wolc123

MUD FARMING 101: I definitely picked the right year to sell one of my old 2 wheel drive tractors. That 1951 Ford 8n, originally purchased by my old neighbor from Yoder brothers in Clarence ctr, would have struggled on the half acre that I plowed up for sweetcorn the other day, with all the wet spots. We towed it over to my buddy’s place with his truck on Saturday, after we got back from fishing. My wife had taken my pickup truck, on her annual Ohio shopping spree, so we needed his truck to get my boat to the lake. That old Ford tractor had quit on me, early last summer, with an unknown “no-spark” issue. My 5 year newer Farmall Cub exhibited a similar issue, while I was plowing snow with it, in January. It’s just too difficult for me to keep two of those old non John Deere tractors operational, while I still have a full time job. I was going to push the Ford into a corner of my barn, and let it sit there about (5) years until I retire. My buddy wanted it, to leave down at his southern tier camp, for hauling logs for milling. He said he has it running already. I gave him a new coil that I had bought for it, and a new wiring harness and a bunch of other spare parts, including a new rear rim. Amazon had accidentally shipped me two of of those, when I ordered 1, a few years ago. Oddly enough, that old Ford plowed the best that it ever did last spring, with just one loaded rear tire (on the sod side). It also has a worn out brake on the other side, from about 75 years of riding that, to compensate for the traction differential when both rears were loaded. Towing it about 5 miles to my buddy’s place was fun. The left front wheel would start shimmying pretty good at about 17 mph, and just one working brake made slowing down a little dicey. There’s an “s” curve, on the road thru the swamp, which has claimed a few lives when folks took it too fast with their cars. There were some buzzards circling over that curve, as I was towed thru it. I wasn’t quite quick enough with my phone to get a picture of them (plus I really needed both hands on the wheel to keep control thru that curve). That old Ford still has all (4) original tires on it, original paint, had always been stored inside, and only has 2100 hours on the proofmeter. I didn’t include the 2x12 plow, that came with it on the deal, but I let my buddy borrow it whenever he needs it. That plow is a little on the small side for my 4wd JD 4120, but smaller implements work a lot better than big ones on my mucky bottomland farm, especially on a wet spring like we are getting now. It’s pretty cool watching the wakes roll off the moldboards, when I pull it thru standing water, without even getting any wheel spin. I’m hoping to use my Dodge Durango field car, which has Cooper with good deep tread on it, for most of the disking, and much of cultipacking (until I get my Farmall Cub back from the mechanics) later this year. I think my 8 ft pull type disk should be just about perfect behind that. I’ll need a longer control rope to reach the front seat of the 4 door suv, with the hatchback open. No problem keeping the hatch back up, because The AC don’t work on it anyhow, but the Pioneer stereo still works great. It was still a little too wet to try it on the first pass with the dusk, on that plowed half acre, this week. I had to use my 4wd JD 4120 tractor again. That tractor has R1 tires and a loader on it, that I could use to pull myself out with, if I ever did loose traction in the mud. That JD 4120 could easily handle a 10 foot disk, but again, a small implement is way better in wet conditions. My 8 ft JD disk has good cleaners on it, so it does pretty good in wet conditions. I’m still aiming to get half of my sweetcorn planted, and maybe my fieldcorn ground plowed, by the end of May.

I’m hoping to get half of my sweetcorn planted on the last day of May. I’ll try and get all of my fieldcorn planted thru June, and the other half of my sweetcorn in around July 1. It’s been a long tube since we had this wet of a spring.

That’s pretty interesting. I’m glad it includes the chest girth. 47” is huge. The largest that I ever measured (since G-man first introduced the importance of that measurement here maybe 10 years ago), was 43-1/2”: Our youngest daughter named this busted up 3.5 yr old 6 pointer taco. He certainly made lots of them. I’m guessing a bit over 200 lbs field dressed.

Just drive down rt 3a and look for any non-posted land and you should be good to go.

Happy Easter Everybody. The Lord is Risen !

Several of my coworkers have had that. One was a hunting buddy of mine, and he had purchased a used 44 magnum pistol that had a scope on it, about a week before his torn retina. He hadn’t yet shot the pistol and his doctor recommended that he didn’t. He brought it over to my range, and asked me to see if it was at least “on the paper” from 50 yards away. I was a bit intimidated, having never shot a pistol of that caliber, and remembering watching “Dirty Harry”. He also said that the ammo was very expensive. Expecting the worst, I flinched big time on my first shot, a clean miss of the paper target. Surprisingly, the “kick” was quite tame, maybe 1/4 of that of my 18” barrel 12 ga Remington 870, the time that I stupidly put a pistol grip on it, and fired it from the wrist with a magnum slug. My wrist hurt for weeks after that one shot. This Ruger single action .44 magnum felt like a cap gun in comparison. He didn’t want to give me a second expensive hunting load, but I said that I’d pay for it if I missed again, so he reluctantly gave me another. My second shot hit within an inch of the bulls eye. I’m not sure if he ever shot that .44 magnum after his surgery, but I know that he did take at least a couple more deer with his ML and crossbow after that. I don’t see him much anymore because he’s been retired for about 5 years. He hasn’t mentioned any complications from the surgery, but I imagine he’s still a little reluctant to hunt with that .44 magnum.

I just sneaked a couple bites of the pickled heart for a pre dinner snack and it was delicious: It’s not going to be easy saving some for the Easter breakfast at church.

I have never sealed the jars. There are two plastic Tupperware type containers of deer hearts, that my wife pickled yesterday, in my beer fridge right now. I’ll probably start eating it tomorrow. Im going to try my best to save one container for our Easter breakfast at church next Sunday. Some of my buddies want to try it.

They are thawing out now, and should be getting pickled tomorrow. I’ll try and stay away from it, until Good Friday or so.

I am not sure if it would still be good. I’ve never kept it longer than two weeks after pickling. I usually start on it, the day it’s made. It’s seems to peak in flavor, after about two days, and it tastes about the same for up to two weeks. I really like it and it rarely lasts over a week. Speaking of pickled heart and tongue, my wife didn’t get to mine yet. She was away over Valentine’s Day this year. I’m trying to coax her into making it for me over Easter. We still have two deer hearts in the freezer. Most years, she makes it on Valentine’s Day and we take it up to her parents in the Adirondacks the following weekend. They love the pickled heart and I save most of that for them, while I eat mostly the beef tongue (they don’t like that). The in-laws really missed it this year, so my wife sent her mom my grandmas recipe, and she just made some pickled beef heart up there. She said it turned out real good. Good news -my wife just told me to bring the hearts and up from the freezer and she will pickle them for me tomorrow. Thanks for the reminder. I couldn’t find any beef tongues in there, but there are still a couple of beef hearts in the freezer. If these two deer hearts turn out good, maybe I’ll get her to pickle the beef hearts for next time we go up to her parents, on Memorial Day weekend.

I started getting ready last weekend. With the help of my brother in law and nephew, we got the docks in and lined up at the in laws place, up in the Dacks. The lake had finally thawed out the previous week. We had 4 hours daylight and just above freezing temperature and no rain on Saturday. I also got thru the break in procedure on the new Mercury 4 stroke 5 hp outboard, that he picked up to replace his old Johnson 2 stroke 5.5 hp, which I had sieved up last October. It took a lot of pulls to get that new Mercury to fire up the first time, but after that, it started with the first pull every time. To kill time breaking it in, under half throttle for the first hour, I trolled a diving crankbait around the lake several times. Lake trout haven’t been stocked there in over 20 years and I haven’t seen any in 10, but you never know if a holdover survived. No hits though. After that, I tried casting a bucktail jig a little for perch, but no hits there either. They’ve always been few and far between on that lake. Most of the hard spring work is done up there now, so I’ll be able to focus more on fishing and turkey hunting, the next run we visit in May. I plan to start working on my bigger boat at home in WNY next weekend, and maybe have it ready for some shoreline trout trolling out on Lake Ontario, the weekend after that.

I think it’s because about 47 % of the American people are very easily duped. Look at how they gobble up all the fake news on CNN & MSNBC.

My wife and I stopped at a little antique shop on our drive back from her parent’s place today. I picked up a slim single blade backup knife, for the little two bladed Imperial that I usually carry. I have been impressed with the quality and longevity of that one, which I found for $ 1 at a flea market, about 17 years ago. I thought this one was also an Imperial, but closer examination shows that it is made by “The Ideal”. The proprietor of the shop had it marked $ 8, but she took about $ 6 for it, along with a package deal on a few other items including a Taylor pin on compass, a couple pieces of jewelry for my wife, and about 15 dvd’s & vhs’s. “The Ideal” knife doesn’t exhibit quite the quality of workmanship, as my old Inperial, but at least it’s made in USA. I think both companies were/are in Providence RI.

I think it is blown way out of proportion and wouldn’t change a thing for me. I’d still get most of my families protein from “free” venison and wouldn’t be overly careful about using gloves while processing.

That’s a cool looking fish. My brother caught one kind of like it off Miami a couple years ago. They measured it for him, in case he wanted a replica mount, but I don’t think it would have been legal to keep.

Still planning on making it to the Brewer Union Cafe on Sunday March 30, between 1 and 2 pm.

If anyone is interested in a NCNY gtg, I’m heading north east next weekend and plan to be at the Brewer Union Cafe, between 1 and 1:30 pm, on Sunday March 30.

A New Zealand red stag hunt would be cool. Plenty of wild lambs there for camp meat.

Been there done that, cost me the biggest Adirondack buck I ever saw on opening day about 5 years ago.

I see now that the deleted post has reappeared as mysteriously as it disappeared. I guess all it took for that was me retyping my pranks on the other thread. ain’t this modern computer stuff cool ?

I’ll repost a couple that Eddie erased by accident and that I was involved in, on a Quebec moose hunt, almost 40 years ago. (4) of us drove up there in my buddy’s work van with my 14 ft boat on top. The camp was on a small lake that was connected by rivers to several other lakes. It was owned by and Indian and consisted of 5 of 6 rough cabins. We had one and another slightly older guy, from a little north of our home town and his father, had another. There was nobody else at the camp, besides the owner. That other guy told us that he was mostly after black bear, and he had brought up some bait that he would put in 55 gallon barrels, to try and attract them. He was an experienced bear hunter and he said that he would only shoot one, that was higher than the second ring on the barrels, when it was on four feet. Nobody seen any moose on that trip. Every day, his elderly father would walk around the camp, looking for sign. My first prank involved making a set of tracks up from the lake between their cabin and ours. I used the butt of my rifles stock to form the “moose tracks” in the sand. I can still hear that old guy’s voice saying “one walked right up between or cabins last night”. He was very excited and sounded a lot like the old guy on the soundtrack at the start of the Alabama “mountain music” song, when he said “see them mountains over there”. That’s him on the left on the morning that he spied those tracks in the sand. Had he looked real close, he might have seen the little Ruger emblems, in the center of the “hoof” prints. Each evening at camp (we stayed about a week), the owner would run his generator until it ran out of gas. We’d sit around the table in the cabin drinking beer and playing cards and somebody would watch the dump a few hundred yards up a trail, for bear. When it was my turn to watch the dump, I heard some sticks breaking as the sun started to set. I strained to see into the bush, and soon made out a dark form approaching. As it moved towards one of the barrels, it looked to be taller than the top. Must be one heck of a big bear. I centered my crosshairs on the middle of the middle and squeezed the trigger. Walking over, I found a sprawled out porcupine next to a “barrel”, that was actually a Folgers coffee can. They had all heard my shot back at camp, and were all out on the porches watching as I walked back the trail, dragging the porky on the end of a rope. Somebody yelled, “he must have shot a Cub”. That’s when I came up with the coffee can story. Truthfully, porcupines were listed as “other species” which could be legally taken with the province hunting licenses which we had purchased. I would never knowingly break the law or violate the cardinal shooting rule “always know your target and beyond”. It definitely made for a good hunting story though, and one thar has been retold many times thru the years. This was our hunting crew on that trip. We still get together now and then. Im the second from left: I think the old Indian who owned that camp passed away a few years ago. The brothers on each side of me still have a family hunting camp in the southern tier where I’ve hunted quite a few times, and killed many ruffed grouse.

No problem Eddie, I probably shouldn’t have posted my pranks anyhow, hunting is serious business.

Those stories remind me of one of my old neighbors, who’s been gone for quite a few years now. He was real particular about his tree stands and he called anyone who he didn’t know “aborigins”. One opening day morning, he walked up to his stand in the dark, to find it occupied by one who he said “looked like MR T”, with lots of glistening gold jewelry hanging from his neck. As he stood below and looked up, the trespasser asked “do you know what time it is ?” My neighbor’s reply was: “Yeah, it’s time to get the hell out of my stand”. He was a good guy and I miss him and his hunting stories. He traded me my first cultipacker (probably my second favorite foodplotting tool, right behind my 2 row John Deere 246 corn planter) for a case of genny cream ale.

We didn’t see any moose, on our Northern Quebec hunt many moons ago, but the Province hunting licenses which we had purchased, allowed certain “other species” to be taken, and black bear were listed. Each night, we’d take turns watching over the camp dump in the late afternoon and early evening. The other hunters would stay in the cabins drinking beer and playing cards. The neighbor (seasoned “expert”) had told us how he would only shoot a bear that was taller, on its all fours, than the second rung on the 55 gallon bait barrels. When my turn came, I settled into a little patch of bushes up there at the dump with my 30/06. As the sun began to set and the light began to fade , I heard some branches breaking. Something was approaching as I looked out beyond the garbage and the bait barrels. I saw a dark form moving towards one of barrels. As it got closer, I could see that its back was higher than the top of the upright barrel. This had to be one heck of a black bear, maybe even a griz. I settled my crosshairs on the “middle of the middle”, and squeezed the trigger. Turns out, it wasn’t a bait barrel, that the creature towered over, but rather a Folgers coffee can. The prostrate porcupine (also listed as a legal to shoot “other species” on our licenses) laid next to it. They had all heard my shot back at the cabins and were standing out on the porch waiting anxiously when I returned. Walking towards them on a trail in the dark, I had the porky on the end of a drag rope. I heard them say “he must have shot a cub”. Before the self appointed forum safety police come down hard on me for not “knowing my target and beyond”, I was well aware of it and also that it was legal for me to kill a porky up there. The above rendition was how I had explained myself to my half drunk card-playing buddies, when they thought I had killed a cub. First picture is a much younger me (second from left) and my hunting buddies, second is the “seasoned” expert Dale and his father, who I had “fooled” with the Ruger moose tracks in the sand between our cabins. I can still hear that old fella’s voice saying “one came right thru between our cabins last light” He was real excited and sounded just like the guy on the sound track at the beginning of the Alabama “mountain music” song.

Once, on a moose hunt in Northern Quebec, there was a middle aged guy and his elderly father, in the cabin next to ours. The cabin was next to a lake and the surrounding ground was mostly all sand. Every morning, the old guy would walk around looking for tracks. One evening, I made some tracks across the beach, using the butt pad on the end of the stock of my rifle. The neighbors were all excited the next day, after seeing that a big moose had walked across the beach right between their cabin and ours. Had they looked real close at those imprints, they might have noticed the Ruger logo.