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Post by Plainsman on Dec 9, 2021 12:28:14 GMT -5
I have dark visions for our country, most of the time. Then Dervis comes along and I feel a surge of love and hope for America. There just aren’t enough Dervises to turn it around I fear. Nevertheless, he makes me hopeful. And grateful.
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Post by dervis on Feb 8, 2022 12:52:23 GMT -5
Strange to think one month is already gone in this year. Plans and tires on the property just keep spinning due to all the mud. House still has several things dragging along. If you've read the posts above this is what I get for praying for more patience. It is still true that every night has a dawn , so every season has an end. I try and appreciate each season and what it brings, would be a lie if I said more hours of sunshine already did not excite me. After the day job I can finish up most chores without my headlamp now.
I was blessed to borrow a tractor and move a pile of dirt the septic installer said he was waiting on. It was 10 hours on a 30 degree day moving dirt across the property. Usually a job I get bored with fast, but had a cob full of a VA flake on reload all day. That balanced with strong black coffee kept me moving. Lunch time I was treated by an older couple down the road stopping to ask if I wanted any lunch. I've done a few easy things around their house for them and since they always check on me if they hear me outside for a while. I think my little place brings them memories of when they were my age. Which from their stories they worked me under the table back in the day, they were real farmers when their health/age allowed it. They do throw in they have a single granddaughter about my age, I always laugh them off and give them some eggs.
Their visit stayed on my mind the rest of the day. I could have thought about how I was cold, how noisy the tractor was, how I was doing work someone else had agreed to do, how my hours here meant that something else on the list was neglected. Which would be so easy to do. Instead I thought of that couple, how in their eyes and words I can hear a longing to be able to sit on a tractor all day and do exactly what I was doing. Jobs I might rush through they would relish the chance to do again. Their memory of the old wood house they started in, which I bet was so full of love it almost pushed the nails out of the boards. They'd probably hear the chickens over hearing the tractor, and think how good it was going to feel to warm up after a honest days work. And the woman who hugged me before she left and told me she was rooting for me. Another human , with no benefit other than wishing me happiness was rooting for me. I am truly blessed beyond anything I deserve. Even if I have to repeat that at nauseum to get through my think head.
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don
Junior Member

Posts: 236
Favorite Pipe: J Everett Poker and a welll used MM cob
Favorite Tobacco: Penzance, St James Flake, HH Burley Flake, Father Dempsey, EGR Blend, ERR Match or Original
Location:
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Post by don on Feb 8, 2022 16:52:24 GMT -5
Travis, you are living the dream, brother. Very impressed with what you have accomplished in a short time. I love reading your posts and seeing how the farm is progressing. God bless you in 2022, young man!
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Post by urbino on Feb 8, 2022 16:55:16 GMT -5
Great post, Travis. It's always educational to look at the world through someone else's eyes.
Hey, maybe that granddaughter comes with a tractor. You never know.
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Post by Yohanan on Feb 11, 2022 21:54:05 GMT -5
Your message warmed my heart, that can be a hard thing to do for me considering...God Bless You!!!
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Post by dervis on Apr 5, 2022 9:35:07 GMT -5
Last month or so has been busy , and will just be getting busier. Usually will slow down mid summer but with the house this year not sure if that will happen. House wise the wall insulation is all installed. Dad would hang during the day while I was at work , and I would clean up the work area, measure and cut enough at night for him to install the next day. I laughed at the elves/cobbler rotation we had going. Working at home it is very hard to sit at this computer and hear someone working on my house, even worse when its my dad. Next up are ceilings so we can blow in the insulation. Will be nights and weekends for me on that. None of the stores around hand the ceiling panels I wanted so they are on order. Hopefully they will be in soon. Going with the 4X8 sheets of plywood style beadboard. with 4inch boards running along the seams. Looks better in photos than sounds when typed out. Any other update would sound to much like complaining about the various companies Im working with. Which helps nothing so better left unsaid --- That's the update for me playing carpenter/ home builder Playing Farmer is just as busy currently. Got a dozen baby ducks to raise up and add to the rotation. They will help fill the freezer and some egg cartons. There are several home cooks in my family that are excited for them. Chickens are laying about 2 dozen a day now so that's in steady supply. One rabbit had a litter Sunday, haven't even counted how many yet. The other two rabbits should have litters by this weekend. Already put 20 or so quail in the freezer. We have another 30 that should hatch out by the 15th. Adding a few extra quail back because their eggs are my dads favorite, and even if he does not each as much as he did, takes lots of quail eggs to keep him fed. So meat wise (skip if this math is boring.) Have 10 older hens to process 3lbs each so 30lbs20 quail already in freezer with 25ish quail more to butcher within 20 months 14or so ounces each so lets say 25lbs3 litters of rabbits if we average 5 a litter thats 15 to put in freezer. At 2.5 lbs each thats almost 40lbs of meat there. 6 or so ducks to cull in 2 months. 7lbs each thats 40 or so lbs 2 deer that made their way into the freezer as well which was about 75lbs combined as they were smallish and didnt all come to me. So in just a few weeks work thats 210Lbs of good meat in the freezer. And the rabbits will do another 2 rounds this year, so 80 more, meat chickens will be 150lbs 10 more ducks so 70 quail 5 more rounds so another 50 or so pounds easily. So without including hunting or fishing can easily put 500lbs of meat in the freezer and stomachs of my family and friends. And most of this is done in about 10 hours a week or so chore wise. Crazy to think I used to sit in a car that long a week driving to a job I hated, and produced far less good. So meat wise the freezer is fine for a while. The vegetable freezer is getting a bit empty. Good thing about a month ago started tomatoes, peppers , and some things in the green house, and even more last weekend. Greenhouse time is some of my favorite. All the problems , stresses, everything slows down. The present pounding, ringing in my head is slowed down. Electric company, pluming seals, septic vents, wall paint color, construction cost increasing % every month. These things are slowed until they are not just out of focus but they are gone. There are brief passing thoughts of how good this squash will taste , how pretty the okra flowers will be, how the corn will wave in the storms, walking through rows to pick dinner with bees and birds doing the same. Filling bags into car trunks of strangers who become friends, the comfort of simply knowing no matter how bad something gets, I have food. These thoughts seem important but pass like clouds also. The real pleasure is focusing on the simple task of making soil blocks and putting a seed in them. Each time its a little bit of hope, and belief there will be a tomorrow. The miracle of simple life of dirt and a seed. I feel for people who think miracles don't happen anymore, I spent the weekend plating 100s of them. Even at what can seem the worst of times, I am blessed beyond anything I deserve. And at the end of the planting as I close the door to the greenhouse I remember my grandmother and repeat her words " grow my babies" 
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Post by Goldbrick on Apr 5, 2022 17:16:18 GMT -5
Good for you Travis, no pun intended, but I'm green with envy over that greenhouse. Nothing melts away the stress and toil of a hard day at work like time spent in the greenhouse. I don't know if it's getting your hands in the dirt, or the act of bringing something green and life-giving into a world where this has become an art. all I know is, after my worst day, a short time at the potting bench, and I'm humming a tune and smiling like a loony-bird.
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Post by Gandalf on Apr 5, 2022 20:29:10 GMT -5
Sounds great dervis. I'm a big believer in a freezer full of meat - of course all mine came from the grocery store. I keep a ridiculous number of "flats" of canned goods in the "pantry" too. I am planning to buy some bison for the freezer this spring. There is a place nearby that raises bison and sells the meat, hides, skulls - by appointment only. Bison "hamburger" and steaks have a wonderful flavor. The most gardening my wife and I do these days is going to be herbs this summer. That'll be nice for cooking and homemade sausage/brats.
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Post by dervis on Apr 27, 2022 20:22:47 GMT -5
Spring showed up without asking me if I was ready, seems getting gardens in the ground always has me feeling behind. House has been put on hold this week to get gardens of mine and friends/family going.  Got the gardens uncovered the past few days mostly by headlamp, and the weather was nice enough to let it dry out a bit. Something that has been rare so far this spring. I spent all day at my desk anxious as a kid at Christmas to get out there and till it up. It really is my favorite few hours a few times a year. As mentioned I rotate my chickens on the ground each year to improve it, and always love seeing the dirt every year move further from the red clay when I bought it. I have trouble slowing down, I have to keep moving , keep pushing forward, cant sit still and cant relax.... but there is something about the tilling. You cant rush it, you cant speed it up, it benefits from slow peaceful pace. Its not long before the smoke from my pipe and the slow pace has my mind at peace. I even try and fight it a bit, to think about projects, house stuff, farm stuff, animal stuff.... but I always come back to slow and simple. More often than not I start picturing my grandfather on his tractor plowing our old fields. He didnt smoke a pipe but cheap cigars on occasion, and usually on the tractor. Picturing his faded overalls, which I inherited from his passing last year and wore today as I tilled. They are a little tighter around the midsection than they were on him but they fit well enough for today. I thought about how even at a distance the smell of fresh earth would hit me in the face, same as it did today. Taking him water to drink my little boots sinking in the tilled earth. I am not sure how to describe how it feels walking in fresh tilled soil but I love it still to this day. Then leaving a trail of footprint paths to him that eventually would be wiped away again by the tractor passing. It always reminded me of the tide washing away footprints in the sand. I thank God for those memories, and having a man like my grandfather in my life, and thank God that he is now at peace. Lots of busy things going on around the place, Baby ducks, baby rabbits, baby quail. Remembered to take pictures of a few to put on here. Even the barn cats and dog saying hello on the afternoon chore round.     Wrapping up the chores tonight before it got dark, I would usually go to the house in progress and measure or plan or something, but tonight I think I will try and keep the tilling pace for the evening and see how it feels. As always I hope you all are doing well, and I truly am blessed far beyond anything I deserve.
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Post by oldcajun123 on Apr 28, 2022 9:39:26 GMT -5
 👍🏻😄👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🐣🦆🐓🦢🐇🐇🦨🌶🫑🌽🥦🚜🚜🚜🚜. Keep on reminding us of a more simple and good life.
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Post by dervis on May 9, 2022 10:55:46 GMT -5
I have been burning the candle at both ends lately. Learning I am a slow carpenter , and that I'm not in my 20s anymore, and most important if you tilt your head back far enough with a forgotten cob in your mouth, ashes will fall on your face. Started putting the bead board panels on the ceiling , but in handling them I was afraid the 2ft gap in the rafters would eventually let them ripple. So the plan was updated to include cutting 300 something 2x4s to put between the rafters.   Which I did get the two bedrooms done cutting boards before starting my day job and then putting them up after afternoon chores. Saturday I finally got to put on some ceiling.    The gaps are due to extending my sheets and not having cut off pieces on the edges. The gaps are all 2.5 inches or less, and I will be running 4 inch boards on every edge anyway so they wont be seen once it is done. I got 12 full boards put up and a few more cut and ready except for the electrical cut outs. My legs from the 100 ladder trips and my shoulder from holding so much over my head feel like I accomplished lots, but it does not look like I did. Will start on the vaulted ceilings with the 2x4s this week (if my arm does not fall off which it feels like it could). Not sure how it will get done but it will. There is no plan B , even coming up with one is energy better spent on Plan A in the first place, in this scenario anyway.   The work is hard and not my specialty , but it is moving along. I have a mountain of work to accomplish in 3 months. Although I hear mountains can be moved with a small amount of faith. One night last week well past a dinner I forgot to eat, and even past a bedtime I had grown used to I was in the house working. A spring rain had started and the sound on the metal roof was just relaxing. I even turned off the radio and its never ending loop of 4 songs to hear it better. The rhythm of the rain had me daydreaming, how the house would look when it was done. Each room painted and ready to be lived in. Each thud of the framing nailgun changing the picture in my head like a flick of one of those view-master toys. It would have been peaceful enough to doze off to, if the nail gun wasn't getting every heavier , and if the air compressor didn't kick on every so often. Probably best not to doze off on a ladder though. So house, gardens, animals, mowing, and my 9-5. At least I never have to be bored again. I am blessed beyond anything I deserve and I hope you all are doing well.
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Post by oldcajun123 on May 9, 2022 11:55:35 GMT -5
 👍🏻Good work young man!
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Post by Goldbrick on May 9, 2022 12:13:46 GMT -5
Great progress Travis, but let me sound like your Grandma for a bit...you can only run flat out for so long before you burn out. Remember to take some down time. Fishing will let you relax, and put something in the freezer too. It's hard to slow down when the other side of that mountain is in sight, but take care of yourself!
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Post by oldcajun123 on May 9, 2022 12:32:41 GMT -5
 Herbert is 100% right, you can only do so much, you get sick who’s gonna carry the load, pace yourself,
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