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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 13, 2019 20:45:14 GMT -6
Back before I got Asthma so bad that I couldn't heat with wood anymore, I used to keep a fire burning 24/7, from about late November until sometime in mid-March. Still, I'd only burn about 5 to 8 ricks of dead oak per season. Wood is very economical for heating purposes if you have a good, airtight wood stove, and if you know the characteristics of your wood.
There used to be a sawmill a few miles from here that cut mainly railroad ties. It was located on the way home from work, so I'd stop there, once per week, and buy a truckload of oak railroad tie ends, for $10.00 per truckload. These pieces of scrap oak were roughly 7" inches by 9" inches in width, and varied in length, from 3" inches to almost 3' feet. A few were too long for my stove, so I'd still have to trim them down with a chainsaw, but at that price, it was very little labor for such a convenient resource.
I had an old, Ashley wood stove at the time, with a 26" inch firebox. I could stuff that thing full of wood at 5:00 am and close the damper most of the way, and still have a good bed of hot coals in the stove when I got back home by 5:00 pm that same evening.
When I got home from work, I'd chunk up the fire, fill the firebox again, and make the entire night on that one filling. In that way, I was able to run a low fire for 24 hours at a time, on the equivalent of four pieces of seasoned oak wood, approximately 24" inches long, by 7" inches wide, by 18" inches tall (the height of two railroad ties stacked flat; one on top of the other).
At that rate, I was able to heat my house 24 hours per day, for about $10.00 per week. If I had been cutting my own firewood, I could have gotten by even cheaper.
It's hard to beat a good, old fashioned wood stove for a steady and economical source of heat.
Have you tried burning any seasoned okra stalks in your wood stove yet? A small fire, built of seasoned okra stalks, makes a quick, very hot fire, that leaves no coals. That is a good way to take the chill out of the morning air on Autumn days when you don't want a fire in the stove all day long. The okra stalks burn up fast and heat the iron firebox through and through. Just about enough to raise the temperature of the room by 10 degrees or so, before it burns out. (Be careful not to start a chimney fire though). Quick burning fuel can ignite creosote build up in your chimney, the same way as burning paper can do. So use caution and keep a clean chimney at all times.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 28, 2019 20:21:42 GMT -6
What a cold, rainy, Thanksgiving Day ...
Year to date, we have gotten 21" inches more rain than we had by Thanksgiving Day last year. Our rainfall total here in Moodys, so far, is right at 70.00" inches. That is so close to six feet of rain, that it's not even funny. No wonder my garden is so muddy. Even so, my kids are sitting around the house tonight, happily munching pickled okra.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 29, 2019 0:30:47 GMT -6
Bon,
I'm with you on giving away fresh produce. That's always a 'happy making thing' to have enough okra to share with a few friends. Selling at the Farmers Market is a good way to make some extra cash to buy things you need for your gardening habit. I'm glad to hear you got access to abundant leaves. Those will make a great addition to your compost piles.
Also, I used to cut firewood for a living during the wintertime when outside construction work was basically non-existent. At the time, I had an old man on my yearly, wood delivery route, who always ordered a rick of seasoned hackberry from me ... Having no idea why anyone would want to buy what I considered 'trash wood' rather than buying oak, I asked him, "Why hackberry?"
He told me, "Because seasoned hackberry leaves no coals. When you burn only oak, the coals will eventually get so deep in the bottom of your stove that you will end up with a 'cold fire' until the coals burn down far enough for the wood inside to be able to 'breath' again. Sometimes, it may take a stopped up stove 8 hours for the coals to burn down far enough to get a hot fire going again."
Sometimes, the coals from burning straight-up oak can get 8" or 10" inches deep and eventually starve your fire for oxygen. That's just the nature of that type of hardwood. Hickory does the same thing.
That old man taught me that by mixing dead elm or dead hackberry with your oak and hickory, you'd get a better fire with even amounts of ash and coal, and the ashes would fall through the bottom grate more readily, allowing air to circulate better.
Seasoned elm doesn't leave coals either, so the value of those two types of softwood are really three-fold. They both burn a quick, hot, fire, so they make a great choice for morning fuel. Plus, in Spring, or in Fall, when you don't want a fire to last all day long, these softwoods will burn up and be gone by the time the noonday sun warms your house.
The third feature is just what I described above. Softwoods don't leave coals, so the abundant supply of ash will sift through the bottom grate more readily, letting more air travel upward to keep your hardwoods burning cleaner and hotter.
You see, I didn't know any of this information from my own experience. When I was a kid, my dad had an open fireplace, so I had no real experience with wood stoves before I was on my own. Since I sold firewood for a living after I moved out, and most people only ordered oak or hickory; that meant all I ever burned at home after I grew up, was hackberry, or elm, because that was all I ever had left over.
Since neither one leaves a good bed of coals, I always thought elm and hackberry were 'trash' wood, with no real value.
Thanks to that old man's advice, I learned that a happy woodpile should include a little hardwood, and a little softwood too, about a 50/50 mix.
The softwoods were good to burn in the mornings because they made a quick fire, and the hardwoods were good to burn at night so you'd have a good bed of coals when you woke up.
During the main part of the day, I needed to be burning a good mixture of each.
When I moved to Moodys, where we are now; oak and hickory were so abundant, that they were about the only two kinds of wood that we had available. Then, I got the chance to see first hand what that old guy was talking about. I saw for myself, that burning only hardwoods could actually stop up your wood stove with too many coals and cause it to operate inefficiently.
I miss my old wood stove. There is definitely a science to operating one of those effectively, and that was a good way to pass the time of day. Not to mention, burning wood was just better, cheaper, more consistent way of heating.
Best of luck with the wood stove this winter. I envy you in your endeavors, though I've got to admit I don't miss cleaning the chimney.
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Post by macmex on Nov 29, 2019 7:00:02 GMT -6
I LOVE to have elm on hand for our woodstove. An elm log is what I call an "over nighter log." They burn low and very slow, producing low BTUs, but you'll have something, from which to start up again in the morning. Last year I got a Hackberry. It was much appreciated.
Like Ron mentioned, we have mainly oak here. I won't complain, but the other woods are helpful. When our coals and ashes get too deep I scoop them out, into a metal bucket, setting it on a concrete slab outdoors. It has to set at least 24 hours before it's safe to discard, as the coals persist a long time.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 1, 2019 18:47:06 GMT -6
George started a new thread, under "Extras" called, "Other Homesteading Topics" where we can discus things like wood stoves, and the various uses for different woods, in more detail. seedsavingnetwork.proboards.com/board/27/homesteading-type-topics
I think it will add a whole new dimension to our website, where "Winter things" will have a place as well as "Garden Season Things" so maybe our winter months will not pass by so slowly, with nothing to converse about.
See you guys under the heading of "Other Homesteading Topics."
Ron
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Dec 6, 2019 21:04:00 GMT -6
I recently had a seed customer write me a 'Nasty Gram' of sorts, complaining that they had searched the web for 4 hours without finding any information about how to purchase Heavy Hitter Okra Seeds.
I apologize for that ... I don't have a website.
We're kind of behind the technology curve here. We were still using a team of mules to break our garden until 6-years-ago. I never had a phone until 2005, I never even had Dial-up Internet until 2012, but we try to make up for what we lack in technology, by working really hard to develop better crops.
Anyone out there finding they can't find my seeds, just contact me at: heavyhitterokra@gmail.com
I check my email daily, though I rarely answer the phone. (I still have a land line). It doesn't ring out in my garden or in my barn.
Happy Holidays everyone! The following photos are of some of the plants I saved seeds from this Autumn. The pods shown here have been allowed to remain on the plant for several days and have grown to about 2/3 their full maturity at this point. It takes about 8 weeks for the seeds inside each okra pod to fully mature to seed saving quality, so care has to be taken to stop harvest of any seed saving specimens by Mid-August, or else frost will kill the plants before the seeds inside are ready to harvest. This is just an example of what each branch of this variety is capable of producing. Every plant has several fruiting branches, providing multiple picking points during the season. (Again, the pods shown in this photo have been allowed to start going to seed, for the Autumn seed harvest). If given ample nutrients, plenty of sunlight, lots of water, and room to grow; these hearty plants can exhibit exceptional vigor and impressive growth rates. It takes strong branches to support all those pods of okra pictured above. To accommodate this vigorous growth, Heavy Hitter Okra puts down an extra strong root zone; several times greater than those of most other okra varieties ... So, I would not recommend anyone trying to grow one of these in a pot less than a 30 gallon size. If, in Winter, these plants are allowed to decay in place, in your garden; their hearty roots will also decay, providing ready pathways for earthworms, beneficial mycelia, moisture, and rich nutrients to percolate to greater depths, adding a much desired 'tilth' to your garden's soil for years to come. That's why it is so important to lay a winter mulch of composted plant matter and various manures during the off-season, so those much needed nutrients are available to trickle down through the decaying root zone for next year's crop. (If possible, always rotate crops in your gardening space to reap the full benefit of these life cycles over the years). All this garden talk is making me want to go outside and pile decaying Autumn leaves around my winter killed okra plants.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jan 16, 2020 20:49:54 GMT -6
The Latest News from Baker Creek Rare Seeds.
(Baker Creek's latest communique appears at the end of this post.)
After seeing that my Heavy Hitter Okra Seeds were not listed in Baker Creek's 2020 Spring Catalog, I inquired of them, as to the latest situation concerning the 10+ pounds of seeds that I had sent them. I was told they would be listed in their 2020 online catalog instead; just as soon as they had a chance to get caught up on the 200+ varieties that they were behind on in the listings.
(There are only so many things one can do in a day).
Days went by, then weeks ... It had been 86 days, since I first received confirmation of delivery from Baker Creek and my seeds were still not listed.
I was beginning to become concerned that the seeds I sent them had been misplaced in the warehouse shuffle, plus all this unseasonably warm, January weather has caused people to start ordering seeds nearly a month ahead of schedule. As a result, I've been getting a lot of inquiries from my seed customers around the country and had no updated information to pass on to them.
This evening, finally, I got an update from Baker Creek, and it makes perfectly good sense:
Hello Ron,
I just spoke with our general manager. He advised to let you know that before we sell, we will do a grow out for quality control and the seed will not be listed this year. I apologize for the confusion, as the information did not come to me that way originally.
Thank you, and I apologize for the misunderstanding. Leah
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jan 17, 2020 15:21:21 GMT -6
Bon, thanks, for the update. I needed that to encourage me to get busy on my winter garden cleanup.
I need you and your hatchet over here in my garden. I still have about 1,000 Heavy Hitter Okra stalks left to chop down. Every year, that becomes a bigger, more daunting, winter task.
Despite my own desire to do my garden cleanup in the Autumn, I've discovered over the decades that it's much easier to wait until warm weather in mid-March, to tear out my old okra stalks. By then, warmer weather has activated the bacteria, enzymes, fungi, and other little soil creatures after their long winter's nap ... When they wake up they must be pretty hungry, because within two week's time after a slight warming trend, there will be a ring of decay around each stalk right at ground level. If you look closely, you may notice a slight groove of decaying matter almost a quarter-inch deep. This groove of decay, is where the microbes have begun digesting the outer portion of the stalks; making them much easier to snap off with a quick and forceful blow.
(Picture an old man dressed in faded overalls, roundhouse kicking, and mercilessly karate-chopping 1,000 dead okra stalks, never stopping to rest, even for a moment; until all his gardening foes are savagely vanquished and piled into a huge-heaping-mound, to be burned at twilight on a moonless and breezy night).
Don't I wish ... It's actually more like this; picture a haggard, old man, dressed in faded overalls, crawling on hand and knee, panting, totally fatigued, wondering when he'll ever reach the other end of the first row, then stopping to think, "I can't believe I walked all the way down here without any matches."
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jan 18, 2020 0:32:09 GMT -6
Bon,
Heavy Hitter Okra has perfect flowers and is, therefore, a potential self-pollinator.
For hand pollination, I use a Q-Tip or a small paintbrush to tease pollen from the Stamen of the desired blossom as soon as it opens in the morning before any bees have had a chance to visit.
Then, I take that pollen and brush it onto the Stigma of the flower that I desire to hand-pollinate, whether that be the donor flower or a different flower.
Then, I tape the blossom shut, using 2" inch masking tape, to block any bees or other insects from polluting my flower with pollen from an unknown source.
After a day or so, the taped blossom petals will fall away, revealing the peduncle of your newly fertilized okra pod.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jan 19, 2020 22:42:44 GMT -6
I've got good news for some of you okra lovers out there, who have commented several times in the past, that it has been very frustrating, trying to find any of my heavy hitter okra seeds for sale; as I've never had a real website to post them on before today.
Thanks to my youngest son, who is somewhat more computer literate than I am, we now have the beginnings of a web-store online, starting today, January 20, 2020.
This means, for the first time ever, you can order heavy hitter okra seeds online.
You can reach our new site by Googling;
www.drycreekfarmstore.com/
Hope to see you there soon! As I am really curious as to how well this whole thing will work. I've never administered a website before. It will no doubt take me a while to workout some of the kinks.As always,Happy gardening,Ron Cook
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Post by macmex on Jan 20, 2020 5:07:28 GMT -6
Fabulous, Ron! Eventually you may want to include a "testimonies page." Also, I'd suggest that you emphasize the tremendous, ongoing work of selection that you do. You're going to have competition, but it's almost a given, that their seed will not be up to snuff with yours, within a few years.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jan 20, 2020 11:59:23 GMT -6
There are already people selling what they call, "Heavy Hitter Okra" on eBay. I bought a packet of it, just to see what it was. It sure wasn't heavy Hitter, that's for sure. I ended up pulling them all up by the roots before they bloomed.
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Post by Jessie thayer on Jan 27, 2020 12:38:50 GMT -6
I just ordered! So excited to try them out! Looking forward to spring. If I remember I will try to post how my plants did this summer.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jan 29, 2020 8:13:48 GMT -6
Welcome to the forum, Jesse. It's a long time until planting season, in late-April or maybe, even mid-May, but this unseasonably warm weather sure makes me want to start growing something soon. Last year, it was mid-May, before it really warmed up enough for anything to do any good.
I have photos, taken last year, on May 21st, of month-old goslings, swimming between the rows in my garden because of all the heavy rains. Last year, it was tough to keep ahead of the weather.
I hope we don't have a repeat of this anytime soon.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Feb 1, 2020 9:14:41 GMT -6
What crazy weather!
It was 21 degrees here at 6:00 am this morning. I had to break ice, to water my geese and my chickens. One of my laying hens has gone broody and has been sitting on a clutch of eggs for the last three days. I just now looked at the weather and saw the forecast calls for a high of 73 degrees tomorrow afternoon. Maybe the chickens know something we don't?
Of course, the same thing happened in February of 2011, and two weeks later we had 20" inches of snow within a ten-day-period and temperatures that dropped to 15 below zero. I remember admiring the tenacity of one, poor, laying hen who had gone broody in February, but she stood her ground and hatched those chicks regardless of the weather. I have a South facing window in my hen house, for light and for ventilation. The window is covered with hardware cloth to keep varmints out.
The morning of the heavy snow, all I could see of that poor laying hen, were her eyes peeping out from under a heavy blanketing of powder snow that had drifted in through that South facing window.
I brushed the snow off her back and built a temporary awning over that window to last the rest of winter. Come Spring, I built a permanent steel awning so that wouldn't happen again. (Maybe, that's why we never get snow here anymore?)
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