Haven't had a great deal of time to look in this weekend. Have been cutting brush and wood. Most of what I cut was Sassafras. I think the trees were about 50' to 60' feet tall but only about 12" or 14" at the base. Too crowded to get large. I have a lot of this type of tree. I piled to split later. I will burn some of it next winter. I don't normally save it, but hate to burn it in brush pile. Worked all yesterday and finished after church today by stacking the rest of the wood. Does anyone burn or use the Sassafras? I know it sure does smell good when working with it and I know it sure has some pretty wood when sawed up at a mill. Also have a new baby colt borned on Valentines. Mothers name is Ultimate Phancy. Think we will call the baby My Phancy Valentine. Thumper I live here in Eastern OK and I know that sometime my horses will not go into the bottom where I live and snort and blow in that direction and also have run through the fence and will not come to the barn for feed. All kinds of creatures live in the woods. People say that they see Lions. I have on one time. Two together, ran across the highway between Vian and Sallisaw Ok.
Did you know its bad luck to burn Sassafras? Thats if your superstitions.Good for carving. We hauled Block for our House yesterday.Today went to Church,then went up to our other property to see what has been done up there,nothing . big rockpile
!!! I love sassafras! Sassafras tea is great in the summer. I live just north of you, braggs, and I've seen a big cat out back. I spent the weekend working. Inside. It stank to be inside when it was so nice outside.
I love sassafras trees! With their three kinds of leaves and cool bark. I don't know if they will grow out here or not - can't imagine having them like weeds! I still have one more day left to my weekend - yeah! I have been getting the 30by 60 tarp I got for one part of the roof of my barn in place and tied down. Also started cleaning out the barn and hen house now that it is totally dry to get ready for my first chickens. Also moved a few small fir trees to make room for my vegetable garden. Started to rain early this afternoon but the sun came out later. Spent a little while in the barn while it was raining just enjoying hearing the water fall on the OUTSIDE! This afternoon I took a ride with my realtor friend to look at a waterfront property for Susie13 on this site. What a gorgeous place and with a sunny afternoon a drive through the country it was fantastic. Got to see his 70 acre Christmas tree farm - it has a huge area of wild rhododendrons on it and lots of huckleberry and salal. Then stopped by to visit some other homesteaders he knows. A very pleasant outing and a good break from getting my place put together! When the sun comes out here in the winter it's truly a beautiful thing.
Got the last of my seedlings for my 2004 garden going and started another worm bin to generate more topsoil.
Ugh, I fixed my hot water heater that blew its lower element, 4 hours and most of that was hauling lime out of the bottom. Still I'm sure a plumber would want $200 so theres comfort in saving that. Then my oil furnace acted up (why me?) so I tore apart the chimney pipes and sure enough it was blocked with crud. Swept the chimney while I was at it and cleaned the oil furnace and wood furnace which is twinned to it. Its back to working fine again. Again at least there's some saved cash, I wouldn't venture a guess but furnace servicing starts with $75 to drive up the lane! Then I rewired the tractor batteries, which is poor paying work in any temperature but in the cold its just plain nasty.
We enjoyed the first sun in two weeks, but I spent all Saturday working on the taxes. Got it almost ready to go to the accountant. Made chocolate chip cookies on Saturday and a chocolate pie today.
It was finally warm enough to work outside again! We trimmed the neighbor's tree that hangs over our garden. We raked & tilled the garden and planted walla walla onions and carrots. We stayed outside all day and ate out on the back porch. It was sooooo nice till the sun went down.
I made 'friends' with a Canadian. I extended an apology, that is. These days, we should keep our hearts open as well as our minds. Life is what you make of it. Keep it simple, keep it sweet. Don't make it just another dog and pony show. Be kind to one another if you can, you may need that person's help one day. (Kan't we all just get along?) mc(k)
Friday evening, I cleaned house top to bottom becasue I thought it was going to be beautiful on Sat. and I wanted to work my bees and prune my orchard buttttt it was raining when I got up Sat. am :waa: Sat. I visited my Godparents and did laundry. Today, I Went through my seed catologs and bee equipment catologs. Did inventory on bee equipment.
My son and I loaded 400 fire brick in my van and drove 160 miles to my future mountain homestead. We attached 6 rolls of radiant foil insulation to the rafters of the garage and stacked the fire brick around the cheap metal wood burning stove; no electricity; propane camping lantern. We set up our new weather station so we can record wind direction/speed temperature barometer humidity for future use. It just snowed; we didn't have much firewood. It was cold. We both went to our city jobs the next day. The root of the Sasafras tree is the origin of the elixir.
Worked Friday evening and Sunday for pay here at home. Spent time with family Sunday evening. But the highlight of the weekend was going into the city (Pittsburgh PA) on Saturday and walking the "Strip" and buying spices/oils/imported cheese, good coffee, street food, eating well.....and going to the history museum with friends. Saw the visiting Smithsonian exhibit on the American Presidency. Terrific city day. Just enough hustle and bustle.
Saturday - made a snowman with my 3 granddaughters, then worked on a couple of reports. Saturday night had a nice romantic dinner (at home) with the wife since the restaurants were all too crowded. Our favorite place had a 2 hour wait at 6 p.m. Sunday - went to church, then took my wife out to a nice "brunch" in the town of McKinney, toured the square with antique shops, etc. Came back and did some repair work on the fence, and watched a movie on TV last night.
Worked at my regular job Saturday morning till noon then hot footed it to the feed store. Got me some shallot, multiplying onion and white onion sets. They're going in the ground today. I lucked out and got some cabbage plants that were .88 cents each and I found four containers that had two each in them. I love cabbage. Got up Sunday morning to find that a neighbors cat, that keeps coming around, trampled down some of my plants. It got my cilantro, parsley and french sorrel that was in the earthbox, those suckers were up to 18". The cat also trampled some of my florida sweet onions and the one and only walking onion that I have. :waa: I know it was the cat because I've seen the durn thing in my yard too many times, it jumps the fence like it isn't there. It keeps chasing my natural pest control lizards. Thankfully I'm off work today and called the local feedstore to inquire about a hav-a-heart trap and was told they carry them. Duh... when I got there they had none in stock so I drove down to the next closest feedstore. The drive was worth it. I got a trap and found out they sell farm fresh eggs for $1.25 a dozen and they were in cardboard containers! Grabbed three dozen of them. Coolest thing, the eggs are all different colors, white, beige, brown and green. Now I have some more seed starting material and hormone and antibiotic free eggs For the rest of the day I'll be planting onions and potatoes and doing laundry. I'm looking more forward to the planting. Ohh... the one other thing I'll be doing is setting the trap for the uncollared, unlicensed, plant stompin' lizard killin' cat.
Hubby and I butchered and wrapped 250#s of pork and made maybe 15-20#s? of sausage.After that we cleared a new spot for our veggie garden, we have to move it because the spot it was in floods now every time it rains :waa:
Congrats on the colt. Do you make tea from the bark too or just the roots? I love that tea! Fond memories of my great grandmother taking me out to trim some roots from a tree to bring in and make right then and there--one of the reasons I'm here--living off the land with her, fishing, picking poke, picking wild berries, apples, persimmons, haws, hunting. She was the one that showed me the world without all the trimmings, and taught me you can be self-sufficient if you want to. Her sister still had oil lamps and an outhouse in the 80s, too far to pay for electricity and too many trees for solar, and a woodstove in the kitchen that made the best biscuits a kid ever had....with wild plum jam I got to "help" make!
I didnt do anything particularly interesting.... on sassafras, my donkey walks into my open woodshed, carefully walks up the pile and rooots around in there sor sassafras logs /splits/ firewood. then he carries them out and chews off the bark. he is a mess maker.
Wind In Her Hair and I went out sledding. It was a beautiful day, bright sunshine...so bright it hurt your eyes on accounta the reflection off of the snow. I'd say we put on about 50 miles in total riding thru the forests, wetlands and frozen lakes. Just wonderful!
