A New Friend at the Farm

So since we moved in to the farm we have had a little bit of a rat problem in the barn. We have been setting rat traps and even set a small have a heart trap to try to catch the little buggers.  I have only caught one rat as they have so much other food they don't feel like bothering my traps.  Well this past week we have been finding dismembered rats all over the hay loft and throughout the barn so I set the large have-a-heart trap to try to find out what has been eating the rats.  Finally Wednesday we caught our suspect! 

Now in this picture he doesn't look too happy, and that's because he isn't happy at all.  We weren't sure what to do with him so we called the Franklin County Animal Shelter (check them and all the great things they do out here). https://www.fcanimalshelter.org/ and they suggested bringing him in for their feral cat program.  What they do to help keep the cat population down is a  Trap- Neuter-Release program - they spay and give shots to these feral cats for free and then send them back to their barn homes.  They even let us use their carry crate to bring our new friend home in. I picked him up today and brought him home.  I placed him in the hay loft with the cage closed for the afternoon and evening and made him a cardboard box and blanket home.  This evening at night check Allyssia and I brought him some food and water outside of his cage and opened it up for him to be free. 

He is looking a little bit happier and he even let me pat him a bit without hissing.  Now that he has a home he will hopefully stay around the farm . He needed a name so Allyssia and I decided on Simon.  He is not going to be a house cat but hopefully he will become a friendly barn cat and become a common sight around here.

Finally a New Wood Splitter

So a few weeks ago I bit the bullet and ordered a Supersplit band wood splitter.  Now I am no stranger to the Supersplit brand, or the kinetic force wood splitters so this was not anything new to me.  I bought my first Supersplit wood splitter a few years back, used. The first one I bought was nothing fancy and it was far from new. 

As you can see my first one was an electric model with a 3/4 hp 120v motor on it.  The original fiberglass cover for the flywheel was all but useless so I made a new one for it out of sheet metal.  It also sits a little lower in the front so it had to be sitting up on a banking or screwed to a few 2x4's   This particular splitter has served me well over the last few years but as I do 10 cord of wood every year and a lot of that wood is quite large, it was starting to get worn out. Not to mention the fact that it is over 30 years old. 

For such a small splitter it would and still will split some pretty amazing logs.  (this picture was taken before I got my LogOx as you can see I am using just a birch hook)  In this picture you can also see the pair of vice grips that I had to use to engage the splitter.

Now on to the New splitter!!  I ordered a supersplit HD model with the gas engine, large work table and tow hitch.  I ordered it direct from the owner of the company and was even lucky enough to call and talk to the owner about my old splitter and the new one.  The splitter is made right in Massachusetts, USA. It was shipped up via Ross trucking and I had to have it delivered to Memco, Inc - the local plumbing supply company.  Tony the owner of Memco was able to load it with his fork lift but my unloading was a little more primitive. 



It does look like it was a bit dangerous unloading but I did plan it that way, having the sideboards placed like that allowed me to slow the splitter down if the need arose.  It came through with everything except for the motor installed and in just over half an hour I had the motor on and was adding the oil and fuel.  The motor is a six and a half hp Honda that starts amazingly.  As well as the motor, I really love the wide pneumatic tires as they roll over things and are much more stable than the old splitter's narrow hard rubber tires. 

Sitting next to each other there is a huge difference.  The new one has a much wider and taller stance that will be easier to work with and the large working platform will make a world of difference. 
                                             Supersplitter First Time Starting and Running
Here it is.  The first startup and first time running.  I couldn't be happier with the speed and the splitting power that this splitter has.  Allyssia is also loving the splitter already and we both think it is miles ahead of our old one.  Be sure to check out the Supersplit website.
                                                            http://www.supersplit.com/
There are a lot of links strewn through this post so make sure to check them out.  Check back often and make sure to leave a comment!

A Long Time in The Works......

As everyone has obviously noted I haven't made a blog in quite some time now.  Life has been extremely hectic the last couple of weeks.  We have made some huge leaps in our life.
We bought a house!  We didn't buy just any old house, we bought a nice log cabin nestled on 13 acres of land in Farmington.  We are right on the edge of Wilson stream and it is almost all field around the amazing indoor riding arena and 9 stall horse barn.

We closed on the property on March 5th and that day I moved a few tractors and some shop stuff into the two car garage that has now become my shop.

The Garage is not insulated but to me anything with a roof is better than having to work out in the cold wearing a snowsuit and having to shovel around all of my projects.  After moving a bunch of tractors and equipment in Monday Allyssia and I went up to the house and decided that before moving in we needed to refloor the kitchen, dining room, and the hallway to the front door.

The flooring was a vinyl roll down flooring that was cracked and faded and peeling up in spots so we opted to go with a PVC core click together flooring.  It is completely waterproof and fairly well scratch resistant. 

My father came over and helped me get started on the floor as he has done multiple click together floors at his house and at my sister's.  When I first started there were a few times that I said "why did you start this" but once I got going it got easier and better.  I still have to finish putting trim around the floor but the floor is down so that is what matters.  Another improvement before moving in was a little bit of painting.  Allyssia painted the kitchen a nice light blue to cover up the yellow that was there. 

This is the first picture collage that I have used on the blog and I hope it shows the colors well enough to see the brightness change in the room.  Finally Friday came along and we started packing the horse trailer with furniture and boxes that night and into Saturday morning.  Saturday morning one of my co-workers came and helped me get the mattress and box spring as well as the couch onto the trailer.  When we arrived in Farmington my other co-worker arrived and helped with the mattress and box spring but not the couch.  We ended up getting rid of the old couch and went to Big Lots and instantly found the perfect couch for our living room.

It's a recliner couch and of course Cricket approves!  Now even though we were mostly moved in Saturday we still had work to do Sunday moving the horses, hay, round pen panels, and other supplies up.  We spent most of the morning and into the afternoon cleaning the stalls out setting up fences and just in general cleaning the barn that hasn't been used in years.  Around two o clock Allyssia left to get the first two horses and by six thirty they were all in stalls and eating happily.

Now onto the house again!  It is a beautiful two bedroom two bathroom log cabin with an unfinished basement and a loft. 

The house is absolutely gorgeous placed in the middle of a nice flat lawn not to far from the barn or the road.  There is no wood stove but there is oil heat and a pellet stove in the living room.

The previous owners also left us enough pellets to finish the winter out.  If you notice in a lot of the pictures Cricket steals the show looking extremely cute and posing for the picture.

So it has been a big step for us but we made it and this big of a step means many more projects to come.  I am going to do my best to document the before and after of all of these projects and most definitely post more often than this last spell that went by with nothing.  As usual stay tuned as we will be making improvements and starting projects left and right here and would like to bring you along for the ride!