Got enough $ left for dinner after paying bills Russ? Better do that the other way around.
Actually, I would like rabbit manure over chicken any day. And you don't have the burning from it.
Strawbale Gardening: General Discussions - 2012 - Chapter 37
I do wish I had rabbits again! Rabbits mean that I could have a great worm bed too!!!! Hmmm thinking..........!! Thanks Jnette!!!
It is so nice you have a place for those animals Eufaula. Fresh eggs, good fertilizer, and pets, what more could you ask for?
Jeanette; You don't dare get attached to any of them for pets or you will end up with many rabbits and or chickens and have nothing but expense and still have to go to the store to buy meat.
I have to say on eating out, Jeanette; that we were told that we should at least eat out and Tami & Gary gave us a gift certificate. Otherwise I would have made a special meal right here, and I would even have washed the dishes.
My birthday is our next thing and I'm not planning anything except I might bake something, cake or brownies,
After all nothing can beat 75 free trips around the sun and 52 years with the same gal and still looking for more years together, now can it???
Russ, if you are like Bob and I, you would much rather cook a nice meal yourself than eat out any time. Call us strange, but I guess once in a while if we feel like a meal with something we don't normally have on hand, or nearby, otherwise we cook.
Actually, both of us like to cook, so guess that is why.
You mean you can't eat Buster or Jennie? The rabbits? LOL
Now that I do not have someone around to do the dirty deed of "loppin" off little rabbit heads , I guess I wont be eating delicious fresh rabbit either! Sooooo I guess I could just have a couple of fuzzy wuzzies of the same sex, to give me some good "furzilizer" ! Then I wouldnt have to worry about the feed bill either!
Heres a photo of my last little bunny. He was a "free range bunny" for 3 years on my yard! He was very sociable and knew how to avoid visiting neighbor dogs!
Im determined though since I do have a couple of acres to have a better garden and a few more Livestock to sustain me . Hmm I need a goat too! I love the companionship and milk!
Problem with that idea Eufaula, is the same one I gave Bob when he said he would like some goat's milk for cheese. You can't just milk a goat on demand. You have to milk them just like a cow, on a regular schedule, or they dry up.
At least that is the way I am sure they are.
Oh I know , I used to have 15 milking does, Nubian and nubian/Saanen crosses. This was when my babies were babies. So quite a few years ago....but I do miss them.
Yeah the babies were doing all the work. Convenient. lol
I think if they had names, they would have to stick around a while- - -see if they could lay those colored Easter eggs lol.
At one time I had 5 does and 1 buck. they kept us supplied with plenty of meat. Eventually I sold the adults and got out of raising them. That was somewhere around 35 years ago. A few years before that I had a hutch in town had a mixture of different breads until a couple dogs tore their way into the hutch.
Oh well. Guess it depends on how much I want to be tied down. I don't know if I could depend on any outside help, One of our daughters might take care of feeding chickens for a couple days but that is probably about it. Might get more help on a butchering day though.
I have a little camping and fishing to do this summer and don't want to be tied down so it is probably out for this year, Have a couple places I may want to stay for about a week or so.
Yeah, it's that time in your life that you want to relax and not be tied down. Just pick up and go. Fishing sounds great doesn't it. Bob talked to a guy last week that had been ice fishing and said he caught a mess of perch and a pike. I remember when we were kids we used to catch a lot of those and my mom put them on her roses. The perch. I think they are pretty good eating, but a lot of work to clean.
They are fighting a pike invasion on our river out here because they don't want them to get down into the Columbia and eat the salmon. They have at least 4 dams to go over, but that doesn't stop them. Pike are really good eating and a lot of people would like to get the fishery going here.
Oh well, Russ are you near a good fishing place? Or would you have to travel a long way?
Oowie!!! Ice fishing....bbbbrrr!!!
Nope Jnette, I milked those Nannies and had kids on bottles, while my 2 legged babies had fresh milk too! That was 25 years ago.
I too would like to keep some time for relaxation so maybe one bred Nanny and a couple of rabbits and at least a dozen or two chickens, an 8 bale strawbale garden and maybe a small annual flower bed! Haahaahaaaa! Oh well its a good thing I love to be outdoors!
Sounds good to me Eufaula. I would love to have all those animals. I just don't have the right topography to my land. It is all hilly. Right up to my door.
Jeanette, 20 miles to the Missouri river, catch most anything , Have a small creek bout a half mile can channel cats not many at a time, 12 miles to the Little Souix , which is great for catfish and walleye. of course there are rough fish there too. Carp, Drum, Suckers. Then there are a bunch of farm ponds clustered around close that have Bass and Blue Gill. If you get a half doz. 8 to 10 " blue gill you have some darn good eatin. I like 2 to 4lb catfish course if you catch a few smaller ones just clean em and bake them whole.
Oh you know hills don't bother goats, they could come right up to your deck to get milked " Naaa naaa naaa. Just had to say that Jeanette, you know me. lol
Eufalla; checked with one of our daughters last night, and got an okay on her taking care of chickens for a week or so. Believe I might go ahead and start building that chicken tractor. Though I don't know for the life of me why they call it a tractor- - - lol Maybe cause you almost need a tractor to move it. lol
Sounds like you have a lot of fishing places close enough for day trips Russ. Do you need a boat to fish them? We have a lot also, but need a boat in most of them. Lakes. The river is so big you can fish from a boat, which I don't like because there is so much milfoil, or fish from my sister's dock, which my sil was doing when he caught the 44 inch pike. Wonderful fish and great eating.
We used to catch 14 inch croppies in the backwater from the river, and they were good. Wouldn't they be a lot like the blue gill?
Gotta ask you Russ, why would you do a chicken tractor rather than a house. Wouldn't you be able to use the building you had the goats in?
I have a building I can start them in but I like the idea of moving it around to put a little " fertilizer " here and there in the garden in the fall and early spring letting the chickens spread it and at the same time have a safe house for them, nest boxes and all. also it not being a building on a foundation it would come under a farm trailer designation and not be taxed as a building. You know how counties and States like to tax everything! I pay more in property tax than I paid in rent for a house and double lot back in the mid 60s. and this house is about the same age, size and condition as that. Go figure.
No I don't think that " building " would do it was just thrown together and the roof is just a tarp, that has since riddled. I would start them in the green house I built. If I put nest boxes on an outside wall and a roost in it it would just be big enough but when the sun started getting overhead it would get too hot,unless I at least re did the roof.
Yep crappies and bluegills would be " close "
Sounds like a nice chicken tractor Russ. Think I'll move in.
Give me a couple good bluegills about the size of your hand. That's some good eatin'!
Are they the same as Crappie Doug?
I know they look different, but do they taste the same?
yep Postman one day I come home with 2 that were 8" and 5 that were right at 6" I didn't count how many I threw back, that ranged from 4" down to 1"LOL
A little white rubber spider does a great job "most of the time"
Jeanette I would say that depends on how fine tuned your taste buds are.
Give me a good pan sized trout anytime.
Trout are not a natural here, we would have to pay extra for a trout stamp on top of the regular fishing license. I have had trout but I don't agree with paying that much extra just to be able to fish for one more species of fish. but yes trout has great texture, flavor, easy to clean and so on.
Yes Jnette they taste very similar.
:0 ) We don't clean them Russ. LOL, we were sitting on the shore one time fishing for trout, when a car stopped and this man and woman were telling us how to fix the trout. They were from a Southern state, or Midwest, don't remember. But he told us to skin them!! I told him no way, that was the best part of the fish. Plus, they don't have scales. What is there to clean except gutting and beheading? Yes, I guess you did say easy.
Guess I didn't make too many points there!!
Some only gut them. I would think that would depend on the size though.
Points??? who's counting lol
I just discovered strawbale gardening. I started a coldframe with ten straw bales in January. they surround a raised bed. I plan to transplant seedlings into the bales after the last frost date. My question: by April 6 will they have composted by themselves or do I have to add anything to them before I plant (they have already sprouted a little wheat). Ot can I just put the seedlings in and add water?
Linda, what do they look like now? they normally take heat to decompose. If you are still getting frost, they probably didn't get much heat. I doubt they would be decomposed much. What do you think Kent? You live in Linda's area.
Linda: welcome aboard, my Alamance Co, friend!
If you have wheat sprouts you should be in fine shape when it's time to transplant.
Just keep the bales moist.
Here's a link to my local website thread with a lot of pics, etc, that you can read up on in the meantime:
http://www.4042.com/4042forums/showthread.php?t=12405
Of course, there's plenty of info/pics here, too, so enjoy!
We love pics at DG, so show off your garden.
Kent
This message was edited Mar 3, 2012 8:45 PM
Haven't seen or heard from you in a long time Kent. Is it seedlings keeping you so busy, I hope. What kind of set up do you have now? So, you must have pretty good weather to be getting your bales ready and I am only assuming you have seeds growing.
Speak up once in a while.
Jeanette: good morning!
Yeah, I have been offline a lot lately.
I do have some pepper seedlings coming up: Ghost Peppers and Trinidad Scorpions!
I bought 16 Trinidad Scorpion seeds and seeded them a little early to test the germination rate. All 16 germinated!
I then seeded 128 Ghost Peppers from seeds I saved last year and got about 80% germination on those. I'm going to try and sell a lot of the Ghost Peppers this year.
Just got a 2nd grow light in, along with 3 more heat mats.
I wasn't going to do seedlings this year, but changed my mind, so I will be seeding my tomatoes, etc, over the next few days.
If you remember (thanks to Doug) I built some frames for my bales. I built them 3 boards ( 2 x 6) high.
I took off the top row of boards and used them to make a few more frames.
All of my old straw from 2 years ago and the straw I used last year as a moisture control on top of my beds have all been mixed up into the frames with additional compost, etc.
Basically I have evolved into a more traditional raised bed gardener.
So, for the first time since 2005 I don't plan on buying any new bales this year.
I may change my mind because I have a little more room in my garden space, so we'll see.
Keep us posted ol bud. We are all anxious to see how it goes!
I'm kind of busy right now with making a portable chicken coop. Daughter wanted to keep me busy I think. We bought some broilers together, I'm to care for them till butchering time. Then I figure as long as I'm going to have chickens and be tied down, I might as well have a few to give me some eggs as well. Make more use of the chicken coop. That will also give me more for the compost pile.
I am also going to attempt to raise some cucumbers hydroponic and a couple tomato plants. Already have the tubs so might as well experiment with that too.
I have one raised bed with old straw, leaves, river silt and sand. I plan to try about 4 sweet potatoes in that, with one squash which will vine out from there, where I can tie it up on a hog panel. And I have put fertilizer on all the leaves I spread this year. don't want them to just be dry leaves.
I plan on getting a few hay bales but not for this years garden, they will be for next year. I already have more to do before garden work begins than I can handle, so just attempting to plan ahead.
Wow, you guys are so busy. Don't you have any snow Russ? We still have a half a foot of ice and snow. Mostly ice. The ground is frozen hard. Don't know how far down. I thought I saw some Helebore leaves trying to come out of it. They are pretty hardy if that is true.
It thaws during the day and freezes it all again at night. Same old story. I am going to plant my tomato seeds etc. maybe in a week or 2. Our last frost date is the end of May. So, still have plenty of time.
No snow Jeanette. Oh there are a few patches where they cleared off a parking lot but you have more on the ground yet than we got all winter " SO FAR" and we really cant say we have frost in the ground either, as only a thin crust is frozen. As I said somewhere else this has been the mildest winter I can remember. Temps have been up into the 40s off and on oh we have had some below zero days but few and far between. It hasn't been that way all over the state but right here it has been it's own micro zone.
I fear that the fruit trees will blossom and then a hard freeze will catch them and no fruit again. Tomorrow it is going to " possibly " be in the 60s and Tue. in the 70s. That will make the snow melt. I know winter isn't over yet though, I'm sure we will catch it the first week of spring. Maybe have the biggest snow of the year ; hope I'm wrong.
I think the chickens will be fun. At least you don't have to milk them like cows lol
Yep, about the time you start to relax and think that is it, you will get it. We didn't hardly have anything other than cold for all winter up until about 3 weeks ago. Then it hit and hasn't stopped.
The chix are cute. you will love them. Do you have to butcher them? I remember somewhere around here an ad they would do them for a dollar a bird. That would be cheap for me.
That would be very reasonable. There is a place near here that does it but I don't know for how much. DD wants to do hers by hand, I will oblige as that will be quality time.Now the rest of of them, that could be a different story, unless she is willing to help with all of them.
The white ones are Cornish Rock Cross they are a meat bird, poor egg layers. The darker ones are Barred Rock, also a heavy breed but good layer. Only have 12 of those. There the keepers lol
Ordered 35 of the Cross 39 were shipped, all have survived. That will be a freezer full. Come on down we'll put one or two on the smoker "yummy."
Would love to take you up on that Russ. But, don't do butcherin'. I do like to sample tho. Give good advice. :0) And not so good.
Gotta get busy, got company coming at 10, wouldn't you know.
Re the readiness of my bales: Since they were covered with glass during January and most of February, I am treating them with some Black Kow for now. I sprouted so much in my cold frame that I was able to sell some seedlings during our yard sale on Sat. Here's what I have taken from the cold frame and planted in the garden already: peas, escarole, chard, endive, kale, collards, cabbage, leeks, parsley, cilantro and even fava beans. I cover the beans up when nights go below 32 and everything fine so far. The upside of global warming. It's mid-spring here on the Lower East Side of Alamance County. But my forsythia is late. ?
Kent due to the possibility of recurring diseases, I have emptied my boxed in row and am adding new bales. I'll probably do this every two to three years. The old decomposed straw is an excellent addition to flower beds however so it's a win-win situation!
Doug