Operation Bacon

     As planned this past Saturday, the day was started early. We all rolled out of the house a little after 0700 and finished setting up for our contingency plan. We also needed to wait for the sun to come up some more to give us better light. Once complete setting up, we began with first up, Katharine. JUGM started to tap the slop bucket and she came right over to the fence and I took aim with the Henry and one shot was placed about 1 inch above the eyes, center-lined and  she dropped straight down.

    So as she was on the ground flailing around, the other two went to her to see what was going on and nudging her. As her reflexes were ending, I had the perfect shot of Lisa and took it, she dropped straight down and started her flailing. Now by this time, the last remaining sow, Joanie had figured out what is going on and she knew she was next. As I tried to take the shot outside the pen like I did with the first two, she was not cooperating and here I go into the pen. Once in there, she would try to keep ahead of me while leading her head out of the way. After a few minutes of back and forth in the pen, she showed the shot. As soon as I took aim, pulled the hammer back, put finger on the trigger, she moved her head as I shot and let out a hellish squeal that had all the dogs in the area barking. I hit her about an inch below her left eye. So now I have a pissed off pig running around and what can you do but just let her calm down. So I wait a few more mins and she is standing in the back corner and trying to hug the fence to walk past me,  I lifted the Henry with hammer already cocked, pulled the trigger and she dropped down next to the fence. With all down, we commenced to remove the fence panels to pull them out to wash them off. Once they were washed off, we rolled them into the bucket on the tractor and I loaded them into the trailer.  

L to R, Katharine, Lisa, and Joanie

    Got them all wrapped up like a piggy in a blanket with the tarp and set off to the processor.

Lisa on the scale

Joanie on the scale, Katharine on rack

    Here are the numbers for them:

Katherine: 262 lbs

Lisa: 236 lbs

Joanie: 228 lbs

Grand total: 726 lbs

(I'm sure "APINC" doesn't care for the names, but who cares.)

     Tuesday morning we got the call that they were ready so I took Wednesday off to make the trip down to get them while the kids were in school. Once home, we went to work putting them away.

No bacon, want to experiment with some recipes for pork belly

Ribs

   

Pork Chops (3/4" thick)

   The processor complimented us several times on the girls, and how great they looked. The accolades continued when we picked them up,  he was very impressed with the overall color and consistency of the meat. I will say, those were some outstanding pork chops and they were very good. I am very proud of JUGM as she did the majority of the work raising these sows for our nourishment and she did an awesome job.

Current plan is to take a break and redesign the pig pen into a concrete pad with a metal roof and a waste removal system that can be washed either into a drilled hole 4 foot in the ground or maybe a small septic tank and drain field, who knows which route we will go.




Senior

Hurricane Harvey

  We have friends and family in San Antonio, Houston and in Helotes, TX and they are all saying stores are emptying out, gas lines are long and the highways are congested. Some reports are saying that fighting has broken out. This is why we preach the gospel of being prepared....  My family members in Houston have not forgotten Tropical Storm Allison  that dropped so much rain that it was almost up to the highway over pass signs, she has reminded people not to be complacent but yet they are.

She posted this to her social media account it was June 2001

Nearly 35 inches of rain is expected, as this monster not only makes one landfall on Saturday but eventually a second one sometime later in the weekend. The darn thing is just going to sit there and meander across the coastline of Texas, which is by far the worse case scenario for any tropical system. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those in the path.

Please heed all the warnings and stay safe....

-JUGM

Update on the Garden, Solar Eclipse, Preparing for Operation Bacon, and some thoughts

    Took the day off from work. Kids only had a half day as we are in the path of the eclipse. We are projected to be at 98 here. I don't really care to go to a city that has 100%, mainly because of the traffic. Took some pictures yesterday in the garden of the tomatoes, collards, and squash. I added pictures from 2 weeks ago of the mater's and greens to show the growth. Now I know there are some amateur pepper's out there that get their "Panties" in a wad when they pull up parts of their gardens and blame the heat and sun for their plants demise. Here is a pro-tip for ya, how about water your stuff...... Trust me it works. Also proper fertilization helps too.

Tomatoes

08/06/2017

08/20/17(zoom in for the tomatoes)

Collards

08/06/2017

08/20/17

Squash (picture is from 08/20/17)

Notice the stress from the heat

No need to pull them up and be a quitter, water does amazing things

yesterday's bounty

     This coming weekend, "Operation Bacon" will begin. Joanie, Katherine, and Lisa will make their way to the processor. Operation will commence at 0600 and Winchester report to follow. In preparations for the event, there were a few things to do. We have stopped buying 16% pig feed and switched strictly to corn for their last few days. Once they are gone I can use the corn for deer season.
This morning we both took the kids to school then headed to get another barrel filled

at the grain mill

    So with their last meals on hand, next was to prep the storage of those cuts of meat. We went and purchased another freezer Sunday. We already had a 14.3 cuft upright and we added a 16 cuft chest to take us up to 30.3 cuft of cold storage. Making sure we could use all available space in the upright, I pulled it out of the building today and defrosted and cleaned it.

     Now, once they are ready to go, I was intending on taking the tractor and picking them up and dropping them in the back of my truck, but with all 3 it might be a tight fit for all, so this past weekend went and got 3 new tires for the trailer, hell the tires were 7 years old and still looked good but there is that little "Murphy's Law" standing on my shoulder putting thoughts' in my head of having a blow-out with 600 lbs. of pork sitting on the side of the road in the hot sun. I figured it would be a good time to change them out. While changing the tires, I pulled both hubs off, checked the bearings, and packed and put new grease in there. So with the tarp already layed out, all we have to do is back it down the hill to load up.

    Well I put in the title that I had some thoughts so here you go (Reader discretion is advised). I want to talk about this "Statue Issue" that the left has just been in an uproar since Charlottesville. First off, why do you wait until Obama is out of office to pitch-a-bitch? The first 2 years of his first term, you could have made farting in public a felony. So why now do you all of a sudden have a problem with Confederate Statues? I know, because there is a non-career politician that is white in the presidency that is trying to make this country successful again. When I heard that Nancy Pelosi wanted to remove the confederate statues from the capital rotunda after the stupid bitch has walked past them for how many years, I started to laugh. Just shows you how many stupid asses there are in her district in California.

    So these white-supremacists, neo-Nazi's, or whatever you call them this week in the media, they applied for a permit to exercise their freedom-of-speech and had every right under the law to be there and spread whatever message they wanted too. Some may like it, some may not but who are you to prohibit them from exercising that right under the Constitution? Well let's add social media, probably the media and a few other liberal organizations getting involved to set up a counter protest, without a permit and setting up camp to stir up trouble and violence as they always do, then all these media outlets show up expecting to see violence, well that's what they got. It's a shame that someone lost their life in the protesting.

     Why have we come to this? I feel that the liberals are trying every avenue, to include the race card to derail the current president from office because the are so pissed that their "Wonder-Girl" lost again, but this time to a white guy...... Let's look at the left and remind them of a few things......

Democratic party was established by President Andrew Jackson. remember him from the trail of tears.

Democratic party was prevalent in the south during the civil war and from what you liberals know that the south was about slavery, but you all vote democrat during elections even today.... Sorry, scratching my head while trying to figure out why all of you are "FUCKING DUMB-ASSES"? I apologize, I had a senior chief moment.

Democratic party was strongly against the passing of the Civil Rights Act but you still continue to support and vote Democrat.. LMAO

Republicans under President Abraham Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation to end slavery, not the democrats, but you still vote for those turds.

Last but not least, I am sure way back in time, there was no hunting season in Africa for slaves. You were sold out by your own people, the strong selling off the weak to benefit their bottom line so I think if you really want to protest and actually make a real justification for your actions, do your research and find the family's that were involved in the slave trade and go after them. That's where it starts!

You cannot erase history, you can learn from the mistakes from the past and build on them to make our country successful. Remember that. One thing I can say is that in a time of emergency in the navy, we never chose who we would save from a flooded or burning space nor never leave a shipmate alone on the beach to get attacked. One thing I will always remember from standing the mid-watch on Delta pier at Naval Station Mayport. There was a writing on the wall in the Sentry's shacks that stated "Why is it when we are overseas we are American's, but in homeport we are white, black, Asian, or Hispanic"? Think about that.....

Senior

things are getting crazy out there...

Stay vigilante everyone!!  I think the eclipse is really screwing with peoples brains.....

things here...

Apologies for the lack of post over the past month, but we have been quite busy here at our little estate, and time just seems to get away from us. I looked on here and realized the last post was on July 11th.

A our neighbor down the road told us about a local feed store that sells empty barrels, but will then also fill them up with whatever feed you are in need of. It has proven to be more economical instead of buying bags of feed and loading and unloading it all.  On our first trip we had it filled with corn.

Senior got his deer tags in the mail the other day. so once we butcher the pigs the extra corn will go to attract the deer. We are planting food plots, and some nights we can sit out on our porch and see them down at the bottom of the garden feeding. That is another  reason why I love the country and rural life, we don't have to worry about finding some place to go hunt, the deer come to us. And not just one or two...sometimes its a small little herd.

 That's a lot of corn!!!!

Our okra is about shoulder high , and kicking it off like crazy. We have to be out there every evening now rain or shine, if not then the pods will triple in size. The past few weeks it has been bone dry, but finally this week we got into a rainy pattern and have some much needed rainfall.

Our panels and elevated irrigation system is working really well with the tomatoes, We put in these Parks Whoppers about 3 weeks ago and they are already kicking off tomato's.

 Since our new favorite thing is elevating our irrigation lines we decided to do it with our collards. I picked up a tray of Blue Max this past Saturday and got them all in the ground on Sunday.

Water is flowing quite nicely...

About an 80 foot row of collards.. Good thing our neighbors like them.  I am just really stoked about our fall garden, as everything is looking really amazing right now.

It has not been all work for us, on Sunday we surprised ND with a birthday trip to see our minor league baseball team play.We passed Bank of America Stadium where the Panthers play.

The baseball stadium is smack in the middle of downtown , and one of the prettiest ball fields we have been at. This was the view from our seats..

A good time was had by all, and the boys had a blast watching future MLB players.  In addition to this ND and I made a quick trip down to Florida to see my sister and visit mom. I am happy to report she is doing well. More and more she is up and moving around, and even eating better. Today during my sisters visit she even went outside for a bit and walked around in the fresh air. I was happy she was out of her dark room and being quite mobile.

School here starts back in a week, some days I think the boys are excited and other days I think they aren't. Either way I know we are all ready to get back to a routine.

Garden Stuff

Things in the garden are literally exploding. Beef Steak Tomatoes as well as our Romas are picked every day. And Yes I am making my own sauce this year.

Our peppers are looking good too. We are drying out the chilies and habaneros to make crushed red pepper for seasoning. And all the guys like having banana peppers in salads and etc... 

 I got our cantaloupes for free from the high school plant sale. Now with lots of TLC they are overtaking the bottom half of the garden. It seems like  every day we pick off a nice, sweet, juicy one. I really am going to pat myself on the back for this because when the lady gave the plants to me they had been damaged by a cold snap and she did not have much hope for them so its a proud moment for me.

Fall beans went in this week, Senior and I added  fence panels for supporting the runners we also weaved our irrigation line through the bottom rung so that it would be slightly elevated and provide more drip action. In the back ground of the second picture you can see our okra. It is about waist high and Sunday we cut our first batch.

And for your pig viewing pleasure and because it has been a few weeks since I posted a pic. Here is Lisa attacking Kathryn in order to get to the water hose. Playing in the water is a real treat for them. Good Lord they crack me up.

Fouled XJ Fender Flares and finally found a holster for the Ruger SP101

    With the past 4th of July Weekend, I took 5 days off, actually 2 days off to make the 5 day total, we did a fender flare upgrade to the XJ. The stock flares did ok with the 33" tires, but I did get some rubbing when I turn and articulated the front suspension. I went to Summit Racing (not liberal Amazon that amateur prepper's promote on their 4th or 5th website to make a few pennies because they quit college) and found a set of Rugged Ridge Flares at a decent price. I had a VA C&P appointment in Columbia on June 30th and me and the boys started that afternoon after I got home.

Before

     First thing we did was to take the stock flares off. I will put this out there, all the stock hardware that held it on snapped off when using a 10mm ratchet and it all came off without a glitch. We removed the wheel well inserts (save them because you will need to put them back in, if you want too, I did.) You will also have to take off the stock front bumper caps, which was easy as well.


    Following the supplied instructions and laying out our cut lines, we started the cutting.

   
     I tend to use step drill bits over a normal drill bits and here is the reason why. The drivers side front fender has the windshield washer reservoir tank right behind it and above the wheel well inserts. I didn't want to puncture the tank with a long drill bit. I used the first increment of the bit, a 3/16th. After fitting the front fender up and marking our holes to drill, we started drilling.

      Using the supplied Allen bolts, washers, and rubber spacers we put on both front fenders.

Passenger side

     With the front done, we proceeded to the rear fenders and just like the front stock flares, we had no issue getting them off. This is the part when things got confusing with the supplied instructions. This is the cut line that was explained in the instructions and it matched up with the picture but here is the problem. XJ's are uni-body vehicles and by following this line, I had the possibility of cutting the factory welds for the body and separating it. I would highly suggest doing what I did by taking a Sharpie pen and marking the factory weld points for the Uni-body as I did with a blue marker. What I ended up doing was cutting the metal off along the bottom ridge then cutting vertical slots to bend the metal up into the fender well.

Vertical cuts up to where the two body parts meet

NW and I attaching the 1st part of the rear flare.

     Once they were all on, we got the hell out of the heat and sun for the rest of the day.

    NW's birthday was that Monday and I spent the day with him, just him and I. We made a trip to some local stores (Dicks Sporting Goods and Cabelas) along with a stop for lunch. When we got to Cabelas we walked the whole store just looking and letting him find something that he would like for his birthday. We ended up at the knife section and he said, I would like a new knife. We looked and looked and then he found this one.

    As we continued to walk around, I told him, lets see if they have a holster for my Ruger SP101. While in the holster section, I was unable to find one specific for the SP101 but I found this one.

As you know already, I really like De Santis holsters.

    I told NW, lets take this holster over to the handgun counter and see if they has a SP101 in 2 1/4" barrel and lord behold they had one. I explained to the store employee what I was wanting to do and he took the 101 out of the case and it fit perfect. With my son and I happy with our finds, we went to checkout out. I did find an actual SP101 holster made by De-Santis online and it was $20 more than the one I bought.

    Well time to go. Haven't decided what upgrade to do next for the Fouled XJ, maybe a Roof Rack, Front bumper with winch, rear bumper, who knows. Hope everyone has a good weekend and keep prepping because Amazon wont save your ass when SHTF!!!!

Senior