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june news and july plans
Hey everyone. June was a great month. I got a huge deck built on the front of the house really cheap because a lumber store closed and I also got to help out with Tom Brown’s Tracker school because my wife took the standard class and I volunteered as extra help. She had a great time. Didn’t start the bow drill fire yet, but carved two sets and got smoking pretty well. She got tired but found it so interesting, and she filled an entire notebook. What was the class all about? Here’s a summary of the topics Knife sharpening and selection, fire structures, bow drill and other friction fire starting, How to find fresh water and purify water, Cordage, multiple kinds of native traps, tracking, stalking silently in the woods, hunting, camo, brain tanning, stone tools, shelter building, advanced shelter building, various native cooking methods, edible and medicinal plants, awareness exercises, dust and grit tracking, inner track compressions, and a sweat lodge. All of the above subjects were taught on several levels gradually increasing during the week and I am really compressing what was covered. To give you an idea of how packed the class was, it was 7 days and we started at 7 am and ended at 11 PM every day except the first and last which were half days.
I learned a lot being a volunteer. One of the things I learned was how to do the bow drill fire without all that really fine tinder. Now I can make the coal and just use a bunch of leaves or grasses. I also learned how to process clay a lot better so now I feel comfortable enough to dig some up and build my earth oven for the great bread bake I plan to do with my wheat in august. I also overheard some hints on making the traps and snares work a lot better as well as how to do hand drill without busting up your hands so much.
For july things are getting busy. In one week or so my wheat will be ready to harvest and on top of that, I have an order for 8000 bails of straw. So basically I will be bailing for 4-5 days straight. Feel free to give me a call and help me out if you want a really good workout. I really want to build that oven this month, and Black raspberries are out so I hope to have time tomorrow and Sunday to pick some buckets full. Then I’ve got a couple days to get things ready for harvest and make some jam’s, dry out berries, maybe make a black ras vodka and also dry out my other herbs coming in this month like Echinacea flowers, calendula, bee balm etc. Plus July is the month when the honey supers get filled ahh!
On the chicken front, we’ve received 72 fast growing chicks today for eating. I put in a new kind of waterer that they peck at and get water with. It seems to be working all right plus they cant poo in the water any more so if all goes well I’ll rig a toilet valve to it for an auto fill. The hatchery surprise chicks are looking awesome. Looks like a few blue green egg layers and there’s plenty of those fluffy headed polishes. Mallard ducks, one white goose and one grey one, and a couple turkeys. Unfortunately slate grey turkey died He was a pretty cool turkey too, but since my uncle bought several turkeys they make up for it. Otherwise very low casualties.
The last news is the mural my wife painted in the babys room. It’s awesome!! I’ll post facebook pics when it’s done. There’s owls, spiders, coons, frogs, morels, red tailed hawks, bats, foxes, goldfinches, various edible and medicinal plants etc. Really sweet!!
Until next month,
Dan
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