Random thoughts from the moose cave.

I went to see him here on a $40 ticket with 8,000 other folks.

(and I was in the back)

I'm pretty good at math...

speaking of math, normally today's adventure would have ended with the math in my favor.

I'd sell these brackets for a benjamin to a customer. but ol' Bob swapped me a running driving not ever been smashed pick-up truck for my beat to hell no transmission having pick-up.

karma rules.

and I talked to my friend B for a coupla hours. we were just like a coupla old guys.

hmmmmmmmm.

he now has the only cool old salvage left in this part of the state. we talked about all the neat old yards that we grew up prowling in amongst iron from the 30s and 40s that have been crushed out and made to vanish.

times they are a changing...

Dunno where you are in relation to Dodge City, but not long ago they had the country's largest salvage yard, at least for heavy trucks. Don't know about the little fellers.

far enough east that I can't smell the stockyards...

There is a guy up this side of KC outside of Gardner that had a square mile of heavy trucks.

rumor has it that the state crushed him out a coupla years back in a big dispute.

I hear it's back full enough to be seen from I 35 again.

I bought a 7 speed from him many many years ago for my very first car hauler. a scary 6 car rig. broke down in KC and hadda have oodles of money thrown at it. I asked them how much just to do a straight swap with a used unit of my choosing. we made a deal and I borrowed a car from the auction and drove down to see him. quite a character. but his used tranny ran a hella lot more miles after I graduated to a freightliner...

my compliments to whomever is on spam patrol tonight. you are zapping them faster than I can play with them...

that mr philbis is a hella nice guy, btw.

I'm off to light the tiki torches...

change of plans.

everybody over to the salvage is home sick today.

called mr vw. he is in crisis. a baja that pays out over a grand with a cage that won't fit with the exhaust.

loaded up the welder, and all my cutting and reshaping implements. headed there now. with some gf food to stock his place with...

dammit. I lost my glasses again. somewhere out in the wilds they fell off of my shirt neck...

gonna hafta stop by wally's and get another pair before I go work. and get some drinking water, I forgot my bottle earlier. and I had the welder with me...

wearing my magnifying glasses now. not gonna work for long...

Think Ima go mow for an hour. don't need my glasses for that...

oh, by the way...

as I wandered home today (I so like being like an old guy, with no particular place to go) I stopped by to talk to a guy about his goats. only they turned out to be sheep. hairless sheep. so don't laugh. they look like goats.

we talked quite a while. he gets $65 each for them as littl'uns, but won't sell a female right now. told me about a livestock auction over to Hutchinson Ima check out tomorrow online to see what I can learn.

gotta go work a concert here real shortly.

Big winds headed our way on Sunday then rain on Monday and Tuesday, with freezing morning temps down into the 20's for a couple days.

Don't know how much of it will hit your area.

Oh dear.

they show rain on monday, but lows only into the 40s. 70s and 80s as far as the eye can see. I think Ima start planting some stuff and take my chances on a freeze...

having a bowl of noodles as I unwind. I must be getting healthier, because I am unfazed by the effort tonight, I feel like going dancing or something...

stopped at wally's for drinking water, new spectacles, and a corned beef. gonna try to do the irish thing tomorrow and see where we fall. all I really have to do this weekend is take the trailer out to idiot boys farm and get my sis's washer and dryer for her. Earache is going to purchase them. I dropped my free t-shirt on his screen door as I came home. he is a big fan and wanted to go see the show, but couldn't get a ticket.

he'll be a happy camper when he goes to get his paper in a few hours...

everybody that I worked with commented on how much less sickly I appear. Ima take that as a good sign. usually I am wiped out by the time we finish.

onwards and upwards. think Ima have some decaf earl grey and honey and take my happy pill. I may hafta go walk the north forty to get sleepy. we'll see...

thinking more about becoming a shepherd...

Barbados Blackbelly sheep:

a breed of domestic sheep that was developed in the Caribbean. Although it is likely the Barbados Blackbelly has African ancestry, there seems to be clear evidence that the breed, as seen today, was developed by the people on the island from sheep brought by ships fairly early in the period after Europeans first arrived. This breed is raised primarily for meat...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbados_Blackbelly_sheep

more pix...
http://www.hobbyfarms.com/livestock-and-pets/hair-sheep-breeds.aspx

but I still want to investigate goats. because I may want to try to milk them...

I really need to check the market. that will be the deciding factor. If I can find someone that wants to buy all of them I can raise, that's the animal I want to build my herd with.

the guy I was talking to had about 45 sheep, and has less land than I have. after talking to my neighbors, I think I can graze 12 to 15 acres. that's enough for 50 to 75 animals...

there is no market locally for the wool of a traditional sheep, and you still gotta shear them. so its either goats or hair sheep.

I'm open for opinions from any other goat ropers out there...

I seen this cowboy movie once, where a man moved in with a herd of sheeps and ran them with a neat dog. But this cattle baron guy stampeded his herd over the sheepherder's herd. Then the sheepherder got a rope throwed over him and the cattle baron's foreman dragged him behind his horse. The sheepherder guy got peeved. He sheared his sheeps of all theys wools and draped them on the cattle guy's prize bulls. The cattle guy shot them dead for being so big before discovering the ruse. Then he got fifty cowboys to ride onto the sheepherder's land. The poor sheep guy hid under his wagon, until they found him. He was dragged to the lone tree in all the territory and a rope put on his neck. He swung his body on the rope until he kicked the baron off of his horse. Then he and a thousand stampeding cattle ran over the cowboys, all except the baron. The sheepherder jumped off of a sheep and tackled the cattle baron. For three days they fought, hand to hand, until both could go no more. Then they grinned, shook hands and walked away, their herds both dead and and a grass fire decimating the range. It was very exciting.

Learn how to make goat cheese. That's the ticket. People pay big bucks for a nice piece of chevre.

goat cheese and sheep cheese


I pay far too much for a piece of aged sheep cheese.


It's not difficult to make cheese but it's a pretty heft financial investment to get a dairy going.


It might be worth finding out if there is a local cheese-maker who would pay for sheep or goat milk.

oh yeah - sheep - yarn - doesn't mrs. farmerman deal with the sheep yarn from their herd?

I'm not sure. Fman kinda quit talkin' to me a while back. not sure what I said to earn it, but...

starting slow. got my corned beef on. needa go chop some cabbage into it. not moving as fast as I was last night...

I need to get some boots to work in. I kicked a stubborn cover closed on a big spotlight, and my foot feels it this morning. (humor me. it's my morning)

thinking back on it, I musta seemed kinda manic last night. JD kept saying let's stop and breathe for a minute...

windy again today. that's life on the prairie.

I think Ima boil me up a shower and start the day right.

after a cuppa...

hmmmmm.

the scrapper guys are back in force over at my neighbor's. she asked for my phone number, and was not planning on having them back.

I dunno whether I want to go get involved or not. right now I'm thinking not...

think I will just go play in my garden for a while.

Isolationism isn't all that bad...

having another cup of tea here now

brewing up some chocolate raspberry bliss ... the end of the last box from Celestial Seasonings ... they discontinue every after-dinner tea I take a liking to .... boooooooooooooooooooooo hiss!

I got another case of EG when gram and I went shopping last week.

that's as frufru as I get.

I did score a giant sized creamer last night as they were breaking down and throwing away the coffee table.

it works ok as a substitute for the cream in my tea...