these are truely lovely.. . . . . as the little grey cells start spinning . . . .I agree! Or go with the vertical garden idea someone used to grow greens on their apartment patio, using pallets. One would have to have some good wire on it so that the birds didn't pull the plants out by the roots when they grazed. It would be better still to plant the greens right into the embedded wire so that their roots are entwined and entangled with the wire.
When you mentioned WDC between your vegie beds long ago in another thread, I envisioned just this for my sloped terrain-- prevents errosion and makes the area double duty.
THe morning snows have turned my world white . . but I get to enjoy the glory of summer . . . .I plant a "sacrifice" row of flowers by the garden each year that are a place for nuisance bugs to live and eat instead of on my veggies. Then the chickens are allowed into that row to eat any bugs they want, to use it for shade, etc. This past year we let the garden lie fallow but still planted our row of flowers and the bugs were incredibly plentiful in that row. The chickens would regularly glean that buffet over and over throughout the season, then also picked seeds from the flower heads also. I use a wildflower, sunflower mix and it's beautiful, functional and well worth the brief time it takes to sow the seed.
Yeah, I'm afraid of heights. And motion sickness. (only one of 400 people throwing up on a tour boat in Hawaii) I have to sit in the front seat or it's all over.Not get over it....get through it! Better still....how many times have you tried and in how many ways? That would give us a good idea as to the severity of the problem. I'm a nurse, so I've dealt with many, many medical conditions and I know that some people faint at the sight of blood due to a more sensitive nervous system than others....but sensitive can be toughened up with repeated exposure to something.
I've had folks who donated blood that fainted each time they came to donate....but they came back anyway. No matter how many times they would fall out of their chairs, pee their pants involuntarily, even have a mild seizure, and have to lie down with feet elevated for hours before they could proceed normally, they still insisted on doing it because it was a good cause. So I know folks are out there doing it anyway. I'm wondering if they did it more than once every so many days that they would condition their nervous system to not react in that manner each time or that the effects would be lessened over time.
Not pushing, you understand...I'm just spinning thought wheels in my mind as to how I'd approach this problem if it were my own. I have certain things that happen to me involuntarily when I get around heights, even drive over a steep mountain(and I live in the Mountain State), etc. I also have motion sickness so severe that I throw up when I ride in any other than the driver seat of a vehicle, ride any kind of a fair ride or just anything that swings or goes around in a circle, elevators, etc.....I get dizzy, have to sit down, throw up and up and up. But...I do it anyway when I have to do it merely because throwing up and feeling like crap is only temporary and when I'm done doing the thing my life will go back to ordinary.
Yeah, I'm afraid of heights. And motion sickness. (only one of 400 people throwing up on a tour boat in Hawaii) I have to sit in the front seat or it's all over.But you know, I changed my life when I started saying to myself "I don't know I can't do it until I try" I have stretched myself so many times by saying this. I was in my late fifties when I started. Wish I had started at 20.
This week I bought shelves for my storeroom. Getting the brooder set up and ready. 6 more weeks.
Speaking of Compost ... I think we posted about this in this thread before. It is a video about the Vermont Compost Company where they use chickens to make compost and compost piles to make eggs without additional feed. It is a wonderful symbiotic manufacturing process!
http://vermontcompost.com/2014/01/geoff-lawton-comes-to-vermont-compost/
This has inspired me to devote a big chunk of my existing poultry pasture to a composting enterprise. I put "HUGE pile of manure" on my Christmas list, and am still awaiting delivery, but have been told it's on its way.
As we have a few horses on the farm, managing manure is an issue of too much manure. THe old methods of management are , well old. We have been bumbling along trying a variety of methods. Each with its pros and cons. THe huge pile is huge and too deep to compost all the way thru. We dump directly on the lawn, and as long as I can get it spread thinly, it won't burn; otherwise, oops, knarly dead grass. THen we try to dump in the woods, to spread the goodness around; far to walk and slow to compost.That would be so cool to get loads of chipped trees dumped, then loads of manure, then old produce, deep litter, etc. until you had a huge, steaming pile of rotting goodness...what a self-sustaining buffet for chickens that would be!!! Just think of the food you could grow with that pile and also if you borrowed from it to use in the garden....of course, one couldn't have any close neighbors when that thing starts to gas off in the summer months.
