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25 Comments

  1. I can see having a few pre 1899 firearms in the collection and as investment. But I guess I fail to see the logic in trading AR-15’s for them just because the “law” is favorable towards these antique weapons now. Politicians could easily change that and make any firearm illegal, at that point would be just as illegal as an “assault weapon” yet not nearly as useful or practical if the time comes to truly use them.

    1. Agreed. When The Balloon Goes Up, I don’t think “legal” will matter much. “Legal” will be determined by who holds the gun. Better to have a modern one.

  2. Im curious as to how many of the pre 1899’s out there haven’t been shot out. I have always viewed my firearms as serving two purposes, the first being its intended purpose ( accurately ), the second to hold it’s value.
    I suppose as long as it has been in some crate slathered in cosmoline or a persons collection and not actually been subjected to 120 yrs of deer hunts, target shooting or worse, it would be considered a replacement for the earlier.

  3. My father was part of a group that shot antique guns for fun. Some are beautiful works of art. I would love to have the time to learn more about antique guns. Looks like I should investigate buying one or two sooner than later.

    We continue to preserve and prepare for winter here. I’m dehydrating green peppers today. The remainder of my focus is on finishing the organizing of our house. There is just something special about a smoothly running house (and homestead) that follows my mother’s advice of everything having a place and the importance of returning things to their place. This also gives me a chance to check the quantity and quality of items. Keeping our stuff in good working order is paramount in these interesting times. This also gives me, the designated shopper in a family of non-shoppers, a list of items to stock -up on at the thrift shops or on sale.

    I love sourdough, Lilly, and used it exclusively (years ago) for bread baking as well as for pancakes. The delicious tang and sweet…yum! Unfortunately, my husband doesn’t like the flavor, but I keep the knowledge of how to use sourdough in case there is ever a need. Such a joy to have a meal of sourdough pancakes with maple syrup, eggs and sausage all from your own homestead. The food just tastes better somehow!

    Keeping up the walking and dog training. It’s really beginning to pay off.

  4. We got the largest chicken coop cleaned and spread with fresh straw and DE before the rain started. We’ve had two days of solid rain, the good kind, which is steady and without thunder and lightning. All the creeks, streams and ponds are up and the forest floor is well soaked, which means no fires. I pray for those folks in fire zones; it must be a terrible thing to live in constant fear of wild fires. And now the CA utility company turning off the power! With all the problems they are having because of their state politicians and corruption it seems the people would be marching in the streets.

    There’s a new cash and carry grocer in the town closest to me, which has started a price war with the existing grocer. This week I got sirloin tip at $2.99/pd and skinless, boneless chicken breast at $1.39/pd. In my area those are great prices! My pressure canners, crock pots, dehydrators and freeze dryer are in full use now.

    Wanted to work on apples this week but have to process the meat first.

    Have a great week!

    1. “With all the problems they are having because of their state politicians and corruption it seems the people would be marching in the streets.”

      I would love to see a million California citizens surrounding Sacramento, with pitchforks, torches, tar and feathers, AR15’s, and AK47’s. What a glorious sight that would be.

      Unfortunately, being California, and as cowed as the people are out there, it is not likely to happen. Oh well, one can dream.

        1. I have lots of family and friends still in California and they are not cowed. They are armed, trained, and stocked up. A former law enforcement friend told me that there are as many unregistered weapons in CA as there are registered, and that’s not counting the criminals. Always remember that most of California, land mass wise, is Red and patriotic. There is a huge movement to recall Governor Newsom. I do pray for them. Many think they can save the state from the reckless politicians. I have my doubts.

  5. “A man should never fall in love with an investment. If you can’t bring yourself to sell it, then it isn’t an investment–it has become your precious heirloom. ”

    This also applies to houses, cars, “your life’s savings” and every other form of baggage in this life. With the exception of firearms, none of this dead weight is worth your life or that of your loved ones.

    What profit is there in gaining the whole world, but losing your soul?

    I don’t fear death or those who can only kill the mortal body. I don’t fear losing all of the material baggage I’ve accumulated in this life. What I do fear is Jesus Christ saying to me “Depart from me you worker of iniquity, I never knew you.”

  6. HI ALL ,,what a week ,,,a group member was a pud power buyer and router tells me the power outs in Kali were planned mounth in advance as a test to see the reaction ,the reason the 260 kva lines were not shut down is power was being sold to outside the system ,not hard to smell a rat,,,am told PNW is next ,Ice age farmer posted today about what’s happening with PGE a good watch about what’s to come ,pay heed ,,

    JIM my gut tells me we/you will need those ARs ,i see no way out of a fight to come ,

    A little bird tells me two major food store chains are planning on cutting 300 to over a 1,000 stores in Kali ,due to expected unrest , I do know the 300 is real ,
    The turmoil in the food supply is unbelievable ,it’s like a perfect storm ,the USDA is miss reporting numbers on grain ,beef ,hogs ,chicken ,the packers are hurting the beef producers playing games ,you can’t stay in business running a loss year after year ,

    I fed 3,000 head of beef a year in years past ,i have cut back to 20 cow /calfs to keep the grass down ,i at one time farmed over 1,000 acres of hay ,grain ,this year I’m down to 50 acres ,
    Letting the rest go to weeds and woodies ,,, no extra any longer to sell ,,,,,,
    The point is can you grow your own food? I won’t be doing it for you any longer. ,,,in fact all my land holdings are out of production to outsiders ,valley people only ,

    Still a good time to buy silver ,i know a place that only trades with silver rounds , I recommend fraction rounds ,10th,1/4,1/2,1oz sizes. junk US silver is not used for tax reasons ,

    Would recommend setting up a white wall computer for as much as you can

    Sun is shining ,so out I go

    Tea and chocolate

  7. We started asparagus plant 3 years ago. We harvested some this year. Yumm. I scattered lots of the seed pods on down the long row for the last 2 years. I have Lots of baby and half grown seedlings. I want the whole row to have asparagus. I have a Back to Basics food mill. I was turning the handle by hand to make tomato puree. After 20 min or so , I asked my husband to help as my arms were tired. He did it about 1 minute and decided to get his battery operated drill. He removed the mill handle and attached the drill to the bolt that the handle attached too. Wow! Did that ever make quick work of it. You might see if yours will let you use a drill too. 39 years of doing it the harder way . You’re never to old to learn new tricks .

  9. Lily, can you explain more about burning weed seed in the garden? We had a lot of overgrowth this year, and I would love to do something other than till all that weed seed back into the soil. Thanks!

    1. Hi Captnswife,

      I have been trying to burn the weed seeds that have dropped onto the soil with a wand on a small propane tank/propane torch. The reason why I stopped, is that I mulched the whole garden with straw this year and I don’t want to burn it. I want it to rot into my soil. I have two minds about it because burnt hay/ash also adds nutrients to the soil. But I’m not sure which is the better. Finally, I decided to just rototill the straw with the weed seeds under. I will burn the baby weeds before they take over the garden, in the spring instead of pulling them and before planting the garden??? We’ll see?? It’s always a war with the weeds. Scripture does say, “By the sweat of your brow will you till the soil”

      Blessings,

      Lily

  11. Daughter and I painted the diesel tank with two coats of paint. I also put it on cement blocks until I can get a cement pad under it next year. Put up hooks to hang 3 of my extension cord reels. Cleaned, oiled and put away items that I purchased at the Amish auction. Organized and packed away non-temperature sensitive and critter proof items in the new barn seems like I’m always doing this.

    Bought a cord of seasoned and split hard wood. We do not have any woods on our land (we opted for land that was suited for food production) I do have plans to buy some wooded land very near us in the future for our heating needs.

    The wife and I throughly cleaned the last third of the basement.

    Went to the Monday night auction and picked up a very nice apple/fruit crusher for $40. It was not an antique so it was in better shape than most I’ve seen. I was trying to get the 2 quart lard/fruit press they had but I stopped bidding at $70. After thinking about it I should have kept going since it was in excellent condition and they run well over $125 on line. I bid on and won 2 boxes of miscellaneous jewelry for $30. There was a very nice antique silver bracelet I wanted for my wife. She loved it. We went through the rest of the stuff and found other gold and silver pieces. Will be consigning the other good pieces and selling the rest off as “junk”. With gold and silver prices up we should do well. With a bid of $20 I got 3 oil lamps, one with a clear glass chimney and a red glass shade. The third lamp had no chimney. An interesting finds was a stitching horse that I got for $5. Was thinking about using it as a pattern to make more of to sell. The BEST find and deal of the night was the Briggs and Stratton kick start engine. I didn’t even know that Briggs and Stratton made a kick start. I have been on the look out for a Maytag kick start engine (on my watch for list) but they always seem to go for $300 or more regardless of condition. I was literally shocked to buy it for a mere pittance of $25. These kick start engines ran the farm in the early 1900’s.

    Watched several videos on the Briggs and Stratton WMB engine. Picked up 2 new spark plugs for it ( I like to keep several spare spark plugs for all the small engines we have). Got a muffler for it as well. I doesn’t seem to need anything but want to put up some spare parts. Looks like most parts will have to be ordered on line.

    So I have been thinking about getting an ox or two for around the homestead. For one steers are cheaper than horses and from what I understand in my research, oxen are much better in rough uneven terrain and don’t suffer injuries as much as draft horses in these types of environments. One of the video I was watching the guy used his ox to skid out trees. He made his own yoke and explain how. So for some stupid reason I now want to make a yoke. While watching videos I came across the “Rural Heritage” channel and they had some great video. While picking up parts for the WMB engine at Tractor Supply, I looked for a copy of the magazine and sure enough the had it. Will start reading that in the morning with my coffee.

    The wife has expressed concern that the new addition is not as warm as the rest of the house. So I bought two fans and are using the to help move hot air in the basement over underneath the new addition. Seemed to be working I will probably have to open up the spaces between the floor joist to really move any significant air.

    Went through my knives and put conditioner on all the leather sheaths.

    1. Hi 3AD Scout,

      Just a comment, from my experience with steer/oxen. They are the friendliest of the bovines. Everyone of them that I have raised, have had the greatest personalities. They were curious, personable, even affectionate, and mostly obedient. If you train them well, they will work very hard for you.

      You need to acquire young ones, of about four or five months old, and raise it yourself. You will need to spend a fair amount of time feeding, talking to, petting, brushing, rubbing all over: legs, back, chest, head, poll, chin, tail, etc and giving snacks, etc. After the animal has become very comfortable with you handling it, you can begin to gently and carefully train it. You’ll want to find books on ways of training them. We, personally haven’t trained any steers to work. So we are no expert in that department, but we can see just from the relationships that we have had with steers, how easy it would be. We encourage you to go for it, and then you can write another article for the Blog on your experiences with them. 🙂

      Blessings,

      Lily

      1. Lily,

        Thank you so much for sharing your experience with steers/oxen. Very impressive to watch them work. I have watched draft horses skid out timbers and that was impressive but the oxen, it would seem, have more ??? Horsepower??? I was shocked at watching how docile and calm they were in the videos. Thanks again for the advice!
        3ADscout

  12. For all of you folks giving JWR guff for selling his AR’s– Notice that he is selling his EXTRA ones. After the ones he is hanging on to so his great-grand-children can give one to each spouse, or something like that. In the process, he is scattering the extras into hands that can use them, and making it so the grabbers will find less in a single bust.

  13. Dearest Lily,
    I am afraid chickens will freeze this year with the deep cold expected. I actually researched the average LOW temperatures in my area, middle of Idaho here. I found records online from the local ranger station and was shocked to find out that in some years, the temperatures were: 1955 -41 degrees; 1969 -40 degrees; 2003 -35 degrees. I am wondering if you or someone else in Idaho has been able to keep chickens in temps that low. In other news, I received a side of beef from a local rancher for the freezer, as well as pig (leaf) fat. I learned to render lard (first time!). I had given up buying flour tortillas because of the preservatives, so I made flour tortillas from all organic ingredients and froze a lot. I picked up another 50 lbs of flour and miscellaneous canned goods, picked up bulk spices I was missing, and more dehydrated vegetables. Does anyone have a source for local Idaho bulk hard red wheat or soft white wheat berries? The prices I’ve seen seem high. Would love to hear from anyone who can give some instruction on how to keep chickens in below zero temps? P.S. Lily, I always use good S.F. sourdough starter.
    God bless everyone!

    1. Dear SaraSue,

      Well, to be very honest, I have been paying attention to the long term forecast for our area, through MBGC Combo.(His reports are available on YouTube.) In just a few days we will see nighttime temperatures in the teens, and then sometime between now and November 8, we’re looking at temperatures below zero for a time… Usually, since I’ve lived here, we have seen very cold temperatures for a week or so in November and then the temps moderate again for most of the winter, with a cold spell in February. It so far appears that we might be continuing this pattern. I kinda hope we will. But, if this pattern changes because of the Global Solar Minimum, I’m thinking we might have temperatures as low as forty below this year. I’m thinking, I MAY have made a mistake in buying chicks at this time of the year, this year…. because now I see that in two weeks I cannot put them out in the chicken coop. They will freeze to death. I will be putting them in the garage, most likely, and during their dust molt. (Sorry, Jim!) We hate it when everything is covered with their yellow molt dust. I could put them in the greenhouse and run the wood stove in there, but that would mean going out there three times during the night to stoke it. We do have electricity out there for lamps and a heater, but that would get expensive. We will try to do what we can without using electricity, because someday we might not have it… I won’t be able to put them out in the greenhouse until they can begin to regulate their own temperatures which is around the time that they are three or more weeks old. As far as the safety of the other two adult birds, we may have to cage them and bring them into the garage during the cold snap, their hen house is much too big for them to generate enough body heat together to warm it/keep themselves warm enough.

      I’ve also been thinking about what to do with the cows and horses. There are too many of them to all fit in the stalls all at once. Also, our matriarch cow is due to calve in late January/early February. She gets first dibs on the stalls, at that time.

      During the past ten years, extended and seriously cold temperatures have not been an issue here. We’ve only had them for a few days in a row and mostly at night. Most of the chickens handled it quite well with a few rooster combs slightly frozen. The coldest, I’ve seen here, is twenty below, and that was at night.

      We do have some planning to do in the next few weeks.

      A solution that I may employ, if we were having such cold temperatures, didn’t have electricity, and had twenty or more chickens. I would put up plywood in their chicken coop to crowd the birds together in a smaller area, for shared body heat. I might also stack hay or straw bales, or loose hay, if I had them, around the inside of the coop or around the outside, etc. I have seen in other cultures that the livestock and chickens live under the house, in the “basement” of the house, or they even bring the chickens into the living quarters…Of course this isn’t sanitary, and I wouldn’t want to do this with adult birds.

      With the livestock, we would resort to feeding them three to four times a day in a sheltered area. The action of eating and the calories generate heat. We would also most likely do what Pa Wilder did, when the temperatures of a winter night in Malone, New York went down to fifty below. He went out in the middle of the night and exercised all of his animals to warm them up, because even his great barns couldn’t keep that kind of cold out. 🙂

      May you have a blessed day,

      Lily

  15. Sears and Kmarts closings have given a few deals(not like the first round 5+ years ago). Have already noticed price increases on staples and missed seasonal sales on canned goods(cannerys clear warehouses in anticipation of new crop) these sales were either very short or small

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