Life goes on - Winter 2016

So, I randomly Googled Wayne Keith. This is what Google says:

Wayne Keith, Pioneer.

That’s the kind of respect I like to see… and from a very reliable source! :grin:

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19 posts were split to a new topic: Gardening soil amendments

I have an old farm trailer tire that wouldn’t hold air over 10 minutes .

I busted the tire down and gave it a good dose of gasifier tar and it is sealed good now :relaxed:


Also been real busy sawing . It was sunny and 73F here yesterday and should be near that today :blush:

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Does that also mean real busy chunking a little later?

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Nice weather there Wayne, we long for that kind of heat till the middle of may or first of june, and you are getting a nice lumber stack.Enjoy the nice weather.

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Hello Don.

I think I have enough wood bagged and stored away to maybe last a couple of years so not really pushed right now to chunk. However I did dump some slabs at the chunker today :relaxed:

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Wayne you set a really high bar for the rest of us to strive for. Your the man. Glad to hear you are out enjoying the warm weather.

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Not a gasifier, but my friend sent me this picture of a beastly mid-engine truck.

@chris I think the above gardening posts deserve their own thread, or possibly combined with an existing thread (that I believe we have, but I can’t think of the name(s).)

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Is that porches attempt at a truck? Looks cool and probably drags well but I bet it spins around on a corner really fast donut machine is what it looks like.

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So I guess the gasifier would have to go under the hood? Might balance the weight.

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You better keep it short or it will be hard to see where you are going…

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If you can spare 1h 20 min this is a beautiful film on the subject Life goes on. People working their land, until their last breath. From the south of my country.

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Wow, that’s a cool setup. Looks like maybe an Olds 455 and FWD transaxle?

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Yes. We have those types here too, out Rural.
Something to aspire to become. It is a choice. At least here in the US and Canada not an accident of birth, or lotto “luck”, but still a lifestyle that can be sweated into. If you choose. As MinnesotaBillS and wife have now.
Best Regards
J-I-C Steve Unruh

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Thank you JO. You know how much I like learning about your country. I wish I spoke Swedish so it would have made more since. I was totally embarrassed to watch the men who probably are my age but they seem to have romanticism in their joints worse than I and they are still farming. And farming the old fashion way with lots of labor. They did get someone in to combine the oats, but to carry those bags up those steep steps. They also seemed to have taken advantage of new baling procedures of the hay, but in one part they cut the hay and hung it to dry before putting it up loose. And what was with all the flies?? Even if you didn’t see them, or see the men swatting them, you could hear them in the sound of the video. And stones— we use to go through the field and pick up stones before planting, but these fields looked like they should have swept up the dirt and taken it away and left the stones. The overhead picture of the farm looked like it was a much more active farm at one time ---- a lot of buildings. How many men actually worked the farm? Oh and the potatoes. Dug by hand!! Almost everyone around here grew potatoes for their own use and now there are one row potato pickers as ornaments in yards. Even bringing the cows in from the pasture they seemed to do it the hard way. We seldom went to the field to bring them in; we had a dog that went out and rounded them up and brought them up the lane. I haven’t seen anyone drink coffee out of a sauce since my last uncle passed away. No one even serves coffee with a saucer.
Well I guess you know you waste my afternoon, but it was enjoyable. TomC

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If I had thought of this years ago I could have saved a lot of chainsaw gasoline :slight_smile:

https://gadsden.craigslist.org/grd/5991571977.html

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Haha! Wayne, that’s the kind of humor I’m brought up with. As a kid I was told by my father I would win the swimming competition if I used his new invention. It was a similar handdrill with a small propeller attached. I believed him and sneaked down to the lake to practice. You know the result.

Tom, I shared this film mostly because of the beautiful photo and feel good.
This was a documentary shot by one single photographer in a period of several years. The idea was nothing but to follow the everyday life on the farm.
The farm was run by man and wife and mans brother. Their only son visited from time to time to help out. They didn’t really want to leave the old way of farming, but were finally forced to, due to old age.
Stones, haha. This is the province of Småland in the south east, known for its stony fields. I guess you saw the typical stone fences. Hundreds of years of stone carrying made thousands of miles of stone fences. Still stony fields.

Steve, it will probably never happen to me. Same reason, I guess, you’re stuck with the not as good but good looking woodstove.

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Jan-Ola,
Interesting video. Reminded me very much of my mother’s parents, whose parents came from the County of Varmland about 150 years ago. (+ or -)
We had several questions. How old do you think the man and wife were? What were they doing with the round bales on the rotating machinery? My guess that the bales were being injected with ammonia to raise the protein content, then sealed with an air-tight plastic wrap, and spun round and round. Not sure about the spinning though. In the 30’s and 40’s, the small dairy farmers in Minnesota sold only the cream from the milk, and fed the rest to the hogs. In the film, there was a small tank in the driveway. I wonder if the purpose of this tank was to hold the cream for pickup by a “cream collector” tank truck? My Grandma used to bake a bread that was very very dark colored, and would let us eat it hot out of the oven, saturated with fresh butter and honey. She spoke Swedish to my Grandpa, especially when she wanted him to get out in the snow and do something. Sort of a secret language.
Thanks for the link. Thanks.

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Ray, small world. Värmland is next to my county Dalarna.

Speaker told us the man turned 80 first year of filming. Perhaps 85 towards the end. I don´t know about the wife.

This plastic wrapping is normal procedure theses days wether the hay is dry or green ansilage. Nothing injected that I´m aware of. The lack of oxygene alone will prevent any decomposition.

That´s funny Ray. I work with a couple of Finns. Normally they all speak Swedish. Only when something is wrong the cursing is made in Finnish. A bit more powerful I guess :smile:

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Put a different title and language to the video and you culd fool me this was filmed in Slovenia. In some parts of our country its identical.
Althugh most people might say “oh poor old folks, have to work to death in the old age” my only wish is l culd live a life like those men and women. I guess was born 50 years too late…

But l am working on it! The plan is to work this blood sucking 3 shift job for a few years more, just to earn enough to fix the farm a bit, then say fairwell and live a life similar to the video. I still have to learn some skills like working with work animals, and some agriculture hacks lost in the generation of my parrents.

l like the principle “if you dont work you will not eat”. Makes you respect every potato you dig out of the ground.

The only difference l saw in the film is the way we dehair slaughtered pigs. We traditionaly put the pig in a wooden bath, then sifft colophony (or spruce resin) all over it. A few gallons of allmost boiling water on poured on the skin softens it and make the hait stick to each other with resin. Then, with a chain under the carcass, 2 strong guys pull it back and forward from tail to head, turn the pig, and go back. In a few minutes its done, and the head and feet are dehaired with a spoon. Later we just shave the pig with a sharp knife so cutt of the left over fine hairs.

edit: I forgot to mention; this allso regards a bit to the independance life as disscused above. l bought a minipig sow yesterday, the boar is yet to be bought. The idea behind this minipigs is they feed and reproduce by them selves, without nearly as many problems as fullgorwn pigs (dangerous boars, sows killing their young,…) while they taste the same, or eaven better. Its allso a way to store meat on the hoof, as the young pigs shuld reach about 8kg weight at slaughter age (about 8 months). Will see…

Has anyone got any experiances with them?

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