starting to cool off on the September Homestead

darius, yep. she is definitely old enough to move out and live and learn life's experiences on her own. Hope that works out. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Just a chance the young ones have to take.

i forgot my apples in my dehydrator last night. they ran all night .... :( they are crisp ! LOL bummer

Sue, they'll pick up moisture and soften if you leave them out on a counter (but usually not during winter when our houses are so dry inside).

darius that is good to know thanks :)
i will keep them for oatmeal and other things for baking and cooking.

Pod, you can use the captured EMs to inoculate a carbon base (newspaper, rice and bran hulls, etc). The resulting product is used like Bokashi.
Or say, you have large amounts of grass clippings (I know, not this year.lol) and not enough carbon available to compost properly. By fermenting them with EMs, they can go directly into the beds (they need to be buried) and ready to plant on top in three weeks.
Now, if you were to just bury the grass clippings and add enough soil that anaerobic activity isn't possible (think silage) the grass clippings would probably ferment on their own, but adding EMs ensures it.

Cricket, I do hope the best for all of you. Hopefully, just having someplace he can regroup his thoughts, even if for a day or two, will make a world of difference.
Was it because of homeschooling laws, that your sister had an attorney? Texas is quite relaxed, compared to other states, about homeschool regulations.B ut I'd rather know now, if need we an attorney, rather then when needed.lol

Cocoa ~ thanks once again for the invaluable information on the Ems. Yes, I saw the link you posted on harvesting them with steamed rice. It was a well done tutorial. Not ready to do that yet but will save it for future reference or use.

Darius ~ thanks much for the links. That list was extensive and I look forward to crossreferencing what may do well here. Appreciate your trouble...

cocoa, she had an appointed attorney through some type of homeschool group. Mostly incase they said she didn't turn in all her records but she kept all her school work in boxes for each year and turned in all her paper work like she was suppose to. Plus, she had custody of three other family members children and she homeschooled them too so it was necessary for her to have the attorney.


I am so tired. I would love to just take a shower and go to bed. My tiller wouldn't till deep enough =in my opinion= so I pulled out the Mantis cultivator and tilled individual holes for 180 cole crop plants today and planted them. I have to do that many tomorrow too. Already planted about 100 in the raised beds. It's gonna rain Thursday. Gotta get it done.

My scuppernong wine is almost ready! 2 more weeks. I still have a few more on the vines. Thought about making some fruit spread. I don't like jelly. Jelly is too thick.

Guess I need someone to post the link to the EM/steamed rice tutorial, please?

I'd like it too please?

Been popping in to see what everyone is up to. But haven't had anything to share. :(

These are the links that Cocoa had posted (hoping she doesn't mind my jumping in with them)

http://www.wildlifegardeners.org/forum/fertilizing-soil-amen...

http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/20040401/Hamilton

http://www.reap-canada.com/online_library/IntDev/id_bokashi/...

This one has a good photo tutorial of the harvesting with steamed rice.

http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/BIO-9.pdf

These are offered with the warning that it is a deep swirling pool you are about to enter... lol
Or maybe just good winter reading for springtime inspiration.

I will add this site http://www.malcolmbeck.com/books/gv_method/MycorrhizaeBeneficialFungiinFertileSoil.htm
This man puts it in common sense terms that I can understand better. I like to read thru his site in general.

Thanks for the links! I'll check them out tomorrow or the next day... When I came back to my rooms after working today on house projects, I thought I might have to crawl on all fours. Can't remember being this tired and achey in years!

Thanks to both Cocoa for the original sharing of the posts and thank you Podster for reposting plus the additional one.

Darius, hope you're doing better this morning and hopefully not too stiff and sore.

Feel guilty for mentioning this, but we received a total of 1 3/4" last week between 2 rainfalls and another 1/2" last night. The garden has really perked up. We also had a couple of beautiful days in the 70's last week and upper 60's are forecast for the next couple of days. This is much appreciated. It's been a major battle all summer with the bugs and drought, while trying to grow enough vegetables for all of our members.

The chickens (the 11 adult birds) discovered the garden a couple of weeks ago and I finally gave up chasing them out. They're not doing too much damage on the vegetables themselves, but they are sure scratching up the soil and weeds between the plants and in the walkways, leaving lots of fertilizer and hopefully eating lots of bugs! All of my fall crops are under garden blankets over low hoop wires to protect them from the chickens.

A fellow MG classmate and I helped another fellow classmate (and one of my spring seminar partners) work on getting his 100' row of thornless blackberries weeded and propagating. He gave each of a bunch of volunteer plants that were outside the row area. I had also bought 10 plants last week, so I spent yesterday morning planting all of the blackberries in my garden, plus a bunch of grape vines that I've had growing in buckets since last year. I still have several new grape vines to detach from the mother plants on my grape row to move and a few dozen everbearer strawberry plants. I've been trying to get these planted since last spring.

Hope everyone has a great day!

MsRobin ~ sounds like all is going wonderful in your end of the world. Please don't feel guilty for receiving the rain. Feel blessed and enjoy it. Even in this drought, there are lessons to be learned. It gives me a new appreciation for the necessities in life and a warning to be better prepared and less dependent.

I have always heard that once the garden plants are established, you can turn the chickens into it and they rarely bother the plants or fruits but will tend to the garden exactly as yours are doing. Those gals may be good gardening companions when it comes to the bugs.

The whiteflies are covering my garden spot up. They are trying to kill the weaker fall tomato plants and did kill a few cucumber vines. I think (being out after dark) that I am going to try something different. I noticed they swarmed around a flashlight. Yellow sticky traps will catch them but I don't want to snag the hummers during daytime. I'm thinking I'll hang a light out there with flypaper nearby and see how many I can harvest at night. Kinda like poaching.

Cooler temps today. The past two have been 105° and 102° respectively. The summer that never seems to end....

Anyword from Hineni?

I talked to her last night. She's doing fine, but misses being home.

Well, I'm still alive this morning... Sore and stiff as can be, though. Maybe all the kneeling, bending, etc, today installing the shoe and quarter-round molding in the new room will loosen some of it...

We're supposed to get rain for the next 3 days, and my yard is littered with stacks of cardboard and alfalfa bales to start some sheet composting for the new planting areas next year. I'm also planning to get under the house again today and install the drain piping for the greywater system... which may not happen if we get a lot of rain.

Here's a link that may interest some of you:
Introduction to Permaculture - 40 hours of Free video lectures
http://permaculture-media-download.blogspot.com/2011/09/introduction-to-permaculture-40-hours.html

Watch online all lectures for Free here:
http://courses.ncsu.edu/hs432/common/podcasts/

pod, the third link you posted above does not work... (reap-canada...)

Of all days to happen, I had a minor emergency this morning. Well. not so much me, as all my goldfish. Went to the kitchen to start packing boxes for delivery today and saw out the kitchen window that the garden pond was almost empty. I heard the waterfall all morning, so didn't realize there was a problem. The flopping fish weren't too happy. I ran out barefoot, still in my nightgown, unplugged the pump and tried to figure out what happened. Since we got rain last night, the ground was wet enough that I couldn't tell where the pond water went. So far, no casualties. :)

Glad there were not casualties and I hope you can remedy the problem for the fishies. Don't you hate it when a day begins that way!?!!

Darius ~ thanks for the links you posted. I will have to explore them when I can sit unmolested for a while. Sounds interesting.

I attempted to correct the reap-canada link but not able to, sorry.
My Adobe Acrobat is not as acrobatic as it should be but I believe there is an issue on the other end.
That page was from 2006 and the path has probably been changed.

Perhaps Cocoa will be along and be able to remedy it. If anyone can fix it ~ she can. That's what Moms are good at! lol

hey gang
well to much going on here and i just didn't have time to say "HOWDY "
got my black berrys in
off to farmers market today
bbl

hmmm... wonder if she's shopping? or selling? off to work here...

I'm so sorry, I drop the ball on this one. This link should take you to the pdf
http://www.reap-canada.com/online_library/IntDev/id_bokashi/

Hectic week, things are quickly melting down at school with my oldest son. He and his teachers are extremely frustrated. He hates school, he thinks the teachers hate him. He's not doing any of his work, when he does, it's minimal effort. He's failing just about everything, including science. Then out of blue, we get an invitation for him to join a Duke University talented program, because he scores at a college level in science. They want him to take the SAT or ACT now, so they can monitor him into high school. I don't how that will turn out, we can't get though 20 minutes of homework without it turning into 4 hours of crying, hyperventilating, panic attacks on his part, much less a 4 hour college entrance test. I feel more then ever, I have to get him out of public school and focus on his abilities. Hopefully, he can get back to a point where he enjoys learning again.

Not all bad news, I've had so much trouble trying to detect heat in the dairy cows since the summer was so hot. This morning both ladies were acting squirrelly, so sent I them out into the pasture with the beef bull. Sure enough, love was in the air... fingers crossed for June calves!

Thanks, Robin, it's good to hear from Hineni, if only through the grapevine. Tell her we said, "hello" :0)

I think it's a shame the public schools can't figure out how to deal with a bright student. Sounds like a good plan to homeschool and focus on his science affinity.

Here's a photo of the back room I've been working on. Hard to take a photo because the room is long and narrow. Installing the insulated steel door was a bear because the wall isn't plumb. I hope to finish it this coming week when my sis is off work. She'll do the painting while I work on making the frame for the window, and I have to get under the house and power the electric outlets.

Darius, looks great!

(((Cocoa_Lulu))) one of my boys was like that.

I hope all of our southern friends are playing in the rain. Heard a good portion of Texas was getting rain. Not enough or as much as needed, but some. :)

Happy Birthday, Cajun!

Got a little rain yesterday (1/4") and it's sprinkling this morning. The grass is green again.

We finally got 31 ducklings out of 34 eggs. Today we are setting some guinea eggs and we have another duckling hatch that should start happening in about 10 more days. This is sooooo cool!! Debbie made me a quilt for my bed for my birthday Saturday and is making me patchwork quilts for drapes in my living room and the rest of the house to match. The grandkids were here for the weekend and we got 7 cords of wood split and stacked, so the woodshop will be warm this winter. I'm going to start the new chicken coops this week. I talked with the guys in the Village and they are going to bring me about 5 loads of leaves for the new garden, so next year the stuff ought to just JUMP out of the ground.
I love fall. It gives me so many ideas for the next year and though I'm working everyday, it's not like I have to finish everything before the next rain or whatever.

Nik, that ALL sounds pretty cool... from ducklings to quilts to firewood!

Happy Birthday, Caj!

Here are a couple of links and interesting thoughts on home schooling
To Reform Education, Outsource It To Parents
http://www.forbes.com/sites/chunkamui/2011/09/08/to-reform-education-outsource-it-to-parents/

Homeschooling the Key to Educational Reform??
http://happilyhome.blogspot.com/2011/09/homeschooling-key-to-educational-reform.html

It has been cool enough here at night to have a fire, but I have so much crap temporarily stored in the living room that I'm afraid of a fire. (It's stuff I moved out of the way so I could get the chest freezer moved out of the pantry.) I did clear a small path yesterday, but until I re-organize the pantry I'm just moving stuff from one pile to another!

I worked some yesterday starting on sheet composting a new growing area, higher up out of the flood zone. I got nearly 400 square feet partially covered, about a third of the area I want to do this fall. Next comes a layer of wood chips from last summer, and some amendments... then a layer of topsoil.

Darius, looking good on the new garden space! I have the same problem with moving stuff around when I decide to make some changes. But it always feels so good when it's done.

Way to go, Nik! Debbie sure takes good care of you.

happy birthday Cajun !
wow nice work darius.
Nik good news on the ducklings .
Cocoa Sure hope your son can get some help . No fun to be in that situation for either of you. Sending warm thoughts to you and son.
LOL but i had to reread your cow love story LOL
got some idea's for farmers market
apple dumplings
hot apple cider and a green punch to serve with gummy worms and gummy eyeballs in it for OCt
doing caramel apples too.
its raining here today. which is good. i don't have to water :) !

30% chance of rain today, so I rode the bike to work - it rained. The morning ride was cold, though the temp was 58° when you add the wind chill at 55 MPH - burr. The ride home was better. This morning the reported chance of rain for tomorrow was 40%, now it is 60%. Needless to say the Shadow will stay in the shed in the morning & I will take the truck.

never fails on the rain the day you want to ride in to work .
we got rain
to muddy to do much today outside
chickens are feed
dog is feed
grocery kind of day spent to much :P
tried to make some apple dumpings for farmers market but just can't break it down in cost to make any money ? bummer.

I've signed up for a 1-day conference in Bristol, TN in mid October. "Goods from the Woods" is the name, and will cover ginseng, ramps, shiitake mushrooms, elderberries, and pawpaws.

I am assuming it will cover both growing and wildcrafting, but don't have any facts because I haven't seen the brochure. However, it's only 50 miles away, and it's free, so I'll gain some knowledge either way!

What day in October ?

Friday, Oct. 14. Want the contact info to reserve a spot?

Think I have my work cut out for me? Load of cardboard I picked up last night... and today another load of alfalfa. Too rainy to take pictures today.

Great score, Darius! And the conference sounds wonderful. Wish I wasn't so far away.

Happens that I am off work on that day ! Do you have a link to online info about it?

It's sponsored by ASD (Appalachian Sustainable Development), but it's not on their website that I can find. Deni Peterson is handling it.

Denise Peterson
Learning Landscapes Manager
Appalachian Sustainable Development
310 West Valley Street, Abingdon, VA 24210
Phone: 276-623-1121
Email: dpeterson@asdevelop.org
Website: www.asdevelop.org

Who ever said gardening was easy?

I'm starting to put up some hoops to cover fall veggies with frost-protective fabric. It's my first attempt, and I'm flying by the seat of my pants even though I have read oodles of "how-to's". The first few hoops are up... they are some old, used PVC tubing I've dragged around 10-15 years! They span a wider area than I have planted (by one foot) so today I have been digging grass and weeds from that one foot.

The good news is that it gives me room for 2 rows of spinach, which I just now planted. :) I also transplanted a few more carrots from their seedling tray; 90% of the ones I planted earlier got wiped out by TS Lee. So were most of the purple cauliflower, beets and Brussels sprouts, but I think it's too late to start more seeds.

I'm trying to cover/add 100 square feet per day on my sheet composting area, but don't make it some days... like today.

Looking good, Darius. I just used some spare bricks along the edges (1 every 4' or so) to hold down the garden blanket edges. It doesn't whip around like plastic does. I gathered the ends and layed a brick on it. Some I used plastic gripper clamps to hold the gather near ground. Both ways work well.

I'm stuck at the bottom of this circling weather pattern. I am sure getting tired of cloud cover.

Good thoughts, Robin. I planned to deal with anchoring the fabric when I get to installing it, but I do have lots of rocks nearby.