April 2, 2016 Chipping Away

We spent the entire afternoon out at our homesteader's "Farm" yesterday burning tree debris. It was a nearly perfect day: seventy-two degrees, clear with a light northerly breeze. This is maybe our seventh burning day and burning the mix of wet(ish) berry vines, grasses, twigs, branches, and logs, takes some experience. Note to self: don't just push every damned thing into a pile and hope it will light on fire.

Even if tractor renting days are fun, and they are fun, the time restriction of renting a tractor which only has eight hours of actual work time makes for some bad decisions. This is an economic thing because it is based on a cost benefit analysis, leading us into short term gains and longer termed pains. We now have three large piles of mixed organic debris, totaling maybe two hundred cubic yards (loosely packed). Branches and logs poke out of the piles. The piles have been compacted, so everything is sort of woven together. Heavier things go to the bottom, so it looks from the outside as if the whole thing ought to light right up and burn to the ground. But this immediate success isn't what happened. Not everything just burns because of combined heat, air, and fuels.

We did a few successful burns in Winter, the first was a burn of paper trash from our forty-five foot shipping container full of trash. (You can find notes on this looking through the archive.) We found that it took three hours of sitting in the rain, with gasoline, to get paper to burn hot enough so that you didn't have to pour more gasoline on the fire. Eventually we broke the code and got about five yards of paper, magazines, books, mail, and cardboard to burn in a self sustaining manner.

Following on this we tried a few other times to get the wood debris piles to light up and get hot, but three hours following the same protocols didn't make any sort of a dent. Eventually we began to realize that burning in the winter, while it was raining or had been raining, was a nearly complete waste of time. But we had fun trying and a day on the Farm is better than a day not on the Farm.

The yard debris fire

The next time we got anything going we were simply lucky to get anywhere. I built a fire in a debris pile we had built of scraps from our landscape business, not stuff from the property. Three hours of cussing eventually got the thing lit up and "jetting" occurred for the first time. (A fire jetting up is what happens when the air gets through the fire and makes the excessive heat it take to burn cold, wet, wood.) Once we saw this we began piling light stuff onto the fire, which established a base of coals hot enough to sustain the fire no matter what we poured on. Eventually we made it through ten yards of debris before it got too dark to keep going.

The next successful burn happened after Tractor Day #3 (again, look in the archives). I had dropped a bunch of trees by pushing them over using a ten ton skid steer tractor, but the trees were too large to push into the ever debris growing piles. We got a break in the weather and it wasn't raining, even if the ground was still pretty soggy, so we decided to try. This time we had a plan to build a base fire on a steel screen of heavy wire mesh we found laying around somewhere (the crap lay everywhere). The hypothesis we were testing was that there was not enough air in the fire to allow jetting, ember pile building, excessive heat, and success.

We took twigs sized (1/4 inch or so) branches from a close by and gigantic plum tree, mixed these with paper from the shipping container, doused the thing with gasoline, and lit it up. As soon as the fire took off (jetting) we began loading branches, but I put stuff on that very new fire which was much too large and the fire faltered a bit; but eventually we got it back up to making hot coals and, with the help of Elliot (our cheap but mostly trusty chain saw that doesn't seem to like being called Elliot), we burned the hell out of a fifteen or so yards of plum tree and other wooden crap found laying all over the property. We began seeing the pattern of our behavior, learning seemed possible.

The Plum Tree Fire

A few weeks back we went out to test our new Theory of Fire with the certain knowledge that would allow us to light a really big pile up and, using fire as a tool, make our lives easier. The plan was simple enough: Build one fire, then another, then another, by the end of the day all of our pile related problems would be solved.

We built a fire right on the side of the enormous West Meadow Debris Pile, now  a monument to permanent pile making and so deserving a name of it's own. The fire took off right away (as planned), but the pile never caught on. Eventually we ran out of gasoline, and anything else that would burn, and so we had to get more. . .  At the gas station in Banks they sold wood pellets for pellet stoves as well as gasoline. These pellets are little rabbit turds of sawdust extruded into plastic bags weighing about thirty pounds. I bought one, thinking it might make good kindling (and what the heck) and we began making another fire on the side of the West Meadow Pile. The pellets worked the trick and got hot enough to burn nearly anything, but we still found ourselves having to carry wood into the fire anyway, the darned pile refused to cooperate. In the end we spent eight hours and burned only ten yards which didn't make much of a dent in our hundred yard pile.

We did learn some valuable maxims: "That is is more fun to try then not to try". "That being together trying was more fun than not trying alone". "That we would maybe need twenty or so of these ten yard burns to accomplish the task". "That it ought to be done maybe sometime this year if the weather cooperates and we have the time".

Yesterday I bought the pellets first. Brought all of Elliot's necessary fuels and oils. Got the screen set up. And the weather looked good. We built a fine little fire in about ten minutes and spent eight hours chopping away and the large pile of trees and stuff. We burned nearly twenty yards, maybe more.

We brought snacks, should have brought food. We brought lots of beer, should have brought more water. It was sunny, should have brought sunscreen. Don't call Elliot, but do call Elliot "Leo" or he won't start. Lessons learned.

Hagel called the search for true knowledge the "road to despair", he was right (there is no true knowledge, only patterns of regularity which we use to get by as we search for knowledge that ultimately will fail us). The regularities are piling up. Eventually, you should be able to see the flames of my fires from space.

March 25, 2016 Puppy Announcement

<<< Information about our hound tangle is just to the left.

March 22, 2016 - Puppies are on the way!

This morning I went into the puppy room, to feed our tangle of hounds, only to find Clark and Cinnamon stuck together with confused looks on their faces. Nobody was hurt in the process, everyone seems very happy about it. Ann and I are very happy about it because puppies are a big initial part of what we are trying to do as we build the Farm project.

As the math suggests: May 24th the puppies arrive, they may be delivered about July 19th.

March 9, 2016 Returning to normality

The weather today is horribly rainy, so I am taking the day off of my regular work to avoid the mud and deliver the puppies. The kind of day where wet cheeks can be expected. We deliver our first flight of puppies to the Critter Cabana in Wilsonville today. Bittersweet. But this is also our standing in the light at the end of the tunnel and so a time for planning and organization.

We need to get more things started and this good fortune allows a few new projects. We have the money to get the trash off of the Farm, with loads of dumpsters and tractor day #4. We hope to do this the first dry week of Spring along with a big bunch of burning. We will also begin renovating our home in North Plains by building closet and office into the entry way. The layout of the house is a bit sucky where you go through the front door and this closet/office thing was planned a long time ago to add value to the house. Now that we are getting the house ready to sell we need to get this done.

Our breeding plan might go forward sooner than we had thought. Cinnamon was holding off on going into her breeding season while Carmen had babies, but this morning she was spotting blood, so another litter might be a few months away. We are getting better at breeding professionally, so this next litter might bring us to the point of adding another girl to our tangle of hounds. The Farm project's next big purchase, other than building permits, is a travel trailer to live in while we build the house. Once the house is built, the trailer is remodeled and becomes the new kennel, allowing us to begin taking boarders as soon as the grounds and fences are built. We are trying hard not to become a "puppy mill" as we go forward into the dog business. I heard a woman on the radio say that a "puppy mill" is a breeder who does this business for the money. I don't agree with that and can probably refute it on a great many reasonable grounds; but perception is everything in a political world, so we are being careful with our image and how the world might see us. Breeding is problematic, but in my opinion a good breeder might well be doing this for the money AND doing it for the betterment of the breed. Our hope is to breed a better pet. We are not interested in showing our dogs, though this might raise our puppy price and so may become a good idea in the future. So if showing dogs and losing money are the hallmarks of not operating a "puppy mill", then those who do shows and lose money are not good business people. We are trying to become farmers. Farmers exploit nature. So be it. The dog business plan was always the first step onto the farm and includes a dog hotel as an income stream as well as kennel - breeding - grooming - and hygiene rooms. The proceeds of this business then going to building the next phase of the Farm . . . The orchards.

 Today we take another tiny step toward the Farm.

March 6, 2016

We are into our last week with the babies. The puppies are fully weened from their mother (who is beginning her long recovery(more later on.) They spend their days playing in the puppy room, outside in the front (mud pit), or in their pen sleeping. Each has his or her own personality.

• Sugar Baby is still my first love. She is a little form of the Basset Hound but she has kept the clownish humor, fierce-ness in the face of her being smaller, soulful eyes, and beautiful looks. She appears much smaller than most in size, and rules like a little sister princess with good natured snappishness. She will go to our new friends at Critter Cabana in Wilsonville.
• Scotch Mallow, also going to Wilsonville, is second on my list. She is the biggest and I think the happiest. She is fearless and funny at all times. She fights with ghosts and charges in more directions than one most of the time except when following the pack. She is HUGE compared to Sugar Baby, but her ears haven't exceeded expectations like most of the others. Her coat is a slightly wire-y soft brown with some dark drown and good white patches. She is HEAVY, and will make a fine pet.
• Junior Mint has a home to go to, and the idea the new parents have is to replace a Basset for a friend that lost one. She will be the best possible companion. She is adventurous and a pure bred attention hound. She'll be good for walks. She is perhaps the prettiest baby as of today and she is definitely Ann's favorite.
• Tootsie Roll has continued to dominate the field for independent spirit. She will need a fenced yard and good parents to take her to obedience classes early on. She is a good-hearted person and will eventually expect to rule in your home too once you get the jhist of your new position. She is mostly black and really awfully pretty. Her ears are to the floor but she doesn't tred on them when exploring the yard (or they would be very muddy).  She will be going to Wilsonville.
• Skittles is arguable the loveliest Basset Puppy I have seen. Everything about her is right. She is everything her sisters are and a bit more. She will be going to Wilsonville too, I hope they are careful placing her in a home where she will be appreciated.
• Milk Dud (Dude) is still all male. He has taken to howling, while the others whine, and has quite a large voice for such a small fellow. His appetite is large and his features are perfect. He will being living in the northern Willamette Valley. He will be a protector and good friend for them there.

We are going to miss them. We won't miss the loads of soiled laundry. We will miss seeing them grow and change, but will not lose sleep over their going. Sleep will be nice once more.

I will be posting pictures tonight on our Facebook page.