Preparing For Fall and Winter

The nights are getting colder, and the days less humid. Leaves on a few of our less-than-healthy trees have begun to drop. Summer is winding down and fall is on its heels so we are preparing for a new season. As far as summer activities go, I’d like to get another mowing in this week.

Otherwise, we’ve been focusing on the following:

• Insulate Clyde’s dog house (Done)
• Finish building solid foot bridge over creek (Done)
• Fix the automatic watering buckets for the chickens
• Order 200 gallons of oil for the monitor/heater (Year’s supply)
• Cut another cord of wood for the fireplace
• Insulate plumbing (partially done)
• Insulate attic (done)
• Insulate walls (done)

I can see already that rolling out of bed and putting on my boots to go let the chickens out and water them is going to take on a different mood once I am no longer breathing in the crisp-but-comfortable morning air of summer, and instead must cross a snow-covered bridge,  fumble with frosted carabiners to open the doors, and fill water buckets in the ice-cold creek. Thinking ahead, I’ll either figure out a way (sans-electricity) to keep the water buckets from icing up, or will do the ol’ switch-out routine in which I keep two sets of all water buckets so I can exchange a frozen one for a fresh one each morning.

Although I’ll be cold for a few minutes each morning, we should all be nice and comfy inside our house now. We had insulation blown into the walls (would you believe it used to be just siding board over 2x4s with NO insulation at all?) and into the attic last week. We also bought a small wood-burning stove for the back porch to heat that area and the kitchen, if needed. An oil monitor and fireplace should heat the rest of the house just fine, but we have a few small electric heaters tucked away just in case.

As for Clyde, he is going to be nice and warm inside his insulated dog-house, featuring an attic with “blown in” insulation (thrown in, actually) and insulated walls (fiberglass battens sandwiched between plywood and drywall) just like a “real” house. He also has five inches of foam bedding on the floor and an off-set door so the wind isn’t blowing directly in his face if it happens to come from the west.

The plumbing has been known to freeze in this house so I am in the process of insulating all of it. So far I’ve managed to get all of the pipes in the pump-house, and have wrapped the pressurizing tank. Next up are the pipes in and out of the hot water heater, followed by anything under the house. I might even staple up some battens between the floor joists while I’m down there in the crawl space.

Mrs. Simpleton is busy kitting herself a comfy sweater and sewing up some new, cozy dog beds.

We still have some time left, but when that first substantial snow falls and we’re tucked cozily away in front of the fire inside our little farmhouse – I think we will be drinking a big cup of satisfaction and contentment with our well-earned hot chocolate. …until something freezes and bursts, or some animal gets sick or hurt, or something falls apart or stops working. But life would be boring if all we had to do was sit around and talk about how simple it is.

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Category: DIY Projects, The Transplants