Welcome to Saturday's Potluck
Submitted by studentofearth on Sat, 04/03/2021 - 5:51am
It has been one of those weeks where every day seems to start early and end late, yet nothing seems to have been been accomplished to a completed end point. Stops and starts. Not even time to participate in the numerous interesting diaries and comment threads this past week.
[video:https://youtu.be/kXH9wB28x84?t=7]
Started prepping a new bed for potatoes this week. The chickens are being coerced into assisting in removing quack grass.
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What is on your mind today?
Comments
gotta love those chickens
are they hiding their eggs yet?
or maybe the bunnies do that
question everything
The banties are trying
but their small dug panel run does not provide many places and is too high for them to fly. The bigger hens use their nest box. Don't have any rabbits to help hide them, so no daily Easter eggs hunts.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
Chickens are useful animals...
weeding and scratching as well as meat and eggs.
Here's one of many composting with chickens system...(8 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe6M9CkvKEU]
http://www.edibleacres.org
Our chickens generate about 4 wheelbarrow loads of compost a week during the summer that we can transplant directly into and grow a tremendous amount of crops in. In exchange for that, they give us 12-16 eggs a day. And they cost us about a penny per bird per day. Our main expense is buying in millet and sunflower seed. The other whole grains we barter for, and we collect compost scraps from local organic sources, as well as hay and wood chips to make the basic bulk mix.
This system has evolved steadily over time, there is much more to learn and understand, but the basic pattern feels reliable and functional and we're excited to share it with others so they can take from it what ever components feel most useful.
Best of luck with the tater bed! Thanks for the OT.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Thanks - Efficient system to mimic ruminants
Really good thought process for suburban farmer where only chickens area allowed. My plants respond best to animal created compost. Done small scale experiments in the past and this is the order of success cow, donkeys, chicken aged with compost, chicken manure, and plant compost. The sheep self spread, any area they are grazed is fertilized, but have not collected to run a test on a vegetable bed.
The video using aisle planting on acreage provided some wonderful ideas. I have been moving towards silvorpasture. The irrigation redesign was completed the end of last season. This year is to be the beginning of adding shrubs and trees to the pastures.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
Good morning soe. Kind of the same here except for the spuds.
More to come too, but still not yet time to plant yet based on estimated soil temps. Need to break down and get a thermometer for that. It's Eostre Eve, or thereabouts I spect, so all the issues concomitant with that are grinding forward, we'll see how it impacts farmers' market in a bit. Going to try setting up a new seed starting station in the garage and maybe microgreens too, but not til after the weekend is over.
Let a couple of green onion restarts just keep growing for the longest time for no particular reason and they never bulbed out but instead became 3 foot tall and about 2.5 inch diameter green onions. I read that there are cultivars developed to remain green onions and not become bulbs or spring, and these must've been restarted from those. We're definitely done buying any for a while.
Also puled up our 3 or 4 season Portuguese Kale, huge tall thing with leaves only near the top, we did get a ton of greens from it over the years, but it was way past its prime.
Well, the business continues, so it's time to get going here.
Be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Been letting more of the modern farming annual vegtebale
crops winter over, in addition to planting edible perennials. Surprising how much food is provided in the gap between spring planting and first harvest of seasonal vegetables. My seed and feed grain purchases are also declining.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
We have overwintered assorted chards and kales because
why pick them? There is no bulb, tuber or other edible portion beyond the leaves, so we just keep picking a few leaves at a time and next thing you know it is planting time again and they're still going.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Hopefully this coming week will
Be one where things are finished with little more effort and feel like a very productive one.
I love the pictures from around the farm that you include.
Been wondering if the photos are valuable
or me just being too lazy to think about which words to put together to write a diary. The year I did a photo diary of the farm for the Open Thread became enchanted with the property again and saw the possibility of staying right here. Been working on making it an age in place home. I could start carrying the small digital camera in my pocket again and include a few photos each week.
Part of the frustration is seasonal - temperature swings on a few days have been over 50 degrees ranging from 16 to 75. Christmas Rose has been blooming, nectarine tree appeared to be preparing to open blossoms this morning and decided yesterday still safe to do a winter style pruning to the plum trees.
The shift from winter sit by the fireplace to summer run has began. Thanks for the encouraging words.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
Yes the wild temperature swings make planning difficult
They are hard on plants and people.
The pictures are great. I hope you will keep them coming.
Not sure of the impact but I came across this.
Please post this in multiple open threads
so it can get high visibility. Fewer people may see it on this holiday weekend.
And thank you for sharing. I haven't used Facebook for a long time now. I'm trying to remember if I used my real birthday there. I make one up for web sites for security reasons. They may need to know I'm over 18, but they don't need to know exact date.
Thinking not a Facebook security breach, rather
sourced from a third party who had bought or had access to Facebook data sold in the past. Illustrates the seriousness and scope of data available to commercial businesses and intelligence community.
Facebook is claiming it is old data.
Not claiming it was a security breach in any article I have seen, but related to an issue, perhaps business practices? Hacking is implied by naming the site info was found it a place frequented by hackers.
In the past I have had clients provide inhouse data full of data end-users would have thought was protected legally and never causally distributed. A good data manipulator can mine a lot of information, an excellent team using it to manipulate based on the info is scary.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
I have been clearing out dead bushes
from my yard. We are also taming an invasive wisteria, and planting new bushes. Many bushes didn't survive the week long freeze here in Texas.
This afternoon, we put up 2 bird feeders near a bird bath we set out last weekend.
It is good to see things grow.
I am about to sit down to a monster T-bone we just grilled, and it smells wonderful!
hope everyone is staying healthy.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Radioactive wastewater spill from phosphate fertilizer
production in Florida in Manatee county.
Keep track of nuclear facilities, never thought of fertilizer production industrial plant.
Between our increasing use of plastics and modern agricultural practices the worry of overpopulation will be taken care of by modern society. I use bone meal, fish fertilizer and compost to improve the phosphate levels in my soils and supplements for spring bulbs.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
I met a client at the office this morning
to give him his estate planning documents.
While there, I asked him about his garden. It is 100 ft. long, 15 feet wide.
He doesn't use mulch, fertilizer, or poisons. What he doe to this land for 6 months a year is till in compost, and burn it frequently. The burning both fertilizes the soil, and eradicates insects that are in the ground. He uses non-GMO seeds, and does his own starters in paper egg cartons, allowing the paper to further enrich the soil as it erodes. He practices the three sisters plan of corn/beans/squash planted together to basically fertilize the soil for each other.
I forgot to ask about his watering, but seem to recall he has a well on his small farm.
Like me, he lost all his citrus trees. I think he will replant them, I have decided to think of some other fruit tree.
Right now, I am only planting flowering bushes, do not have a plan for a garden this year.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Listening to locals and how they garden
is what I did when working full time and did not have the time to garden. When possible bought local products to help support the cycle of local growing.
If there is room, might consider planting a mixture of citrus and more cold hardy fruits. As the climate swings n=more likely to have a harvest. Some fruit trees require cold to bloom and with a series of warm winters may stop producing.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.