Spring Farm Improvements

The Windbreak Birch Entry - Last year, I saw a rustic birch trellis that would look perfect as a front door to the orchard/veggie garden through the windbreak.  The trellis was almost $300 so I took photos and showed it to Mark.  He liked it and said that he could make one, free of cost, with some of the fallen birch trees in our woods.  You can see by the photos, he has finished it - he's not happy with it and will be making tweaks to it but it does create a beautifully rustic and framed front door to the garden/orchard.

 

The Greenhouse and plants - Our little greenhouse is getting a work out.  We have garden veggies plants peeking their little heads up so they will be ready to plant in the garden soon.  You can see that we had to surround the bottom of the greenhouse with hay bales to keep it warmer at night - our temps have dropped to the low 30s each night, until now.  This year, we will start blueberry bushes, strawberry plants, cherry trees, along with veggies and expand each year.

April 15th is planting day in St. Louis and it is May 1st here, so as soon as we return from our St. Louis visit, I'll be planting our garden. We've sent our soil away for testing so we will know if our garden needs additives to build up the soil.  We also are going to experiment for the first time this year by growing some of the veggies in straw bales.  As they decay over the summer, they add nutrients to the veggies.  Our neighbor will be supplying us with bales from his field.  If we succeed, we will be using our own bales next summer.  Our neighbor will be helping us bale our hay and we will be helping him bailing his in a community effort!


The Patio Project - is finished!  Here are a few photos - Mark was siding the wall and wiring the lights.  Our patio looks nicer than these photos and videos show (blame the photographer - ME). It has added nice outdoor living and eating space.  I know we will use this space daily - especially the fire pit.

Mark added lights on the ceiling and he wired it all so that we could have the wall lights, the ceiling lights, and both.  We even have room on the patio to hold the fire pit and the chairs on bad weather days.  I think I like this space mostly because it will be a space where Mark will enjoy sitting back, resting, and enjoying spring, summer, and fall evenings.  In the photo below right, he did sit with me last evening and we had the warmth of the fire, wine, s'mores, and each other's company.  The only thing better would be enjoying it with friends and family too...and you can't ask for anything better than that!

 

Pond Grass Issue - We had our local extension office look at our pond grass.  They advised us that it is Horsetail Reed (it is a native plant and common in this area), which is poisonous to many stock animals, including horses.  We are glad to know now so that we work toward eradication and fence off the pond from any animals we add to the farm.  Since it has rhizome roots and its spores can be blown in the wind, getting totally rid of it is almost impossible.  There are only two ways to kill it - either pull it out by the roots or starve it from light.  We are considering the latter idea because our pond is deep and it grows out to almost the center of the pond.  It would be very difficult to try to pull each stalk out by its roots.  I have learned that it is often used in basket weaving, so maybe I'll just learn that skill and be glad to have the free resource!

One of the two cows that belong to our neighbors, Steve and Melissa, had a calf last Monday night. Here is a photo right after he was born...still wet.  He is actually a roan bull (rusty brown), but you can't tell in this photo. Since it is a bull and not a heifer, they named him Cheeseburger! I'm not joking - that's what they will call him to remind themselves not to get attached to this little furry adorable wobbling calf.  He will grow quickly and won't be so adorable when he is ready to go to the butchers next year.  Then they will think of him appreciatively as they eat their cheeseburger! That is farm life...

Well, it's beautiful outside - 60 degrees at 10am!  It's time to get to work.  Now that these projects are finished, my next task is working to clear the inside of what we call the Cathedral (we named it this as it makes you feel as peaceful as if you were in church) while Mark works to break up the barn floor.  Life is ALWAYS fun at Cold Comfort Farm!

Enjoying Spring

I love that we have four full seasons here.  They give us something to look forward to and to celebrate when it arrives. Right now, you can almost feel mother nature cast off her white snowy blanket and inhale her spring breath. It's hard to believe that just five short weeks ago I posted a video were Mark and I hiked into the Lake Superior Park, a short 1.5 miles away, and took photos and videos of the lake iced over, where we walked on ice cliffs that were over 30 ft tall and extended about 150 yards out on the frozen lake, and that looked like the lunar surface.

 I cannot believe how quickly the snow melted and turned the lake from a very bright white to the most beautiful royal blue, the sun glinting off of its surface. In the video below you can see how the high school and college kids are drawn to the shore to enjoy the beautiful spring weather.  I bet in another week, there will be no ice at the shore at all.

 
I hope I never take this view for granted!  We are now enjoying the 40-70 degree days with lighter breezes and bright blue skies.  Everyone here is smiling and most locals are running around in tank tops, shorts, and flip flops...we're not quite that hearty yet.  Mark and I are still in long sleeves and light jackets - unless we are working in the sun. 

The climate, seasons, and remoteness here make these people who they are - the U.P. makes up 1/3 the physical size of the state of Michigan, but yet only has 3% of its population.  No big box stores - most are locally, family owned.  You can't get everything you want whenever you want.  Therefore, people here have had to become creative, self reliant, and are VERY community oriented.  Neighbors know each other here, call to check on each other, and stop by for a cup of coffee or chat.  They smile and wave when they drive by or see you in town. It reminds me of how Columbia, Illinois used to be in the mid 1960s - before it became a bedroom community for St. Louis, doubled its size, and became in a hurry ALL THE TIME.  Mark and I had been sucked into that life for years, you can't help it, you can have everything your way on your time frame.  It did take some getting used to here, but we are better off for it.  You'll see how as you continue reading this blog...

You may remember me telling you about our neighbors, Judy and Bill, that had asked for us to help them build their hoop house last summer?   Judy called me Friday and asked if I'd like to come over and dig up new strawberry runners (volunteer plants) as she had way too many and didn't want to rototill them under if I wanted them.  We visited as she helped me dig them up; she offered me other "volunteer" plants and then came home with me to assist me in figuring out where the best place would be for our new strawberry patch.  Lovely lady!

Yesterday, I volunteered at the Little Brothers of the Elderly.  We worked on crafts that would be sold at the yearly fund raising event held next weekend.  I helped paint garden rocks and sat next an elderly woman, a high school student, and a little eight year old boy.  I was amazed that young people came (some of the teens without their parents) to volunteer.  On top of it, the weather was in the 60s that afternoon so you would think that they would want to be outside.

I would NEVER have experienced this in Columbia or St. Louis - and I have been responsible at work for engaging volunteers and I would have loved this turn out. Not many would have taken time out of their busy Saturday to volunteer - you couldn't even incent them to give time.  We even had a young lady sit down at their VERY old upright piano and serenade us as we worked - no one asked her to do this - she just asked if she could play...AND she even played classical music...I felt like I was not in 2015!!  I think Mark and I will enjoy attending the fundraiser to support this worthy cause.

On the home front - with all the good weather, we've made more progress on the patio, patio and veggie gardens, and pond maintenance....but that is another posting.  Here's wishing you a wonderful spring day!

Spring at Cold Comfort Farm

It's been quite a while since I've posted.  Over the last four weeks, I've traveled to Wyandotte, MI to assist my sister-in-law after back surgery (I enjoyed my visit with her very much), had a car accident (I was not hurt but my car was), wove two scarves and started a baby blanket while I waited for the repair to be completed, and then drove over 500 miles back home through the worst fog I've ever experienced.  I had no idea that I would experience fog ALL the way through the Michigan mitten and the Upper Pensula, but I did.  It took a lot of driving concentration but I was thrilled I was driving mid week, during the daytime, and the traffic was very light, especially in the U.P.   What a trip!

While I was gone, Mark accomplished quite a bit in our barn.  He worked at least 40+ hours - hard work hours.  Below is the before photo, then a photo "in process" and the after video follows.

Notice the overhead pipes in the picture below that held the milk as it was pumped from the cow and piped into the milk house room into the chilling vats....all those needed to be removed as well.

You can see the overhead pipes are gone and some of the stanchions have been removed

Here is after he cut out the milking stanchions with a metal saw and chopped out the cement base that held them in place or filed down what was left of the stanchion sticking out of the floor to prevent trip hazards or harm to animals.  He also turned off the electricity and removed four electrical panel boxes and all the overhead wiring.  The resulting openness is amazing. 

Now he has to do the same on the upper level of the first floor of the barn.  Then he will break out the cement floor on the lower left side, remove it and the stamp sand gravel beneath it so a new floor can be poured yet this spring.  We will have the cement guy fill in all the floor trenches when he pours the floor so that Mark can build stalls for animals.

We knew that converting a milking barn to an animal barn would take a lot of work - I just wish I could assist him more with this work.  He tells me that he gets more accomplished with me not home than with me here...something to do with his laziness - does he seem to you to be a lazy man???  Has he ever been???  

While I was gone, the temps were in the 40-50s here, the snow is completely gone, and this week's predictions are 60s across the entire week.  We are now doing work on the patio, patio garden, and prepping for the veggie garden and the compost pile.  Mark is still working on the barn, just a little slower.  Hehehe

My New Imagination and Creation Station

Since we bought Cold Comfort Farm four years ago, we have not had a dish washer and I was not convinced that we needed one.  I didn't mind looking out the big kitchen window at the farm scenes and sky while doing dishes, by hand.  But I will tell you, when we became permanent residents, it not only got old, but when you cook every meal, every day, and do canning, baking and cheese making (with big pots and bowls) it took up so much of my time, I changed my mind and decided we REALLY NEEDED ONE!  I also had to wear rubber gloves during the winter to preserve my hands.

We broke down and bought a portable dish washer, which I LOVE...and a small rolling granite topped island cabinet...which has become my new imagination and creation station - see photos below:

Most of you know that I like gardening and for years have worked with herbs.  I also have collected recipes for things like lip balm, hand and body lotion, and even colognes that I'd like to try so I populated this cart with all my creative stuff!  I now can use the top for a rolling cooking and baking surface and the rest of the time I can let my imagination and creativity run away with me!!!

  The drawer holds canning and bottle labels, bottle corks, measuring and weighing equipment, funnels large and small, separate from my cooking stuff so as not to contaminate our food. Everything I need is here to continue to expand my womanly farm skills.

I will post the recipes and stuff as I create it.   Some of my creations will become gifts for you!

Barn Cleaning and Cheese Tasting

Spring has sprung in the U.P.! Most of our snow has melted (except for the huge piles from plowing snow) and our temps have been over the freezing mark for more than ten days.  We've accomplished quite a bit, indoor and outdoors, so I thought I'd share what we've accomplished.

Here is our barn in the "before picture!"

This is what the barn looked like when we purchased the property

In cleaning the barn and burning all the old straw (about 40 garden cartloads full), we discovered more damage than we thought we had, caused by what locals call "heaving."  That is when the ground moisture freezes (sometimes more than 9-11 feet below the ground), expands the soil around and under the building, and breaks the floor, walls, or both in the building.   This happens usually when a building is not heated - and there is no way to centrally heat a barn the size of ours. Our barn was heated with animals for almost 100 years but has not had animals in it for almost 15 years.  The barn heaved for the first time last winter and again this winter due to record cold temps. We have one door that will not open and one that only opens slightly.

 WELL,  We will now need to repair that damage so it can be heated with animals next winter.  The north side of the barn will need a new cement floor - at a cost we did not count on.  Mark will be breaking up the broken floor and hauling out the old cement.  A neighbor who works cement will be pouring a new floor for us in late spring.  Then Mark will be working on digging around the foundation on the end of the barn that heaved and pouring more cement support under that barn end and adding insulation to keep it from heaving again.  He has all summer to work on that project.

Here are the photos of the empty barn.  We still have a section to clear but we have to wait until the nights are above freezing as it covers our main water supply to the barn...and we think it then goes into the house, so we don't want to risk freezing or burst house pipes.

The temps have been perfect for burning all the hay - mid 40s with low winds.  Mark had to stay near the fire to rake the burning piles making sure everything burned thoroughly. Now
he has to cut out all the milking stanchions, sledge hammer the cement floor, (photo right) and haul it out.
I'll post more photos as Mark brakes up the floor.  

The photo below is the only stall that we will leave.  I think it was a holding pen for either sick or birthing cows...or maybe staging breeding bulls.  It is a sturdy stall with a great working gate, so we will keep it!

Now on to the cheese tasting!  After over two months of waiting for the cheese to age in our cheese cave, we went to dinner with the neighbors that provided the raw milk for the cheese so I bolstered my courage and took three cheese wheels.  See photos below.

The Cheddar wheel left was oiled and wrapped in cheese cloth - they call it cloth banded cheese.  It was the best of the Cheddars.  The second Cheddar was too sharp - it tasted like it aged a little too long or the mold that we cut off made the cheese sharper.  I now know which Cheddar I will make in the future.

 


The Colby was also waxed and, to my surprise, it tasted just like Colby cheese.  I know this sounds funny to all of you - but let me tell you - when you try something new like making cheese, you expect to fail.  I actually thought I'd be embarrassed and have to throw them all away and try again.

Here is what I've learned about cheese making.  If you can read instructions, buy cultures, molds and presses, you can make cheese comparable, or better, than store bought...but it does takes time and patience - you gotta wanna take the time and enjoy the experience. 

Since our neighbors cows will give birth in late April, they are not being milked at present, so I have tried to make the same Cheddar recipe with store bought homogenized whole milk and I'm now waiting to see the difference between the two.  Since I enjoy making cheese I will continue to experiment.  Next comes Feta!

As you all come for a visit, you will be able to experience a walk through our nice clean, updated barn, share our Cold Comfort Farm Cheese, and even take some home with you! Happy Spring!!!

Lake Superior's Frozen Beach Resembling the Lunar Surface

Mark and I hiked into the Houghton Canal Lake Park.  The weather was 35 degrees, sunshine, with low winds. We had to leave the car at the road head and hike in about 1/2 mile - the Township does not keep that road plowed and the Jeep would get stuck if we tried to drive in.  Last week Mark went alone and took his snow shoes, but today he wore boots and I had boots with ice cleats attached (glad to have the cleats).  Here are some of the photos and videos we took.

120 miles of frozen lake to Canada

As soon as we crested the hill, I was in awe - it resembled the lunar surface.  The lake froze off the coast about 120 feet and then thawed, broke, and the broken ice was shoved up on top of the previous ice, by the power of the lake, and then refroze. 

This continued building shelves or cliffs of ice that have to be 30 feet tall or higher...viewing from the shore side.  From the frozen lake side, they appear as giant cliffs.

Mark was able to climb to the top and down below the cliffs in order to take some of these photos. I didn't try to climb to the top, even with ice cleats.  You all know me well - I'm not as daring as Mark.

Most of the snow was white, but I was glad to see the natural darknesses from the water so that you can see the beauty in nature.

The weather is predicted to be above freezing (as high as the mid 50s) for the next week or more, so all this will start to melt...and become very slick, we're glad we hiked to the shore so we could experience these views.

Toward the breaker wall, the ice broke, froze again and again, forming ice caves with stalactites.

The wind on the lake is very strong, swirling the snow into snow devils.  You can see the results here and in the next few photos.  Much like sand in the desert - it is beautiful!

There were a few others at the beach, mostly college kids, enjoying the fine weather and views!  We were there about an hour and hiked back to the car.  

Since we are suppose to have over a week of above freezing temps, the road will get mushier, the ice will start to melt and refreeze, so we'll see what next few weeks looks like at the road head!

We may decided to drive in again to experience for ourselves what the melting looks like.  We'll keep you posted.

Happy Birthday Lauren

Today, I was thinking about the day that Lauren was born.  I always remember that year because of the REALLY cold, snowy weather we had just before she was born.  It set weather records that year.  It was VERY snowy - Mark had to hike into town in order to get groceries, leaving me very pregnant at home.  We lived on the frontage road outside Columbia and the doctor was worried that if I went into labor, I would have problems getting to the hospital.  I made it until March 3, which was the scheduled date for the C-section to bring her into this world.

Happy Birthday Lauren, here are some of my favorite photos of you growing up - please share them to Liam:

Born as a true redhead - I knew I had my hands full with your temper...and I was right! Your grandmother loved the fact that her dream came true and I had a redheaded daughter! She wanted me to name you after her mother, Bernadine!  I told her, "That would happen over my dead body!" Keva loved having a little sister until you started getting into her stuff - then she wanted to be an only child.

 You looked wonderful in blues - they matched your eyes.  As you grew up your color became green!

 We were at the St. Louis Zoo for the photos above and in our kitchen for the photo to the right.  My very favorite photo is below.  I was packing away winter clothes and you insisted on wearing my sweater - so I put it on you, rolled up the sleeves.  You decided that you wanted to chew on the turtle neck, so I had to wash it again before packing it away.

You loved textures at that time in your life.  If I took you shopping with me, you would sit in your stroller, pick up each sleeve on the hanging clothes rounds and rub the fabric against your cheek or the tip of your nose...you loved the feeling of the different textures.  You would have loved the little modern teething clothes of today (with the little loops of different textures).  I'm not surprised that you now love knitting and crocheting as there is strong texture in yarn.

I love this photo below - you can see her rosy cheeks that were there most of the time.

The photo to the right  - I had to make a pilgrim dress, collar and bonnet for the Thanksgiving program.  I loved that costume.  You are in Grandma's living room for that photo.

The photo below is another favorite of mine!

 Pius Lauren at her First Communion.

Here your are - looking much as you do now.  You have grown into a wonderful women and mother.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN!!!

AND MANY HAPPY RETURNS!!!