Wordless Wednesday

+When It's Really Cold

Shovel off the burn pile and light it up. At our temperatures, a quart of gasoline really helps.

 Let get good and hot.

 Invite the neighbour's dog, Copper, over to play. Actually, forget the invite. He just seems to appear once I start doing anything outside.

 Pull up a log, sit down and enjoy the warmth. Be prepared to progressively back up as the heat rises.

 Watch out that your backside doesn't overheat.

Two more piles to go, and the winter burning is done!

Still Snowing!

My faithful companion doesn't seem to mind the snow, as long as I'm the one breaking trail. It's almost time to get out the snowshoes. The snow is about a foot and a half deep now and it's getting hard to slog through it

 Pile #3 did not burn as spectacular as the other two mainly due to the large number of fire wood blocks in it. I told every body "If you don't take it, I'm going to burn it." I couldn't even give it away, cut, but not split and beside the road.

 I will have to shovel off this pile before burning. There are about 3 half ton truck loads in this pile.

It was a good day to go out and toast my buns by a rip roaring fire.

Critter Shots

Warming up at -17C (1.4F)

It's still snowing!

How about some more sweetfeed?

#2 cooking off.

Happiness is a Big Fire

Brooklyn enjoyed the heat, but soon moved away. This is early this year for the Pyromaniac to be active. With lots, and I mean lots, of snow, I was able to get an early start on my 6 brush piles.

 Once it burns down, I will go around and kick in the ends and all that will be left is ashes.

 Biz was my steady companion and moved forward and back as the heat built and diminished. She is used to fires from the previous years on the Acreage. As you can see, it is snowing very heavily.

 Once the snow melted off one side, she would turn around and do the other side.

 Tucker came over, but stayed back a bit farther than Biz. i think she remembered the smouldering horse hair from last year.

Prepared to get bored with fire pictures because there are still 5 more piles to go. This was a small one!

Winter Hit!

This is what we woke up to today! No, it's not snow , but a very heavy frost. The temperature went from        -5C (+22F) in the daytime to -23C (-5F) overnight, knocking all the moisture out of the air. It was very pretty and lasted most of the day.

The picture of this poplar tree shows the hoar frost. When the sun finally came out and loosened it, it was like a mini snow fall under the trees. The downside of the beauty was, it made me 10 minutes late for the Old Boys Coffee Club at Timmies. It's tough stuff to scrape off the windshield.

I took advantage of the cold  to light up pile number 12 for the year. There is more than one way to stay warm!

More Things I've Learned

Let me start 'way back about 55 years ago. back then I was an avid down hill skier, recreational only.Part of living in a small town was the ability to work (for free) in the off season clearing new ski runs on the hill. I learned from the old pros that if you piled brush , tree limbs in a tepee shape, the fire would burn in and up, and all the fuel would fall in to the center, and be consumed. The fire burned hot and clean and the only thing to do afterwards was to kick in a few ends and the clean up was done.

2:00 pm Burning in

Fast forward to today, and the skills learned back then, are put to good usage on the acreage when clearing more pasture. If I had a message for the young people today, it would be "Get involved. You never know when the skills learned will be used in the future, and the learning is free."

2:15 pm 

4:00 pm

3:00 pm

My Dad way back said that if you needed a job done and didn't have the tools or know how, go to the library, read or buy a book and buy the tool. You will have the knowledge and resource forever.


I took advantage of the Experimental Aircraft Association  resources to learn how to oxy-acetylene weld to aircraft standards. I passed all the tests and I tested a lot as it was going to be my butt hanging out 1 to 12000 feet above sea level. The transition to stick welding was easy after that.


About 7 years ago, this guy got into horses. Horses are expensive to maintain by the way. The farrier bills were running about $130 every 6 weeks. I watched the farriers a fair bit and said " This is not rocket science, I can do that." Now how to do it right was another matter. I lucked into an on-line course for about $65.00 and have been doing my own and a few other horses when people could not get a farrier. By reading the references, I found out how to cure a horse of kicking, and how to safely handle a difficult horse. As a bonus I was able to solve a spit hoof issue that 5 other farriers could not do. The horse is now split- hoof free for 5 years. More info at http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5420428411794914404&postID=7173096389353942415


With the hard times on us, I don't see why more people don't get involved . The $65 has saved me about $6700.00 in farrier fees, and counting! The instructor was Angie Senter through Universal Class Inc. No, I don't get any royalties or benefits due to this plug.


The overall goal of this class Horseshoeing 101 is to produce competent and confident farriers that can create functional and healthy hooves. This will be accomplished by: An in depth study of anatomy, A working knowledge of tools, equipment, and shoes, Understanding the reasons and history of trimming and shoeing, Learning how to create a balanced hoof through trimming, Learning how to correctly shoe a healthy hoof, Understanding the methods of corrective shoeing for structural abnormalities, Evaluating a horse for structural abnormalities, Assessing and treating almost a dozen hoof diseases and ailments, Learn how to own and operate your own business and Expanding vocabulary of horse terminology.

This course involves an in depth look at equine hoof anatomy. In order to fully understand the material the student must have a high school reading and writing level. This course is supplemented with internet based graphics so a high speed internet connection with a quality graphics card would be beneficial. The physical use of a horse is not a requirement.

Instructor Angie Senter teaches several courses on aspects of horse care for UniversalClass. She owns and operates Senter's Quarter Horses - 21 acres of Palouse ranch land. Her business includes a boarding facility, training and lessons arena, breeding services, massage and farrier services as well as trick horse performances and training.

I guess the point that I am trying to make, is that learning is easy, and cheap especially with the Internet. The other message is " Get rid of the Gameboys, ipods , and other electronic gadgets and start developing the life skills that may be required in your future. Who knows where this Recession/ Depression/ Economic meltdown may go?

Pyromania!

Or, one down and seven to go!  The light snow made it OK to light this one off. The rain and snow made it a little difficult to light, but once going, it went good!

 Not too hot yet, Elaine, Mike and Brooklyn were still about 20 feet from the blaze.

At this point, Brooklynn bailed and every body moved back.

And even further back! This was a big pile, but not the biggest. More to come.

Smores, anybody?

Wow, it's been a week!

It has been quiet at the Men's Shelter due to the scheduling of trades people. I took the opportunity to expand the lower pasture some more. We are in a record situation so I thought I would take advantage of it. This is the latest EVER that we have not had snow on the ground! The last record was Nov. 6, 1933. We are past the sixth and no snow is forecast until the 11th . 

 I have spent a pile of time cutting and stacking the blocks for firewood. So far, 4 half ton loads have gone and there is lots left. Anybody wanting free firewood, where is, as is, give me a call.

All this field was heavily treed and full of brush and dead falls 3 years ago. It's amazing what you can do, one tree at a time. Maybe I should re-name  the Acreage and call it "The Gobi Desert of the North". Way up on the horizon, you can see Tucker still trying to figure if there is anything edible down here.

There are going to be 8 good bonfires once the snow does come!

How Better?

Kids, dogs, sliding, and a B.I.G. bonfire, that's how!

Once the fire got going, everybody backed off. The heat was tremendous!

The crazy dogs kept stealing branches and chewing them up. You'd think that they were a couple of beavers!

The fire really got going with no smoke because  the pile had dried most of the summer. I forgot it was Saturday so I had a lot of neighbours going in and out of the branch road all rubbernecking to see what the crazy guy was burning up now.

Once it got going, the flames were at the top of the trees in the background. Not bad for a wannabe pyromaniac. Yep, I like things that burn bright and go boom! Best that I could do out of this pile was bright with a lot of crackling.

Only 4 more piles to go, then I can start on next winter's burn pile.

This is the sort of thing that us crazy Canadians do when its cold outside. Bears hibernate, but 6 months is too long for us. Shift gears and enjoy what God gives us.

With the last cold spell, actually, we are still in it, the ice should be thick enough on the local lakes to start thinking about ice fishing. All I need is 4 inches of ice to walk on. Two feet is my limit for driving a truck on the lakes. Even then, it is smart to drive with the door and window open so that you can get out should the vehicle break through.

The areas that I fish now are all within easy walking distance from the road, so why take the risk?

Yep, I think that I will dig out the ice auger and pail ( for sitting on) and check it out. I never got out last year even though I don't have to pay for an angling licence any more. That is one of the (few) joys of getting older. It's payback time! Whoo hoo, the government lets me fish for free!

One of Six

A perfect day to start the burnings! -20C (-4F), no wind and sunny. How can it get better than this?

Let it Snow!

I am ready! There are 4 of these piles ready for light off. All I need is about 3 to 4 inches of snow to ensure the blaze doesn't spread.

If you see on the national news that the temperature in Woodlands Country rose unexpectedly by 5 degrees centrigrade, that's me and my match!

Who's going to bring the marshmellows and 30 foot weiner stick?

The land clearing progresses with stumps now being popped the good old fashioned way with a pick and muscle power. After 2 years dead in the ground, most are coming out easily. The ones that don't, well, they can wait until next year. Us retired guys aren't in that big a hurry.

Brooklynn keeps pulling sticks down as I toss them up. Eventually she gets tired, and I can keep ahead of her.

Hunting is still on the back burner as it's too warm to hang meat. It appears we are getting summer in October. Go figure!

Oh well, there is still lots to keep us old guys busy! Today, I think that I will saddle up Tucker and see if she is still snarly. Hopefully, not.