manureman

Never raised any cotton, how much are you figuring on putting out and what are your plans for it? Are you planting anything in tubs or buckets this year?

Very nice Ralph!

I hadn’t forgotten about ya Doc. Since they put that tower up I have service in a lot of places here on the farm I’ve never had it before and some I’d have bet I never would.... but the house not so much. It went from almost nothing to being able to make a call in most of the upstairs but most of that ain’t what you would like. New son-in-law says I should see a real improvement when he’s done .... time will tell I reckon. We got the same terrain you have , hills and timber.

Ok thanks guys I appreciate it. Got a new son-in-law that’s an IT guy and I was able to sit down with him alone last night and order some stuff for my cell phone reception. I love my wife but she is under the impression that if she pays a dollar and a half for something of the “as seen on tv” shelf at Walmart to improve cell service we should be able to run 37,000 devices off of 1 cheap wi-fi box at warp speed...... bless her little tight wad heart. I was thinking bigger was better for an antenna and years ago before satellite tv we had a rotor on a great big antenna , had to or you only got 1 of the 2 stations to be had. Found a place last night called Denny’s TV antenna service that was saying same as you Doc .... big antenna and a rotor for rural areas, will probably do some business with him unless I can find something closer I can sit at my kitchen table and see the flashing light on a cell tower about 5 miles away that they just put up last year, it helped a little but I’d think being able to see it I should have great service.

I’m hunting for a really good tv antenna. Several years ago we got tired of the big satellite tv bills and took down the dish and put up a digital antenna I picked up at radio shack . It’s not very big and puts me in mind of a cartoon ray gun it has a little remote that’ll rotate it and an amplifier it claims . At the time it was about a hundred dollars, now I see them all over Amazon for $39.99 . When I first put it up it did a decent job, we live a pretty good ways from any place with tv stations and our internet is what we can manage to get off of cell phones and that’s hit and miss at best. It seems the longer this antenna is up the worse it gets. I could be perfectly happy with out tv no more than I watch but the wife and grandkids seem to need it

I would imagine some of you may have some stuff already started but I just broke my garden for the first time this year earlier this week. It’s the first time in years it’s been dry enough this early to do anything in a garden around here, I don’t put out any cold crops anymore so it’ll be a couple months before I put anything out but it was nice to be piddling. I got my fruit trees pruned and sprayed with dormant oil and copper last month so I’ll hit my peach trees with copper again right before bud break to battle peach tree leaf curl , used to use sulfer lime spray and had real good luck till they figured out it was something else that worked that we were to stupid to be trusted with. I’ll start my stuff inside in a couple weeks to have the plants ready when the ground finally gets warm enough. We like to fix jalapeños and banana pepper’s stuffed with cheese and sausage and wrapped in bacon on the grill so I’m looking for something along the line of extra large banana peppers to try this year if you all have any suggestions I’d appreciate it. I don’t mind a fair amount of heat in my peppers but most of the rest of the family has to have them very mild. Used to buy some plants called fooled you jalapeños that had the look but none of the heat of regular jalapeños but have been starting my own inside for the last few years as we can’t find plants locally anymore. But I’d like something a little bigger if I can find it.

I can’t even begin to tell you how bad I want to lay hands on some politicians for this abortion. I’ve scratched in the dirt sweat and blood fightin Mother Nature and the damn government my entire life to farm, and now this BS..... They just keep pushing and keep pushing.

Wow... I ain’t got a clue ? Been a while since I used any but my problem was always getting it to stay where I wanted it .

Whatever the costs are you should not be expected to make up any short falls and I prefer that they be a little bit more than actual costs to cover your gas and what not. I don’t have any experience with sharpening reamers, the few I own have only been used once, twice at most, but none a third time. But I’m sure no one wants to mess around with a dull one. Honestly I probably wouldn’t be able to tell if one was dull without trying it and might get it wrong then. The pros might sharpen them after every chamber I have no idea on how often they do it or the cost of having it done , or how many times they can be sharpened for that matter.

Are you talking about the governor of Georgia Kemp ? When did this happen? Last I heard Kemp was a high priority target on Trumps list.

Funny thing how that works ain’t it.

I agree wholeheartedly. I think it will be very interesting to see if Trump will actually fly in the face of the GOP and campaign against some of these GOP backed rhinos that voted against him that Mitch says they will be backing . I surely hope he does.

Very nice! That’s just a way better set up Don.

I don’t have near the experience you have but I’ve welded a couple with my mig and I won’t mess with it again. They finally turned out passable but it was a chore. I used a jig like the one in the picture Doc asked about. I still have it but if I can remember next time I put out a trot line I’ll be using that sorry pos for a trot line weight.

Wish he’d knock on a few doors demanding evil gun owners turn in they’re ARs

Been wondering about you . It’s really good to hear from you again I always enjoy it.

40 years ago I voted for Reagan and have never voted for a gun grabber ever . Don’t need to check any records but I have held my nose and voted for the lesser of two evils more than once and every time that was for a Republican. Those days are over.Let the chips fall where they may .

Whatever the slogan is it’s got me to digging through drawers and safes dragging out old projects. I even found a couple actions I’d forgotten about. One of them an unissued Persian barreled action I got from SAMCO decades ago I’m kinda thinking about just scrounging around and trying to put it back in original form if I could do it reasonably

I really wish the GOP would just dry up and blow away. I don’t have any real expectations that it will but as bad as the demoncrats are I hate the GOP worse . I used to believe it was a lack of testicular fortitude just a complete lack of a spine that caused them to crawfish ....BS they are natural born thieves and liars that have gotten away with it for far to long. As Doc said they are “in on it” . Damn their souls! And as far as changing the GOP from the inside ,go pound sand ,folks that say that are just what the party is looking for , just what I used to be ,but not any by God more. The party has not only condoned this and promoted it , it’s just how they make a very good living off all the citizens struggles. Screw them i’m done and finished with them and have no faith that it will be turned around at the ballot box.

I’ve been thinking the same thing as Ken

As a over the road trucker California state and New York City were real shockers for a hillbilly from Missouri. I’d never had the slightest bit of desire to even get near either of them ,as a matter of fact I wanted to stay as far away from them as I could. And I still have no desire to live in either but after being to California and experiencing a climate where houses are built without a heating and cooling system because it’s not needed and then seeing some of the most breathtaking beautiful scenery in the entire country it’s very easy for me to see how people would consider it the promise land. And all I ever heard about New York City was how rude the people were and how bad the traffic was so when I headed into downtown Manhattan the first time I was a mess , white knuckling the wheel with sweaty palms and really wanting to just puke. But I liked the people, hell they aren’t rude what I found them to be is honest direct straightforward and not the kind that tolerate unnecessary BS, just what I appreciate in a person and when I started talking to them and asking them questions you could tell they were proud and proud to talk about their city, I like that too . Never figured I’d want to go to NY City and I’d rather not go back in a big truck (but there are worse places in a truck)but I wouldn’t mind going back and wandering around. It was pretty interesting how some of those people had never been out of not just the city but the neighborhood. Looked like a lot of good eating in some of the little cafes or restaurants that I saw.

I’ve never touched a hair on a wild hog so don’t have any experience to draw on there, but I think those little 100 pound guilts would skin in strips pretty good. The two most important things I’ve learned from skinning tame hogs is hang em head up it makes working around the front legs easier when you can pull down on your hide strips and it allows you to get a little wider bite to start your strip if you start working from the neck rather than a hind hock. But the Wyoming knife is the time saver . I’ve skinned a few without them and it’s more of a chore cutting your strips than it’s worth to my thinking, you can hook the gut hook under the hide and just sail through them verses a regular knife. Once in a while on a tough one I’ll grab a bolt and wrap the hide around the head of the bolt to give the vice grips some extra bite on the square shoulders as a bloody slippery piece of hog hide is just that. I would think one of the skinning tools that look like ice tongs where the harder you pull the harder they bite might be just the thing for this chore but can’t say for sure, don’t remember it till I need it and then it’s to late again kind of thing.

There’s just about as much art in scalding hogs as science. You want your water 150 degrees and you want to leave them in just long enough that you can easily pull a pinch of hair out with your thumb and forefinger. If you don’t leave them long enough or get your water hot enough you’ve wasted your time and if you over due it, it’s even worse you’ll set the hair and have to skin them then and hogs don’t skin easy and if you get them hot enough to set the hair the hide softens up till it tears off in really little pieces. I figure this is where the expression getting a good scald on something comes from. To many of my old neighbors are gone now but we used to all get together and have a helluva hog killing and beer drinkin every winter. Us men would set in and kill , scald scrape , gut and hang em , then it would take several days of them hanging for us to get healed up enough to work them up. There was always several families and most of us figured on one hog per person per year, usually 25 to 30 hogs total . The men would then work out side cutting them up and trimming , grinding etc and the women would be inside wrapping them up and labeling it. Then everyone took care of curing and smoking there own hams and bacons as some prefer to dry cure and others liked to use brine. I ain’t worked up a hog for several years now but the last few times we did here we skinned them as it was faster than scraping them. We used Wyoming knives to cut through the hide in long strips an inch or two wide then grabbed the strip with a pair of vice grips and peeled it off that way, worked way better than trying to skin one like a beef. Then we’d have another big beer drinkin a few days later when we rendered the lard by throwing the fat trimmings in a couple big cast iron kettles and cooked em down and ate the cracklins till we was ready to bust. I still have my cracklin shaker in the kitchen with just the right mix of salt and red pepper in it . Anyway it was a good excuse to get together and drink beer while the women were inside scraping the heads to make head cheese and mincemeat. My kids were in on all of it so at least they have the know how if they would ever have to do it they’re selves and as much as enjoyed those days I hope my kids don’t ever have to work at getting their groceries that hard.

The shrinking sounds good Az I’m pulling for you and wish I could do a lot more than just hope

Wow, it’s still to early for me to even start seedlings in the house yet