We began the chestnut harvest last Saturday so today was the 8th day of gathering chestnuts. We cannot see many more nuts up in the three trees so surely it is almost over? We have now harvested 7-gallon size storage bags full of them. Some are fuller than others so I don't know exactly how many we have, but we have bagged each day and written the date on the bag so we can keep up with which ones are the oldest. I think we have gotten the most this evening and have not yet put them into a bag. Looking at them now I think we may have to split them into two bagfuls!
Simon and Matthew gathered several nuts today and Christina and Simon have been helping me wash them and put them in bags. We had gotten behind and had three days worth of nuts waiting to go into the refrigerator. Our procedure has become that of collecting them in bowls out in the yard and then submerging them in a large bowl of water at the dining room table. Carla's book says that the bad ones will float and we have been having five or six to float out of each batch. We put those in the throwaway pile and also cull out any we find that have cracks or holes or look too black instead of the shiny brown. We then put the nice clean chestnuts into the gallon plastic bags with a twist tie and then we poke holes all over the bag to let air in, and I think to let moisture out? We don't know exactly what we are doing, but at least we are trying something more this year than we have before.
This has been the first year we have been diligent about gathering them every day. In the past we have let many lay too long and then we try to harvest them and find that most have gotten little worms in them while they waited around to be taken care of. We have discovered that the only way to avoid this is to harvest them as soon as they hit the ground, or as soon after as possible. We are doing it this way now because last year we gathered most of the chestnuts that fell, but became a little chicken when we saw all those worms.
Our Chickens Might Be Nuts - But They Don't Eat Them!
Speaking of chickens, last year I had two of those 20 lb birdseed buckets full of chestnuts but did not bring them in the house and do anything with them for many, many days. I don't really remember how long it was but I found that the buckets were full of those tiny worms and they were attracting many gnats as well. I then had a great idea!
Chickens like eating worms and corn, and chestnuts are called "tree corn", so it seemed to me that our chickens would enjoy scratching at the nuts, eating the worms as well as picking out the meat that was still good! So I dumped the whole thing in their lot... and I don't think a single chicken touched them. It made the lot look even trashier than normal and I was very sorry I threw them out to the chickens. I guess the chickens didn't mind too much, but they looked like they were uncomfortable walking on all those nuts! It has only been recently this year that I could not see any more traces of a stray chestnut still left.
Our current crop is in much better shape this year and I am excited about the possibilities. (Lisa wishes they were black walnuts instead because she really likes to eat them just plain. We do have several walnut trees back on the property but they have never born many nuts, plus we have to go on a trip to get to them.) We are still wondering about making chestnut flour. Lisa is thinking that we need to let the chestnuts dry out before we make flour, but if that were true, how in the world would you keep worms and bugs from getting into them (other than building a two-story smoke house)? If anyone reads this and has an idea, let us know.
Thanks.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Find A Penny, Pick It Up
I typed a nice big post last night but the computer crashed while I was publishing it so it seems that it got all wiped out. I won’t be able to write exactly what I did last night, but I was mainly writing about my wife’s shopping trip yesterday.
Along with the $200 from my paycheck, she took some curtains back to the store and got $25 for them and she also found $20 in an envelope from the summer! So she had a total of $245 in cash for this shopping trip. Looking at the receipt she got mostly grocery items but also things like anti-perspirant, shampoo, light bulbs, soap, and fabric softener so it was a general house hold needs shopping trip. She also bought a lot of things for the youth conference our church hosted last night. All she had was the cash and that was all she spent. (And I do mean all) When adding up the receipts I was amazed at the final total. Can you believe that it came to $244.99!?! I was not amazed that it cost that much, (since it has been 3 weeks since she last went shopping), but that my wife was able to budget our money out to within 1 penny! She is amazing.
We had a good youth conference last night. There were 86 people in attendance with 46 of them being youths and children. That is a lot of people for our small church and we had to put out chairs just to make it a bit more comfortable. Our children sang with the church youth choir and then everyone answered Bible trivia questions. The speaker did a good job and the business meeting went smoothly. Afterwards there were hot dogs and cookies for everyone. I was more enthusiastic in my writing about it last night, but oh well.
Now, let’s see if we can get this to post today.
Along with the $200 from my paycheck, she took some curtains back to the store and got $25 for them and she also found $20 in an envelope from the summer! So she had a total of $245 in cash for this shopping trip. Looking at the receipt she got mostly grocery items but also things like anti-perspirant, shampoo, light bulbs, soap, and fabric softener so it was a general house hold needs shopping trip. She also bought a lot of things for the youth conference our church hosted last night. All she had was the cash and that was all she spent. (And I do mean all) When adding up the receipts I was amazed at the final total. Can you believe that it came to $244.99!?! I was not amazed that it cost that much, (since it has been 3 weeks since she last went shopping), but that my wife was able to budget our money out to within 1 penny! She is amazing.
We had a good youth conference last night. There were 86 people in attendance with 46 of them being youths and children. That is a lot of people for our small church and we had to put out chairs just to make it a bit more comfortable. Our children sang with the church youth choir and then everyone answered Bible trivia questions. The speaker did a good job and the business meeting went smoothly. Afterwards there were hot dogs and cookies for everyone. I was more enthusiastic in my writing about it last night, but oh well.
Now, let’s see if we can get this to post today.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Rainy Day Detail
Today was another wet, rainy day so my wife decided to postpone her shopping trip until tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will be nicer.
We got up later than we should have this morning and I did not eat any breakfast, which means that I was a bit hungry at lunch. I went ahead and bought another $3 lunch at work today. I usually do not eat at work and avoid that expense. $3 every day for lunch really adds up if I get in that habit!
Our pastor brought over his work car today for my oldest son, Matthew, to clean and detail (a '95 Ford Taurus). Our pastor is going out of town for the weekend so my son has all weekend to do it. He is a very industrious boy, and saves his money well. This will be the 3rd car he has detailed and he always tithes on what he makes and puts most of the rest in his savings account. His mom helped him on the first car, but now that he knows what to do he does a good job by himself.
Not much to write about today. We are looking forward to the weekend!
We got up later than we should have this morning and I did not eat any breakfast, which means that I was a bit hungry at lunch. I went ahead and bought another $3 lunch at work today. I usually do not eat at work and avoid that expense. $3 every day for lunch really adds up if I get in that habit!
Our pastor brought over his work car today for my oldest son, Matthew, to clean and detail (a '95 Ford Taurus). Our pastor is going out of town for the weekend so my son has all weekend to do it. He is a very industrious boy, and saves his money well. This will be the 3rd car he has detailed and he always tithes on what he makes and puts most of the rest in his savings account. His mom helped him on the first car, but now that he knows what to do he does a good job by himself.
Not much to write about today. We are looking forward to the weekend!
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Spending Money: Some Considerations
Tonight we took the car to church instead of the van because the car needed gas the worst. It matters because the cheapest gas station around here is on the way to church, kind of in the country. It is always a couple of cents cheaper than the stations in town, which I find to be strange, because there is so much competition in town. There are at least 6 stations all within a mile or two of each other in town, and you would think that they would compete against each other and lower prices would be the result. But the cheapest is this little truck stop station that is 10 or 15 miles from any town and many miles away from the next gas station! (it does not even show up on either my KY gas prices link or the msn gas price page) You would think it would be a higher price since there is less competition! Who can figure gas stations out? I have also noticed on my Kentucky gas price do-hinky at the side of my blog that the lowest price in Kentucky is now down to $1.88/gallon! (at Mt. Sterling again) I am pleased with our $2.11/gal though because many of the highest price areas in Kentucky are towns all around us, here in eastern Kentucky. We are in a good gas price spot compared to those immediately around us!
Anyway, the car had gone its maximum 330 miles on the tank of gas and the needle was below the red "E". It took a full 16 gallons, which means it got a disappointing 20.8 miles per gallon. It had always gotten at least 22 miles per gallon in the past. (Of course the oil change on Friday may have already helped that.) The good news was that it only cost $34 to fill it all the way up. At the last price I filled the car up for ($2.45/gal) it would have been $39. I’ll take a $5 savings every time I fill up! I am also glad that it had dropped from that $2.19 price on Friday. By waiting a few days I saved 8 cents a gallon for $1.28 all together! You might say, “big deal, $1.28 is not much” but I say that it’s $1.28 more that I have in my pocket, and it can really add up after a short time. Now when we fill the van up, it will really be noticeable because it has a 30-gallon tank!
Speaking of the van, I will not have enough to fill it up this week because I’ve been spending money. The big purchases were the $30 oil change to start it off and then I bought another shotgun for $75. (too nice of a gun at too nice of a price to pass up) Tonight's fill up of $34 totals my spending at $139. That only left $83 out of my $222. I’ve also purchased several small things like a $3 lunch, a couple of $1 cokes, a $4 flashlight, $14 in ammunition for my new gun, and some other misc. items leaves me only $50 in my wallet now. If I were to get 30 gallons for the van it will cost over $63 even at $2.11/gal. I will probably only get $20 or $30 in the van and wait until we see how the groceries will run. My wife is planning another grocery trip probably tomorrow. She says we are low on many things but she still has all of her $200 from this pay period. The last shopping day was back on September 8th and she did not spend all of the $200 from that pay period, so maybe there will be some left for more gas? Or perhaps I’ll just wait until the next payday and then maybe we will have $1.88/gal gas like Mt. Sterling!
I am also looking at an S-10 pickup truck that runs good and looks nice for $1,300. My car’s days are numbered, I’m afraid. It needs breaks right now and the transmission has been slipping since last spring and the loud exhaust makes it sound more like a junker than it is. When the transmission goes I don’t think it will be worth fixing. I really like this little red 4-wheel drive truck! It seems to be well worth the price. It also gets the same gas mileage as my car and the air conditioner works! (my car’s does not) If I knew exactly when my car will die it would really help. The problem would be, however, that it only can have two passengers, whereas my car hauls 6. (the bucket seats in the truck are in good condition!) The other problem is that we would need to take most of the $1300 out of the credit union account, which is earmarked for keeping us warm this winter. We could maybe swing it, though, but we would then have very little for Christmas shopping.
Speaking of keeping warm, we will probably order the first fill-ups pretty soon. We still have some propane left from last year in the tank (we have already used it a couple of nights) and I want to wait as long as possible to order it, but before it gets so cold that we are in an emergency. I like to wait because that money in the credit union is earning interest, and the longer it sits in there, the more interest it earns. Even if it is only a couple of dollars, that’s a couple of dollars saved!
This post has gotten rather long to be just about money. It seems that it has been one continuous ramble, but I think it has helped me to remember where my money has gone from the last paycheck and to reflect on some of our future money decisions.
Anyway, the car had gone its maximum 330 miles on the tank of gas and the needle was below the red "E". It took a full 16 gallons, which means it got a disappointing 20.8 miles per gallon. It had always gotten at least 22 miles per gallon in the past. (Of course the oil change on Friday may have already helped that.) The good news was that it only cost $34 to fill it all the way up. At the last price I filled the car up for ($2.45/gal) it would have been $39. I’ll take a $5 savings every time I fill up! I am also glad that it had dropped from that $2.19 price on Friday. By waiting a few days I saved 8 cents a gallon for $1.28 all together! You might say, “big deal, $1.28 is not much” but I say that it’s $1.28 more that I have in my pocket, and it can really add up after a short time. Now when we fill the van up, it will really be noticeable because it has a 30-gallon tank!
Speaking of the van, I will not have enough to fill it up this week because I’ve been spending money. The big purchases were the $30 oil change to start it off and then I bought another shotgun for $75. (too nice of a gun at too nice of a price to pass up) Tonight's fill up of $34 totals my spending at $139. That only left $83 out of my $222. I’ve also purchased several small things like a $3 lunch, a couple of $1 cokes, a $4 flashlight, $14 in ammunition for my new gun, and some other misc. items leaves me only $50 in my wallet now. If I were to get 30 gallons for the van it will cost over $63 even at $2.11/gal. I will probably only get $20 or $30 in the van and wait until we see how the groceries will run. My wife is planning another grocery trip probably tomorrow. She says we are low on many things but she still has all of her $200 from this pay period. The last shopping day was back on September 8th and she did not spend all of the $200 from that pay period, so maybe there will be some left for more gas? Or perhaps I’ll just wait until the next payday and then maybe we will have $1.88/gal gas like Mt. Sterling!
I am also looking at an S-10 pickup truck that runs good and looks nice for $1,300. My car’s days are numbered, I’m afraid. It needs breaks right now and the transmission has been slipping since last spring and the loud exhaust makes it sound more like a junker than it is. When the transmission goes I don’t think it will be worth fixing. I really like this little red 4-wheel drive truck! It seems to be well worth the price. It also gets the same gas mileage as my car and the air conditioner works! (my car’s does not) If I knew exactly when my car will die it would really help. The problem would be, however, that it only can have two passengers, whereas my car hauls 6. (the bucket seats in the truck are in good condition!) The other problem is that we would need to take most of the $1300 out of the credit union account, which is earmarked for keeping us warm this winter. We could maybe swing it, though, but we would then have very little for Christmas shopping.
Speaking of keeping warm, we will probably order the first fill-ups pretty soon. We still have some propane left from last year in the tank (we have already used it a couple of nights) and I want to wait as long as possible to order it, but before it gets so cold that we are in an emergency. I like to wait because that money in the credit union is earning interest, and the longer it sits in there, the more interest it earns. Even if it is only a couple of dollars, that’s a couple of dollars saved!
This post has gotten rather long to be just about money. It seems that it has been one continuous ramble, but I think it has helped me to remember where my money has gone from the last paycheck and to reflect on some of our future money decisions.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
The Sky Is Falling
Rat-a-tat-tat-bing-ping-bing "Watch out, cover your heads!"
No, we were not under enemy fire from some hillbilly feud; it was just the sky falling!
Actually it is our chestnuts raining down from above! The three chestnut trees are right next to our house and on the other side of the trees there is an out building with a metal roof and when these chestnuts fall they make all kind of racket! Everyday there has been 5 to 10 chestnuts on the sidewalk leading to our front porch and we have even had chestnuts shoot up off a bounce and land on our porch before!
Do you know how heavy these chestnuts are falling? Why, a person could say that these chestnuts are falling at such a heavy rate, all you have to do is set a dozen or so empty bowls down under the trees and leave them there. Come back in 5 or 10 minutes and the bowls would be overflowing with nuts! But that would be exaggerating some... I could continue the tall tale by saying that these nuts are sooo big and heavy that they put dents all over the car that might get parked underneath the trees! And a person needs to be under a strong umbrella when they are collecting the bowlfuls or else they are liable to get knocked unconscious! But those statements would be exaggerating some too...
Actually it has been fairly hard work collecting the chestnuts because of all the stooping over to pick them up, and those sharp prickly hulls always hurt somehow, even wearing gloves! Also it takes quite a bit of searching through the grass and under leaves to find the chestnuts. They are all over but you still have to search them out. You also have to pry the hulls away from some of them to get the 2 or 3 nuts out. If I am collecting them by myself it takes about an hour to get the equivalent of a gallon bag full. I am trying to only keep the best ones and dispose of those that are already getting a bit moldy or if they have any crack or hole in it. I am also filling up large buckets (old 20 lb birdseed buckets) with the hulls to clear the yard so we can see when new ones have fallen. So far I have dumped 6 bucketfuls of the hulls across the road. (It just crossed my mind that they might be good in a compost pile? We have never done composting but it seems like it would be a great idea). We have been putting about a gallon bag of good looking, clean chestnuts in the refrigerator every day and we have 4 or 5 bags full now. (We still need to clean today and yesterday's harvest and put them in bags.) We read in The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery that you can keep them for several months in the refrigerator in bags with holes in them for air, and even longer in the freezer! We will see.
Tonight Lisa is trying a Chestnut Puree recipe from the Emery book to go with our supper. I am traditionally not a big nut eater but I really like the idea of eating good food that God is literally allowing to grow on trees for us and all we have to do is pick them up! Some sources call chestnuts "Tree Corn" because of all the excellent nutrition they contain and so many possible uses for it!
Eight-year-old Christina has had the most fun with the chestnut hunting and has been the biggest helper collecting them. She has not likened it to what I am about to mention, and Lisa thought I shouldn't point it out to her, either, because of our feeling toward it. What I am talking about is that searching through the grass for the nuts and being excited when you find some, reminds me of an annual spring event that my family does not partake of; an Easter Egg hunt.
It looks like this is a good time for me to chase a rabbit trail. Call me strange if you want, but eggs and bunnies really have nothing to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ and I think it is a tragedy that the "church" allows its children to get so excited about Easter Bunnies and Easter eggs and Easter candy. When they get older and can no longer participate in the egg hunts, just celebrating the resurrection of Jesus is boring for them and not very much "fun". At our home we try to keep the focus at Easter on celebrating Christ and do not want our children distracted with the nonsense of the world. The one or two egg hunts we did participate in left a bad taste with us, especially when the church does the hunt immediately following the Easter morning worship service! The children are generally not interested in the worship, only when it will be over so they can have fun. At least the church we are attending now does their egg hunt on Saturday and tries to use it as an outreach to the community. There are many children around who do not come to church except for things like that and it is possible that they will hear the gospel explained, but is seems difficult to me, and we did not participate. I did not mean to editorialize so much here. Maybe I will share more on our thoughts about Easter in the spring? This post is about our chestnuts! Anyway, my whole point is that it has been kind of fun searching for and finding the chestnuts. Children can have fun without all the worldly mechanisms in motion.
We would still like to hear from anyone that may have some experiences with benefiting from chestnuts and could suggest anything that may be helpful for us. There are still very many nuts on the trees so it looks like we should have several more days of collecting them. Other years we have collected the nuts, only to let most of them ruin. We are going to try hard not to let that happen this year!
1 comment
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mc2rwe on September 28, 2006 at 7:24 pm
Well I have no comments on the chestnuts but I applaud you on your lack of "bunny belief". We never allowed our children to participate in egg hunts or halloween celebrations. Much to the horror of most of our family… About a year ago my second son asked if he could have his share of the money that we saved on not buying all of that stuff when they were little… we just laughed.
Kathy
No, we were not under enemy fire from some hillbilly feud; it was just the sky falling!
Actually it is our chestnuts raining down from above! The three chestnut trees are right next to our house and on the other side of the trees there is an out building with a metal roof and when these chestnuts fall they make all kind of racket! Everyday there has been 5 to 10 chestnuts on the sidewalk leading to our front porch and we have even had chestnuts shoot up off a bounce and land on our porch before!
Do you know how heavy these chestnuts are falling? Why, a person could say that these chestnuts are falling at such a heavy rate, all you have to do is set a dozen or so empty bowls down under the trees and leave them there. Come back in 5 or 10 minutes and the bowls would be overflowing with nuts! But that would be exaggerating some... I could continue the tall tale by saying that these nuts are sooo big and heavy that they put dents all over the car that might get parked underneath the trees! And a person needs to be under a strong umbrella when they are collecting the bowlfuls or else they are liable to get knocked unconscious! But those statements would be exaggerating some too...
Actually it has been fairly hard work collecting the chestnuts because of all the stooping over to pick them up, and those sharp prickly hulls always hurt somehow, even wearing gloves! Also it takes quite a bit of searching through the grass and under leaves to find the chestnuts. They are all over but you still have to search them out. You also have to pry the hulls away from some of them to get the 2 or 3 nuts out. If I am collecting them by myself it takes about an hour to get the equivalent of a gallon bag full. I am trying to only keep the best ones and dispose of those that are already getting a bit moldy or if they have any crack or hole in it. I am also filling up large buckets (old 20 lb birdseed buckets) with the hulls to clear the yard so we can see when new ones have fallen. So far I have dumped 6 bucketfuls of the hulls across the road. (It just crossed my mind that they might be good in a compost pile? We have never done composting but it seems like it would be a great idea). We have been putting about a gallon bag of good looking, clean chestnuts in the refrigerator every day and we have 4 or 5 bags full now. (We still need to clean today and yesterday's harvest and put them in bags.) We read in The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery that you can keep them for several months in the refrigerator in bags with holes in them for air, and even longer in the freezer! We will see.
Tonight Lisa is trying a Chestnut Puree recipe from the Emery book to go with our supper. I am traditionally not a big nut eater but I really like the idea of eating good food that God is literally allowing to grow on trees for us and all we have to do is pick them up! Some sources call chestnuts "Tree Corn" because of all the excellent nutrition they contain and so many possible uses for it!
Eight-year-old Christina has had the most fun with the chestnut hunting and has been the biggest helper collecting them. She has not likened it to what I am about to mention, and Lisa thought I shouldn't point it out to her, either, because of our feeling toward it. What I am talking about is that searching through the grass for the nuts and being excited when you find some, reminds me of an annual spring event that my family does not partake of; an Easter Egg hunt.
It looks like this is a good time for me to chase a rabbit trail. Call me strange if you want, but eggs and bunnies really have nothing to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ and I think it is a tragedy that the "church" allows its children to get so excited about Easter Bunnies and Easter eggs and Easter candy. When they get older and can no longer participate in the egg hunts, just celebrating the resurrection of Jesus is boring for them and not very much "fun". At our home we try to keep the focus at Easter on celebrating Christ and do not want our children distracted with the nonsense of the world. The one or two egg hunts we did participate in left a bad taste with us, especially when the church does the hunt immediately following the Easter morning worship service! The children are generally not interested in the worship, only when it will be over so they can have fun. At least the church we are attending now does their egg hunt on Saturday and tries to use it as an outreach to the community. There are many children around who do not come to church except for things like that and it is possible that they will hear the gospel explained, but is seems difficult to me, and we did not participate. I did not mean to editorialize so much here. Maybe I will share more on our thoughts about Easter in the spring? This post is about our chestnuts! Anyway, my whole point is that it has been kind of fun searching for and finding the chestnuts. Children can have fun without all the worldly mechanisms in motion.
We would still like to hear from anyone that may have some experiences with benefiting from chestnuts and could suggest anything that may be helpful for us. There are still very many nuts on the trees so it looks like we should have several more days of collecting them. Other years we have collected the nuts, only to let most of them ruin. We are going to try hard not to let that happen this year!
1 comment
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mc2rwe on September 28, 2006 at 7:24 pm
Well I have no comments on the chestnuts but I applaud you on your lack of "bunny belief". We never allowed our children to participate in egg hunts or halloween celebrations. Much to the horror of most of our family… About a year ago my second son asked if he could have his share of the money that we saved on not buying all of that stuff when they were little… we just laughed.
Kathy
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Question about chickens not laying eggs
My previous post about our chickens contained more info than you may have wanted to know, but I was thinking about them because they have puzzled me during the month of September. The last eggs we have seen were on September 4th! Not one of the hens have laid an egg now for over 3 weeks and I am starting to get concerned. Since we are still fairly new to chicken raising we have never experienced a dry spell like this.
I have read about molting and figured that was what was going on at first. But should it be lasting this long? I am also puzzled that it has affected the flock as a whole. We have 9 good layers, but would they all molt and stop laying at the same exact time? Surely it shouldn't last this long, should it? Could there be another problem?
We have kept them in the lot for several days just to make sure they hadn't decided to start laying somewhere in the woods, and still no eggs. I have let them out for several consecutive days earlier than normal in case they needed some more bugs or something, and still no eggs. I have even switched their food from corn to Purina laying pellets and they have eaten about 40 pounds of it now, but still no eggs.
They seem to be healthy and content and not any different then when they were giving us 7 or 8 eggs a day. Introducing the 11 pullets was a little stressful but that was back in the summer and they all seem to be accepted now.
If anyone has any ideas, I would appreciate hearing them. I miss my eggs and the children miss collecting them! That was one of the chores that my 6 year old (Simon) and 8 year old (Christina) could handle pretty well and had fun doing.
Thanks.
4 comments
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------BuzyMumof3sons on September 26, 2006 at 3:07 pm
I just wanted to welcome your familly to homestead blogger! I'm looking forward to getting to know your family better.
I have heard that chickens can stop laying for awhile but hope that someone else is of more help as where we live in the city we are not allowed to have any outside animals! So I'm not really sure!
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mc2rwe on September 28, 2006 at 2:23 pm
Chickens can be a fickle bunch. Have you changed up their routine in any way? Have you started feeding them different food? They are like many humans (me included) that thrive with a set schedule. I have had my chickens (all of them) not lay for up to a month. In fact, they are in such a state right now. I also know that certain breeds will not lay in the winter months when it gets colder.
Hope this helps..
Kathy
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Purewater on September 28, 2006 at 7:22 pm
Thank you for that thought. When I looked back at the calendar I noticed that we tore out their old roosts and put new ones in on Aug. 26 and also cleaned the coop out real good. They stopped laying 9 days later. Maybe that contributed to it? I was happy but suprised to get 1 egg today! Perhaps they will be OK. Thanks again.
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Marcella on September 30, 2006 at 8:28 pm
Eric,
Yes, they'll all stop laying around the same time. Molt and the shortening daylight hours usually lead to the end of the laying season. None of our hens are laying (that I know of).
Hope this helps
I have read about molting and figured that was what was going on at first. But should it be lasting this long? I am also puzzled that it has affected the flock as a whole. We have 9 good layers, but would they all molt and stop laying at the same exact time? Surely it shouldn't last this long, should it? Could there be another problem?
We have kept them in the lot for several days just to make sure they hadn't decided to start laying somewhere in the woods, and still no eggs. I have let them out for several consecutive days earlier than normal in case they needed some more bugs or something, and still no eggs. I have even switched their food from corn to Purina laying pellets and they have eaten about 40 pounds of it now, but still no eggs.
They seem to be healthy and content and not any different then when they were giving us 7 or 8 eggs a day. Introducing the 11 pullets was a little stressful but that was back in the summer and they all seem to be accepted now.
If anyone has any ideas, I would appreciate hearing them. I miss my eggs and the children miss collecting them! That was one of the chores that my 6 year old (Simon) and 8 year old (Christina) could handle pretty well and had fun doing.
Thanks.
4 comments
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------BuzyMumof3sons on September 26, 2006 at 3:07 pm
I just wanted to welcome your familly to homestead blogger! I'm looking forward to getting to know your family better.
I have heard that chickens can stop laying for awhile but hope that someone else is of more help as where we live in the city we are not allowed to have any outside animals! So I'm not really sure!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mc2rwe on September 28, 2006 at 2:23 pm
Chickens can be a fickle bunch. Have you changed up their routine in any way? Have you started feeding them different food? They are like many humans (me included) that thrive with a set schedule. I have had my chickens (all of them) not lay for up to a month. In fact, they are in such a state right now. I also know that certain breeds will not lay in the winter months when it gets colder.
Hope this helps..
Kathy
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Purewater on September 28, 2006 at 7:22 pm
Thank you for that thought. When I looked back at the calendar I noticed that we tore out their old roosts and put new ones in on Aug. 26 and also cleaned the coop out real good. They stopped laying 9 days later. Maybe that contributed to it? I was happy but suprised to get 1 egg today! Perhaps they will be OK. Thanks again.
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Marcella on September 30, 2006 at 8:28 pm
Eric,
Yes, they'll all stop laying around the same time. Molt and the shortening daylight hours usually lead to the end of the laying season. None of our hens are laying (that I know of).
Hope this helps
The Story of the Pure Water Hollow Chickens -OR- The Legend of Big Daddy Dommer
The Pure Water Hollow flock was practically decimated and the remainder was unruly and undisciplined and seemingly only good for coon fodder. The grand chicken experiment had been declared a total failure!
But then, from out of the west, came a bold hero, a champion! The flock’s savior had arrived! Who was that masked man, I mean barred rooster? He became known as Big Daddy Dommer!
Our current chicken story began on a sunny day in May when a friend from down the road brought us six game hens and one game rooster. (This was from a particular line that had produced losses at the chicken fights. We do not appreciate chicken fights but they are very popular around here, and we were happy to get the chickens.) We were not interested in the fights but figured that they should be able to give us nice farm fresh eggs. And they did at first! They laid 75 eggs between May 24 and June 19 and they stayed in the coop pretty good! Since we were having such good success, we decided to take another hen and 13 more pullets from those same friends. We did not know at the time that it would be a big mistake!
So, the Pure Water Hollow flock started out with 21 head that fateful summer of 2004. Unfortunately, the new pullets and hen never got along with the first six. They turned crazy and they all decided to fly the coop! Literally! Not even the original six were staying in the lot anymore. The rooster fought with the pullets and they fought with each other and the hens started fighting each other and the pullets. Things were not happy on this chicken farm and we had no idea what to do. We went out night after night to try to get the chickens out of the trees and put them in the coop. We could usually get some but not all.
Throughout July and August and September the flock gradually dwindled down as the wild animals picked them off one by one. The silly rooster was one of the first to disappear. We got some eggs during this time but nothing regular and they sure did not want to lay in the nests we provided. We had to hunt for their nests, which was not fun. These game hens were so crazy that we actually found an egg once in a tree wedged between two branches! What kind of chickens lay eggs up in trees? We had gotten tired of fooling with them and decided that we would start again sometime in the future with a more tame breed.
By October the flock was down to only 4 wild, crazy hens.
That was when a mysterious stranger from over the mountain rode into town. He was big and stocky, with a muscular build, making two of our old game rooster. He called for the hens and they gladly followed their new leader. He was black and white barred and we thought he looked a lot like the pictures of the Dominique breed of chickens. He does not have the rose shaped comb but he sure looks like the pictures besides that. I guess he is just a common farm chicken but the children named him “Dommer” after "Dominique" anyway. We didn’t know at the time that he would stay around and become our miracle rooster. We just let him roost in the trees with those wild game hens at first.
One of the hens got hit in the road but the other three survived the winter and Dommer stayed with them the whole time. We just let them be wild chickens and did not even try to keep them in the coop. I don’t know for sure if Dommer was actually keeping the wild animals away but it seemed like it.
Then in the spring of 2005 we noticed baby chicks running all around with the game hens! (Everyone calls them bitties around here.) We got to counting them and found that each of the three hens hatched 10 or 11 for a total of 31 bitties! Sadly, we were not in the best position to care for them and I guess they were too many for Big Daddy Dommer to keep up with. Only 18 of them survived, 10 pullets and 8 cockerels, and every one of them are barred and look like Dommer!
On May 28, 2005 we built a better more secure lot to keep them in and this time it worked! It seemed that Dommer liked the coop and promptly ordered his flock to their new roosts. The chickens all go into the coop voluntarily now, following Dommer’s lead, and they stay in the lot if we keep it closed!
Most every afternoon we let them out to pick through the grass and find dust baths and then they all go to the coop when they are ready to roost. By winter, the 10 pullets had turned into fine layers and the 3 game hens began laying again too. (Before the fall was over the 8 cockerels provided good food for the table and freezer!)
Throughout 2006 we had good success with our egg production. I started to copy the totals for each month here in this post, but decided that it would have made some boring reading so I’ll just give you the grand total: 874 eggs from January 1st to August 31st! We thought that was pretty good considering that not all of them were laying at the beginning of the year and the most hens we had was 13. Plus, through the spring, many of them went to setting and quit laying eggs. Sadly it was a rough summer with the wild animals and a dog and we lost 4 hens and many more new bitties. (one small dog can kill a mama and 15 bitties in just a couple of minutes)
We now have 9 mature hens and 11 new pullets (all look like Big Daddy) that have not started laying yet. And we still have Big Daddy Dommer looking after them all. We are thankful for what the Lord has provided for us and I now enjoy taking care of the Pure Water Hollow flock of chickens.
Now you know the story of how a mysterious rooster named Big Daddy Dommer saved the Pure Water Hollow chicken flock! It is the stuff legends are made of that I’m sure we will remember long after Big Daddy has moved on…
This has gotten rather long so I will save the question that I had on my mind for a later post...
3 comments
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Crooked Creek Farm on September 26, 2006 at 7:44 am
that's a lotta eggs! We're still waiting for the 30 new hens we got this spring, as chicks, to start laying. Our older hens are slacking, too.
That's pretty cool, that a rooster would just show up and start taking care of your hens!
Thanks for your comment,
I'll have some new posts up soon!
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Renee on September 26, 2006 at 4:57 pm
Hello!
I thought we knew you all so well and now I am getting to know the other-side of you. I feel guilty that I didn't know about your chicken's and your rooster. We need to talk more! We need time together without holiday's and such. It' s sad to have to learn about your new found hobbies and your name for your land from a blog…. We Love you all!! Please keep writing so we get to know you all a little bit better:)
Renee
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The Unlikely Homesteader on May 9, 2007 at 10:20 am
You need to post a comment on the chicken contest and enter. I just love reading everyone's chicken stories!
~Nancy
But then, from out of the west, came a bold hero, a champion! The flock’s savior had arrived! Who was that masked man, I mean barred rooster? He became known as Big Daddy Dommer!
Here is Dommer's handsome profile.
Our current chicken story began on a sunny day in May when a friend from down the road brought us six game hens and one game rooster. (This was from a particular line that had produced losses at the chicken fights. We do not appreciate chicken fights but they are very popular around here, and we were happy to get the chickens.) We were not interested in the fights but figured that they should be able to give us nice farm fresh eggs. And they did at first! They laid 75 eggs between May 24 and June 19 and they stayed in the coop pretty good! Since we were having such good success, we decided to take another hen and 13 more pullets from those same friends. We did not know at the time that it would be a big mistake!
So, the Pure Water Hollow flock started out with 21 head that fateful summer of 2004. Unfortunately, the new pullets and hen never got along with the first six. They turned crazy and they all decided to fly the coop! Literally! Not even the original six were staying in the lot anymore. The rooster fought with the pullets and they fought with each other and the hens started fighting each other and the pullets. Things were not happy on this chicken farm and we had no idea what to do. We went out night after night to try to get the chickens out of the trees and put them in the coop. We could usually get some but not all.
Throughout July and August and September the flock gradually dwindled down as the wild animals picked them off one by one. The silly rooster was one of the first to disappear. We got some eggs during this time but nothing regular and they sure did not want to lay in the nests we provided. We had to hunt for their nests, which was not fun. These game hens were so crazy that we actually found an egg once in a tree wedged between two branches! What kind of chickens lay eggs up in trees? We had gotten tired of fooling with them and decided that we would start again sometime in the future with a more tame breed.
By October the flock was down to only 4 wild, crazy hens.
That was when a mysterious stranger from over the mountain rode into town. He was big and stocky, with a muscular build, making two of our old game rooster. He called for the hens and they gladly followed their new leader. He was black and white barred and we thought he looked a lot like the pictures of the Dominique breed of chickens. He does not have the rose shaped comb but he sure looks like the pictures besides that. I guess he is just a common farm chicken but the children named him “Dommer” after "Dominique" anyway. We didn’t know at the time that he would stay around and become our miracle rooster. We just let him roost in the trees with those wild game hens at first.
One of the hens got hit in the road but the other three survived the winter and Dommer stayed with them the whole time. We just let them be wild chickens and did not even try to keep them in the coop. I don’t know for sure if Dommer was actually keeping the wild animals away but it seemed like it.
Then in the spring of 2005 we noticed baby chicks running all around with the game hens! (Everyone calls them bitties around here.) We got to counting them and found that each of the three hens hatched 10 or 11 for a total of 31 bitties! Sadly, we were not in the best position to care for them and I guess they were too many for Big Daddy Dommer to keep up with. Only 18 of them survived, 10 pullets and 8 cockerels, and every one of them are barred and look like Dommer!
On May 28, 2005 we built a better more secure lot to keep them in and this time it worked! It seemed that Dommer liked the coop and promptly ordered his flock to their new roosts. The chickens all go into the coop voluntarily now, following Dommer’s lead, and they stay in the lot if we keep it closed!
Most every afternoon we let them out to pick through the grass and find dust baths and then they all go to the coop when they are ready to roost. By winter, the 10 pullets had turned into fine layers and the 3 game hens began laying again too. (Before the fall was over the 8 cockerels provided good food for the table and freezer!)
Throughout 2006 we had good success with our egg production. I started to copy the totals for each month here in this post, but decided that it would have made some boring reading so I’ll just give you the grand total: 874 eggs from January 1st to August 31st! We thought that was pretty good considering that not all of them were laying at the beginning of the year and the most hens we had was 13. Plus, through the spring, many of them went to setting and quit laying eggs. Sadly it was a rough summer with the wild animals and a dog and we lost 4 hens and many more new bitties. (one small dog can kill a mama and 15 bitties in just a couple of minutes)
We now have 9 mature hens and 11 new pullets (all look like Big Daddy) that have not started laying yet. And we still have Big Daddy Dommer looking after them all. We are thankful for what the Lord has provided for us and I now enjoy taking care of the Pure Water Hollow flock of chickens.
Now you know the story of how a mysterious rooster named Big Daddy Dommer saved the Pure Water Hollow chicken flock! It is the stuff legends are made of that I’m sure we will remember long after Big Daddy has moved on…
This has gotten rather long so I will save the question that I had on my mind for a later post...
3 comments
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Crooked Creek Farm on September 26, 2006 at 7:44 am
that's a lotta eggs! We're still waiting for the 30 new hens we got this spring, as chicks, to start laying. Our older hens are slacking, too.
That's pretty cool, that a rooster would just show up and start taking care of your hens!
Thanks for your comment,
I'll have some new posts up soon!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Renee on September 26, 2006 at 4:57 pm
Hello!
I thought we knew you all so well and now I am getting to know the other-side of you. I feel guilty that I didn't know about your chicken's and your rooster. We need to talk more! We need time together without holiday's and such. It' s sad to have to learn about your new found hobbies and your name for your land from a blog…. We Love you all!! Please keep writing so we get to know you all a little bit better:)
Renee
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Unlikely Homesteader on May 9, 2007 at 10:20 am
You need to post a comment on the chicken contest and enter. I just love reading everyone's chicken stories!
~Nancy
Monday, September 25, 2006
From Hillbilly Girl to Country Lady – OR – The Queen of Pure Water Hollow
I am hoping to pay tribute to my wonderfully talented, beautiful, intelligent and loving wife, Lisa, in this writing. I am tremendously blessed in innumerable ways through her life intertwining with mine and I am so very thankful to my Lord and Savior for allowing she and I to be husband and wife, to be one flesh in Him. She is a remarkable lady of exquisite country charms and a down to earth personality that everyone loves. She also possesses all the power and elegance of a queen. She is the Queen of our home and the Queen of our Pure Water Hollow!
I've written about my personal "homesteading" experiences, or lack of them, previously. I have so much to learn! It seems that Lisa, on the other hand, was destined to be an ideal "homesteader" from her early days being brought up as a "hillbilly" in the mountains of southern Kentucky! I hope no one is offended by the term "hillbilly". I realize that the term has been used very derogatorily in many places and I truly do not mean any disrespect toward her family. Many mountain folk take a certain amount of pride in the term "hillbilly", even though it was originally meant as an insult. The term conjures up for me images of self-reliant people dependent upon the land where they live; folks having strong family and community values and who pick and grin (music) with friends and family; people who will not take any nonsense from any outsiders and will stand up for their rights and protect their homes. The term also brings with it pictures of poverty and superstitions and lack of education. Some "hillbillies" ran moonshine stills and were cutthroats but others were honest, hard working, God-fearing people.
It seems Lisa grew up with most of the stereotypes of the hillbilly all around her. Thankfully, however, none in her immediate family were moon shiners or complete cutthroats! Education was very important to her family, also, even though her father did not go to high school himself. Most of the eight siblings went to college and all of them became successful, affluent people in their fields and communities. This fact is most remarkable when you understand that theirs was a true "hillbilly" family in many ways.
The term "homesteading" today is used for the state of mind of being self-sufficient. To many, homesteading is kind of like a hobby, and it is a wonderful hobby! I guess we would fall into that category today; we want to live closer to nature but life has not yet forced it on us. For Lisa's family, the homesteading movement would have seemed very funny to them, because country living was a necessity for them, not a hobby. Lisa grew up skinning squirrels and rabbits and other game that her brothers would bring in and she was known as a good fisherman and a pretty good shot as well! She learned how to butcher and prepare chickens for the table and learned about many wild herbs and plants as well as the garden vegetables they would grow and preserve. She drew water from their well every day to drink and to keep them clean and helped her mom make clothes and quilts to keep them warm. Her dad played the guitar and perhaps some other instruments and Lisa learned, too. She and her brother and sister would sing on the front porch and in church. She did not have much as far as the world looks at things, but a "hillbilly" upbringing has its own advantages!
While Lisa was away at college, a silly "city boy" swept her off her feet. God was in the arrangements and we were talking about marriage just a month after we met. Even though she could maybe have been classified as a "hillbilly girl", she has always been very much a classy lady in my eyes. Lisa has all the charm and class of her country upbringings tucked down inside her royal persona as the “Queen of Pure Water Hollow”. Most importantly she is my Queen and I love her wholeheartedly!
5 comments
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Homestead Originals... on September 25, 2006 at 6:02 pm
You ARE Blessed!!
From Another Hillbilly (who takes pride in that term) named Lisa
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mc2rwe on September 25, 2006 at 6:10 pm
You are very blessed indeed to have your wife. I think she probably is very happy to claim you as her husband too.
Blessings
Kathy
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Suze on September 25, 2006 at 6:10 pm
What a wonderful tribute. Thank you so much for sharing it with us. Blessings!
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HSB Front Porch on September 26, 2006 at 11:02 pm
It's great to have you join us. What a precious tribute to your wife. May you alll be blessed.
~Nancy
Senior Editor
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Livin'theMontanaDream on September 26, 2006 at 11:42 pm
The description you gave of a "hillbilly" is exactly what comes to mind when hearing the word. I like it! Sounds like I would like your wife too Thanks for introducing her to us. I am enjoying your blog.
Darcy
I've written about my personal "homesteading" experiences, or lack of them, previously. I have so much to learn! It seems that Lisa, on the other hand, was destined to be an ideal "homesteader" from her early days being brought up as a "hillbilly" in the mountains of southern Kentucky! I hope no one is offended by the term "hillbilly". I realize that the term has been used very derogatorily in many places and I truly do not mean any disrespect toward her family. Many mountain folk take a certain amount of pride in the term "hillbilly", even though it was originally meant as an insult. The term conjures up for me images of self-reliant people dependent upon the land where they live; folks having strong family and community values and who pick and grin (music) with friends and family; people who will not take any nonsense from any outsiders and will stand up for their rights and protect their homes. The term also brings with it pictures of poverty and superstitions and lack of education. Some "hillbillies" ran moonshine stills and were cutthroats but others were honest, hard working, God-fearing people.
It seems Lisa grew up with most of the stereotypes of the hillbilly all around her. Thankfully, however, none in her immediate family were moon shiners or complete cutthroats! Education was very important to her family, also, even though her father did not go to high school himself. Most of the eight siblings went to college and all of them became successful, affluent people in their fields and communities. This fact is most remarkable when you understand that theirs was a true "hillbilly" family in many ways.
The term "homesteading" today is used for the state of mind of being self-sufficient. To many, homesteading is kind of like a hobby, and it is a wonderful hobby! I guess we would fall into that category today; we want to live closer to nature but life has not yet forced it on us. For Lisa's family, the homesteading movement would have seemed very funny to them, because country living was a necessity for them, not a hobby. Lisa grew up skinning squirrels and rabbits and other game that her brothers would bring in and she was known as a good fisherman and a pretty good shot as well! She learned how to butcher and prepare chickens for the table and learned about many wild herbs and plants as well as the garden vegetables they would grow and preserve. She drew water from their well every day to drink and to keep them clean and helped her mom make clothes and quilts to keep them warm. Her dad played the guitar and perhaps some other instruments and Lisa learned, too. She and her brother and sister would sing on the front porch and in church. She did not have much as far as the world looks at things, but a "hillbilly" upbringing has its own advantages!
While Lisa was away at college, a silly "city boy" swept her off her feet. God was in the arrangements and we were talking about marriage just a month after we met. Even though she could maybe have been classified as a "hillbilly girl", she has always been very much a classy lady in my eyes. Lisa has all the charm and class of her country upbringings tucked down inside her royal persona as the “Queen of Pure Water Hollow”. Most importantly she is my Queen and I love her wholeheartedly!
5 comments
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Homestead Originals... on September 25, 2006 at 6:02 pm
You ARE Blessed!!
From Another Hillbilly (who takes pride in that term) named Lisa
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mc2rwe on September 25, 2006 at 6:10 pm
You are very blessed indeed to have your wife. I think she probably is very happy to claim you as her husband too.
Blessings
Kathy
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Suze on September 25, 2006 at 6:10 pm
What a wonderful tribute. Thank you so much for sharing it with us. Blessings!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HSB Front Porch on September 26, 2006 at 11:02 pm
It's great to have you join us. What a precious tribute to your wife. May you alll be blessed.
~Nancy
Senior Editor
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Livin'theMontanaDream on September 26, 2006 at 11:42 pm
The description you gave of a "hillbilly" is exactly what comes to mind when hearing the word. I like it! Sounds like I would like your wife too Thanks for introducing her to us. I am enjoying your blog.
Darcy
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Attack of the Yellowjackets!
We were enjoying our usual Sunday afternoon walk today when we heard our 6-year-old son, Simon, screaming on the trail ahead of us. I had just made the remark to my wife that we had not taken this particular trail for quite a while when the screaming began.
I wish I could say that I reacted like lightning but to be honest, Simon, like most 6 year olds, has a habit of sometimes screaming when there is no real emergency. I at first thought it was one of those instances, but then someone shouted, "Bees, run!" I noticed that Simon was jumping up and down and swatting at hornets or something. My other son and daughter who were with us took off while Lisa, my wife, and I frantically moved Simon away from the swarm and tried to get the hornets off him, and then we swiftly moved away some more because it seemed that they were still flying all around.
When we finally got back to the house there were still some stingers in Simon's arms. The poor little guy had gotten stung 8 times on his left arm, 3 times on his right arm, and 3 times on his neck and head! We got all the stingers out and put baking soda paste on the stings and he began to calm down. Thankfully there was no allergic reaction, although we were wondering about the red streaks that had appeared on his arms and back. They gradually went away and Simon thought a bath might make him feel better. He just got out of the water a minute ago and he is acting like his old self again, only a couple hours after the attack. He is a tough little man!
After looking at the internet at various bees and hornets, we have decided that Simon was the victim of a Yellow Jacket attack. They build their nests in the ground and Simon had his little blue shovel with him, stabbing the ground and shoveling here and there and digging out briers or what ever. He must have stabbed his shovel right in a nest of Yellow Jackets!
There is still a little daylight out so we are going to venture back outside! Simon wants to, also! We maybe will stay away from that trail for the most part, but I am going to try and see if I can tell where the entrance of the Yellow Jacket nest is, if everything is pretty calm. We are probably going to go up the mountain by way of the dirt road this time.
We are still hoping to check on our walnut trees and just enjoy this day that the Lord has made.
After reading that last line out loud to the family, Simon began the chorus "This is the Day that the Lord hath made." And the whole family joined in.
2 comments
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GrandmaRosie on September 24, 2006 at 11:17 pm
Sorry to hear about this. But it looks like the little fellow handled it manfully. We have had an unreal amount of hornets, yellow jackets and dirt dobbers this year. It is starting to cool off here in my part of Texas now so maybe some of them will die off.
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Out in the Garden on September 25, 2006 at 4:25 pm
I'm sorry to hear about Simon's encounter, yellowjacket stings hurt! I hope he is okay now. In years past I have had to battle yellowjackets quite a bit – and not in the backwoods. They make nests right in the middle of our yard! Once they managed to nest in the outside wall of our house. This is the time of year that I begin being extra cautious when push mowing the grass.
If you go back to the nest that Simon "found", you may be surprised to find that they have left. Several times when I have disturbed a nest with the mower and they have stung me, they move to a different location a short distance away. Maybe that is an extra defense strategy that they use. Remember, they thought Simon was attacking them! Anyway, I just found your blog and read every entry. You are doing a fantastic job! Keep up the great posts! I will check back often. God bless you, your wife, and children!
I wish I could say that I reacted like lightning but to be honest, Simon, like most 6 year olds, has a habit of sometimes screaming when there is no real emergency. I at first thought it was one of those instances, but then someone shouted, "Bees, run!" I noticed that Simon was jumping up and down and swatting at hornets or something. My other son and daughter who were with us took off while Lisa, my wife, and I frantically moved Simon away from the swarm and tried to get the hornets off him, and then we swiftly moved away some more because it seemed that they were still flying all around.
When we finally got back to the house there were still some stingers in Simon's arms. The poor little guy had gotten stung 8 times on his left arm, 3 times on his right arm, and 3 times on his neck and head! We got all the stingers out and put baking soda paste on the stings and he began to calm down. Thankfully there was no allergic reaction, although we were wondering about the red streaks that had appeared on his arms and back. They gradually went away and Simon thought a bath might make him feel better. He just got out of the water a minute ago and he is acting like his old self again, only a couple hours after the attack. He is a tough little man!
After looking at the internet at various bees and hornets, we have decided that Simon was the victim of a Yellow Jacket attack. They build their nests in the ground and Simon had his little blue shovel with him, stabbing the ground and shoveling here and there and digging out briers or what ever. He must have stabbed his shovel right in a nest of Yellow Jackets!
There is still a little daylight out so we are going to venture back outside! Simon wants to, also! We maybe will stay away from that trail for the most part, but I am going to try and see if I can tell where the entrance of the Yellow Jacket nest is, if everything is pretty calm. We are probably going to go up the mountain by way of the dirt road this time.
We are still hoping to check on our walnut trees and just enjoy this day that the Lord has made.
After reading that last line out loud to the family, Simon began the chorus "This is the Day that the Lord hath made." And the whole family joined in.
2 comments
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GrandmaRosie on September 24, 2006 at 11:17 pm
Sorry to hear about this. But it looks like the little fellow handled it manfully. We have had an unreal amount of hornets, yellow jackets and dirt dobbers this year. It is starting to cool off here in my part of Texas now so maybe some of them will die off.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Out in the Garden on September 25, 2006 at 4:25 pm
I'm sorry to hear about Simon's encounter, yellowjacket stings hurt! I hope he is okay now. In years past I have had to battle yellowjackets quite a bit – and not in the backwoods. They make nests right in the middle of our yard! Once they managed to nest in the outside wall of our house. This is the time of year that I begin being extra cautious when push mowing the grass.
If you go back to the nest that Simon "found", you may be surprised to find that they have left. Several times when I have disturbed a nest with the mower and they have stung me, they move to a different location a short distance away. Maybe that is an extra defense strategy that they use. Remember, they thought Simon was attacking them! Anyway, I just found your blog and read every entry. You are doing a fantastic job! Keep up the great posts! I will check back often. God bless you, your wife, and children!
The LORD of Pure Water Hollow
We recognize that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (James 1:17).
By referencing the "Father of Lights" I am not speaking of Allah, or Buddha, or of the Watchtower, or of some spirit being that was once like us, and that we will one day be like. I am speaking of the one, true God of the Holy Bible who created the world and all that is in it in 6 literal days; who saved Noah and his family through a cataclysmic global flood when He destroyed the earth because mankind’s deeds were evil continually; who loved the world so much that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be the perfect sinless sacrifice that was needed as an atonement for sins; who saves whosoever will come to Him with true faith and repentance. I could go on and on, but I am talking about a God who is powerful and a Savior who is personal.
Salvation is one of those good and perfect gifts that only He can give. I am saved and on my way to Heaven, not because of any good thing that I have done, but because of what Jesus has done in me! When I claimed His blood on my life and repented of my sins and asked Him to come into my heart, He did! God declared me righteous from that moment on. A holy and just God looks at me now, and He does not see my sin and shame, but He sees His Son’s righteousness and sacrifice. Praise Him forever more!
Since every good and every perfect gift comes from God we are keenly aware that He has given us the piece of land we now call “Pure Water Hollow” to take care of. It is really His and we are to be good stewards of it! He is the Lord of Pure Water Hollow and we give Him all honor and glory for creating such a wonderful place and allowing us to be a part of it.
“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Rev 4:11)
Each success that we have, we will give credit to the Lord. He sends the sunshine and the rain; He sends the harvest’s golden grain! Every failure we experience we will thank Him for the lessons we learn. Everything we do here, we want it to glorify God in some way.
Before we moved here in 1993 we made it a matter of prayer. It seemed that God had worked a miracle to allow us to be able to buy this property for such a low amount. We had no doubt that it was God’s will and His timing so we went ahead. There turned out to be some trials before we even closed the deal but God helped us through them! When it was finally time to begin moving into the house we decided there were some things we should do first. Before we moved any items into the house I made a point to hold out a Bible in front of me as we walked into the door for the first time as “owners”. This was to symbolically state that the Word of God was the first and foremost occupant of our new home. We prayed for God’s protection and leading and blessing on this place. We prayed that He would help us to have a Godly home and that this place would be pleasing to Him for as long as we were here. We gave the house and all the land back to Him before we even took possession of it! We knew, even as a young Christian couple, that
“Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it”(Psalm 127:1)
God has greatly blessed us over the years that followed. Each of our four children in turn gave their hearts to the Lord and was saved in that very living room where we prayed that first blessing on our home! Glory to God in the highest! Thank you Jesus! The words in Joshua 24:15 were always true for us, but they became even more special after our fourth child was saved.
“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Before we had children, my wife and I had already given our lives and future to Him when we were married. Jesus Christ is at the center of our marriage as well as at the center of our family and of course, the center of anything we do here at Pure Water Hollow!
There is only one Lord of Pure Water Hollow and thankfully it is not I, but the Great I Am!
1 comment
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Homestead Originals... on September 24, 2006 at 9:31 am
Have a blessed day in the Lord
Lisa
By referencing the "Father of Lights" I am not speaking of Allah, or Buddha, or of the Watchtower, or of some spirit being that was once like us, and that we will one day be like. I am speaking of the one, true God of the Holy Bible who created the world and all that is in it in 6 literal days; who saved Noah and his family through a cataclysmic global flood when He destroyed the earth because mankind’s deeds were evil continually; who loved the world so much that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be the perfect sinless sacrifice that was needed as an atonement for sins; who saves whosoever will come to Him with true faith and repentance. I could go on and on, but I am talking about a God who is powerful and a Savior who is personal.
Salvation is one of those good and perfect gifts that only He can give. I am saved and on my way to Heaven, not because of any good thing that I have done, but because of what Jesus has done in me! When I claimed His blood on my life and repented of my sins and asked Him to come into my heart, He did! God declared me righteous from that moment on. A holy and just God looks at me now, and He does not see my sin and shame, but He sees His Son’s righteousness and sacrifice. Praise Him forever more!
Since every good and every perfect gift comes from God we are keenly aware that He has given us the piece of land we now call “Pure Water Hollow” to take care of. It is really His and we are to be good stewards of it! He is the Lord of Pure Water Hollow and we give Him all honor and glory for creating such a wonderful place and allowing us to be a part of it.
“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Rev 4:11)
Each success that we have, we will give credit to the Lord. He sends the sunshine and the rain; He sends the harvest’s golden grain! Every failure we experience we will thank Him for the lessons we learn. Everything we do here, we want it to glorify God in some way.
Before we moved here in 1993 we made it a matter of prayer. It seemed that God had worked a miracle to allow us to be able to buy this property for such a low amount. We had no doubt that it was God’s will and His timing so we went ahead. There turned out to be some trials before we even closed the deal but God helped us through them! When it was finally time to begin moving into the house we decided there were some things we should do first. Before we moved any items into the house I made a point to hold out a Bible in front of me as we walked into the door for the first time as “owners”. This was to symbolically state that the Word of God was the first and foremost occupant of our new home. We prayed for God’s protection and leading and blessing on this place. We prayed that He would help us to have a Godly home and that this place would be pleasing to Him for as long as we were here. We gave the house and all the land back to Him before we even took possession of it! We knew, even as a young Christian couple, that
“Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it”(Psalm 127:1)
God has greatly blessed us over the years that followed. Each of our four children in turn gave their hearts to the Lord and was saved in that very living room where we prayed that first blessing on our home! Glory to God in the highest! Thank you Jesus! The words in Joshua 24:15 were always true for us, but they became even more special after our fourth child was saved.
“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Before we had children, my wife and I had already given our lives and future to Him when we were married. Jesus Christ is at the center of our marriage as well as at the center of our family and of course, the center of anything we do here at Pure Water Hollow!
There is only one Lord of Pure Water Hollow and thankfully it is not I, but the Great I Am!
1 comment
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Homestead Originals... on September 24, 2006 at 9:31 am
Have a blessed day in the Lord
Lisa
Saturday, September 23, 2006
How Do You Make Chestnut Flour?
We have three large chestnut trees near our house and they are again loaded with nuts this year. Today's and last night's hard rains have brought many chestnuts down and we have already harvested a bowl full. We sometimes eat them raw but would really like to know how to turn them into chestnut flour. We have found many sources on the web that sells chestnut flour and many recipies that calls for chestnut flour, but no suggestions of the best way to make chestnut flour! We have ordered a grain mill that we think should work, but we are not sure exactly what to do. My wife, Lisa, thinks we would roast them first?
Also does anyone know how to preserve them until Christmas? We have never been able to have chestnuts roasted on an open fire at Christmas time because they are moldy and bug eaten by then.
I realize that this is kind of early to already be asking questions because not many of you are looking at this blog yet. We would welcome any suggestions, even if you don't find this until November or December or whenever. Perhaps you will help us be better ready for next year even if it might be too late this year!
The Lord always seems to give us an abundance of chestnuts and we always feel that we are letting a great blessing go to waste by not utlilizing them better. So if you have any good ideas besides making chestnut flour let us know them also! Thanks in advance.
1 comment
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Morning Sunshine on September 23, 2006 at 4:54 pm
This has the old fashioned way… I think there must be an easier way now….
http://italianfood.about.com/library/rec/blr0282.htm
Welcome to the homesteading family! I have enjoyed your blogs. I will be returning often, I think. You seem to have a lot of good things to share. May I add you to my friend list?
Purewater:
I have copied an interesting paragraph from the above referenced web site about drying the chestnuts and pasted it here. Thank you Morning Sunshine! Add me to your friend list because I have already added you to ours.
"Of course, in the past the farmers who survived on chestnuts didn't sit around the fire roasting them, though some of their crop certainly did meet that end. The rest went into a drying hut, whose design (and name) varied from region to region; it was generally a small two story building, and come harvest time they would light a fire in the ground floor room. Directly above the fire was a stone heat shield to protect the beams supporting the second floor, which was spread with the chestnut crop; the heat rose and dried out the chestnuts, while the smoke that filtered up killed the worms that do get into chestnuts and might otherwise have eaten their way through the harvest. The fire was never allowed to go out, and on chill nights the farmers and their families would gather in the fire room to enjoy the warmth and pass the time, swapping stories and telling tales.
Dried chestnuts can either be boiled, ground up into flour, or used as ingredients in other dishes."
Also does anyone know how to preserve them until Christmas? We have never been able to have chestnuts roasted on an open fire at Christmas time because they are moldy and bug eaten by then.
I realize that this is kind of early to already be asking questions because not many of you are looking at this blog yet. We would welcome any suggestions, even if you don't find this until November or December or whenever. Perhaps you will help us be better ready for next year even if it might be too late this year!
The Lord always seems to give us an abundance of chestnuts and we always feel that we are letting a great blessing go to waste by not utlilizing them better. So if you have any good ideas besides making chestnut flour let us know them also! Thanks in advance.
1 comment
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Sunshine on September 23, 2006 at 4:54 pm
This has the old fashioned way… I think there must be an easier way now….
http://italianfood.about.com/library/rec/blr0282.htm
Welcome to the homesteading family! I have enjoyed your blogs. I will be returning often, I think. You seem to have a lot of good things to share. May I add you to my friend list?
Purewater:
I have copied an interesting paragraph from the above referenced web site about drying the chestnuts and pasted it here. Thank you Morning Sunshine! Add me to your friend list because I have already added you to ours.
"Of course, in the past the farmers who survived on chestnuts didn't sit around the fire roasting them, though some of their crop certainly did meet that end. The rest went into a drying hut, whose design (and name) varied from region to region; it was generally a small two story building, and come harvest time they would light a fire in the ground floor room. Directly above the fire was a stone heat shield to protect the beams supporting the second floor, which was spread with the chestnut crop; the heat rose and dried out the chestnuts, while the smoke that filtered up killed the worms that do get into chestnuts and might otherwise have eaten their way through the harvest. The fire was never allowed to go out, and on chill nights the farmers and their families would gather in the fire room to enjoy the warmth and pass the time, swapping stories and telling tales.
Dried chestnuts can either be boiled, ground up into flour, or used as ingredients in other dishes."
Small Pond Problem Fixed By God
It poured here yesterday and rained all through the night. Our creek (drainage ditch actually) is overflowing its' banks and I'm sure that some of the childrens' toys have gotten washed on down to the river!
One good thing about all this rain is that my small well-overflow pond in the front yard is filled up the way it is supposed to be right now! You see, I had recently dug it out much deeper to supposedly "improve" it. The small pond used to be so pretty, but over the years it had gradually gotten filled in and become more shallow than I wanted. As I dug it all down a couple of feet deeper, I went through the topsoil and uncovered a massive amount of slate and shale rocks. The previous owner had told us that back in the 70s he had filled the entire front yard area in with dump truck load after dump truck load of fill to make it level, so I should have expected something like this. I should have stopped when I hit the first rocks but I wanted to make it all even. It seems that I sprung many leaks by doing that because it has never filled up on its own since then. I went back and spread a layer of mud all over the bottom and it has held a few inches of water but then it leaks out from the sides! I have tried to put mud everywhere it looks like it might be leaking, but so far the only way I could get it filled up is with the water hose and then it goes back down very soon.
Yesterday and today God has filled my little pond up with all the rain! And it looks like it will stay filled up.
Hopefully time will fix the leaks better then I could. I want it to be able to hold the one fish we have up in our farm pond. The pond up in the hollow needs repair also, but we will need to hire a backhoe to do that job. Before we do that, however, I want to be able to move our little pet goldfish who lives up there. Actually it was little when we put it in. It was one of those 20 cent gold fish you can get at Wal-Mart but it has had a good life up in that old pond and is now about a foot long! It is very pretty and we would like to save it before we drain that pond. (We then hope to stock that pond and make it into a good source of food for us) I will let you know in the future how it goes and if I can get our digital camera to work with this computer I would love to add pictures!
Since it is such a wet morning it has given me a chance to ramble a bit on this new weblog. I would have liked to been outside doing something, but perhaps this is God's way to let other homesteaders get to know us a little bit quicker. I am looking forward to hearing the pooled wisdom that is out there. We have already been enjoying and learning from many of your blogs and I am glad to be part of the community now!
One good thing about all this rain is that my small well-overflow pond in the front yard is filled up the way it is supposed to be right now! You see, I had recently dug it out much deeper to supposedly "improve" it. The small pond used to be so pretty, but over the years it had gradually gotten filled in and become more shallow than I wanted. As I dug it all down a couple of feet deeper, I went through the topsoil and uncovered a massive amount of slate and shale rocks. The previous owner had told us that back in the 70s he had filled the entire front yard area in with dump truck load after dump truck load of fill to make it level, so I should have expected something like this. I should have stopped when I hit the first rocks but I wanted to make it all even. It seems that I sprung many leaks by doing that because it has never filled up on its own since then. I went back and spread a layer of mud all over the bottom and it has held a few inches of water but then it leaks out from the sides! I have tried to put mud everywhere it looks like it might be leaking, but so far the only way I could get it filled up is with the water hose and then it goes back down very soon.
Yesterday and today God has filled my little pond up with all the rain! And it looks like it will stay filled up.
Hopefully time will fix the leaks better then I could. I want it to be able to hold the one fish we have up in our farm pond. The pond up in the hollow needs repair also, but we will need to hire a backhoe to do that job. Before we do that, however, I want to be able to move our little pet goldfish who lives up there. Actually it was little when we put it in. It was one of those 20 cent gold fish you can get at Wal-Mart but it has had a good life up in that old pond and is now about a foot long! It is very pretty and we would like to save it before we drain that pond. (We then hope to stock that pond and make it into a good source of food for us) I will let you know in the future how it goes and if I can get our digital camera to work with this computer I would love to add pictures!
Since it is such a wet morning it has given me a chance to ramble a bit on this new weblog. I would have liked to been outside doing something, but perhaps this is God's way to let other homesteaders get to know us a little bit quicker. I am looking forward to hearing the pooled wisdom that is out there. We have already been enjoying and learning from many of your blogs and I am glad to be part of the community now!
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Gas Prices Falling!
Gas prices are making me happy! I was happy a week and a half ago when I was able to fill up for $2.43 a gallon and I thought it would probably go up. I am happy it has continued to go down. Coming home from church tonight I passed a station for $2.23 a gallon! Unfortunatley I am broke right now so I won't get to fill up until Friday. Maybe it will be even lower at that time. I saw on my new gas link (which I think is pretty cool) that Mt. Sterling is down to $1.97 right now! Only two months ago I paid $2.97 a gallon and was pleased because the other stations were $3.01! A dollar difference per gallon will really add up in a hurry. If our 30 gallon tank in the van is empty we're talking about filling up for $30 less then a couple of months ago!
On a sadder note, while we were passing that $2.23 gas station we were running the heater for the first time. Seems kind of early for heat, with it not even being officially fall yet! Tonight it is supposed to get down into the 30s and scattered frost possible!
On a sadder note, while we were passing that $2.23 gas station we were running the heater for the first time. Seems kind of early for heat, with it not even being officially fall yet! Tonight it is supposed to get down into the 30s and scattered frost possible!
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Operation Castration!
Have you ever wanted to castrate a pig? To be honest, I had not thought much about it before, but we have been thinking that we could save on grocery money if we invested in pigs and raised our own pork. Plus we think it would be fun and a grand adventure! We are hoping to get a couple of piglets and let them mate and later have piglets themselves. We will then raise those piglets for sale and/or slaughter, depending on how many we have. The Agriculture department at the high school where I work have a pig project going on right now, and I have been trying to familiarize myself with the skills and procedures needed in the art of hog raising.
I took the opportunity this morning to watch one of our Ag teachers castrate a pig. Before we went out to the pigs he explained how it is a needful thing to do for three reasons: 1) it stops the sex drive so he won’t mate with any of his litter-mates; 2) it will make him gentler and more docile and therefore he will gain more weight; and 3) if he was left in tact the testosterone spoils the meat to the point that the smell makes it almost inedible.
These particular little pigs are all 20-30 pounds. First he caught one of the pigs and showed one of the senior students how to hold the pig by the hind legs with the pig’s body being held firmly by the students’ legs. The teacher pressed in and felt where the testicles were and made two incisions with a scalpel to get the testicles to come out. He made the incisions high so there would be less bleeding. Then he scraped and broke the vas deferens until the testicles were detached. He said it was important to scrape instead of making a clean cut because the artery could bleed too much. You can actually kill the pig if it is cut the wrong way. When the procedure was finished he rinsed the area with iodine to prevent infection and put him back with the other pigs. The little guy walked around like nothing happened! He did not seem to be in any pain at all! They are going to give the pig a shot of an anti-biotic later, I guess for possible infection. By the way, he is called a barrow now, which is the name for a pig that is castrated.
I don’t completely understand exactly how he knew where to cut at the beginning. The testicles were not evident to the eye and I don’t know what he was feeling. I guess you make the cuts depending on where you feel the testicles? I would like to watch several more times before I had to attempt it myself. They have 8 more males they will be doing in the next few weeks, so hopefully I will be able to get out there with them again to learn more!
This has not been a normal post, I know, but it is (or might be soon) a part of "Our Life".
Oink!
I took the opportunity this morning to watch one of our Ag teachers castrate a pig. Before we went out to the pigs he explained how it is a needful thing to do for three reasons: 1) it stops the sex drive so he won’t mate with any of his litter-mates; 2) it will make him gentler and more docile and therefore he will gain more weight; and 3) if he was left in tact the testosterone spoils the meat to the point that the smell makes it almost inedible.
These particular little pigs are all 20-30 pounds. First he caught one of the pigs and showed one of the senior students how to hold the pig by the hind legs with the pig’s body being held firmly by the students’ legs. The teacher pressed in and felt where the testicles were and made two incisions with a scalpel to get the testicles to come out. He made the incisions high so there would be less bleeding. Then he scraped and broke the vas deferens until the testicles were detached. He said it was important to scrape instead of making a clean cut because the artery could bleed too much. You can actually kill the pig if it is cut the wrong way. When the procedure was finished he rinsed the area with iodine to prevent infection and put him back with the other pigs. The little guy walked around like nothing happened! He did not seem to be in any pain at all! They are going to give the pig a shot of an anti-biotic later, I guess for possible infection. By the way, he is called a barrow now, which is the name for a pig that is castrated.
I don’t completely understand exactly how he knew where to cut at the beginning. The testicles were not evident to the eye and I don’t know what he was feeling. I guess you make the cuts depending on where you feel the testicles? I would like to watch several more times before I had to attempt it myself. They have 8 more males they will be doing in the next few weeks, so hopefully I will be able to get out there with them again to learn more!
This has not been a normal post, I know, but it is (or might be soon) a part of "Our Life".
Oink!
Friday, September 15, 2006
From City Boy to Mountain Man
When comparing the terms "city boy" and "country boy" I have to admit that I would have been classified more as a "city boy". I grew up only 20 miles from Cincinnati, Ohio and just 10 miles from Florence, KY. I did not, however, spend that much time in the city, exactly. But I had my share of "city" activities. We went to Cincinnati to visit my grandparents and aunt several times a year and my brother and I spent many summers with them for a week or two at a time growing up. We also made occasional trips to the Zoo and various museums and Bengals and Reds games and special events happening down town. There were even more things for us to do in Florence at the YMCA as well as all the stores and shopping centers there.
I don't think the term "city boy" perfectly applied to me, however, because I actually grew up in the country! We lived only a half-mile from I-75, but it was country nonetheless. We lived on 18 wooded acres that was once a farm. We were surrounded on all sides by farmland and across the street was Oak Hills Dairy Farm, which was a very beautiful, robust, working dairy farm; I actually spent some wonderful summers working on the farm there. Mom usually put out a large garden, and it seemed that she always did very well with it. She canned food and made blackberry jam and did all sorts of things that we are trying to do now. But, nonetheless, I could not have been called a "country boy"; I was, in fact, a "city boy"!
I guess it had more to do with my frame of mind. Looking back at it, I am very displeased with myself that I did not take advantage of the opportunities all around me. I did not care about gardening and I did not work in the garden much at all, even though it would have pleased Mom greatly. I did work on the dairy farm bailing hay, working in tobacco, and various odd jobs, and I was a hard worker! I just did not have the thirst for knowledge about farming that I do now. If only I would have been more observant and asked more questions while I was there. I could have learned so much that I would use today! Now that I want to know about farming principles, I barely have time to read up on things, and reading is such a far cry from actually seeing things done and doing them yourself. Most of growing up, with all that farm country around me, I mainly just wanted to stay in the house and play hundreds of video games and read thousands of comic books and watch countless hours of TV! There were fishing ponds around, too, and people did go hunting. I could have found numerous people who would have been happy to show me how to do things like that, but I was not interested. The time or two I did go fishing, I was not happy about it and did not learn anything that I can use now! I was a "city boy" at heart.
All that being said, I did enjoy sitting by the creek in the woods during the fall (when there weren't many bugs out). I also fell in love with mountains on several family vacations to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park and one awesome three-week trip to Yellow Stone and Grand Teeton National Parks, among other places. Back then I thought I would like to live in the mountains in Wyoming or Tennessee one day.
After I married my wonderful and beautiful wife, Lisa, we lived in Berea, Kentucky for a short time. This was the first time that we lived in the midst of some marvelous mountains, in the foothills of the Appalachians. Every time I would drive toward our house on Scaffold Cane Road I had trouble keeping my eyes on the road because the majesty of the mountains always distracted me. I guess I knew back then that I would only be happy living near some mountains.
I had been saved (born again Christian) at that time for a couple of years and I had begun to yearn for a simpler life close to God. I felt closest to Him when I was away from the hustle and bustle of civilization out in the middle of the woods. As a matter of fact, I met God for the first time in a secluded wooded area out under a big oak tree near the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee where I was born again! God was making me into a "mountain man"!
I am not really much of a mountain man, I guess. My wife, Lisa, has called me "her mountain man" for quite a long time, mainly because I love to be out in the mountains so much. I was very pleased to be living amongst the abundance of hills around here in eastern Kentucky after we moved to this area in 1992. I have only recently been trying to acquire some mountain man type skills, and I am a slow learner. I have run a trotline, killed a squirrel, shot at turkeys and bought a muzzleloader for deer season, but I am still a long way off from being a true "mountain man" of folklore.
Right now I have a "mountain man" mind set, anyway. That is half of the journey, I believe. The "city boy" frame of mind has long ago been tossed aside. If you are looking for me now-a-days you will probably not find me playing a video game or reading a comic book or watching TV; just look for me somewhere in my mountains, around Pure Water Hollow.
3 comments
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Homestead Originals... on September 23, 2006 at 9:43 am
GREAT Post–thanks for sharing! WELCOME to Homestead Blogger
Blessings to you n yours….
Lisa
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mc2rwe on September 25, 2006 at 4:20 pm
I really enjoyed reading your blog. I pray that God continues to bless you and your family. My mother and father are both from Kentucky and most of my relatives still live there near the Henderson area.
Kathy
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Livin'theMontanaDream on September 27, 2006 at 12:02 am
Like you, we have the "mountain man" mindset. If it sounds like something a mountain man would need to do, well then we'd better learn how to do it too! My husband and son are trying to learn how to tan a hide. They practiced on rabbits and squirrels this summer with no real success but they will keep going at it until they get it right.We love living in this gorgeous area surrounded by beauty that just never stops. It IS hard to keep your eyes on the road sometimes.
I don't think the term "city boy" perfectly applied to me, however, because I actually grew up in the country! We lived only a half-mile from I-75, but it was country nonetheless. We lived on 18 wooded acres that was once a farm. We were surrounded on all sides by farmland and across the street was Oak Hills Dairy Farm, which was a very beautiful, robust, working dairy farm; I actually spent some wonderful summers working on the farm there. Mom usually put out a large garden, and it seemed that she always did very well with it. She canned food and made blackberry jam and did all sorts of things that we are trying to do now. But, nonetheless, I could not have been called a "country boy"; I was, in fact, a "city boy"!
I guess it had more to do with my frame of mind. Looking back at it, I am very displeased with myself that I did not take advantage of the opportunities all around me. I did not care about gardening and I did not work in the garden much at all, even though it would have pleased Mom greatly. I did work on the dairy farm bailing hay, working in tobacco, and various odd jobs, and I was a hard worker! I just did not have the thirst for knowledge about farming that I do now. If only I would have been more observant and asked more questions while I was there. I could have learned so much that I would use today! Now that I want to know about farming principles, I barely have time to read up on things, and reading is such a far cry from actually seeing things done and doing them yourself. Most of growing up, with all that farm country around me, I mainly just wanted to stay in the house and play hundreds of video games and read thousands of comic books and watch countless hours of TV! There were fishing ponds around, too, and people did go hunting. I could have found numerous people who would have been happy to show me how to do things like that, but I was not interested. The time or two I did go fishing, I was not happy about it and did not learn anything that I can use now! I was a "city boy" at heart.
All that being said, I did enjoy sitting by the creek in the woods during the fall (when there weren't many bugs out). I also fell in love with mountains on several family vacations to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park and one awesome three-week trip to Yellow Stone and Grand Teeton National Parks, among other places. Back then I thought I would like to live in the mountains in Wyoming or Tennessee one day.
After I married my wonderful and beautiful wife, Lisa, we lived in Berea, Kentucky for a short time. This was the first time that we lived in the midst of some marvelous mountains, in the foothills of the Appalachians. Every time I would drive toward our house on Scaffold Cane Road I had trouble keeping my eyes on the road because the majesty of the mountains always distracted me. I guess I knew back then that I would only be happy living near some mountains.
I had been saved (born again Christian) at that time for a couple of years and I had begun to yearn for a simpler life close to God. I felt closest to Him when I was away from the hustle and bustle of civilization out in the middle of the woods. As a matter of fact, I met God for the first time in a secluded wooded area out under a big oak tree near the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee where I was born again! God was making me into a "mountain man"!
I am not really much of a mountain man, I guess. My wife, Lisa, has called me "her mountain man" for quite a long time, mainly because I love to be out in the mountains so much. I was very pleased to be living amongst the abundance of hills around here in eastern Kentucky after we moved to this area in 1992. I have only recently been trying to acquire some mountain man type skills, and I am a slow learner. I have run a trotline, killed a squirrel, shot at turkeys and bought a muzzleloader for deer season, but I am still a long way off from being a true "mountain man" of folklore.
Right now I have a "mountain man" mind set, anyway. That is half of the journey, I believe. The "city boy" frame of mind has long ago been tossed aside. If you are looking for me now-a-days you will probably not find me playing a video game or reading a comic book or watching TV; just look for me somewhere in my mountains, around Pure Water Hollow.
3 comments
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Homestead Originals... on September 23, 2006 at 9:43 am
GREAT Post–thanks for sharing! WELCOME to Homestead Blogger
Blessings to you n yours….
Lisa
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mc2rwe on September 25, 2006 at 4:20 pm
I really enjoyed reading your blog. I pray that God continues to bless you and your family. My mother and father are both from Kentucky and most of my relatives still live there near the Henderson area.
Kathy
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Livin'theMontanaDream on September 27, 2006 at 12:02 am
Like you, we have the "mountain man" mindset. If it sounds like something a mountain man would need to do, well then we'd better learn how to do it too! My husband and son are trying to learn how to tan a hide. They practiced on rabbits and squirrels this summer with no real success but they will keep going at it until they get it right.We love living in this gorgeous area surrounded by beauty that just never stops. It IS hard to keep your eyes on the road sometimes.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
God Bless America!
What a wonderful Lord's Day today! The preaching and singing in our Homecoming service was good but the highlight was the tribute to those in the rescue professions. While the youth sang "I Believe There Are Angels Among Us" in marched about 10 people all in uniform. They were firefighters, nurses, police officers, the sheriff, emts, and one Navy officer who has served 3 tours in Iraq. It was a nice tribute to all the heroes who risk their lives day in and day out to protect our freedoms and property and even lives. It was, of course, in honor of the five year mark of 9/11/01, which is tomorrow. My oldest son, Matthew, was the one who was assigned to bring the American flag in and hand it to the Navy SeaBee while the youth sang "God Bless the USA". It was a great patriotic moment for our church and everyone was moved to stand up in appreciation with good old fashioned American pride during the song!
I enjoyed getting to thank our guests for their service to our communities and country. After the service there was every kind of dish you could imagine laid out! Personally, I love the chicken and dumplings and the desserts! We all ate way too much and enjoyed the fellowship. We brought home more food than we prepared! Couldn't let it go to waste, could we? People throw away and waste too much food. The leftovers the church sent home with us will do us for several good meals!
We got home around 3:30 and decided to go up into our mountains, which is a normal thing for us to do on a Sunday after church if the weather is fair. We enjoy exploring and finding new plants. Lisa was excited to finally find wild ginger growing, which we thought should have been all around, but could never find. We were also happy to find a spot where numerous paw paws were growing. In fact, some were the largest ones we had ever seen! Some years we have had many paw paws, but some years it seemed that there were none. I like to name our trails and this particular trail got named the "Paw Paw Trail" today. We didn't get back to the house until after dark.
It has been a very good weekend, but we are tired. Now I am looking forward to a nice night of sleep. Good Night and God Bless America!
I enjoyed getting to thank our guests for their service to our communities and country. After the service there was every kind of dish you could imagine laid out! Personally, I love the chicken and dumplings and the desserts! We all ate way too much and enjoyed the fellowship. We brought home more food than we prepared! Couldn't let it go to waste, could we? People throw away and waste too much food. The leftovers the church sent home with us will do us for several good meals!
We got home around 3:30 and decided to go up into our mountains, which is a normal thing for us to do on a Sunday after church if the weather is fair. We enjoy exploring and finding new plants. Lisa was excited to finally find wild ginger growing, which we thought should have been all around, but could never find. We were also happy to find a spot where numerous paw paws were growing. In fact, some were the largest ones we had ever seen! Some years we have had many paw paws, but some years it seemed that there were none. I like to name our trails and this particular trail got named the "Paw Paw Trail" today. We didn't get back to the house until after dark.
It has been a very good weekend, but we are tired. Now I am looking forward to a nice night of sleep. Good Night and God Bless America!
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Instant Out of Season
“Open your Bibles with me to 2nd Peter, Chapter 4….” These were the opening words of the sermon tonight at our Saturday evening meeting. There are 2 problems with that. The first problem is that 2nd Peter only has three chapters! In my Bible, there is a blank page after chapter 3. The second problem is that I was the preacher!
God was good, though, (He always is) and the sermon went well after I got over my nerves. The text I was searching for was in Chapter 2 of 2nd Peter in verse 8 “(For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.)” I won’t go into the whole sermon right now, but if you want to, you can follow Lot’s attitude about those unlawful deeds from anger (Genesis 13:12-12) to apathy (Gen 14:12) to acceptance (Gen 19:8).
God had given me a good sermon as I studied earlier in the week. I had no idea it was for tonight, however. You see, our country church has a tradition of calling on preachers to preach without advanced notice. They take “Be instant in season and out of season…” to heart. I am one of three preachers in our small church and we often have visiting preachers as well. Tonight was definitely one of those “out of season” times for me. We had worked outside all day, which was so enjoyable on this beautiful day, but we did not quit in time for everyone to get cleaned up to go to church. My wife ended up not having time to shower so did not get to go, and the rest of us were a full 15 minutes late. I must admit that preaching was not on my mind at all. As a matter of fact, I had not even read my Bible that day. I just got right up, thanked God for the day, and went to work.
After church, I stopped and filled up the van even though we were still three-fourths full. I decided that the price was so low I should go ahead and fill up just in case we have another 20 cent jump in one day which has been so common around here. It was only $2.43 a gallon, which is the lowest I’ve seen in a long time. I was thankful that I had the $26 needed to fill up.
Tomorrow is Homecoming at our church. That means dinner on the grounds! My wife, Lisa, has been preparing food to take. She has also been doing the wash and a bunch of other things. Maybe sometime she will post something here? She does not really like to type and says she will probably leave the blogging to me.
God is good! May He bless each of you reading this.
God was good, though, (He always is) and the sermon went well after I got over my nerves. The text I was searching for was in Chapter 2 of 2nd Peter in verse 8 “(For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.)” I won’t go into the whole sermon right now, but if you want to, you can follow Lot’s attitude about those unlawful deeds from anger (Genesis 13:12-12) to apathy (Gen 14:12) to acceptance (Gen 19:8).
God had given me a good sermon as I studied earlier in the week. I had no idea it was for tonight, however. You see, our country church has a tradition of calling on preachers to preach without advanced notice. They take “Be instant in season and out of season…” to heart. I am one of three preachers in our small church and we often have visiting preachers as well. Tonight was definitely one of those “out of season” times for me. We had worked outside all day, which was so enjoyable on this beautiful day, but we did not quit in time for everyone to get cleaned up to go to church. My wife ended up not having time to shower so did not get to go, and the rest of us were a full 15 minutes late. I must admit that preaching was not on my mind at all. As a matter of fact, I had not even read my Bible that day. I just got right up, thanked God for the day, and went to work.
After church, I stopped and filled up the van even though we were still three-fourths full. I decided that the price was so low I should go ahead and fill up just in case we have another 20 cent jump in one day which has been so common around here. It was only $2.43 a gallon, which is the lowest I’ve seen in a long time. I was thankful that I had the $26 needed to fill up.
Tomorrow is Homecoming at our church. That means dinner on the grounds! My wife, Lisa, has been preparing food to take. She has also been doing the wash and a bunch of other things. Maybe sometime she will post something here? She does not really like to type and says she will probably leave the blogging to me.
God is good! May He bless each of you reading this.
Friday, September 08, 2006
What is Pure Water Hollow Homestead?
Just what is Pure Water Hollow Homestead? It is the interesting name we have chosen to give our home, here in the hills of eastern Kentucky. It is probably close to 100 acres (even though the ambiguous deed from the early 1900s states 35 acres, more or less) but it is mostly wooded mountains with very little “bottom land”. I sometimes call it “The Hundred Acre Woods” when I am feeling like a silly old bear! There is currently a small barn in need of some repair and an old farm pond up in the hollow. Part of the homestead also includes a river that runs past us, and we enjoy our river bank very much.
Around here, “hollow” is kind of another name for a small valley and it is pronounced, “holler”. You may recall that Loretta Lynn, the coal miner’s daughter, was born “in a cabin on a hill in Butcher Holler”. That hollow is not too far away from our hollow, but it is much bigger than ours. Most “hollers” around here have a twisty, dirt or gravel road going through them with houses and trailers packed in on both sides. Our hollow is our own private mountain hideaway! We own the entire thing, from ridge to ridge! We do have a dirt road that goes up the mountain to the “head” of the hollow, but it is only about a half mile long.
We live down at the “mouth” of the hollow where it opens up and empties into the river. It is not quite as picturesque as it sounds because a state road parallels the river and is between our house and the river. At least it is still a narrow, country, unlined, road. We just got a guardrail a couple of years ago, which we weren’t too happy about. Now we have to climb over the guardrail to get down to the river! (Thankfully they did also leave open a spot that we can drive down from the road to the river, but it is not directly in front of our house.)
Our little private hollow is so insignificant it has never had a name before that I know of. We moved here in 1993 and a few years later we started calling it “Pure Water Holler” among ourselves. We decided to name it “Pure Water” for a couple of reasons.
First, we discovered that one possible translation of our last name could be “pure water”. We have always known the “Water” part, but in the past people have always said it means “Clear Water” or “Loud Water” or “Big Water” or “Genuine Water”. When someone familiar with the mother language of our decendents suggested “Pure Water” we latched right on to that!
I liked the sound of it and I also liked the Biblical connotation of holiness! Hebrews 10:22 says, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” We have always imagined our hollow as a little slice of heaven here on earth and in the Revelation the Bible speaks of literal pure water in Heaven! “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” (Rev. 22:1)
The third reason the name “Pure Water Hollow” fits is that we actually have wonderful drinking water from a deep well. When we had it drilled, God not only blessed us with pure drinking water, but also with an overflowing artesian well! I made a small pond in our front yard to catch the overflow from a buried pipe and we also put in an old fashion cistern pump over our well-head, so we can pump water out whenever we want to!
So that explains about “Pure Water” and about “Hollow” leaving the last word : “Homestead". That term has come about just recently. We were completely unaware of how the word "homestead" is frequently used now-a-days until just a couple of years ago when a friend told us that what we were doing and how we were living was called "homesteading". We said, “What do you mean? We bought this property through the bank.” I was vaguely aware of the old homestead laws in the 1800’s about the government giving you the land if you built a cabin and planted some corn on it, and I knew that did not apply to our situation.
Our friend pointed out that we lived in the country, did not watch TV, were growing our own food, had more than 1.5 children, believed in home schooling, and wanted to raise chickens and pigs and cows someday. She said that was called “homesteading”. She explained about the movement and that many people nation wide were striving for the simple life of old time country living, and calling it a homestead. The more we looked into it, the more we were convinced that we did indeed have the homesteading mindset and that we were in the middle of a good old homesteading adventure!
So, we are creating a “Homestead” in “Pure Water Hollow”, among the rugged hills of eastern Kentucky! Living a homesteading, country life style has been new to me, and I have been a rather slow learner. We are definitely still in the novice stage! All in all, however, we are learning and growing and achieving more and more of our dream every day.
Now for a couple of pictures:
3 comments
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Livin'theMontanaDream on September 22, 2006 at 10:27 pm
Well it looks like you have come to the right place here! I really enjoyed reading your first blog entry and can't wait to hear more about you.
Darcy
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Meme on September 23, 2006 at 8:20 pm
That was such an interesting story…Hope to see a few pictures of your homestead land soon…Debbie
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Purewater on November 1, 2006 at 3:16 pm
Debbie asked about pictures back here. I added the couple to this post and there is also "A Visit To Pure Water Hollow" that has some pictures. I am hoping to do more soon.
Edited by Purewater on Thursday, November 9, 2006 at 7:19 PM
Around here, “hollow” is kind of another name for a small valley and it is pronounced, “holler”. You may recall that Loretta Lynn, the coal miner’s daughter, was born “in a cabin on a hill in Butcher Holler”. That hollow is not too far away from our hollow, but it is much bigger than ours. Most “hollers” around here have a twisty, dirt or gravel road going through them with houses and trailers packed in on both sides. Our hollow is our own private mountain hideaway! We own the entire thing, from ridge to ridge! We do have a dirt road that goes up the mountain to the “head” of the hollow, but it is only about a half mile long.
We live down at the “mouth” of the hollow where it opens up and empties into the river. It is not quite as picturesque as it sounds because a state road parallels the river and is between our house and the river. At least it is still a narrow, country, unlined, road. We just got a guardrail a couple of years ago, which we weren’t too happy about. Now we have to climb over the guardrail to get down to the river! (Thankfully they did also leave open a spot that we can drive down from the road to the river, but it is not directly in front of our house.)
Our little private hollow is so insignificant it has never had a name before that I know of. We moved here in 1993 and a few years later we started calling it “Pure Water Holler” among ourselves. We decided to name it “Pure Water” for a couple of reasons.
First, we discovered that one possible translation of our last name could be “pure water”. We have always known the “Water” part, but in the past people have always said it means “Clear Water” or “Loud Water” or “Big Water” or “Genuine Water”. When someone familiar with the mother language of our decendents suggested “Pure Water” we latched right on to that!
I liked the sound of it and I also liked the Biblical connotation of holiness! Hebrews 10:22 says, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” We have always imagined our hollow as a little slice of heaven here on earth and in the Revelation the Bible speaks of literal pure water in Heaven! “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” (Rev. 22:1)
The third reason the name “Pure Water Hollow” fits is that we actually have wonderful drinking water from a deep well. When we had it drilled, God not only blessed us with pure drinking water, but also with an overflowing artesian well! I made a small pond in our front yard to catch the overflow from a buried pipe and we also put in an old fashion cistern pump over our well-head, so we can pump water out whenever we want to!
So that explains about “Pure Water” and about “Hollow” leaving the last word : “Homestead". That term has come about just recently. We were completely unaware of how the word "homestead" is frequently used now-a-days until just a couple of years ago when a friend told us that what we were doing and how we were living was called "homesteading". We said, “What do you mean? We bought this property through the bank.” I was vaguely aware of the old homestead laws in the 1800’s about the government giving you the land if you built a cabin and planted some corn on it, and I knew that did not apply to our situation.
Our friend pointed out that we lived in the country, did not watch TV, were growing our own food, had more than 1.5 children, believed in home schooling, and wanted to raise chickens and pigs and cows someday. She said that was called “homesteading”. She explained about the movement and that many people nation wide were striving for the simple life of old time country living, and calling it a homestead. The more we looked into it, the more we were convinced that we did indeed have the homesteading mindset and that we were in the middle of a good old homesteading adventure!
So, we are creating a “Homestead” in “Pure Water Hollow”, among the rugged hills of eastern Kentucky! Living a homesteading, country life style has been new to me, and I have been a rather slow learner. We are definitely still in the novice stage! All in all, however, we are learning and growing and achieving more and more of our dream every day.
Now for a couple of pictures:
This is part of our dirt road that runs pretty much the length of our hollow.
And this is a view of the river that runs in front of our homestead.
3 comments
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Livin'theMontanaDream on September 22, 2006 at 10:27 pm
Well it looks like you have come to the right place here! I really enjoyed reading your first blog entry and can't wait to hear more about you.
Darcy
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meme on September 23, 2006 at 8:20 pm
That was such an interesting story…Hope to see a few pictures of your homestead land soon…Debbie
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Purewater on November 1, 2006 at 3:16 pm
Debbie asked about pictures back here. I added the couple to this post and there is also "A Visit To Pure Water Hollow" that has some pictures. I am hoping to do more soon.
Edited by Purewater on Thursday, November 9, 2006 at 7:19 PM
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