It’s sunny out today and we’re out getting yet more firewood. Hey, if it’s available and the weather’s nice, why not? Better to have too much than too little. Right? We have two smaller sheds, which used to be our farrowing houses for our pigs. When the price of corn doubled, we sold our herd of pigs, and the houses were standing empty. Will brought them up by the storage barn and now they’re our overflow woodsheds. Perfect.
We had a bit of bad luck recently. Coyotes chewed a hole in the OSB, covering the pallet fence on one side of the duck yard and got in. They carried off three ducks and left the others terrified. My knees had been real sore, and I neglected to put them in at night. That goes to show you, critters are smarter than me! So, the next night, I shut them in. But the coyotes actually opened the duck door and took three more! That’s it! We still had three ducks left and I had David catch them and put them in the goat barn’s big stall. And we set a trap, right under the chewed hole. Enough is enough!
It’s been a couple of weeks now and we haven’t had coyotes in the duck yard. Or in the trap. But I’m leaving it in place, just in case. I’m pretty mad at those coyotes! (Yep, I know it was coyotes as the hole wasn’t big enough for wolves and there were tracks in the mud.) When you live way in the woods, sooner or later, something will get in and eat something. It just happens. We’d just as soon it didn’t!
Son, Bill, got a real big buck on opening weekend and grandson, Mason, added a nice doe to the family meat supply. They’ll be processing and canning venison for quite a while. Good job, guys!
The beets are still in the crate as I’m gearing up for our early Thanksgiving family get-together on Sunday. My house was a pigpen, full of seeds, bean pods, and assorted bark and tracked in whatever. My priority shifted from beets to house cleaning. Luckily, beets store very well. — Jackie
I’m sad about the ducks. Last year, a mink got a few of my chickens, and I had to use wire mesh to close all the small holes in the coop. Today, I will start our wood stove as finally, the weather will be cold. This is the latest I have waited to start the stove in 40+ years. Hunting season—deer to start this weekend. Nice buck in the picture. I welcome winter (in a way) as it is a forced slowdown for me. There is still a lot to get done. I’m tearing apart an old Troy-built tiller and hope to redo the transmission. Canning and harvest are all done for us this year. It’s crazy about the E-coli in the food supply. We just finished putting up the carrots. We grow our own onions. We have frozen meat and canned vegetables. It seems the food supply is getting more worrisome with contamination. You look like you have enough wood for your winter. Happy Thanksgiving
E-coli – yet another reason to produce as much as you can. Due to family health problems in May, I was very late getting the garden planted. Carrots didn’t get planted at all. Recently decided to buy some to have on hand for winter stews etc. Of course, they have been recalled due to the e-coli contamination. Don’t know if it would be safe to just cook them really well or return them to the store. Usually, we don’t eat produce that we haven’t grown. Happy Thanksgiving from the Finger Lakes Region of NY.
Yep, all those foods that have been recalled due to various bacterial contamination is scary. We know our food is clean. No chemicals or nasty bacteria there! And it sure tastes better than store-bought. Personally, I’d return the carrots, not only for safety but to make a statement that you won’t accept such food. Happy Thanksgiving!
Yep, we have plenty of wood and about everything else. We feel so blessed to have so much food put away. We’ve been running our wood stove for a couple of weeks now and are having our first snow. It’s not much, just a few flakes and it’s not sticking. Yet. Cold is definitely on the way, but we are grateful for our very late fall weather.
Look for my reply to you below. Crazy computers sometimes stick replies in odd places and I can’t fix it!
wow, thought lot of wood. remembered though, you live way up north. hope its enough. so frustrating about the continued return of coyotes with more loss of ducks. what damage!, hope the knees start feeling better soon.
Nice Buck huge! a Happy Thanksgiving to you and family
Yep, we do go through a lot of wood. But it’s a small price to pay for living here and having our own wood to cut. We’ll never run out!
We feel sad about the ducks. But it was partially my fault for not putting them inside that night.
Bill’s buck was the biggest any of us has ever harvested. Lots of good eating there! Happy Thanksgiving!
Had an 8 point buck sauntering from my front yard into my back woods today. The fawns weren’t too worried but another doe lit out like no tomorrow!
I am sorry to hear about the loss of your ducks. Coyotes are a real problem here where I live. If you step out on the porch of an evening your can hear them calling and barking. It’s an eerie sound for sure. There used to be a lot of coyote hunters here, but the price of hides is nominal and not as many people hunt anything anymore, so their population continues to grow. My brother lots his sheep every night to protect them. Congratulations to the boys on the hunt. There will be good food in their house this winter. Wishing you a happy early Thanksgiving. Sending prayers for a blessed week.
Thank you! We’ve got plenty of coyotes too. Their howls are so weird when they talk at night. Not like wolves, whose howls are beautiful.
Bill is busy cutting up and getting ready to can up all that venison. Good job, Bill!
Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!!
Nice 4 point buck (I am from Colorado orginally — here in TX they also count all points). Wow…… dressed out at 195# awesome. Texas deer are maybe 150# on the hoof!
We are still cutting firewood here. Right now we are cutting a bunch of dry mesquite up. Of course, we don’t go through anywhere as much as you do, but we heat our (mostly uninsulated) cabin with just wood.
So sorry to hear about the loss of your ducks. Always sad to have the needless (?) loss.
Yep, it was needles, as if I’d had gone out and locked them in that night, they wouldn’t have tempted the coyotes to enter their pen and carry off three.
When we lived in Montana, we also counted just one side. Here, they sound bigger. An eight-point sounds so much bigger than a four point. Ha ha.
We also heat only with wood so are very happy to have full woodsheds.
I’m sorry about the ducks getting killed. Years ago when I was farming there were many mink farms in the area. They would escape and not get caught by the owner. I had, on a couple of occasions, one mink kill 13 hens and one kill over 20. The mink just killed them, of course they didn’t have a chance to eat them as I shot the mink before they could get away. Its discouraging when you put all the work in to have it wiped out so quickly. I love your blog. You remind me of my life many moons ago.
All the mink family are bloodthirsty guys. Long ago, I was raising purebred rabbits and fancy pheasants in a large, enclosed granary in the barn. One night, a weasel came in through a knothole just bigger than the end of my thumb (I saw the tracks.) and killed the whole lot of them. Dozens. No eating involved that I could see. So, when Mittens brings in a dead weasel, I sure don’t cry about it.
Our solution to the duck problem is a leg-hold trap. And, come spring, we’ll put up wire where the pallet fence was. They can’t chew through that, if they’re still living.
I got a big turkey at WalMart, on sale, of course, as I always can up the leftovers plus lots of broth from the carcass. The more meat, the better, on the pantry shelves. I don’t trust freezers although we have three, pretty full. I lost one years back, plus a lot of the food in it. I managed to can up all the meat, but a lot of the veggies and fruit ended up bucketed out to the pigs.
Wish our shed was overflowing! Our shed is four bays 8 foot by 7 foot by 8 foot high. I would normally have it full before gardening starts but I spent a total of six weeks in hospital mostly in late April and all of May and am still not 100%. My daughter and a friend plus one of my sons helped but I figure we still need a couple cords . Here in Alaska it takes two years for green spruce to season if cut to length and split so we have been buying four or eight foot logs and processing them. This is dry on the Stump beetle killed spruce. Very little dead wood left on my 13 acres! We use 9 or ten cords most years depending on how much 40 and 50 below we get! Shed holds about 12 cords and one bay is used for “night logs” larger rounds that help hold a fire. We will get there and start accumulating logs for next year. Stay warm!
Yep, I hear you. We got late as Will usually cuts dead logs in the summer. But because haying was so late due to rain all July, here we are. I’m happy though, as we also burn about 11 cords a winter, depending on how cold it gets for how long. We’ve got our wood sorted too and am burning only “ugly” wood now. That’s twisted or weirdly split wood that doesn’t stack worth a darn. But it does burn so in it goes.
All hail “ugly” wood. Looks don’t matter when it comes to burning.
Eddie filled our woodhouse and stored more under a tarp back in the spring. We had a bunch of wild cherry that he wanted to get rid of. It burns great and hardly leaves ashes.
We’ve been putting up venison and canning it for five weeks and the freezers are full and we canned 14 more quarts today. I’ve made a lot of jerky for Sadie too but with her it won’t last long.
Eddie put in a new propane heater in our guest room so that I can get to my computer and do some sewing. There’s always plenty to do!!
I lost all of my ducks to a mink last year and we still haven’t caught one. Our neighbors lost all their chickens to him and so did my brother but in another county. Always something!!
That it is. But I figure if you keep plugging along, it all comes out fine. We only heat with wood but I’d eventually like a propane heater in case we need to be away for a length of time in cold weather. Don’t need things to freeze up.
Nothing better than a pile of stacked fire wood. Sorry about your ducks. Due to scheduling conflicts,we’re having our family thanksgiving this Friday.
I figure we’re thankful every day, so it really doesn’t matter what the actual Thanksgiving Day is. It’s whatever works for everyone. We’re just happy to have the family around the table. At least those who can come.
We had amazing luck this year and have about 3 yrs. wood. The county decided to widen a road, cut down countless aspen and popped trees and left piles of wood cut on the side of the road. With a trailer and chainsaw and our neighbor over several days both families got plenty. There’s still a lot left! Love hearings your stories! Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
Wow, that was really a windfall for you and your neighbor! That’s awesome. I hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving!!
We’ve gotten a lot of wood from people in our neighborhood. We know it will eventually slow down as the older folks sell and younger folks move in. We don’t sell much any more and have plenty of trees on our property. Waiting for Mother Nature to drop a massive dead oak which will keep us in firewood for at least a couple of years. Said tree also gifted us with a number of morels but haven’t found any the past couple of years.
I’m sure you and the others will be back for more.
I take vacation from work to clean/organize for T-Day (and most carries over to Xmas). Clutter and dust (dust is a given when you have a wood stove I think).
One can never have too much firewood when you live where I do and north like you.
Its great that Bill and Mason were successful – anything one doesn’t have to buy puts one that much farther ahead.
Bummer about the ducks – wild critters (and strays truth be told) are quite savvy. The will to survive is strong. I’m between you and Will, you’ll come up with a budget friendly solution. While most would laugh at the set-up we did to deter Pepe from walking next to our house (and open windows!), it worked. Put together by on-hand supplies. Most can be used again if need be.
The T-day “bird” will be removed from the freezer Friday morning! Better half turned the frig temp down a bit and I’m half tempted to take it out Thursday night. Bought a bit larger one this year but a couple pounds less than better half’s original “target” – why he changed his mind is beyond me. I have no issue eating turkey for days on end or out of the freezer. I love dark meat.