I don't quite know why the water is not working I put the handle of usually you
should go after run about nine ten seconds nothing's happening
it's never easy it was such a warm day today I mean look at it it's a darn near
40 degrees that you could actually up to over 40 degrees today everything's
melting and trimming and I was gonna get the Ducks outside for the first time in
a couple of days and now I got to deal with this yeah back in the fall I had
had an issue with this pump I had to rebuild it with some
jury-rigged parts
holy smokes did you see that she just spit it right out see if we have any
more eggs inside we got one here but this was from yesterday this one was
frozen yeah bummer I take this chance to turn the compost
so there's a challenge going around from a number of different homesteads I think
it was started by rent to grown G R O W N grown and then my friend Kathleen
over at mama grows and my friend Sam over at the teal house they all
challenged me to answer this question of what is your ultimate homestead goal I
know I've told you guys a number of times about how I want to meet my
ultimate demise and how life here on the farm is meant to enable and support that
so I'm not gonna bore you with that topic I feel like I have so many
different goals there's so many things that I want to do but you know in
thinking about this challenge I got to start to watching the folks over at rent
to grown's video about this challenge and I'll leave a link down below you guys
should check it out it's a really good video because they said that they had
this dream of one day producing a loaf of bread that was entirely their own
they used their own wheat they grind it themselves they make their own loaf of
bread they bake it and boom that's what they got and and that was moved by that
I gotta say like I was like wow like that's a powerful thing when I saw it oh
by the way I know in a recent video you guys were saying you were really worried
for me about the barn collapsing with all the snow that we've been receiving
and you know I just wanted to answer that - so just so you know I it's all
safe it's all good I had a structural engineer take a look
at it when I was going through the process of putting in our application
for the barn grant to restore it that was one of the things I did was I had
somebody look at it make sure that it's structurally sound and it actually is
there's some things that could be shorn up
and it definitely needs a new roof and it has some issues obviously with some
of the side structures but the main structure the barn is really rock-solid
and in good shape so I'm not too worried about it collapsing the other thing to
note too is we have a special feature with our roof here so it's got a very
high pitch and then on top of it all it's it's that sort of steel roofing
material that's very important it allows the snow to melt pretty quick off
anytime you get some good Sun this stuff just sort of melts and slides up just
like that did you see that one piece a lot of times it'll come off in big giant
sheets the downside is it leaves those giant piles like if you look over by our
house which has a similar type of roof you'll notice those giant snowdrifts
that are right there that's all just from snow falling off the roof and it's
kind of a hassle to clear up and one time I got hit by snow falling from the
roof as I was walking out of the bar and it knocked me on my butt but other than
that it's actually a pretty cool feature so don't worry guys I'm being perfectly
safe when it comes to the barn and its structural integrity and me being inside
of it so but every but I appreciate the concern I'm stalling and dawdling and
not answering the question of what is my ultimate homesteading goal and and I
guess the reason is this so first off I want to separate this idea of the farm
and the homestead when I think of the farm the farm is very much about what
we're doing for people outside of this property you know for our friends and
our community how we're growing food how we're providing it how we're putting it
out there how we're selling it even the business model behind it that to me is
the line for the farm when it comes though to the homestead that's
everything that Allison and I are doing for ourselves that's everything that
we're doing to make this a great place to live it's everything that we're doing
to make our lives more ecologically friendly
it's everything that we're doing to make ourselves more self-sufficient and so I
really do draw a hard line between those and when it comes down to it with the
homestead I don't have a ton of like specific goals and as I've been trying
to figure out like how I was going to answer that question it really kind of
hit me when I started taking apart the the the water hydrant down below there a
couple minutes ago that I don't necessarily have a goal it's much more
about the journey when it comes to the homestead when it when I think about it
it's how I'm changing as a person sort of the evolutions that I'm having in
terms of how capable I am in terms of the skills I'm developing some of the
things that we're building and growing around here the close relationship I'm
now forming with my food I mean heck this morning just randomly I just saw a
duck lay an egg out of nowhere I'm really copping out on this one so sue to
my friends that mama grows and to my friends at teal house farm and rent to
grown I'm really sorry I don't have a good answer
I I really don't have an ultimate goal when it comes to the homestead when it
comes to the homestead I really just just AM enjoying the path
that I'm on and the steps that I'm taking and the growth that I'm seeing on
a regular basis and and I just keep doubling down on that and doing that and
so really to keep expanding myself and what I'm doing there that's that's the
ultimate goal
all right let's go try to fix this hydrant once and for all if I can't get
it fixed I never have a real hassle on my hands because that's my main source
for water if I'm not getting it from the barn that means I'm gonna have to figure
out a way to get water from the house carry it all the way back here and it
ain't gonna be fun at all water I mean ice skating tomorrow
despite my wishes of being more self-sufficient it doesn't look like I
wanted to be able to fix this thing I just texted my plumber to see if he
could maybe come out and check things out and help me come up with a solution
because that right there is well beyond my skill set
yeah so I just got off the phone with my plumber friend and it's good news and
bad news so the good news is that he said that he could replace the hydrant
pretty easily and you know put a new one in and that could be good to go and I
wouldn't be dealing with all the problems of constantly dealing with this
hydrant on and all in all it would cost me two hundred and twenty bucks which to
me feels like a really good deal and yeah I'm down it's totally worth it the
the bad news though that he had to share along with that good news was that the
only way he could install the hydrant is if we disconnected the spring line from
the spring box to stop the water feed because if you don't do that he's not
gonna be able to get in there and replace the hydrant I know that the
spring is somewhere south of the barn in the woods probably not too far from one
of our streams so I have a general sense of the vicinity but I've actually never
found it even though I've gone looking for it a couple of times and so that
might be a little bit of a challenge I think the other problem is we've got
about two and a half feet of snow on the ground right now and aside from today
when it's been really rainy it's been a lot of cold cold days so the grounds
frozen solid so I'm not even sure I could disconnect the line even if it was
frozen I'm not really sure about that one honestly and that leaves me with
this conundrum of what to do you know I have a plan B which is I can fill the
water bucket up near the house remember how earlier I was explaining how snow
slides up yeah irony it's it's brutal so the spot that
I have the hydrant in it's like really close to where the snow is always
falling off the roof and so it's just sort of hard to get in there and I could
probably it wouldn't be too much of a problem to just do one bucket one or two
buckets a day but to do like eight of them or seven of them oh that's a lot
and so I got to figure this one out you
know just like when you think you've got the world figured out you get a new
curve ball I mean this will be fine and I'll manage but look it's not gonna make
life easier that's for sure so I wish I had a better conclusion for
you guys but that's pretty much all I got here on Gold Shaw Farm today where
we are building a farm in Vermont even though sometimes it's not always easy
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