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December evening on the desert

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leanin' H

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It's plenty cool this evening as the old sun heads west over the horizon. Cows are still out on pasture and a hayfield. I feed them a little and they have a couple tubs of protein and minerals. Snapped a few pics with mostly frozen fingers tonight. Great to have the snow and see the mountain white. Hopefully, this will turn around this drought we've been fighting. It'll take a lot more and more than one winter, but we have hope. Hope this evening finds you warm and happy. May your pantry shelves and freezers stay full and your livestock thrive.

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Too cold for my old bones, but wonderful photos. Something refreshing about snow. As my father used to say, snow looks the same on an unirrigated pasture as it does the irrigated. It changes the face of the desert.
 
A week of -10 to -15 at nights will for sure do it. Staying below 32 in the day time too. Weatherman says it fixing to warm up a little. But who can trust those blankety blanks?
Do you have to haul water to that tank? I'd have to make make much smaller chunks to be able to get them out, lol
 
Do you have to haul water to that tank? I'd have to make make much smaller chunks to be able to get them out, lol
Yes ma'am. Hauling water is cheaper than feeding hay. I take an axe and a double jack up and try and bust them up to where I can man handle them out. I've got a nice pile started of ice chunks. 😁
 
Double jack is a mining term for a sledge hammer. 15-20 lbs
A jack can also be a 4 lb sledge used in the old days for hand steeling (drilling). I still have my 4 lb "single" jack I used to drive 80 penny nails when building my log cabin.

Edit: Corrected in a fatal attempt to save my waning reputation.
 
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A double jack can also be a 4 lb double headed sledge used in the old days for hand steeling (drilling). I still have my 4 lb double jack I used to drive 80 penny nails when building my log cabin.
I need to correct this because in mining the double jack applies to handle length on a sledgehammer and using two hands and the single jack applies to the short-handled sledgehammers and using one hand. Single jacks are usually 4 lb heads. The heads are always identical. The 4 lb sledgehammer I used on my cabin is a single jack.

I still have 6 lb sledges both in single-handed and double-handed. My 16 lb sledge is for sure a double jack, but in my case these days, it is a lift and drop rather than any fancy swinging. :ROFLMAO:
 
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I need to correct this because in mining the double jack applies to handle length on a sledgehammer and using two hands and the single jack applies to the short-handled sledgehammers and using one hand. Single jacks are usually 4 lb heads. The heads are always identical. The 4 lb sledgehammer I used on my cabin is a single jack.

I still have 6 lb sledges both in single-handed and double-handed. My 16 lb sledge is for sure a double jack, but in my case these days, it is a lift and drop rather than any fancy swinging. :ROFLMAO:
👍👍👍
I wasn't going to correct ya. 😁
 
I find terms and old measures interesting. I'm old enough to remember my wwII Dad as a young man. When he bought his farm here in west Arkansas it had lots of post oak and red cedar on it. He cut and split posts with a one man cross cut, a bow saw, I believe an 8# and 4# sledgehammer, 3 steel wedges and a double bit ax. No need for a tape measure. His ax handle was his measuring instrument. The bevel on the edge of the big sledge was used to set the teeth on his saw. His cedar posts were shipped to Iowa. He and old Bill the sorrel Belgian made payments on the farm and gave us a living for several years. Must have been 51 or 52 as I think I was 3-4. I know I was pre school. His posts were 6 1/2' long. He was known for not skimping on the size of his posts. He built a one horse "dump" trailer to hall the posts up to his post lot for shipping them out. I remember many a ride out of the woods on a load of aromatic cedar posts. I thought it was a gigantic load as a small child. I can remember those "stacks of posts tee pee style in stacks of I think 50. Wen he built his first fence on the east side of his property there was a creek right on the property line so he moved over on his side of the creek and built his fence straight. I remember asking him in the eighties how far he moved it over. His response, "1 1/2 ax handles". Memories are such a gift!
Andy
 

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