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moxies_chickennuggets
Super Self-Sufficient
Yuppp. DH's friend, who lives up by where he works....we are collecting any and all of the hickory chips for him to use in his smoker. That is on my "to do" list.
moxies_ Life on the HHP Ranch....Rain!!!!!!
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moxies_chickennuggets
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Break time! This woman getting old aches and pains. Been off loading the 600 lbs of top soil etc of of my truck. Made the tomato containers up....5 gal buckets...4 of them. Making the potatoes in a bag spot.....had to find me some cut logs that were the right size laying about the property. Set them on the south corner of the hot house..lay down the newspaper...oh,had to weed eat the spot first. Been digging rocks from the rock garden...one bucket at a time. Putting the rocks...they are just broken up concrete a previous own put in for a parking spot...I think... Anyway, pouring them on top of the newspaper laid on top of the grass. I just need a good weed free drainage spot for the 3 potato grow bags I am experimenting with this season. We planted in the actual tilled garden last season....and got nothing.
Kind of blustery and chilly out today. I had to break open the potting soil bags first...80 lbs of too wet product. So, went to find a tarp and spread it out to dry for the day. That goes in my hot house in storage tubs for container plantings, seed starts, etc....stuff that requires potting soil.
Waiting on DH to make it home from his folks remodel project. He has to jump start the lawn tractor battery...something of which I know nothing about. Otherwise,I would be using the cart instead of the bucket and wheelbarrow.
Kind of blustery and chilly out today. I had to break open the potting soil bags first...80 lbs of too wet product. So, went to find a tarp and spread it out to dry for the day. That goes in my hot house in storage tubs for container plantings, seed starts, etc....stuff that requires potting soil.
Waiting on DH to make it home from his folks remodel project. He has to jump start the lawn tractor battery...something of which I know nothing about. Otherwise,I would be using the cart instead of the bucket and wheelbarrow.
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moxies_chickennuggets
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We got a freeze. I wouldn't really call it a "deep freeze" 20F during the night, not all night. I have all my seed starts out in the hothouse.....some of the windows just up to the first notch. Well,my cabbages babies didn't like it. They all froze. Poor little 1/2" tall sad things. Bent over and obviously frozen. So, I closed the window behind them. The cabbage babies were the only starts I lost. Nothing else seemed to have any complaints.
The chickens.....we covered the one end of the coop back up with the tarp. Put the black on top. Hopefully it is warming it up for them that way. Gonna need to hose the chicken tractor out again, as the poo is collecting on the floor. Next day of nice weather...Thursday perhaps. I have been rinsing all the poo into the small tomato garden.....to eventually get tilled in with the leaves, sawdust, etc...... DH tilled last Saturday...but just the one row for the potatoes. The tiller really messes up his back and hips...so, I suggested breaking it up into smaller amounts of tilling. He refuses to let me run the tiller. It is old and bucks and he is used to it. It still whoops his butt though.
The chickens.....we covered the one end of the coop back up with the tarp. Put the black on top. Hopefully it is warming it up for them that way. Gonna need to hose the chicken tractor out again, as the poo is collecting on the floor. Next day of nice weather...Thursday perhaps. I have been rinsing all the poo into the small tomato garden.....to eventually get tilled in with the leaves, sawdust, etc...... DH tilled last Saturday...but just the one row for the potatoes. The tiller really messes up his back and hips...so, I suggested breaking it up into smaller amounts of tilling. He refuses to let me run the tiller. It is old and bucks and he is used to it. It still whoops his butt though.
BarredBuff
El Presidente de Pollo
Sorry about your sprouts.... 
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moxies_chickennuggets
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Thanks. Hopefully, there are still some seeds that didn't get sprouted in the little containers. I had only watered them a little bit so far. Not the full watering I prob should have done.
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moxies_chickennuggets
Super Self-Sufficient
We have a tree stump. We have several tree stumps. some are rotten, sitting there in the ground. Now, some have the finances to have them ground up and removed...but that is just not on our priority list at the moment. Somewhere, in my collection of forums I visit...I read about chickens being great at tearing up the soil and digging..scratching?...beaks and claws.
Well, putting the one empty compost bin around the really rotten one, I think on Monday.....the 7 chickens have been doing a wonderful job of digging up and turning the soil....full of composted tree stump. I have a couple more sitting around this one acre........might work on moving them and the compost bin to those stumps. Now, we have not been very good at getting those big wire bins filled this past winter....one is only half full. I'll just keep using that one for composting...for now. I have so many things on my lists of chore lists. Readying 2 front gardens...okay...3......turning the tomato patch........planting the potatoes in the main garden and the 3 contractor bags. We also have the corn/sunflower spot...and the new back corner that was cleared off back in Nov. We planted winter cover crop in it...turnips/mustard/spinach, and it all up and died. Not sure why. The soil is very much lacking though. Green manure may be it's main crop for a while. Everything died after 2 months....now just leaves back in there.
The snap peas are coming up in the rhubarb garden, even though the rhubarb isn't. I still need to plant carrots in there. They did terrible in the main garden during the winter. Choked off with weeds I think. But, at least the weeds can be our green manure.
Time to wash the chicken tractor again. The plastic sign I used, is working great for the upstairs of the coop.....but, still needs hosed off about every 2 weeks.
I have to finish unloading the manure and top soil from the back of my truck. Got half of it done last sat...then, sunday and monday and tuesday...not able to do it. I have the 2 bags of potting soil out drying on a tarp...but with 80% chance of rain tomorrow,....I need to get it finished up. That involves putting it in my 2 potting soil containers. I keep them inside the hothouse.
I have to somehow make 3 trellis's for the clematis this summer. I have 2 bamboo fishing poles I had bought for something else last year...but they in no way resemble a trellis right now.
Mowing...that's on the list. And doing an alterations job. I have been turning the alterations job over in my head for a couple of days...as it involves a hemming a really nice coat, up in the front only. And still making it come out right. Hopefully, not having to cut on it.
Well, putting the one empty compost bin around the really rotten one, I think on Monday.....the 7 chickens have been doing a wonderful job of digging up and turning the soil....full of composted tree stump. I have a couple more sitting around this one acre........might work on moving them and the compost bin to those stumps. Now, we have not been very good at getting those big wire bins filled this past winter....one is only half full. I'll just keep using that one for composting...for now. I have so many things on my lists of chore lists. Readying 2 front gardens...okay...3......turning the tomato patch........planting the potatoes in the main garden and the 3 contractor bags. We also have the corn/sunflower spot...and the new back corner that was cleared off back in Nov. We planted winter cover crop in it...turnips/mustard/spinach, and it all up and died. Not sure why. The soil is very much lacking though. Green manure may be it's main crop for a while. Everything died after 2 months....now just leaves back in there.
The snap peas are coming up in the rhubarb garden, even though the rhubarb isn't. I still need to plant carrots in there. They did terrible in the main garden during the winter. Choked off with weeds I think. But, at least the weeds can be our green manure.
Time to wash the chicken tractor again. The plastic sign I used, is working great for the upstairs of the coop.....but, still needs hosed off about every 2 weeks.
I have to finish unloading the manure and top soil from the back of my truck. Got half of it done last sat...then, sunday and monday and tuesday...not able to do it. I have the 2 bags of potting soil out drying on a tarp...but with 80% chance of rain tomorrow,....I need to get it finished up. That involves putting it in my 2 potting soil containers. I keep them inside the hothouse.
I have to somehow make 3 trellis's for the clematis this summer. I have 2 bamboo fishing poles I had bought for something else last year...but they in no way resemble a trellis right now.
Mowing...that's on the list. And doing an alterations job. I have been turning the alterations job over in my head for a couple of days...as it involves a hemming a really nice coat, up in the front only. And still making it come out right. Hopefully, not having to cut on it.
Cool chickens
Here's some ideas if you need inspiration: http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/build-a-bamboo-trellis.aspxmoxies_chickennuggets said:
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- #98
moxies_chickennuggets
Super Self-Sufficient
Thank moolie! I popped into the bamboo link....and it is already in my bookmarks....lol I guess I need to buy some more bamboo 
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- #99
moxies_chickennuggets
Super Self-Sufficient
Has anybody ever purposely planted cattails? We have a ditch.....in which we would like to at least slow the flow of the runoff rainwater. We don't have enough acreage to put in a catchment pond ...maybe just a rain garden. Even so, it must be low maintenance....look good, and would be nice if it could be productive.
I ordered some cattail seeds online, and they came in the other day.common Cattail Sedge, "carex typhina". I know it does grow around here, as I have seen it about 5 miles down the road. In a ditch of course. I have found several interesting bits on online information about cattails. I thought it might be worth a try...as we are so limited on what we can do with this 1 acre......with a ditch running all the way down the middle of it.
I ordered some cattail seeds online, and they came in the other day.common Cattail Sedge, "carex typhina". I know it does grow around here, as I have seen it about 5 miles down the road. In a ditch of course. I have found several interesting bits on online information about cattails. I thought it might be worth a try...as we are so limited on what we can do with this 1 acre......with a ditch running all the way down the middle of it.
hqueen13
<Insert Snazzy Title Here
Rain gardens are by design low maintenance. They usually utilize native vegitation and as such are hearty and require little care
You can make flour out of cattails and eat different parts of them. Not that you would want to, LOL, but you could!
Could you grow something like watercress in the ditch too? It is water loving.
The other option would be to explore planting a native willow. Willows suck up a LOT of water, which is great for boggy areas. I found this out from a friend that had some willows and cut them down and the result was a bog, so I figured it would work in reverse, too! I am going to try to get a couple willows this year to plant in some boggy areas of our pasture to see if that will help any. The horses are tearing up the soft ground and it is doing no good to grow anything there and not good for the horses to standing the muck either.
You can make flour out of cattails and eat different parts of them. Not that you would want to, LOL, but you could!
Could you grow something like watercress in the ditch too? It is water loving.
The other option would be to explore planting a native willow. Willows suck up a LOT of water, which is great for boggy areas. I found this out from a friend that had some willows and cut them down and the result was a bog, so I figured it would work in reverse, too! I am going to try to get a couple willows this year to plant in some boggy areas of our pasture to see if that will help any. The horses are tearing up the soft ground and it is doing no good to grow anything there and not good for the horses to standing the muck either.
