@Raggedy Ann
considered rain water a crop he needed to plant into the ground. Interesting viewpoint and vegetation he grew is impressive.

Thanks for all the great links. I'm anxious to watch the one on water harvesting, since we only get 11-12 inches a year. We already harvest water, but are interested in as many techniques as possible!

I always love your photos.

Have a beautiful day, everyone!

@eyo
a bovine is unstoppable. I do my best to keep them ignorant of their strength.

The girl in the picture is now 12 and has not had a calf for 2 years. She babysits the calves and is the first one to come to the night corral for hay when called.

Another great video, thanks. LOL your cow cracks me up, I remember some of the friendly ones when I lived on the fish farm. It was also a 600 547 acre cattle ranch, babies sold for meat after growing one year. The lowing is real, the mom cows cry and cry for a couple of weeks when their toddlers are taken to the auction house, then they forget. I have seen a bull take out a hundred yards of heavy duty barbed wire fence in the blink of an eye, to get to a cow. Poor things.

Our pig used to graze way up on the hill with the cattle, you'd see this short red dot up there keeping company with them. He would come when we called, and then the silly cows would follow. Oops. Funny when you can't get to work on time through the cows. Before cell phones, oh forget it. Nothing happened before cell phones and the Internet, that must have been a dream.

Edited: the acreage and added drone footage because it is public land now. woot You can almost see the little cabin I lived in @ 2 minutes, just up from the fresh water pond on the left, going along the dirt road at the end of Estero Lane. Keep going and there are cows on top of the ridge at 3 minutes. I think I can even see where the old mort pit was. Don't ask.
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As Hurricane Harvey hits Gulf Coast, Central Valley must prepare for the coming storm

The Central Valley Flood Protection Board plan said Californians must spend as much as $21 billion during the next three decades to prepare for floods in the Central Valley. Statewide, the number exceeds $50 billion.

Huh! There are 100 shiny new billionaires in California, how 'bout them chipping in half? Hahaha!

Happy Thursday
good luck

@mhagle
Experiment with the same techniques as the outdoor micro-climate. It is for my zone 7-9 to winter over certain herbs plants. Started using it last year to grow zone 4-5 greens in the winter. Use ventilation and curtains in the summer to prevent over heating. In the winter it is heated to keep above 40 degrees minimum.

1. Maggot Farm. Decomposition of road kill is too variable. A harmful fungus or bacteria may be present before the maggots are introduced.

2. Grow shelves. So far I have not needed shelves. The direct sun is not to hot for the seedling to start indoors or outdoors. Major local problem outside is slow germination due to cold soils and low night temperatures. Fortunately when necessary the sunroom has enough light for starting plants in the early spring and fall.

3. Fodder. The livestock fodder systems I have reviewed use primarily barley or wheat. The oats at my feed store are all rolled. Interestingly the local grocery store now has wheat and barley grass in the produce department for sale. In the 80's grew I lawn grass for my indoor cat (seeds were not pre-treated with pesticides). Let the outside pots grow weeds and set one occasionally in with the chickens for graze.

Good morning! Once again, thanks for the links to great information and other advice. I have some funky little spiders eating pepper plants in my greenhouse. Don't know if they are the same as your spider mites, but we have praying mantis hanging out around here. Never thought about catching them. The greenhouse is a 5 year experiment that at this time, I am unsure of it's true value. The only things that are really successful are plants that survive the summer (130+ degrees) and then can produce through the fall and winter. Peppers and Malabar spinach survive. Peppers are really happier outside though. I have done tomatoes in the greenhouse, but you only get a few before it gets too hot for them.

A report on new experiments.

1. The maggot farm is a success. It is a 5 gallon bucket with holes drilled in the bottom and lower sides. You put food scraps and other nasty stuff in it. The flies lay their eggs in it. The maggots fall out the bottom. The chickens eat the maggots. I have not actually witnessed a maggot falling out, but have confirmed that there are maggots in the bucket and the chickens hang out around the bottom of the bucket. One chicken is able to fly up and get in the bucket. Doesn't feed the flock, but a good supplement? When you watch YouTube videos about this, some folks put road kill in their buckets. That was too creepy for me.
2. Grow shelves. Hopefully a success and I have answered previous failures. So far so good. Currently, nearly all of my seeds have come up and they do not look spindly. I bought a seed starting mixture rather than making my own. There is a metal grate at the bottom of each pan for drainage. And I am going to fertilize the small plants with some Miracle Grow. Ultimately I want to make my own starter soil and fertilizer, but just have to get something going on to gain some traction.
3. Fodder. Failure. I followed Starry Hilder's video instructions. Very little sprouting. A couple little skinny green guys. I am pretty sure the biggest mistake is that I used oats from the feed store rather than oats from a seed store. These oats are probably hybrid GMOs that will never sprout. Plus, Starry said cool weather is better. I had the buckets in my living room, much to the chagrin of my teenagers ("you are always doing this stinky stuff mom!"). I'll try it again in a couple of months in a shed.

I'd like to comment again on "Lessons of the Loess Plateau" that eyo originally posted. That video is still haunting me. IMO Big Ag is unwittingly desertifying our country. We will ultimately need to turn to these lessons of the Loess Plateau to bring the land back to health.

Hey eyo . . . when I was a kid on the dairy farm, every morning and evening we would stand in the barn door and call the cows. "Come Boss!!!" (in solfege "so mi") They would form an orderly line and walk from the field to the barn. Your cows thought you were calling them, rather than the pig?

Lastly, another link from the randtntx comment in the same vein . . . http://www.motherearthnews.com/Homesteading-and-Livestock/victory-garden... . . . Back to the victory garden mentality that we so desperately need!

Cheers!