What Did You Do Today?

[bjrogg]

Fantastic Clint.

I’m sure you both will remember that for a long time. And hopefully they get into helping with the processing too. Always good to have a little help in that department

Bjrogg

He did most of the processing on both of his deer.  I showed him how to do a couple things but he did 90% of the work.

That’s great. Love hearing that. We pretty much make cutting up deer and making pork sausage a family affair

Bjrogg

[Eric Krewson]

It was 2 degrees here this morning, yesterday it was 51. I have (had) a wonderful greens patch that I let anyone pick from and tried to get what I could from it before the cold burned it up.

I wanted to save my spinach crop if possible, I never buy lettuce when I have spinach growing in the garden. I covered my spinach rows with leaves and put a piece of landscape fabric over the leaves to hold them in place during the gail force winds that were coming with the cold front.





My garden doesn't grow turnips well, lots of greens and just a few turnips, I salvaged what I could and picked a monster bag of kale to cook, freeze and package as my supply until next year. I checked the freezer to see what I had already put up and found I had 18 single serve bags, I need about 40 to have enough to eat until next October when my next crop will be ready to pick.



I packed the Target bag with as much kale as I could cram in it, this amount will fil both of these stock pots after I wash the kale.



I put out a message on Facebook to all my friends to come pick all the greens they wanted ahead of the storm, one of my friends elderly mother showed up, no one else.

[Pat B]

The temp went from 30 deg at 5:00am to 12 deg at 8:00am this morning.

[bjrogg]

So far the snow and cold aren’t so terrible, but man that wind is sure multiplying their impact

Really nasty out there

Bjrogg

[Eric Krewson]

As expected, the cold killed my greens;



After 4 days of being covered up the temperatures rose to above freezing. I cautiously started blowing off the leaves, not knowing what to expect.

What a pleasant surprise, my spinach looked great.

 

[bjrogg]

It’s really amazing what a little insulation does. Whether it’s snow, leaves, straw etc.

Bjrogg

[Eric Krewson]

A couple of years ago we had the same type of cold spell but it was preceded by freezing rain and 6" of snow, I had snow covering my greens for almost 2 weeks while the temperature plummeted, when the snow finally melted off the greens were just fine.

This is the first time in the last 21 years that the cold killed my greens.

[bjrogg]

One of the things we always want around here during winter.

If we get a foot of snow. We really want the ground frozen first. Otherwise it will be mud all winter under that snow. It doesn’t matter how cold it gets

Bjrogg

[Eric Krewson]

I look after my neighbor's place when he is off to his other house on Dolphin Island. I hadn't seen him come out of his driveway in a few days so I walked over to see if his truck was parked in his driveway, his driveway is about a quarter mile long. His truck was gone, he was probably at the gulf.

I had put up a lock on stand overlooking the field alongside his driveway, as I walked down the driveway yesterday evening I noticed a white belly in the field not far from my stand. There was a smaller dead doe in the field about 20 yards from my stand, she was stiff but still warm. I couldn't find any bullet holes or evidence that she had been hit by a car, she was fat and healthy looking.

There is a lot of traffic up and down the driveway from people working on my neighbor's house or house cleaners, perhaps someone hit her. As I was leaving the neighbor's adult son drove up and said the deer wasn't there when he took his morning run down the driveway.

If I knew she was a road kill I would have loaded her up and taken her home but with her death a mystery I had to leave her for the buzzards.

At daylight this morning it occurred to me that I didn't want a stinking pile of buzzard bait 20 yards from my stand so I cranked my tractor, drove over, hooked a strap to the deer and drug her to the back end of the field the furthest from my neighbor's house and at least 1/3 mile from my stand.   

[Eric Krewson]

I can tell immediately when the coons and deer start assaulting my muscadines, they knock 5 off on the ground for every one they eat.

I noticed late yesterday evening that there had been visitors to my vines.

I worked until dark putting up a 7000V surprise for them if they show up to pillage my muscadines again.

The low strand keeps the coons out.

[bjrogg]

Looks like a very nicely constructed electric fence Eric. Funny thing. We build them to keep animals in and you build them to keep animals out.

Bjrogg

[Pat B]

I turned 73 today. 

[bjrogg]

I turned 73 today. 

I am a couple days late but I sure hope you had a great birthday Pat

Bjrogg

[WhistlingBadger]

Happy late birthday, Pat!  You don't look a day over 72.   

We came down the mountain from Wyoming Bible Camp today.  It was a very wet week up on the mountain, but a great time connecting with old and new friends, enjoying creation, some great campfire singing, and a lot of thinking and studying about the more important things.  Sure will be nice to sleep in a bed and not share a bathroom, though.  I think I passed the "sleeping on the ground is fun" phase of my life about 20 years ago.  ha ha

[Eric Krewson]

As I cut out bows and tillering tools on my bandsaw, I throw any scrap piece in a pile if looks like I might make a tool handle, bow part or clamp pad for my C clamps. This pile grows and grows over the years and becomes a tripping hazard when I use my bandsaw.

I finally realize what goes in the pile stays in the pile never to be used. Yesterday it was throwing this accumulation of wood on the burn pile day. I agonize over burning the osage pieces but have come to realize that once they have gone up in smoke, they are out of sight and out of mind forever.