ffj's Early Retirement (round 2)

[ffj]

Thanks Edith

I gave the chickens away to a friend however. My dog would have killed every last one of them if he could have gotten hold of them. He would circle their cage endlessly trying to find a way to get his head in there. It's just in his blood so I did the right thing and gave them to a good friend with a farm that rotationally grazes them along with his sheep.

I can still visit though if I want to see them.

[ffj]

The blackberry season is finally over of which I am thankful for no other reason than I won't be picking any more. Although I am happy to have earned over $700 from the endeavor. The patch needs work if it is to produce next year which means work for me as the owner can't and won't perform any more maintenance. This involves weeding and cutting away last years growth to make room for the new sprouts which will bear next year. And the prima canes need to be trellised. I think once it cools down significantly, say late Oct/Nov, I'll just plug away at it here and there and determine if this is something ultimately worth pursuing.

But the only thing I am sure of at the moment is that I won't be doing anything until it is much cooler. Yardwork has become an endurance of how much heat one can take. It is supposed to hit 100 again this week which is no fun as it is miserable to be outside performing any kind of work, of which I am lined up for the next month.

I am also taking a break from the mushroom business for the next 3 weeks as I am feeling a bit over the whole thing frankly. It's a great little way to make some extra cash but I'm feeling a little "meh" about it. A small break should reinvigorate me I hope.

I did recently help my builder buddy with something unique: he needed a rigger to lift beams into place as well as raise a literal tree into place. These beams and tree were all white oak which was extremely heavy for their size so I emphasized safety at each step because if one of these had fallen it would have literally killed someone. And at one point I ripped into their asses about not taking this seriously while lifting a 1,000 pound tree. I apologized after the fact but the laws of physics weren't taking a break because I was there. Anyway, it was interesting and something I had never done before.

[Jim]

These are awesome pictures. I just checked out your YouTube channel, and it's great. I'm also a firefighter (and rope tech). One of the aspects I really like about your videos is that they are each focused on a particular subject/technique/knot. Also, no weird introductory branding madness.

Would you ever consider making videos about building systems for specific jobs like this? It would be cool (and educational) to see how you went about building the system for lifting the beams and tree, doing load calculations or whatever. I guess it might not be very practical to do, as it might interfere with the work flow, but it would be fun to watch.

[ffj]

Hey Jim!

Another firefighter and rope tech, how wonderful is that! I'm on the retired side of things but obviously I still dabble here and there.Thank you for the compliment on the channel. I actually am uploading another video as I type this so check that out later tonight if you wish.

I would like to make videos on the big picture if you will. I don't know how many people would watch them though. I did make a video on the T Method for calculating mechanical advantage which is boring to most people but I got some compliments on it which was nice. So maybe it's worth exploring some of the more nerdy aspects of load calculations and such. Most of my audience are just regular people it seems however.

I was nervous on the tree raise if I am honest because I didn't know exactly what it weighed and as you know the COD pulleys at the top were absorbing the most force. So I doubled the anchors at the top and it worked well, even placing the upright tip exactly where it needed to go. At one point, the most critical before the post is upright the guys weren't listening to me and I kinda went back to my Fire Captain days and lit them up. They listened after that but in their defense they thought all of this was magic anyway, haha. But I knew what could go wrong.

if you have any ideas let me know. I am very open to suggestions. Maybe you team has problem areas you need to address or a lack of understanding. I am not an expert but I do have experience on my side and if I don't know we could learn together.

[Jim]

I actually watched the video about the T method. I liked how you explained the MA and then actually showed it with real pulleys and rope. I'm always curious how people teach that, because it seems no matter how you do it, it takes people a while to learn.

I'll definitely be hitting you up with rope questions as they come up. I'm still relatively new to the discipline, so I've got a lot to learn.

[sky]

Video link?

[Jim]

https://youtu.be/3K0SH0edIKE

[ffj]

My current interest: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Z1nj01M5RLw

The Chinese Windlass. It would be interesting to build a lift with this mechanism in my future treehouse.

[ffj]

My life has gotten boring.

Because I won't stop taking on jobs. Unfortunately it is not as simple as saying no because there are so many other factors that determine why I am agreeing to do this work. But man it is killing my creativity and free time. I just keep getting sucked into the vortex and I need to get off this ride soon.

But in the meantime I managed to take a couple of interesting photos:



Did you know that a ground hog (woodchuck) can climb trees? I had no idea. This particular guy had some strong motivation as my coonhound was trying to kill him, which he would have if he had landed on the ground. These poor creatures have no defense other than scurrying down a hole or in this case climbing a tree. But I got to my dog and penned him up to give the little guy a chance to escape. As a coonhound, he is bred to tree animals and just from his bark I know instantly whether it is a squirrel, a coon, or now a ground hog. He also has a bark for coyotes which is very distinctive as he goes bananas when they are near. Oh, and he also digs up moles and destroys them. For such a loving dog he is a killing machine.

I did manage to finish a job the other day which was a relief and I shot this photo as I found it amusing:



It's not every day that you are surrounded by sheep as you work on a house. You know, these things are cute from a distance but up close they can be kind of nasty with molting hair and shit stains down their hindquarters. And they put off an odor from all of their poop which is a pungent sweet smell. And they seem relatively dumb, haha. I don't think I'll get any soon.

I managed to score a toolbox built probably in the 50's or 60's which is perfect for a project I have been envisioning for years. I have collected antique woodworking tools for many years and now I finally have the perfect box to display them. My plan is to recreate a working toolbox with authentic period tools from the 50's as an entire collection. I'll have more photos later as I progress but I just haven't had time to work on this much.



My other project that is suffering is my YouTube channel as I haven't produced much this past 2 months. However, the channel continues to grow and I should reach 2,000 subscribers here relatively soon which is an accomplishment for me. My view count is around 800 to 1,000 views a day and I am approaching a quarter million views with 14,000 watch hours. Still small potatoes but I will take it with bells on considering my expectations were so low. I am slightly amazed to be honest.

And I have finally gotten paid! When you are dealing with YouTube you are also dealing with AdSense, which in my case was a royal pain in the ass. The user interface is horrible with lag times, poor feedback, and redundancies because clearly the system wasn't recording correctly what I was inputting according to their shitty instructions. But it has finally worked and they have back-paid me and from now on I should stay current. So that is good but I was convinced it was a conspiracy against me there for a while.

[ffj]

I haven't seen one of these guys in a long, long time. But here he is, hanging out in my patch of woods. This is probably one of the prettiest snakes we have in my part of the world with the poisonous copperhead being the most beautiful. I haven't encountered any deadly snakes on my property as of yet and I really don't want to because it will put me in a moral conundrum of whether to dispatch it or not. I would just soon have all the snakes perform their important functions of taking care of the mice. God knows my obese cat won't do it.



And this pre-historic monster decided to cross my grass the other day. They say they make good eating but I don't care enough to even attempt cooking him up. I have other options and I really dislike killing things if I can avoid it, but these guys are a pretty aggressive predator in a pond with the fish and other wildlife plus they don't call them snapping turtles for no reason. To catch them grab them by the tail as they can't reach their heads that far back.



I'm hoping I have about $1000 worth of firewood here. It is all premium, high BTU white oak and hickory. I'll know soon enough when I put it on the market and I am hoping to avoid handling this once again. I have cut the firewood, split the firewood, and hauled it near my house and if I could find a buyer that would take it all and come get it that would be great. I would even discount it a bit to keep from touching this stuff once again. Interestingly, I have no way of heating my home with this wood unless I invested in wood burner which would negate any cost savings from the free wood.



Are this acorns beautiful or what? These are all white oak acorns that I picked off of my trees on my property which makes me quite content. There is about 4 gallons here in prime condition and I plan on growing them out next Spring. Just take a couple of buckets, drill holes in them, and place a layer of peat moss in between your acorns. Then bury the buckets. I'll dig these up probably in late February/early March and start planting. White oak doesn't need cold stratification to root but I'm not prepared quite yet on a tree farm location so I'll wait till next year.










My mushroom season is done. This was my last Market offering. Jury is still out whether I do this again but at least I still have the infrastructure to not only grow mushrooms but other plants as well. I may write up a summary in the mushroom thread about the whole experience with financials highlighted.




Also, I've started my restoration of antique tools and chest. Is anybody interested in each individual tool and how to tune them up like new? These tools are cool and what is even better after 80 years they still perform well if given a little attention. My goal is to have a working chest of tools.

[mountainFrugal]

Those acorns are really pretty. The color is much more varied than the black oaks we have around (light browns).

I for one would be interested in how you get these tools back into working shape again. We have been slowing accumulating old hand tools at estate sales with the intent on doing exactly that.

[ffj]

@mountain

I'll do it then. Sharpening handsaws will be the one skill we'll have to learn together but everything else I've got a decent skillset that I can share.

[ertyu]

Very cool snake, and kinda scary turtle. I've heard these are often pet turtles that get released when they start eating too much, apparently some of them live to be that size. What did you end up doing with it? Give greetings to your housecat hahaha

[chenda]

What a lovely view you have.

I share your opinion on sheep. They should be cute but they're just not.

[7Wannabe5]

I believe that white oak is the species that produces the best acorns for processing into flour. Just shell and hang in a pair of old nylons in your toilet tank or creek until the tannins are rinsed away. You could probably sell acorn flour at Farmer's Market as novelty if you included a recipe for pancakes.

[ffj]

@ertyu

He's a common snapping turtle and completely wild. I saw him in my field from an upstairs window one day and thought I had better check him out before my dog found him as I'm not sure my dog knew this turtle could give him a nasty bite. My dog tends to learn things the hard way, haha, with his encounter with a skunk being his pinnacle achievement so far. I still remember looking at him wondering what was in his mouth from across the property one day when suddenly he flung it in the air (at which point I realized it was a skunk) and then ran to the house. I kid you not, my wife called me not two minutes later complaining of the smell from inside the house just from that stupid dog lying in the front yard trying to rub the smell off of him in the grass. It was a good month before you could pet him without stinking, haha.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_snapping_turtle



@chenda

I do have nice views, thank you for noticing. And yes on the sheep! It wasn't until I was close to them for an extended amount of time that they really started to gross me out a little. And they shit everywhere. To me, they are sort of like chickens, meaning once you get too many in the same spot they can be nasty. I've often wondered if the words fowl and foul are derivatives of each other.

Oh and these stupid sheep would not get out of my way when driving to the job site. I thought they were supposed to be easily frightened? Apparently a truck almost running their dumb asses over is barely enough to get them moving, haha.


@7

Deer love them as they are much sweeter than red oak acorns. That is why hunters are always looking for good white oak trees that produce lots of acorns. Actually, if you have a healthy deer population, a good way to find white oaks in the Fall is to simply track the deer and see where they are heading. It will look like a rototiller has worked the soil under these trees as so many deer are searching for the fallen acorns.

Here in Kentucky the white oak is a premium hardwood because the bourbon whisky industry specifically ages their bourbon in virgin white oak barrels. https://vinepair.com/booze-news/record- ... tucky-2021 So many trees have been cut down for barrels that a program called the White Oak Initiative has been developed that encourages landowners to grow more oaks. I'm doing my part. http://forestry.ca.uky.edu/sites/forest ... ctices.pdf

The flour idea is interesting but man that would be a lot of work for any potential payoff. But as a fun experiment? Possibly. I always understood (maybe incorrectly?) that acorn flour was a poor mans substitute from a lack of wheat. But I've never had acorn flour so who knows.

[7Wannabe5]

@ffj:

Yeah, my minor experiments with variety of scrub oak yielded nothing but "waxy, bitter, inedible." However, some claim you can process them to produce a sort of hearty autumnal flavor when combined with wheat flour. They were consumed by some groups of Native Americans. However, as you noted, given enough acreage in an omnivorous permaculture project, it would probably be better to let the deer "do the work" of processing them into venison. Also supposed to be good as hog feed, but I don't know why deer or hogs would be any better at processing the toxic tannins than humans. Might only be safe as minor proportion of feed.

[NewBlood]

I don't know how they process the tanins, but in Spain, the most prized type of ham is the one (bellota) from black Iberian pigs that forage on acorns during the last 2-4 months of their lives. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jam%C3%B3n_ib%C3%A9rico

[jacob]

What are those tools between the claw hammer and the panel saw? Yankee screw drivers?!

[ffj]

@7

That's my plan with my woods. Provide the food trees for the animals with a secondary benefit of quality wood should I need to harvest the tree. The walnuts, acorns, and hickory nuts are falling everywhere around my property at the moment.

@NewBlood

I have friends who spent two years in Spain (who are both excellent cooks) and they brought a whole Jamon Iberia back with them and fed a whole group of us partly with it. It was quite flavorful with a really nice texture. How interesting that you bring that up and I've actually experienced it.

@jacob

Yep. Don't ask me where I got them as over the years I can't remember where I found most of these tools. Most likely at a yard sale or CraigsList. Once I put this chest together I am probably going to sell all of my other antique tools.

I'm thinking of starting a thread just on each individual tool and how to tune them.