East
baccy seeds are so small you could put 5 or so on the head of a pin. dont think u got baccy seeds .. unless it a full pod... an even a pod is larger than that. ....not sure what you got there.
as far as a drawin knife ... i think you'd ruin the temper in a leaf spring to heat it being its spring steel .. but it might work anyhow, sure wouldnt hurt to try ....
Jay
all the gamewardens say aint no black panthers round here .. well these has been here sence before my grandfathers grandfather .... my grandpaw was born here in 1909 .. and his grandfather back in the early 1800's they were here then .. they still here now .. so i'd surely say they were native ....
retired, living self sufficently in Alabama
Free: Thanks for the info re: salt box; that makes sense now. The old timers around here swear we have panthers as well, but they get pooh-pooh'd by other old timers so who knows. For sure we have bobcats, 'yotes and fox, plus the run-o-the mill opossum and raccoons. From time to time a skull I don't recognize shows up in the Pyr's 'yard art' collection. I try to be nice to the trash men and put all the bodies in plastic bags. It wasn't too bad in winter when they were frozen stiff, but I don't want to be wrasslin' any dead critters into plastic bags in the heat this summer...LOL! Apparently several hunters field dressed their meat and left the remainders, which then ended up in my yard as chew toys. I'm hoping the scattered bones and big dogs keep scoundrels from sniffing around here :D However, before I mow I'll have to pick up all of said skulls; don't want to ruin the mower blades! (see photo)
MsRobin: Yep, had time today to surf for a little bit and try to get caught up on here as I am behind on so many threads! I think the mailman ran off the road when he saw me up before 13:00 today...hehe.
Thanx Free I`ll try it, wont torch it but cut it w/a carburundum,throw it to the wheel and see how she works again thanx Brian
Robin, back out east the cougar is known as a panther or painter cat... it used to be an almost separate species, specially the Florida panther, but loss of habitat and hunting pressure has pretty much wiped 'em out. Now the western mountain lion, or cougar has moved into the territory. But neither species is black... though as Free points out, there have been sitings and tales of black cats for a long time. Last I heard, though, was that the few that had been killed and brought in were all non-native black panthers, which are usually either black variations of jaguars or leopards.
Wikipedia also notes the possibility of a "black" bobcat, which is a native species, but I'm pretty sure Free could tell the diff between a bobcat and a cougar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_panther#Reports_of_.22black_panthers.22_in_the_United_States
Luckily, I don't believe I have any big cats or bears in my area. At least I haven't heard of any.
yeah when a cat is black .. waist high with kittens with her .. aint no mistakin what she is. an there's still things in the woods that most men or wildlife fish an game hasnt seen .... dont mean they dont exist.
LOL Hineni, you need to start a "bone yard" heheee (yep pun intended) sorry i couldnt help myself .....
Well, if you shot it and took it in, then there'd either be proof (finally) of a black cougar and they'd throw your happy little hindend in jail for killing a species on the brink of extinction while several university types got famous writing papers about it, or it'd be proof folks are still releasing their 'pet' big cats into the wild when they got tired of 'em and you'd be a flaming hero for saving the gene pool or something.
Oh, gosh, what to do...
LOL
i enjoy my freedom too much
Wow, hineni, that skull is BAD looking. Looks like some kind of prehistoric monster!
Free, seems like we had one black panther or maybe black jaguar, here in AZ recently, but F&G caught it and put an electronc collar on it, and it prompty died. Duhhhhh! Don't know why they can't just leave critters alone. If you or I had killed it, we would definitely be in the poky. Out here they are endangered.
Could you set up a camera somehow to take a picture of your Big Black Cats? I'd love to see one. We had a (regular) mountain lion with cubs living in our little canyon a few years ago, and mama followed my son & me and our 3 dogs up one side of the canyon, along the rim, and back down about a mile from here, but when we changed directions the wind was then blowing towards our backs and the dogs picked up her scent and charged her. She let out the most gawdawful scream I have ever heard, must have gone on for several minutes! One of the dogs came out of the brush with a bite on one of her front legs but she recovered okay, after a trip to the vet for a fresh rabies shot just in case, probably unnecessary. We could see her and the cubs playing in a cave on the far side of the canyon wall that afternoon, with binoculars. She & babies moved on the next day, it must have been getting too crowded for her! I still hear them growling from time to time -- don't care what the books say, they DO roar, sounds more like a growl. They come around when the elk are here and follow them around. My late husband and I had been hearing them for awhile and didn't know what they were, but my middle son came to visit and he said "Mom, don't think I'm crazy but I think I just heard a lion roar!" He was a Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey circus clown when he was 17 to 18, and knew what a lion sounded like! Ours do roar but it sounds like the last part of an African lion's roar, not the whole thing.
Free let it live.Nature will take its course,win some lose some.If it comes,well do what you must.Not in your position,so i`ll keep quiet on this one.hunger is a powerful thing.Especialy a mother and Kits.
Panthers! Now that has generated many fireplace conversations around here. In Texas, from TX Parks & Wildlife regulations "Mountain lions are not protected (in Texas) and can be harvested at any time." But TPW denied there being any for years. So someone shot one down in Lizard_keeps' neck of the woods. They tried to prove that it had been released from captivity. Since then there have been many sightings. We have seen two in the past 35 years here.
They have been found as far north as MN and yes, I understand there have even been sightings in KY.
Old folks here have always talked about hearing and seeing "painters" or panthers. Now, the fireplace discussion is there is no documentation of "black" panthers. There has never been a harvest of a black furred mountain lion. Even with all the hunters and their game cameras, never even been a valid photo of one. From this interesting article, http://www.outdooralabama.com/watchable-wildlife/Watchablearticles/blackcats.cfm there are two black cats that have ranged thru the area from Florida to TX and they are possible what is being seen... a jaguar or the smaller jaguarundi.
Now, me? I'm a believer.
Interesting, Podster. Nice article on the link. If we have any around here, I sure don't ever hear them.
East, Azgrammie ... dont get me wrong, the only way i would take action against this cat is if it was trying to harm me or my pups or my grandkids. being Creek an Cherokee mix its against my beliefs to harm such a majestic animal only in protection of my own would i do such a thing.
oh yes .. what i do when im not chillin at Thistledome hehee if this works ..... also the reason of my "nick name" freedom sailer ...
pretty cool
What is she?
Mcgregor 26D ... sleeps 6 .. full galley an head fully loaded ... got her in 01. had lots of fun and some long trips also ... was thinking about sellin her this year .. aint made up my mind yet tho...
Wow! super cool!
got a storm this morning, lots of thunder n lightning and rain, so all my lil seeds i planted yesterday in my gardens. squash, cucumbers, black crowder peas, basil corn (both white and yellow) turnip greens, my radishes an brussel sprouts are already up an growning, ah an my baccy plants, planted lots of wild flower mixes also. so everything got a good watering.
Good going! That's why I was working so hard getting everything out to garden that I could yesterday. Wanted them to get a good watering. One and half hours of steady rain this morning.
Thats great MsRobin, sounds like u did the same thing as myself... now just hope an pray it all comes up an makes a good crop ... course anything you grow is one less you'll have to pay top dollar for at the gro. store ..
It was a bit overcast this morning and I thought it might rain so I fed and watered early. Then the sun came out and it was a beautiful day. I boiled a dozen eggs and we went to the church egg hunt. It was so much fun. After they found all the eggs everybody sat around and ate eggs. there was also pop and Reeses eggs. Then Sister Judy, the youth leader, had kites for all the kids. the wind was blowing and they all had a blast. After that we went to a friend's to visit, then to another friend's to eat birthday cake with her. After that we fed the other horses and went back home. I did a bit more work and brushed 2 horses down. Then we went to the grocery store. After that I worked in the yard until after dark. I got 12 taters planted in bags and I sowed a pot of sage. Now i am off to bed.
wow .. sounds like yhou had a full day of it Cajun ... i'd be ready for bed myself after all that ... rest well
My little seedlings look nice and happy in the garden after this morning's rain. No new deer tracks. I tied white plastic grocery sacks to several small posts around the newly planted area last nite.
HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE May God bless You and Yours .....
Freedom, When I was a little girl, we always salted down our meat for a few days, (weeks) and then took off the excess salt and hung them in the smoke house. We used hickory wood, and slow smoked it for several days (weeks) and just left it hanging when it was done. I don't know the exact timing, but my dad always scraped salt off and checked the meat for readiness. He also checked after smoking. I wish I had paid better attention to the timing, and of course, everyone who knew this is dead. (In my family). I'm sure there are places on the net that have the exact times, if there are exact times! A lot has to do with the weather. Good luck with all your endeavors, I admire you!
PS: To us, a salt box was a box to keep your salt in to keep it dry!
This message was edited Apr 4, 2010 10:58 AM
yeah time'n is a fine line, i smoke deer an all kinds of meats .. then pack em in the salt box ... they all seem to keep just fine ... i keep mine in my root celler ne how cool an dark in there, guess that helps too.
How big is your root cellar?
Cajun its only a little 6x6 very small .. but stays very cool even in the hot summer time.
i may build a larger one in another year or two but for now it holds what i store in it to get me through the winters
Is it actually below ground? I'd love to see some pics. I'm hoping to store some stuff in the cellar this coming winter.
ill see if i cant get a pic of it, the flash on my digital cam has bit the dust so to speak ... and i built it under my cabin kinda like a minature basement. never gets any light under there. but ill see what i can do bout a pic.
well i think the pic of my root celler is totaly out now. i took 3 an they are so dark you cant see anything even when i lighten'd em up with the photo program .. so maybe i can get one of it the next time one of my kids show up with one of their digital cam's. i even tried one while holdin a spot light on it .. dint work either. so maybe soon.
Could you explani how you built it? Friends of ours built a shed above ground out of block. They stuffed the blocks full of sawdust as they built it up. They use it as a root cellar.
i dug it out 7x7 ft. then layed 12in cement blocks on the walls an filled them with sand. then poured a cement floor in it. put in a 3 ft. by 5 foot door and sealed it off the roof of it is actualy the floor below my kitchen in my cabin. my celling hight is only 5 ft. so i have to duck to enter and store n retrieve stuff. shelves and hooks on the walls an cellings to hang mesh bags etc on with taters n onions .. apples what ever that years crops were .. plus alot of my canned (mason jar's) veggies i put there too. and my salt box for smoked meats etc... LOL took some shovel work then my little tiller made things lots easier, easy to shovel n move loose dirt ...
Sounds like a good deal. this house has a cellar. The previous owner dug it out with a mattock! It's not finished. Has a gravel floor and a slow seep so the humidity likely gets a bit high. I keep a few canned goods down there and I'd like to store my harvest this year but I gotta get rid of the striped chipmunks. Wonder if they'd go for rat poison.
My favorite place to visit in the Smokies is Cades Cove. there is a preserved homestead you have to hike to that I could spend all day at. It has a seperate kitchen hooked onto the house by a walkway. It has a spring house in the little creek behind the house. It's up off the ground in front because of the way the ground lays. They have it closed in and used it for a root cellar. It's all logs of course and I just love being there.
kewl, been to Cades Cove many times in my life, wonderfull place to visit,
and yes the chipmunks will go for rat poison .. but u need to find out where they are gettin in at at stop that place up with cement or something an finish sealing it all off, as far as the seep goes. not alot you can do abou that other than find a low spot an dig down with posthole diggers as deep as u can go an place a grate over the hole where u wont step in it an break a leg .. this will help keep the seep water from buildin up in it an give it a place to drain out an back into the ground water. you could also case the hole with pvc pipe an install a small slump pump in it an pump it out into a resavour or somekind an use it to water the gardens or what ever with ....
We missed that place Cajun, when we toured Cades Cove. We hiked back to one, but I don't remember the seperate kitchen.
When I went with Sunny to look at some places in eastern Kentucky, there was one place that had been owned by a Amish couple, with an "outdoor" kitchen in a big screened room off the back of the kitchen with a big attic area over it and a huge walk-in root cellar right behind it built into a hiilside. Coolest place I've ever seen, but the whole place needed so much work and it was pretty trashed from neighborhood vandals. The realtor told her to offer $10,000, but it'd cost at least $40-$50,000 to get it livable.
its alot cheaper when you do the work yourself ... but the cost of materials has gone through the roof too, im building a small saw mill to mill my lumber an beams with, shoulda done it along time ago but .. LOL just now got the time .. kinda .. hehee
Lots of folks have sawmills here abouts. They cut wedges and supports for the mines.
very kewl, there use to be lots of sawmills round here also, but not anymore, with the exception of the large timber companys but they dont sell to the public. i worked at one in my younger years for awhile an enjoyed it. my first real job i ever had was picking cotton .. then the saw mill .. i worked the green chain stacking and gradeing lumber as it came off the saw. 12 hour days with only 30 mins for lunch. only breaks you got was when the sawyer stoped to sharpen the saw or had a breakdown. LOL an now im gonna build a small one.. hehee who's mind did it warp .. hahahahaaa