Driving Training Update
It is about 5 below, and snowing, so it gives a good excuse to update the Carriage works blog - too early for gardening yet, so lets think about what has been happening around the place in the driving area.
First - we have a few more horses that have been hitched and are ready for a spring start. Hoss took to driving like we knew he would and Ken Rawlings did a great job with him, hitching him up with his good horse Musket, so now we might hitch him up with his grandmother, Jill to start with, or Major. He isn't a snappy horse, more a plodder, but that is just fine with me. Ben and Major are a little snappier in their movement.
The second pair is Savannah and Sahara, or as Ken called them Bobbie and Magee. Bobbie (Sahara) is the cutest little punch mare you ever saw, she is just plain round everywhere, and will get down and dig in the harness. She is Jill's daughter by a Fjord stallion. Savannah is more a riding horse type, not so drafty and round, and slightly taller, so they really aren't quite a matched pair, but they will drive together, and want to work. We got Savannah from Ray Blatchford as a match for Sahara when Amber delivered a beautiful but stillborn colt in 2010. We do have some pictures of the two of them hitched so I will find the pictures and get them up here.
Here is a pioneer forecart that looks very interesting and would work well with this team.
http://www.jonnyowoodironwork.com/index.html
John Olsen is building some great wagons and forecarts in the North Cariboo area. This one would work very well with the percheron teams. That third wheel really smooths out the ride for the driver, and the height means you can see over the backs of the teams. Hmmmm, four, unicorn, tandem, pair. Now is the time to dream - the reality is we will start with one or two.
Building the master suite
All the beams are in and fit beautifully. that is easy to type, but Fred did sweat a little over those beams fitting. Most of the insulation is in so it isn't cold in there to do the work.
The ceilings are up, tongue and groove pine boards, just finished with a clear coat. They look really good on the raised ceilings. The ceilings are 14 feet at the peak, so it looks quite lofty, open and airy. This week we were lining the closet area with cabinet grade birch, and getting ready to stain it. Didn't want gyproc in the closets because it is difficult to construct closet fixtures with attachments to gyproc, and we like birch. This next week we should be working on the plumbing in the bathroom, to get that ready to finish. The floors are now level and ready for tile after the bath tub is installed. Haven't picked out the tile yet, but the counter tops are composite granite in a dark color that should show up the lighter wood, so either the tile will be lighter granite type in porcelain or maybe darker if we can find something that will work for us. It is starting to come together, and does fit with what the vision for the suite was, so it is all good.
Taking a computer website development course with some friends from Farmed and really enjoying ourselves. Learning web page development from the basics up including being able to write in html, or in this case xhtml. Lots of and stuff, but could be an interesting skill even though we are probably a few years out of date with what we are doing. Bill says we are learning Computer Science 11 lessons from a few years ago, but it is fun and keeps our brains working; as long as I can figure out how to get into the text editor from Wordpad etc.
Pioneer Skills
Last night we went to a soap making workshop at the church. There were about twenty people there, which was great. Debbie Newman, Gene Pontius, Janet Knopp and I made some soap using the recipe about a month ago, and really were pleased with the resulting soap, using coconut oil, olive oil and lard. It made beautiful handsoap that lathered, cleaned and really lubricated your skin. We made it without any scents because we wanted it to be as pure as possible and hypo-allergenic. So last night we used the same methods, and it didn't quite trace while we were at the workshop, but it did overnight, and we were able to show that soap doesn't always do what you want, but it still will saponify and make good bars. You don't have to give up on it, just keep whipping, resting, and maybe reheating it. It still will turn out really nice. So soap making is one of the pioneer skills we are trying to teach people so they can be a little closer to the earth. It is possible to make batches of soap for very reasonable prices that is beautiful soap, and it really isn't difficult. So we may make another batch at home and have enough soap for the whole year for about $40.00, and we know exactly what is in it.
We are using this soap at the pool when we go and it really lubricates your skin and stops the itch from the chlorine.
http://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php
Majestic Mountain Sage
this is a great soap making resource website that we have used in all our soap making experiments - has a good lye calculator.
It is about 5 below, and snowing, so it gives a good excuse to update the Carriage works blog - too early for gardening yet, so lets think about what has been happening around the place in the driving area.
John Olsen is building some great wagons and forecarts in the North Cariboo area. This one would work very well with the percheron teams. That third wheel really smooths out the ride for the driver, and the height means you can see over the backs of the teams. Hmmmm, four, unicorn, tandem, pair. Now is the time to dream - the reality is we will start with one or two.
Building the master suite
All the beams are in and fit beautifully. that is easy to type, but Fred did sweat a little over those beams fitting. Most of the insulation is in so it isn't cold in there to do the work.
The ceilings are up, tongue and groove pine boards, just finished with a clear coat. They look really good on the raised ceilings. The ceilings are 14 feet at the peak, so it looks quite lofty, open and airy. This week we were lining the closet area with cabinet grade birch, and getting ready to stain it. Didn't want gyproc in the closets because it is difficult to construct closet fixtures with attachments to gyproc, and we like birch. This next week we should be working on the plumbing in the bathroom, to get that ready to finish. The floors are now level and ready for tile after the bath tub is installed. Haven't picked out the tile yet, but the counter tops are composite granite in a dark color that should show up the lighter wood, so either the tile will be lighter granite type in porcelain or maybe darker if we can find something that will work for us. It is starting to come together, and does fit with what the vision for the suite was, so it is all good.
Taking a computer website development course with some friends from Farmed and really enjoying ourselves. Learning web page development from the basics up including being able to write in html, or in this case xhtml. Lots of and stuff, but could be an interesting skill even though we are probably a few years out of date with what we are doing. Bill says we are learning Computer Science 11 lessons from a few years ago, but it is fun and keeps our brains working; as long as I can figure out how to get into the text editor from Wordpad etc.
Pioneer Skills
We are using this soap at the pool when we go and it really lubricates your skin and stops the itch from the chlorine.
http://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php
Majestic Mountain Sage
this is a great soap making resource website that we have used in all our soap making experiments - has a good lye calculator.
Our next workshop is planned for the fall when the cabbages are being harvested, so we can learn how to make saurkraut and kim-chi. Dr. Oz and others say that fermented vegetables are very good for your system, so this is another skill we can use, so we can use our beautiful cabbages. We have had wonderful cabbages here that have ended up spoiling because we didn't really know if our methods were working in making saurkraut.so will let people know when we are doing that workshop.
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