Well its been a busy few weeks around the homestead. Most of what goes on is not glamorous enough to show in pictures but the tasks are well needed.
One of our biggest issues out on the homestead was internet. We were with a certain well known rural internet provider. During the summer the service was ok – never great but we got by. When winter hit though? Forget it. Every evening it would stop completely and during the day we would only get 4-5Mbit on a good day.
Well after switching to Telus Smart Hub we are quite happy. It took us a couple days to find the best location which in the end turned out to be our garage. We didn’t have a network cable between the house and garage so we ran two new cables. Fortunately that was our main line of work before the covid so it wasn’t too much bother. Finally we had the 25Mbit we were paying for and as a bonus, the maximum upload speed is between 7-10x faster.
Once we had a good service it was time to improve our internal network which required 2 new cables to our computers which replaced makeshift wireless connections that used a couple of old routers as bridges (the computers did not have built in wifi). Once that was done we could replace the wireless extenders we had to give us internet in our garage and workshop. The worked well for the range but the speed was not quick. I was only getting about 5Mbit in the workshop. After installing a hardwired access point in the garage and a wireless bridge to the workshop I am now able to get full internet speed and up to 100Mbit for internal speeds. Mission accomplished.
In non internet related tasks, grandad has been setting up his wood shop and metal shop, we started to take down a view blocking tree and chopping it ready for firewood, and I’ve signed up for a course – the Prairie Horticulture Certificate and time/money permitting I will be certified in the nursery crop production segment. This knowledge will be a big asset in growing the tree farm into a sustainable venture. It will be a challenge juggling all the tasks but the end will be worth it.
Till next time, Rob – Namaka Ridge Homestead & Tree Farm.