Home Feeding Ideas and Solutions Discussion Thread

[Kassaundra]

I am going to try his method of composting too, but have to wait until I get some Lacto made and some IMO2. I'm going to experiment and see if I can get good results w/ adding those two to a compost barrel that I already have and hate. If I could make a barrel full every 3-4 weeks I'd be thrilled.

I also am going to spray the Lacto on the chicken coop floor and see if it does what he says there too. I'm way excited about that no more shoveling it out.

I plan on getting chicks this spring, but not sure if I will do the imo heat instead of the light, we'll see depends on how my first experiments turn out.

 

[Tallulah Chicklet]

I want to try the spray in the coop, too...if it does what he says it does, it's a beautiful thing!

 

[Kassaundra]

Well I started today, I set some rice wash water on my fridge, and put some cooked rice in a raspberry stand. I chose that location b/c it seemed the easiest to keep the dogs out of. I plan on trying a couple of other locations in the yard when I figure out how to keep Sasha's nosy nose out of it.

 

[Tallulah Chicklet]

Hey, RaZ, you are right...today I noticed some gray deposits on my eggs (since giving the girls more bananas than they are used to). It gives them a little homegrown je ne sais quoi, so I don't mind, but it is very interesting! I'll cut way down on the bananas.

I had purchased some EM1 and added it to the girls' water and sprayed a solution in the coop. For starters, the coop is less dusty and smells better. I use deep litter, so it ordinarily doesn't smell that much, but some of the girls have been perching in an inappropriate place lately and there was a stinky corner. Gone!

 

[galanie]

Well, I've got some Fermented Plant Juice (FPJ) in the spare bathroom cooking away. I'm making it with comfrey. So I'm cheating, killing two birds with one stone. I wanted to make that anyway for fertilizer. Also in there is IMO-2, but it's such a tiny amount I don't know if it will really work or if I'll end up with a very homeopathic something. Done is the Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) and the Water Soluble Calcium (WSC). Now for the Put My Feet Up (PMFU - hmm or PMPU?).

For those interested in Korean Natural Farming (KNF - why can't everyone just spell all this out?) I've put together a short version of how to make the stuff. This was really done only as a reminder to me so I wouldnt have to keep looking this stuff up. Before this will make total sense to you, you really should read up on it at Naturalfarmingway.org and/or watch the videos starting with this one on youtube:

I'm just distilling it down to make it look like the simple thing it really is.

I'm including no details and very little in the way of actual measurements, those are easily found at both the places I've given the URL's of above.

So here you go, How to make IMO4

• IMO 1
  Cook some rice then let it sit somewhere and get nice and moldy. You need the white mold, not those other pretty colors.
  
• IMO 2
  Mix that moldy rice 1:1 by weight with brown sugar. Koreans must have a lot of brown sugar on those poor farmsteads, they use tons of it for all these things!
  
• IMO3
  Now take that stuff and mix it with a ton of rice hulls or wheat bran. Now you're going to end up "composting" it. Outside and on the ground.
  
• IMO4
  Mix your finished mess 1:1 with plain old dirt. Tra la! Done.

Water Soluble Calcium:

Ok this one is really complicated.

Put a bunch of eggshells in vinegar and let it sit a week. Filter it. Done.

Lactic Acid Bacteria:

Wash some rice with water. Use that water. Let it sit covered with a paper towel for a few days.

Then use it 1:10 with milk. Let that milk sit for a week and separate the cheese off (oh yummie! - NOT)

That liquid left is your LAB.

Fermented Plant Juice

Use 1:1 plant and brown sugar by weight

Layer sugar and plant in container, cover with a weight. When material is covered by liquid, remove weight. Let ferment at around 70 degrees for a week.

Best not to have a large amount of headspace and smaller opening. Though how you get a brick in a container with a small opening is beyond me. Recommended is to fill container 3/4 full. Just use paper towel for lid.

 

[Tallulah Chicklet]

Wow! The Reader's Digest Condensed Version!

From what I understood, and correct me if I am wrong:

Mix LAB 1: 1 with molasses to stabilize
Dilute some of that 20:1 with water (4T solution per gallon) (That math doesn't really work out, does it? Must be chicken math.)
Further dilute 2-4 T/gallon for use (folar feed or to spray on bedding) or 1-2 T/gallon of water for chicken drinking water

 

[galanie]

Wow! The Reader's Digest Condensed Version!

From what I understood, and correct me if I am wrong:

Mix LAB 1: 1 with molasses to stabilize
Dilute some of that 20:1 with water (4T solution per gallon) (That math doesn't really work out, does it? Must be chicken math.)
Further dilute 2-4 T/gallon for use (folar feed or to spray on bedding) or 1-2 T/gallon of water for chicken drinking water

Thats pretty much right from what I can figure. All those 1:100 and 1:1000's give me a headache.
Oh and you don't have to stabilize it if you are putting it in the fridge.

 

[Kassaundra]

Thats pretty much right from what I can figure. All those 1:100 and 1:1000's give me a headache.
Oh and you don't have to stabilize it if you are putting it in the fridge.

Yes, I was relying on the statement one of them kept repeating, that the measurements were not exact and it would work w/ less precise measurements.


I have my imo 1 in the raspberry patch, and liquid calcium "cooking" and the rice wash water "cooking" but everything is just about 2 days old so I won't have any ready product for a couple of weeks.

That cheat sheet was awesome.

 

[galanie]

One thing that has helped me with the measurements is to find that 1 oz is 2 tablespoons and that a gallon is 128 ounces, or 256 tablespoons. I hate having to think too much, it takes me away from my fantasy world I prefer

 

[Tallulah Chicklet]

Yup, a fantasy world including IMO and LAB and KNF and FPS and WSC, full of EF's that we can't even see... Who knew?

Gotta go PMFU!