Spent Grain, Built Loom Stand - Monday

Another super early morning, I was out the door and on the road by 5am headed to town to pickup grain from one brewery. There were 6 1/2 barrels that I condensed into 6 so it was easier to strap them down. I headed home and had the trip done in an hour.

Our morning soak and then I took J to school before coming home and getting my posts done for the day. It was a bit chilly in the morning so I waited until after the sun had come up, even though it was still cold when I went out.

I spread 3 barrels in my upper most rows in the garden and managed to get about a 1/3 of them covered.

I rolled downhill a bit then spread out one more barrel over the beet rows.

The chickens again have a homing sense to grain. It could be the Pavlovian response to seeing the trailer with barrels but they come running instantly.

The other 2 barrels got tossed into the sheep pen and I finished covering the pole garden with the first coating. I've probably only got another 10 barrels of grain needed to finish coating my entire garden with the first. This winter I should be able to add another coat to it by spring. I may need to rent a big 3 point tiller again to get deep enough to really mix the soil up.

@stryeyz asked if I could build her a stand for her loom so I spent my time after getting R to school making it happen. First was to find the correct wood which ended up being these accent boards that were given to me well over 10 years ago and have been on a rack in my shed since. They have a point on either edge and is oak. I cut the 4 pieces I needed for the verticals and the feet.

Then I ripped all the points off the edges.

They started like this,

Then squared on one side,

Then squared on both sides.

The connecting board to hold both sides together is made out of a piece of redwood 2x4 that I ripped down to 3" tall.

All 5 pieces got a good sanding to take off sharp edges and burrs.

I drilled the holes in each piece to run the bolts.

I'm getting to use leftover hardware from the boys' old crib. Since I am using the mattress spring around the farm I have all the hardware which is the perfect size and length. They have the internal captive nut things that were exactly what I wanted for the cross bar.

I drilled the holes from the end of the board first then was able to drill the hole for the nut which both of them ended up perfectly centered.

The stand itself is rather simple, just 5 pieces and 2 bolts hold it all together.

I have 2 holes on the top of the supports so that she can lower it a little if need be and I can always drill more if she needs. The thing is nice and stable and all I need to finish it is to find knobs for the bolts instead of the round nuts and a washer.

In the afternoon I got the truck and trailer loaded up with 10 empty barrels that needed to get dropped at 3 different breweries this morning.

It was raining pretty good when we went out for the evening soak. It only amounted to 0.15" of rain but anything is better than nothing.

This morning I was already in town getting grain and dropping barrels, the boys have school, I have to empty the barrels of grain and I will have more to pickup on Thursday, and hopefully manage more than just the meager 500 words on my story that I got yesterday.