Anyone living off the land?

[newbie32]

Great it was u. Makes me feel a little less igmo! Well I hope the gardening info helps a little. Yep I think I like this site also. You made me really laugh at my self tonight.

Its okay to laugh at urself. I do it all the time. Some of my questions on here really show my ignorance with chickens lol. But someday I will be as knowledgeable as the others that help me now, then I will be the one helping people like me

 

[chicken-lady13]

Limozene and black Angus

 

[newbie32]

6 of mine are straight from the wild so they have always had natural shells.. the other 3 were "beach adoptions".. they had badly painted shells and two of them moved immediately into plain shells when I brought them home.. the third one took his sweet ol time to move into a new shell.. so I immediately threw out the painted ones since they aren't the best thing for the hermits..

Mine all live in a "terrarium" of sorts.. deep layer of mixed cocoa fiber and calcium carbonate sand.. high humidity.. lots of shells to change into .. salt and fresh water plus their food. I have one who is shedding right now.. so he's buried himself down into the substrate until he's done.


When I was a kid I had several small ones.. over the years two grew to be the size of softballs (my brother killed the third).. gave them away when I moved then finally got these guys to feed my hermit addiction.. my largest now are somewhere between tennis ball and golf ball sized..
I had my original two for close to 20 years before I gave them away...

OMG I had no idea they get that big. the only ones I've ever seen are the small ones they sell at the store with the painted shells.

 

[chicken-lady13]

Limozene and black Angus


Kentucky


This might be a county thing. I'm not really sure, that is what I have heard him say. Our local ordinances are usually pretty strict. We can't have pigs in our area of our county. Because of the proximity of all our neighbors. We even got fussed at about having to many roosters one time.

 

[newbie32]

Limozene and black Angus


Kentucky


This might be a county thing. I'm not really sure, that is what I have heard him say. Our local ordinances are usually pretty strict. We can't have pigs in our area of our county. Because of the proximity of all our neighbors. We even got fussed at about having to many roosters one time.

I was given mixed messages about our ordinances. The landlord said we are not supposed to have any fowl ever-but then he said he doesn't mind as long as he "doesn't know". I asked a guy on the building and 'something' committee and he said there is no law saying we cant and that his committee are the ones that make those rules. Although I am not sure he would know about ordinances from 50+ yrs ago..

So since a LOT of people have chickens in this small unincorporated town, I decided it was time for me to try. And hopefully my neighbors wont mind-especially since I am keeping my roo-i think he is a roo, not completely sure

 

[chicken-lady13]

My hermits are in a aquarium. With rock and sand & food and their bowl of fresh water with sea sponge in it .One crab came from our county fair & the other from the mall. One is still in the shell he came in and the other one which is the size of a tennis ball quickly moved out of a painted shell into a natural shell. I need to take some lessons from u to learn how to set up a better habitat for them. Your habitat sounds awesome. I didn't know they lived that long. I have had mine about a year and a half now. I hope mine will live along time. My other pets like to play with them when I have them out, but most of the time they are scared to death of them. They just don't know what to make of them. It is quite a show when the crabs are out and about at my house.

 

[jak2002003]

Are you native to Thailand, or did you move there? If so, where are you from?

The barter system still works pretty well.

I moved here. I am from UK. I have been here 7 years now.

 

[gypsy767]

Interesting question...it's very similar to the one I was asking (mainly to myself) about 50 years ago. I am 70 years old now and have been living on 10.5 acres (originally 12.5 acres) in north georgia for the past 30 years. I wanted more land but that's what I could afford to buy 30 years ago and pay cash for it which was important to me as I wanted to remain debt free.

By the time I was 40 I had saved enough $ to buy the land and build a house and pay cash for both. My wife and I built the house ourselves...we did hire a few things done which made sense to us, like carpet and sheet rock installation which require special tools and takes far too long to do it if you are not accustomed to working with these things. We did all the carpentry work, plumbing and electrical and cleared the property ourselves.

We originally bought 12.5 acres but I gave my two sons an acre each and helped them both build a home on the property. One of them was able to do it debt free and both of them and their families are living in the houses today for 20 plus years. My oldest grandson has picked out an acre and plans to build his house debt free when he saves the $....I told him he better hurry if he wants my help...ha!

The pond already had fish in it but we stocked it with more and ate bass, brim and catfish for several years but drought in our area of north georgia has halted the fish production for the most part...we have to draw the pond too low during the summer for many fish to survive as we need the water for food production, plus we capture all the water we can from rainfall in barrels. This year has been an exception as we are about 15 inches ahead of normal rainfall.

We of course have chickens but no other animals or fowl and we grow and preserve most of our own food by canning and freezing. We have an underground storm shelter that doubles as a root cellar for food storage. Milk would be a welcome addition but we don't use that much and have decided that we can live with what we get at the store or do without if necessary. My wife watches for bargains on beef & pork and buys only the best cuts she can find when on sale or reduced and we grind ALL of our own ground meat from these lean cuts and make a little sausage from time to time...don't eat that much of it though, she uses it mainly in recipes like pizza, lasagne, etc. We also have long term food items as we firmly believe economic calamity is ahead of us.

We have a small garden spot where an old barn used to sit where we grow potatoes, corn, okra and squash but we mainly grow other vegetables now in raised beds and livestock tubs filled with dirt so we can manage the water more efficiently and use less compost and chicken litter. We have also started growing some things on trellises and plan to expand this as it works VERY well and an abundance of food can be produced in VERY little ground space. We grew enough watermelons and cantaloupes this year for our use and even had enough to share.

I tried to incluse some pics but for whatever reason it would not allow me to attach a file...said I did not have permission.

So...I think you have admirable asperations and I surely hope you will achieve all you dream of...

Good luck...!!!!

 

[Teri Metcalf]

Oops! My apologies. I didn't intend to repost your reply. My still learning my way around this site.

 

[gypsy767]

I was able to post a few pics below...I have a lot more info and pics...info I would be glad to share via email on how to accomplish these goals...they ARE possible...!