As we quickly approach November and the portion of the year when things are mostly bare and brown instead of lush and green, I thought it might be a good idea to talk about things we homesteaders can do with all those fallen leaves that will help our general productivity over time.

We were gifted with one of those noisy, gasoline powered leaf blowers a few months ago when a friend moved from the countryside back into town and had no further use for it. Made me chuckle considering the fact that we live in the middle of the southern Appalachian forest – “thick” by anyone’s standards – and have enough fallen leaves to drive most towns crazy. Worse, living where we do we also get fairly regular fires that love nothing better than a good thickness of dead leaves to burn. I’ve learned through the years that the low-level “brush fires” that don’t burn much other than the leaf fall and a few scraggly saplings are actually good for the forest. So long as they don’t manage to get hot enough to engulf trees. Heck, most of the mature trees can (and have) survive the ground fires just fine, a bit blacker around the trunks than they used to be. And kudzu, of course, loves fire. Always comes roaring back twice as thick as before, and does way more than its share of eating forest trees, engulfing dead cars and stray cattle herds overnight.

Anyway, we feel a need to keep the approximately two acres immediately surrounding the cabin (including fruit orchard and grape vines) as clear of leaves as possible to help prevent any brush fires from getting close enough to do major damage. That means we have a hefty collection of leaf and garden rakes that go to work in November and continue on the job for as long as it takes in decent weather to accomplish that task before the winter snows come along to blanket everything until spring. There are several things to do with those leaves.

When raking them down from the ridge or across the disc golf fairways I always drag along a weathered plastic tarp that has seen better days. That way when the pile of leaves gets big enough to become difficult, I can simple spread out the tarp and rake the leaves onto it, then pick up its edges and drag it on down to the garden. In order to keep the actual leaf-clearing going, I simply dump out the tarp against the fence on the bottom tier of the garden near the compost bins and go back for more. When that tier has at least a foot of leaves on it, I start on the tier above. And of course add leaves to the compost bins themselves.

As the winter progresses the leaves are compacted and self-composted on the beds, are easily turned into the soil in the spring as organic matter to enrich the beds. When the compost bin leaves are turned in with the rest of the garden leavings and kitchen scraps (and mixed every 2nd or 3rd year with some composted chicken droppings or donkey barn leavings), it makes fine mulch to apply once the seedlings are a foot tall or so, to keep weeds down while fertilizing.

A thick mulch of leaves around the fruit trees out to the drip line is always good too, and around the grape vines. This will need to be scattered with crushed limestone in the spring so it gets well watered-in, but it’s good mulch/fertilizer by the time it’s good and black. If there’s a lot of leaf fall, I usually stack it in big piles next to the fence by the compost bins and cover with those leaky tarps to hold it in place. The garden is well away from the edge of the forest, and if there’s a fire in the spring that threatens the perimeter, my piles are close enough to be able to spray with water.

I have found that covering the beds with a foot or two of leaves has led to a filthy soil that works easily and doesn’t need tilling but once every few years. I do that the years when I’m adding animal leavings for nitrogen, and/or limestone to balance the acidity. The beds get so soft that I have to lay down planks to walk on while planting, or I’ll sink right on in. Makes planting easy too, at least for the crops that I start from seed indoors in February and plant out as seedlings in March. Just dig a little hole with a hand-spade and stick ‘em in.

My Aunt used to grow the most spectacular flower beds in her neighborhood. Her secret was to put the leaf fall into black plastic garbage bags and line those up against the back fence. She left them open until after a good rain, then twisted the tops and secured them. By spring the leaves inside the bags had turned to black mulch, and she’d empty that into her wheelbarrow and use it to thickly mulch her flower beds. She told me she never added any amendments, which I would have thought necessary because hardwood leaves tend to be somewhat acidic, but she said the flowers love it, so there was never a reason for MiracleGro™ or animal manure.

Some places out in the country still allow leaf burning, but that seems a waste to me. Sure, ashes are also good amendments to garden soil, but since we heat with wood we’ve always got plenty of those. Besides, burning causes air pollution, and sometimes ends up with the VFD showing up unexpectedly.

Some people shred their leaves before composting. And I admit a chipper-shredder would have been a more useful present than that leaf blower we’ll never use for anything but special storm effects in home movies. Shredding can speed up the process of decomposition greatly, but a big enough pile wetted down and covered with dark tarp (or put into black plastic bags) will decompose by spring into black mulch just fine without shredding. The leaves in the compost bins proper will be well-composted even quicker by greenwaste and kitchen scraps and earthworms – of which my bins are chock full. I’m only slightly concerned about a lack of direct sunlight on the bins since a peach tree decided to grow out of the bin and looks way too healthy to cut (we LIKE peaches!), but I’ll work around that.

So. The trees will be nearly bare in a couple of weeks, so don’t bother raking now when more leaves are still scheduled to fall. Once they’re done, get busy fire-proofing your acreage and transporting those leaves to where they’ll do the most good. Your garden soil will thank you for it, I promise!

As the hardwoods peak and shower our homestead with a bright blanket of multi-colored leaves, the resulting re-emergence of the surrounding mountains reminds me that cold weather’s coming fast and things here on the ‘stead have to be squared away for that inevitability. First on the list of things to do, of course, is woodstove maintenance.

Our woodstove is a custom job, came with the cabin when we bought the place. It needs to be blackened, as the surface does tend to become a bit pitted and rusty over a period of years. We could use a coat of gun blue, but we usually just get a can of good ol’ stove blacking from the hardware store and apply that. Once it’s on, it needs to be fired up to set, however. And that of course requires cleaning the stovepipe and making sure all the joints are sound (or get replaced, also something that has to happen every few years). And while we’re at that, cleaning out all the packed ashes leftover from springs last cold nights has to be removed, the lining bricks re-set, and all the grates through which the stovepipe passes have to be meticulously cleaned of accumulated cobwebs and possible flammables. A well-maintained woodstove provides reliable and welcome heat for decades whether it’s free-standing or a fireplace insert variety. Without said maintenance it’s a fire hazard for which you may find your insurance lacking.

So now that at least the start on the winter’s wood supply has been cut, split and stacked in a convenient location, here’s the basic overview of “How-To” do whatever else needs doing…

1. Checking the Pipe. The first place to look for needed replacement is at the connection of the pipe to the stove. This joint gets the hottest, and stovepipe is a thin sheet metal rather than a thick cast iron. It will degrade faster than anywhere else. You should of course also check the rest of the pipe joints for rust and thinning, and if anything looks weak go ahead and replace the entire thing. Along with the cap to discourage rain from getting in, and re-tar the flashing where it goes through the roof. Last time we replaced the pipe we got an extra galvanized sheet and wrapped it around the joint section, then fastened it securely with wire. This has allowed the pipe to last longer than it used to, which is cost-effective.

Our stove is in the basement, the pipe goes straight up through the center of the cabin’s living area and right up through the loft and out the roof. This arrangement is very energy efficient, as we get more “living” heat off the pipe than the stove. Being three stories tall, it also minimizes the carbon particulates in wood smoke that makes it all the way out, which is good even though I like the homey smell of wood smoke when coming home from an outing. The downside of the tall pipe is that soot and resin/creosote buildup tends to coat the inside of the pipe quite thickly. This presents a chimney fire hazard, so years that we don’t replace the pipe we have to ‘sweep’ it good.

First thing to do is get a stout stick or paddle and ‘rap’ the pipe starting at its highest point and working your way down to the stove itself. Don’t hit it hard enough to dent it, but do strike all the way around to loosen built-up carbon. You’ll hear it ‘raining’ down as you go, and yes you will have to get it out of the stove once you’re done. But once you’ve ‘banged the pipe’ down its entire length, go on up to the roof and do the interior job. You can purchase a ‘sweep’ (a circular stiff brush), or you can do it the old fashioned way. This involves tying a brick or good-sized stone into an old terrycloth towel and then attaching a rope so this can be lowered into the pipe as far as it will go. If it meets resistance pull it up and drop it down a few times to loosen the blockage. The old towel should be entirely trashed by the time this job is done, so toss it. Then check the sections and joints yet again to ensure that the metal is still entirely sound.

If your woodstove set-up has much shorter sections of pipe with elbows in it, you’ll have to dismantle those elbows and either clean thoroughly with wire brush or replace. These 90º turns pick up a whole lot of carbon and creosote, need extra attention.

If you’ve got one of those pretty fireplace insert stoves, you’ll need to not just clean the pipe but also the chimney. It can be worth it to go ahead and hire a chimney sweep for this purpose, who will also inspect your rock and/or brickwork to ensure the mortar is solid and your rain cap is functional without blocking air flow. A friend’s house very nearly burned down a couple of years ago when his brick chimney caught fire and sent flames and sparks out onto the roof shingles. Don’t let that happen to you, pay attention to your exhaust system!

2. Applying the Blacking. We get ours in a can from the hardware store, which is cheaper and more made-to-order than gun blue. It’s a sort of paint that you apply – just like paint – to the outside wrought iron surface of your stove. You can also apply to the interior, but we’ve never found that necessary.

Once it’s dry you want to open up every window and door throughout the house (so do this on a warm day), maybe crank up those window fans, and build a fire. The blacking doesn’t become ‘one with’ the wrought iron until it’s gotten good and hot. But the process does cause some obnoxious fumes during that setting fire, which is why the house must be open. We have birds, cats and dogs, all of them should be taken to somewhere outside for as long as the setting fire burns, and not brought in again until the fumes have been thoroughly purged by fresh air.

A good blacking job can last for 3 or 4 seasons before needing to be done again, so don’t bother with this unless the metal of your stove is looking rough.

3. Setting the Bricks. This is kind of a dirty job, but well worth the effort if you rely on your woodstove to keep things above freezing on long winter nights or for many hours while you’re away from home. The basic idea is that lining the stove with bricks adds a great deal to its thermal mass, helps it to retain heat even when its vents are shut very nearly all the way off.

We use regular old building bricks. The stove itself is rectangular, so these work very well and tend to stay in place. We set them one-thick to completely cover the bottom of the stove, then 2-high around the back and sides. This means the fire is set right on top of them. On cold nights we load it up with larger pieces of wood, let it catch well, then close down the vents all the way, then a quarter-turn back. Barely enough air to keep it smoldering, not enough for flames. The stove stays warm enough to save pipes, but the house is cold enough to need comforters and quilts on the beds. Who would want to sleep in a hot house in the middle of the winter anyway?

In the morning the vents are opened up a bit and some fresh wood is added, by the time coffee’s ready the stove is cooking away and it’s warm enough for showers and such. Don’t have to actually build any fire at all, as there are enough leftover red-hot coals from the night to fire it up automatically.

If you’re heating already with wood, you probably already know about putting metal or ceramics underneath and on any walls around your unit. These things can get red-hot, and can not only ruin any drywall, wood paneling or wallcoverings in their vicinity, they can also cause them to catch fire. We covered the wall nearest our woodstove with a sheet of that aluminum looks-like-stone skirting for mobile homes, because we happened to have a sheet from a salvage job we did years ago. But just like the brick trick, if you were instead to use stoneware floor tiling or even actual mortared brick, you’d be adding to the thermal mass of your overall heating system. More efficiency the better, and when it’s really, really cold every little bit of radiant heat is welcome.

And whether or not you have small children in the house, do put a ‘fence’ around any woodstove that is taking up room in the main living area. We don’t because ours is in the basement, but where the pipe comes up through the library we have a chickenwire ring-fence around it to keep people and animals away from it. That pipe gets plenty hot enough to burn if touched. We also have a nifty little magnetic temperature gage on the pipe that allows us to tell quickly when the fire’s too hot. Managing the temperature is easy enough to do just by closing the vents a bit, but it can get ahead of you if the stove isn’t right there to be seen and felt.

At any rate, I trust we’ll all have a safe and warm winter on our homesteads. More helpful hints for winterizing the place will be upcoming as the seasons change, so do stay tuned!

After heading down to the springhouse around noon today to patch together the badly jerry-rigged connection from the cistern so as to get the water going again (no, the new ram jet system isn’t there yet, but we did get the new cistern to bury on the ridge…), I was glad for the gorgeous, crisp and clear weather. For a change, the summer having been absolutely miserable hot and humid inch-a-day rainy yuck until the second week of August. It’s quite a hike, so I was resting in my chair being grateful for peace and quiet and gazing at the impossible Carolina Blue sky out my window.

Then I felt the shaking. I thought it was Starfish the German Shepherd scratching right under my chair and turned to look. She was laying across the room looking at me like it was MY fault. Then the china started rattling and knick-knacks on the shelves, and I knew it was an earthquake. It didn’t make that deep bass rumbling sound I remember from my childhood in the Philippines and California. Guess the piedmont here east of the continental divide is just too much mud and clay to generate those good deep basalt earth-groans.

Only lasted about 15 seconds or slightly less. Nothing broke, nothing fell, and all the trees are still standing. But the USGS now rates it a 6.0, centered under Mineral, Virginia. Little aftershocks continuing.

6.0 is a pretty darned big earthquake. Our very first experience with serious rural living was when my hubby got out of the Navy in 1975 and got a job at the North Anna nuclear plant just outside of Mineral. We rented a house on a 700 acre farm between there and Orange, some of the most beautiful rolling hill country anywhere. They hadn’t actually built the power plants yet, planned for four of them in a row on a big man-made lake they had to build for cooling. Deal is, they’d managed to site all four of their planned units smack dab astride a 15-foot wide earthquake fault they didn’t know about until they started digging. We got there just when the pit for the #1 reactor had reached its spec depth.

Now, you and I might reasonably suppose that if you found out your reactors were going to be suspended astride a fault, you might want to move them over about 30 feet in either direction so they’d be safely on one side or the other if the fault ever gave way. But alas, we are not the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. So on a tour one day I got a bird’s eye view from a specially built platform over the pit to see them busy like little ants attempting to wire the earth together with rebar. Really, I kid you not. Struck me at the time quite hilarious, and I’ve laughed about it ever since.

Hubby’s job consisted of going with another ex-Navy nuke across the lake every day in a nice utility company speedboat to change the paper at various seismic stations to monitor for earthquake activity. They found a floating slalom ski one day and took turns using it to get to the sites during that summer. It was all quite idyllic, but life intervened and we didn’t stay long enough for them to actually finish building that first plant. Only two ever got finished before the NRC wised up and nixed the other two.

Today that plant lost offsight power and operators had to manually scram, emergency diesels are operating to keep them cool. Power should be on before too long, but there’s quite a lot of damage in the area. Something to think about in the wake of Fukushima, as North Anna was identified years ago when I got that bird’s eye view as the nuclear facility most likely to suffer earthquake damage east of the Mississippi. There are of course more dangerous ones in California, right on the coast where tsunamis could wreak havoc as well.

Yet another reminder of how important it is for us to get serious about producing alternative power. For our homesteads and to feed the grid, all over the country. You never hear about horrible wind spills or solar meltdowns. When a wind turbine falls down it doesn’t make entire swaths of the countryside uninhabitable for hundreds of years. When solar panels fall off the roof it might kill whoever happens to be standing where it lands, but it doesn’t doom whole generations of children to gnarly disease and ugly death.

We homesteaders must be the backbone behind the vanguard. Today’s little shake-up is a timely reminder of that.

I was somewhat surprised on one of my web surfing jaunts to see a blog dedicated to ways of saving money weigh in against the notion of doing odd jobs and building projects yourself. Because for my homestead – and very likely yours as well – if we didn’t do our own odd jobs and building projects, then no needful jobs or building projects would ever get done. So I’ll take the opportunity presented to offer a rebuttal to some of the objections logged in the Money Bucket blog.

The article is Saving Money – Or Not – With DIY Projects, and it’s worth a read if you’re genuinely unsure of whether or not you’ve got the ability to tackle a project on your own. Of course for big projects it’s very important to understand going in exactly what will be necessary – time, tools, materials and a certain degree of skill. Homesteaders already know about budgeting their time toward the “work in progress” that describes our way of life, as there are always a dozen or more projects and repairs that need doing. Most of us, if we’ve been living this way for some years, have amassed more tools than many city-folk even know exist. In fact, for most projects the primary concern is coming up with the money to purchase the materials, and making sure we’ve got every little nut, bolt, pipe, sealant and extraneous parts before we start.

Perhaps the author is speaking more to urbanites than those of us who live out in the boonies on purpose and strive continually to be ever more self-sufficient. When the faucet washers wear out and start wasting our precious water supply (and driving us crazy with drips), or the drain clogs or cracks, or the windows break or the door needs replacing, we aren’t usually inclined to call a plumber or contractor. Heck, many of us would laugh at the very idea of paying some stranger extra to drive from town to our property and repair or replace what we could repair or replace, for ten times more than we could do the job for. But even urbanites with some tools, patience and an ability to turn screws/wenches could fix a leaky sink or hang a door without breaking the budget.

DIY disasters can cost big money to fix. Before starting any home improvement project you will need to understand each step from start to finish. Research potential pitfalls and problems you may encounter along the way to determine if the project is over your head. Be honest with yourself because your enthusiasm will quickly wear thin if something goes wrong – and if you don’t know what you’re doing, things can head south quickly.

That paragraph in the Money Bucket article made me chuckle. Sure, the author is talking about ‘home improvement’ more than simple repairs, but we homesteaders are quite used to those type of projects. We remodeled our kitchen last summer, which included replacing a window and door, re-siding the exterior wall, re-plumbing so we could move the sink, re-wiring, installing new cabinets and countertops, removing a bar to make room for the dining table we inherited, drywall installation, re-framing, flooring and insulating the attic space, and even reinforcing the main load bearing beam. It cost a pretty penny for all the materials, and we did have to replace the drill twice (old chestnut and locust beams are literally hard as rock). And of course things discovered along the way once we got into the walls and attic weren’t planned for but had to be dealt with anyway. Such is life.

Hiring a reputable contractor to complete an upgrade at your home generally gives you the peace of mind that the job is done right the first time. You will pay dearly for that peace of mind, but in some situations it can be worth every penny.

Heh. That’s kind of a surprising bit of advice to give to people described in the first paragraph of the article as “…planning to sell and need to update your home to make it more attractive to potential buyers…” I mean, if you have to pay dearly to upgrade your home in order to sell it to somebody else, then your improvements aren’t likely to cover the costs in this awful real estate environment. If you’re already underwater on that mortgage, digging yourself in deeper isn’t going to help.

It’s a little different if your home is where you plan to live for the rest of your life, but not much different when money’s tight. I had no kitchen all summer (it wasn’t officially finished until Thanksgiving), had to cook on the grill out back while a big sheet of plastic served as a front wall to my house. We all worked very hard, this is not the kind of project that allows much time for other things, and it involves everyone. It even upset the dogs and cats. But if we could have found a contractor to do that much structural damage to a hundred year old chestnut cabin with a crew of a dozen, it would have cost more than we paid for our entire homestead. Literally. And no, that would NOT have been “worth every penny.”

Sure, those kind of huge projects – new roof and/or installation of solar panels/wind or hydro generators, reworking the entire water supply (my next big project), tearing out walls or floors to get to wiring or plumbing, building a barn, etc. aren’t things one undertakes lightly. Or often, if you can help it. And it certainly helps to build up your confidence in the meantime by tackling small repair and replace projects first, learning to handle all the tools, and such. And exercising your mind about how to plan clever ways of getting around serious issues that may be encountered.

It’s all good for you, and just puts that much more of yourself into the overall Being we lovingly call “Homestead.” Good planning works too, so that several projects can be tied into one – the solar panels at the same time the new roof goes up. Replacing the old water-guzzler toilet with a low-flow at the same time you replace the sink and shower. Going ahead with the better insulation when any section of wall comes out. Things like that deserve the time it takes to plan ahead.

Money Bucket is correct in their bottom line that doing things yourself doesn’t always save you money, especially if you’ve got more money than time, skills and tools. But for those of us who have dedicated ourselves to a broader, more expansive and involved way of life that highly values self-sufficiency, doing things yourself is simply another aspect of the life we’ve chosen for ourselves. And we’ve usually got way more time, skills and tools than money to spend. Plus at least one friend with enough time, skills and tools to help us out if we need it.

In an economy like this one, sometimes a friend will help just for the nightly cook-outs, fresh garden veggies and fruit, refreshing cool-down at the swimming hole after swinging a hammer and wielding a circular saw all day, and maybe some iced beer and story-telling around the fire while the fireflies rise.

Money, after all, isn’t everything.

Having posted with pride about our new honest-to-hillbilly deck, I thought this might be a good time to talk a bit more about the many tools a homesteader needs in order to keep the place in order, do the gardening and landscaping, renovate and repair home and outbuildings. I can do this because during the deck project we had a total of 4 hammers on hand, and two of them ended up without handles before we were done. Frustrating.

The very best thing you can do, of course, is to purchase the absolute, best quality, longest-lasting tools – any tool – you can possibly afford. Yet in today’s economy, getting the best quality tools is often beyond the means of those of us trying hard just to make things work. Here at my homestead we’ve got a shed chock full of old chain saws, string trimmers, handle-less shovels, pitchforks, axes, mauls, sledgehammers, pruners, etc., not to mention a whole collection of broken hammers, screwdrivers, various saws and power tools bought cheap over the years and which didn’t last long enough to get to the second job.

Worse, I’ve an energetic daughter and some grandchildren who work hard on occasion, but can’t ever manage to put the tools back where they belong. Which means I find rusted things all over the place, often with wooden handles that long since rotted into compost. It’s extremely frustrating, and having to replace the tools every time you start a project is a regular pain in the ass. Not to mention expensive.

My friend and local homesteading hero told us many years ago to “Buy The Best” because that way you don’t have to keep on buying over and over again. Great advice, but not very practical if you’ve got to have an axe (the last one has only half a handle) and you’ve got just $20 to spend right now. And my hugest complaint about ALL homestead tools with handles – when the heck do the handles get to the modern composite resin/graphite world, just like golf clubs?

Luckily for all us non-wealthy homesteaders, There Is A Way. Why, we can purchase ‘best’ quality tools secondhand! There are a number of ways to do this, and you won’t be sorry. Often you can acquire the super guaranteed-for-life item at or below on-sale cheap stuff at Walmart if you just spend some time looking around. There are estate and farm auctions, there are whole secondhand warehouses, and there are a good many sites on the internet where even with shipping costs the ‘best’ tool comes in cheaper than the Walmart Special.

You could go local to the auctions and auction houses that will let you inspect the items and brands pre-auction, you could go to Craig’s List or Freecyclers and hope for the best, or you could check out some of the links below and surf some of their cross-links too. The ‘best’ of our tools is a Craftsman tiller my father-in-law bought for me when we first moved here. It’s still in the shop right now for its 5-year tune-up, but that thing’s a true workhorse that may never really die. We went ahead and put out the bucks for a Stihl chain saw about 7 years ago, and it’s still going strong on its 4th chain. Which is better than the several cheap ones under the shed that didn’t last 2 seasons.

What’s your most elderly tool, and are you glad you bought the ‘best’?

Links:

Used Tools
How to Buy Good Used Garden Tools
Used Snap-On Tools

In preparation for the annual Independence Day celebration, last week was a regular beehive of energetic engineering to finish the deck in time for the fireworks. I of course appointed myself straw boss for the project, and imported day labor …er, an old friend… to do the actual work. My observations confirmed the efficacy of “hillbilly engineering” to the point that it loses a bit of its epithet-like undertones, and makes me confident enough to go ahead and advise that you don’t have to be a licensed general contractor to get things done around the homestead!

There was a deck there previously, installed by visitors from Florida a decade ago while we were out. We’d already sunk the support poles (a few salvaged 4x4s and some sturdy tree limbs) in concrete and installed the joists – salvaged 2×8′s left over from when we had to replace the foundation beams (another saga…). We’d scarfed some thick tongue-and-groove planking for the deck surface from the Children’s Home where hubby worked as a fundraiser at the time, left over from some projects there. We had planned to put those visitors to work, but we’d also planned to make a real deck with spaces between the boards so the water could drain off, and those visitors just went ahead and grooved the tongues anyway. Which of course meant that the deck was doomed to rot in record time, which of course it did.

As it rotted and people started falling through on occasion, we patched by laying random pieces of plywood and siding over the weak spots. But not only did that make for a seriously ugly deck, it wasn’t very much safer than the rotten underdeck either. It was time to start over, so my dear friend Chad came with his children while hubby was at work and took the whole darned thing apart. Once the foundation was exposed I was amazed at how much the joists had rotted, given that the deck timber had never been allowed to drain water!

We installed a few more supports, the old ones having rotted in their concrete, then shored up the joists – there was still lots of good timber, it just wasn’t level or clean for nailing anymore. I figured we could shim the uneven parts. Hubby collected the boards from our neighbor with the sawmill, untreated heart pine 1x4s that really measure 1×4 (commercial timber cheats on its measurements). By the time we got all the slats shimmed and screwed it became quite obvious that the joists which were ample for serious 2″ thick tongue-and-groove planking were not numerous enough to keep those 1x4s from dipping dangerously in high-traffic areas.

So I had hubby crawl underneath and add a few cross-beams in the gaps using hangers from the hardware store. That at least made it so you didn’t feel like you’re walking on water, and when the pine does actually dry out it should be stiff enough to take some weight. Then Chad built us some nice steps, we re-attached the picket fencing we’d salvaged from friends when they moved from a rental house and didn’t want to leave it behind, moved the furniture and grill back to the deck from the yard, and jury-rigged a tarp so we’d have a place to sit when it’s raining (which it did, all weekend!). A lovely time was had by all!

This deck should last at least the decade the last one lasted. The boards are thinner but there’s space in between them, and we’re not shy of Thompson’s Water-Seal. It may be certifiable Hillbilly Engineering, but we are actual hillbillies so that’s no big deal. The whole thing came free save for the hangers and screws, and it will serve us very well until the next time it needs replacing.

Now we get to do the same thing for the front porch deck, which Chad jury-rigged last Thanksgiving so nobody would fall through and break their legs. We’ve plenty of wood from the pallet our neighbor donated in exchange for my hubby’s clowning at his daughter’s birthday party, and what we don’t use for decks we’ll probably use to frame in the front porch so I can have a winter greenhouse (and summer screened porch). I figure that with good plastic on the screen on that south side of the house, I should be able to grow salad and kale and scallions all winter long while still getting the solar heat-gain we rely on during cold winter months.

If my readers have any cool tales of hillbilly engineering to share, I’m sure we could all use the advice!

Among the most common repair jobs to be done around the homestead will be replacing broken window panes. Broken windows can diminish both the looks and value of your home, so it’s best to repair these things as soon as possible after the damage has been done.

Cutting and Setting Glass
Eventually someone or something is going to send a rock or baseball or falling limb through your window. If you know a few tricks of reglazing you’ll be able to easily replace shattered panes. In fact, using these same basic techniques you might even decide to refit your old single-pane windows with insulted, double-paned or reflective glass to make your home more energy efficient.

Single-glazed glass panels can be purchased already cut to size at the local hardware store, but if you are as much of a salvage pack-rat as I am, you have lots of old windows and sheets of glass stacked neatly under the shed which can be cut to size for any window.

Tools for working with glass will be a glass cutter – a carbide scoring wheel) and a pair of wide-nose glass pliers. To install a pane of glass in a wooden sash, you will need wedge-shaped fasteners called to hold the pane in place, linseed oil to soften old putty and coat the inside of the frame (uncoated wood draws oil from the new glazing compound and makes it brittle) to cushion the glass in the frame and make a watertight seal. These easily fit into a pocket of your homestead tool bucket.

Before you cut a windowpane yourself, practice on scrap glass to get a feel for the amount of pressure needed to score the glass for a clean cut. Too much pressure will crack the glass, too little will not score it. A rasping sound as you draw the cutter across the glass indicates that the pressure you are exerting is just right.

To cut the new pane, lay your sheet of glass on a pad of old carpet or thin foam rubber on a workbench or table. Brush linseed oil on the area to be scored and set a straight edge along the cut line. Slanting the cutter toward you and holding it between your first and second fingers, pull it along the straight edge, starting about 1/16 inch from the edge of the glass, to score in one smooth motion. Don’t go back over the score line – a double score will cause the glass to break with an uneven edge.

Tilt one side of the glass up off the pad and tap the underside of the score line with the ball on the handle end of the glass cutter. The blows will deepen the score. Place a thin rod or dowel at least as long as the score line on the work surface and position the glass on top of it with the score line right over the rod. Press down firmly on both sides of the score; the glass should snap cleanly at the score line. Use 240 grit silicon-carbide sandpaper or an emery stone to smooth the glass edge.

Cleaning Out the Sash
Remove the broken glass from the window carefully, from the outside if possible. Wear leather gloves to protect your hands and safety goggles because the glass is likely to shatter further. Hold the pieces firmly and work back and forth to free them from the old glazing, and be sure to dispose of these shards carefully. You don’t want to end up with stitches next time you take a load to the dump!

When you’ve removed the glass shards of the broken pane, remove the old glazing compound. Brush it liberally with linseed oil and let it soak in for about half an hour (while you’re cutting the new pane or having lunch). Scrape off the soften compound with a wood chisel. If the oil doesn’t soften the compound enough, run the tip of a heated soldering iron lightly back and forth along the compound or heat the compound with a heat gun, then scrape. Don’t touch the soldering iron to the sash, and don’t ever use a blow torch to soften old glazing. If you value your house, that is.

Installing the Pane
Pull out all old glazier’s points from the window frame with long-nosed pliers and remove loose glass fragments and glazing compound with a wire brush. Sand the channel smooth and brush it with linseed oil. Roll glazing compound between your palms into strips about 1/4 inch thick and press into the channels in which the pane of glass will rest. Add more compound until you have completely filled the channels.

Press the pane of glass firmly into the glazing compound and scrape off excess with a utility or putty knife. Then fasten the pane securely into place with glazier’s points pushed into the frame with a putty knife. Use two points on each edge for a frame up to 10 inches square, one point every 4 inches for a larger frame.

When the new pane is firmly in place, roll more glazing compound and press around the frame. Smooth this compound with a putty knife into a neat beveled edge that runs from the face of the sash onto the glass. As you work, dip the knife in water from time to time to prevent it from sticking to the compound. When the compound has hardened (this takes 5-7 days), paint it to match the frame, extending the coat of paint 1/16 inch onto the glass for a weathertight seal.

Your window looks good as new! There are different techniques for metal sash windows, which use spring clips instead of glazier’s points, and rubber gaskets instead of putty channels. Many of these windows also feature snap-out plastic moldings that make them easy to replace after a glass panel has been installed. New plastic moldings are available at most hardware stores too, if replacing them along with the glass is warranted.

Next installment will look at how to replace and repair screens for windows and storm doors. These may not seem so important to modern houses in the modern age, when heading and air conditioning render working windows and screen doors fairly pointless. Yet a conscientious homeowner or a conscious homesteader will want to keep their screens in good repair because they keep bugs out while allowing air in.

Well-ventilated houses suffer far less from interior air pollution and/or radon gas buildup than closed up, sealed tight houses do. Making the best of great weather – not too hot, not too cold – is also a plus for a family’s general health and energy conservation efforts.

Links:

How to replace a broken window pane

How to Fix Broken Glass in a Window

Homestead upkeep and the ability to build-it-yourself for all sorts of projects; energy conservation and independence; food production, preservation and storage; wise husbandry for livestock; ways to turn your homesteading abilities into cash income for your family… There are so many subjects to cover for anyone who wants to connect more firmly with the earth, to spend their life in time more thoroughly engaged, and to take more responsibility for their own environment and sustenance.

But we must begin at the beginning so that all else will follow along its natural path. Now that we’ve got our Homestead Tool Kit [Part I and Part II] collected and put together, it’s time to start on some of the most common repair and maintenance jobs a homeowner will face. The more you can do for yourself, the less you’ll have to pay others to do it for you!

1. Doors and Windows

The most common issues you’ll have with doors are bad hinges, sticking/scraping, and need for replacement. For windows there will be the fairly common problem of broken panes, and sticky frames that make it difficult to raise or lower. We’ll deal with screen door and window screens that need repair later. For both doors and windows it’s good to know how to install weather stripping to conserve heat and energy as well as how to replace it when it gets old.

Door Hinges
If a door doesn’t hang properly, or doesn’t want to close all the way, check your hinges. If they are loose or undone it doesn’t take much time to repair. First check the screws and screw holes. Are any screws missing? Have the holes become enlarged over time with use?

A screw hole should be one size larger than the screw itself. If yours aren’t, choose the proper drill bit and enlarge them accordingly. You may need to purchase new screws occasionally. Get good ones with deep driver scores to help prevent stripping.

Use wood glue to glue a wooden matchstick or dowel (the depth of the hole) into the hole, or fill the holes with wood putty. When it’s dry, drive your screws.

Always check the hinge pins as well, as these can work themselves out over time and frequent use. Once they get past the first joint of a hinge the door will have problems. If you see pins that aren’t properly in place, just hammer them back down and oil the joints.

Door Replacement
Hold the new door up to the opening before attaching to see how well it fits. There should be about 1/16″ clearance at the top, 3/8″ at the bottom. If your door hole is not precisely square, measure the tilt and plane accordingly. Always plane from the edges toward the center so as not to damage the corners. There should be about 1/16″ clearance on the sides of the door as well.

Prop the door into its correct position using scrap wood to hold it to the right height. Mark the location of each of the hinges. Remove the door and stand it on its side, trace the outline of the hinges in the marked locations with a pencil. Then attach the hinges to the door, hang it in the opening and firmly attach the frame portion of the hinges.

Planing can often solve a sticking or poorly-fit door problem even if the hinges are sound. Whenever you’ve removed a door for this sort of job, it’s a good idea to replace screws or the entire hinge if it’s old and rusty or the pin won’t stay in place. Use the methods above.

Sticking Windows
If your windows are difficult to raise and lower, you’re going to miss out on some fresh air and have a harder time managing your indoor temperatures – a waste of energy you’ll want to avoid. Sticky windows should be fixed.

First remove the window stops – the vertical strips of wood that are nailed or screwed along the inside of the frame that the sash rubs against – and remove the window (or part of the window that raises and lowers). Remove any built-up paint on the window sash and frame if that’s the problem, using a heat gun or paint remover and scraper. If the problem is a bad fit due to warping, plane the edges smooth.

Wax the sash along the edges that contact the frame and replace the window. Install the stops a hair’s breadth away from where they were previously located, to give the sash ample room to move up and down. Gaps and air leaks in both doors and windows should be managed with weather stripping.

Replacing broken window panes
Windows get broken. It’s a fact of life, so it’s good to know how to replace panes. If your home has fairly standard windows you can usually buy glass panes already cut to size at the local hardware store. If your windows use panes that are not standard, the hardware store will usually cut to size for you. Some homesteaders like to cut their own, but glass isn’t that expensive. I save myself that extra work.

Once the broken pane and all the spackling used to keep it in place one one side is removed (be careful not to cut yourself, and do wear safety glasses), just put the new pane into place against what is left of the spackling on the other side. Use a caulking gun to apply a proper sized bead of spackling – can be bought in tubes just for the gun – around the edges of the pane. Carefully press the bead into place. When it’s firmly set, fill any gaps in the other side’s spackling.

A more thorough replacement job can be done by removing all the spackling on both sides of the broken pane and then holding the new glass in place with C-clamps onto wood scraps both sides of the new pane. That way you can apply new spackling on both sides at once and then remove the C-clamps when it’s firmly set.

Well, that’s the basics on doors and windows. These days it can cost a homeowner a hefty chunk of change if they have to call a repairman – at modern hourly wages plus the markup on materials – to do these jobs. That’s more hours that homeowner has to work for money on something else. Your home is your investment, so it might as well be your time and energy that preserves that investment!

Links:

Home Problem Solver: Door and Window Repairs

Repair: Doors and Windows

In the last post we established the wisdom of keeping a well-stocked general tool kit which is adequate for most any routine homestead repair and maintenance jobs, to be kept in a convenient location. I listed the hammers, screwdrivers, pliers, chisels and leveling square, about half of the necessary tools, numbered 1-12.

This post lists the rest of the tools that should be in your toolbox or bucket as well as those larger tools that will be kept in the shed or garage for bigger projects.

13. Tape Measure
Your basic 25-footer, 1″ wide metal tape, for a million useful measuring tasks. In our tool bucket we keep a longer and a shorter tape measure as well, as we often do multiple projects at the same time. A 1″ wide metal tape measure also doubles as a passable straight-edge and can be used as a passable plumb bob. Though we keep a good chalked plumb bob in the pocket next to our tape measures on the bucket belt.

14. Hacksaw
There is no ready substitute for a good hacksaw when you need one, and homesteaders will need a hacksaw quite regularly. These specialized saws cut metal, but will also cut glass and ceramics like tile. You’ll be using this for plumbing repairs, conduit installation and the odd job that requires something harder than wood to be cut.

15. Bow Saw
A bow saw is made of tubular steel or aluminum and holds a replaceable crosscut blade. This saw is used for pruning shrubs and trees, and can also be used to saw lumber by hand.

16. Maul
A maul is a heavy, 2-handed hammer with a long handle and a head that doubles as either a wedge or a sledgehammer. the 8-pound size is adequate for most homestead uses, such as splitting wood, cutting tree roots, knocking out walls, and pounding fence posts or stakes.

17. Circular Saw
Among power tools the circular saw is among the most useful. Get one that uses standard 7 1/4″ blades, and keep a few extra carbide blades on hand. They’re more expensive but last much longer, and will easily cut wood, plastic, plywood, aluminum, iron, steel, masonry, ceramic and just about anything else a homesteader will need to cut or score.

18. 3/8″ Drill
You can choose a plug-in or a rechargeable cordless drill, as long as you can remember to charge it between jobs. You’ll need variable speeds and a reverse switch, which allows you to use the drill for driving and removing screws as well as drilling holes. Spring for good quality bits, as these will last a long time and pay for themselves.

19. C-Clamps
At least a pair of 8″ clamps, more in varied sizes if you can afford it. Use these for clamping materials together when gluing, sawing, drilling, etc., or clamping materials to your workbench. Can also serve to hold broken parts together until more thorough repairs can be made.

20. Post Hole Digger
Into the big, shed-living tools now, the homesteader will have ample use for a post hole digger. So get a quality tool for fence post holes, rural mailbox installation, landscaping and other uses.

21. Shovel
Shovels come in a lot of shapes and sizes, and it seems like every homesteader has their favorite. We have several, but for most general digging purposes the basic rounded-blade, D-handle shovel works fine. Get quality because this is a tool that suffers lots of use and abuse, and I recommend one with a fiberglass handle that won’t split or rot if it gets left out in the rain. In northern climates you’ll want a snowshovel as well, and a thin, square ditch-digger is very useful around the place.

22. Six-Foot Step Ladder
A sturdy six-footer than folds for easy storage is a must. Whether you’re changing light bulbs or trying to prune low-hanging limbs, you’ll be using this tool often.

23. Extension Ladder
A homesteader and do-it-yourself city dweller will make ample use of a good adjustable aluminum step ladder. For cleaning eave gutters, getting to and from the roof, even getting kittens out of trees, you can’t beat it. A nice ladder will also double as scaffolding for painting or doing exterior windows if you suspend it on sawhorses.

24. Rakes, Hoes
If you do your own yard upkeep, maintain a garden or otherwise work with the landscaping, you’ll need these basic tools. As always, buy quality and opt for the fiberglass handles. They last much longer and the heads don’t come off as easily. There’s nothing worse than saving a few bucks in the spring on yard and garden tools, only to have to buy again in the fall because they’ve fallen apart.

25. Flat Hand Tools
There are a million uses around the house and homestead for your basic putty knife, mud-scraper and back-bladed wallpaper brush. So I keep these in my tool bucket too.

Once you’ve got a full set of Necessary Tools you’ll be ready for just about any normal job around the home and homestead. We’ll be referring to many of these tools in posts on particular projects for homesteaders. For the wise homesteader, “Be Prepared” is more than just the Boy Scout motto – it’s a whole way of life!

Are you forever missing ‘The’ necessary tool for what should have been a simple repair job on the cabinet doors that won’t shut, or the screen door that won’t close properly, or the bathroom fixtures that leak? Or are your tools scattered in so many different places across the homestead that you just can’t find the right one when you need it?

We used to have both those problems on a constant basis around my place, until a thoughtful friend gifted us one Christmas with the most useful tool accessory I’d ever seen, which has since become so indispensable that I got another one just for the outdoor and gardening tasks. It’s your basic 5-gallon white plastic bucket such as for wallboard mud, roofing tar or paint, plus a leather “tool-belt” with pockets and loops that fits onto the bucket like a collar. Both of these items can be purchased at hardware and home supplies stores, or you could create your own from old, emptied buckets and well worn tool-belts.

We have all 25 of the items on the “must have” list, plus several others we’ve found ourselves often needing for various and sundry repair and maintenance tasks. Not all of them fit in or on the bucket, so we keep the rest hanging just inside the door of the shed. If you need to dig holes or split wood, you know to get the bigger tools before you start, just as you know to get the lawn mower when you’re planning to mow the lawn.

We keep our tool bucket in the kitchen corner right behind the front door so it’s in a central location and can be picked up and taken to wherever in the house or on the property the work needs doing. So long as you remember to put it back in the convenient location when you’re done with the job, everyone knows just where to find it and the necessaries it contains, whenever the need arises.

Into the pockets, hung on the loops, and simply stashed in the bucket are all the right hand and power tools for most any basic job. Below is the first part of the list, to which each homeowner will no doubt add a few just as we have so they’re always well equipped to do what needs doing without wasting time and energy looking for what’s missing.

1. Hammer
For general purposes a 16-20 ounce rip-claw hammer with a smooth face is best. Purchase one with a fiberglass handle that will stand up to serious nail-pulling and won’t disintegrate with age and moisture. In our tool-bucket we keep three hammers hanging in the loops – a small magnetic tack-hammer, a basic ball-peen, and the 20-ounce claw. This covers pretty much any hammering job a homeowner’s likely to do for him/herself, including repairing chair and stool cushions, ripped-out couch coverings, door screens and trim brads.

2. Screwdrivers
You’ll have a basic need for two sizes (large and small) of each Phillips and flat-head screwdrivers. These should also not be the cheapest you can find in the hardware store. It’s true that a cheap tool becomes useless if you use it, and the saving of frustration is more than worth the extra dollar or two for quality tools in the first place. We keep more than these four in our bucket. We also have a collection of mini-drivers in a plastic case, as well as a whole set of hex-drivers in a similar small box. These little plastic boxes are good to keep your small tools together so they don’t get lost at the bottom of the bucket, and since we also keep our drill and driver bits for the drills in the bucket (in their own little boxes), there’s no reason not to include tools you’ll need for more precise, smaller scale projects. A 5-gallon bucket has lots of room!

3. Locking Pliers
Often referred to as “Vise-Grip,” locking pliers have a dozen uses around the homestead. Get a 10″ pair with curved jaws. These can remove bolts, nuts and even screws that have been stripped and don’t respond to the usual means. They can also pull nails that have lost their heads, they can lock shafts to facilitate removing nuts, it makes a fine pipe wrench, can be used as a clamp, a crimper, a bottle opener and can even serve as an emergency replacement for broken control levers until new parts can be obtained.

4. Needle-Nose Pliers
An 8″ pair of needle-nose pliers with wire cutter and stripper in the axis will do yeoman’s work around the homestead. These can remove and install small nuts and bolts, cut, strip, form and twist small to medium gage wires, insert small parts into hard-to-reach places, remove cotter pins, locking tabs and inside snap rings. They’re also handy for removing splinters from flesh (if you’re as accident prone as we are).

5. Pump Pliers
Also called “Channel-Lock” pliers, this tool is most useful when it’s big. Go ahead and spring for the 16″ size as these are invaluable for working with plumbing and as a pipe wrench. A home handy-man will use these a lot, so buy quality.

6. Linesman’s Pliers
These were originally used for electrical and phone line work, but are handy for crimping, cutting, twisting or stripping medium to heavy gage wire, removing bolts and nuts, flattening or bending metal, pulling nails and pulling or flattening cotter pins. They have square jaws and ample grip for leverage.

7. Utility Knife
Your basic “box-cutter” handle with double-sided blades, plus a box of extra blades. These fit nicely into a pocket on the bucket belt. We have at least 5 of these, but only because we could never find one when we needed it before we got the bucket. This handy-dandy tool can cut drywall for repairing holes in the wall or ceiling, can cut paneling as you’re fitting it, cuts fiberglass and foam insulation easily, and will also cut roofing felt and shingles, wallpaper and veneers, carpeting, etc. Ours has also come in handy to cut poster board and foam-core for school projects.

8. Four-in-hand File
Sometimes called a “horse rasp,” get the 8-10″ version, about 1.5″ wide. One side should be half-round, the other flat. This tool reshapes, can save door removal for minor planing needs, reduces sharp edges on metal and plastic fittings, and sharpens larger tool blades.

9. Adjustable Wrench
Get the 10″ version, which will serve the same purpose as an entire set of open-end wrenches both regular and metric. Also useful for bending copper or steel tubing.

10. Chisels
Unless you’re doing fine wordwork, all you’ll need are two – a 1/2 inch and 1 inch butt chisells with beveled blades. Stout handles that can tolerate pounding with your hammer are important, so again spring for the good quality tools. Keep these sharp and oiled so as to diminish rust, and don’t ever use them as screwdrivers.

11. Crowbar
A good curved-bottom heavy crowbar does a fine job of pulling even the largest nails without marring the surface. It can also be used to lift heavy surfaces for alignment, prying up the edges of molding and paneling, etc. Don’t just count on borrowing the one from your car when a need presents itself. Get a new one for the tool bucket.

12. Combination Square
A 12″ sliding square offering 45º and 90º angles with a built-in bubble level is standard for most basic carpentry needs. A homesteader will use this tool a lot when cutting wood, installing and repairing cabinets, setting circular saw depths, and leveling everything from picture frames to countertops.

Next time we’ll get to the rest of our necessary tools, including the large ones that won’t be kept in the bucket. From there we will take a look at the many types of homestead maintenance and repair that will be using these tools.

Links:

Bucket Organizers

Coastal Tool: Bucket Boss Tool Organizers