Another, hunting land, is at about 8200′. This area has lots of owls so all I have to do is encourage them to nest on my acreage. Problem is I don’t have a barn or anything similar. Both properties suffer from the above ground residue from the tunnels they dig. Darn things are everywhere!

Thanks for the green tip!

Our berry patch was there when we bought the house in 1979. It has been a blessing over the years, but either they are getting burned out, overshadowed by the neighbors’ pine trees (not to mention the pine needles) or a combination of both (not to mention poor/marginal care on my part). They were not doing well. I bought 20-30 plants from an online supplier and planted them (they were the same fruiting pattern as ours, June and Sep producers – can’t remember the variety’s name). What I didn’t do was trim the roots! The majority survived my ineptness, and, hopefully, the 2d year and beyond they will impart their genetic imprint on the patch and it will again start to fruit like days of yore (unless they need full sun, then they’ll never reach their full potential.

Another “problem” may be that the grandkids go out and eat them all up before I even see them! Oh well, they will have fond memories of the patch.

And, when you know you won’t be running it for a while, shut off the gas and run it until it stops. It’s the dried up gas in the carburetor that causes it to run “rough”.

However I still have 3-4 gallons from 2009 when I put up 19 gallons.

I do have a red delicious that I should take care of, but making cider with only 1 variety of apples is not “supposed” to be good. I might try it next year and beg neighbors for some other varieties. Problme is time. Always, time…

I try to save the “better” apples to give the neighbor’s horses up at our cabin north of Leadville Colorado, so they don’t totally go to waste. But, in addition to the bugs, the birds and squirels love them, so I guess they are not going to “waste”.