Providence's Perpetuation Provisions: New Kids "Ralphie" and "Alice"

So, a little over five months ago, Sue saw Minnie, one of our does, with her hind-end backed up against the fence, and one of our bucks, Shatner, her sire, trying to perform his male duty. From a distance, it looked like he was able to accomplish his task -- through the fence; but after Sue told me, I just couldn't see how that was physically possible. But over the past couple of months, we saw Minnie looking pregnant; and I believe I felt one of the kids through her side.

Well, about a week and a half ago, I was looking over at the goats from our orchard and saw a black and white goat laying next to Minnie. I thought, "Wow, Minnie and Adeline (our black and white doe that is in the same pen with her) are sure cozying up." But then I realized that the goat next to Minnie had long, floppy ears, whereas Adeline has the tiny LaMancha ears.

I ran up there, and sure enough, Minnie had given birth...to twins -- a male and female.

Introducing Ralphie and Alice. Here's Ralphie:




And here's Alice:




And them together:




And here is a video of them a few days old:




Although the inbreeding situation wasn't what we had planned, we are thankful to the Lord for the new provisions, and that they appear to be healthy, and for the safe and healthy delivery for both Minnie and new kids.

-- David

A House - Update XII - Porch Roof

With the porch post cross beams now in place, it was time to move onto adding the porch rafters and plywood. I wanted to do this so that we would have something to walk on when we starting putting up the main roof.

We started with a header plate against the house, to which the rafters would be fixed. Eventually, the plan is to lag bolt this plate to the wall studs:




We needed then to position the cross beams equidistant from the house. Here are some braces in place to hold them there:




And then the rafters started going up:




Mr. Gurau, who has been helping with the house, cut seats into the rafters as well, so more of the rafter is touching the cross beam, thus making it sturdier:




Once the rafters were in place, it was time to run a chalk line across each rafter, cut each rafter, and install the face plate:




Here is how Mr. Gurau did the hip corners of the porch roof:





He also added some of the rafter hangers now in the corners to give them more support, as the hip rafter itself holds most of the corner weight:




Once the rafters and face plate were built, it was time to add the plywood on top. It was recommended that we use actual (CDX) plywood, 1/2" thick, rather than OSB, as the CDX will stand up to weather better, and the underneath of the plywood at best will be painted only (and maybe not even that):





And here are some pictures of all of the plywood installed:






Here's how the hip corners look from the top:




It's been a long time since this whole house project started, and with being able to stand in the shade of the porch now, it's starting to feel like a house. It's also starting to get a little more exciting; but we've learned out here to relax expectations, as most often things don't go according to our plans (which, if we trust God and His plans, is a much better place in which to be!). This is the view out the front door:




And out the great room windows:




And here's a full external view of the porch roof:




Here's a calf enjoying the new shade too!




We are thankful to the Lord for allowing continued progress on the house, and for the help in Mr. Gurau and his expertise.

-- David

Garlic 2012

From our garlic harvest from last year, we thought we'd try replanting the cloves dried and preserved instead of purchasing garlic.

Here are the dried garlic stalks from last year:




And here are the cloves soaking in preparation for planting (here is how we did the garlic preparation last year):




We got a bit of a late start, but here are a couple of current pictures of the growing garlic. I would that more of them had sprouted; but we know, as it is spiritually, that all that can be done by man is planting and watering, and the results are God's, in accordance with His will:

1 Cor 3:7 - "So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase."






We're grateful for the opportunity to try to grow our garlic perpetuating it from the land only, and for the continued health benefits of being able to have garlic, and we pray that the Lord might grant a harvest in due season.

-- David

Meat Dryer

In continued efforts to separate from the world, unto God, one of the things that keeps us currently tied to it is how we process the meat after butchering the animal. At this time, we typically fire up the freezer, running off the generator, and then Sue pressure-cans it all. Processing the meat this way has two main problems: 1) running a generator and an electrical appliance, both which require ongoing maintenance and can break; and 2) using a canner, which also can require maintenance, and for us requires propane. Now, one can pressure-can using a wood burner; but it's apparently not very easy to do correctly; and still, the canner can lose parts or require replacement ones.

And so, how was it all done before there were these things we use today? Or even, how is it done by people today who don't have them either?

If you've studied this at all, you'll know that salt is typically used for preserving meats; but what do you do with it after that, especially when dealing with larger quantities of meat? Again, with further study, even today, especially in countries where freezers, etc. aren't available, the meat is hung in the wind to dry -- the air helping pull out the moisture -- the seed bed of bacteria -- out of the meat. And this can be done any time during the year.

Excellent!

And so, I wanted us to start heading down this direction. With all of the insects we have during the warmer months, I really wanted our place of drying to be enclosed in some way; but in looking for ideas on the Internet, there really weren't many I could see -- it appears in the countries where they process meat like this, they just simply hang it up in the open air. Still not really wanting to do that, I started to try to put a design together myself. And so, the plan was to have something that had removable doors, was screened in, and allowed the hanging of lots of meat of all different lengths.

Using left over sections that were cut off from our house porch posts, I made a base frame using them and treated 2x4s. The overall plan was to use as little wood as possible, being able to fit the dryer's frame under one piece of plywood as a roof, allowing for a little bit of roof overhang all around. I had originally thought about making a large dryer, but then figured I wouldn't use that many more materials if I made multiple dryers instead as needed, and they would be somewhat portable:




And then added the main frame and bottom frame joists:




And I planned for the removable doors to fit inside a frame, which is shown here:




Here is the bottom of the meat dryer with the screening in place:




And frame strips in place to hold on the screening. The strips are made by ripping the 2x4s into 4 strips each and then cutting to size. They are held by screws, as I wanted to be able to remove them to replace the screening if necessary. I also cut them to size to run counter to the bottom frame/joists connections (the strip would overlap where the joist butted up to the frame), to make it stronger; but next time, for expediency sake, I may place them in the same directions as the frame and joists:




I thought to use rebar on which to hang the meat hooks. I was going to hang rebar from wires that were hanging from the roof rafters; but one of the men here suggested I take a 2x4, drill holes along it, rip it in half, and us the half circles as the rebar holders. Great idea!





Here are the roof rafters and blocks in place:






With the bottom screening in place, the one thing I told myself was, "Do not drop anything on it." Well, that didn't last too long:




Oops. It was the thin corner of the roof rafter that got away from me. And so, I caulked it:




And here it is pretty much dry. I purposely designed everything (with screws, etc.) so that I could fairly easily replace the screening if I ever need to:




With Gary, the goose we use to have, being gone and no longer able to supervise as foreman, our cat, William, has apparently taken over:




Here is the first frame of the removable screen door with the screening stapled in place:




And then the other frame pieces were placed on top a piece at a time, secured with wood screws, in pilot holes:




Each frame piece was cut to overlap the pieces of the other frame (like the strips over the bottom frame joists):




I wanted to make sure the door was fairly square and a little stronger, and so I thought to add plywood corners. Here is a scrap piece of plywood, marked for cutting the corners:




And then with the corners cut:




And here is the removable screen door in place on the dryer, showing the corners attached, handles in place, and wood latches on top and below, holding it in place:




Here's a picture of the plywood roof in place:




I decided to use flashing for the roof:






On the low side of the roof, I had to move the screen door latch to the side, because I had planned to attach strips of wood under the overhang that the grommeted screws would attach to (which would also help hide the screws so they wouldn't become a skin or clothing hazard):




And here is the roof with the flashing installed:




And here are the flashing overhang supports/screw covers:




Here are the rebar hangers in place:




And some meat hooks bent in shape. I used a coat hanger, cutting the ends to be pointed, and I sanded the paint off. I needed an extra one after the coat hanger was used, and so I thought to use a piece of galvanized electric wire, because it appeared the coat hanger hooks were rusting some. In the end, I might need to have stainless steel ones:




Here they are hanging from the rebar:




And finally, voila! Brined/spiced meat hanging in the meat dryer!




We're still waiting for it to finish drying; and Lord willing, we'll report on that process at a later time.

We are grateful to the Lord for His provisions, and showing us how to handle those He's given us in a way that He has invented (with salt and air) instead of using man's enslaving methods.

-- David