Patio Building Update

Ahhhh, yes. What a day. We're still married, no one threw any tools, and cursing was kept to a bare minimum. We managed to put down exactly 21 tiles in about 5 hours, which means if we keep up the pace, we can finish in 2 more days. And that is just the pathway to the front door and does not include the patio which we will finish next Spring. I don't even want to think about the patio right now, truth be told.

The problem with the tiles: not one has a smooth surface. Some are off by a quarter to a half inch over their length. Some are convex, some are concave, all have some type of imperfection that makes them hard to place. And this is Grade A slate:


As Eric put each tile into place and shimmed them into submission, I gauged the thickness of the edge, put on my spare biceps and pulled out what I thought to be the corresponding tile from the pallet shown above. They weigh about 4o to 50 pounds each and are a bit cumbersome and hard to move and place. We then placed my best choice down, flipping it end to end and over to find its best fit. Then we lifted the tile, and smoothed or added screening as necessary. Repeat about 10 times per tile, and we're satisfied.

We used a spackling knife, a piece of wood and our "motivator", commonly known as a hammer. (Actually, it is a carver's mallet we purchased at Lee Valley, and it is one of our favorite tools.) Eric also needed to ensure that 1) his first tile was straight, and 2) the level was correct. All of this was what the Québecois colloquially refer to as "gossage", a nice all-around word that means fiddly, nit-picking, detail-oriented work.


Both of us have so much mud on the soles of our shoes, every time Eric asks me to go in the house, I cringe because I hate removing my workboots but with our mud-caked boots we don't really have the choice. I sound like a drill seargent before we work out side: measuring tape, check, level, check, Olfa knife, check...anything to avoid me from having to remove my shoes 10 times before we're organized.

At the end of the day, we managed to put down 21 tiles, or 42 square feet. By the time we had found our rythym we were getting tired, so let's hope that tomorrow we have a bit more "oomph" and can get even more done.

Once again, we were rewarded with a fabulous sunset:

Somehow, it sort of makes all the hard work worthwhile.

I almost hesitate to post the photo below since it doesn't really do any justice, but there it is anyway. The crappy steps that lead down to the slate will be done in slate too, but they will only be delivered next spring. We will have 3 steps, 16" wide and 96" long leading down to this path, and we haven't really figured out the full details, so stay tuned. When I said we were making this all up as we go along, I wasn't joking.

All told, we are happy with the result. It's nice when a project lives up to your expectations.

Patio Building Exploits

The sun is out and the weather gurus have forecast a high of 17C, or about 65F today. That means we will start to put down the slate tiles for the pathway to our front door. The slate we ordered to build our patio and walkway, as well as the roofing tiles for our new entrance (more about that later...) arrived about 2 weeks ago. We thought about storing the pallets until next Spring, but really, we'd love to get the job done before winter sets in.

The weather is lovely today, compared to yesterday where we froze our nubs off, and Eric still has 2 days off before going back to work, so we figured we might as well give at least the pathway a go.

We had built the base for the patio and walkway in September, excavating the clay to an approximated depth of 12" to 16", lining the base with a geo-textile membrane, and back-filling with 3/4" gravel. Our first mistake: we were told to use 3/4" gravel for optimal drainage, however, we should have used 0-3/4" instead. We discovered this when we added the gravel screening on top and compacted it using a compactor. Had we used o-3/4" gravel, we would have used less screening, now we have to keep our fingers crossed that the screening won't just disappear into the gravel over the next few years. Once these tiles are down, we hope they stay flat. We don't want to take them up again because the prepared surface might heave with repeated freezing and thawing cycles.

So Eric got 2 trailers of screening that we off-loaded onto tarps. This keeps things tidier and makes it easier to move using the front-loader. No scooping up chunks of grass and earth at the same time. We added about a 1" to 2" layer of screening on top of the gravel (which Eric compacted using a rented compactor below), and yours truly went mad with a rake, smoothing and straightening the surface under Eric's eagle-eye. Eric then compacted this screening, and we now have a lovely, smooth base ready for the tiles which are shrink-wrapped on the skids in the picture below.


Notice the geo-textile membrane. We are folding the edge under the tiles as we go, and we hope that the membrane will keep the compacted screening from shifting a bit. Can you tell we're just making this up as we go along? (And can you tell someone gave us the membrane, and we figured: we might as well put it to use!)

Next step is to place the tiles: they are 12" x 24" and are so heavy, I can't even take one off the pallet. They are placed in specially-made boxes on a regular pallet frame, and for the life of me, I can't even lift one out of the box. Eric is going to have a bit of fun today, I think! One bug with the tiles is that they aren't all the same thickness, there can be a variation of about 1/4" from one end of the tile to another, so I think we are going to curse a bit when we put these into place!

If I make it through today, I'll let you know how things turn out!

It's Harvest Time!

Yes, the day the dog and I long for all year is finally here! That day would be harvest day, the day the crop is finally cut and we can reclaim the full use of our field for our long walks.

While our crops are growing, I use the farm access roads around our farm to take long walks with the dog, but it's not the same thing as walking on your own land somehow. Even though I have permission to walk my dog on neighboring fields, I long for the day I can tread on our own earth at the end of the growing season. Somehow, it just feels right underneath my feet. And the dog enjoys it too, because he knows he is not allowed outside the perimeter of the property when he takes his morning walk, so he is a bit confined by the corn. He doesn't venture down the rows once they have reached a certain height.


Once again, it proved to be a great year for corn. Last year's wheat was a bumper crop, and this year corn was a perfect choice. I suppose it is like taking a gamble every spring - will this be a good year for soybeans, wheat or corn? Personally, corn is my least favorite crop, simply for it's size - this year it was well over 8 feet tall, and it becomes a bit claustrophobic in a way. There goes the vista, if you know what I mean.


The equipment used to harvest this equipment is heavy, huge and expensive. Had we not changed the drain pipe over the culvert in September, forget having this piece of machinery access our land. Literally, this combine is the width of the road - if you are in a hurry and stuck behind, you better be patient or grow wings, because you aren't going anywhere quickly. And a note to those impatient, lead-footed, disrespectful drivers: please, stay out of the country if you want to go any where quickly during harvest time. There is nothing more annoying than operating a piece of farming equipment with a seething driver tail-gating. Have a bit of respect and back off. (End of rant!)


Not every farm owns a combine, so there are only a handful in the area. This particular combine runs about 18 hours a day during harvest time, and one can hear its constant drone for days on end. It takes about 45 minutes to fill the trailers with corn, and from here they are taken to the silo for drying. The moisture is was about 25% at harvest, and needs to be dried to about 15% for storage.


Once again, Cooper is in his element, running up and down the rows of cut corn. There are so many exciting smells for him to discover, while I walk in a straight line, he is running up and down and zig-zagging all over the place. His excitement is palpable. From time to time, we can see a hawk eyeing prey below, even they fly low along the rows in the hopes of finding a mouse or mole in the freshly cut corn.

As I make my way up the rows and back towards the house, I say a quiet thanks for the people who make it happen. We are mere observers, however, the people who work long hours plowing, planting and harvesting are the real heroes in my books. My hat goes off to you.

The (In)famous Noro Striped Scarf

I know, I know, this scarf has been blogged to death, but I was so happy with the result that I have to share:


I used 5 skeins of Kureyon in total and cast on 45 stitches on a 4.5 mm needle, knitting in a K1, P1 rib. I started with colours 178 and 185 and alternated these every 2 rows, carrying the yarn up the side. I knitted a selvage stitch by knitting the first stitch into the back of the loop, and slipped the last stitch with the yarn in front. When my first two balls of Kureyon were finished I decided the scarf would not be long enough (I casted on more stitches than the pattern asked for), so I decided to raid my stash and use one ball of colourway 146, from which I wound 2 balls, so I was knitting with the start and end of the ball alternatingly, does that make any sense? This way, I still ended up with a variation, despite using the same ball. When colour 146 was finished, I went back to my regularly scheduled programming using colour 178 and 185 again. All said and done, the scarf measures 7" by 80", just the right size in my opinion.

This was a quick and easy knitting project, perfect in it's mind-numbing repetitiveness, yet intriguing enough because I couldn't wait to see what effect the two colours would end up making. Highly recommended and the perfect project for beginning knitters.

Cedars!

One of the most "instantly" satisfying jobs we did this fall was plant a cedar hedge that runs along the side of our driveway. We had a mixed bag of trees here, and none of them did a good job as a wind break, and they would never grow so full as to hide our neighbour and give us privacy. We cut down the existing trees, not without regrets, because cutting down mature trees goes against my philosophy, but really, we were dealing with a bad mix of trees. Some were sick and some were damaged because they were too wide for the farm equipment that goes by to plant or harvest. Eric hauled off at least three hay-trailers worth of branches which our municipality shreds for wood chips, and we dug up endless roots until we were satisfied with our base.

We found our trees at a local cedar farm. This plantation is almost exclusively devoted to cedars, and we were impressed with their quality and price. I put my vote down for 4 foot trees as a money saving option, Eric put his vote in for 5 foot trees, and in the end, the owner of the tree farm dug up 6 foot trees, so we ended up with an "insta-hedge" that will cover the fence completely by next year. We planted them just under the suggested cut-off for our area. We are in a zone 5 planting area, and we had about a 2 week window in which to get them into the ground with the hopes they will establish properly before heavy frost and winter hits. This way, we can expect one foot of growth next season, as opposed to 6" had we planted them in the spring.

We visited the farm on a Thursday afternoon, and by Friday evening, we had our trees delivered. We spent the entire weekend cutting trees and digging up roots, and Eric got the enviable task of humping the trees into place. Even with a front loader to carry the trees, and a back-hoe to dig the hole, some lucky bugger needs to place the trees into said hole. Eric won by default - I couldn't even move one tree on my own. Not only was the root ball huge, it was heavy and cumbersome. We ate a lot of dirt that weekend. I was the lucky soul who got to kneel down beside the hole and pull the burlap wrapping off the root-ball while Eric lifted the trees.


Somehow we always end up with the Peanut Gallery looking on: Cooper is always the foreman, nothing gets done without him diligently watching, and Howard and Bobcat are never far behind either. Howard made himself comfortable on the burlap the roots were wrapped in. Every so often, he would pounce after a leaf, or dig his claws into a corner of the burlap, his back legs pedalling furiously against some invisible predator. Howard is still young and has tendencies, like all young cats do, to fits of hysterical play-time.

All said and done, we are glad that the eye-sore that was our hedge is no longer, and that we can look forward to a full green hedge by next summer.

The Culvert

The Culvert - it sounds somewhat like the title to a horror movie, however, it was just another chapter in our life at Muddy Acres. The old culvert over which we need to drive to gain entrance to our property was a bit under-sized, considering the farm equipment that needs to gain access to our fields. We had been meaning to up-grade this detail for quite some time, and this September we had our opportunity.

















First we needed to remove the old drain pipe. This task proved quite easy, given Eric's ability with the back-hoe. I was the unlucky soul who got to stand knee-deep in the mud. We were left with an open ditch, not quite a comforting thought, since we had no access to our driveway and needed to park our cars at our neighbour's place.

This is what things looked like at the end of the first day:

















Thankfully, the sun was shining just like the forecast said it would, and we were able to place in the new, larger drain pipe. At some point, Eric was digging, asking me, "How much deeper do I have to go?", at which point I got very worried, mainly because I had no clue! I thought he had this figured out! Our measuring method wasn't very sophisticated, but it worked. We just took a long piece of wood and marked it with our desired depth, and yours truly, donning her best pair of rubber boots (a country girl can't own too many pairs of rubber boots!) waded into the muck and gauged the depth. ("Yes, dear, the mud is wallowing in over the top of my boots. I think you can stop digging now!")

We were precise, too, because when the new pipe was lowered in, we had a good fit with nice drainage.






















We lined the base with some geo-textile membrane, probably over-kill, but we had some left over from our patio-building exploits, and lowered the pipe into the ground using chains and the back-hoe. We had 2 sections of pipe, since we couldn't get one the full length, so we had to make a join using a huge gasket specially made for the pipe. The gasket is made of hard plastic and joins at the top with 2 huge ties. It is ridged and lines up with 2 sections of ridges on either side of each piece, and it was a bit of a challenge to line everything up properly, but we managed without too many obsceneties. I had my doubts about the solidity of the gasket, but it was a seamless join and everything fitted together perfectly. Once the join was made, Eric was able to back-fill with the earth he excavated, and the ending of yet another project was celebrated. (And once again, when people asked how we spent the weekend, we just look at each other and grin: you had to be there to understand).

Granola People

I whole-heartedly accept the title of Granola Person. Along with the distinction comes an obligation to offer up a great bowl of granola, homemade, of course. My mother's been making granola since the dawn of time, so the concept is not new to me. However, when people come into the house and comment on the smell of freshly baked granola with the remark, "I didn't know you could make your own granola", this is the recipe I send them home with.

Naturally, feel free to experiment, it's only granola, after all. The ingredients are inexpensive, the end result totally satisfying, so you really have no good reason not to try this versatile breakfast staple.

In fact I dare you to leave it alone while it cools. I can always be found with a spoon in my hand, hoovering it up right from the cookie sheet while it cools, it's that good.

Granola

8 cups regular rolled oats (not quick or instant oats, but the real kind)
1½ cups firmly packed brown sugar
1½ cups wheat germ
½ cup sesame, sunflower or other seeds
½ cup coconut, or nuts, or both
½ cup wheat bran
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup honey
2 teaspoons vanilla

Raisins and other chopped or dried fruits such as cranberries and apricots

Preheat oven to 325° F.

In a large bowl add all dry ingredients except raisins and dried fruits. Stir to blend.

In a saucepan, heat oil, honey and vanilla until bubbling. Pour over dry ingredients in bowl, and mix thoroughly.




Divide this mixture evenly between two lightly greased 10" x 15" rimmed baking sheets.

Bake about 20 minutes or until coconut is lightly browned.

Remove from oven and stir several times during cooling to prevent sticking.

When cool, add raisins or other dried fruits.

Store in an airtight container.

Yield: about 16 cups