2012 Pumpkin Chuck and Chicken Bingo

We have a winner        

This year in addition to hurling pumpkins with trebuchets and catapults we added chicken bingo. Lay your bets at two bucks a square and you could win a fabulous prize. This years prizes included four Dexter beef rib steaks, two big chunks of wild spring salmon, and three dozen fresh farm eggs. In the end we raised three hundred dollars for the local food bank.

Published and Recognized

In 1990 my brother, Robert Chaplin, challenged me to write something about Turnips. This story remained in a filing cabinet until April 9, 2007  when it was finally published as a work of fine art, by Robert Chaplin at the Nano Imaging Facility of Simon FraserUniversity. This book, complete with an International Standard Book Number (ISBN-978-1-894897-17-4), is entitled ‘Teeny Ted From Turnip Town’. It is a fable concerning the success of Teeny Ted, from Turnip Town, and his victory in the Turnip contest at the annual county fair.
It is at present the world’s smallest published book. 

Bugwood Bean

I had the opportunity to work on this wonderful new espresso bar in Smithers B.C. The building is a timber frame made with Mountain Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus Ponderosae) assaulted timbers. It has a cedar wrap around patio and the tastiest coffee in town. You can also get a yummy treat made by Rustica Bakery here too. You would be foolish to pass through Smithers without stopping here.

Who wears the pants?

These are the pants that I like to wear for work and farming. And also for hunting and fishing....when I am allowed to go.

Mmmmmm..Fish!

Since I have included pictures of processing poultry and carving up cows I thought it would be prudent to include another facet of my carnivorous lifestyle. That my friends is forty two pounds of fabulous fresh fish fit for frying, flambe, fricassee, and flaunting in front of your fishing friends. I also had the luxury of spending several wonderful days with great friends on the sun soaked shores of Haida Gwaii.

Timber Frame

Missing in action since fall 2009....sorry (a Canadian thing)

I am having fun these days building a barn for myself. However, due to an extremely wet spring...summer...now approaching fall there may be no hay to put in the new barn. On the positive there will be little snow on the tractor seat this winter.

Where's The Beef?....Here It Is!

2009 Beef Production
Today I slaughtered two Dexter beef steers. It made me contemplate whether I am a "left side" of beef person or "right side" of beef person.
I think that cows have little affiliation with politics so the spectrum hardly matters.
And if you are thinking the thought might have something to due with brain hemisphere dominance I can assure you a cow has no such issue.

Haida Gwaii

I just returned from Haida Gwaii where a friend toured me to the west coast to see some not so visited poles. They were spectacular and are not long for this world. It was as if it was the last chance to see them before another era ends.

Other than that I behaved like a bear. I ate lots of salmon, slept, fished, and did little else. I could get use to that pace.

Buckethead

When it snows for the first time each winter I am compelled to build a snowman. Even if he ends up covered in leaves, grass, and yellow spots.

Building with a Mountain View

This summer I built a home with beautiful mountain views. From the site you can see the Babine, Telkwa, and Hazelton Mountain ranges and looming over the house is Hudson Bay Mountain.
On a daily basis it was hard to decide which view to take in while having my coffee or lunch.

Sunny Denmark

In May we went on a family vacation to sunny Denmark. This photo was taken near Dronninglund and is a field of rape seed. In Canada we call it canola because somebody thought that traditional names should be replaced so we could all rest easy knowing that our language is inoffensive.

It was the warmest May since the 1950's and kicked ass on the pathetic, rainy, frost in every month summer we enjoyed in northern B.C.

Spring on the Farm

This spring we have had three more calves of which one is a heifer and two are bull calves. For the heifer it is shots and a tatoo. For the bull calves it is shots and the testicle rodeo. An elastic the size of a cherrio is placed on their scrotum which restricts the flow of blood to the testicles resulting in castration. Ouch!

Pond Hockey

Playing Pond Hockey is something truly "Canadian". I thought this would be a good addition to my blog to mark the end of winter and he beginning of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

I am happy to see the end of winter and I made sure to pick up the pucks and the net as they will not float over the summer.

First Day of Forging

On December 23, 2007 I lit a forge for the first time. The forge and anvil came to me from my grandfather, Charlie Chaplin, who was a farrier and a renaissance man in his own right. I took an old spike found on the farm and turned it into a wall hook. It took a long time to make and I burned a lot of coal. I am sure this activity will contribute to global warming but at least I will have a good hook to hang up my hill-billy outfits.

Fall on the Farm

Fall on the farm usually results in death for some of the tenants. That is me giving a turkey a bath prior to its date with the turkey plucker .

The optimum temperature we found for water was 140 degrees fahrenheit. Getting the temperature correct for their bath causes the feathers to fall out easily. Getting it wrong results in some tough plucking.
Mmmm..., hot turkey feather soup anyone?

Avalanche At Galore

During the first week of May 2007 I experienced seeing several avalanches including this one. Presently I am working on the Nova Gold Galore Creek project which is proving to be interesting and educational.

All Saints Day Pumpkin Catapult

In 2003 a friend thought it would be fun to launch our day old jack-o-lanterns across our field with home built catapults, trebuchets, and slingshots. A few people even elected to just throw their pumpkins by hand. My mother thought the event was silly and a waste of time. In the end she had at least as much fun as everyone else and realized that sometimes you need to do things for just kicks.

"Nanook"

Four and one half year old pure bread Dexter bull.

Father of : Rambler, Rasputin, Salsa, Shania, Sunshine, Sylvester, Truly Scrumptious, Tahlula, Thomas, and Tinker Bell.

This is the first time I have created anything on a blog. Be patient I am just a simple cow raising carpenter with some crazy thoughts and ideas. I wonder how far one could travel in a compact car fitted with edam rounds as wheels.