All About Pocket Knives

Been toooooooooooooooooo long since I posted news about our recent mission.
Went Sunday, had 8 kids and 3 adults. One was a guys wife.....somehow she snuck in and I told her she had a special pass
that couldn't be used again!

Had a blast cutting wood, climbing trees, eatin' jerky and apples and sweating....


Then the following day at the baseball game I received this letter......

Y'all are growing some great kids there. And they get to be special among their peers because their Uncle is a great guy to hang out with. (He's actually just a big kid himself, just one that drinks whiskey and smokes cigars. )

Always great to see your posts with the boys on a "mission"! Keep it up, those boys are not the only ones benefiting from it . You're a pretty good feller even if you don't like Florida weather , .
Treefarmer

My brother in-law had a Red Maple cut down in February. He prevented the cutting service from cutting the trunk down to small so I could work on it.

I decided to tackle on portion that with right at 36" in length and about 10 or so inches round. I don't have a chainsaw, all I got is elbow grease.
I saw in Youtube a guy split a long pice of wood with a hatchet.....I remembered how he did it.

First pic shows the entire log with the spikes (wedges) driven in. 2nd pic shows the log split in half....then step and repeat!

Now when these slivers dry I cut them with my hand saw and prepare for use in the winter!!

Great job Scott - still looks like some hard work! OH

That's the pioneering spirit.

One of the most memorable steaks I have eaten was grilled over the same kind of Maple wood down in central Florida about 45 years ago! Scott, you're causin' me to reminisce, I must be gettin' old .
Treefarmer

Ya know Philip...the most memorable steak I've ever had was the last one I cooked on the coals (pic posted a few pages back).
Maybe I'll set some of this Maple aside to do the same thing next year....

Great work Scott, I love your pioneer spirit, keep it up!

GREAT work Scott

Thank you my outdoor friends!!

I like to send the kids ahead.......to scout for gators

jk

Seemed like a good spot to take a pic of the scenery and this young man.

He looks like he doesn't want to take one more step

That's a great picture Scott! I see a cypress tree out in the slough and what about the piece of old pine the young feller is standing by? Was there any heart in it? Some times there is a small core of fat wood even in younger pines.
I believe Gdog is right, he must have spotted one of them big lizards in the water .
Treefarmer

Don't know about 'gators, but it sure looks like a snake pit

tjmurphy wrote:Don't know about 'gators, but it sure looks like a snake pit

That's what I was thinking TJ. If that ain't a moccasin bed then I've never seen one.

Made some progress on the grandson's deer plot today! As for the shootin' house we started for this project, it still needs to be finished. The moisture in the soil finally got right, I bottom plowed (moldboard plow) the plot and then ran a disk over it a couple of times. Each trip killin' another crop of tiny weed seedling that sprouted. Fluffed it up again, right before dinner and after my noon nap we went and planted the little "L" shaped plot. I put in 50# of Iron & Clay cowpeas with our antique Van Brunt grain drill. These pea vines will climb and turn into a jungle out about September, they will stand a little cold but not enough to be a draw during our season that runs so late. Couple of pictures we took this afternoon.
Treefarmer

Treefarmer I think you mean Supervisor don't you?

That's a big 10-4!
Treefarmer

TF, The old Grain Drill is Awesome.


Larry

Busted up the redear today, managed to coax a few bass and whopper bluegills out of the water too. We had a mess of friends over for a fry tonight Dang that is some good eatin!

Larry, from my limited research Van Brunt was bought out by John Deere around 1900. Van Brunt and a brother designed the grain drill to cover seeds quickly in one pass to spare the grain from predation by the passenger pigeon during the 1850's. I don't know how old this drill is, I've had it for 15 years or so.
Treefarmer

muskrat man wrote:Busted up the redear today, managed to coax a few bass and whopper bluegills out of the water too. We had a mess of friends over for a fry tonight Dang that is some good eatin!

Got any pics?

Philip, will any of those cow peas go on your table?

No Jerry, those peas are too hard to shell! They are very small in diameter compared to a blackeye or a zipper cream. The Iron and Clay peas were used years ago for a hay crop as they really put on a lot of vines before they bear the actual peas. They are probably planted now mostly as a summer/fall deer feed and of course as a seed crop to resell to the deer managers.
Treefarmer