Baby Pig. Now What?

[jix]

Thanks, Eddie..and fellow TBNers...this thread took me two whole non-stop days to read completely. I just could not leave it alone. I also read the whole of the thead on lake Marabou. Never a dull moment around the Walker place..and very human stories which read like a saga.:cool2:

A book is a definite requirement If, As and WHEN you ever have nothing else to do, Greetings to Karen and your family, Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Jix,

Thanks, it's always fun to read your comments!!!!

Here is another picture of Oscar that I took this evening while Karen was out trying to collect Guinea feathers for her Halloween costume.



Eddie

 

[jix]

Jix,

Thanks, it's always fun to read your comments!!!!

Here is another picture of Oscar that I took this evening while Karen was out trying to collect Guinea feathers for her Halloween costume.

View attachment 396662

Eddie

Hey Eddie.. Oscar is very solidly planted on his amazing legs. He is quite an engaging and huge happy pig.

Karen is so appealingly cheerful in her picture. I hazard to guess that you are both very well suited to one another. It does my heart good to see these things in your life. I always enjoy hearing whatever you have to say and thank you for your friendship from afar.

I tell my dear wife Faye quite often about what you are doing. She likes what you write and all that you are doing Faye is my bright, shining star. We are both very lucky men to have such mates in our lives. I confess, however, that I have been seduced by the TBN thread about our dog pictures and have been very busy reading it every day.

Dogs are so important to my wife and I for what they bring into our lives. I imagine that Oscar must be such a blessing to you and your family. It is not because our animals care for us that they are so important in our lives, It is because we care for them that we are so blessed.

Faye and I think of our dogs as family, not just as pets.. The best kind of family, they truly are. We have a Male Shih Tzu (baxter) who is ten years old and a male Goldendoodle (Zeke) who is a year and a half old. Zeke,being a puppy is very rambunctious and chews everything to pieces.. Day by day he becomes more easily taught and sweeter. Zeke stands as high as my wifes head when he rears up, Baxter is just a soft cuddley boy that likes to sleep a lot. I must put some photos on here for you and Karen once I figure out the gizmos to do that.

BTW, I am also a former soldier in the Canadian Army and did some very hard training in some of the same places as you probably did. As you may know Canada attaches Canadian soldiers to US training facilities to see if we can keep up with your soldiers.. We can, but only just (pant, puff, gasp) I was qualified as a US Ranger back in the day....Quite far back.

No one believes what you put yourselves through for Uncle Sam, unless they see it for themselves Hoo Rah! I lost thirty pounds in thirty days and I wasn't fat when I started either., so my hat is off to you Marine!:cool2:

 

[EddieWalker]

Thank you jix,

We also have an pet dog, her name is Athena and she is an Akita. Karen lived in Japan for a few years back in the 80's and fell in love with the breed. She is very protective and quite destructive of anything that gets into her area. She has killed raccoons, snakes, rabbits, birds and both my moms cats. We've tried to get pictures of Athena and Oscar together, but Athena goes crazy when she sees him and it's too much just to control her. If I'm in the bathroom, she lays down in front of the door, when I'm on the computer, she is laying along the wall behind me, when we are watching a movie, she lays right along the side of the sofa closest to me.






Both my parents are Canadians and one of my brothers is a duel citizen. I can become a duel citizen if I fill out the paperwork. It's pretty basic, I just haven't felt the need to do it as of yet. He likes to travel on his Canadian passport and has recently moved to Ottawa to manage a winery up there. My dad served in the Canadian Air Force in the early 60's and both his brothers retired from the Canadian Air Force.

Eddie

 

[ultrarunner]

Hey Eddie...

Didn't realize your area was so heavily wooded...

Are the trees cultivated or typical of Tyler?

 

[kf4uda]

Thank you jix,

We also have an pet dog, her name is Athena and she is an Akita. Karen lived in Japan for a few years back in the 80's and fell in love with the breed. She is very protective and quite destructive of anything that gets into her area. She has killed raccoons, snakes, rabbits, birds and both my moms cats. We've tried to get pictures of Athena and Oscar together, but Athena goes crazy when she sees him and it's too much just to control her. If I'm in the bathroom, she lays down in front of the door, when I'm on the computer, she is laying along the wall behind me, when we are watching a movie, she lays right along the side of the sofa closest to me.

View attachment 396688


View attachment 396689

Both my parents are Canadians and one of my brothers is a duel citizen. I can become a duel citizen if I fill out the paperwork. It's pretty basic, I just haven't felt the need to do it as of yet. He likes to travel on his Canadian passport and has recently moved to Ottawa to manage a winery up there. My dad served in the Canadian Air Force in the early 60's and both his brothers retired from the Canadian Air Force.

Eddie

Sharp looking dog. Have you ever seen the movie "Hachi: A Dog's Tale". It is about an Akita and its loyalty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhEHr7B1QiU

 

[jix]

Thanks for the post Eddie:

You have two brothers who are Canadian? Dual citizens. Wow, the world just keeps getting smaller. (I also have two BIL who are dual citizens) and my maternal great grandfather was a Texan (from Abilene). He was a real cowboy and worked the cattle drives up to Canada back in the 1880's. His name was Clinton Lewis. He settled in Klintonel, Saskatchewan and founded a horse ranch there, named after himself. The place name is spelled with a K becoz it was easier to make a branding iron with a K than with a C. The Ranch is called the K bar L. near Klintonel He died at age 102 in Manyberries, Alberta, in an accident with a (believe it or not) a picket fence. Clint was a tobacco chewing, gun toting, skinny little guy who was a renowned character in the west of Canada. His first wife was a woman from North Dakota who was a stage agent for Wells Fargo and she perished in an Indian attack on the Stage depot at Minot ND while my granddad was out herding cows up to Canada from Texas. Her name was Elsie Freel. My G-grandad was friends with the cowboy artist Charlie Russell.

Now I have a D-in-law living in Florida whose father is a retired Marine and my stepson is a cabinet maker In Bradenton FL. My Son-in-law is a M/Sgt in the USAF in Dayton, Ohio. My BIL is semi-retired in Boston MA area. He is a fisherman's son. My wife Faye is a descendant of a mess of British/Irish/Scot fishermen from FD Roosevelts beloved Campobello Island. My wife and I have very different background cultures, which we joke about, sort of half seriously. My Western relatives have a Lutheran streak..and my wife's relatives...are herring chokers with a salty streak. Ha ha.

I compromise a lot..no chewing tobacco in the house ..and I do eat Haddock. She always tries to compromise, too. She feeds me beef sometimes. We agree on dogs, country living..and tractors.

Your Akita is a nice looking dog. I hope that he and Oscar have come to a sort of a truce, or soon will. My wife has a friend that raises Akita dogs..and she has an attitude about the Akita. My wife says that she thinks the Akita is a "dog Samurai"..whatever that means.

My tractor is still in its reincarnation process. I visited Larry today at his "Central Mechanical" shop, (a fabricator par excellence) who is the guy who is doing it over for me for winter snowblowing. It is a B7100D compact diesel with a hefty dozer blade and a 51" Meteor snow blower. It is not a small job to do it right, but for me, it made sense to retrofit a cab, relocate the hydraulic controls, add a heater, add an alternator, rewire the gizmos and make it handicap-friendly. When it is finished, it will be a unique "tailormade" machine, and set up just how I want it.

Larry sez it will be delivered back to me by 15 Nov (becoz he is going to FL on his winter holiday then)I want to get you a heck of a lot of pix of the place here, the wife, the dogs and the tractor blowing snow.

Too much to upload on TBN probably..I thought maybe by E-Mail would be better. The tractor work is being photographed by stages as it progresses in Larry's shop. It is quite a process.

I just want to be able to blow snow without being frozen to death..or getting stuck..or being stymied by the dratted highway plow berms.. This tractor will do that...I hope.

You mentioned 6013 rod for welding..Yep..that's what I use for most work. My welder pal Stephen smiles and says.." "yep. In the trade, we call it farmer's rod" He likes 7013..sez it is much stronger..I cannot weld wiith it using an old Lincoln AC welder, besides, it takes to much preparation at the joint. I just slather 6013 rod on mild steel and don't worry about it. If strength is critical, I get a pro to do it. I built a 30 foot Steel trailer for highway use to move a 15,000 lb fixed-keel sailboat right from scratch using scrap steel and 6013 rod and that rig works fine and has travelled over 5000 miles loaded..and stayed together. I used about 20 lbs of 1/8' rod to do that. Good enuff.

Jix

 

[TomSeller]

Hachiko


Hachiko Real Story - YouTube

 

[EddieWalker]

Hey Eddie...

Didn't realize your area was so heavily wooded...

Are the trees cultivated or typical of Tyler?

Hey Curt,

Tyler and all of East Texas is very thick. We are where the pine trees start and go all the way to the East Coast. You can drive from Dallas and be in fairly open country until you hit some sort of line, then all of a sudden it's pine trees mixed with hardwoods everywhere!!!

It took years or clearing to be able to see most of my place, and once you clear an area, you have to keep it mowed or the trees will come back. Pines and sweet gums are weeds here, there never stop sprouting. Land that is cleared is worth more then wooded land because you can raise animals or grow hay on it. Wooded land is just for logging, and the market for that doesn't exist right now.









Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Yes, I did see that movie with Richard Gere and it really tore me up. I could just imagine that dog loving his owner so much that he refused to give up on waiting for him. Makes me sad just thinking about it.


Eddie