Me too - very nice DE and what a pretty spot!
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Northern Weapon of Choice
- Thread starter Beags64
- Start date
Thanks guys. I love it here. Winter gets a little old, but the other three seasons each have their own sort of beauty.
queenslegs
XS650 Addict
Downeaster, that last paragraph, "The less obvious one." You nailed it bro. Bought a hobby farm in '87. Have had chickens, and horses over the years. Chores are getting a little more difficult as we get older but some days looking over the property.... awesome. Just so happens I was walking up the road the day the google streetview car drove by. I remember thinking, " now what the hell is that?" lol
https://www.google.ca/maps/@44.1685...6TPsbsqBdnCISgXIK7Dw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
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https://www.google.ca/maps/@44.1685...6TPsbsqBdnCISgXIK7Dw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
.
Speaking of farming (we were, sorta, weren't we?) I've noticed something odd.
Egg production from laying hens drops way off in the Winter. Sometimes dries up completely for a short time if the flock is mostly older birds. I don't cull my birds, they lay as long as they lay and then they retire on my dime until old age or a predator takes them. I have a bit over 3 dozen birds at the moment, some I bought, most were given to me by folks that decided they didn't want to mess with chickens any more.
Egg production has nearly doubled in the last week. It's WAY too early for the Spring Laying Binge which usually starts around the 1st of March as the days get longer. I wonder if they know something I don't.
Spring in February? I could deal with it...
Egg production from laying hens drops way off in the Winter. Sometimes dries up completely for a short time if the flock is mostly older birds. I don't cull my birds, they lay as long as they lay and then they retire on my dime until old age or a predator takes them. I have a bit over 3 dozen birds at the moment, some I bought, most were given to me by folks that decided they didn't want to mess with chickens any more.
Egg production has nearly doubled in the last week. It's WAY too early for the Spring Laying Binge which usually starts around the 1st of March as the days get longer. I wonder if they know something I don't.
Spring in February? I could deal with it...
Got me thinking, not a good thing, maybe I could adapt up an XS650 engine to power another snowblower! Mount it sideways and put a belt pulley on where the front sprocket would normally go and I'd have a selection of output speeds to adjust for the snow depth. If I'm lucky I could aim it a little south and east from my house to fill in Yamadudes driveway!Hmmmmm...I have a 20hp Briggs Twin out of a lawn tractor. I'm bored out of my skull, have a fully-equipped shop, and a back-up blowsnower that's not being used. This is a potentially dangerous situation.
I wonder how far 20hp would throw snow out of a 24 inch blower?
Current engines I just installed were little 250 cc singles so a 650 twin should almost be enough!
I like the way you think...
Downeaster that was a very cool link you put up! I've been looking around on it for a while now! You've got a very nice place, I don't know how you find time to do any riding! Do you have to heat the livestock buildings or is every critter in Maine tough as nails? You would think they would freeze solid up there.
And Queenslegs, that's you taking a stroll? Man! You live in a pretty area!
And Queenslegs, that's you taking a stroll? Man! You live in a pretty area!
Mail Dude - Critters are tougher than most people realize.
My chickens are just ordinary birds of various breeds - Barred Rock, Rhode Island Red, Golden Comet, Red Sexlink, Black Sexlink, Auracana, Silver-laced Wyandottes...whatever someone gets tired of. The only concession I make for winter is to provide them with a heated water fountain so they have constant access to fresh water and add a little cracked corn to their diet. The coop is neither heated nor insulated. Worst I've ever seen is a little touch of frost bite on the comb.
You can actually KILL sheep by over-housing them. If you shut them up in an enclosed space in the winter, pneumonia becomes a huge problem. I kept Shetlands which are a "primitive" breed requiring very little other than food and water. I'd go down in the winter to feed them and be looking around think "Now where in hell have those woolly boogers gotten off to?" and about that time a pile of snow would sprout legs and amble over to see what I had in the bucket. Their wool is so efficient snow won't even melt on their back.
They always lambed in a two or three week window between mid-February and mid-March. You'd think the lambs would freeze solid but in fact they NEED the cold to spur them to find Mom and the dinner table. I lost very few lambs over 20+ years and it was almost always in warmer weather.
My chickens are just ordinary birds of various breeds - Barred Rock, Rhode Island Red, Golden Comet, Red Sexlink, Black Sexlink, Auracana, Silver-laced Wyandottes...whatever someone gets tired of. The only concession I make for winter is to provide them with a heated water fountain so they have constant access to fresh water and add a little cracked corn to their diet. The coop is neither heated nor insulated. Worst I've ever seen is a little touch of frost bite on the comb.
You can actually KILL sheep by over-housing them. If you shut them up in an enclosed space in the winter, pneumonia becomes a huge problem. I kept Shetlands which are a "primitive" breed requiring very little other than food and water. I'd go down in the winter to feed them and be looking around think "Now where in hell have those woolly boogers gotten off to?" and about that time a pile of snow would sprout legs and amble over to see what I had in the bucket. Their wool is so efficient snow won't even melt on their back.
They always lambed in a two or three week window between mid-February and mid-March. You'd think the lambs would freeze solid but in fact they NEED the cold to spur them to find Mom and the dinner table. I lost very few lambs over 20+ years and it was almost always in warmer weather.
Downeaster,
Nice looking property!
Actually a little surprising as much of what I have seen of Maine makes me wonder how someone could farm on that land, seems much of it is very rocky. And I don't mean rocks the size of bowling balls more like ones you just plow around in the field!
Nice looking property!
Actually a little surprising as much of what I have seen of Maine makes me wonder how someone could farm on that land, seems much of it is very rocky. And I don't mean rocks the size of bowling balls more like ones you just plow around in the field!
ks, "farmable" land is indeed unusual right here on the coast. A lot of bedrock (locally referred to as "ledge") sticking up out of the ground, a lot of glacial boulders and very thin and usually acidic topsoil. Blueberries love it, but not much else. Cranberries like the acidic soil, but require a good deal of landscaping to create the ponds they need and still be harvestable by mechanized means.
The difference is, I live on an old stream delta. My back property line is a good sized fresh-water stream and my land is mostly silt. It goes about 3 lots North of me and maybe 2 lots South and then you're back to gravel and ledge.
The Penobscot River Valley is home to most of what farming there is in Maine for much the same reason.
The difference is, I live on an old stream delta. My back property line is a good sized fresh-water stream and my land is mostly silt. It goes about 3 lots North of me and maybe 2 lots South and then you're back to gravel and ledge.
The Penobscot River Valley is home to most of what farming there is in Maine for much the same reason.
LOL I can sympathise, We don't say we have rocky soil, it's; we have dirty rocks. Had a "blade sharpener" in the lawn that had done it one time too many, so got the skid steer out, I was down 3 feet and rock was still increasing in diameter. Backfilled and raised that area of the lawn by about a foot, "there, I fixed it".
My wife bought this house and lot from her father, who AFAIK, inherited it from HIS father. None of them were gifted with a neatness gene.
I had a "ticker" in the back yard. Every time I'd mow over that spot, I'd hear the blades "tick" on something. Got curious one day and looked into it.
Long story short, by the time I got done digging it up, I had an entire 6 cylinder engine block, complete with pistons and crankshaft.
I had a "ticker" in the back yard. Every time I'd mow over that spot, I'd hear the blades "tick" on something. Got curious one day and looked into it.
Long story short, by the time I got done digging it up, I had an entire 6 cylinder engine block, complete with pistons and crankshaft.
So did you get it running?
Yup, ran it right to the metal recyclers!
No head or pan, don't remember there being a flywheel but this was on the order of 30 years ago and I don't remember what I had for supper last night...
I remember thinking it was a Chevy Stovebolt Six, but I don't remember what made me think that.
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