Cedar Woods Farm

Mega Egg

Andrew — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:57:35 +0000

We get our share of double yolker (and even two triple) eggs but this morning’s haul is worthy of sharing.

Giant egg, double the weight of a standard large egg

As the picture shows, at 119g it’s twice the weight of a regular large egg (that needs to be between 56 and 63 grams). This blows away our previous record big egg that was at 93g (if I remember correctly). Here’s how it looks compared to the other eggs from this morning, all well into the large size range.

The giant egg compared to 3 large eggs

First Egg!

Andrew — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:29:32 +0000

When I moved the chicken pen to fresh pasture on the grass this morning there was our first egg lying there!

The first egg from our Pastured Chickens

Time to get the nesting boxes built. With almost two dozen hens we’re hoping to get at least a dozen a day when things are at full production. Lots of yummy breakfasts ahead

Great Morning

Andrew — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 12:52:11 +0000

This morning is one of those classic winter days filled with potential. The sunrise was worth sharing.

Looking across the snowy front field with the sun rising

Rebuilding a 3 Point Hitch Back Blade

Andrew — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 04:28:29 +0000

I figured I’d add a few farm related projects to the site here. This is one that I kinda backed into over the past few weeks. I picked up a badly beaten back blade for scrap this summer. It sat waiting for me to get to until a few weeks ago when I decided to pull it out and see if I could get it going quickly to help clean the driveway. The quick answer is it’ll take a bit of work. I’ve been taking it apart and now feel that it’s well worth saving.

I’ve been discussing this project with my friends at the Machine Builders Network.

I didn’t take a picture of it before I started. Here’s the state it’s in now:

The blade for the 3pt hitch back blade

This is the main frame. You can see where the end that has the latch that holds the blade at a certain angle had broken several times and been repaired, with varying degrees of finesse and success. I’m going to have to cut the whole crack out so I can bend things back into the proper position.

Rear Blade Frame

The threads at the end of the blade pivot had been all messed up. They had ground groves to hold a cable clamp in place to keep the blade on using a plumbing flange as a washer. Originally there must have been some sort of special “washer” and then a heavy nut with a split pin to keep it in place. The thread is 1″ fine thread. I managed to clean up the threads with a borrowed thread repair file.

Blade Pivot and Latch

Here’s a close up of the bodged up “fix”. A nut will now thread on. I think I’ll weld a plate on to a nut so I can use the “good” part of the threads down near the bottom.

Pivot Mangled Threads

There is an adjustable rod from the front frame to the back that will adjust the blade angle (I think). It was rusted solid but I managed to get it moving heating it red hot. It would only move when glowing. There was about a foot of threaded rod that I could only get to move a few turns at a time. The rod is bent now because it bent as I was cranking it out when the rod was very hot. My current plan it to use the top link to replace the thread. Or I might buy a chunk of 1″ threaded rod and weld it in (as it looks like was done previously). I’m not sure that this massive range of adjustment is really needed. A grease nipple certainly is needed though!

Rear Blade Top Link

More new life on the farm

Andrew — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:13:59 +0000

This makes 6 calves in a row that I haven’t been around to see born. Sometime mid day (I suspect) Marigold had her third calf.

Marigold and her 2010 new born Calf

Here’s a close up of the little heifer calf.

Marigold's 2010 Heifer Calf

Shortly after I took these pictures I helped the calf up and she had a good suck. I think all is well, I’m not completely sure that Marigold’s milk is full coming in, but likely that’s just me being a worried “uncle” (or some such).

The only cow left to calf now is Charlotte, but she won’t be due for several months yet I expect. This given her calf last year wasn’t born until Labour Day (fittingly perhaps). I’m now 1 and 1 on the sexes this year.

Green Lawn Mowers

Andrew — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 19:35:44 +0000

I thought I’d share a view of our new high tech lawn mowers. This model has some highly desirable features:

Autonomous & self propelled
Run on renewable, green energy
Low emissions
Thorough
Self renewable
Fertilizes while it mows

First 2010 Calf

Andrew — Tue, 11 May 2010 19:49:19 +0000

My favourite moma cow Squiggy came through again with her fourth calf today. He seems to be a healthy bull calf who was born without any assistance (from me anyway).

First Calf for 2010

After running out of patience for nature I eventually helped him stand up and before long he was enjoying his first meal.

Squiggy's 2010 Calf having his first meal

This first drink is so important because the colostrum has all the antibodies that get the immune system of the calf off and running. Once I’ve seen this happen I’m a lot more confident that everything will work out for the best.

Spring Pansies

Andrew — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 16:10:09 +0000

It’s been an early spring here this year, and I think overall a fairly mild winter. We looked across a week ago and saw spashes of colour from last years vegetable garden. We were happy to discover that most of the pansies we planted last year made it through the winter and were flowering already. We also have more pansies growing in other places that have self seeded themselves from last year.

We grew the pansies to use as garnish on our plates at the Yellow Canoe Cafe. I picked the second batch this morning and here they are ready for use today:

Spring Pansies ready for Garnish at the Yellow Canoe Cafe

Signs of Spring

Andrew — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 15:27:03 +0000

Daffodils are Susan’s favourite flowers. We’ve planted quite a few about the farm in the past few years and need to put in more. I noticed this morning that they’re blooming.

Spring Daffodils

Carbon Neutral Heat

Andrew — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:02:46 +0000

One thing I like about heating with wood at the farm is that I can fill the “oil” tank in half and hour out the back. My goal is to only burn dead wood. With this warm spell we haven’t had the wood stove going for a few days, but tonight that has to change. I went out this morning and brought back this load of dead elm (darn that Dutch Elm disease) and ash (ditto, Emerald Ash Borer I guess).

This morning's load of firewood. Dead Elm, Ash & Poplar