Evan – Sunrise Farm Project

Resilience

My wife and I started our farming adventure to build a lifestyle around family and caring for a portion of the world we could eventually call ours. When Covid slowed the supply chain while raising the strain on the food production we saw a new problem that hit us in a particular spot and a new chapter started for SFP.

We realized that we needed to evaluate our farm operations and capabilities with resilience to any number of issues. For example, what happens to our garden if there is a drought? An evaluation of various watering methods led to the decision to use a drip irrigation system- our research told us it was more efficient than using sprayers.

Another question we had to consider: what happens if the power fails? I worked out how to use a generator and gravity to move water. Each regular use item had to be assessed, from the freezers to the lights. Additionally, we had to consider food supply, and how our own garden would come into play. Slowly I worked out each problem. It was an extremely lengthy project. I heard the counter arguments, and many sources stated interruptions in supply chain are rare and minimal in impact.

Just this past month, we got to test some of our plans and preparations when we lost power for several days. In some ways, it was a surprising success. We ran the generator to keep long term food storage cold and to run lights in the evenings. Our animals were contained by solar electric fences. We were able to harvest in the garden and send the scheduled CSA boxes out on time.

Sure, daily life was different and there will be continued work into improving the resilience of SFP. Every activity and each chore was slower and required more effort. But it was a satisfying small win for why we farm the way we do and how we try to accomplish it.

Daily Tasks

I run my life with patterns, and I have found that doing the morning chores really is my favorite time each day. Waking up and working through the sleepiness is the hardest part of the process, but greatly helped by having the same thing to do.

Each day starts with pouring coffee (as one does) so it has a chance to cool as I make breakfast. Eating the products of the farm is the point and breakfast is the easiest. About the time I finish the dog is eager to take her walk and the chickens start making noise the moment they hear us outside. Weigh and pour the chickens food, open the garage door for the wife to take kids to school later, and shovel the snow. The dog has decided it’s too cold by then and its back in to get the second cup of coffee goodness. Then clear the breakfast dishes, make lunch and then it’s back outside to go to work.

The afternoon chores are not as patterned but it is the same list every day. Check for eggs, and make sure the chickens are ok. This is usually when we find we are missing birds from predators (counting birds in the dark is a struggle). The kitchen scraps are taken to the compost or to the chickens and finally back inside for chores there.

If the night is due to be particularly cold or there have been predators taking chickens or any other particular concerns there may be a final late evening trip out to the coop to shut the door to the chickens run, give them a extra serving of cracked corn, or turn on the heat lamp. The cracked corn helps the birds keep warm and we haven’t had any birds freeze with some corn and the heat lamp (even in -10 F).

While this sounds like a lot, all three combined less than 30 minutes– unless there is a heavy snow. The days I don’t have to leave for work and can work outside while the sun rises have been a true source of peace. Slowly moving around in the predawn dark while the animals (domestic and wild) wake up around me is an experience increasingly rare in our modern world.

Beer-flavored Sawdust

I finally finished making test beer flights last month so I can share the pictures of each stage of making them. I know this has been a long time coming and I hope there will be more soon.

This is a project that I get to make from tree to board to rough project and then finished flight with makes it very satisfying. The trees are grown and harvested nearby, sometimes from our own property and milled by a nearby friend. The rest of the work is done in my barn that doubles as a woodshop in the fall and winter months. In some cases, the lumber has never been out of a 1 mile radius, except when we deliver the finished product to the customer.

Here is the milled lumber in the shop:

Rough board, without being planed or cut

It’s worth noting that after the board arrived in my shop, it had to “rest” for a month before I could begin. This time allows the wood to acclimate to the temperature and humidity and reduces warping as I begin sawing and sanding. If there isn’t this time, projects will start splitting and not fitting as intended even before anything is completed. I ran into this problem with a few projects last fall, and I hope to not repeat the mistake.

Rough board with outlines of 3 different flights

The first part was to plane the board and then draw my design. After that I cut the board into “square” pieces. Once in a more ‘square’ shape, I cut out each outline and sanded the faces and edges to both remove any rough edges for the cutting and soften the surfaces. I started with 60 grain and moved step by step to 210 grain sandpaper.

Custom ordered flights in the cut stage before sanding

Once the sanding was done it is time to do any finishing work such as woodburning, painting, or staining. I decided to use a beeswax mix on these. I think it helps the wood retain some natural texture and it doesn’t have a chemical smell. The wax also brings out the rich coloration of the walnut that was used in this set of flights. There are some brilliant variations in color that are hard to capture in a photo.

While I do use powered tools, I don’t use any guides so each flight is a bit different from the previous one. Sometimes this adds character I never could have planned out if I tried and other times it means I have to start over. But in the end, I truly enjoy the process of starting with a tree and going through the steps to make a finished product for my own home or for someone else.

Some Great Lakes beer with a few of the Great Lakes states

Featured in this post are a pair of custom flights that were ordered as a wedding gift as well as our “Pure Michigan” flights, four of which are currently available for purchase.

A Finished Cabinet

After several delays because of weather (needed varnish-friendly temperatures), I have finished the small side-board/cabinet that was commissioned earlier this year.

The top is made from reclaimed wood set up in herringbone pattern. We then used an epoxy coating to seal and finish it. The paneling and frame were made in such a way as to not distract from the interest of the herringbone top. All parts were stained per the request of the recipient.

I learned about a variety of hinges, different ways to set in cabinet doors, and how to apply epoxy quickly and effectively. Many of these skills will come in handy as I continue to take on small commissioned projects as well as projects around the house.

I learned a lot about building strength while keeping a piece small and as light as possible. I hope I can build more like this one.

A Quick Update

This past year has been quite an adventure, to put it mildly. One of the side effects of this crazy busy-ness was that I have fallen FAR behind in writing updates on all the projects going on around SFP. I will try to correct this now.

The first is the garden. The rototiller arrived in late November 2020 just in time to be used briefly in the garden. Unfortunately for us, the temperatures dropped and the ground was frozen the very next day. We’ll definitely update more on that later once we have had a better chance to put it to work. Suffice to say, the rototiller is going to be helpful in adding compost to the gardens and adding a flower garden in the spring.

Next project is that the Mrs SFP has decided to start plants inside so we can get the garden going a bit earlier. So I was “asked” to build so shelves for grow trays that can have lights suspended above them. The build took about a week to plan, gather materials, and then build it. Again, there will be a detailed post to follow.

The woodshop is filled up with projects in various states of not-yet-finished. There has been some small project success with cutting boards and trivets. I really do like the small stuff that I can finish in a late evening or just few hours. The larger projects are taking up a lot of the space in the shop are the 8 x 5 ft table and the half log bench. The cold has made it terribly hard to avoid wood warping as the humidity changes and all the projects have really slowed down.

And finally I have two deer skins salted and hanging to tan as soon as the temp rises. Most of the tanning work has to be done above 40F and the actually tanning paste can only work above 50F.

As we adjust to a new rhythm going into the spring months, I’ll be sharing more about all that we’ve been working on.

Building a Chicken Coop

Chickens are simple, straightforward, and (dare I say it) cheap. My own research found the uses for chickens is meat or eggs. Mary and I decided we wanted to have eggs since as long as you can shop and wait for sales meat can be had at the store very effectively and we already had a good “store and use slowly” system.

Looking into needed supplies and infrastructure, the main part was always the chicken coop itself. Premade coops and kits are available online, but for the size coop we wanted, seemed to cost $4000 or more. However I am very inexperienced in building structures of any quality so I had managed to find a online design that included a supplies list.

The actual build became quite an event. I have a rule that I don’t want to work with powered saws/drills etc., without other people around. This allows me to at least believe if I get into trouble, there would be someone to extract me from underneath or call for emergency services. I only had the help for a day and a half, so the construction was limited to a day and a half.

Stage one was collecting the materials. I do not have a trailer or truck so gathering anything over 8ft long had to be done with a borrowed trailer. You can see the collection here.

The only mistake I really made at this point was I did not pick up roofing cement and I should have been more careful about warping 2x4s (more on that later). Not shown here are the nails (exterior and interior), rolled asphalt roofing, metal drip edge, and tools.

I was able to assemble and frame the floor and the walls on the ground so I could stand them up and attach them to the floor deck without having to balance and maintain 90 degree angles and straight lines.

The floor was weather resistant cedar (shown above) and the walls were made out of interior 2x4s (shown below)

OSB decking was simple enough to add to the floor but Some of the seams did not line up with supports without some modifications. I have not decided if that issue is normal or a result of my inexperience.

The walls were filled in with plywood paneling and then the roof rafters could run from front to back. This was when the warped lumber became an issue but the structure stiffened up when the roof OSB was added. Below is show more issues with framing not lining up to the paneling.

And finally it was paint, cut windows, install door and latches, frame in the wire to keep enough ventilation and keep predators out, place the rolled roofing (once I went and got roofing cement), and the whole thing was finally done.

Evan sitting on the rood, Installing the rolled roofing.