OkieJonesClan . .city slickers going rural . . lol

[OkieJonesClan]

Welcome OkieJones!

So what prompted you to hop on this path to SS?
Have you heard of the Dervaes family in Los Angeles? They are pretty close to SS on 1/5 of an acre....Google them on You Tube and watch the Homegrown Revolution if you are not familiar with them. They were my inspiration to search for a more SS lifestyle...I have a very long way to go but I do enjoy the process

I will google the Dervaes family . .sounds like I could learn allot from them, too!
Well . . We lived in central FL, zero lot line neighborhood During huricane season of 2004 we were hit by 3 hurricanes. We are avid campers. We had no electricity and just went on the back porch, fired up the camp stove, broke out the perculater(sp?) made up a batch of fresh coffee, cooked up some eggs and bacon we had in the fridge (before it went bad) and went out offering coffee and such to our neighbors, especially the ones that were big morning coffee drinkers. No one took our coffee. Everyone was afraid to drink coffee that was made without electicity!
Well, that was the start. We knew we didn't fit in. We sold our house, moved to a more rural section of central FL for a year, learned as much as we could from a few friends, moved to OK. We are in a neighborhood, but on 2 acres. We started clearing all the scrub oak trees, started a compost heap and bought the complete Tigtwad Gazette book as well as the Encyclapedia of Country Living. My husband wishes we had bought 20 acres out further, but hey, you gotta start somewhere! LOL

We found this site from a link on someones post from Backyard chickens. We went to chickenstock in October(??) and it was soooo hard not to come home with a bunch of pullets.

Thank you everyone, for the warm welcomes! We love Oklahoma! The people are so wonderful!

Sooooo, now I have to tell you some great news!!! I am so excited!!! We started compost pile last spring. We have been adding all of our egg shells, veggie and fruit scraps, and lots of leaves. Well, I haven't been that great at turning it. I always forget. So I was out there today and we have more than 2.5 feet high of compost! I am so very excited! I ordered seeds this moring and my dh and ds's have cleared quite a nice area on the south side of the house. Not all the tree stumps are out yet, but it was forest for quite a while and the soil is dark, rich and soft. The half of our property that was grass or just clear is all hard clay and we would have to really work it before we could plant anything there, so we will put our coop near there and when/if I ever get goats maybe that is where they will go.

And yesterday . . I was at the Goodwill to drop off some clothes and shoes and found a Mikasa crystal serving patter for $3.00. I bought it, researched it and posted it on ebay. I will probably only make $20 to $30 on it, but hey, that will pay for the seeds I bought this morning!

Well, that is it for my day today. I work 3-12 Tues to Sat so I have to get lunch served, clean up and get off to work.
What an exciting find. I am going to be on a "high" all night to see that we actually made some compost. wahooo!

 

[Okiemommy]

Everyone was afraid to drink coffee that was made without electicity!

Sounds like you've got a great start!! What made you guys decide on Oklahoma in particular?

We have 5 acres, and most of it is sand/clay. the woods are too far back on our property to go back and forth to garden, not to mention that would be one long garden hose!

congratulations on the compost bin!!

 

[prairiegirl]

Welcome to the group. It's a great place to share our way of life and to gain support - which is greatly needed in living SS.

 

[OkieJonesClan]

Thank you, Prairie for the welcome.

OkieMom - how did you get the soil to a workable state - where you can plant? How early can we start seedlings inside and transplant outside? I am ready to have success . .

I have tried, unsuccessfully, for two years.
Then my DH, who is clearly wiser than I, says "why aren't we planting where the soil is better?" Duh! Last year I had onions going really well, got all excited, then they just died. They got choked out by the clay.

We were brought to Oklahoma by a job transfer for my DH. My parents moved here 11 years ago the same way. We now live 28 miles away from them, so they can call us and tell us to come to the "city" to visit. My mom won't venture out to our place . . the critters scare her.

 

[Okiemommy]

Thank you, Prairie for the welcome.

OkieMom - how did you get the soil to a workable state - where you can plant? How early can we start seedlings inside and transplant outside? I am ready to have success . .

I have tried, unsuccessfully, for two years.
Then my DH, who is clearly wiser than I, says "why aren't we planting where the soil is better?" Duh! Last year I had onions going really well, got all excited, then they just died. They got choked out by the clay.

We were brought to Oklahoma by a job transfer for my DH. My parents moved here 11 years ago the same way. We now live 28 miles away from them, so they can call us and tell us to come to the "city" to visit. My mom won't venture out to our place . . the critters scare her.

We just moved to our property in April of this year and spent this year cutting down trees that the previous owners didn't get to from last years ice storm, building a 16' x 10' chicken coop, unsucessfully fighting with the weeds in the ornamental garden(was there when we moved in, not that I have anything against them, but when I look at it I want to put veggies in it) Texturing and painting our walls, putting trim, moulding, and baseboards up and just plain getting settled in. And we lost one of our black walnuts to storm damage and had to cut an entire half of a black walnut up. I wanted to get a garden in, but we just didn't get to it.

I have scoped out some land on our property in the middle part of our mowed "backyard area" and it seems to have some decent soil, but it's on a slope. Not sure how well that will work out. I am pretty sure that the soil is good there, because it is peppered with small scrub oaks and I believe it used to be covered with more, and the previous owners cleared them out. The soil is nice and dark brown for about a foot and a half down.

What I am thinking about doing is using the straw bale method, and buying some straw bales and planting my plants in them this year, then letting them decompose into the soil and hoping that will improve the quality of the soil for the next season. I am thinking that would be cheaper than buying wood and dirt for raised beds. I found a website that lists straw bales for $4.50 a piece. I haven't checked into it yet to see if it's too good to be true lol

 

[prairiegirl]

I found a website that lists straw bales for $4.50 a piece. I haven't checked into it yet to see if it's too good to be true lol

Wow $4.50 a bale for straw. We are getting a great deal at $2.00 a bale. And, it's nice straw.

Good job on the compost. That's one area we haven't really worked on. We do have plenty of manure around here for the garden, but a compost pile would be a big plus.

And doesn't it feel great to find something such as the platter for so little? It's fun to shop when one is bargain hunting.

 

[OkieJonesClan]

Today, my little 4 year old daughter helped me wash dishes. We do them by hand now, and she was on the step stool doing the rinsing and puting them in the dish drain for me. She said "Momma, arn't I a good princess? I do my best at all my chores" with just this great little smile. She was so proud to be helping. I was just so tickled.
We got the morning chores done, not that we have much as we don't have any animals just yet. My younger son got all the Christmas ornaments taken down as well as the tree lights (it was his job to water the tree. He forgot.) We used the cloth napkins with I made from Christmas print fabric to wrap quite a few of them (we used to use several rolls of paper towels to wrap our ornaments) so now I am starting to make some more napkins. I am also going to make some hankerchiefs (sp?) We go through loads of kleenex, although this year we havn't had any colds. We have been eating better and out in the sun working much more. I am sure that makes a huge difference.

I think I have just enough time to get my napkins and hankies made and then off to work.

BeeKissed - Thanks for the link to the dog training thread on BYC. It was very helpful!

 

[Beekissed]

No prob! It really works...my dogs are my best insurance where I live....er...well, they wouldn't be able to put out a house fire, but..you know what I mean!

The boys and I keep hoping a coyote or bear comes for a visit, so we can watch the show!

The dogs work as a team, with my GP/lab mix female taking the lead and turning from a lazy-looking, sleepy pile of fur to a raging Cujo in a millisecond! The younger Lab/BC mix, then takes the rear side of the trespassing canine and starts chewing like he's missed breakfast! The fur is flying and the only thing you see next is some poor dog struggling to get AWAY!!!! Pieces of fur lying all over the grass and a screaming dog high-tailin' it the heck out of there!!

Wag a human to death, but will chew the fat off another dog, coon, hawk, or strange cat in the vicinity!

 

[OkieJonesClan]

OkieMommie - sounds like you have been very busy! When is it safe to plant early veggies? Is March too early? Where are you in the state? I am just north of OKC (a friend calls it the center of the universe . . lol) so we are kinda on the border of zones 6 and 7

 

[Okiemommy]

OkieMommie - sounds like you have been very busy! When is it safe to plant early veggies? Is March too early? Where are you in the state? I am just north of OKC (a friend calls it the center of the universe . . lol) so we are kinda on the border of zones 6 and 7

Well I'm still pretty new at doing this myself. I watched my mom do it all my young life but never really got involved in gardening until last year, and my attempts were pitifully feeble. This Year I plan to make charts, lists and a plan of action and try to get organized-this action will further my belief in miracles if I can pull it off! I am on the outskirts of the OKC city limits. We are in the rural part of Oklahoma county that they keep trying to fill with housing additions.

The greatest resource that I have found so far are the fact sheets at the Oklahoma County Extension office. They have fact sheets on just about everything I have needed info on that I couldn't otherwise find. Ya just gotta know what your looking for. Here is a link to the fact sheet for The Oklahoma Garden Planning Guide. It includes a table of planting times for the planting times for the plants that will thrive here.

It kinda is the center of the universe ^_^


Oklahoma Garden Planning Guide

Hope this helps!

ETA: I wanted to add these graphs b/c even though the planting table on the OSU fact sheet says that you can plant starting in Feb, sometimes we have freezes in April, so you have to pay attention to the hardiness of the plants and the weather. Ya gotta watch the weather everyday if you are wanting to do early planting here, so that you can go out and put stuff over your plants to protect it from the frost.
Here are the Graphs of the first Fall freeze and last Spring Freeze in Oklahoma City Fall and Spring freeze graph OKC


The freeze graph should cover the Central Oklahoma region.


Are you in Jones? I just assumed that was where you were from cause it's in your screen name lol