Luke E.

 Unfortunately I have ANOTHER cattle update. I have found that there is still a momma and tear old calf still wreaking havoc on my food plots. At this point they are bouncing from one to the other constantly and I am only seeing maybe 1/4 of the deer (if that) that I was before the cows decided to ruin things. I met up with the neighbor early this morning and built a "funnel" out of barbed wire that would force the cows through the gate IF we can find them and get them headed in that direction. We had zero luck today and to add insult to injury I checked a memory card on the way out this evening and the cow was stomping around that food plot while we were stretching barbed wire this morning... I am so far beyond frustrated about this whole ordeal. At this rate if the cows aren't out of there in the next few days there will be no more food plots, it is that bad. They had stomped most everything down into the mud so i'm sure that part won't be coming back up and i'm worried they will take care of the rest over the next few days if something doesn't change. I spread fertilize over them today in hopes that it will shoot up and get some growth back before good frosts start happening but even the fertilize will be a waste if he doesn't get the damn cattle out of there. I'm really at a loss for ideas here short of killing the cows and I haven't ruled that out. If they were my cows and were causing this trouble I would have shot them myself by now but he's not even mentioned it. This land is not easy to run cattle on but if he can't control them then maybe it's time to reevaluate whether he should still have them. I've almost totally neglected work this week because of this and that part stops tomorrow and he's going to either hire some folks to scour the woods and get them back on his property or we will start talking about alternative methods. I feel like I have gone way beyond what a good neighbor would be willing to do and I'm not willing to let him owning these two cows ruin my hunting season. Not to mention I now have 120 acres FULL of human scent that up until now have not had a human footprint in most of it for the last 5 years.. I guess I'll end my rant now but I am just sick over this.

   Hopefully he's still hanging around waiting for you!

I've not had time to look up jar prices yet but saw "Golden Harvest" ( I think that was it and I think that was one of the acceptable brands mentioned earlier in this thread) on clearance at Dollar General today. They were pint size for $7.75 per dozen with lids and rings. If that's a good deal then I will run by and pick some up tomorrow.

   That makes sense.   The Blue Book is ordered like I mentioned but I already have one in hand because I looked on the book shelf at my parents and what do I see, Ball Blue Book! I'm not sure if any info has changed in it over the years but my mother's was purchased in the mid 90's   As far as cleaning the jars goes, no longer than it would take to wipe down the rim of the jars I would think it to be foolish not to if it helps at all.

 Thanks for all the input guys! My wife and I had planned to sit down together and read through this thread as well as the links that you all have provided but it doesn't look like I'm going to make it home tonight. I got busy helping my parents neighbor fix fences (so that his cattle would quit destroying my food plots) and I have to be here early to get the guys that are replacing the well pump started and then get back to helping the neighbors finish mending fences. My father is also in the hospital and expecting to be discharged sometime in the morning but we're hoping to get back on our canning tutorial again in the next day or so. The Ball canning book has been ordered from Amazon so it should be here soon.

   Good to know, this is exactly the type of thing that I wanted to learn BEFORE hand. What is the reason for not canning flour or anything with flour in it. Is something with small amounts of flour okay or is flour a no go in any amount?

   Did you not ever see that buck again?

     Well I've got the cattle problem pretty much under control and should be finished up in the morning. I was concerned because I wasn't sure which neighbor they belonged to and I really didn't want it to be one in particular because it would have been like pulling teeth to get have out there in what anyone would consider a timely manner. I got lucky because they belong to a good man and neighbor. I went over to his farm a few times throughout the day trying to catch him around the barn and finally succeeded about 3pm. I tried explaining where I thought they were coming through and told him that I'd be more than happy to walk the fences and help him fix any bad spots in them so he quit what he was doing and loaded up fencing materials and we were off. We worked until dark and I will be meeting him to finish the job in the morning.  Here's where the story gets funny and irritating... The cows are getting in front of one of the cameras twice per day so one would expect to find a muddy trail with lots of manure leading through a bad spot in the fence but we have yet to find a trail that they are coming through multiple times per day. There's no way to know for sure but after I saw them the first time I waited a day and then checked the cameras to make sure that they'd not been back so when they hadn't been back I patched the 2 8'-10' gaps in the fence. anyone picking up on what I did to myself yet???? Well I patched the hole, patched it while they were on my side... They have been disappearing into the thick woods where they can't be seen and then raping my food plots when they get hungry.. I have had them trapped on our property for a few weeks now and had no idea and honestly it never crossed my mind until we didn't find any hot trails crossing the fence. We got the 3 cows out and back onto his property and ran them 3/4 of a mile over to the rest of the herd so hopefully they'll stay satisfied for the night and give us a chance to fix the rest of the bad spots in the morning.  My plots were up to 8"-9" inches tall when they started working on them and they look like someone ran a mower over them set at 2"-3". Anyone have any opinions on what, if anything, I should do? My options are, (A),  to leave it alone and hope they fill back in now that they cows are gone, also hope that the deer will allow it to grow some over the next week or two?  (B), get some fertilize and lightly broadcast it over the plots that the cattle have messed up? (C) I have some leftover wheat and oats that I could overseed with and hope that they get enough rain on them to get them down into the soil? (D), fertilize and overseed?    I put some fertilize out when I sowed the seed but only put 1/4-1/3 of the recommended amount so I can get away with adding a good bit more without running the risk of burning up the crop. I'm thinking $20 worth of fertilize would be plenty to add to what I put out with the seed.

   Wow, that's really small for this late. A lot of the doe at my place have a yearling with them and i'm sure once the rut is over that will be a major source of irritation to me because that's when I shoot doe.

I sure don't like taking doe that still has a youngun in tow.

   Did NOT know that the lids are single use but makes plenty of sense. I'm not planning on canning just meat but things like chili would have some amount of meat in them and then venison stock wouldn't be meat per say but is a derivative so the same would apply? I've got a friend that canned some meat and while he claims that it is really good, it looked like fecal matter and I'd have to be powerful hungry in order to get where I'd need to be mentally to eat it! My point there is, I don't think that we'll be canning hunks of meat.    My sister's mother in law does a lot of canning and you kind of touch on something that I noticed she mentioned as well, I am familiar with what a pressure canner is as well as what a water bath canner is but you both mentioned somethings should be canned in one or the other. What dictates whether or not something has to be canned under pressure or water bath?    We have a Fred's here in Murfreesboro so i'll check to see what they've got. I wish that'd I'd have thought about all this back in the spring so that I could have been stopping at yard sales to look for jars when I passed by them.    I do have a vacuum sealer but if it had an adapter for jars with it, It's now missing and I don't remember it. I suppose I can find the website for the manufacturer of mine and see about getting another. I suppose that would be good for beans, flour, etc.. huh?

 Pretty slick!

   My cameras show that they moved a lot today, here at least. between the 3 memory cards I pulled today I had deer at at least one of them every daylight  hour except 1-1:45pm. I think I checked them a little after 3pm.

I rode the 4 wheeler to the far backside of the property today to check a food plot and swap out the card in a camera. I found that I am once again having cow problems and they have been in 4 times since Friday. They are destroying food plots so tomorrow it will come to a head. I am going to have a chat with the owner of the cattle to fill him in on the problem and give him the chance to move the cattle to another area of his farm until he has a chance to stretch a couple new strands of barbed wire down the 3/4-1 mile fence row that they are coming through or just quit running cattle in that area. I'm normally very understanding but I have spent a lot of money prepping this property for deer hunting so that I can avoid buying red meat this coming year and I'm not gonna have 3 cows ruin that for me. I will get my red meat and deer aren't the only red meat making use of my food plots. I guess I should have gone to the owner a few weeks back when the problem first started but I found two large gaps in the fence and patched them up some and then stack brush in from of those spots so I thought that maybe I had the problem taken care of. Guess that's what I get for thinking huh.. The fence is in terrible shape and most of the wire will break in two before you get a 10 degree bend in it so it should really all just be replaced. Ya'll keep your fingers crossed that this meeting goes well and is remedied quickly. I have never even been close to this optimistic about a single season before and it seems like twice a week I'm getting pictures of a new buck that's rack is as wide or wider than his ears. If I were just seeing a bunch of doe I wouldn't be nearly as concerned but I have really taken care of my young bucks for the last handful of years and it is finally paying off so i'm not gonna have the cattle eating all the plots into mud holes and losing my draw for the deer. Anyways, When I was sifting through the 220 something cow pictures on my memory card I came across this guy. For some reason the pictures turned out very poorly and this is the best of the 10 that I had of him. He's got 5 on one side but I can't tell if he has the same on the other side or if he's a 9pt. Some folks have lots of high quality bucks on the property they hunt so the pictures I've been posting of my bucks may not be so impressive but for me this is the best I've ever hunted before. This one makes 6-7 bucks of about this size or bigger that have shown themselves to one of my cameras and that my friends, has me EXCITED! [URL=http://s303.photobucket.com/user/lukeduke_03/media/Mobile%20Uploads/4245AB01-3A61-402F-83F4-93858AFFA96D_1.jpg.html][/URL]

   Good luck on your hunt!

 Okay, My wife and I have decided that we'd like to start canning some food. We have plans to put in a large garden (between 1/4 and 1/2 acre) next year but have some things that we'd like to get going with this winter as well. We eat a lot of chili and soups during the winter and try to not make more than we can eat but that never seems to work out so we've decided to start purposely cooking to much and canning the left overs. I'd also like to start canning venison broth and my wife make homemade cream of mushroom, chicken, etc that we'd like to can some of as well.   I have a few questions about canning supply sources though,   - Where is the cheapest places to buy quality jars and lids?   - Where is the best place to look for a pressure canner?   - Would somebody be willing to put together a list of canning supplies needed in order to get started?   - Are there any common mistakes or pitfalls that are commonly made when purchasing "starter" canning items?     Thanks for and help or advice you can give.   Edit: We have talked through potential jar sizes and what we might would can in them and have decided that whatever pressure canner we buy, it needs to be able to accommodate up to the half gallon size jars. That is unless you OG canners have a reason to avoid that large of a jar. 

Nice filet knife GT! ;) You've certainly got a knack for knife making to say the least.

Anyone see anything this morning?

 Check with Whittaker's guns up in KY. Here's the link to their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/whittakerguns . They have the largest selection of rifles of any dealer I can think of with 5-6 hours of here and depending on where you are located in Wilson county they may only be about 3 hours or so from you. Everyone I've dealt with up there has been really nice. If you get on their FB page and ask if they have any mini 30's they usually get back with you in a reasonable amount of timebut you could also try calling them if you want a quicker response.

   Isn't that the truth! Everywhere I went today it was blowing up a storm!

   That sho is a lot of batteries!

 It's not easy to build one that cheap unless you wait until each part pops up on sale.

   That's a good deal for pretty much any functioning AR but a great deal for one coming from a reputable company! Dave it will be tough to beat this for a first AR. Put a decent free float handguard on it and you're good to go brother!

Nice! Did you see anything?

There is a tool that slides in in place of the BCG and it engages the lugs. You clamp the other end in a vise then tighten the barrel but. Absolutely zero pressure on the receiver. I can't remember who makes it but will look it up when I get home if someone else doesn't chime in by then. If I built more I'd buy one.