We came from here;
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1235605/#new
And after this shortest month of the year is March. Spring begins in March.
a warm beginning to the February Homestead
Thanks for the new thread, Nik.
Sue, I am so sorry about your Mom. I pray the treatment will be successful and she will not be in pain.
We had a beautiful day yesterday and I took full advantage of it. It was chilly in the morning so I stayed in and did laundry. At noon, when the sun made it above the mountain, it warmed up quickly to the low 60s. I got out then and got to work in the yard. I picked up trash and took it all to the road. Today is garbage day. I raked the side yard. My porch is on the side of the house and I have to walk past it to get to the goat lot and the one chicken coop I have here by the house. The people who lived here in the past had put a bunch of those devilish lava rocks by the house and I was forever stepping on them and having them roll under my feet. Not a big deal if you have strong ankles and leg muscles but I have neither and trying not to fall kept my legs in spasm. So I raked those hateful things over the creek bank yesterday!!!!! It felt so good to have them gone. I also moved a chicken coop and a pallet. Then I finished reconfiguring one of my SFG beds so it will be easier to make a hoop over. I refilled it and it is ready for spring planting now. After all that I went and did the feeding. It is raining now so I will spend the afternoon in the barn mucking stalls.
Sounds like a good workday, Caj... but you should have buried those lava rocks in the garden. They add micronutrients and aid the soil life!
Not much room for more rocks in this soil. It's all sand and rocks as it is.
i hate lava rocks too. they hurt !
well not much going on here
Dh is raking the mud out of the barn. the first top 4 inches are just wet mud ! he won't rent a mini exevator and do it that way , he claime he don't want to spent the money. oh well. keeps him busy.
we got the gravel for the barn too.
Cajun sounds like a good day you had
we have a nice day here too but i wonder how long it will last.
made 13 jars of salsa and got taco mea in the slow cooker. but something is still missing ? i had it in the slow cooker to long and it went a bit soft. soooo hope the family like it
I am still feeling the effects of yesterday's work and I mucked out a stall today. Now I am losing the fight I have been waging all day with a headache. Off to bed for me. It is frustrating that my 81 year old mother has more strength and stamina that I do.
I have been feeling a mite poorly the past couple days. I pulled something or other in my upper back which didn't help a bit at work yesterday. Not when I had to hump 1600 lbs of feed in buckets.
I ordered some juneberry plants from Michigan yesterday, and bought the sil-o-flex pipe to get water back to the homesite. I'm hoping to have enough money for the wire for the electric in another month or so. I want to rent a trencher this summer and get all the utilities back to where we want to build the cabin. I figure I'll put a frost free hydrant on the end of the water line and just not hook the electric or phone lines in.
I think I'm going to have to find a decent chiropractor when I get off work today. I've never been to one, but my back is really hurting me. Oh well, off to the grind...
Nik sorry to hear of your back. that is never fun. Wishing you well wishes of a speedy recovery
not much to report today
went to the gym
ate lunch
need to clean the house but am not motivated
to many eggs and don't know what to do with . The hens think its spring and are laying like crazy
Wish I was closer, Sue. Fresh eggs are scarce around here right now!
Nik, back problems can be wretched, sorry for yours. I'm thankful that I seldom have them.
I'm off on a day trip tomorrow, to the closest organic garden/farm supplies place... which is over a 2 hour drive. BUT... it's time to start seeds, and the (rare) Babington Leeks someone on DG sent me have finally sprouted in the crisper drawer so they need potting up. I get to meet another DG friend for lunch, so the long drive is a treat for me!
I'm afraid of what February and March weather will do. I hope your back gets feeling better. Back injures are absolutely dreadful! I found my loofah seeds so I willbe trying those this year along with a 3 sisters garden, herb garden, and tomatoes. Those sorts of things. I cant do too much this year as I dont have a garden plot yet so will be trying containers and maybe tire potatoes and small patches on my hillside. It'll be an experience.... A learning experience hahaha.
have fun darius. always fun to meet up with another DGer.
well we are getting gravel in the barn and making the driveway. scraping the mud off is a chore to say the least.
i did get all my seeds but my Bhut jokia pepper. they didn't say it was back ordered on the website ? so i hope it gets here in time.
i sure hope my garlic does well this year. with all this freeze thaw going on ?
got over 200 seed planted.
may do pototo's but honestly i think i m out of room ? LOL
My gardening plans are wishy washy and can't make up my mind what I am going to do.....grow....where.....what......eeekkk
(likes to play with my food)
sorry bout your back Nik....get well soon.
Cricket i m the same way . i just buy the seeds and then when its time to grow i just do them all and figure it out when i get to the garden LOL
i m hoping i remember sunflowers this year ! i always forget to do those ?
i had some lilac i was trying to sell but honestly i can't give it away !! so in the garden it goes. its just common lilac .
got new plants for a landscape area next to the new barn. so it may go there.
Back is alot better today. STill aches, but is no longer debilitating. Debbie and I are going out to the diner to coffee with the Village workers in just a few minutes. I used to do that everyday, But since I am working now I can only do it on my day off which is friday.
Does anyone have any irises they are thinning? I'd love to have your discards. any colours, but especially yellow. I got my seed corn in the mail yesterday from Baker's Creek. Wade's giant Indian. I'm going to plant a 1/4 acre of it in the old garden and use it for my own cornmeal, and for stock feed. I am curious as to how far it'll go when feeding ducks and chickens.
I visited with some of my Amish friends on the way home from work yesterday and arranged to buy 2 oinks in a couple months. I know it's not spring yet, but it sure as sunrise feels like it. I am trying to contain myself, with varying results.
Tomorrow is the livestock auction at DeGraff and I am taking the last of the excess drakes, and most of the Serama chickens. Jordan is coming to spend the night so I'll have some teenaged help dealing with everything. Hope you all are doing well and enjoying life.
I'm dawdling this morning... since my DG friend is sick and cannot meet me for lunch. It's supposed to be warm enough to wear shorts for my trip... but the ground and my truck are still frost-covered right now. Brrrrrr...
Nik, I should see if there's a decent farm animal auction around here, and start looking around. I know there's a few for beef cattle, but they don't interest me.
Nik, glad your back is better. I wish I could still go to my chiro but I left him down the bayou. I really miss those adjustments. Good luck moving the ducks and seramas at the market. What kinda pigs you planning to buy? We had blue listed. They were long and lean.
Sue, you might try bartering with some of your eggs. You can also put some in the freezer for winter months.
Darius, sorry to hear you won't be enjoying a nice visit but I do hope you have a successful trip otherwise.
Angie, are the loofahs hard to grow and dry? They are really nice for back washing.
Cricket, I'm with you on the seeds. I already have more picked out than I have room for and I'm not finished going through my seeds yet and I have not even cracked the Baker Creek catalog. I know I will find something in there I want. And there is still the seed swap too!
I worked myself nearly to death yesterday but I am very happy with what I accomplished. Along with all the regular stuff, I also cleaned in my wild berry patch by the creek. There were a lot of dead canes in it from two years ago. A coal company put in a couple big culverts for us in exchange for us letting them cross our property to get to 2 abandoned mines they had to secure. I had asked them to dig me a ford into the creek so I could easily get to the water to dip chicken and dog water. The operator thought he was doing me an extra favor and crossed the creek to make me a road up on the hill where I kept the goats. It was a nice thought but he dropped some huge boulders in the middle of my berry patch. Oh, well. Whatcha gonna do? I cut out the old canes and I also raked up the leaves and picked up old sticks so the patch wouldn't be snakey. The boys like to pick berries in the summer when they are here and I want it to be safe for them.
My neighbor was cleaning the property behind us. It belonged to his sister who passed and it is a jungle. I visited with him for a minute and told him if there was any black water pipe he was going to throw away I'd like to have it. He told me there was a roll by the pump house and I was welcome to it!! I brought it home and made a small hoop house over my newly reconfigured raised bed. It's about 3ft wide x 15 ft long x 4ft high. I also have enough pipe left to make another smaller hoop house but I need some more rebar. DH is picking up the plastic today so I am going to plant in the bed today.
The sun is finally over the mountain so I need to get out and get to work. Hope you all have a great day.
Dh is busy getting gravel in the barn. i tried to help but well.... i am just not good enough on the tractor yet.
so Lucy and i went back to the house. She made a mess with her paws. so again i cleaned the floor. i couldn't get to a towel fast enough.
other then that . it may be a lazy weekend. great weather for our Feb days
oh Degraff oh i always want to go to that , but never can remember . hmmm i may have a road trip tomorrow. i need some laying hens.
Cajun you sound busy and i bet that will be a sweet deal come spring for you .
darius sorry about your lunch trip . wish i was closer to meet up with you for lunch.
well off and back to work in this house of mess
Taynors.....and Cajun..I ordered giant sunflower seeds the other day. Mammoth Russian (Diane's strain). They are suppose to grow 20 inches across if the conditions allow. Costed me out the yang yang. 5 seeds for $5.00. but if I can get them to grow , I will have hundreds.
I also ordered the Northern Giant Cabbage. I wish you could see a picture of that thing!!!!!!!!
here is a link. hope it works. I paid more than out the yang yang for the cabbage seed. 5 / $10
http://www.pandpseed.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=pandpseed&Category_Code=cabbage
I also ordered Flankkee Long Red Giant Carrot
and a giant green squash (like pumpkin)
I had fun ordering seeds.......for sure.......now the trick is growing it.
This message was edited Feb 3, 2012 4:06 PM
This message was edited Feb 3, 2012 4:08 PM
I'm back from my day trip, blew all my gas AND grocery $$ for the month, but mostly on stuff I needed. Good thing Feb. is a shorter month.
I'm planning to attend the Organic Grower's School in NC the first weekend of March. I particularly want to take the Food Forest Farming class, and the half-day hog butchering / charcuterie class. Several other classes interest me, but those 2 are tops.
http://www.organicgrowersschool.org/content/1505
Lucky for me, I lived there not too many years ago and still have friends who will give me a place to sleep.
I have plans to rob my small forest of some of its naturally composted leaves and mycorrhiza fungi.
Cajun, I honestly don't know from experence how they are to grow. But I've heard they're just like any other gourd. And supposedly they dry on the vine. I'll have to do some more research. I got the seeds from a health food store that the 7th day adventists run locally. 1st time I've been able to find them to buy.
Wow, those are mighty pricey seeds. Sure hope they grow for you.
Let the games begin!!! I started planting today. Got the green onions, green sprouting broccoli, broccoli raab, carrots and butter crunch lettuce planted. DH brought home the plastic for the hoop house so I will get that on tomorrow.
http://www.jordanseeds.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=detail&id=%3C!id!%3E&product=858
Does this look like your sunflower? These are $1.15 for 1 oz of seed.
The cabbage was grown in Alaska! Everything gets huge there.
To bad these companies are around to rip people off.
I picked up organic seedling mix, potting soil and a bag of organic compost yesterday, but got home too late to even unload it... and now it's raining. I need to get it out of the truck and into the house to warm up before I can even think of starting seeds. I wanted a bag of worm castings too, but didn't have enough money. February is a short month even in this leap year, but money goes quickly since I'm trying to get a few bills paid off completely. Looks like I'll be debt-free after August, knock on wood that nothing major happens.
I googled giant vegetable seeds and didn't find much and that's why I settle for pandpseeds.com
I saved the jordanseed link for the future. thank you
It's been many years since i grew sunflowers. I'm kinda anxious to grow some this year.
I been transplanting tomato seedlings today into 6 inch pots.
have many other things to transplant and sow. Gonna be a long day
Well, taking small computer breaks helps!
I can relax, outside gardening don't start here until April 15th. That's about when we start transplants, too, They can't go outside until end of May.
Hey Bernie. When do you start your greenhouse tomatoes?
I have been working on kitchen base cabinet island with a bar stool section. Oak . sanded , stained and polyurethane many times. I am just about finished.
In the " Building a Home part 2" topic.
My giant expensive veggie seeds came in today. I just got back from the mail box. It's raining. Finished transplanting 300 tomato seedlings.
In addition to those plants, I am sowing 32 different variety tomatoes this evening to grow for myself.(4 each) Another member here suggested that I have a Tomato Tasting Pic-A-Nic. So I have already started plans for that. (June 16). I recon I should go talk tomato in the tomato forum.
no planting seeds for us yet either.
i have to many bare root plants coming in the end of this month yikes ! i have to go count my pots. !
got some snow today and then 30 min later it melted LOL sheesh.
missed he chicken thing in Degraff. DD had a friend to go to and stay at there house so i had to drive here there.
i still need to finish the feild coop so i can get some new hens in there. so i guess its best to wait till next month .
Y'know, amongst the thousands who visit DG every day, there MUST BE more than just this handful of us who have an interest in homesteading in the 21st century. HOW do we draw them in??
most of them must be going over to that homesteading.com place. there are hundreds over there
taynor, what kind of bare root plants are you getting......whatcha doingggg?
This message was edited Feb 4, 2012 7:03 PM
I got my seeds today for the 1st round of planting. Okra and peppers and carrots and broccoli. Gonna start the peppers inside and maybe the broccoli. Hopin to get them planted Monday.
dogwoods, eastern red bud, hosta. astilbe and daylilys.
i think i can get some lettuce started. with such mild temps i betcha i could start some ? or spinach. if the temps get to low i bring them in to the basement.
hmmmm me is thinking .
Cricket how many tomatos are you doing ? watcha doinggggg :)
Got the plastic on my hoop house this morning. Finished just as it started to rain. It has rained all day. Went to the hospital with DH for his infusion. When he finished we visited a church member in the hospital. Then to Walmart and to get gas. Stopped at the barn on the way home and fed. Stopped and got a salad at the local deli. I'm pooped.
um.....i prune my tomato plants to just a couple vines per plant or just one single vine. I just like growing tomatoes.
How many? ummm. not enough. altogether, every batch for the spring is about 700 plants . 60 of those will be bush.
What am I doing with them...........having a tomato tasting picnic and selling produce.
along with eggplants, squash, cukes, carrots, peppers, blackberries, muskadines,
and gonna try to sell some chicken eggs.==green ones....easter eggers.
in addition to that......i have a greenhouse business selling plants. which is a whole story by itself too.
I've got a flat of different cherry tomatoes started already.. I am behind this year.. Here is a pic of ones planted on Jan. 31st and this was on Feb. 04.. Fast.. But then we have been having 70 degree weather for 2 weeks not.. I have them out on my back deck and have no even had to bring them in.. Yet.. I will, I'm sure.
Larkie
They had the perfect ting for you at the auction yesterday. They had 6 crates of golden comet pullets. 15 per crate. They were 20 weeks old so they'll start laying in the next 2-3 weeks. They went $2 per bird. I almost got them myself. As it was, I sold the drakes and the runner hens, so now I have 2 welsh harlequin drakes, and 8 welsh harlequin hens. I still have the seramas as I decided to wait and sell those at the April auction.