Category: SMTL

I’ve finally gotten around to dropping and splitting the Maple Tree that had been dropping limbs. It turned out to be a three day task of which two of have been successfully completed. ‘Success’ being measured as returning to the house each day with all appendages attached in the same condition and location they were previously parked. A chainsaw can be a cruel mistress.

My 71 year old back is bitching like a teenager prom queen with sand in her pussy, so it will be another day before it’s loaded up and moved to the woodlot for stacking.

Maple burns hot and fast and feeding the fireplace and poking at the embers every 15 minutes, while spiritually satisfying (damn near zen-like), is better experienced at a greater interval, so I split this a little larger than I have in the past. When seasoned (it’ll be a least a year before it can be used) I’ll get a longer burn time than I’m currently experiencing.

Cutting and stacking wood is an exercise in optimism.

I’ve finally dialed in my fireplace.  I haven’t used it much over the last couple of years because I couldn’t keep the damn thing from smoldering and setting off the smoke alarms.  Quite by accident I discovered why it was performing so poorly: the exterior air supply to the firebox was blocked.  I’ve freed it up and now it fires up and draws like a champ. . . as long as the glass doors remain closed.     Previously when the doors were closed it could not draw enough air for combustion and die down and smoke would infiltrate through the small gaps on the folding glass doors.  With the doors open it would push the smoke and gasses into the house. 

I’ve got a little wood put up for this winter and am making good progress against next year’s needs.   I bought, sight unseen, two ricks of what was said to be seasoned hardwood.  It wasn’t seasoned and it wasn’t two ricks.  I felt so sorry for the couple that delivered it that I just paid them and smiled.  There is always someone worse off than you or I and these were two of them.  Their clothes were worn, torn and tired: I don’t think trousers that he wore would have survived a tour in a washing machine. 

The tires were bald on the beat-up old chevy and it leaked oil in the barn where we stacked the wood.  As a guess he and his wife drove around finding downed trees and cut them.  One rick was Red Oak and included so many ‘pieces and parts’ of limbs that very little of it was split main trunk logs.  The second ‘rick’ was about a half rick and was some pretty good-looking split Hickory; it may be dry by next winter.

What I have ready to burn (below 20 percent moisture)  came from my farm:  — a rick and a half of seasoned Maple, a rick of White Oak, a half of Persimmon, half of Beech, and a rick of Hickory.  I’ve got a little under a half-rick of ‘ancient’ wood and the rounds/logs salvaged from an Apple Tree.  All together about 5 ricks.  Three ricks is a cord.    

For next year I have the rick and a half delivered as mentioned above, two full ricks of Red Oak and a rick of Maple.  They say that when you heat with wood you get warm twice, it’s actually 6 times: cut, load, unload, split, stack, and the warm glow from the fireplace.   Anyway, I was layered with a long sleeve shirt over a short sleeve and as I warmed up dropping  a Maple I removed my long sleeve shirt while cutting it in to ‘rounds’.  What my skinny ass should have done was give the Poison Ivy vines on those rounds the respect it deserved and left my longs sleeve shirt on.  All of this leads us to the word for the day (actually the last several painful days):  urushiol (u-ROO-she-ol).

I’m going to drop a large dead Maple that’s been shedding some large limbs this weekend.  Earlier, when it had all of its limbs, I thought that it would drop to the west. . . into the fence that kept the neighbor’s cattle at bay.  It now seems to be leaning north and will drop safely into my field.  I suppose it is 40 or 50 feet high and is around 3 or 4 ft in diameter at the base .  This tree is on flat land which means that I can take the log splitter to where I’m cutting the rounds instead of lifting/tossing 60-90 rounds on to the trailer and, once arriving at the wood stacking area, lifting them off the trailer and onto the splitter. 

Two more items have been checked off of the dwindling list of mods/repairs/upgrades for my Jeep.

This photo shows the vanity plate I ordered a couple of weeks ago. Picked it up this morning in Pulaski, TN.

Other recent adds are the tire cover, taillight cover, and an upgraded gas cap housing unit.

The other upgrade was swapping out the stock air filter assembly for one designed to provide cool air to the throttle body. Old and new configuration:

Why Jeep allowed a maniac near the CAD equipment is one of those secrets that will never be disclosed, but one thing for certain is singularly responsible for adding tons of plastic waste to our world. Here are two views of removed air cleaner .

One upgrade task still remains: 3/4 inch leveling blocks for the front springs to regain the ‘stance’ I lost when adding a steel bumper and heavy winch.

I have one repair to do; replace a faulty wheel sensor. I’m pretty sure that it’s the one on the passenger side rear, but I’ve ordered a complete set and will change them all out (saving those replaced) when I get the Jeep up on a rack. Jeff (over at Amazon) will send a set to my door step for 27 bucks.

Auto Zone will sell me a single one for 38 bucks providing I travel to their place to pick it up.

We were fortunate to get a little rain on Thursday evening, about an hours worth. It hadn’t rained in about a month so the cows and landscape were pleased. I would have been also, but when the rain moved in it came with a storm that chose to remind us of just how powerful maw nature can be.

I had three trees adjacent to the gated entry to the farm. Now I have two trees and a big mess. The photo above is entry (detail below). The tree still sanding on the right and the one that was snapped off are/were deciduous. A tall pine still stands just out of frame on the left.

The gate is in the background and the trunk of the tree that blew over is at the tip of the red arrow. Here (below) is is another view. Again, the red arrow points at where tree trunk broke off.

This final picture provides a reference (the Jeep) that hints at the size of the tree: both trees were identical in size.

The good/bad news story is:
–Good: had the tree fallen the other way it would have taken out the (electric) gate and a good stretch of barbed wire fencing.
–Bad: when it snapped parts of it fell into the adjacent tree (didn’t come completely down) and has embedded its limbs into the adjacent canopy. If you interlock your fingers (like the cops sometimes respectfully request you do) you can see what a challenge it is to clean out the dead-fall.

They say that ‘chance favors the prepared mind’ and as fortune would have it I had just received the two new chainsaw blades I’d ordered from Amazon (thanks Jeff!) . I have (had) a gallon of 50:1 fuel mixed and a gallon of bar/chain oil. All of these essentials support a Husqvarna 460 Rancher with a 20″ bar.

As it turns out the hard part is not making little sticks out of big sticks, it’s placing all of the little sticks onto the 12 foot trailer and hauling them off one of the eight burn piles I’ve been assembling. 5 hour of work in 100 degree temps yesterday have reduced the problem by half. Today’s weather promise to be much more accommodating.

I’ll get after it again this morning and hopefully have it wiped out by the time Alabama shows us how It’s new head coach is working out.

A few short years ago I captured a couple of images along the Elk River in North Alabama. I thought I’d share them once again. photo’s located here

I’ve finished all I set out to do on my Jeep and am pleased with how it turned out. Here’s what was done:
-replaced front bumper
-rerouted fog lamps
-mounted winch
-added flood/spot lights
-retreated fenders and rear bumper
-spare tire cover

Over the last few days I’ve added a cover for the winch, mounted my ‘fish bones logo’, and sanded and repainted the ‘hitch-rack’.

I’ve found there is a real sense of accomplishment from doing the work myself.  So much so that I’ll change the oil myself even though it costs less to take it into an Oil Express or Jiffy Lube. The day will come when I’m no long able to climb under the jeep or read the fill mark on an oil dipstick but that’s a few years off. Note to self: change oil in the jeep

I purchased a 24mm socket and ordered/receive a new oil filter housing cap from Jeff.  I may not need a new cap, but I may (not certain, may) have damaged the one that is currently mounted by trying to loosen it with a pair of channel locks.  I didn’t want to risk cracking the bastard (rendering the jeep inoperable) without a replacement in hand.

Jerky is cranked up and the first load is in the dehydrator now. My daughter and SIL’s house sits right next to mine on these 100+ acres and they only use the place once every 3 or 4 months. I’m drying it out over there because the dogs go crazy over here when all of that meat magically appears.

I’ve gone with 4 varieties done in medium and in hot. They’ve been marinating for about 18 hours so they are prime.

Each load takes 4 hours to dehydrate and I have 4 loads. Ill get three completed today and have one left to do tomorrow morning.

We’ve got storms moving in on our place here is southern middle Tennessee. We desperately need the rain and, along with the wind and thunder, it’s great to experience the power of nature from the comfort of an armchair.

Two years ago I would not have appreciated these storms as much as I do now. When you’re only source of TV, phone, and internet was thru overpriced satellite service (actually two separate satellite dishes ) heavy rain meant absolute incommunicado. Getting rid of the Dish Network and Hughes Net parasites is a great feel.

We now have fiber that we trenched it in some 2500 feet from the road. When coupled with a ghee-whiz fast whole house modem we managed to create enough bandwidth to meet all of our needs.

We have a couple of high def TV’s running, cell phones locked in (cause wifey burns up the Facebook pages) a house phone (tied through a converter to the modem), and you can see in the upper graphic I’ve got 9 tabs opened in my Firefox browser.

Unseen is MS Office’s Outlook email application downloading all of the spam the world pushes my way. Not one iota of delay with all of this running during this storm.

Life be good when electrons flow along with the rain.

With the mounting of a light bar on the new bumper I’m almost finished with my Jeep project.

I wired the light through a Bosch 5 pin relay such that when I turn on the fog lights it activates a relay and 12 volts (I tapped in at the positive winch terminal) is applied through a inline 30 amp fuse to the relay that delivers it to the new light.

I’ve got all of the wiring running through ‘looms’ except one small ( 5 inch) portion between the fuse to the relay. I’ll get that in today and then adjust the light beam upward slightly.

‘That Black Stuff’ I mentioned purchasing a few days back really does seem to work on the Jeep’s vinyl. For some reason it ended up slightly streaked on the fenders (not shown) so I need to go back and touch those up a mite. It occurs to me that the concept of cost/price is relative: I thought the stuff as being pricey at roughly $20 for 3 fluid ounces, but then realized having ‘like new’ fenders and a rear bumpers is a steal at that price.

I’ve got 6 quarts of oil and new filter but cannot find my 24mm socket so the needed oil change has hit the deferred maintenance list for a couple of days. Two remaining items for completion (other than the oil change and fender treatment) are applying a wicked sticker below the Wrangler logo on each of the rocker panels and receiving/mounting the winch cover.

We got a little rain on Friday, enough so that the weeds that I call grass/lawn were brought back to life and the place could be mowed yesterday (Saturday). A predecessor task was swapping out the mower blades which, of course, had a predecessor of sharpen the mower blades.

The old ones (above) have been sharpened previously and now are pretty well shot, so I’ll toss them. The ones I placed on yesterday will be good for a couple of months and will need to be trashed once I’m done running them over rocks and stumps that manage to rearrange themselves around here.

I’ve been pretty busy as of late; grooming the weeds, putting up blueberries, working on the boat and busting my knuckles, back and ass on the Jeep and the brush-hog.

I took the brush-hog off of tractor the other day in order to move rolls of hay off of trailers and stack them in the hay barn.  Can’t do it with a 15 foot mass of metal on the back end, but no problem: I’ve put that hog on/off maybe a hundred times:  the trick has always been to configure the brush hog to go back on as you take it off.  

This time I decided that I’d be ‘the good farmer’ and perform a little preventative maintenance on it’s drive shaft before hooking the hog back up.  Essentially this is nothing more than extending the shaft by a 2 feet or so…clean it…apply grease.. and move on with life.  All is dandy unless you extend the shaft by more than a 2 feet (or so) and it pulls free from the female end, when that happens you have a 20lb, 5 foot in length, drive shaft attached to 40lb U Joint assembly. 

What I was able to figure out in the more-than-a-hour that it took to place it back together is that: that SOB was indeed ‘keyed’, grease on a 60 lb object makes for challenging times, and cursing God and his entire creation does not reassemble a keyed and greased drive shaft.

On the Jeep: I decided to put a little effort and Social Security money into my 2016 Wrangler JK and it turns out that while the costs were predictable/controllable, the ‘little effort’ component turned out to be unconstrained.  My efforts on the Jeep are to replace the front bumper so I can add a winch and improved lighting. 

Let me say at the outset that I’ve always viewed installation instructions as a guide and subject to both interpretation and available tooling.  In hindsight I suppose when you’re told that the installation requires an impact wrench/driver, get (beg/borrow) a fucking impact wrench.

There is nothing quite so iffy as tying off the end of a rope to a 18mm offset wrench in order to apply the pull needed to break a bolt free.   It took me 5 hours to remove the exist bumper and 1 hour to install the new one.

The first portion of the project is done; I’ve built out the platform for the winch and a light bar (Jeff B. tells me they will both be delivered next week).

I’ve ordered some (supposedly) super-duper blackish dye that is said to make faded vinyl come back to life.

Given that what ain’t sheet metal is plastic/vinyl I’m hoping that this is a viable remedy for the all of the fading.

Everything else that I’ve researched has the same basis for their claim of effectiveness as the Snake Oil of yesteryear.

We’ll see.

The blueberry bushes are really producing this year. It seems that the more they are neglected the better they do. . . not a good reflection on me I guess. I’ve been put 11 pints up in the last two days, and in another day the nearly ripe fruit on the plants will be ready for harvest.

Time is flying by. In a few days we will be at the longest day of the year (again) and then we’ll start the slow shortening of days into a colorful fall and brilliant winter. There are wonders all around us and if we can lift our heads and furrowed brows from the grease and stubborn bolts for just a little bit and look around we can see the glory of God’s creation.

Double rainbow around the sun.

Yesterday I finally wandered my fat azz into Huntsville and gathered ‘makins’ for Jerky and Kimchi. The meat ‘Top Round’ was $3.87 ($4.06 with ‘surcharge’) a pound at the commissary; it’s a little over $7 ($7.63 with tax) at Wallyworld. I bought just under 15 pounds so I saved about $45 on the meat. The marinade spices I use were .98 at the commissary and $1.38 at Walmart I saved 4 or 5 bucks.

The Napa cabbage ended up being $1 a pound at the International Market vs $4 at Walmart so another $18 saved.

OK, here is the secret to great jerky: McCormics, Kikkoman, and time. While I usually make four varieties, this go-round I made three varieties with each variety having two different ‘bites’. So I’ll end up (actually the kids and grand kids will end up) with 6 types of jerky; two versions each of Mesquite, Chipotle, and Mojito Lime. The fourth type I normally make is the ‘Honey Sriracha’.

I place the large slabs of beef in the freezer for 20 minutes or until they are about to freeze on the exterior most surface. This makes them so much easier to cut. I cut slices between 1/8 and 1/4 inch across the grain and throw them in a gallon freezer bag with the spices and Kikkoman to marinate for at least 12 hours. Drain them, space them out on the dehydrator racks and let them run at about 145 degrees for 4 hours.

Do yourself a favor and stick with the Kikkoman.

The X-rated (X=extra hot) jerky was made using a different heat source for each of the flavors: For the Mesquite I added cracked Super Asian pepper from my garden that I dehydrated last year. For the Chipotle I used a fermented Asian/Cayanne hot sauce blend I worked up a couple years ago (better now than then!).

For both versions of the Mojito I pealed and sliced fresh lime to go into the mix. the X version of Mojito was supercharged by adding a couple of diced fresh Habaneros. Remember if you play with the habs, they don’t play fair.

All of the bad weather has moved out of my little corner of the world and I was able to apply some machinery to cleaning up some of the mess and overdue mowing/trimming. All of my trees stayed in place but a large Cherry Tree fell across the road just east of me on Sunday and a kind soul, knowing it couldn’t be cleared ‘in place’ attached a chain or rope to the trunk and dragged to the nearest place it could be chopped and cleared from the road way. You guessed it, it ended up along the side of the road on my property. I spent a good part of the day yesterday cutting it down and loaded it on my trailer (three loads actually) to a burn pile of been cultivating.

Today I was able to tackle the mowing and trimming along the front edge of the place. It’s just under 1,500 feet along that portion.

Here’s the before (at the gate):

And the after:

There is nothing quite as satisfying as working with good tools on a lawn, fence line, or in the woods.

Now, I’m off to Huntsville AL to satisfy two needs: Kimchi making’s and beef. It’s worth the 100 mile round trip for a couple of reasons: first, the only place where good fresh Napa cabbage, Korean radish, and Chinese chives can be found nearby (if you consider 50 miles nearby) is at the ‘International Market’ in Huntsville. Wallyworld sells some pretty bad looking Napa cabbage for about 4 bucks a pound while the place in Hunstville has fresh (fresher) cabbage at 1.29 a pound.

The second reason is I want to make some beef jerky and I want to can up some beef stew. The meat I need can be had at the military commissary for 3 or 4 dollars a pound cheaper and is of a better quality than Walmart. It’s 5 or 6 dollars a pound cheaper than Publics. The kids and grandkids love the jerky and can shove away an amazing amount in short order. I’ve got some mid-heat peppers in the garden that may find their way into the flavorings I put on the jerky. We’ll see.

I often wondered why it is that the moon appears to rise over a different point in the sky. Sometimes it would rise near my equipment barn and other times it would be well south of that (as it did this evening). Turns out there’s a simple explanation that the pencil necks in the physics realm have made difficult.

“This change in the position of moonrise throughout a given month is due to three factors. First, the Earth’s rotational axis is tilted by about 23.5 degrees relative to the plane in which it orbits around the Sun. Second, the Moon orbits the Earth in a plane that is tilted by about 5.1 degrees relative to the plane in which the Earth orbits around the Sun. Since the Moon makes one complete orbit around the Earth in 28.5 days, you will see the position of the Moon’s rise on the horizon change by twice 23.5+5.1 degrees, or about 57.2 degrees, during one orbit of the Moon around the Sun. This is pretty close to the 118-65 = 53 degrees that you measured using a compass.”

See: told ya.

I’ve been playing catch-up on the yard work for the last couple of days but don’t think I’ll be ahead of the curve until mid-June or so.  The unpredictability of the weather is the cause of some of this and letting some areas around the farm go without tending at the close of last year has created challenges where I really didn’t need to be challenged. 

Yesterday I knocked out half of the trimming that needed to be done along a deep drainage area that intersects with the road in to my house.  Because I didn’t hit it at the end of last summer the chainsaw was needed to knock some of it down.  A large tree (about 6 feet in diameter) fell across a portion of it last year so I’ve been cutting on it in prep for a burn later this year.  I brush-hogged the back field this morning and trimmed along the houses and drainage areas leading to the creeks a couple of days ago so when this round of weather moves out (Monday?) I can finish the ditch area (a day’s work), mow and trim along the fence on the front of the property (a day’s work), clear, mow, and trim along the spring and creek (three days of effort). 

My little mini-garden is in.  Tomatoes, peppers, okra, cucumbers, beans, melon and zucchini mostly.  I know I’m not going to have the time to maintain much more than this and finish moving the fencing and other garden related infrastructure and play catch-up around the place.  I’ve got another 40 pepper seedlings I need to get into the ground in the next couple of days.  I’ve got to do better at recording what goes/went where though; the annotated diagram I had for the 7 varieties of tomatoes and 9 varieties of peppers already in the ground has disappeared.  Tomatoes won’t be a problem because two varieties are weird:  Atomic and Lemon

I’m growing advanced in years, but still know the difference between a Roma and a Beefsteak and the two varieties of cherry tomatoes (Besser and Tiny Tim) are easily distinguishable.  The last variety is a F1 slicer.

Peppers are another story altogether.  It’s going to be fun figuring out which of the three yellow peppers (aji lemon, Hungarian hot yellow, and banana) are which.  Also, given that an immature habanero and pepperoncini look much the same, caution is warranted.

All twelve of my apple grafts survived and they need to be planted/staked and caged.  All 10 of my pear grafts failed.  The root-stock appears to be good and is growing its own leaves/shoots so I think I may have cut the scion wood off of my three varieties to late in the year (I should have cut in December and did cut in late Feb).  I’ll plant the root-stock and then re-graft next winter.  All four of my existing pear trees are bearing fruit.  Of the 4 older apple trees (2x Yellow Delicious, 1 Fuji, 1 Red Delicious) three are fruiting.  Of the twelve new apple trees I grafted and planted last year, 11 survived.  True to form however, half the labels I placed on the tree have faded away and the annotated diagram of what was planted where has pass into oblivion.  The good news is I know what was planted!  I just don’t know where it was planted.   If this is what 70 is like, 80 is going to be a real adventure.

Everything hinges on the weather and the weather looks pretty friggin frightening for the next couple of days.  They are predicting bad ju-ju for Saturday and Sunday.  The last couple of times they projected bad blows this far out they materialized with a vengeance.  I’ll be alright, I’ll just walk around all puckered up. 

Before I retired and moved out into God’s country the weather didn’t play a big part in my life.  Even when I was in the Infantry the weather just ‘was’.  It didn’t really matter what it was or was going to be, when you’re a grunt all you can do is shrug and keep on keeping on.  Keep your heads down and your eyes open folks cause that bad weather looks to be running south of the Macon-Dixon line and packing a real punch.

Some time back in October we were awakened by the dogs freaking out. Turned out there was a Black and Tan Coon Hound that had wandered up to our door step and refused to leave.

One broken hip (wifey), a spaying, continuing treatment for heart worms, and a ton of shits and giggles later we’ve kinda/sorta settled into having this country girl (Maggie) as a part of our family and farm. While the wound left by the passing of one of our Border Collies (Dixie) has not fully healed, Maggie does her damnedest to make sure that you focus on her whenever possible. Here (below) is one of Maggie’s techniques to hold your attention. She’ll get in this position and will not move; demanding to be talked to and petted.

I mentioned earlier that when Maggie came to us she had Heart Worms and we undertook the ‘long form’ treatment to rid her of them. This means that she takes a monthly medication that continually treats her blood system. One of the several drawbacks is that the meds preclude being able to take an oral tick preventative. The ticks have reemerged here and so the vet determined that the best route was to have her wear a flea collar (the meds in the collar will not interact/conflict with her Heart Worm treatment).

Off I go to the vets in Loretto, TN and am immediately amazed at the millions upon millions of Blackberry canes that are in bloom.

Every overgrown field and every fence-line between my place in the ‘real sticks’ and the vets shop in the ‘almost really in the sticks’ was lit up with blooms that promise a bumper crop of these tasty fruit.

My mind immediately began contemplating the many ways that I know to put up these fruits and, once I returned home I looked up a few more. Here is where I’m going to go with my Blackberry bounty this year.

In-as-much as distilling spirits is still, inexplicably, illegal I’m going to take a run at two types of ‘infusions’: One with grain alcohol (as per the video below) and one with an infused brandy. The brandy run will have just a touch (less than a smidgen) of cinnamon added. Both products, together, will make a unique gift come mid-December.

Blackberry Jam (and related yummies)

I’d like to make at least two varieties of Blackberry Jam this year: “regular” and something I’ve made in the past called ‘Black-Jack’ which is a Blackbery Jam made with Jalapenos. Nothing like Black-Jack to liven up steaming breakfast biscuits (unless it’s pear preserves, but that’s another story/post). I’m thinking that a new addition to my garden, a pepper called ‘Lemon Drop” (Aji Limon) might pair well with the blackberry flavor. Japs weigh in at 2,500 to 8,000 Scovillle Heat Units (SHU) while the Lemon Drop ranges from 15,000 to 30,000.

I’m also planning on canning up some berries all by themselves for later use in cobblers. I may even try my hand at homemade blackberry bread.(think Thanksgiving)

So there’s also a variety of syrups, non-alcohol beverages, ice cream and cheesecake topping, cakes, pastry, and muffins to be made if one can manage to collect a hoard of these free berries.

The only downside to gathering berries is the dreaded ticks and chiggers. If you’re going to out into the tall grasses, take it from a man that has had his ass chewed raw by these little parasites: treat your clothing with permethrin the day before you set out (it lasts for two months or so and for several washings) and invest in a $2 bottle of calamine lotion (yes, it’s still a thing) for the back end in case the chiggers find a way to reach you.

Finally, spend a little time with those that need your attention. You’ll both reap a blessing from the effort.

Wifey and I were finally able to get ‘Rusty’ into the vets for his shots and what will be his first professional grooming. We’ve had him for 6 years and he’s never had a bath. The only way we’ve been able to brush him is to put a muzzle on him and then I’d hold him down while my other half brushed. Usually we could get 5 minutes (or so) of compliance before he started flipping out.

Rusty has never met a human that he didn’t want to bite and so his presence has always provided a sense of security. No one and no thing was coming close if he were loose. He bites everyone (except immediate family) that turns their back on him. We finally got him to stop biting the vacuum cleaner, but if we want to use a broom we’d have to put him outside. If outside he will attack a leaf blower, weed-eater, tiller, mower, etc. and has to be put indoors for half an hour or so before he will calm down enough to be set free.

He’s smart and knew something was up but still he played along and was marginally manageable as we handed him off to the staff there without bloodshed.

We are to call this afternoon to see what time he’s to be picked up. I can only hope that my strong warnings to the staff about his demeanor were heeded.

We’ll see.

I put up some sauerkraut on Saturday morning and have been closely monitoring the ‘build’ since.  This is the first time that I’ve used the E-Jen containers for fermenting and am/was a little concerned with the inner seal rising out of the kraut.  Here is a short video on how the container works.

Now the problem that I picked up on is that the plastic insert/seal was being pushed up by the gasses that the kraut produced.  I’d open the outer part and find that while a ‘seal’ was being maintained, one portion of the plastic would be about half an inch higher than that it was on the other side. It was sitting catiwompus. 

I’d pull the little plug in the center of the inner seal so and push it back into place and re-plug it.  6 or so hours later I would check on it and the seal would have risen again.  A lot of forces are at work in that little box.

The kraut has 2.5 pounds of green cabbage, 1.5 pounds of red cabbage, a large sweet onion, one large carrot, and two granny smith apples.  I’ve put this mix into two E Jen containers:  one that holds just under a gallon one that holds about half of that.  On the smaller one I’ve added five 1 inch long dried sprigs of Asian Super Pepper (about 80,000 SHU’s) to give it some bite.

I’ve got several more containers on orders from Amazon and they should get here on Wednesday. That means that on Thursday I’ll have the pleasure of driving the Huntsville, AL and back (an hour each way) to visit an Asian market that has a good variety of Diakon radish, Napa cabbage, and Chinese chives.

I’ve already picked up some pre-blended kimchi base (I’m not quite ready to build up my own) so by Saturday I should be awash in pungent and delicious veggies.

I’m always being dogged for playing 20 bucks a week on the lottery. “Why would you want to give your money away like that” they say. My answer is always the same: My 20 bucks, bite me.

The facts are plain, the lottery is won every single time. Some one somewhere always ends up with a smile on their face and an outlandish tax bill. I’m in.

Neither of the two biggies have been won in a while so the values have grown up to be in the ‘stupid money’ range. By my best guess the net (cash after taxes) is $133 M for tonight’s Powerball and $198 M for tomorrows Megamillions.

Stupid money could get you a little piece of land on the left coast.

“The Kristofferson Ranch. For the first time in over 40 years, the 557+- acre Kristofferson Ranch is now available. The ownership of the ranch dates back to 1980 when Kris Kristofferson purchased the property. Steeped in history, the origins of the ranch began in the 1800’s when it was originally developed as a dairy farm. “

“As a testament to old world craftsmanship and design, the original road house and barns still stand to this day. Just below the road house sits the cavernous rocky outcropping, known as Devils Basin. This dramatic setting played host to the filming of Karate Kid 3 and is considered some of California’s most pristine coastline. With nearly 1 mile of ocean frontage, cattle, timber production and residential development, the ranch offers endless possibilities to the next owner. “

“Multiple building envelops with panoramic ocean views run along the ridge lines throughout the property. The well-maintained road network throughout the ranch will carry you from water’s edge to the coastal meadows overlooking Manchester State Park. This is a place of solace. A fortress of solitude.“

Check out the great pictures on on Zillow

Wifey alerted me on Saturday that I had overbought eggs:  we had 40 in the fridge. We typically go through somewhere between a dozen and 16 (or so) a week. So I decided that what the world (or perhaps just this household) needed is more pickled eggs.  I tried my hand at this about two years ago and I guess I got a hold of bad recipe because they were inedible.  Not so with the batch I made up earlier today.

The recipe is here.

I tripled the recipe (except the eggs where I used 21) and used 3 quart jars with 7 eggs each. No fresh dill sprigs so I used dried dill weed (a little less than half a tsp per jar) and scratched the onion. I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to add several sprigs of dried Asian Super Pepper (about 50,000 SHU) to one of the jars. 

A taste test of one egg a short while ago let me know the recipe is indeed spot on. The challenge now will be to keep my paws out of the jar until they’ve aged for 6 or 7 days.

I put out a couple of bales of hay and topped off the minerals for the cattle earlier today. I’m down to 6 remaining bales (that’s the bad news) but they have really backed off of it as the fields begin to green up (the good news). We’ve had three bail to the greener pastures to the west (my neighbors place) so they’ll not be munching on the dwindling stock over here.

I was going to gather up some composted manure to work into the garden soil, but decided instead to go with some decomposed wood from a fallen Hackberry tree.

Two trips to the ‘corpse’ of three buckets per trip was enough to enrich the organic material in four 4×12 planting beds. I turned it in some with a shovel and will give it a month or so of rest before i take my small Honda cultivator to it. I still need to move two more beds from the south (abandoned) side of the garden to this side.

I’ve collected another clue on the mysterious lone pear tree in the front pasture: Its bloom time.

It was a good thing that I thought to cut scion wood from these trees last week. Had I waited even as much as a few days it would have been past the time when it would be a viable grafting limb. Those cuttings are in my fridge.

As educational as this all might be, I may have the names of pear tree I planted backward! I won’t be certain that I have them named correctly until they produce fruit. The near term hurdle on the pear trees is concurrency; The trees that I planted will all need to be in bloom at the same time or I’m only going to get one variety to bear fruit.

Speaking of a single variety, one of my plum trees died and I’ve got one left. It is a ‘Santa Rosa’ plum and self pollinating. I saw a couple of blooms on it last year but no fruit. Today it was absolutely loaded with blossoms.

I gathered scion wood from all three varieties of pear trees I have on the property and placed them in 3 separate plastic bags along with moist paper towels. They are resting in the fridge along with the 3 new varieties of apple tree I picked up from Burnt Ridge Nursery. The apple scion does not have the circumference I expected so it’ll be ‘interesting’ to see if it grafts as easily as last years trees. Root stock will be sent this way next week and I’ll have 22 new trees to babysit for the next few month.

I currently have the two varieties above and can’t help but wonder who would dish out $150 for a 4 foot stick. I paid $35 each at a local nursery for the 3 pear trees and 4 apple trees I purchased a couple year back. The new 10 pear trees will cost under $3 each (the cost of the root stock) and the dozen new apple trees will cost $6 each (root stock and scion).

As far as I can tell there are 11 different type pear trees that are self-pollinating. I should be able to determine the type of pear that the old tree up front is once the fruit on it begins to mature. We’ll see.

I had to run upfront on an errand and stopped to take a photo of the pear tree I mentioned in a post yesterday. I took a look at Google Earth’s historical imagery and could see that it’s been in place for at least 16 years. I left the jeep in the photo to give you a hint at the scale.

That downed wood you see along the base of the tree is what remains of an apple tree that was adjacent to the pear. It came down last year.

The year before last I went in and heavily pruned the tree and thought that I could get enough of the dead/dying and in-growing limbs cleared out to get it healthy. It didn’t help, and the in growing limbs (see below) have all but consumed the old girl. That my SIL inadvertently got in to it with the tractor last year did not help, but I’m thinking that it has gone through it’s life cycle anyway and is about to check out.

There is plenty of new growth on the limbs to pull good scion from and so my plan is to graft up 4 of these to the Quince (semi-dwarf) root stock.

There is/was no other pear tree within half a mile of this one and it always produced fruit. It could be a Bartlett (a somewhat self pollinating variety)given the density of the fruits flesh and the way it held together while it cooked down when making preserves.

My butt is dragging today, I spent several hours yesterday moving soil and gravel from the south end of my garden (which I’m abandoning) to the north side (that I’m refurbishing and reinforcing). 

So I put my brain and fingers to work (they were about the only thing still working) and ordered additional root stock and scion for my little orchard.   I purchased 12 apple root stock (I went with EMLA 106) and 10 root stock for pear (Provence Quince). Both are semi dwarf and produce trees that are roughly 65 percent the size of a standard tree.  I’d love to get root stock for full sized apple trees,but there two problems with that:  first, I’d like to plant a tree that fruits in my life time.  Secondly, I’m getting a little long in tooth and no longer amused by falling from high places. Semi dwarf will work just fine.  

This will be my first year grafting up some pear trees and I’ll be pulling scion from the Kieffer and Bartlett I planted a couple of years ago and from an old dying pear tree that sits on the front of the farm near the hay barn.    

I have no idea what type of pear that old tree is, but I do know that it makes great pear preserves (think of hot breakfast biscuits with homemade pear preserves splattered across the top).  The recipe goes something like:  Peel and core as many as you can and stick them in a very large pot.  Pour 3 or 4 cups of sugar on top, cover, and let set overnight.  Simmer until it reduces by half.  Pack the result in half pint jars and can with a pressure canner.  I cranked out almost 2 dozen half pint jars and, owing to my wife’s generosity and some obscure southern rule about gifts from the garden, a week later I had two jars left.  

I’ve got 16 apple trees now.  Red Delicious, Yellow Delicious, Fugi, Wagener, Harrison Cider, King and Gala. The scion I ordered is for Cox Orange Pippin, Granny Smith, and Gold Russet.

These 22 additional trees (12 apple 10 pear) will just about fill up the little area I have between my garden plot and a gravel road that runs up to the equipment barn.  I can see part of this area from the cabin so in a couple of years it will look great in the spring when they bloom.  The cost per tree, on average works out to a very affordable 8 bucks or so.

I’ve been wrestling with a heat/AC problem for about a week.  I’ve got two split units, one for up, the other is for the downstairs.  They are heat pumps and so the air handling units are indoors and the compressor is outside.  The problem is with the production of heat in the upstairs unit:  it didn’t/wouldn’t. 

Between closing the unit down, resetting breakers, tripping/setting relay controls, pulling unit side fuses/breakers/disconnects, grounding circuit card test tabs, and knob-dicking the electronic thermostat I could get the SOB to work after an hour or so. 

I couldn’t figure it out because the clues to what might be broke would change. : one time it would be the 50 amp breaker for the indoor component sometimes the 30 amp breaker for the outside, once it was both (several times it was neither).  A couple of times it was shut down for faults that sensors in the outside unit detected and they’d throw a ‘blinking light code on two LEDs on the circuit card.  Several time the card would indicate there was no power to the AC when there was. 

It was a real pain and I was mulling over getting the AC guy out to take a look at it when I remembered the last time he came to look at my downstairs AC unit (about out two years ago):  It cost me a fortune because it took so long to troubleshoot (he was good at ‘troubleshooting by replacement’) and the actual problem was that a relay had failed on the AC unit because the 50 Amp breaker for the heat unit was not well seated in the breaker box.  The problem was not in either the indoor element or outdoor element, but rather with the breaker not being seated well.  In short, if the power fails to the indoor air handling unit (like when the breaker burps) then it removes a needed signal to a relay in the outside unit that allows power to the fan/compressor to energize.  If the breaker ‘chatters’ (as this one did because it was not well seated) it will eventually break the relay on the AC (even though the problem was not in/on the AC unit). 

With that thought in mind I began to think I had a weak breaker and that it was tripping because of the heat strips that augment the heat pump were coming on.  So yesterday PM I drove into Pulaski’s Home Depot grabbed a 20 dollar 50 amp breaker and solved all of my heat/AC problems.  OBTW, I’ve concluded that the loud banging was the logical outcome from the outdoor compressor having power removed from it suddenly while under load.

George Santayana was right you know, those that forget the past are condemned to repeat it.  

I was so damned pleased and excited as I opened the box of my Ruger’s new laser sight. Slapped the battery in that puppy and went to mount it…only to find that it was made for the Ruger LCP and I had a Ruger LCP II. Dammit. Good thing that Amazon gives do overs (at no cost), so I’m back to waiting for my new laser once again.

Holster arrive and It’s great. New below and old above.

I’m pretty safe around fire arms. Even still, there are things in the environment that will remind you just how deadly they are and how quickly things can go south. This last November one of my neighbors sent me a note asking if I knew who it was that shot himself in front of my place. That kinda talk gets your attention real quick. Turns out it was a hunter that lives about 15 miles south of here (near Rogersville) and he was on the road that separates my property from Alabama. I found this on his Facebook page a short while later:

What got me thinking about this event was the challenge I have with clearing my LCP. It was made for shooting, not for unloading. Here is why:

That is a 380 round sitting on the ejection port of the LCP. There is zero clearance for an undischarged round to clear the port. It fires well, and I’ve never had an expended shell fail to eject but clearing it with an undischarged round is a real pain. Here is another view:

In the grand scheme of things this means that if you own an LCP and carry with one in the chamber then you will always have a challenge clearing the weapon. That pesky round in the chamber just becomes too comfortable in it’s circumstances to dislodge easily. Despite these two major drawbacks (no external safety and undersized port) the weight and ease in concealment make it my weapon of choice.

Yesterday was a welcome reprieve from the constant rain here in southern Tennessee.  It’s back again today with all day showers/storms forecast/expected.

A constant breeze yesterday set up conditions where I could get out and work without sinking into the saturated soil so I took a stab at clearing out some of the gravel around the planting beds in the garden and stuffed some more hay into the hay rings so that I wouldn’t have to do it today.  I won’t melt but the tractor will tear up the pasture when They’re drenched.

Today is a different story, the rain came for a good long while and I spent the morning working up my veggie and seed order from Victory Seeds (site here).  I found everything I needed but the Besser Tomatoes.  Amazon has them and they did just fine last time I went there. 

Just as I was rounding out my ‘shopping cart’ at Victory I got spam mail from another seed provider that I’ve purchased from in the past: Harris Seed.  A quick look at their site and one thing became immediately apparent:  Someone is doing drugs in Rochester.

I thought someone had had erred so I dug a little deeper and found that the people over at Harris (site here) must really love their seeds.

When it comes to tomatoes there is no limit to the varieties. The same goes for other edibles but not quite so apparent. Baker Creek (site here) has some pretty wild heirloom varieties. I’ve done business with in the past and they were the only firm that bothered to mail me (as in someone carries a physical object and places in a box near your home) a color hard copy of their seed catalog. Unsolicited.

I’m was going to pass on all of the novelties this year and get back to the very basics of a country garden, but what’s the fun in that? I’m ordering these multicolored gems and the large yellow beefsteak (below).

I’ve still got to order root-stock and scion wood for apple and pear, but that’s an adventure (and story) saved for another day.

All of the ice and snow has converted to liquid and started it’s long journey to the sea. Last week we got down to -6 and it stayed at or below freezing from Sunday the 14th until the afternoon of Monday the 21st. Just when we cleared that hurdle another is being thrown in our path: flooding.

Wifey was able to get out to her hairdresser who lives/works about 5 miles away; I drove the route in advance in my Jeep to make sure all of the residual ice was cleared from the road and that she’d be OK. Between the time she left at 9:30 and the time I left to make sure she could get back in (noonish) enough rain had fallen to flood the low areas along the route. The most significant was along my drive. Here is what my valley looks like in ‘normal’ times:

Now here is what it looks like when the wicked witch of the west frowns over my piece of paradise. Looking down at the valley during a heavy rain.

My drive that crosses a ‘feeder’ (or wet weather stream) that feeds the creek.

Now here is a photo looking east along the ‘feeder’. Notice how much higher the wall of the trench look in the distance than they do near the road. As the water washes down it flows out of the banks and spreads across the terrain from near where base of the tree that is on the left of the photo near the road.. It also flows out of its banks past the tree on the right of the photo. In short, it flows broadly and swiftly through this area.

So after weathering the ice and snow of last week the rain and floods are thrown my way this week. I guess flying monkey are next. All of this for a boy that spent his formative years in an environment that looks like this:

I posted about my garden ambitions a short while ago and this morning I got to wondering why it is that the garden is on my mind at this time of year. Then it hit me: sauerkraut and hot sauce. I made a couple of hot dogs the other day and placed store bought (Vlasic) sauerkraut over the dog and splashed on just a few (a judicious few) drops of some hot sauce I had made a couple of years ago. That stuff is both hot and has a great flavor and I’m down to my last bottle. Oh, by the way: to say that I made it a few years ago is only kinda/sorta correct as it is still slowly continuing to ferment.

It’s made from fermented ‘Super Chili Peppers’ shown above. These weigh in on the top of the medium range of Scoville Heat Units (SHU) at 50,000 SHU. They are also know as ‘Asian Super Chili Peppers’. They are a dead ringer for the ‘Thai Chili Pepper’ (shown below). Thai Chili Peppers have a SHU rating of 100,000.

If you had bushes from both varieties in your garden then you’d not be able to distinguish between them on looks alone. Here is how to tell the difference: pick a couple of peppers from the plant, then reach down and grab your genitalia. If you quit screaming within a week then it was a Super Pepper, any longer then it was Thai.

I found a site that shows 470 pepper varieties and their respective Scoville Heat Units (SHU). It is located here. The table is by SHU (vice alphabetical) so the search/find feature of in your browser is your friend.

Ferment the peppers by coarsely chopping and then toss them in a jar with salted water. Things will get wild for a while and then calm down after a couple of weeks (I let mine go long). Everything, including the brine, goes into the blender until it is completely liquid. Poor it into bottles (Amazon is your friend) and you’ve got a great hot sauce that is, as far as my tastes go, on the upper limit of heat.

The sauerkraut made me think about the garden as well. Once you make your own, at home, with cabbage from the garden (notice I didn’t say your garden), store bought just doesn’t quite scratch the itch. Beyond remembering the great taste of past ferments, I ran across this as I was looking through old links.

Ingredients: cabbage, red apple, caraway seeds, whey, salt and spring water. Can’t wait to see if I can make this ferment work!

So even though I can’t get out of my driveway I’m thinking of a garden and what kind of great stuff can be created from 5th year soil (vice the dirt Ive been growing in for the last 4 years).

We’ve been locked down since Monday of last week and it looks like that’s about to end come this Monday. Still have to get through one more night of damn cold (vice fu@king cold) weather tonight but 6 is not unbearable. It was 6 when I took the dogs out for a walk at 5 this morning.

The rain may pooh-poo a Wednesday fishing opportunity, but it’s not like there’s not plenty to do around here. My largest major project is the downsizing of my garden. It’s not that it is too large for the amount of planting I want to do, it’s just too large a task maintaining the ground that I’m not planing into.

Generally I’m set up as in graphic below. Excluding the fruit trees the area is 60 feet by 120 feet. The small rectangles are 4×12 foot raised planting beds made with treated deck lumber. The large rectangles are 30 by 40 foot planting areas. The planting area at the top of the graphic is covered in heavy woven plastic sheeting with holes burned into them at 1 foot intervals.

The area between them is covered with ‘crusher run’ (gravel) over a heavy plastic cover. Here is a view (south side of the garden looking north north east) of my Roma tomatoes in the raised boxes.

This photo taken from the north side looking south. Young pepper plants in the foreground.

The perimeter fencing is 8 inch by 8 foot treated poles (little black squares) concreted 2 feet into the ground. between these poles I’ve pounded in tee posts and then wrapped the area in 5 ft high fencing. To keep the deer out I’ve run two lines of metal weaved plastic line (normally used in electric fencing) across the top of the posts and then half way between the post and the fence. I’ve had a lot of people tell me that what I’ve done will not keep deer out of a garden. That may be so, but it’s kept deer out of my garden.

The maintenance problem arises from the spaces between the planting boxes. Any blown seed that lands on the gravel will begin to grow. I know it’s hard to believe but 80 percent of the time I was spending in the garden was spent on beating back the weeds. I’ve had enough of it, I’m going to cut the garden in half lengthwise.

• move the boxes that are on the south side to the north sided and place them on top of the existing boxes.
• Cut the large planting area on the top of the graphic by more than half
• Overlay the large planting area on the bottom right with plastic weave.
• Reestablish the fencing

Taken together the total time I spend on weeding should be reduced to a very doable 40 percent.

But first, I’ve got to get through these next two days!

I was able to get to the hay barn and get a couple of roll out to the cattle yesterday.  It was a day ahead of my ‘every three days’ schedule mandated.  I could feel the tractor sliding on the hills so I did use the alternate route I mapped out and posted earlier.  No warning lamps or error codes on the New Holland, that’s a relieve as the previous use had me staring at a dash that looked like this:

a=power takeoff RPM  b=  warning light  c=hours  d= DEF system performance e= error code

Simply read what the panel says is there is a non-critical problem with the engine and the error code is 17359.  Now, I’ve got an operator’s manual for the New Holland and no where in the book is there a list of error codes and how to fix them; no where.  If you go online you find exactly the same information you find in the operator’s manual: none.  As fortune would have it, when I started the machine yesterday the fault and the lights associated with the fault had cleared.  Another mystery to go along with the mystery from last week.  The machine went down hard and ‘de-rated’ and so I had to borrow a Kubota 108 from my neighbor. The mechanic came out from Huntsville and said ‘I don’t have a clue, I’m going to have to dig into it’.  I haven’t got the bill yet, but I’m sure Huntsville Tractor is going to make the trip well worth their time.

The coon hound (Maggie) absolutely loved the snow and once she hit the door she was gone for a couple of hours.  I could hear her up and down the valley treeing squirrels and running deer.  That attitude changed today as the partial melt from yesterday refroze the top layer of snow and created a pretty significant ice layer on the surface.  She, and our other border collie (Rusty) struggled to get to a spot where they could stand and take care of ‘serious’ dog business.

We got to 6 below zero day on the Tuesday morning with no major problem.  I did have the pipe running to the downstairs toilet freeze and the down heat unit would not hold 68 degrees:  the auxiliary heat  was on and the temp was 65.  Not bad for a cabin with 23 ft. ceilings.  I built this cabin using ‘pex’ vice pvc or copper so there was no busting of the pipe, it just froze.  Tonight will be 9 degrees and I really should be more worried than I am, but just can’t seem to get there when its going to be 15 degrees warmer than it was two nights ago. 

The coming week promises a warm up and hopefully a little time on the river is in the cards.

There’s a guy on the Weather Channel explaining why the ‘primary’ roads will be cleared before the ‘secondary’ roads; I’m not sure that anyone who didn’t know why that’s so before he explained it would understand why after he explained it. 

I’ve got 18 head of cattle in the front pasture.  They are OK right now but will need to get more hay into the hay rings tomorrow after the snow quits.  I suppose that getting to the hay barn will be as challenging as it was the year before last when I had to go off-road with the tractor.  Here’s the set-up:

The tractor is in the barn at the lower right of the image above. The hay is stored in the barn in the upper left. Both sit on high ground and the terrain between the two incorporate low ground. The normal path is along the solid red line: down a steep hill then up a steep hill. The ‘backup route’ is via the dashed red line: I go down the hill in the pasture adjacent to the equipment barn where it is not steep. Through the woods along the side of a ravine and after crossing a cattle gap (pictured below) I go left into the woods and climb the hill.

Here are a couple of pictures from last year that shows the challenge:

This taken while standing in front of the cabin and looking towards the equipment barn.

This from the valley floor looking back at my cabin. That’s my good girl standing adjacent to a concrete drive in 5 inches of snow.

This photo was taken from the same place as the previous one but facing the opposite direction. It shows the road going up and to the left and the valley running along the right side.

Finally, this is the alternate route. Photo was taken from the same spot as the previous two but looking up the secondary valley (red dashed line). On the extreme right in the photo is the starting point of the steep path through the woods.

Trying to get up and down very steep roads consisting of ice covered concrete is a fools errand so will be off-roading the tractor come tomorrow.

For more than 7 years this had been part of our morning routine in our little spot here in Tennessee.  ‘Dixie Star’ was her name and, like clockwork, she would wake us up at 5 AM for her morning walk.  There were no shortcuts with this girl, you were required to trapse down the shallow draw, up the opposing side, across the field to the barn and then weave your way back to the house. 

After the walk she and ‘Rusty’ our other border collie would get a couple of treats to hold them over until breakfast and then Dixie and I would watch the news; actually, I watched the news and she had her belly rubbed for 15 or 20 minutes.

Day in and day out.

That ended this last Tuesday when she suddenly got sick.  We had her at the vets in Loretto on Wednesday morning and she passed that afternoon.  She was a good girl.

I’m not OK with folk calling me a sniveling bitch (even though I’m acting like one). It’s the weather you see; for a brief period (I guess about 6 hours) yesterday the forecast low of Tuesday evening was raised. It went from 0 to 2 and then to 3. In my naivete I thought that ‘they’ would keep raising it a couple of degrees each day and then, come Tuesday, we’d get by with a balmy 12 degrees or so. It turns out that that glimmer of hope has vanished,

Doing my best to think good thoughts:

I feel like an ass for not seeing the weather big picture. I was looking at the forecast and was fixated on the coming Tuesday night low. It is now forecast to be at 0 (zero) degrees. When I first noticed that Tuesday’s low would be bone chilling, it was forecast to be 13.

The big picture that I didn’t recognize until this morning is when the sun goes down this evening it will not get above freezing again for an entire week. Thursday of next week is showing 37, but I’m think that’s just some guy working the models spreading a glimmer of hope.

Bad new: I’m unprepared for a week long event. Good news: I have time (today) to recover.

So I’ll be off to Wally-world a little later in the day and pick-up some 2nd class goods via 3rd class services. Here’s a little cold weather cabin porn that’ll remind us that it is going to be as beautiful as it is torturous.

Call me a wooss if you’d like, but I didn’t elect to live in the south just to have temps like this sneak up on me.

Tuesday the 16th is going to be rough on the cattle.

For those of you up north a mite snickering at my woossiness, cut a southern boy some slack.

My son-in-law and granddaughter climbed into the ‘shoot-house’ the other day and was she was able to knock one down.

They live in Huntsville but have a cabin right next to the one I live in here in Tennessee. She’s having this one mounted to go along with the others they’ve got hanging on the wall. 2 for her and 4th for the cabin. She (and he for that matter) will only take a 8 or better buck, but as the season comes to a close they’ll bring down a doe or two for jerky meat.

The processor will carve all of the meat for jerky and what can’t be done that way will be hamburger.

I’m 10 miles away from a boat ramp on the Elk River, 14 to several on Wheeler Reservoir, and I can’t seem to get there.

It’s a sordid tale.

Years ago, in 2016 I think, Gander Mountain was sliding into the abyss.  I lived in Huntsville (AL) at the time and Gander was selling off all inventory and chaining up the doors locally, as they soon would be nationally.  I was late to the game and pickin’s were slim by the time I realized they were selling off inventory.  I picked up several poles and reels that formed the core of my fishing tackle at the time.  This was right after I bought my boat and before I really understood which poles (and reels for that matter) went with which species and how lure weight needed to be tied to pole characteristics, etc,etc. (many, many etcetera’s) 

I did a bang up job of frustrating myself. I thought the problem was me when in fact it was me AND the gear.  This last year I started taking fishing a little more seriously (if a person can actually do such a thing). I began reading ‘how to’ articles and then saw some reviews on Amazon for KastKing fishing tackle.  I sprang for a  baitcaster called Royal Legend II.  It was of surprising quality and I could actually cast the sucker without backlashing/birdcaging.  I wondered what it could do on a quality pole (also from Kastking) and the difference was amazing.  Over the course of a few months I bought 5 new poles and 7 reels. 

Baitcasters from left to right Royal Legend ‘II’ (3 of these), Royal Legend ‘Elite’ and Zephyr BFS (finesse).  The two spinning reels were both Royal Legend ‘Glory’ in the 3000 frame.

Four of the poles were ‘Perigee’:  6’ (for the BFS reel), 6’.6”, 7’ bait-casters and one 7’6” for one of the spinning reels.  I put the other spinning reel on Kast Kings 7’ ‘Resolute’ spinning rod.

I had all of this equipment loaded up and out on the boat for about a week in September; casting away…living the good life when Maggie showed up.  Maggie, an absolutely stunning Black and Tan coon hound, appeared on my doorsteps  at 1:30 in the morning.   I thought someone had lost her while hunting or she had wandered away from her owners so we set some food and water out and went back to bed.  The next day, still there.  I brought her into the house and placed her in the laundry room and she was content there and would not leave that room except to go outside to do her business and then she would come right back to the door.  When I went out she crowded me so much it was almost impossible to walk.

Monday rolls around and we cart her off to our vet in Loretto (TN) to see if she was ‘chipped’: nope.  The vet looks her over to see if she’s ok and, after giving her a blood test, tells us she has Heart Worms.  Well shit.  The vet says there are two general ways to treat her:  Fast or Slow.  Fast is expensive, painful to the dog, could kill her, and we would have to completely limit her physical activity for at least a month (if not more).  The reason for limiting her activity was because the ‘fast method’ kills all of the adult worms in two mass killings a month apart.  When the worms die they decompose and that material ends up coating the walls of her lungs and she would literally suffocate if she were to engage in any exercise greater than a slow walk and only then to use the rest room. 

This is going to get back to my fishing in a moment, just stick with me.

We opted for the slow method where he treats her for any larva that may be in her blood with an injection, gives us heartworm meds to keep her from getting reinfected, and pills that are given to her twice a day to sterilize the adult heartworms she currently has.  The sterile heartworms would die off at a slower pace over time.  We would have to limit her movement for a month, but not as severely as with the fast treatment.  We’d walk her on a 25 foot leash and she was content with that.  Things were looking up and I’m all set to hit the river and lake in late September when wifey, while walking the dog, trips—falls—and breaks her hip.

We went to the emergency room, they admitted her and operated the next morning.  Long story shortened:  3 days in the hospital, ambulatory ride to inpatient rehab for a month, then a month of in home physical therapy followed by a little more than a month in outpatient physical therapy.   My fishing went dark for the last 3 months of last year. 

The good news:  the entire ordeal with my wife breaking her hip: emergency room, surgery, hospital recovery, ambulance ride, inpatient physical and occupational therapy, home care nursing and physical therapy and then outpatient physical therapy (and all of the food and meds my wife took while in care) set us back a grand total of (drum roll) $1.69. 

One dollar and sixty nine cents.  

Interestingly, every person involved with the care, facilities, food, meds, transport, etc.) knew what was/was not covered by Medicare and Tricare and everything they did was correctly coded and submitted with the exception of the $1.69 overcharge by a radiologist.

Insurance?  Medicare (because we’re ‘dated’) as primary, Tricare (thanks to my 20 years in the service) secondary.  So now the Social Security Administration is going to raise the price of Medicare by 8 or 10 bucks and I am more than happy to have them rip it from my monthly check. 

Now that things have moderately returned to normal I’m ready to hit the water.  I’ve got some heavy duty insulated and water proof overalls. coat. Boots, gloves and balaclava.  A new thermos and inflatable life vest that can be worn under the coat.  I’m ready, but the weather has gone to hell so, well, shit.

I’ve been away from the keyboard for a good while now; just shy of a year.  I have missed posting and exchanging ideas with a few stalwart readers (and the odd passerby).  

I’m going to turn it back on and so I’m whipping the lazy electrons that lurk just beyond the surface of my keyboard and, with a rapidly receding hairline and diminished cognitive function, will expose the world once more to the ramblings of a cranky old soldier and die hard Zonian.

Happy 2024!

A good early winter weather pattern is setting in and I’m almost all set to hit Wheeler reservoir and the Elk River. Here is what the out week looks like:

I’ve invested in a good set of insulated weather gear and once Amazon sees fit to deliver my watertight boots I’ll be all set. I changed the engine oil and gear oil in the bottom end and took the boat out two weeks ago. Surprisingly, I landed a 3 or 4 pound very aggressive large mouth on the large chartreuse (yeller) spinner-bait shown below.

The redish colored spinner above the yellow one I tied on earlier today after watching a couple of videos by Alex Rudd and saw the mass of bass he was pulling in from like type waters (he’s in eastern Tennessee) with a lure that color. I had one like type (kinda/sorta like) lure in my tackle box but it resembled a fish and I wanted to get a closer match to the crawdad so I picked up the one on the right above from Wally-world yesterday.

Here are a couple of video’s that demonstrate how well this type of lure is working right now.

Here is lure that I already had: colors are a good match, but (again) mine is fish like and I needed one that resembles a crawdad.

I’ve got several spots marked out where all the smart folk say the bass are hanging around this time of year. On the map below it’s about 6 miles from the star to the right most triangle. The ‘star’ on the map is where I launch, triangles are where I intend on filling the live well.

The folk from Loretto Telecom just left and I rushed to the computer to do a speed test. Damn, I’m impressed. 235 (5G) and 108 (2.4) is cooking!

I could throw a bucket of bits and bites into my Jeep and drive them to where they needed to go and it would be faster than my internet service is this morning.

Ping (Packet Internet or Inter-Network Groper) measures the time to query and respond between two IP addresses. The test above was to and from HughesNet. A ping speed under 20ms is true goodness, acceptable is between 50 and 100. Ping above 150ms is bad. Measured from one speed test provider (above) showed that I’m double ungood very bad at 1045 ms. A test from another test provider (below) verified this suckedness.

My ‘jitter’ also sucks: Jitter is a measure of the time delay in the sending of data packets over a network. Essentially, the longer data packets take the more jitter can negatively impact video and audio quality. 150 ms (I guess) is considered the maximum tolerable jitter.

I’ll not go into my upload/download speeds. Numbers this bad remind me of the dark ages of computing and my Commodore 64 with a dial up modem.

The fiber optic install guy is scheduled for 10 this morning. He will be bringing a new ‘whole home’ modem that I assume is WiFi 6 enabled. I’ve ordered two Amazon Firestick 4K plus (WiFi 6) for my older TVs. They will arrive this afternoon. I’ve shopped around and found a TP-Link’s ‘ WiFi internet adapter for the computer that is rated at speeds greater than my planned fiber speed ( 2.4 GHz at 400 Mbps and 5 GHz at 867 Mbps). 250 Mbps is what I’m slated to have installed. Frankly, they could install a 20 year old mule and I’d have faster action than I currently ‘enjoy’. More to follow.

I kicked my own ass yesterday with the weed-eater. I knew better than to get out during the heat of the day, but was jammed up on time and wanted to make sure that the ‘fiber guy’ could access the clam shell they put in on the edge of my property a couple of weeks ago. I started at 9 AM and by 3 PM the body started pushing back with heavy cramping in the fingers and toes; it was time to quit for the day.

Today, if the weather holds this afternoon, I’ll finish what I started yesterday and trim up some around the house. I also need to get the water line cover back in place from my ‘improbable’ water leak from last week. It’s improbable because the place that the leak occurred was a crack in brass connector between a 3/4 inch PEC tube and the pressure regulator adjacent to the cabin. I have no idea how that brass cracked/split.

And so with the promise of rain, the need to reinstall the water cover, trim around the house, finish trimming the fence line on the front of the property, run to the vet to get the dog her pharmaceuticals, clean up the mess I made while the wife spent the last couple of days at the kids house, and cucumbers/egg plants/potatoes/beans that need to put into the ground (all of which needs to be done today) I’m thinking the posting will be light for the next day or two.

One thing for certain though, I’m going to slow down enough to experience the beauty and wonder of this place. Have a great week.

After a rummaging through my seed bank I found that I had 5 varieties of carrots. Two packages are labeled for 2019 use which means that, as a guess, I stand a 50/50 chance of those seeds being viable. Carrot seeds are said to be viable for 3 years but what I don’t know is when the seeds were ‘put up’: 2019 may have been the third year of seeds saved from 2016. Guess I’ll find out in about 14-21 days.

So I turned the soil again in 5 of my raised beds, leveled them off, and planted the onion seedlings I had going and the seeds from the 5 carrot varieties.

Amsterdam Minicor (54-75 days). A gourmet carrot from Holland, grown for tender baby carrots 3-4 in. long, or 6-7 in. long when grown to full size. Sweet, fine-grained, deep orange, and uniform in size and shape.

Danvers 126  (65-75 days) .  Carrots have a firm and crisp flesh with excellent flavor. Very productive and a fine keeper.

Danvers 126 Half Long (70-80 Days) An improvement on the original Danvers Half Long variety, it has a sweeter flavor, better crack resistance, and heavier yields. Fine grain, and a deep orange cortex and core without a halo.

Autumn King (70-85 days): Bright-orange Imperator-type roots that reach up to twelve inches long and two-and-one-half inches in diameter.

Berlicum (80 days) Beautiful 8”, good-sized roots are extra-smooth, long, and blunt. A deep orange color with a fine carrot flavor. Slender roots tend to stay tender and not become woody.

My ass is dragging today as it’s been several months since I’ve done that much bending over (OBTW, keep your dirty mind to yourself; that type of bending over ended when I retired!).

I don’t know if home gardeners face he same dilemma I do each spring. After seeing a highly favorable monthly forecast (my April forecast below) the temptation is to blow off caution and to get the party rocking in the garden.

For each passing day that the forecast proves to be kinda/sorta right the pressure to plant mounts. By the time the 17th of April (my average last frost date) arrives I’m typically battling both the ‘spring urge’ and the pressure that comes from seedlings that are rapidly outgrowing the seeding trays.

Without fail, we always (always, always, always) get a killing frost in the last week of April. What I can’t understand is: If I know that it will frost in the last week of April, why am I forced to battle the temptation to fill in the garden before the 1st of May? .

It’s not like I don’t have better things to do in the early spring. So why the look of indecision on my face?