. I'd rather do that than clean the house.

I found a 25 watt heated water bowl for the chicken coop, I'm hoping it works as advertised. We'll have to hook it up to the kill-a-watt meter to see how much it's really drawing. We also installed a LED lamp for the girls in the morning. We've only had 3 hard freezes, which is unusual for us this time of year.

Things are going well here in the woods. I can't get over how warm it's been. I can't help thinking we're going to pay for this warm fall we've had.

 

[luvinlife offthegrid]

Here area few photos that sum up what's gone on since July.

Hiking in the woods

The hens started laying!

I love fall

 

[Marianne]

Wow!! Nice!

 

[bambi]

Stunning pictures !!!

 

[FarmerChick]

great pics
the antlers is hilarious!

 

[luvinlife offthegrid]

Thanks for the feedback! I would have responded in a more timely manner, but the email notification thingy didn't work.

 

[BarredBuff]

I love the pics and a nice set of chickens

 

[deb4o]

great pix, your coop is very nice,
It's great to hear your son is doing so well in school, hope he continues and that scoocer stays fun for him.

 

[luvinlife offthegrid]

Not much to report. I got my first mini egg today! Looked it up in the storey's guide and they called it a "wind egg". It was a slow day for the girls, I only got what you see below from 14 pullets. Oh well- I expected a slow-down in winter. The eggs shown are smaller than "large" store bought eggs.