***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[jcatblum]

We missed Newcastle tonight, but the heat kept us home. I do love my A/C--- all day @ market & the animals & garden require me to endure enough high temps!!! Hope I didn't miss anything I really needed. I know of a few people looking for quail, anyone parting with quail or eggs, PM me your info & I will pass it along.

Buster was good to see you at the market today, was a slow day with the heat & back to school, but we were still about sold out by 9am. The girls & I really enjoy being at the market, nice to visit with lots of people & answer there questions.
I was just working on my tree order for fall. Starks is sold out of Kwanza, anybody found a reputable place that has them? I think I will map out our future trees in the AM before I place my order. By looking at the total I have more trees than I do free space. The hay pasture will one day have trees, but for now I will work on the 5 or 6 acres that are cleared around our house. The issue is keeping the fruit & nut trees in happy places that will not have the potential to shade my garden or greenhouse, or get near our future building spot. Think I am going to try & get into bed early.
Good night all!

 

[Gigiintheforest]

Our thoughts and prayers from Australia are with everyone being threatened by fires over there. Please be safe and if you have to leave please do not leave it too late.

Thank you, qldchook. It's nice to know we have friends so far away who are thinking of us.

 

[Buster52]

Half ton van. I personally wouldn't advise it. Vans are made more for creature comfort then hauling. The springs on the back are longer for a better ride and there are not as many leaves in them. Then there are limiting factors too such as tires and brakes.

Got a reciever hitch on the back? Might be time to look into a trailer of some type to help with the chores. I pulled a 16' car hauler with my half ton Ford van for years but when loaded with hay it was slow going. Van didn't have enough weight to stop the load.

That is very helpful, Les. I figured you would have the answer. So a trailer would make a difference? How much could I haul, then?

Here is the kind of van I own.

http://www.conversion-vans.org/mark-iii-conversion-vans/#more-273

 

[mamapoppybee]

Today has been a rather productive saturday. No auctions for me this weekend stayed home with hubby and kids. made some strawberry jam. Recaulked windows in the house trying to keep all cool air in and all hot air out. then been doing all i can to keep the chickens

 

[nnbreeder]

The BLM is using trucks like this out West. Our fire season could be different with some here too.

 

[Buster52]

We missed Newcastle tonight, but the heat kept us home. I do love my A/C--- all day @ market & the animals & garden require me to endure enough high temps!!! Hope I didn't miss anything I really needed. I know of a few people looking for quail, anyone parting with quail or eggs, PM me your info & I will pass it along.

Buster was good to see you at the market today, was a slow day with the heat & back to school, but we were still about sold out by 9am. The girls & I really enjoy being at the market, nice to visit with lots of people & answer there questions.

Good to see you, too, jcat, and the kiddo. One of your budding business tycoons. Good to chat with Ronnie and some of the other farmers, too. Miss those market days.

We have 75 broilers coming in this week, the first of our spring batches, so we will be back at the marker soon... even if another hundred or so birds don't raise our egg numbers much.

I'm with you on the heat. There are plenty of times I have to be out in it, I don't need to go looking for more of it. LOL

 

[Buster52]

 

[nnbreeder]

That is very helpful, Les. I figured you would have the answer. So a trailer would make a difference? How much could I haul, then?

Here is the kind of van I own.

http://www.conversion-vans.org/mark-iii-conversion-vans/#more-273

3.9 or V-8 ? With our Dakota that has a 3.9 with a 4 speed we have hauled a 4x4x8 big square of Alfalfa in it or about 2300 pounds. Of course we have the stouter tires on it and a brake controller for trailer brakes so we often pull a 16 foot trailer with a smaller Kubota tractor loaded on it.

The new bumpers are not in any way stout enough for pulling Some of the pick-ups that we work on have a tongue weight rating of as little as 500 pounds, if the boss and I both stand on it the bumper is overloaded.

With a reciever hitch bolted to the frame of the van I wouldn't be afraid to pull 4000 pounds with a full-sized van. With my old Ford I would haul either 3 round bales of grass or 120 small squares but I did have the tires rated for light trucks or LTs. Even with the stouter tires there was just a tad bit of wiggle in the rear end.

There is a hitch called a weight distributing hitch that will stop the trailer from pushing down the rear of the tow vehicle and lifting the front end. These are commonly found on travel trailers and if you can find one used they are a good thing to have around.

If the Dodge was equipped with the trailer tow package there should be all of the wiring in place for both the control box for the trailer brakes and there should be a pigtail up under the back for a trailer plug. Usually when a van is bought for conversion they get the trailer tow package because they have just a tad heavier suspension in them.

Now if you have the original manual on the van there should be a section on towing which will give you all of the weights of what you can pull.

 

[Kimbroe1981]

So our fire situation is better than some but still sux. Got home this morning, Josh went to check on the property and it was smoldering along the property line. When he came back to get me to show me, we back out there to see and it was going up in flames. I had to leave. Took the kids to my SIL's to spend the night (I hope). While I was gone, apparently it just went down hill. Josh was on fire trucks to direct them to the back of the property. He called me one time and was like, "It's HUGE & spreading fast. House not gonna make it. I gotta go." A few mins later he called and said the fire dept finally arrived, they didn't get it put out, but diverted it around our house. They brought in 2 HUGE bull dozers and built a fire break around the house. Needless to say He and all the firemen are my hero's! After they fire dept left here, they went to fighting fires all around us. We had to cut several spots in our fence for bull dozers and fire trucks to get through. With all that's happened not looking good on getting our Dexter cow this month. But at we are very blessed to still have our house. All of our chickens were hiding all day until I got home. When I got home they all came running out. They seemed very relieved that at least something normal was happening.

Here is a video of what I came home to after taking the kids to town.

 

[michaeldaugherty]

Just got in from the sale in Newcastle Seen some nice stuff from gin pig's to Muskcovey duck's An egg's cage's ..An the best was seeing all the BYCer's from the past an present ..In one place so manny peep to talk bird's with ,,,Buster if i new you had a van that big i would have stackd out more pen's for you .. Each cage will hold 15 hen's each so that would be 150 bird's ..You will have room for feed ....Seen P.B Musky MJ an her DH old bud AL an Jack an Elea Ma little jaxson modern man Auction lover so manny cant recall thim all but hope it's cooler next time so more of us can get together to talk bird's ..Be back later...