Garden experiment

 Since our spinach seems to drown more than it grows, we're going to try an experiment this year. This will also include the scallions. They didn't grow last year, either. First, you need an old scrap pallet and some scrap lumber for legs.

 You knock the last board off each end of the pallet and attach the legs and something for the end of the box.

 Then add something for extra support in between the slats. Heather had some wire left over from the rabbit cages, so we used that. I stapled it down to keep it in place.

 Add sides, also from scraps I had around. These happen to be 5 1/2 inches tall. Then put in some landscape fabric to keep the dirt in. That was the most expensive part of this elevated bed. It was $8 at Tractor Supply, but I needed it for something else too, so it will all be used.

Then just add dirt. This one held 240 lbs. to fill it to the top - 6 bags of topsoil. They were on sale today at Tractor Supply for $1 per bag. Now we will see if the veggies grow better.

Redneck Snow Plow

 OK, it was just an idea until it started to snow AGAIN. We got another 10" last night. I'm starting to think I'm back in New York.

 I threw it together this morning with what pieces of scrap lumber I had sitting in the shed and clamped it to the front rack of the 4 -wheeler.

It doesn't lift or pivot, but it sure beats shoveling all this by hand. Now when they plow the road, we can get out.

A lot more snow

 This storm took a few days to get dug out from. It just didn't want to stop. Heather and I both missed work on Monday because the road didn't get plowed until Monday night and still had about 12" of snow on it.

 We got the cars mostly cleared out before dark. Heather's truck is still buried. We will get it out this weekend. More snow and some rain are coming in tonight. This probably won't be a fun weekend.

Even the 4-wheeler had trouble getting through it. Maybe I should look into taking it to work. It would be a long, cold ride!

catch up

 We got about 4 1/2 inches of snow from the storm that clobbered eastern Massachusets in late January. It was our first real snowfall of the season.

 Clearing the cars wasn't too bad. The snow stuck together nicely. And it was all gone by the end of the next day.

 Cathryn was here for most of this week. She got in just in time for our Superbowl party/ Mom's birthday get together. She was there to pick up Jerry, her steer from our herd. I hope she has enough room in her coolers to get him home. He went in at 1000 lbs.

 After 12 years of service in my truck, the battery quit Friday morning. No complaints about that. It was a very good battery.

I got another one after work and managed to get it put in before dark. If this one does half as good, I will be happy.

Happy New Year

 While Allen was here over Christmas, he played a joke on Lisa and Jim by wearing this suit for a visit. He said he wanted to be prepared after the last visit at Thanksgiving.

 The smirk on Lisa's face said a lot. Jim laughed when he came through, too.

I finally built another shelf for the shed to help with the organizing. The old shelf was starting to fall apart from too much weight. I was keeping all the auto stuff on it -oil, trans fluid, brake fluid, power steering fluid, ect. This one is slightly smaller, but built much stronger.

Carly comes back

 Carly came back today, with the rest of Pork Chop. There were still a few parts that had to finish smoking, like the bacon and ham.

 I picked up a new little freezer last week. The 7 cubic foot turned out to be a much better choice than the 5 would have been.

It is packed solid right to the top. Only one problem: there is still one more deer coming back. I guess we will figure something out for it when it gets finished. Maybe I should have gotten the 9 cubic foot?

Season opener

Today was opening day of rifle season, and it was very good to me. I got this nice 8 pointer just before sunset. We will eat well this winter!