Leaderboard

I know it seems a little early but these are actually the first antler morels I've ever attempted. I think my shape is a little off though.., and my stems ain't quite right. The little shroom on the antler base was my first try, but I didn't like my choice of bits for the crevices. Not sure what took me so long to try these things, but they're kinda fun to make.

What’s up guys. Just wanted to share a new project I’m working on the last couple weeks. We’ve been raising chickens for about 4 years now and love having them. Family and friends are always looking for eggs from us and we usually can’t keep them in stock for long. So we decided to up our game this year and added 100 new chicks to the family. [emoji15] As of right now I’ve got all these chicks in big wooden shipping crates in our house as it’s been too dang cold to keep them in the garage or our coop. Hopefully with warmer weather coming I can move them into the garage for a week or two before I get their new coop finished up. When trying to figure out how to house all these new birds I went back and forth between expanding our current coop and run and making a whole new setup. We wanted them to free range but I didn’t want them to be all around the house pooping all over the driveway and deck like our current older ones do when allowed to roam free. Not to mention they tear up flower gardens like no body’s business. So I came across mobile pasture coops and I was sold on the idea right away. I can move them around my back field and my neighbors pastures, giving them fresh ground every couple days. This will help fertilize the ground as well. I spent most of this winter researching different designs of how I should build this thing. In other words, I looked at so many pictures and read so many blogs my eyes were about to bleed. I enlisted the help of my neighbor who’s a full time farmer and raised chickens in the past. He helped me come up with a design and locating a decent set of used hay wagon running gear. I picked up a older used set of running gear from a tractor dealer in schoharie and we went to work on breathing some new life into it. It needed a little tweaking to straighten it out and some grinding to take off the worn paint and surface rust. Greased all points and added grease zerks to the hubs as well Gave the running gear a fresh coat of paint and slapped some 4x6x16ft boards on to be the new main frame rails. Then bolted 4x4s on top of those to complete the frame work. Also cleaned up the wheels and painted those and found some used tires to replace the worn out ones that came with it when I bought it. I was going to put tubes in the tires but so far they are holding air. I’ll most likely replace all 4 tires with brand new ones later this summer or over next winter. But these will do for now. Now that I had the running gear freshly rebuilt and the frame bolted all together it was time to start the floor. I wanted to have a partial open floor so that the chicken poop could fall down onto the ground to fertilize the fields and make cleaning easier. My neighbor had a heavy gauge expanded metal panel laying around that we decided to put in the center of the floor. Whatever droppings don’t fall through can be easily swept through with a stiff bristle broom and I can sweep the droppings from around the edges on to the grate every day or two. It’s also heavy enough that people can walk all over it and not worry about falling through. I jumped up and down on it and it doesn’t even budge. All the lumber besides the frame rails are rough cut, making this thing sturdy as all can be. Not to mention working with true to size lumber is so much easier when doing measurements. Although finding 4 inch nails wasn’t as easy as I thought. Lowe’s doesn’t sell anything in 4 inch in anything bigger than a 1lb box. Had to hit up TSC and a local lumber yard for bigger boxes of nails of that size. So far we have the two side walls up. One wall is 6ft the other is 7ft. The 7ft side will have two windows and a full size steel exterior door with window recycled from my neighbors barn. On the 6ft side I’m going to put a portion of the siding on hinges to open up for ventilation along with vents on each end wall once those get put together. Roofing will be your standard metal roofing for ease of installation and long lasting durability. Off the back side we are making a small deck that will hold a 55gal barrel to feed a pvc water nipple system that I’ll route underneath the coop and strap against the main frame rails so it’s out of the way and doesn’t interfere with anything when I move it around. Planning on using another tank on my atv with a small pump to refill this barrel every couple days when needed. The coolest part I think will be the chicken door. I’ve decided to go all out and invest in a fully automatic solar powered pop door. No more rushing out in the AM to let the chickens out or rushing over at night to close them up so predators don’t get at them. I can’t wait to see it in action. I’ve been wanting one for awhile but with our current coop being so close to the house I could never justify it. Since this coop could be a couple miles from home at any given time, I figure it was a necessity this time around. To make life even easier we decide to forgo the traditional style nest boxes and go with these cool rollaway community next boxes. My older laying hens make a mess of their eggs in the normal style nest boxes and sometimes eat their eggs which makes a bigger mess. Cleaning a dozen eggs a day isn’t so bad but with 100 chickens laying each day, egg washing will get old real fast. This will also enable us to sell unwashed eggs as some people prefer to buy them that way. Well that’s what I’ve been working on for the last few weeks with a few more weeks of construction ahead of me. So far I think everything is coming out really well and everyone who’s seen it in person is really impressed. Hoping it will last us a long time and provide some good fun and learning experiences for my kids along the way. It’s also been a great way to bond with my neighbor and learn a lot from him along the way. He’s a great guy and I can’t begin to think how crappy this would have turned out without his help and guidance. Hope I didn’t bore anyone with my long winded post, and I’ll keep this updated with new pics as we continue the build. Should be done within the next few weeks.

So back in the days when I worked in a sporting goods store I had a good customer who was a Rome cop come in with a Fenwick rod he had just purchased a few days before with a broken tip. He told me he hooked into a nice fish and the tip just snapped. I told him man I am sorry that happened, Fenwick rods are top of the line and we have had zero problems with them, but have no fear Fenwicks warranty will cover this deal no problem. I will box it up and send in back to the company pronto and get it replaced. So the rod was sent back and in a few days a brand new replacement rod arrived at the store and I called the cop to let him know his rod came in and was ready to be picked up at his convenience. So that afternoon the customer comes in along with his young daughter to pick up his rod, he is very thankful and appreciative that all ended well. And as he is leaving his little girl chimes in and says "now the next time you go fishing Daddy don't close your fishing pole in the car door!!" Al

Went out Sunday from Olcott. Was up against a 15 knot east wind and 4+ footers. We absolutely killed em. Went 26/29 and 1 Laker. 17-18fow and greens and coppers worked the best, but every rod caught fish. Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

Few years ago, I was fishing a tourney on the mohawk, below lock 13 at Fonda. My wife had just bought me a rather expensive rod and reel for my birthday. While making a long cast, to the seam of fast water coming over the dam, the rod just flew out of my hand! GONE!....... Back home after the tourney, I'm unloading the boat, and the Mrs. comes out and asks "how did you like the new 'pole'?" I told her I loved it! Felt like nothing at all in my hand! I love it soooo much, I want to order another one!

Whos into woodworking? Been doing the house over both inside and out and have done alot of woodworking (love tools!!!!). Here are a few things i have made in the last 2 months. Floating shelves, window casements, crown and chair molding, kitchen table, end table, benches, awning, door, bathroom shelf...etc...pics are sideways

Ain't that just like the French ? Eating something with hair on it......

“a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” When one understands proper English, it becomes obvious the the words "shall not be infringed", refer to possession of arms. The founders were not concerned with anyone who possessed arms, they were only concerned about criminal activity. They wrote laws to punish criminals, people who abused their freedom to hurt others or trample on the rights of others. They understood prosecution of criminal activity was needed to protect freedom. The entire Constitution was written to prevent the Federal government from having the ability to evolve into an entity employing organized crime. It was granted little power over much of anything by the founders, so it could never be a tool for tyrants. The founders warned future generations that freedom needed to be understood, earned and guarded on a daily basis, as there would always be insidious encroachment by men of zeal, who possess no understanding of the consequences. The America people have been allowing their freedoms to slip away for decades now, lulled into a sense of false security by the siren of big government. Recently, the taking of rights has become intentional though. Many in government seek to retain power in spite of the Constitution's prohibition of their conduct. Time is always on the side of traitors. They never lose sight of their goals. Free people, on the other hand, are often in denial, when it comes to their rights and freedoms being attacked. Unless Americans start learning the purpose of the Constitution and what their rights are, they will soon be saying they live in a free country, where you are free to do whatever the government let's you do.

To be clear, 'The D.C. Establishment' hates Trump. R or D doesn't really matter. Trump's taking their food dish away and making them work for a living, and a lot of them don't like that idea.

...to become a Real Hunter For the Seasons of Whitetails but realized that I just love the taste of button bucks topping the scales at 220 pounds of usable meat. If only Nomad was here he would certainly supply.... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hijack all you want, thats the reason i started this thread to see pics and get ideas. I saw your post and really appreciate your commitment to that project, looks great.. Mind you i work in an office and only do this for fun...lol..cant tell you how many people pass my driveway looking to hire me (may take on some side jobs),. When i tell them i only do this for fun they look at me like i have 6 heads...lol..gotta give props to the ole man, hes a retired laborer and has hands of gold and learned everything from him by doing side jobs with him ever since i was 10 yrs. Old, now at 48 i still appreciate what he continues to teach me. He also taught me to do cement and tile work, along with putting up sheetrock, light plumbing and electrical. Saves you a ton of money when you can do most things around the house.

Went for the 35. Broken rod is on its way back and then I'm gonna be all set

OK. We have officially gone over the edge. I was listening to the radio at lunch. The advertisement comes on for the movie Chappaquiddick. Well I am half listening and they get to the rating part and I still couldn't tell you what it was rated but I hear them during their listing to justify the rating say something that made my head explode. It wasn't "brief nudity" or "Strong language". I hear them say the movie contains "historical smoking". Are you F'ing kidding me. With the language and sexual content that is accepted in prime time TV, making Pot legal and a host of other things, we have to rate a movie for historical smoking? No wonder the youth are so screwed up.

The new tractor was delivered today. Already put her to work clearing snow piles out of the driveway and from our front walkway. We still had 2-3 feet of snow piles up in there. The sun doesn’t get into that area much plus with the gabled roof, it just falls off and piles up in that spot.

The principle of the debate is simple; namely, the right to self-defense is a God-given right that predates government itself. The Declaration of Independence proclaims we are each endowed by our Creator with certain "unalienable rights" and that "to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed." Get that? Rights are secured, NOT granted, by government. In his Commentaries on the Constitution, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, the "Father of American Jurisprudence," made it clear and unambiguous, declaring, "The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them." Disarming law-abiding citizens will not protect innocent people; it will only leave them defenseless against those with homicidal intentions — not to mention at the mercy of tyrannical government. It is beyond foolish to think otherwise.

The right hated Obama, along with Clinton, Pelosi, Schumer etc....The difference is we don't vilify the people that support those schmucks. I can have a reasonable conversation with anyone....Not everyone can have a reasonable conversation with me....

I find it very revealing the political side that preaches so much love of "tolerance" regarding so many things that are really the antithesis of American lifestyle and history, has such a virile hatred of Trump, Conservatives and traditional values. Just look at their current venomous vitriol being spewed at Firearms, the 2nd Amendment and hunters. This isn't normal or healthy. There is surely some mental illness in this level of contempt. At the very least, it's childish and immature. Conservatives despised Obama and attacked his political decisions and executive actions because they felt they were illegal, unconstitutional, and Leftist, but I never saw anyone holding his severed head, or calling for his death by assassination. I don't see where any of their hatred for Trump, or people who voted for him, is even remotely justified. Blind hatred is evil and people who have it go to great lengths to justify it so they can live with themselves. No President has ever been loved by all Americans, but the half of America that is insanely resisting everything they don't agree with, is a level of lunacy this country has not seen before.

Really nice work! Got a couple old hay wagons. Maybe we can build a mobile deer blind on one, after seeing how your coop turned out, that's the first thing that popped into my head. Good stuff here, with all the ideas!

Same here, I think we are getting into goats next to make milk, cheese and soaps and sell some for meat and a sheep or two also. We started three years ago with a few hens and now we have four coops and runs and more meat birds each summer. We love it.

I think less publicly yes, also I don't think hatred is the word I tolerated him as president. I never hated Obama just the policies and "deals" we got into as a nation under his reign. Now people literally hate Trump, I think it stems from his tell like it is attitude and people are too sensitive to take it. I don't talk politics with my wife because she doesn't care or know about what is going on, but all my friends voted for Trump so we just make fun of the left and their wanna-be, snowflake ideas.

saw this on fb last night. love it. wish they were closer, i'd eat there just to show my support. Probably wear full camo too!

I must admit to occasionally getting overly passionate about some issues. Imagine having a political discussion with Hillary or Bernie......Ha-ha-ha. Could that drive you up a wall and into an absolute rage? I would say that when you commence a discussion about politics, or other sensitive issues, anything can happen. All people have an irrational spot when it comes from trying to change opinions that are diametrically opposed to our own. For me it happens quickly when I am talking with anti-hunters, or gun control advocates. I will say that it is very likely that he will calm down and resume your friendship at some point in the future. I guess I would suggest that you avoid any political discussions with him in the future ..... lol.

FARTED !!...Well, I intended to fart, but then I was rudely reminded that my colon is not as trustworthy as it was when I was younger.... SOOO as I was "diamond cheeking" toward the bathroom , a large pink NIGHTMARE suddenly blocked my path....

I think they look good enough to eat. Your art knows no boundaries my friend.

Had my eyes done 9 years ago now. Best thing I ever did. I almost forget that I ever had to wear glasses or contacts. It wasn’t cheap but easily the best $4500 you could spend on yourself. I ended up with 20/15 in both eyes with my right eye almost slightly better than that. I can’t remember what they were before but I couldn’t read anything past 12 inches away before. My buddies call me eagle eye sometimes when I can spot stuff from so far away. It’s made hunting a lot easier that’s for sure!! I did have one side effect from it though. I’m quite sensitive to bright lights now. I wear sunglasses on cloudy days because it looks so much brighter to me compared to everyone else. Car lights while driving at night do glare a decent amount now but it’s not terrible, just need to focus on where I’m going and not look to close at the lights around me. I also tend to get headaches if looking at a computer screen a lot. I wear dark tinted safety glasses at work because our lights are many and very bright. Other than that lasik has been a godsend.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

....who seemed to only offer seemingly endlessly advice with little remedy for the afflicted unless a dose of nostalgia is what the Dr order. Thankfully sodfather was on scene with .... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

He asked me what I was writing about. I told him. He then came unglued for over ten minutes on the phone. It was weird. He's a very smart and level-headed guy who owns part of a lucrative wealth management firm. Do you think it would have been better if I lied to him and told him I was writing a cookbook? I hated Obama as President, but I didn't destroy life-long friendships over it. I hated the thought of Hillary being president, but I didn't feel it was necessary to vilify those who supported her. Something has changed, and it's not good.

Puppies are made of rubber Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Unfortunately there are a lot of those videos. Equally unfortunate is that there are a lot of widows and fatherless children because people who buy chainsaws automatically think they know what they're doing. They don't.

"Anything so innocent and built like that just gotta be named Lucille." If you haven't seen Cool Hand Luke, put it on your list. Great movie with at least six good quotable lines.

Have a great birthday , enjoy the day all you can!!!!!

you're both probably more than capable to knock down a bird in other places. i'd take baby steps though and still pick a halfway decent county for birds. some areas have access but are much lower on turkey harvest and assumed opportunity. https://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/30420.html

When you are ready for meat birds I recommend finding a hatchery because they are way cheaper than TSC even with their sale and you will know for certain when they were hatched. Plus they seem to be healthier. Here’s a link with prices, http://www.neppahatchery.net/Products.html They don’t need much for shelter which is nice, basically just some shade and the basics and they are good. We use a place out of Fort Plain in the Amish area, they let us order X amount and we can pick them up in batches so we don’t have to butcher all of them at once. We contemplated pigs but they will rut up the land and make a mess and they like to escape. The last thing I want to do is round up a big fat angry pig.

Moveable “chicken tractors” as they call them are pretty popular. That’s basically what my coop is but on a larger scale with free range thrown in. I’ll have 48in tall electric netting to use as a predator barrier that will keep out yotes and fox. So they will be semi limited to how far they can range but I’ll have a lot of netting so basically still free range. You can build a chicken tractor pretty easy for a smaller size flock that is full contained to keep all predators out. There’s a million different designs but here’s an idea of what one can look like. Most tractors like that won’t House more than 6-12 birds at a time though so you’ll have to keep the flock size to a smaller size. You can always build bigger but it will get heavy real quick and become harder to move. But a design like that will let you move around a small flock to fresh grass everyday pretty easy. Concrete pads and chickens don’t really mix all that well. By nature they are foragers and instinctively scratch the ground to search for food. I’ve read that prolonged exposure to concrete can cause feet problems on them as well. Unless you were using the concrete to raise it up due to wet ground and then added a bunch of dirt on top it’s not really the best idea. Of course you can always make a concrete pad just to set the coop on top of for stability and levelness concerns but then leaving the run as bare ground.

very impressive!

What are you going to do with 60 dozen eggs a week? We can sell @8-10 dz a week here, lots of folks have hens nowadays. We have plenty of interest from folks in buying meat birds and turkeys, I think we are going to sell a few meaties this year and have sold turkeys before. It helps off set cost of food and bedding and egg cartons. You might want to order a case or two of the cartons by the way if you haven’t already.

I'm glad someone else asked this question first. Yeah, the left is dumping on Trump ( not like he doesn't give them plenty of fodder daily ), but does anyone really think there was LESS hatred towards Obama by the right?? Now that would be seriously funny if people thought that there was less. LOL By the way, I hope Philo sends all of us forum members an autographed copy of his book on Obama. Looking forward to seeing it on the best sellers list!

My point was ans remains that the current regulations are sufficient to handle any technological advances that may pop up. There is no need for more, there is no need to further regulate the firearms. The line that was previously drawn is sufficient on the national level. The Safe act and the like is an over reach.

You don’t have to free range at all if you don’t want. You just need to build a big enough run that will give them enough room to spread out and be happy. If I remember correctly the rule of thumb is like 10sqft per bird for the run and 4sqft of coop space per bird. Of course going bigger is always better. Chickens are hard on the ground so any vegetation in the run will be mowed down to bare dirt in no time. Do yourself a favor and make sure wherever you put the coop and run that it has good drainage. The poop smell is only noticeable if there’s a lot of moisture on the ground. My current coop is literally 6 ft away from my bedroom on the backside of the house and we don’t have any problem with smell. If there was a problem my wife would be the first one complaining! I would suggest not going too far away from your house as you have to remember you’ll be out there on a daily basis feeding, watering and collecting eggs. There’s a guy down the road from me who moved in last summer and built a coop some 250ft from his house down a hill. When he was building it I almost stopped to offer some advice. Now I watch him shovel a path through all the snow just to get down there and watch him struggle carrying water and supplies all the way down there. I’m betting he regrets going that far away now! There’s a million ways to build a coop and run and the only wrong way is if it’s too small, other than that you can’t really do it wrong. There’s a forum called backyardchickens.com that has thousands of pages of good info to browse through on coop/run construction to feeding and raising chickens. It’s a good resource to check out. Hope this helps you out, if you have any other questions let me know, I’ve made just about every mistake you can make at least once so I like to think I’ve got a good handle of this stuff! Haha

Thats very cool, very impressive build for those chicks. May the chicken Gods bless you with a trailer load of eggs....lol.. Enjoy!!! When im up at my cabin we always wipe out our local chicken farmer, we buy 10 to 20 doz. from him. Theres no comparison when it comes to fresh eggs, they are way superior to store bought.

wow! your serious for sure. Quite an impressive build ! nice job . Hell I want to live there!

People,hunt turkeys ?

Absolutely ! Guess where 13 yr.old Beagle slept on that trip??

Thanks! No special plans other trying to get some firewood into the house before it rains.

Another Chromer on the board. Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk