#homestead — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #homestead, aggregated by home.social.
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Cutting corners.
Laid the skirt over the muddy bit, which is now walkable 😆
Then dug out the huge area for the extended corner skirt. Last time I did this first and that was a mistake because the huge hole was very much in the way, so this time I did everything else first, then dug the corner. Experience!
Hoping to fill the trench back in today. The corner skirting goes slow as there's a lot of cutting and two-way grading.
Some black crud goes over the joints where I've trimmed the glue. Where its not trimmed it has a waterproof skin.
Also had to carefully dig out the adjoining piece from the previous section. I had a board there to protect it but that didn't work too well.
#Renovation #Foundation #LogHouse #DIY #Homestead #Insulation
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Trust me they were very happy on this wet walk - they look a bit bewildered at being asked to sit down while i checked the water tank (quite full of silt ‘cos of the rain this summer) #dogsofmastodon #homestead #flatcoatretriever #spaniel
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Waited half a day for the mud to dry out a little and then squished around in it to drill a bunch more holes into the rocks, installed rebar, an end piece so the concrete doesn't run out and then the vertical part of the insulation, which are always a bit tricky to align.
In this section there were a lot of protruding rocks to be insulated around.
Then the extended footing on the bottom and the sun went down again.
Horizontal part tomorrow, I hope!
#Homestead #Renovation #DIY #LogHouse #Foundation #Insulation #Mud
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Since that's no good, I've been doing some other jobs this morning and hoping for it to dry a bit.
Under the old harrow I hauled away were several small Linden saplings. I dug them up and replanted them by the forest edge near the spring. Planting trees brightens the mood.
Then hauled some more junk up from the valley shack, including parts of this tiny hut that fell down. I found a message, someone had written "pasaku namelis" (little fairy house) on the inside above the door. Curious. Always wondered what that thing was for. Fairies, apparently. They seem to have moved out a while ago.
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Since that's no good, I've been doing some other jobs this morning and hoping for it to dry a bit.
Under the old harrow I hauled away were several small Linden saplings. I dug them up and replanted them by the forest edge near the spring. Planting trees brightens the mood.
Then hauled some more junk up from the valley shack, including parts of this tiny hut that fell down. I found a message, someone had written "pasaku namelis" (little fairy house) on the inside above the door. Curious. Always wondered what that thing was for. Fairies, apparently. They seem to have moved out a while ago.
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Since that's no good, I've been doing some other jobs this morning and hoping for it to dry a bit.
Under the old harrow I hauled away were several small Linden saplings. I dug them up and replanted them by the forest edge near the spring. Planting trees brightens the mood.
Then hauled some more junk up from the valley shack, including parts of this tiny hut that fell down. I found a message, someone had written "pasaku namelis" (little fairy house) on the inside above the door. Curious. Always wondered what that thing was for. Fairies, apparently. They seem to have moved out a while ago.
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Since that's no good, I've been doing some other jobs this morning and hoping for it to dry a bit.
Under the old harrow I hauled away were several small Linden saplings. I dug them up and replanted them by the forest edge near the spring. Planting trees brightens the mood.
Then hauled some more junk up from the valley shack, including parts of this tiny hut that fell down. I found a message, someone had written "pasaku namelis" (little fairy house) on the inside above the door. Curious. Always wondered what that thing was for. Fairies, apparently. They seem to have moved out a while ago.
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Since that's no good, I've been doing some other jobs this morning and hoping for it to dry a bit.
Under the old harrow I hauled away were several small Linden saplings. I dug them up and replanted them by the forest edge near the spring. Planting trees brightens the mood.
Then hauled some more junk up from the valley shack, including parts of this tiny hut that fell down. I found a message, someone had written "pasaku namelis" (little fairy house) on the inside above the door. Curious. Always wondered what that thing was for. Fairies, apparently. They seem to have moved out a while ago.
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Well, that cover sure kept the rain out of the trench and it didn't get muddy at all 😬
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Well, that cover sure kept the rain out of the trench and it didn't get muddy at all 😬
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Well, that cover sure kept the rain out of the trench and it didn't get muddy at all 😬
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Well, that cover sure kept the rain out of the trench and it didn't get muddy at all 😬
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Well, that cover sure kept the rain out of the trench and it didn't get muddy at all 😬
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Another thing that was in the crooked shack (the one with the useful beams) was this pile of dried bundles of reeds.
No idea what these were collected for here. Don't think I've seen many thatched roofs around. No, I don't want to build one either.
What to do with this? Someone spent a lot of effort gathering and bundling them.
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Another thing that was in the crooked shack (the one with the useful beams) was this pile of dried bundles of reeds.
No idea what these were collected for here. Don't think I've seen many thatched roofs around. No, I don't want to build one either.
What to do with this? Someone spent a lot of effort gathering and bundling them.
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Another thing that was in the crooked shack (the one with the useful beams) was this pile of dried bundles of reeds.
No idea what these were collected for here. Don't think I've seen many thatched roofs around. No, I don't want to build one either.
What to do with this? Someone spent a lot of effort gathering and bundling them.
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Another thing that was in the crooked shack (the one with the useful beams) was this pile of dried bundles of reeds.
No idea what these were collected for here. Don't think I've seen many thatched roofs around. No, I don't want to build one either.
What to do with this? Someone spent a lot of effort gathering and bundling them.
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Another thing that was in the crooked shack (the one with the useful beams) was this pile of dried bundles of reeds.
No idea what these were collected for here. Don't think I've seen many thatched roofs around. No, I don't want to build one either.
What to do with this? Someone spent a lot of effort gathering and bundling them.
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Back to foundation work. Guide string and depth gauge out and hacked away the clay to the right level. That last bit is always manual work.
Pulled out the grounding rod for the old phone line, which was pounded in deep along the foundation.
Then some rock drilling and hammering anchors for connecting rock and concrete and I even got the long glass rebar pieces in before it got too dark.
Finally threw some improvised cover over the hole as tomorrows forecast is for heavy rain and I don't need to wade around in a mud pit the day after.
Oh, those Colorado spruces I felled because they were too close? Found their roots. Under the foundation rocks. So they did indeed have to go.
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Looks seedy.
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Another sleep deprived night, this time on account of #Knirps having a 4am dance party.
Strong morning coffee and back into the trench, patching the poor house up.
Cleaned out most of the rot and fitted a support for the window post that is somehow still intact, then moved the exterior brace over to a smarter place, after much thought.
Mortared the back gaps a bit, stuffed in some reclaimed slag wool, OSB on top and cladding back on to hide my bodge.
Its not great, obviously the beams still need replacing once we find some and are ready to make a huge hole in the living room wall. But it'll last the winter.
Ready to resume work on the foundation, which is what I actually was planning to do. Alas, tomorrow the usual flood resumes. 😫
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Well, that sucked. I cut away a section of the cladding to see how far the hole goes. Its partway up the window. Must've leaked for 50+ years, the beams are gone entirely, up to the backing strips of the plaster in the living room. Something has been living in there as well.
The rest of the wall luckily was not so bad. One more long small beam replacement on the bottom.
Then I cleaned up the big hole and went looking for at least one big beam. Found one too short, one too narrow and one too moist. Saw a baby racoon dog though, which was very cute.
So I spliced in what I had, another of the small beams at the outer bottom. Better than nothing. Then a big beefy 14x7 brace on the outside so I can sleep again, which I could not last night.
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Big fucking hole in the house, but at least the weather is nice and the apples getting ripe.
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Tackling the bottom beam problems, one at a time. Started at the corner. Since the bottom of the dovetail was rotten, I chainsawed away a quarter of the beam and spliced in a new small beam from a convenient stash I found clearing out a crooked shack the other day.
Everything got hosed down in nasty wood preserver, supported on the usual granite wedges with lime mortar and finally some very modern large caliber wood screws to connect it to the old beam and the adjoining corner.
Some more granite wedges, moss in the gaps between beams, lime mortar on top to keep creatures out.
Then it got very late because someone poured an entire cup of hot tea over themselves 😬
#Renovation #LogHouse #Woodworking #Chainsaw #DIY #Repair #Homestead
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Back on the foundation project, as there is finally a so-so weather window after all the rain and storm and power outages and roof repairs and tree clearing.
Would like to get at least this section done before it gets too cold for concrete.
Found the old phone line that Telia no longer wants to service and also a pot, sadly no gold.
Also a ~1m section of the log beam wall that is completely rotten and just crumbled out when I removed the cladding.
Seems from a historical water leak from a corner of the window above. That's going to need some work.
Must hurry before the weather turns to shit again.
#Foundation #Renovation #LogHouse #Homestead #DIY #Digging #Rotten
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How do you even store these massive, writhing steel snakes? They don't like to bend. And they're heavy. I can barely drag this one around and its a short length.
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Another winter preparation: A direct path from the house door to the firewood store.
I had plans to extend the fence around it but didn't get around to that this summer so the quick fix is to put a gate in the old fence here.
Had enough old gates salvaged from the goat pens so I picked one wide enough for the wheelbarrow and found a hinge post to match.
Gate needed some repair, then post pounded in, fence cut, attached to the post, same on the other side, some dirt levelling and finally welding on a hook to close it.
It will make hauling firewood much easier and also means less snow clearing.
I'll add some woodchip gravel later to keep it from getting muddy and slippery.
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Picked the #blackberries from my driveway, the #figs from behind the house, and the #apples from the nearby public fountain.
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Up three ladders, wrench in pocket, hood in hand. The long ladder is secured with wooden stakes hammered deep into the soil, so calm your safety beavering.
I used a steel band and long bolt to clamp the legs against the pipe. The legs are intentionally overbent and thus spring against the band, which should deal with any thermal expansion. I tried pulling on it and it seems on firmly, I'm sure the next storm will verify this.
Also slapped some rust converter on and a bit of old black high temp paint I had left. I expect it will make little difference, the outside doesn't matter and the inside should be soon covered with a nice water repelling layer of soot. You can't even tell from below.
#DIY #Chimney #Hood #Homestead #Ladder #Climbing #Roof #Heating
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The chimney for the bedroom stove is open to the sky and rain just falls in. That's been bothering me a lot and now that I have the ladders to get up there, I can fix it.
So another quick scrapmetal art project: A chimney hood.
Bang a nail into a piece of old sheet metal, mark a circle, snip along, cut a slit, overlap into a conical hat, drill holes, rivet together.
Rusty round bar bent around a bucket, ends welded together, three flat bar legs bent in the vise joined onto that.
Finally tangs with holes for riveting the hat on top and stops to keep the feet from sliding down.
Having an cracked chimney pipe section helped a lot with dry fitting.
Ducking out some rain and when that's dried it can go up there.
#Chimney #DIY #Homestead #Welding #Metalworking #Hood #SalvagePunk #Heating
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Crap weather, but I can do little jobs here and there between the rain showers.
Pulled out the corn plants, which made a big pile on top of the already large compost. By the size of that compost mountain, we managed a lot more gardening this year than last! 😅
Found a few small cobs, although they are probably not sweet anymore. Still can boil and eat them.
Also doing some winter preparation around the place, like laying these concrete slabs I found in various places to make a less muddy path to the sauna. The mole loves to dig here and buried most of the wood chips that were there.
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Beans did great this year, we ate loads, froze some and they just kept coming.
Peas are done, we let some dry for seeds and tore out the plants and supports.
The last two surviving sweetcorn cobs were the largest and so got plucked and peeled to dry for seeds.
Also got seeds from the two tobacco plants that popped up randomly after we dug over the former greenhouse for the first time. Nobody here smokes, but I'm kinda curious to experiment with them.
Cucumbers are done too.
Even managed to save a few hazelnuts from the mad squirrels this year.
Just pumpkins, sunflowers and apples left now. And the apples are pretty sour still. Not enough sun. Endless rain.
#Homestead #Harvest #Garden #Beans #Peas #Sweetcorn #Tobacco #Pumpkin #Cucumber #Hazelnuts #SeedSaving
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Movie TV Tech Geeks #MovieNews #Homestead #NealMcDonough Neal McDonough Is Officially the King of Paramount+ http://dlvr.it/TVK34G
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Fallen apple tree processed and the big branch of the other tree as well. It was that branch which stopped the apple tree from destroying the fence, so I'm grateful.
This isn't even all of the branches, there is another pile I had to drag out of the way because I couldn't get past anymore.
There's going to be a LOT of woodchipping this autumn, but first this stuff can lay here awhile until the leaves drop off. Makes for better woodchips without them.
I tried some of the little red apples. They look nice but are really tart. I assume they were used for pig food in the past.
I'm ready for a calm, dry autumn 😠
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I strained it through a cloth to catch all solid bits (#walnuts) while letting the #alcohol part through. Result: 1.5L of pure #homemade #nocino
Not satisfied, I decided to experiment some more by mixing 1L of milk to .5L of pure #liqueur to make nocino #cream.
Pure liqueur -> root cellar
Cream -> freezer -
Tackling the big fallen apple tree.
The trunk was hollow with rot inside and yet it made all those (small and sour) apples.
In between, a lot of chainsaw problems. Oiler blocked because some wood chips got in there somehow and then when I fixed that the next pull the stupid double-recoil starter broke.
Luckily its a standard Zenoah clone and lookit, the entire recoil assembly from a donor body fit right on it. Style upgrade, too! 😁
And it has normal pull start now. I hated that double recoil "feature".
The tree had a load of branches and fell on another two trees breaking another big branch, so its a mess to clear out and a lot of branches to drag out to the now huge piles.
#Tree #Storm #Damage #Homestead #Chainsaw #Repair #DIY #Firewood
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My attempt at capturing some free phosphate fertilizer: Throw grass clippings under the storks nest and let them poop on it all summer. When the storks leave, collect the enriched clippings and throw them on top of the compost heap.
Alternatively we could just plant root veggies under there 🤔
They poop a lot, being forced to grow from egg to adult in just a few months and they learn how to do it over the side of the nest early on. Unless its storming it all lands in a 3m radius :)
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"Wow, everything is so green in your photos" people tell me.
Yes, and there's a reason for that.
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The birds are informing us that the grapes are ripe. By having eaten them.
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@mcSlibinas @krahabors Hotfix deployed.
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A Day in the Life at Duffney’s Bird Barn
How I balance a remote career, homesteading, crochet, writing, and motherhood—one day at a time. People often ask me how I find time to do everything. Honestly... Some days I wonder the same thing. The weeds don't always get pulled. The laundry doesn't always get folded. The dishes aren't always done when I want them to be. Some crochet projects take longer than I planned, and there are days when my to-do list is still staring back at me when it's time for bed. I've learned that's […]https://duffneysbirdbarn.wordpress.com/2026/07/13/a-day-in-the-life-at-duffneys-bird-barn/
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Still no foundation digging weather with all this rain, so I grudgingly have to do some other stuff.
Been down in the valley with the brush cutter, clearing a path through the jungle to get to the crooked old shack there.
Inside is some old wood that may have once been the old sauna building by the river which is long gone but was stored here for re-use.
Hauled a load up to the farm. Some usable stuff, although full of big nails. And some fuel for the sauna boiler.
There are many more treasures down there, but I can't haul too much in one go up the steep and muddy tractor road, nor can I go too often or the road gets too churned up.
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TIL there are micro-balers for walk-behind tractors. Cute!
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Bread, Butter, & Campfires: The Perfect Friday! 🪵 #shorts https://www.allforgardening.com/1785791/bread-butter-campfires-the-perfect-friday-%f0%9f%aa%b5-shorts/ #BackyardFarming #ChickenCoop #ChickenEggs #chickens #DayInTheLife #EggHarvest #eggs #FarmFreshEggs #GardenPlans #GatheringEggs #HenLayingEggs #homestead #HomesteadChickens #HomesteadLife #homesteader #homesteading #OffGrid #OffGridLiving #OffGrid #oklahoma #RaisingBackyardChickens #RaisingChickens #RuralLife #ThisOffGridLife #TntHomesteading
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"You can't weld cast iron!!!111" the internet says.
Well, it was half right. The big nut cracked when tightening. The other part, which is a sort of bushing fixed into the wheel that had both ends broken off remains intact, even with the impact driver tightening the bolts.
The wheel nut is not strictly necessary on these wheels, so unless I find a suitable replacement nut laying around somewhere I'll consider my log hauling contraption wheel repaired.
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Rugged phone owner tip: If your USB-C port doesn't work anymore, maybe the port isn't really broken and you just need to clean the mud out of it occasionally so the plug can go in all the way again 😆
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CW: Mummified Mustelid
Why do I keep finding corpses around here.
This guy has obviously been dead for some time, stuck inside the straw insulation of an old livestock shack I'm taking apart.
Probably one of the local pine martens. Looks like it wasn't a peaceful death.
#Corpse #Animal #Mustelid #Homestead #Death #Mummified #PineMarten
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Homestead - Available Here: https://1-lisas-baker.pixels.com/featured/homestead-lisa-s-baker.html
#LandscapeArt #Landscape #AbstractLandscape #Abstract #PainterlyArt #Painterly #RuralLandscape #Rural #HomesteadArt #Homestead #MountainArt #Mountains #EarthTones #MoodyArt #Moody #ModernLandscape #Modern #ArtMastodon #Art #BuyIntoArt
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Newbie blacksmithing attempt at hardening my splitting wedge, which seemed a bit soft (the old Birch gave it a burr).
Filed that burr off, threw it into the sauna fire until red hot, then into an old pot of prehistoric tractor oil, flames and sizzling, etc.
Then back into the fire, guessing the temperature before remembering I have a thermal imaging phone in my pocket and back outside to cool down over night.
No idea if I did this right, but will find out :)
#Blacksmithing #Quenching #Tempering #Annealing #Steel #Homestead #DIY #Tools
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EDIT: car insurance is now only 1 month behind instead of 3! Let's see what else we can do to improve this situation, fedi!
Atha is bureaucratically and politically disabled from getting a job for a while.
Inamruzui is partly disabled by POTS and sleep issues. Employment is not a simple matter for them to arrange.Atha was at the food bank yesterday and was given two small shopping bags of canned and dried food for hir and Inamruzui to last a month. Let's raise some funds for the rest of their grocery needs! $300 might be a good start for that.
Let's take another chunk out of Atha's debts! The IRS is being ass, cranking up its non-payment fees. They alone want $860ish. The rest of this part of the request goes to credit cards and car loan and car insurance, with any small change for food.
#MUTUALAID #URGENTMUTUALAID
$373.98/$2500 for debts and bills this week!Then there's the matter of solar batteries: the #Vulpibus systems struggle to store enough energy to keep running overnight in winter.
We need to get them AT LEAST 2 more (ideally 10 more) batteries at around $250 a pop. So $500 (ideally $2500)
Any small change from that goes to cable crimps and mounting hardware.
They also need battery insulation and heaters!Then there's the matter of insulating more of the bus itself. Not only is the insulation itself needed, so is something to hold it all in place. A layer of thin plywood would be good. Also not a cheap matter.
The bus grows heavier as more is added to it, so care needs to be taken to choose lightweight but sturdy things to fit.
If you are looking for someone interesting to host in their vehicles on your homestead a while in Colorado, give us a DM.
https://paypal.me/athamanatha
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Cashapp $Athamanatha
Venmo @Athamanatha
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Wise, IBAN, ACH, bank transfer, Zelle, Xoom and Throne on DM request.If you would like to purchase or send things directly, let us know
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