Monday, May 28, 2012

The live trap is getting a workout

The critters were getting in the garden so it was time to break out the live trap.

Here is the first customer on night two.
 
 


Here is our second customer on night three

 


I moved the trap out to some tall grass by our far shed and night four had another coon. We then skipped a day yesterday but had a ground hog this morning and a couple hours later had groundhog #2 of the day.

Hopefully I will get the groundhogs and coons thinned out soon.

Still clinging to my God and my guns,
Randy
 

Friday, May 4, 2012

Making the hard decisions

It's decision time. I have been doing a little writing the last couple years that hasn't amounted to much. Just look back at the ole blog here and you will see that I can put a lot of good information interspersed with a lot of drivel.

This year I have been getting more serious about it. I gave up one of my magazine subscriptions to get Writers Digest for Christmas. ( we poor folk have to ask for subscriptions for Christmas) It has made a HUGE difference by motivating me to write more.

You say "Really I hadn't noticed since this blog looks neglected to me."

Yes that's true I have been neglecting the blog ...still... but have been writing more elsewhere.

Which brings me to my problem...My laptop stinks!!!
I bought it used(mistake) it is slow and locks up all the time, it takes a good 30 minutes to boot up. When I bought it I figured it would be ok since I just planned on using it to write. It was ok when I was writing once  a month, but recently I have been doing actual writing for pay with deadlines and everything.

My dilemma...no $$$ for a new laptop...but I can sell a gun for enough to buy a basic model that is capable of what I need for my writing. I have a Marlin 336C in .357 sitting in the safe. I bought it for the cowboy shooting that I never started. It's had roughly 20 rounds through it in the eight years I have had it.

I know writing is taking away from the farm/homestead work but....E.B. White always felt guilty when he was working on his farm...So I figure have similar problems to E.B. White is a good thing.

To catch up a bit...

We got some Light Sussex eggs and have them in the incubator. They are much more common in Britain than here. They can be cross to make sex-link chickens. Our goal is to get a decent laying hen and a decent growing rooster for broilers. If we get the cross right we might be able to sell chicks for another stream of income. We have to fix up the coop to house the chicks in a few weeks.

Fire wood season was light since winter was so mild...I hurt my back again last fall cutting the first time and it really cut into how much we got. The Ash borer has killed so many ash trees in these parts that we were able to get several loads to keep us in wood. I let the furnace got out just this past Wed. May 2nd.

Have the garden tilled twice and will do it once more before planting.

I purchase some swarm lure and put it on the top bar bee hive I built a couple years ago. With luck we'll catch a swarm this year. I went to a bee clinic this winter and learned a lot, but we still can't afford bees.

My disc is still broke so I can't use the tractor to till the 2 acre field. I am looking for a three point disc but not luck so far in the affordability department.

Still clinging to my God and my guns,
Randy