Preparing for Uncertainty and Self Reliance

[Ph64]

Over 750K views... And I bet less than half of them could put together that tripod even after watching the video 5 times.

[Speaker to Animals]

Cool system. Simple and cheap.

[Fife]

Speaking of worms, I had a dream last night --

I had a spinning rig and a little tackle box but no bait or lures. I was next to a cattle pasture and a lake that was about 10 acres, with this crazy long dock/pier running out about 100 yards.

Anyway I dug up some worms next to a rotting stump. Had to use my pocketknife, which I didn't really want to do, but got 4 or 5 worms immediately. Then I caught some little bitty bream on the bank. I did have a minnow bucket somehow, so I put about 5 or 6 of those little one ounce bream in the bucket. Then I went out to the end of the dock and used the little bream as bait. I caught a bass about 10 lbs and 2 feet long.

Then like Tommy Lee Jones, I woke up.

What do you shadetree Dr.Y's say about that?

[Speaker to Animals]

Speaking of worms, I had a dream last night --

I had a spinning rig and a little tackle box but no bait or lures. I was next to a cattle pasture and a lake that was about 10 acres, with this crazy long dock/pier running out about 100 yards.

Anyway I dug up some worms next to a rotting stump. Had to use my pocketknife, which I didn't really want to do, but got 4 or 5 worms immediately. Then I caught some little bitty bream on the bank. I did have a minnow bucket somehow, so I put about 5 or 6 of those little one ounce bream in the bucket. Then I went out to the end of the dock and used the little bream as bait. I caught a bass about 10 lbs and 2 feet long.

Then like Tommy Lee Jones, I woke up.

What do you shadetree Dr.Y's say about that?

It means you're gay.

[Fife]

They were little worms. I forgot to mention that.

[C-Mag]

Speaking of worms, I had a dream last night --

I had a spinning rig and a little tackle box but no bait or lures. I was next to a cattle pasture and a lake that was about 10 acres, with this crazy long dock/pier running out about 100 yards.

Anyway I dug up some worms next to a rotting stump. Had to use my pocketknife, which I didn't really want to do, but got 4 or 5 worms immediately. Then I caught some little bitty bream on the bank. I did have a minnow bucket somehow, so I put about 5 or 6 of those little one ounce bream in the bucket. Then I went out to the end of the dock and used the little bream as bait. I caught a bass about 10 lbs and 2 feet long.

Then like Tommy Lee Jones, I woke up.

What do you shadetree Dr.Y's say about that?

Fishing represents your search for meaning in life. The spinning rig the chaos of the modern world. The cows the drones in society. The pasture represents the consumption of the drones and the manure they leave behind.

The bream represent your failed aspirations of life, you offer up your failures in hope of long term success is the big catch. The bass itself and it's size represents your inadequecies sexually and the remorse of your small genitalia. Catching the bass has a duel meaning, your desires for success in life and overcoming your sexual inadequecies with women throughout your life. How women laugh at you when you drop your pants. You dream it's a trophy, but it's just a minnow.

[TheReal_ND]

Bass like the cooler depths during the summer.

[C-Mag]

Dispatch from the Homestead

It's Summer now. We emerged from a long winter and maybe the coldest February on record slowly. It was a cool wet Spring.

Updates
I bought a tractor. A 1958 Ford 641 Workmaster packing 49 hp. It runs great, has a bucket and is part of a larger project of soils improvement.

When I bought this place there were a couple of farm implements rusting in the weeds. One was a early 1900's International Harvester moboard plow, orginally designed to be pulled by a horse.

At some point it was converted to a single bottom 3 point hitch set up for a tractor. I had to do some welding to get it operational, but it worked, baby did it work. Went a foot deep. Turned up all kinds of evil rocks that will need to be dealt with. There was also a disc on the properaty, much the same type of deal, it's so old it has tubes for oiling the bearings. I also found a source for horse manure for the garden. Plan is to til, remove rocks, add 6 inches of manure and 6 inches of compost.

The smoker was finished early Spring. It's 3' X 4' X 8' high. It will hold a steady temp from 100 degrees F to 135 degrees. Perfect for cold smoking, which I designed it for. However, I need to be able to get it up to about 160 degrees for smoking things like Summer Sausage. So, I'm in the process of fine tuning that.

Planted some garden crops. Potatoes, Carrots, Onions, Dill, Butternut Squash, Cucumbers. Had some failures. Put the Cucs out early, 32 plants. Planned to can a bunch of pickles, hail storm took them all. A skunk came through and ate almost all the carrots, that fucker will never do that again. Onions and Taters are thriving. Looks like we'll have a good crop of Squash. Raspberries are filling in and will be producing well this year. Still a couple years away from real good harvests. Strawberrys are going nuts, apples looking good, plum trees a little iffy. Cherry harvest probably not as good as last year as I did some hard pruning, but the trees look a lot better. Had some nice finds this Spring. Found I have mature horseradish established. Found two more apple trees last Fall and got them pruned down. They should produce good next year.

Beef stores are holding out well from last years beef. We will be running low mid winter. I hope to fix that with hunting, fishing and a hog I have ordered for November. I had a good fishing trip in late April, put up 80 lbs of Catfish in the freezer. Need to get some Char and/or Salmon to smoke.

Barn repairs have taken place. I still need to put a bigger barn down on the West side so I can store larger equipment like the tractor in the barn. Probably going to have to be a Fall project.

Large pile compost pile started. Should yield some great compost next year. Lots of work left to do on it. The tractor has been key to making this happen.

Frustrations
Continued to improve irrigation system. Feeling better about the long term set up. But my old timey hand pump well didn't have water this Spring. It's an entire project I need to dig into. I really want an independent, reliable off grid water source. Right now, I can't count on what I have.


Worm beds haven't happened. They are pushed back to at least next year. Fencing is lagging. Almost no progress this year. Weeds are killing me. Not a lot of bad noxious weeds, but enough. Mostly I have a ton of Dyers Woad that has come in. I know it has uses, but not for me. So it will need to go, and I'm really leary about herbicides. No Roundup here, but the off brand Dymethyl Salts don't work very well.

Aphids are bad this year. I need to get a bunch of lady bugs to take care of them.

I really need a sickle bar 3 point mower, and a rake so I can put up my own hay. I'm growing grass, clover and alfalfa hay mix like crazy. But I need to be able to properly put it up for long term storage.



I did manage to find a rock rake for $125, new they are $450. I'm a cheap bastard, so I need to wait to find deals like that.

We are making progress. It's never as fast as you want it to be, but we're in it for the long haul.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Holy shit dude. You are living my dream.

[C-Mag]

Holy shit dude. You are living my dream.

Your dream feels like my nightmare some days

It's a lot of work, a lot of little frustrations, but very rewarding