Rick and Ellen's Homestead

[rick91351]

I'm enjoying the project tour and the great neighborhood. Thanks, the air smells fresh and clean.

Thanks John but back to work - Ellen is the painter lady.  She has been painting trim all the vertical boards she is matching up with the siding.  When she starts something like this it just holds me in awe.  The kid is so gifted....  We have only been hanging out together for 45 years now and she still surprises me. 

She first paints a layer of base.... 



Then feathers in a top coat and bushes and high lights until a match with siding.....   



The siding is Certeened siding....  The verticals were mostly Hardie so trying to bring out grain patterns is not a give me.... Even though most or a lot of the Hardie was given to us.     Could not turn a deal like that down sort of like free....

[pmichelsen]

Looks like you hired the right person for the job, it really looks great!

[midrover170]

Looks great! I hope all your recent grading work is drying out. Around Boise, it seems like solid sun in the forecast for the next, well... summer. Do you get more rain your way than we do over here?

[rick91351]

Looks great! I hope all your recent grading work is drying out. Around Boise, it seems like solid sun in the forecast for the next, well... summer. Do you get more rain your way than we do over here?

Actually you all get a lot more moisture than we do - then this year sort of flipped.  Prairie is over the top in the Boise Basin as far a moisture.

Ellen's hand work is starting to show here!  She got it matched up down to the 'belly band' in the front.



and in the back



now getting the sides prepped



I have been off to the orchard a lot as of late......

Our blue berries have turned out stellar.  We finally are getting the soil amended to where we can grow blue berries.  I am not kidding, we most likely in the five or six years of trying and failing have lost close to 150 plants.  I know that sound crazy.  We could buy a life time of blue berries out of the store for what we have lost!  I will not argue that at all.  But we would never have gained the knowledge we have gained.  We have now 36 or 37 plants in our blue berry plot, and room for like 60 some more.







Same way with the soft fruit.....  We have found two preach varieties that will produce up here without a whole lot of winter freeze damage.  One is Canadian Harmony and the other Reliance.  They started producing well last year.  I love the flavor of the Reliance.  But there again we lost so many trees.  I was talking to a nursery back east and they suggested these.  I think we most likely now have ten or twelve peach trees.   





Pie Cherries We have a like three trees.  They got hit very hard with the drought and my water rationing.  We lost about three or four then.  2013 bad year.....



I think we planted these in 2008 - a new breed on the market called Snow Sweet.  We lost 50% of the trees or all the Honey Crisps that year.  We did not know enough and went into it blind.  We I think lost one Snow Sweet since these have been planted and they are coming on strong....





Crimson Gala on an EMLA 7 root stock



These are from a nursery the Ol Jarhead turned me on to....  They are a Siberian root stock - They are a crazy good tree.  I really like them a lot....



Two more of the super cold hardy trees



Pears are coming on strong now as well



We thought we lost all our raspberries so to speak....  They just did not show any wake up come spring.  Minus a few here and there -



The few clumps there are super cold hardy black raspberries we planted last year.  Interesting history on them or the grower - or patent owner.   



So what is the new experiment?  Blackberries, a lady up here had some black berries. She has grown them up here for some time and they do not freeze out.  We have tried black berries before and they all died.  Looked at the info and talked to growers and they say pretty doubtful up here.  Apparently these black berries are very cold hardy.  However they are not a cold hardy breed because they do not really exist according to what I read.  The other neighbors she has shared them with do not freeze out......  So we planted some and will see.....

       





     

   

[OlJarhead]

I am so jealous!  Still tore up over losing those 5 trees and two of the remaining 3 don't look great so I'm hoping I got them in time.  I plan to pour the water to them and get some fertalizer in there too

[hpinson]

And there's the answer in the background - a 7' wire fence... 

[Gary O]

Simply wonderful

thanks for the show, Rick

[rick91351]

And there's the answer in the background - a 7' wire fence... 

Size does matter it is eight foot and almost a acre.    

I am so jealous!  Still tore up over losing those 5 trees and two of the remaining 3 don't look great so I'm hoping I got them in time.  I plan to pour the water to them and get some fertalizer in there too

Hey do not be jealous....  This has not been with out a lot of loss - trees and time.....  But that is how I have to learn.....  Just hope to pass something along.....  I really like my little mini orchard as well.  To me that is the way to go for a cabin orchard but sure would not stop the gophers.  BTW I tore that enclosure out yesterday.  That tree is now going to be in our yard.....

Simply wonderful

thanks for the show, Rick

That is just the preview Gary....

Hey you all - the coffee is always on and let me know and I will make some sourdough something....  I did sourdough sticky buns the other day my word even the coyotes were wanting seconds.... 

[rick91351]

It has been rather hectic here at the ol' homestead.  I decided I better get the yard fenced because the renter is going to need to turn cattle in here pretty quickly. 

If you never have planned and put in a fence the best time is the spring soon after the snow has left and the ground has thawed and the grass has had not really started up and the brush and bushes are not or are hardly leaved out.  Days are also cooler and the ground is not so hard.......  I missed the fencing season by a couple months.  We would have liked to put in a beauty fence.  But some times beauty fences are one too expensive.  And two they are not very sound when there are range cattle grazing in the area.  Plus horses can be a real pain if they decide to tear something up. So I chose regular old 'field fence, then will run to strands of barb wire a top that.           

So the first thing one needs to do is set the boundaries and get rid of the grass and brush.  The better the job the easier it will be when you start unrolling wire and walking and walking.   





Best thing to do I have found is set your corner posts and run a string line tight between the corners and start in filling with the gate posts and brace posts and .......  It is not the end of the world if you forget a string line or it disappears of you have a roll of barb wire.  You can use that in place of a string line but a string line is a lot more user friendly I have found out over the years. 





I used a new product called a Parma Tie.  They resemble a old two sided railroad cross tie. Then they make a Junior Tie as well that is about 8 inch.  I used those for brace posts.  They are available from a local pressure treat business.  Locally here railroad ties are getting way - way too expensive and do not paint real well.

I set my corner posts and then set the brace posts at six foot because I could get 4X6 to use for bracing from my lumber yard, they were rejects at a pretty good savings.  They were at 12 foot lengths and so I will cut them at 6 foot.  Then at ten foot and twenty feet  I pounded in a 6'6" t post then at another ten foot planted a 6" round pressure treated post.  Then go to the opposite end of and work toward the middle with the same pattern.  Then splitting the distance when I got to the middle.  Using the string line for a guide. 

I decided I would just dig and set posts by hand.  Two first tools in fact I ever amassed for myself as a kid fencing on the farm or ranch growing up was a good digging bar and a tamping bar.  You might laugh but I have set a lot of posts and build a lot of fence growing up in a farm and we always have had cattle.  I never really like the fancy digging bars with the tamping end.  That tamping bar - I grabbed one day when my dad and I were building a corral and tore out a bunch of stuff it was part of an old cattle chute.  It is like schedule 80 black pipe.  It was heavy and had something welded on the end.  Worked great to tamp with.   I think I was sixteen or so at the time I have had it ever since,  and I am sixty three now.   

 

I do like the old clam shell fence post diggers to clean out a post hole when they get real deep. 



Ellen's painting scheme is coming together.







Where the two railroad ties are I will just temp them in and that is where we will locate our wood shed.  The wood shed is one of those round to it things - like pouring the side walks and then there is a yard to put in and then there is _______.   





Another thing that is getting sort of bad is the temps are very high for this time of the year.  So Ellen has to quit painting the wood grain as soon as the sun hits it.  She has found she is done.  But she continues on with the cream colored trim.  In the morning I am going to start at first light - is the plan and put in bracing until it is to hot. Then start watering the orchard.  But then my friend the bee guy us going to show up some time tomorrow around noon.  So just doing our thing.....

[OlJarhead]

Making me feel lazy   I just use an auger on the back of the tractor

[Adam Roby]

Certainly looks like a lot of work.  Still the kind of work that makes you feel good about your day.  How long does it take per hole, and how deep did you have to dig?

[rick91351]

Making me feel lazy   I just use an auger on the back of the tractor

'Meself' I would just as soon dig by hand. A couple neighbors offered theirs.  After spending a couple summering at Post Hole University as kid to me it is really easy especially up here where this is at.  Right there there are no rocks and no hard pan just easy digging. It actually takes me longer to set a post property up here than to dig the hole.  Me and that big ol' long digging bar.....   On the other hand I did use an auger when we dug the holes for the orchard.  That was over a hundred holes for the trees and the fence!  Down in the valley I would opt out for a auger a lot. But we had a layer of 'hard pan' just below the top soil that was killer.  I hate to even think building fence down there.     

Certainly looks like a lot of work.  Still the kind of work that makes you feel good about your day.  How long does it take per hole, and how deep did you have to dig?

I set these at 2'9" - it doesn't take any time to dig post holes.  Takes longer - a lot longer getting rid of the bush and grass so you can unroll your wire so it is not getting hung up. And getting rid of the tripping hazards.   

[rick91351]

My daughter and son in law and grand kids were up here for the forth of July weekend. 

They all pitched in on the fence. 



Hammering staples and darning wire as the old ranch hands called it....



Tigger the job dog checking out the progress. 



Christian our oldest grandson is spending the week with us.  He works hard when he comes up...  He seem to have fun but when the sun is beating down in the temps are teasing triple figures pretty hard on a twelve year old.  However he stuck it out the last two days.  I turned a couple problems and projects over to him.  One was a 2X8 piece of fence.  He measured it all out with a tape and figured it out in his head.....  Later said well he had to say it out loud!!  Board spaced out just great. 



Next was how to hang a double gate.  I did some coaching and used the power tools but he actually came up with a very good way we could accomplish this using a sixteen foot 2X8 and a level.  Then matched up the bottom adjusting the lag hinge pins or brackets.  He did a great job!!!



Looks pretty proud of his work.



BTW he is the fifth generation on this property.......




 



   

[nailit69]

Place is looking great!  I really like the look of that siding, we used a lot of that when I was building houses in Southern Oregon... haven't seen it since.  Nice job on the fence too guys!

[Redoverfarm]

Good to see a hammer in his hands rather than an Ipod or cell phone.  He will remember that experience for years to come.

Wish my neighbor would have had that stout fence yesterday evening.  Just after supper about 20 head found their way into my yard. Yum yum nice green grass.    After a couple hours of herding/chasing and cutting the fence to make access back into the pasture they were back where they belonged. 

For once it wasn't mine that got out.   

[rick91351]

Good to see a hammer in his hands rather than an Ipod or cell phone.  He will remember that experience for years to come.

Wish my neighbor would have had that stout fence yesterday evening.  Just after supper about 20 head found their way into my yard. Yum yum nice green grass.    After a couple hours of herding/chasing and cutting the fence to make access back into the pasture they were back where they belonged. 

For once it wasn't mine that got out.   

John about the IPod - and such and with your Stephen being the stellar banjo player he is.  I am amazed at a guitar teacher I know and took some lessons from.  He has problem with kids being able to finger the neck of a guitar now when they start.  Some parents even jerk their kids because it is just to hard on them stretching out those muscles and tendons and hurts the poor kid.  He says some he has seen are like claws. 

I hold my dad so important in my life because as a 'kid' (young teen) dad had enough guts to let me have projects like building a corral or roofing a garage or building a boat. Some were my ideas some were his.  If I got stumped he was around to what do you think dad?  I just hope my grandson will do the same.  Idle hands ...... and a creative kid can cause a mess....

Not funny how much damage a small herd of cows can do to a lawn and landscaping.....  We have little hope of one of those manicured show lawns here but just the same I hate to do all that work and it all be ruined.  So quickly.......

[Redoverfarm]

Not funny how much damage a small herd of cows can do to a lawn and landscaping.....  We have little hope of one of those manicured show lawns here but just the same I hate to do all that work and it all be ruined.  So quickly.......

Yes with those 1800-2400 pound cows their hooves leave a pretty deep hole and with that manicured lawn being green and tender they pull a full mouth full when they chow down.  Another 6 months and you will not be able to tell it.     But on the side note I don't have to add fertilizer to that area.   

[rick91351]

We skedaddled off to Seattle to see friends right in the middle of berry season.  Right in the middle of fixing to put the fake rock on the columns.  Right in the middle of wanting to get the yard planted.  Right in the middle of needing to start cutting firewood.  We were so ready to get away after no time off really in two years.......  We had not really moved the fifthwheel nor went back in it after we moved out of it.  It was calling and so were our Seattle friends.....  We had a great trip to Seattle.  But all kinds of tire issues on the fifthwheel on the way back.  Got home with three count them three new tires.  Why three because the fourth was almost new....  Literately grace of God and a very good Samaritan prevented a lot of damage.   

Got home spent the next whole complete day watering the orchard, the landscape plants, the blue berries, the grape starts and the little trees.  Then the mini orchard and four American Chestnuts we have left..... 

We had a young couple come over and water the plants around the house a couple times and told them pick some berries......  I meant pick some berries a lot of berries..... I did not think they even toched them.....  They said they did....

We have maybe fifty feet of berries producing this year.  We have the biggest share set to produce next year.  They are all reds and the goldens - they produced heavy last year so they all got cut off and are recaning this year.  BTW The goldens taste so good....  they are not pretty nor real well formed but WOW!!!!!  They taste so good........  Ellen found a interesting horticultural article on growing high altitude short season raspberries that works so well up here.  We follow it pretty well to the letter and have huge crops.....  If anyone wants to do such just ask and well drop you an answer.   

So after our return from our week away - we picked two 3.5 quart bowls of raspberries and one of blue berries.  We have packed a whole bunch in the freezer before we left and more coming on......  The apples are really making a show.  But they will not coming on until September - October.  We are really enjoying seeing all the hard work and the bounty of the Lord paying off.

Our one crazy huge producing hive is still crazy and outproducing the others two to one.  So I talked to my bee guru, I want to move the DNA from that hive to our others.  So he is going to bring up his 'castle' and we are going to grow some queens from that hive rather than buying new queens this year.  This will get that strain into the other hives.  That hive is such a pain to work because they have always attached the bottom of the frames to the top of the next one. I can not breed that out of them but we can get the other hives producing more honey and brood.       

It is all coming together what we sat out to do years ago.  So glad we did it in the thought out small steps we did.  Power we put in like twenty years ago.  Soon after like fifteen the well.  The well gets used a lot this time of the year.  (July - August and in to September) Water for the cattle and helps out with the orchard and berries.  Then we shut it down and go back just on the other water.  About five or six years ago the septic tank and drain field and RV pads and the shop.  Then the big decision cabin or home, jury is still out there if we did the right thing.  We are a lot more attached to the valley that we would like.  But at least we get to leave it and live up here.  Then there is the we are getting older issues.  But it is three hours traveling round trip in the spring - summer and fall.....  Winter add at least two more hours when the road to Boise is closed and having to go the long way and chaining and unchaining and chaining and unchaining and slick roads and people slid off on and on......     

   

     

[rick91351]

I posted this to Ol Jarhead's page -   Got'a catalog from St Lawrence Nurseries - one of the one people on staff decided he want to buy it.  Bill and Diana MacKentley will be hand 'round advising.....  Just handling apple trees this year!!!

Anyone interested in easy to grow cold hardy apples - drop me a line.  I will be making an order as I have had a couple moralities the last couple years.  Aim to keep on planting useful trees until they plant me!!!      

[rick91351]

WOW!! Did not realize it had been so long since I last posted anything.....

This was like the day after Christmas and they trailed the last of the cattle out of here. A few of these are ours.  They run with those from this big ranch up here .....





I did not have a chance to build a woodshed to we filled the stock trailer full of wood and it has lasted really well.  May not build a wood shed and use the stock trailer in the winter time......



Snow is even encroaching on the porches.   





Snow keeps piling up



One of the reasons we moved off to a place like this........  Went for a walk early one morning and shot photos of the full moon setting.......So quite and peaceful.....

[Redoverfarm]

Rick how many head of cattle are they running?  I would hate to feed that many over the winter months.  Well it will be spring again before too long and more will make the trek back to the ranch.  Probably not the same ones unless they are brood cows.

Doesn't look as if you burn that much wood.  Don't see a path.      Shoot I have made enough trips to my wood shed to wear the snow down.  No not really just a couple blades from the tractor and I have a path.

With the metal roof the snow sure slides off and piles up.  Good that the entrance on the gable side of the house.

[rick91351]

We only run about 25 pair and a bull on our Forest Service Permit. We lease the place to the big outfit and they winter our cows....  But come spring because they will have calves so they get an all expense paid trip up the mountain on the eighteen wheelers.....  Going down they trail them out about twenty miles or so to a set of corrals and load them there.  They run on some desert ground down in the valley so actually there is very little feeding involved.  The valley does not get that much snow.... 

As far as the wood all the insulation the State of Idaho calls for now pays off in spades.  We have been heating this with some pretty bad pine cord wood and does not take much.  Not like the old houses up here at all. 

The snow sliding off the roof was exactly why we faced it the way we did and the porches are like they are. Surviving winter easily was one of our main concerns in planing this house.  It has all worked out very well.       

[OlJarhead]

Glad to hear things are working out!  That's a LOT of snow! which is a darn good thing

[GaryT]

I just read this incredible thread from start to finish.  All I can say is thank you for such an inspiring story.
Gary

[rick91351]

I just read this incredible thread from start to finish.  All I can say is thank you for such an inspiring story.
Gary

Thanks Gary T it has been sort of as we planned sort of just shooting from the hip.