MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Wishing all of you a very merry Christmas from Hare Brain Farms.  May Joy fill all your celebrations, and peace fill your hearts.  Merry Christmas!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

May you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, filled with good food, good company, and hearts filled with gratitude.  And may we never forget or look down on those who have less to be thankful for.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING from Hare Brain Farms!!!!

SIMPLE OUTDOOR OVEN

If you are thinking "that just looks like a rusty metal box" you  are thinking correctly.  It is a steel box made of scrap plate and discarded bed rails.  There is, of course, more to it than that.  There is the story behind the box, and the function of the box.

The story starts a while back when Anna asked if I could make a metal box.  "Of course, boxes are simple" I replied.  When I asked how big and for what purpose, she explained that she would like one that could be used as a campfire oven.  I told her that I would see if I could find the proper steel for it and figure some measurements, and see what I could come up with.  At the time, the only plate steel I had was some 1/4 inch plate I had salvaged.  That, of course, is far too heavy for any box that has to be moved.  The weight would require two people to move it every time it was to be used.

A while later, I started working on an old brush hog which needed the deck replaced.  The deck was 1/8 inch plate, not really heavy enough for a serious brush hog, but exactly right for the camp oven.  Needles to say, I salvaged the plate. 

Now, for the record, I do not salvage everything that comes by.  There are actually thing that I throw away or take to the scrap yard.  That said, I am also a serious tightwad and salvage ALMOST everything.

I had been running ideas for the oven through my head, so that when there was time, I could make it all happen.  Running out of propane, and subsequently starting cooking on a wood fire outside, shifted priorities a bit.  Boiling, roasting and frying are no problem, but baking is another matter, so I promptly began measuring and cutting the salvaged steel, but I needed angle iron to make the corners, and I did not have near enough. 

As often happens, something turned up to make it possible.  While delivering a rick of firewood that I was trading for hay, I was offered a couple of sets of bed rails that had been discarded.  There was my angle iron, and free is a price that made it irresistible. 

Today, I finished the box and put on the door.  Time to test.  I had mixed bread dough earlier in the day, in anticipation of testing an oven.  With the little steel box sitting on top of my fire ring, I placed a couple of pieces of bed rail inside to place the cookie sheet on, built a fire and put a nice ball of bread dough in for the test.  This photo is what came out.  Yes, it tastes as good as it looks (and I have now eaten far too much  of it).

What you can not see in this photo is that the oven did not work perfectly.  The loaf was a bit overdone on the bottom (hard and black).  I will have to test another loaf in a few days to see if it was the design, or if I had the fire a little too hot.  If it was the design, it will only take a slight modification to fix it.  Family members can now stop worrying that I won't be able to bring baked goods at Christmas.

Now that I know it works, I will add handles and a door latch.  A can of stove paint will make it look a little nicer, and will also make the actual cost at least double, which lets you know how little I spent making this simple outdoor oven..

BEAUTIFUL DAY !!!! For staying in by the fire

Yes, it was a beautiful day, cold, cloudy, a breeze and SNOW.  The kind of day that you curl up by a nice warm fire with a good book and great cup of coffee (or cocoa, or whatever you prefer), and enjoy looking at it through a big window.  Since it is Sunday, I decided that I would do just that,  OR NOT.

Seriously, the first sentence is true, but I live on a farm.  The rest of that first paragraph is my wildest
Rockwellian fantasy.  I have always heard that it is supposed to be that way, and I have even tried to pull it off a few times, but that is simply not farm life.  There is actually more outside work in bad weather than in good, and generally less time to fit it in, since the days are shorter.

Here, the animals need extra bedding, extra feed, warm water (at least warm enough to be liquid), and don't forget that the predators that would take the small livestock are hungry and restless too.  Added in the mix, is the fact that the garden has not yet been tilled under after harvest and the cover crop is already a month late in being planted.  There are at least a dozen other projects on the list that are at least that far behind as well.

It wasn't snowing too heavy, so I decided to till up the garden so it would be ready for me to sow rye as soon as this cold spell passes.  That went pretty well, at least to start.  The tiller started and ran nicely and the soil was only a little on the wet side of just right.  As you can see from the photo, that went pretty well, at least to that point.  Notice the considerable amount of un-tilled ground and the location of the tiller at the far end?  At exactly that point, the tines struck a rock and the drive belt broke.

Refusing to let such a trivial matter spoil such a beautiful day, I checked the price of a new belt (not as pricey as I thought), vowed to pick one up next trip to town, and went for a leisurely walk in nature to reflect on the beauty of the day.  Alright, it WAS a walk in nature.  It was not leisurely because I didn't have a lot of time before the animals had to be cared for.  My reflection on the beauty of the day was more like checking for pecans (which the wildlife have already devoured), checking to see that hunters hadn't cut fences on the back side, and the off chance of bringing back some of said wildlife for supper.  No nuts, no meat and fortunately, no hunter damage.  Still a beautiful day.

I got back in time to start the cook fire, and take care of the critters while potatoes and cornbread cooked (no meat this time).  All done by dark.   Now I am sitting here, having eaten far too much, and drinking some really good campfire coffee.  Yes, though not my fantasy day, a really beautiful day for which I am truly grateful.

PREPARATION FOR COLD WEATHER!!!

We have been enjoying some really gorgeous days here this fall, with a little frost some nights and t-shirt weather most afternoons, but that is set to change.  They say we have a serious cold front coming through early next week.  We will certainly see if they know what they are talking about this time.

With these things in mind, I should have spent the whole day yesterday preparing for the coming cold.  What I actually did was run some errands early, then went to cut and haul some wood.  NO, NOT FIREWOOD, that would have been immediately practical.  The wood I cut and hauled was for turning in my lathe.  It then had to be sealed and today will be stored, to dry for a year or two.  That is preparation, right?  Of course it is, just not preparation for next week.

While I was getting the turning wood, I made arrangements to trade firewood for goat hay.  That too is preparation, but for a couple of weeks later.  At least it is for this winter instead of two years down the road.

Of course, while I was running errands, I did get a sack of rye seed to plant in the garden as a cover crop.  It is later than I like to sow rye, but hopefully it will be alright.  It really needs to be planted this year, since the potato crop had nematode damage and rye helps with the nematodes.  Wish me luck.  Once again, preparation but for springtime, not next week.

In fact, the only thing I prepared for the short term was a walking cane.  Yes, a walking cane.  It is made from a beautiful piece of black locust root and may very well be needed if the weather coming in makes my knees much more stiff and painful.  Besides, I had to do something while the potatoes cooked over my little cook fire last night.  And with that bright moon and the firelight, there was plenty of light to work.

Bottom line (yes, there is always a bottom line), is that I seem to always be preparing for a distant future, at the expense of the more immediate.  I will have to work on that.  After all, springtime and years away are good to prepare for, but it does no good if you don't make it through next week. 

Wish me luck and any suggestions are more than welcome.

COLD, BEAUTIFUL MORNING!!!

It is cold this morning, not quite frosty but still and cold and clear, with a heavy dew.  Birds chirping and flying about to greet the morning, adding a wonderful soundtrack to the beauty of the unfolding day.

Watching the sun rise and turn the large dew drops hanging from the trees to diamonds was a wonderful sight.  Add to it the warmth of a campfire, the smell of cherry and cedar smoke and a fresh pot of Starbucks coffee brewing on the fire, and the morning is almost perfect. 

I am near certain that the entire day will also be beautiful.  At least It will if my attitude doesn't get in the way.

Have a beautiful day!!!!

PRE-FROST HARVEST AND MAGIC SOUP

With the first hard freeze coming, some last minute harvesting had to be done.  The main things to pick were a lot of hot peppers (mostly still quite green) and a few green tomatoes.  There were of course, a few other odds and ends.  Little bits of things like okra, beans, and such.

What should I do with these last minute harvest items?  The peppers can be dried or pickled and some eaten fresh (though carefully because they are all rather hot).  The tomatoes can mostly be put aside to ripen, or fried green.  The odds and ends are a different story.

Since it is Halloween, I decided that they would go well in a common garden variety "magic soup" (often referred to as stone soup).  With this goal in mind, soon I had thrown a handful of green beans, a few scraggly carrots, a few pods of okra, a turnip top, and a handful each of kale and chard leaves into the old magic cook pot.  A bit of pork shoulder for flavor and it was on its way.  Some potatoes, onions, garlic, and of course, a couple of green habaneros and it was up to the fire and the magic pot.

While I waited, I mixed up a batch of sour dough cornbread to cook in the big skillet when the soup was finished.  By the time the soup was done, the fire had died down just enough for making the cornbread.

The finished product was quite tasty, and yes, two habaneros (even green ones) really spiced up the soup.   A really nice warm up on a chilly evening, with lots of flavor and nutrition.  No, the flavors were absolutely NOT "layered".  They were perfectly blended as only a real fire and cast iron pot can blend them.  It is magic after all.  Sorry, I couldn't resist the reference, it being Halloween and all.

I hope you all had a wonderfully spooky and magical evening.  Stay warm.   

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Happy Halloween from Hare Brain Farms! 

Yes, it is Halloween, and the first freeze warning here.  Time to pick all the chillies and tomatoes (ripe or not), pick the last of the okra, put extra bedding for the goats and rabbits and get ready for a fire in the workshop.  If the weather forecast is correct, 25°F, while not really that cold, will certainly take down all the tender plants and make it a bit uncomfortable.

As always, I have been putting off preparing for the inevitable freeze as long as possible.  I always hate to see the growing season end, but the feel in the air says it is time (can't trust the weather forecast at all, but the bones don't lie). 

Tomorrow will start the winter routine of cutting wood instead of grass, of feeding hay instead of fresh green vegetation, and of preparing the garden for next year instead of harvesting this year's bounty.

And so the seasons of the year and the cycles of farm life continue.

Have a great Halloween, and don't get SPOOKED.                                                                          

DOWN SIDE TO A BEAUTIFUL DAY

It has been an absolutely beautiful day here in Northeast Oklahoma, from start to finish.  The day was warm, the sun shined all day and the warm gentle breeze felt more like spring than fall.  All in all, one could not ask for a nicer day.  Of course, there had to be a downside, something to balance the utter perfection.

For several years, I have raised goats.  Not a big herd, only two or three nannies and a billy.  October is breeding season here and time for the old billy to do his job.  Yesterday evening about dusk, he was happily doing just that, and all was well.  This morning was another story altogether.  My fine old billy was lying on the ground, quite dead.  There was no sign of a struggle, no injuries, he had apparently just collapsed, stretched his hind legs backward and died.

I thought of him as a young goat, but upon thinking of how long I had him, he was not all that young.  Seven or eight years old isn't really old for a goat but not a yearling either.  Seems that though he was strong and healthy, his heart couldn't take the strain of this breeding season.

A new billy will have to be purchased at some point within the next year, but I am almost certain that both nannies are bred.  I will look forward to seeing his final offspring in a few months.  He will be missed but his bloodline will carry on.  It is the way of things, the passing of the old to make room for the new, and so the cycle continues.

WHEN THE PROPANE TANK RUNS DRY!!!

Propane is one pretty good option for cooking in rural areas.  It is convenient, quick and consistent.  In a society where everything is at the flip of a switch, the turn of a knob is almost as good.  There are drawbacks, however.  If your range has electronic ignition, you don't cook when the power is down, but the pilot lights on the older models waste fuel and can go out, letting dangerous and nasty smelling gas into your home.  Then there is the cash outlay to fill the tank, which in my case is a lump sum and hard to raise at times.

Propane is only used in my home for cooking, and a hundred gallons lasts about a year.  This means that about once a year I have to come up with upwards of three hundred dollars which I never seem to budget for.

The last time propane was put in my tank was over three years ago, and due to a mistake by the delivery guy.  I was running low, and had no intention of buying more.  My plan (which was in the process of being set up), as a step toward self sufficiency, was to build a small fire ring with a grate, for grilling, frying, boiling and such, and to make a small wood fired oven for baking.  The smoker speaks for itself.  This setup was to be covered with a canopy to keep rain out of the cooking and to keep the wood dry.

Plans were going well, and I was looking forward to my new setup.  That is until my sister ordered propane for her tank and the driver actually filled mine instead.  With a full tank and no way to remove it other than using it, I put my plan on hold and continued to use gas.

Now the tank is empty again.  As you can see from the picture, my plan is back in the game.  My fire ring is not brick as originally intended.  Instead, it is made of a couple of wheels with a hole cut in the side and stacked up.  It works very well and with a small amount of wood for quick cooking (such as the pot of coffee), but still has room for larger wood for longer term cooking (like a pot of beans or deep frying).  What you can't see in the picture is that it is under a canopy which will soon have sides to block the wind.

Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't take that much more time starting a wood fire.  A little paper and some fine twigs to start, and the fire you see in the pic was up and going in less than five minutes, and the coffee was boiling about ten minutes later.  Not exactly a flip of a switch, but not too bad.  As an added bonus, the coffee, and everything else for that matter, just has a better flavor.

I doubt that I will be filling the propane tank any time soon.  Who knows, maybe I will turn it into a big smoker.  Okay, that is a big project for much later (if ever).  For now, I need to work on an oven design, maybe one to set on top of my cook ring.  Any Ideas you would like to share?

BEER CAN BUSHINGS??? (a cheap, improvised repair for old equipment)

As a child, I sometimes had the opportunity to go with my father to the hay fields.  Dad was in the business of baling hay, and had lots of customers in a three county area.  There was always hay on the ground ready to bale, and a breakdown that took more than a couple of hours to repair could let the customer's hay get too dry, so waiting for parts could cause the hay to ruin.

I will never forget the first time I was in the field when the baler stopped tying the bales.  There was a worn out bushing in the knotter.  The baler was old and parts often had to be ordered. taking several days to get them.  On this occasion, one of the haulers was drinking beer while they waited.  Dad took one of the empty cans and cut a strip of metal from it.  He wrapped the metal around the shaft, replaced the hub and proceeded to bale hay.  It worked, and kept working until he could get the new part and fix it right.

Beer cans back then were heavier than they are now, but the principle hasn't changed.  By now you may be curious as to just how this all relates to my small homesteading operation.  Actually, it relates in the form of my early training to deal with whatever comes up.

I don't have powered hay equipment here, choosing to use people powered instead.  For me, that equals scythe and pitch fork, neither of which use bushings.  However, when my scythe blade broke recently, I simply went into my blacksmith shop to make a new one.  It was almost finished when the blower on my forge broke down.

Now we get to how the beginning of this post relates.  Unlike my hay tools, the blower DOES have bushings, and one was worn out, causing the gears to run crooked.  My blacksmith tools are all very old (the blower was old when I bought it over thirty years ago), so finding bushings to factory specification will be difficult, and they may have to be custom made.  The delay could easily take until after the first freeze which means no more hay for the goats.

This is where the lowly beer can (or in this case, the pop can) saves the day.  With a smile and the memory of my dad's beer can bushings, I sacrificed a can.  In a short time, the strip of can metal was in place and the blower re-assembled.  It works well again.  Is it perfect?  NO!  Do I still need to find the right bushing?  Absolutely!  Bottom line is that it works, and will continue to work until I can get the right parts.

I'll let you know how the scythe blade turns out.

WELCOME TO HARE BRAIN FARMS (lets start with a little history)

I purchased this little farm about 28 years ago.  Not a bad place, a bit grown up, fixer upper house and barn, 25 acres with road frontage.  It had some cleared ground, wooded hills and plenty of rocks.  At the time, it seemed reasonable to sell my place with the little, off-grid cabin that most people without four wheel drive didn't visit.  Why did I think this was a good idea??  Lets just say that I was younger, with less clear goals, and there was a woman involved, and we can leave it at that.

Since that time, I have worked toward turning this place into a self-sufficient, off-grid homestead.  Over the years, there has been some progress, some set backs, and lots and lots of distractions.

The house turned out to be one of those fixer uppers that needed (but didn't get), a bulldozer and new construction.  Instead, a lot of time and money that could have been used toward my goals for the place have been spent trying to fix up the house.

During the time here, there have been relationships and marriages, each one lending their own advances , lessons and delays.  Time out for a college degree and short career as a field biologist was also a big one.

In case anyone is wondering where the name came from, it is based on a hateful remark by a then wife, and my purely sarcastic reply.  I am, and always have been, on the search for small ventures which will bring in a little cash, while forwarding the dream of self- sufficiency.  I mentioned to said wife that I thought raising meat rabbits for the market might be a good one.  The reaction was her usual degrading, belittling tirade, none of which I now recall except the statement,"just another one of your hare brained schemes."  My reply was a quick and most sarcastic, "yes it is, and it sounds like a good name for the farm too".  The name stuck, and almost twenty years later, this is still Hare Brain Farms.

This is only a brief historical overview to bring us to the here and now, though I am certain historical perspective will pop up from time to time.  Now, my fiancee and I are moving forward to combine our farms and dreams, (and yes, she and I are on the same page).

Thank you for visiting and I look forward to your comments.