Time Saving Invention

Here is the start of my time saving invention. Well it is not really my invention but I am building it for a lot less money than I could buy one for. This is the hitch and frame portion of a cultivator for the garden tractor. I borrowed a welder and made this up last weekend. There is more to build but the rest of it just bolts together. This will allow us to drive down the rows of plants and cultivate the weeds out of the vegatable garden.

Here is the commercially made unit.

Echo - Pulling Harness & Dino Bone

Echo trying out her new pulling harness and tire. This will give her a bit more exercise while going for a walk.

Echo's her Christmas present (The Dino Bone). She has feverishly attacked it on several occasions but its lasting a bit longer than a rawhide bone.

Year End Projects

A few last projects of the year. The first was to start the next batch of red wine brewing and the second was to install my flue gas temperature gauge in the wood stove. The ideal operating temperatures are 400-900 degrees F. This keeps the smoke down to a minimum and the maximum heat output.

Slate Moving

The slate is now in the house! Being smart pays off. Instead of lifting and carrying the heavy slate up the stairs into the house I decided to back my truck up to the stairs in the garage so that the tailgate was level with the landing. A quick shuffle and the slate is in the front entry awaiting for the billiard room renovation to be completed.

Pool Table Relocation

The pool table is going to be relocated to our house. Here are some shots of it all dismantled and wrapped up for transport. The slate, that is the table's playing surface, is 3 individual pieces of 1 inch thick Italian slate. Each piece was 150 pounds and was very heavy for Steve and I to carry up and out of the basement and into my truck. Now...who wants to come visit to unload it???

Santa Dogs

Echo

Mika

Play Pals

Vino Grande

Here is our first batch of wine. This is an Australian Shiraz. 30 bottles cost us just over $4 per bottle. This was an expensive but also very high quality kit. A more reasonable kit would yield good wine for around $2 per bottle.

Snow is here!

Echo the Pumpkin!

Echo's likeness carved into one of our pumpkins.

Gram Rolls Into Town To Make Some Money!

After a long train ride from Edmonton; Gram rolls in and stays a few days with us. During her stay she made money in Winnipeg at the Royal Canadian Mint.

A $400,000 brick of 99.99% pure Gold. It weighs 28 pounds and is guarded at all times.

Dana's mother with the Gold bar.

A coin stamping machine (the same as a production machine) is out in the gift shop to strike your own coin medallion. This is where we all made money!

Gram posing for the 2009 quarter design.

Gram knitting a pair of slippers while Dana and her mother were making Nalysnyky (Ukrainian Cheese Roll).

Fall Leaves & Echo

Here is Echo posing in the leaves.

Bonus Room Renovation

Started with the tear down of the cheap fake panelling.

Removing the popcorn stipple ceiling. Also removing the bad drywall tape joints.

More bad drywall tape joints on the wall. Also badly peeling paint and damaged drywall from the panel glue.

Too much damage! What now?

Cutting the loss by replacing the drywall with new. Faster than repairing the old drywall and probably a better finished wall in the end.

The newly hung drywall.

New drywall with the first coat of mud and tape.

Fixing the other side. Ready now to re-tape the ceiling.

Green Peppers

Roma Roma Roma!

Hmmm...Dana I don't think we have enough Roma Tomatoes! This is about 250 pounds harvested and only done picking about 1/3 of the plants. Then there are the Beefsteak tomatoes!

Echo and her Necklace!

Echo wearing her tennis ball necklace.

Grapes on the way to wine!

Here is a shot of our grapes. They are so good and lots of them to pick. Maybe we should let them freeze and make ice wine. What do you think?

Artichoke Harvest

Here we have some artichokes. There are more to pick in the coming weeks. Who knew they would grow here. They are a very visually interesting plant.

Rain barrel visitor.

Here is our local rain barrel visitor... a tree frog. He also visits our front living room window sill.

Pumpkins

Here are the first two harvested pumpkins of 2008! The one on the left weighs in at 28 pounds and the right at 32 pounds.

Out on a walk.

Here are some photos when we were out on a walk with Echo.

Alignment of the Moo Moos.

Sunset with the grain elevator in the distance.

Home Canning

The canning season has started. So far we have pickled 1/2 our beets and yielded 11 jars. Tonight we made pickled mixed vegatables. 14 jars of that should last a while.

The top picture features our new pressure canner. A pressure canner reaches a much higher temperature to kill off bacteria thus allowing us to can items without the use of vinegar.

Echo's Food Pyramid

New Tractor Driver

This well trained tractor driver is going to make our life a little easier around the farm!

The next visitors...project.

This pile of wood was cut from a wind damaged tree today. The neighbours tree blew over in the big wind storm we had. We had two limbs come off some of our trees. The ash tree is now cut up for firewood. The next visitor to our house will have to split it up. Hmmm...lets see who that is....my brother who's name starts with the letter 'P'.

Grapes Galore

We have two grape vines along the driveway fence. They are loaded with bunches of grapes. Mmmm...can not wait!