stubborn1VT

My buddy is a mechanic. He claims that he would go broke if it wasn't for FORD. 80% of his major repairs are on FORDS. I have a Chevy work truck that has been pretty decent, and a Toyota that I love. He drives Dodges, but admits his gas mileage is awful. As for the bugs, I am clueless. That picture of the grill sure is strange looking.

Hope your year is full of family, good health, and good eats. Happy Birthday!

At home, I will be planting about 1/3rd acre of soybeans in our back pasture. It hasn't been a pasture in 20 years, so the sod is pretty considerable. I till up a new strip every year and plant that into brassicas (groundhog radishes and purpletop turnips) They help break up the clay soil. I will be doing that again. I am also thinking of adding either 10-12 rows of field corn, or some Egyptian wheat as a screen. In the woods I will overseed any bare spots with clover. If I get around to it, I will plant the new log road in clover, chicory, and fescue. I have heard that the fescue will stand up to driving on it, and will grow in low light conditions. At one of my other spots, I will plant a clover, chicory mix with forage oats as a nurse crop. This spot was in brassicas last year, and the deer loved them. I'm interested in planting a perennial though, and just mowing it once a year. I won't hunt here much anymore since a group of guys now hunt the neighbor's from shooting houses. They are there just about every day, and have changed the travel pattern of the deer there. My spot is only about 6 acres, and daylight movement is down to nothing from October on. At the farm, I pruned about 10 apple trees on the powerline. I need to check on the one small plot I put into chicory and clover. The chicory was up when I checked in early May, but I didn't see much for clover. I may have to scratch that up and seed that. I suspect the plot still has a PH issue, despite the 1000 lbs of lime I spread on it the past 2 years. That's it.

Cool pics! Wonder what all the grackles were after.

Done work for the day. Long, productive week. It's awful being the boss. It's good to be the boss.

What county are you in?

Buck.

I feel your pain. Since I started my own business, I don't think I have fished open water more than 6 times. I can ice fish as much as I want, but my spinning rods are just collecting dust in the basement..

2000 acres. Or a fence. I don't think there is an accurate number. Some bucks are going to leave and get shot, regardless of how many acres you have. What you have for land is more important than how much. If you provide security, food, water, and enough does, then a buck might stay put on your property. He might wander off during the rut, or go looking for a different food source. It's hard to tell.

Urea is straight nitrogen. It is commonly used to boost corn and turnips.

Happy Birthday Rob. Glad you got to wet a line. Cheers!

Insurance is a bureaucracy. I'm always amazed that they can take everyone's money and then not want to pay out claims. It's not like you can work without an arm! It's only common sense that you would need a spare. Hope the Krauts do a fine job on your repairs.

I'm with you. Only seeing males here as well. I was working out front a few weeks back and heard one buzz by. He flew all the way from Panama or wherever, and wanted to know where the damn feeder was. I have two feeders up. The like the one in the pine tree better than the one the edge of the porch. It confuses the heck out of the woodpeckers when I replace their suet feeder with sugar water. They really are a marvel of Nature.

Your reasoning seems sound to me. Insurance is expensive, and that's what it's there for.

Hope you had a good one "old" man!

When I was working as a landscaper on Martha's Vineyard, I saw a guy tear up a handful of poison ivy and chew on it. He then proceeded to lie down in a patch in it and catch a few ZZZ's after lunch.

That may be an over simplification. NY is 330 miles from north to south. Some areas are very mature forest, some are mostly ag, some are suburban. On top of that, not everyone has a property big enough to hold and "manage" deer. Very few people have a situation like the one you seem to enjoy. Believe me.

I didn't know that about Sip of Sunshine. Lawson's small batch stuff is brewed just over the hill in Warren/Waitsfield. I guess the IPAs are shipped up here in kegs, then put in cans for distribution. But as you wrote, brewed in CT.

Definitely getting hydraulic feed. Most of my customers want the chips, but I should be able to chip into my dump trailer since it's so low. I agree about a second feed motor. The whole point for me is to use the tractor motor, which I already own and maintain. I will post pics when it arrives!

I had it and got rid of it once already this year. It's growing really well right now. 33% of people get poison ivy, and can get rid of it fairly easily. 33% of people have a strong reaction, and often need steroids to get rid of it. (That's me!!!) 33% of people have NO reaction to poison ivy. (I wish.)

I saved my pennies this spring and I'm going to buy a wood chipper to go on my 32HP Kubota. Does anyone have experience with a PTO driven chipper, good or bad? I have narrowed it down to a couple of brands and models. Just curious about other people's thoughts. Interested in a high end homeowner model, as I can't afford a commercial machine. I do have an older tow-behind chipper with a 29HP diesel, but it's always breaking down and it's awfully heavy. Hoping the 3PH will prove to be more versatile and hassle-free. I'm always trying to add useful tools to my fleet. It allows me to offer more services. It aint easy being a "one man show"!

Been working on "honey-do" all day. Terribly jealous. Have to go drown my sorrows with a vodka drink.

Fiddlehead is quite good. The brewery is only 5 miles from my house!

Every year is different. My brother got out and mowed and chopped about 30 acres. All of these fields were places that had fawns in them last year. No casualties!

I checked on my little woods plot yesterday. It's awfully wet still. It doesn't get a ton of sunlight, and it's at the bottom of the hill. The clover seems to be doing alright. When it dries out, I'm hoping to plant the new log road that I cut over the winter. I cleared a section about 20 yards by 60 on top of the hill. My plan is to scuff the worst of the wood and roots with my tractor and box scraper. After that I will try to use the 4 wheeler and chain harrow to loosen the soil up. It should work in the woods and not be bothered by rocks and small stumps. Hoping to plant clover with oats as a nurse crop, mostly because I already have the seed. As a side note, yesterday after work I went to the local limestone quarry and picked up 3.5 ton of "lime ash". It's 50% ag lime and 50% wood ash. I will spread it on the pasture plot mixed with composted horse manure using a small manure spreader. I will bag up some for my woods plots and spread it by hand. All the existing plots have been getting pelletized lime, so they just need maintenance. The new areas will need a good dose, but the tractor and bucket will help with that. I also fertilized my 6 apple trees and sprayed them with fungicide. Hopefully this early summer isn't as wet as last year. I enjoy the work, but our 12 acres isn't exactly "deer heaven". We have lots of cover and a little food. I think I sat here 3 or 4 times last year and didn't see a deer. I have seen more deer since I started messing around with soybeans. The cameras showed 1 decent buck when I wasn't here. Anyhow... There is a rambling post, mostly for myself. There's not much else to do since I filled my turkey tags and it's raining again.