April on the Homestead

Thought that this might be interesting...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/us/19mesa.html?th&emc=th

what do you want to bet the government screws it up for them. Just saying. LOL

I agree.

The part about no meat would bother me. There's got to be something they could hunt or trap.

...wouldn't you think?

GD

From the looks of the place a jack rabbit or a coyote might be about it. …Maybe?

I went thru my emails from my homesteader buddy and found this...

"quartered out 2 rabbits....marinated the pieces in garlic salt, onion powder, pepper, season all, Worcestershire, and Italian dressing.

Dip in flour mixture....and fry....

in a bowl mix half a stick of butter and a bunch of texas pete....microwave till butter is fully melted....soak fried rabbit in sauce mix....

and it was DANG good!"

Sue, I think leaf mold is basically that thin layer on the soil surface, where the leaves are decomposing and it's a part soil/part leaf layer, under a layer of non-decomposing leaves. Some one jump in and correct me if need be.

I'm home, with oxygen and several prescriptions. Feel great and am handling the not smoking well so far. Seedlings and transplants in house are doing fine. I'll walk out to the GH in the morning to check how plants out there are doing.

Later...

Now I’m hungry!!!!!!!
That should work the same with a domesticated bunny …. Right?

MS – you are correct and happy home coming.

MsRobin ~ Glad you are home and hoping you find your strength quickly as you recover. I also hope all is well at home.
You are correct on the leaf mold. Sorry I got sidetracked on your question Taynors.

GoldDomer ~ interesting article. I was amazed that the man they highlighted had a propane refrigerator as well as had large water reservoirs built. He apparently had money as things like that don't come cheaply. With 28 sq miles housing over 400 families I would bet the hunting & trapping pickings would be mightly thin! I wondered about septic systems as they mentioned flushing commodes. Why has someone not stepped in and shown them composting toilets with which they could enhance the soil, maybe installed wind turbines for the community electricity or provided them with solar panels. Were it me, I would hate to listen to generators running ~ especially just so I could watch tv! Unh unh!

Amen on the government involvement Lizards_keep. So what cool plants did you buy today?

Today I topped off the tomato pots in the waterbeds, adding compost and eggshell. Also fertilized. Potted up two dozen sweet peppers and well as the basils. I also potted up two later sprouting tomatoes. A sugar plum and a wild FL Everglades tomato both small and vining. No okra yet as I forgot to soak the seed first.

Did Jayrunyen abandon us? Must have been a great retreat!

Maybe he fell in?

After 20 years he should have accumulated something poor or not.

White & yellow Lady Banks – red & pink Double Knock Outs – Betty Boops – Duchers – Easy Does It – yellow & Pink Native Azaleas – Cuphea – Butterfly Bush (all colors) – Blueberries – Crepe Myrtles (red, white Purple) – Mexican Firebush and couldn’t find any Confederate Rose….. well you asked. LOL

Tired too ...sore finger and all.


This message was edited Apr 19, 2010 8:51 PM

A Betty Boop. One of my favorites

Finger still sore? I bet you weren't very good company today! Nice assortment of bloomers. I realized today I lost a white single confederate rose. I had to dig it up last summer as it was where the GH was being built. Guess it met its' demise in the extreme cold this winter. I have a passalong pink in ground but haven't looked to see new growth there yet. Everywhere I look I am finding fireants~ grrrr! The hard freezes could have killed a few of them off for me.

The finger is fine now; I just need something to complain about.

I don’t want to talk to loud but our fire ant problem has been pretty tame so far. Dreading the next good rain cause they will probably pop out all over the place then. Tried some of that ant stuff that is supposed to keep them away for the whole summer out in the nursery and it seems to be working. Will have to wait and see though.

We lost a lot of stuff in the yard after that freeze too. The citrus took it pretty hard along with the sagos and some fruit trees. DW summed it up as just a chance to plant something different.

My Mom is in south La. She lost her sago palm, navel orange and fig trees. Glad your finger is better. Good to hear from msrobin that you are home and quickly on the mend. We have lots of leaf mold under the hardwoods on the hillsides but it's hard to collect it and stay on your feet at that angle. Also got tons of little roots running through it. I sometimes gather a few 5 gallon buckets of it and toss it in with the chickens. They love scratchin through it for all the little bugs. I always find a few worms in it and I bring those to my turtles and salamander. You have not been entertained until you have watched a turtle stalk a worm. LOL

Went to my friend's house yesterday and planted 4 rows in his garden. Planted the taters had left and the red, yellow and sweet onions I didn't have room for here. Planted several different kinds of bush beans, turnips, red and gold beets, carrots and a salad greens blend. Still gotta plant the corn, okra, cukes, squash, peppers and melons.

Worked on cleaning my porch yesterday. Got it almost done except for 1 bench. Had stuff piled on it from the move. Got it moved to the cellar, the garage and the trash. Still lots of feed on the porch. Can't do anything about that. Gotta work inside today.

We got a slow, steady rain most of the night. We sure needed it. We could use a bit more. Beds should come to life now. It's 52 already this morning but no sun yet. Gotta get the garbage to the road. Have to wait til the last minute so I don't bait the bears. Only picked up 7 eggs yesterday. Got a banty hen gone broody and I have to run her off the nest everyday to get my egg or 2. Good thing I always have my walking stick with me. She's a caution. Gotta get up the hill and turn the goats out. Have a good day everybody!

I don’t raise bunnies but I would sure give that recipe a try.

It’s a shame that those folks aren’t benefiting from the discussion and collective experience that they could learn from (and enjoy) by being a part of this Forum.

Anyone live within driving distance?

Domestic rabbit is delish!!! And all the free fertilizer is lagniappe!

Hey guys we’re still breathing here, just been really, really busy. Like everyone else I guess. LOL. Later.

Working in the yard today and grilling. BBL

Has everyone gotten their “Hero’s Bracelet yet?

I'll bite...what is "Hero’s Bracelet"?

Still alive and kicking here. Been really busy putting in the garden. Will give updates later.

It’s just a bracelet with a name of a fallen war veteran on it. Kind of a least we forget thing. I’m getting one for Vietnam since that was my war. Got to thinking the other day about it and realized that my name could have very easily been on one of them.

Where do you get them?

Raining here all day. Had to get the rain gear on to feed. Of course, Shaq was scared of my rain hat. Big goof ball. I had to blanket him. It's gotten a bit chilly and he can not take the cold. Hasn't bothered the others but he is shaking like a leaf. He has lost 300# this winter trying to keep warm. I'm going to take him to a barn I just found out was available. They have a riding ring too.

I was planning to get my raspberries planted but it's too cold for me to be out there for long. I can't handle wet and cold at the same time. Hope you are all having a more productive day than me. Have any of you heard from Jay?

I'm sorry, I had no idea it was something so significant. I hadn't heard of them before.

No problem, it was just a passing thought MS.
Cajun – you can get them here if you are interested. http://www.herobracelets.org/
They are only $10 to $13 for anodized aluminum.

No …. I haven’t heard from Jay. Starting to get a little worried since he was only going to be gone a week.

All work and no play here but I think it is starting to wind down some.

She was going to one of her retreats but she should be back by now. It may be that she is trying to catch up with all the work she left behind.

Got my work done today in the drizzle. Not too bad. Just got supper cooked. Jambalaya, candied yams, green beans and cranberry sauce. Strawberry shortcake for dessert. Got a deer roast in the oven for tomorrow. My favorite show comes on tonight, Deadliest Catch.

Calling for Frost here tonight. Got my taters covered. I hadn't looked at them in over a week and I was suprised at how much they have grown. I had to unroll the bags a few rolls. I filled them with more hay. Put bags over the strawberry bed and weighted them down. Covered the herb pots though I think I may have nothing more than weeds in them. Took everything else into the cellar.

Hope everybody has a goodnight!

I spent time this afternoon working on covering up stuff too. Couldn't do much else with all the rain the past few days and again most of today. Think we've had over 3' in the last 4 days.

Glad to hear the potatoes are doing good. I still haven't got the ones planted in the bags yet, but hopefully soon. I've got about 30 bags ready. Trying to get as much of the garden planted as I can. I am so behind on so many of early things. Hope it all grows fast, or I'll have to postpone our start date by a week or two.

Jay started this thread on the first, asking if we were already behind. I still am!

Today is looking promising, after an overnight low in the upper 30's. No rain in the forecast...clear and sunny, and suppose to be upper 60's. I'm going to try and finish planting out the transplants and the root crop seeds today, as well as all of the Herb plants in the perrenial garden.

This weather is wonderful and I'm off to work. Oh well, I'm not under the same pressure to get things done. Hope you are on the mend Msrobin.

Last night I potted up my okra. I always soak the seeds before planting and added a bit of peroxide this time. They had sprouted in two days of soaking. Need to remember that next time.

Lizards_keep ~ your comment "All work and no play here but I think it is starting to wind down some" is backward. We need the play when the weather is nice and work when it is so miserably hot and humid. Life is rather backward like retiring when young so you can enjoy doing things and working when old and creaky while you can't enjoy doing anything else. LOL

Cajun ~ let your herb pots grow out and see what those weeds will deliver! Bet you'll be surprised.

light frost
still sick
93 daylilys need to get potted, if one of them should happen to get potted, 92 daylilys still need to get potted. If one of them should happen to get potted ,91 daylilys still need to get potted. everyone sing !

Falalalala... la la la la ~ so sorry you feel bad. Do you sell all those DLs? Hope you are back up to snuff soon and the frosts move north of you!

Sue, I sure would like to see some pics of your opening day of business. I cannot imagine where you are putting all those plants you are potting up all the time.

Rodger-Rodger on the backwardness of life, never been known for my navigational skills anyway. Like not having time to do anything when your working but have lotz of money and having lotz of time but no money when your not. That’s always been my luck … day late and a dollar short. LOL.

About Mothers day we will shut the nursery down for the summer cause it will be too hot to do anything and then open back up from Oct. to Thanksgiving. With the exception of the “honey-do’s” that will ease my workload considerable.

Right now I’m way behind on the veggie weeding and planting. Hope to get the okra, cukes, and squash in this week before its too late. The tomatoes are setting fruit so I hope the temperatures stay down till they make. Last year they stewed on the vine and we didn’t get a whole lot.

While I’m thinking about it … I had a customer tell me that he used one of those topsy-turvy, upside down tomato things and it worked. Claimed to have had more tomatoes off of it than the ones in the ground. I think I’m going to try it too, but with a five gal. bucket hanging from a basket stand and see what happens. I will let you know how it works out.

That's the only person I have ever heard who said that thing worked. My neighbor at the old house tried it in 5 gallon buckets and it didn't do well. The plants kept trying to turn and grow up and they broke at the upturn.

Maybe your maters need some shade. Need you one of those high tunnels like Jay has.

I'm gonna let my herbs grow and see what comes of it. I think I will start some more herbs in a few weeks in some smaller pots.

That was one of my concerns too. The bush would try to grow up and the roots should try to grow down right? Oh well, I’m just a pushover I guess cause I still have to try it out. It sounds good in principle but I have my doubts of it working or working very well.

I wonder if cucumbers would grow that way. Let the vines hang straight down along with the cucumbers. Biggest problem I see might be the weight of the cucumbers breaking the vines. At least the cucumbers will be straight and not dirty or bug bit. LOL.

Not enough shade is exactly the problem around here. This sun cooks everything. We are working on a couple more shade houses and one hoop house to use as a green house though. Like everything else it just takes time and money. LOL.

Cajun i will try and get pics :)
windy day , didn't get much done
Podster yes i do sell them in my nursery . I have only 6 kinds , but lots of them LOL
i killed my ferns :(
i also think i killed my Stella D Oro daylilys :( just didn't get to them in time. bummer but there is hope ? ... i think i m the only person in the world that can kill a daylily :P . give a couple of weeks and we shall see.
hmm never thought about cucs in them upside down thingys ? may work , worth a try . :)

Just to let you know - If it is a viable plant life-form - I can extinguish it without trying to.

Don’t feel bad, I do pretty well with plants but there are other things I have been banned from touching. Like paint. =0) But I do come up with some really wonderful ideas sometimes. Like the time decided to become rich and famous by starting up a worm farm. NO, NO don’t laugh; the “book” said that there are lots of people who have made it rich off worms. I could have been rich too if I had been a little more knowledgeable on worm wrangling. I mean, since they stay buried up in the dirt all the time it took a while for me to realize they had all escaped. Who would have thought worms were that smart?

For us to commit to total homesteading, we would have to be in survival mode I think. We try to eat out of the garden more because of the quality and safety issues, not because we can’t afford to buy it. I asked my dad what homesteading meant to him and he told me that back in the depression money was worthless cause no one had any. To be a homesteader you have to grow, make, or barter for everything. The same as subsistence farming, you did it to survive not to make a profit. An example he told was that the family ate the guinea eggs and saved the regular chicken eggs to barter with because they worth more.

I think we could survive if we had to but it sure would be rough. Our great-grand parents came up that way so I guess we can go back to it if need be.

Just asked my dad, of 90 years, what he thought about the topsy-turvy thing. Don’t think I ever convinced him that there wasn’t a punch line that came along with the question.