Life goes on - Summer 2022

Off Topic
#661

If you want a really nice scythe, these folks have them:
https://www.onescytherevolution.com/quick-order.html
1-3 weeks, and, oh yeah, $300+ for a kit.

Good Austrian scythes, $230 for a kit with a peening jig.
https://scythesupply.com/outfits.html
Oh yeah, no right-handed blades in stock, availability tbd. I have one of these. My oldest son can do a fairly good job with it. I’m still kinda hacking at grass hay and weeds, but the goats aren’t that picky about form and style as long as they get to eat. It’s quiet, smells like grass, not dyno juice, works without $5/gal. gas.

Since Tom thinks an aluminum handle is just wrong, this place has steel tube handles :grinning: (well, snaths). They are not fancy, they’re German, not Austrian (puritst, look the other way)
https://www.earthtools.com/garden-tools-shw/shw-scythes-shovels-misc/
If you’re taller than 5’ 10" or so, the steel tube snath may need some fiddling, but you can buy the snath for $35, a brush blade for $35, and a grass blade for $59. A stone, hammer, and anvil will set you back $46 and you’re good to go. I got two of the snaths, and a bunch of blades to outfit the family, and have some spare blades. I didn’t check stock status, but they usually say if they’re out. Not quite as nice as the wood snath and Austrian blade, but a little lighter, and quite functional, especially for someone like me with, umm, borderline form.

I don’t work for, or get paid by any of these folks, but the last two I have dealt with successfully. Earth Tools has been especially helpful, from scythes to hoes and shovels to walk-behind tractors. Good quality (how rare is that) and fair prices, and they know how the stuff works.

It’s really fun to run the Ferguson with the sickle bar mower, and watch that hay lay down nice and neat. But it’s also nice to know the work can be done without gas, diesel, or even charcoal :grinning: .
Kent

6 Likes
#662

Thats a ripoff. One of the best blades on the market are made here in Slovenia, the blade costs around 40 bucks max. The snath ranges from 10 to 30, depending on the quality and the stones are maybee 3 bucks. Peening jig 40.

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#663

The first place is, umm, a bit high. For the other two, it’s just the price we pay for not living in Sovenia. Someday maybe scythes will be made in the US again, but I’m not holding my breath.

Kent

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#664

A lot of the price is from importing them to the US, and also because even with the major uptick in interest it’s still a niche market. Not enough demand to drive prices down.

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#665

Probably. If anyone is serious about it l can arrange things…

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#666

Picking up parts at a Mercedes Benz dealership in Charlotte.

I think the European members would be surprised at how much they upsell the “luxury” aspect here in the US. Ooh ahh blimp rotor motifs in the wheels! Shiny! Foreign!

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#667

Was perusing ammo prices today. I wanted some exposed lead 158gr round nose 38 Special. The cheap stuff. My 1924 Colt Police Positive loves the cheap lead stuff, plus they were sighted in for 158gr.

No exposed lead to be found for less than 70 cents a round. 130gr FMJ from dubious commercial reloaders, 38.9 cents per round.

Guess I’m dusting off my RCBS press and casting Semi-Wadcutters. Found out a few years ago if you powder coat the bullets you don’t need to lube them, just tumble the bullets in the powder, bake in a toaster oven(which will also anneal the lead), and voila no more lead fouling or lead melting the back end of the bullet!

I have maybe 100lbs or more of lead saved up from scrounging at work, and I can always go and grab more.

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#668

I have about 300lbs of battery terminals and lead roof scuppers saved up :grin: have a few cast 55gr im going to try out in the 223 soon for plinking rounds

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#669

Powder coat those bullets! It works great with 223 and 300blackout.

Forgot to mention, with powder coating you don’t have to use a copper gas check on the base. Elvis Ammo has made supersonic 300blk and .223rem loads with no gas check, just powder coated and recovered the bullets in gelatin, no evidence of the bases being burned up from the heat.

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#670

Not a good time to order Powder or primers.

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#671

Fellows. Life offers choices. Especially Life in modern current U.S.A.
You can only really support timewise, financially 1-2, m-a-y-b-e 1/2 more, expensive habits/hobbies.
Now I know some of you have inner buzzy a’going 20 hours a day thinking you can be true do-all, experience-all, Renaissance Men. And you can fool yourselves for a few decades 20’s, 30’s, even 40’s . . . but by your mid-fifties your energy levels WILL make you narrow down your interests. Focus. Focus. Focus.

I used to cartridges handload nightly for an hour or more. Then weekend spend a whole day up in the hills shooting, brass scrounging from others left lay shooting. Great fun.
Then I met and started dating my to become Wife.
I knew. I knew that my time and energy priorities had to shift if we were ever going to make a go of it. Ha! She was spliting herself 3-4-5 ways too with her nursing-social volunteer works. She had to re-prioritize narrow down too.
This was 1993-1994 in the first assault rifle ban era. One by one I shed off of my too many rifles. Decreased my calibers spread owed. Shed off my one, bangs-a-lot pistol. Added revolvers. Shot enough to become very comfortable. Very effective proficient.
We were instead focusing instead on each other trying to make babies. Soon, ART really costs money I’ll tell you. We were traveling twice a year. Thoroughly enjoying each other.
Well the babies never came. So we under-wing helped out friends and family with at-needs, youth. Costs money. Takes time. Investing in young folks.
My last parent aged to a wheelchair. Then cancer. Her late 70’s aged to thier 80’s needing daily help, too then. We stepped up to this. As the honorable thing to do. Costs money. Takes time. Just traveling to and fro added hours and grey hairs each and every day.
Really squeezing time annually 1-2 away times for ourselves had high costs.
And we could do this affordably because we had shed the most expensive in time and money of out pre-married making-smoke habits/hobbies.

I’ve spent ~$35,000 in the last 15 years on wood-for-power.
I could not have done that cost-wise, time-wise if I was still shooting weekly. Hand loading nightly to do that.

So’s how’s about we keep the open site DOW just about wood-for-power, eh?
And I’ve seen that cause at least three divorces that I know of in the last 15 years.
You wanna’ talk bang-go-booms and making-smokes; PM’s here are a nice way to exchange. I done that. Will do that. After all. Mine choices will beat yours any day you’d care for a true realistic shoot off.
Regards
Steve unruh

5 Likes
#672

The youtube channel, I believe called livingwebfarms is in NC. They do a LOT of long videos, for small scale organic vegetable farmers and have a lecture series. Their information is better then a random google.

As far as threshers, you can use the bike wheel, but you can actually use a hammer mill. It is like a metal 5 gallon bucket (or there abouts), an axle and a chains attached to it that spin, and you can add stuff to the end to give it actual hammers. or weld a hammer to the shaft. That is more like a commercial combine. They make small ones for rice threshing, but you stick the heads in and it beats the grain off. a hammer mill, you would have a spout at the top and grain exits out the bottom, but the stalks move horizontally through the system, and exit at the end. I mention that because you have MUCH better fab skills and resources then most people trying to make something low-budget. It will take you as long to fab the hammer mill, as it will for you to fab the bike wheel. It should do most grains from corn, wheat, sunflowers, soys,etc. You may have to adjust the speed the chains spin, and the size of the holes in the screen for the various grains.

If you can find a rear tine tiller, they are significantly better/easier then the front tined ones especially in clay, because they don’t bounce nearly as much.

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#673

I would knock off part of the russian tractor rotary cutter design and put it onto a lawnmower kind of like this:

You might have to remove like the right wheel but it has a good chance of creating a windrow.

1 Like
#674

hello, this summer there are a lot of ticks, a really problem on the animals, horses and goats, quantity of hundreds on one place,
has someone a effective remedy to remove them?
ciao giorgio

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#675

Hi Giorgio, yes a lot of ticks here in Sweden too, i only have some old-time solutions, i dont know if they work or are useless?
Many says: garlic should repell ticks and mosquitos, crush garlic in a bucket of water, let it draw 24hours, pour some in the neck of the animal every other day.
The other tip is wood-tar, this is based on that wild boar are like crazy to rub themselves against threes with burnt pitch/tar after forest-fires. Hunters use to buy tar from me, to paint on tree stumps to attract wild boars.
This is ofcourse very sticky/messy, but should probably repell ticks and mosquitos too.
I dont know if anything of this works but maybe worth a try?
Edit: it could be interesting if someone had like: ten goats, and garlic-treated five, to see if theres a noticeable difference?

5 Likes
#676

I tried the wood vinegar I get from the funnel on the gasifier, the tar settles to the bottom of the container and the vinegar drains from the top, obviously repels mosquitoes well, I just smell like a gypsy, JO I would say it smells nice.:grinning:

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#677

I willl confirm garlic will repel mosquitos. You can buy it as a solution ready to mix in a sprayer here to apply to the lawn. It works for a few weeks depending on the rain.

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#678

Back in March I got a call from a guy up by lake Siljan. A couple weeks back I got a message his rig was almost finished.
Today I brought a friend on a Volvo road trip to take a look.

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#679

Wow very nice design and workmanship all on the trailer hitch and still can hook up a trailer. I like the removeable tar/water container. It looks like you, JO had some influence in this build? Just looking at the lower gasifer and drop box part. Matching paint job too. Just need to put the licence plate on the back of the gasifier and DOW. Did you bring a bag of lemons? SWEM.
Bob

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#680

That was a very nice build, fun to see there is more and more woodgas vehicles in our “elongated country”, seems most of them concentrated in Dalarna?
And what Bob asked, are you involved/influencer in this build?

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