All About Pocket Knives

Them is some fine lookin grandsons you have there Larry.

Thanks Roger,

Real boys! Look at them dirty feet. Great picture Larry.
Quick Steel, I'll 2nd Jerry's comment about the neighbor and his flags, Semper Fi.
Treefarmer

espn77 wrote:

Mumbleypeg wrote:

espn77 wrote:Looks like you've taken good care of your 4440 Ken. Great tractors.

They are for sure. Sometimes just a good cussin works wonders on them!

Ken

Yes sir, something to be said for equipment with no electronics. Things we can still work on.

My church had a celebration Saturday evening that included a hayride. Keith or Ken would one of you know where to find the "check engine" light on this John Deere?

RalphAlsip wrote: Keith or Ken would one of you know where to find the "check engine" light on this John Deere?

It's right there on the port side where you grab that big flywheel and give it a spin to start it. My granddad had a 'B' and my uncle had an 'A' (or maybe it was the other way around. I forget) Neither one had electric start.

I don't know if both of them did but at least one had dual fuel tanks. The way my dad explained it to me was you put gas in the small one and diesel in the large one. You started it on gas, warmed it up and then switched over and ran it on diesel. (Sometimes my memory plays tricks on me. Can anyone verify this?)

What with vacuum cleaners and Swiffer, does anyone still have and use one of these?

GUESS WHO?

jerryd6818 wrote:What with vacuum cleaners and Swiffer, does anyone still have and use one of these?

I don't personally own a dust mop, but my mother has one that she uses on her (real) hardwood floors. I use them at the TechShop where I have a membership. We use them in the woodshop area.

jerryd6818 wrote:

RalphAlsip wrote: Keith or Ken would one of you know where to find the "check engine" light on this John Deere?

It's right there on the port side where you grab that big flywheel and give it a spin to start it. My granddad had a 'B' and my uncle had an 'A' (or maybe it was the other way around. I forget) Neither one had electric start.

I don't know if both of them did but at least one had dual fuel tanks. The way my dad explained it to me was you put gas in the small one and diesel in the large one. You started it on gas, warmed it up and then switched over and ran it on diesel. (Sometimes my memory plays tricks on me. Can anyone verify this?)

I know on the old dozers the had a pony engine that you started first that ran off of gas. That would then start the diesel engine.

When I was a yonker we had a McCormick -Deering W-30 that started on gas and then you switch to keresene. Hand cranked ,steel wheels, tuff old tractor.

Jerry,
My father-in-law, 94, still has his dad's old Case tractor. It's a DO model, made in the '40s, I think. The "O" indicated it was an orchard tractor, which had fancy sheet metal fenders that would slide past an orange tree without damaging the fruit. It had the 2 tanks, a very small one filled with gasoline to start the engine and then switch over to a larger filled something they called "tractor fuel" back in the day. I'm not sure but I think it was diesel, maybe similar to what we use today, off road diesel?
Treefarmer

jerryd6818 wrote:What with vacuum cleaners and Swiffer, does anyone still have and use one of these?

Nope!
But don't mess w/ my ROOMBA

TheMadHungarian wrote:GUESS WHO?

FillmoreStamp.jpgRCCOStamp.jpgRobesonCutleryUSAStamp.jpg

Some people are just born cool...

Ken, That is funny.

Quick Steel wrote:Ken, That is funny.

The cats don't think so...

americanedgetech wrote:But don't mess w/ my ROOMBA

Hey where can I get one of those?


My dad and step mother have recently been going through my grandmother's photos, there are MANY old pictures in there so I will share a few. This is my grandfather, likely in the early 50's, he was a cowboy at one time. My dad's oldest brother was actually born on the ranch in grapevine texas that my grandfather worked on at the time.

Gonna be a bumper crop of wild persimmons this year!

Ken

Are there any other kind?

Charlie

RobesonsRme.com wrote:Are there any other kind?

Charlie

Yes there are. http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/frui ... s_2015.pdf Scroll down to page 5 for the info on cultivated varieties, which are about the size of a peach. Some varieties are non-astringent. The fruit us available in grocery stores here. Most of it comes from California and Central America, but the trees grow well here in Texas and are sold in plant nurseries. https://womacknursery.com/collections/persimmons

Ken

Ken,

If that's a "native" persimmon then it must be an American persimmon (Diospryos virginiana), isn't it? The Texas persimmons (Diospyros texana) I'm familiar with are smaller, about the size of a shooter and are purplish-black to black.

I just got about 40 Texas persimmon seeds that I'm gonna try to propagate this winter/spring. SinceD texana comes in both male and female plants and usually occur at a ratio of 10 male to 1 female, I'm gonna have to raise several to guarantee I get at least 1 female to to produce fruit.

zzyzzogeton wrote:Ken,

If that's a "native" persimmon then it must be an American persimmon (Diospryos virginiana), isn't it? The Texas persimmons (Diospyros texana) I'm familiar with are smaller, about the size of a shooter and are purplish-black to black.

I just got about 40 Texas persimmon seeds that I'm gonna try to propagate this winter/spring. SinceD texana comes in both male and female plants and usually occur at a ratio of 10 male to 1 female, I'm gonna have to raise several to guarantee I get at least 1 female to to produce fruit.

It's an American Persimmon - that's the native persimmon indigenous to this area. The fruit are about golf ball size. It's an ongoing battle to keep them from taking over the pastures.

The Texas Persimmon will grow here if you plant it, but its native range is southwest of me. Like you said it has smaller fruit and is generally a smaller tree. You might check with a native plant nursery in your area to see if they have any female trees for sale. Now is a good time to look because you may be able to find one with fruit on the tree - a 100% indicator of the gender.

Ken

Then I must be SW of you - I'm in Bell County. They grow wild here. I just don't have any on our farm, or at least no females that I've identified.

I got a bag of seeds from a fellow BC Master Gardener who has a small grove of them. I'm hoping that I get at least 3 or 4 females out of 40 seed. What I'll do then is in a couple of years start grafting female cuttings onto "whatever" sprouts from other seeds starts down the road.

Call me weird (everyone else does ) - but I want to see what kind of wine and melomel I can get out of Texas persimmons.

Someone say Wine?

Now your talking my lingo.

PERSIMMON WINE

3 lbs ripe persimmons
2 1/2 lbs finely granulated sugar
1 tblsp acid blend
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
7 pts water
1 crushed Campden tablet
1/2 tsp yeast nutrient
1 packet Montrachet, Pasteur Red or Champagne yeast
Wash the persimmons, cut into quarters and mash the seeds out with your hands. Mash the pulp well, put into primary, and add half the sugar, the acid blend, yeast nutrient and crushed Campden tablet. Add water to total one gallon. Stir well to dissolve sugar, cover, and set aside. After 12 hours add pectic enzyme and recover. After another 12 hours, add yeast. Ferment 5-7 days, stirring daily. Strain through nylon sieve. Do not be concerned if a lot of fine pulp gets through; it will precipitate out. Add remaining sugar, stir very well, then transfer to secondary while leaving about three inches headroom. Fit air lock and set aside. Rack every 30 days until wine clears and no additional lees are laid down (4-6 months). Stabilize only if you feel the need to sweeten the wine before bottling. This wine should age in the bottle a year. [Adapted recipe from Dorothy Alatorre's Home Wines of North America]

Of course the recipe is a matter of taste so the methods can be modified. Getting the PH to 4-5 is the most important thing to do. Citric acid from any on line vendor works best.
Tomato paste is the best yeast nutrient I have found so forget the fancy hi dollar stuff.
Keep the mash at 80*f for around 4-6 weeks.
Call me in 7 weeks for the party.

Just sayin'

Eating a persimmon around here was always a daunting endeavor.

Too green or too ripe. Hard to hit that magic moment when they were actually edible.

Did anyone ever play the game, "Knife, Fork or Spoon" by splitting a persimmon pit in half to see what shape the germinate had assumed?

Charlie Noyes

Was it posted on here or did I find it while wandering around the internet? (I want to say posted on AAPK) Supposedly you can predict the coming winter's weather by splitting open a ripe Persimmon.

Look at the shape of the kernel inside.
•If the kernel is spoon-shaped, expect plenty of snow to shovel.
•If it is fork-shaped, plan on a mild winter with powdery, light snow.
•If the kernel is knife-shaped, expect frigid winds that will “cut” like a blade.