Stone Branch, build it, they will come.

Can you post a video of yourself swinging on those vines?

I gave up on being a youtube sensation years ago.

I also gave up on sprouting chestnuts after all my seeds turned moldy and died two years ago. But last fall I took some frozen left overs and put them in some dirt outside over winter in the bottom of a white barrel.

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The first sprout that I found has

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shown good vigor.

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still popping

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G
 
That’s great! How long were they frozen? I have billions of chestnuts every year and got tired of a 10% success rate. Mostly do to weevils. If I could freeze them and have them remain viable problem solved.


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That’s great! How long were they frozen? I have billions of chestnuts every year and got tired of a 10% success rate. Mostly do to weevils. If I could freeze them and have them remain viable problem solved.


Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum

I have another control group in the above folgers can and a little better than half have larva escaped.

1 year in the freezer, then another winter outside in the barrel. Around 25% germ and show.

I drive like a turtle on the two track this time of year.

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#2

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My gardens up there look pretty good.

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G
 
I gave up on being a youtube sensation years ago.

I also gave up on sprouting chestnuts after all my seeds turned moldy and died two years ago. But last fall I took some frozen left overs and put them in some dirt outside over winter in the bottom of a white barrel.

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The first sprout that I found has

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shown good vigor.

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still popping

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G
And I discovered that after a chestnut finally gets growing in a little pot there's still a hurdle in transplanting them into dirt. I transplanted 16 one foot trees last spring and they were all growing well into the fall. This spring 1/3 of them were dead. We had a pretty harsh winter in PA, I guess i should have wrapped them in burlap...
 
And I discovered that after a chestnut finally gets growing in a little pot there's still a hurdle in transplanting them into dirt. I transplanted 16 one foot trees last spring and they were all growing well into the fall. This spring 1/3 of them were dead. We had a pretty harsh winter in PA, I guess i should have wrapped them in burlap...
We’ve had similar experiences in Southern Kansas and have less vigorous winters than you. We have 3 14’ tall trees behind the house now, I started the process the spring of ‘14 with seeds I bought online. Our trees are a little behind, I neglected to prune them appropriately when they were smaller, so the pruning we’ve done over the last 2 years has slowed them some im sure. We’ll have to prune some more next year, then they should be good to go. Every time I look at those 3 trees, it’s worth the process. Still haven’t produced any nuts, maybe this is the year? I’m gonna have to spray them again this year, the ants love the leaves. I was hoping natural predators would take care of the ants, but they’re failing so far.
 
We’ve had similar experiences in Southern Kansas and have less vigorous winters than you. We have 3 14’ tall trees behind the house now, I started the process the spring of ‘14 with seeds I bought online. Our trees are a little behind, I neglected to prune them appropriately when they were smaller, so the pruning we’ve done over the last 2 years has slowed them some im sure. We’ll have to prune some more next year, then they should be good to go. Every time I look at those 3 trees, it’s worth the process. Still haven’t produced any nuts, maybe this is the year? I’m gonna have to spray them again this year, the ants love the leaves. I was hoping natural predators would take care of the ants, but they’re failing so far.

Why prune a chestnut? What’s the advantage?


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I have another control group in the above folgers can and a little better than half have larva escaped.

1 year in the freezer, then another winter outside in the barrel. Around 25% germ and show.

I drive like a turtle on the two track this time of year.

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#2

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My gardens up there look pretty good.

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G

My garden looks very similar to yours.

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My garden looks very similar to yours.

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You have nice gardens.

My outdoor kitchen flower garden, jewel, nettle, joe pye, dandelion.

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I had to make room for 7 thawed out nuts and ended up reorganizing all my nuts and found 10 more viable. I buried them too deep. I started chestnuts in Iowa by setting them on top of the dirt.

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G
 
While redecorating my kitchen 2 days ago, Tiny started yapping out behind the cabin, after a while I realized that he was alerting to danger. Not so dangerous actually, a gray rat. Rat snakes really liked my rat hole cabin.

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My first peek at the kitchen in my lived in, authentic, rustic log cabin back in September 2018. I couldn't get out of Kentucky and back to Colorado fast enough.

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I don't recommend open eves or felt board for exterior siding. What remained of the insulation had an r value of 0. Ring neck snakes were numerous mostly in the ceiling.

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G
 
I cleaned my kitchen yesterday.

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There is a water feature flowing down the corner of the northwest side of the dining room.

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Fortunately, the water feature wasn't flowing down the logs. The bottom log will probably have to be replaced, rot on the ends.

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One of the studs on the west wall pulled off with the felt insulation board. The west wall was framed with 2x2's with a combined R value of less than 2 where there was still some wood.

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This will be the front porch side when I reconstruct the log cabin.

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Today I'm back up in the attic pulling out the rest of the junk and insulation before pulling down the ceiling boards.

G
 
I remember the “Authentic, rustic log cabin” phrase from when you first looked at it. The realtor I believe. Lots of work and quite a project. And all those snakes, yikes.
 
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What a mess! Was that used as regular living quarters, or just a cabin "getaway"?

Families were raised in that building for 150 years. A calendar on the wall stopped getting written into during December 2017 which means the place was left to rats for about a year prior to my arrival.

I remember the “Authentic, rustic log cabin” phrase from when you first looked at it. The realtor I believe. Lots of work and quite a project. And all those snakes, yikes.

The realtor set expectations high. I have been hauling garbage to the dump for 3 years.

I wore a respirator but I think that I over dosed on mold spores despite and couldn't go back in there yesterday, maybe today.

G
 
George, sounds much like my experience buying my 40's log cabin. I'm still hauling garbage to the dump and sealing up crevices and holes. So far, the place has been a huge money pit, but I continue to rehab, replace and re-do to keep the wife happy.

Good luck!
 
George, sounds much like my experience buying my 40's log cabin. I'm still hauling garbage to the dump and sealing up crevices and holes. So far, the place has been a huge money pit, but I continue to rehab, replace and re-do to keep the wife happy.

Good luck!

Thanks Travis, and good luck to you. I am currently selling my share of a 40's wood structure in northern Michigan to my brother. He is up there right now fixing it up for his Mrs.

If it weren't for the chestnut logs and wood in my Ky cabin, I would have torched it.

G
 
I found another big fresh shed in my maple woods burn area over the weekend.

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The skin is 60".

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Counting the scales between the vent and rattle indicates that the shed skin came off of a female. Timber rattlesnakes exhibit sexual dimorphism, so this is one big ass female.

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I found a thesis paper online, Home Range and Behavior of Timber Rattlesnakes.

https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1025&context=etd#:~:text=Mean home range sizes were,44.7 ha, among sex classes.

The Lady did her research in West Virginia. She found that non gravid females have a home range of 42 acres and less for gravid females. Female home ranges do not overlap. This leads me to believe that the big sheds that I have been finding up there every year could belong to the same giant snake that I originally found up there back in May 2019.

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G
 
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