Last of the bow hunting season - leaf gathering and more equipment repairs

The last of the bow hunting season this year

To answer the question: did I get one? No, I did not.  

I saw plenty of deer on the trail cams and even from the blind behind the red barn.  However, I only saw one buck on the cams - and he was too small to take (and I never saw him IRL - just on cam).  

Friday morning I went out to the blind behind the red-barn and waited for a while -I was rewarded with quite a few sightings.  Many of the sightings were before sunrise, so that wasn't useful, however, I did draw a bead on a doe just after sunrise, but I decided against taking her in a split-second decision.  She was just too small and I really don't want to go through the hassle of cleaning and butchering a small deer.  

I was planing to go out Saturday morning too, but I was too tired and sore (and sick - see leaf gathering info below on why).  I still have hope for the regular season (rifle) that starts on Nov 28th.  I should really sight-in my rifle soon so as not to scare the deer off when the season finally kicks in.  I heard my neighbors doing that on Sunday before I left - high-powered rifles are LOUD!

Some pictures from the red-barn game cam earlier in the week.

Plenty of does.  Some quite nice!

Leaf vacuuming time!

If you look back in the blog a bit you will see that I thought that I got my leaf vacuum and lawnmower all set for leaf gathering...  Well, i was wrong.

I got the mower and vacuum started and vacuumed up some leaves.  After the first load was dumped I noticed that the mower deck was not level and i was cutting higher on one side than the other.  As I continued to gather leaves this unevenness seemed to get worse until, after the 5th load I think, I was gathering some leaves in the persimmon tree area (quite hilly) and I got stuck.  After the usual fiddling around I determined that the mower deck had come off and was acting like a big (and effective) brake.  I went and towed the mower and leaf vacuum up to the shop using the tractor.

After some investigation I confirmed that the mower bracket repair that I had made last year (?) had broken off.  But not only that, one of the spindles had also broken off two attachment flanges!

Broken flanges on one of the spindles

Broken bracket repair

So I pretty much spent the rest of the weekend on fixing this bugger.

First step was to TIG weld the bracket back onto the deck.  I had used the GMAW (stick) weld before and really messed it up bad.  I had the amperage too high, and just blasted away a lot of the metal. That's why I chose to TIG weld this piece this time.  TIG is good for building up missing metal (well, I feel that it is anyway).

Here I am setting up for the weld:

It was definitely hard to get a good shot after painting everything black!  Oh well.  The weld was better than the stick weld.  We will see how long it lasts!

Reverse Side of the weld

Ready to attach the new spindle

Bolting the new spindle on

All done.  Spindle on and belt guides installed

Mower deck back on and vacuum reattached.  Ready to go!

I also removed, straightened and sharpened the blades while the deck was off.  Whew.  Almost a whole day spent repairing this!

That was all I had time for.  I cleaned up the onion harvest and bagged them up for the trip back. Then I took off for home/

This is why you need to weed the onions!  Oh, and harvest them on time too - don't let them sit in the wet ground!

Gettysburg, backhoe, grape mulching and, leaf collection

Gettysburg

I headed straight from a business meeting in Gettysburg, PA (where I stayed in the very hotel Lincoln stayed in!) to the farm late Friday.

Starting and moving the backhoe

Well, I finally got up the nerve (and found the time) to move the backhoe!  I, of course, forgot which pedal moved it forward an reverse so I backed it into the back wall of the garage.  It pushed out a few screws but its basically still intact.  I don't think I will need to fix the problem.

A bit of a bulge!

Popped the head of a couple of the sheet metal screws holding the siding on the garage.

The pile of wood on the forks (left) is for the woodshed door (or wall, depending on what I decide) . That's all milled by me on my own mill from my own trees!

A couple of the stringers got dislocated, but the wall seems to be pretty strong yet.  Not going to mess with it now.

I moved the backhoe to the front of the shop - I had some old scrape wood from building the woodshed in its frontloader.

I moved the backhoe down in front of the shop.  I had stored some scrap wood leftover from building the woodshed in the frontloader of the backhoe.  The scrap was mostly too wide to put through the chipper, so  I used the upright bandsaw to cut it into manageable strips.  Then I used the chipper on the tractor to make some more wood chips.

Mulching the grape vines

I finally had enough wood chips to mulch the grapes!  I first weed whacked around the vines and then applied the mulch.  I was careful to make sure the wood chips weren't up against the vines themselves.  I put down a fair amount of chips around the vines, but I didn't want to put down so many as to get into the way of the mower.  I think I chose a good amount.

I am hopeful that the wood chips will protect these little vines over the winter!  They are having a hard time thanks to the rust.  

It looks a bit better anyway!  

Leaf gathering

I fired up the husqvarna (just barely - it needed charging and some ether to start!) an got the leaf vacuum going.  I vacuumed up the entire "local" yard, around the paw-paw patch, the red-barn and the driveway and hazelnut area.  I didn't vacuum in the orchard, grape vines, and cherry trees; just wasn't enough leaves down there to bother.

I bent the frame of the vacuum bag trailer - I don't know when.  I think it was this year.  I had to dump the old sunflower seeds first.  

Front yard after vacuum

piling the leaves near the front gardens this time

You can see some of the frost in this picture.

More apple canning and my backhoe is home!

Apple pie filling

I found a recipe online that looked interesting and didn't require apple juice (the Ball recipe requires apple juice).  the recipe doesn't call for blanching the apples, but cold packs them in quart jars, and THEN proposes to pour the thick sauce over the cold apples!  I made 7 quarts this way.  I had to remove the cold apples from the jars and alternate packing apples in and pouring the thick sauce over top.  I water bathed quarts for 40 mins because 25 just didn't seem long enough for raw apples!  One quart jar didn't seal so I brought it back to taste.  It is good, but i really am going to keep an eye on these!  The next time we are going to use a Ball or similar recipe!


A better recipe may be found on NCHFP.

My Backhoe is home!

Yep!  They finally delivered it Saturday afternoon.  I was getting concerned because by 1 pm i had heard nothing.  I started doing the leaf vacuum thing and was well into it when i saw the truck pull up!  It really wasn't that expensive a fix - they replaced several leaking hoses and rebuilt a hydraulic manifold.  They also serviced the engine, looks much nicer and has considerably more power!  I am very happy!

My baby is home!  I parked it there because i need to use it more in the next couple of weeks!

The Drainage ditch

The next day I put my backhoe to work digging the drainage ditch I had put on hold since last fall!  This ground is stony and well packed so a backhoe is needed to dig it up!  The backhoe did a great job!  I need to clean up the ditch a little and then lay down the tile.  I will have to wait until next weekend though.  There just isn't enough time this weekend.

First leaf gathering of the fall

I fired up the cyclone rake and mowed/vacuumed up the leaves in the front yard.  Nothing unusual.  The grass was a bit taller than it should have been for optimal performance (the vent screen got clogged a couple of time due to grass clippings).    Looks and smells much nicer now.  More leafs are coming down though, so I am sure there will be more vacuuming in the future!

First corking of my concord (well, any) wine!

I finally got the equipment I needed to cork my wine (and the wine was ready - I think) so away I went!  I only did one of the carboys of concord as a test.  The other one was topped off with the leftovers from the first carboy.  Even though I didn't go through a whole carboy of wine I still managed to fill 2 cases of bottles! The second carboy can be bottled at my leisure now since its topped off tight.  Here are some pictures of the setup:

Bottle tree loaded with bottles.

This is a gadget that holds sanitizer and can shoot it up into the bottles.  Very handy!

Here are the bottle after corking.  First 1-2 days they are kept upright.  Then they are stored on their sides.

Bottle rinsing attachment for the sink.  This allows one to clean a bunch of bottles very quick!

I didn't get a picture of the floor corker.  I will try next time I am up at the farm!  It all went fairly smoothly.  It is quite a production though.  Very messy.  Many rags/towels were used!

Pear wine

I racked the first batch of pear wine into a narrow mouth bubbler/carboy.  I added another tablespoon of pectic enzyme to help it clear - its still very hazy.   We will see how it looks next weekend.

I went out to the garage and gathered the remaining pears.  Good lord!  They were ready and there were lots!  I weighed them out after trimming the bad spots and cleaning - all told I ground up 80 lbs of pears for wine tonight!  Counting the first carboy that makes a total of over 120 lbs of pears!   I added double the pectic enzyme to both of the new batches of pear wine to help in the haze issue noted in the first batch.  I did not add any acid to these batches.  I added sugar to get to a SG of about 1.060, as called for in the purple book recipe for "perry".  I used Cuvee yeast since that's what they call for with champagne.   This should be a drier wine.  I need to get some more champagne bottles for this though - I only have 24 champange bottles!   I should probably get more claret bottle for corking too!