Back South Again with More Projects

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A lot of driving. I have forgotten how much driving is involved when on the farm. Everything is far. But I also had to drive up and back twice to Syracuse to pickup/drop off Angie at the airport and a business meeting for Wisdomino in Albany. Yeah it was a lot of driving for me. All and all it was about 4000 miles in three weeks. Early in the morning I decided to check out some auctions (dangerous). I ended up being high bidder on a 2015 New Holland Boomer 33 ( "hours unknown, does not run, may have problems, no key, no battery" ) from the State of Tennessee. I figured I could swing by Nashville and pick it up on the way to Georgia. And indeed I did. It was only a couple of hours extra, maybe 4. But, it was more efficient than going to Georgia and then back and forth to Nashville. Nashville is about 4 hours from Duluth. So I was looking at a 4 hour savings. After I go through it and getting if working I will tow it up to the farm in NY. I wasn't prepared for a trac...
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Cranberry Mead

I am making mead today. It has a little cranberry in it, not much. I suspect it will be quite subtle in the finished product. The coffee can contraption holds the honey pot (jug) so the honey can all run out in just a matter of mere hours without having to baby sit. The recipe is as follows:


  • Water
  • Yeast, Lalvin EC-1118 Saccharomyces bayanus (Champagne) 15 grams (rehydrated)
  • 2 quarts Cranberry juice from concentrate
  • 10 pounds of Raspberry Honey from Howland Honey
  • The starting gravity turned out to be 1073.

The liquid that mead is made from is called "must".



The temperature is above zero out there for the first time in a couple of days. I think it is 3 above right now. The llamas seem happy, the chickens are happy anytime I give them sheep food. We got 4 eggs this morning so everyone is still producing.

I re-read the coal stove manual and discovered I was not using it as efficiently as I could have been. I had it in "weak draft" mode. My draft is excellent, I can run the hot gases through the internal chambers to more effectively extract heat to the room. It did make a significant difference. We add a log or two when the coal starts slowing down and the coal comes right back. The cats like it.

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Back South Again with More Projects

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Image
A lot of driving. I have forgotten how much driving is involved when on the farm. Everything is far. But I also had to drive up and back twice to Syracuse to pickup/drop off Angie at the airport and a business meeting for Wisdomino in Albany. Yeah it was a lot of driving for me. All and all it was about 4000 miles in three weeks. Early in the morning I decided to check out some auctions (dangerous). I ended up being high bidder on a 2015 New Holland Boomer 33 ( "hours unknown, does not run, may have problems, no key, no battery" ) from the State of Tennessee. I figured I could swing by Nashville and pick it up on the way to Georgia. And indeed I did. It was only a couple of hours extra, maybe 4. But, it was more efficient than going to Georgia and then back and forth to Nashville. Nashville is about 4 hours from Duluth. So I was looking at a 4 hour savings. After I go through it and getting if working I will tow it up to the farm in NY. I wasn't prepared for a trac...
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