evan's ant village log

Day 137

Mixed up another batch and a half of cob and put it in the roof. It's looking good, I think, and even the largest gaps are filling easily without cob falling through. Another 9 or 10 batches should do it, but the next step is to haul over some more clayey sand and soak some more cow pies.

Nick, who's back from Alaska with lots of interesting stories about his experience there, helped me out a bit with the cobbing today. He let me handle the smooshing up the cow pies, though.

After a bit of research, it seems like the niacin in plants is mostly unavailable to ducklings, but that sunflower seeds are a potential source. I think I'll still look into getting either brewer's yeast and/or proper duckling starter, but for now I crushed up some sunflower seeds for them.

You could sprout the sunflower seeds, I dont know if it would change the ratio but during the winter months we supplement our chickens with sprouted sunflowers and they really enjoy it.

Ooh, you got the same absolutely-cheapest trash cans that I also found Very useful and frugal... I use 5 or 6 to haul leaves in my tiny Transit van.

Day 138

All this haze in the air is exhausting. I ended up taking a long nap in the afternoon. Not very ant-like of me.

Used some tractor time to haul a few tons of clayey sand over from near Dances with Pigs Meadow. I think I might have enough dirt for my cobbing, now it's just a matter of collecting the cow pies, soaking, sifting, stomping, and smearing.

My ducklings are getting bigger fast, though probably not as fast as if I could keep them at the optimal 90ish degrees they want at this age.

Day 139

Another crazy hazy day. I've heard estimates of anywhere between 35 and 101 forest fires are currently burning here in northwest Montana, and some are over 1000 acres. Yikes.

Good thing with Josh, Nick, and Brian's help we got the track back on the excavator. It seemed like the reason it came off this time was that grease had leaked out of a faulty fitting and so the track lost tension. Josh replaced it and so far it seems to be holding.

Having some water up here might help reduce the risk of everything going up in flames. Once we got the track back on, I dug down deep and pulled up some wet rocks. It's not a pond yet, but it's definitely a good sign.

Day 140

Mixed up a good big batch of cob and smeared it into my roof. It's almost halfway done. I think maybe 8 more batches should do it.

The ducklings are sooo cute! Just look at 'em all ducking around being all ducky and stuff. My initial reasoning for keeping them at the leviathan during the night was that I figured it had more power and less people using it than the voltswagon, but at the moment the voltswagon seems more than up to the task of running an incandescent, so the ducks and I crashed at Allerton Abbey overnight with a light powered by the voltswagon. A bit closer and more convenient, but I would still prefer to be able to keep them warm here on my homestead instead. Self-sufficiency someday soon.

You should check out the rocket mass brooder idea: https://permies.com/t/47829/rocket-stoves/Rocket-Mass-Brooder

Adrien Lapointe wrote:

You should check out the rocket mass brooder idea: https://permies.com/t/47829/rocket-stoves/Rocket-Mass-Brooder

I was just thinking the same thing when I read this. Great minds, I guess.

Evan , and others, please stay out of that trench !! That is a death trap ! People are killed all of the time in trenches that are only six feet deep. Please, please, please stay out of there unless you have safety shoring in place.

Yes. I'd agree with that. My husband was working in a trench that was wider and shallower than that one, with people and machinery there in case of a cave in. It did collapse, just on his legs and he could not, no way, move. The others who were there had to dig him out.