On the May Homestead

To keep the cat, dog, rabbits and squirrels from digging in your flower beds you can shake out a can of ground cayenne or ground jalapeno. They'll quit.

I went to the hatchery and got 100 meatbirds and a dozen runner ducks today. I also got about 80% of the old garden tilled today and planted 72 cabbages and 200+ feet of spuds. I still have another 72 brussells spouts plants to do in the morning. I may do the squash, zukes, and cukes tomorrow, too. We'll see what the rain does.

During the 1950s, here in Mills county, most every rancher fed prickly pear to the cattle. Propane torches burn the needles off, and cattle really like the feed, and do well on it. There is onlyone problem -- the cows get addicted to the cactus, and will continue to eat the plants which have not had the needles burned off.This causes sores on the lips.. Have been told by A&M Vets that PPcactus contains a substance similar to Aspirin, so it is really an addictive problem. At the price of propane today, it would not be cheap feed. We had a 50 gallon tank in the back of an old pickup with a 50 foot hose and torch on it. Was not a bad job on a cold winter day. There was no grass cover so no problem with wildfires.
The aspirin-like compound also explains why aPP pad is a great pain releiver for ant or wasp stings.
Robert

Advil, Nik?

Bummer, Darius ,I'll keep my eyes and ears open for chinquapin seedlings.

We got some stuff done today. Chickens coop cleaned out, compost moved. Dh is working on getting my pond pump running. Trying not to get my hopes up, but he feels confident he knows what the problem is.
He pulled out some leaves from under the pump box with his bare hands and found himself holding a baby copperhead! LOL After he disposed of it and was getting over a bad case of the hebbie jebbies he went back to work on the pump and a skunk walked up to him! And that was just HIS day.
I got my foot step on by one of the cows, my fault, I was in her way. But, I'm not excusing her behavior for last nights milking. They had a free concert going on about two miles from us. The band started playing as I was half way through with milking. Sally (the cow), started pooping and flinging it with her tail, kicking at me and yanking her head back. I thought she was going to pull down the stantion and the wall with it. Cows have no appreciating for Christian contemporary pop music.

We'll lets see what tomorrow has in store :0)

Robert, that's really interesting, thanks so much! Heaven knows, the last thing I need is a cow with a monkey on it's back.
It was so good to see you and Patricia Sunday. Glad ya'll made it home safe. Did you get any of the recent rains?
Lynea

Stiff as a board this AM. But after walking to the back of the spread with the MacTavish and eating a handful of aspirin I'm starting to feel pretty good. The chicks are doing good as are the ducklings. I'm going to plant some Brussels Sprouts after I finish all my other chores this AM. Then I'm going to try to mow in between the rain showers. Maybe get some mulching done, too.

I knew that about the ocotillo (Prickly pear) but I had forgotten it. a friend in Wyoming slapped a pad of it on a scorpian sting once. It's suppose to help draw out the venom and ease the pain a bit.

I put aspirin in the water for my meatbirds as they have such poor hearts. I just dissolve 1 uncoated tablet per gallon. I figure if it works for me it ought to work for the chickens. The Colonel would be proud.

cocoa, We lucked out and got 1.8 inches of rain. Hopefully in a couple of weeks cows will have green grass before the hay is all gone.
Robert

Texas got rain? Yeehaw!!!

Here's a couple of interesting (to me, anyway) links for anyone thinking of getting a few farm animals and feeding them.

Making your own small scale silage
http://a-homesteading-neophyte.blogspot.com/2011/04/making-your-own-small-scale-silage.html

The Cost of Feed
http://a-homesteading-neophyte.blogspot.com/2011/01/cost-of-feed.html

This part of Texas didn't get any rain. The last we had was in February.

Texas isn't exactly small, is it? Sorry you didn't get any wet stuff...

Nope, it just keeps passing us by to the north. More like August than May.

Hello Everyone,
I have been reading your posts about the bad weather conditions; where its too rainy and I have heard on the news Friday evening about the droughts in Central Texas and my heart goes out to all those affected by the weather conditions.
I don't understand why in the flooded areas that there is not a way to use hydrolic pumps to pump water into large barrels or train cars to ship to farming areas that need water. Or why can't people make use of cisterns that store water...I have heard the excuse over and over that "it costs too much" and I can't help but think that it's costing more not to come up with viable solutions to water problems. Surely flood water from the river beds can't be too contaminated.? It would give people jobs to man pumps to fill large containers/barrels, drums, etc...that can be shipped by rail, or large shipping trucks that would take water to farmers who need water...I just don't understand why all the excess flood waters cannot be somehow used for helping farmers in drought areas...
Thanks for listening!

Great idea except it would cost too much with the current fuel prices.

On the other hand, expensive food from watered fields or even feedlots is better than no food at all.

I'd pay for a tanker full of water about now.

LOL
I think I've been out voted on this one
a little rain would be nice

a LOT of rain would be nicer!!! The cracks are amazing. So... How does your garden grow?

Welcome ErzsebetF! Glad to have you join in. Hope you stay with us and tell us what is going on in your area.

I agree in that no effort and/or thoughts have been put into contolling these natural events. How can they repeatedly allow people to build in flood zones and yet put the burden of rebuilding on the taxpayer? Many homeowners can not even get flood insurance due to their location and repeated flooding. My heart is with them for their loss but how could they not have known this could happen. My MN family received record snowfall this winter. They even knew last winter that there would be serious flooding this spring. History does repeat itself...

I suspect they wouldn't do the water transfer because of fear of contamination like pollution or sewage. For example, the state of Texas no longer allows shallow wells to be drilled for the same reason. Just too much pollution via livestock, sewer systems, garbage disposed of improperly. A few years ago (when it was raining here) we had a phenominal amount of rain 18 inches, in less than 12 hours. It floated manhole covers in town and contaminated the towns' drinking water. I don't recall the name of the infection but many folks that drank it had to take an extensive and expensive round of antibiotics for their digestive system. Something I'd rather avoid... many said the antibiotics caused another set of problems by killing of the good intestinal bacteria as well.

Hope everyone has a happy Mothers Day (even the non-Mothers)... pod

Good Morning and Happy Mother's Day whether you are a Mother to humans or Furkids...

I'm working on a Stilton (cheese) I started last night. I just realized I am such a dunce! Several years ago I had a disastrous reaction to penicillin, and now I carry a tag that says I'm allergic. I don't even KNOW if I can eat a blue cheese since the blue is a penicillin mold!!

It's rainy outside, so I can't work in the garden. I DID get a sugar maple planted yesterday... I've had the poor thing in a small tub for 2 years and the trunk is now "S" shaped! I hope some staking and tying can straighten some of it out.

The farmer's market yesterday yielded very few veggie seedlings, I only bought a 4-pk of zukes and a 4-pk of chard. There was lots of lettuce but I have seeds. I shouldn't be surprised at the lack of variety though, our last frost date is May 15. So far this year I've only successfully started seeds of haricot verts (those really skinny French green beans) and a few bulbing fennel seeds (which I understand are hard to grow to bulbing size). I really need to get my fanny in gear and start some seeds or I'm going to be hungry come Fall and Winter.

What was supposed to be a few widely scattered showers turned into 7/10s of an inch of rain last night. This is really getting old.

Water is too expensive to haul from well watered areas, to drier areas. otherwise they would have started doing it decades ago. Especially so since in a lot of those areas the water will be right back into the air within hours. It's a nice thought, but not very realistic.

I went to the Master gardener's sale yesterday and got some pineapple mint, thyme, bee balm, lemon balm,sweet woodruff, bedstraw and some lily of the Valley. The sale wasn't nearly as good this year, though. The old man who did the heirloom tomatoes has gone to his reward, so no more of his offerings. He was a cool old man, too.

I hope all you Mothers, hope/plan to be mothers, and sadly the used to be Mothers have a good mother's day. My mother is on a vacation to AZ to visit her cousin, but I got alhold of her cell phone and we yakked for a few minutes.

I remember years ago a proposal to tow an iceberg to L.A. to relieve a drought - didn't happen.

Would have made a movie though - think of Tommy Lee Jones in "Volcano" and Bruce Willis in "Armageddon" !

Here's the image of my little test garden.
talk to ya'll later

There was a sci-fi book with that premis. I think it was called Texas on the Rocks by Daniel de Cruz. It seems to me it was sequel from another one. The Ayes of Texas maybe.? They were both fun reads if I remember right.

Hi, Everyone! I've been busy planting in the garden and putting together containers. Some things I just can't grow well in the garden thanks to flea beetles. Still have 3 wide rows of beans, all of my melon and squash plants, corn and a few other little odds and ends to plant. The garden is looking good and the weeds aren't too bad {knock on wood}.

I had a "DUH" moment, too. I bought a scuffle hoe last spring and couldn't figure out how to make it work. I ran across it the other day and finally figured it out. Sure makes short work of weeds the rows.

I have one of those too, Robin... doesn't work on well-established weeds but it's great for the newly emerging ones. It's best to mulch after weeding, too.

Looks like we will have a nice (but hot) day... or most of the day anyway. I need to get some supports up for pole beans, and then if I have the energy I need to start on the rehab of my root cellar. BIG job it will be, and costly because of installing a new elec. breaker box and moving the water lines so I can get the refrigerator I want to use as an aging chamber installed inside.

If I can, I'd like to insulate the block portions that are above ground but the interior stays somewhat damp after rainy weather so fiberglass insulation is not a good idea... nor do I want sheet foam insulation in with foods. (Although I need to research to see if they all outgas.)

I've been pretty busy today. I prepared 3 more rows/beds for summer squash, 3 for beans and 2 more extra wide rows/beds for tomatoes and 1 for onions and I put up a plastic fence to enclose the sweet potato bed...now that I've got the scuffle hoe figured out. It doesn't work on the walkways, but it sure works great in the rows. I planted the onions and tomatoes today and will plant the rest tomorrow. I should have everything planted by the end of the week.

It got pretty hot today, but my breathing and stamina held up pretty good, so was able to stay out there quite awhile.

I'm going to an MG meeting tonight. Our plant fair is Saturday, so the final details have to be worked out. We're having lots of cool demos and I'm doing one on container gardening. I don't know how our group got anything done before the 24 new interns joined this winter, but they sure keep us busy. (or want to anyway) LOL

Robin, you got a lot more accomplished than I did... I simply got sidetracked, LOL.

I wish I had gotten sidetracked! I would have enjoyed it more.

About twice a summer, I use a push mower to cut back the weeds and small trash trees on the pond dam slope. I leave some weedy wildflowers. One is dog fennel. The dragonflies like to perch on it and I like how graceful it is. Well there was a clump of it that had small trees growing up in so I mowed into it. Sounded like I hit a small tree stump. Imagine how surprised I was when I pulled the mower back and saw I had fileted a water moccasin. He was about 2 1/2 to 3 feet long and hefty. I snagged him and threw him off the backside of the dam. As DH says, crows and buzzards need to eat too.

I have been fighting fleas and was told to use pine o pine or pine sol. Not directly on the animals but on their bedding and areas they lay or travel. Sprayed the sandy areas of the yard and washed their bedding. I will have to see it to believe it.

I also tried crockpot baked taters tonight. They turned out well and easy. Think I will try sweet taters in it next time.

Decided to put a soaker hose in the lasagna bed, so I did. Decided to remove it, so I did. I got some needed limb trimming done and managed to prove Stihl wrong again. My easy2start chainsaw... grrrrr! I really think it is this blasted gas but I had run it dry and started out with new gas in it.

MsRobin ~ whatcha planting in the containers? Veggies or herbs or? Sounds like you are making headway in the garden. Hope the rest of the week goes smoothly.

Darius ~ anyway you could insulate the outside? Or maybe that would defeat the purpose. If you have enough room in the interior, you might use the styro insulation and then a paneling. The old meat processing plant was built that way. Of course they used a white vinyl paneling. Styro insulation can be attached to block with liquid nails. Just a thought.

NikB ~ what kind of prices did you see at the MG sale? Were folks buying? Sad to lose your old timer friend. Much knowledge passed on with him, I am sure.

Lizards_keep ~ your garden spot looks like it has a good jump on the season. You will find the evening shade will pay off a bit later in the season, I would suspect. Is that the only one you are doing this summer?

I am trying two different types of raised beds. A 2' x 10' bed done with Hugelkulture and the other is 8' x 10' lasagna bed. Both will be a test with the drought. Hoping they are both successful.

So far they have done great! They are surrounded with landscape timbers.

The Hugelkulture bed has 7 tomatoes, Malabar spinach and herbs. I excavated as deep as I could and added rotting hardwood. It was doughty and before I put the dirt back in, I soaked the wood with water. In theory, it holds water and the roots will reach down and into the rotting wood. I haven't had to water it yet so maybe.

The other was built up with layers of dirt, cardboard, compost and more. In it I planted, 15 tomatoes, 4 pimentos, 8 cukes, a patch of improved pintos, a trellis of Fortex beans, two par-cels, Egyptian onions, two dills, 3 eggplant ,3 canteloupe, 2 pan squash, 2 pumpkin and some herbs. How is that for ambitious in an 8 x 10. lol After planting and watering well, I mulched it with pinestraw. It is holding the moisture really well also. No complaints thus far. Other than I ran out of room to plant the okra. I need to dig up the multiplier onion bed and replant with okra plants in that bed, I guess.

This photo is the Hugelkulture bed. I am holding my breath till it rains hard because we have wilt in the soil. I am hoping these will be resistant. Or maybe it will never rain... 8 )

Sounds and looks good to me. I don't usually go to all the extra trouble ... I trend toward the lazy gardener style. LOL. The new beds are pretty sandy right now but will moderate over time as stuff is added to them. It won't be long before the heat takes everything anyway. I just hope I can get a decent crop first.

So what kind of cool weather stuff are you planning on for fall?

I have a new project: an apple guild!

3 years ago someone gave me an apple seedling (unknown variety) from his grandfather's old tree. It is now about 5 feet tall. I've been reading up on "guilds" since watching the Future Farm videos.

A guild is kinda like companion planting that has advanced to college level. Most guilds are perennial, with a fruit or nut tree at the center, and provide for the needs of everything planted in the group in as many ways as possible so it becomes self-sustaining. Each "guild" needs 5 things: Nitrogen, Nutrients, Mulch, Pollination, and Protectors from competition and pests.

So for an apple guild, I'll need a thick ring of "protectors" just barely outside the eventual drip line to keep grass from encroaching and also deter pests; those will probably be daffodil bulbs in the beginning since mine need dividing.

A ring of a few comfrey and/or artichoke plants just inside the daffs will mine nutrients with their deep roots, plus provide mulch by cutting the comfrey back several times over the summer and letting the leaves litter the ground. Planted among the comfrey will be some bird and insect-attractors like dill, fennel or bee balm (monarda).... and some nutrient accumulators like yarrow, borage, chives and lemon balm.

Next in and closer to the tree will be some ground covers, like strawberries, and maybe some than can take a bit of foot traffic, like the "stepables". Right close to the trunk will be more "protector" bulbs to deter pests.

Sound like a plan?

I'm thinking to plant my tomatoes in an annual "tomato guild".
http://growingfreedom.podbean.com/2011/03/07/permaculture-guilds-tomato-guild/

Your guild sounds like my Irish sailor colony. A tomato or pepper in the center, with 2 marigolds right next to it. onions or garlic planted in a circle about of 1 ft radius with carrots scattered in the circle. The next year you plant green beans (I like blue lake) which you mulch well. after the beans are done you mow the row and till it all in for next year's Irish Sailor. Oh, and the tomatoe and marigolds are planted in pure, well rotted rabbit poop. Works pretty good. Carrots grow well around tomatoes, marigolds keep ants, and therefore aphids away. The onions also deter bugs, and being planted in a circle the way they are it helps to stop onion fly maggots. Beans add N to the soil the next year while the rabbit poop and mulch and bean waste add organic matter. Also, by switching off like that you lessen the chances of blight. And yes, I am the Irish Sailor. Born Bally na Cally in Co. Clare. USN 1975-2005 with a break around 1978.


The prices at the MG sale were pretty good. I got 7 potted herbs -one in a ceramic planter- for 8.25. I don't know alot about herbs, so I'm not sure where to plant all of these. I know thyme likes full sun, and lily of the valley likes a bit of shade. The mint is no problem , but I'm not sure about the sweet woodruff, bedstraw, or lemon balm. Any thoughts?

Sweet woodruff likes the same environment as LOV (Lily of the Valley). Lemon Balm in full sun. I've ever grown bedstraw although I've looked for it. Don't remember what it needs but probably full sun.

Thyme can actually take a bit of shade, if needs be.

Irish Sailor... yep, sounds like a well-planned guild!

My days have been shortened by the heat. I feel useless after 3:00. Spending my mornings on bug patrol...I think the honeymoon of spring is over!lol
Dh got my pond pump working, I gave the kitchen garden it's first drink of the good stuff this morning, then clouds and thunder forced me inside. It clearing up now, no rain, but perhaps another county will be lucky.

Darius, be careful if you test that blue. Make sure you got someone home with you!
That homestead blog was interesting..my feed costs are opposite of hers..more for grain and less for grass and hay. I really need to collect info on harvesting and collecting grains on a small scale.
If any of you run across interesting examples, please send them my way.

Pod, I glad you found that snake, before he found you! I can't wait to see how your Hugelkulture beds do. I wish I had heard of it before adding to the new raised beds. I still think I can get some old logs under them, just a little more effort. I'm sold on the fish heads tho, that spot were I buried them is amazing. I doubt a few weeks passed before planting over them and wouldn't hesitate to plant directly over freshly buried fish guts. Thanks!

Better get back to work before the temps rise :0)

Linea, I posted questions about my penicillin allergy and eating blues... got this answer:
You should be fine. All the several dozen common commercial roqueforti strains that come to mind have little to no b-lactam (such as penicillin) production. Penicilliums are a large genus, with only several isolated ones such as P chrysogenum producing enough b-lactams to trigger a reaction.
http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,7051.0.html

Also several reports from others with a penicillin allergy saying blue cheese doesn't affect them at all.

Wish I could get fish heads, or even guts. I might ask up the highway where I understand there is a pay to fish trout pond.

I'm starting more comfrey this year. It makes good chicken feed. I know there are some books on raising grains on a small scale but I haven't read any. There is a farm nearby that raises grain sorghum on about half an acre, but I've never stopped to talk to them. Maybe I will this summer, if I can remember where it is.

Good to hear! I hate to think of blue cheese going to waste.
I've been meaning to move comfrey into my asparagus beds...I think comfrey is one of those small miracle plants!
Sorghum interests me, I know it's grown for the cane here, but I'm sure the seeds would be enough for the chickens. Mostly, it's understanding how to control and measure the moisture in grain that eludes me.


I pulled all the lettuce today and sowed basil and some flowers in it's place. I was left with a small block soil, not sure what to do with. I dragged a cattle panel over to see if it would fit between my rows and give me enough head space to walk under...it does! I wish I had thought of that earlier in the spring. But for now, going to experiment growing cantaloupes up them.