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Post by heavyhitterokra on Feb 26, 2020 8:18:44 GMT -6
To carry on with Bon's Public Service Announcement to help ward off seasonal viral attacks ... I use some stuff around the house, called, "Lemon Virucide". It's a cleaning agent that you mix with lots of water. It will kill anything (Including you, if you're not careful with it).
I used to work as a night custodian at a large senior citizen's center. They fed 200 seniors daily in their lunch room, plus the 'Meals on Wheels' service they provided. They also hosted a game room with two pool tables and an exercise room, plus a library. They held weekly dances each Friday night, with live music. So I had to wash a lot of table tops and mop a lot of floors each day.
The bleach they had me mopping the floors with made the whole place smell like old, sweaty gym socks. So, I went to my local janitorial supply and asked if they had anything better to use. They put me on to Lemon Virucide.
Virucide is expensive, but a gallon of it will last you for years around the house, because it is so highly concentrated. You just add it to mop water for floors, or to towel water to wipe counter tops, faucet handles, door knobs, and tables, then pour a little in each toilet and hand washing basin to disinfect the 'P Traps' below each drain. It is also used to clean rabbit cages and other animal enclosures or to clean work surfaces where animals are treated. Our Vet uses it to clean his Stainless Steel exam tables after each visit.
Plus, Lemon Virucide smells like lemons rather than old gym socks. They make it in other fragrances too, like mint. I used the mint virucide once, and it made the entire building smell like horse liniment. It was funny, because no one had ever commented on the lemon virucide, but when I used the mint virucide, the old people would walk into the main dining room and say, "Mmm, it smells just like home in here."
I also buy 91% rubbing alcohol, to spray on all the toothbrushes, hair brushes, appliance doors, door knobs, and common areas where it's not feasible to use virucide. (Be careful, high grade alcohol will harm some wood finishes).
I just buy empty spray bottles at Dollar Tree and place the sprayer top on the new alcohol bottles. They all have the same size opening and the same thread pattern, so they interchange.
91% alcohol will melt ice, so I keep a spray bottle in our car each winter to avoid having to scrape the windshield every morning in cold weather. Plus, I use it to spray on cuts and scrapes, or insect bites, every time I go fishing or go working in the garden.
I use it so often that I keep a bottle of it in the bathroom, one in the kitchen, and one in the living room. I use it each time I take a breathing treatment (every 4 to 6 hours) to disinfect my face mask. It evaporates so fast that no residue remains. Plus, it's handy to have for cleaning eyeglasses. I also use it to spray my hands after each visit to the grocery store or doctor's office.
When I'm selling veggies at the Farmer's market, I use it to clean my totes and spray it on my steering wheel, so my hands don't transmit who knows what to the veggies I'm handling. I'm really careful because I sell lots of tomatoes and things that folks eat raw. You can't always count on people washing their veggies before they eat them, so I wash everything in a diluted bleach bath in huge plastic tubs, just before I leave the house. By the time I reach the market, the disinfected water is evaporated.
I also park my truck on a steep hill and hand wash the bed of it with virucide and rinse it with a hose, before I load my boxes of veggies in the back, because you never know what might blow around back there while you're driving 65 mph for several miles to get to the market. (Better safe than sorry).
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Feb 29, 2020 22:07:11 GMT -6
Congratulations on paying off he house!!! Yeah! Be proud of that. Speaking of hard to find in bulk ... I use soy sauce by the gallon each year as a marinade for various meats before hickory smoking. Lately, there are no gallon size containers available. All I can find are small plastic bottles less than one liter. They are expensive too! I'm guessing it has something to do with China? We'll probably be bailing them out next, watch and see. Maybe not in this administration, but I'll bet it's coming.
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Post by rdback on Mar 2, 2020 20:25:22 GMT -6
Deep breaths Bon. This too will pass.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Mar 14, 2020 15:41:36 GMT -6
If ever there was a year to grow a garden, this would be the one!
Growing a garden in 2020 ought to be considered a Patriotic Duty.
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Post by macmex on Mar 16, 2020 6:00:00 GMT -6
Bon, I have a good buck available, if you want to make the trip. He's in his prime, but he's my spare. He's about 1/8 Checkered Giant and 7/9 New Zealand White. He's really beautiful and I've used him for some outstanding litters. Will get a photo later.
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Post by john on Mar 16, 2020 16:22:59 GMT -6
It's definitely not a bad idea to grow a little more vegetables this year. I may decide to scale back on the non essential giant veggies that I grow for fun and plant some more storage type crops, like potatoes.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Mar 25, 2020 23:54:57 GMT -6
Bon, You can increase productivity on a very small plot by enriching your soil on a micro-scale (digging up a 2' x 2' spot about a foot deep and mixing it with homemade compost. There is a book called, "HOW TO GROW WORLD RECORD TOMATOES" by Charles Wilber. It's available on Amazon and other book selling sites for as little as $5.00 www.abebooks.com/Grow-World-Record-Tomatoes-Guinness-Champion/30546773151/bd?cm_mmc=ggl-_-US_Shopp_Trade-_-used-_-naa&gclid=CjwKCAjwguzzBRBiEiwAgU0FT5Yy2fYkGWueLUZx088Qb8l9AXmhR4MjbkLV8q0vsCQN6Sey1t-KwBoCPOsQAvD_BwEI bought a copy of this several years ago at a higher price and have used it as a reference ever since. (Way worth the money!) It's one of the only gardening books I've ever read that does exactly what it claims it can do. Except the author who wrote this book lived way down South where he had about 10 months to grow his record tomatoes, so you'll never get 300 pounds from one plant here in Oklahoma. However, I've put this compost on trees and had them grow so fast that they split their bark. I grew a pawpaw seedling from seed to 72" inches tall in one season. I grew a peach tree from a gallon pot to 10 feet tall, and 10' feet wide, in one season. I've had sweet potatoes regularly hit 6 to 10 pounds. I mean regularly, like several half-gallon fruit baskets full of them that made my baskets look like Dixie Cups. All it takes is lots of work and a few things you can find laying around in Summer, like lots of green weeds with the dirtballs still attached to the roots. Better grab all the dead tree leaves you can lay your hands on right now though. Come Summertime they will all be gone right when you need them the most if you don't. Ideally, you could use wheat straw instead of dead leaves, but dead leaves are free. The dirtballs still attached to the weed roots provide the enzymes you need to get your compost started and will provide more bulk to your finished product. I add chicken litter to mine and a little Lime to balance the acid. Cover the pile with a tarp to block out sunlight, so the weeds will die and never let your pile get rained on. Just water it as needed, using a hose. Make sure to put a tarp under the pile if trees are nearby, or they will rob your compost from underneath. (I learned that the hard way). In 90-degree weather, with a little aeration from turning with a pitchfork, the compost will be ready to use within the month. You can also make this in a 55-gallon drum with a lid. I've done that before too. You can use it as a top dressing on existing fruit trees or veggies, or work it into the soil for transplants like tomatoes. I've only used mine as a top dressing. I just shovel it on as I make it all Summer long. This one only weighed about 6 pounds. This is my middle son, John. He's 6'4" and weighs 260 pounds; he kind of makes my 10 pound potatoes look small. With kids like that to feed, you have to grow a lot of potatoes.
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Post by macmex on Mar 29, 2020 5:20:23 GMT -6
Looking great Bon! That rabbitry looks fantastic!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 4, 2020 15:34:09 GMT -6
Fortunately, the weeds that are highest in nitrogen are the same ones that are in great abundance right now, in the form of Chickweed, Henbit, and Dead Nettle. All are easily gathered this time of year and your neighbors would be happy if you were to rid their yards of all of it you could carry home.
I've been keeping myself occupied between rainstorms, by pulling weeds of that nature and piling them up for compost. I've got plenty of dead leaves laying around right now and the fact that they are wet just makes them that much more prone to composting more quickly than if they were dry.
I made some Biochar during the late winter months and have charged it with chicken litter and urea, so I'm able to add that to my compost as well.
I found an old, sun rotted plastic tub for the purpose and covered it with an old, moldy shower curtain to keep the rain off the contents. If during this dreary, wet, weather all I can do is add one bucketful of leaves or weeds to this pile each day, then my days are not wasted.
This project helps me to keep my sanity during the quarantine and is a lot better for the soul than watching TV or lounging on the couch.The old, sun rotted tub I found in the junk pile. I've been gathering dead leaves in an old trash can, green weeds, like Henbit, Dead Nettle, and Chickweed, a little topsoil (for enzymes) and a shovelful of chicken litter from my hen house. I lay these up, one layer at a time inside the old plastic tub. (An old barrel or any container will work). Old pallets are a good way to build a better size container. I just used this tub because it was handy. I heap it full as I can, packing down each layer by stepping on it with my feet. This is some of the crushed Biochar that I made earlier. It has already been charged with chicken litter and urea, but if it had not been, the compost would charge it now. I'll add a little of this to each layer as I build up my compost pile. When I'm done, I'll cover it with an old shower curtain to keep the rain from leaching out my nutrients.This is just a photo showing how I gather my spring grasses to add to the mix. I don't hurt myself. I just stuff a 5-gallon bucket with weeds and uprooted soil, then I carry it to the tub to be layered with more dead leaves, topsoil, bio-char, and seasoned chicken litter.
When I'm done, in about a month or so, this will be a supercharged mixture of compost to top dress my newly bedded plants with. I've been busy all winter, collecting cuttings from elderberry bushes along the roadsides, digging samples of thornless blackberry vines, from a neighbor's yard, and planting different varieties of muscadine grapes to utilize the bare ground inside my former hog pen.
I'll use my finished compost to top dress these plantings as the season wears on.
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Post by glen on Apr 4, 2020 16:28:09 GMT -6
Greetings to everyone. Glad to see that the forum members are pulling together to prepare for what may be the worst yet to come. I wish I was there to help out. I am kind of isolated now and cannot be of much help from where I live now. I live on the frontier not far from the equator in the tropics. Not many folks live where I live. Hardly anyone even speaks english where I live. I have known that this crisis was coming for many years. I did not know when it would happen or what would be the pin prick that would expose the weaknesses in our culture and our economy and our way of life. As it turned out, a global pandemic was the pin. The pandemic is bad enough but this economic depression that is unfolding now is even worse. I will be praying for everyone of you that I have met here on this seed saving forum. You are all my good friends. So you know, I don't have a big garden area now. But, I have been prepping for this catastrophe for a long time. In fact, part of my prepping was to move to Panama. I made some mistakes though by not buying a larger piece of property for gardening. But, its ok. I will be ok for quite some time just by virtue of the goods I have set back and stored for hard times. I live in a very small-paid for house and have simplified my life down to the bare essentials. My bills are all paid off. I own very little. My expenses are very small now as well. I am as prepared as I can be. Here in Panama we are under strict quarantine and we do not know when it will be lifted. We have a 5pm to 5am curfew. We can go shopping for food only for 3 days each week and the time depends on the last number of our ID card. Woman can go shopping on Mon-Wed-Fri. Men can go on Tue-Thur-Sat. No one goes out on Sunday. We are not allowed on the street for any reason except to go to the pharmacy or grocery or medical emergency. To give you an idea of how small Panama is we only have 1000 cases of Virus in the country now. There are about 65 cases in Intensive Care and that fills our entire capacity for ICU. We are at capacity and can take no more. It is critical that Panama get a handle on this because our medical system cannot handle the case load if it gets any larger. Of course it will get larger. This has just started. Businesses here are all closed with the exception of essential services. I noticed last time I rode thru town that many businesses were boarding up to be prepared for civil unrest that will be forthcoming in the future when people begin to run out of food and no longer have money to buy more. Stores have plenty of food on the shelves now because here we don't use credit cards and people don't have the money to hoard like they do in the US. There are at least 3 or 4 uniformed police officers in front of our grocery stores along with private security. Our police officers use military style fully automatic weapons as well. Things could really get bad here. Luckily I live way out in the country, away from Panama City where things are really bad. Panama has fenced off the country so the inhabitants of Panama City are essentially locked in and cannot get out. For the moment things are calm. I stay at home and just pray and pray. I hope you all stay safe and things get better. I hate to state what should be the obvious but things are never going to be the same, not even after this virus passes. The tide is out and we can see now who has been swimming naked. Our government is in debt up to its ears. Businesses are in debt up to their ears. Consumers are in debt up to their ears as well. Been swimming naked and we all can see now. We are entering a depression. One for the record books. Good luck and God speed to everyone. Glen
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Post by glen on Apr 4, 2020 18:56:15 GMT -6
Bon, I am glad you have a firm grasp of what is going on. The pandemic is only part of our problem right now. That part will pass. And, it will be tragic. The economic part of the problem will last much longer.
Our only hope is prayer and faith.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 5, 2020 9:36:28 GMT -6
Bon,
Stinky compost is caused by anaerobic decomposition. Two things can cause that: a lack of oxygen, due to over compaction or a lack of oxygen, due to an over-abundance of water. Healthy compost should never smell bad.
Usually, I can tell if a compost pile is too wet, by feeling it. If it clods up when squeezed tightly, or if it smells bad, it's too wet. If white, powdery, fungus is present, it's too dry.
I mix my compost roughly 50/50 carbon to nitrogen or greens to browns. I use chicken litter very sparingly, only a dusting of that per layer. I make my layers of browns and greens about 3" inches thick. I add about an inch thick layer of good topsoil to top off each finished layer of browns and greens. So, it's, brown, green, sprinkling of chicken litter, then top off with soil and repeat.
I pile the compost in a closed container until it's filled to the brim, and simply dump the container over once it shows any sign of composting. (usually within a couple of weeks). To incorporate air in the mix, I stack the contents of several containers, one on top of the other as I dump them out to be reused. When I'm done, my open pile will be about 4' feet tall ideally.
I cover my open pile with a tarp to keep rain from saturating it and leaching away my nutrients. That might not be as bad a problem in some areas, but where I live, we often get several inches of rain within a few days, often accumulating 6" to 10" inches over a period of one week. Heavy rains will wash all the goodies out of your pile, just like pouring hot water over tea leaves will do.
I'm attaching a short video, because this guy does basically the same thing I do, except I use a more balanced mixture of greens and browns. The compost I make is too strong to use straight up, so I dig a pit and mix it in with dirt or use it only as a top dressing around my plants.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 5, 2020 22:47:51 GMT -6
If the summer is hot enough, you can dry lots of stuff in July and August by just placing it on a wire rack out in the yard. I have a homemade drying rack made of 1/4" inch hardware cloth stretched over a 2x4 frame. It's 12 feet long by 3' feet wide.
I use it to dry apples, peaches, and mint mostly. I just set it across two saw horses (also homemade) and load it to the gills. I place a clean sheet under the mint, so it's easier to work, but I place apples or peaches directly on the wire. Then I place a clean sheet over it so no birds will poop in it. If it doesn't dry all the way through, I roll it up and bring it in at night, then place it back outside as soon as the dew burns off.
There are usually two good weeks between the end of July and the middle of August where it's extremely dry and windy.
Dried goods can be stored in ziplock bags, plastic jugs, or old, glass, pickle jars with tight fitting lids. Just keep it away from any light and it will last a year. I also dry okra. I season it first though. I dry tomatoes in my dehydrator.
When I was a kid, I dried apples under the eve of the tin roof of grandma's barn. There is a lot of free heat to to put to good use under the eve of a tin roof.
Grandma used to string pumpkin and squash rings on bailing twine and keep them for making soup in winter. You can also dry those on the clothes line by suspending them between the wires on clean tea towels.
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Post by macmex on Apr 6, 2020 6:53:17 GMT -6
Bon, be sure to do a germination test on the Tarahumara Purple Ojos beans I gave you. They should be good, but why wait to find out, till you're ready to plant? This one is a very high producing dry bean.
Regarding a rototiller, I have a mantis, which just doesn't handle the heavy conditions my garden presents. Ron loaned me a really huge, old Troy Built tiller which will grind almost anything up. I've used it, but I have to admit that I am most unhappy when I rototill. It goes against my gardening instincts, yet I haven't mastered a way around it. I hope to, someday.
We cleaned up an old driveway I had converted to garden, and then returned to vacant land, last year. I was impressed how some of that deserted land was remarkably easy to work. I think Permaculture is "stalking me."
I am convinced that one can almost never have too much corn (non sweet). It makes good food for both man and beast. We used to raise rabbits on whole kernel corn and alfalfa, which we grew (in Mexico). That worked as well as any commercial feed. Corn and beans balance out pretty well too. I can tell when I eat an unbalanced meal. No matter now full my stomach, I still sense that I need something more. this does not happen when I eat corn and beans. It even tastes wonderful if I have hot sauce to go on it!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 7, 2020 20:36:54 GMT -6
Those work very well if you keep them sharp. I used to run a crew of inmates that kept our 42-acre perimeter cleaned off using nothing else.
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