Two Silos Farm

Went out to do chores just as the sun was going down. I thought it looked pretty neat so ran back into the house for my camera

We did actually work on the house today. Got the rest of the wires run in the wall we built last weekend. I also cut the plastic from in front of the windows, taped the edges down and foamed around the windows.

Also had to climb up into the attic - over the old section for the phone line, and over the new section for the satellite TV coax cable. This wall has outlets for both sides, light switch, light and hardwired smoke detector on the closet side (cause that is where hubby's reloading stuff will be stored). The living room side has telephone, TV, thermostat and speaker wires. At least the light switches for this room are on the adjacent wall.

Now it's ready to put up sheetrock. We considered doing some tonight, but neither of us feel motivated so I think we'll hang up our tools and watch some TV before bed.

Cathy

It was another beautiful day. Temps just over 60F, unusual for January in South Dakota. I’d been working on the computer, and the sunshine through the windows was just too inviting. My hubby got home a bit after lunch, we each had a bowl of chilli left over from the night before, and headed out the door. Hubby armed with his .357 Marlin 1894c, me with my Olympus D-510. He didn’t take a single shot, I took a lot LOL!!!

It would be cruel to take a walk and not let Angel come with. She watched us from her kennel in the barn, hoping what ever we were up to; it would involve letting her out.

While I headed to the barn to let Angel out, hubby opened the door to the chicken coop. We have a small trap door out the north side, but there is still some snow on that side, and the chickens don’t like walking across it. So we let them out the front, they sure do enjoy the warm weather also.

We decided to take a walk past the end of our property and over to the stock pond and see if it was still frozen. Angel loves going to the pond for a swim in the summer. She’s a yellow lab, and true to her lab nature, loves water. We walked down the front tree line with Angel running back and forth, checking everything out.

We did come across Gizmo, looking for mice in the tall grass. Gizmo hunkered down, hoping Angel would not get interested in her. Angel did notice, and almost ran her over. Angel leaves the cats along for the most part, but she does think its fun to run straight at them, and if they don’t move out of the way, she’ll go right over them. If they move, she does not chase them, just goes on about her business.

After we walked past, Gizmo decided it was ok to sit up again.

We continued on to the end of the property. We have a square 40 acres, with the house pretty much in the center of the side along the road. Found evidence of a badger, but it didn’t look like he’d been there for a while. They sure can make a mess of a field, and they never stay in one place long, so they are always digging new holes.

We got to the south end of the property, and started heading to the west, along the fence line. The horses got interested, they are always curious when we’re out in the fields.

Angel kept running ahead, and then back to us. I think for every mile we walk, she runs about five.

The horses came to see what we were doing. That’s not a shadow; somebody’s been wallowing in the mud again!

We continued along the fence line, walking amid the stubble from last year’s wheat. The horses got bored, and headed back toward the shed and hay.

We continued on the southwest corner of the property. This is a view to the north. Our property goes to the tree line. Sure is flat out here . . .

The pond we were headed for is a bit farther west and south. This property is owned by our neighbor to the north. He owns the property on all four sides of ours, and use to own our place too. When his parents quit farming and moved to town, he moved into their newer house up the road. Then he sectioned off the old farmstead with 40 acres and sold it. We are the third owners since he sold it, but the first who are doing significant improvements to the place. Richard loves coming over and seeing what we are doing.

We continued along the edge of the wheat field, with Angel finding all kinds of interesting smells to check out. Much to my husband’s dismay, she never did flush any rabbits.

At the end of the wheat field is what use to be a pasture. Richard has not had cows on this property for a long time, and the fences reflect that. The first year we were here, this area was cut for hay, but the last two summers it’s been left alone. One corner had an old dump pile. We were hoping Angel would find a rabbit or two, but she just had fun checking out the junk.

This one has been here for a while . . . plate has ’62 on it.

We headed around the longer grass where it was a bit wetter, and headed off toward the pond. I took a picture looking back toward our place. You can see those two silos from a long way off.

We finally made it to the pond, but it was still quite frozen. Angel had fun running in the water along the edges, and sliding across the ice. With no possibility of a good swim, she soon lost interest and headed off into the grass again

Our mission accomplished, it was time to head back for home. With Angel leading the way, we retraced our footsteps along the fence line and back toward the homestead.

Of course, Mister Mud Bath was still real curious as to what we were up to. He spent some time trying to get his pasture mates to run with him, but they were more interested in eating or just being lazy.

We continued on past the pasture fence line, and made the final corner toward home.

Oliver was waiting for us when we got home. Typical cat . . .

I took a vacation day today. I know, not the best way to spend “vacation time”. This morning hubby worked on his truck. He took apart the steering wheel and ordered a new key lock and starter switch. On this truck, the starter switch is a couple of black plug in type things on each end with a bunch of wires running between them. Good thing we have the red truck as backup. We made a trip to the auto parts place this morning with the car, and another trip right before lunch with the truck to get some 2x4’s. Needed a few more 10’ and got more 8’ just in case. That way we didn’t have to hike out to the boat shed to get the ones stored in there.

I also worked on the layout for the living room end wall while hubby was working on his truck. After lunch, we got to work on building a wall. I thought I’d share our technique. First I lay it out on paper, and figure out what boards I will need where. I make sure we’ve got nailing edges for sheetrock on the corners, and the studs are spaced accordingly. This wall is very plain, only one opening for a door. Since this is going in the new addition, the walls were square with the floor, so we could cut all the studs the same length. It’s a real pain when putting a wall in an area where the floor and ceiling vary in distance apart.

When we put in the ceiling, we put in cats between the trusses to nail the top edge of the wall to, so we just had to locate them and mark where they were. Then we cut a board the width of the room, and nailed it to the ceiling. We’ve found its way easier to put the top plate up on the ceiling, and then build the wall and slide it in place, lining up the top of the wall with the board already attached to the ceiling.

Once that was done, we measured to get a height for the studs, allowing for a bottom and top plate. We cut the studs and plates to length. Then we line up the bottom and top plate and mark were the studs will go, using a square to keep the lines straight.

Next we lay out the top and bottom plate, and position the studs in between them. Because this wall spans the width of the room (11 feet), we made it in two pieces. We’ve learned that is much easier than trying to get a long wall knocked into place when both sides are hemmed in by walls. My hubby likes to cut his tolerances very close too, so usually have very little “wiggle” room.

Once the wall is nailed together, we lift it up and slide it under the ceiling plate. It gets nailed at the top, and then we level it and nail it at the bottom.

With that section in place, we dry fit the top and bottom plate of the second section, trimming them if they are fitting a bit too tight. This section has the doorway in it, and it’s important to construct it in the right sequence. We nail the king and jack studs to the bottom plate, then nail the header to the king studs, and then nail the jack and king studs together. Then we nail the cripples to the plate; nail the plate to the top of the header. In this case, the header is made from 2x4s with a ½” spacer in between. This is not a bearing wall, so we didn’t need a 2x6 header.

Once that is all nailed together, we attach the rest of the studs. We do the other studs last to make sure we have room to fit the nail gun in to nail through the sides of the king studs.

And then that section gets lifted and nailed into place.

And the final step is to cut out the bottom plate from the doorway. I always have to remind my hubby to NOT nail the base down in the doorway.

We may use a few more 2x4s doing it this way, but hubby and I hate toe nailing boards, and this way we don’t have to do any that way.

My hubby’s closet will be on the other side of this wall. He plans on keeping his reloading supplies in there. It’s about 4’ wide on the lower level.

We’ll be building a “floor” over the stairwell, just at the height between the windows on the wall. The small window will be in the closet, the two lower windows will be in the stair well to the basement. This will give the closet an upper level, another 4’ wide. That way we won’t have all that wasted space in the stair well.

Now we can put up more sheetrock! But it’s finally looking like a room.

Cathy

Sunday is the day we move hay for the horses. Sure is nice having large round bales, I remember having to haul small square bales twice a day.

While hubby takes care of the chickens, I feed the horses. They get one small scoop of grain, mostly so that they come up to the gate so we can check them over each day. They sure don’t need the extra feed.

Three buckets, waiting for grain. The large can has the grain; the two smaller cans have the dog and cat food.

Here they are, eagerly waiting for their treat.

And they waste no time snarfing it up either. I have to keep an eye on them, or Chase, the middle one, will sneak over and steal his sister’s grain. Bix, the bay, is the boss, so Chase knows better than to try to sneak a bit from his bucket.

After the horses were done with their grain, I put the buckets back in the barn, and headed out so I could open the gate for my hubby. Here he is, heading to get a hay bale from this year’s hay stack.

And the hay, not much but we need one bale a week, so that should be enough to get us through the winter.

Here he comes with the hay, I’d better quit taking pictures and get the gate open.

This is where he is headed. The wire gate is about half way between me and the shed. We put the hay on the south side, to give the horses a bit of shelter from the wind.

The horses know what it means when they hear the skid steer coming. Food is always something to get excited about.

Hmmm, hubby got there before the horses did!

Macy wants her share off the top, silly mare. She’s my alter ego. I use the name “macybaby” as a handle, and that is her nickname.

Now that the horses have their hay, time to head back to the house. Walked by the old hay stacks, and Angel had fun checking them out. This is where the raccoon was last weekend.

Angel checked them out real good, but no coon today.

Time for Angel to go in her kennel, she has half the big barn for her use. We put up wire down the middle to keep her on her side. The cats have the rest, but they can climb through the wire and check out Angel’s side too.

One last peak in on the chickens, they are all set for the night. Got 10 eggs again today.

This is the bug shed, right next to the chicken coop.

It’s mostly storage for yard and garden type stuff. It’s also home to Bug, the barn cat we brought from WI. She has her own cat door so she can come and go as she pleases. We put a shelf under the window and she likes to watch the world go by from her inside comfort.

That’s all the outside animals taken care of, time to head in for the night and feed the two legged family members.

Cathy