Cabbage eating cow

Not really about cabbage eating cow.

About a year ago a retired Army man bought a 5 acre plot about 1-1/4 miles east of my place. Of course new to country life the first thing he had to have is a broke down old saddle horse. Second thing to get rich as a small rancher be bought 8 Corriente rodeo stock roping cows. Corriente is a small breed seldom exceed 800 pounds, favored in rodeo roping arenas.

April 2023: These cows were under weight and had been handled roughly. New guy soon discovered that he had enough grass pasture to feed 1 horse and maybe 1 small cow. When he had to start buying 75-100 dollar a bail hay he became a motivated seller.
Ron (son-n-law) bought one about 450 pounder with a broke horn for $350 and I bought one that weighted about 500 pounds for $400 dollars. Grin.. I got the best deal mine was pregnant and calved 33 days later.

We took Ron’s cow to be processed Nov 6th, weighed in at 608 pounds live weight, We should be getting back about 375 pounds beef around the 27th of Nov. If she’s back on schedule I’m going to smoke a large rack of ribs for Thanksgiving day.

Just a side note, my cow will be sent to the butcher shop in May 2024, see if I can get her near 800 pounds, and my Calf the following April or May 2025.

Happy Holidays

HAM… radio station

Long painful story short. A few months ago I took a ‘Huge’ lighting strike to my Amateur Radio antennas and to my radio shack electric service line.
Lighting totally destroyed my 2 meter, 70 CM and HF antennas as well as 3 – 75 foot runs of Belden 9913 coax cable. In the radio shack this strike destroyed a HF antenna tuner, FTdx1200 HF radio, Signal Link (Digital interface unit) a IC-2730A VHF/UHF duel band radio and a FT-2980 VHF radio.

If this wasn’t enough lighting entered my radio shack via the electric service line taking out the breaker box, radio power supply, security cameras, computer and monitor as well as a 40 inch TV and my internet router, WiFi transceiver and antenna dish. Home owners insurance only covered a bout 20% of the total replacement cost.
Sad smile… National Weather Service said “A typical lightning flash is about 300 million Volts and about 30,000 Amps, that’s about 9,000,000,000,000 watts’, that would power a lot, a lot of 100 watt light bulbs.

Over 3 months of time, effort and money I’m fully back on the air. OK I’m finished whining ‘for’ now.
I have 2 new Diamond X-300A (VHF/UHF) duel band antennas and a new OCF (Off Center Fed) Windom style dipole HF antenna mounted on a 43 foot hing over antenna pole with an additional 8 foot copper clad ground rod and copper ground cable, with a 3 new Belden 9913 coax cables installed.

Almost every thing in the shack is new.
Radios I selected are, FT-2980 VHF, IC-2730A duel band radios. I selected the FT-2980 because it is built like a M1 Tank and does 80 watts out of the box, a really great base or mobile radio.
I replaced the dead FTdx1200 with Yaesu’s FT-710. It has a very small foot print, less than 10 inch width/depth and only about 3 inches high it has an auto-antenna tuner built in and receives/transmits every bit as good as the FTdx1200 maybe even better.

Happy Holiday season

Ham Hock Stew – Cold weather has arrived time for a large pot

The quantities listed here are intended as a rough guide and can be varied as much as you like. I tend to go for as many vegetables as will fit in the pot. My soup/stew/chili pot is a 6 quart Lodge enameled cast iron pot with a tight fitting lid.
The ham hock I use comes from A & R Packing Co Inc. purchased at Walmart at $2.95 a pound, usually 3 hocks in a package and weighing 2 to 2-1/2 pounds. Three dollars a pound is a lot for mostly bone and skin, but the taste is worth the cost.

With all that said, adjust your vegetable choice to your taste and more importantly the size of your stew pot.

Ingredients: Note: for this recipe Course Chopped means bite size.

1 tsp olive oil or oil of your choice
1 large or 2 smallish ham hocks about 2 pounds
2-3 medium sized potatoes course chopped
2 to 6 cloves garlic whole and peeled
2 large carrots course chopped
1 carrot finely chopped
2 ribs celery fine chopped
1 large or 2 small onions course chopped
1 cup kale Optional or 1 cup turnip or collard greens course chopped
3/4 to 1 cup of frozen peas
3/4 to 1 cup frozen corn
3/4 to 1 cup Frozen beans
3/4 to 1 cup course chopped okra Optional
2 sprigs thyme or 1/2 tsp dry thyme
2 sprigs rosemary or 1/2 tsp dry rosemary
2-3 bay leaves remove before serving
Salt and pepper to taste, use caution adding salt, hocks tend to be a bit salty.

Optional alternate vegetables:
Fennel, turnip, sweet potato, butternut or acorn squash, pumpkin, a few brussels sprouts, broccoli.
Vegetable choices are endless.

Cooking:
Heat a large pot over medium heat, add the oil and heat through. Add the onions, finely chopped carrots and celery, sautéing until tender, about 5 minutes.
Place your ham hock and garlic in the pot and cover with water. Bring this to the boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for about 2 hours until the meat easily parts from the bone.
Remove the hock from the water and allow it to cool enough to separate all of the meat from the bone. Shred the meat into small pieces and return these to the pot.
Next peel and chop the potatoes, carrots and onion in to bite-sized pieces, add these to the pot and bring back to the boil and then reduce to a simmer. I use as many vegetables as will fit in the pan and remain covered by the liquid.
Use whatever ratio of the different vegetables you prefer.
Add any herbs to spices of your choice to the pot. I usually add some black pepper with some dried rosemary and thyme.
Then simmer this for about 30 minutes until the potatoes and carrot are cooked. After about 15 minutes of this add a large handful of chopped kale/turnip or collard greens to the pan and mix this into the other vegetables.
Finally when the other vegetables are cooked through add frozen and fast cooking vegetables, bring it back to the boil and allow it to simmer for a few minutes until vegetables are tender.

I can, hot pack hot sterilized quart jars with left over stew. Store refrigerated for quick easy meals in the cold days to come. Use within 2 weeks unless canned in a pressure canner.

Happy Gardening

Fall Radish Crop

The Radish seed planted 3rd week of September are maturing and I’m harvesting a few most every day.
All parts of radishes are eatable, green tops are often over looked by many in north America.

Radish greens are the edible tops of the radish plant, and are commonly eaten as a vegetable in Korea and China.

A member of the Brassicaceae family of cruciferous vegetables, radish greens are nutritious and enjoyed as mature leaves, microgreens, or radish sprouts.

Per cup (128 grams) cooked, radish greens contain about:

Calories: 70.4
Carbohydrates: 8.3 grams
Protein: 4.5 grams
Fat: 3.5 grams
Fiber: 2.3 grams
Potassium: 16% daily value
Magnesium: 28% daily value
Iron: 7% daily value
Vitamin C: 77% daily value
Vitamin K: 171% daily value

Radish greens are low in calories but are a good source of protein, iron, and potassium. They are also rich in magnesium, vitamin C, and vitamin K.

Radish greens have a pleasant taste similar to mustard greens, but they can range in flavor from slightly bitter to earthy and spicy.

Mature radish greens are prepared in a similar manner to other leafy vegetables, and radish microgreens are used as garnishes or to enhance salads.

Here are some ways to eat radish greens raw or cooked:

Add to salads, soups, or stews.
Top sandwiches or toasts like avocado toast.
Prepare in a cooked or fresh dish with radish roots.
Blend into sauces like pesto or marinara.
Add to casseroles.
Steam or sauté and eat as a side dish.

Beets and Turnip harvest will start in a week or so. I’m a big fan of pickled beets spiced with clove. I think I will have enough beets for 12 – 15 pints pickled beets. I pull beets small no larger than about 1 1/4 inch in diameter and turnips no larger than about 1 3/4 or maybe 2 inches in diameter. Large beets/turnips with tops go to the chickens.

Grin I add beet greens to my turnip green at 1 part beet to 2 or even 3 parts turnip greens.

Happy Fall Gardening

VHF – UHF Antennas — Which Antenna Is Best For My Location

If you are a dedicated on the go hand held walkie talkie user this information is probably not very useful to you.

My intention is to help new/novice radio users make wise choices and get the most benefit from their radio investment.

The 3 most common antennas are (1) 1/2 wave Dipole, (2) Vertical and (3) Yagi.

Yagi antennas are multi element (beam) antennas and are highly directional and can be vertical or horizontal polarized depending on how they are mounted. Unless you are setting up a point to point communications link Yagi is probably not a good choice for your primary antenna system.

1/2 wave Dipole antennas have 2 diametrically opposed elements, with each element being 1/4 wave in length. Dipole antennas can be mounted vertical or horizontal. Horizontal dipoles are bi-directional while vertical dipoles are more omnidirectional. A vertical mounted 1/2 wave dipole has very near the same characteristics of a 1/2 wave vertical antenna.

Vertical antennas are commonly 1/4, 1/2 or 5/8 waves in length. With few exceptions, to work properly a vertical antenna commonly has 2 or 3 – 1/4 wave length ground plain radicals located at the base of the antenna. When vehicle mounted, the vehicles steel body/frame acts at the antennas ground plain.
If you are wondering why your HT/Walkie Talkie has no ground plain radials, it’s because your radio’s metal frame work is acting as a very poor ground plain for your inefficient antenna.

Antenna current distribution based on antenna wave length.

Antennas longer than 1/2 wavelength show more current at the base that is out of phase with that in the upper section of the antenna. That’s what contributes to decreased low(ground) angle of RF radiation.
The 5/8 wave antenna has more conductor that is radiating but 1/8 wave of that radiation is out of phase with the main radiation, so it actually reduces the radiation at the horizon. An explanation for this is that the out of phase portion at the base has low enough current that it doesn’t have a significant effect on the over all radiation pattern. Ignore it and that leaves us with the same current distribution as the 1/2 wave vertical, just a bit higher on the horizon.

Which antenna works best if the top tip of antennas are at the same height.

Conclusion: 1/4 wave ground plane with sloping radials, 1/2 wave dipole, and 5/8 wave vertical with the tops at the same height over perfect ground. Performance is virtually identical for all three antennas.

You can’t change the fact that VHF/UHF frequencies are line of site. You can increase your line of site by increasing your antenna height. Mount an antenna on a pole tower tree. Move to a near by high spot/hill top.
Line of site calculator: https://www.southwestantennas.com/calculator/line-of-sight

Antennas are only as efferent as the amount of RF energy reaching the antenna feed point.
Antenna mismatch (SWR – Standing Wave Ratio) and Coax dB loss are big factors in your antennas real transmitted RF power. A SWR of 3:1 = a loss of 50% of your transmitters output power at the antenna feed point.

An antenna is only resonant on one frequency, as you move up/down in frequency you introduce increasing antenna miss match and loss of transmitted RF power.
To calculate your antennas resonant frequency: 234 divided by operating frequency time 12. Example: 1/4 wave antenna, 234/FX12 will give you antenna length in inches. Example: 1/4 wave antenna 234/462.550 MHzX12 = 6.070 (6 1/16) inch antenna. To calculate a 1/2 wave antenna 468/462.55X12 = 12.141 (12 9/64) inches.

Coax Loss: Coax is a contributor to the amount of RF power reaching your antennas input connector.
Coax Attenuation Chart: Measures the attenuation (loss) of different types of coax at 50 foot lengths.
Attenuation is measured in dB.

Your antennas claimed gain will be reduced by the amount of coax loss. A claim of 4 dB antenna gain will be deduced to 0(zero) gain using 50 feet of RG8X coax feed line.

J-Pole is one of the exceptions I spoke of, an antenna not requiring ground plain radials. Easy, cheap to build and works as well as any $150 dollar commercial made 1/2 wave base antenna. There are many DIY J-Pole projects to be found on line. A easy J-pole calculator can be found at: https://www.hamuniverse.com/jpole.html

I hope this information is useful to you in your efforts to design and install a functional radio communications system.

Home Chicken Flock

Just a health note for those that are new to raising chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese. Chickens and turkeys do not mix well. Chickens are carriers for diseases that are not a problem in a chicken flock but can wipe out your turkey flock. Mixed flocks with ducks, geese and turkeys work out well and ducks, geese mixed with chickens are not a problem, just avoid mixing turkeys with chickens unless you can keep the the flocks well separated from one another.

It’s getting to be the time of the year that many folks that bought 25 or more day old chicks in January now need to deduce their flock size. You can pick up pullets and young laying hens at a very reasonable price now. If your looking for meat birds or a rooster for your flock start looking now. Many flocks will have far to many roosters and you can pick them up for rock bottom prices.

Any of the Leghorn breeds are excellent layers and do not go broody. They lay large white colored eggs. Put them in an old store egg carton and the kids will never know the difference, grinning.. Most other breeds lay lightly tinted to dark brown eggs. Check out ‘McMurry’s Catalog’ for a ton of useful information on many different breeds, egg colors they lay and much more.

Note: At laying age 1 hen will lay 1 egg about every 27 hours. Base you flock size on your egg needs. Two hens will produce about 1 dozen eggs a week. Chickens require little coop space, a 4X4 foot floor plan is enough room for 2 nest boxes and 4 or maybe 5 hens.

Chicken growers have a large selection to choose from. The tiny Mille Fleur to the New Jersey and Black Giants. Everything from plain Jane everyday chickens to award winning Fancy’s. They come in every color in a rainbow to solid whites or blacks. Some breeds are very quite easy to handle others always seem to be a bit stand offish and on the skittish side. With that said, they all have a few things in common. They are always fun to raise, fun to watch, wonderful table meat and produce eggs from thumb nail size to extra large. No mater what breed you select I’m sure you will enrich your life and give your family an experience they will carry through life. You will be blessed having them in your backyard.

Walkie Talkies for family fun and in times of emergencies

Hand Held radios are low priced and can be very useful. Hunters, fishermen or your family out on an outing staying in contact is beneficial.
The plus side is if it gets dropped in a lake, river or is lost in the woods you are not out the price of a smart phone.

Programmable VHF/UHF Hand Held Radios
Baofeng – TYT
Abaree – JJCC
Ailunce – Wouxun
Generally Programmable Radios will transmit on 136-174 mhz and 400-520 mhz. Allowing you to program and store 128 memory channels.

Channelized VHF/UHF Hand Held Radio
Midland – Cobra
Retevis – Btech
Motorola – GTX
Uniden
Generally Channelized Radios transmit on FRS, MURS or GMRS Frequencies.
Channelized radios transmit on:
FRS(Family Radio Service) *No license required.
MURS (Multi Use Radio Service) *No license required.
GMRS((General Mobile Radio Service) *License Required.
Marine Radio Service *No license required.

There are many brands of VHF/UHF hand held radios available and if used and properly cared for any brand will likely serve your needs.

Antenna Considerations

Programmable Radio will have detachable antennas.

This will allow you to add/attach a better, high quality antenna and make your Hand Held radio more effecent and allow you to reliably communicate over longer distances.

Channelized radios do not have detachable antennas.

Battery Considerations

*Alkaline battery and Zinc-carbon battery is Non-rechargeable.

***Lithium batteries should not be confused with lithium-ion as they are rechargeable.

**Mercury battery is a non-rechargeable battery.

**Nickel cadmium and nickel ox​ide hydroxide are rechargeable.

How far can you talk on a Hand Held radio

Communciations range/distance is highly dependent on several factors.

Radio power output in watts of RF(Radio Frequency) energy. 5 watts is better than 1/2(0.50) or 2 watts.

Antenna length, longer is usually better.

Terran, heavily wooded areas city buildings, hills and mountains will reduce your communications range. 5 watt radios can be expected to reliability communicate from 1/2 to about 5 miles over mostly open flat terrain.

2022 Gardening Season

National Weather Service is forecasting snow today. It’s hard to be thinking of garden planting on days like today, but time is running out on getting the garden well tilled, compost and manure tilled in to the soil.

Garden soil is very dry, we have had less than 2 inches of rain in the past 3 months. This makes working the soil difficult at best.

Garden seed has arrived. I plant mostly summer, warm/hot weather vegetables in the spring and a few cooler weather vegetables like turnips, collards and beets in mid to late July for fall harvest.

I needed a few canning jars and lids for the up coming canning season. Much to my surprise jars don’t seem to be in short supply but quality Mason/Kerr and Ball jar lids are difficult to locate.
I finely after many attempts managed to buy 5 dozen regular and the same number of wide mouth Ball brand lids from Walmart.

Be aware that some brands of jar lids on the market have been reported to have up to a 50 percent failure rate.
In this event your only choices are to refrigerate and consume those jars of canned fruits/vegetables in the next few days or to replace the lid and reprocess those jars in the hope they seal on your second try.

Happy Gardening

Smartphones who needs them?

Dulcie Cowling is something of an anomaly she has ditched hers.
The 36-year-old decided at the end of last year that getting rid of her handset would improve her mental health.
Everyone is missing out on real life. I don’t think you get to your death bed and think you should have spent more time on Twitter, or reading articles online.

Alex Dunedin trashed his smartphone two years ago. “Culturally we have become addicted to these tools,” says the educational researcher and technology expert. “They are blunting cognition and impeding productivity.”

Hilda Burke, a psychotherapist and author of The Phone Addiction Workbook, says there is a strong link between heavy device usage and relationship issues, quality of sleep, our ability to switch off and relax, and concentration levels.

“Many people have a constant drip feed of requests coming their way via their device, many with a false sense of urgency.

“They feel unable to lay boundaries down, with the result that they feel compelled to check their emails and messages last thing at night and first thing in the morning.”

Ms Burke says it would be useful if more people monitored how much time they spend on their smartphone. “Starting to realize exactly how much time you’re frittering away each day on your phone can be a powerful wake-up call and catalyst for change.”

Consider most of us check our phones 55 times per day and some of us even 100 times.

Get off the phone. Take your life back.

Flat Bread, Fast and Easy

Flat Bread:

Ingredients:
6 – servings —————————— 2-3 servings

2 cups of flour—————————— 1 cup
3/4 cup water——————————- 1/3 cup
2 tablespoons of oil————————- 1 1/2 tablespoons
1/2 teaspoon salt—————————- 1/4 teaspoon
1 tablespoon of baking powder————- 1/2 tablespoon
For cooking – 2 teaspoons of oil

Preparation:
If you like herb bread add 1 teaspoon of herb(s) fresh or dried that you like.

In a bowl mix all of the dough ingredients into a unified dough. Add a bit more water it your dough is dry.
Knead with your hands for 2-3 minutes and shape into a ball.

Divide the ball into 6 and roll each part into a disc shape.

Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a nonstick pan on high heat.

Cook each disc of dough, About 1-2 minutes on each side. Take care not to burn your flat bread.

Place the flat bread on a plate or fold in half to be used like a flour toco tortilla, cover with a clean
kitchen towel to keep warm.

** Convert this recipe to make tortilla’s by omitting the baking powder.