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Post by macmex on Oct 9, 2019 5:05:55 GMT -6
Wow! ... and in your free time? That's an ambitious agenda!
We have much to do. I'm digging sweet potatoes, these days, every day, till I feel like dropping. But progress is being made.
Ron and I will be butchering hogs this month. That'll take some time.
We have LOTS of work to do on firewood too!
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Post by macmex on Oct 18, 2019 6:24:41 GMT -6
Bon, for amaranth, I'd let seed dry on the plant, winnow it, leave in an open container (like a bowl) for a couple three weeks and then seal in an airtight jar. The jar could be stored at room temperature, probably for 3-4 years. If stored in a freezer, the seed should be good for at least twenty.
This red amaranth, was it quintonil rojo? The amaranth I brought back from Mexico, or was it some commercial variety someone had given me? I don't recall.
I lost my quintonil rojo a couple years back. It had always volunteered for me and for one or two years it didn't. I miss it.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Oct 26, 2019 18:52:40 GMT -6
I see I'm not the only one who makes a winter, "Things To Do List"
That list really seems to help me a lot, as I can check things off as I go along during Winter and can see that clearly, not all my time was wasted. Otherwise, I tend to forget about the small, day to day accomplishments that make up the better parts of our lives. They really do add up. Rome was not built in a day ... neither was the yard work finished overnight.
Keep up the good work.
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Post by macmex on Nov 2, 2019 6:30:32 GMT -6
Bon, that went into effect almost a year ago.
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Post by macmex on Nov 12, 2019 11:40:34 GMT -6
Bon, be sure to look at the rabbit course in Homesteadingedu. We could start a thread on rabbits, in Green Country Seed Savers' livestock area. I LOVE rabbits! RIght now I have 3 about ready to butcher, nine about ready to wean, and a litter due on Friday.
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Post by macmex on Nov 13, 2019 8:46:13 GMT -6
Bon, you have access to the rabbit course. I'd start there and then ask questions right in the course. It helps us to improve the course itself.
I keep my rabbits in cages, under cover and I feed them all kinds of weeds and hay, supplementing with 16% Allstock (cattle creeps would also work). Bona fide rabbit feed is too expensive. In place of any feed, one can use old bread or tortillas. It's possible to raise rabbits on forage alone, but production is much lower and slower that way.
Beware of Internet info, unless it's really from a proven source. I've been amazed at the misinformation out there. Got kicked out of a meat rabbit forum once, for making some common sense suggestions with which the owners of the group disagreed.
The biggest danger rabbits face is dampness and coccidiosis. Coccidiosis is a protozoa type of infection, passed from animal to animal via feces. It's endemic in most animals, especially rabbits and chickens, but controllable with good hygiene.
I've been raising rabbits, most of the time (except for a couple of years) since 1982. I can't count how many new rabbit raisers I've observed that become dogmatic about what works before they've given it time to play out. Some were my best repeat customers, even though, a year or two earlier they had bragged to me that they were leaving my production in the dust, with their "free range" type management.
Also, beware of free or really inexpensive rabbits, for breeding stock. It is quite possible to use inexpensive rabbits, but there is also a risk of disease, parasites and even of poor genetics for growth. I was looking at Craigslist the other day and noticed that the majority of rabbits listed there are, or are mixed with small breeds, which are primarily meant for pets. For meat you want something large and which produces large litters. I'm going to start a rabbitry thread, as this is a topic which merits special attention.
Raise Rabbits for Super Meat Production
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 13, 2019 15:58:00 GMT -6
Bon,
I truly enjoy reading your comments and your questions; they are refreshing, well thought out, and carefully prepared. They show your true nature and potential as a fellow gardener and homesteader. I appreciate your efforts and enjoy reading of your daily, homemaking, gardening, and home-upkeep experiences.
I'd trust anything George suggests, over almost anything available on the Internet as a whole. Supplying conventional rabbit feed to raise 'pet' rabbit breeds, for use as 'meat' can quickly cost you more than you would spend on nearly any cut of pork or beef over the long term.
Be sure to look at the rabbit course found among the vast topics of the Homesteadingedu website. It's important to match the proper breed of rabbit to your particular homesteading needs, otherwise, your homesteading endeavors might prove to be very expensive.
I believe you are correct in your assumption that meat prices will soon go much higher. I predict meat prices to rise sharply in the very near future, due to widespread 2019 Spring flooding, followed by mid-summer blight and mildew losses, coupled with late-summer, muddy, and very unfavorable harvest conditions. Those egregious weather conditions were followed by early, and severe, winter storms.
These weather patterns not only destroyed grain fields, but also destroyed our nation's canning fields, where green beans, sweet corn, potatoes, and other commodities were grown ... Hay fields that were under water during the regular May-June hay harvest cycle were also destroyed. The standing-high-water, late planting cycles, and poor harvests resulted in close to a 60% loss in winter livestock forage, nationwide. The 2019 field corn harvest now stands at only a 41% success rate.
The price of cracked corn is already approaching $10.00 per 50-pound weight. All grain prices are on the rise right now, as well as winter hay prices. This feed shortage, coupled with the need to begin haying, and supplementing the feed of our livestock, early this year; will force many farmers and ranchers, nationwide, into huge sell-offs at low prices ... Cattle, hogs, and chickens are currently selling lower and will continue to perform poorly in a saturated market as the season progresses.
This winter season's coming sell-off, will result in a widespread meat shortage at the start of the next quarter; when farmers and ranchers face the need to hold back otherwise, marketable livestock in an attempt to rebuild their herds after the harsh, 2019 sell-off. I believe this situation will be similar to the one we faced soon-after the 2011-2012 severe drought cycles, which caused beef prices to go as high as $3.00 per pound on the hoof.
The higher, 'on-the-hoof-prices' after the 2011-2012-widespread-drought-sell-off, caused meat prices in the grocery stores to rise sharply. As you already know, these prices did not go down appreciably on the grocery store shelves, to reflect lower, on-the-hoof-prices that farmers and ranchers received once the drought cycle had passed. (Nor will they go down appreciably, to reflect the coming low prices that farmers and ranchers are now facing).
I think we will soon be faced with a similar high-pricing-situation, to be compared to the one we saw in 2013-2014, following the back-to-back-droughts in the years preceding those higher prices.
The year, 2019 has been a very tough farming and ranching season across the entire 'Breadbasket' portion of the nation. The only viable alternative I can see to counter the on-going 'high pricing' is to raise your own groceries at home; much as George and I do. We both raise a surplus that not only supplies our own needs, but to some extent, supplies the needs of our own livestock; with enough left over to do a little market selling, as well.
Home gardening and homesteading are lots of hard work; but like the old 'Victory Gardens' of the past, these things pay-off in the long run ... not only to help keep grocery store prices in check but to provide better quality food for our neighbors and for our families.
All the best to you and yours, Bon. Keep up the good work.
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Post by macmex on Nov 20, 2019 8:10:43 GMT -6
Yikes! I'll be praying for you, on this, Bon. It's not an easy thing to be at odds with your local police.
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Post by macmex on Nov 21, 2019 20:17:22 GMT -6
Really? That sounds really serious.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 23, 2019 12:54:48 GMT -6
Bon,
That sounds a lot like why I left Hulbert after having been a resident there since 1972. This is a much happier place now, since we moved away from that messed up location.
On a much brighter note about Fall gardening ... That sure is some purdy topsoil you have there! Thanks, for posting the photos.
I went out to visit my mud pie of a garden this morning, after so many days of cold, continual rain and found a couple of turnips weighing a little over 3 pounds each. I cut one of them open; it wasn't woody or hot either one. I suppose there is an upside to all that rain this Autumn after all ... Sweet tasting, giant, Fall turnips!
All I need now are some good recipes for using some of these. I've got thousands of them, from the size of golf balls to quite a bit larger than a softball.
My 3 pound turnips are kind of dwarfed by the 9 and 10 pound sweet potatoes. There is a lot to be said for home composting over the years. All that back breaking work will pay off in the long run, Bon. keep it up, your ground looks really good!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 26, 2019 4:03:47 GMT -6
Bon,
I can certainly relate to that.
My wife went on a trip to Costa Rica this Autumn, that lasted a little over a month, from mid-October to mid-November. During that time, I just about lived out of our crock pot. When it was just me, I'd cut cut up a few potatoes, some cabbage, carrots, and onions and suppliment that with a small piece pork neck or whatever I could find with a lot of bones for the broth. Some days, I'd use chicken or deer. Squirrel would work too ... As long as you keep the heat above 140 degrees, you can keep a soup, roast, or broth going for several days. I'd just add a few fresh vegetables daily and eat that for two of my three meals every day.
Back in my traveling days, I was usually gone 6 to 8 months out of the year, working for Boeing, or Minnesota Power and Light, or Con Edison, or where ever. I'd always keep a Coleman, propane stove hidden in the dresser drawer, back at the Hotel. I kept a very small micro-wave oven in the closet, I kept my pots and pans zipped up in an Army duffle bag. I'd hide them good, so the maid wouldn't find my cooking supplies.
Every night when I came home from work, I'd have to invent some new dish, using whatever I could find that I could cook up, using only those two devices. I was so happy when about 4-years-into-it, I finally bought a small travel trailer that had a tiny oven in it. I'd sometimes have to cut things in half to fit them inside (Like full a size pizza or a turkey).
Things like that could be why I bake so often nowadays? It just feels so good to have a real oven now, that I bake pies at least once per week in Winter. I bake biscuits from scratch every morning, just to heat the house after having the heater turned down on low all night.
On your composting project, I've found several, heavy, plastic tubs at the local feed store. The tubs used to hold 250-pounds of mineral lick for cattle. When the tubs are empty, the Feed Store sells them for $4.00 each. I re-purpose them as rain barrels. That's how I water my geese, pigs, and chickens, most of the Winter. In Summer, I use a few of them to make compost. They hold about 26 gallons of liquid, so they are a good, manageable, size for one person to roll around and flip over to dump out the contents. In Summer, I fill them brim full of green weeds, dry leaves, old straw, some topsoil as an enzyme, a little chicken litter from my henhouse, and some rainwater. I cover them with old tarps, or plywood, or pallets, or anything I can find to keep the moisture constant.
In hot weather, they are usually ready to use within about 30 days' time. At that time, I just shovel the contents onto my garden. I keep saying I need to build a platform to set them on that is wheelbarrow height, so I can just dump them over into a wheelbarrow when they are done, but I've never taken time to do that yet.
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Post by macmex on Nov 26, 2019 21:20:29 GMT -6
Sounds like you hit the jackpot, Bon!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Nov 29, 2019 1:48:35 GMT -6
Great news, Bon!
I'm excited about those prospects and they are not even going in my compost bin. Thanks for sharing.
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Post by macmex on Dec 3, 2019 19:53:26 GMT -6
What's the target for?
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Post by macmex on Dec 4, 2019 20:45:01 GMT -6
Wonderful! That's a great activity for anyone. I got some judo points and new arrows this spring. Just haven't had time to use them. The plan was to shoot stumps and tuffs of weeds while doing chores, etc.
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