pitw's living poor.

[pitw]

Today we got our first garden produce of the year for our enjoyment.



Had a Fresh tomato sandwich with way toooooooooo much fresh onion for lunch


The rest turned into this with the addition of a steak from the lads carcass class winning steer.[flipping kids ate all the peas]


We also picked enough Saskatoons to make


So I ate a small piece.


Don't ever expect me to apoligize for being poor and only eating what we can for little money as I won't.

[68Camaro]

Awesome! Great looking stuff!

I had never heard of a Saskatoon, so I had to google it and add berry on the end to find info on them. Found a company called Prairie Berries that sells them. They look like blueberries - do they taste anything like another more common berry?

[pitw]

The berry's are similar to a blue berry but grow on bush's that allow you to stand up to pick. Many people grow them in orchards but I find wild ones just taste better.

[Treetop]

There are actually a wide range of flavors on saskatoons, the ones most similar to blueberries are the most popular, especially because they are easier to grow well then blueberries. Lots of breeding work going on with these, they are likely to continue to be used more often.

[pitw]

As I have a few acres of stuff here on the farm I like to cruise through want ads to see if anyone wants something I have. Last week I found an old fellow putting an even older sawmill together who needed a tractor belt pulley I happened to have. He was near 300 miles away but beside a lake I've always wanted to fish. So I contacted him and he was willing to pay my gas expenses to get the old piece of equipment to him. So I loaded the boat behind my '96 Ford and my 14 year old lad and I went on a road trip. The old boy was most interesting and after a couple hours he let us go to the lake where Don caught way more fish than me.
Average size of the Northerns we caught.



Took enough for us to enjoy fresh fish and then a few for the wife to enjoy at home.


Nothing says a fun trip need be expensive, learning while doing is a must.

[TXBullion]

You said learning while doing. What did you learn on that ?

you are probably a fun and adventurous person to hang out with

[pitw]

You said learning while doing. What did you learn on that ?

Being a prairie dweller I know little about the logging industry and the old fellow taught me a lot. I learnt not to laugh at my sons hook selection. I learnt the drought up here is wide spread as I saw maybe three crops that would make the average yield. I learnt that Hafford Sask has a summer sizzle day with good food and nice people. I learnt my cheapo '96 Ford can pull the boat comfortably for 600 miles at 20mpg.

[TXBullion]

[fasteddy]

Nice looking boy holding a Northern Pike? That pic looks like it was cold on the lake....when you can, please send us some cool air....it is forecasted to reach 104* today

[pitw]

Supposed to be like 90+ here today so I ain't working until after 6pm. Them Mexicans had it figured.

[pitw]

Living poor allowed us to kill fresh free ranging chickens[meat birds] yesterday morning and to eat one last eve. Man it was juicy and a taste that you can't buy in a super market. With fresh from the garden spuds, peas, carrots and finished off with a fresh made apple pie[home grown it was a meal a king will never eat.
Today because I didn't like the sound of grinding in my newest 4x4 the boys and I changed the front wheel bearings[including the spindle bearing] and she is as quiet like it were new.
Never ever be afraid to teach your kids as that way they can enjoy doing for themselves tooooooooo.
Now if it is dry enough to go back spraying tomorrow we have enough lined up to get in ten good days which will net us enough to take off the winter from work in order to enjoy doing stuff. In the past week I saw while out spraying 7 elk, 13 moose, 40+ whitetail, 50+ mule deer, at least 20 flocks of huns[biggest was 19 birds], ducks, blue herons, geese, 3 badgers, 9 coyotes and a whole bunch of other cool critters.

[pitw]

Got richer today as the hog we bought finally decided she was pregnant. The wife took a picture for me of our 14 year old helping out.


The youngster had 8 live and 3 deadun's which to me is a good amount for a first litter.


The lad has an uncanny ability with critters which stands him in good stead for the future. Wife has been madder than a wet hen over this project but today she softened a whole bunch, woman are funny this way.

[Treetop]

[TXBullion]

pitw, question that is probably too personal. But based on your habits and postings, it would appear you have an extremely low cost of living since many expenditures would be minimal due to your skill sets ( and family). You have referenced some great generated revenues as well. Aside from any metal purchases, I would imagine you periodically run into decent surplus cash. Is there anything that you do with it aside from metals? ( i.e. buy more acreage or farm animals etc )

[pitw]

I actually buy a bit of land when I end up gathering enough. This way the kids will each have a yard of 160 acres to do with what they will. Funny part is the last land I bought 6 years ago was such a good deal that I could sell it for 4x the purchase price now. I don't work for 8 months at a time so need to make little deals just to keep pocket money for more deals going. If you mean do I play in the markets the answer is no as I kicked my financial advisor in the nut's[was actually gonna kick him to the curb but he got uppitty]. There are sooooooooo many way's to make extra money out there that I can't do them all so I pick the fun ones that I enjoy. I got my equipment home last night from the dessicatting tour and now will only do a few more jobs this fall. Wife is making apple sauce/jucie today from apples we for free as we don't got a tree. They didn't have raspberry's so all is fair. Bought a 73 KW in April for 12 grand and sold it last night for 22 because now is the time guys need a truck to haul their grain. Thing to know about bartering/trading is that stuff sells better at different times of the year. So buy low and sell high. Enjoy life and never screw a friend.

[pitw]

This was Saturday
A busy couple weeks for me and got a few perks from my paying job. One lady left a jar of fresh cherry Jelly in my KW for me, another lady who could bake a rock pie to die for made me an apple pie that I almost felt guilty eating all of it[she is the best pie maker in the world]. Another lady gave me a jar of her strawberry jam as I finished their fields. Two customers left checks in my truck before I was even close to being done. I got permission to hunt/trap on a little over 50,000 acres of land. This afternoon I gotta deliver a bill to a 84 year old man[who I'll have to play at least 5 games of crib while listening to stories of the old days] whose wife promised me a fresh made cake when I get there. Another customer had an old mower in his yard he gave me with a 9 foot bar. Got 60 bushels of wheat delivered from another as he needed his bin cleaned out.
Did I ever say I like rural life.
Today I went to an 86 year old fella's place with a bill and met his 78 year old feale cousin from CA. After looking at a few of his 500+ pocket watch's we were chatting about family history when thhe old boy says, "Was Ole Olson your uncle? If he was I believe I have your grandfathers watch he brought over from Noway". Ole was my great uncle and the watch was my great grand daddy's. The olb boy walked over to a display and picked out one and handed it to me. The card with it had the fact his mother had bought it from Ole Olson in 1934. How does someone keep track of stuff like this? I asked if I could be put in his will as I knew chances of buying it were slightly less than nil. I now have to get my wife to make lefsa for the old boy and work him on that watch.
Then I stopped at a fella's place I had picked up a miss for him yesterday and he is coming to castrate my pigs for me being decent enough to save him a four hours screwing around to fix a screw up. Got home to the smell of fresh apple sauce and baking bread. Never made a cent today but picked up about 10 grand worth of work from stopping at the crop production services place to drop off empty chemical totes. I was about done with my regular customers so can do this easily.
Somewhere here there is a thread about what can you do for $20, anybody know how to find it?[I'm rather computer dumb]

[pitw]

Well yesterday was fun as I was requested to check out some turkeys a feedlot owner has running around[he has figured out good meat comes to them who try for it] and then ended up chasing cows for 5 hours for another neighbor. Then I got conscripted to drive grain truck in a truck with a transmission I never tried before. Kinda/sorta fun to get to learn stuff without investing your own money in the process. I now know I will not buy a truck with a semi automatic transmission. . Being willing to learn new stuff is essential to being a jack of all trades.

[pitw]

Living poor doesn't mean you can't do stuff. I found a guy with a 25' boat on Cold lake who wanted someone to fish with him by helping with fuel expenses. As I've never been on a boat over 16' I figured I could afford the experience for a couple days.
Got to the marina and saw this

Guy had the #1 birth .
First time being in a marina was fun as i gotta look at a lot of boats.


This boat was made more for hookers and blow than for fishing.


Fairly straight forward helm.


I suppose what you could see through the wind screen would impress a hooker but me not so much.


The lake is roughly 30 miles long and 15 wide. I've been on it before but she can be a real [female dog] in the wind.



Caught around 20 of these trout.


The guy I was with.


Supper last night.


Things I learned.
Bigger boats are as rough as little ones.
Bigger boats catch more wind and are harder to negotiate with in a breeze.
Guys with big boats ain't necessarily smart.
Big boats and heavy tackle take the fun outta fishing.
Girl in the Pizza hut is not only pretty but a nice human.
Fuel at the marina may be easier to get but has a huge premium.
More people make for more rules.

Glad I went and now know more than I did before.

[pitw]

Living poor means living smart[sometimes]. Yesterday I went back up by the lake I posted about as there was a tractor East of it 20 miles I wanted to look at. As I drove out of the town there was a garage sale just opening up and they had a


Well I immediately saw the usefulness of this thing as a trap boiler, chicken/turkey dunking pot and a host of other useful things. I didn't like the $50 tag though so offered the guy $10 and was turned down so I went on to the tractor. The tractor is a 1968 Massey 165, loader, cab, multi power and his asking price was $6,000 which would have been fair for one in good shape. This one had oil pouring from the PTO[$7 seal], no wires on the generator[basically a belt tightener at this time and an easy fix for me], the hydraulics were so slow the guy had rigged an external pump[didn't know about the internal filter that clogs up] and a couple cosmetic problems. I pointed out his problems while discussing life with the gentleman and finally came to an agreement of $2,500.
After going to check out another lake and river system I found myself going by that first garage sale at 3pm. I saw the pot was still there so pulled in and asked if he was willing to sell it now for $5 to which he exclaimed, "You offered $10 this morning". I laughed and said, "That was before I knew no one actually wanted it". He says $10 and I said "I'll flip you $5 or $10". He agreed and flipped a loonie only to use an expletive when it landed .
Got home to a wife who saw even more uses for the pot. Looked online to find it
http://vollrath.com/Arkadia-Stock-Pots-1090.htm

[68Camaro]

Nice pot for $5, even $10. I've seen new ones that size sell for $80-ish, though at that price I'm not sure if they were as heavy walled as this one probably is.

[pitw]

What is 11lbs of aluminum worth?

[Rosco]

Is it Cast or thin stuff??

[pitw]

It's the pot.

[Rosco]

50 cents per # last time I sold but lower now.

Worth a lot more as a POT

[pitw]

The tractor I went to look at and buy.


Yesterday I went to Vermillion to pick up the pto seal [$2.84 ] and don't an agco dealer have this on their lot.





Was a consignment so I got the consignee's name/number to find out about the tractor. He turned out to be a retired RCMP officer so I had to try and screw him as it is my turn. They wanted $5,000 and I got it for $2,500.