If you move to our area, look me up; I'd love to have a tenant like you!
retired, living self sufficently in Alabama (Part 2)
Nice to meet you Kan. Sure hope you will join in on our conversations. Most of us are just doing what we can toward the dream. Some are actually living it like Freedom Sailor but the rest of us keep chipping away at life and doing what we can. Improving our little worlds as much as we can.
Cajun, have enjoyed your posts so much.....love your chicken stories! never heard of a BSL....the name is a hoot. also pray you and DH's health is improving.
looking forward to more posts on your life.
Thank you so much. We are doing a bit better. Til we have to walk up a hill. LOL
I do love my chickens. I am getting a few eggs now. Makes it not hurt quite as much when I have to shell out big bucks for chicken feed. I know I could buy eggs cheaper in town but they wouldn't be healthier nor taste as good. And I'd have to pay for entertainment also cause my girls are sure entertaining. Not to mention all the time I spend doctoring them for one thing or another. Get to fulfill my dream of being a vet. LOL
Speaking of, the little game roo I have in the living room is doing a lot better. One eye is open and he can see fine out of it. I need to soak his head again tonight and get the other one open. I had it open once. I think if I get it open again it will stay open as the swelling has gone down. Don't know what I am going to do with the little beggar. All he wants to do is fight. He is a pitiful sight. His head is naked and he looks like a burn victim. His name is Scar and he has lived up to it.
Don't remember if I told you guys, but I have Miracle in the house too. She is the BSL (black sex link) pullet that survived the dog attack. She started laying. Anyhoo, she decided to molt at the worst possible time. She'd freeze out there with no feathers so I have her inside in a big plastic tub. She layed her egg in the tub yesterday. My LR is chicken central. Go ahead. Shake your heads. I hear ya'll laughing at me. I could write a book. You'd really laugh if you could hear Scar let out his little high pitched crow early in the mornings. Town crier with his nekkid head self.
Sailor, I looked for the video of the water wheel on FB but didn't see it. I saw a still pic. I'll look again. Did you go to my page and look at the video I poster of us driving down the mountain on the snow covered road? Check it out.
This pic is at the barn 2 days ago. Had to park at the bottom of the hill and walk up.
Went back to your FB page and found the video. That thing turns at a good clip.
glad everything is goin ok Cajun
kanullac thanks for the comments
porkpal, glad to see your still kicking, was wondering about you.
Pouring the snow here again. Are you getting snow there, Freedom? My cousin in Anniston, Al put a video on her FB page of the kids sliding down the frozen street in front of her house. One little girl was in one of those small wading pools. Looked like they were having fun.
i hope its finished snowin now. first day of sunshine here sence friday, but everything is still white, need more sun and temps above freezing 16 for a low last nite an 31 today .. with 13 forcasted for a low in the morning .. brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I WANT SPRINGTIME .. hehee
They are calling for 7* here on Friday. I am already crying over that one. I sure hope Spring comes early. I don't know how much more of this I can stand.
ended up being 8 deg when i got up this morning .. made it to 31 today an now its droppin again as the sun gets ready to set. another cold nite in store ...
Do you heat with wood?
yeah, an its wear'n me an my chainsaw out this year. i heat with wood an sometimes cook with wood.... ill be glad when springtime gets here. this year has really worn me out.
I cannot imagine how much wood you are going through with these temps. Here more people use coal than wood. It burns really hot and you have to have a special stove or heater for it but you don't burn as much and it burns for a long time. I don't guess there is a lot of coal down that way.
people down here have got too "soft" to use much coal an wood for heat other than the very poorest people with no other means of heat, (cant afford the high ele. or gas bill) we have some of the largest coal mines in the nation, less than 100 miles from here .. its still used in the steel mills in B'ham. to make steel an the founderies. some people have installed outside wood an coal burning furnaces tho. heats their homes and their water. "the smart ones" LOL
I did not realize there were coal mines there. Strip and underground mining? Would coal be feasibile for you? You should see when a coal truck turns over here. People are on it like vultures on a ripe carcass. Next winter's heat for free!!
LOL yeah, i can see that happening, but i'd rather be self reliant on wood than having to buy and haul in coal. they strip mine most of it . there's very few underground mines. they found it cheaper an safer to just strip mine it.
They have both here. A lot of the seams are way too deep for stripping. Some of the shafts go down for miles. It is a dangerous job to be sure.
Do you have enough woods of your own to get timber from or do you get it from somewhere's else?
Lots of trees came down here bouts last winter and a few people were out all year gathering it up.
yeah i got 20 acres here, nothing but woods an timber .. the only open spot is the one acre yard i've cleared around the cabin .. so i have all the wood i can ever use and then some ..
That's good to know. Do you cut it selectively with an eye to the future?
i mostly cut dead an die'n or crooked, brokn down etc .. i rarely ever cut a straight pretty tree unless its gonna be for something other than firewood ..
Good thinking. Clearing the dead and diseased stuff will lessen your chance of fire too. A woods fire where you are would be a scarey thing. Do have precautions in place in that event? Something to think about. (can you tell I am a retired fire fighter?) LOL
Cajun,
yep i could detect a note of a fireman in there, hahaa an a woods fire here would be bad indeed, nothing can get in here unless its a bulldozer or a chopper .. i do have the creek an the water an a pump .. all i could do is soak down my cabin an yard as far as i could an as much as i could .. bout my only line of defence
Do you have a root cellar or other refuge for yourself if all else fails?
If you have a gasoline powered water pump you can hook a fire hose to you should do well providing you can reach all the cabin with the stream of water. Soak down the roof first and hit the walls periodically. Soak the wood good. You should think about clearing a good sized perimeter around the cabin and digging a fireline. The fireline should be kept free of combustible debris. It should keep a ground fire from crossing if it's moving slow. You could also do controlled burns on the outside of the fireline to keep a woods fire from having fuel next to your fireline. If you do this pick a very calm day and make yourself a "flap" to beat the fire out with if it gets too fast or gets where you don't want it. They sell flaps but they are easily made. It's a wooden handle with a big square of flat rubber on the end to flap out the fire. Rural departments use them a lot.
There is no way to defend against a wind driven fire traveling through the tree tops. You'd just have to keep soaking the cabin down in that case. A bunch of us got caught in one of those fires one time. It came through the tree tops faster than we could run. We hunkered down in waterfilled skidder ruts in a logging road. It was an awesome experience. Really got the blood pumping. Man, I miss fire fighting!!!!
Cajun,
LOL i can tell, yeah i keep the outsides of my yard clean usualy tiller around it .. an i try to burn off the hillside each year before springtime.
Porkpal,
yeah last refuge is JUMP IN THE CREEK and hang on
It's always good to have a plan...
Just don't get swept down the raceway and into the water wheel. LOL
LOL yeah .. that might be like fallin into a sausage grinder
I used to know a song about that.
LOL porkpal
look it up or remember it you can sang it for us ...
where has VORTREKER got off too, aint heard nothing from him in quite a spell now ...
I was wondering too.
Bet that water wheel would leave a mark.
There was a man named Johnny Rebeck, invented a machine,
For grinding things to sausage meat and it was run by steam.
Now all the neighborhood dogs and cats will never more be seen,
They've all been ground to sausages by Johnny Rebeck's machine.
Oh golly Mr Johnny Rebeck how could you be so mean?
We told you you'd be sorry for inventing that machine.
Now all the neighborhood dogs and cats will never more be seen.
They've all been ground to sausage meat by Johnny Rebeck's machine.
One day a little boy came walking in the store.
He bought a pound of sausages and laid them on the floor.
Then he began to whistle and he whistled up a tune.
All the sausages they jumped and barked and danced around the room.
Oh golly Mr Johnny Rebeck how could you be so mean etc
One day the thing got busted, the darn thing wouldn't go.
And Johnny Rebeck he crawled inside to see why it was so.
His wife she had a nightmare, was walking in her sleep.
She gave a yank and turned the crank and Johnny Rebeck was meat.
Oh golly Mr Johnny Rebeck etc.
Love it! Pay back is a bear!
LOL good one porkpal ... never heard it before but thanks for shareing it with us ... hahahahaha
I'm here folks--just watching and enjoying--nothing to add
VORTREKER,
good deal, bout decided u'd skipped the country or something. glad your ok .. join in ... setting around quiet makes one think .. then ya get a headache from thinking .. LOL
LOL--So that's why my heads been hurtin.
its a good possibility ya know, the unknown is just truths an things we aint discovered yet
did some test on the waterwheel saturday, decidin which alternator (generator) iwanna mount on it .. easy to get up to 2 amps off either one of em .. but with some gearin i might be able to get more .. also i think i need to add weight to the wheel its self .. maybe gain some torque .. still experimenting LOL just a lil update
When you get it tweeked you'll have to post another video on FB.