wolc123

Not sure what it is about this one, but it seems to be completely “unloosable”. Every time I temporarily “misplace” it, it finds its way back. It spent one winter and early spring outside by the dock up at my in-laws place in the Adirondacks, after I lost it outside while ice fishing. A house guest found it the next summer. It actually spent the last couple weeks up here again, when I forgot it down on the nightstand in one of the downstairs bedrooms on our prior trip. Somehow, it ended up hidden behind the alarm clock. No worries, I got it back again. Before I had that, as my “edc” knife, I’d go thru one or two a year. I’ve got a drawer full of backups now, which I rarely need. I carried this little “Outdoor Times” USA Case, the last couple weeks. Back to the “spare drawer” with that, when we get home from this trip tomorrow. Old Reliable Imperial is back again. I was very thankful to have it back yesterday, when I used the ground down small blade as a screwdriver to adjust the carburetor screw on my 1950 Mercury Super-5 outboard motor: t That got me out to some nice 4th of July smallmouth bass:

This little “razor blade stainless” Imperial is what I’ve been carrying camping for about the last 15 years. I got it from a $ 1 box at the Alexander Steam show. It took me about 20 minutes of sorting thru that box to find one that was made in USA. The small blade had a busted tip, which I reformed on a bench grinder. I broke the bone off one side of the grip in a campfire knife/axe throwing contest about 4 years ago. A little JB weld and a file made for an easy fix.

We’ve got a Coleman extreme cooler that holds ice for several days, even when it’s quite warm out. Only trouble is, the volume is rather limited due to the wall thickness. We used to keep the milk, and other critical items in that, when we went camping.

My mother in law gave me the complete 3 volume Civil War by Shelby Foote. I’m almost thru volume 1. I hope to be into volume 2, by the time we visit Gettysburg, in about a month. I’m guessing that battle will be covered in that one.

I finished planting my field corn and sweet corn today. I’m glad the 5 day stretch of rain they had predicted was a typical weather forecasting miscue. The fields are drying out real good now and most of the neighbors are cutting hay. A big doe was back checking out my work, when I went back up to the barn for more fertilizer. Hopefully, she hangs around for a few more months so I can get her into the freezer during the early antlerless gun season. I used the new heavy duty compound angling Tufline grader blade, that I recently traded an old disk for, to cut in some ditches in case we get some more heavy rain.

We also used a 3x14 plow on our largest tractor back in the day (an Allis D14). Grandpa’s JD M also did ok with its mounted 2 x 12 plow. Although slightly less hp than the neighbors 8n Ford (which I bought from his widow as my first tractor), it seemed to have more torque with its “2 banger” engine, plus it was considerably cheaper back when they were new and it had live hydraulics. The mounted plow on that JD M was a pain to mount and dismount though, compared to the 3 point on the Ford or the two point system on the Allis. We are right in that Tonawanda creek bottomland (Our road is actually a couple feet lower than Tonawanda creek road). The soil moisture content for plowing was so good yesterday morning, that I hardly missed the hydraulic draft control, that my old 8n Ford had. That’s nice for maintaining uniform plow depth over inconsistent soil conditions. My JD 4120 had “position control” only on the hydraulics.

Most of it wasn’t too bad today. I got that 4 acres done lickity split this morning, pulling that little 2x12 1951 Dearborn plow in 6th gear with my JD 4120. Only a couple small wet spots on the front field. The soil moisture content out back was just about perfect for high speed plowing. I’ll get it disked up the first time, as soon as it dries enough, after the next (4) rainy days. I’ll be using my JD 4120 tractor on the the 8 ft pull type disk that first time. After that, I’m dying to try that disk on my Durango field car. It’s got real good Cooper tires, a 318 cu in gasoline engine, a nice Pioneer stereo, comfortable cab, and cup holders. I’ll be needing to add some length to the control rope though, to reach the front seat. The spots I have plowed have plenty of turnaround space on the ends and sides, so lacking turning brakes shouldn’t hurt me too bad.

More mud farming 101: I’m going to try and get about 4 acres plowed for fieldcorn on Saturday. Hopefully, there’s not too much standing water left in those fields. The weeds are high though, so I’ll definitely bushhog first. It’s kind of cool watching the wakes roll off my little old 2x12 plow, as I pull it thru the water holes with my larger 4 wd loader tractor. I see that there are (4) more days of rain predicted after Saturday. No telling when I’ll be able to get that 4 acres disked up after it’s plowed. My 8 ft pull type disk, also undersized for my 4wd tractor, has good cleaners on it and don’t do too bad in the mud. I’ll definitely be opening up some ditches, with the new compound angle teracing blade that I picked up last week, prior to planting. I’m hoping to get that fieldcorn planted by the end of June. Having some good ditches should help with that, since it don’t look like we will be getting much relief from these persistent rains, anytime soon. I am very thankful to have gotten 1/2 of my sweetcorn planted last Sunday. At least that should draw in the coons for early “damaging” trapping, killing, and burying.

Pushing the mowing back a few weeks will save some fawns.

I’m aiming to get my first planting of sweetcorn in today. Up till now, we’ve had low temps in the 40’s, which is a no-go for corn, regardless of how much it rains. Hopefully, I can find a spot dry enough to plant, somewhere in the “higher” 1/2 acre that I’ve got plowed and disked one time. I’ll try going over it a couple more times with the disk this afternoon, then cultimulch, then plant the driest half of it. (2/3 72 day, 1/3 92 day sweetcorn). Near the end of June, I’ll plant the other half 1/3 72 day, 2/3 92 day). The primary reason that I put in the sweetcorn, is to draw out as many local coons as possible, so that I can trap and kill them before they put much hurt on my fieldcorn. I plant that fieldcorn only to keep deer (which provides the bulk of our family’s protein) on my ground thru December. We do harvest and freeze what sweetcorn the coons don’t get, plus give plenty away to family friends and neighbors. The coyotes have helped me out considerably on the coon control in recent years. They usually exhume the carcasses of the big male coons (mostly all that I’ve caught in my box and dog proof traps the last couple years) within a day or two and handle most of the female and juvenile coon harvest themselves. NY state allows landowners or lessees to trap and kill unlimited number of “damaging” coons without license or permit of any kind, however they need to be burried or burned prior to the opening of trapping/hunting season, in mid October. The furs are virtually worthless, so after trapping/hunting season opens, I just toss them out on the fields to feed the buzzards. Besides allowing the corn to go much further, eradication of the local coon population pays big dividends to the wild turkeys, as the raccoon is likely the top turkey nest predator. The state does not specify how deep to bury the carcasses. It doesn’t seem to matter how deep I go, the coyotes almost always find them and dig them up. As long as I can get a little dirt over the top of the carcass, that deep enough for me. Nothing attracts the racoons better than not quite ripe sweetcorn. They will usually start to hit it soon after it starts making eats. As soon as I see the slightest “damage” in the form of a nibbled or torn open ear, I’ll move in with the traps. The early catch, near the earliest sweetcorn, is always the heaviest. I bait my dog proof traps with dry cat food, and my boxes with peanut butter coated marshmellows. No furbearer is easier to trap than the coon. They can also be taken with a # 1-1/2 or 2 foothold trap, by covering the pan with tinfoil and placing it under shallow water. It’s rare that I get enough corn to eat any of it from my first early corn planting, since the coons get so much of it. Me and the coyotes usually catch up with them by the time my second third and forth plantings get ripe though. That works out good, because that later 92 day silver queen sweetcorn is my favorite for freezing.

Happy b-day grampy.

He’s up there with Jesus now. Of that there is no doubt. I love the way that he unashamedly shared his faith with others, while he was down here with us. Definitely among the better TV personalities, hunters, businessmen, husbands, fathers, and collegiate quarterbacks.

Nope.

This is looking like it’s going to be a tough year for apple tree pollination. We used to have quite a few Cortlands, in an orchard my grandfather had planted on our farm right after WW 2, but they’re all gone now. I’m not even sure what kind of apples the two trees I have now are, but at least one of them (that I bought from tractor supply) is a later ripening variety and not as tasty. I think I got the other one from Walmart, and it finally produced its first apples last season. I trimmed both of them early this spring and they were both loaded with blossoms. I’ve never sprayed either of them, but I planned to this year, after the blossoms are gone. I probably will spray them, at least up to “June drop”, anyhow, since I’ve already bought the spray. If all the apples on them drop off, I’ll stop. They both look pretty good and should soon be getting into the prime years of production. Quite a few years ago, when our kids were still young, my wife coaxed me into killing all the honey bees, that had made a hive in an old whiskey barrel, that was outside next to the barn. We still had a few Cortlands then and they produced much better on the year those bees moved in. There was quite a drop off the year after she got me to kill those bees. I’ve got neighbors with hives on both sides of me now, so if the weather would just cooperate a little, we should be able to get at least some halfway decent production from those new trees. I’ve never eaten an apple from either one of them (just took a bite or two from the buggy ones that were never sprayed from the first one). The deer definitely seem to like them though. Unfortunately, they are right next to the road. A nice buck got killed by a car and laid right under one in the morning a few years ago. I didn’t see it in the dark and someone stopped and cut off its rack while I was at work that day. Not sure how big the rack was but looked to be at least a 3.5 year old, based on the size of the body.