It's almost time to get seedlings started for the garden. I waited too long last year to get tomato and pepper seedlings started for the garden. This year I'm going to start them in February so that they're well along come May.
My good friend Harvey Ussery had his book, The Small Scale Poultry Flock, published by Chelsea Green. If you are at all interested in raising chickens, ducks, or geese I highly recommend his book.
I'm not a big hunter by any means. I usually take a deer or two (almost always does) for the freezer. This year I decided to keep the hides and to try my hand at tanning them. I purchased Deerskins into Buckskins and I have found it to be a very straight forward reference for home tanning. My hope is to create soft buckskins that I can have made into gloves. I'm thankful for what the deer provide and it makes me feel good to use as much of what the deer provides as possible.
Last year I saved about two dozen primary feathers that my tom turkey shed during the moult. I researched the making of quill pens on the internet and fashioned the feathers into quill pens. This past fall I gathered up a few pounds of black walnuts and allowed them to dry completely. I threw them into an old stock pot and boiled them over a campfire outside. After about 24 hours total, the whole mixture had been rendered down into a very serviceable ink. I'll post some pictures of the pens, the ink, and the awesome inkwell I found as soon as I can.
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