Freeze-dryer cleanout, regular deer season prep and progress on hickory top

First cleaning of the freeze-dryers vacuum pump 

I don't know how many batches we have put through the freeze-dryer, but it was definitely past time to open up the vacuum-pump for a cleaning!  I didn't get any pictures of  how filthy the innards were, but if you look to the back edge in the pictures below, you will get some idea.  I scraped alot of gunk and rust out of the pump and cleaned it as best I could with paper towels.

See the gunk between the baffle plate and the body?  That's pretty much what the entire inside looked like when I first opened it!

The cover cleaned ok - but the sight glass was hard to clean.  It really didn't get very clean....

More apples!

After cleaning, I added clean oil (and ordered more oil filters - they evidently take WEEKS to ship!) and we then did another batch of apples.

This is what they look like going into the freeze-dryer.

Regular-hunting season preparations

There was a major wind storm for 2-3 days last week that seriously had me concerned that my little blinds would be in the next state.  I was surprised to find that two of the blinds didnt move at all! One blew further into the woods but didn't sustain any damage.  

This blind is the closest to the house and you would think that I would see the fewest number of deer here - but NO!  This blind gets plenty of traffic!    I think it is because it is on the way from the fields to the forest.

I actually drew a bead on a deer with the crossbow while in this blind!

The view from just in front of the blind

This is the blind that blew away.  I moved it back to its original position...

Then I moved it again..

And finally moved it to behind this pile of brush (its not there yet in this picture)

The "deep" woods blind (I think - they all look alike...)

After i got the blinds taken care of and the trail-cams setup again, I started to get ready to sight in my .30-06 rifle.  I haven't used it in years and I was a bit anxious to shoot it.  I didn't want to shoot it out in the fields in the clearing because I was afraid that the sound would carry and scare the deer.  So I set up a target at 25 yards and sighted in.

There should be a orange surveyors flag somewhere in this picture!  Anyway, I positioned myself at the edge of the woodshed to take the shots.

You can almost see the target at 100 yards - dead center in this picture.

At 100 yards.  Well, i hit the target anyways! LOL

The 25 yard shots were damn nice.

All of my ammo is FMJ!  I will have to go get some hollow-points or some kind of expanding  bullet.  It's not legal to hunt with FMJ

My FMJ bullets!  Cheap surplus from god-knows-when

More hickory milling

I milled up the top portion of the hickory log this weekend.  I got less useful wood than I was hoping. There were more bugs and the tree had more branches up high which caused some defects.

The mill-ends from the top portion of the hickory

Plane dust

Cut the wood slats into 3 1/4 inch wide boards for the laminate workbench

Lots of firewood!

Letting the slats cure a bit before jointing

Some nice pieces for odd jobs maybe?

Milling up some hickory

First - some pictures of my puppies! 

No reason - they are just so cute!

Sugar (aka, "Sugar-Bee", "Wiggles", Wiggle-bottom")

Frisco (aka, "Frisco-doodle-hopper")

Freeze-drying Apples

We stopped at Mile-Level in Bedford PA and got some more apples.  We did a batch with cinnamon-sugar, which I didn't care for as much as the plain - so we did all the rest of that bushel of apples plain.  These are great snacks!  Crunchy and not full of sugar and fat.

Cinnamon-sugar apple slices.  I think I like these apple without the cinnamon-sugar, actually.

Freeze-dryer front shot

Freeze-dryer vacuum pump and filter

Deer-hunting: searching for a buck in the DAYLIGHT!

I have some trail-cam pictures of some bucks, but NONE in the DAYLIGHT!  

Would love to see this fellow in the daylight!  My blind is only about 15 feet (not yards - FEET) from where he is in this picture.

This was after the "fall back" time change - so the actual time here is 4:06 AM!

Milling some hickory

I finally got to milling that hickory tree I brought down over a year ago (almost 2 years - shame shame).  the bole on this tree was almost 25 feet!  I had to cut it for milling.  I got a 13 foot section and a 12 foot section.  I milled the big (bottom) end first.  Initially it didnt look like the bugs had gotten into it so bad, but after i cut some boards I learned the sad truth.  I figured that I could dice and slice some good little pieces of boards from this thing and use them to build my workbench!   

Lots of hickory sawdust.  Not good for mulch.  Hickory is similar to walnut and will inhibity the growth of other plants!  Not too mention that I won't use sawdust for mulch anymore.  At least not by itself.  It acts like a roof and the water runs off it!

Some checking here, as you can see.  Not too bad really considering the time and conditions it was in.

Nice planks that i hope to use for tool handles and such - hickory is tough, hard and flexible.  Ideal for tool handles!

These are some of the mill-ends that I will use to make my workbench top

After cutting the boards down to some useable pieces.

Before I edged them

A lot of the mill ends are just to buggy or crooked/split to be useful as lumber.  This should make nice fires though!

Edged and planed

Ready to cut to width!  

Last of the bow hunting season - leaf gathering and more equipment repairs

The last of the bow hunting season this year

To answer the question: did I get one? No, I did not.  

I saw plenty of deer on the trail cams and even from the blind behind the red barn.  However, I only saw one buck on the cams - and he was too small to take (and I never saw him IRL - just on cam).  

Friday morning I went out to the blind behind the red-barn and waited for a while -I was rewarded with quite a few sightings.  Many of the sightings were before sunrise, so that wasn't useful, however, I did draw a bead on a doe just after sunrise, but I decided against taking her in a split-second decision.  She was just too small and I really don't want to go through the hassle of cleaning and butchering a small deer.  

I was planing to go out Saturday morning too, but I was too tired and sore (and sick - see leaf gathering info below on why).  I still have hope for the regular season (rifle) that starts on Nov 28th.  I should really sight-in my rifle soon so as not to scare the deer off when the season finally kicks in.  I heard my neighbors doing that on Sunday before I left - high-powered rifles are LOUD!

Some pictures from the red-barn game cam earlier in the week.

Plenty of does.  Some quite nice!

Leaf vacuuming time!

If you look back in the blog a bit you will see that I thought that I got my leaf vacuum and lawnmower all set for leaf gathering...  Well, i was wrong.

I got the mower and vacuum started and vacuumed up some leaves.  After the first load was dumped I noticed that the mower deck was not level and i was cutting higher on one side than the other.  As I continued to gather leaves this unevenness seemed to get worse until, after the 5th load I think, I was gathering some leaves in the persimmon tree area (quite hilly) and I got stuck.  After the usual fiddling around I determined that the mower deck had come off and was acting like a big (and effective) brake.  I went and towed the mower and leaf vacuum up to the shop using the tractor.

After some investigation I confirmed that the mower bracket repair that I had made last year (?) had broken off.  But not only that, one of the spindles had also broken off two attachment flanges!

Broken flanges on one of the spindles

Broken bracket repair

So I pretty much spent the rest of the weekend on fixing this bugger.

First step was to TIG weld the bracket back onto the deck.  I had used the GMAW (stick) weld before and really messed it up bad.  I had the amperage too high, and just blasted away a lot of the metal. That's why I chose to TIG weld this piece this time.  TIG is good for building up missing metal (well, I feel that it is anyway).

Here I am setting up for the weld:

It was definitely hard to get a good shot after painting everything black!  Oh well.  The weld was better than the stick weld.  We will see how long it lasts!

Reverse Side of the weld

Ready to attach the new spindle

Bolting the new spindle on

All done.  Spindle on and belt guides installed

Mower deck back on and vacuum reattached.  Ready to go!

I also removed, straightened and sharpened the blades while the deck was off.  Whew.  Almost a whole day spent repairing this!

That was all I had time for.  I cleaned up the onion harvest and bagged them up for the trip back. Then I took off for home/

This is why you need to weed the onions!  Oh, and harvest them on time too - don't let them sit in the wet ground!