pitw's living poor.

[NHsorter]

Nice man, I love it. Sold one at a good profit before you even got it home, haha. That put a smile on my face!

[pitw]

Got home from making a living tonight and checked a local site only to find a lady 23 miles East[In Sask] had some pigs for sale. $300 for a butcher hog or $400 for a bred gilt due in August. I called and got her to save me one that she picks out for Saturday. One lad is thrilled the other not so much and my wife is pissed but it could be because her 27 year old horse died today. I'll post a pic of Gertrude when I get one. Got to leave at 5 am for hopefully 18 hour day tomorrow.
Sold a hydro scoop I picked up free a few years back for $300 last eve. Amazing how there is a buyer for anything if you can find him.

[everything]

Sweet deal on the trucks. Nice setups all around and wow, younger lads that want to work, and it's safe to let them handle a knife. I've been getting back to basics more myself, forget eating out, who knows where, who, what, gardening three years straight, this year tending a 25*100 plot. And, yeah, got into killing myself, doing 50 chickens tomorrow, nobody else wants to do it, but will make for about a 16 hour day total for me tomorrow. Just that time of year when the days are long.
Have you heard of the WAPF, http://www.westonaprice.org/ it's kind of an underground food network.

[pitw]

Never heard of that and am to tired to check it tonight. I'll be checking though, so thank you.
Take some pics of your chicken doings.
Day wasn't too long as I got home by 10:15pm and made $7,500 for a days work with only $400 in fuel expenses. Back atter tomorrow.

[pitw]

The wife went and got Gertrude today as the fellow called Saturday and said it wasn't a good day then. So I'd like to introduce you to what I saw upon arriving home.


Much to my relief she stood up with some nudging from my son.


Due to farrow around August 1st.

[Treetop]

Lol, after contemplating all that bacon Ive been searching craigslist for pigs. they arent cheap! atleast not here.

[pitw]

Where she picked up the gilt they had butcher hogs for $300. I'm hoping for enough piglets to make this a free meat project. I like free being poor.

[pitw]

Even in the midst of a drought life carry's on. Clucky hen

Hatched five eggs so far.

Meat birds are gaining weight and feathers.


Trying to gather enough feed off 160 acres for the milk cow. My youngest is doing a great job when it's his turn. Broke the pitman today so the lads and I built one from a piece of Hickory I got from a fellow in KY while I was down there 7 years back.


Hope to make an extra 1,000, 40 lb bales to sell to acreage owners for 5-6 bucks each as they can't find feed.

[TXBullion]

Never heard of that and am to tired to check it tonight. I'll be checking though, so thank you.
Take some pics of your chicken doings.
Day wasn't too long as I got home by 10:15pm and made $7,500 for a days work with only $400 in fuel expenses. Back atter tomorrow.

What was the 7500 from?

[pitw]

Never heard of that and am to tired to check it tonight. I'll be checking though, so thank you.
Take some pics of your chicken doings.
Day wasn't too long as I got home by 10:15pm and made $7,500 for a days work with only $400 in fuel expenses. Back atter tomorrow.

What was the 7500 from?

Spraying crops for weed control. I make my cash money by driving a cool 4x4 unit around other peoples land. Amazing how much old stuff they have in the back side of farms.

[TXBullion]

So is the money for what you get paid for spraying or for what you find on their property?

[pitw]

So is the money for what you get paid for spraying or for what you find on their property?

What I get paid for spraying. All the rest is gravy.

[pitw]

Living poor means my younguns learn to use my bar-b-cue.


Steaks from our own critter, cooked on different woods taste so gooooooooooooood.


Then of course we have to eat raspberries by the quart and then enjoy jam for the rest of the year.


The wife even made me some fresh butter tarts as we don't buy baking in town.


Next week these guys will be of eating size.

[pitw]

Using old outdated equipment is fun and profitable under certain conditions. We are in the middle of a drought and hay prices have spiked significantly, so the lads and I went to work with 60 year old equipment that cost me from 0 to $2,227 making small square bales for ourselves and then put a few hundred up for sale at a ridiculous price. They sold so fast we then went out and made an additional 1,000 to fund a ski trip, fishing trip and gear for the same activities. Hay is selling from 9 cents/pound to 12c/p around me so I made 50 lb bales and sold them in the field for 16c/p and the people with 2 horses, a goat or three, sheep and even one fellow with 30 rabbits came from as far away as 110 miles to get them. Wife called me names for starting up again but has since admitted defeat. It is also a great tie to teach my 14 year old who was the pit crew and extra driver on this [according to the wife] stupid exercise in making gravy from a bone. There is no other way for a person to learn how to unlock a locked transmission, change rake teeth, change all the sickle sections on a mower, stack bales so they don't fall over, tie knots when that is required, hook up tractors to multiple implements[and figure out why certain things won't work], use wire like an artist and that water is the nectar of the gods. Our larger tractor for baling which is a 65 had a hitch problem so the little 35 got to finish the job.


Living poor also means enjoying time.

[68Camaro]

If your area is drought how do you have hay? That's gotta be a gold mine. Why would your wife object to cashing in?

[Thogey]

If your area is drought how do you have hay? That's gotta be a gold mine. Why would your wife object to cashing in?

Because is makes him happy. Because he did what he said he wanted to do. Because is wasn't her idea.............
Because it's what they do.

You apologize. You move forward to the grave. That's what you do.

Pitw is very interesting, great skills!

[Treetop]

LOL wish hay was that cheap around here.

[pitw]

If your area is drought how do you have hay? That's gotta be a gold mine. Why would your wife object to cashing in?

I have 155 acres in hay, last year I got 427 1500lb hay bales from it. That equates to 12,810 of my little bales, so I got about 13% of last year due to drought and I only cut the low spots as there is nothing on the high ground. Not a gold mine but a wonderful place to call home. Wife figured she was gonna get railroaded into helping haul the bales but I had them all picked up by customers in the field except the ones we keep for our use and 350 that I picked to keep them dry and sold for a $2 premium because I can. My pickers were my two boys and their 4H exchange mates.
Doing stuff that is fun to do and actually making some coin doing it is a wonderful mix. Since I screwed the hitch on the 65 I went looking for parts on Kijiji[our version of craigslist] and found another whole tractor with a much better loader that is only a 5 hour drive away . The tractor doesn't run but I can fix that as the price is less than 200 square bales and I can build one solid tractor for me and sell the other for like 500 square bales .
My entertainment may be different than most but I enjoy what I do.

[68Camaro]

Well you have the ability to essentially grown your currency there, so that's awesome. Good that you're not dependent on needing the entire 155 acre hay output for your own livestock. And that you do have some low areas that retain moisture. Some of your neighbors must be suffering. Didn't know that area was in drought. How long has it lasted? How deep is the groundwater there?

[pitw]

Lot's of guys either paying through the nose to find hay/feed for their cows or selling some cattle and it started in March. No rain from run off on.

[Treetop]

50 pound bales are 12 bucks here.

[pitw]

and I thought I was a bandit.

[TXBullion]

Pitw, since I'm nosy , what's the street value on that 320 tons of bale ?

*feel free to ignore as well

[pitw]

Pitw, since I'm nosy , what's the street value on that 320 tons of bale ?

Last year it sold for $22,000 and this year I could have got closer to $64,000. I heard of one fellow buying hay at $280/ton but he commercial feeds and just push's the costs onto his customers. My target customers this year were acreage owners[oil patch boys with toys and less brains than a turtle] who just gotta have a horsey, goat, sheep or whatever and really don't care about justifying their expense.

[TXBullion]

Im sure there is a lot of work and effort to get to that 22k Thanks