Family x-mas, and COLD weather continues!

Family x-mas

We got together on the 6th of January at Mom's house.  Unfortunately, Connie, my sister, was unable to attend.  She had come down with a bad cold and had to cancel at the last minute.  The rest of us got together and had sauerkraut and pork.   Lots of cookies too.  Too many cookies.  LOL.  Ah well, its tough time of year to be on a diet!  I was doing pretty good.  I was down to 245 just the day before the party.  That's 40 lbs down since October!

COLD

The weather is in it's 2nd week of  single digit temperatures.  The doors on the country house where actually sticking due to ice condensing between the doors and the frames!   We had a dog-grooming scheduled for Saturday morning, but they rescheduled for the 13th due to the cold weather.  I guess it was considered too dangerous for some of the pet-owners to get to the shop.   I have been doing work in the shop as much as possible to avoid the biting cold winds.

Welding practice and Nutcracker build

Last week I was just running beads and welding silly stuff together to practice my MIG skills.  That was ok, but it got boring, so I decided to see what I could find on Instructables for small welding projects.  Well, I stumbled on a nutcracker design that sparked an idea.   I designed my own, similar to the one that was presented but using my old square shelving tubing (of which I have a LOT).  I scrounged around a bit and found enough steel to give the build a try.  I am winging a lot of it.

Since the walls of the tubing is thin, I decided not to drill holes into it, which would further weaken it. 
Instead I welded the pins to the surface of the tubing.

I made tabs of steel and drilled holes through them and welded them to the sides of the tubing.  These tabs are thicker than the tubing walls and provide a better bearing surface.

My welds are improving.  Its still damn difficult to see the weld while its happening though.  My breath fogs the helmet!

Oh.  I got a new welding helmet too.  Its auto-darkening, and unlike the old one, it seems to work more reliability.

I have a concern that maybe I didn't leave enough room between the hammer and the anvil to fit a nut in!  

Here it is with the pusher rod attached and forward

And with the pusher rod pulled back.

I have 4 more tabs to cut and the main lever rod to put in place.  I tried to get it done Sunday, but it was too damned cold to be outside for long, so I decided to just wait.  It's just for welding proactive anyway.

Post wood-treatment continues

I was only able to get another 2 posts done since we weren't there very long this weekend.   I didn't even take the tractor over to get the remaining posts to saw to length.  I did pull them out of the stacks though,  They are ready to grab and saw when I get there this coming weekend.

Another post is in soaking.  At these temperatures I think it takes longer to soak in!  I let each post sit overnight when I first put them in.  Then at least 4-6 hours when I flip it over.  Sometimes overnight for the second side too.

Seven (7) posts done by the end of this weekend!

The variety of wood is quite apparent here!

The darker wood is red-oak.  I am not sure what the lighter wood is - maybe basswood or poplar.

I pulled these seven (7) posts out of the lumber stacks to get ready to trim them to length.  It was just too cold to go and trim them this weekend!

I still have two (2) posts already cut to length and ready to go yet anyway.  There is also one soaking in the trough.  So I have 17 posts.  I need at most 13 for the fence, and 2 for arbor post replacements.  I might replace other arbor posts though, since I am betting there are more that will rot off soon.

I got a BUCK!!!

I know!  I can't believe it either!  On the last day of regular hunting season.

I went out early and was in blind by 5am.   I have a new scope on the crossbow, but turns out I didn't need it, the old one would have been fine.  Anyway, I sat there until just after 7am before I heard some scuffling around.  Then I saw several does walking by.  I raised by crossbow to take aim.  Then out of the corner of my eye I see a BUCK!  He comes right into view - into range - nice shooting position.  I fire. The herd of deer take off!  Sounded like a herd.  Lots of thunderous hooves.  I freaked out a bit when I saw the light on the lighted-nock laying on the ground where the buck had been.  I tried to remain calm and packed up the crossbow and other items that I had brought with me into the blind. Then I went to look at the nock.  The bolt actually broke!  Carbon fiber bolt shaft - broke!   The light was on just fine, but the broadhead portion of the bolt was gone.  I left the lighted portion on the ground for a point of reference for when I would track the animal.

I went inside to thaw out.  It was 24F this morning.  Snow started just as I was heading back to the house.  I was trying not to freak out!  Adrenaline was pumping!  Trying to prepare myself for a long tracking job.  I was trying to brace myself for the worst - that maybe the shot wasn't fatal and the deer would simply be horribly wounded and suffering and that I would never find it.  My mind was going to all kinds of places!   I ate breakfast while I was waiting to warm up.  Had a couple warm cups of tea.  About 30-40 mins after the taking shot I was back outside on the UTV looking for the deer.

Snowing quite heavily!

I drove the UTV to where I had left the lighted-nock. I picked up the nock and turned it off - placing an old no-trespassing sign to mark the location instead.  Then I hopped in the UTV and headed out across the field where I thought I saw the deer run off.  I didn't go far at all before I saw the white belly of the buck on the ground - maybe a total of 50-60 yards from the point of impact.  I confirmed he was dead. Whew. Was so happy that I found it so easy an that the kill was humane.  I was sad too. The great buck was dead by my hand.  I knelt by his dead body placed my hand on him and gave thanks and promised to not waste his body and to appreciate his sacrifice to my fullest.

I tried to load the beast into my UTV and quickly determined that wasn't going to happen.  I'm too out of shape for one thing, but also the deer's body was just to limp and it wouldn't cooperate!  So I went back and got the tractor and put the front loader bucket on it.  Then I came back to the deer and easily loaded him into the frontloader!

Broken bolt!

Here is how i found him.  He is missing the right side antlers.  Upon closer inspection the right side antlers seem to have been missing for awhile.  

6 pointer!  8 points if you count the brow tine!

Thank you for dieing in an easy to access area!  The frontloader made this job a lot easier.

Before I cleaned him up I logged into the pgc.pa.gov website and reported the harvest online.

I called a couple of neighbors to assist me with the dressing but one was out hunting and the other didn't answer.  So, I tackled the job as best I could!  It wasn't the prettiest dressing, but I got it done. Took me about and hour!  Maybe a bit more.  I took the guts and the upper vital organs out.  I thought about keeping the heart but I decided against it.  I nicked upper stomach (actually I think I poked through it with a finger) and some nasty smelling stuff came out.  I cleaned it up with a paper towel and it didnt seem to leak more than a tablespoon.  I did see some corn in his stomach contents though! He was somewhere eating corn!  I don't think there is any corn left in the fields, but I could be wrong. He definitely had some fat on him though.

After I field dressed him I put the tag on his ear with a safety pin and loaded him into the car.  In the back of my SUV I put down a old dog blanket, some feed bags and finally a couple of garbage bags to keep the blood off of the car surfaces.  Then I manhandled him into the car - quite a bit lighter without the guts and organs, but still pretty heavy.  He was starting to stiffen up by this point too.

I called Strait Butcher Shop and they said to bring him on over. Strait's processes most peoples deer around here.  Their address is:

Stairts Butcher Shop
419 Possum Hollow Rd
Harrisonville PA 17228


I filled a desired products sheet and asked for the antlers.  They said the meat should be ready by next week or week after.  My deer was tagged #342 (they don't give receipts, which seems odd - but they are reputable so I guess that's fine).  On the form I indicated the desired products:  1/4 hind quarter into steaks, 1/4 ground, 1 hind quarter canning/cubed.  I forget the rest - I did indicate some bologna should be made.  The loin is to be cut up into medallions.   Mostly I want ground meat since that is what I like to eat.

The gentleman there said he would call me next week or week after with everything except the bologna. The bologna gets sent out for processing and can take a month or two.