Using Wood From the Farm for Winter Crafts

Two of my sons have found some ways to use some of the smaller pieces of wood that are available or accumulate around the farm.

James uses some of the smaller branches when we cut firewood to make coasters for our glasses around the house.

First he picks a branch of the right size and starts cutting blanks that are about a half inch thick.  He keeps them around for about a month or so to get rid of the ones that develop cracks. Most of them are usually okay.

He has tried freezing them as a means of keeping them from cracking. And he has tried putting them into a zip-lock bag to keep them from cracking, because this supposedly keeps them moist and makes them dry out more slowly with less cracking. Both of these methods really don't work any better than just letting them sit for a while.

Once he thinks the wook will be okay,  he breaks out the wood burner and gets to work. After the design is burned into the wood he usually coats them with some polyurethane clear coating.

Michael likes to carve thngs from wood he finds around the farm.

He uses knives and other hand tools to make his creations.

When he is finished carving he usually coats them in some type of oil. A lot of time he just uses canola oil. Sometimes he uses olive oil.

He also makes handles for knives, hatchets and axes.

Most of the time he makes something functional, but sometimes he just carves something whimsical.

Just a Winter Update

It's starting to snow outside. I just got in a bit ago from putting some old hay down for bedding in the Highland area of the barn. They're up in the top field, but I expect they will come down to the barn as we have a winter storm warning and are expected to get 3 to 6 inches of snow tonight. We will get 6 or more up on the ridge here.

Gave the Angus cross steers some extra hay and water as they were watching me from the pen next door, and I could tell they were hoping I was going to add a little hay to their pen too.

We had something dig a hole and get into the chicken coop yesterday. No damage done, but probably a rat based upon the size of hole. It went beneath the cement that I put down in a trough along the base of the wall. I dug it up on the inside and outside of the wall and filled it with Sakrete. Our cat jaguar must be getting a bit soft. We haven't seen a rat since we bought the place years ago.

The chickens got out the past few days. We had unseasonably warm weather lately, and they were out grazing on the grass and whatever else they could scratch up in the gardens and the woods. The yolks will be a bit darker this week because of their forays into the wild. Our eggs are always better than any, including the most expensive, eggs in the stores, but in the winter if we have a long period of snow the yolks lighten up a bit, never as pale as the factory farm eggs, but not the dark orange of spring, summer, and fall eggs.

We have been doing some crop and cattle contemplation this winter. We have been considering some Belted Galloway, Angus, and Hereford. We bought another 15 acres, 8 field and 7 woods, that adjoins our farm, and are thinking about what we want to do with it. There are three springs on the new land, which we really wanted. Two have houses around them, though one is in need of repair. My son Michael has started working on it. We hope to be able to stop hauling water thanks to the new acquisition.