Little Shack in the Big Woods

Processing the Deer

2011-01-30T20:07:00.006-05:00

After we field dressed the deer it was time to start processing the deer.

First we had to skin it out

The Final product

Summer Sausage

Vacuum Packed Steaks

And lots of Jerky

Jerky out of the dehydrator

Of course before it got to this point we had to do a lot of cutting grinding and mixing.

First thing was to remove all the meat

Then cut it into smaller pieces and remove all the silver seam and fat.

Grinder loaded and ready to go

Hopper full

Grinding the deer meat for Jerky and Summer Sausage

Grinding the pork loin to add into the Summer Saugage

Mixing the Deer, Pork Cheese and Jalapenos for the Summer Saugage

Heating up the smoker the lower temp the better the first few hours

loading up the Summer Sausage

Smoking and cooking complete

Final product

Nothing like eating you own processed, food knowing everything that goes into it!

Son's first Deer

2011-01-30T17:15:00.004-05:00

I haven't had time to do much blogging lately so I thought I would do a little catching up. In my last post we were going deer hunting, my son shot his first deer on the first day he hunted which was on a Monday morning. I hunted on Saturday and had seen a nice 8 pointer that I didn't shoot hoping my son would be able to take him. He only had a couple of days to hunt due to school, that morning we had only been seeing does, late in the morning this little buck came in and I told him to go ahead and take him since his time was limited.

Of course that evening I went back to the same stand and the 8 pointer came through about the time I got into the stand. Since we had meat I didn't take him, we will let him grow some more.

Until next time'

Tim

Deer Season Is Upon Us

2010-11-05T09:22:00.003-04:00

Here in Kentucky, next Saturday is the opening day of gun season for deer, this year there will be an emptiness however, since this will be the first season without dad. I have so many fond memories of hunting with him, we hunted everything that there was a season for, but deer hunting was always special. When I was a kid, deer were few and far between in Kentucky, I had never even seen a live deer out in the wild. In 1969 my dad was holding a revival in the small western Kentucky town of Tulu, one of the congregation asked dad if he would like to go deer hunting one morning, of course dad jumped at the opportunity to go, and killed his first deer, it was a small four point buck. I remember mom waking me up early one morning and taking me outside to see a deer strapped on the trunk of the old white Pontiac, dad had drove in late the night before and I was asleep. I wasn't even sure what it was at first, I remember all the neighbors coming over to check it out because in was a rare sight to see in Louisville at that time.

Over the next 40 years I always looked forward to deer season and hunting with dad, we harvested a lot of deer over the years together, the last couple of years dad could no longer hunt, but when he felt like it I'd drive to the power line that runs across the farm and set in the truck with him so he could enjoy it. He taught me so many things about hunting and life on those trips that he will be missed so much. Now it's time for me and my son to continue the tradition that he started with me.

Until next time,

Tim

Trees and New Toy

2010-10-31T18:27:00.004-04:00

Friday and Saturday I went down the farm to plant some fruit and shade trees I picked up at Lowe's for 75% off. I picked up two Golden Delicious, one Red Delicious, one Winesap and one Bartlett pear. I will be ordering some more trees from Stark Bros. this week, I need a pollinator for the pear tree plus a couple other apple as well as some pecan trees. I also planted three Autumn Blaze Maples in front of the man cabin.

We haven't had cattle on the farm for about 20 years but we still have a lot of rotted manure over at the old feed barn. I went and got 20 gallons of the black gold to mix in with the soil I planted the trees in.

Black gold (rotted manure)

Fruit trees

Autumn Blaze Maples

I've been looking for an all terrain fork lift for a while to haul logs out of the woods and load my sawmill with. I found a Lull telehandler on Craigslist which will do what I wanted plus it will also be a big help when I start building my barns and house on the farm since it will extend 27' vertically and lift 6000 lbs 38' into the air. The only drawback was it was in Boonton, New Jersey, so I loaded up the Semi and was off for a 13 hour drive to pick it up. My friend Rick was on vacation so he went with me, after loading it up we went ahead a drove back into West Virginia to avoid the morning rush hour the next morning.

Sitting in the hotel parking lot in West Virginina

The day after we got back I went ahead and took it down to the farm and dropped it off. Saturday morning I moved some logs I had cut and were setting on top of the hill in the middle pasture, it made moving them much easier than using my skidsteer plus I can move a lot more logs at a time due to its capacity.

Until next time

Tim

Rain

2010-10-26T17:56:00.002-04:00

Finally, we have rain coming down, I almost forgot how good it smelled. I actually went outside and stood under the awning for a little while just feeling the mist hit me in the face while I took in the smell.

Until next time,

Tim

Fall Break

2010-10-18T10:17:00.004-04:00

The kids had their fall break week before last so we took a few days and went down to the farm. My daughter and I went down on Friday and the wife and son came down Saturday afternoon. The first day we went to Holiday World in Santa Clause Indiana, it's only about a 30 min Drive from the farm. We spent the day riding rides, ate then went back to the farm. As you can see in the pictures below the leaves were starting to change to their fall colors, the weather was great all week and I got a few things done around the place.

We enjoyed campfires every night roasting marshmallows and making smores.

We cooked out Ribeyes one night over Hickory wood, YUMMY!

Tia and Samantha (Sam) enjoyed their time running around and chasing everything in sight.

I spent most of my free time Excavating the front of the building and putting down grass seed, I also seeded where we had ran the water line and electric line.
The more I get done around the farm the harder it is to leave everytime.

Until next time,

Tim

Fall cookout

2010-09-27T18:17:00.009-04:00

This past Saturday we had a cookout at the farm with several family members and friends. It was a beautiful sunny day in the high 60's with a slight breeze. After feeding our faces we went on 4 wheeler rides, fishing in the pond and shooting some trap.

I went down on Thursday with my friend Rick and his son Luke (5 yo) to get everything ready for the cookout. We started by getting the area ready by installing a culvert and leveling the area where the cookout was going to take place. Next we put down gravel moved the smoker in place, installed the cook top and setting the picnic tables up. My cousin Ron brought over 3 additional tables and chairs and we were ready to start cooking.

Preparing to install the drain tile

Moving dirt from the big pile to level out the cookout area

Loading dirt into dump truck

Dumping at site

Tile installed and dirt leveled

The gravel spread out

Smoker, cook top and picnic tables set

Chickens on the smoker

Chickens, Boston Butt and Pork Loin

Smoker in action

Doodlebugs with my sister and her grandson

My sisters husband, cousin Ron and his Dad my Uncle Billy shooting the breeze.

Nephews riding the 4 wheeler

Mom and her friend Mary

Hungry people waiting on food, the secret to a good bar-b-que is to have it ready at least an hour later than you tell everybody, that way they are good and hungry and will eat anything.

Cut up smoked chicken

Time to eat

Nothing much better than a beautiful day, family, friends and good food.

Until next time,

Tim

Man cabin kitchen cabinets

2010-09-20T10:26:00.004-04:00

I've been looking on Craigslist trying to find some used kitchen cabinets for the man cabin. I found some a couple of weeks ago not to far from where the farm is located, they wanted more than I wanted to give but I made an offer anyway. About a week ago last Tuesday he countered but it was still more than I wanted to spend so I countered back and told him I would be at the farm on Friday and Saturday. I never heard anything back though, last Tuesday he emailed me back saying he would accept my offer and could I pick them up on Thursday before noon. When I left the farm the previous weekend I had left my covered trailer down there because I was going to pick up some drywall the next time I went down there. I had to wind up driving an extra 3 hours out of the way to get the cabinets picked up and hauled back to the farm. Below are the cabinets when they were still installed in their house. They are hickory wood.

Now all I have to do is get them up in the cabin.

Until next time,

Tim

Man Cabin update

2010-09-13T10:51:00.003-04:00

Spent the weekend down at the "Man Cabin" this weekend, worked on Friday and Saturday and lounged around on Sunday at Mom's house. I ran the power from the main panel in the barn to the sub panel in the cabin and ran 7 outlets so I don't have to have extension cords everywhere now. Next on the agenda is to get the bedroom walls and bathroom walls up then install the temporary overhead lights and the rest of the outlets installed. That will probably be about all that will get done on the inside before Deer season. I want to get the retaining wall installed and the front yard area in grass before winter.

I bought a sectional that has two recliners and a sleeper sofa for the living room off of Craigslist, it's really too nice for a Man cabin but it was only 6 months old and I made an offer on it and got it for a great price. I'm also an avid rocker so I went to Big Lots the other day and found a really good deal on a rocker recliner as well.

I brought this little kitchen table down from the "shack" and put it in the dining area, we (family) have had it since the late 60's and it was used when we got it, the quality back then was so much better, all the chairs are still like new, no tears, rips etc.

This is the temporary kitchen, it is a Cabela's camp kitchen, I got it for free with Cabela points I had. The picture is kind of dark but it has zipper storage compartments underneath for storing plates, food etc. On top is a toaster oven and microwave and a coleman one burner stove.
This was Jonathan's first bed, we had given it to his aunt and she called last week and didn't need it anymore so here it is.

This is the indoor outhouse, it will have to do until I get the bathroom finished. The cots will go in here when the outhouse is gone.

This is where the bathroom will be when it is installed.

I put out food plots about a month ago, it has only rained on them once before this weekend, hopefully they will take off now.

Until next time,

Tim

Catching up part 6

2010-09-08T10:11:00.004-04:00

With the outside completed, except for the front porch and rear deck it is time to start on the inside. Since this will eventually be my woodworking shop I am going to leave the area as open as possible.

Before the bat insulation and horizontal studs were installed I used spray foam (Foam It Green, great product but a bit pricey) to spray all of the vertical and horizontal seams to give me a tight seal as well as keeping out the creepy crawlers. It was close to 100 degrees that day with very high humidity, on top of that I had to wear a pair of Tyvek coveralls and mask. I was sweating so much that the mask clogged up with sweat and I couldn't breathe, I had to raise up the mask take a few breathes and then spray some more. The big problem was if you didn't spray for a few seconds your tip would clog up and you would have to replace it. When I was finished I was so weak from sweating and the heat I had to set down about 15 minutes to recover, when I took off the coveralls I was drenched from head to toe, I couldn't have been any wetter if I had fallen into the pond.

Until next time,

Tim

Catching up part 5

2010-09-07T10:32:00.004-04:00

After the roof sheeting was installed they started framing up the windows and doors. Once that framing was complete the rest of the sheeting, trim, gutters and shutters were installed.

Now it is time to start on the inside.

Until next time

Tim

Catching up part 4

2010-09-02T12:25:00.004-04:00

After the sub floor was installed it was time to start setting the walls.

As you can see from the picture above we had to remove the sheeting from the existing barn to tie in the new building.

Tomorrow we start on the sheeting, doors and windows.

Until next time,

Tim

Catching up part 3

2010-09-01T12:36:00.006-04:00

After the basement floor was poured I started setting the floor trusses. I went with trusses because I wanted a clear span so I wouldn't have any post in the basement to work around. My next door neighbor where I live volunteered a day to help set the trusses. We used the excavator to set the them see it went pretty fast, thank goodness because it was hot and humid that day.

Started installing the sub floor.

After the sub floor was completed it was time for the walls to start going up. It had to be the hottest week I can remember in a long time, it was still in the 80's at 6 in the morning and reaching mid 90's by lunch. This really slowed down the productivity due to all the fluids we had to stop and drink.

Until next time,

Tim

Catching up part 2

2010-08-31T08:45:00.005-04:00

When I was digging the basement I hit sandstone about 12' down, so after hammering out the rock it was time for the footers to be poured.

After the footers were poured it was time for the walls to be poured.

Added the gravel, leveled it out then waited on the concrete trucks to show up.

Poured the floor, next step floor trusses.

Until next time,

Tim

Catching up

2010-08-30T12:55:00.009-04:00

As I stated in a post last week it has been awhile since I last posted so I wanted post what all has been going on the past year. After I finished the barn last spring/summer I had a concrete floor put in it and decided that I needed more room. I have always wanted to remodel/modernize the little cabin on the farm, currently it has electricity but no insulation and no indoor plumbing etc. Since I needed more space I decided to add a 30' X 40' building with basement onto the side of the existing barn. I will use the basement for storage (small equipment) and the upstairs will temporarily be used as the "Man Cabin" until I get the little cabin remodeled. After that the "Man Cabin" will become my woodworking shop. So here is a pictorial of the last year.

Installing concrete floor in barn

starting excavation for the basement

Since I had a lot of work to do around the farm I purchased an Excavator

At this point we were ready for the footers.

Until next time

Tim

Dad

2010-08-30T10:26:00.002-04:00

It has been a rough year, my dad/best friend passed away Feb. 10th, I was glad to be at his side with both of my sisters and mom as he passed. He was a great man and lived his life with Christ by his side, it is comforting to know that he is with his Heavenly Father and someday I will join him again.

Until next time

Tim

Welcome back Ron

2010-08-26T20:50:00.002-04:00

It's good to see Ron at Homesteading Hickory Hills is back. I started blogging after following him for a while and quit when he did. Glad to see he's back and hopefully ok, he had a great blog.

Tim

Been a while

2010-08-26T20:29:00.002-04:00

First post in a long time. I plan on getting back to blogging, since its been a while I have quit a bit to share mostly good but some bad as well.

Nest Boxes

2009-08-20T09:11:00.006-04:00

Well I finally got around to building the nest boxes for the chickens. I was going to make conventional wooden nest boxes, but then I was watching a video on YouTube when Becky (from Becky's Homestead) showed building some out of 5 gal buckets. Since my time is short right now I thought this would be a quick way to go. I have a ton of 5 gal buckets that I bring home from work but they have have cutting, hydraulic fluid etc. in them, so I just went to Tractor Supply and purchased 5 new ones at $2.99 a piece. I had plenty of scrap lumber setting around and two 2X6 "L" sections 8' long as well. I cut the two "L" sections into 5' sections to set the buckets into and mount them to. When I had the house restained I replaced a couple of 5/4 X 6" steps so I used these for the sides and then used a sapling for the roost pole on the front. It only took me about an hour to put this together and so far the chickens like it just fine. I took turns putting each chicken in the boxes to get them familiar with them, some were a little reluctant to enter, but with a little persuasion the all eventually settled in.

Below are a few pictures of the nest boxes..

Doodlebugs added another critter to mix a couple of weeks ago, meet BooRoo.

I have raised rabbits on and off for the last 40 years, so it wasn't to hard for her to convince me into getting her one. My mom and dad's neighbor was kind enough to give her one of his. When I was little and we lived in Louisville I started raising them, we lived on a busy road so they were always easy to sell. I remember we always stocked up for Easter because you could sell all you had plus some, the best part, about three weeks after Easter most of parents would bring them back to us and then we would resale them.

Until next time....

Tim

First Egg

2009-08-14T13:37:00.004-04:00

I've been so busy I have not built my nest boxes yet for my chickens, I knew they should start laying sometime the middle of this month. Last night when me and doodlebugs went to the barn to put them up this is what we found.

No, the egg did not come from this wooden chicken, it just happened to be on the kitchen counter. Well I've got to go work on my nest boxes, so until next time...

Tim

A few days off

2009-08-12T09:41:00.011-04:00

I took the week off last week so we spent a few days at Holiday World in Santa Claus Indiana. While there we stayed at their campground Lake Rudolph, right next to the park. My kids love Holiday World and so do we since it is very family friendly, I also like it because it is only about 30 minutes from the farm. If you have never been Holiday World use to be called Santa Claus Land, it is a ride and water park, the prices are very reasonable and they drink stations throughout the park where your get your sodas free, the food prices are also very reasonable as well.

The first day there it rained all day, so we just spent the day hanging out in the motor home watching Perry Mason and the Walton's DVDs. The second day we played putt putt and then went to the Lincoln National Park, I can't believe as long as I lived around there and as many times as we have stayed at Holiday World we had never visited the park. The park includes the farm where Abraham Lincoln lived from the age of 7 to 21 years. It is also where his mother Nancy Hanks Lincoln is buried. In the state park across the road they have a Amphitheatre that has a dinner show (which we will see next time) detailing how his time in Indiana helped shape him.

Below are some pictures of the old Lincoln farmstead..

This is the foot print of the original house the Lincolns lived in.

Bubby, Doodlebugs and Mom

The Garden

Nancy Hanks Lincoln died in 1818 of milk poisoning, milk poisoning was caused by the cow eating White Snakeroot which was toxic, then when humans drank the milk they often died. Milk poisoning was one of the most feared ailments in those days, it was not known back then what caused it.

Below are pictures of the grave site..

Until next time...

Tim

Staining completed

2009-08-09T15:37:00.004-04:00

It has been awhile since my last post, we were on vacation all of last week and very busy getting ready the week before. While we were gone they finished the staining of the house so I didn't get a lot of pictures of the process. Here's the finished product...

Tomorrow I will post about part of our vacation, until next time...

Tim

Making Mama Happy

2009-07-24T13:27:00.008-04:00

Fifteen years ago this month I started building our current home, one and a half years later I finally finished it. The home is an Appalachian Dovetail log home, the logs and the setting of the logs was provided by Old Virginia Hand Hewn out of Pennington Gap Virginia. I had to have the foundation and subfloor completed prior to Old Virginia setting the logs, afterwards I then had to complete the house. After the logs were set and I had the house dried in I put stain on the house, I have not stained the house since that time because I like the weather look, however mama doesn't. After three years of being reminded that she didn't like it, I finally decided with all the other irons I had in the fire, I was not going to have time to strip and restain. So I hired a company out of Tennessee to do the job for me. Yesterday they showed up and started on the house, so over the next several days I will be blogging about the process. They arrived yesterday around 1 pm and worked until 7:30, a lot of the time yesterday was spent on setting up their equipment. After the everything was set up they started on the back side of the house.

This is the back side of the house before they got started.

These pictures are the mirror image after the cleaning.

The cleaning is the first part of a four part process, next the buff the wood due to the grain being raised when the clean then they put on a brightener which always returns the PH to the proper level, then they apply the stain.

Well this was the end of day one, until next time...

Tim

This and That

2009-07-22T15:41:00.008-04:00

Friday we headed for Kentucky Speedway for the Camping World Truck race, we have season passes and backstretch camping. We generally go to one Nascar Sprint race each year at a different location when we are camping. Since Kentucky Speedway is close we go to all the races there as well.

We had a cold front come through and it felt like a fall day, the high was only 68 degrees, this is the coldest day I can ever remember for the middle of July (so much for global warming). The sky was beautiful but you can't hardly tell it from these photos.

After race fireworks, I can never get too many fireworks...

About four weeks ago we were at the Nationwide Series race, during a red flag stop the cars all stopped in front of our camping spot so we took a few pictures of doodlebugs holding up her Kyle Busch flag, that's Kyle in the 18 car behind doodlebugs.

The eventual winner was Joey Logano her in the 20 car...

The last two nights I've been putting chicken wire up in the barn where the coons got in last week, since the hawk attack about a month ago I've not been letting the chickens free range except in the enclosed pen behind the barn. Since we were at the barn working we let them out and did they have a ball on the fresh grass and bugs.

Until next time...

Tim

Coons 1 Me 0 well almost 0

2009-07-15T15:18:00.003-04:00

Last Thursday night when we got home from the farm I went to put up the chickens, I counted to make sure they were all in, I kept coming up 1 short. My wife and son had been letting them out in the mornings and putting them up at night, I thought maybe they had left the door open or something because I was sure a nothing could not get in the pen.

Well last night I was proven wrong, I went down to put the chickens up later then normal, I opened the barn, turned on the lights and what to my surprise, a mama coon and four little ones all started climbing up the post heading for the loft. Since the loft does not have any lights I went back to the house for a flashlight and "shootin iron"(pistol for you city folk). Up the ladder I went, I started shining the light around and saw mama but no little ones, I went ahead and dispatched of mama since she was not thrilled I was there. After shinning the light around I found the little ones in the rafters, I didn't really want to dispatch of them (too cute), plus I didn't really want any holes in my roof. I went back to the house to get a fishing net so I could capture the little critters. I grab a pole and knocked them into the net one at a time, the first three were no problem but the forth one did not want to cooperate. After catching each one I would climb down the ladder and put them in a rabbit cage. The forth one decided to run for his life, he would climb down into the chicken pen and when I would go down there he would climb back up into the loft, after about three tries he vanished.

This morning I got up and went down to the barn to take pictures, the little varmints had chewed through the wire and escaped, tonight I get to work on the chicken pen some more.

Until next time...

Tim

Museum of Appalachia

2009-07-13T10:26:00.008-04:00

Every year on the kids fall break we always spend the week camping in the Smoky Mountains. On the way there or the way back we generally stop at the Museum of Appalachia and spend a day, in the fall they have a homecoming every year and a couple of years ago we spent the day at homecoming. If you ever get a chance it is a great way to step back in time by touring their grounds, it has indoor museums but also a farm area with log cabin homes, church, school etc.. During the homecoming they have a lot of booths, exhibitions of making soap, split rail fence, sorghum etc. They also have bluegrass music all weekend long on several stages with some well known artist.

You can check them out at http://www.museumofappalachia.org/

Removing the syrup from the sugar cane to be cooked down into Sorghum Molasses

Cooking down the syrup

Making Purses out of tree bark

Making cedar canes with a replicator lathe power by tractor

Doodlebugs and Friend

Making cedar split rail fence rails using cedar mauls and dogwood wedges

Hit and miss engine 5 horsepower

Bubby and Doodlebugs at the sheep paddock

Here is a interesting video of the area http://www.wbir.com/video/default.aspx?mid=1133187138&cat=Heartland&maven_playlistId=7f81651ea579bf46c28856b9cb677a7e8193da20

Until next time....

Tim

Barn doors and such

2009-07-10T10:30:00.009-04:00

Me and Doodlebugs spent the last few days down on the farm while the guys put up the doors on the barn. Now I have all my equipment dry and locked which is a good thing. A lot of farms are experiencing theft right now due to the economy, I know they can still break in if they want to but at least they will have to work at it now.

While they were installing the doors Doodlebugs went fishing and caught a snapping turtle. I didn't have time to mess with it or we would have had fried turtle for supper.

I spent my time cutting new ditches down the drive way, mowing the pastures and removing tree stumps.

After we returned from lunch one day one of the guys installing the doors came up an said "I killed a snake that was coming put from under your bulldozer". I went over and pulled the snake out from under the dozer and wasn't very happy that he had killed a big black snake. We have a lot of field mice so I would rather have the snake then mice, but he said "the snake had to go or he was going". Anyway as usual Doodlebugs wanted to pose with the snake.

I didn't get any pictures of the garden but we are now getting plenty of ripe tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini and corn. The coons got 21 ears of corn the night before last though, now it's time to relocate the little varmints.

Until next time...

Tim

Dog days of summer

2009-06-30T12:31:00.008-04:00

I thought I would introduce you to our dogs, below are a couple pictures of Ace, he was our first German Sheppard. Ace would have been 14 months next month, last November we had our first freeze and Ace went out on the pond after the ducks, he broke through the ice and drowned in the pond. It was several months before we knew for sure what had happened to him, I was pretty sure because I could see where the ice had been broken through and then refroze. It was not until this spring we found out for sure when I found him in the pond.

Doodlebugs was heart broken, Ace was a Christmas present for her and it took several months before she wanted to get another dog. When spring arrived I asked her if she was ready for another dog and she said yes, I called the people we got Ace from but they had just sold out of their most recent litter and the next litter would be this November. They were not sure if they were going to have one though due to the fact that they were getting married in November. Doodlebugs got on the Internet and found a litter in the next town over, we called them but they didn't have any males left, we decided to go ahead and get a female and hopefully another male from the same people we got Ace from. We went and picked up the new puppy, Doodlebugs named her "Princess Tia Von Taylor". Here she was when we first got her experiencing her first snow fall.

This is Tia now at 4 months of Age.

About two weeks ago the people we got Ace from had left a message on the answering machine, they had given one of Ace's litter mates to her Grandfather and he could no longer take care of her. They knew what had happened to Ace and wanted to know if we would like to have her. After discussing it with the family we decided to go ahead and take her. Her name is "Samantha ", she is a very loving dog but a little bit hyper. She is 14 months old and her is a picture of her.

Doodlebugs has been working with Tia and Sam trying to get them to know each other a little better.

The first week was a little rough, Sam was at a new home and Tia was not getting all the attention, they are now getting along much better even though Sam is very possessive of the food bowls. Until next time.

Tim

Family Reunion

2009-06-29T13:33:00.007-04:00

This past weekend we had a family reunion (moms side) down home at one of my cousins place. His place is only about 4 miles from my farm. He cooked a whole hog on a charcoal cooker, it held seven bags of charcoal and one you put on the hog you never touched it again. It took 6 hours to cook, they got up at 4am and went to the farm where they got the hog, the farmer got up early, killed and dressed the hog right before my cousin arrived to pick it up. Below is the cooker and some pictures of the hog being sliced up.

Doodlebugs wasn't sure if she liked the head still being on him or not.

This was the interesting table to be at during the reunion, all the "old sages" were reminiscing about the good old days.

My cousin put the lake in around four of five years ago, it is really a nice place.

Doodlebugs and one of her cousins getting ready to go out on the paddle boat.

Even though the temp was in the mid nineties we had a great time with some great food, it just doesn't get much better than this. Until next time.

Tim

Let the fun begin

2009-06-24T10:11:00.018-04:00

On Friday it was time to begin the excavation around the barn, I wanted to add a lean-to to my barn at some point in time and I also needed extra dirt to push up around the barn. I decided to go ahead and widen the north side of the barn access.

Now comes the fun part, playing on the toys.

After cutting out the north side I used my skidloader to haul the dirt around to the other sides of the building.

While I was excavating I wanted "Doodlebugs" to fish so I didn't have to worry about her. We picked up worms the day before but she ran out while I was moving dirt. To Keep her occupied and out of the way I put on an artificial worm on her line, bobber and all. I told her to just twitch it every once in a while, I knew she wouldn't catch anything, it was around 10am and already 95 degrees but at least it would keep here out of the way. "Daddy, Daddy can you help me get this fish off"? Guess I was wrong...

After getting the fish off it was back to work on the excavation. The almost final product.

Now my equipment has a new home!

After I finished moving dirt we went to mom and dads to play in the dirt(the garden). I had a couple of rolls of concrete reinforcement wire left over from when we concreted our driveway at our current home. I cut those up to make tomato cages, after we installed the tomato cages (didn't have enough), tilled the garden and planted 3 more rolls of corn.

Doodle bugs making furrows to fertilize the corn...

Doodle bugs and Nana (my mom) checking out the cabbage...

Doodle bugs modeling the squash...

That night for supper we had fresh grilled squash, fresh coleslaw and fresh wilted lettuce out of the garden.

Until next time have a great day!!!!

Tim

Barn part 6/ Day 6

2009-06-23T13:32:00.010-04:00

Last Thursday the crew arrived to finish the roof of the barn. They use a large scissor truck to install the roof panels, etc. This makes the job much easier, they load all the panels on the truck with the tractor and then just raise the lift platform up to the roof.

The only issue we had was rain from the previous day, the ground was very slick so we had to pull the tuck around with my dozer.

After getting the scissor truck into position the got all the panels and cupola's installed. Finally the barn was complete, at least Morton's part.

While the crew were working on the barn "Doodlebugs" my daughter and her dog Tia spent some quality time together fishing at the pond.

Tomorrow we get to play on the big toys, until then have a great day.

Tim

Barn part 5 / Day 5

2009-06-17T09:56:00.013-04:00

Today the crew finished the siding and the soffits on the building. Tomorrow they will finish the roof. I am having garage doors installed by someone local since Morton only doe's slider doors.

While the crew was finishing up on the siding I seeded and strawed the pond dam to keep it from eroding.

After the crew left I went to mom and dad's and worked in the garden. Since dad can't work in it anymore I pretty much have to keep it up which is difficult since I live about two and a half hours away but I manage. Mom and dad use to raise a hugh garden with all kinds of varieties of beans, corn, potatoes etc., but now the list has shrunk considerably. This year the garden consist of rhubarb, lettuce, radishes, cabbage, corn, yellow squash, zuchinni squash, green beans, tomatoes, okra, bell peppers, hot peppers, lima beans, egg plant, cucumbers red and white onions. We will plant sweet potatoes and turnips later.

Have a great day.

Tim

Barn part 4 / day 4

2009-06-16T09:44:00.017-04:00

On the forth day the crew first added some stiffeners to the roof and then started on the siding. One thing I noticed that the do different then any buildings I have ever built or seen built, is they use chains to square the building verses boards.

After they finished with the siding and wainscoting, they started on the skylights. I had the skylights or I guess sidelights put in the side, on one of my other buildings I have them in the roof and they are always sweating on stuff below. They have a hydraulic scaffold on top of the tractor which sure comes in handy. This is where they stopped at the end of day 4 with both the north and south wall completed.

After the crew left I took a few minutes to wet a fishing line in the pond. I caught a few decent size bass, it sure was a lot easier fishing with the banks cleaned off.

After fishing it was time to get back to work. I mowed and trimmed around the little shack and moved some firewood I had cut up in the yard from some limbs that had fallen during the winter ice storm we had.

After I finished mowing I drove down an old country road where we have a friend that has a farm, I went past his farm another couple of miles and found this old one lane bridge. It was built by the Smith Bridge Co. of Toledo OH. 1884.

Until next time have a great day.

Tim

Barn part 3/ day 3

2009-06-15T09:55:00.015-04:00

The third day was a short day for the crew, being it was Saturday they only worked long enough to finish the frame so they could start sheeting on Monday. They set the final rafter then built the west end wall, next they finished installing the last set of roof purlins. Now we are ready for the sheeting.

After the crew left I started cutting up the trees that I had removed from the pond dam. I cut the trees into logs and stacked them to be cut in the fall for campfire wood. I took all the tree tops and piled them in a pile for a bonfire we always have in the fall during a camping trip.

Next I cleaned all the brush up around the pond with my bush hog and weed eater.

When I went back to mom and dad's, mom had cooked beef liver and onions with creamed peas, wilted lettuce, and mashed potatoes, yum yum!!!!

See ya next time,

Tim

The barn part 2 / day 2

2009-06-11T11:25:00.022-04:00

After the rain shut us down on the barn the first day I spread some gravel to try and keep it from being so muddy around the site. Whe the crew showed up they finished framing the south wall and stood it up using the front end loader w/attachment, then secured the top of the post to the bottom post.

After the north wall was set then they framed up the east/end wall and rafter. They raised it with a boom attached to the front end loader and secured the wall to the bottom post.

Next they started setting the rafters the roof purlins.

At the end of day two they had set all the rafters except one and the west wall.

After the crew left I decided to clean off the dam of the pond, there were several trees that had grown up over the years, and I have wanted to remove them for a while.

Once the dam was cleaned off then I had the mess to clean up. This will all be cut up for campfire wood.

Well that about does it for day two. See ya later

Tim

The barn part 1/ day 1

2009-06-10T13:26:00.020-04:00

I was tired of letting my equipment set outside and having to cover it with tarps every time I finished using it, so last winter I decided to have a barn built on the farm to keep my equipment in, as well a shop. I selected the above site which is directly behind the little brown shack. I started looking around for someone to do the excavating work but was having no luck, either they couldn't get to it or the wouldn't show up. Since I live two and a half hours from the farm this was a problem. Since I had a lot of clearing that needed to be done on the farm(fence rows cleared for the new fence and pastures that have grown up), I decided to go ahead a look for a dozer, that way I could work when I had the time and didn't have to rely on anyone else.

I bought this dozer in December and January started leveling the pad for the new barn.

Due to the rain and snow I didn't get it finished until mid April. I originally intended on building the barn myself but due to time constraints I decided to have it built. I decided on Morton Buildings to build the barn and was totally pleased with their work.

After laying out the site they started digging the holes for the post.

After the bottom half of the post were set and the bottom band was put on, they used a jig to cut all the post to the same height.

Next they set all the upper post and started build one of the side walls. Due to the rain that started this was the end of day one.

I will continue on tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by

Tim

The Journey Part 3

2009-06-02T13:29:00.008-04:00

As I stated in one of my previous post, my papaw only lived about 7 miles from our farm, he had cattle on his place and liked working them. Dad and papaw decided to go ahead and put cattle on the farm and papaw would take care of them, we would go down and haul hay when needed and check/repair the fences when we were down.

A few years later we moved closer to the farm, (20 miles) then we took care of them all the time. We generally kept about 20 cows with calves and a bull, they were a mix of Herefords and Angus and the bull was always an Angus.

Around 1978 dad sold the timber off of the farm, he had in the contract that they were not to cut any marked trees, dad loved to squirrel hunt so he went through and marked all the Hickory, Pignut Hickory and Beech trees. The loggers were only supposed to cut timber and not pulp wood, dad noticed that on one section they had started cutting the pulp wood as well. Dad approached the foreman on the job and he told dad the contract stated "cutting rights", he told dad that meant he could cut anything he wanted. Dad proceed to mark all the trees since the contract said "no cutting of marked trees", dad got his point across and there were no more small trees cut, only timber. For the next 3 or 4 years I cut and sold firewood from the tree tops left behind, I bought my first car with that money, I still love cutting firewood to this day.

After high school I moved to Louisville, Ky to go to school and have lived away from there ever since. I always went home every chance I got (at least once a month) and before I got married spent most of my vacation time down there hunting. Dad sold all of the cattle in the early 90's when he could no longer take care of them. Over the years the pastures starting growing up again, the fences, barns, out buildings and the little shack started to deteriorate.

I always loved the farm and spending as much time out there as possible, about five years ago my parents put the farm in my name, since that time I have started to reclaim the pastures. The fence, barns and some of the out buildings are beyond repair, the little shack is still in pretty good shape but still needs a lot of work.

So this is where and how the journey began, from here on out it will be what we are doing to try and move back to the farm I loved so much as a child, and still do to this day, I have so many fond memories and every time I go back there it just feels like where I need to be.

Hawk attack

2009-05-30T20:53:00.005-04:00

Last night I went to put up my chickens, when I did the head count, two were missing. I went out to check the run, when I did this is what I found.

One pile of feathers and one partially eaten chicken. So today I spent all day enclosing the top on their run.

As I was working on the run the hawk came by three times looking for a meal, I guess now he will go visit the neighbors chickens.

The Journey Part 2

2009-05-29T09:17:00.011-04:00

Every year we would go to the farm the last week of July for two weeks and stay at the farm, once we got the pastures in order the fencing was next. I remember on one of the fencing expeditions I found out what Yellow Jackets were, we had an English Setter that set on a nest of the savage critters, she was stung first then me (8 times). I remember my dad and papaw running over to me with tree branches in their hands swatting at them to get them off of me. Anytime we were out and about and papaw would get a cut, scratch etc., he would always apply coil oil, gas, kerosene or what ever was available to the wound, so of course I got gas put on my stings. He lived until he was 95 and I am still around so it must not be so bad.

Once the fencing was finished the we started on fixing up the little house. After alot of cleaning, painting and paneling it made a pretty nice little cabin. I had no indoor plumbing (and still doesn't) but we thought the outhouse was neat, except when you had to go after dark.

There is a well behind the house but we always brought our drinking water with us, we would bath either in the pond or with rain water that was collected of the roof of the house. After a couple of years dad and a friend added a forth room onto the house for a family room, then dad sided the whole house with some cedar shingles another friend had given him. I can still remember he couldn't wait to finish the shingling job, I was swimming in the pond (where I spent most of my time) when I heard dad give out a big YAHOO!!!! I knew then he had finished the shingles.

This is my daughters German Sheppard pup Tia, see you next week.

The Journey Part 1

2009-05-28T09:16:00.007-04:00

Like all journeys there must be a starting and ending point. My journey started when I was about 10 years old, when in the late 60's my father and mother purchased a 100 acre farm where they planned on building a house to retire to when the time came. The farm was in an area where both of my parents where born and raised, at that time however we live about 120 miles from the farm. Both of my sets of grandparents lived about 10 miles from the farm and we frequently visited them, on those visits my dad, grandfather (Dad's father) and myself would go out to the farm on Saturdays and work cleaning up the farm.

My father was a minister so after a long day on Saturday we would head back home so he could preach the following morning and evening. One thing I was always happy about as a kid growing up was that we never were allowed to work on Sundays so I could always rest up and play on those days.

The farm consisted of 60 acres of timber and 40 acres of pasture, the pastures had not been kept up for years and had grown full of saplings. I remember my grandfather had a cutoff saw that consisted of two 20" bicycle wheels, a motor which you had to wrap the pull cord around(no recoil start on this thing) to start it and a 30" circular saw blade. Of course you would get thrown in jail these days for using such a contraption without 40 warning labels and guards. But papaw as we called him was a master of this machine a cleared all the pastures with it and still had all his limbs when finished. We actually still have the old cutoff saw in our barn but I doubt it would still run.

The farm also had an old 3 room house (shack) on it, it was an old railroad conductors house (the railroads use to have these along the tracks for conductors to stay in) that had been moved to the farm several years earlier. I remember the first time I entered the little house I was scared to death, the old man that had lived there years before had heated with coal and everything in there was coated with a thick coat of coal dust, there were cob webs everywhere and junk was laying all over the floors. After 40 years however the little 3 now 4 room house is still standing, it is due for another round of renovations however.

I will continue the journey on my next post thanks for stopping by.

Tim