Yeah, I don’t think immersion is gonna do the trick. I think I would just give up trying to like it and be stuck in whine mode permanently. Then Bruce’s Jedi mind tricks would have even less effect .
But actually, I think I am starting to get a little more used to it. It has warmed up some, but still pretty cold. Working in it all day today was not nearly as miserable as earlier in the week. But that may have something to do with the type of work too…But mostly I’m just tired of complaining. Doesn’t seem to help. haha
Today we built 1.5 miles of walking trail through the woods. A lot more fun than a steep roof. And getting to work with my family always makes things better.
So far our little training organization got “contracts” to do 6 different programs next year with two different organizations. One of the other orgs is just down the road a mile. One of the programs we are doing for them is a youth summer camp sorta deal. As many as 100 youth 13-18 year old, a week from different churches/orgs. Erika and I started that program years ago when we worked for that organization.
This year they are going to send them to our campus for a 12 hour appropriate technology day. We are building a walking trail for them to make the trek down here and be able to avoid walking on the roads for safety’s sake.
Got permission from all the land owners between here and there. And we managed to make the whole thing today.
Just need one more little bridge and a 2 little scaffolds to enter and exit a concrete culvert that goes under the highway.
The whole thing is part of an object lesson about the need in the world for carrying household water. Each student will carry a jug of water for the 1.5 miles. We are making banners (signs) along the way with facts about water carrying (queuing) in the world. Then when they get to our campus , they will spend the day learning to make and/or use about 45 AT models, most of which have something to do with cooking or food preservation or water. They will spend the day preparing the evening meal with tech models, butcher & can their own chickens, make their own cooking gas, purify the water they carried in, cook with wood gas, char gas, solar ovens, rocket stoves, biogas, etc.
We also have some other activities planned like an AT water pump relay race with 5 different water-moving techs.
This will all be after they spend three days in a simulated third world village and a simulated urban slum. The idea is to get a small glimpse into experiencing the world of other-than-US-standard of living, and then get a glimpse of some possible methods/mechanisms to help alleviate some of the suffering. Along with an exposure to the idea of actually changing one’s own standard of living so others might live better.
Anyway, didn’t intend for that to take so many words to get out. if anyone is interested in some facts about water, here’s a link to some pics/banners we are making.
If you Don’t have chickens and the tracks are bigger, I Can’t tell in the picture, it might be a wild turkey coming for some food. Yummy, I smell dinner.
Bob
My guess would be wild turkey. We have flocks of them that nest in the trees here on occasion and scour the field out front. I’ve only shot one. The tasty meat is really tough. My hunting friends mostly grind it into turkey burger. I like seeing them around so unless it’s dire circumstances, they are safe here. Walking out of my house in the early AM and having them all
scared off at once makes you take notice immediately. The wings do make a lot of noise. WTheck! Ha, ha (well close)!
It’s a darned nice 42 degrees here, I’m actually down to a sweatshirt and no long johns.
Well, I got the last of the parts to hook the simplefire to the generator, so I’m going to go mount some tires on my truck and see if I can’t make the simplefire work.
You guys have a great day.
If that’s a turkey, then it’s safe around here. I shot one the first year I was here and wasn’t to darned impressed.
I am now a firm believer the best turkey comes in a bag that says “Butterball” on it.
Well as with any wild game there are tricks to making them better eating. We eat a lot of wild game here. The best way to prepare wild turkey is pluck, do not skin, bake in a plastic baking bag. The ones we have done like this were better than tame ones. My wife does not like wild meats, but loves the turkeys.
We’ve had quite a few subarus and saabs over the years here in VT. The subaru all wheel drive is great on snow and ice. They don’t need a lot of maintenance but when they start to rust out, they quickly disintegrate. If you can find a rust free 98 outback wagon go for it. The saabs require tinkering and it’s good to have a parts car but they’re rugged and great to drive.
I was told by a friend that you have to cook the wild turkeys in boiling oil because you dont know how old the bird is and the oil seals in the juices allowing them to be tender regardless of age.
It was a good day here warmed up to 16 F and I have a newborn calf. Mommy won’t let me check if it is a boy or girl but both mommy and the calf are doing great.
I don’t think I had ever seen belted Galloway cows until about 3-4 months ago and had to look them up the other day when you mentioned them. Looks like a healthy little calf.
On the ranch that I work for the boss takes care of the heifers and the rest of us each have between 300 and 450 each to take care of. We should start seeing calves about the 10th of march.
The Belties are smaller then the non belted Galloway cows. The regular Galloway cows remind me of Brow Swish if you have ever seen those cows they are both much longer cows. I have a mix of both Belties and non belted I don’t really have a preference in general Belties are easier to find around here and when you sell beef by the side people here like a smaller side so Belties work well that way. A non belted Galloway should hang out about the same weight as Angus I would guess the Belties hang out about 2/3 the weight. As you can see the calves are little about 40 lbs. That one is small I think about 30 lbs when I pulled him out of the snow bank he fell in when he first started walking. Mommy let him go outside. She wasn’t too happy she called for help getting him back inside it was funny once I knew he was ok.
Oh Galloway cows on grass grow slower. Angus with grain you beef in 18 months but the Galloways on grass only take 2 years to 2.5 years to get a good size out of them.
I know what you mean on the rust, some vehicles seem too be poor steel quallity, I bought 3 geo trackers too make one good one not paying close attention too what i was buying, lots of good parts cars and plenty of hole’y tracker frames out here in MI. I did like the 27 miles too gallon they got while staying under 50 mph though, if i had another one i would put light gasifier on light trailer and dow like that, or something simular too krisijans trailer mount unit, and room for about 4 washing or drying machines.We have a lot of chevy s10 trucks around here so thats my best bet. Chevy factory not many miles away .
We have a new member from Alaska and most of us in the US know that they have long days in the summer and sht days in the winter. I’ve heard it said that you have those conditions also. I never thought of Sweden being that far north. Sweden and Norway are long countries and the length goes from North to South; so does all of Sweden have these conditions or just the northern most parts of the country. If I recall, you are just south of the midway point of Sweden’s N to S dimension. TomC
You are right, we are about as tall as Florida to your place. Makes a big difference. Why about 9 outof 10 million live south of midway. Emptyness starts only a few miles north of me. About 1/3 of the country is above the arctic circle (no sunlight at all).
My grandfather used to say sun reaches above our mountain ridge by a chicken step at New Year and a rabbit leap by Epiphany. You’re not the only ones with odd units
I have shorter video posted up after I deleted it accidentally on the DOW Driving Habits page.
Here is a Video of how I will set my camera up when driving. Snowing hard now, yesterday the sun was shinning bright and it was 50 plus degrees F outside. Enjoy,
