week 11: a week in the life

this week on the little dream farm

This was one of those weeks that felt like a month…and not necessarily because anything was particularly bad, but simply because it was chock full of a lot of stuff. Let’s do a play-by-play rundown of the week so I can catch you up on all the things:

Monday: The Powderpost Beetle Debacle

I touched on this briefly in Instagram Stories but I’ll share more of the details here. Back in the summertime I noticed little bugs flying around the support beams of the big barn. Noticing the flying bugs made me notice lots of tiny little holes in the beams…one of those things that felt like it’s not quite right but I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. I made a mental note to start looking into it only to find out that Powderpost beetles, the little buggers creating those holes in the beams, are second only to termites in the amount of damage they can do to structures. They’re called ‘Powderpost’ beetles because they live in the wood, eat it from the inside out, and literally turn it to powder. I’ve come to learn way more about Powderpost beetles than I ever cared to know, and because almost everything on the internet is made out to be horrifying, I spent the first half of the week in a total panic that we were in a real pickle with the barns.

You’re looking at one of the support beams in the big barn. The holes are a clear sign of Powderpost beetles.

So Monday we have a pest control inspector come by and take a look at the damage. His guess was that they’d been at work in the entire structure of both the big barn and the lower barn for at least ten years, but hard to place because certainly it could have been longer. Those flying bugs? He wasn’t sure what they could be without seeing them (they’re dormant now) but figured it was something eating the larvae of the Powderpost beetles inside the holes in the wood.

Powderpost beetles don’t flock to a structure and then develop inside it. Instead, they’re inside wood that’s harvested and then if it’s not pressure treated or preventatively treated for things like termites and Powderpost beetles (and carpenter ants and other wood-eating species) then you can end up with an infestation. While Powderpost beetles are as damaging as termites, it’s generally slower and more widespread. Usually termites demolish an entire area rapidly, whereas Powderpost beetles can work their way through structures for many many years.

The inspector measures out the spaces that need treatment…2500 square feet of barn space for a whopping estimated cost of $6,400. I nearly cried as my brain was trying to process how we’d gotten here in the first place.

Our inspector missed it. David must certainly not have known about it because there’s no way on earth he wouldn’t have had it treated immediately after investing so much money into reconstructing those two big, beautiful barns. We felt like we did a really good job covering all our bases in the buying process, but this definitely got missed, and I was feeling pretty peeved at myself for that. And then there was the part about the actual damage…if they’ve been at work for ten years…or more…then how bad is it?

I got on the phone to call a neighbor who is a contractor and could take a look and give us an honest answer. More on that later.

Tuesday: The Snowstorm Rolls Through

We spent the rest of Monday preparing for a coming storm, calling for 12-18 inches of heavy, wet snow, high winds, and expected damage and power outages. We prepped the animals as we always do, charged up all our goods, got out the emergency water, flashlights, candles, brought in extra wood, made some food ahead of time, and let both our work teams know we’d likely be offline. We woke up to several inches of snow, and by 8am, after we’d made coffee, knocked out the morning chores, showered, and ate, the power was out.

22 inches of snow and a 12-hour power outage with this storm…but it sure was pretty!

Fortunately, because we were prepared, we got to just enjoy the day! There was nothing more we needed to do other than to take care of the animals to keep them watered and fed and we heated up soup and tea on the wood stove, read by the fire with the kitties, did some project planning, and enjoyed the day that felt like going back in time.

Whole-farm generators are not cheap in the least, but this storm reinforced us wanting to get a solid quote for one for the farm, so I made that call this week so we can decide where it might fit on our project list.

We’d blown out all the candles, put the last log on for the night, and got in bed at 7pm and an hour later the power came back on, just 12 hours after it had gone out. Given the widespread damage in the area and the more than 3,000 lineman that were brought in to assist with the storm, we were grateful for how quickly they got things back up and running. Huge kudos to those teams, and to our town road crews, who never miss a beat in any storm, and had the roads cleared by the next morning after we got a whopping 22 inches of snow total.

Wednesday: When Sarah Stews Too Long

By Wednesday I had a plan: Chris and I were going to tackle the Powderpost beetle project ourselves. I did a ton of research on how to treat for them, learned everything I could about the chemical the pros use, got a sense for the protective gear we’d need and the backpack sprayer we’d have to get to do the job, and had a site picked out where we could order the chemical and have it shipped to our friends in Vermont since it couldn’t be shipped to New York. It was going to be a lot of work, but it was also going to save us more than $5,000 to spray the exact same chemical (which by the way is surprisingly safe to work with) that first company was going to use.

While I was mentally readying us to fit this project into the schedule, I’d called another local company for a second opinion. This nice gentleman showed up Wednesday afternoon and tromped through the snow with me around the farm and patiently answered my one-thousand questions and gave us a lot of assurance that the damage wasn’t too concerning in terms of structural issues to the barns. He’s been spraying barns and old farm homes for Powderpost beetles in this area for 40 years. It eased my panic about the soundness of the structure of both barns, and calmed all my worry about how hard it might be to treat. His quote came in at a much more reasonable $1,400 (and comes with a one-year warranty) and he’ll be back in April when the temps are in the 60s to do the job.

Thursday: Cray Cray Day

Thursdays around here are known as Cray Cray Day because I’ve got my heaviest workload for the week with both my full-time job and the majority of my nutrition and fitness coaching client calls. Chris typically has lots of meetings every day of the work week, but when we’re both tied up all day it makes for a nutty kind of day.

So Thursday came and went in a flash but we did pause to take a trip down memory lane remembering the last year with the donkeys as Friday marked the one-year anniversary of them arriving on the farm. Going back through the photos and videos of the past year made it feel like them getting here—and the shape that Molly-Max was in at the time—was both forever ago, and only yesterday.

Friday: Making Peace with Chaos

I love learning new things…even something like Powderpost beetles. I love starting out knowing nothing about a topic and then diving in and discovering the way the knowledge, depth, and understanding of something unfolds over time.

Friday morning our neighbor—the contractor I mentioned—came by to take a look at the barns and one other potential project we needed his opinion on. After showing him the barns and walking him through what the pest inspectors saw, he really put my mind at ease and assured us we needn’t worry about the powederpost beetles or the barns and that the more-than-reasonable second quote we got should be more than enough to get the job done and fix the issue for good.

He gave us the number for a friend who can come by to help fix a few things in the lower barn that could use a little attention, but otherwise he helped put our worry (re: my worry, haha Chris would want me to tell you he’s not worried about this and that I’m a total nut) to rest because they’re incredibly common, especially in this area where you have a lot of old barns and old farm houses and that the solution they use to treat it truly does work.

I say I love learning new things, because the more I learned this week about the Powderpost beetles the less I worried, and the more tidbits of information I got from the pros, the better I felt. Fortunately, we’ll be able to get it resolved rather quickly without totally draining the piggy bank where all the spare funds are currently being saved up for a tractor.

Friday we also celebrated the one-year anniversary of the donkeys arriving to the Little Dream Farm, and as a fitting celebration we had our farrier, Shawn, come by to trim both Molly-Max and Dominic’s hooves. It’s amazing to see how far these two have come, and life with donkeys is better than we ever could have imagined!!

Molly-Max getting his front hoof worked on. Chris usually stands near Shawn and helps by holding and handing him his tools. I typically stand by their faces to talk to the donkeys, keep them calm, and hand them snacks while Shawn works.

Saturday and Sunday: Winding Down and Seed Prep

Add to everything above that Chris had a totally crazy work week with some really big projects, and we reserved the weekend for a whole lot of nothing. For us, nothing looks like heading to the gym, making good food, knocking out chores, and Chris working on his fantasy baseball spreadsheets and watching March Madness games (btw- my bracket is currently beating his booty!).

You really should see these spreadsheets. He’s been doing fantasy baseball since 1995 when you used to have to call in to a service and they’d mail the stats to you. Today, Chris has designed his own spreadsheets and has this incredible brainy system that’s truly impressive.

As for me, I’m in the process of placing a large peony root order that will arrive in mid-October, as well as some cold-hardy rose bushes. Let’s just say I’ve gone off the deep end into the wide world of flowers, and I’m not planning on coming up for air any time soon! I had no idea I’d love flowers as much as I do, but it’s safe to say I’ve read every single word ever written about a peony on the internet by this point…and I can’t wait to get a boat load of roots here in October to plant a big peony patch in the hay field. More on this another time. This weekend is the start of a number of seed varieties that have a longer growing period and I’m excited to dive in to starting seeds!

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Need a snack?!

For those of you who made it this far into this week’s Farm Note, you’ll be handsomely rewarded with a yummy treat…a recipe for my Hankering for a Pumpkin Bread recipe I made up this week. You’ll want to save this one for sure, and whip it up when you get a hankering for pumpkin bread like I had mid-week.

Hankering for a Pumpkin Bread:

This recipe is adapted from several pumpkin bread recipes I’ve used in the past. I’ve made it so many times with so many variations of ingredients but really landed on the money recipe this past week. I’m excited to share this one with you…this pumpkin bread is so flavorful, super moist, and one we’ll make over and over again!

Took this just before I added a pad of butter to the top!

Ingredients:
-1 & 3/4 cups all-purpose flower
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-2 heaping teaspoons cinnamon
-1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
-1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
-1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (can be omitted if you don’t like clove)
-1 tsp salt* (use 3/4 tsp if using salted butter, see below)
-2 large eggs at room temperature
-1/2 cup pure maple syrup
-1/4 cup granulated sugar
-1/2 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
-1 15 oz. can organic pumpkin or 1 & 1/2 cups fresh pumpkin puree
-1 stick (1/2 cup) melted butter* (I use salted and less salt in the recipe but if you use unsalted, add a little more salt)
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-Turbinado sugar for sprinkling on top

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F) and using the end of a stick of butter, grease a 9x9 pan (we use glass) on the bottom and halfway up the sides, including the corners.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Stir well to combine, making sure to break up any brown sugar clumps.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and then add syrup, pumpkin, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Stir to combine but don’t over mix.

4. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and then stir to combine, making sure not to over mix (this is key for light, fluffy, moist bread!)

5. Spoon the batter into the prepared baking dish and generously sprinkle turnbinado sugar over the top. Bake at 350 degrees (F) for 40 minutes, but begin checking at 35 minutes for doneness. We like ours just a little bit under-baked so I’m sure to take it out of the oven between that 35 and 40 minute mark. If using metal or a different size pan, adjust time accordingly.

6. Allow the bread to cool and then slice into 16 squares. Enjoy it served warm with butter for the full effect! Cover tightly with a lid and store in the fridge for up to a week…but it never lasts nearly that long for us!

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Ok and now over to you, friend. How’d your week go? Anything you want to share, tell me about, vent, or celebrate?? Let’s meet in the comments to chat!