How to Make DIY Fire Starters

Step one:  Tear down an old building on your farm.

Just kidding.  But seriously, construction update! The little cottage (on its way to becoming a studio and guest house) is nearing completion!!  The electrician is here today working on the wiring, the HVAC goes in next week, and the sheetrock the week after.

But this is not about that.  You'll have to wait a bit longer for the cottage unveiling! Here's a teaser:

Removing the cedar shake siding...

It makes me crazy to waste anything, especially if it's possible to recycle, repurpose, or reuse it, and especially if there's fuel potential there. When the siding removal was completed, we discovered that there were two layers of cedar shakes, one painted layer and one just plain beautiful wood. And so, like a dumpster-diving rag picker, I'm there sifting through the rubble to collect every shard of clean cedar I can rescue before the rains come.  It's a thrill a minute around here, filling every box and bin with these broken shakes, ecstatic about the enormous supply of sweet-smelling kindling for our wood-burning stove!

It's the little things. It's about getting a fire started in the middle of winter on a cold night without having to burn up a week's worth of sooty newspapers. So Genius Bruce has developed his own recipe and special technique for making these amazing fire starters from the piles of sawdust generated out in the man cave, oops, I mean wood shop, and all the leftover wax from burned up candles. Just a tiny piece of this miraculous substance next to a bit of cedar kindling will start a roaring fire with just one match. Every single time.

Here's how to make them:

Ingredients: sawdust and candle wax

Tools: an old electric wok or crock pot (check the Goodwill or Salvation Army stores), a stirrer (Bruce requisitioned one of our cooking tools, so we marked it to avoid confusion), a couple of old cookie sheets with sides, wax paper.

Directions:  Melt the old candle wax in the crock pot or wok (this takes time and patience, but no effort whatsoever. Have a beer.) 

While enjoying your beer and possibly a football game, line two cookie sheets with wax paper, and arrange the sawdust in an even layer in both pans.  Add more wax bits to the melting pot, pour another beer, and continue waiting (and drinking beer) while it all melts.

When the wax is finally liquid, you're ready for the exciting part:  the pour. No matter how careful you are, much of the wax will end up on the counter or floor, but no matter. You can deal with your partner later.  Keep pouring wax gently over the sawdust until it's "about right," which means saturated but not drowned. There should be more sawdust than wax when you're done.  The sawdust is what ignites first, and the wax is what keeps it going, so you want the sawdust to predominate.

At this point, use the old spatula to mix it all up gently (don't stir, just "mess it about"), achieving a relatively even consistency throughout.  This takes a little practice, but is not actual brain surgery. Here's how it should look when you set it aside to cool:

Then, when it has started to solidify but hasn't turned to stone yet, score the surface deeply with a knife. This will allow you to break the sheet apart later, after cooling for about an hour or so, into individual little bricks, which can be kept in a small box near the fireplace.

That's it!  And if you look closely at the embossed wooden box in the last photo below, this is the closest we may get to sending actual holiday greetings this year.

Have a wonderful Christmas, Hanukah, or whatever you celebrate, and a prosperous, healthy, and happy 2015.

Love and hugs...

Dee, Bruce, Gabe, Koukla, and Mr Buffle
Bufflehead Pond Farm
Hansville, WA

Summertime, It Ain't No Time for Bloggin'

There has been little time for blogging about Bufflehead Pond Farm lately.  Summer and the garden have sucked all the hours from our days, what little is left over after our full-time jobs.  But all in a good way.  We had the most gorgeous summer ever, especially for western Washington, with constant sun and hot days for months on end. (And there has been more than enough physical work to keep us buffed up, albeit beneath deepening layers of contented fat cells.)

But this great weather meant having to spend two hours every day watering the new lawn and all the thirsty tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkins, peas, beans, cucumbers, carrots, beets, turnips, onions, garlic, shallots, bok choy, strawberries, a bay tree, melons, rhubarb, three kinds of basil, lettuces, spinach, all kinds of herbs, and a huge raspberry plant weaving in and out of the garden fence. And other stuff too… a rue plant, blueberry bushes, savory, lavender, rosemary, lovage, spring onions, and more…

Totally out of control...

And numerous daily visits to coax the “children” to grow faster, bigger, more prolific, or to toss the occasional giant slug into the pond, or pick the caterpillars off, or harvest some salad-fixin’s for dinner, or deposit the daily compost scraps, or stand and stare for long minutes musing about how the garden is going to look “when it’s finished... someday.”

Dee's New Fitness Center Workout

And now moving into fall, the moisture returns, bringing:  Mowing... Weed whacking… Mildew and vine rot for all the tomatoes, zukes, cukes, pumpkins and melons… Harvesting, every night, baskets of tomatoes and cukes for pickling… Canning and freezing… Blackberry picking, washing, freezing… and, did I mention mowing?

Too Many Tomatoes

We also had a serious tent caterpillar invasion this past spring, and it's going to be much worse in 2015, they say, increasing our "chore load" dramatically.  Unfortunately, these critters spring from the alder trees that lurk like 75-foot tall pernicious green vampires all over our property.  We’ve been cutting them down (they’re great for firewood!) and digging out stumps all summer, but there are dozens more to get rid of before billions of eggs covering their trunks hatch next May and the thick carpet of ravenous caterpillars slithers down from the trees to devour our entire garden.

In short, without going into the thousands of other happy chores, big ones and small ones, that have to get done around here to keep this place civilized and to make it look like the paradise we visualize, we’ve gotta get organized and make a plan about how it’s all going to get done and when.  Otherwise, we’re just plain doomed.  It’s a slippery slope indeed.

When Bruce bought the property, the county (Department of Conservation) gave him a satellite shot of the whole 12 acres, divided into labeled sections.  It looks a bit different from today’s view from space because of the added and deleted buildings, but the basics are the same, and we’re going to use this as a guide to understanding and planning for the property workload for the year.

2009 - When Bruce bought the farm, so to speak.

Early in 2013, house under construction

To complicate matters, there’s not one specific section of land where the most important activity (bird watching) will take place, so we’ll have to organize our organization in such a way as to allow for non-location-specific chores like this.  This one job involves constant vigilance from all portals within the house, with bird books and binoculars ever handy, and with ears alert for bird songs and chirps outdoors.  Sometimes this work requires a glass of wine and an internet connection, to facilitate bird identification, of course. 

But Bruce has lamb chops on the griddle and my ability to concentrate on blogging is no longer possible, what with all that wine to facilitate, or whatever it was that I was doing...  I'll let you know when we get organized.  Do stay tuned.

Cheers!
Dee and Bruce

The Important Things

The Denizens of Bufflehead Pond

Such big ideas we had when we first set out to inhabit Bufflehead Pond Farm! The place had not been properly tended to for years, and the local ecology (mostly blackberries and stinging nettles) had pretty much taken over. Being human and with engineering and military backgrounds, both of us, we both had compelling urges to clean up, organize, remove deadfall and ugly trees, spray weed killer everywhere, hack, chop, and rototill...

The pond, now 'famous' for its winter Bufflehead Ducks and its summertime Mallards and Wood Ducks, was one of the biggest offenders.  If only we could clear out those tall reeds that threaten to choke the pond, and those nasty lily pads that seem to be spreading!  OUT with them!  Oh, and that huge weedy tree at the edge of the pond blocks our long view of the stables and beyond. Chop it down!

And so on.  You get the idea.  Clean, clear, organized, easy to manage.  That's the ideal, right? You be the judge.  What unfolds from here is the story about our new farm family and their relationships to each other and to all the things that grow in and around the pond. This sketch (above) shows a few of the more prominent members.  There are more. Future blog posts will add more detail. There's so much to tell.

First the Bufflehead Ducks. We love these little fellows for their happy diving ways, their sweet dispositions, and (let's face it) they are just too darned cute for words. We can keep an eye on the pond from every room in the house, and we keep the binoculars and the bird identification books handy at all times, just for this purpose.  For today, we introduce the two major players on the stage of Bufflehead Pond.

Mr Buffle

"Mr Buffle" is the main character for the winter.  He believes this is his pond, and although he's quite agreeable about sharing it with other Buffleheads and the occasional Mallard visitor, there was no question in any of their minds about who was boss.  To indicate his ownership, he positions himself in the exact center of the pond and grooms himself, a very ostentatious and commanding display. No one challenged him. Sadly, we never saw him with a female all winter, except for a small flock of Hooded Mergansers (cousins of Buffleheads), with whose females he flirted shamelessly, chasing them into the reeds for who knows what nefarious activities.

Observing all this from his perch in the reed patch close to shore is the Red Winged Blackbird, a dominant male who has been here the entire time we have... summer, fall, winter, and now spring... watching, waiting, keeping an eye on things.  Last fall, a large family (perhaps 25-30) of these birds gathered in the reeds each morning for a group pep talk and gossip session, meeting there again each evening to share their full reports. They nested in the big ugly weedy-looking tree that grows on the edge of the pond close to the reeds. There were times when the noise from the Blackbird Happy Hour each day was deafening... but always happy sounding. Last fall all of them disappeared on their winter migration, all except for the "Daddy Red Winged," who still hangs out in the reeds every day and keeps his eyes on all the activities in and around the pond.  Where Mr Buffle owned the water and the feeding grounds within, Mr Red Winged owned the space around and above the pond.

These are the two main characters at Bufflehead Pond Farm, the two bad boys who keep everything functioning smoothly and well balanced.  We think of Mr Buffle as the President, and Mr Red Winged as the CEO.  The other day there was a very interesting collection of ducks paddling about, not all in agreement about who gets to occupy and feed in which section of the pond.  And I swear I am not making this up: Mr Red Winged left his observation perch in the reeds and flew down, landed on a lily pad near the offending ducks to have a stern conversation with them on their level, and then returned to his reed perch, satisfied that the argument was resolved. We both saw this, amazed at this "CEO Bird" and realizing that it's not really Mr Buffle's pond after all. It totally belongs to Mr Red Winged. And to prove the point, when a young eagle came to hunt last week, this incredible little bird attacked it and chased it away.  Afterward, I did notice his chest seemed a bit more puffed out than usual.

The reeds and lily pads will have to stay, bottom line. And those pesky barn swallows that have taken over the stables? More on those amazing little guys next time... Do stay tuned!

Cheers - Dee