Annie's 2014 Glog: MoA ferments

annie57 · Jan 25, 2014

Jeff H said:
Hey look, Annie is a new mother again. Congrats on both of them.

Am looking over (advanced copy) of 1040. Thinking "dependents."?? :rofl:

Devv · Jan 25, 2014

Just think, if you were able to do that, with the earned income credit you could retire!

annie57 · Jan 25, 2014

Devv said:
Just think, if you were able to do that, with the earned income credit you could retire!

Scotty, if YOU were able to do that, from what I've already seen, you both could retire as of 2014 easy! :onfire:

(I wonder if they'd blink much on 125

.)

JJJessee · Jan 25, 2014

Congrats, PepperMoma!
5-6 days is pretty quik too. MickeyDreads cousins over on this side weren't so venturesome. But they did come on strong when they got started.

I've been clearing on two Privet patches, going on second year now. Both are under a tall locust canopy, so no plans to plow it. One I've got mow-able, and take my #5 railroad mattock (5lbs -heavier to swing, but packs a punch instead of just bouncing off everything -sharpen the back edge) and grub a few when I feel inclined. The other patch still needs a third pass at it with my chainsaw before I get down to fine tuning it -make for a good bee yard eventually.

We're getting a good solid winter over here. Not much snow, so the ground is freezing deep I'd say.

stay warm.

annie57 · Jan 26, 2014

JJJessee said:
Congrats, PepperMoma!
5-6 days is pretty quik too. MickeyDreads cousins over on this side weren't so venturesome. But they did come on strong when they got started.

I've been clearing on two Privet patches, going on second year now. Both are under a tall locust canopy, so no plans to plow it. One I've got mow-able, and take my #5 railroad mattock (5lbs -heavier to swing, but packs a punch instead of just bouncing off everything -sharpen the back edge) and grub a few when I feel inclined. The other patch still needs a third pass at it with my chainsaw before I get down to fine tuning it -make for a good bee yard eventually.

We're getting a good solid winter over here. Not much snow, so the ground is freezing deep I'd say.

stay warm.

Japanese honeysuckle prevented any Privet; (of course it prevents anything that isn't bare flat land).

"Tall Locust," you say. Ya know, be easier to clear if I came whacked down that Locust for ya, limbed, bucked, took it off your hands for the sake of the bees . . . such a hard wood, tisk, tisk. I could burn that stuff right up for ya.

You're right, good deep cold might kill off some bugs.

5# isn't bad. :liar

: A few Chinese laborers going West might have disagreed with ya. I have one (it was my grandfather's) but pickaxe is lighter. I kept telling the ex that I wanted an axe for Christmas. He was, "What the hell is 'Gransforest' Felling?" I kept saying, "GRANSFORS!" But got me nowhere.

Have you noticed how hard it is to find a course bastard? :rofl:

Or go into Lowe's and tell them ya need a card for a file. :shocked:

Lansky's rounds are nice to finish off. Dull a mattock in no time hitting soil.

Good luck with it shuga! (Make sure ya let me know about that locust. And if you have more!

lol)

JJJessee · Jan 26, 2014

Those locust patches are my little treasures

.
I steer clear of 'em in a lightening storm though :shocked:

I think they will make a good bee shade since it's a hard south face.
I took one down last spring and started splitting posts (with a sledge and wedge) out of it, 30'+ foot of 15"+ log -project #117/2b.11 :rolleyes:

You're absolutely right on burn wood though, I'd take it almost 2:1 over oak.

Sun'shinin', might hit 45 today. woowoo!

Goin' to the spring to fetch 40 gal of water.

later

Jeff H · Jan 26, 2014

annie57 said:
Have you noticed how hard it is to find a course bastard? Or go into Lowe's and tell them ya need a card for a file. Lansky's rounds are nice to finish off. Dull a mattock in no time hitting soil.

Annie, I would like to think I know a lot about tools, but I must have to admit that I have no idea what you are talking about here.

To me it is simple. Take the head off the dull maddox, take it downstairs to the bench grinder. Presto. No more dull maddox.

annie57 · Jan 26, 2014

JJJessee said:
Those locust patches are my little treasures .
I steer clear of 'em in a lightening storm though
I think they will make a good bee shade since it's a hard south face.
I took one down last spring and started splitting posts (with a sledge and wedge) out of it, 30'+ foot of 15"+ log -project #117/2b.11
You're absolutely right on burn wood though, I'd take it almost 2:1 over oak.

Sun'shinin', might hit 45 today. woowoo!

Goin' to the spring to fetch 40 gal of water.

later

"treasures" . . . dang. lol.

righto on the 2:1 but I'd go 3:1. And "started" with sledge/wedge . . . you finish with that too? :shocked:

Yeah, I know; great weather! Fired up wood stove, shorts and t-shirt--letting it fire, then smolder to build again around 6pm from coals and . . . the beat goes on. Wood stove not necessary today but just keeping it going with minimal amounts of wood. No Locust. :mope:

Just Oak and Hickory. :tear:

lol Wood stove 101: keep hot draft until warm weather. (Brush chimney more.)

You fetchin' that water with a pump? I want to build an aqueduct system from pond down road to here. If the folks who owned pond agreed, town would go, "Well, okay then, Annie." :rolleyes:

I just put some yellow Fatalii "sprouts," Goat's Weed, more bonnets--FDA and Market, Steve's MoA, and a Red SB MoA from Greg/PIC1 from germ to under lights just now.

Jeff H said:
Annie, I would like to think I know a lot about tools, but I must have to admit that I have no idea what you are talking about here.

To me it is simple. Take the head off the dull maddox, take it downstairs to the bench grinder. Presto. No more dull maddox.

Ya know, Jeff! A course bastard file, that files course stuff off, and then something like Lanksy's round, does medium to fine. Bench grinders work too :party:

but my basement is full. I just run mattock down road and let retired neighbor do it in his "metal shaving" space. If he's not there, he hides key for me. An axe or splitting maul, I prefer manual (if not in bad, bad shape).

Devv · Jan 26, 2014

Annie,

I'm a fan of the course bastard file to sharpen axes and garden equipment, even lawn mower blades. Just works better!

Jeff H · Jan 26, 2014

Ahhh. A bastard file. Now I'm with you. I wave a couple of them around. I like them a lot for certain jobs. For me the Grinder is faster for the smaller blades though.

Sawyer · Jan 27, 2014

The only problem with files for sharpening is that you remove material. Eventually you lose too much. (The longest blade on the old KA-BAR folding knife I keep in my tackle box looks more like a stiletto blade than a pocket knife blade.) I know it has to be done, but I sure hate doing it. Except for lawn mower blades; I switched to a belt sander for those. I've often wondered why peen hammer sharpening isn't more common for blades other than scythe blades. Not only does it not remove (as much) material, but I would think the hammering would work-harden the edge.

Annie, thanks for mentioning Gransfors. I used to have a double-bit axe that was about 2/3 the size of a regular double-bit axe, handle length, weight, size, everything. It was a hand me down from my elder brother and I loved that axe. We used it for limbing and marking pulpwood. You could walk alongside a felled pine (or along the trunk itself) with a pulpwood length marking stick in one hand and this axe in the other, marking the trunk and slicing off limbs up to a couple inches, clean as a whistle. It was also the perfect size for throwing. I used to keep it in my '65 Chevy pickup behind the seat on the passenger side, stood up between the end of the gas tank and the outer shell of the cab. Someone turned in front of me, wrecked us both, truck got towed, axe missing after I retrieved the truck. Tow owner, of course, knew nothing about it. Long story, short (too late), I don't know that it was a Gransfors, but it definitely had "Sweden" stamped on the head.

I'd love to have a bunch of felled black locust, just the right size to use as posts without splitting. I've got some muscadine vines that need a trellis. I've heard black locust honey is something special.

Barley-pop57 · Jan 27, 2014

Hi Annie,

Thought I'd drop by and see your glog. It is looking good !!!!! :drooling:

JJJessee · Jan 27, 2014

Locust and thistle both make great honey. But sourwood off the Blue Ridge still my favorite when I can find it. Lots of jars are labeled sourwood, but don't match the color of W NC.

annie57 · Jan 27, 2014

JJJessee said:
Locust and thistle both make great honey. But sourwood off the Blue Ridge still my favorite when I can find it. Lots of jars are labeled sourwood, but don't match the color of W NC.

Ain't that the truth, JJJ! Locust is really good. Much to my grandmother's (the one who passed at 98 last March) delight when she moved onto and began building her house on the land (out in B-F) that my grandfather left her, she discovered a nice stand of Sourwood. If one stand is good then more is . . . every year she planted at least 3 more Sourwood for honey. Robbed hives herself (I think the hives went up near that Sourwood before the house did), but she wore a suit. So cool to watch her do that! Combs with dead (or live) bees in 'em's the real thing.

Anyhow, her brother wanted to go behind her property one winter to fell some Oak with a logging truck, fancy new splitter, crew of men. But there wasn't a road to haul all that in, unless they'd have taken out quite a few of those Sourwood. She told him they could pack in and figure another way, but nobody was going to harm a bark on one of those trees. My great-uncle was prone to drink a bit. One morning they got the bright (inebriated) idea that they could fell some those trees around 3 am if they did it with axes, quietly, make a logging road. On a 2 mile gravel road down in a hollar, it's like being on a lake with sound carrying. They flipped on their headlamps and kerosene lamps to see a 5'4" woman pointing a double-barrel braced nicely against her shoulder, standing in front of that Sourwood.

Now, Oak has been felled and split out of there but it's been toted out in a wheelbarrow, pull cart with mules, etc.; a stipulation in her Will as well: nobody messes with the Sourwood. Lemme see if I can get my cousin to give up some. (He makes mead.) Varies. Last year, dang with all the rain, eh. Blossoms blown, rained down, not much.

JJJessee · Jan 27, 2014

Your grandma was a crackerjack.
Somebody needs to write her stories down.

I paid $19 for my last quart of sourwood with comb at the big farmer's market in Asheville in 2012.
Afraid to guess what it'll be next time.

annie57 · Jan 27, 2014

JJJessee said:
Your grandma was a crackerjack.
Somebody needs to write her stories down.

I paid $19 for my last quart of sourwood with comb at the big farmer's market in Asheville in 2012.
Afraid to guess what it'll be next time.

Ya know, not a day goes by don't miss that woman. Yeah, she lived enough to make a movie/book about. She'd had fun with me today. I let a week's worth of ashes sit outside in ash bucket all day. Thought they'd be out, tossed some on raised beds. Oh shit! "Oo-ooh that smell." I was shoveling dirt fast as I could on straw, looked down and the freakin' frame about to catch. :rofl:

No, I caught it in time but she did same thing with one of her beds near her tool shed. Why d'ya think I had a shovel with me? Thank God she always told on her screw-ups. I'm so much like her, I tended to listen, closely.

Pickin's slim last year even at Sourwood Fest in Black Mountain. First weekend in August every year. AND can sample before buy. But yep: it's expensive at FM's; it's a lie coming down or going up 321 to or from Boone. Bought some there in 2010 summer. Took it BACK. I tasted in car. Oh hell no! Clover. If I wanted clover would have saved 10 bucks. See, they mess with ya on 321: tourist traps, all. "Fresh Mountain Chow-Chow" and label says "Made in Oklahoma" or some sh*t. Haven't checked lately. Maybe "China." Wudang? "The Tao of Dow Chow-Chow."

maximumcapsicum · Jan 27, 2014

Great hooks Annie! Amazing operation!

stickman · Feb 3, 2014

Hi Miz Annie,
Haven't heard from you in a week and was hoping everything's OK with you. The neighbors didn't narc you to the cops for shooting down snowflakes with your new torch did they?

HillBilly Jeff · Feb 3, 2014

Did I see a Skynyrd reference???

Jeff H · Feb 3, 2014

HillBilly Jeff said:
Did I see a Skynyrd reference???

If so, I missed it. Don't know Skynyrd that well, but any shooting reference that doesn't include Nugget is more sane than one that does.