Homesteaders

[rancher hicks]

Agreed, and hopefully it will be pretty, if I can get things to grow and keep the $%&-#$% morning glories from taking over

.

Wild morning glories called "bind weed" can be tough. Might better cover them to suffocate them rather than dig them as each little peice can sprout. Or use an herbicide, but that would be my last resort.

I've got wild roses I cut up and tossed in a bed once to compost but they started to sprout. Now I lay them to dry out or toss on the burn pile. They are horrid things to deal with. Probably old root stock that got out of hand. I try to buy "own root" roses now.

 

[duluthralphie]

Not the best picture, as it was getting dark. We have 15 raised beds on a 5 year crop rotation and a perennial bed closest to the barn. To the right you can see the beginnings of the chicken moat. The pvc hoops aren't covered yet in this picture but they look like little covered wagons now. They are covered to protect our broccoli and cauliflower from cabbage moths. The bamboo stakes are for the beans and tomato cages are for the tomatoes of course.

I do not mind the cabbage moths and worms, The Guineas pick them off before they can do any damage.


All gardens need Guineas.

 

[Serenashome]

I do not mind the cabbage moths and worms, The Guineas pick them off before they can do any damage.


All gardens need Guineas.

We are hoping once the chicken moat is up and we can let the chickens into the garden they will help with it. For now we only have 6 chickens and they are only a month old so we threw up the wagons on the fly.

I don't know if I could handle the guinea noise.

 

[rancher hicks]

I hate computers. Just typed some stuff but it screwed up and I lost it. Aren't you glad.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

Wild morning glories called "bind weed" can be tough. Might better cover them to suffocate them rather than dig them as each little peice can sprout. Or use an herbicide, but that would be my last resort. 

I've got wild roses I cut up and tossed in a bed once to compost but they started to sprout. Now I lay them to dry out or toss on the burn pile. They are horrid things to deal with. Probably old root stock that got out of hand. I try to buy "own root" roses now. 

That is what all the straw is for. I get lots of wheat sprouts, but they are preferable to the morning glories. I lost the battle to them last year and everything but my tomatoes suffered for it. This year the girls are a bit bigger so hopefully I can keep on top of them, right now my garden is just filled with the seeds

 

[Loc20chick]

The weeds are taking over but at least have been eating the collards and the kale.

 

[Loc20chick]

Not the best picture, as it was getting dark. We have 15 raised beds on a 5 year crop rotation and a perennial bed closest to the barn. To the right you can see the beginnings of the chicken moat. The pvc hoops aren't covered yet in this picture but they look like little covered wagons now. They are covered to protect our broccoli and cauliflower from cabbage moths. The bamboo stakes are for the beans and tomato cages are for the tomatoes of course.

Neat!!!

 

[Raech]

Planted 2 kinds of corn at Dad's house, and he says we only have a couple of stalks coming up out of 160 seeds, so he is planting a 3rd variety over them. I am hopeful that we might get some corn, but I told them if it doesn't come up it really isn't a problem, we have more corn in the freezer. Can you can corn after it has been frozen? Going out there tonight to pick up some cherries from the Rainier tree, so I am going to go down to the garden and look it over as well see how everything is coming along. Dad is not happy about the 20+ plants we ordered, so that isn't going to be happening again, second year in a row that we have gotten plants that Dad isn't happy with. They were 1/2 dead and very small, so next year he wants to just buy them from the farm store up the hill, if I don't do starts that is.

My male hedgehog died last night, so it is a kinda quiet day at my house. Going to see about what to do with my female since they never bred, not sure if I am going to sell her or try to breed her with a different hedgehog. I really don't want to buy another hedgie right now, nor do I have the extra $200 laying around that they want for them on craigslist. Trying to calm myself down and not contact a sheep breeder that also does AKC Pyrenees right now, I know I need to wait on getting sheep until I have the money saved up and fencing picked out and payed for for their movable pens. Plus I need to see if the family even likes sheep burger first, I am thinking if they do just having like stew meat and a bunch of it ground up. I am not an adventurous cook and cooking a leg of lamb is a little outside of my comfort zone. Stews and hamburger I can put in anything, plus we use a ton of ground meat so I am looking to supplement part of that with lamb. I am thinking cattle panels or like big metal corral panels. Cattle panels would be lighter and cheaper, but I am worried about the sheep tipping them over and escaping or the horses rubbing against them and smooshing the sheep. I would like to have them separated from the horses just because they are so much smaller, and Jake is kinda a pill. I am concerned that the corral panels are going to be too high and the sheep are just going to crawl under them. Anybody on here have any advice or preference on movable fencing that isn't electric fencing, the horses have figured out that hot wire makes a great toy to drag across the field. I am trying really hard to not use more power than what is already being used in the pasture, which means the chickens with be without heat or lights in the winter and the only small solar panel we have runs the fencing in the top pasture, and I think there is an extension cord hooked up to that as well. We have certain parts of the pasture that the horses just wont eat and that is where I would like to have the sheep in but it is in the front pasture and now anywhere near the barn(which is in the top pasture across the creek). Maybe do a couple of small paddocks and rotate from there, see if I could do it up by the barn in the top pasture for after we are done haying it. I just don't want to ask Dad to divide the pastures up anymore than they already are but I don't think 2-3 ewes are going to make a huge dent in a 1.5 acre sized pasture. Plus then I have to figure out a way to get water up to them because the only water up there is for the irrigation lines.

Help me please, I am trying to look like a know what I am talking about when I go to throw my idea at Dad and right now I sound like a buffoon trying to sell water to an ocean.

 

[rancher hicks]

The weeds are taking over but at least have been eating the collards and the kale.

Can't post pics but my beds are higher and I use a weed whacker to clean between the beds. I'll post pics when I get home. We're getting rain at home now. I know the Kale was coming up when I left and Squash and Pumpkins under milk jug green houses. Too I've got tomatoes or had.

Forgot I have pics on this site. You can see the weeds have been whacked.This is from last year. All this talk makes me anxious to get home to garden.

 

[rancher hicks]

Planted 2 kinds of corn at Dad's house, and he says we only have a couple of stalks coming up out of 160 seeds, so he is planting a 3rd variety over them. I am hopeful that we might get some corn, but I told them if it doesn't come up it really isn't a problem, we have more corn in the freezer. Can you can corn after it has been frozen? Going out there tonight to pick up some cherries from the Rainier tree, so I am going to go down to the garden and look it over as well see how everything is coming along. Dad is not happy about the 20+ plants we ordered, so that isn't going to be happening again, second year in a row that we have gotten plants that Dad isn't happy with. They were 1/2 dead and very small, so next year he wants to just buy them from the farm store up the hill, if I don't do starts that is.

My male hedgehog died last night, so it is a kinda quiet day at my house. Going to see about what to do with my female since they never bred, not sure if I am going to sell her or try to breed her with a different hedgehog. I really don't want to buy another hedgie right now, nor do I have the extra $200 laying around that they want for them on craigslist. Trying to calm myself down and not contact a sheep breeder that also does AKC Pyrenees right now, I know I need to wait on getting sheep until I have the money saved up and fencing picked out and payed for for their movable pens. Plus I need to see if the family even likes sheep burger first, I am thinking if they do just having like stew meat and a bunch of it ground up. I am not an adventurous cook and cooking a leg of lamb is a little outside of my comfort zone. Stews and hamburger I can put in anything, plus we use a ton of ground meat so I am looking to supplement part of that with lamb. I am thinking cattle panels or like big metal corral panels. Cattle panels would be lighter and cheaper, but I am worried about the sheep tipping them over and escaping or the horses rubbing against them and smooshing the sheep. I would like to have them separated from the horses just because they are so much smaller, and Jake is kinda a pill. I am concerned that the corral panels are going to be too high and the sheep are just going to crawl under them. Anybody on here have any advice or preference on movable fencing that isn't electric fencing, the horses have figured out that hot wire makes a great toy to drag across the field. I am trying really hard to not use more power than what is already being used in the pasture, which means the chickens with be without heat or lights in the winter and the only small solar panel we have runs the fencing in the top pasture, and I think there is an extension cord hooked up to that as well. We have certain parts of the pasture that the horses just wont eat and that is where I would like to have the sheep in but it is in the front pasture and now anywhere near the barn(which is in the top pasture across the creek). Maybe do a couple of small paddocks and rotate from there, see if I could do it up by the barn in the top pasture for after we are done haying it. I just don't want to ask Dad to divide the pastures up anymore than they already are but I don't think 2-3 ewes are going to make a huge dent in a 1.5 acre sized pasture. Plus then I have to figure out a way to get water up to them because the only water up there is for the irrigation lines.

Help me please, I am trying to look like a know what I am talking about when I go to throw my idea at Dad and right now I sound like a buffoon trying to sell water to an ocean.

I've wondered whether I can work out a deal to get someone to use my land to keep animals.. They'd have to take care of them most of the time. Especially in the winter. Or some other way to get help.