TOPIC: opening day...

COVID19 wise...

Chief I have plenty of guns and ammo too...

Eating my last two packs of river bass tonight for supper. I need to get some fishing in and put more in the freezer.
Still have some turkey and deer in the freezer and over the past few weeks have laid back some other food stashes and supplies just in case this thing turned bad...

and it sure looks like it is getting quite serious. Of course the media outlets tend to go overboard.

I do hope by June I am fishing and thinking about this dang virus no more. That would be nice.

Any of you guys serious preppers ?

I have put back about a months worth of shelf stable food... (canned stuff, frozen stuff).. I have a few bags of potatoes, carrots, onions stashed in a extra refrig in the garage... things that I will eat anyway before they go bad...

I would hate to have to live off what I could grow, catch, kill (only)... but I think I could get by without hardly starving to death

I saw 3 deer in the back yard last night around 10 pm... just turned on the light to check for dillows... and have to admit i thought about putting another deer in the freezer.

I will be glad when all this passes... and I sure hope it does.

Good Luck to all !

TNHunter

Great pics TN, especially the 4 pronger. That pic could be on a national magazine but I suspect you don't want the attention.

I've been checking while walking the woods but haven't seen anything popping up yet.

I personally am not a prepper but like to think I could manage in a crisis. The deer in our hollow are ridiculously thick and I routinely see roughly 19 turkey. Oh, and squirrels out the ying-yang, at least two living in the eaves of my shop.

So far, no virus cases in WV but the above mentioned product shelves are empty.

TN, I took my boat motor to the shop for a new water impeller yesterday, soon as its done iam ready to hit the water...

Chief...

My bradford pear tree, the blooms are falling like snow flakes, and little green leaves are replacing the blooms...

In the river and creek bottoms, starting to see a lot of greening across the tree tops as buds swell and the starts of leaves come out...

I know that it is time to catch those early smallies... and can't wait. I just need a day off from work to get together with a day when the river is not up and running because of so much rain. I hope that comes soon.

On the growing stuff side.. you know I already had a bunch of stuff growing here...
This spring I have added (ordered, got them in, planted, watered, pruned, mulched)... 9 new fruit trees.

2 - Jujube, Shanxi Li and GA-866 (interesting fruit)
1 - Peach (Rising Star)
3 - Apples - Akane, Gold Rush, Hudson Golden Gem
1 - CHE Tree (also called melon tree) very unique fruit... say it taste like combo of fig and watermelon.
1 - Guidardi Mulberry (see the youtube link below)...
1- Apricot (MoorPark)

7 more blueberry bushes (got a total of 10 now)
6 more black berry canes - ouachitaw
5 raspberry canes (3 reds, 2 golds).

I have 50 strawberry plants ordered... have not been delivered yet.

That will be it for the year. Can't wait until all that starts producing.
I planted a bunch of new stuff last spring (as well), some of which will be producing this year. JostaBerry, Honey Berry, a Fig Tree (which produced some last fall), and a Illinois EverBearing mulberry, and 3 elderberry bushes... 2 European plum trees..

then I have my older Peach trees (Early Elberta and Reliance), and a couple of Mac Apple trees, and Ilinni BlackBerries...

We are still eating black berries and some other fruit that i froze last summer (vaccum seal in pint jars and freez)... About a half pint of black berries heated with some maple syrup... is sure good stuff on some french toast. Love it.

Check out the youtube vid below showing the dwarf mulberry, one of the varieties I planted this week. That same youtuber posted another vid of it a month and half later and it was still loaded with fruit. (Producing mulberries for almost two months). I love growing stuff like that.



TNHunter

sounds like you have been busy....rain here today,hope it warms up so I can get out and do some work in the orchard...

pouring down rain here,,,ive had over a inch in a hour...

Cloudy most of the day here today, except mid day we did get some sunshine.

On my lunch hour... I got out side and got some sun on my skin... Vit D3... boost the immune system.... sun on your skin is the natural way to get that and probably much better than supplements.

I follow a couple on youtube (homesteaders... I find that interesting) and they have two kids with a odd disease (alopecia ?) something like that, and it causes them to lose all of their hair (during the winter months) when Vit D levels are low - even though they provide them with the best vit D3 supplements they can get.... but every summer (when kids our outside playing in the sunshine a lot) their hair grows back.... only to get lost again the next winter.

Sunshine has been a somewhat rare thing the past couple months... so when you can get some, do it.. sunshine on your skin.

I got those 50 strawberry plants in late yesterday evening... too late to plant... and today it rained, so too wet to plant... I healed them in my compost pile and watered them in good, will get them planted when it drys up some.

Good Luck - stay healthy - to all !

TNHunter

One Pic to share this evening... My Early Elberta Peach tree... has around 20% blooms open now.



I read some peach experts opinion online a week or two ago... on frost hardy peach blooms and they said that most peach blossoms are frost hardy down to around 25 degrees.

I remember well last year after most of my blooms were open, we got down to 32.... and I still had a heavy fruit set.

I would be more than a little worried about it if it did get down to 25.

Years with peaches... are just better than years without

TNHunter

TN, I wanted to comment on the sprouting 4 prong you posted the other day. I had wondered if ginseng sprout with a trunk, stem or whatever and the prongs developed afterwards, but apparently, it emerges as what it is.

I think it was 70ish today, mostly cloudy with a sun break and a brief downpour. I managed to clean out a culvert.

Today was the last day for our handyman. The virus' effect on the stock market has hit us pretty hard so we're in conserving mode for now. I'll pick up where he left off with remodeling the house. I dread the day that my wife tells me I need to find a job. lol I know it's not really funny how it's affecting a lot of folks.

woodsrunner... that is right - when the older tops first come up they are already formed...

Actually the bud that developed the previous year and remains at the top of the root neck (when the old top dies back in late fall)... that bud is formed with the details for the top the next year (number of prongs, leaves, etc)..

So the top that shows up this spring... can depend on how the growing conditions were the previous year.

Some tops come up a 4 prong one year, and 3 prong the next... and I have had 4 prongs (single top) come up as a double top (two 3 prongs the next year).

Below is another good close up of a 3 prong emerging...



And below is a pic of a 4 prong... at a bit later stage... when they first come up the leaves are all rolled up, but once they point towards the sun, they start rolling out and filling out.
it takes them a good month or more to expand (the entire top) to full size.



TNHunter