Jason closes his journal... Thanks!! I love you!!

[Blackbird]

No Aiden, those are two different things. Ground hogs are also called wood chucks, and they are usually a darkish brown, and bigger than prairie dogs. My dad just shot two wood chucks in the nieghbors field the other day. My brother, dad, and uncles also go to SD to a couple different farms and shoot prairie dogs all day for the farmers, basically pest control I guess. We don't eat either though. but thats why I don't shoot them.

 

[modern_pioneer]

I snapped this one of my pesky groundhog this morning, I guess the word got out to'em

Game on sucker hog.....

Stay tuned, it won't be long now....

 

[Dace]

 

[Aidenbaby]

Thanks for clearing that up. I've heard that farmer around here welcome prairie dog hunters, too. From what I read on the DOW website, you only need a small animal license for "practice" shots.

Pioneer, all I have to say is WOW! No wonder you are up on the roof. That little bugger looks like he could easily take your ankle and foot off. Critters in your area must be tough.

 

[freemotion]

The ones in my pasture are obviously on fertility drugs.....

 

[modern_pioneer]

The ones in my pasture are obviously on fertility drugs.....

Sounds like a kodak moment to me free. " I picture in my mind, join me for a second " Free sitting on a log, with one of those old western black and white dresses on, big fancy hat with a long feather sticking out, 50 caliber muzzle loader in hands, and 60 ground hogs hanging in the back ground. It would be a tin type of course,

So the strawberrys and black raspberrys are now being picked everyday. I will leave them in the fridge for a couple days until I have enough to make a quart in a freezer bag. I use the Foodsaver system to vac pack all my freezer goods, I re-use the bags until they can't be used anymore. So after 9 years of seasonal use, it died on me yesterday. I have no idea how many bags I have used it for, I am sure between 5-10k.

I use it for camping stuff, dried goods, as well as my emergency supplies that are stored in containers. So the replacement is $80 and that will have to come out of my SS budget for the year. I'll share a couple money saving tips with you, or at least one. I purchase the big rolls in order to make the bags, I purchased one of those scape booking paper cutters for 10 dollars. I just roll out the size bag I need, pull the handle down, its cut. I have it taped to a piece of cardboard which also has colored lines drawn on it for different sized bags. Its a no brainer system so the kids can cut the bags for me.

Like a cat watching a chipmunk hole, I to have been staying the course waiting for that ground hog. It has yet to return, but it will.....

The pool water is staying in the lower 80s now, the solar heater is wonderful. I understand now why the one I made last year didn't work so well, the pipe was too big to warm the water.

I finished Johns copper caps and he had them installed yesterday, they look nice.

Do you remember those big strawberry plants I showed a picture of?

How about this whopper.....

Now theres a half pint of jam from one strawberry, wish they all were this big. I have another one still on the plant that is deformed, but its bigger than this one. Its three strawberries growing together. But this is the biggest single strawberry I have ever seen.

 

[punkin]

I'm just imagining it covered in chocolate.

 

[Blackbird]

Keep your strawberries! I want the barn!

If your ground hog looks like that, I think you have a prairie dog problem instead. Lol. Not sure where you got the picture, but someone probably labeled it wrong.

 

[modern_pioneer]

Thanks Amos,

Well that big berry doesn't belong to me anymore, DW has chocolit on her to do list now. Wonder if she'll share it with me.

 

[Aidenbaby]

That is a gorgeous barn and the caps are most assuredly the icing on the cake. If the inside looks as good as the outside, it is definitely something to be proud of.

That is a VERY large strawberry. Now, I've always heard that the larger ones aren't as sweet but I'm beginning to suspect that with the hybridization of the world that may not be the case anymore.