seasons getting " filled up "

[bowtie]

as i sit here thinking about the maple season it has occured to me that i really do not have off-season anymore. with maple in the late winter-spring,spring turkey season, then goes to garden/food plots,fishing,(spring/summer), hunting in the fall/early winter,firewood season anytime i can,i never seem to cut enough, i have not even gone ice-fishing in the last 2-3 years. then there is the home projects . thats on top of the kids sports and activities that they do. i am very lucky that my wife does alot with kids, she is super busy shuttling them between things. oh yeah then there are the chickens and my new project trying to raise pheasants for release. last year i raised 17 to release still have 4 hanging around,hope a few more are still alive, the one rooster likes to land on our vehicles in the morning with "his" 3 hens being a little more shy. will try to raise 30-40 this year, hoping to try to get some back in the area and our DEC is not much help. my thinks that i should concentrate a little more on the house stuff to finish the "little" projects i have going. like my oldest boy's new room started in late summer and still need to finish closet and trim ceiling, never buy glidden paint, what a nightmare.
i'm sure that being alot of us are cut from a similar mold that many of you are in the same good but busy situation. did i mention like most of you i have a full-time job that is really getting in the way of my other stuff!:lol::lol:

[DonMcJr]

Wow I coulda posted the same thing, Minus the Pheasants and Chickens but that may be coming too! Where do you get the Pheasants and what do you keep them in?

[heus]

Bowtie I second the Glidden paint comment. Do you raise your pheasants in flight top pens?

[bowtie]

i buy day old chicks from a local feed store. i built a 21' x 22' flight pen, with metal rooofing around the bottom, saw this on line, with netting, center is about 8 1/2' high slopes to 39" at sides. i would have built it bigger but really did not have much more room, it is big enough for up to about 40 birds tops. was a little worried how well they would be able to fly but they all flew very well, it comes natural. i did not use peepers on them and they did not peck at each other. i raised them for i believe 5 weeks in a stock in my garage just like you would with chickens. then started putting them in a 8' x 8' wire cage pen i built. lots of fun watching them grow but wife and kids were sad when we "let" them go, knowing some would fall prey to predators.

[hounder]

I was just thinking how much, but how seasonal our busy life is. I work a full time job each day but come home and help with farm work which never ends. Hubby is full time on the farm. He raises and trains hounds so hunting overlays all his easier days (which are getting fewer in between) We have 50,000 Christmas trees to plant prune, mow and pest control starting April through end of summer. Our 500 bushes of blueberries overlap the summer months. Sales for trees starts us preparing and selling every moment of November and December. Now that we are stepping up and trying to make some money with our maple syrup, any free moments are in the woods getting lines set and getting the sugar shack improvements done. Now add beef and producing hay, chickens for meat and eggs, 100 pheasants each year for release plus quail to train bird dogs, butchering, veggie gardens and 25 hound dogs. My goal with adding the syrup is to be able to make enough for me to stay home full time....one can only dream ;)