9 degrees F February 27, 2014

Very clear night skies caused the temp to drop to 9 degrees F this morning on the farm.  Beautiful clear and sunny day. 

Minus 5 degrees F January 29, 2014

This morning it was -1 degree F in Knoxville.  It was -5 degrees F here on the farm this morning.  We had a couple inches of snow in the storm yesterday, Knox county schools released early yesterday and are closed today and tomorrow. 

The Emory river is covered in ice topped with snow. 

Fortunately is was clear and sunny today with little wind.  

Another below zero morning temp Jan 24, 2014

The temperature hit -0.9 degrees F at the farm this morning. 

Hopefully all of this cold weather will put a dent in certain insect populations such as the hemlock woolly adelgids. 

Another cold snap, 5 degrees F January 22, 2014

We had about 1/2" of snow and the temperature was 5 degrees F this morning.  Big wind gusts yesterday afternoon, enough to overturn a fairly heavy "peacock" house (made from OSB and 2x4's, 4'x4'x4' and sitting on the ground) and our basketball goal which had 300 lbs of sand in the base.  More cold forecast for the next few days.

Minus 6 degrees F on the farm January 7, 2014

Yesterday morning the temperature at the farm hit a low of -6 degrees F.  Definitely the coldest temp we have experienced in a while. 

The temperature has remained below 20 F for last two days. 

We worked very hard around the farm and all of the animals have come through the cold spell in good shape. 

Yesterday morning the sun was shining and the temperature was still -3 degrees F and and I saw a group of about 20 pigeons flying laps above their loft, enjoying their morning flight, apparently oblivious to the cold.

We had about 1" of snow on Sunday night and it may start to melt today.

One of our dogs came in the house yesterday afternoon with icicles on her fur. 

17 degrees F on Thanksgiving Day morning

I think that is the coldest so far here this year, 17 degrees F on Nov 28, 2013.

Snowy Nov 27, 2013

We had a little snow here last night, only about 1.5".  Flurries throughout the day.  Tonight will be cold with a low in the teens. 

20 degrees F here Nov 13, 2013

Coolest morning of the season so far, 20 degrees F. 

22 degrees F on the farm Saturday October 26, 2013

Yesterday morning it was 22 degrees here on the farm in Oakdale.  This year has been cool and wet, I wonder what the winter will be like.

27 degrees this morning October 25, 2013

This morning it was 27 degrees F here on the farm.  We are expecting another cold morning tomorrow. 

52 degrees F at the farm July 29, 2013

I put on my fleece to go out and do chores this morning.  We dipped down below 60 degrees a couple of times in the last week but this morning was the coolest yet at 52 degrees.  We have only hit 90 degrees a couple of times so far this year.
Beautiful weather.

We have also had a lot of rain this year, all of the springs and creeks are flowing, it looks like they might not stop at all this year. 

Blog update

It's been a while since I've updated the blog.  July 16th seems like a good day.  Just did some farm chores, early, just before sunrise.  A beautiful time of day.  Time to make some coffee.

Letting the horses out shortly, roosters are crowing.  Super pup is not feeling well, not sure what happened to him, may take him to the vet.  His birthday is not for a few months, he is acting older than my 50 years though at the moment.  He seems very happy however as long as he stays near me.  Go figure. 

As the sun is coming up there is a light layer of fog outside.  Received a call yesterday from a woman named Julie inquiring about black homing pigeons for sale.  In the dark this morning I loaded a crate with about a dozen birds, I'll take them out on a short training toss after the fog clears. 

Recently had an interesting bird show up at the loft, sort of a red fancy hen, with a custom blue plastic leg band that says Jennings loft and has the number 1963 but no other information.  I have had no luck tracking down the owner so far.  

First 2012 fall frost

Yesterday I checked the weather forecast and it showed a low of 41 degrees for us this morning.  We have been enjoying the wonderful weather lately and have not used any heat or air conditioning for the last week or two, just opened the windows as desired.  Last night we closed up the house and set the heat to come on if necessary. 

It was necessary.  I woke up this morning and it was 36 degrees outside.  There was frost on the grass and a thin layer of ice on the trampoline.   I used the hose to start filling a pigeon drinker and the water flow slowed because of ice buildup behind the valve.   There was an ice slush mixture in the drinker bowl. 

The weather has been absolutely beautiful lately, however I would not mind if we got a little bit of rain.

Cows in upper pasture

Yesterday my neighbor put seven cows in our upper pasture; 5 cows, one steer, and one calf I think.  His son came out and patched the boundary fence where needed, I also did a little work on the fence line and mowed some of the pasture. 

The pasture is in great shape; lot's of clover, orchardgrass, timothy, fescue, bluegrass, etc.  Great place to be if you are a cow.   The pond is looking really good, we have some nesting geese and ducks.   Yesterday Mary and I saw six deer in the pasture.  When I mowed I saw rabbits and wild turkeys. 

Next jobs for me are to remove two downed trees and then I want to install a gravity fed water stock tank using the pond as the source so I can fence out the pond.

half dovetail timber joint layout

I recently looked at some pictures of horizontal log timber structures with half dovetail joints.  This joint is very nice because the surfaces are angled to lock the timbers together and also direct water down and out which will prevent rot. 

When making these joints one needs to know the following:
1) timber dimensions, width and height
2) desired spacing between the timbers, this gap will normally be chinked
3) timber extension at joint (the distance that the end of a timber will extend beyond the joint)

I did not find any nice description of the layout online so I came up with the following which will hopefully prove helpful.

Example:  timber size is 8" high and 6" wide.  Desired gap spacing between timbers in a wall is 2".  Timber ends will extend 1-1/2" beyond the joint.

I started with a picture which will be used to solve this example and explain the process.  Two 6" x 8" timbers are stacked vertically in a South wall with a 2" space in between these two timbers.  One 6" x 8" timber is placed in a West wall, perpendicular to the South wall timbers.  The horizontal center line of the West wall timber is in the center of the 2" gap in the South wall. 

Look at the end of the West wall timber where it intersects the upper timber in the South wall, it makes a rectangle that is 6" wide and 3" high.  In this rectangle the center is found by drawing diagonal lines, the center point is labeled point "A" in the picture. 

The layout line for the joint will be found by drawing a line through point A.  Since we want an extension of 1-1/2" we will draw a line through point A that intersects the bottom of the South wall timber 1-1/2" past the West wall timber.  The picture actually shows several lines through point A, one with no extension, one with a 1-1/2" extension, and one with a 4" extension. 

We want a 1-1/2" extension so we see that this line goes through point A and intersects the 3" x 6" rectangle 1/2" below the top on the East side of the rectangle and also necessarily 1/2" from the bottom on the West side of the rectangle. 

This is the solution, the angled dovetail cut will be across the end of the 6" wide timber as follows, 1/2" down on one side and 2-1/2" down on the other side.  The angle of this cut works out to be the ArcTangent of (2.5 / (1.5 + 6)) =  18.4 degrees. 

The other cut will be on the bottom of the timber, it will be 2.5" high and 7.5" long.

The second picture shows a small section of half dovetail timbers created for this example.  Drawings were created using google sketchup.

Oil Moat for bee hives

I noticed that small black ants were getting into my bee hives so I checked my bee book and it said to sprinkle cinnamon on the top of the inner cover and around the hive or to install an oil moat on the hive stand. 

Yesterday I tried the cinnamon and it did help, today I installed the oil moat.   The oil moat I made consists of four round plastic pans about 6" in diameter and about 2" deep.  In the middle of each pan I put a small piece of wood that is about 3" in diameter and about 3" tall.   I set the moats on top of my cinder block supports and the wooden hive base sits on top of the wooden blocks.  My helper John then poured oil into the plastic pans.  We finished the install by putting boards over the top of the base to help keep rain from getting into the oil moats.