Puttering along

[sking1001]

edited to mention we are completely moved in now. Even down to our internet satellite dish and TV dish. Everything we didn't need up here is now in storage. It was strange to drive up here to come home tonight. But the house sure smelled good with a homegrown chicken butchered yesterday in the wood cook stove. I had about 40 chickens at the 'old' place of which I moved only 8 laying hens and 2 roosters up here, the rest I took to the butcher who processes chickens. Our propane freezer is full of chicken....

Wow, that is so awesome, Oldster. I'm jealous of your cool new home. I don't have a clue about half the things you described earlier, and I don't know who the Commie is, but I just love following your log. Thanks for sharing!

[Oldster]

Wow, that is so awesome, Oldster. I'm jealous of your cool new home. I don't have a clue about half the things you described earlier, and I don't know who the Commie is, but I just love following your log. Thanks for sharing!

Well thank you, sking! The 'Commie' is just a coworker of my 'Perfessor' wife. Our home may not be something to be jealous of, it is less than 1000sq ft and is only 4 rooms! Bedroom, kitchen/dining, living room and bathroom. It is kind of pretty though, I trimmed the interior with knotty pine. Very plain, very simple. But ohhhhh so quiet up here!

I took the time for a little fishing today now that I don't have much to do. Drove through some back country that I rocked with my dump trucks some 15 years ago for a large timber company and made it to the back side of a local river that few others know how to get to. Caught 2 Coho salmon and half of one is in the wood cookstove baking right now. I build 2 cold frames that I planted some lettuce and spinach in a few months ago and placed on the front porch where it has lots of Southern exposure and was able to harvest enough this afternoon for dinner along with some cherry tomatoes and peppers we've grown in big pots so we could move them up here. Baked salmon on a bed of rice, a small salad to finish it. I've also broke the ground up where we plan to put our garden in the spring. The chickens will hopefully produce enough poop to help with fertilizing it as the ground been covered in timber for a few milliniums.

Light 20" close grip--up to 240x15--300x 6 sets of 2
Light 16" close grip--240x20
Rows--225x3 sets of 10
Ab roller--20

[bob g]

...
Our home may not be something to be jealous of, it is less than 1000sq ft and is only 4 rooms! Bedroom, kitchen/dining, living room and bathroom. It is kind of pretty though, I trimmed the interior with knotty pine. Very plain, very simple. But ohhhhh so quiet up here!
...
I took the time for a little fishing today now that I don't have much to do.
...
Caught 2 Coho salmon and half of one is in the wood cookstove baking right now.
...
I build 2 cold frames that I planted some lettuce and spinach in a few months ago and placed on the front porch where it has lots of Southern exposure and was able to harvest enough this afternoon for dinner along with some cherry tomatoes and peppers we've grown in big pots so we could move them up here.
...
Baked salmon on a bed of rice, a small salad to finish it.
...
I've also broke the ground up where we plan to put our garden in the spring.
...
The chickens will hopefully produce enough poop to help with fertilizing it as the ground been covered in timber for a few milliniums.
...

This has to be one of the coolest posts I have ever read - anywhere.

[sking1001]

This has to be one of the coolest posts I have ever read - anywhere.

+1. I just smiled and day dreamed as I read it...

[LeonidasfromSparta]

Well thank you, sking! The 'Commie' is just a coworker of my 'Perfessor' wife. Our home may not be something to be jealous of, it is less than 1000sq ft and is only 4 rooms! Bedroom, kitchen/dining, living room and bathroom. It is kind of pretty though, I trimmed the interior with knotty pine. Very plain, very simple. But ohhhhh so quiet up here!

I took the time for a little fishing today now that I don't have much to do. Drove through some back country that I rocked with my dump trucks some 15 years ago for a large timber company and made it to the back side of a local river that few others know how to get to. Caught 2 Coho salmon and half of one is in the wood cookstove baking right now. I build 2 cold frames that I planted some lettuce and spinach in a few months ago and placed on the front porch where it has lots of Southern exposure and was able to harvest enough this afternoon for dinner along with some cherry tomatoes and peppers we've grown in big pots so we could move them up here. Baked salmon on a bed of rice, a small salad to finish it. I've also broke the ground up where we plan to put our garden in the spring. The chickens will hopefully produce enough poop to help with fertilizing it as the ground been covered in timber for a few milliniums.

You've got a very nice setup there Oldster. I hope to do the same thing one day.
Btw, you have internet in there? The wonders of technology...

[Oldster]

This has to be one of the coolest posts I have ever read - anywhere.

Bob, I'm.....I'm a little surprised. Not at you specifically, but that anyone else has the same interest. When I spend a little time on the 'net I tend to start thinking everyone is in the big city somewhere and that is their only interest, which is absolutely fine to me. The Professor and I spend a bit of time on homesteading websites and receive a few simliar publications in the mail so we understand there are a few like minded people out there. Not many go quite as far as we have with the wood cookstove and propane for everything else. But then like I told you, I not only don't own a digital camera I don't even know how to 'text message' and don't even bother to carry my cell phone with me now except in the truck where it stays unless I am in the cabin. I reckon the world could implode and I'd be the last to know about it.

I am pleasantly pleased that you found my post to be cool.

+1. I just smiled and day dreamed as I read it...

Good! Keep that day dream alive!

You've got a very nice setup there Oldster. I hope to do the same thing one day.
Btw, you have internet in there? The wonders of technology...

I hope you ARE able to do the same thing. It has been wonderfully fullfilling. The main problem we've found now, once the Professor gets home, we don't like to leave. For ANYTHING!

Yes, we have internet, but we went with satellite. I imagine we'll get satellite TV at some point, but right now it is just nice to have either complete silence and read, or just listen to the radio.

I'm off to go salmon fishing again, this time I am going to pack my .410 shotgun as yesterday I saw about a 1/2 dozen ruffed grouse driving in. Maybe I can pick off a couple and have a grouse dinner ready when the Professor gets home!

[StrongIslander,NY]

Hi oldster-

i too have started on a course to self reliance- I'm reading my way thru every relevant book on survival, gardening and DIY home energy.This summer i had my first big garden and its still going. we just got rid of our above ground pool for lack of use. the wife didnt want to convert it into a tilapia farm. I presently getting her used to get some chickens by spring -like 3 and i want to breed meat rabbits. theres alot of wild turkeys by us i can pilfer in off season with a bb gun. Took a squirrel today. i set a rain barrel system to reuse as garden water. my washer machine is snaked out side and fills up a reserve. the nitrates in soap make things grow great.

i have oil heat and was fscinated that i could use diesel and even cooking oil- so old cooking oil gets skimmed and refined- maybe 5 gallons per yr total i add to oil. did look in to solar but at 30k and then with gov subsidies it wittles to 7k out of pocket. theres like a 9-12 yr break even point. so im opting to make 2 giant solar furnaces boxes that sit on the south roof that pump in solar heat. i looked into a wood furnace that is maybe 6k. i have since opted for a diy rocket stove inside or buy a second hand wood /pellet stove on craigslist. and i got a hold of the latter day saints book on prepping food storage. in short order we have 4 mos supplies

[Oldster]

SI, my HERO and a kindred spirit, I see!

That would have been a fantastic use of a pool, tilapia. Be sure and get those chickens. We've had chickens since we were married and we both grew up tending chickens. As to rabbits, its funny you mention them. I planned to get some very soon even though I've never raised them. My son just mentioned a couple days ago that I need to get 4 meat does and a buck. That is my plan.

You kilt a squirrel today? With a BB gun? How are you going to cook it? We don't have turkeys here. They are about 2 hours to the East of me. Would like to try hunting them sometime though. How about your whitetails? Do you hunt them? I absolutely love venison.

I like what you are doing at your place though. Isn't gardening cool? I couldn't imagine not having and eating from a garden. Before we moved up here we canned everything out of our garden and moved the potted plants up here.

I didn't know that about an oil furnace! That is COOL. Solar is expensive. No way around that. I don't mind spending the money to be offgrid, I just like flipping off the PUD man when he goes by. Especially since we are boyhood buddies. I just like doing things that are different anyway. The Perfessor is rabid about making it pay, I don't give a shit. I smile when the sun is out and I know its helping power my system and when I fish the creek, I know that it is also powering my home. I was about to mention a solar furnace but I see you've already looked into them. I thought about it but we just don't get the amount of sun here to make it feasible.

As to food storage, if we weren't able to walk out the front door we have about 6 months of food. If I can walk out to the garden, down to the river or out into the timber where the eatable critters are, we could hold out for a couple years with no outside help.

Have you ever read Mel Tappans book, Survival guns? It goes into much more than just firearms, much of it touches on surviving on a farm.

[Moving_Target]

My older sister and brother in law raised some chickens and a few turkeys (from chicks) this summer and just recently butchered them (I did not help unfortunately :-().

They have been raising calves for the last few years for butchering but the birds are
a new avenue. It's...different when you are involved with the animals you're going to eat, that's for sure.

[Oldster]

Isn't it something to look something in the eye and then slaughter it, Moving_Target? I find it sad that so many are removed so far away from what they eat that some don't even realize it was a living animal not too many days before. We've raised quite a few beef in the past, in fact, we have never bought beef from the store. Only grass fed for us! But for the past 25 years we've eaten wild game of some sort for 100% of our carnivore needs, deer, elk, antelope, bear, ducks, geese, pheasants, grouse and the like, along with salmon, trout and steelhead. This area is a sportsmans dream.

I used to always raise turkeys but we didn't have the room up here this year. Maybe next year. I used to have a hen that couldn't tell the difference between a turkey, chicken or duck egg and would sit on anything for any length of time. So I would put a 1/2 dozen turkey eggs under her and then 7 days later 6 more chicken eggs. Sure enough, 21 days later we would have 12 new chicks! I always wondered what she though when the chicks were quickly taller than her.....

edited to mention that I DID shoot 2 ruffed grouse before I could make it all the way in to salmon fish. Boy does that little .410 knock the snot out of them! Dressed them, brought them home and cooled 'em all the way and then first fried and then steamed them in a cast iron pan, made some grouse gravy to put over brown rice. A salad to finish. Fantastic!