All About Pocket Knives

jerryd6818 wrote:I must confess to being the least bit envious.

A few more from down in the barn lot.

Nice spread, Colonel.

Kentucky at its best.

Wade, I confess to being a little more envious than Jerry. I'm sure you eat the eggs and the egg layers. Do you eat the goats? Milk the goats? Show the goats? or are they just your lawn mower? Very cool setting.

doglegg wrote:Wade, I confess to being a little more envious than Jerry. I'm sure you eat the eggs and the egg layers. Do you eat the goats? Milk the goats? Show the goats? or are they just your lawn mower? Very cool setting.

Thanks guys.

We do eat the eggs. And have raised meat birds too, but we just do the eggs. They compost wood chips and sawdust for my garden too.

The goats are to clean up this rough grown up place. Lol. Goats are high now too, so the little bit of income doesn’t hurt. We’re just trying to grow the herd now.

Quick Steel wrote:Kentucky at its best.

Amen!

Steve Warden wrote:Nice spread, Colonel.

Thanks Steve.

Best place in the world to raise that fine bunch of boys! Wade, keep up the good work.
Treefarmer

Today we worked on expanding one of the garden spots. I’ve saved newspaper all year at school, and two years ago I had the power line trimmer crews dump 4 loads of wood chips out beside the shop. Today I borrowed the neighbors pond scoop and used the little pre ‘64 Ford 2000 and boy labor to make this spot a might bigger.

W axe that’s the same method I’ve used to create a garden. Newspapers covers by compost and mulch. I usually put down several layers of paper, else the grass around here just comes through it eventually. Unfortunately all my “boy labor” has grown up and moved away. I’m on my own now but sometimes I hire a neighbor kid for a few hours.

BTW that tractor works better when it’s not laying on its side! Just sayin.

Ken

Mumbleypeg wrote:W axe that’s the same method I’ve used to create a garden. Newspapers covers by compost and mulch. I usually put down several layers of paper, else the grass around here just comes through it eventually. Unfortunately all my “boy labor” has grown up and moved away. I’m on my own now but sometimes I hire a neighbor kid for a few hours.

BTW that tractor works better when it’s not laying on its side! Just sayin.

Ken

True! I posted those as we were headed out the door for supper and didn’t realize it until too late.

Have you watched the Back to Eden Garden movie? It was pretty eye opening and amazing what that guy does with wood chips.

Hey Wade.. Now all ya got to do is get those hounds from your Dad.. Or start your own kennel!!!
John

I love all the farm pics. That is one classic looking barn! If I ever get a place with land, there will be goats. Oh yeah, definately goats!

Here’s a few recents of interest..

Ken

Hen with chick. The only one that survived but she’s taking good care of it.
Texas rat snake. This guy was about 5 ft long.
Oak leaf hydrangea. One of my favorite plants. Native to the southern U.S. The bloom is white at first, gradually turns pink, then tan. Mine are just starting to turn pink.

Mumbleypeg, is the rat snake the reason only one chick survived? May have to put a porcelain egg in the nest. But your hydrangea is pretty.

doglegg wrote:Mumbleypeg, is the rat snake the reason only one chick survived? May have to put a porcelain egg in the nest. But your hydrangea is pretty.

Snakes didn’t get them. If a hen goes broody I move her, with her nest, to a brooder box I made from a large plastic tub with a modified (screened) lid. No snakes or other critters can possibly get into it.

She sat on 8 eggs for a week or so, then changed her mind for a couple of days, then went back to sitting. Only two eggs hatched successfully, a third tried but never made it out of the shell. The rest were duds. Looked good when I candled them but I’m no expert so maybe they weren’t fertile, who knows. There were two that successfully hatched, and stayed under or next to the hen for several days. Then one day one of them was dead, and only the one still alive. After about a week the hen gave up sitting on the rest of the eggs so I put her and the surviving chick out with the rest of the chickens.

I have another hen that just went broody a few days ago. She’s sitting on 7 eggs, I may slip a couple more under her. If she stays with it, in a few days I’ll move her, nest and all, to the brooder box.

Ken

I had a white rat snake for a while. They aren’t albino, as they have dark eyes.

Ken, is that a speckled Sussex hen?

I need to get an incubator and hatch off a few layers.

zoogirl wrote:I love all the farm pics. That is one classic looking barn! If I ever get a place with land, there will be goats. Oh yeah, definately goats!

Thanks Ann! Two years ago when we pulled up to look at this place we saw the shop, barn, and garage and my wife told the realtor that if the house was at all livable I’d put an offer on it. Lol. She was right.

Nice place neighbor, we did the news paper wood chip thang a few years back, worked pretty well but the crabgrass and Bermuda finally won.

Colonel26 wrote:Ken, is that a speckled Sussex hen?

Yes it is. Good eye!

Ken

When we moved to the "farm" (acre and a half but it was outside of town), I just had to have some chickens. So my buddies and I built a chicken house on the slab of an old long gone corn crib. I ordered a dukes mixture of day olds and broodered them in the basement. I had some Rhode Island Reds, Polish chickens, a Buff Orpington or two, a few Araucanas (loved those colored eggs), a couple of Dominique's and one little Speckled Sussex. She was the sweetest thing and as friendly as a house pet.

When we got divorced and sold the place, I left the chickens for the new owners. Quite a few years later when I drove past the place, I noticed there were still some of those chickens there.

For all you meat lovers......A recent trip to BJ’s revealed the following (neither of which I’ve ever experienced)

Scrapple is pretty popular here in South Jersey and around the Philly area.
For those who are not familiar with scrapple, it's all the leftovers of the hog from the rooter to the tooter. Slice and fry. I'm not a fan.

What we Tn. hillbillys call souse, and I ain't never had a hankering for it neither.

I'd rather have my home made crust and apple pie.