I arranged to buy a whole hog from a local farmer and went to pick it up from the processor a few days ago. (Don't know if that SAVED me any money over buying the meat pieces, but I know how this pig was raised and I'm willing to spend money on GOOD food). While in the town where the processor...
What I've done the past two years that is similar to this and has worked for me, is to take down the fence that keeps the chooks out of the vegie garden, after the last frost, and allow them in to start fertilizing and turning it over for the next growing season. Once I reach this point...
Yeah, mine love oatmeal or rolled oats too, but the human grade rolled oats equal out to $50/50lb (if I can get it on sale!) so they only get that if one of the kids doesn't eat their whole bowl of cereal in the morning. :hide My understanding is that the rolled oats at the feed store are not...
Hee hee - it will be very entertaining. Mind you, they don't all "get" it. I had a mouse problem last summer (attracted by the chicken feed). I had read of chooks catching and eating them so waited for them to do something. Nothing. The mice were so brazen they'd come out WHILE the chooks...
I've been reading several of the threads about alternative feeds for chickens. Although I am someone who prefers to do things as naturally and traditionally as possible, BYC'ers convinced me that while chickens can (and certainly used to) survive just fine before commercial chicken feeds were...
I think that is the one I have and it is "okay". Turning it is not that easy. I usually ask DH to do it and he gets out there with a variety of different garden tools and does his best to turn it over. So far I've not had a lot of luck making compost but I think that is mostly me - that I...
Wifezilla - it was wonderful and refreshing to read this - it matches almost entirely what I have always believed, although I've never done any research to prove or disprove my own theory. Nevertheless, I'm in my 40's and have never had a cholesterol test (and when asked, tell people I never...
Another question to ask the feed stores is if they have any "discount days". One time I bought feed and was surprised when I got to the checkout to find it rang up lower than I was expecting. It wasn't until several months later that I noticed a little sign stating that the 4th Sat of each...
You know what? I'm getting really tired of this. I was happy and content with my life and then I joined BYC and SS and read a canning thread on each. I decided I needed a canner and bid on an eBay auction, won it, and the canner arrived last week. Haven't canned anything yet - still reading...
I've never heard of doing that BubblingBrooks! Does that mean you are able to compost the lot?
I used to use Swheat and loved it. Swheat is made entirely of ground wheat (nevertheless it was pretty expensive) but it had wonderful clumping properties - better than any of the clay based...
Yeah, we keep our thermostat set at 57 in winter and 87 in summer. In winter its easy to wear an extra layer of clothes to keep warm. I can't say I love the heat in summer but I can always go hang out in the basement where its a few degrees cooler when it gets to be too much. And when the...
I'm subscribing to this topic - thanks for starting it. It is also an interest I have. I subscribe to a blog written by an English couple who now live in Spain and they are all about self-sufficiency. Apparently they compost it all in one bucket, using sawdust to cover and said there is very...
Oh haha - I didn't want to mention that in my first post on this forum but the same time I started using cloth, I also started saving fertilizer for my garden. I got the idea after reading the book "Holy ****" - a GREAT read by the way - and then looked on YouTube and found several videos of...
I switched about a month ago and was actually about to make this suggestion as it addresses the collection of toilet paper tubes in the first place, rather than disposal of them after the fact. I have not found it to be a hassle at all using cloth. I got a couple of microfiber face washer size...