Surviving Minnesota!

[jerryse]

Sunny today and tomorrow . Warming trend . Going to do more woodworking and mow leaves today .

 

[duluthralphie]

Ralphie knows how to hunt in comfort . Beats the ladder stand I use . Two hours in that is about all my body can take .

I can sit all day in mine. For days on end. If I only had deer here during season.

 

[jerryse]

I can sit all day in mine. For days on end. If I only had deer here during season.

My pictures are all at night lately . 1 pic of a 8 point - well 4 on one side and guessing on the other .

 

[duluthralphie]

I should look at my pictures today

 

[jerryse]

Sunny day and the last one for a few days . I was tired , sore and grumpy last night . Yes I overdid it . See how much my old body can take today . I can rest on a cloudy day .

 

[Cluckies]

https://www.amazon.com/Collector-Ha...cphy=9019653&hvtargid=pla-1428753037902&psc=1

That's what we use at the gun range to pick up brass. Works great!

 

[Cluckies]

I kind of have, Jerry. I like to be able to write semi-humorous posts. The last year has pretty much knocked the humor out of me.

I no longer have turkeys. I lost 20-30 chickens to raccoons. I have 10 chickens and 2 half chickens left.
I have three hens and 7 roosters after the owl attack. I have two half chickens about 6 weeks old, one of each sex, because one can never have too many roosters.

I don’t expect the chicks to live much longer. I did not give them any special chick feed. They are whatever the hen found for them or layer feed. I assume they have Maraks as I did not bother vaccinating them.

I have been busy with health issues, my Mom had cancer surgery in May that has had a myriad of complications. We are dealing with her dementia almost daily.

The summer was hot which is not good on my lungs. Then we had two months of smoke which sealed me into the house.

I am on the church board, we belong to a small country Lutheran church. I was part of a search committee for a new pastor which has taken much time. Now we are trying to meld a new pastor who is extremely liberal from the city into our small conservative congregation. It is a difficult feat. When we were without the pastor or this one takes off, it falls to me or one other guy to do the services. Not being a theologian it takes me hours and hours to write a sermon.

Trying to keep the church open and running has been made harder by Covid and a liberal pastor that seems to think we should Zoom services.

I have been busy doing volunteer work for my lodge. Trying to do my part keeping it running, fund raising and so forth, to help those in need. As bad as my year has been it has been worse on others. We need to keep running for our charities to stay afloat.

I have to fix our van, my truck and a tractor. I have not had time or felt well enough to do it.

My 13 year old dog died this summer, while burying her my Bobcat decided to freeze up its water pump. Getting parts was like finding frogs hair. I got it fixed the day before I came down with covid.



Now when I wake up I spend a couple hours coughing and hacking to clear my lungs. This much coughing tires me out. So I need to rest before I can try to get anything done.

It has only been the last week I have felt well enough to do anything. I lost nearly two months to Covid. When I do work it is at about 1/3 speed. I run out of energy and air. I need to sit down a lot.

I have not gotten to do any of the things I enjoy, I have not fished all summer, I have not foraged for mushrooms in a year. I have not been to Togo in 14 months. I have not even bought a fishing license yet.

I am reluctantly realizing I cannot keep my small farm up. We have started looking for a smaller place on a lake somewhere. This search has been hard because the WW does not want to be more than a hour from each of our kids. This is extremely hard considering they live 3 hours from each other.

We have a new pup we got last January, she keeps us busy. Demanding play time and attention. With the old dog gone we have no puppy babysitter anymore.

When reading this don’t think I am depressed, I am not. I have hope for a better year. I have faith, I know things need to get better.

I do have worries for the future but not for me, for my kids and grandkids. We have a governor that hasn’t got the brains God gave a groundhog. To prevent this post from being deleted I will not comment on the results of the federal elections.

I hope to catch up on my work so I can enjoy ice fishing. I know some of my lack of time to get things done is my own fault. If someone needs help I drop whatever I am doing and go help them.

This is pointed out to me by the WW often. With the “you always run to help everyone else but no one comes to help you” speech.

Anyways this sums up 2021:
View attachment 2880914

Heck of a year Ralphie, terrible. I won't depress you with my last couple of years, but I had covid as well end of august/beg Sept (DH too) . Took about 3 weeks to get fully better, then got hit with a terrible chest cold (worse than the covid), then better for a couple weeks, now down with a head cold, now moving into my chest, argh, sine great weather today but hurt my head to bend over... I'm so tired of being sick, I feel ya. Might be out of a job soon due to a certain mandate and our state governor who is also one those freedom haters. My dh might lose his as well, we'll see...

 

[Cluckies]

Good Afternoon All - My husband's family was able to successfully hold Field Days yesterday. Some of the attractions were oats thrashing, stationary baler, oxen rides, hit and miss engines doing an assortment of different things, plowing, disking with 2 cylinders.....and the most coveted machine was ran by yours truly.....the ole Maytag gas wash machine. Yup I offered demonstrations on how to wash clothing with a gas powered Maytag wringer washer. The clothing for the demonstration were none other than my husbands farm clothes from getting all those old tractors greased, and varnished gas drained.

Is that what the Amish use? (gas ringer washer?)

 

[Cluckies]

Wine maybe.
Champagne no.
I have never met a champagne I liked.

Me too, tastes like old moldy grapes.

 

[jerryse]

Well a warm spell - Indian summer . Ralphie must be hunting . We need a report . My archery hunts have been dull . So Friday I left a 6 PM as it was getting dark . Saturday I checked the camera . First pic at 6:39 and last at 10 something . No daylight pics .